Last night I ran my longest route so far in preparation for Dublin Marathon in 6 weeks time. It was a 26k route mainly along the seafront in north Dublin, based on a 20k route I’ve done quite a few times but with a 6k loop tacked on early on.
I felt fairly fine, and didn’t struggle too much, but I completely crashed when I got home. For some reason I hit the shower as soon as I got in the door and then collapsed on the bed and fell asleep for 45 minutes. When I woke up, I was totally dehydrated and had no energy at all. I scared myself a bit the way I floundered about the kitchen trying to make myself something to eat and get some fluids into me. Even though I’d prepared for the run by getting a lot of carbs in, and I drank a decent enough bit of water along the way, I obviously wasn’t prepared enough.
Now I have to learn from that and figure out how to prepare better. Should I be eating heaps more before a long run? Should I be taking those energy gel sachets? Should I be drinking more? Should I be drinking a sports drink rather than just water? Should I have food ready to eat when I finish?
It’s strange to be putting so much thought into this side of it and not feel to worried about my actual running … but I guess it’s all par for the course. I’m definitely starting to feel nervous about doing the marathon now, though.
I’ve just signed up for the half-marathon next weekend in the Phoenix Park. Looking forward to it. Should be good preparation.
Out And About 
Interesting. Could it be related to over-training. This might depend upon your training cycle. I’m no expert but I find that every 4 to 5 weeks, especially during marathon training, that reduced running is required or put another way, an easy week required. Maybe for your particular cycle an easy week was in order.
Hope all goes well for the half next week and the marathon in 6 weeks time.
Thanks Steve.
I’m not sure over-training is the problem – I’ve been careful not to push it too hard since I came back from 2 weeks hiking in the alps.
Good luck with the Melbourne marathon 🙂
Hi Mark, just discovered your blog! Good luck in the half this weekend. I always carry water on my long runs. I might bring a gel just in case, on a run of 15 to 20 miles but I always carry water.
The experts usually recommend you get some protein into after a run (within 20 minutes) but I usually just do with a bottle of lucozade sport or some high 5.
It doesn’t sounds like you prepared wrongly for the long run, I’d say the shower, and lack of liquids after, dehydrated you.
Good luck with the training!
Thanks for the reassurance Aisling … nice to get tips from someone with so much experience 🙂
You’re probably right about it being just dehydration. I did take water on the run, but probably didn’t drink enough.
Looking forward to hearing how you got on at the World Mountain Running Championships 🙂