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

adrian522

Yeah, I take your point. I have the entry at this stage though so I may as well use it. Was only €25 though so I didn't pay full price.

Firedance

Murph_D wrote: »

Fair enough - each to his own but I'm wondering what's the appeal of doing a race as a MP session, especially a big noisy commercial one like the RnR! Unless you have a free entry or something...

He he - Adrian's telling novices not to use races as LSR and you're telling him not to use one as an MP session :-) you gotta love this place

laura_ac3

Firedance wrote: »

He he - Adrian's telling novices not to use races as LSR and you're telling him not to use one as an MP session :-) you gotta love this place

I must admit that was my first thought Adrian

Murph_D

I think races are for racing or for pacing others, but not for pacing yourself! But that's just me. Whatever floats the boat.

Anyway I'm not "telling" anyone what to do. We are all adults and can do what we like, I'm just "feeding back". :pac:

Notwork Error

Firedance wrote: »

He he - Adrian's telling novices not to use races as LSR and you're telling him not to use one as an MP session :-) you gotta love this place

Do as I say, not as I do:cool:

adrian522

Well, I never said I wasn't a hypocrite.

I think MP is a bit different than a normal slow run in the sense that it is a bit of a session. I admit to finding it a bit of a slog last Saturday morning doing doing 10 MP miles as part of my long run.

If people feel it's a bad idea (apart from just being a waste of money) to use a race for this I'd be open to dropping it or just using it as a proper race.

I think it also breaks up the motnotony of the training a little too but that's a bit of a side issue. There is also the benefit of practicing taking gels and water when going at race pace and not having to worry about messing up a goal race.

Firedance

I actually think its not a bad idea I was just chuckling at the similarities between murphs advice to you and yours to novices as you said it can be a struggle doing the mp miles alone & you've already paid so....

menoscemo

I agree with Adrian. I would use half marathons in order to run a long MP session. I think they are very useful for that purpose and a lot of top athletes would use races in this way. You get to practise water gels etc in a race environment which you wouldn't when running alone. Some might say you don't get the same mental benefit but the physical adaptations will be the same. The mental benefit can be gained doing other MP sessions alone IMO.

The only caveat is that you have to be very disciplined not to run them too fast. That's why I wouldn't recommend it to a novice runner as they would tend to race them no matter what they intended or say they intended before the race. Besides there aren't any 13 mile MP runs in many novice plans anyway.

PS I have actually ran a few full marathons in prep for a marathon, do the first 10-12 very easy, the next 10-12 at MP and the few miles at the end as a cool down. It can actually work when you do it right too.

Dubgal72

Hehe have to admit I had a chuckle too (s'ok we won't tell the novices ), I think the main difference is that Adrian is a helluva lot more experienced at this stage as well as being 200% more disciplined. Well he certainly will now cos we'll be watching and waiting :pac:

adrian522

Thanks, I'm not sure how disciplined I am as I've never entered a race without intending to go as hard as I can, but I think for this it will be a good bit different as I won't be racing as such.

Anyway, the main thing I have to do is figure out a target MP between now and then. I haven't settled on one yet, McMillan etc completely unreliable and basing off 5K's and 10K's is a bad idea in general.

adrian522

Thursday

10 miles Easy @ 8:50 m/m

Nice evening, but was still a bit of a struggle, felt pretty lethargic, and this is supposed to be a recovery week.

Kind of got into it in the middle few miles and it wasn't too bad at all.

If anyone would like to chime in on what they feel would be a realistic marathon goal for me I'd love to hear your opinion.

I've been thinking a bit about this recently but am afraid of being to optimistic and messing up completely.

adrian522

Friday

5 Miles Recovery @ 9:01 m/m

Waited until after work to get this done, motivation was lacking and it was a bit of a slog. Nothing much else to say on the subject.

Should get the long run done early tomorrow as I'll be busy enough for the rest of the weekend, booze, hurling and live music.

12 Weeks to go as of Sunday, so time to refocus and improve the diet and continue with the good core and stretching work!

tang1

You heading to Croker Sunday?

adrian522

tang1 wrote: »

You heading to Croker Sunday?

Yeah I'll be there alright, decent ticket for a change too...

tang1

adrian522 wrote: »

Yeah I'll be there alright, decent ticket for a change too...

Going myself, have to bring my delusional Galwegian old man & mother to it. They have this crazy idea Galway will win!

belcarra

tang1 wrote: »

Going myself, have to bring my delusional Galwegian old man & mother to it. They have this crazy idea Galway will win!

Connacht abú!

Or wait, should that be Leinster...?

belcarra

adrian522 wrote: »

Should get the long run done early tomorrow as I'll be busy enough for the rest of the weekend, booze, hurling and live music.

Live music = Frames?

adrian522

belcarra wrote: »

Live music = Frames?

Yeah, I'm so predictable ... busy day Sunday as I've to go out in Kilkenny tomorrow night, so up to dublin for the match then across town, drop the car home and out again.

No real time for running, due a day off anyway.

adrian522

Saturday - Long Run

15 Miles @ 8:56 m/m

Log run today, 15 miles seemed manageable enough. I decided to go out on empty to see how I'd manage. The run was ok for the first half at least but I did struggle a bit towards the end. I definitely felt hungry out there.

I also slowed this one down a good bit, even so I struggled to keep my HR in the required zone towards the end of the run and as a result had to slow down even further. I guess the weather had its effect and I was possibly a bit dehydrated.

All in all not great, think I'll revert to having the porridge before long runs in future.

Rest day tomorrow, 55 Miles for the week.

adrian522

Sunday - Planned Rest day.

Too much booze, bad diet.

Monday - 10 Miles with 5 @ Tempo Pace

Procrastinating on this run all day, I'd pretty much decided not to do it and had my excuses all lined up etc. Come 8pm though I decided to just get it done and am very glad I did.

If you were paying attention you will have noticed that last week was bit of a slog - isn't that always the way with these stepback weeks? They do work though and I found I'd plenty of energy in the legs and this wasn't nearly as tough as the last tempo I did, despite being slightly faster and 1 mile longer.

Very happy with this and now look to carry this on with a 14 miler tomorrow.

9:13, 8:44, 8:36, 8:17, 7:04, 7:05, 7:09, 6:48, 7:02, 9:07

Bungy Girl

Wowzers - do those splits add up to quicker than the Raheny 5 ?!? :eek: That's an insane improvement in 6 months :eek:

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Wowzers - do those splits add up to quicker than the Raheny 5 ?!? :eek: That's an insane improvement in 6 months :eek:

They probably do but I didn't get to pause the watch at traffic lights in Raheny!

Yeah, that was about 10K pace in Enniscorthy I think. 10K pace now would be 6:45, I should really run a 5 mile race at some point to grab that PB that's just sitting there. Should have done Dunboyne I think.

Bungy Girl

adrian522 wrote: »

I should really run a 5 mile race at some point to grab that PB that's just sitting there. Should have done Dunboyne I think.

Yup, it'll be a shoe-in. Not that many 5 milers about in the second half (or last quarter) of the year though. At the rate you're going you'll probably snag a 5 mile PB during Berlin!

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Yup, it'll be a shoe-in. Not that many 5 milers about in the second half (or last quarter) of the year though. At the rate you're going you'll probably snag a 5 mile PB during Berlin!

Well I'm sure I've an unofficial pb of about 34 mins during the k club race but it's not a pb until it happens in a 5 mile race. Probably Raheny at this stage I guess.

Murph_D

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Yup, it'll be a shoe-in. Not that many 5 milers about in the second half (or last quarter) of the year though. At the rate you're going you'll probably snag a 5 mile PB during Berlin!

No mile markers on the continent. :pac:

Firedance

I think the Dublin Simon 5 mile is early October, not sure if that's useful timing wise tho

Bungy Girl

Murph_D wrote: »

No mile markers on the continent. :pac:

That is their loss:)

Murph_D

Bungy Girl wrote: »

That is their loss:)

Berlin is all about the 5k splits.

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Yup, it'll be a shoe-in. Not that many 5 milers about in the second half (or last quarter) of the year though. At the rate you're going you'll probably snag a 5 mile PB during Berlin!

Actually I may go with this.

http://www.lucanharriers.com/news_page/156

5 Mile in Lucan on September 12th. Plan has a tune up race for that day of 8-10K so that may work.

aquinn

Enough about running, tell us about the Frames, how was it?

I've done the Simon fun run twice, it was my first ever race. Loved it obviously. Always early October.