Pursuit of Happyness - sub 3

sydneybound

Right, I think it's time I got round to starting a log. I've dabbled in running nearly all my life but was never really committed to the sport. Always had an interest, ran a few cross country's in school many moons ago and the odd 10k fun run with little or no proper training behind me.

Since those days I've generally ran to keep myself in check. I was never particularly slow and always had a somewhat untested endurance base. A few months ago I got a notion into my head after watching the London marathon from start to finish and hearing such inspirational story's to do a marathon at very late notice. I won't go into detail about my training plan for the fear of being called a joke although I did run a sub 3:25. One thing i will say is that the training I did in the short amount of time, I took so very seriously while I'm a determined individual and never once was I near to stopping in the marathon. If I had more training I felt I could have ran sub 3:20 but the pacers caught me up by mile 22 and my legs just couldn't keep up with them. After that I took a few weeks off and last week I started to get back to proper training. I knew even before my first marathon that I was liking it a little too much meaning that it wasn't going to be my last, besides I had that feeling what if I prepared properly what could I have ran.

So I will be entering the DCM with the aim to run a sub 3. I know this is hugely ambitious however a former golf coach always told me 'aim for the moon if you miss you may hit a star' and regardless even if I don't make it, it won't be for a lack of trying. Prior to Dublin I'll aim to run two half marathons to get a feel on my progress along with the usual longer weekend runs. 

Something I would like to point out at this early stage is that all my runs are on hilly terrain, nothing flat where I am with a few killers of hills. I reckon on flat terrain my times are about 10-15% quicker but I could be incorrect with that stat.

I'm still new to all of this so I'm still a little uncertain which exact training plan I'll be going with. I reckon I'll loosely base my training on this plan http://www.runforit.org.uk/Documents/PDFs/Training%20plans/Marathon%20Training%20Schedule%20Sub%203%20Hours.pdf Really the key will be to say injury free, I don't think commitment will be a problem.

Heres what I've done in the two last days
Sun 12m 7:35 min pace - steady with still a lot left in the tank didn't really push myself. To be absolutely honest between work functions and a mates birthday I had been out the three previous nights so was sweating a bit of beer out!
Mon 7k 29min recovery run started at crawling pace for 10mins but got fed up and upped it
Plan to do some hill runs tomorrow night.

Hopefully I'll keep this log updated even if its on a weekly basis.

sydneybound

2 mile warm up
Followed by 8 x 150metre hill sprints
2miles back home
Rest tomorrow followed by 8mile fartlek on Thursday

Edit - rest day is 9 holes of golf my main addiction

statss

the paces in that plan :eek::eek:

best of luck with it

DogSlySmile

sydneybound wrote: »

I'm still new to all of this so I'm still a little uncertain which exact training plan I'll be going with. I reckon I'll loosely base my training on this plan http://www.runforit.org.uk/Documents/PDFs/Training%20plans/Marathon%20Training%20Schedule%20Sub%203%20Hours.pdf Really the key will be to say injury free, I don't think commitment will be a problem.
.

Hey best of luck with going sub3.

That plan looks pretty solid. I'm no expert but I'd be wary of doing 3 hard days in a row. In week two you have 800m reps on Tues, a 7mile run at 6:35m/m ( which could be your threshold pace depending on your level) on Wed and then another 6:35m/m pace run on Thurs. Maybe you could space these out a little more instead of doing them all in a row?

What is your 10k/10m/HM PB?

sydneybound

DogSlySmile wrote: »

Hey best of luck with going sub3.

That plan looks pretty solid. I'm no expert but I'd be wary of doing 3 hard days in a row. In week two you have 800m reps on Tues, a 7mile run at 6:35m/m ( which could be your threshold pace depending on your level) on Wed and then another 6:35m/m pace run on Thurs. Maybe you could space these out a little more instead of doing them all in a row?

What is your 10k/10m/HM PB?

Yes I did notice that, I'm following the plan loosely. I did a 12 mile run Sunday, 7K recovery run Monday and then hill sprints last night. So I’m having today off and to be fair Monday wasn’t too bad. To be honest the hill sprints were the hardest of the three days, was knackered after them and need to rest today. Tomorrow I’ll do 8 miles fartlek and Friday an easy 4-5miles. Out Friday night and 18 holes of golf on Saturday means I’ll take it off and I reckon I’ll do 15 miles on Sunday.

One part of that plan I’m looking forward to next week is the week 4, 1 mile w/u, 6x1km reps @ 3:37 – 345 pace with 1 mile c/d. I’ll be doing next Tuesday. By then i should really be on week three but it suggests doing the same type of reps in miles and not K’s which would be a little extreme this early on. Probably will do that the following week.

Apart from the marathon I’ve not done an official half. My time for the half in the marathon was 1:36 so I'll give you that for the time being however I will be doing the Clontarf half in a few weeks and will be hoping for sub 1:30 but we'll see how that goes. Still early days so I won’t get overly worried if I don’t make it. We report back anyway.

sydneybound

9 mile 7:35 pace tonight

Can't say the session was fartlek training as I was running in a big park which I dont really know and took a few wrong turns having to backtrack on myself while the park itself was a little uneven underfoot and similar to the grass courts at Wimbledon.. slippery! To compensate I did an extra mile and ran up a few steep hills. Was hoping for a faster time but in hindsight was never going to get it running that route. Easy run tomorrow, Saturday off and 15 miles approx on Sunday is the three day plan.

On a side note just entered the clontarf half which I'll be running more for fun than going for a time, would like to break 1:30 but can't see it happening this early so just going to enjoy the day and hoping for decent (calm) weather.

RunningKing

Best of luck with the sub 3 attempt. I'll be doing Clontarf myself, with the aim of going 1.28ish, but the course is very weather dependent.

I'm glad your training is loosely based on that document, as there are quite a few hard days 3 days in a row.

sydneybound

RunningKing wrote: »

Best of luck with the sub 3 attempt. I'll be doing Clontarf myself, with the aim of going 1.28ish, but the course is very weather dependent.

I'm glad your training is loosely based on that document, as there are quite a few hard days 3 days in a row.

Cheers for that. I reckon I'll be 1:32 best to 1:35 type of time, will give it a lash and fingers crossed the wind plays ball.

nosnagaoithe

Good luck with the plan - I'm no expert but it looks a little light on miles to me, albeit with plenty of quality in each week. Will be interesting to see how it fairs out for you.....

sydneybound

Easy four miles today on the treadmill 7:35 pace at lunchtime. Although thats the same pace as recent runs it felt much slower than a normal run as it was on a treadmill with the tunes banging out and a dead flat elevation. Will be slower in the next easy run though.

Tomorrow will be off with a big run Sunday.

33 miles in total this week, should be around the 40 mile mark next week.

sydneybound

Poor weekend running wise (however great weekend golf wise!)

To cut a long story short I could only get out or a five mile run today due to time constraints, very frustrating but sometimes these things can't be helped. Realising now that it will be difficult keeping the two sports on the go, however I'll try and find a way! Moved the long run to tomorrow after work.

sydneybound

Going to chalk today down as experience. I was tired after work and the thought of doing 15 miles in 20 degrees humid heat wasn't too appealing. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but today really thought me not to miss a long weekend run. Much fresher doing a long tough run in the morning rather than after a tiring day at work. In the end I decided to run 10 miles at 7.25 pace, here's how it went.

1 - 7:51 (always generally slow between dodging people starting the first prolonged hill)
2 - 7.27
3 - 7.12
4 - 7:05
5 - 7:12
6 - 7.22
7 - 7:56 (disappointing - must have been the affects of the previous mile as I had a 200 foot elevation in that mile)
8 - 7:41
9 - 7:34
10 - 6:47 (flattest part of the run, wish there was more flat parts!)

Was tough going in places and not 15 miles I hoped for but happy with 10 in those conditions.
 

Bahanaman

Good luck Sydneybound!!

Gavlor

Bahanaman wrote: »

Good luck Sydneybound!!

Hey B-man, where's your race report from Saturday?!

Bahanaman

Building myself up to it Gav!!

sydneybound

40 minute session today on my lunch break which was on a treadmill.

1 warm up followed by 6 1k intervals, each k was followed by 60 seconds at walking pace rather than stopping, than a 1k cool down.

1k - 3:45
2k - 3:45
3k - 3:45
4k - 3:30
5k - 3:25
6k - 3:20

Took a little while to get into it but after the 2nd k I was comfortable and after the 3rd I kept increasing the speed.

Was unable to run yesterday due to a friends leaving do which involved a lot of alcohol so was happy I didnt feel to rough on todays run. Glad to say thats me and alcohol till after the Clontarf half.

8 mile steady run tomorrow.

sydneybound

Before today's run I felt fresh and fit so I was hoping for a good decent time. It was 21 degrees and humid so not sure if I can use that as an excuse for the below par average pace of 7:20 over 8 miles which I was disappointed with. Admittedly it's certainly not the easiest of routes with 4 hills but I was still looking for better. Here's how it went.

1 - 7:18
2 - 7:03
3 - 7:08
4 - 7:24
5 - 8:13 (against the wind going up a long drag of an incline)
6 - 7:33
7 - 7:26
8 - 6:40

with the Clontarf half approaching and due to time constraints i'll miss Friday and be back running Sat & Sun. One session will be a little speed work and the other a 7/8 mile steady run. Don't wnt to do too much before the half.

nosnagaoithe

What's the target for Clontarf Half SB?

sydneybound

nosnagaoithe wrote: »

What's the target for Clontarf Half SB?

My aim is to go out and enjoy it!

Dont really have a target at the moment, provided I'm under 1:35 I'll be happy enough although not delighted.

Gavlor

sydneybound wrote: »

My aim is to go out and enjoy it!

Dont really have a target at the moment, provided I'm under 1:35 I'll be happy enough although not delighted.

A 1.35 half will leave you with ALOT of work ahead for a sub @ dcm. Realistically you should be looking at around 85 at this stage

statss

Gavlor wrote: »

A 1.35 half will leave you with ALOT of work ahead for a sub @ dcm. Realistically you should be looking at around 85 at this stage

+1

I did a 1.35 HM 6 weeks before Connemara which came it at 3.38 (admittedly not a PB course, but still, that's a massive gap to bridge)

sydneybound

Lads... chill!!

Don't want to set myself lofty ambitions just yet as I've only been back running properly for two weeks. Lets enjoy the day first of all and if i'm in good shape on the day will go for a time just dont want to set myself up for a fall.

Gavlor

sydneybound wrote: »

Lads... chill!!

Don't want to set myself lofty ambitions just yet as I've only been back running properly for two weeks. Lets enjoy the day first of all and if i'm in good shape on the day will go for a time just dont want to set myself up for a fall.

Meh! Go hard or go home

sydneybound

Gavlor wrote: »

Meh! Go hard or go home

haha! Will try my best

sydneybound

Did 8 miles again today on a different route which was a little flatter in places but still relatively hilly with one killer, 75 foot elevation over 0.2 miles!

1 - 7:02
2 - 6:58
3 - 7:05
4 - 7:26
5 - 7:36
6 - 7:31
7 - 7:36
8 - 6:20

Pace was 7:15 and ran at 3pm right at the hottest part of the day. Wasn't kind on myself.

sydneybound

1.5 mile w/u
12 x 100metre hill sprints (well probably a bit longer than 100)
1.5 mile w/d

Tiring session. These type of sessions hit me much harder than say a normal 10 mile run. Hopefully they'll be of benefit in the long road

sydneybound

I'm afraid after several days golfing (carrying a bag) has taken its toll on my back. For the first time ever I've experienced lower back pain and have decided to sit out tomorrow. A bit gutted but in the long run best off not doing it and besides it was only going to be a practice run anyway. Going to lay off running for about a week before testing out the back but it should only be minor. All the best to those that are taking part.