PROJECT ROTTERDAM 10.4.11

Krusty_Clown

No surrender Speedy. It's there for the picking, you just have to choose the right moment and get a couple of minor things to line up correctly. The first 17 miles were perfect, so sort out the fatigue (pre race rest) and you're golden.

littlebug

Gutted for you Speedy Just bad luck on the day.
It'll happen.

theboyblunder

+1 to all of the above. Had a similar run in longford last year when I knew it was slipping away from far out. You will get it - youre definitely fit enough

misty floyd

Really gutted for you speedy, I can only imagine how you feel about it.
How was your training overall? I know you got some savage stuff done, just wondering is there anything there that can point you towards a reason? I'm just very surprised is all.

I like the above post...no surrender!!

Speedy44

misty floyd wrote: »

Really gutted for you speedy, I can only imagine how you feel about it.
How was your training overall? I know you got some savage stuff done, just wondering is there anything there that can point you towards a reason? I'm just very surprised is all.

I like the above post...no surrender!!

cheers Misty.

Apart from a small blip when I had a chest infection a few weeks back and ran sh*t in Craughwell and had to miss a couple of days, training was spot on. The timing of the chest infection meant I missed my last 15ml pmp, but I think I had enough in the bank at that stage for it not to be an issue.

Think it was a combo of tiredness, heat, and dare I say it, not enough guts :mad:, I think I could have pushed it hard for at least another mile or 2 to see what happened.

ecoli

Speedy44 wrote: »

cheers Misty.

Apart from a small blip when I had a chest infection a few weeks back and ran sh*t in Craughwell and had to miss a couple of days, training was spot on. The timing of the chest infection meant I missed my last 15ml pmp, but I think I had enough in the bank at that stage for it not to be an issue.

Think it was a combo of tiredness, heat, and dare I say it, not enough guts :mad:, I think I could have pushed it hard for at least another mile or 2 to see what happened.

Hard luck on the run however there are positives to take from it. The training from this marathon block will yielding massive benefits in terms of the aerobic base you got from this and now its time to push on and use it to make major leaps in your performances

Sosa

ecoli wrote: »

Hard luck on the run however there are positives to take from it. The training from this marathon block will yielding massive benefits in terms of the aerobic base you got from this and now its time to push on and use it to make major leaps in your performances

I agree 100% with this,when i had my DCM disaster in 09,i took an easy 2 months,then i ran 83:37 for a half that December with nothing done for it,took another few easy weeks,then in the new year i got all my shorter distances down in the first 3 months,then tackled a 12 week program for Cork 2010 and sailed home...i put alot of that down to the base i had built up for Dublin,so all is certainly not lost.
Chin Up

tunguska

Speedy44 wrote: »

not enough guts :mad:, I think I could have pushed it hard for at least another mile or 2 to see what happened.

Good man speedy, face it head on. Only you can know if this is the truth and if it is then you're halfway there to solving that problem. A lot people wont take that sort of an honest look at themselves, they'll make excuses because its a hard thing to do to call yourself on your own bull****.

Reflect upon that race and pinpoint the exact moment when things started to get hard. Then try to remember what you were saying to yourself in reaction to this difficulty. Get a pen and paper out and write it all down. I think you'll be suprised the things you'd say to yourself in those moments when things start to get rough. For every thought you have theres a physical response, so if you were thinking to yourself, oh crap Im struggling, this is hard, Im not gonna make it etc, the result is you'll slow down. Your mind is telling your body to give up and your body obeys. What you need to do is to become more self aware and recognise these moments when they happen in races. It takes practice because these thoughts can happen lightning fast. You have to be able to recognise these moments when they occur and develop a plan to deal with them.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go again. When you race again make it your goal to tune into what youre saying to yourself, become hyper aware of your own thoughts. In particular recognise that moment when things become difficult and note your internal reaction. The bottom line is your body is a lot stronger than your mind will give it credit for, your mind will give up before your body does. The trick is to train your mind not to give up so easily and that is done through repitition. Race often thorughout your next training schedule, just for the purposes of mental conditioning. And when you do race sit down and write out blow by blow what happened during that race. I find that this yields massively useful information, stuff that'll help you during your next race.

seanynova

there is some very good advice there speedy....you must be initially feeling down about the sub3 thing but look at it this way, what you have done in training has brought your running ability on leaps and bounds, so you are already a winner with regards to progression.....it seems like the prep wasnt great, walking to trains, expo etc and lack of sleep....thats would have a very negative effect on your body like.

are you doing DCM this year?
dust yourself down, chill for a bit and hit an 18week plan starting late june, if you went sub3 last weekend you would be planning a sub2:50 in DCM so, thats still the target for you i think!

recover well and bounce back

brownian

Speedy, I think that's just the heat. Really saps you. The heat last year in Conn had me walking on the half; cool weather suited better this time around. You've trained in a way that I've been bitterly jealous of, at impressive pace and discipline. The sub-3 (well sub 3) is just waiting for you. Shop local (Kildare, Longford, Cork, Dublin ?) and you're bound to get a cold, wet manky day that suits us Paddies better than that sunshine behaviour!

Pronator

Speedy, congrats on your time. The heat took it out of everyone that ran on the day, I've done a few marathon's and can safely say the last 12k of that marathon was the toughest I have run.

Take all the positives out of it. I followed your log and you will smash 3 hours, just believe and execute when you next have the chance. Next marathon for me is Dublin. That's if the body allows me:rolleyes:

Caprica

Hard luck Speedy, from reading your log the last few weeks you easily had sub 3 and beyond within your reach. I think the heat was the main factor, it finally got to you in the last few miles. I was in Paris aiming for 2:55 but we also had a very hot day and while things were going well for most of the race the wheels came of in the last 10/12k and I got home in 3:07.

You can't account for the weather. I don't think the Irish are built for the kinda heat Europe had over the weekend. Take a rest, focus on some shorter races for a while and then start building for Dublin. You can do it.

Speedy44

sorry about the late reply tunguska, thanks for the advice.

I think what you said made a lot of sence, although I was doing the hard Daniels sessions, obviously nothing can compare you for the race condidtions.
I think through my training and all the confidence coming from my board buddies, I was expecting it to be a walk in the park.

With the marathon, its gonna hurt, no matter what the pace. I think at the first sign of this, the mind said "oh oh, here we go again". Lots of negative thoughts like how many miles do I STILL have to run, if I slow down I MIGHT make it, all that BS.

Really mad at myself still, but coming to terms with it. I know I definitely have it in me,and this time next year I'll be waking up in Boston ready to get a pb :-)

Speedy44

Friday
Took 4 days off, legs ok again, was going to get out yesteday but didn't have a chance.
Started off this still pissed off, so I ran this way! First mile was 7:21, then I checked the pace on the 2nd mile and it was 6:02 :eek:

Legs were now starting to tighten up a bit although I felt relatively fresh, so I wisely took a reality check and slowed down.

That mile was 6:49, last 2mls 7:25 & 8:04.

Distance = 4mls

Saturday
Was taking an AAI coaching course but managed to squeeze in another 4mls during lunch at 7:41 pace.

Good to see the technical side of things re what the shot putters and long jumpers have to go through, although there definitely not for me.

Nice to also see how all the positive sides of doing drills and so on is broken down into simple language that a middle/long distance runner can understand and relate to, ie- if you can increase your stride by even 1cm, just thing what that will equate to over a marathon.

Sunday
6.5mls easy (7:43).
Legs and shoulders were a bit sore after taking a few attempts at throwing the shot yesterday.

WEEK DISTANCE = 14.5mls

Speedy44

Monday -
Off

Tuesday -
4mls easy, 7:37/ml

Wednesday -
6.5mls easy, felt good, going faster than I maybe should be going (7:24) but what the hell, it felt easy.

Thursday -
Off.
Was going to run but had a long day of meetings so by the time I got home my voice was almost gone with all the talking I had to do!

Friday -
8.25mls easy. 7:37 pace

Saturday -
Was getting ready to head out and couldn't find my garmin. My daughter then told me that she saw it on top of the car last night :eek:, and I had gone to the post office first thing this morning and hadn't noticed it.

I did the same damn thing a few years ago at her birthday party with the video camera. Had it in my hand filming, one of her friends fell off the bike so I put it down in the first place I saw, on top of a mate's car. Of course he drives off without noticing it.

Thankfully, this story has a happier ending
I was just over a mile into the run when I was flagged down by a farmer in his tractor asking me if I had lost a watch. I never met the man before but he found it a couple of miles from my house and thought it looked like a runners watch.
Whats the chances eh !

Anyway, through all this I ended up doing 6.25mls at 7:15/ml pace

Sunday -
12.4mls at 7:16 pace.

Decided to stretch the legs out a bit for a few miles in this one.
Probably wasn't the best day to do it as we had a campfire with the kids last night and some neighbours over, so didn't get to bed 'til midnight and had a few beers as well, not to mention all the smoke I was inhaling :rolleyes:

Splits were:
7:50, 7:33, 7:28, 7:40
6:49, 6:45, 6:48, 6:40
7:23, 7:23, 7:20, 7:26, 7:21 (.4)

WEEEK DISTANCE = 37.5MLS

Speedy44

A very enjoyable run accompanying my 2 girls as they cycled to a birthday party. My 8 year old did 4mls, thats 4mls further than she ever did before!

Towards the end she kept saying "I can't do it" and of course I kept telling her she could .................... if only I would listen to my own advice more often :rolleyes:

Speedy44

8.25mls at a 'run as I felt' pace, which turned out to be 6:57/ml.

Lovely morning for a run, but the last couple of mls I was starting to feel the heat so I just backed off a little bit.

Speedy44

Thursday
6.5mls easy at 7:31/ml pace, started off a bit too fast with a couple of mls in the 7:05-10 region. Started to feel a bit tired then so slowed it down.

Really diggin this weather though

Friday
8.25mls easy at 7:28 pace. After doing most of this weeks run at a quick enough pace, although they were for the most part easy, I decided to make a conscious effort to run easy from the start today.
First mile was 7:54, but after that I was back in the 7:20+ region, but I wasn't pushing it at all and was in fact trying to run slow.

Was feeling a bit sluggish though after 3mls+, but I stopped after 4mls for a few secs to give some lad (in his van complete with surf board on top - did I mention I love this weatehr ) directions and after that I felt great the rest of the way!

Saturday
Have my first race in a while on Tuesday so decided to get some shorter stuff in beforehand.
Did 8 x 400m off 90secs on grass.

Times were: 74, 74, 75, 77, 77, 78, 78 75

Was surpirsed with the times, I was thinking coming into it that I just wanted to do something around my 5k pace as most of the marathon stuff I've been doing has been at 6min or so pace.
Felt pretty good, was only going at about 90%, legs started to feel a bit tired on the 4th one so I purposely cut back. Thought I would have been doing 80's once I did that!

Distance = 6.25mls

smmoore79

Nice 400m session there Speedy. Good splits. Havent done 400's in quite a while but am enjoyin the mile/km reps all the same. Will give the 400's a go Tuesday week to see where i am with them..

Speedy44

smmoore79 wrote: »

Nice 400m session there Speedy. Good splits. Havent done 400's in quite a while but am enjoyin the mile/km reps all the same. Will give the 400's a go Tuesday week to see where i am with them..

cheers smmoore, yea, looking forward to getting stuck into some shorter stuff for the track season.

Was checking out the session you did the other night, they were some impressive mile times you logged.
I see lots of pb's for you on the horizon ..........

Speedy44

Another great day for a run. Got out at 10am by myself, as is usual these days :rolleyes:

12.4mls in 1:34:22 (7:34 average)

Week Distance = 45.75mls

Year to date = 989.5mls

Now that I've had my 3wks recovery from the marathon I am looking forward to getting back to running a couple of times a week with the club.

Project Rotterdam is now over, it obviously didn't go as planned but, like a lot of you said, the training will stand to me this summer.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement throughout, my new, and final log is going to be called ........................

KEEP ON MOVING