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

adrian522

Tuesday:

8 Miles Easy Running

I was late getting out last night, and I contemplated not heading out at all. After some foam rolling etc I felt OK so decided to give it a go. Legs were very sore and tired after Monday but got better as the run went on.

Something great about running around the deserted streets at nighttime in the rain. Anyway I got through it ok so happy enough with that.

Strangely I was looking at the wrong week of my plan which called for 6-8 miles. This weeks was only supposed to be 4-6 miles.

Ah well.

JohnDozer

Nicely done on the 10k! Perfect confidence booster going into the next phase of the plan. You're getting the miles and paces in consistently too... Hope the body holds up, not sure if mine is! BAA plan may be a little too demanding, time will tell I guess...

adrian522

JohnDozer wrote: »

Nicely done on the 10k! Perfect confidence booster going into the next phase of the plan. You're getting the miles and paces in consistently too... Hope the body holds up, not sure if mine is! BAA plan may be a little too demanding, time will tell I guess...

My plan if I am starting to feel sore and getting too many niggles would be to drop one of the sessions and add in another easy paced run.

Speed work is great and all but not if it means not getting to the startline.

I'm not doing any session this week. One MLR and one Long run on the weekend.

Next Monday I'll see how I feel, the plan has 5x1K @ 10K pace.

adrian522

Wednesday

MLR 12 Miles @ 9:19 m/m

12 Miles in the bank tonight, nice to get through these runs injury free. Legs seem a bit stiff and what not afterwards but the run was fine. Quick time with a few miles faster than 9 mins but again the pace felt easy so not too worried about that. I will need to slow down a bit on Saturday though as 18 miles are called for so I won't e doing 18 at that pace.

I used the Kinvara's tonight. They felt good and gave no problems, I'm not sure they are a candidate for the marathon but nice to know I can go on the longer runs in them at this stage.

adrian522

Thursday

4 Miles Easy @ 9:24 m/m

Not much to say on this one, 4 easy miles. A bit of a recovery day. More easy miles tomorrow before the long run on Saturday.

adrian522

Friday

6 Easy Miles @ 9:10m/m

Decided to head up to Tymon for this one. I really should do more running up there and get to know the park a bit better, I feel I'm only skirting the edges so to speak, nice seeing swans and ducks etc on the run too.

Lots of easy miles this week. Almost looking forward to the speed session on Monday. Almost.

adrian522

Saturday

18 Mile LSR

18 Miles done today. It was nice to get such a long run in as 14 is the most I'd done up to this point. I feel I am now completely back on track following the few missed days last week and the missed sessions this week due to the DLR Bay 10K.

I used 3 Gels on this run with a strategy of one after 60 mins and another every 45 mins thereafter. This could be a runner in the marathon, which would mean using 4 gels.

The other option is simply one every 60 mins, which would mean using 3 in the marathon, that strategy needs practicing.

Anyway the run today was good, it was tough but it was never a case of wanting to give up or anything and the pace was pretty consistent the whole way around. Either 9:25 or 9:38 depending on if you believe Garmin or Strava but either way my easy pace has increased recently which I guess is a good sign.

Next week brings a 20 mile run, with the Frank Duffy 10 mile the week after. The weeks are really flying by.

Tomorrow is a rest day, with a 10K pace session on Monday.

Total for the week is a very impressive 59 Miles (or 60 if Strava is correct).

Week|Miles
1|43.8
2|48.1
3|53.1
4|44.4
5|60

adrian522

Monday

3 Mile WU + 5x1K @ 10K Pace + 3 Mile CD

Motivation was not exactly sky high this evening but I really enjoyed this run once I got out there. There was a very strong wind which made some of the intervals a struggle and some really easy depending on which direction I was going.

The paces were actually quite good and relatively consistent. The rest of the week brings a MLR on Wednesday and a 20 miler on Saturday.

Strava tells me I've recorded my best 1KM time and 3rd best 15K and 10 mile times. The 10 Mile time was actually pretty close to what i did in the Frank Duffy last year so I'd be expecting a big PB in this years race.

All going well so far, this is the start of week 6 of the plan and I'm happy enough with where I am right now.

Dist|Pace
0.62|7:19
0.62|7:30
0.62|7:25
0.62|7:13
0.62|7:21


Total 10 Miles @ 8:50 m/m

adrian522

Tuesday

8 Miles Easy Pace @ 9:20m/m

The most challenging part of this run was getting the thing uploaded to Garmin connect and strava, talk about an ordeal, retart this, uninstall, clear cache, reinstall, etc, etc,

Surely there mus be an easier way than this? Why can't Garmin have some easy way of connecting a watch to a computer.

It's the same with charging the thing, sometimes the level actually goes down rather than up while charging, sometimes it doesn't recognise the charger at all.

How difficult would it be to have a similar setup to a phone where you plug in a charger and it charges? Shouldn't be that difficult, stupid fancy magnetic connections.

Anyway rant over, good run.

laura_ac3

adrian522 wrote: »

Tuesday

8 Miles Easy Pace @ 9:20m/m

The most challenging part of this run was getting the thing uploaded to Garmin connect and strava, talk about an ordeal, retart this, uninstall, clear cache, reinstall, etc, etc,

Surely there mus be an easier way than this? Why can't Garmin have some easy way of connecting a watch to a computer.

It's the same with charging the thing, sometimes the level actually goes down rather than up while charging, sometimes it doesn't recognise the charger at all.

How difficult would it be to have a similar setup to a phone where you plug in a charger and it charges? Shouldn't be that difficult, stupid fancy magnetic connections.

Anyway rant over, good run.

Feel your pain. I haven't uploaded my last few runs as it wanted me to reinstall a load of things cause of their upgrade. I didn't have the time so left it to fight the battle another evening. I

adrian522

Wednesday

MLR 11 Miles @ 8:56 m/m

I was reading the fine print of my plan and apparently the MLR runs should about 30 seconds per mile slower than Marathon pace so that would mean picking up the pace slightly on these. At the start I probably went too fast but overall it seemed to work out about rught.

I went on a route from where I work taking me along the coast by Ringsend, Sandymount, Booterstown and Blackrock. Very nice indeed. One nasty surprise was a huge hill on Mt Anneville road, just by foster avenue. Very tough.

Anyway another one in the books and I move on with 2 easy runs over the next 2 days.

adrian522

Thursday

6 Easy Miles

I got out for my run at lunchtime today. It was good because I had it in my had that I was doing 8 miles, only realised it was 6 at around 11am so decided I'd free up my evening (a rare thing at the moment) by running at lunch.

Headed down towards booterstown from clonskeagh. It's nice to do a few runs from a different location as I've pretty much exhausted my routes around where I live.

Pace was around 9:23 m/m.

More easy miles tomorrow, long run Saturday.

adrian522

Friday

8 Miles Easy Run

Nice after work run. It's a good route but I took a wrong turn and ended up doing a fairly decent run inadvertently. The net result of this was a 20 min walk back to the car as I didn't want to go over 8 miles with the long run the next morning.

Saturday

LSR 20 Miles with last 4 @ M-Pace

Just repeating what I had in the novices thread for this.

The run went well except for the route I choose brought me along a busy road with very little room to move out of the way of traffic so amended it mid-run to stay on the safer ring road.

I had a bit of a garmin issue at one stage where I slowed to take a gel, couldn't get it open so (I thought) paused my garmin, took the gel and some water and then started the watch again (actually stopped the timer) and went off again, a little up the road realised my mistake but that is the reason for the weird lap 13 in the garmin data.

The last 4 were tough but I kept up a good pace, maybe even too fast. I cheated a bit by stopping for water and general recovery with 3 quarters of a mile to go.

Glad it's over, I'll need my full day and a half to recover from this.

1|9:53
2|9:50
3|9:28
4|9:52
5|9:36
6|9:16
7|9:10
8|9:55
9|9:40
10|9:43
11|9:39
12|9:16
13|10:36*
14|9:18
15|9:31
16|9:39
17|8:10
18|8:08
19|8:24
20|8:17

63.4 miles for the week.

adrian522

Monday

10K pace session

This session involves a warmup, 1 mile @ 10K pace, 4 mins recovery, 2 Miles @ 10K pace, 7 mins recovery, 1 Mile @ 10K Pace and a few cooldown miles.

The whole thing came to 11 Miles. I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. I guess I'm getting more comfortable at this pace. I may soon need to increase my pace for these sessions as I get fitter.

Dist|Effort|Pace
3|Easy|9:35
1|10K|7:53
0.4|Recov|9:56
2|10K|7:41
0.7|Recov|10:16
1|10K|7:29
0.4|Recov|9:41
2.5|Easy|9:50

overpronator

You're flying, fair play Adrian. Can see you smashing you goal for the marathon.

adrian522

overpronator wrote: »

You're flying, fair play Adrian. Can see you smashing you goal for the marathon.

Thanks OP, nice to get some feedback on here.

I've the 10 mile this weekend to think about before anything else!

adrian522

Tuesday

6 Miles @ 9:05

Just easy miles on Tuesday evening. Feeling a fair few niggles and what not at the moment, so probably need to step back a bit. This week is a step back week anyway but I may rest up Thursday and/or Friday in preparation for Saturday's 10 mile.

Wednesday

10 Mile M-Pace Tempo

This session is nice, 3 Mile warm up then 20 mins @ M-Pace, 8 min Recovery and 10 mins @ M-Pace and a few easy miles to cool down.

The Marathon pace is now feeling a lot easier than it used to so hopefully that is a good sign. Nice to get the quality work in.

I reckon on taking it very easy now the next 2 days.

adrian522

Thursday

Rest day

The plan called for 0-3 miles, I decided not to run at all as I'd been feeling a few niggles and felt I needed a rest. Instead I went through a fairly rigorous strength circuit, followed by a good bit of foam rolling. It reminded me how much I'd neglected strength training, it's so hard to find time for it. I reckon I may try and do it before easy runs as I never do it afterwards.

Felt a bit better the next day, but still the old familiar aches in the usual places.

Friday

5.8 Miles @ 9:15 m/m

Ideally I would have done the easy miles yesterday and the rest day today but it just didn't work out like that. I got these easy miles done at lunch so hopefully will be nicely recovered for the race tomorrow.

Aiming for 1:20 but that may be a tad optimistic but I should have a PB unless things go very wrong.

adrian522

Saturday

Frank Duffy 10 Mile

So we arrive at a key build up race for the Marathon. Training had been going well, very well actually. I felt fitness wise I was in a very good place. I do feel I'm teetering on the brink of injury so I may visit a physio but all was good today.

Pre-race:

Usual routine, up at 7, breakfast, coffee and out the door. Parked up and went for a 2 mile warmup.

Race:

I wandered over and jumped into the first wave. The target was sub 80 so it seemed I should have been somewhere at the back of this wave.

0-3:

My plan was to start quick and try and bank some time early .for the tougher sections to come.

I felt quite comfortable down chesterfield, was a bit tougher up north road but all was good up to this point(7:43, 7:45, 7:54)

4-7

The pace was quick but I was happy enough with it, as I turned down chesterfield my shoes began to give problems, probably due to the cheap socks. I could feel blisters would probably result but decided to try and put it out of my mind. (7:57, 7:45,7:44,7:31)

8-10

As we came out of the park I started to feel the pace a bit more, struggled a bit, also getting a pain in my lower back, possibly a stitch or something, which got worse through the rest of the race. Time to dig deep.

I carried on through the pain, into the park and slowed right down for that initial hill, after which I picked up the pace again This may have been a mistake as I had to slow right down and was struggling here. The finish line couldn't come soon enough. The clock read 1:19:44 as I saw it, I put the foot down and sprinted for the line. (7:44,8:21,8:06)

Chip Result: 1:18:58

I was in a bit of trouble through the last mile or 2 but happy I managed to get through it even if my pace fell off a cliff. My target was 1:20, so I managed to get a minute under that.

My time from last year was 1:29:39 so great to take nearly 11 mins of that.

I'm happy enough with that, time to rest up and get ready for the half in 4 weeks time.

Finished off with a 2 mile cool down

overpronator

Huge PB! Very well done.

adrian522

overpronator wrote: »

Huge PB! Very well done.

thanks, bit of a soft one but was a good run. Strava tells me I had a 48:06 10k section too which is also close to my 10K time from DLR Bay

Pacing Mule

Massive PB and a great show of the years progress.

laura_ac3

Great running Adrian. Nice to take such a chunk off the PB, your training is obviously paying off. Keep an eye on the body if you're feeling on the verge of an injury. Well done, nice to read the report.

adrian522

Sunday

3 Mile Recovery Run @ 9:45 m/m

Got out for a short recovery run this morning. Runners yesterday cut the skin in the back of my heel so it's not all that pleasant. Last night went all out with the burgers, fries, beers quality pale ales, snacks etc, a nice finish to the day.

50 Miles for the week, this has been the mileage so far on this play.

Week|Miles
1|43.8
2|48.1
3|53.1
4|44.1
5|60
6|63.4
7|50.2

SamforMayo

Well done on a great race.

adrian522

By way of a little bit of catch up

Monday

6 Miles @ 9:11 m/m

Just some easy miles to start the week, pretty uneventful, not feeling too bad after the weekend

Tuesday:

Marathon Pace Tempo Run

3 Miles Easy + 2x15 min @ M-Pace with 5 mins recovery + 3 Miles Cooldown

Total 10 Miles.

This was a bit of a struggle, a result I guess of some latent tiredness from the weekend, even the easy warmup seemed more difficult than it needed to be.

The Marathon Pace stuff was fiune and it wan't a struggle to hold the pace, all in all just glad to get it over.

I ran this on Tuesday rather than Wednesday as I need to pull the LSR from Saturday in to Friday so I want 2 easy days leading up to that.

adrian522

Wednesday

6 Miles Easy @ 9:23 m/m

Evening run in the rain on Wednesday night. The weather wasn't too bad. I delayed a bit too long getting out to do this though so it was pretty late getting back.

Thursday

7 Miles Easy @ 9:17 m/m

In order to ensure I didn't spend the whole evening procrastinating again I brought the gear to work and went straight from there. Good run on a route I don't use that often. Plenty of easy miles this week.

The plan is to get the long run out of the way today (Friday) as I won't get a chance tomorrow, hope it goes well doing it after work, but we shall see.

adrian522

Friday

LSR 20 Miles with 4 @ M-Pace

Well this was a tough outing. I actually checked the weather before heading out, all looked ok, cloudy the odd shower in the forecast.

I finished work and headed out the door by 5pm, intending to run along the coast from blackrock to clontarf and onto Bull island.

Things started ok, nice weather, feeling good. Then it started to rain, no problem I thought, one of those promised showers. It continued to get heavier and heavier.

I was pretty wet at this stage, shoes not waterproof, kept going, every so often the rain would ease, then get really heavy again. I decided to man up just get through it. After I hit mile 8 I needed to step up to M-Pace miles, these went fine at first, heading up through fairview and Clontarf.

After 3 of these I was on Bull island and turned around and all of a sudden the wind picked up and was extremely strong. I struggled on the last of the 4 M-pace miles, I upped the effort but the pace remained stubbornly slow.

Eventually getting through that mile and back to easy pace, but the heavy wind was sapping all my energy. By the time I got back to fairview I had a bit of protection from the wind but the damage had been done at that stage. Still over 7 miles to go, I was at least able to get to a normal easy pace.

No energy at this stage and kept finding excuses to stop and rest but getting going again was more difficult. I kept the paces ok until mile 18 where it just went to pieces but I did get through it to finish in just over 3 hours.

This run was nothing if not character building, I'm not sure if I'd be too eager to do 20 miles in those conditions again so the weather play nice in October.

All in all, 20 mile runs done and 2 to go. Lap paces are below, you can see the wind taking over for mile 12 and 13.

Here's hoping for better times ahead.

Lap|Effort|Pace
1|E|9:35
2|E|9:25
3|E|9:24
4|E|9:21
5|E|9:34
6|E|9:37
7|E|9:24
8|E|9:37
9|M|8:35
10|M|8:21
11|M|8:29
12|M|8:54
13|E|10:16
14|E|9:42
15|E|9:31
16|E|9:34
17|E|9:45
18|E|9:48
19|E|10:05
20|E|9:54

SamforMayo

You are doing great, next long run will be easier, no doubt about it.

adrian522

SamforMayo wrote: »

You are doing great, next long run will be easier, no doubt about it.

Thanks,yeah was just a tough day at the office I think