If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

hillsiderunner

Kellygirl wrote: »

Oh read that wrong. Shame.

Maybe next year!

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Best of running on Sunday. As God is my witness I will meet you this time! Even if I have to wear a balloon with your name on it in McGrattans. All the best. You've done absolutely everything to get to that start line and run a great race. Fair play to you (and your physio). Enjoy this as it will be your last marathon for a good while, no doubt you'll move to the shorter stuff and I can start having a more productive input on your log. Haha

Thanks a mill. Well you will be happy to hear that I have my Faster Road Running packed to read on the train tomorrow morning

Applegirl26 wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday! Looking forward to saying hi and thank you in Mc Grattans.

Thanks and you too.

Kellygirl

DCM Training - final week

Monday: Planned 6 miles easy and 7th mile @ 8:50

Had to do this at night as had a child sick and home from school so got to run with a friend. It was a lovely run and decided to stick to the plan - think it’s the only run off the plan I’ve done recently. Really enjoyed picking up the pace for the last mile which I did at 8:46

Tuesday: Physio
Final session - she sent me off with a hug and saying I was in ship shape and go run the marathon.

Wednesday: Planned 2x2miles @ 8:50
Actual: 4.6. miles @ 10:34

Decided to run this easy. Had been tempted by the session but was unsure and took the advice of my fellow grads and did it easy - very easy

Thursday: Planned 2 miles 8:50 & 8:45
Actual - nothing

Was looking forward t9 this and programmed my watch and decided to do the speed. Woke up and headcold that I’d been fending off all week had hit so was dithering once again and thought maybe I’d be better to go easy. Stopped in the pharmacy for lemsip and the pharmacist said no running and let my body work on getting rid of the cold.

Friday - nothing
My body is clearly telling me I shouldn’t be doing this marathon. Throat was fairly sore this morning and voice going so my boss kindly cancelled work today saying a pool was no place for me to be on marathon weekend. I’m dosed up to the gills and just praying that my airways will open while running and will just choke after the run. Hopefully won’t be any worse tomorrow.

I’m packed and ready to go. Looking forward to the train tomorrow and to catching up with everybody. It will be a great weekend and I hope everybody doing it has a ball especially last year’s grads and the Novices. I really hope they have as great a day as we all did last year.

Pomplamousse

Best of luck tomorrow!
I also feel like I've been fighting an impending illness since Thursday, if I could get through tomorrow without it hitting that'd be great Hope you're on the mend and have the best day tomorrow!

eyrie

Good luck tomorrow K! You've had some journey to get here, but you've got through it all. I hope you have a fantastic day! Looking forward to meeting you in McGrattan's

Unthought Known

Best of luck tomorrow.

Kellygirl

Thanks guys, looking forward to it now. Hopefully a fun day ahead for everybody.

Kellygirl

DCM Report

So any readers of my log will know that this training cycle has been a bit messy, for want of a word, and resulted in injuries and downtime missing the last 4 long runs and another in the middle of the plan as well as weekly training. We all have a good idea why so there’s no need to go into that but suffice to say I have learnt a lot of lessons and not all bad. I’ll take the good stuff and build on it. I’d set out to train for sub 4:10. 6/7 weeks ago I was fairly confident of sub 4:05 and then missed the majority of 4 weeks made me fairly unsure of what to do pace wise. I made 2 pacebands - 4:10 and 4:15 and put the 4:10 on. The paces looked reasonable but I was worried about how much endurance I had lost. My longest run was 18 miles at 9:39 and extremely comfortable but 6/7 weeks ago.

Sunday morning Ariana and I were nice and relaxed and missed our bus in to meet our fellow grads and the Novices. Got a taxi and managed to meet a good few. Was great. Was gas the way we were all dressed in disposable clothes. We all set off after introductions and photos and headed for bag drop. The smell of deep heat was strong as we entered. As usual with DCM the organization was amazing and everything went so smoothly and quickly. We strolled off to queue for the loos, met a few people we knew and then joined the wave well behind the 3:50 pacers. Ariana and I had decided to run the first few miles together and see how things were going then. It wasn’t very long before the gun went and we were throwing off jackets and moving.

Miles 1-7: 9:45; 9:37; 10:10; 9:50; 9:43; 9:43; 9:50

Started off nice and slowly and just made sure we weren’t going too fast. Crowds were massive but moving nicely. My legs felt good and light. Pace felt easy. Nothing to worry about but taking it handy. The first mile beeped on my watch at 9:45 but we passed the mile marker at 10:xx which was odd so early but I was supposed to run the first mile at 10:15 anyway. By the mile 2 marker there was a bigger difference - .25 of a mile so I wondered how useful the paces I’d put on the paceband were going to be really. Decided to forget about it for a while and just run by feel. The miles just disappeared. We chatted a bit on and off. I noticed the drags and hills more than last year but felt easy enough. I was enjoying everything so far. The signs were gas. The one that made me laugh most was ‘Any idiot can run. It takes a special idiot to run 26.2 miles.’ We watched out for Baby75 as we came up to the monument and saw her soon afterwards looking at her phone so I roared at her! Saw an old friend a while later so roared over at her too. We caught up with friends of Ariana’s as we were coming into Castleknock and had a chat and a laugh going through the crowds and music. We felt like celebrities. Had my name on me so was getting lots of shout outs and thanked everybody. There was a .3 of a mile difference between my watch and the mile markers at this stage but it didn’t increase after that. We were taking Maurten gels and one every 35 mins. I felt I could run the entire marathon at this pace and was feeling really good. This was to be my favourite part of the marathon.

Miles 8-14: 9:39; 9:31; 9:15; 9:50; 9:21; 9:33; 9:50

Started into the downhills and just relaxed and all was fine. It was very quiet after Castleknock but nice. Loved the views and we were so lucky with the weather. We came out of the park and went through the first Lucozade stand. The ground didn’t seem as sticky as last year but we commented we were two waves ahead too. The next gels and Lucozade stations were sticky though. It’s awful. I think it was mile 9 I started to doubt myself. My legs were fine but I felt I was working harder than I maybe should be and started thinking too much about my lack of training and forgetting how many miles I do have in my legs etc. I was nearly glad of the hills under the motorway as we’d pull right back and I was ok with that. My head was playing games and I was slightly out of breath but my legs were fine I felt so I just kept going. Every now and then we pulled back a little bit for a breather and took our gels etc. We passed Mary Hickey at one stage and gave her a shout. Amazing woman. The Crumlin Road was tough. I didn’t struggle on it last year and didn’t notice it was a drag. Anyway, we went through halfway at 2:09 on the button - behind my paceband but I wasn’t paying too much attention anyway. I was more intent on just finishing and getting a pb at this stage. Mile 14 was tough going too and still a drag. I think I’d have pulled back without Ariana beside me. We weren’t talking much but the company was great.

Miles 15-21: 9:47; 9:47; 10:12; 9:54; 10:14; 10:01

We pulled back the pace at this stage as both of us felt we were working too hard for where we were. That helped me fairly quickly and I picked up during mile 15. I did notice that my energy levels seemed to be coming in fits and bursts and towards the end I did wonder if I should have been taking the gels slightly more often. Last year I did every 30 mins. I think it was Terenure she we were chugging along and next thing the 4:00 pacer group came thundering through. It was like a train and we had a job moving over to the side to get out of their way. They went on and we were left behind and that was quite demoralizing. That meant we were going to be 4:15 anyway. On we went through the sea of supporters and it was great going through the 20 mile arch. Ariana commented that whatever happened we could walk to the finish now. We went through Milltown and at 21 miles I lost Ariana who was having tummy trouble. I felt bad carrying on and still do.

Miles 22-Finish: 11:08; 10:14; 9:58; 10:19; 11:00; 10:21

By myself now and feeling kind of ok but headed into heartbreak hill very slowly and decided my goal was to just keep running and forget about pace. Getting to the top gave me a boost and I had a few good miles. I knew if I could keep them under 10 min miles I could just about hit 4:20, my pb time. Calculations were tough and I was just concentrating on one foot in front of the other. I didn’t have the energy to smile but I tried. Saw the Radisson and knew I didn’t have long to go. Started loosing energy just before turning onto Nutley Lane but a friend there gave me a boost but was really struggling the when I turned onto Merrion Road. I was so tempted to walk. The 410 pacers came up behind me then and steamed passed me. I wondered which pacer was OONegative but we got to meet later. Anyway was well and truely gone then. Passed my husband at mile 25 which helped for another little bit but I knew my pb was gone and just felt like giving up at that stage. I do not know how I kept running. I was so slow and couldn’t pick it up, not even on the blue carpet. I couldn’t wait to stop. I went over the line at 4:23:34. I wobbled to get my medal, burst into tears and the amazing volunteer gave me a hug. Got my top and threw it on and hobbled on with my bag. Got my phone out of my belt and up pops a motivation that Ariana had just finished. Thank God, she was just behind me. I wobbled on to collect my bag and waited there. I was amused at everybody limping, wobbling, falling over - what were we like!!! It must be a mad sight really.

Anyway, right then I was bitterly disappointed. I’ve gotten over it. I missed training. I had a week of very little sleep due to sick kids and I was slightly under the weather myself with a headcold, sore throat and a cough. Why was I upset about 3 mins. I know what went wrong but this day 2 weeks ago I didn’t know if I’d make the start line and here I am now after runningthe whole thing so I’m delighted with that!!

The after party

This was the part I was really looking forward to and it was great. I just loved meeting everybody from Boards and a few of my friends that came in. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to everybody and the whole evening. So fantastic to meet everybody in real life. We left when upstairs closed and went for burger and chips and back to the hotel and crashed into the bed.

Feeling good today. Ankle was a bit sore but I think my lace was too tight as was sore a bit yesterday. My legs are surprisingly good and just notice them if I sit still for too long. My voice is gone though - too much talking as usual clearly.

What’s next
I’m retiring from marathons for the time being. Too stressful and all down to one day. Besides that I need to get a solid base and get my body back string with no injuries. Planning on following the grads base plan for a while and then will think about shorter races. Dying to get out for some easy runs over the next couple of weeks and then get focused again.

Pomplamousse

Sorry to hear you didn't get the time you wanted but I'm glad you're not disappointed now. You should definitely be proud, you ran a marathon after missing keys runs due to injury, as well as getting poor sleep and illness on marathon week!
Hehe I agree about the area after the finish line looking mad. I'd love to volunteer there sometime. Also have similar thinking to you in your "what's next" section. Roll on some shorter races

eyrie

Sorry you didn't get the day you planned for and deserved K. You were so unlucky with the injury troubles in the run up, and you did brilliantly to keep the head throughout all of that and stay positive. I'm delighted you got over the initial disappointment - you deserve to be absolutely proud! Not to mention you can claim joint responsibility/credit with your co-mentors for a lot of PBs gained on the day from the novices crew! We couldn't have done it without you three.
It was great to meet you!

Huzzah!

You were so open and ready to take advice when it was given to you here and it was great to see how much you were enjoying the sessions earlier in the plan. It's been such a rollercoaster for you but I was sure you'd the miles in the legs and were going to have a great day. I'm really sorry it didn't work out that way.

As I keep saying, I can't wait to see how you go over the shorter stuff. I think you'll really enjoy the sessions and a bit of a change of scenery.

It was lovely to meet you on Sunday.

aquinn

Great to meet you and again congratulations on making the startline and sticking with it.

No it didn't go to any plan but with all the woes over the last few weeks you still conquered the distance.

Glad you're not disappionted.

Recover well.

I also had no voice on Monday.

P thought we were going for dinner on Sunday night, I was falling asleep at the table. At least you managed a meal out.

ariana`

I put off reading your report until i had my own written in case it would cloud my memory of the day. It was great to run with you, thanks for the company! I'm sorry you didn't get your target or PB, it's disappointing after all the work you put in this year. But the training is still banked and hopefully you'll get your pay day sooner rather than later!

Kellygirl

Pomplamousse wrote: »

Sorry to hear you didn't get the time you wanted but I'm glad you're not disappointed now. You should definitely be proud, you ran a marathon after missing keys runs due to injury, as well as getting poor sleep and illness on marathon week!
Hehe I agree about the area after the finish line looking mad. I'd love to volunteer there sometime. Also have similar thinking to you in your "what's next" section. Roll on some shorter races

Delighted you did so well yourself P. I wish I’d known you were downstairs in McGrattans.

eyrie wrote: »

Sorry you didn't get the day you planned for and deserved K. You were so unlucky with the injury troubles in the run up, and you did brilliantly to keep the head throughout all of that and stay positive. I'm delighted you got over the initial disappointment - you deserve to be absolutely proud! Not to mention you can claim joint responsibility/credit with your co-mentors for a lot of PBs gained on the day from the novices crew! We couldn't have done it without you three.
It was great to meet you!

No longer bothered now and after swearing blind that was my last marathon I keep looking at the entry page for next year!! It’s such a great marathon in terms of atmosphere I’d consider doing it for the fun but not for a time - there’s probably not a chance I’d actually do that though!

Huzzah! wrote: »

You were so open and ready to take advice when it was given to you here and it was great to see how much you were enjoying the sessions earlier in the plan. It's been such a rollercoaster for you but I was sure you'd the miles in the legs and were going to have a great day. I'm really sorry it didn't work out that way.

As I keep saying, I can't wait to see how you go over the shorter stuff. I think you'll really enjoy the sessions and a bit of a change of scenery.

It was lovely to meet you on Sunday.

I’m actually dying to get going on a plan again. There’s a blank space on my fridge waiting for one. I know I should just be doing easy miles now but dying for some sort of a blow out too!

aquinn wrote: »

Great to meet you and again congratulations on making the startline and sticking with it.

No it didn't go to any plan but with all the woes over the last few weeks you still conquered the distance.

Glad you're not disappionted.

Recover well.

I also had no voice on Monday.

P thought we were going for dinner on Sunday night, I was falling asleep at the table. At least you managed a meal out.

Delighted I met the two of you. I was dying for McGrattans and the afternoon didn’t disappoint.

ariana` wrote: »

I put off reading your report until i had my own written in case it would cloud my memory of the day. It was great to run with you, thanks for the company! I'm sorry you didn't get your target or PB, it's disappointing after all the work you put in this year. But the training is still banked and hopefully you'll get your pay day sooner rather than later!

It was great fun spending the weekend together and delighted we ran together. Shame it didn’t end the way we wanted but we did it!

Swashbuckler

Was great meeting you. The highlight of my day was meeting Boardsies. Sorry you had a rough one. What I said to ariana on her log applies to you too. Enjoy the shorter stuff for a while.

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Was great meeting you. The highlight of my day was meeting Boardsies. Sorry you had a rough one. What I said to ariana on her log applies to you too. Enjoy the shorter stuff for a while.

Forgive me Swashbuckler for I have sinned. It is 3 days since I said no more marathons and today I have signed up for DCM 2019

I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see if the discount code would work and when it didn’t I just kept going anyway. :eek:

However that is the only marathon I am doing next year and short stuff between now and then - so now I am trying to figure out the best plan of action from now until the Half in Cork in June and from then until October.

I started reading Faster Road Racing today. If anybody has any suggestions as to what distance I should target first - no races currently planned but have an option of racing 10km in clonakilty in 6 weeks or doing the half for fun. My gut is to keep that as a fun run as keeping thing easy for the next 3 weeks anyway.

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

Forgive me Swashbuckler for I have sinned. It is 3 days since I said no more marathons and today I have signed up for DCM 2019

I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see if the discount code would work and when it didn’t I just kept going anyway. :eek:

However that is the only marathon I am doing next year and short stuff between now and then - so now I am trying to figure out the best plan of action from now until the Half in Cork in June and from then until October.

I started reading Faster Road Racing today. If anybody has any suggestions as to what distance I should target first - no races currently planned but have an option of racing 10km in clonakilty in 6 weeks or doing the half for fun. My gut is to keep that as a fun run as keeping thing easy for the next 3 weeks anyway.

Haha not atall. Do whatever motivates you and keeps you running. I do think some shorter stuff will provide some well earned respite from all the pressures of trying to perform on the day.

Your last paragraph suggests you're looking for opinions? Haha

ReeReeG

Haha K you are absolutely a marathon addict!

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Haha not atall. Do whatever motivates you and keeps you running. I do think some shorter stuff will provide some well earned respite from all the pressures of trying to perform on the day.

Your last paragraph suggests you're looking for opinions? Haha

Well DCM is non refundable so might as well do that now!

But I’ll take any opinions going on what to do next alright. I was thinking of a base plan of some sort to tide me over until I figure out a race to target but wouldn’t mind dropping straight into a plan for 5k or 10km either. I’d enjoy doing sessions and long runs again.

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

Well DCM is non refundable so might as well do that now!

But I’ll take any opinions going on what to do next alright. I was thinking of a base plan of some sort to tide me over until I figure out a race to target but wouldn’t mind dropping straight into a plan for 5k or 10km either. I’d enjoy doing sessions and long runs again.

Haha I can see how DCM can be addictive.

I'll give you some of my own observations, thoughts and learnings.

I spent the early part of this year doing a run series. I went from 5k to 5M to 10k to 10M. In a sense I never did a proper "block" for most of those races. I was probably in prime shape for the 10k but for the others I was in "decent" shape mainly coz I think Luke knew I really wanted to hit that 10k in Ennis. If I had my time over again I'd focus less on target races and more on a block that I wanted to achieve something specific from.

Next year I'll be chatting to Luke about what is the best way to structure the year rather than telling him my "target" races and asking him to work his magic around that. Haha. My plan or hope is we figure that out and I select races based around that.

So what am I trying to say. Haha

Sounds like you'll be starting DCM training in July? And you want to run a HM in June I think? (sorry I'm on my phone). That would kinda have your training set up until May? So that really gives you Jan to May to figure out?

Have you considered the Grads base plan for November/December and then move into a block in January?

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Haha I can see how DCM can be addictive.

I'll give you some of my own observations, thoughts and learnings.

I spent the early part of this year doing a run series. I went from 5k to 5M to 10k to 10M. In a sense I never did a proper "block" for most of those races. I was probably in prime shape for the 10k but for the others I was in "decent" shape mainly coz I think Luke knew I really wanted to hit that 10k in Ennis. If I had my time over again I'd focus less on target races and more on a block that I wanted to achieve something specific from.

Next year I'll be chatting to Luke about what is the best way to structure the year rather than telling him my "target" races and asking him to work his magic around that. Haha. My plan or hope is we figure that out and I select races based around that.

So what am I trying to say. Haha

Sounds like you'll be starting DCM training in July? And you want to run a HM in June I think? (sorry I'm on my phone). That would kinda have your training set up until May? So that really gives you Jan to May to figure out?

Have you considered the Grads base plan for November/December and then move into a block in January?

Yes, structuring my year is what I’m interested in really. The only two definites in there are Cork HM the June Bank holiday weekend and then DCM. It’s hard for me to do any Winter races as they tend to be on Sundays when I work so happy to do a decent block of training and be ready for when the evening races start up which is probably round start of April I suppose? There’s a lovely 5 mile that I could do then that I did last year and lots of BHAA 5ks or 4 miles around.

My goal is to get stronger, steadier and faster. I enjoy the training so while I need some form of a goal I will get out Nd train anyway even if that is 6 months away. The grads base plan was what I was thinking to start with it in the next couple of weeks and go from there.

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

Yes, structuring my year is what I’m interested in really. The only two definites in there are Cork HM the June Bank holiday weekend and then DCM. It’s hard for me to do any Winter races as they tend to be on Sundays when I work so happy to do a decent block of training and be ready for when the evening races start up which is probably round start of April I suppose? There’s a lovely 5 mile that I could do then that I did last year and lots of BHAA 5ks or 4 miles around.

My goal is to get stronger, steadier and faster. I enjoy the training so while I need some form of a goal I will get out Nd train anyway even if that is 6 months away. The grads base plan was what I was thinking to start with it in the next couple of weeks and go from there.

That all sounds good K. Sounds like you've the rest of this year sorted. Doing the HM in June would mean you have April, May, June sorted training wise with a smattering of some nice shorter races thrown in there.

So really Jan to April you wouldnt go too far wrong getting into 10k shape. It'll feed nicely into your HM training. I wouldn't rule out the Grads 10k plan. But I'm biased towards Luke's style anyway as it suits me.

Just some opinions. Feel free to ignore. Haha

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

That all sounds good K. Sounds like you've the rest of this year sorted. Doing the HM in June would mean you have April, May, June sorted training wise with a smattering of some nice shorter races thrown in there.

So really Jan to April you wouldnt go too far wrong getting into 10k shape. It'll feed nicely into your HM training. I wouldn't rule out the Grads 10k plan. But I'm biased towards Luke's style anyway as it suits me.

Just some opinions. Feel free to ignore. Haha

Thanks for that. That would work nicely. Base plan and any of the other plans are 20 weeks in total so brings me up until the end of March. Can find a race to do then to see how my paces are and switch to HM training then. Sorted! Off out for another recovery run now!

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

That all sounds good K. Sounds like you've the rest of this year sorted. Doing the HM in June would mean you have April, May, June sorted training wise with a smattering of some nice shorter races thrown in there.

So really Jan to April you wouldnt go too far wrong getting into 10k shape. It'll feed nicely into your HM training. I wouldn't rule out the Grads 10k plan. But I'm biased towards Luke's style anyway as it suits me.

Just some opinions. Feel free to ignore. Haha

The 10k to half plan is great and the base plan would get you used to the type of sessions involved which are quite different from the few you did on your marathon plan K.

Kellygirl

skyblue46 wrote: »

The 10k to half plan is great and the base plan would get you used to the type of sessions involved which are quite different from the few you did on your marathon plan K.

That was my next question - 5-10k or 10k-HM? Could do both considering I’d finish one at end of March and be looking for a HM plan then for Cork anyway or do the same one twice?

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

That was my next question - 5-10k or 10k-HM? Could do both considering I’d finish one at end of March and be looking for a HM plan then for Cork anyway or do the same one twice?

If it was me I'd do both. I haven't looked at them in detail but I'd imagine the 5k-10k plan has a bias towards the VO2 max/threshold/10k race pace intervals and the HM has more LT/Tempo stuff included?

Also don't feel like you need to wait to April to race. Youll definitely have opportunities to race in Jan Feb March as part of whatever plan you choose.

skyblue46

Kellygirl wrote: »

That was my next question - 5-10k or 10k-HM? Could do both considering I’d finish one at end of March and be looking for a HM plan then for Cork anyway or do the same one twice?

Last year I did the longer one first. This year I will reverse the plan for a bit of variety.

The one observation I will make is that getting an accurate starting point is important. I found that by using a good race as a starting point for the paces on the pace calculator made the sessions do what they should be doing at the right intensity level.

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

If it was me I'd do both. I haven't looked at them in detail but I'd imagine the 5k-10k plan has a bias towards the VO2 max/threshold/10k race pace intervals and the HM has more LT/Tempo stuff included?

Also don't feel like you need to wait to April to race. Youll definitely have opportunities to race in Jan Feb March as part of whatever plan you choose.

Unsurprisingly you are right again! :pac:

I raced a lot during the 5-10k plan and it was easy to integrate into the plan....Wednesday evening races replaced midweek session, weekend races replaced weekend session. Simples.

Kellygirl

Thanks guys. Great advice. Until I can do a race I might base it off my 5 mile time which is last April but 40:50 and not sure I’d beat that now anyway.

Swashbuckler

skyblue46 wrote: »

Unsurprisingly you are right again! :pac:

I raced a lot during the 5-10k plan and it was easy to integrate into the plan....Wednesday evening races replaced midweek session, weekend races replaced weekend session. Simples.

Haha there's a lot to be said for regular racing as long as it's done right. It also takes the pressure off a single race which i definitely would like to see a few of my Boards buddies try next year