DCM 2017 Mentored Novices Thread

shortie_chik

Lady is a tramp wrote: »

I've already posted up on Facebook that I'm doing it, wanted the extra motivation of having announced it! :pac: OK I'm well aware that I might well still not manage to do it for a million different reasons, e.g. injury etc. But at least the fact that everyone knows I'm doing it means that I can't just decide I'm not arsed or whatever, or else everyone will take the piss of me for it for the rest of forever!

A bold approach! :P

I'll just leave this here, for when any of us might need that extra bit of motivation! :cool:

Wubble Wubble

Apologies for delay with this one....the attachment contains updated 2017 Boards and modified HHN1 plans.

Like I said before, overall they are very similar to 2016. The main differences being firstly the inclusion of the Fingal 10k, and secondly the Frank Duffy 10 mile comes a week later in the plan this year. Those two required a small bit of rejigging on my part. Hope you like it

SoleDiva

Jfrost wrote: »

Casey78 wrote: »

I dunno about Dublin being flat. The first 6 miles are mainly up hill until you get to Castleknock. I find the hill just after Chapelizod worse than the hill on Roebuck Rd at mile 21 or whatever it is.

I said level while I meant relatively level.....Dublin is saucer shaped so we have to climb out of the saucer first but that is early in the run, and you should be fine...but hills can not be ignored....I prefer them as going up and down allows me to use muscles differently while the constant of a flat course I feel wearing.
But each to there own

Any time I've run in Dublin I've found it surprisingly hilly and harder than Belfast routes. I prefer a few hills though - they kill my pace but a constant flat is wearing and boring.

Spirogyra

I was in a run recently and the pacer went significantly faster than 'an even split' in the first mile, threw me completely, half a minute or more faster, for mental or physical reasons, I never recovered.....

brownbinman

Here's the plan I meant to stick up with my first post but made a balls of it

Be great to get some feedback on it

Singer

Spirogyra wrote: »

I was in a run recently and the pacer went significantly faster than 'an even split' in the first mile, threw me completely, half a minute or more faster, for mental or physical reasons, I never recovered.....

I think that sounds like bad pacing, and you'll probably get a better standard of pacing at DCM. That said, it's important not to attach yourself umbilical style to a pacer. If they tear off at the start (which isn't uncommon with inexperienced or otherwise enthusiastic pacers), let them go. In a large race like DCM, there'll typically be 2 or 3 in a group, but even then it can be difficult to get close to the group from the start as there's so many people running. You only really want to be using the pacers as an aid at best, as ultimately you're running your own race and should be happy to call it quits on your relationship, especially if they try to bank some time in the first couple of miles

Anyway, there's plenty of time to talk about pacing strategies for Dublin, it's best done closer to the time. There'll be pacers at the Dublin Half Marathon for some practice. And for what it's worth, each time I've run with pacers in DCM or the half it's been pretty exemplary

Singer

quickbeam wrote: »

Regarding pacers at the race itself (I know, I know, ages away yet!!!) how many times get a pacer? As in, one every ten minutes, fifteen minutes....? And what would be the slowest pacer that DCM would provide as that's who I'll probably have to run with.

From http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/frequently-asked-questions/

There will be pacers for the following times: 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.30, 3.40, 3.50, 4.00, 4.10, 4:20, 4.30 4:40, 4:50 and 5.00. They will run the race at a steady effort throughout, and aim to finish a few seconds under each time band.

But seriously, stop worrying about pacers! :pac:

Singer

brownbinman wrote: »

Here's the plan I meant to stick up with my first post but made a balls of it

Be great to get some feedback on it

You're throwing away two long runs 5 and 3 weeks away from the marathon for weddings, which are some of the most important weeks and breaking up the rhythm of the long runs at a critical time. You should either conspire to split up the couples intending on marrying, which sounds more than reasonable to me... or, maybe plan to do the long runs during the week before each wedding.

brownbinman

that seems the logical thing to do, I'm sure they won't mind

Wedding in Mayo (I'm Dublin) so traveling the Thursday, so might scrub the Wednesday and do a longer one Thursday morning before I hit the road

Thanks for the feedback Singer

While I think of it,if anyone is looking for motivational books, looks up Gerry Duffy who ran 32 marathons in 32 days and won an event in England for 10 ironmen in 10 days. Got me through Gael Force a few years ago

jameshayes

SoleDiva wrote: »

Has anyone here done Belfast Marathon or half marathon? If so, how does it compare, elevation wise, to Dublin? I'm just curious as I haven't run much in Dublin, but I've done a few runs in Belfast and loved it. It's quite hilly where I live and I found Belfast quite flat lol. The few short runs I've done in Dublin haven't been flat :-/

I ran Dublin 2016 as a novice and Belfast there last month.. the hills in Dublin are rolling so you get rest-bite but in Belfast all the climbing comes at once with a short sharp downhill..

Belfast: https://www.strava.com/activities/966121714
Dublin: https://www.strava.com/activities/760476099

Singer

brownbinman wrote: »

that seems the logical thing to do, I'm sure they won't mind

Wedding in Mayo (I'm Dublin) so traveling the Thursday, so might scrub the Wednesday and do a longer one Thursday morning before I hit the road

A long run the morning of a long drive doesn't sound like fun to me! Better than nothing though

But get working on them postponing the weddings in the meantime.

Battery Kinzie

Happy with last weeks running, 55k over 6 days with one day off. All at an easy pace and no signs of niggles or anything.

P&D book also arrived. I had a brief look at the 18 week plan, up to 55 mile per week and God, it looks like a lot of running. We'll have to see about that.

Cheers for the updated Boards plan WW, I'll have a look at that one too.

The Black Oil

quickbeam wrote: »

I have joined the Strava group - some queries, if you don't mind:

Are my routes public? I clicked on a few who've already joined and can't see their routes, so I hope that means they're not public as I wouldn't want that information known.

I've used MapMyRun up to now - is there a way I can continue to use this and have Strava pick up the information, or will I have to abandon MMR and download Strave for my data to be included? (Sorry, tech-dunce here!!)

Can't comment directly on this, but on a holiday a few years back some cyclists told me you can hide the first mile of your route on Strava. Or something along those lines. Dunno how true this is, tbh. Handy if you want to close that off from public consumption, particularly if your house is near your start point.

Re pacers, the three lads on the 4:10 last year were a little scattered at times, including toilet breaks. More so in the early miles. They came in at 4:08, iirc - knew what they were doing and had that air about them throughout. But yeah, as Singer said, hold your thoughts on the pacer talk for now...

kin9pin

brownbinman wrote: »

Here's the plan I meant to stick up with my first post but made a balls of it

Be great to get some feedback on it

My only suggestion, apart from following Singer's advice re the last long runs, is to introduce step-back weeks, every 3rd or 4th week, to your plan.
From what I can see, if you shuffle it to add back your long runs in weeks 7, 15 & 17 you are constantly increasing your mileage from week 6 all the way to taper. Marathon training puts a tremendous strain on your body and you need to give yourself a chance to recover every now and then.

Baby75

shortie_chik wrote: »

A bold approach! :P

I'll just leave this here, for when any of us might need that extra bit of motivation! :cool:

Love it

The Black Oil

Singer wrote: »

You're throwing away two long runs 5 and 3 weeks away from the marathon for weddings, which are some of the most important weeks and breaking up the rhythm of the long runs at a critical time. You should either conspire to split up the couples intending on marrying, which sounds more than reasonable to me... or, maybe plan to do the long runs during the week before each wedding.

To add to this (and for everyone), another core mantra from last year was 'respect the distance', hence the importance of the lsrs as part of the backbone of training.

Baby75

Thanks, Wubble Wubble I am enjoying the thread so far and can not wait to get started unfortunately after an 8K run last Tuesday I am sidelined the gas thing was it was not running that caused my injury it was my right ankle going from underneath me and the jerk sideways pulled my calf muscle. I had to keep running as well as I was too far away from home to turn back plus I did not know the route back the pain was bad when I stopped running ouch. I spent most of the last week icing, compression and leg up! happy to report it is much better I have stretches and massage to do and will wait the 2 weeks before running on it again!

I did manage to get out on my bike for 22km mostly hills but my piriformis muscle is giving me trouble so lots of stretching today and it's much better.

I have strava, I have not used it much but will start from here on in! excited to say the least!

my plan for the rest of the week is core work, walking, cycling, stretching foam rolling. I'm going to have a chat with our Bootcamp instructor about going and working out other muscle groups till my leg is fully recovered.

I have been reading the training logs, they are brilliant and so motivating

SoleDiva

jameshayes wrote: »

SoleDiva wrote: »

Has anyone here done Belfast Marathon or half marathon? If so, how does it compare, elevation wise, to Dublin? I'm just curious as I haven't run much in Dublin, but I've done a few runs in Belfast and loved it. It's quite hilly where I live and I found Belfast quite flat lol. The few short runs I've done in Dublin haven't been flat :-/

I ran Dublin 2016 as a novice and Belfast there last month.. the hills in Dublin are rolling so you get rest-bite but in Belfast all the climbing comes at once with a short sharp downhill..

Belfast: https://www.strava.com/activities/966121714
Dublin: https://www.strava.com/activities/760476099

I see what you mean. Thanks and well done on both runs!!

Mrs Mc

Wow can't believe it's that time of year again best of luck wubble wubble only catching up on threads now. Best of luck to the novices this is a great thread I'm a graduate from the 2015 novices under dubgal my advice is listen to the experts they know what they are talking about. Enjoy the experience it's tough but so rewarding. Best of luck 2017 novice

aloooof

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Apologies for delay with this one....the attachment contains updated 2017 Boards and modified HHN1 plans.

Like I said before, overall they are very similar to 2016. The main differences being firstly the inclusion of the Fingal 10k, and secondly the Frank Duffy 10 mile comes a week later in the plan this year. Those two required a small bit of rejigging on my part. Hope you like it

Cheers for putting these together Wubble! Good to see exactly what's ahead of us so we can judge the weeks where juggling the plan with general-life-goings-on could be challenging.

ariana` wrote: »

Hi aloooof i like the look of HHN2 as well, it seems a nice middle ground between HHN1 and the 2016 Boards plan.

Hi ariana, ya I like the look of it as well, looks like a nice happy-medium and I'm pretty sure it's the one I'll go with. (I'd be pretty happy if one or 2 others on here were doing that plan too, just to compare notes). I'm going to bash the HHN2 numbers into a copy of the HHN1 spreadsheet and will post it here if Wubble has no objections?

ariana`

aloooof wrote: »

(I'd be pretty happy if one or 2 others on here were doing that plan too, just to compare notes)

Me too! I'm going to start a week early on 19/06 though. I have a week's hols in mid-Aug, i'll run while i'm away but it'd be preferable not to feel tied to a plan that week.

aloooof wrote: »

I'm going to bash the HHN2 numbers into a copy of the HHN1 spreadsheet and will post it here if Wubble has no objections?

positron

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Apologies for delay with this one....the attachment contains updated 2017 Boards and modified HHN1 plans.

Like I said before, overall they are very similar to 2016. The main differences being firstly the inclusion of the Fingal 10k, and secondly the Frank Duffy 10 mile comes a week later in the plan this year. Those two required a small bit of rejigging on my part. Hope you like it

I converted the boards plan to kilometers and had a good readthru and.. gulp.. :eek: :eek: Summer/Autum is going to be a blurrr...

SoleDiva

positron wrote: »

I converted the boards plan to kilometers and had a good readthru and.. gulp.. :eek: :eek: Summer/Autum is going to be a blurrr...

With running, I work in miles (even though I'm from SA and imperial measures makes no sense!) because kilometres scare me :-)

muddypaws

I should read things properly, I had thought the boards plan would be the one I follow, then just noticed that it is for more experienced runners. The HHN1 looks very similar to the plan I have loosely been following to get my fitness up, which was a HH half plan, so will probably go with that one.

I have a bit of an issue in October, I will be going to Italy to compete at the European Canicross championships, leaving Ireland around 9th, getting the ferry then driving to Lake Como area, competing on 14th and 15th, then driving back. Last year I was trying to do a run every day thing in October and couldn't keep it up on the driving days, even just a mile was too much in the stops we did, so am worried that that week will be lost. We are probably going into Cherbourg and there is a lovely beach and park there, that I could do 3-5 miles in when we arrive, and I can do a long run when we get there on the Thursday, then will either be doing bike and scooter on the Saturday and Sunday, or possibly bike and canicross (running with the dog) so I could, with determination and discipline, get all the miles in that week, just not in the usual order, no way will I be able to do a long run on the weekend. Will that be a problem? The distances for the race I'm doing are 6kms on both days if I do bike and scooter, and 2.7km on the Saturday for running, then 6kms on the Sunday, fairly hilly course.

I see someone else is going to start the plan a week early, should I consider doing the same to make up for that week, or just rejig the programme for a few weeks before, so maybe I do my long run on the Thursday each week from the start of September?

ariana`

muddypaws wrote: »

I see someone else is going to start the plan a week early, should I consider doing the same to make up for that week, or just rejig the programme for a few weeks before, so maybe I do my long run on the Thursday each week from the start of September?

It's me who's planning to start a week early so i can have an "off-plan but still running" week in August.

I'll be interested to hear Wubble Wubble and other experienced marathoners opinions on doing that?

For me i just don't want the pressure of trying to fit in the runs when i'm on hols - it wouldn't be fair on the rest of the family (that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it :P).

Sunny Dayz

In relation to hiding certain places on Strava, if you log in on the strava website, go to settings and select privacy. There's a section "Hide you house/office on activity maps".
You can select your locations and the distance around it up to 1km.


You can also select enhanced privacy where approved followers can only see your activities

scotindublin

SoleDiva wrote: »

With running, I work in miles (even though I'm from SA and imperial measures makes no sense!) because kilometres scare me :-)

I have a tinge of Dejavu on a lengthy debate between miles and kms on our thread last year!

In the end I changed from kms to miles for my marathon training although now I strangely flick between the 2 depending on what I am doing.

muddypaws

scotindublin wrote: »

I have a tinge of Dejavu on a lengthy debate between miles and kms on our thread last year!

In the end I changed from kms to miles for my marathon training although now I strangely flick between the 2 depending on what I am doing.

I find it easier to run in kilometres, as the voice telling me I've done another one comes around a lot quicker than when its in miles, which is more encouraging. Running 10 kilometres sounds so much further than 6 miles

hot buttered scones

muddypaws wrote: »

I find it easier to run in kilometres, as the voice telling me I've done another one comes around a lot quicker than when its in miles, which is more encouraging. Running 10 kilometres sounds so much further than 6 miles

Yes, but 6 miles is less (actually 400m less, but that's not the point) - so when you have 5 left to do I only have 3 left!!!

positron

scotindublin wrote: »

I have a tinge of Dejavu on a lengthy debate between miles and kms on our thread last year!

Sorry, I didn't mean to start a debate at all - each to their own.

Having said that, I grew up listening to elders refering distances in yards, furlongs, miles etc but often folks also say places where X amount of time away - and no they didn't use hours/minutes either. They would use nazhika (24 minutes), vinazhika (24 seconds), and nazhi/para to measure volumes. My grandma had a weight measuring stick - that's right, a stick, with detailed markings etc - there was some sort of math to go with it, which I shoud try and dig out (note to self). Height was in inches and weight was in kilos! Finally when I got to school/university, it was all metric - meters, seconds, kilograms! - And I thought that was it, I had everything right in my head, people are 1-2 meters tall, places are 10s to 1000s of kilometers away - world made sense.

Oh no... I then moved here to Ireland and found that miles are still in use. And Stones. Wait, what now, Stones? What's a stone? 6.34 kilos? That's 14 pounds. Pounds? Not pebbles? So 7 pounds is half a stone, and 3.5 pounds is a quarter stone? Oh no, a Quarter is 2 stones? Why? So what's 8 stones?.. Actually I still don't know. Eventually I got used to miles again - by constantly doing the mental arithmetic that a mile is 1.6 kms, and speeds are in miles per hour, okay I am getting used to this. Oh wait, now the country is switching everything to kilometers. Speed signs are in kilometers/hour now. But people talk in miles. Places are still X miles away. Cars/bikes shows kilometers now. And there are new speedlimits (30 kmph) that never had a mile/hour equivalent in my head. And as soon as you go north of the border everything goes back to miles again.

This is when I realised - I sure am getting old and grumpy - and soon going to get stuck in my ways - and if I am going to get stuck with a system of units in my head for rest of my life... I would rather it be metric system. Multiples of tens - easier to understand when dementia sets in.. Except for pints of course - that's exactly the right measure.

No doube majority here would have no reason to consider kilometers, so I wouldn't suggest anyone switching to kms at all, I think I will convert my figures to miles for this thread.