Firenze 2010

dermCu

After the disappointment of London I've got the bug again and have decided to have a crack at the Florence marathon in November. For those of you who read my previous log; after London I went and had a shed load of tests done. I was even given a plausible explanation by a specialist which was more than I expected. Obviously I don't really want to put medical details on a public site but in summary the specialist in question reckons I was hit by a combination of something slightly unusual in my physiology and a big piece of bad luck. He assured me that it was perfectly ok to go back training as before and go back racing again. I'm more than happy to take that, draw a line under London and move on.

I didn't stop training after London but I did change direction a bit. I did a lot more in the hills, speed went way down but duration went way up. I did a long duration event with some friends in mid June. After that I pretty much took two weeks off. I had been training hard since the previous November so it was time for a little rest. I'm just building the miles back up again, enjoying my running.

I'm not too bothered about putting up a target time, I think I can be somewhere between 2:45 and 2:50. I'm happy if I just give it my best shot. My only problem this time around is that due to work and study commitments my running time might come under pressure. It's going to be especially hard for the next month. Then in mid August I'm away on holidays for 2 weeks. If party mode kicks in I might not get too much running done, I'm happy to live with that.

What do I want to focus on during this marathon cycle?
I'd be happy to do much the same training as I did for London. Maybe do more tempo running especially in the first half of the training block. I could maybe do with slowing down my recovery runs, they've probably been a bit fast in the past.

Time to crack on...

Last week about 40 miles.
Sunday 11th July 10 miles @ 7:10 m/m. Feeling fresh after my rest. Was very hot.
Monday 12th July 10 miles@ 6:36 m/m felt really good. Was working hard at a steady pace but always had another gear or two.
Tuesday 13th July 10 miles @ 6:44 Felt good again. For now i'm just running at what ever pace I feel like. Will start to put a bit of structure on things in a week or two.

asimonov

Hey dermcu, best of luck with the log and the new goal. All going well I'll be there too, have my entry - just a medical cert and some flights to sort out. You have plenty of time even with holidays factored in. I enjoyed your last log I'm sure this will be more of the same.

Abhainn

Good to see you back dermCu. Best of luck

Florence marathon - now that would be a nice excuse to visit the place

dermCu

Thanks guys, it feels good to be getting back to marathon training again. As it turns out I'm heading to Florence for a few days next week to a wedding. It would be rude of me not to get a few miles in on the course.

Wedneday 14th: 6.25 @ 6:59 my lunchtime route is very up and down so dipping under 7 m/m is moving along.

Thursday 15th: 0 - The will to run was there but the time wasn't.

Friday 16th Lunchtime: 6.25 @ 6:52 m/m

Sat 17th : 15 @ 6:39 - That's a bit fast for where I am at the moment. I've spent so much of the last month with my head in a book or peering at a screen that when I get out running I set the lunatic free and he can run at what ever pace he wants.

misty floyd

dermCu wrote: »

Sat 17th : 15 @ 6:39 -

:eek: Nice job.

All the best DermCu. Enjoy the training.

seanynova

Sat 17th : 15 @ 6:39

good luck with the training dermCu, looks like your doing ok early on!

village runner

Best of luck with the log. London was a blip.
No need to think of a target until september,

dermCu

Thanks guys, so far so good.

Sunday 18th July: 8.7 @ 6:50 m/m - good run, a little tired at the end.

theboyblunder

Just saw this. Good to see youre back. Best of luck with the training!

Krusty_Clown

+1. Looking forward to the new episode and the deserved outcome this time!

dermCu

I've been a bit busy over the last few weeks hence the lack of updates in my log. Running wise things havent been great:

Sun 18th July: 8.7 @ 7:00 m/m steady recovery.

Mon 19th July: 6.25 @ 6:50 m/m

Tue 20th July: 10 @ 6:55 m/m

Wed 21st July 8.7 @ 6:45 m/m

Thur 22nd to Sunday 25th: This is where things go bad. A big fat 0. Florence was great socially but a no go as far as running was concerned. I had a window of opportunity to do a long run on Sunday but unfortunately this also coincided with one of the worst hangovers I can ever remember having - Multiple "never again" moments. The check in girl at the Ryainair baggage desk in Pisa will never know how close she came to seeing me go into meltdown.

Mon 26th July: 6.25 @ 7:15 - Still feeling like my stomach has been turned inside out.

Tue 27th July : 6.25 @ 7 m/m For the rest of this week lunch time is my only opportunity to run but I'm just happy to be getting out.

Wed 28th July: 6.25 @ 6:56 m/m Feeling good but as I've been sitting at a desk for over 12 hours a day for the last few days I can really feel my lower back tightening up.

Thur 29th July: 6.25 @ 6:49 m/m Started off slow and wound it up towards the end. I can really feel the tightness in my back and pelvis and its starting to put a strain on my quads and ITB. Its not like DOMS, more like all of my tendons and ligaments have been shortened.

Fri 30th July: 0

Sat 31st July: 6.5 @ 6:53 m/m Sat the exam I was studying for this morning, hopefully I'll have more time to run now. Energy wise I feel really good but the tightness is worse. Started stretching again - shouldn't have stopped in first place.

Sun 1st Aug: 10 @ 6:45: I wanted to do between 15 - 17 but even though the tightness has eased a bit I was still really aware that I was in the danger zone and could easily pick up an injury. This was prime time for my previous patella tracking issues to crop up again. Other than that I felt great and could easily have done 17 - it'll keep till next week when there is less risk.

Mon 2nd Aug: 8.7 - Didn't have a watch. Had a bad day at the office, took my frustrations out on the road. Other than the first mile I'm pretty sure that the remainder were closer to 6 m/m than 7 m/m

Tue 3rd Aug: 8.7 @ 7:01 Had heavy legs after Monday, just plodded around. On the plus side the stretching seems to be doing the trick, legs and back feel a lot better.

I'm not where I'd like to be at this stage. Part of it is my own fault and another part is out of my control. I still have the feeling that if I get 3 - 4 weeks on consistent training that I can get back on track for Florence.

heffsarmy

Good luck Dermo with the new log, plenty of time to knuckle down for the Florence marathon.

dermCu

Wed 4th Aug: 10 @ 6:53 m/m Felt good even though it was lashing rain. Really torrential stuff at times. Legs felt much better than yesterday.

heffsarmy wrote: »

Good luck Dermo with the new log, plenty of time to knuckle down for the Florence marathon.

Thanks Heff. How's your training going? What's the next race?

heffsarmy

dermCu wrote: »

How's your training going? What's the next race?

Training is going grand, was doing plnety of speed work upto 2weeks ago. Working on the endurance gig now for the Dublin marathon. I'm going to give the frank duffy 10miler a shot in two weeks. Might do the lakes 10km is september. Have you any races planned yourself?

dermCu

Thursday 5th Aug: 10 @ 6:48 m/m Feeling good, moving along well.

Jesus Heff, lots of speed work? That's a frightening thought. As if your not fast enough as it is. You'll nail that 10 miler. I don't have any races planned. Maybe a half in early October. I'll try and get a 10k sometime in September, haven't run one in a while.

dermCu

Fri 6th Aug 5.12 @ 7:15 m/m Was in two minds about what I should do so I just did an easy 5

Sat 7th Aug: 17.33 @ 6:41 m/m Was harder work than it should have been. I think it was a mistake to run yesterday. I should have taken a full days rest. I'm away on holidays on Tuesday so I'll be out of action for a day or two. I think I got a bit greedy trying to cram in as many miles as I could before I fly out.

dermCu

Sunday 8th August: 6.42 m recovery at 7:06 m/m

Monday 9th August: 1.8 mile warmup, 4 x 1 mile CI, 1.5 wd
5:50
5:48
5:42
5:38

Wanted to get back into the faster stuff and this was the starting point. So I kept the reps down to 4 and had a nice long recovery of 2:30 Happy with the way that went, felt in control for the first two and was holding a bit back. Started getting into my stride in the last two.

dermCu

Flew out on my holidays on the 10th of Aug. Its fair to say it wasn't exactly two weeks of top notch warm weather training. I'm usually ok in the heat but Miami & Mexico in August were just too much for me and I really struggled the few times I ran. I got out for the first 4 days but found it really hard in the humidity. On top of that I was getting really bad chaffing (regardless of how much Vaseline up I was using) I really wasn't enjoying it so I canned running for the remainder of the holiday and focused on drinking tequila instead.

Tue 11th Aug: 6.3 @ 7:17 - Brutally hard, went out way to fast in the heat and suffered.
Wed 12th Aug: 6 @ 8:05 - Slowed it down but still found it hard going
Thur 13th Aug 6 @ 7:50 - Same
Fri 14th Aug 6 @ 8:01 - Same

Sat 15th to Tue 24th Aug - Nothing

Wed 25th Aug 4.2 @ 7.38 - After not running for a week and a half I cant complain when I felt crap on my return. Legs feeling really stiff.

Thur 26th Aug 4.3 @ 7:05 - Legs still sore.

Fri 27th Aug: 6.2 @ 7:02 - Ran at lunch with a guy from work. Starting to feel a bit better. About a mile into the run the guy I was running with stood on a slippery piece of plastic and took a really nasty fall. When he hit the deck I was sure he was going to break something but he popped straight back up again. Lucky, that could have been a lot worse. Fair play to him for finishing out the run.

Sat 28th Aug: 9.5 @ Various pace. Back in Ireland for the weekend as its a bank holiday in the UK. Ran with a friend of mine who has come out of retirement for another go. 2 miles easy then paced him through 3 x .45 mile intervals as its his first set in a while. When he finished I ran one of the laps hard on my own in 2:15. Going to do a set of these intervals the next time I'm back as its a nice tough loop.

Sun 29th Aug: Rest

Mon 30th Aug: 13.5 @ 6:51 When I was going out I only planned to do 8.5 but I was feeling really good so kept going.

Its been hard to get this training cycle back on track. I've just had too may other things going on in the last 2 months.
Hopefully I can get some consistency going now and update my log more than 2 or 3 times a month!

dermCu

Tue 31st Aug: 6.19 @ 7:07 Feeling a small bit tired after Mondays run.

Wed 1st Sept 8.7 @ 7:01 Tried to keep the pace down but it kept dipping under 7. Then I'd slow down before instinctively speeding up again in a couple of minutes. I'm going to try to keep things easy for a bit as I get back in the swing of things.

Blueskye

I was in Mexico in July and it was flippin roasting! The humidity is unbelieveable out there!! Fair dues for getting any training done out there.

dermCu

Thur 2nd Sept 6.2 @ 7:05 - Was feeling tired all morning but perked up a little once I got running. I think I'll try to get some faster stuff in tomorrow and then rest in advance of a long run on Sunday.

Blueskye wrote: »

I was in Mexico in July and it was flippin roasting! The humidity is unbelieveable out there!! Fair dues for getting any training done out there.

Yea that humidity is nasty, even early in the morning. It just drained the life out of me. I thought about toughing it out and getting the training in but there was no enjoyment in it so I didn't see the point.

dermCu

Fri 3rd Sept: 8.5 @ 7:12 m/m avg

2.4 warm up then 6 x .5 miles with 90 sec recovery and 2.4 cool down.

2:48
2:44
2:45
2:40
2:47
2:46

I know that my top-end speed is poor but even so those times seem a bit pathetic relative to other times I've run. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. To be honest I was pretty tired at the end. At least it's a start.

TheRoadRunner

dermCu wrote: »

Fri 3rd Sept: 8.5 @ 7:12 m/m avg

2.4 warm up then 6 x .5 miles with 90 sec recovery and 2.4 cool down.

2:48
2:44
2:45
2:40
2:47
2:46

I know that my top-end speed is poor but even so those times seem a bit pathetic relative to other times I've run. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. To be honest I was pretty tired at the end. At least it's a start.

They'll improve dramitically as the weeks go by. Not a bad starting point IMO

dermCu

Sat 4th Sept: 0 - I'm not ready to run 6 or 7 days a week yet.

Sun 5th Sept 17.36 @ 7:06 - I didn't care about time or pace; I just wanted to cover the distance without dying on my arse. 2 loops of ~ 8.7 I felt very good on the first loop but was tired on the final 2 or 3 miles of the second loop. Glad to have started back into the long runs.

dermCu

Mon 6th Sept 6.4 @ 7:08 Nice recovery run. Legs a little sore but not too bad after Sunday's long run.

Tue 7th Sept 8.7 @ 6:54 Starting to feel a little bit of pace coming back during the second half of the run but it took me a long while to warm up. I just have to be patient.

dermCu

Wed 8th Sept - 13.44 @ 6:57 happy with that, it was a good solid effort. The only thing is that it is taking me a few miles more than usual to warm up. Maybe I'm just getting old.....

dermCu

Thur 9th Sept: 8.7 @ 7:09 Just decided to run nice and relaxed so I was a bit surprised at the overall pace. Mission number one for the weekend (after running) is to get flights and hotel booked. Time to make it a bit more real.

heffsarmy

Good going Dermo, your building up the mileage nicely. Any races lined up? Are you going to follow any specific plan for the marathon?

dermCu

Fri 10th Sept 8.59 @ 7:10 avg pace ***

Same session as last week.
2.45 warm-up, 6 x .5 mile with 90 sec recovery, 2.4 cool-down

2:49
2:47
2:43
2:43
2:43
2:44

I have to put my hands up and say I was talking rubbish last week about my times. I won't win a medal for them but they went pathetic. RoadRunner was spot on. I had a bit of quite time after lunch today so I looked up some old training logs and had a quick look at Daniels, Pfitzinger & McMillian. Given my current fitness the times were about right if even a little fast. I think I was a bit pissed last week because I wasn't really in control for any of the session. Big difference this week. I was working hard but had a much better handle on things. Given that it was very blustery I'm satisfied that I was able to keep the pace consistent.

*** The bezel on my gamin got wet and went completely ape-****. It was beeping away like crazy. It kept working but I couldn't even lock it. At the very end it wouldn't react when I pressed the lap button. It tried to dry it off and it worked again after 2 or 3 minutes. So the overall pace was a bit faster.

heffsarmy wrote: »

Good going Dermo, your building up the mileage nicely. Any races lined up? Are you going to follow any specific plan for the marathon?

Thanks Heff. Things are ticking along nicely. I've entered a 10k close to me on the 3rd of October. It's organized by a local club and it doubles up as the local county vets championship. Looks like a good race. If things go well I was thinking of taking the last 6 or 8 weks from Daniels. Will see how it goes. How's your training comming along? Dublin? Any targets?

heffsarmy

You splits are good, I would'nt be getting too wrapped up about the times, as your there abouts, once your getting the sessions in. I done a 10miler a few wks ago 58:XX, things did'nt go too plan but it was a good wake up call. After the race got a good talk by a good veteran marathon runner. His training was basically a 1 1/2hr fartlek on tues and 2hr fartlek on thurs and a 20+ on the weekend, the fartlek are basically too increase your marathon pace and the 20+ is to get from start to finish, he also reckons every mile over 20miles is worth another 10miles physically and physiologically. I have ditched the daniels training plan and have encorporated his plan the last few weeks, things are going really well, the fartlek sessions are great the miles fly bye. I'm gonna do the Dubllin marathon, as have a few races coming up, a 6km club cross country race, a 10km road race and the novice cross county run. In relation to your garmin, I have a friend who has the same problem when it gets wet.

dermCu

Sat 11th Sept 5.1 @ 7:18 - Got up early for this recovery run. I wanted the max amount of recovery before the long run on Sunday. It felt very easy. I didn't really have any soreness after the intervals on Friday evening.

Sun 12th Sept 18 @ 6:46 When I opened my eyes this morning and had a peek out the window I saw that there was a clear blue sky and there didn't seem to be any wind - my first thought of the day was "game on". And it turns out I was right. After a nice warm up first mile @ 7 m/m I settled in and the miles flew by. I didn't really feel any fatigue utill the last 2 miles and even then it was managable and I even got a last mile in at 6:19 m/m

@Heff: Sounds like you are progressing well. Good luck in Dublin. You have enough experience now to build your own training schedule. You seem to have an appetite for the big sessions. I'd be interested to hear how you get on in the cross country, I think you'll be well suited to it.