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140.6 deep breaths...
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shotgunmcos wrote: »I'm actually quite excited about doing Conn, just because the last 2 Marathons I ran were the pacing gigs at DCM09 and 10. Those were enjoyable but mad busy experiences with the crowds, balloons and roaring motivation all the way around. I'm really looking forward to doing my own thing in relative peace over the beautiful Connemara course on Sunday and it looks as though the sun might be out too
If it's still ran the same way as when I did it, there'll be nothing peaceful about mile 13.1 onwards, unless you get there before 1 hour 30. You'll be held up by slower runners doing the half, this happened me in a marathon in Lisbon and I was driven demented by it.0 -
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No, I offered but she is running with her mate who she has been training with all along and they just want to finish.Whats the plan for Conn at the weekend, you on pacing duty for the OH? Great looking weekend for it anyway.
Yeah I did it in 2008 and I remember loving the first half. It was just afantastic setting for running. The conditions were crazy though getting all 4 seasons in one run and yeah it got busy after half way but I was on my knees by then anywayIf it's still ran the same way as when I did it, there'll be nothing peaceful about mile 13.1 onwards, unless you get there before 1 hour 30. You'll be held up by slower runners doing the half, this happened me in a marathon in Lisbon and I was driven demented by it.
No No, she is just looking to finish it. She did DCM09 alright but had bad shin splints for it. I still don't know how she did it but then they say that women have a much higher pain threshold than us! She has done all of the long runs for Conn but her shins are at her again just as the mileage went up. Sounds like we have had similar experiences of Conn there.Is this Caz's next attempt at sub 4 or have I missed one of her races, I vaguely remember her running injured at Dublin in 4.1x something.
The first half of Connemara is some of the best scenery i ever saw, second half not so good but maybe it was because my head was around my ankles at that stage
Hmm 160 maybe close to 4:15 pace alright but I haven't done much PMP running to test the stamina of it. The Waterford Half was 169 avg although it was pretty gnarly conditions that day. I not going to go for it though at Conn. I would probably come up short, the recovery cost would be too great and I won't enjoy it as I want to. The plan is to run within myself at 150-155 heart rate until I hit that last hill :pac: I plan to do a lot more specific Marathon running for Berlin, PMP, temp, speed etc...I'd say if you kept the HR around 160 would you be in or around sub 3 pace? You should probably be aware of that and not be too worried if you are in or sub 3 pace.....trust the HR. from following your running training I reckon you are in sub 3 shape already....conservatively!0 -
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Wednesday evening easy reverse brick
I decided to do the run before the bike so as to spin the legs out rather than the extra effort you need for a brick run at any pace.[
The run – It was a smashing evening and I just headed out around a loop at an easy clip and 136 average heart rate. Caz was out too doing the loop the opposite way. There were loads out running and a few doing the same route as me. It almost felt like there was some sort of event on. It was windy though so I broke a bit of a sweat on the hilly bits. I passed Caz and she was smiling too, although she must have been roasting as the only lunatic to be wearing leggings on the warmest evening of the year so far! I was almost disappointed to end my run after just 33mins.
Summary
The bike – was on the turbo. It was just an hour easy so I didn’t bother heading out into the wind. Instead I just spun the legs out easy at 222w and a 124 average heart rate. It was good to finish the session early with no planned session for the morning so no 6am alarm woohoo
TT results in: 22:33 avg 39.9kmh which is a very satisfying personal best for the courseshotgunmcos wrote: »....I’d like to do better than last year... and get close to that 40kmh as the summer goes on. My PB on the course is 22:57 from last summer but that was close to peak condition training for the World AG Champs.... I gave it a good go and had a good run but tht was unexpected. It seems the bike progress is in line with the running and all just off a good winter of base training! I had a good margin over the next best in the category and only 2 of 6 elites ahead of me. Happy days and not a bad start. As much as I’d love to have a go in the sun this evening, I’ll be marshalling so I can check out the competition. There is bound to be a crowd out and some quick times posted. 0 -
shotgunmcos wrote: »Hmm 160 maybe close to 4:15 pace alright but I haven't done much PMP running to test the stamina of it. The Waterford Half was 169 avg although it was pretty gnarly conditions that day. I not going to go for it though at Conn. I would probably come up short, the recovery cost would be too great and I won't enjoy it as I want to. The plan is to run within myself at 150-155 heart rate until I hit that last hill :pac: I plan to do a lot more specific Marathon running for Berlin, PMP, temp, speed etc...
Fair enough, running at 155 will still get you a good time and give you confidence (and stop you referring to a marathon PB which is woefully out of date and irrelevant). I agree with your reasoning for running the marathons - you're not a professional athlete, there's supposed to be enjoyment in the whole thing, it can't be allowed to all boil down to one day so you need to do other things along the journey that make all the sacrifices seem worthwhile. There was a recent interview with Jeff Galloway on marathontalk about the run/walk method for marathons and the he said he developed it to ensure injury free running and make the marathon a more enjoyable experience the whole way through rather than after you pass the finish line. Sure, running 2 marathons during IM training may not be the optimum training but it sure makes things more enjoyable and breaks up the monotony of the blocks of training somewhat, otherwise you are investing 30 weeks of sacrifice to have a one day high...there have to be highs along the way, whether that be a marathon PB or just managing to keep with teh fishes the odd morning. 0 -
Cheers thanks for that positive post Gringo78. Yes its a long enough haul to the IM without starving yourself of fun too! Its hard enough staying off the chocolate!
Its a strange feeling for this one. I haven't been aiming for this Marathon and as such my training has not been focused towards it. Yes I biased the last few long runs towards the more hilly routes but overall Conn has only entered my mind this week. I feel fit and the conditioning is moving in the right direction but I can't help but to feel I'm winging it since I've only thought about it this week. Its probably a good thing though that my focus is entirely on my A goal. Its just an odd feeling. Uusally the thougts of the Marathon consumes you. I think I'm even annoying Caz as thats the mode she is in whereas I'm chirpy and uber relaxed!
Just did some easy cycling earlier and marshalled at the TT. Conditions were very nice and a few more heads showed a face. It was good to see how aggressively and efficiently the elites took the roundabouts. Tomorrow is a complete day off and we travel up to Oughterard after work. I'll do a recce of the course on the bike if I can on Saturday if its not too far away. Roll on Sunday 0 -
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shotgunmcos wrote: »What is the recommended approach?
Yes you pop in and out of the blog, point at this and that, criticize and vanish again :rolleyes:
Almost always followed up with an email. In fact you've gotten more emails than posts from me! I've only met you once but we have built up a relationship and believe it or not I do care.shotgunmcos wrote: »You are the experienced IMer here, you have been in Tri for 7-8 years, you have gone 9:51 on your first go. Perhaps you could throw some meat behind the comments if not for my benefit, then for the benefit of those reading the blog. So, you have eluded to the fact that I am not going to go 9:15?!
Wow. I'm curious to know what did you based that on in the first place? I'm sh!tting it enough about 9:59 as is...
No i never eluded to not going as fast as i think you can in email. I tried to subtly suggest that a change of approach may yield better results. I think we have established I don't do subtle well.
I think you will have a good race in Roth, I think you will go sub ten, I think you will beat my PB but I don't think you will do your natural talents nor the effort you put in justice.
The missed or messed up sessions I have seen were quality sessions, but then again i am not on boards much these days.shotgunmcos wrote: »Just to clear a couple of things up.
The actual work: Emmm Roth is July 10. 13 weeks away. I plan on a 4 week taper, I'm on week 3 of a 12 week build.
Missing sessions due to fatigue: 12 of the last 300 sessions missed and they have predominantly been swims and recovery bikes. That is not so bad?shotgunmcos wrote: »I've pushed to and now understand my stress points, my over reaching points etc... I've gone through the biggest training phase of my life injury free so far too which is nice too. 2 races done, 2 pbs
Recovery and Balance: 3 up 1 down for 5 blocks, 2 up 1 down for 4 blocks then taper. The down weeks are typically 50-60% of the up volume. My weekly planned hours are set. I've overshot it once in 23 weeks and it was by 1 minute! Key sessions pencilled in, then the rest is filler and flexible.
Im self coached and an IM rookie like many others and I'm sure I'm getting plenty wrong. My goals were stated long ago now and I haven't shifted the goalposts on myself or entered a bag of races in excitement.
You could initiate a stoning thread in the main forum titled "The mistakes of MCOS and how he will crash and burn his overtrained self at Roth"
I don't think you'll crash and burn in Roth I just think that you are making things harder for yourself than they need to be.
I'm hardly going to initiate a thread in the main forum - sure that is dead as it is
I do also think there is an unhealthy attiude on the boards and the diaries - whether is a lack of people willing to be a pr!ck or just the lack of discussion from the main board creeping in - but its all "you're great, no you're great, no you're great" and no healthy discussion. I even see it on my own blog (down for hosting change over). When I started my own 7-8 years ago I would regularly be ripped to shreds, I would regularly be comments on, challenged and asked why why why. These questions -what they asked and what they made me think about are what really got me interested in learning about the sport.
In a nutshell, I think you will do well in Roth, but I think you get to the same place with less effort, less time and less heartache.0 -
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FYI MCOS, it's about a 15 to 20 minute easy pedal from Oughterard to Ma'am Cross. Once you get to Ma'am Cross I assume you know where you are heading. Chances are there'll be a lot of cyclists on the road so don't get sucked into racing them!
Scorcher of a day here at the moment. Should be beautiful tomorrow for a pedal. The Inagh Valley should be pretty spectacular. Enjoy :cool:0 -
Best of luck to both you and Caz in Connemarthon. Seems ye will have lovely weather, I'm actually jealous
Also I like Gringo's post on enjoying races and the fact that we are not pro's and should never take the enjoyment out of it, I make a point of it actually. It may mean slightly worse results than I am capable of bur honestly I don't care. Fretting too much about numbers, stats and doing things by textbook will fry you mentally in the long run, then you'll get fed up, burnt out and your tri days will be over before your in your mid 30s. Well thats my fear anyway, so enjoyment is number 1 on my list 0 -
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Connemara Marathon Report
Before I get into it, I had an inkling from long runs in training that I was in sub 3:10 shape but I absolutely did not expect to surpass that on a course like Connemara!! In fact, being upfront about it, I had pencilled 3:18 for Conn in my monthly targets on the sweaty notebook version of my training log. The results are clearly provisional as they suggest I started on the line with the top guys. In fact I had 30-40 in front of me and clocked a few seconds quicker (not that it made any difference) on the Garmin.
Conn wasn’t a priority race and although I tapered a little this week for it, I trained as usual. I was going to treat it as an extended long run with a push for the last 3km, energy permitting. I was unusually relaxed. The 2 girls in the house were a bag of nerves, checking and rechecking everything to the minute detail. Normal protocol really pre Marathon days. Usually I’d know what pace I’d be running at and I’d have a plan of action. However I lounged about carefree. My primary goal was to enjoy myself and to run the whole thing for a change.
I wasn’t sure what to do with my gels and eventually decided to safety pin them to my race belt. I’ll revise this for a target Marathon though. I planned to take 4 en route but took one extra just in case. The atmosphere was good at the start and cheering on the Ultra runners had us all motivated to go. Ray set us off and immediately about 30 or so shot off ahead of me including the lead woman. From past results I knew that the lead woman usually came in on 3:12 ish so I thought that if I could run comfortable and keep her in my sight for the first half I’d be in with a chance of my loose target. I felt great and immediately began clocking 4:11-4:20 kms. My heart rate instantly hit 160 in the excitement. The lead woman was about 50m ahead with a half dozen guys around her. It was warm and humid and runners were peeling off layers after just 2 miles. My pace was reeling in that group when I noticed ‘Brownian’ written on a singlet in front of me. I rocked up beside him and introduced myself. We chatted for a couple of minutes but he had a steely focus and was clearly a man on a mission. I let him go and fell back a bit to allow my heart rate settle. It hovered around 155-160 which felt good.
After the first water station about 20-30 had stretched out in font. I was in a group of 4 and there was another group of 5 between. I always seemed to be a nose ahead of the 4. We had settled to just under 7min per mile pace and I was so relaxed I started to notice things I’d never notice in a race before. I listened to their footfall and their breathing. 2 of the 4 would pop up either side of me but their footfall was a plod and their breathing was heavy. I also noticed that with any little drag I’d inch ahead. The group in front settled about 200m from us and this was the situation up to 8 miles. At this point we seemed to be reeling the group ahead in very very slowly and the miles went by sub 7mins each. A tall runner in an orange singlet joined the group and injected some pace. We turned right toward Leenane at about mile 9 and he pushed on. I went with him and we dropped the rest by the top. I was holding him fine but he was leading me to 4:05 – 4:10 pace uphill and my heart rate was climbing. I figured I pay for this heavily later on if I kept it up so I let him go. He was the only Marathoner to pass me on the day. The hill also broke up the group ahead into singles and I was bridging the gap to the last man who was being caught quickly by the orange singlet runner who passed me.
I was surprised how good I felt on that hill and by mile 10 there was a good gap back to the group I had left. I passed an ultra runner who I thought was Mick Rice (green singlet). He had a very steady gait and a real focus. I acknowledged and pushed on after the broken group. I passed a few more before along with the walkers before approaching another Ultra runner in a cycling top. I acknowledged again and he replied and also told me I was in the top 20! Sweet! I was really enjoying myself actually. The kms were buzzing on the watch invariable around 4:10-4:15 pace and I was comfortably under the 7min avg per mile I had kind of set on. The scenery was just as stunning as I remembered and the sweeping downhill section into Leenane yielded 2 sub 4kms at Z2 heart rate! I reeled in another runner by mile 12 and we ran together silently for about 10 mins. I squeezed the pace out a couple of times but he responded, albeit with what sounded like increasingly heavy breathing.
I ran over the halfway mat in just under 1:28 and then did some sums. Again from past results I had worked out that the average split for the 2 halves for the top 20 was a +8-10 min split. I hadn’t expected to be in this ballpark but here I was. I figured It was going to hurt at some point but If I could hold it together I might go 3:10 or better. I dropped my companion on the steep long drag out of Leenane and roped in and passed another by the top. My approach for the Marathon in terms of stride really worked for me on the day. Shorter choppier strides and more arm drive uphill and longer relaxed strides downhill. It was like switching between 2 different gears. I was learning as I was running! At the top of the Leenane hill there was loud U2 music blaring together with 4 lads dressed as group wearing superbly caricatured large papier mache heads of Bono and the boys. They were rocking out air guitars and dancing. It was hilarious and brilliant. You couldn’t help but smile, throw a move and forget about the hurt of the hill just gone. Legends! I took my second gel at this stage and noticed I had also lost one. Just as well I decided to bring a spare!
It felt like I had the road to myself for the next mile. Just me and the amazing backdrop of the Mamturk mountains. That peace was broken by the diminutive figure of Lezan Kimutai bounding passed me. At first I was startled and wondered who it was. It hadn’t dawned on me that I passed the halfway point before the half marathon started. Sweet! I had avoided the masses of that start, nice one. It was at least 3-4 mins before the second place half marathoner passed me and he gave me a nice acknowledgement. By mile 17 I was climbing up another hill but having done a recce of the second half on the bike the day before I knew the pub at the top was the end of it and Maam was not far away. I was passing walkers at this stage in groups and they were a good support to anyone with any sign of anguish on their face. The descent off this hill was a very sharp drop over 200m or so and my feet jammed against the top of my runners. I felt some sort of pain in my left toes and though I had broken a toenail or something. My calves were also a little tender too and by the time I hit Maam at approx mile 21 I was hurting.
I was just above 7min miles now for a while but surprised that the pace was not dropping as quickly as the pain was setting in. I was passed by the lead woman from the half marathon a minute later just after the next water station and took my last gel. There were 2 lads dressed head to toe as devils roaring at us as we shuffled passed. It was very entertaining and good to take your mind off your legs for a moment. The course was getting increasingly busy at this stage with walkers everywhere. I grabbed a bottle of water before the hell of the west and prepared myself for the last 4.7 miles. 2.5 up the hill and 2.2 to the finish. The first km was not too bad although my pace dropped to 4:45. Then the pain really kicked in. There was a mist on the hill too along with a headwind which added to the fun. The lead HM woman was about 100m ahead but I started to reel her in as I pumped my arms hard. At mile 23 just like anyone else tackling the hill refusing to walk, I was in hurtsville. My Garmin was buzzing with 5min+ kms but I didn’t care. I just wanted to run the whole way. I was amazed that at 8min mile pace I was reeling in lots of the HM runners who passed me including the lead woman. Again the recce of the course was invaluable for my motivation as I knew exactly what I had left when we veered left over the pass. At the top there was such a sense of relief for not walking that I started to enjoy it again briefly. My legs had held up and not cramped as I feared they might. My Garmin had been acting the fool since mile 15 and showed hr237 at one point. I had found it generally unreliable since halfway really in terms of heart rate.
15 mins earlier at the bottom of the hell of the west I knew I was still on for a decent time, maybe 3:03 if I didn’t fall apart on the hill. I slowed down plenty but didn’t fall apart so at mile 24 I looked at the time and it showed 2:45. No way! 2.2miles in under 15mins and my quads were shot. I just went for it. I was a bit hazy with the sums but thought that a couple of sub 7min miles might actually get me a sub3. In a stride I changed from feeling generally proud just to run up the hill, to pushing my cadence and pouring whatever I had left into the road in front of me. Mile 24 to 26 was so tough. It was raining; there was a stiff headwind and half marathoners dying on their feet all over the place. The finish line just seemed to take forever to come into my line of sight. At mile 25 I figured I had still over 7 mins to get there and I roared, gritted my teeth and gave it everything I had. I was in a world of hurt but I somehow felt strong. It was probably the adrenalin of a possible sub3 at Connemara! I didn’t see the clock until it was on 2:59:52 and I was still 150m or so from it. There was no chance of making it so I just finished out and stopped my watch on 3:00:16. I was delighted, bloody delighted. I had missed a sub3 by a whisker but it had only been a goal for 15 mins so I was not disappointed in any way about not achieving it. 1:32 wasn’t bad for the second half. I had a sudden injection of confidence in my running and a 3hr run for 10th place was way beyond even my most ambitious expectations of Connemara. The Conn monkey was well and truly off my back now, Happy Days
Summary
I headed back onto the course after peeling myself off the ground to wait for Caz to come in. My shoulders and neck felt like I had been wrestling rather than running! I was really worried about her shins. She and her mate had set their sights on running up the hill too and hopefully finishing it around 4:30. As planned they passed with smiles and crossed the line in 4:27, running every step of the way. Emotional tears at another Marathon for Caz but I was gushing with pride for her again. It was another good day 0 -
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