Here goes....

Ducky1

Sounds like you are back to form now Bally8 - well done. Keep going!

week 6 is nearly done now of the training ..the 7 miles on Sat doesn't seem as daunting now that we've done the 10 miler don't you think!

Bally8

Ducky1 wrote: »

Sounds like you are back to form now Bally8 - well done. Keep going!

week 6 is nearly done now of the training ..the 7 miles on Sat doesn't seem as daunting now that we've done the 10 miler don't you think!

I know it really doesnt seem like a big deal at all! my motivation is totally back this week. Because my long slow runs have all been very successful I have a renewed faith in the training program. We will get there:D

Bally8

Thurs 30th July
5 miles today including LT training for 2 miles. Took me 49:26 in total. I took the first mile nice and slowly and then upped the tempo for the next 2 miles. I did one in 9:03 and the next in 9:09. I didnt realise I could run those kind of times:). Then I really took the foot off the pedal and slowly plodded the last 2 miles. I was a mile away from my car so I had a leisurely stroll to finish up. I took three 60 second walking breaks in total. I felt awful as usual for the first 3ish miles then things just seemed to fall into place and it got easier. I think longer distances at a very slow pace suit me way more that short quick sessions.

rainbow kirby

Bally8 wrote: »

I think longer distances at a very slow pace suit me way more that short quick sessions.

Sometimes I feel the same way too... a really nice easy long run feels SO good, while a short fast run can sometimes feel like a bit of a shock to the system.

Bally8

Friday 31st July
3.5 miles on the treadmill- NO way was I going out in that storm! Anyway did 3 miles in 29:26 all running again. Pushed it to 6.5mph every now and then. Felt good and strong throughout. I definately have my mojo back. Cant wait till this weekends lsr. What a difference a week makes eh?:)

Bally8

Sat 1st August
Today should be my 7 mile lsr or a cross training walk. However because I moved last weeks lsr back to Monday I have already completed 23 miles this week and my legs are begging for mercy. I think I will leave the 7 miles until tomorrow and I will see later on today if I go on the walk. It probably would be a good idea to do it though.

In other news Im sick of feeling sick in the mornings because of all the crap I've eaten the night before. From Monday Im going to try improve my diet and stop this gradual increase in my weight I've been having for the last 2 months or so. I cant stop eating rubbish!!! *I have to wait until Monday as Im going out tonight and going to an all you can eat chinese tomorrow:D

Bally8

Week 6 Summary
Monday- 10 mile lsr run from week 5 in 1:39:00
Tuesday - rest
Wed - 3.5 miles (3 miles in 29:38 + 0.5 easy cool down)
Thursday - 5 miles in 49:26 which included 2 miles of LT training (+ 1 mile brisk walk back to my car)
Friday - 3.5 miles (3 miles in 29:26 + 0.5m easy cool down)
Saturday- 3 mile brisk walk
Sunday - 7 mile lsr in 1:11:28


33 miles in total this week. My legs are very tired and Im back to walking like an auld woman. Even though I did a lot of milage I had a great week. I still dont love love love running while Im doing it but every now and then everything falls into place and I have moments of enjoyment. I always feel great when Im finished though:D

Well earned rest day today

Roll on Week 7

Bally8

Week 7
I seem to be living in a pattern these past few weeks- a good week followed by a bad one and I have a feeling this week will be no different. Great week last week- terrible week so far this week

I started my new healthy eating routine on Monday, cutting out all the rubbish and diet coke. Wow have I been suffering since. Its like Im going through sugar withdrawls or something- I have a constant headache, Im wrecked tired and so so so irritable, my poor boyfriend doesnt know whats hit him. Yesterday I felt so ****ty I decided not to do any exercise. In fact for about 10 minutes I thought about never running or exercising again.

This morning I ate porridge for the brekkie for the first time in ages and headed off for my 6 miles. It totally did not go to plan. I was confused about the PMP thing as I have no idea what time I plan to run each mile in, I just want to get to the end alive.

I decided to do the first two miles in about 10minute mile pace and then maybe 9.30 for the second 2 then slow down again for the last two. However I was struggling after 5 minutes and I never got to a place where I felt good. After 3 miles in 29:13 I decided to stop. I thought I was going to get sick, I was dizzy and way too hot but v cold along my back at the same time. I walked 1 mile back to the car feeling very disappointed with myself.

I ate a good lunch there and Im feeling better about the whole thing now. I will just push back the sessions by a day so I dont loose out this week hopefully. Im going to try the 6 miles again tomorrow but I think I will treat it as a lsr instead of pushing for speed.

Ducky1

Don't be disheartened Bally 8 - you are doing really well!

I am as confused as you about the PMP thing ..I just want to make it accross the finish line.

I bet you'll do the 6 miler tmrw no problem at all!

Just think how far you have come already

goofygirl

ooh detoxing and marathon training at same time my tactic is to get through the next eleven and a half weeks By Any Means Necessary

rainbow kirby

goofygirl wrote: »

my tactic is to get through the next eleven and a half weeks By Any Means Necessary

Mine too. If that involves enlisting the help of Ben and Jerry, so be it. :pac:

racheljev

Yep, I'm with you, any means necessary! Last week, I ate porridge, fruit, lots of good stuff. What happened - horrendous stomach problems with (ahem) other bad things. And to be honest, I feel some of the pmp stuff doesn't apply to me - I have one pace: slow and that's going to be it for this year. Maybe next year when I'm all svelte and fab (tee hee) I'll be super quick! Anyway, hope your week gets better.

rainbow kirby

racheljev wrote: »

I have one pace: slow

Sounds like me!

goofygirl

"I have one pace: slow"

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Sounds like me!

**requests mods remove these posts on grounds of BLATANT lying by RK and Racheljev**

Bally8

Ha ha yer all gas:D. I have to agree rachel and rk- Im also sticking with the one pace of slowness. I just want to make it to the end. However I have read both your logs and ye both are much quicker than me as it is.

So in other news I went for another walk/run this evening. 2.5 miles with my sister, we ran for about 5 minutes at the end but walked pretty briskly throughout. I also swept a huge pile of rubble from my drive way so I dont feel so bad about this mornings bad run now I think I more than made up for it.

Bally8

goofygirl wrote: »

ooh detoxing and marathon training at same time my tactic is to get through the next eleven and a half weeks By Any Means Necessary

I had the same tactic in mind but it was gone beyond a joke how much rubbish I was eating and how wrecked and sick it was making me...wait a minute my new diet is also making me wrecked and sick!!:eek:

Bally8

Thursday 6th August
Delighted to report I managed my 6 miles today. I decided to run for 12 minutes then walk for 1 throughout. Finished it in 1:01:58. A bit slower than I had hoped but I found it very tough. My legs were very heavy and I was very warm but Im glad I stuck with it and finished it today. I know Im just having a few tough sessions and everything will be back on track soon enough.

Spent the rest of the day brushing stones from our driveway again- you would not believe how much dust and rubble is on it. Still not finished but my shoulders and back are broken and I have blisters on my hands:eek: so Im done for today. Im so not cut out for manual labour.

racheljev

Well done you. As RacoonQueen mentioned on my log, it's the tough ones that help you when the big day comes in October.

Bally8

Friday 7th August
4.5 miles - have no idea of the time. Went to a track at the CBS school in Nenagh. My first track session ever and I loved it. It was great to do something different and I had this weird feeling the whole time- like I was a real runner. To me a track session is something serious runners do and there I was doing one. My OH and daughter came along too and it was fab to have the whole family exercising together. 18 laps some sprinting, some jogging, some walking, some skipping, some backwards, sideways. Great fun.

Bally8

Sat 8th August
4 mile cross training walk. Got soaked

12 mile lsr tomorrow. Im very nervous but will finish it no matter how long it takes. My stomach is sick and my daughter is still up complaining that she feels sick too. Im just hoping its due the all the sweets and stuff we ate at a party today, not a bug- I cant miss this run!

Bally8

Sunday 9th August- End of Week 7
12 miles today. Had a loooong time to think about things (2:02:16). Before I started I was driving the route I took for the 10 miles 2 weeks ago and realised to my total horror that my OH had measured it short! I was very disappointed to see that I didnt run 10 miles in 1:39, it was actually only 9.6 miles. However as I was running along todays route I came to some conclusions which Im finally feeling very happy about.

- After that 10 mile run I thought that maybe I was capeable of running under 10 minute miles for the marathon.
- Every run after that day I pushed myself to do all my runs in 9.xx minutes.
- I was mostly frustrated and disappointed as I didnt achieve this.

Now I realise I was pushing myself on a false belief. So I have decided to go back to my original aim of completing the marathon in under 5 hours. I think I could do 10:30- 11 minute miles but not faster than that once the high milage kicks in. I dont want to be obsessed with time any more and then not happy with my training. And I feel a huge relief now that Im not pushing for under 10 minute miles any more. This is my first marathon and I want to be happy at the finish line not annoyed with myself.

So with all that said my run today went very well. I chose a route that took me 3 miles along a hard shoulder of a quite road, back to my car, out the 3 miles again and back to my car. It was the safest route I could find and having to do it twice didnt bother me at all.

I tried some things out for the first time today and learned some useful lessons. I used loucazade sport (half diluted with water) for the first time on a long run. I put it at the 3 mile mark and was able to pick it up and drop it further along the road for my second stint along the route. I drank the whole thing and I think it did me good to be hydrated like that. Usually I dont drink until the run is finished. I also ate 4 gummy bears during the run. I dont know if they made any difference but they tasted nice:). A major thing for me is clock watching, I spend nearly all my time looking at my watch- checking to see how long till a walk break, how long have I been running, predicting how long it will take to get to the end. I drive myself mad with it. I cant imagine what I would be like with a garmin. Today I decided that instead of adopting a 9 minute run, 1 minute walk strategy I would run for 3 songs and walk for a minute for the entirity of the run. This was a great idea as I didnt check my watch half as much as I made myself wait until after the 3 songs. In the end I only took 9 walking breaks when I would have had to have taken 12 if I had gone with my old method.

Sorry for the extra long post- those 2 hours out on the road gave my lots of time to think:)

End of Week 7, 33 miles covered this week. Thats 66 in the last 14 days! Feeling positive and confident at the moment- long may it last:D

rainbow kirby

Nice running!

I do all my long runs at about a 10.30-11 minute pace too, and my half back in June was at about 10.30/mile pace too. Nothing wrong with slowing down a bit!

(Incidentally, McMillan predicts a 4:50 marathon (11.05/mile) based on doing a half at 10.30 pace, so you should make your target anyway assuming all things go well!)

littlebug

Bally8 that's great running... you're nearly at half marathon distance! I haven't gone longer than 6.2 miles but I love the quiet thinking time. I don't get much of that in my house.. must add some mileage now for extra thinking time. Oh and on my so called longer runs I've started not looking at the time at all. I do set the stopwatch going and maybe hit the lap button at halfway but don't actually look at it til I'm done. It's much more enjoyable that way:)

Bally8

Week 8 Day 1 Tuesday 11th August
3.5 miles on the treadmill in 34:03. Ran the whole distance. Felt good throughout-sweated buckets tho, not very lady like I'm afraid.

Bally8

Wed 12th Aug
6 miles in exactly 60 mins. I ordered High 5 gels from wiggle last week and they arrived yesterday. I have never used them before and decided to get the ones which would be provided at the marathon so I would be used to them on the day. I was going to have my first one during my 13 miler this weekend but decided to try one out today in my shorter run. I thought this would be a good idea so that I would have no surprises on Sunday.

Oh my god it was awful. Firstly I struggled to tear it open :eek: then each mouthful made me retch like I was going to barf my entire stomach contents up. I had tears running down my face and I had to walk for the 4 minutes it took for me to force the vile thing down my throat. Ewwwww it was horrible, not so much the taste but the texture, globs of stuff sliding down my throat. Yuck!!! (I lowered the tone on here recently talking about pee, Im about to do it again -the only thing I can compare the texture of the gel to is sperm. Cant think of a more eloquent way of putting it:eek:)

Anyway I started off running again and felt fine for a while. I had water planted at mile 4 so took a few sips of that, however it only caused me to experience the gel sliding further down to my stomach! Well that's what it felt like. Rest of the run/walk was fine. I am still stopping for walking breaks but not as regularly and Im not timing them as much now.

For about an hour after the run my belly felt sick but Im grand now. Not sure how much of my reaction is just a mental thing. I will try the gel again on Sunday and hopefully feel some of the benefits from it. Im glad I tried it today to get the initial shock over with.

Oh also I passed 500 miles today for the year so far- woohoo!

goofygirl

ROTFL at this post I appear to have an iron stomach and open gullet when it comes to gels...

racheljev

Well that's me turned off gels anyway . Honestly:D. Are you going to try them again? Think I'll just stick with jelly babies for now. Well done on doing 500 miles!

littlebug

:eek::eek: lol any men reading this thread will be rightly put off their gels now

Bally8

Ha ha sperm was all I could think of as I tried to force it back. However now I realise the word phlem could have been just as adequate a description

Arnied

I have to tell you Bally8, I have not laughed at any post as much as your gel encounter on your 6 miler, the tears were also running down my face at the graphic description, I doubt the manufacturer will start a new advertising campaign based solely at the female market;)!

Perhaps I can recommend a more palatable (non semen textured) gel, check out torq strawberry yogurt, they actually taste alright and do the trick too, if you want more of a boost there is a torq forest fruits with guarana gel.

Congrats on the 500 mark.

rainbow kirby

I've always thought that the texture of gels was more like lube than anything else... Honestly I try not to think about it!

I would say "just swallow", but y'know... :pac:

Bally8

Thanks for the responses and suggestions guys- I think I've finally recovered from my gel/phlem/lube experience.

Was in Cork all day yesterday so had an unscheduled rest day. Today I ran 3.5 miles (non-stop) on the treadmill in 33:53 and 0.5 miles warm up and cool down, followed by 8 minutes on the rowing machine and then HH weights routine and stretches. Very enjoyable work out. In fact Im looking forward to after the marathon when I can do more of the rowing machine, cycling and weights stuff, I just cant fit it in at the moment with the DCM training.

I have a few niggling aches and pains that Im starting to worry about a little. My achilles area in my left leg is tender every now and then and always for the first mile of my runs, then it goes away. Im worried it might develop into something more serious. Also I've been getting cramp in my right foot a lot. Sometimes while running, sometimes after and nearly all the time while I'm driving and pressing the accelerator. Not sure if any of these niggles are serious or am I just psyching myself out at the moment-I SO dont want to be injured and miss the marathon!

Bally8

Saturday 15th Aug
Have enjoyed reading all the race reports from today. Wish I had been there too. Instead I did my usual Saturday cross training walk. Today I added in short running sections on hills. Achilles still tender. Fingers crossed its ok.

Tomorrow's 13 miler has crept up on me really fast- I hope I have a better reaction to the gel tomorrow:eek:

rainbow kirby

Bally8 wrote: »

Tomorrow's 13 miler has crept up on me really fast- I hope I have a better reaction to the gel tomorrow:eek:

If you have problems with gels tomorrow, maybe look at trying something else - something like Clif Shot Blox (a soft chew) or Sport Beans (jelly beans with electrolytes), or even just a packet of Wine Gums? No point in forcing yourself to take gels if they just don't work for you.

Bally8

Thanks RK, I'll see how it goes tomorrow. I would be very interested in wine gums and that other stuff. I really dont know much about whats best to take during the marathon and from reading here it seems that almost everyone takes gels. I just thought thats what you have to do

Bally8

Sunday 16th Aug
13.2 miles in 2.19.04. This was tough, my legs felt very heavy the whole way round. For the first 5 maybe 6 miles I kept telling myself that it would be ok to stop and maybe do the run next week sometime instead. But I struggled on as there was nothing really wrong with me only lazyness. Again I felt better in the second half of the run. Its weird that I feel better the longer I run. I was almost dragging my feet along by the last mile though I was so tired.

I took a gel at around mile 6 and thank god it worked out much better today then last time. I wolfed it down in 3 huge gulps and tried not to think of anything, I also ate 2 gummy bears to kill the nasty taste. I only retched once and so only had a few tears. A few gulps of water sorted me out and I was off again. The gel is still gross but I think I will stick with it. Not sure if it did anything for me but I would probably have been crawling home if I hadnt taken it.

Decided to do and extra 0.2 of a mile to give myself some extra mental satisfaction. 0.1 to reach half marathon distance and another 0.1 to be able to say even if I never run again that I have gone further than half marathon distance:)

Bally8

Week 9 - Yippie
Tuesday 18th Aug
Great session today. 3 miles in 28.46 on the treadmill, followed by 10 mins on the rower and then HH weights and stretching routines. Felt I pushed myself hard and enjoyed doing something else than just running. Made an appointment for Satmya next Tuesday. Its an alternative Indian type massage place. He is going to work on my legs. Hope it rocks.

RacoonQueen

Did you get the isotonic gels bally? Or did you take water with them? It'll help them settle in your stomach if you take water with them. Only one's I've ever really tried is the high5 ones and they work for me...at mile 15 when you're hungry and tired...the icky sugary taste is the least of your worries. You can get power bar and lucozade ones in boots that you can buy in singles. Maybe try them? As others have said jellies and the cliff shots etc can work too. A simple pack of jellies or jelly beans(you can get 'sports beans'). It's all about finding out what works for you. I, rather stupidly, tried gels for the first time in my first marathon...I was struggling and thought it was worth the risk, luckily they worked for me. I rarely train with them though even up to 20 miles. I think, for me anyway, taking them in marathons now is just psychological.

Bally8

Thanks RacoonQueen I will def try out the powerbar and lucozade ones form Boots. I tried the High5 again on Sunday for my 13 miler and got on much better, I was ready for the taste and had some gummybears as a treat to help get over it. I think you are probably right about them being good from a psychological point of view- I can only imagine that in the marathon itself I would eat ****e if I thought it would get me to the end:D

rainbow kirby

The Lucozade ones actually aren't too bad, they just taste like thick Lucozade Sport. Still haven't tried High5 ones yet, I really should!

Bally8

Wed 19th Aug
7 miles in 1:12:36. I have been thinking (again) and I realise that I dont have a PMP or a LSR pace, they are in fact the same. I just go out and try to cover the required distance as quickly as possible on the day without killing myself. So I decided from today I would try slow down on the longer runs and aim at 11 minute miles as Im hoping to do 10:30ish minute miles in the Marathon itself. So I did my best to keep it slow. At times I thought that if I went any slower I would be going backwards:). I took 6 one minute walking breaks and I intend to keep them in there for all my lsr and the marathon itself.

goofygirl

Bally8 wrote: »

At times I thought that if I went any slower I would be going backwards

I know what you mean! I had to do my seven miler last night after having run the half marathon on Sunday so I took it slooooow. I felt like I'd have been making more progress if I'd been jogging on the spot. Turns out I did 10:14 min/miles in the end which surprised me cause I thought I was doing at least 11:30 min/miles.

I'm so, so, so tired today at work though I could cry.

Bally8

Bally8 wrote: »

Wed 19th Aug
At times I thought that if I went any slower I would be going backwards:)..

Whats funny is that this time last year when I only went for the occasional run my pace was much slower than yesterdays almost backwards pace and I used to think I was flying. Shows how much Im improving in suppose:)

Bally8

Firday 21st Aug
I didnt manage to fit the 4 miler in yesterday-our lawn had turned into a jungle so we had it burnt off a few weeks back so spent all day yesterday between the rain showers strimming and raking all the waist high weeds and grass up. Major workout but no time or energy for running after.

Today I did my 4 miles on the treadmill as I had no one to mind the child. I actually enjoyed it. Took me 39:48 and I decided not to do the strides, just take it easy to protect my heel. I did 10 mins on the rowing maching and HH weights and stretches too. Nice workout. Also I ran the whole 4 miles - first time I've ran that far without a walking break in well over a year. Happy days:D

Bally8

LIfe stuff kind of took over my marathon training this weekend so I didnt get my usual cross training in on Saturday. However I went out on Sunday fully prepared to do my 10 miles. I had a plan to go nice and slow, to protect the achilles and just cover the miles. Still dont know my PMP so I was aiming for 10:30 minute miles. The first 3 miles were great then it started lashing rain. I have never been so soaked in my life. I wanted to keep going to the end but by 4 miles my tshirt was completely see through, my skin seemed to be glowing through it, I was sloshing around in my runners, it was like they just filled up with water and I was getting splashed by every car that passed- horrible dirty water in my face and mouth at one point!!

You get to a point where you are so wet it doesnt matter but by 5 miles I felt a stone heavier and then my eyes started to blurr and sting from the product in my hair and my moisturiser being washed into them. So I stopped at my car at mile 6. I did it in 58 minutes which is actually a great time for me:)

I was really disappointed as I want to stick to the programme completelly especially the long runs so I was planning to do the 10 miles today instead but a very late night after Portroe losing the north tipp final ended that plan. I think I will just forget what I've missed out on and continue on with the programme for this week.

Have my physio (Naturopathy massage actually)tomorrow so hopefully my achilles pain with be sorted out.

Bally8

3miles on treadmill today with 10 mins on rowing machine and HH weights and stretching routine.

Went for my sports massage which was lovely but I nearly collapsed when she asked me to pay - €120!:eek: I suppose it also included a months worth of magnesium and a herbal tonic for my low energy. The bad thing about it all is that I still dont know whats the story with my achiles tendon. She couldnt tell me what was actually the problem other than all the running is stressing it. So now I will have to make an appointment with a real physio to find out what is really going on.

Bally8

Wed 26th Aug
7 miles in 1.09.56 - sprinted the last 100m to get in under the 70mins:D
Good run, no real bother. My achiles pain was up at about a 5 out of 10 when usually I would call it a 3 or 4 but on the plus side it only lasted 5 minutes and then I was fine- usually it can hurt for 15 mins. Major cramp in my right foot when I stopped running but it went after 2 minutes and a little stretching.

So I took my first doses of the €60 tonics and spent the morning trying to recover. The minute the stuff hit the back of my throat I was spewing it back up and then fighting for half an hour to stop my stomach giving up its entire contents. I actually had to go back to bed and put my run off until this afternoon as is felt sooooo sick. What a waste of money- I cant do that to myself every day, I would prefer to be tired all the time instead of sick.

krankykitty

Hope the physio sorts you out with that Achilles problem. You're doing great by the sounds of it anyway! That tonic stuff sounds woeful, paying 60 for feeling worse!

Bally8

Fri 28th Aug
4.5 miles on treadmill, very easy pace as I have the 15 miler tomorrow morning eek:eek:

osnola ibax

Bally8 wrote: »

Fri 28th Aug
4.5 miles on treadmill, very easy pace as I have the 15 miler tomorrow morning eek:eek:

Best of luck for tomorrow bally8, you'll be fine I promise. I did 16 three weeks ago and it is not as bad as I thought it would be.

I have 17 on Sunday and I'm eeking aswell :eek: I know it will be fine though. Take your time. Your trainig is going great