I keep accidentally signing up for marathons...

marrona

Over Christmas, a friend mentioned they'd a house in Leenane. I said, "We should all do the Connemarathon!", safe in the knowledge that such proclamations, when in a pub setting, are politely ignored and promptly forgotten. This gentleman's agreement was not respected however and sadly, I woke up to a text that read:

"Just entered Connemarathon. You better do it."

So, round the anniversary of my first run (April 13, 2010), I'll be completing my second marathon! (This time last year I didn't know what Bodyglide or an LSR was...and I'm trying to think...I think I was happy then?)

My times
Braveheart Trim 5km (June 2010): 28m 5s
Strawberry Half (June 2010): 2h 22m
Brussels Half (Oct 2010): 2h 11m
Dublin marathon (Oct 2010): 4h 57m


To do in first half of 2011:
1. Connemarathon 10/04/11 (aim: 4h30)
2. Calcutta run 10km 14/05/11 (aim: 1st female finisher from work)
3. Braveheart 5km 17/06/2011 (aim: beat my brother)

A 4h30 marathon would be 27 mins faster than my last. That's one min per mile faster, sounds a lot when you say it like that - we'll see how that goes.

I'll be following this plan starting today: http://www.vaam-power.com/marathon-training-program.html#program


Advice always welcome!

RacoonQueen

Welcome back.

maria74

Love your log Title!:D Best of luck with it all.

Mr Slow

Well done on your log, hope to see you for a few LSR's when you're home!

shazkea

Welcome back and best of luck with the training for Conn.

marrona

Mon | 5km
Tue | basketball
Wed| 13km
Thur|6km
Fri|10km incl 4 x 100m strides
Sat|rest
Sun|rest

This plan is in km, so I'll work with that and hopefully at some stage soon stop dividing by 8 and multiplying by 5 to see what it 'really' is!

shels4ever

Creditcards, drink and running talk is a nasty mix...

marrona

Had a bit of a shaky start to my training plan. So bad in fact that I was too embarrassed to write anything about it and was gonna just ignore and start again next week. But what's the point in a log if you only record the good times and not the bad?

Planned 4 runs. Made 3. Cut two of these short. One day was a total write-off. Evening was full so had to get run in in morning. But i am such a bad morning person, to help myself along and make it easier...I went to bed in my running gear! with my runners unlaced and set facing the door. I stopped short of sleeping in my contact lenses, but it crossed my mind. Alarm set for 7. Multiple snoozes later, woke at ten to 9, peeled off my Nike pyjamas: shower, dress, work

Total km: 17.16

This morning went to mapmyrun and accidentally typed mapmyruin!

Onwards and upwards though, plan for this week:
Mon | 12km incl 5 x 100m strides
Tue | 5km & basketball
Wed| 22km
Thur|rest
Fri|15km
Sat|rest
Sun|6km

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

Had a bit of a shaky start to my training plan. So bad in fact that I was too embarrassed to write anything about it and was gonna just ignore and start again next week. But what's the point in a log if you only record the good times and not the bad?

Planned 4 runs. Made 3. Cut two of these short. One day was a total write-off. Evening was full so had to get run in in morning. But i am such a bad morning person, to help myself along and make it easier...I went to bed in my running gear! with my runners unlaced and set facing the door. I stopped short of sleeping in my contact lenses, but it crossed my mind. Alarm set for 7. Multiple snoozes later, woke at ten to 9, peeled off my Nike pyjamas: shower, dress, work

Total km: 17.16

This morning went to mapmyrun and accidentally typed mapmyruin!

Onwards and upwards though, plan for this week:
Mon | 12km incl 5 x 100m strides
Tue | 5km & basketball
Wed| 22km
Thur|rest
Fri|15km
Sat|rest
Sun|6km

Is that all flat mileage or is there paced runs etc?

marrona

mrslow wrote: »

Is that all flat mileage or is there paced runs etc?

what? the shorter ones are faster than the longer ones if that's what you mean?

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

what? the shorter ones are faster than the longer ones if that's what you mean?

Smashin, I was just askin:(

marrona

well it's by default, not design, that the longer runs are slower! still not much method in this madness! marathon pace would be 10 mins 18 secs per mile. am thinking to do 10mins per mile or faster on short runs. around marathon pace on the longISH runs and 11 mins per mile on LSRs

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

well it's by default, not design, that the longer runs are slower! still not much method in this madness! marathon pace would be 10 mins 18 secs per mile. am thinking to do 10mins per mile or faster on short runs. around marathon pace on the longISH runs and 11 mins per mile on LSRs

If you can, speed up to 10 min pace towards the end of your long runs (ie) run the last 5 of a 14 miler at pmp, it simulates glycogen depletion in the race so your body stores more for next time, it also forces you to burn fat making the changeover easier in the race.

I'm full of new found information, can you tell?:D

menoscemo

mrslow wrote: »

I'm full of new found information, can you tell?:D

I'm starting to realise we must all get like this after reading our first running book.

in the case of mr slow it may also be his first book of any kind :P

Mr Slow

menoscemo wrote: »

I'm starting to realise we must all get like this after reading our first running book.

in the case of mr slow it may also be his first book of any kind :P

It's actually my third!!! (running book):D

marrona

speed up at the end of a long run sounds hard just written down!! I will try it out though.

Mr Slow

I'm gonna give up on advice, whether I'm right or wrong there's always abuse:(

marrona

I just looked up "undulating" in the dictionary. "to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion; display a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side alternation of movement" - now to look up sinuous.

ok a bendy road. boardies are very wordy.

marrona

5 laps of Parc 5 with a 100m sprint on each lap. 12.33km. My longest run this year and it felt great. Planned: laps 1&5-handy, laps 2&4-increased effort, lap 3-freestyle.

Lap 1: 14m49s
Lap 2: 13m49s
Lap 3: 14m55s
Lap 4: 13m43s
Lap 5: 14m49s

12.33km in 1h14m49s
Average pace: 6:04min/km
Marathon pace: 6:24min/km

marrona

Baketball training. Coach said if ya tuck your thumbs into your fists, it prevents stitches. Not practical for basketball obv! but says he's been running like that for years and never gets a stitch. But i'd have thought ya don't get stitch cos fit?

One handy lap of Parc 5 in the rain, thumbs tucked into fists. (Cut short by one lap cos I was really hungry, or else was getting a stitch - I couldn't tell)

2.77km in 18m28s
Average Pace: 6:40 min/km

Mr Slow

Very quiet here.....what gives?:D

marrona

mrslow wrote: »

Very quiet here.....what gives?:D

I thought I'd like logging but I don't! don't worry though, you haven't missed anything

marrona

runs: 2
KMs: 15.1km

not goin very well. last week in Brussels for me. lots of wrapping up celebrations and two lots of visitors meant i didn't get out as often as I planned. well I could've if I was more organised but I didn't. that's my excuse anyway. 'being on holidays' will be my excuse next week . really regret starting this log!!!

marrona

4.1km round the block. don't know the time - stopped in the bank, didn't stop the watch.

marrona

marrona wrote: »

To do in first half of 2011:

1. Connemarathon 10/04/11 (aim: 4h30)

Change of plan: doing the Connemara half.

A 12 week mara plan was cutting it a bit fine. When 3 of these weeks had no LSR, that's just a bit ridiculous. 6 friends doin the half. I was going lone ranger on the full. My heart was never really in it. Thought if I wrote it down it'd make me wanna do it but it didn't. Happier now to be doin the half. Just means my log title now reads like a British tabloid headline i.e. the content tells a totally opposite story.

Up a hill in Spain at the moment. My god these hills. Have never seen anything so steep that wasn't actually on the side of a mountain. They're hard to go down, never mind up - and that's walking. I've taken to staying up the hill, or getting the bus. Never walk down. The thoughts of coming up scares me.

New guy joined the hostel last night. Into 400m running. Started giving me tips and saying I should use the hills for interval training. After a bottle of homemade wine, bought from the 100 year old woman across the street, his true love of interval training really came out:
"Interval training! Fantastic theory! You can apply it to anything...running...playing guitar...cooking."
*reflects*
"Maybe not cooking."
*reflects again*
"Maybe cooking. Maybe pasta. Faster pasta?"

So I braved the outdoors this morning. Put on my socks which I noticed for the first time say "HILLY" on them, as if to remind of what is out there - like I'd forget. Found a relatively flat patch. Still mountainous compared to anything I'd seen recently in the low countries. 30 min tempo run interspersed with min or two of walking. One of the toughest runs I've done. Still, all these hills are good for the arms, according to the resident drunken expert. Doesn't feel good for the back.

After half an hour, walked the 5 minutes home - was still breathing heavily after I got in and was sitting down a bit. New goal: must not die in Connemara.

time: 30 mins 21 s
temp: 22 degrees

marrona

Marrona has come down from the mountain and moved to flatter ground! 3 miles on the agenda today. No way to measure it. Ran one direction for 15 minutes. 13 and a half minutes to get back. Felt like a good pace so should be 3 miles I hope.

time running: 28 mins 39s
temp: 15 degrees

marrona

Fairly hot day. Waited til 6pm and sun going down. 3 miles again. Still no map/net. Ran the same direction as yesterday and got to same place. Could feel it in calves. Was knackered at halfway point (15mins) and took a breather. Did my usual trick of convincing myself "it's important you stretch" when really, just want to stop. 14 mins 17s back. Din't feel like I was going too hard but really out of breath and dripping in sweat.

Time running: 29 min 17s

marrona

rest day.

picked fellow Connemarathoner up at the airport and back up the hill. Mr Interval Training's lectures have moved on to VO2 max and oxygen debt.

marrona

5 loops of the house, up and back. With a Gladiator travellator style hill at the end of each.

3.5ish miles in 40ish mins.

marrona

Mon: romantic 4 hour hike
Tues: one hour walk
Wed: one hour walk at 2500m
Thurs: beautiful half hour run along the beach with full moon
Fri: duvet day
Sat: fly day
Sun: LSR: 6 miles on undulating road in 1h 05m 32s. felt full and heavy. clothes heavy too. knew would be slow but didnt think that slow! walked twice for a min cos stomach in a heap. fairly phlegmy. one dog ran for me, one rat ran away from and one horse stood stone still - lovely evening overall.

marrona

mon: basketball training, great session
tues: -
wed:run to Freffans, 4 miles in 42m45s:o. found it terribly hard :eek:. gained a lot of weight, lost a lot of fitness:(. walked some times. a friendly dog followed me for a bit:cool:. saw lots of snowdrops and a few tulips:).

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

:ofound it terribly hard :eek:. gained a lot of weight, lost a lot of fitness:(. walked some times. a friendly dog followed me for a bit:cool:. saw lots of snowdrops and a few tulips:).

Were you tripping?

marrona

wed eve: bb training
thurs:-
fri:-
sat: 40 min tempo run
sun: 3.7 miles in 36m24s

I read Dave McSavage say in the Independent that if he wants to feel alive, he goes to the theatre because when it's over, he's overcome with joy and feels like he's got his life back. This is how I felt about running on Saturday. Sunday was nice.

runs: 3
cross: 2

marrona

Week 7
1 training, 2 matches, 0 running

Week 8
mon: training
tues: 3.14 miles in 30 minutes 51 secs.
wed: training
thurs: 50 situps and 1 minute of plank.
fri: -
saturday: 1.75 miles in 16mins 1 sec
sun: -

Week 9
mon: match
tues: -
wed: training
thurs: Fr. Murphy 5 mile road race in 48 mins 10 secs
fri: -
sat:-
sun: 8.42 miles in 1hour 32 mins 2 sec

marrona

marrona wrote: »

To do in first half of 2011:
1. Connemarathon 10/04/11 (aim: 4h30)
2. Calcutta run 10km 14/05/11 (aim: 1st female finisher from work)
3. Braveheart 5km 17/06/2011 (aim: beat my brother)

Just to bring some closure to this thread:

1. "did" half, not full
2. underestimated amount of skinnymalinks competitve maniacs at work
3. brother has left country for summer

In short: fail

RayCun

Next?

Mr Slow

DCM!

marrona

Dublin race series 5 mile, 10mile, half.

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

Dublin race series 5 mile, 10mile, half, DCM

marrona

I was walking through Phoenix Park last week after a concert with a very strong urge to pee and while considering whether to dash behind a tree or not, I was reminded of DCM and a former life - a life on boards

Mr Slow

marrona wrote: »

I was walking through Phoenix Park last week after a concert with a very strong urge to pee and while considering whether to dash behind a tree or not, I was reminded of DCM and a former life - a life on boards

Welcome Home.;)