Dublin Marathon 2012 - Mentored Novices Thread

zooming

shortie_chik wrote: »

I haven't done the WMM in the last few years as I just found all the jumping & dodging was too hard on my ankles. I guess it made me try to move on to other races though so it's not all bad!

I'm really happy to see there are more & more people at my kind of speed doing the DCM! Like you, I'd be a bit worried about the cleaners tidying up around me but if the route is open for 7 or 8 hours, there must be people who register to walk, so I won't be Paddy Last!

This is week 5 or 6 of getting back into a structured running routine & I can see that I'm improving over short runs. Just gonna keep doing what Hal tells me & I'm sure the rest will follow!

Yep, Hal is great!! This forum is good too, brilliant support for slow pokes like me

shortie_chik

zooming wrote: »

Yep, Hal is great!! This forum is good too, brilliant support for slow pokes like me

Definitely! I've only told my boyfriend that I'm planning to run the DCM, so it's great to have other people in the same boat to talk to! Not telling my friends as I don't want to be told I'm mental, or asked how far I ran today every time I see them!

This thread is really good for motivating me to keep up the work. And very addictive!

Mr Slow

If anyone is looking for a great 10k race, Dunshaughlin are holding their's on the 24th of this month. Every 10k in the country is measured by this race in terms of organisation, welcome and support.

http://www.dunshaughlinac.com/10k.asp

Runchick

I've just come across this thread and am so happy to have found it! I'm debating whether to do the DCM but this is encouraging me to go for it!

I'm 37, been running on and off for a few years but only started races and structured training a few months ago. I did a 10km in 56 mins in April, 9.7 miles of the Belfast marathon in 1hr 30 mins in May, another 10km in 55mins a few weeks ago. I am doing a HM at the end of the month, hopefully in 2hrs 15 mins.

My current training consists of 3 runs during the week 2x 3.5 miles and 1x 4.5miles and a LSR on the weekend - this is now up to 12 miles which I did on Sunday in 2hrs 1min. I train on my own and would love to gain support and motivation from this forum, I've already been inspired from reading some of this thread!

What I would like to ask is do you think I could complete DCM in 4.5 hrs and what kind of mileage should I be up to by then? I was thinking of adding a mile a week to the LSR up to 20 miles after the HM which would be mid August, but with 10 weeks left to the big day where do I go from there? Or should I build up the LSR distance slower, so say increase every 2 weeks?

Younganne

Mr Slow wrote: »

If anyone is looking for a great 10k race, Dunshaughlin are holding their's on the 24th of this month. Every 10k in the country is measured by this race in terms of organisation, welcome and support.

http://www.dunshaughlinac.com/10k.asp

Actually Saturday 23rd at 7.30pm!!!!! Turn up on the 24 and you'll have missed it:D

Mr Slow

Younganne wrote: »

Actually Saturday 23rd at 7.30pm!!!!! Turn up on the 24 and you'll have missed it:D

Younganne

Runchick wrote: »

I've just come across this thread and am so happy to have found it! I'm debating whether to do the DCM but this is encouraging me to go for it!

I'm 37, been running on and off for a few years but only started races and structured training a few months ago. I did a 10km in 56 mins in April, 9.7 miles of the Belfast marathon in 1hr 30 mins in May, another 10km in 55mins a few weeks ago. I am doing a HM at the end of the month, hopefully in 2hrs 15 mins.

My current training consists of 3 runs during the week 2x 3.5 miles and 1x 4.5miles and a LSR on the weekend - this is now up to 12 miles which I did on Sunday in 2hrs 1min. I train on my own and would love to gain support and motivation from this forum, I've already been inspired from reading some of this thread!

What I would like to ask is do you think I could complete DCM in 4.5 hrs and what kind of mileage should I be up to by then? I was thinking of adding a mile a week to the LSR up to 20 miles after the HM which would be mid August, but with 10 weeks left to the big day where do I go from there? Or should I build up the LSR distance slower, so say increase every 2 weeks?

RunChick..welcome...you are in exactly the right place for starting DCM training. The plan is every week from 25th June i will post a weekly training plan for Novices, here is the plan we will be following Novice 1,
but the fact that you are up to 12m on you LSR already you might want to follow Novice 2, but i will only be posting weekly from Novice 1, but you can continue to post and follow the thread as it is for all Novices.

The aim of your first marathon should be to finish the race and enjoy the experience, because you will only have 1 first marathon;), time is an extra bonus that put extra pressure on you and might make it a little less enjoyable as you'd be focusing on time & pace all the time, so enjoy your first marathon and time can be the aim int he next marathon and something you shouldn't worry about for now.

Younganne

Zooming & Shortiechick (and everyone else) don't be worrying about times.

Enjoy the running and as i said in the post above, enjoy the experience of your first marathon and focus on following the training plan and getting the miles in.
As we move through the training we will visit things like, gels, carrying water, treating blisters(and there will be many;)) lost/black toenails(and there will be many;)) (i have only 2 toenail that have never been affected, but don't worry about that for now, not everyone is affected by it) we will look at nutrition again, how to recover, stretches etc..it will all fall into place at natural times in the training so for now enjoy and keep running..slowly

zooming

Younganne wrote: »

Zooming & Shortiechick (and everyone else) don't be worrying about times.

Enjoy the running and as i said in the post above, enjoy the experience of your first marathon and focus on following the training plan and getting the miles in.
As we move through the training we will visit things like, gels, carrying water, treating blisters(and there will be many;)) lost/black toenails(and there will be many;)) (i have only 2 toenail that have never been affected, but don't worry about that for now, not everyone is affected by it) we will look at nutrition again, how to recover, stretches etc..it will all fall into place at natural times in the training so for now enjoy and keep running..slowly

thank you!!!
The voice of reason in a mad world. I had coffee with a friend who recently completed a half marathon at a 7.30 min mile pace, and was lamenting about another friend who was only running at a 9 min mile pace....ha!!!
I have accepted that i am not at this level and have now stopped worrying about times, I think I can speak for all beginners is that none of us wants to be last! Slow and steady after all. I would love to do a half in 2.30 and a full in 5 hours, but if its a bit longer who cares. At least we are off the couch and OUT DOING IT. This is a great forum

Runchick

Younganne wrote: »

RunChick..welcome...you are in exactly the right place for starting DCM training. The plan is every week from 25th June i will post a weekly training plan for Novices, here is the plan we will be following Novice 1,
but the fact that you are up to 12m on you LSR already you might want to follow Novice 2, but i will only be posting weekly from Novice 1, but you can continue to post and follow the thread as it is for all Novices.

The aim of your first marathon should be to finish the race and enjoy the experience, because you will only have 1 first marathon;), time is an extra bonus that put extra pressure on you and might make it a little less enjoyable as you'd be focusing on time & pace all the time, so enjoy your first marathon and time can be the aim int he next marathon and something you shouldn't worry about for now.

Younganne many thanks for your reply. Great words of wisdom, concentrating on finishing sounds like the way to go - doing a marathon has always been a dream of mine so I want to enjoy the experience! I had a look at the Novice 2 plan, looks absolutely perfect for me, except for a HM I'm planning in week 1 and week 5 - so a bit of tweaking to do, but gives me an excellent plan for appropriate mileage.

So excited about the whole thing, looking forward to learning and sharing on this forum!

zooming

Runchick wrote: »

Younganne many thanks for your reply. Great words of wisdom, concentrating on finishing sounds like the way to go - doing a marathon has always been a dream of mine so I want to enjoy the experience! I had a look at the Novice 2 plan, looks absolutely perfect for me, except for a HM I'm planning in week 1 and week 5 - so a bit of tweaking to do, but gives me an excellent plan for appropriate mileage.

So excited about the whole thing, looking forward to learning and sharing on this forum!

Im excited too!! And secretly shi**ing myself as well, I have to tweak Hals plan as am going on holidays in July but will get as much done as possible, imagine running 18 and 20 miles...woo hoo!!!

Runchick

zooming wrote: »

Im excited too!! And secretly shi**ing myself as well, I have to tweak Hals plan as am going on holidays in July but will get as much done as possible, imagine running 18 and 20 miles...woo hoo!!!

Hi there Zooming...I love this, talking to folk who gets excited about running for hours! All my friends think I'm mad in the head, what a refreshing change!

Younganne

Just a reminder for any of you who are planning the Dublin Race Series - Irish Runner 5m Race on June 30th , the closing date is 10th June. Enter here

It would be a great one for everyone to try and do for a bit of experience. It will be at the end of week one of our 18 week Marathon plan and the 5m race would be instead of you planned 6m LSR

ncmc

Just wanted to get opinions on whether I should train with the Novice 1 or Novice 2. I had been planning to run the Novice 1 as this will be my first marathon, but I’m wondering of the Novice 2 might be more suitable. I have been running for a few years now, but only sticking to a programme since January. I am currently running 2 x 4 miles, 1 x 5 miles and a weekend LSR. I am currently up to 10 miles on the long run (I’m the girl that did 9.7 miles in the Cork Marathon). I don’t think the Wednesday run at pace would be a problem (my problem is actually slowing down!). I don’t think the extra mileage would be a massive problem.

The only reason I am thinking of doing Novice 2 is because I am keen to do a sub 4.30 marathon (secretly dreaming of a sub 4). Just wondering what the experts here think, keep with Novice 1 and not worry about time, or go with Novice 2 and aim for the sub 4.30?

Trampas

was out for 8km run this morning.

even manage it without much rain. most water seemed to come from the trees.

On the 5mile any item what time will it start at roughly?

zooming

Younganne wrote: »

Just a reminder for any of you who are planning the Dublin Race Series - Irish Runner 5m Race on June 30th , the closing date is 10th June. Enter here

It would be a great one for everyone to try and do for a bit of experience. It will be at the end of week one of our 18 week Marathon plan and the 5m race would be instead of you planned 6m LSR

oooooo!!! Squeaky bum! That sounds great!! Any of my slow chums thinking of it?

Mr Slow

Trampas wrote: »

was out for 8km run this morning.

even manage it without much rain. most water seemed to come from the trees.

On the 5mile any item what time will it start at roughly?

All of the race series events are on a Saturday starting at 10am bar the 10k in Swords which is on a Sunday.

Martin_ie2012

zooming wrote: »

Yep, Hal is great!! This forum is good too, brilliant support for slow pokes like me

Yeah glad to see a few more people with similar pace here that are just starting their journey like me. Am currently at 10:00/mile pace and have no great desire to go too much faster this year just want to focus on endurance and also cant see myself keeping that pace up over 26.2 miles so will probably be closer to 11:00/mile on the day, will just see how things go with the training not putting myself under any pressure with a time goal as its my first marathon just going to enjoy the experience as much as you can running 26.2 miles.
Great support on here I have to say.
Out for 2.5 mile run today getting into the swing of things and getting the discipline to go out and stick to the plan, looking forward to the plan starting proper at the end of June.
Hal is the Man.

RedRunner

Martin_ie2012 wrote: »

Yeah glad to see a few more people with similar pace here that are just starting their journey like me. Am currently at 10:00/mile pace and have no great desire to go too much faster this year just want to focus on endurance and also cant see myself keeping that pace up over 26.2 miles so will probably be closer to 11:00/mile on the day, will just see how things go with the training not putting myself under any pressure with a time goal as its my first marathon just going to enjoy the experience as much as you can running 26.2 miles.
Great support on here I have to say.
Out for 2.5 mile run today getting into the swing of things and getting the discipline to go out and stick to the plan, looking forward to the plan starting proper at the end of June.
Hal is the Man.

Hi..That was my attitude for my first marathon last year and have to say I really enjoyed and savoured the experience. Finished in 4:45 in end..Last 10k was hard going but caught the bug and am looking forward to my 2nd one this year.
You are right to focus on doing the distance first time round. All the best advice seems to suggest that in most stuff I read up on last year. Best of luck with the training!

Dilbert75

Runchick & ncmc - I'm also planning to use Novice 2 so, although the majority here will be using Novice 1, we'll possibly have a few of us running the same distances at the same time.

Pacing Mule

Martin_ie2012 wrote: »

Yeah glad to see a few more people with similar pace here that are just starting their journey like me. Am currently at 10:00/mile pace and have no great desire to go too much faster this year just want to focus on endurance and also cant see myself keeping that pace up over 26.2 miles so will probably be closer to 11:00/mile on the day, will just see how things go with the training not putting myself under any pressure with a time goal as its my first marathon just going to enjoy the experience as much as you can running 26.2 miles.
Great support on here I have to say.
Out for 2.5 mile run today getting into the swing of things and getting the discipline to go out and stick to the plan, looking forward to the plan starting proper at the end of June.
Hal is the Man.

Anne is the woman with the plan.

nellocono

Hello all, was just reading through this thread for the first time and notice alot of people worried about their slower running times. For those of you, I wanted to share a line I saw on a runners blog which I actually thought was quite cool. Remember this over the next few months when the training is getting harder and harder and you begin to question yourself and your sanity (or maybe thats just me!)


“I won as soon as I answered the starter’s gun. I cannot measure myself against the others who ran with me today, only the millions who did not; that group that did not try. The millions of people who thought they were too old or it would be too hard. Those who would not face the fear and doubt and overcome it. That group that I was a proud member of for many years, but will never be again.”

shortie_chik

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Runchick & ncmc - I'm also planning to use Novice 2 so, although the majority here will be using Novice 1, we'll possibly have a few of us running the same distances at the same time.

I was thinking of following the Novice 2 plan also. I've done a few half-marathons so I know I'll be able to manage the first 6 weeks of LSRs in HH-N2. I hope in the first 6 weeks to get more comfortable with the distances I've already done.
Excited to start building!

rasher_m

Younganne wrote: »

Here are some basic tips regarding Nutrition
Eat a well balanced diet, eat when you are hungry and listen to you body!!
Try to eat good unprocessed foods and the diet should be made up of 60% Carbohydrates (bread, cereal, potatoes, rice, pasta, Fruit & veg), 15% from Protein the rest from fat. Females should also increase their intake of vitamins, iron and other minerals. Snack should be healthy snacks (nuts, seed, dried fruit, cereal bars, pitta bread, malt loaf, a few squares of dark chocolate!)

Hope I'm not lowering the tone here but with regards to the vitamin intake...I'm one of those people who need to take extra Iron, I feel anyway and I'm wondering is there any way you can take this without getting constipation?

BobMac104

If you get your Iron from more dark green veg intake then you wont have any constipation issues.

zooming

Runchick wrote: »

Hi there Zooming...I love this, talking to folk who gets excited about running for hours! All my friends think I'm mad in the head, what a refreshing change!

At least you have told your friends!! I have not 'come out of the closet' so to speak lol, about my marathon ambitions, I am still carrying about a stone too much (i lost almost 6 stone over the past 2 years) and am hoping this marathon journey will help! I actually cried watching the Biggest loser marathon last week, did anyone see it? 26.2 miles in the Southern California heat too..phew. I think people will look at me sideways when I say Im doing a marathon, the same way they would look at a fat kid in a tutu who is looking to be a ballerina....disbelief and pity LOL!!:D
Its good to have you guys to chat to! Im gonna do a 10 miler on Sunday, Im guessing 1 hr 58mins :eek:

Runchick

Great to hear there's a few more for doing the Novice 2 plan, no doubt I'll be drawing from your support when things get tough!

My friends know about my half marathon plans but only my hubbie knows about DCM...I feel compelled to keep that under wraps for now, not sure if that's fear of not finishing or fear of negative comments, or just that I'm doing this for myself and in a way it feels like a very personal journey??

Anyway very glad to have you folk to share with:-)

Can anyone advise me if this sounds ok. I currently run a race pace of about 9min10 per mile and am doing LSR at about 10min10 per mile. I am worried that my LSR pace might actually be too fast or does this sound about right? I have read somewhere that it should be slower but this feels ok and i dont really understand why it should be slower. Sorry for the ramble, any advice welcome:-)

ncmc

zooming wrote: »

At least you have told your friends!! I have not 'come out of the closet' so to speak lol, about my marathon ambitions, I am still carrying about a stone too much (i lost almost 6 stone over the past 2 years) and am hoping this marathon journey will help! I actually cried watching the Biggest loser marathon last week, did anyone see it? 26.2 miles in the Southern California heat too..phew. I think people will look at me sideways when I say Im doing a marathon, the same way they would look at a fat kid in a tutu who is looking to be a ballerina....disbelief and pity LOL!!:D
Its good to have you guys to chat to! Im gonna do a 10 miler on Sunday, Im guessing 1 hr 58mins :eek:

Runchick wrote: »

Great to hear there's a few more for doing the Novice 2 plan, no doubt I'll be drawing from your support when things get tough!

My friends know about my half marathon plans but only my hubbie knows about DCM...I feel compelled to keep that under wraps for now, not sure if that's fear of not finishing or fear of negative comments, or just that I'm doing this for myself and in a way it feels like a very personal journey??

Anyway very glad to have you folk to share with:-)

Just my suggestion, but I’d really advise telling people about your DCM plans. I too was a bit nervous about telling people, my family isn’t very sporty and I thought they might all think I was crazy! But the support from everyone has been great. They are all being really encouraging and asking me how my training is going. A few of them are in total awe of anyone voluntarily running 26.2 miles, so that gives me a bit of a buzz to hear!

Plus on bad days, when I think there’s no way I’m going to be ready, I know I can’t pull out because I couldn’t face telling people, so it’s acting as a total motivator!

Runchick wrote: »

Can anyone advise me if this sounds ok. I currently run a race pace of about 9min10 per mile and am doing LSR at about 10min10 per mile. I am worried that my LSR pace might actually be too fast or does this sound about right? I have read somewhere that it should be slower but this feels ok and i dont really understand why it should be slower. Sorry for the ramble, any advice welcome:-)

I’m in the same boat Runchick, I am finding it difficult to run my LSR slow enough, I presume I’ll get slower as the distance gets longer! What is your target time? If it is 4 hours, then your LSR should be 60-90 seconds slower than race pace, so that would be 10 – 10.30 min mile, so what you’re doing now sounds about right. (Although I am a newbie too, that’s just what I’ve gleaned from reading the Hal book and reading this thread!)

tang1

Runchick wrote: »

Can anyone advise me if this sounds ok. I currently run a race pace of about 9min10 per mile and am doing LSR at about 10min10 per mile. I am worried that my LSR pace might actually be too fast or does this sound about right? I have read somewhere that it should be slower but this feels ok and i dont really understand why it should be slower. Sorry for the ramble, any advice welcome:-)

Your LSR should be 60-90 secs slower than your goal race pace. This is to help build your endurance and time spent on your legs. My goal race pace for DCM is 8min/miles but am running my LSR's between 9.10min/mile and 9.30min/mile. It does feel slow but its what seems to be best practise and from running a few short races recently it does stand to you.

Mr Slow

tang1 wrote: »

Your LSR should be 60-90 secs slower than your goal race pace. This is to help build your endurance and time spent on your legs. My goal race pace for DCM is 8min/miles but am running my LSR's between 9.10min/mile and 9.30min/mile. It does feel slow but its what seems to be best practise and from running a few short races recently it does stand to you.

Are some of your long runs at MP?