DCM 2014 graduates - the next step onwards

JohnDozer

A little bit late to the party as usual!

1) I'd like to know your PB's and roughly when they were set. I'm most interested in 5k, 10k, 10 mile, half and full marathon. Any three of those will give me something to work with. More is better. If there's anything peculiar about them (e.g. your marathon PB is from the Snowdon marathon) please let me know!

5k January 2012 21:10
10k October 2014 44:14
10mile May 2012 1:16:44 *Unofficial 1:14:56
1/2 marathon Sept 2014 1:38:54
Marathon Oct 2014 4:07:35

2) Tell me about your running history including what plan/training you did for DCM.

I first ran a relay leg of Cork in 2011 while still playing GAA. Continued running in off season and just continued on from there, and did full marathon in Cork in 2012 without really knowing what I was doing in terms of training. Continued running 2-3 times a week until Christmas 2012. Took 2013 completely off for all sorts of reasons and eventually got back on the road in December 2013. Since then been running 4-5 times most weeks, clocking up circa 1300 miles since January 2014.

Attempted BAA Intermediate Plan for DCM. Training was very broken and I'd say if I did 50% of the workouts and 40% of the LSR's that would be about it.

3) What's your sporting history? This can range from you got a note to avoid PE at school all the way up to you represented Ireland at something. Without asking anyone to reveal too much it would helpful if I had an idea as to how far in the distant past the sporting history is.

I'm 36 years old now. I played anything involving a ball from toddler up to the age of 19/20, mainly GAA. Spent a few years in the wilderness just dipping in and out of casual soccer games and managed to reach a top weight of about 19.5 stone in 2009/10. Went back playing GAA in 2010 until last year, and added coastal rowing to the list of activities for 2012/2013.

4) What other training including strength and conditioning training do you do regularly?

1 game of astroturf soccer every week. 1 game of squash on Monday nights. Ahm... need to do more S&C work!

5) Any injuries/niggles and what are you doing to manage them?

Very few fortunately. Occasional tightness in calves, soles of feet. I thing I have a good sense of whats tightness and what needs attention. Experienced muscular/ nerve related back issues in September this year for the first time, with a recurrence of same issue last week. As above, I definately need more stretching and strengthening work.

I have been a heavy smoker most of my adult life. I am still battling with the addiction but am confident of removing them from my life entirely very very soon.

6) What are your goals for the next 6 - 12 months?

Fulfill my potential at marathon distance in DCM 15 which if training goes well all year should be around the 3:30 mark. Chipping away at PB's along the way will be nice but not priority. I would like to address the 5k PB and the 10 mile alright as they have a 2012 date beside them!

ChadHogan

Did my first run post DCM, 3 miles at my pre marathon easy pace- a couple of positives and negatives. Pre-marathon easy pace did not feel easy! I think i’ll just have to ignore the watch for another week or so, but on the plus side I had no pain in my foot, will try get out for 3 more short easy ones this week and reassess what to do for next week based on how they go.

Dubgal72

Dubgal - Sounds like you're on top of things. Your PB's are an interesting mix with the 5k being quite a bit better than the 10 mile but the half being if anything slightly better than the 10 mile.



Thanks Clearlier, they're a funny old progression, I agree. They're all 'firsts' and am still getting the hang of the pacing for training and racing game. All races and training in the 80s/early 90s were done using old school stopwatch and feel/effort techniques. I feel like a dinosaur being dragged into the modern era. I'll invest in a stopwatch and a HRM to use as a benchmark and guide but will give a gps watch a miss as my pace judgement is improving.
The 10 mile was my first race in 22 years and was more of a hard training run. The 5k was two weeks or so after the 10 mile and had a couple of interval sessions under my belt by then. By the time I did the HM 6 weeks or so after the 10 mile, I had a better idea of how to progress in a longer race as well as a few quality sessions added to training. Not that I actually did it in race practice! The first mile was too slow at 8:14 according to my 1:40 paceband so I panicked and caught up with my schedule by mile three. This put me at my lactic threshold at about half way so the rest was progressive misery. I went through 10 miles at 76:06 (an improvement/PB of two minutes but the wheels came off after that and I hobbled home in 1:41:xx As I said, it's all a (sometimes steep) learning curve!

Dubgal72

I have been a heavy smoker most of my adult life. I am still battling with the addiction but am confident of removing them from my life entirely very very soon.

Good luck, been there. Gave up five years ago and like you, I was very addicted so it can be done. Wouldn't ever go back now. I love the freedom I have from nicotine.

Firedance

Dubgal72 wrote: »

I have been a heavy smoker most of my adult life. I am still battling with the addiction but am confident of removing them from my life entirely very very soon.

Good luck, been there. Gave up five years ago and like you, I was very addicted so it can be done. Wouldn't ever go back now. I love the freedom I have from nicotine.

+ 1 to this, actually plus a million! I struggled for years to quit, Tony(?) Cars book finally did the trick & when you do break free you'll be delighted with the results. You can do it!!

Dub13

Clearlier wrote: »

Dub13 - It looks like you made some fairly quick progress over the summer. There's no doubt that you have the scope to improve your 5k and 10k times. Fairly big miles for a novice runner. It sounds like your body coped well with it though? My only concern is that the plan I have in mind might not be challenging enough for you. I'll talk about how to manage that as best you can when I finish putting it together.

Cheers for doing this. Yes last year was good for me, in work I can now manage good long breaks and I tend to do 10k most days. They are not mad fast runs on the break its just a habit I have got into, I normally run than in about 50/55 min. So when I started the plan I was already doing 60k odd a week. The body handled it very well, it was a gradual build up so I am sure that helped.

Yes I did good mileage in the DCM14 plan, I did six 20 mile runs and two 22 mile done from June. When I started doing tempo and faster runs in the plan the body was felling that a bit more but nothing major. I look forward to seen your plan.

Clearlier

I hope to finish the plan this evening or if not over the weekend but in the meantime here's a link to what I'll be basing it on. There will be some small variations but the basic idea is:

1 days of speed/intervals
1 day of technique work
1 long run
Lots of easy running

Each bit is important,
The technique work is important to help avoid injuries and become more efficient.
The speed to help reawaken your legs to moving a bit faster after marathon training where most of the plans that you followed had very little running at faster than marathon pace.
The easy running (including the long run) is all about your long term aerobic development.

It will all be time based and suitable for everybody here who isn't planning on a spring marathon and it'll be up to you exactly where you start when working out how long you do your easy runs for. The important thing is that you will be steadily increasing the overall workload.

After 12 - 14 weeks of this I'll adapt it to target specific distances. So, we're probably looking at April for a target race. If you've got one in mind please let me know the date and distance at some point.

Clearlier

If you do a google on how to measure max heart rate you'll get a million answers.

The best way is to go to a lab and have it measured while doing a Max HR test on a treadmill. Most of us don't particularly want to spend €100 or so on this test though so let's look at a few alternatives.

I'm assuming the presence of a Heart rate monitor that you're confident is reliable.

Treadmill: I don't recommend this unless you're with somebody who knows what they're doing because there's some scope for injury if care isn't taken. If you're with somebody who knows what they're doing they'll know the protocol. It's not complicated with regular increases of speed and incline bringing you towards your max.

Racing - Not perfect because most races go on for too long but if you go hard but not all out in a 10k or a 5k and push on for the last 5 - 6 minutes steadily increasing your speed and finishing in a sprint crossing the line in quite a bit of pain possibly fighting the urge to get rid of everything from your stomach then you'll have a number that works for our purposes.

DIY - The basic principle is that you warm up thoroughly - 20 - 30 mins of easy running, strides, maybe some drills and then over the course of about 4 - 6 minutes you try to push as hard as you possibly can. It needs that length of time because your heart takes time to adapt to the stresses that are being placed on it. Just running as fast as you can for as long as you can won't do the job. Here are two links with suggestions on how you can do this. Link 1. Link 2.

Sub max - I have no experience of these so I can't endorse them.

I'm looking for a max heart rate so that I can guide you on the level of effort for easy runs and also so that I can objectively measure your progress over time. It's not a critical piece of information and if you're in any way unsure about doing a max test then don't do it. In addition to the heart rate zones I'll also be talking about how you should be feeling.

Final point to note is that I'm not madly interested in getting an exact measurement at this stage in your training. What is important is that we don't work off a number that's too high. A bit too low is fine right now. That's why I haven't even mentioned the methodologies that don't use any kind of a test. They cannot be trusted even as a guideline.

If anybody wants to use the race method Parkrun is a great option. Otherwise the test can be done any day next week though Tuesday - Thursday would probably be ideal.

If there's anyone who hasn't started running again since DCM (injury excepted) you really should be looking to get down to it. Next week will be a dry run where we put in place the structure before starting in earnest the following week.

SoundoftheSea

Second day of the 30 day challenge. Goodness me I think I have been running on flat tyres!!
They look easy, but not so!! I watched the video in work and thought, no bother.

Nice first post DCM run done on Wednesday , six miles and it felt great.
Hoping to sign up for my first ever 5k race soon to give myself a new goal and start setting some PBs.

Clearlier

Alan - Time for you to move your training level up a notch! Your goals are eminently achievable with some consistent progressive training.

John - You convert really well from shorter distances with the obvious exception of the marathon. A consistent spell of training should see you in or about your marathon target.

Chad - It always takes a while after a marathon to get back into the swing of things. Don't worry about pace - it's not important right now.

The plan (or at least week 1):

So, I'm not done with the plan yet but here's week 1

Monday - short run or day off depending on how you're feeling
Tuesday - HRM test or if you've done one already or don't want to do one then warm up followed by 7*1min @5k effort with 2mins recovery.
Wednesday - medium length run
Thursday - medium length run
Friday - technique/short hills
Saturday - medium run
Sunday - long run

To translate Tuesday's bit. It means run for 1 min at the pace/effort that you could maintain for a 5k right now, recover for 2 mins and repeat so that you have run completed 7 efforts.
The warm up is very important for the Tuesday session. You're looking at easy running for at least 15 minutes, followed by 3-4 strides for 7-8 seconds with a walkback recovery. In an ideal world these will be followed by drills. All done back to back with little messing around during what's like to be fairly cool evenings.

The length of each run is up to you but it needs to be measured in time not distance. A level that you might consider starting at is 30, 45 and 90 mins for short, medium and long runs. You want the level for the first week to be on the comfortable side of challenging. Too hard and you'll risk entering into a spiral of downwads achievement. Too low and you won't progress. It's important that you're consistent. If the plan I'm outlining above doesn't work for you then rearrange the training days to suit your life but as far as you can try and replicate that same routine week after week after week.

Editing to add in that the effort level for all runs bar technique and intervals is easy.

I'm going to save technique drills for a post of their own and I'll explain the progression from week to week at the same time as I publish the initial 12-14 weeks of the plan.

Dub13

I did my First ParkRun today to get the heart rate, great little events and I plan on doing them now as much as I can. There time was 22:54 my garmin is a bit more as I forgot to turn it off.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/633261663

Avg HR: 171 bpm
Max HR: 181 bpm

I am not sure if that's good bad or what the story is.

menoscemo

Dub13 wrote: »

I did my First ParkRun today to get the heart rate, great little events and I plan on doing them now as much as I can. There time was 22:54 my garmin is a bit more as I forgot to turn it off.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/633261663

Avg HR: 171 bpm
Max HR: 181 bpm

I am not sure if that's good bad or what the story is.

There is no such thing as a good or a bad Max HR. It's genetic, it is what it is. You can't make it higher by getting fitter, though you often have to be quite fit in order to hit your max.

Edit, you max there is at the start of the run. It looks like a spike that is probably caused by static (see how it drops down to 160ish after the spike?). I wouldn't take 181 to be your max from that run, looks like the max you hit was around 175.

hillsiderunner

*still* not back running regularly, so I might as well do something with my time ....so I'm on the 30-day challenge now, and did my first batch yesterday. *really* felt the challenge towards the end of the hip-flexor/hamstring reps on the left leg (which had ITB issues in the past). Am looking forward to the parkrun improvements, if those comments on their site are true. But where did they get the 10-15mins/day estimate from???!!!

I've also done some amendments to my marathon plan ...

Clearlier wrote: »

I think that you should do what you enjoy and what makes you happy. If that means it take a couple of minutes longer to finish a marathon then it seems like a reasonable pay off to me. For the weeks that you're not around to do the repeats I suggest a tempo instead of mile repeats, 10 mins of jogging to warm up, 25 mins at a pace that's a bit faster than your marathon pace, 10 mins to warm down. Gradually increase the length of the 25min section.

Thanks - I've put in the tempos now for the Tuesdays I can't go to intervals.

Thursdays ...

Might be a touch fast. Marathon pace should be a big faster than your lsr pace. Same distance but at lsr pace might be a good compromise. You have marathon pace segments in your lsr's so you should be ok on that front.

Have taken the "MP" out of the Thursdays (except for the short runs in the early weeks) and just have (short) hill sprints or strides in there instead.... Also I've put in three proper cutback weeks into the plan. I'm sure I'll pick up an extra one or two along the way through the schedule .... So a fixed plan now:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RzUQ3pCF8AksjjSEtPGsWG2H2x62w1Xo3viPazdUGyE/edit?usp=sharing

Now to get my right leg rehab-ed properly. Have been doing the physio's stretches/exercises regularly these past few days, so hope that will do the trick. The leg is feeling fine again today, but I'll give it another day before I run again.

stretch!!!!

hillsiderunner

pistol_75 wrote: »

Pm1e wrote:

1) I'd like to know your PB's and roughly when they were set.

5km - 18.35 Dublin Staff Relay (I run faster when trying to impress the boss 2013 lol)
10km - 41:12 St Stephens Day run with rugby club with a terrible hangover 2013. Half - 1:44:12 Rock n Roll Half 2014
Full - 3:58:53 DCM 2014 My first ever, loved it, ran a negative split and trained against much advice for just 4 weeks

Please do not take this the wrong way but your 5K & 10K times are serious outliers in relation you your 1/2 marathon & Marathon times which are roughly in line with each other.

Have you done any other 5K or 10K races? I know someone who did the staff relay in 2012 and it only measured at 4.2K :eek:

I would think something similar could be possible with the rugby club event, looking at the serious drop off between 10K and 1/2 times.

But another explanation is that Pm1e just hasn't developed enough on the endurance side? I noticed over the DCM training that this seemed to be an issue for quite a few people on the Novices thread. I'm coming from the other extreme ... my 10k/half PBs line up perfectly with the McMillan predictions from my 5k PB. It's speed that is my issue and I can't get the 5k time down!!

annapr

Dub13 wrote: »

I did my First ParkRun today to get the heart rate, great little events and I plan on doing them now as much as I can. There time was 22:54 my garmin is a bit more as I forgot to turn it off.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/633261663

Avg HR: 171 bpm
Max HR: 181 bpm

I am not sure if that's good bad or what the story is.

Welcome to Parkrun, such a great movement and to St Anne's too! I was about 4 mins behind you there this morning.

Dub13

annapr wrote: »

Welcome to Parkrun, such a great movement and to St Anne's too! I was about 4 mins behind you there this morning.

Cheers, its very well ran. I have been meaning to do with for a while but with training for the marathon it was hard to fit in. Any Sat morning I have free now I will pop down, I may also try Malahide some week.

annapr

Parkrun in St Anne's this morning. 5k in 26:49. Park looked beautiful, all misty atmosphere... And plenty of floods from this week.

Still taking it easy after DCM. Did 2k very easy warmup and nice and steady in the first lap. Let loose a bit in the final Km, really enjoyed actually running the home stretch.

Splits (approx, had the phone not garmin)... Min/km

5:55
5:27
5:34
5:29
5:00

Pacing Mule

Hi Clearlier

One more disciple for you if you don't mind.

1) I'd like to know your PB's and roughly when they were set. I'm most interested in 5k, 10k, 10 mile, half and full marathon. Any three of those will give me something to work with. More is better. If there's anything peculiar about them (e.g. your marathon PB is from the Snowdon marathon) please let me know!

5k - 23:55 June 2014
10k - 53:20 Aug 2014 (not fully raced so a bit soft)
5 mile 39:37 May 2014
Half Marathon - Officially 2:18:30 back in 2012 the only half I raced. Have since done 2:09 during a LSR for DCM 14 - so this is very soft.
Full Marathon 4:58:35 - DCM 14. Felt I was trained and in shape for 4:15. Went through half way bang on schedule but then had a howler of a day with cramped quads reducing me to a painful hobble home.

2) Tell me about your running history including what plan/training you did for DCM.

This is a copy from the OP of my own log with an update at end.

I started running early in 2012 from a zero base. Literally off the couch. I was very overweight at 17 stone. I originally started off with a time goal for a 5 mile race following the couch to 5k program but as time progressed turned my sights to the 2012 Dublin marathon. Why you ask ? I fell into a trap where I equated distance with success. After getting to 5k I wanted to be able to run 10k at a time - then a half marathon and ultimately an ill fated go at DCM. It never sunk in that progress could be made dropping times on shorter runs too ! An injury sustained about 6 weeks out knackered my training at a critical point but I went ahead and ran anyway (ran / walked to be more accurate) covering the distance in 5 hours 36 minutes. Realistically this injury was caused by doing too much too soon, off too little a base and carrying too much weight. An attempt to restart things early in 2013 was also scuppered by injuries and personal circumstances changing but I eventually got back out there in August 2013 (having put back on a lot of what I had originally lost) bringing things up gradually and eventually following HH Novice 2 for DCM 14 weighing in at 13 stone.


3) What's your sporting history? This can range from you got a note to avoid PE at school all the way up to you represented Ireland at something. Without asking anyone to reveal too much it would helpful if I had an idea as to how far in the distant past the sporting history is.

Bit of soccer and GAA etc whilst in school. Also done quite a bit of martial arts but had been on the couch for at least a decade.


4) What other training including strength and conditioning training do you do regularly?

My current job is quite physical - heavy lifting delivering boxes of fruit and veg so it's ongoing strength training. Bit of cycling but it's mainly running excercise wise.

5) Any injuries/niggles and what are you doing to manage them?

Tight calves have led to achilles pain. Massages from and stretches advised by ECOLII have started to get these loosened up.

Ran DCM on the Monday - got a vasectomy on Wednesday. Unfortunately had some complications with this and was unable to run since. Am only coming out of the woods now. Hopefully getting out for a gentle one tomorrow so will need to take it easy for a couple of weeks before jumping back into a plan.

6) What are your goals for the next 6 - 12 months?
Further weight loss and toning. Would like to spend the first half of the year working on those shorter distance times and building on the base established during DCM training. I'm going to run the bohermeen half in March which is my early year goal race. I then intend another swing at DCM but hopefully coming off a better base will see a big improvement.

Thanks again for taking up the reigns here.

chickey2

Well done on the park runs!

I was hoping to do one this morning but had too many other things to do. The kids had swimming lessons today so I hopped in the pool too and did my first pool running session. I'd seen an article on runners world about it and thought I'd give it a try. Basically you run widths of the pool at a depth where the water just reaches your chin. Its a lot harder than it sounds. Its like running in super slow motion. I felt like a bit of an eejit til I realised there was another person doing it too. I just kept going for 30 minutes til the kids were finished. I'm not sure how good a work out it is as I didn't feel out of breath but my legs feel like I had a work out!

I got a heart monitor today so looking forward to trying it out. Going to go for a "long" run tomorrow. Will take clearlier's advice and just run for 90 minutes easy.

Firedance

I think I've found my distance :-D 2 miles cross country this morning, first time ever trying this & it was good fun although v hard work as you've to really lift your knees. I will do Clearliers plan as much as possible but a few of us are planning hill runs & parkruns on alternate Saturdays - this is one of the benefits of club membership for those of you still thinking about it - just do it!!

crisco10

Clearlier wrote: »

Monday - short run or day off depending on how you're feeling
Tuesday - HRM test or if you've done one already or don't want to do one then warm up followed by 7*1min @5k effort with 2mins recovery.
Wednesday - medium length run
Thursday - medium length run
Friday - technique/short hills
Saturday - medium run
Sunday - long run

I'm going to save technique drills for a post of their own and I'll explain the progression from week to week at the same time as I publish the initial 12-14 weeks of the plan.

Hi Clearlier,

Is your plan going to be 6 or 7 days most weeks? Think I will need to bail if so; Unfortunately, I won't be able to have that sort of consistency over the winter!

Clearlier

crisco10 wrote: »

Hi Clearlier,

Is your plan going to be 6 or 7 days most weeks? Think I will need to bail if so; Unfortunately, I won't be able to have that sort of consistency over the winter!

Hi crisco,

It's 1 day of drills/technique, 1 day of faster running and as much easy running as you can manage including a long run. Although in the end it's the amount of easy running that is they key to overall progress that's the bit that adjusts to the availability/ability of the athlete.

MLC_biker

Hi Clearlier

a late addition if you don't mind.

1) I'd like to know your PB's and roughly when they were set. I'm most interested in 5k, 10k, 10 mile, half and full marathon. Any three of those will give me something to work with. More is better. If there's anything peculiar about them (e.g. your marathon PB is from the Snowdon marathon) please let me know!

5k - 25:26 June 2014 Grant Thornton 5K
10k - 55:30 June 2013 Docklands 10K
5 mile 44:36 May 2014 Terenure 5m
Half Marathon - DRS 2014 2:08:18
Full Marathon 4:46:36 - DCM 14. Went with 4:40 pacers til halfway, bit of a struggle from Mile 19 on, but ran the whole thing !

2) Tell me about your running history including what plan/training you did for DCM.

Started C25K late 2011, 2012 was mostly 5k races that year including Lord Mayor's 5 Alive challenge
2013 did Lord Mayor's 5 Alive challenge again, ran all of Dublin Race Series to Half Marathon (2:20) but wasn't mentally or physically ready for the DCM.

Followed Hal Higdon Novice plan for DCM 2014. Some niggles but nothing too serious.


3) What's your sporting history? This can range from you got a note to avoid PE at school all the way up to you represented Ireland at something. Without asking anyone to reveal too much it would helpful if I had an idea as to how far in the distant past the sporting history is.

Bit of soccer and GAA etc whilst in school, but lousy eyesight meant I was mostly a passenger.
Bootcamp 2010-2012, then decided self motivation and running more my thing.


4) What other training including strength and conditioning training do you do regularly?

Very little, despite advice from physio !

5) Any injuries/niggles and what are you doing to manage them?

Some achilles pain and lower back pain. Massages & physio have got these loosened up. ITB can cause knee issues occassionally.

6) What are your goals for the next 6 - 12 months?
Some weight loss (currently c.100kg, would like to lose about 10%)
Work on those shorter distance times and building on the base established during DCM training. At 51 I don't expect to get much faster, so maybe join a club to improve running form

MaggotBrain

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Ran DCM on the Monday - got a vasectomy on Wednesday. Unfortunately had some complications with this and was unable to run since. Am only coming out of the woods now.

Hope the nads get well soon PM!

Clearlier

soundofthesea - Sounds like the 30 day challenge is hitting the right spots for you.

dub13 - Everything that meno said is correct and yet I look at your splits for the parkrun and it looks like you took off like a bat out of hell for the first k or so, spent the next 3 slowing down as you tried to recover and picked it up again for the last k. I don't know that course but the garmin elevation profile doesn't suggest anything too bumpy. I'd suggest that you can use 181 as a max HR score. A good target for your next race is to run it progressively making each successive kilometre faster than the previous one. If you did a good warm up beforehand then 181 won't be a million miles off your actual max. Either way 181 is a number that you can work with for the moment.

hillside runner - I'll take another look at your plan tomorrow.

annapr - Well done on the parkrun. Any HR reading?

pacing mule - welcome to the fray! I feel your pain with cramping. You will hear people talk about electrolyte imbalances to explain them. Ignore that talk. Cramping is almost always due to undertraining of the muscle. Don't use running to lose weight, use running to get fit, use diet to lose weight. I'm getting a bit of a boom and bust cycle with you, is it a fair observation that you consistently push your limits occasionally going beyond them? Important thing for you to keep in mind with this plan is to make slow and steady progress. If the big picture for you is DCM 15 now is where you put all of the building blocks in place.

chickey 2 - well done on the water running. One thing that you can do in the water is practice technique. With the buoyancy offered by the water you can really concentrate on getting your limbs in the right place and focus on having your feet land underneath you. It's like running in slow motion.

Firedance - Well done on the XC. Try lifting your heels rather than your knees next time and see if it helps. Somebody to run with on Saturday mornings - sounds great.

MLC biker - Welcome! I strongly recommend the 30 day challenge that I linked to at the beginning of the thread for you. It'll be right up your street.


A quick review of everybody who has been good enough to put details up tells a story. A lot of diversity in backgrounds but also a fair amount of similarities in relative results. The one thing that jumps out which isn't unexpected but is helpful to confirm is that conversion rates from shorter to longer distances is relatively poor for all bar one or two. This is normal and to be expected and will be one area that I'll hope to see an improvement in. Goals range from track to marathon. While there is a bigger focus on the 5 - 10k area there is also a healthy interest in half marathons.

Hope everybody who can has decided on how to get their Max HR. Let me know if you have any questions. If you're doing the session tomorrow night, enjoy the freedom of running fast but control it and be consistent. If you missed the weeks training that I posted please click here.

Mimojo

Morning! Just in the door from morning run, tried out the Max HR Test. Took it handy jogging for 20 minutes, and when I hit 2 miles I sprinted as best I could and held it for just about 4 minutes....then nearly died...then jogged home again! Looking at my Garmin I think I should have kept going for another big as my HR still seemed to be climbing but hope it gives a good idea.

Have to say felt really weird to be sprinting (well sprinting for me, probably jogging for others), dont think I have ran like that since I was a kid! Anyhow results are here http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/635241782, Max HR is showing as 180bpm.

Had a look back through previous runs since I got my Garmin & in the FD 10 Mile Max HR was 182, and also in a 21.2 Mile LSR in Sept. Most of the others were 176-178ish.

Clearlier - Just wondering about cross training, how can it be worked into the plan? I know the plan calls for 5/6 days of running, but could I do it with 4 days running with some cross training mixed it, or is it better to still with that level of running? Also when doing weights in the gym I find it handy to do a few intervals on the treadmill first (25 mins ish), it is ok to use the treadmill in this plan? I just find it handy as can do a long session and get some running and weights in together.

laura_ac3

I had to jig around the plan to take account of my schedule at home so did the 7 x 1min 5k pace session last night and really enjoyed it. Never raced a 5k so not entirely sure what my pace is but tried to focus on effort, to focus on running "strong" and at a pace that I could keep good form for the whole minute.

Signed up for the 30 day challenge. Also ordered a bag for running to work - going to do that more regularly than I currently do to allow me to do more medium length runs. Have just dug out the heart rate monitor so will try get that sorted over the next few days.

Excited for this

Clearlier

Mimojo wrote: »

Morning! Just in the door from morning run, tried out the Max HR Test. Took it handy jogging for 20 minutes, and when I hit 2 miles I sprinted as best I could and held it for just about 4 minutes....then nearly died...then jogged home again! Looking at my Garmin I think I should have kept going for another big as my HR still seemed to be climbing but hope it gives a good idea.

Have to say felt really weird to be sprinting (well sprinting for me, probably jogging for others), dont think I have ran like that since I was a kid! Anyhow results are here http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/635241782, Max HR is showing as 180bpm.

Clearlier - Just wondering about cross training, how can it be worked into the plan? I know the plan calls for 5/6 days of running, but could I do it with 4 days running with some cross training mixed it, or is it better to still with that level of running? Also when doing weights in the gym I find it handy to do a few intervals on the treadmill first (25 mins ish), it is ok to use the treadmill in this plan? I just find it handy as can do a long session and get some running and weights in together.

Hi Mimojo,

Good work this morning.

On cross training, generally and particularly if you're injury prone strength and conditioning work is arguably more important than an extra running session so if your choice is between 5 running sessions or 4 running sessions and 1 strength and conditioning sessions then go with the latter.

Absolutely fine to use the treadmill. If you were doing all of your running on the treadmill I'd encourage you to find a way to get outside but once a week isn't a problem. I would steer clear of intervals though, just do an easy run, if you need to break up the monotony then by all means break up the run but don't do them at a hard effort.

Firedance

MaggotBrain wrote: »

2014 DCM Graduate Mileage Tracker : Click Here

* Starts next Monday, and will be populated with a plan at some stage.

laura_ac3 just wondering if it might be possible to put the link to the mileage tracker in your very first post? It was handy to have it there in the original thread unless anyone can tell me how I can easily bookmark it on boards?

MaggotBrain

Firedance wrote: »

laura_ac3 just wondering if it might be possible to put the link to the mileage tracker in your very first post? It was handy to have it there in the original thread unless anyone can tell me how I can easily bookmark it on boards?

Hey Firedance, I asked the mods to put it in the first post. It's there at the end of Laura's post...