Everything in its right PACE

tunguska

Good luck Andy, take that m o t h e r f u c k e r to the cleaners.

misty floyd

10th April
2.7m easy on an amazing morning.

I love this time of the marathon build up. You are so alive and in touch with every sence. After such a tough winter training schedule its nice to have the last run on such a beautiful morning. Going to run a marathon.

Everything in its right pace.

misty floyd

tunguska wrote: »

Good luck Andy, take that m o t h e r f u c k e r to the cleaners.

Thanks dude, I just read that piece while brushing my teeth. Great info. Fitting that you of all people should be the last to wish me luck....the one that knocked fat Andy into shape!

misty floyd

woop woop!! 3:00:30 on the garmin.

I can't tell you guys how happy I am, really proud of myself. I'll have a race report tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for the well wishes and support along the way. It was a serious help for me. Fecking welling up again

I hope you got what you were going for this weekend or whatever your next goal is but if not there is always a next time and it makes the good times even better. Trust me.

I'm already looking forward to the next one. See you on the roads.

Andy.

Sosa

misty floyd wrote: »

woop woop!! 3:00:30 on the garmin.

I can't tell you guys how happy I am, really proud of myself. I'll have a race report tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for the well wishes and support along the way. It was a serious help for me. Fecking welling up again

I hope you got what you were going for this weekend or whatever your next goal is but if not there is always a next time and it makes the good times even better. Trust me.

I'm already looking forward to the next one. See you on the roads.

Andy.

Great stuff Misty.....your putting some pressure on me now.
Im delighted for you,you had to battle for this.....after two bad experiences in your last 2 marathons...you had doubts...well,those doubts are gone now...congratulations

Peckham

Nice one Andy. You should be rightly proud of this.....you had faith in your training and it paid dividends. Lots more to come from you I think.

Enjoy those beers!

metamorphosis

It all paid off. Hearty congrats there Andy. Well done.

dermCu

Well done Misty, great running.

RacoonQueen

I'm soooo following your training plan when I'm aiming for my next marathon.

tisnotover

Delighted for ya Misty, well done!

Looking forward to the report!

Salty Dog

Well done Misty. You trusted your training and it's paid off ! Brilliant effort. Fair dues. Looking forward to the report.

Woddle

Great stuff misty, at least you can fall asleep at the finish line feeling satisfied

gerard65

Seems like you ran the perfect race. Well done.

gilmore

Fantastic stuff Misty. Just rewards for the excellent training you put in.
Looking forward to your race report.

tergat

well done great run!!!

Speedy44

misty floyd wrote: »

woop woop!! 3:00:30 on the garmin.

I can't tell you guys how happy I am, really proud of myself. I'll have a race report tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for the well wishes and support along the way. It was a serious help for me. Fecking welling up again

I hope you got what you were going for this weekend or whatever your next goal is but if not there is always a next time and it makes the good times even better. Trust me.

I'm already looking forward to the next one. See you on the roads.

Andy.

Great job Misty, congrats

theboyblunder

well done misty. great time!

Krusty_Clown

Fantastic stuff Misty! Really looking forward to the race report. Brilliant.

DustyBin

Unbelieveable Misty Floyd!!
Sort out that hangover and get a full race report up here now
Fantastic, a million miles removed from Dublin or Belfast
Well done again

christeb

Savage going - 3:00:30, really superb. That improvement (at that level) over ~6 months - I'll say it again, brilliant :eek:

Edit: you know it's good when even tergat is congratulating you!

tunguska

I think you better put up your race report asap dude, before theres some sort of revolt.

Slogger Jogger

Thats pretty damn good running. Well done. Looking 4ward to the report.

misty floyd

ha ha ha feckin great, thanks everyone. I better get going on the race report but I had a terrible nights sleep (the drink) and I'm fairly wrecked now.

heffsarmy

Well done misty, that was great running

pgmcpq

Great run .( especially for someone who declared that they were not going for "sub 3 or anything like that" . Seriously congratulations - I'll be re reading this log from start when I next begin a training cycle.

Gringo78

fantastic result, thoroughly deserved after such quality, smart, controlled and patient training.

kennyb3

delighted for you savage running dude

misty floyd

What got me here
I suppose this all started at around mile 19 of DCM 09. I worked my ass off for that race and that sinking body shut down feeling was something I never wanted to feel again. Investing so much into one race for it to fall apart like that was hard for me. I had to fix it.

Training
Hiding at my desk in work the week after DCM, I came across this thread (Improving for next time) and some posts by Tergat. It was time to make things simple and address the endurance problems I had in my two marathons (Belfast 09 3:40:?? and DCM 09 3:25:??). No more weekly racing guys in the club during tempo sessions. I completed two marathon specific runs per week and lots of easy miles in between. I’ve attached my training plan again. I really enjoyed training this time around, no injuries and lots more energy. I also dropped a few more pounds which was a bonus. I ran a 10m race 4 weeks before the marathon in Craughwell (great race) and finished strong with 62min 12s. This, and confidence in my training, confirmed for me what several people had suggested....go for sub3.

Race Plan
I made up my mind to go for a negative split. I always perform better when I do that and I thought it a safer approach plus I felt confident about that. Starting off with ~ 7:00 m/m for the first couple, reach half way at around 1:31:00 and take it home at 18m. I was confident of this, why not.

Race Day
I woke up and felt no butterflies, no worries. It was like any morning getting up for work. I just got it done. I went for breakfast and scoffed strange tasting muesli and 3 slices of bread. I said goodbye to my girlfriend and got into the D pen pretty early. It was windy, which I wasn’t worried about but it did make things colder having to wait around. It was nearly time and we were treated to “You’ll never walk alone”. “Boom”, the canons went off and it was time to go....finally.

The Race
I punched the watch at the mat and started the weaving. Despite being at the top of the D pen, there were lots of slower runners. I missed the first km so I didn’t get to check my pace band but my watch did beep at the first mile: 7:18. That’s ok; I expected that, so I continued at a similar effort. Still avoiding people, I missed the 2km mark.

You know when you are driving your car over the speed limit (e.g. the roads on the way to Heuston?) and out of nowhere, a transit van is parked on the side of the road or a garda with a speed gun? ..............“Beep”, mile 2: 6:07:eek: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! I hit the brakes. Ok man you’re an idiot but you’re in control here. I didn’t panic, it’s a long race. I thought about it for a bit and thought that the plan of ~6:50 – 6:55m/m would be important now. I couldn’t take the chance of eating into those vital glycogen reserves especially now that I had made a withdrawal so early.

I followed that up with a 6:59. Miles 3-18 were like an LSR for me. Not in terms of effort but the way they past uneventful like, lost in my thoughts, thinking about how I felt and what my pace was like. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I did start talking to a guy that I had spotted at our hotel. “Are you Irish?” I asked. A Kilkenny man, going for the 3. He asked me if I was on for it and I said “about a minute behind....that’s alright”. I was surprised with myself that I talked to anybody but I also noticed how easy it was to talk. How easy 6:50m/m was compared to the PMP miles in training. For these 15 or so miles it was just a case of getting the job done. The wind at points was tough and trying to shelter, I found myself running a little slower than I wanted. So I took wind quite a bit. Again, no panic, this is part of the race. I got a shout at around miles 12&13 from my GF and a mate from the club. I smiled and thanked them, that was great. I was enjoying it.

Splits mile 4 - 18:
6:54/6:52/6:47/6:52/6:50/6:57/6:51/6:40/6:53/6:52/6:58/6:51/6:39/6:48

During lots of these miles, any km marker I saw, I would check my stopwatch and check my pace band. The font was too small and it was pissing me off. It was a total distraction. When I did read things correctly, I seemed to be 60 – 70 seconds behind sub 3 up to mile 18. My half marathon time was 1:31:04, just 4 seconds outside where I wanted to be.

Like most of my LSR’s that ended with PMP miles, I went into mile 18 not knowing how it would feel. It felt ok.

18: 6:41 / 19: 6:39 / 20: 6:39 / 21: 6:44

So 20 came and went and I didn’t feel it, not that I feared it. I started to see people walking and I was overtaking lots and lots of people. I felt great doing this. Mile 22: 6:34 and it was starting to hurt. Not a shutdown, more of an all body ache. I saw two people puking sub 3 on the side of the road and tons of dutch people shouting encouragement. I didn’t need any. In the past I needed it but I was in the zone....kind of loving it in a weird way.
I got so fed up looking at the watch and trying to work out what I was behind sub 3 that I just dropped that plan and decided to run to the end as fast as I could...what more could I do. This was the case from mile 18 really.

Mile 23: 6:47 and mile 24: 6:46.

I knew I was close but serious work to do and I remembered what Tunguska told me to read 2 minutes before I left the house the day before the race. He told me to read a piece from Jack Daniels book. If you are struggling, increase the pace. I wanted to see how that felt. I put the foot down. Within 300m I came across a sponge stop, grabbed one and some water went down my nose. Increasing the pace like that felt horrible and I think the water gave me an excuse to drop that faster than fast pace. I just couldn’t do it, my body was screaming at me.

My left quad started to tighten and I feared it could pull me to the side of the road if I wasn’t careful. I could only manage Mile 25 at: 6:51. That tightness kind of went by kicking my ass with my heel (if you get me). Mile 26: 6:40 and with teeth grinding and arms pumping the last half mile (26.5 on garmin) was at a pace of 6:06 m/m.

I think I knew at mile 24 that the sub 3 was gone but it wasn’t really until 200m to go that I looked at the watch and knew it wasn’t there. “Go Andy”, I heard my GF say. I crossed the line completely overjoyed. I ran a damn solid race.

3:00:30

Afterthoughts:
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a bit of regret about the 31 seconds. The second mile? The wind? Should I have worked harder on earlier miles to go slightly under 6:50m/m? Should I have taken the 4/5 people advice on this log to run even splits? It’s funny when you get a time like that. Everyone’s reaction is like the reaction people have when watching you’ve been framed type clips of people falling. I feel like I have to say, “Relax, it’s ok I’m delighted”. That’s my time and nobody can take it from me. Nite nite DCM.

Sorry for the ramblings, the long post and the me me me, I did this , I did that side of things. Its good getting this out of the head and I’d recommend posting a race report regardless of a good or bad experience. Thanks to everyone for posting on A/R/T especially in the logs. They are a huge benefit to read through, and figure out what might work for you. The good wishes and advice are also priceless. It was also great to put some faces to names in the Irish bar that night and great to hear of so many great performances.

Almost Everything in its right PACE

Woddle

misty floyd wrote: »

Sorry for the ramblings, the long post and the me me me, I did this , I did that side of things. Its good getting this out of the head and I’d recommend posting a race report regardless of a good or bad experience.

Who else are you going to write about, it's your log so not sure why your apologising. Great read and am delighted for you and your log has been a very positive good vibe log that I've enjoyed following, congrats again

Salty Dog

Well done again. Great report.

Gives us plodders hope that if we put the effort in we might get to your level

kennyb3

Out of interest what weight did you get down to for the marathon and how would that compare to the previous two?

misty floyd

Woddle wrote: »

Who else are you going to write about, it's your log so not sure why your apologising. Great read and am delighted for you and your log has been a very positive good vibe log that I've enjoyed following, congrats again

I know it just felt odd wrting all of that (about me) for so long. Thanks, I'm dead pleased that peolpe enjoyed the log.....I know I did.

Salty Dog wrote: »

Gives us plodders hope that if we put the effort in we might get to your level

Ah stop, I too am or was a plodder. We are all capable of waaaaay more than we think. You just need to be paitent and be smart. I learned that the hard way but no better way to learn.

kennyb3 wrote: »

Out of interest what weight did you get down to for the marathon and how would that compare to the previous two?

11st 1 or 2 lbs. This fluctuated depending on time of week (after/before LSR's). I was 13 stone Jan 09 but 15 stone late 05 and yo yo'd until a year ago.

Krusty_Clown

Well done Misty. It reads like a perfectly executed race plan. There is nothing quite like the feeling of hitting 20+ miles, and being in control, is there? The fact that you're eager to start the next phase is a really positive sign too, just don't go doing anything too soon, as there be dragons..

Don't worry about those 30 seconds. I had that brief moment of...well, I wouldn't even call it disappointment. But what you got from this marathon is the recipe for future success. You don't need to change much, just repeat it all again with a more aggressive target, and it won't be sub-3 you will be aiming for.

misty floyd

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Well done Misty. It reads like a perfectly executed race plan. There is nothing quite like the feeling of hitting 20+ miles, and being in control, is there? The fact that you're eager to start the next phase is a really positive sign too, just don't go doing anything too soon, as there be dragons..

Don't worry about those 30 seconds. I had that brief moment of...well, I wouldn't even call it disappointment. But what you got from this marathon is the recipe for future success. You don't need to change much, just repeat it all again with a more aggressive target, and it won't be sub-3 you will be aiming for.

Just read your race report. Just fantastic stuff and a great achievement.

Thanks Krusty. Hitting 20 and still upright, feeling strong.....jesus it was amazing. I felt like I was 10 feet tall...seriously...like I was stronger than everyone around me.

I guess the fact that I'm happy to park that time (well I am now) until whenever is a good sign. In saying that I'll need to think about an aggresive 10km time to chase soon as I'm likely to pig out if I don't. For now though, its easy miles....enjoy them yourself.

Speedy44

Great report Misty, as maybe the only one who had a worse experience than you at DCM, I find it very reassuring that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as long as you train right and race smart. Congrats again, enjoy the 'rest'.

misty floyd

Speedy44 wrote: »

Great report Misty, as maybe the only one who had a worse experience than you at DCM, I find it very reassuring that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as long as you train right and race smart. Congrats again, enjoy the 'rest'.

Cheers Speedy. Yep, there was Sosa too. Looking forward to watching you guys overturn disappointments. KentuckyPete blew up too at DCM and fixed that on Sunday. Makes you appreciate things when it goes right.

toomuchdetail

misty floyd wrote: »

Hitting 20 and still upright, feeling strong.....jesus it was amazing. I felt like I was 10 feet tall...seriously...like I was stronger than everyone around me.

Never read any of these training logs before for some odd reason but from looking at what you have achieved maybe I should . Super plan but more importantly superbly executed . Congrats .

If you were to summarise into 3 valuable lessons learnt in the last 12 months what would they be ? (apart from wearing sunscreen !!)

Salty Dog

Would you highlight anything in particular that you feel made the biggest difference from your training or just a combination of everything ?

misty floyd

toomuchdetail wrote: »

If you were to summarise into 3 valuable lessons learnt in the last 12 months what would they be ? (apart from wearing sunscreen !!)

Salty Dog wrote: »

Would you highlight anything in particular that you feel made the biggest difference from your training or just a combination of everything ?

This might answer both of those questions:

Its definitely a combination of these:

• Increasing weekly mileage.
• Lots of big LSR's with PMP miles.
• A big mid week weekly session e.g built up to 4x2miles @ Half MP.
• Easy miles in between the big workouts. For me that was at 8m/m.

If I had to pick one thing (even though it was a combination of all) I'd pick the easy running in between big workouts. I only had to do two hard workouts a week so I'd pysche myself up for them no bother. Because they were hard the rest of the sessions felt so easy in comparisson and they were like a reward. They also added up the weekly mileage so reaching a Sunday with 60miles in the bag was good for the confidence, especially when you're feeling ok. They were also good for keeping injuries at bay and I had a lot more (more than for DCM) energy/motivation in work replacing quicker sessions with easy ones. Having said all of that I wouldn't have run many easy miles if I wasn't running the big workouts and without the big workouts, I don't think I would have addressed the endurance issues I had.

Slogger Jogger

A race plan pretty well executed Misty and its reflective of some other race reports from other Boardsies in the last year or 2 and they went on to duck under their milestone target the next time or 2 around, so stick to your convictions and it will happen.

Oisin11178

Yeah excellent running misty congrats. The sky is the limit. Also im another imploder from
dcm 09. Walked the last 3 miles:-(

Peckham

misty floyd wrote: »

If I had to pick one thing (even though it was a combination of all) I'd pick the easy running in between big workouts. I only had to do two hard workouts a week so I'd pysche myself up for them no bother. Because they were hard the rest of the sessions felt so easy in comparisson and they were like a reward.

+1 to this. Having only followed the same "two big workouts, everything else easy" strategy for the past 4 or 5 weeks (even though I'm struggling with keeping everything else easy!) I can vouch what I big difference it makes psychologically. It makes it much easier to focus on what you're doing, and I'm now a firm convert to it (both during race-specific training as well as off-season).

Not that anyone needs to be reminded of this, but tergat is someone worth listening to!

Salty Dog

Peckham wrote: »

+1 to this. Having only followed the same "two big workouts, everything else easy" strategy for the past 4 or 5 weeks

misty floyd wrote: »

Easy miles in between the big workouts. For me that was at 8m/m

Sorry to hijack your log Misty ! I know I've been very guilty in the past of running my "easy" runs much faster than I should (probably the reason why I've been injured so much :mad:) but did you guys decide on what the slow pace was (8 m/m for Misty) or was it just a go how you feel thing ?

Thinking now when I get back on my feet and up to speed that I'll try this 2 big workouts plan

Sosa

misty floyd wrote: »

This might answer both of those questions:


Its definitely a combination of these:

• Increasing weekly mileage.
• Lots of big LSR's with PMP miles.
• A big mid week weekly session e.g built up to 4x2miles @ Half MP.
• Easy miles in between the big workouts. For me that was at 8m/m.

If I had to pick one thing (even though it was a combination of all) I'd pick the easy running in between big workouts. I only had to do two hard workouts a week so I'd pysche myself up for them no bother. Because they were hard the rest of the sessions felt so easy in comparisson and they were like a reward. They also added up the weekly mileage so reaching a Sunday with 60miles in the bag was good for the confidence, especially when you're feeling ok. They were also good for keeping injuries at bay and I had a lot more (more than for DCM) energy/motivation in work replacing quicker sessions with easy ones. Having said all of that I wouldn't have run many easy miles if I wasn't running the big workouts and without the big workouts, I don't think I would have addressed the endurance issues I had.

I could not have said it better myself Misty,although i have yet to race my marathon,i do feel things are going much better and training is enjoyable.
With only 2 key sessions a week i have no trouble whatsoever completeing them,it helps with fatigue,injury prevention and most importantly pschologically !
All my easy runs now i am bursting to get going,but i dont,i wait until my next key session and go for it then.

Peckham

Salty Dog wrote: »

just a go how you feel thing ?

That's exactly how it's supposed to be - but I know for me it should be slower than 7:30 pace, however I keep drifting towards my "natural" pace of 7:20ish

tisnotover

Hey Misty, hope the recovery is going well, just a question as to what footwear ya had during marathon??

racing flats or a training shoe?

tx.

misty floyd

Salty Dog wrote: »

Sorry to hijack your log Misty ! I know I've been very guilty in the past of running my "easy" runs much faster than I should (probably the reason why I've been injured so much :mad:) but did you guys decide on what the slow pace was (8 m/m for Misty) or was it just a go how you feel thing ?

whatever easy felt like at the time. The day after a big one it could be 8:10, the day after 7:50, it depends how I felt.

Sosa wrote: »

With only 2 key sessions a week i have no trouble whatsoever completeing them,it helps with fatigue,injury prevention and most importantly pschologically !
All my easy runs now i am bursting to get going,but i dont,i wait until my next key session and go for it then.

Man, you are gonna knock the **** out of your DCM time. You are getting the exact same confidence from training now, that I had and you should (and I know you will) have great confidence in this training come race day.

tisnotover wrote: »

Hey Misty, hope the recovery is going well, just a question as to what footwear ya had during marathon??

racing flats or a training shoe?

tx.

Cheers tno, recovery is going great. I had a full tub of stawberry cheescake hagan Daz last night after a bbq. I wore my fairly worn NB 1062 training shoes . I didn't want to take any chances and I figured wearing a racing flat.......I might of got.....what?......only a 40 second advantage? Doh!

christeb

I must say you're giving me a lot of confidence going into my next training block. Keeping things simple and working hard when you need to. With my racing flats I'm surely guaranteed a sub-3, haha!!! Thanks again for the info, I have my training plan laid out already but I'm going to yoink yours and compare it for good measure.

misty floyd

Good stuff Christeb. Looking forward to your next marathon training log

14th April
25mins dead slow. Legs are a little sore but nothing bad. I found this run boring actually which I'm surprised as I was looking forward to running with no goals/targets. I'm still gonna run easy for the next while but I'll start thinking about targets soon.

Started a yoga class today. I'd highly recommend it. I was the only bloke in a class of 8 good looking woman. Very chilled out.

Macanri

Just got a chance to read over the race report. Big Kudoos and Congrats on the result, fabulous time. Thanks also for posting the report, the lnik to the Tergat thread and your training plan (which I haven't looked at yet but will). Will defo be checking back in here when I attempt my next marathon. I also bonked on my first and only marathon DCM09.