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Warning - Marathon Free Zone
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10-11-2011 4:06pm#1Long time lurker, first time logger.
As the title suggests, I've no intention of ever doing a marathon, just doesn't appeal to me. Also, having a fiancé who's a physio and who frowns when you mention the word marathon, might have a little to do with it. Oh the two knee operations about five/six years ago could also have a slight bearing too.
Little background, I'm 33, male, played football as a kid, Olympic Handball in college and soccer until about 25. Gym and 5aside have been the sporting activities since then.
I've been gyming it regularly since the end of July and thrown in the odd run too. Most of the gym visits are generally based around either running or a programme the trainers gave me. Lost 32 lbs since then, so delighted with that result. On the treadmill I've tried fast 5kms, speed up my 10km and intervals. One of the trainers is a good runner so been doing what he tells me.
My first race was the Rathfarnham 5km at the end of September. Lovely day, if a little on the warm side (I'm Irish, couldn't possibly be happy with the weather).
Like a fool came out without my watch so had no idea of pacing, rookie mistake, I know. Tried to keep the pace steady all the way round, but got to the last qtr mile and knew I'd left too much in the tank, went for it from there and flew past a good few before the line. No clock at the end though, so how had I done, was afraid to find out. I'd been targeting a sub 20 based on what I'd done on the treadmill and I don't think I've ever checked one website as often as I did the Rathfarnham site looking out for the results. Finally came through and it was a time of 19:54, was delighted with that, first race and under 20 mins, starting to like this running malarkey. 
After that training was still going well in the gym, faster speeds, running longer, decent intervals, but couldn't drag myself out of the gym and onto the roads. If I get into the car after work and head to the gym, that's easy enough to do, if I head home and sit down on the couch, I'm a goner, you're not getting me out again for exercise.
So despite the lack of road running, I signed myself up for the Racepix 5km in Maynooth at the end of October. Nice flat course, but it was a pretty windy day, luckily large parts of the course had shelter, but there were a few nasty crosswinds, especially in the last couple of hundred metres of the lap. Had my watch with me this time, don't know whether that made things any easier or not, you're only really able to check your pace 4 times in a 5km so maybe not that useful. Might have to get myself one of these new fangled Garmin machines, that you crazy kids talk about the whole time. Was interesting running with smaller numbers too, I think there were about 150 finishers, versus over 700 at Rathfarnham, so quite a different experience.
There was a mad dash to the first bend, twas a bit tight there and it took a couple of hundred metres before it all settled down. Got into a rhythm I was comfortable with and picked out a t-shirt or two to try and aim to keep in sight. Felt good going round, first km was 3:55, probably because of a slightly fast start, next three kilometres were between 4:00 and 4:03. Knew, like Rathfarnham I'd probably left a bit in the tank, so with about 500m to go I started to stride out, going into all out sprint from about 250m out. The t-shirt I'd been aiming for and who had been drifting ahead of me, started to come back into sight. With about 50m to go I got past him and a few others and crossed the line in a time of 19:44, so ten second improvement on Rathfarnham. Was happy with that and my packet of Tayto and Twix that I was handed at the end, hey I'm easily pleased.
On a kinda spooky point, I checked the results later to see where I came, 41st in case you were wondering, the person who finished behind me, he whom I had been chasing down, had the same name as my Dad. :eek: not spooky, no, really, not even a little bit, just a big coincidence then, oh ok.
So two races run and two sub 20 minute times, think that' a pretty decent spot to start from. I'm looking at 5km, 5mile and 10km races as the racing for me, would love to try cross country too given the chance, looks like fun, yes I am slightly cracked.
The next races I was aiming for are the Jingle Bells 5km on the 3rd Dec and the Clonliffe Harriers 5km on the 18th Dec.
Having read lots of other threads and logs I decided to beat Raycun to it and I went out with a club last Saturday to try it out, thanks to theRoadRunner for his advice on that. Forgot the watch again and did I think about 4.25 miles in around 28 minutes. Was interesting running with a group for the first time, started out with the slower group and ended up dropping them after a couple of laps (doing 1,500m laps). Was good having faster targets to chase after as well. Was my first time running on grass, was a bit tricky with footing in places, particularly one pretty steep hill. Trail runners may need to be invested in for future sessions.
So I suppose targets being usually a good thing in life, I should look at setting a couple. Following my second 5km race, I was chatting to my baby brother in Oz, he did a lot of 5km races in Brighton last year in the brilliant park run series. So discovered his PB is 19:39 for the 5km, guess what my first target is, hands up who guessed 19:38, pat yourself on the back there. Sibling rivalry is alive and well in our household
Going off on a tandem, yes I do, do that a bit, why don't we have something like the Park Run series in Ireland www.parkrun.com, free chip timed 5km races every Saturday morning. When it started in Brighton they had about a dozen doing it, by the time my brother was doing it last year, there were about 400 odd every week.
Oh yeah, back to targets, I'm really struggling to figure out what my targets should be. A sub 40 minute 10km has to be an initial target I suppose, it being a nice round number and all, I like nice round numbers. Not really sure what's possible, do I stick crazy targets out there or try and be realistic. I might hold off on setting targets for a while other than beat my brothers time for the 5km and run a sub 40 10km and take it from there.
I've gone on for long enough, might just post last nights run later so that anyone having the misfortune to read my ramblings doesn't nod off completely.
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Nice work!Sprocket77 wrote: »Lost 32 lbs since then
I think this thread will result in regular bouts of jealousy for meSprocket77 wrote: »Finally came through and it was a time of 19:54, was delighted with that, first race and under 20 mins, starting to like this running malarkey.0 -
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So after my first session with the club last Saturday I couldn't get out running again until last night because of work, work and free time doesn't always agree.
Up to this I've tended to run at a high enough intensity in the gym, so decided to listen to Ecoli and try and use a longer slower run to increase my aerobic capacity.
Mapped out a looped route on mapmyrun, it came to 11.7km or 7.31miles, short by the standards of most people on here but I hadn't run this far outdoors before, although had done longer in the gym once or twice, so wasn't sure how it would go.
Headed out at a nice steady pace, route's up hill for most of the first 5.5.km, steady enough incline though so nothing too crazy. Listened to the radio on ipod to keep me occupied, I think I prefer the Right Hook when George isn't on. Very different going at this pace from the normal faster pace, an awful lot more comfortable, think I could get used to it.
I managed to keep the same pace, or what I felt was the same pace the whole way round, none of my usual pick it up at the end to leave myself smashed getting in the door. Stop watch isn't much good for anything other than telling me my final time, so no idea of splits.
Overall, happy with my first mini LSR, kept a decent pace and it felt relatively easy the whole way round.
Distance - 11.70km/7.31miles
Time - 57:56
Avg. Pace - 4:57 per km/7:55 per mile
Was supposed to have my second club session this evening, got stuck later than I'd hoped in work, but headed for the clubhouse anyway. Traffic was a nightmare and knew quickly enough I wouldn't get there anywhere near on time, so turned the car around and headed for the gym instead. Got to the gym, changed, but couldn't find my runners. Had forgotten to put them back in the bag after yesterdays run. So no session this evening, I suppose I can be thankful to the traffic, if I'd shown up at my second club session without runners I'd have looked just a tad silly
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Sprocket77 wrote: »As the title suggests, I've no intention of ever doing a marathon, just doesn't appeal to me.
What's the bets sprocket does a marathon in the next 3 yearsSprocket77 wrote: »Also, having a fiancé who's a physio and who frowns when you mention the word marathon, might have a little to do with it. Oh the two knee operations about five/six years ago could also have a slight bearing too.
Fair enough about the knee operations but football especially 5 aside would be much tougher on the body than a marathon. Also I know of very few marathon runners who have dodgy knees.
What club did you go down to in the end?0 -
TheRoadRunner wrote: »What's the bets sprocket does a marathon in the next 3 years
Hmmmm, what odds are you giving me?TheRoadRunner wrote: »What club did you go down to in the end?
Ended up heading down to Rathfarnham, seems to be a good setup and they've sessions 6 days a week, so should be able to make some at least each week, even when work tries to get in the way.0 -
TheRoadRunner wrote: »What's the bets sprocket does a marathon in the next 3 years
Wouldn't even offer you odds on that !0 -
TheRoadRunner wrote: »What's the bets sprocket does a marathon in the next 3 years
Wouldn't even offer you odds on that !
Did i mention how unbelievably stubborn I am? I will take this bet all day long 0 -
Good to see someone else focusing on the shorter distances - Marathons are for joggers and Kenyans.
I would suggest don't set your goals too soft. By all means go for an easy 19:38 in the short term but at the early stages of running that you are at, you can knock minutes off your 5K time in a year. So make some crazy targets - you don't have to tell everyone, so you won't look bad if you miss them.
What worked for me was increasing my long run. Build on that 11.7K up towards 20K, while still keeping your speed - those 1500m laps look good. Don't worry about the Garmin, the sooner you learn to run-by-feel, the better - Garmins are for marathon runners.
5K races every week are great but not if you do them all - better to pick a few target races and make big jumps in your times rather than 2 sec PBs every few weeks. Pick out a 10K, maybe in April to break 40 mins and really go for it (but avoid ones in the Phoenix Park with thousands of joggers).
good luck0 -
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Headed to London for a long weekend, so opportunities for a run would be limited, did pack the runners though, which is definitely progress
Have a bit of a throat infection, so I put off going for a run until yesterday morning, bloody typical though, where Saturday and Sunday had been beautiful days, yesterday was murky and overcast and the paths were pretty slippy.
It's fun running somewhere like London, it's a bit like a sightseeing trip as you're out running. There's possibly a market for this type of thing, bring a group of tourists out to do a LSR and give them a running commentary as they go.
We were staying in Westminister, so I had a choice between running up towards Hyde Park or staying along the river and I choose the river. Plenty of paths with few pedestrians on it, which suited me.
Headed out intending to run at around 7:50 mile pace, or as close to I can get just guessing my pace. Set off onto the South Bank, running on the far side of the river from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Felt like an easy enough pace, no reaction to being sick which I was happy with. One problem I found with this route was that not all bridges had tunnels under them for pedestrians, some you had to climb stairs and cross the road up above before coming back down again, slowed the pace considerably.
Ran past Shakepeare's Globe, hadn't known where that was located before, so learned something new from my run
Had to break away from the river in a few spots where the path ended, but was always looking to get back to it as quickly as possible. I was still pretty happy with the pace, didn't feel like I was killing myself. On past HMS Belfast, pretty cool place to visit if you've never been and up to Tower Bridge.
I was using Mapmyrun on my phone for time and distance and checked it as I was half way over the bridge. It said I'd done 5km in about 27 minutes. Was a bit disappointed with that as I felt like I was going better than that. Turned out the GPS hadn't been able to get a signal until I'd done about .65km, but I didn't know that until I'd finished running.
Picked up the pace a little to compensate for what I thought was a slow enough first half of the run, still nothing too crazy though, was running well within myself.
Hooked around the Tower of London and headed back for the northbank of the river. Not as many tourist sites on this side, but lots of nice bars, cafes and restaurants along this stretch, must remember that for my next visit. Was stretching the legs a little more on this leg of the run, had increased my stride a little bit.
Eventually got back to Westminster, was running parallel to the London Eye from the far side of the river and couldn't actually see the top pods it was that murky. Slipped back across to the South Bank again here so I wouldn't have to deal with the crowds around Big Ben. I decided to add a bit more distance to the run, so kept going past the original bridge I'd crossed and came back across Vauxhall bridge, probably added another 1km.
Finished up, still feeling pretty good, still seems strange doing these longer slower runs. In the past I'd be all out sprinting by the end of a run and come in like I'm about to cough up a lung.
Once I figured out the extra distance on Maymyrun I'd gone quite a bit faster than intended, I'll get a hang of this pacing thing yet, just need some practice.
Distance - 13.44km/8.4 miles
Time - 1:01:13
Avg Pace. - 4:33 per km/7:17 per mile
Again the longest distance I've ever run and felt good doing it. Bit wrecked today, but after a lot of walking around London and feeling under the weather, that's not a major shock.0 -
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Sprocket77 wrote: »I found that I was away from the river for longer periods on the South Bank, there was construction going on in a few places, so it was tricky to follow it the whole way.
We were a bit oblivious to the Lord Mayor's Show, we were in a pub watching the Leinster match on Saturday afternoon. Does explain the fireworks though, we were wondering what they were for.
The fireworks were to celebrate O'Gara's drop at goal of course. 0 -
Brianderunner wrote: »The fireworks were to celebrate O'Gara's drop at goal of course.
Why, did he get one, was oblivious to that too then :rolleyes:0 -
Sprocket77 wrote: »Why, did he get one, was oblivious to that too then :rolleyes:
Another Thomond miracle. Munster won't be winning much this season by the looks of it :rolleyes:
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Trying to get an extra run into the week so decided to run home from work for the first time. It's 6.81km from door to door and had it in my head to add another 4km loop at the end if I felt up to it.
Still don't have a great feel for pacing, so it really is a case of suck it and see. I had intended it to be a slowish run, but didn't really work out that way. Stuck all my clothes in a backpack to bring home, regretted that later though.
Changed in my office and snuck out without being seen (I'm shy). Headed straight onto the seafront at Sandycove heading towards Dalkey, bit of a chill in the air, but nice conditions for running. Got to the bottom of Killiney Hill quicker than intended, was going at about 7:25 for the first mile and a half or so.
As I hit Killiney Hill I really regretted bringing the backpack with me, it was tough enough heading up that hill without having the extra weight on the back. I pressed up the hill and spent the whole mile or so of the climb wishing I'd picked a different route. On the plus side mapmyrun says that was a category 5 climb, so my first registered hill worked out after, that I'd done the climb at about 8 minute pace. At this stage I knew that the 4.23 mile to home would be enough for today, I had pushed it a bit too much to this stage and didn't want the legs to be too heavy ahead of my first intervals session with the club tomorrow.
It's a pretty quick descent in sections heading down the far side of Killiney Hill, was trying to pull myself up rather than speed on. Got a stitch at the start of the descent, which wouldn't go away, just ran on with it though. Final pace for the full run was 7:23, with the descent and flat section near the end at sub 7 minute pace.
Felt ok at the end, a little bit more puffed than my last couple of slower races, but Killiney Hill isn't to be taken lightly.
Distance - 4.23 miles/6.81 km
Time - 31:14
Avg. Pace - 7:23 per miles/4:35 per km
Tomorrow is my third session with the club, first time doing intervals with them, so looking forward to that. 0 -
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I run in and out of work all the time.
Day one, bring in running gear and a change of work clothes. Run home
Day two, run in, shower at work, bring bag of dirty clothes home
Means I don't have to run with a bag either day
Lovely in theory, but there's no showers in work. The place smells bad enough with the people who cycle into work, without me adding to it
I'll just leave the clothes in my office and bring them home the next day.0 -
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I need to set some targets, if I've numbers to aim at, I'll focus better on training and put the head down more. I've been thinking about these targets and what they should be, both short term and long term and I've decided that I'll put those goals down in writing, so I can't revise them upwards when I'm struggling to meet them.
I've set three sets of targets, short term goals, mid to long term goals and what I'd consider shoot for the stars goals or aspirational goals.
As I've only run two 5km races so far and haven't raced any other distances, most of the short term targets will be nice round targets to give me somewhere to build from, after that it'll be suck it and see how much I can improve my times by.
Distance|PB|Short Term Goal|Mid to Long Term Goal|Aspirational Goal
1 mile|0:00|5:29|5:14|4:59
5 km|19:44|19:29|17:59|16:59
5 mile|0:00|31:59|29:59|28:59
10 km|0:00|39:59|37:59|35:59
10 mile|0:00|64:59|62:59|59:59
My first target will be the 19:29 for the 5km at the Jingle Bells next week, if I miss that, there's the Clonliffe 5km two weeks later. After the intervals session the other evening I'd be happy that I'm in a good place to hit this target. My B target for the Jingle Bells will be 19:38, one second inside my brothers PB, yes I am that petty
After that, the next aim is for a sub 32 minute 5 mile and the aim is to try and knock that off at the Raheny 5 mile in January.
Hopefully, I'll find a 10km to suit sometime in the Spring, would rather avoid the cattle mart that is the Great Ireland Run, so if anyone has any suggestions, that would be great. Everyone seems to rave about the Dunshaughlin 10km in the Summer, but sadly I'm working that day, so that's out.
The mile and 10 mile, I'm less sure when I'll get to run, I'll keep an eye out for what comes up.
So that's my targets, any feedback is appreciated, whether you think I'm overreaching or if some of them are a bit soft, all advice greatly accepted.0 -
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Was supposed to be a long easy run last night, wasn't quite as easy as I'd intended though. It seemed that everytime I'd change direction, I'd still be facing into the driving wind and rain. Don't mind the rain, but the wind was a pain, especially as large parts of the run were in very open areas. Now I remember why I don't mind threadmills that much
Legs felt heavier during the run than the last couple of long runs, probably because I've been doing a bit more recently. My breathing felt good the whole way round though, which I was happy with.
Longest run and longest time out running I've done to date, good to be getting some miles into the legs.
Distance - 14.34 km/8.91 miles
Time - 1:08:29
Avg. Pace - 4:47 per km/7:41 per mile0 -
Club session this morning in Bushy Park. It was a pace session with 4 laps of 1,500m. Wind made this tough this morning, there's a pretty steep hill at the end of the lap and normally you get a bit of a break after the hill because it's nice and flat, but today it was straight off the hill into a strong headwind for 200 metres.
Went off faster than the last couple of times, tried to stick with the fastest masters. Managed to stay with them for the first lap, but I knew I was going too fast to stay the course, so backed off a little. Still managed a decent pace for the second lap, clocking under 6 minutes for it. The early pace began to tell in the third lap, was a good bit slower than the first, but trundled on. Final lap was a bit of a slog, but managed to speed up in the second half of it, so the final lap was a little bit faster than the one before.
About 80% of this lap is on the grass and while it's not too mucky, I still think I'm making life harder for myself by running it in by bog standard Asics, might need to look at investing in spikes or trail runners.
I was happy with the session overall, after this and the intervals session on Tuesday night I'm feeling pretty good with my speed ahead of the Jingle Bells next week. I'm even starting to think I can blitz my target as long as I can pace it right, this is probably where it will all start to go wrong, oops.
Lap times were:
5:48 - 3:52 per km/6:13 per mile pace
5:58 - 3:59 per km/6:24 per mile pace
6:12 - 4:08 per km/6:39 per mile pace
6:06 - 4:04 per km/6:33 per mile pace
Warm up of about 1.5km, warm down of about a km - very easy
Distance - 6.00 km/3.73 miles
Time - 24:04
Avg. Pace - 4:01 per km/6:27 per mile0 -
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Headed to the gym last night to do a bit of core and strength work and did a bit of cross training and running while I was at it.
Looking out the window of the gym I sure was glad I'd picked that evening for the gym session. Fair play to anyone that got out in that last night, I'm sure they looked like drowned rats by the time they finished. I was soaked just running to and from the car.
Did 15 minutes on the cross trainer at a high resistance to warm up, then did a mixture of core and strength exercises. After a few weeks where I've upped the number of running sessions and the number of gym visits have suffered as a result some of these exercises have become tougher than they had been.
Did a mixture of crunches, leg curls, dips, planks and other exercises that are on the programme the gym gave me. Might need to look at getting a new programme though, I've had this one about three months now, so could do with some variation.
Finished off with 30 minutes on the threadmill at 14kmph, would have gone longer, but was short on time.
Running
Distance - 7km/4.35miles
Time - 30:03
Avg. Pace - 4:18 per km/6:54 per mile
Looking forward to the Jingle Bells at the weekend, really hoping the weather behaves itself though. They mentioned the "S" word on the radio this morning for Saturday, it would be bloody typical that the first day of snow would be on race day.
Hold that thought, just checked Accuweather and it's a lot more positive than it has been all week for Saturday, sunshine, no rain, 10 degrees and winds at 24kmph.
Not planning to do any running today or tomorrow and hopefully I can go out and run a good time on Saturday. 0
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