The Windy Road to Nowhere

Peckham

A month to go and we still haven't discussed post-marathon pubs. Not sure where everyone is staying (and I know that RFR is heading straight to the airport), but here are a few recommendations from my man on the ground.

Any are good for me.

Beside me, there's Timothy O'Tooles, likely to be packed, but has a decent selection of beers. Further afield, there's Rock Bottom on Grand/State, which brews its own, and has very good bar food. Also has a roof garden if weather permits.

In the Loop, there's Monks (Lake/ Wells), which is a little out of the way, but must have 100 beers on the menu. Its beside both red and blue lines.
Nearer the finish line, there are a couple of places that are popular with the runners, Sweetwater tavern and grill on Michigan/ Lake and Houlihans near Michigan/ Wacker.

ThePiedPiper

Who said anything about straight to the airport? Flight's not til 8 o clock in the evening or so, that'll allow me a good 6 or 7 hours drinking time. I would suggest somewhere within walking distance of the finish line, with grub as I'd say we'll a skinny bunch of paddies let loose after all posting marathon PBs at 10 o clock in the morning is a dangerous combination...

Peckham

RunForestRun wrote: »

Who said anything about straight to the airport? Flight's not til 8 o clock in the evening or so, that'll allow me a good 6 or 7 hours drinking time. I would suggest somewhere within walking distance of the finish line, with grub as I'd say we'll a skinny bunch of paddies let loose after all posting marathon PBs at 10 o clock in the morning is a dangerous combination...

Meant to post this in the Chicago thread! Whoops!

blockic

Peckham wrote: »

Meant to post this in the Chicago thread! Whoops!

Yayaya, you and RFR can have yere romanic meal, the rest of us will go on the lash!

Rock Bottom sounds decent.

ThePiedPiper

Monday 9th Sept: REST

Tuesday 10th Sept: 5 miles in 39:20 (7:51 pace)

Easy paced run home from work. Pace was easy, but the wind combined with the hill actually made this quite a challenging little 5 miler. The runmute is definitely a great way of getting the miles in every day, but the route is a real balls, impossible to actually have an easy run, do a MP run. It'll be a great long-term one for building strength, but for right now, its not ticking all the boxes just right.

Wednesday 11th Sept: 11 miles in 1:14 (6:44 pace)

With the above in mind, I decided to take a different route home, our around the Boyne by Baltray, through Termonfeckin and back up from there. Planned on 7 MP miles.

Even running out of the town at 7:20ish pace on the first warm-up mile, I felt very warm, was sweating and definitely not cruising at easy effort for the pace. Anyway, committed myself to it, and had to make it snappy as Mrs RFR needed me back home to get away, so I couldn't back out of it.

After the first mile, got into MP handy enough, but it was just that bit harder than I've been used to. It continued on like this for most of the run really, very warm and heavy conditions I think, I hope really. After Termonfeckin, the wind was directly into my face, and combined with the uphill profile, the 6th PMP mile was very tough. Sort of consigned myself to the fact that I'd have to jog it in from there, so eased down to 8:00 pace.

However, after about a quarter of a mile, I found that I'd recovered, gotten a bit of spring back in my step, and I think the wind eased down a little bit, so I got on it again. Having taken it easy for the first bit of that mile, it was slightly outside PMP, but being able to get it together allowed me finish the session with a bit more confidence rather than having to have thrown in the towel on it.

Was wrecked coming back up the hill, but kept it pretty steady to finish a very tough little mid-week 11 miler feeling nicely tired. Felt like the toughest workout in a good while, I think I need a few more of those over the next while.

PMP miles were as follows:
6:22 / 6:22 / 6:24 / 6:24 / 6:21 / 6:21 / 6:35.

Looking at that now, I realise that its about 7 seconds faster than actual PMP, but my 2:58 marathons were 6:44/45 pace on the watch, so I think it makes sense.

I'll take it handy now tomorrow and Friday, just easy miles home from school, and hopefully give Saturday's half marathon a good rattle.

Just noticed something very interesting on Garmin Connect, not sure how accurate it is or where the data comes from, but apparently when I did the run, there was a 13mph West wind, and 94% humidity and 18 degrees... Is the watch picking up that data? Don't really understand how it works...

Krusty_Clown

RunForestRun wrote: »

Is the watch picking up that data? Don't really understand how it works...

Nah, they just pull it from weather reports in your area, based on your GPS location. Some strong gusts out there today allright.

RunningKing

For some reason, I appear to have totally missed this log!

Read it from the start, so Caught back up now! Love how you run,(apart from the treadmill), definitely something's to take away for me.

ThePiedPiper

RunningKing wrote: »

For some reason, I appear to have totally missed this log!

Read it from the start, so Caught back up now! Love how you run,(apart from the treadmill), definitely something's to take away for me.

Cheers RunningKing, yeah, the treadmill running is a bit of a bore, but it's been of a lot of value to me over the past while.

On that note:

Thursday 12th Sept: 4 miles on treadmill in 27:20 (6:50 avg pace)

Runmute didn't work out today, and with a busy evening didn't get a chance to do anything til nearly 10. Jumped on the treadmill. Decided to push it out the MP for a couple of miles. Feels weird on the treadmill at this speed, but settled into it alright. Very odd feeling when I took it back down to 14km/h, which is exactly 3:00 MP, felt very relaxed at that. A year ago, that was my PMP, now it feels easy. I'm not sure if I'll run a 2:50 marathon, but there's no doubt in my mind that I'm in significantly better shape than 2:58.

Been feeling like I've been losing my mojo a bit this past week and a half, but I think its just a confidence thing. Looking forward to racing on Saturday and hopefully getting that bit of confidence back at the right time.

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

Cheers RunningKing, yeah, the treadmill running is a bit of a bore, but it's been of a lot of value to me over the past while.

On that note:

Thursday 12th Sept: 4 miles on treadmill in 27:20 (6:50 avg pace)

Runmute didn't work out today, and with a busy evening didn't get a chance to do anything til nearly 10. Jumped on the treadmill. Decided to push it out the MP for a couple of miles. Feels weird on the treadmill at this speed, but settled into it alright. Very odd feeling when I took it back down to 14km/h, which is exactly 3:00 MP, felt very relaxed at that. A year ago, that was my PMP, now it feels easy. I'm not sure if I'll run a 2:50 marathon, but there's no doubt in my mind that I'm in significantly better shape than 2:58.

Been feeling like I've been losing my mojo a bit this past week and a half, but I think its just a confidence thing. Looking forward to racing on Saturday and hopefully getting that bit of confidence back at the right time.

No more of that negative attitude, positive mental attitude! Seriously I think you just lost a little monemtum with the new job and all, nothing to worry about, you have loads of great work. For the next few weeks I would just focus on getting out as often as you can, if you can get a good long run and maybe a midweek MP session then you will be laughing. I think if the weather plays ball then sub 2.50 is very achievable. Maybe the very occasional tempo run at faster than MP would help you too, maybe 6 miles @ 6.05-10 pace.

ThePiedPiper

Cheers pconn, yeah the change in routine takes adjusting but you're probably spot on.. Will try to be a bit more structured the next couple of weeks, if I can just maintain where I am, I'll run a good marathon. The half on Sat and hopefully the novice will be good sharpeners

ThePiedPiper

Pre-race negativity and buildup

For the first time this summer, I was coming into a race lacking a bit of confidence. The routine I had during June-August worked wonders for me, both in terms of conditioning but the races I ran were all good. The R&R half was probably one of the best races I ever ran in terms of execution, and over the past 7-10 days have been starting to fear that I peaked too early. With all of that in mind, I was fairly sure that my 1:19:50 PB would not be under threat today. But, the race would be important in terms of putting in a good performance as part of marathon training.

I was fairly tired on the way down to Athlone in the car. Had some wine lastnight against Mrs RFR's advice, and just felt a bit groggy and tired this morning. Got into Athlone around 10 and got my number sorted before heading out for a bit of a warmup. Felt grand, no issues, just general tiredness. Crowds were starting to build a bit, so took myself down towards the start to meet up with Blockic.

Early miles

We took off nice and handy, clearing the sub 1:25 pace group by the first corner to have a bit of clear road. As planned, we kept things steady for the first mile, around 6:10 pace. Felt very relaxed and comfortable as we started moving through the gears a wee bit more for miles 2 and 3 in 6:04 and 6:08. Even that gradual increase in pace had us passing a lot of groups. In fact, I don't think anybody passed us at any point during the race. However, inexplicably, I started getting a bit of a stitch during Mile 4 which we clocked in 6:04. I mentioned this to Blockic, hoping I'd work my way through it, but feared that there may be a few tough miles ahead.

Fighting stitches and the breeze

I was annoyed that this stitch was going to cause me to slow a bit, but decided to hang with the pace, concentrate on my breathing and try and just get things back in check. I could've backed off the pace, but decided to stay on it and see what happens. Miles 5 and 6 were 5:56 and 6:04, my quickest of the day, and actually, by the end of those couple of miles, I was feeling a lot more comfortable, the bad patch seemed to have more or less passed. However, I wasn't naive enough to think that I could drop down to sub 6s for the rest of the race.

We turned onto the little back roads and the conditions then got a bit tougher. With just the two of us, there was very little in the way of making things easier running into the breeze, but we made a good concerted effort to share the duties. We passed the 10k mark in 37:35 which I was very proud of, as I've only ran under that time once in a 10k race. Anyway, Mile 7 clocked in 6:07 into the breeze, but I felt like I was starting to work hard. Panicking a bit, as we were just over halfway distance.

The end of the bromance

Our little romantic outing in the sun I feared was coming to an end. When we clocked 6:14 for Mile 8, I knew my goose was nearly cooked. Blockic was trying to convince me that we'd be back on the main road and that the wind would be on our backs then. He was in much better shape at this point, and I knew hanging on would be possible, but only for a mile or so, so just dropped back to try to regroup. In fairness, blockic was spot on, things did get a lot easier once we got back onto the old N6, and despite feeling like crap, got the pace back down to 6:11, 6:04 and 6:10 for miles 9-11.

During those couple of miles, I was actually still passing out the odd person, and nobody went by me. Strange, because I felt like I was going backwards. Had a bit of a mental struggle with myself when I sort of knew sub 1:20 was gone. What was I chasing? Why bother? Is this toughening me up or messing me up for the main race in a few weeks? Decided that I was content to let pace slip to PMP for the last couple of miles, but that to let it go slower than 6:30 would represent a failure. So, through huffing and puffing and deteriorating form, I wobbled through the last two miles in 6:20 and 6:27 to finish in 1:21:00 for 45th place.

Post race

Was wrecked at the end of this race. Was very impressed with the beer tent, and despite it been alcohol free, felt damn good. Met up with loads of boards runners over the next while, even managed to get a very tasty chocolate bun from Marthastew after her win in the marathon. Lots of post mortoms, but with the general gist being that most found the going fairly tough today.

Analysis of my own performance

Hard to know what to make of this performance, goods and bads. The good being that I would've bitten your arm off for a 1:21 6 weeks ago, I only lost about a minute despite having a lot of issues from early on. I sort of knew there was going to be a bit of a slump over these couple of weeks, but it isn't huge.

There are negatives from today, but they could've been a hell of a lot worse. If I'd ran 1:22 or 1:23, I'd be worried, but I think the 1:21 is enough of a kick in the arse to make me hopefully put together a good couple of weeks without haven fallen off the pace altogether. Two weeks of really solid training and a decent taper will hopefully get me to Chicago as close as possible to peak shape.

DukeOfDromada

Great running. Your legs must be tired from the all the training so wouldn't read too much into it. Also, alcohol makes your mitochondria hung over so that could easily have played a part. Looking forward to meeting up in a few weeks.

cianc

RunForestRun wrote: »

The good being that I would've bitten your arm off for a 1:21 6 weeks ago

Glad you're keeping that in mind, it's very easy to forget that you're making big improvements when they're not *quite* as big as hoped for.

RunForestRun wrote: »

I sort of knew there was going to be a bit of a slump over these couple of weeks, but it isn't huge.

Can I ask why you were expecting a slump? Apologies if you've already talked about it in the log, memory like a goldfish me.

ThePiedPiper

Cheers Cian,
During the summer, I was, for the most part unemployed, just a few days work here and there, so had loads of time and energy to dedicate to running. At start of September, I was lucky enough to get a full-time job, but there's a lot of additional planning and preparation and adjusting to it, so, even though I'm still running most days, not getting the quality that I previously was. The runmute is the best way of fitting in training, but the route isn't great, climb of 600 feet over 4.5 miles. Anyway, I know all of those things could be regarded as excuses, but I really need to concentrate on the job at the moment, so that has to take priority.

Hopefully I can sort things out a bit more over the next couple of weeks to round off what's been overall a very strong few months training. And, you're completely right. One relatively bad race doesn't change things too much. The fact that I'm a bit disappointed with 1:21:00 says a lot I think.

Aimman

Well done in the race, best of luck in Chicago.

KielyUnusual

Well done RFR. 1.21 is a quality time to pull out on an off day. It's difficult not to focus on the short term but taken over the last few months your training has been immense. I went through a similar spell 4 or 5 weeks out from London and even running at marathon pace for 10 miles took all the effort I could muster. You don't lose fitness that quickly and once you start tapering in a few weeks, the strength will come back and you'll fly around Chicago, I have no doubt.

ThePiedPiper

Cheers KU.. Yeah, I'm at peace with yesterdays run now, will take it as a blip and move on from it.. I've found on most marathon training cycles that it can happen so hopefully all will come good next month.

ThePiedPiper

Sunday 15th Sept: 11 miles in 79:30 (7:14 pace)

On the treadmill for this in the evening time. No ill effects from yesterday's half, but took things nice and handy for the start of this. Did it as a progressive tempo, starting at 12km/h, increasing every 500m by 0.1 until 14.2km/h, then decreasing by 0.1 every 2km. No scientific reasoning whatsoever for this, just felt very comfortable, and want to get as many miles as possible in my legs in that 6:20-6:45 pace range. Very pleased with how comfortable the pace felt.

ThePiedPiper

Monday 16th September; 5 miles in 39 minutes (7:48 pace)
Easy paced run on treadmill, I was going to do more but I was actually feeling myself nodding off to sleep while running. Very strange and slightly scary feeling!

Tuesday 17th September: 10 miles in 69:30 (6:57 pace)
Treadmill again by necessity unfortunately but actually a decent session. After a warm up slow half mile, did progressive tempo from 7:25 down to 6:20 pace. Felt pretty good. Will hopefully get out on the roads tomorrow evening at some stage..

belcarra

Hey RFR, good to see you took Saturday in your stride (pun intended!) and are banging out the miles this week!
Good to meet you in Athlone, now roll on Chicago!

ThePiedPiper

Wednesday 18th Sept: 9.5 miles in 1:04:30 (6:48 pace) with 7 miles PMP

offloaded the young ones to get out on the road for the first time since Sat. Felt very slow and sluggish heading off, but grand after about a mile. Cranked up to PMP handy enough going downhill for first couple of them. Got a bit more challenging on the undulating parts, but overall not a bad effort. This was definitely one of those tired legs type efforts simulating the tail end of a marathon so I was happy to keep the pace relatively good.
PMP miles as follows:
6:36, 6:22, 6:33, 6:21, 6:39, 6:31, 6:14

ThePiedPiper

Thursday 19th Sept: 4 miles in 31:20 (7:50 avg pace)

Fairly tired 4 miles on the treadmill at 10:30 at night. Getting sick of the treadmill this week, roads from here on in thankfully..

ThePiedPiper

Friday: 7.5 miles in 56:19 (7:30 avg pace)

Legs felt a bit dead before heading off on this run, suppose its been the hardest week in a good while, and a lot of it was actually done on the treadmill, which I honestly find is harder on the legs than the road. Anyway, set off nice and handy on what was a beautiful, warm sunny evening. This little loop down by Sandpit has been one of my favourite over the past couple of years, quiet little country lanes where the only thing you see are cows and sheep. I didn't really mean to run as fast as I did on that run, I think it was just the general happiness at being back on the road, and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: 20 miles in 2:15 (6:45 avg pace)with 13 at MP (6:27 avg)(

This is the biggie. In my last four marathons, this has been the session that has been the real examination of whether I'm ready to tackle the upcoming marathon. I've used the same route every time for this, a deceptive one that has you cruising til about 15 miles, but turns on you and laughs in your face on the back stretch.

Anyway, got myself out the door at the end of the football final into a beautiful warm Autumn evening. Had myself properly hydrated all day, ate lunch at the right time and had drink and gel strategy worked out to match marathon day.

Warmup/easy miles:
Took the first mile fairly handy, about 7:15 pace heading down towards the old N1. Then, decided that PMP+30 seconds would be good for the next 4 or 5 over towards Collon. This is a fairly easy couple of miles, dropping in elevation, so the splits look fast, but in reality it's easy effort:
7:15 / 6:58 / 6:59 / 6:57 / 6:56 / 7:22

First few MP miles
I'd taken my first gel coming up the hill towards Collon on the slow mile, so was ready to get straight into MP at Mile 7. Unfortunately, its quite a tough part of the route, climbing 86 feet out of the village on the N2. I knew there was a few easy miles to come after that one, so I decided that the harder effort would be offset and I could recover easily over the next few.
Heading from the N2 over towards Dunleer is about 5 miles of very easy running, gently sloping downhill for the most part. MP never felt difficult along this patch, cruised along very nicely.
6:31 / 6:27 / 6:26 / 6:28 / 6:24 / 6:25 / 6:24

The hard PMP miles

On the Barn Road out of Dunleer, there's a fairly sharpish uphill for about half a mile that's enough to start feeling the effort a bit. Had to increase the workrate around then, but kept things moving nicely right through to Grangebellew. This is when things do get nasty. The next few miles towards Ballymakenny are over rolling hills that can even be challenging on easy runs. This culminates in a brutal Mile 17 with 100 feet elevation gain and 0 feet drop. Was working really really hard to keep this one under 6:30, but knew that if I could, that Mile 18 and 19 would look after themselves. Very suspicious and weird noises were coming out've me over that stretch but when I got that 17th mile done, I knew that I could hold the last two.
Still a bit of work to be done on the last couple, but I was brimming at this stage, and closed out the session very well.
6:27 / 6:27 / 6:27 / 6:29 / 6:28 / 6:26.

I arrived back to the house absolutely beaming after this session. It couldn't have gone any better. Weather was warm, a bit humid, so not perfect, and the course is a challenging enough one. If I was lacking a bit of confidence this time last week, its back in bucketloads now. I'll do another 20 next week, but likely at a much decreased pace level. This was the important one, everything else from here on in is about maintaining and consolidating.

cianc

Great session RFR. You're some glutton for punishment when it comes to picking your PMP routes Glad to see the confidence back.

blockic

Savage. No need to say anymore.

Peckham

Nailed it!

ThePiedPiper

Monday 23rd Sept: REST

Tuesday 24th Sept: 4.5 miles in 34:50 (7:44 pace)

Took it very easy on the runmute home. Legs still feeling it a bit after Sunday's long run. Nothing sore or any niggles, just a bit of fatigue. Technically tapering now, so not really too bothered.

Wednesday 25th Sept: REST
Hadn't intended this as a rest day, but by the time I got back from work and a course, it was nearly 8 o clock. Bit of school work to do at home too, was absolutely shattered, so decided that even a 3 or 4 mile easy run wouldn't do anything for me, so for the first time since May, two rest days in a week!!! Horrific.

Thursday 26th Sept: 4 miles in 28:30 (7:2? pace)

On the treadmill at 10.30 at night for this. Another busy evening, but couldn't live with having a third rest day so jumped on the treadmill for a quick enough effort. Started easy at 12km'h, working it right up to 15km/h, before easing back for the last mile or so. Felt fairly good.

Friday 27th Sept: 7.5 miles in 49:35 (6:37 pace)

OK, there's tapering and there's losing sharpness. After a week of relative nothingness running wise, I decided a decent speedy effort was needed. Felt a little bit sluggish heading off, but the 6:52 warm-up mile suggested otherwise.

Opened it up a bit for a few fast miles down towards Sandpit. I was actually amazed how fast I was going at relatively comfortable effort levels. If I look at the splits hard enough, I might just have done a 5k under 18 minutes in the middle of this session without really hammering it.

Was taking an easy mile heading back up the hill when I caught up with another lad out running. Chatted and had the craic for a mile before I hung another right to head for home. Decided to speed things up again after the bit of a recovery mile. Again, the ease of the pace heading up the hills towards home really surprised me. It's as fresh and as fast as I've ever felt, unquestionably. So, for a sort of non-planned session that I felt I didn't even give full commitment, it turned into a huge confidence booster. That's the beauty of tapering I suppose.
Splits for the session as follows:
6:52 / 5:58 / 5:46 / 5:53 / 7:50 / 7:21 / 6:41 / 3:15 for the last half mile.

Today will most likely be a treadmill day, which I don't really mind too much. Plan for tomorrow is a comfortable 20 miles, not going much faster than 6:50 pace for any of it, maybe just 1 or 2 miles faster than that. That's worked in the past, keep me conditioned, but not tough running.

KielyUnusual

RunForestRun wrote: »

Monday 23rd Sept: REST

Tuesday 24th Sept: 4.5 miles in 34:50 (7:44 pace)

Took it very easy on the runmute home. Legs still feeling it a bit after Sunday's long run. Nothing sore or any niggles, just a bit of fatigue. Technically tapering now, so not really too bothered.

Wednesday 25th Sept: REST
Hadn't intended this as a rest day, but by the time I got back from work and a course, it was nearly 8 o clock. Bit of school work to do at home too, was absolutely shattered, so decided that even a 3 or 4 mile easy run wouldn't do anything for me, so for the first time since May, two rest days in a week!!! Horrific.

Thursday 26th Sept: 4 miles in 28:30 (7:2? pace)

On the treadmill at 10.30 at night for this. Another busy evening, but couldn't live with having a third rest day so jumped on the treadmill for a quick enough effort. Started easy at 12km'h, working it right up to 15km/h, before easing back for the last mile or so. Felt fairly good.

Friday 27th Sept: 7.5 miles in 49:35 (6:37 pace)

OK, there's tapering and there's losing sharpness. After a week of relative nothingness running wise, I decided a decent speedy effort was needed. Felt a little bit sluggish heading off, but the 6:52 warm-up mile suggested otherwise.

Opened it up a bit for a few fast miles down towards Sandpit. I was actually amazed how fast I was going at relatively comfortable effort levels. If I look at the splits hard enough, I might just have done a 5k under 18 minutes in the middle of this session without really hammering it.

Was taking an easy mile heading back up the hill when I caught up with another lad out running. Chatted and had the craic for a mile before I hung another right to head for home. Decided to speed things up again after the bit of a recovery mile. Again, the ease of the pace heading up the hills towards home really surprised me. It's as fresh and as fast as I've ever felt, unquestionably. So, for a sort of non-planned session that I felt I didn't even give full commitment, it turned into a huge confidence booster. That's the beauty of tapering I suppose.
Splits for the session as follows:
6:52 / 5:58 / 5:46 / 5:53 / 7:50 / 7:21 / 6:41 / 3:15 for the last half mile.

Today will most likely be a treadmill day, which I don't really mind too much. Plan for tomorrow is a comfortable 20 miles, not going much faster than 6:50 pace for any of it, maybe just 1 or 2 miles faster than that. That's worked in the past, keep me conditioned, but not tough running.

That's it RFR. Reduce the mileage but keep the sharpness. You taught me that so glad you are remembering yourself .

pconn062

Meeting at track in Dunleer @ 9 in the morning for a long run if you fancy it, me, the bro, maybe Eugene. Doing Clogherhead route.

ThePiedPiper

Ah that's great PConn.. Just what I was looking for. BS said that most of TC were running this morning, so thought I'd be a lone ranger tomorrow. That'll suit down to the ground, presumably pace in the 7:20-7:30 range? Talk to you then.