Today I'm here with Mike Janetta, A fellow club runner.
Mike, why don't you start off with a bit of history about how
you came to running? Hello, I'm Mike.
Probably. Probably, like when I was a kid,
like, but personal, actually. Like, I probably started running
just to clear my head. Like maybe my dad separated when
I was younger. And like, you know, just like,
you know, run to like a bit of a quiet place and just just go out
running and just, I don't know, just deal with all that stuff in
your head growing up. So it was kind of like a way of
just chilling out, I suppose, just just that I could go out on
my bike as well. It just gives you a bit of
freedom. So I suppose, like, that's
really why when I first started running, I was a kid and then it
wasn't like serious running. It wasn't running fast or
anything. I started playing hockey when I
was a bit older. I did a bit of running just to
maintain my match. Fitness like a lot of hockey was
like shuttles back and forward, up and down the pitch and we
were defending, attacking. So I just, I was one of the
faster ones like in this, in this in the team and squad.
So sometimes got some of these duties like you're a faster one
so like you're up, you're you're defending the short corners and
stuff and running straight out. So I did a bit running then and
then and it was like uni. I thought I could join the
running club. So I see the London Marathon on
TV. I quite fancy doing that.
And then rocked up to the stand and like went out for a run with
them one time and they said oh, you can't just go and do the
London Marathon, you need to do the ballot and stuff like how
our stuff is. So it's like I'm a way to join
someone else. So then I never really ran at
all. And then, since then, my wee
brother's done some running, had some heart problems.
I suppose my aim now is maybe just to like get back to some
kind of normal way of like fitness and being active like I
almost used to be. It's part of the recovery
process, I suppose from that like, I suppose mentally it's
like dollies. I suppose I've had injuries like
under my knee all of a sudden, like you go from playing 5A
sides and doing their cycle and going climbing and stuff and it
just goes from that to zero. It's like sometimes like a bit
mentally like, but like what do I do?
So suppose that's where I'm at, like, so now I'm just to be part
of the club and like get some friends and just get a laugh.
I suppose I'm a little bit competitive, but mainly just
competitive with myself. I'm I'm guilty of encouraging
you to do that. You mentioned your brother was
running a bit. Yeah, he's pretty fast.
I'm a long way off him yet. I think I recently ran the race
in Inverness, the half marathon, so I turned up and did a good
shift there. So I think, I think, I think I
did enough just to shut him up a little bit because he we've both
entered this Manchester marathon.
He used tends to do ultra marathons like a bit like
yourself W Isle way. He used the cross in charm and
he did the TDs and stuff like that.
So he's running in the mountains mainly, but he fancied doing a
marathon and I was like oh I'll do that with you.
So we kind of ended up signing up for Manchester and it's
coming around fast now. It's getting pretty scary.
How far away is that? It's like two weeks on Sunday.
I think 2 1/2 weeks. 2 1/2 weeks Are you nervous?
Yeah, I suppose. I suppose a marathon is a bit of
an event, isn't it? It's like, I don't know, it's
the one that you see on the TV. It always happened in big
cities, like so. So it's my first marathon.
I entered Edinburgh in my youth, but I never ever ran it.
I hurt my knee and injured my knee.
A few operations don't do that, but I never ever managed that.
Everyone says it's rubbish anyway.
It's not the best. So I'm looking forward to very
much and all this. I think I'd set myself what I
thought was like a pretty ambitious target about 3:35.
I don't know where that number came from.
That was when I signed up. That was a bit of a guess.
I had no idea where I was going to be because obviously I was
going to start running. I wasn't like I signed up last
year. I maybe started running at the
end of the summer. Last year I had a heart
operation in April. So then I started running end of
the summer and it was mainly jogging.
I was just jogging really until the end of the year.
My focus is was just on losing some weight, getting some
strength so I could so I could build it up and not get injured.
And then I got to December and I was like, well that box is text,
what next? And then I saw like, you know,
the club and making these club standards.
So I thought OK next year or I'm going to get all these try and
get all these club standards looking to progress.
Anyway, I suppose what I'm saying is like I was aiming for
like bronze, bronze, bronze and I was like looking at the time
on this, what's the bronze for a marathon?
I was like, I really need to try and achieve something and I was
like bronze. I need to try and go and so I
thought maybe 335I can't remember what the bronze time
was, maybe it was just over that I was like 338 or something like
that. And I was like, I'll give myself
a three, three minute margin in case it goes wrong and then I'll
get this bronze. It probably came from that.
But then anyway, since then this year my training seems like it's
developed a bit more. I feel like I'm running instead
of just jogging all the time, and since then just just not
active. I printed off a marathon
training plan. You can find train plans
everywhere. I found one that I looked.
I thought this looks quite sensible.
It gives you some different times for fast and slow runs.
And what do you think, Beginning or intermediate advanced?
I haven't no idea, but so I printed off like I think.
I must admit most of my running is with the dog, so it's pretty
stop start pretty low. But this running plan is full of
like intervals and stuff like this.
And I was like, I would say now my running's getting to the
stage where I can maybe do some of that.
So I suppose if I had a bit more time before my marathon, I might
have been able to introduce someone that into my training
that might have helped me a little bit.
But this is generally I'm feeling pretty good.
But because we're getting closer to the time, putting pressure on
myself, some people say you can use these running calculators on
the computer. It says your time for, you know,
putting your time at 10K or half marathon or something like that,
five mile, it'll give you sort of equivalent times for like a
marathon. So when I type in like what I
got from 1/2 marathon and like what my wee brother said to me,
generally they say maybe you could double it and add 10
minutes. That says like I could
potentially aim for the solver time, which which I did for the
half marathon. But that's a massive, like a big
difference of. Being 1/2 an.
Hour. It's scary, like there's no in
my head. I was like reality is is is
like, you know, I think I've got the aim for that.
I've got to try, but it all depends how I feel on the day.
I think that's what it's going to come down to.
It's really difficult to say like I'd have to.
So to achieve that it's over time, it's it's maybe doable,
but I need a lot to go right on the day and there's so much I've
not. I've not really ran long runs.
I've not tested myself on long runs, I've only just started
trying some gels. I'm really sure if I'm a big fan
of these gels, so. You've only got 2 1/2 weeks to
figure all this out. I don't think I want to run on
my pack, but sometimes I'm thinking maybe just be easier to
run on my pack. I can carry some water and just
drink rather than try and choke myself like down down some water
at a water stop. Do you know what's available
from the water stops? I think from what Mark I've not,
I've not read the fine print but I think from what I've heard
from Mark, other club member, he's he's done it before I think
as well. I think he said it's bottled
water which is probably going to be a bit easier.
I've tried it was cops and then the essence found that like
pretty tricky to try and actually take on some water
because you can run. With the ball.
Yeah, and I think the because I've not tried any of these gels
like I had one Inverness and it was they tried one particular
brand. So I bought some of that to try
from Manchester. But I think it's a different,
it's a different one that they I'm not sure if they offer some
of these gels in Manchester. Yeah, every gels different.
Yeah, I think it's different. So I'm a bit wary of.
I know these gels are pretty advanced now, but like, I don't
know, one long time ago when I was playing hockey, I tried some
of these energy drinks. Just, I don't know, I've also
got one for free somewhere. I tried it and I really didn't
like it. Just give you a buzz for 10
minutes and then it gives you a horrible crash.
I think it was the, I don't know, it's just full of
maltodextrin, some kind of synthetic sugar.
So it's. A highly processed sugar.
So I just bought some active route because it's mainly just
sugar. Yeah, I've got some electrolyte.
So so yeah, the one I've bought is high 5 S and I'm going to try
that. I think it is just a blend.
Of have been multi. Decks and fructose and probably,
yeah, normal. Yeah, fructose, Sucrose,
maltodextrin is usually a blend of really highly processed and
not so highly processed so that they act at a different speed.
So I went out running on Sunday, open to the long run, but it
didn't really go great. I managed to eat something.
I managed to take on a few of those gels.
It seemed to go OK. So I'm not sure how it's going
to go on the day, but I'm going to try and take some gels on the
day. But I'll probably mix it up.
I've got some chews, little Jelly sweeties which I suppose
are like a hard form of the gel. Probably try eating some of them
and probably take some gels. Yeah, so two 2 1/2 weeks to go.
Long runs should be done by now. You're on a taper mode.
What have you got to prepare between now and then?
Suppose tonight I was running the club time trial and I was
actually sitting pretty high in the table, so I had a chance of
winning it. I'm not really sure if we've won
it yet, but there was a chance there.
Wait until the results come out. So I kind of thought I'd have to
push quite hard. I think they upped my I've
changed my handicap so and then I had to push to try and get
some points. So I don't know.
I give it a decent going. I always finish the run and
think I could go a bit a bit more, but I feel sometimes a bit
attentive. But so anyway, that was also
about wasn't about winning, it was about boosting my confidence
and trying to get my confidence back.
I'm not sure have been running too well since Inverness.
I think I'm going to look back and see what running I was doing
before Inverness because I seem to, I seem to be pretty good.
I don't know, I seem to be in pretty good shape.
I seem to do a good shift and I don't know if it was just
because it was a bosom race day and I went out there just to
enjoy myself and I didn't have any pressure.
So I suppose I'm just going to look back and see, see what
happened then. I think very much.
I just want to now. I think I've just before I was
like I did quite a lot of trails run up the woods.
I really just want to be away from the traffic like.
But now I suppose because I do running with a dog, so actually
like one of the best runs, it was really snowing.
I just went and ran them through fields for 10 miles.
I think he actually was telling me dad, I need to go home now.
I'm totally spent. So it's like a really good
strength session. I think I did that like just on
the read up to Inverness. That may have been on the
Tuesday, I can't remember, but like I suppose like I've done
quite a lot of decent training. I'm in quite a good shape Now
I'm concentrating on tarmac and just trying to run at the
tarmac. Ideally in my head I'd like to
try and dial into race pace. I feel like that's what I should
be doing. I'm maybe hearing some of this
from my brother as well, but like in reality, I don't run
that fast when I'm by myself over the dog, so I don't know if
I'm really going to get a chance to do that.
You say you're dialing into race pace.
How? What do you how do you know what
race pace is? Mostly.
Mostly I suppose that that's a good question.
From 1/2 marathon I told my brother I was going to run at a
time trial pace and time. Trails 5 miles 5.
Miles, he just said, Oh, well, that's going to go well, isn't?
It so you're saying you're on the speed at 5 miles, so you're
going to run the same speed at half marathon.
So you're just going to run the same speed at Marathon?
No. Like when I I don't know how
many years ago now, before I had kids, I used to have time to go
to the gym. I do quite a little spin.
I used to quite like going to the spin class.
But I suppose Spin's got nothing to do with running.
But what it does give me is I was running with a heart rate
monitor. I was spinning with a heart rate
monitor. So it's just it's different to
running. But I suppose what you learn is
like I I wear the Garmin thing on my wrist and it does give me
my heart rate, but I don't really look at it.
But I've got the experience of being like back at that time I
would have an idea of what threshold was, you know, based
on the fitness and the age it was and stuff, the heart rate
and that of experience. I suppose that working in the
different sort of heart rate zones from before.
I suppose like when I say time travel pace, I'm running
probably a comfortable threshold like so I'm breathing hard.
I could probably talk if somebody would start talking to
me, but I wouldn't really want to and then keep going at that.
That is obviously fine for a shorter distance.
Like I know I probably could push harder on my part run and
get a better part on time. I need to forget about that at
the minute. But so for my time trial, I was
running seven just over 7 minute miles and I ran that for the
half marathon. But I think it was just because
maybe I was seeing some improvement and then maybe I, I
don't know, this must have just been a bit of buzzing day and be
running with other people, not just by yourself.
You can just like use some tactics.
I feel all right, what pace am I going at?
And like, I don't really ever look at my watch to see the
pace. But like, obviously during the
race I was like, I need to check my pace.
So I was like, yeah, that seems all right, seems to be going
pretty fast. Everyone says I don't quite too
fast, but I feel comfortable. So keep going at this.
And then kind of like that time I just locked on to a couple of
people running about the same pace as me and just thought,
I'll just hang on to these guys. So in the marathon, I'll try and
do somewhere. It's like find a comfortable
pace, see if I can. But looking at the calculator at
that time I was running that 7 miles to to get this solar time.
I reckon I need to be doing 720. I think that's, I think it's
beyond me. It's like maybe I could do that
for 15 miles and then I don't know what's going to happen
after that, like. Going back to your.
Maybe screaming. Going back to your your prep for
the race, how are you getting there?
Where are you? Where are you sleeping?
How are you getting home? I thought it would be easy on
myself and fly, but because I've got like young family at home,
there's always loads of stuff to think about, like and pressure
at work and family and stuff. Are you just going to calm or
he's not coming and that's went on for ages, so difficult.
Last minute my wee brother's booked an apartment for the
Saturday and the Sunday, so the race is on the Sunday.
So we're staying over night before and staying over the day
after and we're reasonably close to the start so so I should so
just an apartment so I'll take. I'll take my Muesli and I'll
have that in the morning. So I'll try and take my
previous, like, I'll try like I ran a race with my brother one
time before and he was like, oh, do you want some porridge for
breakfast? I just crashed at his house and
I was like, Oh yeah, sweet, I like porridge.
But it didn't go down well for the race.
It was like, it's not my racing food, it wouldn't be my first
choice. So I think I learnt a lesson.
It's like just do everything your own way so you know, I'll
figure out what I'm going to wear on race day.
I'll probably bake some Muesli and stuff or whatever.
I don't know, some banana and honey or something.
Maybe get some sugar in and then try and get a decent night's
sleep. Not used to running in the
morning so well, I run in the morning with the dog, but just
take him out just to make him happy.
But like, I might try. I might try a couple of ones.
Just get up, eat some breakfast at 7:00 in the morning, go
running at half nine or something.
I'm not sure when. What time does it start at?
I think it starts in a couple of different waves and I think Mark
says we're in the second wave. I've glanced at the paper and I
think it might start. I said 940, maybe 930 starts,
but might be in the second wave, which maybe 10 minutes later.
So something like that. But probably means I need to get
up quite early, eat some breakfast and then I know, chill
out, drink some coffee. My wee brothers says he's going
to stop, stop with the coffee, the caffeine for a couple of
weeks so that when he has a coffee, coffee or the caffeine,
whatever in the gels, then it actually works on day.
So probably I might try it. I might try that for a few days.
It works in theory, as long as you're I'm not too addicted to
coffee, that you have the side effects of withdrawal symptoms.
I've never been a big coffee drinker, but like, I don't know,
my wife bought me some kind of coffee grinder, so, you know,
grind some beans in the morning sometime from time to time.
So I think very much was just try and I just try and stay calm
like, and then just try and make the right decisions.
Like, I don't know, just a lot of distractions.
Like, you know, my wee brother, he'd be doing his thing and be
like, oh, should I be doing that or something?
Just like, OK, he can wear whatever he wants.
He's doing a different race than me because.
Yeah, well, you're you're running your own race, so that's
all that matters. But yeah, it's like, so yeah,
I'll just try And so yeah, we're going down.
I'll drive down to my brother's house.
Doesn't know when probably. I think I'm I'm probably just
going to crash in the back of his car on the way down from
his. He lives in 5 SA couple of hours
from me down to his bed and then he'll him and his mate will
probably drive his car back and forward to Manchester.
So I think it's an easy shift for me.
I'll just like Crash. You can maybe listen to this.
I'll maybe crash in the back of his car and then I think I'll
probably try and use that time to psych myself up.
Like in some ways like, I don't know, maybe just like how you
see, you know, like before the Formula One race, the drivers
are sitting in the car and they're just like visualising,
practicing. They're just in their head, just
trying to focus on what they're doing.
So probably just I'll take that time in the back of the car,
just trying to think about I don't know anything, just empty
my head and just think about like what's likely to happen on
the day or or what happens if this happens or not.
Like just probably try and mentally prepare myself probably
before my time trial today is like just thinking about when
I'm supposed to be working during the day.
I was just thinking like I need to eat and just, I don't know,
try and open myself up. Going off on a tangent earlier
on, you mentioned that you had a heart condition.
Don't mind talking about it. I've I've not said on the
channel before but I've got a heart condition myself, which
I'll go in another day. I used to be the Mike in the
club that had a heart condition and then you come along, you
want, you want to talk about it Well.
I just, yeah, I've actually blacked out wrong before.
Like it landed on my teeth. I wasn't running fast.
I was just that I had. I was late from work and I was
just kind of running back to the car.
Were they running kind of just like jogging movie?
Yeah. I've had some irregular
heartbeat issues, so my heartbeat has probably gone too
fast. Wasn't really efficient pumping
the blood. That means your brain doesn't
get enough oxygen or whatever. The blood flow basically blacked
out. I hit the pavement with my face,
but I didn't feel it got a little crack in my tooth.
So kind of hard setbacks like end up in an ambulance and the
time was quite confusing. That was definitely a bit of a
symptom like and then obviously it was like ended up in the
horse well and it kind of went on from there at some a couple
of zaps trying to get it back to normal, do a reset for that few
times but a couple of operations, keyhole surgery
what? Kind of operations.
Yeah. Basically they go in do
ablation. So basically go in and try and
map the circuits in your heart and the electrical kind of
signals you figure out. Obviously the signals are like,
OK, they're kind of find a route that maybe they're not meant to
take and then the base, they go and disrupt that route by not a
little bag burn or freezer or whatever.
So I had that done a couple of times.
It kind of works for me a little bit, but then didn't resolve my
problems. So I actually went out trying to
go running with my wee brother one time, Houston Hill reps And
I was like, OK, I'll try and do that running with you.
But like bash on, we're Hill reps I'll just be taking it
easy. I kind of ran up the hill really
easy and I was like, Nah, I'm not feeling right.
Kind of all went back, back to the start again, back to see the
consultant again. And to be fair, like I've had
really good treatment from the NHS and, you know, you hear
stories about waiting times and stuff and I think I've not had
to wait too long in terms of, you know, a lot of the wait
years and years for any treatment or anything like that.
It's totally unreasonable, I think.
So I think I had a different procedure this time and so far
I've only had one little wobble, which is a really, really hot
bath. So I think it's probably not a
good idea for me. Your body's probably working
hard to try and kind of cool you get your body temperature back
to normal does. That make you think you
shouldn't run in hot conditions or you not thought about?
It not thought about that, I think.
I think obviously like I've got the feel for it.
Probably if things are not right, I'll probably just wind
it back and try and figure out what my situation is like.
When I had that wee wobble before, I wasn't really too sure
what was going on and it was the time trial was on.
So I came along and I was like, yeah, not very sure.
I'm just going to take it easy tonight.
And I ran the time trial. I think it was like in the
middle of Christmas, New Year sort of time.
I can't remember. The weather was probably awful.
It was poorly attended. I ran it what I thought was
marathon pace, which to me, marathon pace just meant really
comfortable. And then I just thought, like,
see how it'll go. I might come back, I might make
it to the end and then I think I actually scored some points, but
I think it was due to the attendance.
So I think it was quite as that's maybe what I wanted for
me, I should have if I'd pushed better.
So yeah so after that they kind of put me back on some
medication. So that's that's the the doctors
that take kind of safety first approach and I've been hassling
them. I don't know if I really need to
be on this medication anymore. So it's kind of like, you know,
I don't know how that's affected my performances.
Like, I think the medication was maybe to keep my heart rate from
going too high, so I don't know if that's held me back a little.
Bit like a beta blocker or something.
Yeah, it's on. It's on a very low dose.
So it probably didn't make a big, big difference, but so it's
kind of hard for me to judge like where how my progress has
been with the running like. So I came off, I came off the
beta blocker, I think it must have been before Inverness and
then obviously it did really well Inverness.
So I don't know, it's maybe a couple of weeks before.
I don't know if the performance difference is because coming off
the beta blocker has maybe given me an extra gear.
Let's just say I didn't have before.
It's like NHS prescribed performance enhancing drugs, is
it? So, well, performance enhancing.
So like at the same time I was on the blood thinner and I just
got a message I missed the call today from the doctor.
I've been hassling them saying I don't think I need to be on the
blood thinner. So I just got a message saying I
can stop taking that. So I don't know if that.
I don't know if the blood thinner, if it makes it easier
to pump blood around my body, does that, does that actually
enhance performance or or does it?
If the blood's more watery, does it, does it not carry the same?
I don't know, like I'm not a doctor, I've not studied it, no.
And before we go. Any further, anything that we're
seeing here is our own personal experiences.
Do not take this as medical advice.
Go and see your GP. The GPS refer it to the
hospital. The It's a bad day when you've
got a cardiologist, but I do have a cardiologist, so.
So I'm coming off the blood thinner.
That's the change. I was kind of hope I was
hassling the doctor maybe a month ago because I thought, I
want to, I want to come off this now and then work up to marathon
because I knew this marathon was coming.
I don't really want to come off it.
And then this week and not know what's happening in two weeks
time, whatever. So it's kind of that's the
situation I'm in now. So I don't know what that really
means. Does that mean that all of a
sudden the pace I want to run at is going to be more difficult
for me and that's the wrong decision.
I think I'm just going to have to go feel again when I finish a
run and say I can go faster. It's kind of me.
There's two things. It's like that means I'm not
going hard enough. That's me putting pressure on
myself and being ambitious. I like, I like people that are
ambitious. Like, Oh, no, I like ridiculous
as you're just, you know, not lazy, but but like, it gives me
a bit of a goal to like, work towards.
It's like, all right, yeah, OK. I did quite well today.
Everything that went well, that went well.
But I know I can go faster because of this, this and this.
So you get a bit experience and you identify like, where I can
maybe like, I suppose what I was trying to say is I just want to
do an honest race on the marathon and I want to get to
the end and feel like a bit of satisfaction.
Yeah, did a good race. Ideally, you want to get to the
end. Think I couldn't.
I couldn't have given that much more.
Give it a good shout, come away really happy, that's all.
I don't think the time is really going to make any difference to
me. I mean nice to take that box and
say I achieved whatever club standard is, but doesn't really
mean I'm not going to win the marathon.
No, it is for. It's like.
Winning is you being happy with what you've done.
Like, I'm an old man, I'm an old man and stuff.
Yeah, I'm probably going to want to try and take some pressure
off myself and just go out and enjoy it on the day.
Like I'm the one high five and all the Marshalls, especially
the old wifeys. So does any old wifeys
marshalling from Manchester I'll be the one.
Like wanting to give you a high 5 coming past, which is just my
way of saying thank you to the Marshalls, but at the same time
just for me trying to get engage myself, get a bit of a buzz
going just to keep my keep my motivation up good.
Well, I think it's getting late. We've both been at a running
club tonight, so I think we're going to call it there.
But what I want to do is catch up with you again after the
marathon to see how things went, if that's OK with you.
Yeah, I think. I think that the idea is because
I'm a total novice for the marathon now, but looking past
the marathon, I've signed up to another race, Devil of the
Highlands. He went from time trial tonight.
Half Marathon, Marathon and then Devil Highlands is 40. 3 Miles
We'll come and speak to you after the marathon and let you
know how it went. Yeah, that's good luck.
And from all of our hundreds of viewers, good luck.
And. We'll see yous next time.