Becoming a Real Runner

menoscemo

Davis Big Limo wrote: »

Best of luck the weekend Meno. Have you decided on what you are doing for Barca or is it a case of see how the legs are after this weekend?

Very much the latter. If I am feeling good next weekend I'll have a crack at sub 3:30.

pgmcpq

Good luck on Saturday meno. Have to say the way you've upped been training since Dublin is pretty impressive ... might see you in Barca.

Mr Slow

Best of luck tomorrow boss!

RubyK

Best of luck with the 50K! You've put in mighty work, which I'm sure will pay off tomorrow.

digger2d2

Good luck Meno yeh mad thing!

jcsmum

Best of luck

Oisin11178

Id say you have a good chance of 3.30 in barca if you dont empty the tank in the 50k. Its a balancing act to be honest. Would love to be running tomorrow. Would give sub 4 a go on that course in Donadea.

menoscemo

Oisin11178 wrote: »

Id say you have a good chance of 3.30 in barca if you dont empty the tank in the 50k. Its a balancing act to be honest.

You've hit the nail on the head.
Tomorrow is not a priority race, just a long training run for connemarra but it is a new distance and i'd like to give it a bit of a go. I'm sure if I jogged round at 9 min/mile i would still be perfectly fresh for barcelona. I'll try to 8;30/mile though, and hopefully it doesn't take too much out of me.

menoscemo

5.1 miles @9:01 pace. Nice and easy after work.
Now Just carbing up for tomorrow and sorting out my nutrition/ hydration strategy for tomorrow. I'm gonna try a few different things. Apart from water I'll be bringing 6 gels premixed into 4 little bottles of water, 3 freddo bars, 2 packets of mega meanies (for salt :pac:), a milkyway thickshake and a yazoo chocolate milk (the shop were all out of mars recovery drinks :mad:). I'll probably not take half of that but I'll have it all there and see what takes my fancy.

WTD: 4 days running 26 miles
MTD 21 days Running 196.6 miles

Aimman

menoscemo wrote: »

Apart from water I'll be bringing 6 gels premixed into 4 little bottles of water, 3 freddo bars, 2 packets of mega meanies (for salt :pac:), a milkyway thickshake and a yazoo chocolate milk (the shop were all out of mars recovery drinks :mad:). I'll probably not take half of that but I'll have it all there and see what takes my fancy.

You shouldn't have listed all your grub, the stewards are going to pilfer the lot on your first lap!

racheljev

Best of luck Meno, hope it goes well. Still can't believe you're doing a 50k race the week before a marathon - hardcore man, that's hardcore...

rainbow kirby

Ultra running - best way to regain the eating habits of a 10 year old

Good luck tomorrow!

menoscemo

racheljev wrote: »

Best of luck Meno, hope it goes well. Still can't believe you're doing a 50k race the week before a marathon - hardcore man, that's hardcore...

Ahh sure you can't turn it down when you are offered a free invite to a race (cheers Aimman and Ultraman), even if you have signed up for a marathon a week later.
It just means you can't really run both (or either) at 100% effort. Anyway in the grand scheme of things they are both just long runs in prep for Connemara. The way I look at it it's like running a 20 miler one week, then an 18 miler the next while preparing for a marathon.

sarsfieldsrock

menoscemo wrote: »

Very much the latter. If I am feeling good next weekend I'll have a crack at sub 3:30.

You should definitely have a go at 3:30 in Barca. I need a pacer for it.

menoscemo

sarsfieldsrock wrote: »

You should definitely have a go at 3:30 in Barca. I need a pacer for it.

Not sure about that plan anymore

menoscemo

Donadea 50k

The plan was to keep a steady 8:30 pace all the way round. We met up at The GAA club before the race and I was glad to find quite a few were planning a similar pace, including Aimman, Magnet, donothoponpop and GoHard or Go Home amongst others.

For the first two laps we had a group of about 6 including all the above but some were gradually slipped back over the next few laps. After about 4 laps it was down to just the 3 amigos of myself D'pop and Go Hard. I took autolap off the garmin before the race and was manually pressing the lap button every 5k (it was a 10 lap course) and our splits were remarkably similar each lap. Unfortunately at 7 laps we droped D'pop (I think he later dropped out due to sickness) so myself and Gohard gutted the last 3 laps out on our own. The legs were very heavy, but surprisingly we seened to be actually going a little faster!! The pace never felt hard but I don't thnk i could have gone much further. We managed to lap a few over the last few orbits but we were double lapped ourselves by some others. In the end myself and Gohard finished together, the last lap being our fastest apart from the first.

All the laps were 4.97km except the first which included an extra 300m to make up the 50k
Laps were as follows:
1. 27:17 for 5.3k (8:15/mile pace)
2. 26:17 (8:31/mile)
3. 25:43 (8:20/mile)
4. 26:04 (8:26/mile)
5. 26:05 (8:26/mile)
6. 26:02 (8:26/mile)
7. 25:58 (8:24/mile
8. 26:05 (8:26/mile)
9. 26:23 (8:25/mile) hit the lap button too late here.
10. 25.22 (8:19/mile)- a little short due to hitting the lap button late after 9.

Total: 50km (31.1 miles) in 4:21:22 (8:24/ mile average pace).

As I said the pace felt fine all the way though I was willing the race to finish on the last few laps. When I crossed the line I was shattered though. Probably in some part due to fuelling strategy- I only consumed about 4 gels and half a botle of chocolate milk. After sitting down, I felt like I was gonna die for about 5 minutes and went as pale as a ghost. Amazingly an Isotonic drinka nd a salt tablet brought me back around. Note to self: definately carry some salt tablets around connemara- I was obviously not replacing salt lost due to sweat.

Overall I am delighted with the run, especially for holding the pace so well in my furst ultra. Thanks a lot to Gohard for keeping me company all the way. I went faster than plannned but I suspect I tok more out of myself than planned as well. I might have scuppered my chance of a PB in Barcelona next week.

WTD: 5 days running 57.1 miles
MTD 22 days Running 227.7 miles

rainbow kirby

Savage running!

chinguetti

4.21 is a great time as you said you were hoping for 4.45 last week.

Well done and enjoy the few points, they're well deserved tonight.

menoscemo

chinguetti wrote: »

4.21 is a great time as you said you were hoping for 4.45 last week.

Well done and enjoy the few points, they're well deserved tonight.

Thanks man. Just about feeling well enough now to go into town for some pints. I said I'd be happy with 4:25 last week though, not 4:45!!

Oisin11178

Well done mate:D

menoscemo

Oisin11178 wrote: »

Well done mate:D

Thanks bud!! Why couldn't you just say that after the race? You little ray of sunshine

gerard65

Well done menopause, but for someone who runs the marathon distance as a training run this was a Saturday morning jaunt for you. Time to step up to the real ultras - 100 milers, transcontinent etc.:p
BTW, you ran more miles this morning than I ran this week:eek:

donothoponpop

Well done on a great run today, you were a metronome all the way. I chased you round lap 7, but that gap never got shorter. Good fun running with you (and GoHard), didn't notice the first half with the chat.

Oisin11178

menoscemo wrote: »

Thanks bud!! Why couldn't you just say that after the race? You little ray of sunshine

Dont want you to die in barcelona:D
Take it handy over there:D

Macanri

Well done Meno, That's some marathon prep. All the rest of us are shortening our milage this week!:)

RAL3

Nice going today, was heading over to support but couldnt manage to convince kids(tried hard mind you) that watching people running loops in Donadea park was going to be great crack!

Brianderunner

Sounded like a tough one, lesson learned for Conn. Good run, well done.

p.s. Mallow is 28 days away tomorrow if you're all still going and booking trains.

liamo123

Good running M.........Excellent prep for Conn but maybe not for Barca but u never know!!!

claralara

Well done dude!
P.S. A 50k race 7 days before a marathon?! Now as much as I appreciate and heed all of your training advice - I will not be listening to word you have to say on tapering when it comes to Connemara.. I'll stick with my 8 miles the week before thank you!

Mr Slow

Well done Mister!