Boston 2012 - Never say never again

Peckham

Have given a lot of thought as to whether to maintain a training log for this marathon, but looking back over the one I did for Berlin, I remembered how strong the advice received here is, so in anticipation of something going wrong and me needing advice from the sages in these parts, here’s another training log!

Bit of background for those who don’t know me
This will be my 7th marathon, having run Dublin 2006 as my first marathon and Berlin 2010 as the most recent marathon that I raced (I also ran Dublin 2010 as a pacer). Time improved from 3:26 on my first outing, to a 2:58 PB in Berlin. That was my third attempt to go sub-3, having (infamously?) run a 3:00:00 chip time in Dublin 2009.

2011
I decided not to run a marathon in 2011 in order to focus on the arrival of Peckham Junior (born in March), but kept up the running for most of the year, in the knowledge that I’d want to step up to marathon training at the start of 2012. Looking at my Garmin stats at the end of the year I was surprised to see that I had run just over 1,000 miles (with no races), compared to just over 1,500 miles in 2010 (when I went through two marathon training plans). This got me thinking.....

Objectives for Boston 2012
I got sucked into the Boston hype pretty early in my marathon running hobby, got my “BQ” on my second outing and have been determined to make the trip since. As the last few marathons have been all about getting that elusive sub-3, now that I’ve achieved that I’m focussing on ticking off the remaining marathon majors (London and Berlin already done).

To quote myself from my Berlin 2010 race report:

That’s it for me racing marathons. No more, I’m done, and going out on that high. Will run some more, but not as intensively as am fed up with the training.

And this is where the title of the thread comes from..... I’m running well at the moment, and got reasonably close enough to two goals at the end of 2011 – one being to lose a certain amount of weight (I missed this by one pound), and the second being to run a sub-30 5 mile race. I couldn’t go to the scheduled race, but instead did a 10k time trial over a hilly circuit that I run and posted a 38:40 (McMillan equivalent for 5 miles is about 30:50).

I’m pretty competitive when it comes to this type of thing, and am investing a lot of money and time into going to this race. So, I’m going back on my word and am going to have a shot at this race. As TFBubendorfer points out, Boston is by no means a PB course unless you have a significant wind behind you, but I got to at least start off training for a PB.

Training for Boston 2012
My training planning has been a little lazy, in that I found my Berlin training plan and am just going to implement that again. It’s a 13 week plan kicking off next week and is loosely based around Daniels Plan A. Broad structure is as follows:
Monday:10-13 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles recovery
Wednesday: 10-13 miles with speedwork
Thursday: 4 miles recovery
Friday: Rest (will add 6 miles here when weekly mileage is higher)
Saturday: Long run (including two with PMP segments and (hopefully) four with tempo segments). Lot of focus on the hills here to ensure I can cruise over Heartbreak Hill!

Will max out in low-60s in terms of mileage, with most weeks in mid-50s.

Only one race scheduled - Bohermeen Half Marathon on March 4th, 6 weeks before Boston.

Here goes......

Peckham

Monday 9th January
9.1 miles @ 7:15 pace
Standard route from work (following coast from Blackrock to Fairview before heading back to Connolly for my train home) that I've been doing twice a week for the past few months. Left work a little late, so had to take a bit of a shortcut towards the end to make sure I made my train on time (it's normally a 10 miler). Could feel Saturday's hilly 15 miles in my legs, and was surprised that my average pace was as fast as it was (maybe that was the fear of missing my train).

Tuesday 10th January
4 miles @ 8:10 pace
Standard early morning Tuesday run (out the door at 5:40am). Listened to Parkrun Podcast for the first time. Was reasonably enjoyable. As always, the challenge is to keep the pace handy on these runs, which hopefully will happen naturally as the distance and intensity of other sessions get tougher.

village runner

Best of luck with your log. Hope all goes well for you and may the wind be behind you.

RacoonQueen

Good to see you with a log again K, best of luck with the training.

Hopefully I'll be watching you in Boston on my way back from a successful Rotterdam marathon!

Peckham

Wednesday 11th January
Scheduled run postponed to Thursday due to work

Thursday 12th January
11.5 miles with 3 x 1k at I pace (overall average for the session 7:02 pace)
Whilst my training plan doesn't actually kick off until next Monday, I wanted to bring some speedwork into this session. Took a look at next week's equivalent session which has 3 x 1k I pace with 3 minutes recovery. Thought that looked pretty straightforward so decided to bring it into this week. To be honest, I don't know what this session was doing in the schedule as it's a bit light, and is the only session with I pace across the 13 weeks. Not sure what my thinking was 20 months when I stuck it in there.

Anyway, calculated my I pace based on the 10k time trial I did about a month ago, which had me doing each 1k rep in 3:45. Pretty much cruised through the session, so will need to toughen it up a bit for next week. Maybe drop the recovery back a bit and add an additional 1k rep.

No harm, got me back into the groove of speedwork.

Friday 13th January
4 miles recovery (8:10 pace)
Felt like winter again this morning and the gloves were needed on this run. More Parkrun podcast to listen to, however I fear these are going to get repetitive. Must find another podcast to listen to on these runs. Might give Off the Ball a go.


(Just to record my weight for future reference - weighed myself after my run this morning, clocking in at 71.5kg)

average_runner

Off the ball is quiet good and the Gaurdian Soccer show is funny at times.

Sosa

Best of luck with the training Peckham

Peckham

average_runner wrote: »

Off the ball is quiet good and the Gaurdian Soccer show is funny at times.

Will definitely be trying out "Off the ball". Don't have much interest in football though, so unlikely to give the Guardian one a listen.

wideball

Hi, best of luck with the log and Boston. I'm running Boston as well with similar goals to yours.

There are some good podcasts on http://competitorradio.competitor.com

Woddle

The newstalk podcasts are good, George Hook Movies and Technology slot are two I like in particular.
Best of luck with the training.

TheRoadRunner

Woddle wrote: »

The newstalk podcasts are good, George Hook Movies and Technology slot are two I like in particular.
Best of luck with the training.

Thumbs up for off the ball, thumbs down for hook, worst interviewer ever who is more interested in his own voice and opinion than what his guests have to say.

Peckham

Saturday 14th January
15 miles @ 7:06 pace
Did this route last weekend. Fairly flat first half, and then rolling hills for the second half. Plan was to take it nice and handy so that I could focus on hitting the uphills and downhills steadily and to feel relaxed on them.

Good run overall - final three miles were in the low 6:50s, but almost all of that was downhill.

Sunday 15th January
No running, DIY to catch up on.


Total for week is 45 miles (45.00 exactly according to the Garmin), which is actually 2 miles more than scheduled for next week (the first week of structured trainng).

Pace seems a little high on the runs, but feels right. It will probably slide back naturally as the miles and intensity increase.

Peckham

Monday 16th January
11.25 miles @ 7:19 pace
Standard run home from work. Trying to make sure this Monday run is as relaxed as possible. Pace started slower, so must have picked things up a bit somewhere during the run. Perfect evening for running - if only the next 3 months would stay like this!

Tuesday 17th January
5 miles @ 7:49 pace
Peckham Jnr tends gives me a pre-alarm call at 5am, meaning I get a 30 minute snooze before the actual alarm goes. Seems to make getting up that little bit easier. Yet another very mild morning - I don't think I've worn a hat on any of my morning runs for about two months, and only worn gloves once. Despite the early hour of the run, there has tended to be a lot of other walkers/runners out at the same time recently. Only spotted two walkers this morning - maybe it's true that late last week was when everyone's new years resolution went by the wayside.

Started easy, but after my podcast ended and iPod switched to Arcade Fire, the pace picked up for the final two miles.


Have entered Bohermeen Half Marathon, which will probably be my only race between now and Boston.

Will probably do some core and weights (lunges/squats) tonight.

Peckham

Wednesday 18th January
Yet again, work commitments get in the way and session is postponed to Thursday.

Thursday 19th January
12.25 miles with 4 x 3k at T pace with 2 mins recovery
After reviewing last week's speed session I decided there was no point in doing another Interval based session as they don't feature in my training plan after the first week, so decided to jump ahead a week again as next week's session (4 x 3k T pace with 2 mins recovery) looked more fearsome. Thinking was I could introduce myself into it gradually and do maybe 3 x 3k this week and 4 x 3k next week. According to the Daniel's tables, my current T pace is 6:32/mile.

Don't fall into the trap of doing these sessions as a time trial, says the book. You get more benefit running them at target pace rather than faster than target pace, says the book. So, 6:32 pace it was going to be. The result?

First 3k - 6:27 pace
Second 3k - 6:25 pace
Third 3k - 6:18 pace
Final 3k - 6:13 pace :eek:

Surely due to first week excitement and fresh legs? However, I took a look back at the exact same session a week later in my Berlin training and I ran paces of 6:38, 6:29, 6:41, 6:35 against a target of 6:40. I'm definitely in a different place to start of Berlin training (where I was coming off the back of another marathon, whereas now I'm coming off the back of half-hearted 10k training, with lots of steady 10 mile runs).

Had a read of Daniels again this morning and he says stick with the pace regardless of how easy it feels, and only move up a level once every 4-6 weeks. Will do another week (that will make 3 weeks) at before moving up one VDOT level. Have also taken a look at the Elite training plan Q1 sessions which are obviously more intense, so might set these as stretch sessions for the weeks where I'm feeling particularly strong.


Friday 20th January
4 miles @ 7:49 pace
Yet another 5:30am trot around the neighbourhood. The other early-morning walkers and runners from two weeks ago have all disappeared into thin air (or their beds).


(Weight: 70.8kg)

Peckham

Saturday 21st January
17.5 mile progression run

After Thursday's session I was reading Daniels' book and he mentioned that a progression run early in the training schedule with pace progressing up to projected marathon pace was a good indicator of how sustainable that pace would be, and how it would feel in the later stages of the marathon. So off I went to try this.

Plan was to start off with 25 minutes easy and then do 25 minutes at each of 6:55, 6:45 and 6:35 pace, and it pretty much went to plan as follows:

26 minutes @ 7:18
27 minutes @ 6:55
27 minutes @ 6:41
30 minutes @ 6:30
(10 minutes cooldown @ 7:30)

Was pretty blustery out, and route was pretty undulating so very happy with that run.

Overall for week is 50 miles (7 more than planned).

Got to make sure I don't overtrain at this stage, so will be keeping an eye on mileage and intensity for next few weeks, particularly the latter.

Krusty_Clown

Sounds like you're in solid shape, with three months to go. Any hills on today's route?

Peckham

Thanks. Nothing significant in the hills - hit my local version of Heartbreak Hill on the 6:55 segment, and most of the rest of it was undulating rather than particularly hilly.

Peckham

Monday 23 January
5.15 miles @ 7:56/mile
Normally do a longer run home from work on Monday, but schedule today means that's not feasible, so did a shorter run before leaving home this morning. Probably no bad thing, given Saturday's exertions.

In my hunt for new podcasts I listened to Runners Round Table this morning. A bit amateur, but nice concept and will do nicely for one of my morning runs each week.

Peckham

Tuesday 24th January
11.6 miles @ 7:26/mile
Standard run home from work. Perfect running conditions. Surely this mild weather isn't going to last through February/March. Feel very lucky so far in terms of training conditions.

Started back at pilates "classes" on Monday evening, and plan to do three sessions a week (on recovery/rest days). Am fortunate that Mrs Peckham is a pilates instructor so the class is one-to-one and takes place in the comfort of my own sitting room. Can still feel certain muscles hurting from Monday.

Peckham

Wednesday 25th January
20 minutes pilates/planks

Thursday 26th January
12 miles with 4 x 3k at T pace (2 mins recovery)
Same session as last week, but wanted to keep the pace a bit steadier and try to hit 6:30 pace for each rep. Went 6:28-6:26-6:24-6:23. Will probably move up one VDOT value next week and make these sessions a bit more intense.

Friday 27th January
4.5 miles @ 8:02 pace
Gloves, hat, jacket all needed this morning! Wasn't particularly cold for a normal January morning, but compared to the mild weather recently it was a bit of a shock to the system!


Another pilates/planks session this evening, and a 20 miler at some stage over the course of the weekend.

Friday morning weigh-in has me at 69.8kg, so that's the guts of 2kg lost over the past two weeks, and probably a bit more since beginning of January. Being off the beer definitely helping here - haven't touched alcohol since 2nd Jan, despite the numerous bottles of Galway Hooker, Leann Follain and Helvick Gold staring at me every time I open the cupboard under the stairs!

Peckham

Sunday 29th January
20 miles @ 7:08 pace
Normally do my long run on Saturday morning, but pre-booked events yesterday meant this had to be pushed to today. Weather yesterday was far nicer than today, so wasn't exactly full of enthusiasm when I looked out of the window this morning. Had a challenging route mapped out that would take me over three sets of hills, the first of them being the Blackhills out by Skerries (the hilly bit of the bike leg in the Skerries Triathlon). Plan was to stick to 7:30 pace all the way round, but those plans never come to fruition and the closest I got was 7:25 on my first mile.

Great route for training for Boston. A great downhill after 5 miles that falls 250ft in half a mile to shatter the quads, which are subsequently tested on some nice uphills between the 10 and 13 mile points. Overall elevation gain/loss of 613ft.


Just over 53 miles for the week.

shels4ever

Thats a fast long run, you must be in good shape at the moment, do you have a goal time for Boston?

Peckham

shels4ever wrote: »

Thats a fast long run, you must be in good shape at the moment, do you have a goal time for Boston?

Thanks. Feeling much faster than previous marathon training due to10k training late last year. Still another 9 or so weeks of hard training to go, but have 2:53ish in mind. Early days yet though.

Peckham

Monday 30th January
Had intended to run home from work, but discovered during the day that I had forgotten to pack my runners. Was probably a blessing in disguise as things were still a little tender from Sunday's 20 miles. Instead I did 20 minutes of pilates/planks.

Tuesday 31st January
11.3 miles @ 7:11/mile
Standard run home from work. Picked up the pace a bit towards the end as I was in danger of missing my train.

Wednesday 1st February
5 miles @ 8:04/mile
Early morning recovery run (have calculated that I have another 20 of these silly 5:30am starts left - can almost start counting them down!). Was wondering last night whether I would need to locate the Yaktraks, but was actually great running conditions (if a little on the cold side).


So, into February, which importantly means I can now enjoy a few beers having completed a dry January! Has been a good month - just over 200 miles completed and weight is down about 4kg.

brownian

That's some pretty solid training - 20 miles at just over 7, three months out must give you some confidence. Hope you keep the intensity up over the next eight weeks or so - a cracking time looks a real prospect.

Podcasts - I like freakonomics (itunes), best of moncrieff (newtalk/itunes), bbc history magazine (some good topics, rather patronising presentation) and naked oceans (ditto). But it's nearly as bad as recommending music - everyone has his own tastes.

Peckham

Thanks. Difficult thing now is balance between maintaining intensity and getting to startline niggle free. So far so good though!

Will check out Freakonomics

Peckham

Thursday 2nd February
11.6 miles with [4 x 1 mile T pace with 1 min recovery] + 4 mins recovery + [3 x 1 mile T pace with 1 min recovery]
A great session that almost never happened
About lunchtime yesterday I realised that I had left my backpack at home, so running home with my various bits and bobs was going to be difficult. Annoying, as it was the second time this week I had forgotten to bring running equipment to work with me (although Monday's forgetfulness of the runners was a bit more of a deal breaker). Thought about skipping the run, but realised that it was my only chance to do it, so stripped all my accessories down to the core essentials shoved into a running jacket pocket and off I went.

Now, not sure what it was about this run - the freedom from the lack of backpack, the determination knowing that I had abandoned this session when training for Berlin, or the great conditions - but it went like clockwork. I had moved up one VDOT point, so my T pace was now at 6:26, which I was determined to stick to!

The 7 T-pace miles went as follows:
6:26
6:23
6:24
6:22
(4 min Recovery)
6:13
6:11
6:02

...and it all felt fairly straightforward. Was holding myself back on the first 4 reps, cut my planned recovery in between the two sets from 5 minutes to 4 minutes, and even the three fast miles felt fine. HR went from 83% max on the first rep to 88% max on the final rep.

A good day, but need to keep things under control. Am going to stick at this VDOT level for another 3 weeks before moving up another point in March, and then another at the start of April. But my mind is racing ahead. Guess it's these sort of times when having a coach to turn to would be particularly useful!


Friday 3rd February
5.1 miles @ 7:42/mile
Peckham Jnr got me up 5 minutes before my 5:30 alarm, but still feeling the positive vibes from yesterday's session I was raring to go anyway. A little faster than I like for a recovery run, but mind had lots of thoughts about racing some of which must have found there way into my legs!


Friday morning weigh-in has me at 69.1, so down 0.7kg since last Friday. Progress is slowing down on this front, but to be expected. Still comfortably on target.

Peckham

Saturday 4th February
20 miles @ 7:15/mile
Wasn't really in the mindset for this one. After a long day working yesterday I broke my January fast from alcohol with a very nice Leann Follain (if you're a stout drinker and have never tried this drink, make it your business to do so). One bottle led to a second one, and a late (for me) bedtime of 12.30. Didn't sleep all that great from about 4am onwards, and was up on Peckham Jnr duty at 7.20. Wasn't feeling in great form.

Anyway, out I went just before 10am and followed the exact same route as last week, although even though the weather was (slightly) better, it felt more like hard work than last week. Wasn't keeping an eye on the watch, and as with last week picked up the pace considerably in the second half of the run. Was happy enough to finish this one.


That's it for the week, and as with last week another 53 mile week. Tempted to go out again tomorrow, but have increased the mileage consistently each week for the past few weeks, so will probably hold off on that.

Krusty_Clown

It certainly is a cracking beer, however, it's a little on the strong side, so better suited to after the long run, than before it. I had a Porterhouse Wrasslers XXXX on Friday night and it's a cracking stout too. Must try and pick up some of their celebration stouts, which are supposed to be superb, but at 11%, more of a Sunday night sipper!

Oh.. er... Great run too..

jfh

great log peckham, enjoying it and trying to pick up some ideas as i've got a similiar time in mind, 2:55.might be way off here, just going on 10km times, struggling to up the miles though,15 is the limit.
how many 20 milers do you intend on doing?
did you do many for the last sub 3 , thanks

Peckham

jfh wrote: »

great log peckham, enjoying it and trying to pick up some ideas as i've got a similiar time in mind, 2:55.might be way off here, just going on 10km times, struggling to up the miles though,15 is the limit.
how many 20 milers do you intend on doing?
did you do many for the last sub 3 , thanks

Interesting question. I had to look back over the training logs for this one, and it turns out I did no 20 mile runs at all! However, I did do a few longer than this and the breakdown was as follows:

1 x 22 mile
3 x 21 mile
1 x 19 mile
1 x 18 mile

My guideline had always been that the total length of the 5 longest runs should sum to at least 100 miles (104 miles in the case above!). Think I read this in a book once (Hal Higdon maybe), and have stuck to that to put my mind at ease.

This time is a little different however. In starting my Berlin training I was coming off the back of decent enough training for London a few months previously, so endurance wasn’t really a problem and I needed to focus on speed. This time I’m coming off the back of speed work, and have little endurance base.

I’ve built an allowance for a lot of long runs into my plan (I’ve made allowance for 3 x 22 miles and 5 x 20 miles), but will probably drop one or two of those 20 milers to something slightly shorter, maybe 17 miles or so.

The other key thing with my training is that I use the Daniels approach, which means most of my longer runs from now to raceday will involve some threshold intervals or marathon pace segments.

Peckham

Going through the motions, and not much to say about either run!

Monday 6th February
11.4 miles @ 7:14/mile (HR: 76%)

Tuesday 7th February
4 miles @ 8:09/mile (HR: 72%)

jfh

just copped on where i'm going wrong so having seen it down in front of me on your log, new to marathon training, endurance is my issue.
just did 10km last year & one ten mile this year.
struggle after 13 miles but i'd be going at 6:45 ish average maybe lower so would want to drop that to 7:15 and do longer runs. Also looking at the daniels plan myself.
have you any races planned among the trainging schedule.

Peckham

jfh wrote: »

have you any races planned among the trainging schedule.

Bohermeen Half at the start of March will be my only training race. I tend to race quite sparingly.

Peckham

Wednesday 8th February
A short plank session whilst watching TV

Thursday 9th February
12.3 miles with 20/20/12 mins at T pace
Had been looking forward to this session, as I remembered enjoying it from the Berlin training.

As was the plan for last few runs, wanted to hit 6:25 pace on the intervals and unlike previous weeks kept it conservative as I didn't want to by dying on the 12 min interval.

10 mins easy
20 mins @ 6:22/mile
3 mins recovery
20 mins @ 6:24/mile
3 mins recovery
12 mins @ 6:18/mile
15 mins easy

Friday 10th February
4.5 miles at 8:10/mile

Friday morning weigh-in has me at 68.6kg, so down 0.5kg since last Friday. The drop is getting smaller and smaller each week, but still on target for race day (66kg).

Peckham

Saturday 11th February
18.4 miles with T-pace segments (5 x 5mins, 1 x 15mins)
Peckham Jnr appears to have brought some illness home with him from the creche, so wasn't a great night of sleep last night and wasn't feeling great this morning. Didn't head out until after midday so had perked up a bit by start of run.

Yet another Daniels session that I enjoyed the previous time I did it. Gives you something to draw on when the going gets tough in the final few miles of the race. Session went well last time, as it did again this time. Yet again pushed the pace beyond the target 6:26 on the T-pace segments!

3 miles warm-up (7:13/mile)
5 x 5mins with 1min recovery (paces: 6:26, 6:16, 6:18, 6:23, 6:16)
6 miles easy (7:06)
15mins @ 6:18
2 miles easy (7:21)

Did the first set of intervals on the flat, and the 15 mins was over some hills.

Very happy with this session, avg pace overall 6:53

Only 51 miles so far this week, so might try and get out for a few miles tomorrow. Off to Berlin for work tomorrow evening for two nights, and given the weather conditions I figure I might be limited to treadmill out there which is a shame as was looking forward to some runs around Tiergarten.

TheRoadRunner

Training seems to be going very well. Based on your log and paces/distances you are running Easily the fittest you've been at this stage in any marathon cycle to date.

God love you running on a treadmill. Use to do it a bit myself in the past and didn't mind it. Had to do 5 miles on one today and even with rugby on the box and kicking tunes on my iPod I Lost the will to live.

By the way what's the goal time? Or is it like the third secret of Fatima!!!!

Peckham

I certainly feel a lot fitter, but looking at the times for the various T-pace intervals I'm doing I'm holding the same pace as in the previous cycle, maybe slightly faster. What I can't remember is whether I was going eyeballs out to achieve those paces last time.

No secret on the target time - am looking at 2:53, and training is built to ladder up towards that. If it was a less hilly course, or a course I was more familiar with, I'd maybe consider slightly faster (sub 2:50?? :eek:), but that would mean holding a pace in line with what I'm running threshold at the moment.

Bohermeen half in a few weeks - will get a good indication from that.

Peckham

Sunday 12th February
4.3 miles @ 7:19/mile

Handy few miles to finish off the week with a 55 mile total.

Peckham

It's been a while, and it's a mixed story.

Last week
Beginning of this week saw me in Berlin, and the arctic conditions meant that I knew in advance I would be limited to the hotel treadmill. However, my bag going missing in transit at Amsterdam meant that I had no running gear on the Monday, and whilst it was returned to me Monday night I only managed a measily 4 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday morning. The week didn't get much better with a combination of headcold, busy work schedule and general feeling that the week was a write-off meaning that I only managed another two runs that week.

There's always one of these weeks in a training cycle, and just as one solitary good week doesn't make a good marathon performance, similarly one solitary bad week doesn't break one either. Onwards.

Weekly total: 16 miles

This week
Was determined to have a good week this week.

Monday PM:
11 miles @ 7:08 pace

Tuesday AM:
5 miles @ 7:46 pace

Wednesday:
Late meeting meant session pushed to Thursday

Thursday
11.3 miles with 8 x 5 or 6 mins at T pace with 30secs recovery
Don't like facing into these sessions, but when they go well they're great! Daniels calls for reps of 5 or 6 minutes duration, so I decided to do the first three at 5mins and the remaining five at 6mins to give me a nice round 45 minutes total at T pace.

Did this run from home, and strapped on my newly acquired head torch to do them on some quiet backroads. Turned out they weren't so quiet, as the local farmers were pretty active in their tractors, and I'm sure they were slightly bemused by me racing along with a headtorch.

Target pace is 6:26, but legs were pretty fresh and it having been a good while since I'd done any speedwork I knew in the back of my head I'd drift faster than this.

Pace for first 3 reps (5 mins each): 6:22, 6:10, 6:12
Pace for remaining 5 reps (6 mins each): 6:16, 6:14, 6:16, 6:17, 6:12

That gives a 6:15 average, so very happy with that.

Friday (AM):
5 miles @ 7:39 pace

Saturday:
Combination of late rising baby, residual soreness in the legs from Thursday, and plans for Saturday afternoon led to my long run being pushed to Sunday. Instead it was out on Saturday evening for a handy 4.5 mile jaunt at 7:08 pace

Sunday
Big key session - my first PMP run of this cycle. Plan was 21 miles with 8 miles PMP (12 miles easy, 8 miles PMP, 1 mile cooldown).

Was keen heading out the door, but legs felt heavy for the first few miles and felt I was still paying a bit of a price for Thursday. Was frustrated as I thought this could jeopardise the PMP miles which would have a knock-on effect psychologically for the rest of the training.

Warmed up and got into the session, and managed an average pace of 7:14 over the first 12 miles. Had a nice hilly route planned for the PMP miles, in an attempt to mirror the Newton Hills. Tried to keep effort even on the up and downhills, and pace reflected this quite well.

Objective was to average 6:35 pace over the 8 miles, and ended up with a 6:30 average. 320ft elevation gain and 380ft loss.

Delighted with that, still feel sh@gged from it though!


Weekly total: 58 miles

According to the countdown app on my phone it's 50 days until Boston. Have deliberately done all runs unfuelled up until now, so will start on gels and water for remaining long runs. Bohermeen Half next Sunday should give a good indication of where things are at.

Hopefully last two weeks balance each other out!

Peckham

Monday 27th February
10 miles @ 7:26 pace (HR: 86%)
After the previous day's session this was a struggle, as reflected in the HR and as expressed by my legs! My non-running commitments are such that medium length runs are only really feasible on Monday and Wednesday evenings, so even though my long run was delayed until Sunday, it was a case of "use it or lose it" for the slot I had for my Monday run. Didn't enjoy it at all, and it will discourage me from moving hard effort long runs to Sundays in future. Mind you, I have the Bohermeen Half this Sunday so will probably be repeating this experience next Monday!

Tuesday 28th February
5 miles @ 8:01 pace (HR: 75%)
Still a bit of a struggle today, but got around this comfortably enough. Towards the end of the run (at about 6:15am) was stopped by a rather bewildered Eastern European gentleman asking where he would be able to get a taxi as he'd been wandering the roads of North County Dublin for 2 hours after leaving a party trying to get home to the city centre.

Peckham

Wednesday 29th February
11 miles with 4 x 10min T pace, 2 mins recovery

Great evening for running and was determined to get out of work on time and make the most of the bright evening. Standard route from Blackrock to Sandymount strand before hitting into the intended 4x12min T pace segment. Legs still felt heavy from earlier in the week, and had shoveled a banana into me not long before leaving work so that was sitting a little heavy in the stomach.

Given that I normally do this route in the dark I'm a little limited to where I can run, however today gave me the opportunity to run out towards Irishtown Nature Reserve, which I didn't even know existed until the path led towards it. Lovely views back in towards the city, and a route I'll take more often in the (hopefully) bright evenings ahead.

However it was on this path (or more correctly leaping from grass onto path) that saw me go over on my ankle. This led to the end of the first of the T pace segment (after 10 minutes), but after walking for a few minutes the ankle felt okay. Decided to push on and cut the segments down to 10 minutes each (sure, I'm on a mini-taper for Bohermeen Half anyway!). Completed the 4 segments with the following paces:

6:18
6:11
6:18
6:16

Had intended 6:15ish, but that might have been a little optimistic. Max HR was around 86% in each case.

Now I'm at home with ice pack on the ankle which is feeling a little more tender. Hopefully haven't done any significant damage. Might get Mrs P to take a look at it later.

Peckham

Saturday 3rd March
Didn't run last two days as ankle was a little sensitive, and given that I could afford a day or two off, and wanted to be 100% for Bohermeen Half tomorrow I took the cautious route.!

Out today for 5 miles at a little over 7 minute mile pace, with a few strides at the end in order to make sure speed was in the legs for tomorrow's race. Conditions don't look too optimistic for tomorrow, but will be giving it a lash regardless.

Peckham

Sunday 4th March
Bohermeen Half Marathon
1:21:06 (PB by 3 minutes, includes soft 10 mile PB by 4 minutes )

Wasn't really expecting that! Went into this race thinking that sub-1:25 would be an indicator that I'm on target for Boston, however the enforced rest for the few days beforehand meant that I went into it fresher than I really should have been.

Day didn't really get off to the greatest start, when I turned the 55 minute drive from home to race into a 90 minute drive during which I got lost not once, not twice but three times! Serves me right for being too smart and taking the backroads rather than motorways.

Anyhow, after a frantic arrival less than 15 minutes before scheduled start it was clear from the numbers milling around that things would be kicking off later than scheduled.

Had calmed myself down before the 20 minute delayed start, and it was off in a nice rhythm. Felt very comfortable for first mile and was surprised to see the watch down close to 6 minute mile. After about a mile and a half I got talking to two guys, and tucked into that group for the next few miles chatting away about marathons to one of them. After about 4 miles he revealed his true identity of asimonov from these parts, having figured out that I was Peckham (that 3:00:00 marathon story will follow me everywhere!).

Miles were ticking along comfortably just under the 6:10 mark, and I continued to pace myself off asimonov following his lead tucking in with other groups in the windy spots. Lost touch with him at around 9.5 miles as he pushed forward.

Was pretty isolated for the final three miles but held the pace (mile 11 was my fastest mile). Had only been looking at the pace reading on the Garmin on the way round, and was wondering for the final mile what sort of time I would hit, but was pretty sure I was in PB territory. The turn into the finish straight didn't reveal a finish line clock. And when I hit the stop button on the Garmin and checked the cumulative time, hoping to see something around the 1:23 mark......wow!

Huge thanks to asimonov. If it wasn't for his company, I probably would have eased off the pace after the first lap.

Highly recommend this race - great PB potential

(Total for week 44 miles)

Peckham

Monday 5th March
9 comfortable enough miles.
7:28 pace.

asimonov

Good going on the PB Peckham. Maybe you should just get a t-shirt with I ran 3:00:00 on it. Really enjoyed the company, and the pace and rhythm felt good, definitely helped the miles fly by. Based on yesterday, I'm sure your entourage in Boston are going to get to see you run a cracking time! Well done.

Peckham

Tuesday 6th March
5 miles @ 7:48 pace
The standard 5.30am plod!

Peckham

A few runs to catch up on here:

Wednesday 7th March
8.6 miles @ 7:06 pace
Legs still feeling the strain from Sunday's race, I headed out with the intention of doing 10 miles with 2x20mins at T-pace, however on the first T-pace effort the legs weren't really responding and it felt like such a strain, so I took the easy option and backed off. Turned into a pretty rubbish session that I have already forgotten about.

Friday 9th March
5.1 miles @ 7:17 pace
Standard early morning run. Legs really benefitted from a day's rest on Thursday.


Clearly a rubbish week developing, and whilst I got a major boost from Bohermeen it was one that was purely psychological, but negatively impacting on training. No run on Saturday meant that I was heading for another low mileage week, with the previous weeks clocking in at 44/55/12 miles. However, Krusty Clown had been in touch during the week to arrange a Phoenix Park long run so there was time to redeem myself on Sunday and get over the 50 mile mark.

Sunday 11th March
22 miles @ 7:01 pace
Peckham Jnr had been sick during Saturday and Saturday night, and it led to me being up with him from about 5am on Sunday, so I headed off (late) to meet Krusty and Wideball in the Park at our scheduled rendezvous at 11am. Wasn't feeling hugely optimistic about whether the run would happen at all, and was expecting a text from Mrs Peckham at some point asking me to come home and pick up my parental responsibilities.

Krusty describes the run better in his log, but here's my version.

Off we went at a planned 7:15-7:30/mile paced run, and achieved that nicely in the first mile (7:20), but the chat over the next few miles saw the pace being clocked consistently just over 7 minute miles. A few efforts were made to slow things down, but we all appeared very comfortable (which shows how strong Wideball is for his sub-3 effort given that he had done 21 miles the previous day, and was now trotting along at around marathon pace). Wideball left us after 10ish miles, and after another lap of the park we decided to hit the hills at decent clip to replicate the Newton Hills in some way. Felt good to steam up Kyber at marathon pace after around 19 miles, and great to end the week with a bit more confidence.

5 weeks until raceday, so need a solid next 3 weeks before tapering. Objective is to get 170 miles in the legs before tapering.

Peckham

Haven't been that motivated to update the log recently, mainly because it's not been the greatest few weeks of training.

I finished off the last post by saying I needed 170 miles over the following 3 weeks, well I'm not at the end of those 3 weeks having achieved 135 miles, so not great but in taper now and I have to work with what I have.

Of those three weeks....

Week 1
32 miles
Week got off to a normal start but just felt rubbish as the week went on. Whatever bug Peckham Jnr had the previous week, spread itself throughout the house. Only got out for three runs, and my planned 20 miler at the end of the week was curtailed to 15 miles.

Week 2
43 miles
6 runs, but a pitiful overall total. Great start to the week on the bank holiday Monday with a 13 mile run that incorporated two 20 minute threshold segments at 6:07 pace. Also managed similar later in the week (15 and 10 mins at 6:10 pace). However, bit of stomach issue at the weekend meant that my long run was again abandoned. Made attempts at my long run, which was to include 13 miles PMP, on both Saturday and Sunday but both were abandoned at 4 and 2 miles respectively.

Week 3
63 miles
Finally a week I can be happy with, and perfect timing for it too! Had thought about doing 2 x 5 miles PMP in the long run at the end of the week, but on seeking advice here asimonov reminded me of a tergat session of a midweek run when 3 weeks out from the race that includes 15 miles PMP (split 5-4-3-2-1 with 2 mins recovery), which then allows for an easy paced 20 miler at the weekend. So, took that advice with a 17 mile run on Thursday night with 15 miles PMP (averaging 6:30 pace). Followed that up with 21 miles today at 7:04 pace that included lots of hills (had only intended 20, but miscalculated one of the loops and ended up adding on an extra mile).


So, in taper mode now. That final week was definitely more intense than planned at the outset, but needed it both for confidence and physical benefits. As a result, I'll definitely take it much easier over next few days - rest day tomorrow and probably just 3 miles on Monday.

Probably 40 miles next week, and 30 the week after. "Long run" next weekend will be 13 miles. Session during the week will be another tergat suggestion of 5-6 x 1 mile at lactate threshold pace.

As for the race itself - think I'll still go out at a pace between 6:30-6:35, although the lack of long runs in the past 6 weeks (only 3 times at 20 miles+) could be my undoing.

Peckham

Don't care what anyone else thinks, but I love taper! What's not to love about 13 mile runs becoming 10 miles, and 6 mile runs becoming 4 miles!

Monday
After no run on Sunday, I took it nice and easy on Monday in order to recover from Saturday's long run as I was conscious it was coming quite late in the schedule. So, an early morning 3 miles at 8:03 pace. Possibly my final pre-6am run of this campaign - there have been too many of those runs.

Tuesday
Mrs P was sick, so my planned run home from work was postponed as I left work early, and given the weather conditions I was glad of the excuse!

Wednesday
10 miles @ 7:21 pace
Some pretty horrendous wind along Sandymount strand saw pace drop to 8 minute miles for one mile even though it felt like a 6:30 mile. Don't think I've run in wind like that before.

Thursday
4 miles in glorious evening sunshine at 7:34 pace

Friday
Plan for this session was 10 miles with 6 x 1 mile at threshold pace, but on reading Krusty's log last night and the session he did yesterday, it reminded me of the same session that I did 10 days out from Berlin. It was a major confidence building session that time, and figured it would serve me better than the threshold session which I could knock out fairly comfortably.

So 3 x 1 mile at 5k pace was the plan. On to McMillan calculator which informed me that the equivalent 5k pace for a 2:52 marathon is 5:40 mile. Bit scary that, but wanted to give it a go. Plan was to do that pace with 75% recovery time, which works out at 4:15.

Headed to a nice flat one mile loop, which is about 2.5 miles from home giving me a chance for a warm-up. Felt anxious starting into it, but it felt generally okay throughout and more comfortable than I remember it feeling before Berlin (which was done a little slower), although very much doubt I could have tacked a fourth fast mile onto it! The three fast miles were done in:

5:38
5:35
5:33

Delighted with that, and feeling a good buzz from it. All easy miles now until Boston. Probably rest day tomorrow, and then 13 miles on Sunday. Might do 2 miles PMP on Tuesday if I feel like it, but no pressure.

Massage booked for Wednesday evening, then it's time to pack for the flight on Friday.

Krusty_Clown

Nicely done Peckham. A solid last confidence booster (as if any were required). My run-in sounds very similar to yours, except I have the massage booked for Thursday night. Could be a painful flight.