A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

catweazle

No need to flip a coin red, I have no doubt you will be out with the 3.30's.

Its better to burn out......than fade away!

Good luck and looking forward to the report next week!

shotgunmcos

The pacers will help a lot. Make your mind up to stick to the 3:45 and if feeling good do a neg split by 5 mins to a satisfying 3:40 (maybe not dream time, but the execution of it will be memorable as you do a set of strides over the line ), or hang onto the 3:30 band and fight tooth and nail to get there, although you may be out of it and will have no memory but the pain.

Tough choice but I feel your running has been good this year. Kenmare was a disaster simply because you did not have the swimming or cycling done and you possibly wore yourself out 'cramming' for it. The real stuff is done in winter as far as the bike goes.

So, running is your trump card. Use it and finish this year on high buddy!

Izoard

Hey Red,

Off hand, can't see what your marathon PB is, but I'm guessing 3.45 would beat it?

If you are going to go away for awhile, it would be nice to wrap up the season with a PB and when you do come back to it, maybe just focus on one of marathon or tri to get the times down.

Either way, the best of luck with it.

pgmcpq

Hey, it's not the end. It's the peak. Good luck Monday - but don't think of it as a "last chance" - way too much pressure (get Mrs B into running, and then see what happens!). Hope to meet you at some stage during the day.

RedB

Days 362 - 365

Sat 23/10 - rest

Sun 24/10 - travelled up to Dublin with the family and met an English buddy of mine with his family for a HUGE pasta lunch in Da Vinci's in Leixlip. He was doing the marathon too and had collected my number for me which saved me having to hit the RDS. Spent the early afternoon with them and then moved on to the sister-in-law's on the northside. I was leaving the family there and staying in Temple Bar myself so as to get some peace and be close to the action. I did a nice and easy 3M run first to get the journey out of my legs and then headed into town for a relatively good nights rest.
3M, 27:19, 9:04/M, 137bpm

Mon - up at 6:45am and had a banana and green tea. Headed up to MacDonalds for the rest of my breakfast :eek: Porridge, bagel and coffee . Met my English buddy there around 7:45am and headed towards the starting area nice and relaxed. A beautiful, slightly cool, sunny morning. My other buddy BB was a bit late but we found each other whilst queuing for the toilets :rolleyes:. Stashed the gear and went to our starting pen. I had on a black bag and a spare t-shirt and I chugged 2 Hi5 gels down about 10-15mins before the start. BB had picked me up a Hi 5 gel belt and Marathon Pack at the Expo and I was fully stocked up as per the Hi5 recommended nutrition strategy. Upon mature reflection I had decided to aim for 3:40ish and to run slightly ahead of the 3:45 pacers for the first half and then push on if feeling ok. BB was going for sub 3:30 and my other buddy was targeting sub 3:10 so we wished each other luck and found our own spots in the crowd. I had forgotten about the National Anthem at the start so that was a pleasant surprise for my English buddy I'm sure!

Once the gun went I tried getting into a steady rhythm asap and focused on the shortest racing line as well. I lost the black bag early on O'Connell St and the t-shirt near the Mater. I carried a 250ml water bottle with me and skipped the first water stop on the NCR. There was a lot of people going past me but I tried maintaining my position in front of the pacers and constantly checked my Garmin for current,last 1mile lap and total average paces. Saw a guy from home supporting in the Park and was to see him again several miles later so had a bit of banter with him both times. Took my first race gel at 40mins and then took one every 20mins for the next 2:20 :eek: Cruised happily through the first few miles and enjoyed the Oggie Oggie Oggie chant going under the Chapelizod Bypass . Saw my English buddy's family in Inchicore and got onto the Crumlin Road with no particular difficulty. I was taking it nice and handy. Picked up water at every stop. The pacers were hot on my heels coming to the Walkinstown roundabout so I decided to ease ahead a bit gradually. Still feeling comfortable and as I headed to 15M and Bushy Park and beyond I started to up my pace slightly and avail of any downhill stretches. I saw my own family around 17M and as I was feeling good it was a nice experience for all concerned! I noticed then that I was running just behind a guy with a Hell of the West t-shirt so I started chatting with him and we ran together for a mile or two until the ever so slight drag up Clonskeagh meant I had to leave him off. The big hill before Foster Ave was a challenge but I gritted my teeth, muttered a dark mantra several times and then it was over. That hill was a major event in previous attempts so I was happy I'd gotten the better of it and was into virgin territory with 20M+ continuous running now on the clock for the first time ever and still feeling ok. Said 'hi john' to John Tracey who was supporting on Fosters Ave. Was happy when I swung wide at the top of the sliproad at the UCD overpass and coincidently avoided having to run over the traffic island. Got a tiny kick out of that . Cruised down Nutley Lane with the benefit of gravity but then the Merrion Road to the Grand Canal section was tough going. Tiredness and soreness was kicking in but I was determined to run all the way so I sucked it up. Happiness then kicked in again with the realisation that sub 3:45 was going to happen and I even toyed with the idea of sub 3:40 but that would've required 2 sub 8:00 miles which was unrealistic. So, I just soaked up the last few miles at a comfortable canter and with a smile on my face. I saw my family again on Nassau St and was delighted with them being there and seeing it all work out ok for a change. I put my arms up coming up to the line and finished with a chip time of 3:42:46. I was quite tired initially but after a few minutes I came good again. I collected my goody bag, got my photo taken and headed back to collect my baggage. I spent 10-15mins stretching with the physio group, cheered on a pile of runners including Izoard with his 4:30 paced group and then headed to the pub for a well earned pint where I met up with my English buddy and our families. He had come in at 3:08:47 so we were both delighted. I got BB on the mobile and found out that he lasted till about 17M with the sub3:30 group but was happy too with his 3:41:19. Not much in it but we were both happy with the strategies we followed and would do the same again. I had read a post from Woddle about the Hi5 gel strategy and was really glad that I took them as often as I did even though they were tough to take in the latter stages. I really think they helped me a lot on the day and I was so glad that I didn't crash and burn. The whole experience was so positive and enjoyable and I'm delighted that I finally did one right:)

Crunching the numbers afterwards was also satisfying as it showed a decent negative split (1:53 / 1:49)
26.4M,3:42:46, 8:26/M, Avg 149bpm (10km 54:10, Half 1:53:28, 30km 2:39:38)
Mile Min/M HR
1 08:44 154
2 08:25 147
3 08:28 151
4 08:15 148
5 08:19 148
6 08:31 149
7 08:23 146
8 08:12 142
9 08:24 142
10 08:35 146
11 08:28 144
12 08:41 144
13 08:38 145
14 08:38 147
15 08:13 149
16 08:29 150
17 08:17 149
18 08:07 150
19 08:21 149
20 08:30 152
21 08:40 153
22 08:17 150
23 08:13 153
24 08:33 154
25 08:36 155
26 08:39 157

Tues 26/10 - REST:D

So, I've been taking it easy since but am easing myself back into training. I did 4M on the Thurs after DCM and felt ok. The following week I did 7M and 5.5M and did a 1000m swim and a 65km hilly cycle after I took note of the S/C/R challenge on here. I'm going to try and make some of the milestone targets on there by hitting the 100,000m swim, 2000km cycle and 2000km run points by the end of the year. This week so far I got in a 1000m swim on Mon, a UL Track interval session on Tuesday and will be hitting the pool and bike again. I'm also going to get myself a semi-decent turbo and concentrate a lot more on cycling next year now that I've got my run endurance up to a basic level. Family and work will be carving up a bit more of my time and energy for the next while but I'm going to try and keep the training going. I'll probably start a new log but as this one is hitting well past the thousand mile mark, I'm going to end this particular journey and log. Thanks especially to Izoard, MCOS and Catweazle and several other regular readers for their feedback but also to every single other person who contributed here. It was great to get any comments and knowing you're out there somewhere helped to keep me going at times!

Reviewing the start of the log my 2010 goals were:
1) Ballycotton 10<80mins Completed - 77mins
2) Connemarathon<4:15hrs Did the Connemara HM instead and did the Great Limerick Run marathon in 3:56
3) Hell of the West<3hrs Completed - 2:58
4) Lost Sheep<6hrs Incomplete - 7hrs+
5) DCM <4hrs Completed - 3:42

Its been a running dominated year and definitely light on the cycling front. I hope to make that up next year and see where it brings me as well as doing a bit of swimming. So, its looking like 2011 might see me trying to hit a sprint Tri or two as well and getting them under control before upping the distance.

Thanks for reading. Happy training.

Bye!

RedB

ronanmac

Nice race report, RedB, cool to have shaved over half an hour off your initial marathon target time at the beginning of the year. Might bump into you over a few triathlons next year (you were, after all, the most spotted person in the Connemara half toilet queue!!!).

RedB

ronanmac wrote: »

Nice race report, RedB, cool to have shaved over half an hour off your initial marathon target time at the beginning of the year. Might bump into you over a few triathlons next year (you were, after all, the most spotted person in the Connemara half toilet queue!!!).

Thanks I started to wonder about that when I met my buddy BB at the DCM toilets also I won't meet many people out on the Tri course as I'd be down the back but always happy to meet Boardsies anywhere

You had a great year as well and I lurk around your log the odd time, I'm taking a small page from your book this month as I'm off alcohol for November and also Chocolate, Junk Food, etc. I found the sugar cravings a bit disturbing for the first week but they've settled a bit now. :rolleyes:

Izoard

Good man RedB,

Delighted that you comfortably nailed DCM and there is plenty more in the tank.

Looking forward to the next installment.

catweazle

Fair play Red that's a nice consistent heart rate all the way also. Will hopefully bump into you in one of the sprint events next year although I am trying to cut down as I do too many of them. Hoping to concentrate on cycling myself next year

DustyBin

Fair play Red, that's a great year in the bag and an excellent run in Dublin