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Peaking too early.........

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  • 13-11-2012 10:54am
    #1
    ChadHogan
    Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭


    Hey everyone, Have been reading a lot of the logs here over the last few months and thought I’d get in on the act.

    I’ve picked up a lot of helpful information reading other peoples logs and would like to use it to track my own progress and benefit from the generous advice offered here. Hopefully it will also provide extra motivation to push myself.

    My background is I’m a 29 year old male and I’ve been running on and off without a lot of structure for about 18 months. I played rugby up until May this year. I'd have trained twice a week with a game on the weekend so was always reasonably active, however I would point of that I played in the front row so long distance running is a bit of a new departure for me.

    A combination of injuries and time pressures have caused to me give up. I like the flexibility of running in that I can run when it suits me and am not tied down to team training schedules and have found it a great way to relax and completely switch off in my free time.

    Over the last few months I’ve been loosely following the Hal Higdon novice Marathon program with an aim to increasing the mileage, but with no particular marathon in mind. I was inspired from the stories from a lot of the novices increasing the mileage over an 18 week program and wanted to see how i'd fair when I pushed myself in a similar way

    Recently I've been doing two or three short runs during the week 4-6 miles and a longer run at the weekend. Longest to date is 14 miles and peak weekly mileage has been around 30 miles. On the longer runs I struggle to stay at an even easy pace –this is inspite of the fact that I run with a Garmin. I put this down to a lack of focus and concentration. I have been reading about the benefits of easy running here and plan to put this into practice

    I completed my one and only race last month, the Eco2run 10 mile in a time of 1:23. Had a great day and have definitely caught the bug and am itching to have a crack at my next race.

    I have a couple of goals Short term and a couple for 2013

    Short Term goals
    Waterford half marathon – would like to finish in a comparable time to my 10 mile - currently debating whether to target 1:45 or 1:50

    Hell and Back adventure race in January- no time goal here. I'm running with a few friends and just want to give a good account of myself and build up as much of a base as possible before this.


    2013 Goals
    Spring/ summer marathon in 2013
    Run DCM – hometown marathon

    So now that the goals are there in black and white there's no turning back.


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    #2
    TRR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,642 ✭✭✭TRR


    Howdy ChadHogan

    Fair play with the log. Couple of suggestions. If running DCM is the main goal I'd skip the spring/summer marathon and concentrate on half marathons instead. I have no doubt you could run a marathon before DCM but it can be hard to motivate yourself for a second marathon later in the year. This isn't always true as plenty of people here log multiple marathons a year but if DCM is the goal might be worth considering.

    Do you have the opportunity to run with anybody else? Is joining a running club an option? If not maybe check out the thread in the main forum (assuming you live in Dublin as most runs are arranged for Phoenix park) that lists meet up times for Boards runners, you should be able to fit in with a group. The company will make the run easier and you will pick up lots of hints and tips from regular marathon runners.

    Best of luck


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    #3
    ChadHogan
    Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭ChadHogan


    So true to form, I started something two weeks ago and didn't stick with it. Made one post and never returned - must do better!

    I've had a busier few weeks than expected and missed two runs since my first post but i've had a look at my garmin and logged the following runs. I've tried to run all of the above slow and easy except the one at 8.6km which I pushed quite hard on.

    14-Nov 8.3 km in 44:01
    16-Nov 11.5km in 1:02:43
    19-Nov 8.6km in 42:30
    20-Nov 8.4km in 43:20
    23-Nov 21.1km in 1:55:43
    26-Nov 7.4km in 39:50

    I'm feeling good heading in to Waterford on Saturday, and looking forward to the day and testing myself. Have decided to head out with the 1:50 pacers as on reflection I don't think I've been holding much back in training inspite of my best intentions to run slow.

    Plan for rest of the weeks is 2-3 easy miles tomorrow and then 1-2 miles on Friday evening.

    Good luck to everyone else taking part


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