Now what?!

I've been training for the Disney half marathon since August. My time stinks. I did two 5ks, and at my best time ran just over 17 minutes per mile.

I learned the following two facts today:

1. I have bursitis in my right heel and need to pull back for a little while. I'm in Physical Therapy and have been told I should only run every other day, and don't exceed 4 miles at each workout. It doesn't hurt when I run or walk, only when I move my foot in certain ways and I can usually avoid it. But I'm worried about long term damage if I don't address it now.

2. The Disney half marathon has a time limit of 3:30 minutes. At my current pace, I won't make it.

I'm also struggling with race-day nutrition. I am very hypoglycemic and avoid white sugars and starches. And while I don't necessarily dump, I do sometimes encounter things that make me feel weird. I don't always know what it is or when I'll react. Sometimes one food will affect me one day and not another. I was doing Unjury shakes for over two years with no issues, and then one day the very same shake prepared the very same way made me violently ill. I can't take chances on race day with supplements.

Until this moment I've been very enthusiastic and optimistic. I was very determined, and very proud of working towards this goal after losing 140 lbs. I'm ashamed to admit it, but today I feel truly discouraged. Help.

How would you do with jus****er and powerade? That is probably what I will go with because most anything I try lately causes GI distress. For the half they will start in waves. If you can get in one of the first waves you will have extra time to finish. Even if you get to the front of a corral you will get an extra 10 minutes or so even if you are in the last corral.

The bad news is that they are pretty serious about the cut off times. They do have a sweep bus that picks people up if they fall behind at certain points. I will see if I can post some links to some pages that are disney running related and have some good support. disneyrunning.com is one. Good luck and well see you there!

Scott, thank you so much for your response. I'm going to look at that information later today.

 Don't be discouraged, you can do this!  

The best way to start getting faster is interval work.  You don't have too much time, but at least once a week work on doing seed work. Run as fast as you can for a set time, then walk or jog slowly.  This is where I think I get the most speed gains - gotta get those fast twitch muscles trained.

We're here to support you.  Remember just getting to the starting line is an accomplishment - think of the hundreds of millions of people that would never dream of it!  

I did six miles today (against my physical therapist's advice) and was able to make it in 1.5 hours. But it was hilly and windy, so maybe I could even do a little better on a flat course.

My concern now is what happens if I do follow the treatment plan and back off to 4 miles every other day. I don't know if I can maintain a 15 minute pace for the whole course without increasing my mileage in training right now. Time is running out.

I do most of my nutrition in liquid form.
Check out Infinit nutrition They can customize a drink for you.
I get 300 calories an hour from the drink and you can adjust the electrolytes and carbs and protein contents for the drink.

I set my watch to remind me to drink every 10 minutes.  I drink sooner if I feel like I need it, but I won't let it go past the timer on the watch.  That way I stay hydrated and I'm getting in calories orver time.  Not trying to dump 300 calories into my pouch all at once.

Also with the drink mixes, you can double them up or watter them down whichever you prefer.
I mix a really strong version at times to where it is almost like a gel and I put it into a gel flask.
That way just an once or so and I'm getting a decent amount of calories. 

I also like to alternate between water and my nutrition drink.

Good luck with the foot and the race.

Scott

I never run two days in a row. It's too hard on the body, IMO.

If you can't run long, do speed work! You can google for suggested workouts, but the basic idea is to alternate short burst of really fast running with slow recovery running. This gets you faster than trying to run at a slow pace for a really long time. Also, do all your short runs as tempo runs.

The final thing that gets me faster at running is to do strength training. I swear that stuff is like magic when it comes to my run times.

The thing about running is: if you work on your overall fitness, you can run pretty far even if you haven't been running far in training. I did a half marathon last year and my coach had me doing almost no long runs. It was all speed and tempo work. I had done a 10 mile run before I went to him about 4 months back from the race, but my longest runs after that were in the 6.5-7.5 mile range. I not only made the distance, but I ran at a 1.5 min faster pace than I had trained for!

Similarly, I did a Sprint Tri last month. I have not been running much at all due to an injury. But I've been doing tons of strength training and I've been working on my bike fitness. I PRed the distance! (Did the 5k faster than any 5k I've done as part of a Sprint tri.) This is while still being held back by injury - I could have run faster if I wasn't in pain.

Now, when it comes to nutrition, you can't generalize from what happens to you when you aren't exercising to what to take when exercising. A number of physiological stuff is going on that will lesson your chance of dumping quite a bit. For example, the blood to your stomach will slow down as more blood goes to your outer limbs. This slows gastric emptying. Adrenaline also slows gastric emptying.

I've been on this forum for over 2 years now and I haven't seen one case of a bypassed athlete dumping during a race even when taking in gels and sports drinks which are high in sugar. So don't be afraid to try this stuff during your workouts. The normal advice for what and how much to eat should work for you.

The only adjustments I've had to make as a surgically altered person is to eat and drink more often because I can't get in the volume that an unaltered athlete can get in.