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

adrian522

Friday

3 Miles @ 9:25 m/m


Just some recovery miles, could have done more but don't want to up the mileage to dramatically.

Saturday

5 Miles @ 9:04 m/m


As above, easy run, kept short.

Sunday

18 Miles @ 9:19 m/m

Long run, in the Phoenix park. Nice weather for a change. Becoming more of a challenge to get the miles in without doing multiple laps, must have covered most of the park on this one.

It was a bit of a slog at times but not too bad overall but didn't really have it in the legs to do too much more.

adrian522

Monday - Rest

Tuesday

Club Session - 6 x 800m

Club Session was 6 x 800m. I decided to do these at closer to 5/10k pace rather than all out which made them a lot more enjoyable. Even at that probably a bit faster than is ideal but a good session nonetheless.

Paces were 7:18/7:14/7:11/7:10/7:03/6:55

adrian522

Wednesday

6 Miles @ 9:03

Got out at lunchtime for this, kept it easy as usual, don't really remember much about it to be honest.

Thursday

12 Miles with 2 x 4 Miles @ MP

Key session for the week, it was tough going. it was warm and the route I choose wasn't the best for hitting paces.

Most of the first 4 miles (2 WU + 2 MP) was uphill. I wasn't thinking about hitting paces but the effort was a bit high for MP.

5 mins easy running then into another 4 MP which was ok, hit the paces better on the flatter roads but I was struggling a bit too much towards the end.

A combination of conditions, route and pacing.

Paces are below (ideally MP would be 8:10-8:15 at this stage):

1|Easy|9:29
2|Easy|9:10
3|MPE|8:28
4|MPE|8:24
5|MPE|8:04
6|MPE|8:04
7|Easy (Half Mile)|10:08
8|MPE|7:58
9|MPE|8:11
10|MPE|8:15
11|MPE|8:09
12|Easy|10:14
13|Easy (Half Mile)|9:47

Friday

5 Miles @ 10:01

Recovery miles on Friday after work. Went to the grass on the pitches in UCD, super slow, a bit soul destroying doing laps for this bit worthwhile to do it on grass as was feeling the effects of the session the day before.

Saturday

5.4 Miles @ 8:58 m/m

Easy run on Saturday morning, easy pace with some strides thrown in for good measure.

Sunday

18 Miles @ 9:05

Same route as last week. Was at the stone Roses gig on Saturday night so not the best preparation (though no booze). Was late heading out, saw TRR, Krusty etc as I was pulling into the park. The run was fine, it was a bit of a struggle at times which is to be expected on the longer runs but overall it was ok.

Nice to get it done and with 52 miles for the week happy enough with this.

Next week is the Mullingar 10 Mile which will hopefully give me some indication of current fitness.

Bungy Girl

Mileage building up nicely there A, best of luck for Mullingar!

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Mileage building up nicely there A, best of luck for Mullingar!

Thanks!

It's fairly rare that I'm going into a race without much of a clue of what my target should be or what constitutes success but that is the case this weekend. I'm just going to run it as best I can and see how I go.

I guess somewhere between my PB in Ballycotton 2014 (73.57) and my run at the same race this year (81.38) would be good.

RedRunner

Haven't looked on here for a while. Glad to see you are getting back to where you were before Adrian. Good stuff.

tang1

Best of luck in the morning A, hope it goes well for you, run well.

Murph_D

All the best, A.

adrian522

Monday - Rest

Tuesday 6.1 Miles @ 9:00

Went down to the club but avoided the session, just went for a jog, tried to join in with a few others but it was a bit quick so did most of this by myself. BBQ afterwards, diet completely out the window, great BBQ and great desserts though.


Wednesday

Session - 8 Miles with 4 @ HMP

In 2 minds whether to do this or not. In the end decided to do it, stuck in work until 9:30, got home just before 10 and was so tempted to not bother but got out and it wasn't too bad at all in the end, really nneded to check myself to stop doing the HMP bits too fast.

9:11/9:03/7:45/7:41/7:44/7:54/10:13/9:53

Thursday

5 Miles @ 9:39 m/m

Got this done at lunchtime, was tough but worthwhile to kickstart the recovery. Went to the gym in the evening, could probably have done without that to be honest but need to get the strength in at some point.

Friday

6 Miles @ 8:59 m/m

After work run yesterday, found this very tough, was lethargic and legs weren't feeling good. Weather wasn't helping but just got through it. Some strides at the end.

Saturday

3 Miles @ 9:03

Legs still not fully right, but the usual easy pace 3 miler with 6 x 20 sec. strides.

Race tomorrow, hoping for the best but really just looking for a fitness checkpoint to establish paces for the next few weeks training. I feel fitter than the 10K 1 month ago but we will see.

adrian522

Unfortunately things didn't go great this morning, went off too fast, paid for it later, was a bit of a struggle to just get through it to be honest.

I won't spend too much time worrying about it but it was an opportunity to show good progress n the back of recent training but it just wasn't there today.

I should have taken note of sluggish runs the last few days and factored in the heat but instead went off as if I'd gained huge amounts of fitness overnight and paid for it later.

Time to move on and hope the next race is better.

Greg McMillan wrote:

Accept that the body has an ebb and flow that we don't quite understand. Some days you just feel "off." As hard as it is to accept a bad workout or race when there are valid reasons, it's doubly challenging when there appears to be no reason at all. I used to worry about this, but now I just shrug it off as the quirkiness of the body and mind. Don't invest in it or overthink it. Move on.

tang1

As I said on Duaington's log A, there was lads suffering there this morning with the heat. One lad I know finished just ahead of me in Trim in February and went on to run sub 3 in London who ran only 69 mins. He's been going great guns lately to and only thing I can put his time down to is the weather. Your well ahead of the time you ran.

adrian522

tang1 wrote: »

As I said on Duaington's log A, there was lads suffering there this morning with the heat. One lad I know finished just ahead of me in Trim in February and went on to run sub 3 in London who ran only 69 mins. He's been going great guns lately to and only thing I can put his time down to is the weather. Your well ahead of the time you ran.

I think you are right but it was still a poorly executed race and a missed opportunity to get some idea of what my correct race paces should be.

I think I just have to move on and write it off to experience.

Bungy Girl

Wise words there from McMillan. And from yourself! I think it's a really hard thing to do, to adjust for the conditions, because you want to do yourself justice at the pace you've trained for. Which usually results in carnage in this country when we get a hot day :rolleyes:. You've been putting in some great training of late, and best of all don't forget the injury free status!

adrian522

Best get this out of the way I guess. Mullingar 10 Mile Race Report

Pre-Race...

Up early and on the road for 9, following a good breakfast. No issues finding the place (unlike some) and parked up shortly after 10. Picked up the number and headed out on a warmup back up along the end of the route. Passed the start line and then there was a bit of a downhill slope, made note of that for later as I was expecting this to be pretty flat.

After 2 miles of warmup, back to the start area. I was feeling pretty good, not overly concerned about the weather (my first mistake) and had a good spot in the start area.

The start was narrow as previously advised but it wasn't much of an issue apart from the first 100 meters or so. I decided to ignore the watch and run by feel as much as possible (my second mistake). As we came onto the main road I found myself overtaking a few. There was one brothers pearse athlete and myself a bit clear of a few but a gap of around 20-30 meters to the next group of people.

We kind of pushed ourselves along (too much as it happens as he pulled up with an injury shortly after 1 mile).

After this I found myself running by myself for most of the first 2 to 3 miles, always thinking to close the gap to the group in front but never actually managing it.

The first mile flashed up at 7:17. This was crazy fast. Way too fast. I wasn't as concerned by this as I should have been and just made a mental note to slow a bit and continued to ignore the watch.

The second mile was 7:14, even faster and I knew this would lead to problems but hard to put thoughts of a PB or a very good run out of my head, but in reality this was 15 seconds per mile faster than 10K pace from Dunshaughlin so even though I didn't know it my race was already done.

I was already hanging on a bit by mile 3 and the pace was more what I had been targeting (7:35) but by this stage the weather was a factor and my breathing was very labored.

I started to slow it down, not sure I had much choice here but I'd start to be over taken and try to hang with that group only to be left behind. The first water stop was welcome but even at this stage I was really struggling.

Mile 4 (7:59), I'd made a conscious effort to slow it right down just with the idea to make it to the finish in some sort of reasonable time.

The second half of the race is a bit of a blur. There was no real hiding place from the sun, no shade to speak of the times kept getting worse. I was at least hanging on to the back of a group at this stage. The urge to stop and walk at this stage was pretty overwhelming but I ignored that, as I did the thoughts of what this means in the overall scheme of things, if I can't manage what is supposed to be marathon pace after 5 miles of running what chance have I over 26 miles? If I can't improve on my Ballycotton time what has been the point of all this training? etc.etc.

Miles 5-9 (8:04, 8:14, 8:11, 8:28, 8:45) things kept getting worse. The supposedly flat course seemed to contain a lot of uphill and feck all downhill.

A few people had stopped to walk at this stage and one guy I saw needing to get some serious attention, bundled into the back of car and brought to get urgent medical attention.

The last mile I found some extra energy from somewhere and managed a 8:08 but overall not much to be salvaged from the day.

It's hard to know what would have happened with a more sensible opening 2 miles but given what happened anyone I spoke to it would seem that a tough day was inevitable.

Went for a 2 mile cooldown after to bring the total for the day to 14 miles. It was a bit of a disappointing day but Mullingar AC couldn't be faulted for what is a great race with an excellent atmosphere and great setup for after the finish.

A bit of unfinished business there to be taken care of next year.

adrian522

Monday - 18th July

Rest Day

Tuesday - 7 Miles @ 8:40 m/m

Ran home from work, the pace was a bit quick but I felt good so I just went with it, a lot of it is downhill which may explain the pace a little.

Wedensday - 6.2 Miles @ 8:54 m/m

Ran into work on Wednesday morning, giving me a good bit of recovery time before session on Thursday evening.

Thursday - Tempo Run

12 Miles @ 8 Miles alternating between MP - 20 secs/ MP + 20 Secs

This session looked very tough on paper, in reality it wasn't too bad, managed to hit all the paces without too much difficulty except where I was running uphill or into the wind which made it a bit tougher. I found I was recovered well enough on the alternating mile to be able for the faster mile. I was still glad to get to the end of this though.

Splits were as follows:

Mile|Target|Actual
1|Easy|9:00
2|Easy|8:47
3|7:40|7:35
4|8:20|8:13
5|7:40|7:33
6|8:20|8:14
7|7:40|7:38
8|8:20|8:19
9|7:40|7:32
10|8:20|8:12
11|Easy|9:02
12|Easy|9:04

Friday - 5.4 Miles @ 8:55 m/m

Just some recovery miles on Friday with some strides at the end.

Saturday - 6.4 Miles @ 9:15 m/m

Easy miles on Saturday taking in Tymon for a change. Forgot completely to do any strides at the end.

Sunday - 20 Miles @ 9:13 m/m

I'm not going to lie here, this was tough and it was a bit of an achivement in itself to get through this at all. There seems to be one or 2 of these runs in every marathon cycle for me. I ended up doing this solo due to missing the club run,, which in turn was due to getting called out by work in the middle of the night.

So sleep wasn't great but from early enough I was looking for excuses to stop and call it a day. It seemed like I was only managing to slog around very slowly and needing to stop for a break every half mile. I guess the first half was fine but certainly the last 5 miles were a real slog.

The following probably tells its own story:

Running Time: 3:04:30 Elapsed Time: 3:21:33.

So nearly 20 mins not running during this time. Hopefully the next one will be a bit better.

Monday - Rest Day

Tuesday- 6 Miles @ 8:55 m/m

I went down to the club session last night but just ran some laps of bushy park easy instead of doing the session. It was nice to have some company for a change.

Murph_D

I don't think it's surprising that you struggled with the 20 miler, only a week after racing 10 miles, and with a tempo session sandwiched in between?

I would have ditched the tempo at least this week, recovery/easy all the way.

adrian522

Thanks D, I would have thought 3 days easy would have been ok, but it may have caught up with me over the weekend but as I say I always seem to get one or 2 runs like that on any marathon cycle.

Wednesday

7.5 Miles @ 8:58 m/m

I've been making a conscious effort to reduce the pace of the easy runs but a lot of the time I'm not looking at the watch, I'll look down at the watch thinking I'm moving along fairly slowly and see 8:30 pace!

Anyway, this one averaged out around 9 mins pace but had a few faster miles (not by design).

Thursday

Session - 14 Miles with 4/3/2/1 @ MP

This is the key session for the week, MP is planned at 8 mins per mile, so interesting to see how I get on with this session, recoveries were 0.5 Miles each.

Paces for the MP Miles are as below.

7:53, 7:49, 7:50, 7:49

7:52, 7:58, 7:51

7:58, 7:56

7:55

Tough session but good result I think, the last few were a bit of a struggle but that is the point I guess.

Murph_D

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks D, I would have thought 3 days easy would have been ok, but it may have caught up with me over the weekend but as I say I always seem to get one or 2 runs like that on any marathon cycle.

Rule 7.

adrian522

By that rationale you would take 2 weeks easy running after a half? Even in marathon training?

I Have to say I don't see too many taking that much recovery. Given you probably drop a session in the run up to a that would mean nearly 3 weeks with only the race at anything faster than easy running.

Murph_D

Well I didn't make up the 'rule' myself.

But it's one reason why some runners don't like doing tune-up races at certain periods, I think. I like to incorporate race series, and yes, I do drop sessions before and after. The specificity of the race makes up for a lot of the missed sessions.

Don't think I've done a half while training for a (raced) marathon in a few years, or at least not late in the plan. Will be doing one this year though, and yes, building in as much recovery as possible.

adrian522

Saturday

7.3 Miles @ 9.05 m/m

Having left the bike in work and ran home on Friday, morning involved a run into work to collect the bike.

Tried to keep it nice and slow. A few uphill sections helped with that.

Finished up with a few strides in the last mile.

Sunday

18 Miles with 2 x 3 Miles @ MP

This run hasn't uploaded to strava yet but it is up on Garmin. Started with 7 easy then 3 Marathon pace miles.

4.5 easy then another 3 @ MP with 0.5 easy to finish.

It wasn't easy but it wasn't all that tough either and I held the MP well enough. MP sections were a bit too fast if anything.

MP miles were 7:52, 7:46, 7:49 then 7:51, 7:56, 7:52.

A fair bit of uphill and downhill involved too.

59 Miles for the week.

adrian522

Days Running|27/31
Sessions|5
Long Runs|4
Races|1
PB's|0

Month|2013|2014|2015|2016
January|7|0|191|73.5
February|10|53|196|104.1
March|7|111|207.9|70
April|26|154|165.2|74.9
May|69|121|219.7|128.6
June|75|93|257.4|183.2
July|67|212|151.2|236.4
August|101|233|132.7|
September|85|261|31.6|
October|4|179|63.6|
November|13|28|17.5|
December|6|163|21|
Total|471.2|1606.2|1654.8|870.7

Singer

Nice long run, and looks like a really good month. Not to put a downer on things, but any niggles?

RedRunner

On a good training streak at the moment Adrian. Long may it continue.

adrian522

Singer wrote: »

Nice long run, and looks like a really good month. Not to put a downer on things, but any niggles?

Thanks. Nothing out of the ordinary. A bit of tightness in the hips and also the calf but I am addressing these with massages and also stretching/strengthening.

RedRunner wrote: »

On a good training streak at the moment Adrian. Long may it continue.

Thanks RR. Going well at the moment all right.

adrian522

Monday

4 Miles @ 9:35 m/m

I'd planned on taking the day off but had the evening free and after a fair few drinks on Sunday night I thought a few miles would do me some good.

Tuesday

5.8 Miles @ 9:12 m/m

Went down to the club session, did the warmup and a few strides and then headed around bushy park for a few easy miles. Good to have some company for some of these easy runs.

Wednesday

4 x 2 Miles @ HMP


This is the main session of the week. I was planning on heading out after work, but the cycle on the way home was seriously windy. I was all set to push this out till Thursday but reasoned the extra day recovery before the long run on Sunday would be worth heading out tonight.

It was a tough session, 4 x 2 Miles with 2 Miles warm up and cool down ad a half mile between reps.

The wind didn't help, nor did the fact that I had to carry keys in my hands as my shorts pocket developed a hole.

I wasn't sure what my HMP should be but settled on 7:30 as it seemed about right, but maybe that's a bit optimistic.

Anyway, I managed to hit the paces well enough on the first rep. The second one was tougher as it contained a good deal of uphill running.

The third rep was very tough, I'd to work really hard on this one, into the strong wind for the most part. Once that was done the last one didn't seem too bad but the cooldown 2 miles was a bit of a slog to the finish.

The second half was made tougher and more unpleasant by a spot of nipple chaffing that wasn't helped by wearing a white T-shirt from Dunshaughlin, It was in some state by the time I'd finished.

Paces were as follows in any case:

7:18/7:21
7:29/7:25
7:26/7:37
7:25/7:22

Bungy Girl

adrian522 wrote: »

The wind didn't help, nor did the fact that I had to carry keys in my hands as my shorts pocket developed a hole.

That's ringing familiar! You need reinforced steel-capped pockets

Nice work on the 4 x 2 miles!

adrian522

Thursday

5.3 Miles @ 9:20 m/m

Some recovery miles on thursday evening. I really should have tried to get this done on grass but would have had to drive somewhere first.

Friday

6.3 Miles @ 9:16 m/m

More slow easy miles, went up to Bushy Park but had a bit of a bonk from lack of food or maybe low blood sugar halfway through. Got through it alright and was ok by the end of it.

Saturday

6.9 Miles @ 9:11 m/m

Up to Tymon for this on Saturday morning. It was good, tried to keep it fairly easy in advance of the Sunday run, I think most of my easy runs are now properly easy which wasn't always the case in the early part of the plan.

Sunday

20.4 Miles @ 8:37 m/m

Sunday Session was scheduled at 10 Miles easy and 10 Miles steady. I'd entered into the National Half marathon championships so decided to incorporate this into the session.

I parked up in the phoenix park and started with easy miles around the park and down to the start line through town. This brought me to 6.8 miles, with the race then rounding it out to 20.

The plan was for the easy miles to be 9:20 ish and the steady to be 8:20 ish. Bit of a difference between what Garmin and Strava are reporting, but it seems a few miles a little too fast early on but the steady pace miles went well and I felt good for the most part. Maintained the paces on the hills and into the wind.

I got some good practice drinking from cups on the course and carried gels as I will on race day and also got the pre race breakfast in, all in all pretty happy with the days work.

Paces were as follows:

Easy: 9:48. 9:32, 9:22, 9:04, 9:10, 8:30, 9:19, 9:10,8:56,9:03
Steady: 8:20, 8:23, 8:15, 8:24, 8:32, 8:28, 7:53, 8:11, 8:24, 8:00, (7:24)

62 Miles for the week I think.

adrian522

Monday

Rest Day

Tuesday

6 Miles @ 8:57 m/m

Kept this nice and easy for the most part. Went straight from work, added some strides in the last mile, 5 or 6 x 20 seconds.

Wednesday

14 Miles with 10 @ MP

This is the key session for the week and is the first lengthy block of marathon pace miles in the session. I planned out a route for this without any significant climbs but still with a bit of up and down to keep things interesting.

The run went very well and for the most part I was able to keep up the marathon pace without too much difficulty. I was a good bit ahead of marathon pace in places. I'm not sure if I'm being too conservative in my target but for the moment things are going well with just over 6 weeks to go.

Mile|Effort|Pace|HR%
1|Easy|9:05|70.5%
2|Easy|9:00|75.9%
3|MP|7:49|79.6%
4|MP|7:49|80.7%
5|MP|7:45|80.2%
6|MP|7:59|81.8%
7|MP|7:52|82.8%
8|MP|7:49|82.8%
9|MP|7:52|82.3%
10|MP|7:45|82.8%
11|MP|7:45|83.4%
12|MP|7:54|85.5%
13|Easy|9:48|75.9%
14|Easy|9:37|77.5%

Bungy Girl

adrian522 wrote: »

The run went very well and for the most part I was able to keep up the marathon pace without too much difficulty. I was a good bit ahead of marathon pace in places. I'm not sure if I'm being too conservative in my target but for the moment things are going well with just over 6 weeks to go.

Nice MP splits! Things are going well, absolutely nothing wrong with erring on the side of conservatism. You can always reassess when you get to 22 miles on race day .