Lets try again for that marathon...

Formosa

Updates:

Monday evening, starting to get fairly stiff after Enniscorthy, short run of 2.7 miles, down the river & back.

Tuesday evening, around 9pm, legs still very tired, ran 7.35 miles @ 8m47s pace, then this morning, 7.45 miles, 8m40 pace.

Lovely weather again this morning and I took a new energy drink beforehand, can’t remember the name, beginning with “O” I think, it’s the one they were promoting down in the hotel in Enniscorthy Sunday morning.

I was full of running for the last mile this morning, I will attribute that to the drink.

Formosa

Step back weekend just gone, 10 miles run Saturday morning. Glorious weather for it, headed out at 9.45am before the big heat hit with all its might.

I am getting better at slowing the pace, averaged 9m4 sec per mile. I have 15 miles to do this coming Saturday so i am confident of keeping that around 9m 15 which is where I want to be.

The next few weeks are make or break for me because on my aborted marathon attempt before it was in the high teens distances where I broke down. I'm feeling a lot better this time round so hopefully all will go well.

Last night, Monday did 6.1 miles at a brisker 8m26 average. Went out at 9.05pm which I'm not used to, went to bed at 11.30 and lay awake for quite a while. Think I'll revert to 6pm runs instead where possible.

Formosa

6.40am this morning was definitely the best of a wretched day weather wise around these parts, lovely sunny morning, not a breath of air.

Unfortunately my running form didn't match, struggled big time on a 7 miler, for the first time in months was contemplating stopping, may have done if I wasnt at the furthest point away from home at the stage so thankfully I persevered.

8m 23 sec pace.

Formosa

I haven’t been around here for a week, so just to log my running activities in the meantime:

Last Friday, 8th July, 4.5 miles. This was the evening before my long run and I just went because I had only been out twice since the previous weekend. Looking at it now, I see it was actually early morning, I don’t even remember that now a week later!

Saturday, LSR, 15 miles…slow and comfortable for 10, then gradually descended into torture. Reasons? I am putting it down to poor or lack of fluid and energy intake. I took a 250ml bottle of water with me (for ease of carrying) and 5 or 6 jelly babies. Didn’t touch anything until mile 10, then started taking drink and sweets. The sun was out all that morning and beating down on me. By mile 13 I was out of supplies, luckily I was passing a friends house and popped in for a bottle of water, it was a life saver but the damage was done at that stage.

Plodded on and completed but my novice-like approach showed. I will be a lot wiser tomorrow. I did recover reasonably quickly afterwards.

This week I went out Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. 7.65 miles Tuesday, had to walk a good bit of mile 6 due to sharp pains in my right foot. They went away and haven’t been back luckily.

Wednesday, legs like lead from the off, ploughed on and did 5 miles. Thursday another 5 miles, more in the legs this time.

16 miles this weekend, most likely tomorrow morning but I’ll wait and see, the three days on the trot have tired me, maybe leave it until Sunday morning?

Formosa

Long run, 16 miles last Saturday. Wet and windy (wind not too bad) conditions were much preferable to beaming sun of the previous week.

Headed out at 4pm having done a good bit around the house all day prior , so legs were a bit tired starting.

However it went really well, very comfortable to mile 14, even 15, lost concentration abit for the last two and did them in 9 mins each, a bit fast but overall avg was 9m17 per mile.

Recovery afterwards was good aswell so progress being made.

Monday evening did 5.6 miles but boy were my legs heavy! Two lumps of lead being carried around and it didnt ease up at all really.

Lower back has been quite sore since, did nothing yesterday and will chance 5 miles tonight.

Still on track, but still the thought of 26 is very daunting but lets hope it will all come together on the day!

BobMac104

Formosa wrote: »

Long run, 16 miles last Saturday. Wet and windy (wind not too bad) conditions were much preferable to beaming sun of the previous week.

Headed out at 4pm having done a good bit around the house all day prior , so legs were a bit tired starting.

However it went really well, very comfortable to mile 14, even 15, lost concentration abit for the last two and did them in 9 mins each, a bit fast but overall avg was 9m17 per mile.

Recovery afterwards was good aswell so progress being made.

Monday evening did 5.6 miles but boy were my legs heavy! Two lumps of lead being carried around and it didnt ease up at all really.

Lower back has been quite sore since, did nothing yesterday and will chance 5 miles tonight.

Still on track, but still the thought of 26 is very daunting but lets hope it will all come together on the day!

#

Just had quick scan through your log Formosa. Great stuff. You seem to be flying for a sub 4 hour. sorry if i missed it but are you doing DCM or an earlier one?

Formosa

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your comments.

I'm hoping to do one of the two on 28th August, Longford (most likely) or Galway.

It's getting very close now though...

BobMac104

Formosa wrote: »

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your comments.

I'm hoping to do one of the two on 28th August, Longford (most likely) or Galway.

It's getting very close now though...

looking good , I mean (not intentially I know) you wernt too far off PMP for sub 4 on your last 16 miler. whats the longest LSR are you planning

I am hoping to do sub 4 in DCM . My latest LSR was 13 miles at 9:45. still lead legged two days after. The thought of 9 min miles for 26 miles is quite daunting for me also at this stage.

best of luck with it !

Formosa

BobMac104 wrote: »

looking good , I mean (not intentially I know) you wernt too far off PMP for sub 4 on your last 16 miler. whats the longest LSR are you planning

I am hoping to do sub 4 in DCM . My latest LSR was 13 miles at 9:45. still lead legged two days after. The thought of 9 min miles for 26 miles is quite daunting for me also at this stage.

best of luck with it !

I have pencilled in to do 18 this weekend, then 20,22,20 as far as I can remember (the plan is at home on the fridge).

I did 13miles 2 mths before my race date, you have yours done 3 mths + ahead so you seem to be well ahead on that front.

Best of luck to you too.

Formosa

Headed out last night for a much dreaded 6 miles, the fear of back pain striking me down had me nervous. Glad to say that over the course of the day any stiffness from Monday had eased a lot and got through it grand.

8m42sec pace.

Formosa

Ran 6 miles last Thursday to bring the week's total to 17.5 ahead of my long run Saturday.

I had a busy schedule Saturday so got up at 6.15am and headed off on my 18miler at 7.20.
Weather was fantastic, not a cloud in the sky bur still with some early morning coolness. Not a puff of wind either.

Mile 1 was very stiff but loosened up quickly enough. Did first mile in 9m32 and maintained a very consistant pace at around 9m30 for most of it, again sped up in the latter stages as concentration wavered - I see I did mile 15 in 8m48 sec, I have no recollection of that.

Average pace for the 18 miles was 9m23sec and the whole thing was not too bad, I was in good enough shape at the finish.

It's later on that I'm suffering, it really takes a lot out of me for a good few hours. Sunday had a bit of stiffness but nothing major so I'm going fairly OK.

That was my longest ever run (think I got up to 16 on previous marathon training) so happy enough and reasonably confident ahead of a scheduled 20 this coming weekend.

Formosa

The plan this week was 5,10,5 Tues/Wed/Thurs and 20 on Saturday or Sunday.

Did the five yesterday at 6pm, 8m31 pace, I wanted to push it a bit harder than I had been doing lately , reasonably comfortable at the end.

Because of various circumstances I decided to do the 10miles this morning rather than this evening so set the alarm for 5.55am and headed off at 6.45am. Probably not my smartest move ever, my legs were VERY tired throughout and have been since. I'm not used to having that short of a gap between runs. I didnt enjoy any of it which is a shame as the weather was again splendid.

I cant go out tomorrow evening so was going to do 5 tomorrow morning, I might push that out to lunchtime instead, give me a few extra hours recovery.

Formosa

Got in a lunchtime run last Thursday, 5 miles to bring me to a total of 20 for three days.

Then for the rest of Thursday, all Friday and Saturday morning I had to help out on a job that required a lot of manual work (not something I'm used to with me handy desk job) so I was tired enough Sunday morning facing into 20 miles.

Headed off at 9.15 am, and once the cobwebs were shaken off after the first miloe I was fairly comfortable up to mile 11, tiredness kicked in and I felt the remaining nine. The increase from 18 the previous week to 20 felt very big, but I had no option but to battle on and I finished it with an overall average pace of 9m20secs.

Quite tender after, a lot of raw skin from friction to various delicate parts of the body, but muscle-wise just a bit of stiffness today, nothing out of the ordinary.

So 20 miles done, that is the furthest i have ever run in one go.

I entered Longford last night (entry fee going up from today) so no turning back now!

I had scheduled 22 miles next weekend then 18 on 13th August but I think I'll just repeat the 20 again next Saturday, that should be enough when combined with 20 odd midweek miles again?

Formosa

Update for last week:

Following my 20 miles on Sunday, I went out and ran 5 miles Tuesday evening. Stiffness throughout but not too bad.

Wednesday, I just didn’t want to go running and I should have listened to my body. There are times when it is just laziness (most times) but sometimes you are not right to run, this was one of those latter times but I took it as me being a lazy b0llocks so I forced myself to go.

It was horrible, I hobbled around for seven miles and hated every second of it.

Left calf in particular was very sore during and after it. I visited my physio on Friday evening for a rub. My usual lad in that practice is a sadistic 18 stone animal who kills me so I was delighted to be greeted by a slip of a girl, this won’t be the agony I’m used to I thought. How wrong I was, come back Martin, all is forgiven, this was torture but in fairness to her she did a good job.

Headed out Saturday morning, 7.45 am for my LSR, didn’t know how long I’d go but would do between 18 and 22.

Anyway I did 19 and had enough, the 19th was a mile from home but I stopped and walked the rest of the way. In the last 7 days I had done 51 miles which is a hell of a lot for me, I need to cut it back a lot now.

Another problem now with some considerable pain in the left foot, right in the angle where foot and leg meet, never had that before…it’s not great so I am booked in with my mate Martin the physio later today, here’s hoping it’s just a niggle and I can be back in action by tomorrow!