DCM 2014: Mentored Novices Thread

Mimojo

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Id be surprised if a pair of runners were gone after 6 months. Unless you are doing serious mileage and were wearing the sides down. I see a lot of people going to Amphibian King and being told you definitely need new runners. They are going to say that anyway as they are on a sales pitch.

adrian522 wrote: »

Disagree there Tiger, AK have always been pretty straight up anytime I've been in there and to be honest it's not that difficult to clock up 300-600 miles in 6 months which would definitely wear out a pair of runners.

It was my first time dealing with them and to be honest I found them really excellent, very helpful, informative, and I know they are selling something at the end of the day but I genuinely felt like the girl knew exactly what she was talking about. I have read so many great reviews about AK, and my own experience with them was also very positive.

I know I am on about 270 miles since June, and from Jan to June was doing low mileage but still approx. 10-12 miles every week so another 250 miles or so I do think they are pretty worn out tbh. Looking at them I can see where they are very worn on the soles. Also I dont think they were a great running shoe to begin with, I didnt know that much about runners at the time & they are not very supportive, so I am hoping new runners will help!!

Tigerandahalf

Fair enough but if the runners are not causing you injury or soreness to your feet they should be fine. I overpronate a huge amount and got a year out of my first runners. Granted I was only doing about 30 miles a week. Then again if you arr getting a very light runner perhaps they don't last the same amount of time.

Firedance

had some good runs this week, the midweek club sessions are feeling not quite as hard as they were, hopefully that means an improvement in fitness levels! Just doing my planned route for 18 miles tomorrow, I think finding a route is nearly harder than running it. Plan is to run into town from the park and back using parts of the marathon course, I also bough that bottle carrier Ososlo recommended and it comes with a pocket that will fit 3 of my gels which may be the answer to 'how do I carry everything I need on the day' - hopefully :-)

good luck everyone on your weekend runs, the mileage is getting quite serious now :eek:

Mimojo

Firedance wrote: »

had some good runs this week, the midweek club sessions are feeling not quite as hard as they were, hopefully that means an improvement in fitness levels! Just doing my planned route for 18 miles tomorrow, I think finding a route is nearly harder than running it. Plan is to run into town from the park and back using parts of the marathon course, I also bough that bottle carrier Ososlo recommended and it comes with a pocket that will fit 3 of my gels which may be the answer to 'how do I carry everything I need on the day' - hopefully :-)

good luck everyone on your weekend runs, the mileage is getting quite serious now :eek:

I too got one of the water bottle carriers as recommended so will be trying it out tomorrow, it looks very handy anyhow!! Thanks Ososlo!!

echancrure

DCM 1st timer here (second marathon ever!)

2 questions regarding the course :

-is there km markers?
-are the mile markers very, very clear (e.g. paint on the road and poster on the side)?

I only have a stop watch, no gps, so I rely on the mile markers to calculate my pace (I prefer it this way at the moment as I can run by how I feel more than looking at my pace all the time - but I may invest later if I get serious) so the mile markers (or is there kms for DCM?) are essential for me.

Many thanks; fantastic thread.

rob w

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/parenting/a-trial-run-for-the-dublin-marathon-1.1914433


Stuff I'm sure you all know already but nonetheless...

adrian522

Why is that in parenting section?

MKDTH

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Now I am quite partial to a tilt at the DCM whilst injured myself ! But would you not think it better to skip the half and save everything up recovery wise for the main event ?

Lol I read your thread and you certainly are!
To be honest I pretty much did no training in the three weeks leading up to the Frank Duffy and just forgot about time and enjoyed the race by starting at the back.
I am planning a similar approach for the half marathon and will just use it as a training run without pushing myself to injury.
It will hopefully give me a easy time to beat in future

laura_ac3

adrian522 wrote: »

Disagree there Tiger, AK have always been pretty straight up anytime I've been in there and to be honest it's not that difficult to clock up 300-600 miles in 6 months which would definitely wear out a pair of runners.

Would agree with this. Been there a couple of times and no sales pushiness at all compared to other places pushing a particular product or the most expensive thing.

KillianByrne

adrian522 wrote: »

Went for my sports massage today, seemed good, by which I mean it hurt a bit so I assume it did me some good.

I'll see how I am over the next few days I guess.

I got out for 3 miles at recovery pace this evening, 10:30 m/m

How do you feel now after the massage? I've one at 3.30!

MKDTH

Ososlo wrote: »

What did physio say about your plans to run the half and dcm? She think you'll be ok for it?

Hi Ososlo, yes she seemed happy enough for me to do this if I did no proper training besides the run 50 meters, walk 50 meters, run 50 meters, walk 50 meters etc and stuck to the exercises daily which are taking over a hour and half each day!

adrian522

KillianByrne wrote: »

How do you feel now after the massage? I've one at 3.30!

Feel good to be honest, not too bad at all. I'm heading out for 7 miles this evening so I'll let you know after that.

xyz123

Hi,

Looking for a bit of advice. I followed the Boards plan up until i went on holidays in August on Week 11. I missed a 14 mile LSR because of travel. (i had swapped the 17m/14m stepback) The next week i tried to recreate the 10 race, which didnt go well because of the heat and not having a planned route, but i kept my midweek runs going. So the intention was to get back on the plan when i got home with the 19m lsr last weekend...except that i came down with a flu and now i have a chest infection. So i've missed the 19mile lsr plus the weeks running and will miss the 20mile this weekend and probably part of next week too. Hopefully the anti biotics will kick in soon and i can get back running shortly

Any advice where to go from here. I had intended doing the half marathon but perhaps getting back to a 15/16 mile lsr might be better, if possible. Obviously i'm going to have to readjust my goals but i dont want to give up on the DCM just yet.

Thanks

Laois_Man

echancrure wrote: »

DCM 1st timer here (second marathon ever!)

2 questions regarding the course :

-is there km markers?
-are the mile markers very, very clear (e.g. paint on the road and poster on the side)?

I only have a stop watch, no gps, so I rely on the mile markers to calculate my pace (I prefer it this way at the moment as I can run by how I feel more than looking at my pace all the time - but I may invest later if I get serious) so the mile markers (or is there kms for DCM?) are essential for me.

Many thanks; fantastic thread.

Mr. M....is it your good self joining our little party?

Glad to see you're doing DCM.

Someone mentioned (Either on this thread or on the DCM thread over on the Events forum) that the mile markers are already painted onto the roads.....very surprising is true.

I don't know if they'll also have signs.....I doubt it.

But the markings are definitely in miles only and none in Kilometers.

I think someone also said there are GPS watches in Aldi or Lidl. Very cheap, but they'd do the job. Would you consider getting one? I splashed out for a good one in March/April and I'd be lost without it now

I'd suggest going for an LSR with ya....but you're waaaay too fast for me.

yaboya1

Laois_Man wrote: »

I don't know if they'll also have signs.....I doubt it.

I'm almost certain there will be signs to mark each mile (there was when I ran).

Laois_Man wrote: »

But the markings are definitely in miles only and none in Kilometers.

I think there are markers every 10k. They give you splits for 10k & 30k, so it's unlikely they'd do that and not mark them too.

Ososlo

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Would agree with this. Been there a couple of times and no sales pushiness at all compared to other places pushing a particular product or the most expensive thing.

On this topic, Amphibian King in Bray have been shortlisted in the Irish Times for a Best Service award in the 'Best shops in Ireland' Awards 2014 so they must be doing something right!

Ososlo

xyz123 wrote: »

Hi,

Looking for a bit of advice. I followed the Boards plan up until i went on holidays in August on Week 11. I missed a 14 mile LSR because of travel. (i had swapped the 17m/14m stepback) The next week i tried to recreate the 10 race, which didnt go well because of the heat and not having a planned route, but i kept my midweek runs going. So the intention was to get back on the plan when i got home with the 19m lsr last weekend...except that i came down with a flu and now i have a chest infection. So i've missed the 19mile lsr plus the weeks running and will miss the 20mile this weekend and probably part of next week too. Hopefully the anti biotics will kick in soon and i can get back running shortly

Any advice where to go from here. I had intended doing the half marathon but perhaps getting back to a 15/16 mile lsr might be better, if possible. Obviously i'm going to have to readjust my goals but i dont want to give up on the DCM just yet.

Thanks

Sorry to hear you're unwell. You firstly have to get better. Then you do a few short easy runs to ensure you're really better before tackling anything longer or harder. You're just going to have to play it by ear regarding the half and lsrs. Main thing is to get better first. Just don't run until then as you could make yourself a lot worse. Don't rule the half out yet....
check back in soon. .

Ososlo

Entry to Race Series Half closes this Sunday 7th September

echancrure

Laois_Man wrote: »

Mr. M....is it your good self joining our little party?

Glad to see you're doing DCM.

Indeed !!

Someone mentioned (Either on this thread or on the DCM thread over on the Events forum) that the mile markers are already painted onto the roads.....very surprising is true.

Saw that: reminded me of asking.

But the markings are definitely in miles only and none in Kilometers.

Yes confirming what I suspected.

I think someone also said there are GPS watches in Aldi or Lidl. Very cheap, but they'd do the job. Would you consider getting one? I splashed out for a good one in March/April and I'd be lost without it now

Actually, I am not too sure I want one... I'd be looking at it too much: I'll try without it and see how it goes. I only missed a couple of mile markings in Connemarathon (including at mile 25 which wasn't good!) but in Dublin with the crowd I am afraid I'll won't see them ...

I'd suggest going for an LSR with ya....but you're waaaay too fast for me.

The main thing is to finish! Planning 20 miles @7:55 on Sunday

Laois_Man

echancrure wrote: »

The main thing is to finish! Planning 20 miles @7:55 on Sunday

Count me in well well well out!

Laois_Man

Just heard through the grapevine that they're gonna be much stricter this year about people collecting their own numbers, and only their own numbers, at the Expo.

Be warned!

Laois_Man

Ososlo wrote: »

Entry to Race Series Half closes this Sunday 7th September

It might not even get to Sunday. Update from organizers as of 5:30pm today:

We had reached our entry limit for the half marathon but we have just received good news that we can take a very limited number extra into the event. We have reopened the entry link for a limited period.

Good job I'm swerving it!

martyoo

Where's good to get a sports massage? They sound nice

aquinn

Thanks to all contributors, pacer info and our Mentor without you I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be writing these words as I am just in from a 20.02 mile run and enjoyed it in 3.26, moving time 3.13?! The first time I cycled that I was over the moon. The Boards plan and people thank you.
I'm thrilled, I'm sore now but really well. Upper back and neck stiff. Might be upstairs for the rest of the weekend :-)
Learnt a few things tonight.
It's my last night run as got dark on second lap around the park. This will be good for me since the race is in the morning. I think I do well at night runs due to a massive lunch that I have to run off but it's too dark out and started to get a bit scary with lads in gangs.
The Brooks nitelife jacket as previously mentioned is brilliant as it's all I could see really for the last few miles. Lighting really bad around Dublin.
Garmin is useless when you can't read the screen as it's so faded but it didn't blink out once. Also it is now pacing me on miles and tracking me but beeping every km???
Took a gel at nearly an hour a Revive Gel by Kelkin and at 1.55 a High5 IsoGel. No noticeable difference or adverse effects either, thankfully.
Legs weren't great at mile 8 or 10 but at 10.65 I had to stop to take a gel. Turns out this involves both hands and walking so that helped legs.
Pace also I kept having to slow to reach 10 min mile so that's positive.
You can't run through Farmleigh as it turns out but a nice Security guard helped me find way to Chapelizod.
Still a lot of people ignoring hello's in the park.
Use the lips on pavements, don't jump curbs as even the lips towards the ends were struggle enough.
It rained, as promised, but not heavily but after this legs were cold. Why then for race day are short shorts recommended as I had them on tonight and wouldn't normally wear them. Cold legs aren't nice. If it's like that on race day though perfect weather.
As it was so dark for about the last 4 miles I just ran as I could so here are those stats, sorry about km:
26 6:19.7 0.62 10:11
27 5:50.4 0.62 9:23
28 5:52.3 0.62 9:27
29 6:02.4 0.62 9:43
30 5:55.5 0.62 9:32

The maxi nutrition protein milk is nice. Nurofen and bed now I think.

All the best to those doing LSR this weekend.

On AK and runners I found them fantastic as they took the time to analyse my current runners at the time to see where they titled and asked about running experience and what I was aiming for. I'm light on my feet and a neutral runner but was still told to get new runners every 6 months or 500 miles as the gel doesn't work anymore and that was creating knee pain.

SeanPuddin

Well done aquinn. Planning to get my 20 miler done tomorrow at 8am, then I can put the feet up to drink and moan all weekend.

aquinn

That's why I got it out of the way SeanPuddin, weather to be nice, I think. Wear a hat anyway. Handy for sun and rain.
Thanks, just edited post to add time as forgot that.
Best of luck in the morning.

Ososlo

aquinn wrote: »

Thanks to all contributors, pacer info and our Mentor without you I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be writing these words as I am just in from a 20.02 mile run and enjoyed it in 3.26, moving time 3.13?!

Fantastic:D Well done to you! that'll give you oodles of confidence!
Best thing of all is that you enjoyed it:)

Joleigh

Well done on the 20 miles aquinn!! Also wondering weather to wear shorts or 3/4 bottoms for marathon.

Ososlo

No guys on this thread are allowed wear anything other than shorts for the big day:) None of this running tights lark;)

In all seriousness though, you'll be running at a quicker pace on the day and you'll be running a lot longer so you more than likely will get warm. I'd definitely advise shorts.

AuldManKing

What to wear on marathon day is a big topic. One worth revisiting when I'm not typing on the phone