Keep on swimm...running!

chrislad

I've been pondering setting one of these up, and having just finishing my first marathon, I think it's a good time to reset my aims and to seek help and advice on how to improve myself.

Firstly, I'm running since July 2014, when I started C25K. I did my first 10k in October, followed by a terrible Half in April, and a not so terrible one in May. In June, I started training for DCM with the Novices group here, and ran a fairly comfortable Half in September in Dublin, and a slightly less comfortable DCM this week gone!

PBs

5k: 26:12
10k: 56:10
Half: 2:03:38
Full: 4:46:08

That 5k PB is from March, and I've not raced a 5k since then, so I expect that to fall in the next month once I recover from DCM. The 10k record was actually set during the Dublin Half so it's not really an accurate one either, as I would be able to push myself a bit harder for the shorter distance.

My progression over the half marathon distance is

BallyBunnion, April: 2:26
Limerick, May: 2:10
Killarney, July(didn't race this): 2:18
Dublin, September: 2:03

I think I've made good progress on that front over the past few months.

DCM was an enjoyable day: Report is here.

The plan for this year is to just get my 5k sub-25, and a sub 50 for a 10k in the new year, before February. I'm thinking of running the Limerick marathon in May, so Feb, Mar and April will be marathon training.

My plans for Dec and Jan are to follow the Hal Higdon Intermediate 5k plan to boost my time there, as well as a 10k race at some stage.

Weakness, I feel I need to strengthen my glutes, as they got pretty tight during both the half and full marathons, as I was holding 2:00 pace up until mile 11.5 in the half, and 4:30 pace until mile 18 in the full. Any strengthening exercises/activities that could help this would be great? Would cycling be good for it? Swimming?

Thanks in advance and looking forward to getting started again, and to hopefully break 1000 miles in 2016, it will probably be about 880 or so in 2015.

Notwork Error

Hey chrislad, good to see you set up a log, best of luck with it and your goals.

I find clamshell great for the glutes, there is plenty of videos on youtube of how to do them, make sure you get the form down with any strengthening exercises you do and that you feel the burn in the right place, it's the most important part of strength training. Once you start finding the normal clamshell easy, you can start using a resistence band to get the effect.

I also do single leg squats and normal squats for the glutes and a lot of mobility work around the hips as well. You want both strength and mobility to get the best out of your running.

Just on another note, why do you plan on only starting marathon training in Feb? Someone like you who is new enough to running would benefit a lot more from improving your base aerobic fitness so a longer block of training would be better instead of jumping straight in to the deep end with 12 weeks to go of intensity. Your base is the foundation of which you build intensity in top of. If your foundation isn't built properly, the intensity can't be built steadily on top.

Before I say more, what kind of plan do you think you'll use?

tang1

Notwork Error wrote: »

I find clamshell great for the flutes

He he, typo surely E?! Best of luck with the log chrislad.

Notwork Error

tang1 wrote: »

He he, typo surely E?! Best of luck with the log chrislad.

Haha, in this context, yep!:)

chrislad

Notwork Error wrote: »

Just on another note, why do you plan on only starting marathon training in Feb? Someone like you who is new enough to running would benefit a lot more from improving your base aerobic fitness so a longer block of training would be better instead of jumping straight in to the deep end with 12 weeks to go of intensity. Your base is the foundation of which you build intensity in top of. If your foundation isn't built properly, the intensity can't be built steadily on top.

Before I say more, what kind of plan do you think you'll use?

I'm not really sure, as I had the boards plan handed to me, which suited me perfectly. I managed to get through the whole thing, only missing one recovery run due to illness, rather than injury. I was still planning on doing Jan like this:

5 Rest 3 m run 7 x 400 3 m run Rest 4 m fast 6 m run
6 Rest 3 m run 40 min tempo 3 m run Rest 5 m run 7 m run
7 Rest 3 m run 8 x 400 3 m run Rest 5 m fast 7 m run
8 Rest 3 m run 30 min tempo 2 m run Rest Rest 5-K Race

and then doing some sort of variation on the boards plan. Obviously, you feel that wouldn't be sufficient, and I'll certainly defer to your expertise. I felt that most of the 18 weeks was getting me used to doing a distance. At this stage, I can run the 26.2 miles, so I figured, I could start at the higher intensities, though with hindsight, perhaps a mid Jan to April end would be better to incorporate two weeks that would be tapering.

My aim for Limerick would be the same as it was for Dublin, which was 4:30. I'll focus on that time until I hit it and then move on!

Notwork Error

I'm far from a expert but there's definetly a place for intensity intensity in training and sometimes I think a good approach is to get into 5/10k training before jumping into a 12 week marathon plan, I usually see that as the best option for someone who has plateaued in the marathon, this is if the marathon is their sole focus.

The 18 or 24 week plan is just not about just getting a runner to be able to run 26.2 miles, the first 6 or 12 weeks is about building endurance to handle the intensity of the training in the last 12 weeks. Some guys who are very aerobically strong can get away with the 12 week plan because they have a background built.

Any distance over 800m is an aerobically dominant race, the marathon happens to be 99% aerobic so if the marathon is your ultimate focus, I'd go with a longer plan for now as you still will have a massive upside from aerobic training, a lot more than speed training will give you as of yet. Base training is the engine, speed training is the type of petrol you put in it.

You'll still get huge benefits from either approach whichever way you decide to go but the longer plan will benefit you more down the road and will support your running better, you've a good bit of time to decide yet anyway. This is all based around the marathon being the big target for you.

jake1970

Best of luck with the log chrislad.

Finglas Flier

Good luck Chris!

chrislad

Just did an easy 2.5 run @ 10:59/mile pace.

Legs felt fine, but I was definitely still tired. I think I sweat more in that 2.5 than the entire 26.2 on Monday! I think I'll not go out again for a light 2/3 until Wednesday now.


Mon: 26.2! DCM!
Tue: Rest
Wed: Rest
Thur: 4 mile cycle
Fri: Rest
Sat: 2.5 easy
Sun: Rest

chrislad

Nice 5 miles today, after a rest on Sunday through Tuesday. I was going to do 8, but I figured I'd get in trouble. Last mile was faster than planned, but nice and easy otherwise.

Mile Pace
1 11:30 /mi
2 11:03 /mi
3 10:50 /mi
4 10:35 /mi
5 10:08 /mi

Dubgal72

Oops, just seeing this now Nice move starting a log here now I can keep an eye on you, you'll get some great advice.

Have a look round for marathon plans this month, no harm casting your net wide if only to get an idea of what's out there, however I think your graduate mentor will be able to guide you from a 5/10km sharpener plan to a solid marathon plan if you can hold out until later this month?!

chrislad

Yeah, I'm going to have a look over the next few weeks. I might do a modified boards that has a bit more mileage at the start, as I should be able to start with 25-30 mile weeks, and get a few more long runs in. I'll focus on 5k/10k for the next two months though. Planning a parkrun pb at the end of November followed by a 4 week 5k plan and then beat that pb!

Dubgal72

Give yourself another week for the first 5k parkrun, instead of the 28th, go for the 5th december. You'll be faster, sharper and fresher, promise.

chrislad

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Give yourself another week for the first 5k parkrun, instead of the 28th, go for the 5th december. You'll be faster, sharper and fresher, promise.

I suppose. Ye've gotten me this far so I suppose I should keep listening.

Mrs Mc

Best of luck with the log Chris looking forward to following your progress.

chrislad

1 10:42 /mi
2 10:41 /mi
3 10:30 /mi
4 10:38 /mi
5 9:13 /mi

I'm going to get in trouble for that last mile. Two young fellas ran past me, joking to speed up. So I had to show them how it's done and went up to nearly 7:00 per mile for the last .6 or so.

chrislad

Not much to add this week. I've been fairly under the weather with a persistent ear/headache so I'm not in great form. Hopefully, I'll be able to do 5 miles on Sat and Sun.

chrislad

I've decided to go dual for the small runs, in that I'm going to have both miles and km. I'll still to miles for anything above 10km.

I went out for the my first run in over a week due to sickness. I said I'd only do about 3 miles, but I wanted to do a faster first two miles to blow the cobwebs away, followed by a 1 mile cooldown and then a 2 mile cycle home (I left my bike in work so was bringing it home, no dark side yet!)

Mile 1 - 8:23
Mile 2 - 8:34
Cooldown Mile - 11:47

KM 1 - 5:14
KM 2 - 5:14
KM 3 - 5:21
KM . 5 - 5:22
Cooldown KM - 7:03 avg

I'm aiming to be able to do sub 25 minute 5k in about 4-6 weeks. This was the first time I had run faster in weeks, as I'd normally go no faster than 10:00 miles (bar the Dublin Half, which was 9:25 or so) - This was a lot tougher than I remember. On the plus side, I didn't dramatically slow down. My PB for a 5k looks like this

1 4:44
2 5:10
3 5:34
4 5:44
5 5:40

While I slowed down a bit, it wasn't as much, plus that was after a number of weeks of training at that pace - This pb was from May 9th. I've done nothing but endurance marathon training since then, so I'm hopeful the next few weeks of the Advanced Hal Higdon 5k plan will aid me in increasing the speed, and the previous 20 weeks will provide the endurance to keep it steady!

chrislad

I had a very mixed week last week due to still recovering from illness and a bereavement in the family, so I was glad to get out properly and back to plan this week.

Tuesday - 4.4 miles @ 10:10 average. Started off too fast, and got slower with each mile. Not the best start to the week.

Wednesday - 2.9 miles @ 10:31 average. 10 mins easy, 10 mins of strides and 10 mins easy. The strides were difficult, half way through I was begging to die! Still not used to the faster paces after all the slow, endurance building miles.

Thursday - 2.8 miles @ 10:38 average. I was sick of feeling crap after runs, so I made sure I started this very easy. Started at 10:54 per mile, and the last mile was 10:19 but more importantly, I felt fairly comfortable the whole way, so hopefully my body is starting to remember it was run for more than 3 miles without having to punish me!

Rest day tomorrow, and 45 mins on Saturday, and 75 mins on Sunday, all easy.

chrislad

Despite the best efforts of the weather, I managed to squeeze in both the 45 minute and 75 minute sessions from the DCM Graduates thread.

Saturday was pretty nice. I made sure that I went out easy, but managed to gradually speed up throughout without any conscious effort. The wind was in my face for the last 2 miles, but it wasn't too bad overall. Plan for 35 mins easy, and 10 at MP.

Splits were 10:52, 10:23, 10:17, 10:05, 9:42, with the last one being .3 of a mile.

Sunday was a bit tougher, in that the weather was absolutely terrible. I was considering leaving it until today, but it seems to be clearing up about half 5 so I said I'd chance it.

Again, I started fairly handy with the first mile at 10:43, followed by 10:39, 10:33. The wind got pretty high, plus a 72ft elevation slowed me to 10:44. Whee downhill for the next one at 10:02, followed by two more at 10:21, 10:36. I just ran around my estate for a few mins to get to 75 mins.

I ended up at 7.1 miles @ 10:32, but felt pretty good after, so hopefully this week has cleared the cobwebs off!

Total weekly mileage of 21.5 miles over 3:46, and the first 5 day week since Oct 26th!