Boston 2012 - Never say never again

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.

asimonov

All the work is done Peckham. Really looking forward to seeing how you get on. 2:50:00 sounds like your kind of time. Enjoy the last week.

Peckham

Rest day Saturday, and then switched around my Sunday 13 miles and Monday 5 miles in order to fit in with non-running plans.

Sunday
5 miles at 7:02 pace

Monday
13.1 miles at 7:12 pace

Both a bit faster than I would have liked but feels pretty relaxed (HR monitor is non-operational since changing the battery last week), so have no stats to back this up. Will try to take it as a positive that the legs are fresh.

Around this time next week should be in Hopkinton awaiting the start of the race.

Peckham

Tuesday
5.5(ish) miles at 7:20(ish) pace - who cares any more, just going through the motions and keeping the legs fresh.

Of greater concern is the painful sinuses (or maxillary sinus as my Google medical diagnosis identified) that I seem to have developed - have never had problems with my sinuses before. Am now lashing into the Sinutab, and hopefully have enough time to clear it all up before next Monday.

On a more positive note, the weather forecasts for raceday are looking a little cooler than the 27c that was being predicted over the weekend.

Massage this evening.

Peckham

Sports massage last night, and I knew I was in for a painful experience when the physio came out into reception - when he later revealed he played number 6 position in rugby I wasn't surprised. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Should have started doing these sessions weeks/months ago.

TheRoadRunner

A couple of years back when I told you to make sure you enjoyed London as it was possibly the best marathon in the world I had Boston in mind, the only race to rival, and probably better it IMO.

Have a great one and rip into those hills. Best of luck

pgmcpq

Best of luck in Boston.

Dory Dory

The very best to you on Monday!

ellie_sun

Good luck on Monday, am hoping to catch some of it online

Sosa

Best of luck Peckham,looking forward to the report.