Snails pace

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

After years of playing various sports etc the body has decided its time to give up contact so the next aim is to take up running and maybe do the DCM marathon in October. In the land of a dreramer the hope would be a time of under 4hrs so 3:59:59 would be ok with me .

At 6ft 3 and 17st I'm not exactly built for running but the aim is to drop a few stone and get in shape for Oct. The first hurdle is the great ireland run in april.

I have completed a few 6km runs to date in times ranging from 31 to 34 mins. The main question is what can I do to increase my speed and bring the times down to help achieve the ultimate goal of a 4hr marathon.

All help and advice appreciated.

dermCu

Best of luck with the training log Kev.

If I was you I'd forget about increasing speed for the moment. Right now for the next few weeks and months you are just looking to establish a pattern. See how many days a week you can run and focus on 'time on your feet' as opposed to speed or distance. Once you start to get a handle on running 4/5/6 days a week then you can think about introducing some speed work. You are a big lad so break yourself in easy.

If you are coming from field sports that's probably not what you want to hear but it's the best way to safely build up your mileage. For people new to running the biggest initial gains to be made are from increasing volume i.e. How often and how long you run for.

Usual small print applies: make sure you have good runners, don't run through injury, don't try to do to much too soon.......etc

kevgaa

Thanks for the reply Dermcu,

I take on boards exactly what you are saying and I suppose my trainig plan is a few weeks behind, I started with 6km once a week before christmas and have built that up to twice and now am trying to do it ideally 4 times a week.

I guess coming from a sports background the competitor in me is coming out and I want to go quicker as the times for the 6km are fairly consistent now at about 32-33 mins. Like you said I'll let my body get used to running 4 times a week for the next few weeks and then I'll think about changing things up. Like increasing the mileage on one of the days and then maybe something like tempo runs or sprints after that.

thanks again.

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

After been layed up for month with a visit to hospital it was good to get back into things this week. What a glorious week for it also...

This week I managed 3x6km runs. Times werent great 34, 32, 33 mins but aim for next few weeks is to get 3 runs in a week min.

Basically 6km monday and friday

and on wednesday I'm going to start increasing the time so next wed the aim is to run for 40mins and not worry about distance speed etc and hopefully increase that by 5 mins a week till i get up to an hour. then i wil look at my plan for the following month.

As always any advice greatly appreciated as I'm completely new to this running lark..

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Another week over and I managed to get another 3 x 6km runs in.

Missed monday so wentg tuesday, wednesday and friday.

Tuesday was a real struggle think i had too many layers for the weather and only managed 33 mins.

Wednesday I was a bit smarter about what i wore and despite feeling wrecked I did the lap in 31 mins which is fastest in a few week so things are looking up. Still slow but its an im provement.

Friday struggled at the beginning to get into a rythm and get settled but once I achieved that the 2nd half of the run was comfortable and did the run in 32 mins so happy enough.

Big issue at the moemnt is getting the breathing right any suggestions or techniques I can use to improve this?

New target for the month is sub 30 for 6km...

huskerdu

Good man for starting running and good luck.

The 6km runs you are doing are NOT a slow pace for a beginner.

If you ran the St Patricks weekend 5km race at this pace, you would have
finished in 27m30sec. Lots of people here finished slower than this after months of training. Its agood base to work from, but you need a better training plan to work towards.

I would recommend some longer runs, at a slower pace.

Running longer, instead of faster is a very effective way of strengthening
your legs and lungs and your shorter runs will speed up as a result.

If you are aiming for the marathon, it does not matter how fast you can run 6km, it will not get you around 42km.


Increase the length of one of your weekly runs, by 10% every week, and
it doesn't matter how slow you are.

When you are comfortable running 8 or 10k, have a look at a beginners marathon or half-marathon plan like this one

www.halhigdon.com

Have fun, its a great feeling...

kevgaa

Thanks Huskerdu,

I agree completely with you, I definetly need to put some sort of structure to my training as at the moment its abit all over the place and I think it will be for the next 3 weeks. I have signed up for core/gym classes for a month and thats taking up two evenings a week so is hampering my training plan. But at least it will show me what i can do whne it over and incporate some of it into my plan. maybe with some stretching as I'm not exactly flexible.

The good news is in the last few weeks I have ditched the car for my commute to work and am now taking the bike 4/5 days a weeks which is 20 km a day 10 km each way.

now my training this week comprised of

80km on the bike as part of my commute
2 core/gym classes

2 runs, one 5km run in 27mins

I took Huskerdu advice and had planned a nice 45 min run at a slow pace to see how I got on, I got a bit carried away on the way out and when I looked at the watch i had ran for 30 mins and then another 30 mins back so i ran for an hour. The good news is I felt comfortable and in total i ran just over 10.5 km.

Plan for next week is something similar.

Hmmm next aim is to enter my first race. Any races in the 5km to 10 km range around dublin in the coming weeks?

huskerdu

kevgaa wrote: »

I took Huskerdu advice and had planned a nice 45 min run at a slow pace to see how I got on, I got a bit carried away on the way out and when I looked at the watch i had ran for 30 mins and then another 30 mins back so i ran for an hour. The good news is I felt comfortable and in total i ran just over 10.5 km.

10.5km in 60 minutes is a really good start. Do that a few times and increase the distance slowly as you feel comfortable.

Hmmm next aim is to enter my first race. Any races in the 5km to 10 km range around dublin in the coming weeks?

Look at the events sub-forum. There are a few 10ks coming up that might suit you.

Keep it up.

Also look at the novice marathon training plan here www.halhigdon.com. for an idea of the training that you are going to have to do in Aug/Sept/Oct for the DCM and this will give you an aim for the next 3 months.

Cleanman

kevgaa wrote: »

I took Huskerdu advice and had planned a nice 45 min run at a slow pace to see how I got on, I got a bit carried away on the way out and when I looked at the watch i had ran for 30 mins and then another 30 mins back so i ran for an hour. The good news is I felt comfortable and in total i ran just over 10.5 km.

That's a great start Kev, congrats on getting a full hour under your belt. You obviously have a very good base fitness from other sports. Having come from a similar background, I'm finding that getting out to do the long runs the hardest because I was so used to GAA training - mostly a series of very short explosive exercises.

It's not a problem to do the runs, it's the temptation to ditch the plan and go for a shorter faster run that kills us! If you're aiming for a marathon, it's essential to keep increasing the distance slowly but consistently.

I'll be following your log with interest;)

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies and good wishes...

Training in the last two weeks has been ok could be better but I managed to do

100 km on the bike
4 core training classes...
2 1 hour runs distance for each run was about 11km
3 6 km runs time around 31 mins

saying that last 6km run was yesterday and I felt comfortable in the end and could have probably pushed myself a little harder...

Planned on another 6km run today but shins are beginning to give me trouble so I hope its not shin splints catching up on me dragging all this weight round on the roads. Will see how I am tomorrow and might do some hill running if legs ok. Switched most of my long runs to the grass in the park so hopefully that will help but then again the grass is like rock these days..

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Another week over and so far this week I managed

20km on bike
2 core training classes

3 runs

1 for an hours about 11km
6km in 32mins into a serious head wind but all good
8km in 42 mins

The aim for the last month was bascially to run for an hour at least once a week and then do a few other shorter runs and thats achived.

So next question is what to do next?
The plan would be to continue with one long run a week and maybe add a few mins each week to get to a 90 minute run and introduce a few tempo or speedwork runs into my other runs during the week to try and increase the pace.
Or should I just continue what I'm at for the next few weeks?

thanks
Kev.

kevgaa

Finally after recovering from an injury and a stent in hospital I can resume my training.

First week back so managed 3 runs in the last 3 days and boy it felt good to be back.:) Well maybe not during the runs but definetly afterwards.

5km in 25:30

6km in 31 mins and 32 mins

so just going to get back into the routine of running 3-4 times a week for the next two weeks and then I have a 10 week schedule to follow for the race series 10 miler in the park and then maybe the half martahon after that.

kevgaa

Hi folks,

Another weeks over and after a few weeks off I'm just getting back into the routine of running 4 times a week. No long runs this week but will bring them back into the routine next week...

Saying that have to start doing some runs on grass as currently all runs are on the roads and body is beginning to ache from pounding 17st round the roads.

runs this week were

2 x 5km runs times 24:40 and 25:17 the wind does play havoc with your times...

2 x 6km runs times 32:00 and 31:01

Will contines with the 5 and 6km runs this week and then start following a trianing plan for a few weeks up to 10 miler in the park. this will bring in some LSR, tempo runs and speed work into my routine...

thanks
Kev.

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Since I last posted I managed to get 4 runs in, Picked up a bit of a cold so missed out on two runs but that could have been a blessing as shins were really sore after my last run.

Two 5km runs in 24:30 and 25 mins

6km run in 30:20

11km run at 9:42 pace.

The 11km run was my first LSR as part of abuild up to the Half marthon in the park. I found it hard to keep the pace as I kept going off too fast, at one stage I was doing 7:45 pace saying that by the end I was just about holding the pace.

Plan to do a few 5 or 6km this week with another LSR of 12km at a similar pace...

Thanks
Kev.

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Since I lasty posted I have taken the plunge and have signed up for the race series. My first race is this wekeend with the 5 miler in the park.

So far I havent committed to the DM yet but i am following a marthon schedule and I'll see how the body holds up and if its ok after the half in the park I'lls ign up for DM.

Last few weeks I have been following a marthon schedule and have done the following

3.5 miles at avg pace of 8:30
8.5 miles at avg pace of 9:36
5 miles at avg pace of 8:15

this week has been

5 miles at avg pace of 8:50
10 miles at avg pace of 9:33
3.5 miles at avg pace of 8:15

now rest for my first official race in the park on sat. hope to do it in about 42 mins so will see how that goes as I never raced before..

thanks
Kev.