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Berlin 2016: Back to Basics
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72 Days to DCM
Saturday: 11 miles approx with 10k trail race in 35.40. Pretty good run in the trail race today. Had company to 4k then kicked on a little and opened a gap. Pretty much ran even splits from there until the last 1k when I could start to hear footsteps again so upped the pace to make sure I didn't get caught. Was a bit worried in the first 400 metres as two GAA shirt wearing lads took us out close to national record pace, didn't see them afetr 410 metres but I was very worried for just over a minute
Average finishing pace was 5.45ish which is close to target HM pace so I know sub 75 is very doable in a few weeks time. In fact based on how I felt during the race and taking the course into account something faster may need to be targeted. 0 -
Was a bit worried in the first 400 metres as two GAA shirt wearing lads took us out close to national record pace, didn't see them afetr 410 metres but I was very worried for just over a minute
I did the same race and had a quiet chuckle when I saw the two boys haring off with the leaders. In defence of the GAA the first guy was Alessandro Pirlo (that's what his shirt said;)) and he blew up fairly dramatically after about 1k. The Kilkenny guy hung on for a bit longer - I went by him at about 4k and he looked like he was regretting it!0 -
Didn't you give me some advice before about entering soft races?! Congrats on the solid training session.:)72 Days to DCM
Saturday: 11 miles approx with 10k trail race in 35.40. Pretty good run in the trail race today. Had company to 4k then kicked on a little and opened a gap. Pretty much ran even splits from there until the last 1k when I could start to hear footsteps again so upped the pace to make sure I didn't get caught. Was a bit worried in the first 400 metres as two GAA shirt wearing lads took us out close to national record pace, didn't see them afetr 410 metres but I was very worried for just over a minute Average finishing pace was 5.45ish which is close to target HM pace so I know sub 75 is very doable in a few weeks time. In fact based on how I felt during the race and taking the course into account something faster may need to be targeted.0 -
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Krusty_Clown wrote: »Didn't you give me some advice before about entering soft races?! Congrats on the solid training session.:)
Did I? Would be kind of thing I'd do all right. I can be an ass hole when I want to be
I'm all about building my fragile confidence and in my defence I thought there would be a few lads ahead of me when I entered initially. As you say solid training session and has helped me revise some targets 0 -
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71 Days to DCM
Sunday: 10 miles @ 7.15 pace. Had breakfast with the nippers and was out the door nice and early. Cracking run, ran down to Corkagh park and did a 5 mile loop on grass then ran back home. Air temp was perfect with no wind at all. Legs a little tired at first but after 5 minutes or so they were purring and seriously had to keep an eye on the pace. Headed to our local eatery for a savage brunch followed by a 2 hour catnap in the afternoon. Perfect Sunday Pretty much a perfect week also, just over 70 miles with some decent running in there. This week mileage may be a little lighter but main goal is to get in a long run and give the 10 miler a good lash on Saturday. I'm nowhere near 19 mile PB shape but it doesn't bother me. We actually have a decent team and a chance of sneaking a county medal so looking forward to actually racing other club runners and forgetting about the clock (although not completely obviously )
Sat down last night and did up a revised rough plan. I need to plan a couple of races and make sure the long runs get done. Plan is still very unstructured but at least now I have a racing plan in place. This is all provisional of course but aim is
Frank Duffy - 25/8
BHAA 10k* - 8/9
BHAA half marathon - 15/9
Kilomarathon* - 30/9
Donadea 10k - 14/10
I'm not 100% on the BHAA 10k and kilomarathon. I'll do the 10k if it's no problem logistics wise (weekends with jnrs can be full on with activities). If I do the kilomarathon I'll be doing it at MP but I'm not too sure if it's a little too long (16+ miles) and a little too close to DCM. I'll post on the main forum to see people's opinions about this.0 -
Do you have any coaching experience? You prepared your Berlin programme yourself last year too if I remember right. How to you construct them?
Do you just do what has worked in the past or do you have a fancy training philosophy? Interested in this becuase whatever you do, it works 0 -
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theboyblunder wrote: »Do you have any coaching experience? You prepared your Berlin programme yourself last year too if I remember right. How to you construct them?
Do you just do what has worked in the past or do you have a fancy training philosophy? Interested in this becuase whatever you do, it works
A little coaching experience but mainly just friends of mine. I've no coaching badges although hope to take some in the coming years. No fancy training philosophy. I've been involved in club athletics since I was 10 and would have been training with adults from the age of 14+ so picked up a lot from listening to what other people did, the rest has been trial and error on my behalf, and believe me there has been lots of error I think I can still make some improvements using my own approach so going to stick with it. I'd rather run slightly below my ability then take a high risk mileage strategy for example and end up injured. I know what works well for me and as you say it has been working ok to date. 0 -
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66 Days to DCM
Saturday: 10 miles in 56.42 (unofficial). 14 miles in total including warm up and cool down. Goodish day at the office. Aim was to run sub 57, based on my training and how I had been feeling I thought this was a realistic target and would show I was on target for Dublin. I ran 55.50 for this last year but in relative training terms I was 4 weeks ahead of where I am at the moment. The time was OK but I ran like an absolute dickhead. I was aiming to hang onto lads who I would normally be battling with but I'm not at the required fitness levels to do so and worst still some of them have pushed on from last year so it made my race tactics even worse. I'll explain below.
So sub 57 was the initial goal. I thought 5.40s/high 5.30s were a reasonable target pace for the first 7 miles and then hope to hold this in the final 3 miles which are the toughest. This approach has worked for me in the past and I usually finish this race quite strongly and overtake a good few lads in the final 2 miles. This morning I wanted 56.40 so that is one positive to take from the day, a goal met.
Race went as follows.
mile 1 - 5.17: Tried to keep this controlled but it is a net downhill and very fast. I don't think I overcooked this.
mile 2 - 5.31: Was at the head of a group and I was a little worried as there were a couple of faces I'd be normally be 2 minutes ahead of in a 10 miler, while the group ahead of me contained lads closer to my (normal) finishing times. I was also being used as a wind shield so in an act of petulance I put the foot down a little and tried to bridge the gap to the next group. Mistake number 1. I managed to get away from my group and close the gap slightly but was now in no mans land with a bit of a breeze in my face.
mile 3 - 5.51: Still trying to catch the group ahead but making no headway and the effort to run a 5.51 was demoralising.
mile 4 - 5.37: Out of the wind and on a downward stretch coming down chesterfield avenue. Start to catch some of the group ahead but it had basically broken up and was catching the stragglers.
mile 5 - 5.31: Manage to catch a club mate. I had high hopes of us medaling in the Dublin champs. I knew Tunguska would be well up the field close to the top 10 and I reckoned myself and this clubmate would be around the 20s, good enough for team gold even maybe. Anyway, he was wrecked, suffering from flu all week and he dropped out at the 5 mile marker. This was a bit of a blow psychologically as i knew we had no team now. There had been a mix up and cwgatling had no number so we had no one to step into the void. More on that later
mile 6 - 5.32: Another psychological blow. The group I had got away from came steaming by me. I relasied it was a great group of about 5-7 lads, there were some guys with faster time than me in that group. Basically I had killed myself to get away from these and ran like a fcuking ejit into the wind solo while these had worked together were communicating with one another and had lots of running left. They started to move away from me but i wasn't too worried as my pace was still good and I thought I'd catch a few of them on the hills.
mile 7 - 5.43: Started to steady myself as we hit military hill. Group is starting to slowly come back to me.
mile 8 - 5.42: I'm fcuking dying and want to drop out. I've no oomph and the head is gone. I still feel strongish and remind myself the logistics involved in getting the free time from family duties to run this race. The fact we now haven't a team is the biggest head wrecker.
mile 9 - 6.07: I try to close the gap again but it is just not happening. I'm shocked when I see the pace is 6.22 half way into this mile lap. I start to concentrate again am delighted to see the end of mile 9. I've 51 minutes on the watch so know a 6 minute mile will get me my initial target so I kick on. Get some great encouragement from some of my ex-clubmates. This is nice, there is sometimes bad blood (for weird reasons) when runners leave a club but I always got on with everybody in MSB and we left on great terms so it's nice when they really try to encourage you.
mile 10 - 5.39: Just put the head down and count my footsteps. Can't wait for the finish. As I'm running I hear the announcer call out tunguska's names so I know he's ran an excellent 54.30ish. I'm kicking myself that the other lad dropped out, I had even tried to coax him into keep running to bag a sub 60 minute finish as that probably would have been good enough but he was fcuked in fairness to him.
Happy enough at the finish. I see tunguska and pronator who have both ran great times. If pronator stays off the Dutch gold he might run a good one in Berlin. This is the third race in a row now that a Sli Culann muppet (;)) has handed me my ass on a plate. I'll have to start training harder or even the OAP of Sli Culann (Krusty) will be beating me soon.
I'm mentioning to tunguska how we don't have a team as we had a drop out and cwgatlings non-run due to no number. Just then like a vision of an angel we kop cwgatling finish. The legend managed to get a number in his name 3 minutes before the race start and even better he smashed the 60 minute barrier for the first time running just under 59 minutes. Will be interested to see how we do in the team results. This made my day, I really wanted to drop out and while I would have been beating myself up over the DNF I would have been sick as a dog considering what cwgatling went through to run. Good man.
Anyway not a bad result overall. Tuesday's long run did me no favours but it had to be done. I can't physically do a long run the day after a race and I need to bank 18+ mile runs at the moment. I don't think I would have ran much faster if I hadn't of done the long run but one thing is for sure it wouldn't have been as hard as it was today. Plan for next 3 weeks is 2 really, really, good weeks and then a step back week for the half marathon. I really want to give that a lash and break 75 and maybe even 74 but will make a time call closer to the time.0 -
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Hope to get some rocket fuel into the body before Saturday 
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