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Well done K, great race and report!
We all get into the mindset of having to clock up marathons and better our times partly because of the company we keep on this forum but as Chinguetti says, find the joy in running again, after my own experience I'm of the mind that finishing strong and enjoying the race is worth more than the time on the clock.
Onwards to Berlin!
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Right, I'm actually going to be serious for once... :eek:
Firstly, I know only too well and too recently how a very tough marathon can physically and mentally drain you. I will most likely run more but at this point don't relish let alone warm to the thought. This in no way is an attempt to tell you ''not to give up on marathon's'', I know better than tell a Kerry woman what to do
So, with that in mind a couple of observations, I found it interesting with regards to the ''run to feel'' approach. It's one I haven't tried yet but whatever about a 5k there's too much that can go wrong over the distance of a marathon unless perhaps you are very experienced. Also, and this may tie in with the above approach, most of your splits are for a considerably quicker time than 3:29:30.... It may be worth considering the possibility that you would have finished outside of the medics tent if you'd ran even 8 minute pace all the way?
Not to hijack your log but I'd be interested to see the thoughts of the many sub 3 guys and/or plus 15 marathoners on here regarding my points above. Whether I'm agreed with or demonised It may be helpful for all of us going forward.
Anyway, all that aside, it's a brilliant achievement for you, 2/3 years ago when we were slogging out those 9:45 20 milers you'd have never believed me if I said you're going to run a sub 3:30
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Also, and this may tie in with the above approach, most of your splits are for a considerably quicker time than 3:29:30.... It may be worth considering the possibility that you would have finished outside of the medics tent if you'd ran even 8 minute pace all the way?
Not to hijack your log but I'd be interested to see the thoughts of the many sub 3 guys and/or plus 15 marathoners on here regarding my points above. Whether I'm agreed with or demonised It may be helpful for all of us going forward.
Anyway, all that aside, it's a brilliant achievement for you, 2/3 years ago when we were slogging out those 9:45 20 milers you'd have never believed me if I said you're going to run a sub 3:30
First of all - very gutsy performance jcsmum. Considering you were in medical-tent distress, you didnt really slow that much at all, and got the goal time in rough conditions.
Im no expert - but will chuck in my two cents. A little disclaimer is that im assuming that weather conditions are good, not like on monday.
As for running by feel. I think its fine, and probably the way to run the fastest times. KCs marathon race reports (except the ones run in tropical conditions) are great for this. The problem is that (in my experience anyway) if you are trying to run as fast as you can, you need to first know what you 'should' feel like at different stages in the race (i.e. at 10K, 13.1, 20 miles etc).
In order to do this, I think you probably need to have ballsed up a marathon or two, so that you know what you should not feel like early on (i.e. what level of effort at 5-10k leads to trouble at 35k). I dont think you get this from McMillan or Daniels calculators etc. Everyone is different, some people can sustain a higher percentage of their LT than others. I even think im different now to a few years ago. You might have run a string of PBs in marathons without a blowup - but will you ever then know if you really ran your fastest? Im not saying blowups are good (far from it), but I do think they are helpful long term. You learn how to deal with the race from the experience.
I used to just stick to goal paces: this led to two marathon detonations previously - one at 15 miles! Last year I used a mixed approach that I think I will stick to. I had a goal target which I thought was challenging but very doable, but I promised myself that I would keep breathing controlled and reach 13.1 miles feeling good - even if that meant missing the target pace. I had good conditions and was feeling good on the day, so as it happens I was on target at 13.1, and this allowed me to push on at 20 miles and run a decent negative split (all other marathons had a positive split). Beat my target by 3+ minutes.
I found the experience totally different running like this - chasing the pain in the last 10K in order to get a pb while you overtake constantly is very different to hanging on for dear life on an even-expenditure of effort strategy in my opinion.
So thats my idea (certainly nothing new, but framed by my personal marathon disasters):
1. set a challenging but very realistic target (i.e. neither wimp nor hero)
2. make sure breathing is controlled early on - breathing hard = horsing through your sugar = near certain disaster)
3. Run so you get to halfway feeling good, throw target out of the window if goal pace has you breathing hard before half-way
4. empy the tank, starting at 18-20 miles. Chase the pain instead of having it chase you.0 -
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Wednesday June 19
After a week of no running, I can't say I was full of the joys of heading out for this one, although once I got going, things fell into place. I was under no time constraints, so decided to do my 10 miles of over to Marlay, 2 loops there and then home.
A nice 3 steady miles over to the park and so I decided to up the pace for the next 4 miles, 8:09, 7:41, 7:48, 7:40 and then 3 steady miles home.
10 miles 8:05 average pace. Good to be back.
Thursday June 20
Decided to do a tempo run for this one. 6 miles, average pace 8mm. A steady first 2 miles, then 7:26, 7:21 followed by 2 more steady miles. Can't remember a thing about this.
Friday June 21
No plan for this, again under no time pressure. Plucked a 7 mile route out of the air and after a warm up first mile, decided to really up the pace.
Miles 2-6 were 7:43, 7:35, 7:17, 7:29 so happy with this.
Monday June 24
Was away for the weekend so no running done. Back to business bright and early Monday morning. Not sure what buttons I was pressing on the garmin, brain obviously hadn't woken up so I only recorded the first mile. Looking at mapmyrun I did over 5 miles in around 38 mins. I know I did push myself but I might be 'cheating' a bit here!
Tuesday June 25
Speed session with the club. 400x4, 300x3 and 200x3 (think I got that right). To say that I did not enjoy this is putting it mildly. I did stay with my group, but I think I pretty much hated every rep. On the plus side the splits are all pretty much the same so at least I wasn't slacking off. I found it tough running on grass after so many weeks of road running. It's done and that's all I can say.
With w/u and c/d 4.5 miles covered
Wednesday June 26
A semi recovery run this morning, surprisingly the legs felt pretty good for this one. 6 miles, average pace 8:12. Did some sprints (200m x5) for the last mile just to reassure myself that yesterday's club session was a 'once off'. :rolleyes::)0 -
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chinguetti wrote: »She wasn't very chatting on Saturday when i met her along the half route.:eek: A couple of runners laughed when I was given a broad hint to cut the questions:pac:.
Funny i get that reaction alot but can't think why.;)
I really do hate it when people with logs just don't update them. Either cancel them or update them.
I know, 'kettle, black. pot':D
Will you be throwing up a race report from Sat? I seem to remember you had use of this log before. 0 -
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Will you be throwing up a race report from Sat? I seem to remember you had use of this log before.
Begod I might. However it would include the meeting of 3 wolfhounds around mile 3 and there's a cat sitting behind me on his tower watching the news so i'll have to hold off for now.:D0
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