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I can see the sun in wintertime
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Thanks for the good wishes folks, starting to get close to squeaky bum time.... Week 17 report, jeez how the hell did that happen?
Monday
Getting properly in the taper mode now so today is a rest day.
Tuesday
7 easy miles w/8x100s in 1:08:52. Lost count of the 100s but got 8 done.
Wednesday
Plan was 8 miles w/3x1600s. This scared me from a while back but as usual, once I got moving it wasn't too bad. Decided on 1600 fast with 800 recovery. The ground was very slippy so I definitely held back a little when the faster miles came in, but I wasn't that far away from 5k pace. The last 1600 was a bit of a killer, the recovery was very much needed when it arrived. 8 miles in 1:16:15.
Thursday
Rest day no. 2.
Friday
5.1 easy miles w/6x100s in 48:01. A grand run, this one.
Saturday
Supposed to be rest day, but it's OH's Dad's anniversary tomorrow and we have to do family stuff so it was easier to get this done today. Had to get out just before 8 a.m. as there was other family stuff today
Extended tour of North Dublin before 10 a.m. One small toilet stop required unfortunately. 12 miles in 2:04:40.
32.2 miles for the week, I feel so lazy!
So I'm facing into week 18 now. Monday is supposed to be a rest day with a run on Tuesday, but we're travelling over on Tuesday so I'll run on Monday instead. My first run in New York will be on my birthday on Wednesday
I've been doing a huge amount of navel gazing about so many things for next Sunday (holy crap, next Sunday!!!). This week is part of our family holiday but it's also the week before this year's goal marathon so there's a bit of a tossup between being a tourist with my family and planting my behind on the sofa. I reckon if I take it easy on Friday and Saturday I'll be in decent enough shape for Sunday. So that's
one thing. One of the other things keeping me awake is pacing and goals. Anyone reading this log will know that a sub4 marathon has eluded me quite a few times at this stage. This is marathon number 10 :rolleyes: Of course I'd love to hit sub4 this time if there was any chance of it but I don't think it's an option. The facts that New York is a hilly course, it looks like it's going to be a warm day and the marathon time calculator thingy gives me a 4:08 would tell me that I should probably be aiming for 4:10.
The training program has gone well. There hasn't been any drama which is great - Berlin 2015 had a fall and shoulder dislocation, last year's Dublin had 3 nights in hospital looking after The Boy when he broke his arm. I've missed a long run (18 miles), a tuneup race (the half marathon in Newbridge and a VO2 max session (5x1000m). So that's 3 missed sessions in 17 weeks which is very positive. My long runs have been fairly controlled. So overall I'm very happy with how the program has gone. My main aim over the next week is to get my head sorted, decide on my pace and have a good holiday in New York. 8 days and counting....0 -
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Thanks D, keeping everything crossed at this stage. I went to Expo yesterday to collect my number, got a bit emotional when I saw the signs. It's currently 23 degrees and sunny - what happened to the mild and cool November I was expecting?!Did 4 miles this morning and it was fierce warm altogether. Afterwards, went into Manhattan as far as the 911 memorial - a very sad and sombre place, but lovely all the same. Back on the subway as far as Times Square, where I had a bit of a dizzy turn - everything went a bit white and then a bit black
. Didn't quite pass out but wasn't far away. Gave OH and the kids a bit of a fright, they got me to a cafe for a drink and a bit of sugar, and then they brought me back to the apartment. They have ordered me to rest so I'm currently sat on the bed, drinking lots of water and taking it easy. Hopefully I'm just a bit dehydrated and there's nothing else sinister afoot. Temps for Sunday look to be around 17-18 degrees with fairly high humidity so I'll assess the pacing plan on the day. Heart of course wants as close to 4 hrs as is possible, head thinks that 4:10 - 4:15 might be more achievable with the course profile and the weather forecast. It's the day after tomorrow.... :eek: 0 -
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Well it's done The dust is still settling but we're back home and the washing machine is on it's second load so it's time to have a look back and see what happened... Be prepared, it's a long one...
We got to New York last Tuesday and I got out for two runs, Wednesday and Friday. There was another easy run in the plan for Saturday but after Friday's almost faint and general feeling of crapness, I gave it a miss and took it easy for the day instead. Went to bed early and tried to sleep. The clock was going back on Sunday morning so I was worried in case I wouldn't wake up at the right time, but all was ok. No drama. OH said he'd come with me as far as the ferry terminal so we headed for the subway at 6:15, to catch the train at 6:30. Which didn't come. Starting to get a small bit fidgety - due to catch ferry at 7:30... Put my hand in my bag for my water - which wasn't there. Oops. I'd planned to bring my bottle and top it up with cups from the water stations. Oh well... Train eventually came at 7:05 - panic is real now :eek: Eventually got off train and followed the crowds towards the ferry terminal. OH left me with a hug and words of encouragement and I headed for the ferry. The 7:30 one was full so I waited, bought a bottle of water and got on the 8:00 one. We got to Staten Island around 8:30 and it then took a full 30 mins to walk about 200m to the buses - mental! Eventually got to the start area just after 9:30 - I was due to enter the corral at 10:10 so there wasn't a whole lot of hanging around (which is actually a good thing) Stood in the loo queue for a while and then headed towards the corral, dumping my throwaway tracksuit top and leggings on the way. In the corral, breathing a sigh of relief that I was there and all was ok. Looked at my phone to check time and realised I couldn't see it BECAUSE I'D LEFT MY GLASSES IN MY THROWAWAY JACKET. PANIC! Asked could I leave to check the clothes skip, the volunteers told me to hurry up. Found my jacket after a bit of rummaging and praise be, my glasses were still in the pocket. Phew. Anyway with all the distraction of the late subway, no water and missing glasses, I wasn't even thinking about what lay ahead - which is really good. It meant I didn't have my usual pre-marathon meltdown, I was cool as a cucumber. I'd been very nervous all week - the weather was a bit too hot, I was knackered, the forecast for Sunday was heat and humidity - it all came to a head on Friday. After that, I had a bit of a "what will be, will be" attitude which was very unlike me just before a marathon!
We finally started walking towards the start line and the atmosphere was incredible. "America the Beautiful" was sung, swiftly followed by a kicka$$ version of "New York New York" and boom, it was our turn to go. It took about 3 or 4 minutes to get across the line and the first mile was very slow, but it was straight up the bridge so I didn't push it. It was steep enough, but I kept telling myself it's just like Grace Park Road
Second mile was a bit quicker because it was back down the other side of the bridge. Mile 3, grand. 5k was close enough to 30 mins and the mile markers were ahead of my mile splits so I decided to treat each 5k as a parkrun and aim to get through it in 30 mins or less. I reckoned that would bring me in at around 4:15. I needed to go to the loo from around mile 3 and there were loos at each water stop (every mile from mile 3) but there were queues and I wasn't ready to stop yet. I honestly can't remember each individual mile but I remember a general feeling of "right, I'm ok". I checked myself every few miles - head ok, shoulder ok, breathing ok, tummy ok, legs ok. 10k was a tip under an hour, bang on. I was taking a powergel sweet every two miles which seemed to be ok. No drama.
My cheerleaders were due to be between miles 8 and 9 - it was very close to where we were staying in Brooklyn so mile 8 passed with me looking for them. Sure enough, they were just before the mile 9 marker, that gave me a lovely boost and got me to the 15k marker on time. They popped up again just around mile 11, gotta love the subways! There were a load of empty loos just after the mile 11 checkpoint so I finally got to run in - stopped for about 30-40 secs, my quickest pitstop ever! (A little aside: I got a whatsapp message from my Dad yesterday congratulating me. He said that my Mam was giving him updates every mile and after mile 12 came up she ran in and said "there's something wrong! She's gone over 10 mins!" He was calm, told her I was fine and she came in 9 or so mins later and said "all grand, she's back on track")
The 20k mark came at just under 2:01, and half way followed in 2:07:27. From this point on, things felt harder but I knew I was on the way back. There was another bridge in mile 14 and I noticed a lot of walkers from here on in - the drizzly rain was nice but it felt like it was getting more humid and that made things tougher. The next landmark for me was Queensboro bridge, I knew this would be tough because it's steep, it's dark and it's the one spot with nobody around. I tried to keep my pace as consistent as possible through this. When we came out into the light I tried to remember that, even though it felt and sounded like the finish line, we still had 10 miles to go and First Avenue was ahead - keep calm, no drama. 25k done, 3 and half more parkruns to go.
The dodgy tummy started to play up a bit around mile 18, a bit of dry retching so I decided to give the powergel sweets a break. I think there were gels at this water stop as well but I thought it best not to take one - I had a feeling it might go in but might come out again as quick
30k came and went. Coming up to 21 miles we headed into the Bronx and then into Harlem (great sign on the bridge here: "last f***ing bridge, hell yeah!"). Tummy definitely causing problems and right hamstring starting to complain so I kept checking: head, shoulder, breathing, tummy, legs. Can I cope, hell yeah!
I missed my gang in Queens but saw them in again in Manhattan on 5th Avenue (The Boy was using the app to track me and he said I was never more than a minute away from where it predicted, he was impressed with my steady pacing apparently - I'll take that as a compliment, it's a rare and precious thing from a 17yr old). Mile 25 brought us to Central Park and a LOT more dry retching but no stopping - soooo close to the end! A lot of walkers at this stage so I was dodging people, just trying to get to the end. When the 26 mile marker passed, I think I started to cry. I knew then that I wouldn't walk, I wouldn't stop, I hadn't puked, all these things that seem meaningless to others but that have caused me so much trouble in all of the previous 9 attempts. Finally the finish line was ahead and I was bawling. Over the line, 4:13:04. Halle-frickin-lujah.
Got over the line and I was crying so hard that two volunteers checked I was ok. Each one gave me a hug and told me "get your medal, you've done it!" Got my medal and rang OH. Bawled a bit more and then rang my Mam, who set me off again by telling me how proud her and my Dad were. Moved slowly towards the ponchos (which are FAB, they were like duvets!) and out of the park. Eventually reunited with my cheerleaders and worked our way slowly towards the subway, where it took me a while to get my aching legs down the stairs.
So it's done and how do I feel? Very very happy. Not my fastest time (3rd best time), however I really feel this is a tougher course than Dublin. I finished 15 mins faster than my 2011 attempt at New York. I ran a negative split (even subtracting the 40 sec toilet stop from the first half gives me just under 2:07 and the final 13.1 was 2:05ish). My 5k splits were consistently around 30 mins. There's a tiny voice in the back of my head asking if I could have run slightly faster but I know I would have paid the price from mile 20 - and when I did pick up the pace I felt sick very quickly. I ran every step, the first time I've managed to complete a marathon without walking. And I didn't stop. I managed the dodgy tummy and completed a marathon without puking (honestly it's all glamour here :rolleyes:). I completed almost every session from the training program, 18 decent weeks of training (minus the week with the cold). So note to self for future attempts: forget your water bottle, wait for a train that doesn't arrive, lose your glasses and smile when you feel like you're going to throw up. The perfect recipe for a marathon - no drama.0 -
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Thanks for the kind words folks, much appreciated. I took a few days off after the marathon - we flew home on the Monday night/Tuesday morning and the DOMS wasn't really helped by 7 hours on the plane Went out on Friday for a couple of sloooow miles, which I really enjoyed. I've managed to run every day since then - nothing fancy, just some general miles, no program, no plan. This week I've done 31.1 miles so I'm happy with that. And today, I ran my 1500th & 1501st miles of the year - the most I've ever run in 12 months, so I'm VERY happy with that
Next on the agenda is the Aware 10k on 9th December. I haven't run a 10k in absolutely ages (in fact, if memory serves me right, the last one I ran was possibly 2012 :eek:) I won't be looking for a pb, it'll just be a tester to see how I am after New York. After that, the next goal will be the Raheny 5. I might try a program for this, will decide after the 10k. So probably not a lot of updates for a while, will wait till I actually have something to log 0 -
Yay! Structure!
Raheny 5 program started on Monday with an easy 4.8 miles (well the first 2.2 into town were easy, the second 2.8 were completed with a bag on my back - stupid Christmas presents).
Tuesday: Fartlek run. 16 min warmup, followed by 11x1min @ 10k pace w/1 min recovery, 15 mins cooldown. Wasn't in the mood for this AT ALL, so some major HTFU and sucking it up required. And as usual, it was alright in the end. 5.6 miles in 53:04.
Wednesday: Plan was for an easy hour, did 6 miles in 58:04 so left it at that.
Thursday: Supposed to be 6x1 mile @ tempo, but Aware 10k on Saturday so swapped in Saturday's easy miles instead.
Friday: Rest day or easy, so ran 4.2 easy miles in 41:35.
Saturday: Sick during night, lots of horrible unpleasantness but still planned to do Aware 10k. Alarm went off just before 8 and got sick again, so no 10k race for me Stayed in bed till lunch time, had a slice of toast and thought I felt a bit better so went out for a few miles - 3.2 miles in 31:18. Realised I actually didn't feel better so got back into bed and pretty much stayed there all day.
Sunday: Felt slightly better this morning, so braved the cold and sleet for 5.1 easy miles in 51 mins. This included my 1600th mile of the year (also mile 1601, 1602 and 1603) That's the most I've ever run in a year so I'm very happy with that.
So 35.1 miles in week 1, should've been more but sickness stopped play. Hopefully back to normal next week. Yay, I love programs! (I'll try to remember this in about 4-5 weeks when I'm complaining about programs :rolleyes:)0 -
Monday
Plan: easy or rest
Decided on easy. Very cold and frosty 4 miles in just under 40 mins. Special shout out to the lovely people who defrost their cars with kettles of water, which then flow out of their gardens to make lovely frozen icy streams. Hopped over several without incident but outside one garden, hopped over one and landed on another. Did some form of a ninja twist and managed to stay upright - side quite stiff and sore later though.
Tuesday
Plan: 3-4 tempo miles with warmup and cooldown.
Ran up to my mother in law in Cabra so she didn't have to go out in the cold. Took it easy on the way up because it was still quite frosty. It had pretty much melted by the time I was heading home so picked up the pace for the tempo miles - 3.1 in 26:30. Total for the day, 8 miles.
Wednesday
Plan: Easy 50 mins.
5.4 easy miles in 52:36.
Thursday
Plan: 12-16 x 400s, w/3 mins recovery.
Well this was a frickin' doozy of a session. Didn't feel the love right from the start but htfu'd a bit. Decided on 400 fast and 400 recovery. First couple were meh, got a bit better for the next few, felt crap again, etc etc etc. Pulled the plug after rep 10 - an eejit was on the phone and didn't notice his dog going for me. I ran onto the grass to try to avoid him and slipped. Did another ninja twist to prevent myself falling and let out a girly squeal, followed by a not so girly "what the f***"?? Dog owner eventually realised what was going on and reined in the dog. Took the almost-fall as the sign to go home and have a big scone and a coffee. Shoulder and side very sore afterwards, the scone helped 6.8 bleurgh miles in 1:02:13.
Friday
Plan: rest or easy
Fasting blood tests first thing in the morning which left me a bit wobbly - deep veins normally mean a lot of poking and prodding. So 3.1 easy miles in 31 mins.
Saturday:
Plan: 60-70 mins easy
7.1 miles in 1:11:27 done in a lazy wind - it goes through you rather than around you :rolleyes:
Sunday
Plan: Long run of 1:30-1:45
Nice tour of Dublin 9 & 11 for a total of 10.1 miles in 1:38:49. A grand run and (I think) my first time in double figures since New York.
Total of 44.6 miles for the week, happy enough with that. Aiming to break 1700 for the year, current total is 1648...0 -
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Monday (18/12)
Easy 4.1 miles in 40:56. Not that easy though, breathing not great, inhaler needed. Ooops, trouble coming...
Tuesday
8x200s with 200 recovery. A bit of a meh run, breathing still not great. 6.2 miles in total in 58 mins.
Wednesday
4 miles in 40:23. Throat scratchy, nose running, head all over the place. Yep, definitely not good.
Thursday
Supposed to be tempo miles, not a hope of that happening. Managed 5 miles in 50:23 in the hope it would clear my head - and it didn't.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
No running, no walking, not a whole lot of anything. Christmas Day was fun - high temperature, sore throat, stuffed head and tight chest. Still cooked the dinner though (even baked a gluten free swiss roll so I could make a trifle that coeliac Middle Girl could eat). Had planned to do the Goal Mile in St. Annes but felt so horrible that it just wasn't on.
Wednesday
Feeling a tiny bit better so went out for a few easy miles. 3.3 miles in just under 33 minutes. Still quite coughy and spluttery, breathing still not ideal. But the cabin fever was worse than the lack of breath so out of the house I went.
Thursday
Slightly better again. 4 miles in 39:22. Less coughing and sniffing.
My aim of 1700 miles for the year has probably been kyboshed by the lack of running over the last week, but that's not too big a deal - I've already covered more miles in 2017 than in any other year so I'll take that. I signed up for the Clonliffe Christmas cracker on Sunday but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I could always go up and jog around - I'll decide on Sunday morning 0
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