Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Eye of the Tiger Beer.
Options
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
hot buttered scones wrote: »I came down with an awful dose the week before DCM last year. Seemed to make no difference to me on race day (other than possibly being a few pounds lighter!). Maybe it's good sign? Also make sure to rehydrate.
Edit: Best of luck on Sunday too by the way!
Every little counts! I've put on a bit of weight this year, my mother recently said that I'm looking a lot healthier!
OOnegative wrote: »Best of luck Sunday B, have no doubt you will PB, you have an innate talent of pulling out great results off interrupted preparation. Hope it goes well. See you for a pint later hopefully.
Haha, dunno if that's something to be proud of, but definitely accurate
Wubble Wubble wrote: »Or in some cases, none at all
Good luck B. Hopefully I'll catch up with you Sunday.
Thanks, and indeed cya tomorrow!Good luck on Sunday. Run well.
Thank youSwashbuckler wrote: »Besy of luck Sunday lad. I'll keep an eye out for you. Run well. I'll be like you Sunday running around with my backpack
Agh, my secret training trick will be ruined! Hopefully cya out there or after.All the best Brian. Pity I won’t be around to pace you through first seven miles this year. Run well!
Thanks D, will do your singlet proudHave a good one, B. I'll be out on the bike supporting so will stick a couple of cans in the bag in case you need them. Best of luck and most importantly ENJOY!!!
Cheers, will keep an eye out for the cans/bike.Best of luck tomorrow B, have a great race!
Thanks man!0 -
-
-
So, here's where I summarise my goals and training!
Goals:
A: < 3:14:10.99 - A PB! Not much chance of going much faster really. A lot will need to go right to hit this, I'm nowhere as fit as I was this time last year, though I have done a bit more marathon specific training so hopefully that will help.
B: < 3:20 - A 2018 PB
C: Pints in McGrattan's
The race plan is to run pretty much the exact same as I did last year, except doing a duck on the line to get in 1 second quicker
The MP stuff I've been doing has been around 3:12 pace. The reality of Dublin will mean there'll be a lot of slower and faster miles, so it'll be a case of feeling my way into it anyway. A PB does seem challenging on paper, but then again I ran SF 10 minutes slower with sh1te all training and on a far tougher course not so long ago, when put like that it seems very doable
Training has gone alright since my slacking off finished in mid-August (i.e. I returned from SF). The whole purpose of the last two months was to get back into shape, which to be honest has taken longer than I'd expected. Milage could have been greater, I could have done more sessions etc. but in the end got a few decent MP orientated sessions done, and the 3/4 marathon went really well. I did cause a little bit of controversy on Strava due to running a sub-MP parkrun earlier today, but in my defence most of my best race performances have come either the day after an aggressive parkrun (my two sub-40 10ks) or not long after running a very long LSR (doing 21 miles the week before last year's DCM and a 20 miler a few days before my first sub-19 5k), so I definitely think I benefit from having my engines revved as such. Most of the times I've either tapered aggressively (whether forced or planned) haven't ended up with great results. It was also a good practice run for running in the cold without a warmup, which didn't feel great so I won't be doing that tomorrow.
Anyway, can't wait. I've been like Homer and the clown college over the last week, haven't really been thinking of much else
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwUk19cWarI0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
I woke up at 4AM with a headache. I was pretty wired and couldn't get back to sleep. A bit later the kids started to wake up, so I sorted out their breakfast while going through my pre-marathon routine - beetroot juice (ugh), coffee and granola. I also took some ibuprofen for the headache. My taxi arrived a few minutes early, though I made him wait while I watched Rod Dixon explaining how he won the NYC marathon on youtube. The taxi driver didn't give a cr@p that I was going into town to do the marathon. I got out at College Green, stolled around and grabbed a coffee at the Starbucks outside my office. I then headed over to Pembroke Square where Crusaders had access to one of the nice Georgian buildings, and got ready to run. We took a group picture and I did a short warmup before getting into the first wave at about 8.45. I lined up beside the 3:20 pacers and Killerz gave a funny speech. Not long after we got going.
The overall plan was to run identically to last year - 3:14 or so with a small negative split.
The start bit (7:36, 7:33, 7:41)
The start was very congested. It was pretty tight for the first few miles. I ended up chatting to a lad from Rivervalley parkrun for a bit which helped things pass. The first water station came out of nowhere, I didn't pick up a drink though nearly went over one of the many bottles on the ground.
The park bit (7:36, 7:33, 7:35, 7:24)
Things opened up a little but it was still quite congested in the pacing group, so I decided to get ahead of the group before coming into Castleknock, a little bit more aggressive than last year. I went over 10k pretty much on time.
Speeding up (7:03, 7:11, 7:06, 7:22)
I legged it after Myos, and went past a lot of runners before heading back into the park. I ended up alongside the guy from parkrun again, and also had a brief chat with another runner who was wearing a pair of the fancy Nike runners that I was wearing.
The boring bit (7:09, 7:04, 7:18, 7:05, 7:05, 7:14)
Just before the half-way point I threw an empty bottle into a bin, and got it right in the bullseye, and did a clenched fist "yeh!", which got a few laughs around me. I went over half-way a few seconds ahead of target. These were both good signs that I was running well and in good form. I got a bunch of shouts from club mates and other folks along here which helped a lot. Mostly I was playing the fun game of catching up to some folks, running with them for a bit and then moving on to the next group.
A new hope (6:58, 7:00, 7:03, 7:08)
Going down beside Bushy Park I could see a couple of 3:10 pacer balloons a bit ahead. Interesting! I reckoned they were about 2 minutes ahead at this stage. I didn't think that I had a hope of catching them, but it was a boost that they were in sight at all, though I was a little worried about blowing up I still felt good. I knew I was running faster than planned pace here, but felt comfortable, even though effort levels were rising a lot. The crowds were great fun here.
The hard bit (7:18, 7:09, 7:03, 7:05, 7:04 (6:30))
The Milltown mountains were difficult, as always. I got a good shout from Ferris going into them which helped! I was still, slowly, going past runners. Roebuck came and went without much drama. I was seriously working here - breathing heavy, tiring a lot but still running with good form and passing runners. I switched my watch from laps to total time and kept an eye on it. I got some great shouts from PaulieYifter (something to do with beer?) and other club folks, and kept things going strong. I was starting to buzz that I was nearly finished. At around the 800m to go sign I realised that the pacers were likely 30 seconds ahead of 3:10, and I was about 40 seconds behind them. I started to run as fast as I could, which was amazing fun while also utterly exhausting. I got onto the blue mat with about 30 seconds to spare, and didn't let up. I was in shock stopping my watch at 3:09:55.
I collected my medal and t-shirt, and then proceeded to throw up, crouching down at a barrier. A load of runners checked on my general well being which was really nice, though it was mostly unsatisfying as I didn't have the core strength to do a proper vomit. After a few minutes I recovered and made my way back to the Cru HQ, which was hilariously/tragically closed for another 45 minutes or so, so we all stood agonizingly around for a while waiting for somebody to show up with a key. Once we got in, I quickly got changed and headed straight for the pub.
10k: 00:47:23 (2167)
Half: 1:37:02 (1691)
30k:2:16:06 (1465)
Finish: 3:09:52 (1092)
Negative split of 4 minutes 12 seconds!!!
Second half ran in 1:32:50 - I raced the recent Dublin half in 1:34!!! Pretty sure that's my 3rd fastest HM.
This was possibly my best race ever. It's up there with my first sub-19 5k which also came out of the blue. Nothing went wrong today - I think I prepped well, and executed even better. I'm still in shock to be honest
The pub was great - loads of chats with AMK, Wubble, dublin_runner, Ferris, Pomplamousse, swashbuckler, fbot, ferris, mrs_mc, the kellys, meno, marthastew (probably a few others...)I left before I fell over and had a feed in Crackbird before heading home.0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Hmm, not one of best race reports. I was a little tired and emotional writing it, and was enthusiastic to get something out last night It's a bit all over the place, too damn short and missed all sorts of details that are mostly only interesting to me
What went so right?
Well, obviously my modesty...
Nothing went wrong. I judged my effort well and didn't feel as fatigued near the end of all other marathons. I also smiled a lot. It's hard not to in Dublin, especially while wearing a Crusaders singlet. I deliberately made the effort to smile a lot, and it really helps keep a positive attitude. Or maybe the positive attitude helps you smile :pac: I even remembered to put on BodyGlide before the race in some of the usual places.
A big question really is - how much impact did the Vaporflys have on my run? Was my run legitimate? They do feel *great* and both runs I've done in them have worked out really well. The cushioning feels good and they kind of feel like I'm leaning forward while wearing them. Last year I wore racers, and they destroyed my calves which ended up hurting a lot while on the course and that slowed me down. This year there was no pain from anything, other than the sense of some blisters forming on my toes and some rubbing at the bottom of my left foot which might also turn into a blister. I did wear relatively thick socks which might be to blame here. I was also in a load of pain at Disney with some agonising rubbing against a blister and slowed down a lot. So maybe pain means stress and fatigue, which means slowing down, and so pain avoidance is very necessary. Anyway, I'm sure the fancy runners did aid me a bit. They're certainly light runners and cushioning for longer racing worked out better than last year's racers. I'm taking all the credit
It was a harder run than last year, I was a lot more aggressive and it felt much more like a race. Last year I was less sure of what I could do, didn't take any risks, and when I got fatigued and sore I was ok to slow down. This year I was able to keep pushing, and I'm really glad I did - I honestly didn't think sub-3:10 was in play until inside the last mile. It's mad to think that two years ago I ran myself into the ground trying to have a go at sub-3:10, and this time around I got it through far less training and running a good race. Sprinting (well, kind of running fast) to get under was the best running I've ever done.
Boring info about fuelling, mostly for my own records
The day before I didn't really eat that much more than usual. I had a late dinner (around 8) and washed it down with some Lucozade Sport. In between my coffee in town and the start I drank another bottle of Lucozade Sport. I wore one of the gel bum bag thing that was given out a couple of years ago in one of the race series races. Inside I put two packets of Blox (one was with caffeine, the other with electrolytes), a Clif Shot Double Expresso (more caffeine!) and a High5 Isogel in case getting the Clif stuff down was troublesome. Skipped the first water station and one or two of the other ones, but mostly grabbed a bottle and at least took a few swigs. Had a small plastic cup of Lucozade Sport at the 10 mile aid station. I ate nearly all of the Blox, and the Clif Shot but didn't bother with the Isogel. It went into a bin at around Roebuck, as I threw it in I said "cya!" which amused me as it was silly saying goodbye to an inanimate object and my brain was starting to go to mush. I did feel ever so slightly lighter and comfortable once the damn belt was off me.
The day after
Very tired. Nothing is incredibly sore, just aches and pains all over the place. My feet feel a bit tender, and the blisters need to be deblisterised. But mostly just tired.
Oh, and I might have BQed? The qualification times got moved by 5 minutes, so even though I'm only a few seconds under I might get in.
The weekly report:
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
22nd October|10.1 miles|9:10ish|To and from hospital for bloods
23rd October|7.5 miles|?|Cru session - 2x8mins @MP (7:20, 6:56). Felt like the last day in school.
25th October|5.1 miles|8:57|A jog around the city
26th October|3.5 miles|9:15ish|Jog to and from the expo with work colleagues.
27th October|3 miles|7:08|My controversial Rivervalley parkrun Walked to/from parkrun. It was fecking freezing. I don't think I did myself damage here.
28th October|27.2 miles|?|Warmup and then 26.2@7:14 :cool:
Total: 56.7 miles
Next week: Taking it easy until the weekend anyway.0 -
-
Advertisement
-
Well done. Work on that core strength though! 
Advertisement