here goes nothing...

Seres

great run , well done

asimonov

i'm going to follow ike's lead and go metric. I went out on the lash after the run yesterday...so nicely hungover today, but an easy run took care of that.

I still regret going out too fast yesterday, and for the second half of the race i was under no pressure from behind and was not losing distance from the runner ahead. My pace bottomed out at 3:47 on the last 2 km. I read somewhere before that you should aim to be in your desired finishing position around three-quarters of the way through the race, as little tends to change after that. In the few races i have run this has definitely been the case.

KM splits
3:19
3:31
3:36
3:43
3:47
3:32 (.93K) eqv. of 3:47 for 1k
21:28 or (21:43 if corrected for distance). Compares with 22:08 on my last 6K on the 4th of May.

Today: Saturday the 16th.
8.2K easy pace in 40:17
Average pace: 4:53 per k.

I registered for the Lisburn half marathon on the 17th of June this morning, it's a mid-week evening run so we plan on making a day of it. I also registered for the florence marathon at the end of november - it is a back up to DCM in case anything should go wrong close to the date of the race or on the day itself.

ike

I've automatically reserved your seat in the car so!:)

village runner

asimonov wrote: »

i'm going to follow ike's lead and go metric. I went out on the lash after the run yesterday...so nicely hungover today, but an easy run took care of that.

I still regret going out too fast yesterday, and for the second half of the race i was under no pressure from behind and was not losing distance from the runner ahead. My pace bottomed out at 3:47 on the last 2 km. I read somewhere before that you should aim to be in your desired finishing position around three-quarters of the way through the race, as little tends to change after that. In the few races i have run this has definitely been the case.

KM splits
3:19
3:31
3:36
3:43
3:47
3:32 (.93K) eqv. of 3:47 for 1k
21:28 or (21:43 if corrected for distance). Compares with 22:08 on my last 6K on the 4th of May.

Today: Saturday the 16th.
8.2K easy pace in 40:17
Average pace: 4:53 per k.

I registered for the Lisburn half marathon on the 17th of June this morning, it's a mid-week evening run so we plan on making a day of it. I also registered for the florence marathon at the end of november - it is a back up to DCM in case anything should go wrong close to the date of the race or on the day itself.

I agree.
But as you said it was not knowing who was in the race. The lad that won it is a serious runner. After starting with him you were lucky you didnt have to stop at halfway. If you ever fancy a tempo run get my number of ike. also hold onto that photo for me.

asimonov

Firstly, the metric experiment is over. I'm back to miles, of which i did 10.25 on monday at an average of 7:50 p/m.

ok, so tonight was to be the night i added quality to my training sessions. Enough of this hacking miles without rhyme nor reason like some kind of mindless mile junkie. Now is the time to pull up my arm warmers and hit the road to feel the kind of hurt that only tempo hurt can be.

According to mcmillan my tempo pace range is 6:05 to 6:21. 16 seconds feels like a wide enough goal to hit, as a soft intro to this whole thing i decided to do a 3 mile tempo (mile either side of warm up and down) to get me started.

I did a 1 mile warm up (7:52), and kicked off with mile 2 (albeit downhill) at 5:52 (yikes), mile 3 at 6:32 (goddam- too slow) and finally, bingo, a 6:14 mile - before a warm down of 7:45. So lots of work to do on both my fitness and my ability to understand my own pace.

All in all, it was very satisfying to have a hard workout that doesn't take an age. so whilst the novelty persists i look forward to the next one.

Seres

your pacing is a bit all over the shop alright , dont know if practice will recify that , mine seems to be gettin worse , exciting starting a new program , best of luck , quality to your training makes it alot more interesting .

asimonov

cheers seres, i hope i can stay fit and well and keep on training through the summer.

Today: 5.1 Miles, Easy Run, 7:58 p/m

village runner

asimonov wrote: »

Firstly, the metric experiment is over. I'm back to miles, of which i did 10.25 on monday at an average of 7:50 p/m.

ok, so tonight was to be the night i added quality to my training sessions. Enough of this hacking miles without rhyme nor reason like some kind of mindless mile junkie. Now is the time to pull up my arm warmers and hit the road to feel the kind of hurt that only tempo hurt can be.

According to mcmillan my tempo pace range is 6:05 to 6:21. 16 seconds feels like a wide enough goal to hit, as a soft intro to this whole thing i decided to do a 3 mile tempo (mile either side of warm up and down) to get me started.

I did a 1 mile warm up (7:52), and kicked off with mile 2 (albeit downhill) at 5:52 (yikes), mile 3 at 6:32 (goddam- too slow) and finally, bingo, a 6:14 mile - before a warm down of 7:45. So lots of work to do on both my fitness and my ability to understand my own pace.

All in all, it was very satisfying to have a hard workout that doesn't take an age. so whilst the novelty persists i look forward to the next one.

Did you decide on youghal ?
With a garmin you should not be that far out. I go to other extremes and keep looking at it. I might do a race without it someday to see how i go.
Could meet you for an interval session in Scanlon some night. Easier do it in company.

asimonov

village runner wrote: »

Did you decide on youghal ?
With a garmin you should not be that far out. I go to other extremes and keep looking at it. I might do a race without it someday to see how i go.
Could meet you for an interval session in Scanlon some night. Easier do it in company.

VR, i've managed to wean myself off constantly checking the garmin, so it only shows my mile splits now.

Last night's 3 mile road race was the final night of the Smithwicks Kilkenny Road League, a series originally set up 25 years ago as a challenge between the Smithwicks Brewers and the Army in Kilkenny. As this was the last night of ther series, afterwards there was a great dinner and drinks laid on in the Barracks for everyone who took part - prizes were given for first four accross 6 grades, teams as well as ladies prizes.

It was a good run, tough course, pretty much an uphill grind for the first 1.25 miles, followed by a pretty steep ascent and decent for another .75 and then up and down for the final mile. The race itself ran long, my watched lapped 3 miles with 500m to go, so about 3.3 - 3.4 miles. the final mile was a total wrench - my legs went and i got a bit "staggery" towards the end. The race was won with class by Brian Maher. I finished in 18:59, i think in the top 10, but definitely 4th amongst those fighting for league places. This placed me 4th in the final league overall and i also got a prize for 3rd team.

The series has been excellent, really well organised and very sociable, and with a good spread of ability. Its been great to watch the really good runners take part and see what they are capable of. In the last six weeks i've run 2,4,5, and 3 mile runs (all new distances for me) and whilst i find the going tough, i enjoy the suffering ;-)

2 miles: 11:51: 5:55 p/m, 4th
4 miles: 23:19: 5:50 p/m, 6th
5 miles: 30:35: 6:07 p/m, 6th
3 miles: 18:59: 6:20 p/m(??), 4th

I've also done two other 6k races 22:05 (5:57 p/m) & 21:28 (5:45 p/m).

All in all very happy with the last month, i'm not sure i could have improved much by adding more effort, i could possibly take a few seconds back here and there by pacing better - but if its going to get better from here it will be the result of better training. So that's the focus for the next while, with the immediate goal being a sub 1:25 half marathon in lisburn in 3 weeks time.

MCOS

Pretty consistent results well done. Have you learned what you wiould have to do differently to push on up to top 3?

asimonov

MCOS wrote: »

Pretty consistent results well done. Have you learned what you wiould have to do differently to push on up to top 3?

Thanks mcos, the short answer is no, i don't know exactly what i'd have to change to improve that much. Whatever it is i need, it would have to result in an increase in my sustainable pace range for the shorter distances (<6mile) from 5:40-6:05 to 5:30-5:45 i think. I suppose improvement would come from a pretty dedicated training programme, and that doesn't fit with the focus on the marathon later in the year.

But right now, i'm thinking once that's complete i'd like to do a medium-high mileage training schedule for the half-marathon, which would have a tighter fit with improving my 10k and below times next spring.

Sosa

asimonov wrote: »

Thanks mcos, the short answer is no, i don't know exactly what i'd have to change to improve that much. Whatever it is i need, it would have to result in an increase in my sustainable pace range for the shorter distances (<6mile) from 5:40-6:05 to 5:30-5:45 i think. I suppose improvement would come from a pretty dedicated training programme, and that doesn't fit with the focus on the marathon later in the year.

But right now, i'm thinking once that's complete i'd like to do a medium-high mileage training schedule for the half-marathon, which would have a tighter fit with improving my 10k and below times next spring.

Thinking similar myself asimonov.....I will be doing dublin but the club have a half marathon planned for 5/6 weeks later ...so i will have to come up with some kind of plan to get me ready for that one.

getting through 5k under the 18m is another goal of mine,dont know when i will race one though ( i never have ).well done

I much rather a fast tempo than an LSR...i just like running fast...feels much better.

I was doing 6:30 pace for the tempos because P & D says that they should be between 9k and half marathon pace...i went with half marathon pace ( i think i could do a half at 6:30 pace )
But,i think that they should be between 6:15 and 6:20 really ( for me )

ike

Well done asimonov 4th overall is great considering there was some stiff opposition in the top 6 or so every week. You looked pretty knackered at the end! Couldn't make the festivities myself, pity.

asimonov

Sosa wrote: »

Thinking similar myself asimonov.....I will be doing dublin but the club have a half marathon planned for 5/6 weeks later ...so i will have to come up with some kind of plan to get me ready for that one.

getting through 5k under the 18m is another goal of mine,dont know when i will race one though ( i never have ).well done

I much rather a fast tempo than an LSR...i just like running fast...feels much better.

I was doing 6:30 pace for the tempos because P & D says that they should be between 9k and half marathon pace...i went with half marathon pace ( i think i could do a half at 6:30 pace )
But,i think that they should be between 6:15 and 6:20 really ( for me )

Snap on the half marathon in Waterford, i have that one in mind too. TBH, I don't mind LSR's too much, the beginning is always bit boring - but i like once you go over 10 miles and it all clicks into place and you cruise along. In terms of pacing we have a bit of time to go, so i think the approach of building the tempo pace over a couple of months is probably the safest in terms of gaining fitness and avoiding injury.

asimonov

16 mile LSR in the sunshine, average pace 8:05 p/m.

asimonov

Last week was the crapiest week ever in terms of running, I covered 12 miles in a week, mainly due to a newly acquired sore knee and a long standing aptitude for laziness. I was going to do an 18 week programme for Dublin but I'm getting bored going nowhere, so I've jumped into week 3 of a 24 week programme. Monday was a rest day, Tuesday, I met up with village runner and a club mate for a cruise interval session on the track, 9 miles in total with 5x1 mile at 5:50 with 2min recovery (or not!). The first four were grand on pace, but on the last one I went out the back door faster than sonia in a race that counts. Its a long time since i've run on a track, and its a weird feeling when your pace goes, its gone, no amount of teeth gritting is getting it back. I crawled home 20 seconds behind. Still it felt good afterwards. Today was 5 mile recovery pace at 8:30 p/m.

Krusty_Clown

Hey Asimonov, would you not consider doing a 6 week 10k program and recording a solid pb instead of doing the 24 week slogathon? I greatly regret launching into the recent 24 week program, as I hit my best around 6 weeks too early. It would also give you a good base for your sub 3 Dublin assault.

asimonov

Funnily enough, after you got your injury I shelved my original idea of doing the 24 week plan in total. I'll have a look and see what a highish mileage 10k programme looks like and make a call on it. Good to see you back running again, you can put the bike back in the shed now!

asimonov

Thursday: rest
Friday: 8 miles easy pace with no watch. Caught the last of the sunshine with a run out of the village into the country and back.
Saturday: 9 miles easy pace, 7:57 p/m.

LSR planned with Ike tomorrow am, so a much more satisfactory week in terms of distance.

After a suggestion from krusty I've found a 10k training plan that goes in 3 week cycles.Torn between doing that and just plugging away at the mileage. I'll stick with what I have until after lisburn half marathon on the 17th.

Slogger Jogger

The 10k plan as a stepping stone to the longer distance sounds good. Looks like you're ticking over nicely in any event.

asimonov

Thanks, getting back into the groove now. Did you do the p&d plan for rotterdam? Do you have any thoughts about it in hindsight, say compared to your prep for last weekend?

Slogger Jogger

Hi,
Donothoponpop did P&D. I did Hal Higdon. While it didn't work for Rotterdam I think the reasons for that bad run lie elsewhere (i.e. a dodgey meal). The foundation from that training got me a PB in Edinburgh, as the 8 weeks in between I didn't do anything specific as regards marathon training, more races and runs in the hills.
Cheers.
Mick

asimonov

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Hi,
Donothoponpop did P&D. I did Hal Higdon. While it didn't work for Rotterdam I think the reasons for that bad run lie elsewhere (i.e. a dodgey meal). The foundation from that training got me a PB in Edinburgh, as the 8 weeks in between I didn't do anything specific as regards marathon training, more races and runs in the hills.
Cheers.
Mick

thanks Mick.

Today i finished the week with a 16.4 mile run with Ike. The pace was just over 8min miles, which meant 2hrs and 15 min on our feet. We managed to avoid the rain for it all. The first 13 miles were handy enough, the pace easy enough to allow us chat our way through it. We turned onto the main road for the last 3 or so, and between the headwind and running on the hard shoulder of a busy road it was a quiet slog home.

Summary of the week.
monday: rest
tuesday: 9miles (5 X mile intervals)
wednesday: 5.1 miles easy / recovery
thursday: rest
friday: 8 miles easy
saturday: 9 miles easy
sunday: 16.4 miles easy

I hadn't planned to run 9 yesterday. But as we were bringing the kids to the pool we agreed i'd run on ahead and the OH was to pick me up after 4 miles...9 miles later they appeared along beside me in the car :eek:.

asimonov

Monday: Rest day, back of my right knee is little stiff after sunday.

Tuesday: Knee eased a bit but still not 100%. Had our second track session at the watershed. Because of the knee I didn't join village runner et al to do their 400m intervals but did 5 X 1 mile at 6:30 instead, 1 mile warm up and down. Felt good, went for a swim afterwards.

Nothing but easy running for the rest of the week. The eldest (7) of the kids has his first "race" tomorrow for gowran ac.

village runner

asimonov wrote: »

Monday: Rest day, back of my right knee is little stiff after sunday.

Tuesday: Knee eased a bit but still not 100%. Had our second track session at the watershed. Because of the knee I didn't join village runner et al to do their 400m intervals but did 5 X 1 mile at 6:30 instead, 1 mile warm up and down. Felt good, went for a swim afterwards.

Nothing but easy running for the rest of the week. The eldest (7) of the kids has his first "race" tomorrow for gowran ac.

I hope the young lad doesnt have a cigarette after a session like his dad.
Have to pack them in to break 3 in Dublin. Otherwise we are wasting our time.

Krusty_Clown

asimonov wrote: »

Nothing but easy running for the rest of the week. The eldest (7) of the kids has his first "race" tomorrow for gowran ac.

My youngest (8) is running her first big race tomorrow too, in Santry Stadium. Should be fun!

asimonov

This is a step back week on the schedule slogathon at 32 miles.

8.9 miles around Kilkenny City. Did a loop that started and finished at the watershed. The running was mainly on pavements and a little bit of ring road hard shoulder. It was meant to be easy pace, but it took effort to keep the pace. I didn't bring a watch as i can more or less auto-run at this pace now. Even though i like the change from the roads around where i live I'm not the greatest fan of (sub)urban running, just a country boy at heart.

I have two more easy pace runs left this week 5 & 11 miles, and then two days before Lisburn. I got the final email from them today with details of registration to pick-up up the chip, number and goodie bag (entry costs only £15 and that inc. a t-shirt..now that's value). I am still undecided as to what approach to take to the run, my knee is better so i think if it stays that way i have the option of giving it a lash. My current thinking is one of three options:

1. Run it in its entirety at planned marathon pace, to see how i feel after 13.1 miles (nice idea - but its a long way to travel for a training run)

2. Try and run it at around level 6:30's to see if that is sustainable.

3 (the current favourite)..run it fast, but without a watch. I wrecked my own head at wexford looking at the garmin every quarter mile, and whilst it may have helped the time - it added nothing to the enjoyment.

However, any and all of these could go out the window at the start line.

rigal

Hey asimonov,

Been following bits of your log over the past while - impressive stuff..

Assuming your knee is ok I'd set the distance alert to go off at every mile on the garmin then adjust pace accordingly - wouldn't look at it otherwise.. but that's just me - I wouldn't be comfortable racing that distance without a watch.

Best of luck.

rigal

asimonov

rigal wrote: »

Hey asimonov,

Been following bits of your log over the past while - impressive stuff..

Assuming your knee is ok I'd set the distance alert to go off at every mile on the garmin then adjust pace accordingly - wouldn't look at it otherwise.. but that's just me - I wouldn't be comfortable racing that distance without a watch.

Best of luck.

rigal

thanks a milion rigal. you are probably right, if i just set it to give me the distance alert and just display the time and date screen, i'll have enough to keep me on track without getting obsessive about counting the distance / time down. There is something tempting about running without a watch and not being so pace aware all the time, but maybe for a different race?

Are you back running after edinburgh yet? what's next on the horizon?

rigal

asimonov wrote: »

Are you back running after edinburgh yet? what's next on the horizon?

I was away last week so have just done a bit of light running with the OH this week. She is just starting out so it's more jogging than running but I'm enjoying the change (and not looking at my watch ).

Bought a roadbike this week so will be doing 2 or 3 additional training sessions per week on it.

Thinking I will do the 1/2 in Longford (aim sub 1.35) and then maybe the full in Amsterdam (aim sub 3.30 again..) but not fully sure yet.

Sorry - that's a long post. Must start a log of my own :rolleyes:

Look forward to reading your race report on Lisburn!