London marathon training log/blog

TheRoadRunner

Crap. Got my appointment for physio mixed up, not until Friday ! Found this out when I arrived to the practice. Have an awful pain in my arse, literally.

TheRoadRunner

Nice run today with woddle. A change of scenery was very welcome. Was getting a little bored running the same routes !

10.29 miles in 1:23:29

TheRoadRunner

Today called for 6 mile tempo. I had some great input from Racing Flat during the week and he reckoned my pace per mile was a little slower than it should have been. Initially I didn't entirely agree with him but I had some doubts in my own mind about previous tempo runs and looking back at the splits something striking appeared. My last mile was always the quickest. Could sometimes be quicker by 20-30 seconds than my slowest mile. This showed me I probably wasn't pushing the early miles quick enough.

So today I did my tempo on my own. Previous weeks I have done them with training partners and I think I have been running at their pace instead of my own. Averaged 5.40 per mile (34.06 for 6 miles), fastest was 5.38 slowest 5.43. I was very tired starting this session so I'm very happy with it. This session needs to be built up to 8 miles though and will work on that before the end of March.

Total session including warm up cool down was 9 miles

Will take it handy tomorrow in preparation of my long Sunday run. I have a route that I like to refer to as the "Beast". I'll be tacking all 19 miles of the beast on Sunday so need to get plenty of RR and an extra few weetabix

Abhainn

roadrunner I agree Mr. RF has loads of knowledge.
I was looking back at some of my "Tempo" runs recently also.
Turns out they were also a bit slow also. According to McMillan they were just Steady State Runs. Ah well.

If you wouldn't mind sharing your BEAST route and profile that would be intestesting

cfitz

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

So today I did my tempo on my own. Previous weeks I have done them with training partners and I think I have been running at their pace instead of my own. Averaged 5.40 per mile (34.06 for 6 miles), fastest was 5.38 slowest 5.43. I was very tired starting this session so I'm very happy with it. This session needs to be built up to 8 miles though and will work on that before the end of March.

Sounds like you're flying it. You should stay quiet though, Racing Flat might start looking for a cut of your winnings.

Stupid_Private

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

So today I did my tempo on my own. Previous weeks I have done them with training partners and I think I have been running at their pace instead of my own. Averaged 5.40 per mile (34.06 for 6 miles), fastest was 5.38 slowest 5.43. I was very tired starting this session so I'm very happy with it. This session needs to be built up to 8 miles though and will work on that before the end of March.

Dang... our sessions were almost identical today. Just in from mine now. 6 miles averaging 5.46. I covered a loop in the Phoenix Park that was totally flat. Now I've to start getting faster to make up them 36 seconds you finished ahead of me!

TheRoadRunner

Abhainn wrote: »

If you wouldn't mind sharing your BEAST route and profile that would be intestesting

Hi Abhainn, yeah no problem. It's probably not as hilly as I remember. I haven't done it in a couple of years. I'll talk it up in the meantime though
I haven't being downloading my runs to the training centre so I need to get that sorted hopefully I'll be able to post the route Sunday evening

TheRoadRunner

cfitz wrote: »

Sounds like you're flying it. You should stay quiet though, Racing Flat might start looking for a cut of your winnings.

Cheers. Yeah starting to feel fitter. I have competition to deal with though see comment from Stupid_Private above, so will probably have to start lying about my times in the coming weeks, don't be surprised if my times drop off;)

TheRoadRunner

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Dang... our sessions were almost identical today. Just in from mine now. 6 miles averaging 5.46. I covered a loop in the Phoenix Park that was totally flat. Now I've to start getting faster to make up them 36 seconds you finished ahead of me!

Good stuff. Glad to hear yours was on a flat route, when you said you had done that in the Phoenix park I had visions of you powering up the Khyber pass at that pace ! My route is as flat as a pancake too and is also a mile loop. Anybody who has ever ran the Universities road relays in Maynooth would know it

TheRoadRunner

Just back from a physio appointment. My alignment was all over the shop again. I've been straightened up and given an exercise to strengthen the one particular muscle that is causing all the problems. I feel a lot looser already and my back isn't clicking any more (which is always a good sign).

I've been a bit lax with the back exercises lately so will have o get back in the routine. Don't want to miss any training due to a preventable injury.

Racing Flat

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

my pace per mile was a little slower than it should have been.

Abhainn wrote: »

I was looking back at some of my "Tempo" runs recently also.
Turns out they were also a bit slow also.

IMVHO the vast majority of people do their hard days too easy and their easy days too hard and that's the main reason they plateau...

TheRoadRunner

Racing Flat wrote: »

IMVHO the vast majority of people do their hard days too easy and their easy days too hard and that's the main reason they plateau...

I think you may have a very good point. Run your had days hard and easy days easy. Sound simple but it's easy to blur the two ! Defintiely think todays session should be the base tempo session. As Abhainn has said my tempos were probably "steady runs" like his. In my defence though I don't think I could have run much harder, I think I may have been giving my runs the wrong titles (if that makes sense)

Racing Flat

I know exactly what you mean by sometimes just not being able to do them faster. I think doing them on the back of a hard week can make it difficult to hit the speed. In this case, it's the effort that counts I think - where working off HR might be better than pace.

Having missed 3 weeks in Jan/Feb, I've been on a 1month Ballycotton training burst. Did 40mins tempo first week in 6.16 pace (HR 173, 170-175 is my LT zone), a bit disappointed as I wanted to be closer to 6.00 as that's my race pace. So the next week did it with a few others, we were at 6.04 pace at half way but ended up at 6.15 pace (HR 174). I was happy with this as the effort was very high, was a bit of a race between the 3 of us tbh, and it was probably a tougher course than the week before and we were into a strong wind second half. Then today I was on my own again, new course which I didn't know, was at about 6.10 for 33mins then dropped to 6.16 overall, I had to climb a wall which might have hampered the pace a bit. HR was only 167 though, so I'm hoping this was a good sign, but I just couldn't seem to go harder and get into the zone, not sure why.

Where that leaves me for Ballycotton, I'm not sure. My last hard session last year was 3 x 20mins with 5 mins easy between each and I went 5.58, 6.07, 6.24 IIRC. Here's hoping that taking 15secs a mile off my tempo pace and trying to hold on for an extra 20mins will be doable under race conditions and after an easier week.

Last bit of speedwork will be 2 x 10min at 6.00 pace Tuesday night I think with 5 mins easy in between. What do you think of that? (I like to get as many opinions as possible on these things) - half wondering about just doing a straight 20, race is on Sunday...


Sorry for the hog!

TheRoadRunner

Racing Flat wrote: »

Last bit of speedwork will be 2 x 10min at 6.00 pace Tuesday night I think with 5 mins easy in between. What do you think of that? (I like to get as many opinions as possible on these things) - half wondering about just doing a straight 20, race is on Sunday...

IMO the 2 by 10 minutes might be the better option. You are getting the heart rate up to the desired level but the recovery is saving the legs and keeping them fresh.

Will you do anything else zippy at all before Sunday ? I like to do something closer to race day as I can feel very lethargic. I might be racing myself next weekend in a half marathon so on the Thursday I'll do 10*1 minutes close to race pace with a minute jog in between. Helps my body remember what's ahead !

You will definitely be knocking on the door of 60 minutes anyway. I've never ran Ballycotton but I hear the start can be a nightmare so hopefully this won't mess up your pacing. Good luck anyway

Racing Flat

Probably just do 6 x 100m Mon and Thurs towards end of easy 50mins and Sat do 20-30mins easy with 4 x 30secs at race pace or something like that.

TheRoadRunner

6 miles on grass today. Felt good. Took it handy enough after physio treatment yesterday.

Drove the route I plan on running tomorrow and dropped of a sports drink and some water. Also plan to eat some glucose sweets on run.

The hills are as bad as I remember. The mountain goats who post on these boards would probably laugh at them but my poor little 1 litre car is still in shock:)

TheRoadRunner

Todays long run was around a course we call "The Beast". The loop can be viewed here

I don't run on hills much and the middle section of this loop is very hilly so I always find it tough. This loop was actually christened the beast by an ex Irish international. He ran it with me and a couple of my buddies back when we were in our teens and he told us it was a beast of a run so the legend grew from there.

Our original loop was 8 miles but I have added 5 miles before and after the hilly section. The hill runners reading this probably think I'm a wuss but I really don't like hills. Anybody who heard me moan about the hills in the last BHAA race will attest to this.

When I trained for the Boston everybody told me the hills were very tough. Any books I read also went on about the hills. So I decided that the beast would be used to help me over the hills of Boston. I ran it about 5 times before Boston. It was gas, I remember at around 18 miles asking the guy beside me where heart break hill was, he looked at me as if I was crazy and pointed over his shoulder. The hills of Boston were quite timid to the beast.

This morning I planned on having an average pace of 7 minutes per mile. This is a decent pace for this loop. I managed 6.52 so I was very happy. Total distance ran was about 18.5 miles. I definitely held back as well although I was very tired the last 2 miles. I had to make a pit stop after about 5 miles but apart from that it was an uneventful run. It was a smashing morning and some of the views of Dublin were great.

I will probably do this route once more before London. The downhill sections are quite hard on the joints but it really helps build strength and stamina.

I managed 74 miles in training this week. Next week will be in the mid 60s all going well. The key session for next week is either a half marathon race or 15 miles pace run at planned marathon pace. Will decide later in the week.

Woddle

Crap I thought mine was tough, but yours wins

Elevation Gain 2,703 2537
Elevation Loss 2,684 2501
Max. Elevation (ft): 910 640
Yours is in Bold.

Slogger Jogger

Respect, Roadrunner. Well done and fair deuce for taking on this kind of run in your training. You'll be all the better for it.

donothoponpop

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Todays long run was around a course we call "The Beast". The loop can be viewed here

... The hill runners reading this probably think I'm a wuss but I really don't like hills...

...This morning I planned on having an average pace of 7 minutes per mile. This is a decent pace for this loop. I managed 6.52 so I was very happy. Total distance ran was about 18.5 miles.
I managed 74 miles in training this week...

Okay, so you skirted around the hills rather than climbed them;) but it would be a brave hill runner who debates that impressive pace with those elevations! Great run, and good to have a route, one for a future training run. Well done RR. Your confidence must be soaring.

Krusty_Clown

I'm in awe! What a fantastic pace for such a difficult circuit.
I don't really know the area. Are they nice country roads?

TheRoadRunner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I don't really know the area. Are they nice country roads?

Yeah they the roads on the hills are decent enough. Very quiet for the most part. One of them is a little busy so you have to be careful for a mile or so.

stipes212

I know this route well, to avoid the severe downhill, contonue on to Brittas and home via Saggart.

TheRoadRunner

stipes212 wrote: »

I know this route well, to avoid the severe downhill, contonue on to Brittas and home via Saggart.

Thanks. I might look into this. Continuing on to Brittas may mean more uphill running though :eek: I'll have a look into it anyway for next time as my joints are a little tender today !

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Thanks. I might look into this. Continuing on to Brittas may mean more uphill running though :eek: I'll have a look into it anyway for next time as my joints are a little tender today !

good running well done.

cfitz

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

It was gas, I remember at around 18 miles asking the guy beside me where heart break hill was, he looked at me as if I was crazy and pointed over his shoulder. The hills of Boston were quite timid to the beast.

Classic. You must have broken that poor chap's heart with your comment!

TheRoadRunner

Plan was 10 miles today. But felt tired all morning so downgraded this to 8 miles in my head.

Working late tonight so headed out from the office, after a couple of miles I remembered I had forgot my swipe card so had to get back before 6 pm or I would be locked out. This meant I had to cut my run to 6 miles. This was probably a blessing in disguise and as I'm planning on running hard tomorrow and was probably what I should have planned on doing after yesterdays hilly run.

Got a few funny looks in the showers this evening. I forgot I was wearing Disney princess plasters on my nipples to save them from nipple rub. Must remember to buy some flesh coloured ones on the way home

village runner

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Plan was 10 miles today. But felt tired all morning so downgraded this to 8 miles in my head.

Working late tonight so headed out from the office, after a couple of miles I remembered I had forgot my swipe card so had to get back before 6 pm or I would be locked out. This meant I had to cut my run to 6 miles. This was probably a blessing in disguise and as I'm planning on running hard tomorrow and was probably what I should have planned on doing after yesterdays hilly run.

Got a few funny looks in the showers this evening. I forgot I was wearing Disney princess plasters on my nipples to save them from nipple rub. Must remember to buy some flesh coloured ones on the way home

Great running. Some times. Jealous here.

After such hard weeks how would you be in a race ? For example if you ran a 20 miler on a tuesday a 12 miler at 10 seconds a mile faster than marathon pace would you struggle in a 10km race on hte sunday after putting in a 60 mile a week. Even if you were putting in high milage every week.

TheRoadRunner

village runner wrote: »

After such hard weeks how would you be in a race ? For example if you ran a 20 miler on a tuesday a 12 miler at 10 seconds a mile faster than marathon pace would you struggle in a 10km race on hte sunday after putting in a 60 mile a week. Even if you were putting in high milage every week.

It's different strokes for different folks. I know some guys can run races off very hard weeks. For example apparently Maria McCambridge ran 100+ miles last week and still ran an amazing cross country race on Sunday.

Generally I can't do that sort of thing but that is because I'm not use to high volume weeks to be honest. If I ran a long run on Tuesday as you said and ran the rest of the week sensibly I could probably run a decent 10k on the Sunday.

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Plan was 10 miles today. But felt tired all morning so downgraded this to 8 miles in my head.

Got a few funny looks in the showers this evening. I forgot I was wearing Disney princess plasters on my nipples to save them from nipple rub. Must remember to buy some flesh coloured ones on the way home

Well i'd take that over the pain I had last night, new running top had my nipples in bits, nothing worse ....