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2012 4 Races for 4 PBs
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rainbow kirby wrote: »So much taper madness in this post it's unreal. Don't worry about it - it's entirely normal.
Yeah I did read over the post again and thought there might be a bit of that taper madness in there alright. I thought I was immune to taper madness. Now i'm hoping it's taper madness. Is hoping it's taper madness a sign of taper madness!0 -
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It was pointed out to me that week 18 of Hal Higdon's plan has just three runs, a 3 miler, done, a 4 miler, done, and a 2 miler on the day before the race. I'll find time for the 2 miler on Sunday. Honestly I was happy not to run yesterday or today. My calves and heels feel far less tight. On the other hand I'm doing housework today and it feels like I've slightly slightly slightly strained my groin (housework, groin
). Anyway now I'm paranoid about making any sudden or rushed movements. Last night I was convinced I was developing a crick in my neck.
C'mon Monday!
Week 18 Session Targets|Actual Distance|Actual Pace
Easy 3M @ 8:35|3.01|8:30
Regular 4M @ 8:20|4.23|8:15
Easy 2M @ 8:35||
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Hit the wall, hard
.
Pre-race stayed on the Eason side of Patrick Street, keeping warm in the sun. Felt relaxed and happy to be finally at the start line. Smell of deep heat. Was looking out for the balloons which didn’t pop-up until maybe about 5 minutes before 9:00. Two green 3:30 balloons appeared more or less immediately in front of where myself and three other 3:30 hopefuls had just met up. Sorry Menoscemo, but it was pretty packed then so I didn’t work my way back through the crowd to the 4:00 balloons.
And we’re off. I hit my Garmin right on the mat, and my final Garmin time would match my chip-time to the second. Conjested for the first mile round the block. Thought the balloons had set off pretty fast. Figured they were trying to get out of traffic as soon as possible, and also I guess they are trying to pace of gun-time so needed to make up 30 odd seconds or so.
No stiffness or tightness over the first few miles. The water stop just before mile 3 is on a corner before an s-bend and that caused a bit of chaos, I ended up stepping flush on a dropped full bottle of water. Several people complaining about the positioning of that water-stop when there was a long straight after the s-bends. Turn onto quays and I take sticking to the balloons very literally with one ballon bouncing off my head for 200 meters or so. Feeling grand now and the field starting to spread out a little.
M01 7:39
M02 8:02
M03 7:44
M04 7:45
M05 7:54
Total 39:04
As we pass the 5M clock it reads 40:00, so we’re bang on gun-time.
Tip along leisurely down Tivoli, past the 6 mile marker then up the slip road toward the Dunkettle Interchange. All the time running alongside the balloons. Down into the tunnel. Making sure now that I follow the racing-line. Have a chat with two of the guys I started out with, they’re comfortable and tipping along fine.
Lost reception as expected in tunnel, but regained it almost immediately on exiting the tunnel. Take first 3 jellies at mile 8. I’m carrying my own water, a 750ml bottle, so for now I don’t worry about water stops. The three of us are running around 20 or 30 yards ahead of the balloons in order to avoid the congestion immediately behind the balloons. We pass the 10M clock and its reading 1:20. Perfect.
M06 7:59
M07 8:04 (tunnel)
M08 8:01
M09 7:55
M10 7:58
Total 39:57
Turned onto the estuary walkway and this year you could actually see across to the other side!! We stay just a little bit ahead of the ballons, no more than 20 yards or so. My chip-time at half-way reads 1:45:19.
We start off down that long green gorge. Then on mile 14 something happens that has never happened to me before when running. I get a stitch on my right-hand side :eek:. The arrival of the stitch coincides exactly with the arrival of the balloons from behind. Not a good moment. How long do stiches last? Please don’t say I’ll have to run the rest of the race with this! What if it gets worse?
I fall in behind the slower of the two balloons and try to figure out what to do. Try to think over anything I’ve read about stitches, but as I never got one before I never paid too much attention. I think I read something about swinging your arms and taking deep breathes, but as soon as I tried to swing my right arm the stitch would get worse, so I abandoned that idea pretty promptly. I tried holding my arms down lower than I normally do. And this seemed to work. All the time I’m just focusing on the feet of the pacer in front of me. The stitch has more or less passed as I follow the pacer round the 15 mile mark. The two guys I started out with stayed with the further ahead ballon, I would catch an odd glimpse of them every so often over the next miles, but the next time I’d speak to them would be over a Guinness that night.
I don’t catch the 15M clock-time (not sure there was a clock) but I’m right behind a balloon.
M11 7:39
M12 8:05
M13 7:54
M14 8:01
M15 7:51
Total 39:30
Up until now it has not been difficult to stay alongside the pacers. But from mile 16 it starts to take a little bit more effort. More jellies. And for the first time I’m starting to think about how many miles are left. I like the idea of counting down 10 miles. There’s a nasty lip of tarmac running down the middle of the road before we start to rejoin the crowds of spectators, was lucky not to twist an ankle on it.
Mentally I’m bracing myself for that horrible short hill that brings you off the South Link Road. I make sure to follow the balloons along the racing line on the right-hand side of the road. Up the hill and yeah it hurts. This was my least favourite part of the course from last year. A never-ending series of nondescript residential streets, and every second one seems to be on an incline. The elevation on my Garmin shows this is not my imagination, with miles 17 to 22 being the hilliest section of the course. Pretty cruel that, I’d sooner the race ran the opposite direction.
After a few of these hills, around miles 18 or 19 I’m still with a balloon but I’m beginning to admit to myself that it’s unlikely I can stick with it for 8 more miles. I stay with the balloon until mile 20 and then it starts drifting slowly ahead.
Legs are sore now. This is the fastest I’ve ever run 20 miles.
M16 7:45
M17 7:42
M18 7:56
M19 8:00
M20 8:03
Total 39:26
Mile 21 is the beginning of the end. The balloon pulling away faster. Legs are getting more and more sore with every step. The balloon is gone around a corner in front of me, I see it maybe once more in the distance. And that’s it, it’s gone along with my sub 3:30. Breathing is ok and I’ve long forgotten about my stitch but I’m really alarmed at how quickly my legs are losing power.
Around half-way into mile 21 I crash smack bang into a huge huge wall.
I try some jellies and quickly spit them out cause I think I’m going to get sick. Another 5 miles of this!! I’m in trouble. Mile 21 was 8:14. But on mile 22 the Garmin is showing 9:00 min pace and it feels so so so much harder than the 8:00 miles I was doing only a little while ago. Manage a 9:02. I’m looking for any help I can get from the road-side. I grab an orange slice and that seems to work for a minute or so, tastes good and it’s nice just to chew on for a while. I should have grabbed more slices. The Garmin still shows 9:00 minute miles and the pace is dropping fast. This is incredible, it’s like somebody has just pulled a plug on me. I’m powerless to stop this collapse. If I get a cramp now that’s it, race over. Please don’t get a cramp.
Somehow I manage to get a 9:17 on mile 23. The rate of pace loss increases rapidly now. Other marathon runners are passing me. I’m seeing 10:00 pace on the Garmin. The head is screaming at the legs to move but they just cannot respond. At this rate I’m going to be ‘running’ at walking pace very shortly. Ok near the end of mile 23 I decide to walk to the 24 mile marker, I’m hoping this will give me some respite, halt the decline and allow me to get back to 9:00 minute pace. It gives me respite yes but that’s all. I would walk 3 more stretches during the last 2 miles. Every time I run the pace is at least 10 minute miles. Please let this end. Guzzle down more water. Mile 24 is 10:17. Mile 25 is 10:33.
M21 8:14
M22 9:02
M23 9:17
M24 10:17
M25 10:33
Total 47:23
Last mile and I know that even a 3:3X time is no longer possible. The only thing that keeps me ‘running’ now is the prospect of the 3:45 balloons arriving. I’ve hit the wall, there’s nothing I can do about that now. But if I can just keep ‘running’ I can make sure I don’t see those balloons. Pass the 26 mile marker, turn onto Patrick’s Street. Where’s that finish line. Eyes focused on the curve on the road, willing the finish line into sight. There it is. The anticipation of soon not having to run anymore is beautiful. No sprint finish today.
Cross the line, hit the stop-button. 3:41:30.
2 bananas, 2 mandarins, a Snickers duo, a bottle of regular coke.
Where did I go wrong? Didn’t spend enough time on the road on my LSRs? Set myself a goal that was a little too ambitious for now? Didn’t get my food right on the eve of the race? I had a big lunch but a very light snack in the evening. An extra bowl of pasta might have postponed the wall for a mile or two more. Didn’t employ any gels either in training or during race.
Mixed emotions. I missed my target by a little over 10 minutes. But I also PB’d by a little over 10 minutes. Finished 419 of 1379 finishers, which is the equivalent of finishing 30th in a race with 100 finishers, so not too shabby.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90786697
The 3:30 is going to be a monkey on my back now. I’m likely to try again. Domestic logistics mean that at the earliest it will be Dublin next year. Whatever about time, if I line-up in Dublin 2012, one of my targets will be avoid hitting the wall.
No running for a least a full week now. Legs in fairness are not toooooo stiff today, and knees are grand. Calves are sore alright. And one toenail is hanging on by a fibre. Hope this latter won’t be a problem when starting Frank Duffy training.
Title of the log asks for 4PBs, that’s one down
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slowsteady wrote: »Great report. Sorry it didn't happen for you on Monday.
Looking back over your log it is hard to pick out anything you did wrong, ….
Preparation was A1 …. Still it must be hard to take with all the work you have put in.
Thanks man. I’m trying to be glass half full and focus on the 10min PB rather than missing my goal by 10mins. I’ve been thinking a fair bit about my plan alright. I changed the structure of the plan a few times before starting out on week one, and I changed it again after Week 10, but I thought by the end it was working well for me. I suppose it did get me a PB.
Great report.
As Slowsteady says, very unlucky. I cannot see anything you did wrong in training.
I would look into practicing with Gels before your next marathon though.
Thanks Meno. I’ve been trying to figure out what I might have done wrong in training, though I don’t think plan was fully at fault. I think I might have underestimated the impact of my diet on Sunday, more of that below. I actually mentioned alright to one of the guys I was running with yesterday that I might try employing gels.
That's a great report, sorry it didn't work out on the day.
From following your log you were very disciplined with sticking to your training plan, but I did find it an unusual plan. I just went back a few weeks and picked out a random week (week 10) where your plan was:
· Easy 4M @ 8:35
· Tempo 9M with 4M @ 7:30
· Easy 4M @ 8:35
· PMP 9M @ 7:45
· LSR 19M @ 8:45
My impression of this is that it's all done at close to the same speed: 8 mins +/- 45 seconds. Do you think that you would have benefited more from a bigger range in these paces? For example, the list above says that your PMP is 7.45 but you have only 4 miles per week faster than that, and even they are only slightly faster (7.30).
Please don't take this as a criticism - I'm just curious as to why it didn't work on the day. As said above, the dedication was top notch but could the plan be improved?
Thanks Macinalli. No worries, taking your comments as good positive criticism and food for analysis.
I’ve been thinking a fair bit about what went wrong. I think there are two main items that tripped me up. But also I have to remember that there was never any guarantee, even with a great plan that I was going to get the 3:30. It was always going to be close, McMillan never had me under 3:30 (maybe once off a 4 mile time, but that doesn’t really count). Personally I was often optimistic but never confident that I’d get it. I always wondered if I was trying to improve too much too soon.
- Diet -
I think I made a big mistake on diet the day before
. One of the guys I was running with made it home in 3:28. Now, he’s a better runner than me and can do 10 miles in 1:12, so I’m not surprised that he made it home with something to spare. He had a big bowl of pasta and garlic bread in the early evening before the race. Then he had cereal, toast and a banana around 2 hours before the race. I on the oher hand had eaten pasta most days during the week but on Sunday afternoon I had a big portion of chicken with a few small token potatoes. Sunday evening I ate really light, some fruit including 2 bananas, some biscuits and that’s about it. I had another banana before the race. I was paranoid about running feeling bloated, or having to make some emergency stops along the route. I think I scored an own goal there. If I had got another pasta dish into me and even a second banana on the morning, that could have postponed the wall. Even if it hit just two miles later, facing a wall on mile 24 sounds is a better proposition than on mile 22. My mate also ran with gels, I didn’t. They could have postponed the wall some more.
- Plan -
On my plan instead. Macinalli I know what you’re saying about broadening the range of paces. I modelled my plan on Higdon’s intermediate. He doesn’t have any sessions faster than PMP. I didn’t think this was a good idea, I felt I needed some sessions where the pace went the fast side of PMP. So instead of running actual PMP I ran my PMPs 15 seconds faster than 8 minute miles. I then also added the Wednesday tempos. These were initially 7:30 mile pace and that was pretty tough for me over the first few weeks. Actually I toned down the tempos after week 10 because I found I wasn’t recovering from them in time for the weekend’s running. After week 10 though I noticed my speed really improving, 7:30 felt like 7:45, I was running 7:15s and faster and enjoying it. Three consecutive 10M PBs without racing them. I think the speed side of my training was good.
I’m not so sure about the slow side of PMP instead. All my LSRs felt easy. Even when I ran them a little faster than target. I never felt really tired on these and was never out of my comfort zone. I wonder if I should have run my LSRs in such a way that they replicated the marathon scenario a little bit better. That might have meant running further so my would legs would experience running with some extra tiredness. Maybe 20 mile LSRs weren’t long enough for me and I should have pushed out further, even to full marathon distance. Or maybe every second week I should have tried those LSRs that throw in some PMP miles near the end.
I felt I was genuinely working with speed during my speed sessions, but I never felt I had to endure anything (other than some boredom at times) on my endurance sessions.
Like I said above, I never doubted it would be close, so diet, including gels, and maybe an incorrect LSR strategy, could together have made the difference. I also probably should have tried pace the mile markers against the time showing on my watch rather than gun-time. When it’s tight every minute counts.
Thanks again guys for the feedback.0 -
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Brand new shiny training plan in place for Frank Duffy.
Less is more. I’m dropping down to 4 days a week. Each week will have a recovery run, a steady pace run, a speed session, and long slow-ish run. I’m going to train with a 7:30 as target race pace and hope to go sub 75 on race day.
Tuesdays for Recovery Runs
Every Tuesday a 5M recovery at 8:45 pace. Nice and easy to start the week.
Wednesdays for Steady Runs
Up the pace on Wednesdays and run 5M at 7:45 pace. Marathon training helped me establish 7:45 as a comfortable enough pace. I want to maintain that base. Then I’ll have 2 days to rest up before the weekend.
Saturdays for Speed Work
I’ll alternate intervals with time-trials on Saturdays. I’ll start with 6x400 and move up to 8x400, all at 6:20 pace. Haven’t run intervals in ages. The time-trials will be at race pace of 7:30 and will build from 6Ms up to 8Ms.
Sundays for Long Runs
What to ensure that my legs don’t forget what 10 miles feels like. These will be runs ranging from 8 to 12 miles all run at a handy 8:30 pace.
First run is in the morning and I can’t wait to get going 0 -
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Back on the road.
Up and out before work. Overcast and damp but warm. trying out my Cork t-shirt for the first time, it's good, nice soft and light, I like it.
Pacing a bit random. The first mile the legs were definitely stiff and unresponsive. Already by mile 2 though they had woken up and the pace picked up. No aches or clicks or cracks or twinges. Toenails the only problem. I reckon you'd get 5/1 on the dodgy second toe on my left foot not making it to race-day. While you'd probably get 8/1 on the same toe on the right foot.
Need to get to bed now, 5 miles at 7:45 first thing in the morning. Good to be back following a plan.
M01 9:27
M02 8:19
M03 8:35
M04 8:34
M05 8:43
Total 5.11M @ 8:44
Week 1 Session Targets|Actual Distance|Actual Pace
Recovery 5M @ 8:45|5.11|8:44
Steady 5M @ 7:45||
Intervals 6x400M @ 6:20||
LSR 8M @ 8:30||
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Switched the Garmin to 400m laps and trotted over to the Papal Cross. Hadn't a clue what pace I was running at, ran at what felt like 9:00 min miles. Turns out to be 2.70 miles at 8:46 pace.
Ok reset the Garmin and off I go around the cycle path by the playing fields.
Start with a recovery (from what?) 400m. Then first interval, I run on feel aiming for anywhere between 1:30 and 1:35. I complete it 1:33. Ok that was alright, thought it was a little faster, but grand. Second interval is my fastest at 1:28. Interval number three is mostly uphill and I'm already feeling tired, yikes. Log 1:30. Only half-way. Interval 4 and I'm watching the distance build on the watch. C'mon. Maybe 6 intervals was a little too ambitious for my first interval session? It's been almost a year since I last ran this session. Log a 1:34. Recovery times have dropped and I don't care. Work the lungs on interval 5, not as tiring as I thought this one would be 1:31. Ok last one is ok just cause it's the last one. Lungs on overtime, wait for the beep ..... wait for the beep ....... 'Beep' ..... Stop-button ...... walk. Finish with a 1:33.
Happy with that. Target pace for the intervals was 6:20 and my average was 6:08. The recovery times were optimistic at the start before averaging at 8:19 pace. Forgotten how much fun intervals are. Enjoyed that.
Warm-up 2.70M @ 8:46
Recovery Interval
2:04 (8:20) 1:33 (6:17)
1:53 (7:36) 1:28 (5:55)
1:58 (7:56) 1:30 (6:03)
2:10 (8:46) 1:34 (6:20)
2:07 (8:33) 1:31 (6:09)
2:12 (8:54) 1:33 (6:16)
Averages
2:04 (8:19) 1:32 (6:08)
Warm-down 2.54M @ 8:49
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94720258
Total Distance 8.23M
Week 1 Session Targets|Actual Distance|Actual Pace
Recovery 5M @ 8:45|5.11|8:44
Steady 5M @ 7:45|5.03|7:40
Intervals 6x400M @ 6:20|8.43M for the day|6:08 (recovery 8:19)
LSR 8M @ 8:30||
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