Is this why I bonked during my marathon?

Dur wrote:

Some of these are so stupid.

Yes on the shoes. Yes on the calories. Probably could hydrate better.

You've run enough for your goals. Probably closer to the 2:38 low end of your range.

A lot of people don't hit their target for the first marathon. Try again. Just the next time having another cycle in your legs should get you there.

not bad advice .. above

mine is more complicated .. optimal

Muscle less Fitness wrote:

"but it was mostly because I was dealing with Achilles issues two weeks prior"

Here is your problem. You reached the limit that your body can handle the horror of ForeFoot running, 2 weeks before your marathon.

1- Forget about Forefoot running. It's one of the worst things that's being pushed in the running community which I fell for years ago. You can check my channel if you want more information

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-YYvbg6ySkxu_moeTKRpZQ

2- You obviously over-trained and didn't make it to the starting line healthy.

Broscience at its best.

Really you do have a heal striker elite.

Which makes a strong case that you can heal "strike" but the action is to touch down softly on the heel and transfer the momentum across the foot with the momentum finishing on the fore of the foot for lift off to the next stride.

If you bang down on the heel with the smooth transfer forward, you will brake, and lose momentum, and you will get injured because the shock goes onto the legs, knees, and even hips eventually.

the so called forefoot strike is tricky in that you have to have perfect technique not to brake as well.

in finality, and without debate, your optimal foot fall involves transferring force forward maximally with minimal force shocking the legs.

If you rely on shoes to cushion your heel strike, and bad form, you're going to get injured.

and in any case, for foot strike, you want to strengthen ankles and foot muscles, very much so, and then find your correct strike.

then you want to have proper use of the hips, which connect to the abs and back, so you have to have the full flexibility there, and of course you need the leg mucles to have correct tone and strength and flexibility.

at the end of the day, the correct footstrike will feel very natural and fun, and rhythmic.

finally there is the speed that you're going as well,

you can't run the same way at 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 minute miles.

too complex for you? hey, even running has some technique to it.

if you don't want to do any work - the above- you just think rhythm and landing softly and pushing forward, looking for the most comfortable feeling. that is what to concentrate on, till your're going well on autopilot and just running.

you don't want to think, but just run and be like the animals.

the science part is to get the tools in place so nature can do it's thing, like the animals.

foot strike - and ultra

not the be all and end all - but it illustrates the idea of managing momentum.

with your western feet and body, you're not necessarily going to be able to run barefoot very well, nor with proper technique.

so - without the physical equipment tuned, your optimal stride could easily not be 'forestrike

Assuming dehydration wasn't a factor, slowing down by 10-30 seconds late in a marathon is most often a sign of muscle fatigue. Better shoes, higher weekly training mileage, and an even pace through the first 20 would have probably helped with this. Slowing down by 45+ seconds is usually a sign of glycogen depletion. You at least made it to 23 miles before hitting the wall so fueling throughout the race, properly carbo loading in the days and morning before the race, and again hitting higher mileage in training should easily get you through the full 26.2.

longjack:

Careful, the Tarahumara video is so wrong. They never talked to anybody from their tribe and the guy running in Red looks too clean and so well dressed to be part of the Tarahumara tribe. Coincidentally, he's the one with a forefoot strike.

If you look at the few seconds of footage that shows real tribe members running, they all land flat foot(mid foot).

Fueling and shoes, sure. What strikes me is that you went from 6:15-6:20 pace down to sub-6s during a crucial moment in the marathon. You still have to keep miles 14-20 in check so you can have a strong last 10k, but you burned up a bunch of glycogen instead. And then didn't fuel that whole time or after, so you were screwed by the time you got to 20. Obviously this is hindsight, but you would've been better off staying at 6:15-6:20 pace through 20 and then progressively made your move to sub-6 if you had enough left.