Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

adrian522

Sunday

7 Miles Easy

Nice easy 7 miles this evening, perfect to shake off the hangover. The weather was perfect and it was a really enjoyable run.

So ends week 7 and the month of August.

This has been my mileage since starting the Marathon Plan

Week|Mileage
1|43.8
2|48.2
3|53.2
4|44.4
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2
8|56

And finally some stats for August

Days Running|25/31
Quality Sessions|4
Long Runs|5
Races|2
PB's|2

adrian522

Monday

10K Pace Intervals

Another Monday another speedwork session. I was already regretting the beers of Saturday/Saturday night before heading out and probably had to work harder than was necessary for this session. I can certainly understand knocking beers on the head while training for a goal race but for me life continues and I'll still have the odd blowout, especially when American Football comes to Dublin.

Anyway this session is essentially 3 x 1 Mile @ 10K pace with 3 mins recovery.

It was a hard enough one but I got through it ok. Laps looked like this:

Lap|Distance|Effort|Pace|HR
1|1.0|E|9:33|75%
2|1.0|E|9:23|77%
3|1.0|E|9:14|77%
4|0.28|E|8:54|79%
5|1.0|10K|7:46|87%
6|0.33|R|9:12|83%
7|1.0|10K|7:34|87%
8|0.3|R|9:50|82%
9|1.0|10K|7:35|89%
10|0.3|R|10:08|80%
11|1.0|E|9:23|77%
12|1.0|E|9:32|76%
13|0.79|E|9:35|76%

Total 10 Miles

adrian522

Tuesday

7 Miles Easy

7 Easy miles tonight, part recovery from yesterday. Went well, details posted below, interesed in recording the HR for the moment to see if all looks OK.

A fair bit of uphill on the course today, particularly from 3 miles onwards. All good.

Plan for the rest of the week are

W: MLR
Th: Rest/Sports Massage
Fr: Easy Miles
Sa: LSR
Su: Rest

Lap|Pace|HR
1|9:13|70%
2|8:59|74%
3|9:21|76%
4|9:35|76%
5|9:22|76%
6|9:19|77%
7|8:44|76%

JohnDozer

So tomorrow is the big day! Enjoy it!

adrian522

Wednesday

12 Miles @ 8:44m/m

The plan was for a Medium Long Run of 12 miles today. The pace should be Marathon pace plus about 30 seconds. That gives me about 9:00 - 9:15 m/m,

So my pace was a bit quick, I did find it hard to set the correct place so in the end I tried to settle into what seemed like a fairly comfortable pace and forget about the watch.

Lovely weather this evening a nice route down by blackrock, along the coast all the way down to ringsend, pretty impressive way to clock the 1000 miles for the year.

Have a sports massage lined up for tomorrow and all anyone has told me is how painful it will be. The plan has 0-3 miles, so I might try a recovery run early tomorrow depending on how I feel.

Lap|Pace|HR
1|8:55|76%
2|8:44|82%
3|8:38|77%
4|8:29|77%
5|8:43|77%
6|8:50|81%
7|8:45|77%
8|8:54|79%
9|8:37|78%
10|8:49|81%
11|8:41|83%
12|8:40|84%

adrian522

Thursday

AM - Sports Massage
PM - 3 Miles @ Recovery Pace

The plan for Thursday was for either a rest day or 3 miles recovery, this seemed like a good opportunity to fit in a sports massage. I'd heard good things about the benefits of them but also some scare stories about how painful they can be.

Anyway I thought it was good, seemed to work out a few knots, good chat about training with Ecoli too.

I had almost decided to not run yesterday but around 9pm I decided to head out for some very slow recovery miles, 10:30 pace/HR around 72%. It was fine, a few aches here and there but nothing major.

The plan for the next few days is 7 Miles easy today, 20 miles steady tomorrow and complete rest/All Ireland Final attending/American Football Watching Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed for wins for Kilkenny and San Francisco!

adrian522

Friday

7 Miles @ 9:33 m/m

Easy miles to start the weekend, that hill up Mount Merrion Avenue is a real killer, followed by the hill up Fosters avenue.

Saturday

20 Miles @9:29 m/m

The plan called for Easy/Steady pace so the effort was above easy for a bit of this. The run was good for the most part though as expected I started to flag towards the end.

I tried a gel at 45 min intervals for this, it still seems like a lot and i struggled with the third one, still need to decide on a 3 or 4 gel strategy for the marathon.

Ran this in the Kinvaras, still not sure on a shoe for race day!

59 miles for the week.

Week|Miles
1|43.8
2|48.2
3|53.2
4|44.4
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2
8|56
9|59.1

shotgunmcos

Were you washing down the gels with plenty of water? I paced the 4 hour band there a couple of times and went with 4 gels.

Good job on the 10 mile and consistent miles. Setting up nicely.

Agree with Chicago being a better guage. But hey a win is a win!

adrian522

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Were you washing down the gels with plenty of water? I paced the 4 hour band there a couple of times and went with 4 gels.

Good job on the 10 mile and consistent miles. Setting up nicely.

Agree with Chicago being a better guage. But hey a win is a win!

Yeah, I take a good bit of water with the Gels, though I probably could have done with a bit more water on the day. Ran out with 3 or so miles to go but that shouldn't really be too big of a problem.

adrian522

Monday

10K Pace Session

Monday started with a hangover and I really wasn't thinking this session was going to go well and if it started badly I was prepared to change it to an easy run instead.

As often happens once I got out there it actually went really well and I could probably have done a bit more if needed.

This is the same session I did a few weeks back so it is interesting to compare and contrast.

2 Mile WU
2x(4x800m) @ 10K pace with 90 seconds recovery and 5 mins between sets
2 Mile CD

10 Miles total.

Paces below for the 800M repeats

Lap|Distance|Pace|HR
1|0.5|7:36|82%
2|0.5|7:38|84%
3|0.5|7:44|87%
4|0.5|7:29|87%
5|0.5|7:34|87%
6|0.5|7:32|88%
7|0.5|7:29|85%
8|0.5|7:30|88%

adrian522

Well, I've been a little lax in updating the log. This week is the peak week in terms of mileage so it was always going to be difficult but I struggled a bit in ways I didn't expect.

Tuesday

8 Miles @ 9:16 m/m

This was a decent run to get over the session on Monday, got out and finished early enough so happy with that.

Wednesday

9 Mile Tempo with 2 x 15 min @ M-Pace

Did this straight after work, the M-Pace sections were tough, the first was down along the coast into the wind, the second primarily uphill. It felt tougher than it should have felt

Thursday

8.2 Miles Interrupted run

Got home from work and was a bit unmotivated, ended up eating something and waiting an hour or so. Went out and after about 2 miles found I'd little to no energy, tried to push through it but to no avail, after 2.5 miles I decided to bail on the run and walk home. Adfter about 10 or 15 mins I realised I was still a distance from home, quite late etc so decided to turn back on the timer and jog back, felt much better so decided to struggle though and knock out the rest of the 8 miles. It wasn't too bad to be honest but kept miscalculating the distance left as I tried to figure out a route. Not the best run I've ever done.

When I got home I found that my brother had gone out and I'd no key. This was turning into a disatrous night. It was after 10pm at this stage. Fretted for about 30 mins, knocked on the door of a neighbour but no answer, eventually went into another neighbours house who I didn't really know, but got the use of a phone, but no answer. Eventually, about 30 mins later got in touch and was finally able to get in have a beer and write it off as a bad night.

Friday:

9 Miles @ 9:17 m/m

This I felt is a lot of miles the day before a long run but I figured it was in the plan for a reason and running on tired legs would be beneficial. Anyway, the run itself was fine, no issues, ran a new route which was quite pleasant.

Saturday:

22 Miles with 3 at M-Pace.

tough, tough run, really needed to slow this down, struggled with the Marathon pace stuff and needed a break afterwards and to be honest I took a lot of breaks in the second half and really had to fight through the last few miles. My achilles was giving problems most of the way. I don't think the Kinvara's suit me for this distance. It was a hot day and I went through 3 bottles of water but hopefully this session will stand to me, I don't intend to run this far again before the big day.

Sunday:

4 Miles at recovery pace

Got out for a 4 mile recovery jog this morning, just to loosen things out and stretch the legs.

Week|Distance
1|43.8
2|48.2
3|53.2
4|44.4
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2
8|56
9|59.1
10|70.7

adrian522

Monday

5K Pace Intervals

This is a tough session, it's my second time doing it. I'm basing my 5K time on what mcMillan says it would be based on my recent 10 Mile time in the Frank Duffy race.

Anyway that puts my 5K pace at 7:20m/m so I was aiming for between 7:10 and 7:30 m/m for this.

The session is 3 x (800/600/600) with 90 secs recovery and 5 mins between sets. All well and good but it is quite tough, essentially 6K @ 5K pace.

Preparation wasn't great, up until 5am, few beers etc, but nothing like a bit of speedwork to shake off the cobwebs.

This is my last session at this intensity in the marathon plan as far as I know. Aslo last bit of a workout before the half on Saturday.

The splits looked as below, overall happy enough, it was a tough session but nice to get through it.

Rep|Dist|Pace|HR
1|800|7:14|85%
2|600|7:17|89%
3|600|7:35|91%
4|800|7:10|89%
5|600|7:24|90%
6|600|7:24|93%
7|800|7:26|91%
8|600|7:25|93%
9|600|7:18|89%

10 Miles total

adrian522

Tuesday

8 Miles Easy

just some easy miles this evening, nothing too crazy. I am starting to feel my right Knee a little bit which I don't like, especially in race week. Hopefully nothing serious, time will tell.

8 Miles @ 9:23 m/m

adrian522

Wednesday

MLR 11 Miles @ 9:26 m/m

I was tempted to drop this run altogether. My legs have been feeling pretty sore, I'm not sure if I've got an actual issue, or just the effects of a lot of training or my mind playing tricks on me in the lead up to a race.

Anyway, I set off anyway, a few aches and pains but all seemed fine after 2 or 3 miles though I have to say everything doesn't seem quite right if you know what I mean.

The rest of the week is due to be 6 miles Thursday, 3 miles Friday and race Saturday but I'm not sure how to do it to be honest. The marathon remains the main target for the year though.

adrian522

Thursday

Easy Paced run w/ Strides

A little bit of stretching and out for a nice easy paced run, finishing with 8x20 second strides with 1 min recovery.

No real injury issues thankfully, a little bit of tightness here and there but I don't think anything too serious. I'm always super paranoid the week of a race.

adrian522

Friday

3 Mile run with Strides

Got out at lunchtime for a very easy run with a few strides thrown in at the end. New runners arrived so decided to use those.

It didn't go well, not sure if it was the shoes or what but the IT band/knee started to flare up. Not at all confident for Saturday's race. Finished with some stretches and more of the same that night along with iboprofun and ice and foam roller.

Saturday

2 Mile Warm Up.

This warm up picked up where yesterdays run finished off. It wasn't that painful but thought of the race to come sent me to a dark place. Finished the Warm up and spent a good bit of time stretching. It seemed to help as the discomfort subsided. I'd made my mind up to at least give it a go at this stage.

Dublin Race Series Half Marathon


Pre-Race

Not feeling great, found my way to the front of wave 2, or I thought it was wave 2, until the 2 hour pacers showed up at which point I moved forward and suffered through the annoying bootcamp Ireland warm up.

Miles 1-5

Pretty congested at the start. The guy on the mic pleaded to put the handbrakes on down Khyber Road, no need. Pretty much hit my paces for these miles. Thoughts about DNF were very strong here, I don't know why, I've run this distance many times.

Took on some water at Mile 3 and pushed on.

(7:53, 7:59, 7:50, 8:00, 7:49)

Miles 6-10

My mood started to improve once we got off the North Road, still congested but having fun now. Thoughts of even if I don't finish I'll hve been on target for a good time.

Enjoyed the bit through Farmleigh and back into the park. Took a lucozade sport but threw it away after a few sips, took more water instead.

Pushed on a bit down chesterfield avenue, around mile 10 it dawned on me that I was going to finish and probably in a good time.

(7:48, 7:46, 7:53, 7:46,7:30)

Miles 11-13.1

Exited the park feeling good, pretty much downhill here but pushed on rather than conserving energy. Took a gel just before the water station.

Kept pushing down towards Chapelizod, through the gate and up the hill. I knew the first bit is the most steep, passed a lot of people here, but still felt strong so carried on. I know I could keep this up for a while.

Last mile was ok, I upped the pace with a half mile to go and finished very strong, even gave a nice smile for the camera.

(7:47,7:52,7:44,1:16)

Finish time was 1:42:51. Happy if not delighted with that time. I was aiming for 1:45 and in truth would have been happy to miss out on that by a minute or so.

In the end I'm left wondering should I have gone out harder but I think I paced it right. Strava also gave me a new 10 mile pb for today.

Now it's time to figure out a target for DCM, does 3:50 sound about right? Would 3:45 be too aggressive? Thoughts for another day I think.

2 Mile post Run Cool Down


Determined to get my miles in I finished off with a 2 mile very slow jog down Chesterfield Avenue. 17.2 Miles for the day, 13 consecutive days running.

donnacha

Well done, and well deserved after all the miles and sessions you have put in. Your strong finish is a great sign for the main event at the end of Oct. Keep it up!

adrian522

Sunday:

Rest day. Feeling the effects of yesterday, day off is absolutely necessary.

Just over 55 miles for the week. Nearly there now, just 2 more weeks before the taper.

Week|Distance
1|43.8
2|48.2
3|53.2
4|44.4
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2
8|56
9|59.1
10|70.7
11|55.6

adrian522

Monday

8 Miles @ 9:52 mm

Very slow easy miles for me last night. I wasn't really paying attention to the pace but happy enough as the body will take some time to recover from the race on Saturday.

The legs are still pretty sore, feel I could maybe do with another sports massage session.

Plan for the rest of the week is 8 E, 9 w/ 20 min @ M-Pace, 8 Easy, 6 Tempo, 18-20 LSR, Rest.

overpronator

From my limited experience Adrian Id say 3.50 is very doable, you have alot of miles covered in training so endurance will be much less of an an issue for you.

adrian522

Thanks OP, very hard to know what way to go. Most of the calculators put at around 3:35. I'd say I'd want to slow that down a good bit but 3:45/3:50 seems like it could be ok.

adrian522

Tuesday

8 Miles @ 9:06 m/m

More easy miles, I'm finding the line between standard aches and pains and possible injury coming on to be a little blurred.

I struggled a bit with my quads/knees early on but after a few miles it seemed ok, strange one.

Wednesday

9 Miles with 20 mins @ M-Pace

Felt a lot better today but feel it a bit starting off and if I've to stop at lights or whatever starting up again is a bit of a pain but I'm fine once I get going. A lot better than yesterday.

Marathon pace bit felt fine, hit about 8:30 m/m for that section.

overpronator

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks OP, very hard to know what way to go. Most of the calculators put at around 3:35. I'd say I'd want to slow that down a good bit but 3:45/3:50 seems like it could be ok.

I know what you mean, I had myself driven mad for my last marathon on targetting a goal time. Just listen to what the body tells you during and after the longer MP runs and any fast finish long runs and you wont be too far wrong id say.

Calvin Johnson

Is Tom Brady finished?

adrian522

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Is Tom Brady finished?

Yeah probably, megatron should be ok though !

adrian522

Thursday

8 Miles Easy

Nice easy after work run, 8 miles in total with a pace of 9:21 m/m

Friday

6 Mile Tempo

6 Mile tempo, started with 1 mile easy, then 4 @ M-Pace then 1 easy to finish. It was a nice run, short but a good confidence booster doing the Marathon Pace miles.

Saturday

20 Mile LSR with last 3 @ M-Pace


Possibly my last 20 Mile run of this training cycle. Up early and out along the marathon course from mile 16 all the way to the finish and then from the start up to the Phoenix park and then went down home via Kilmainham.

The course is actually very enjoyable from Cromwellsfort Road to the finish. AT least it is with fresh legs.
Not much traffic and that hour and it was very pleasant. The bit from the start line to the Phoenix park can be a bit stop start due to the traffic lights etc but not too bad really. The drag up Chesterfield avenue is a pain no matter what way you cut it.

Final 3 miles at marathon pace are tough, especially as that part of the run is mostly uphill but good to get through it in one piece and not feel too bad.

Still decisions to be made on final marathon pace but the 3:50 pace group sounds good.

Weekly Mileage with 4 weeks to go:

Week|Distance
1|43.8
2|48.2
3|53.2
4|44.4
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2
8|56
9|59.1
10|70.7
11|55.6
12|59.1

adrian522

Sunday

Rest.


I had thought about a 3 mile recovery run here but decided against it in the end.

Monday

5 x 1K @ 10K Pace (Total 9 Miles)

It's starting to get dark earlier and not getting in from work until close to 7 meant that it was already getting dark by the time I got to Tymon, the last few reps were not a whole lot of fun in the dark but I got through them in the end.

I'll have to find somewhere better to do these sessions though.

ecoli

adrian522 wrote: »

I'll have to find somewhere better to do these sessions though.

Loop I find pretty good for reps is down by terenure college, around by the Garda Station, left at KCR and back down along Terenure college.

Get best part of 2k with minimal traffic disruptions on a relative flat loop

adrian522

That's a good call actually, I usually head up to one of the parks but that would work too,

adrian522

Tuesday

7 Miles Easy

This was a tough run for me, legs felt tired and sore and it was just a struggle for the duration. Just one of those of runs I guess.