If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

skyblue46

Kellygirl wrote: »

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.

Do that but also try to get a short race in December or January to work from...

ariana`

Delighted to see you formulating a road plan forward Kellygirl, i look forward to folllowing you, I'll probably be doing something similar enough.

I'm still laughing at you signing up for DCM 2019 though! You're incorrigible!

skyblue46

ariana` wrote: »

Delighted to see you formulating a road plan forward Kellygirl, i look forward to folllowing you, I'll probably be doing something similar enough.

I'm still laughing at you signing up for DCM 2019 though! You incorrigible!

Does that mean fookin mental?

ariana`

skyblue46 wrote: »

Does that mean fookin mental?

Well I was trying to be nice but.......
..

Kellygirl

skyblue46 wrote: »

Does that mean fookin mental?

Exactly that! I don’t know why I did myself! FOMO at it’s best!

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

Exactly that! I don’t know why I did myself! FOMO at it’s best!

Does fomo count when it's in 360 days time? Haha

eyrie

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

Legend!

Sunny Dayz

Great race report, you did really well in the marathon considering you probably hadn't the best week leading up to it. You finish your race report saying you're retiring from marathons for now, next post is registering for DCM19 - that was a very short retirement!!

Kellygirl

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Great race report, you did really well in the marathon considering you probably hadn't the best week leading up to it. You finish your race report saying you're retiring from marathons for now, next post is registering for DCM19 - that was a very short retirement!!

:D Thanks Sunny Dayz. I can’t explain myself. I don’t know why I’m registered again

Within a day or two I was over the initial disappointment and proud I ran the whole thing without stopping as I had stopped in Cork. I needed to prove to myself that I could at least do that.

Bluesquare

Great report - you did super all things considered - got the job done and kept moving !

And despite swearing never to do it again well you know the rest !!

Dunno why anyone would do a Marathon anyway !! Whoops

Kellygirl

Recovery Week

Still on a buzz after DCM and amazing how the body forgets pain so quick!! It’s kind of hard to stop thinking about the marathon and running and plans. My fridge has a blank spot waiting for a new plan. As discussed above, I at least have a plan in place and dying to start it. I’m itching to do it correctly and know what paces to run at so have been very tempted to race this week but have managed to stop myself. I got a 5km pb 4 days after the Cork marathon but I know that’s not sensible so I didn’t enter the Cork runway 5km last night and I offered to volunteer and pace 31 mins at Parkrun this morning to prevent any last minute madness!!

Wednesday - first recovery run - 3.15miles @ 11:21

Went out trick or treating and then brought the kids and their sweets back to my husband and escaped! I was a bit wary going running on Halloween night with goblins and ghouls around the place. Started off with a young teenager hammered drunk and puking her guts out sitting at the side of the petrol station where I parked. Took my time getting my watch sorted and keeping an eye on what was going on wondering whether to go over and help when a woman zoomed in and flew out of her car and started dealing with it. I guess her mother. I headed off then and smashed eggs all over the ground so was nervous I was going to get hit at some stage even though nobody around. Fireworks were going off every now and then and I was a bit on edge. The running itself felt great. Ridiculously slow for me but had checked my paces on runfastcoach and this was very easy pace so I stuck to it. Heart rate was very high but my resting heart rate has been high for a couple of weeks and maybe nerves too.

Thursday - second recovery run - 4.14 miles @ 10:57
A friend joined me and we’d a great chat. Was very hard to stay slow as she’s quite speedy anyway though was happy to go at my pace. We just naturally picked up a bit each mile but still easy and certainly feeling good. Heart rate more normal too. Was lovely to just enjoy a run and not be worrying about legs or sore throats or anything like that.

Saturday - Parkrun 31 minute pacer
Actual - 5km in 30:18 official time

This was messy. I started behind the 29 minute guy and the 33 minute guy suddenly was in front of. I pulled off ahead of him but that meant losing the one girl I knew who wanted to stay with me. I couldn’t spot her after. The 29 min guy was crawling. Went through 1km at 6:17 right beside him so was 5 seconds too slow but didn’t want to pass him out. I more or less had myself sorted by the end of the 2nd km and was slightly too fast then after that. Passed the 4th km at 24:48 so bang on time but I don’t know what happened after that as I must have picked up the pace unknowingly or something. My gps was all over the place so no use to me. On the last stretch I pushed two girls for the last 200 m and they did great. Another girl said she lost me where there’s a bit of a drag and I do remember thinking I should have slowed there but it was all feeling easy for me. Hopefully she still got a pb. She’d no watch so was waiting for official results. I’ve done better jobs pacing faster times in the past funnily enough. Heart rate down again so all good.

So in the last 7 days I have run 37 miles and feeling great. No niggles besides calves being slightly tight but getting a rub down next Tuesday anyway. Have a couple of things arranged like coffee with friends in the coming week so I just do a few runs and then I think I’ll start into the grads base plan after that.

I am thinking a bit about what I want from various races. I was disappointed at most this year and I wonder was it all about the wrong plans or what is it. My mileage has been consistent all year really besides the injury parts before DCM so it’s not lack of mileage. Maybe I’m just never going to be a fast runner and DCM would have been a lot more enjoyable if I’d not pushed it. My nutrition is very up and down - and particularly bad this week so looking forward to fixing that again.
Hopefully just steadily following the grads base plan and the 5-10km plan then and improving my nutrition and dropping some lbs will help.

Swashbuckler

Out of interest what plans did you follow this year? How was your year made up? And what races disappointed you most?

If you don't want a psychoanalysis, the kind that AMK gets every time he runs a bad race, feel free to tell me to p*ss off. Haha

ariana`

I will let P do the psychoanalysis bit :P but i read this earlier just couldn't reply at the time and I didn't want to leave it. I think everyone can run fast-er with the right training. You've been so marathon focused for the past 2 years (as long as we've known you) and marathon training really isn't conducive to speed in my opinion. The aerobic base bit is important of course but i think all those long slow miles tends to zap the zip from your legs! I betcha 8-10 weeks of 5k or 10k training will see you knock out a PB or two! Now i bet P can be more specific and helpful but i just wanted to say don't give up on getting faster. There's nothing wrong with running marathons for fun but shorter races, getting PBs and just that feeling of having put in a solid performance can be a right ole buzz too

* I think i've actually talked myself out of DCM 2019 in the writing of this :P

skyblue46

ariana` wrote: »

* I think i've actually talked myself out of DCM 2019 in the writing of this :P

You've helped me too! :pac: Though making out a list of about 20 races I'd like to do next year helped as well!

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Out of interest what plans did you follow this year? How was your year made up? And what races disappointed you most?

If you don't want a psychoanalysis, the kind that AMK gets every time he runs a bad race, feel free to tell me to p*ss off. Haha

I dithered around the place picking a plan for Cork and then chose Hal Higdon Marathon 3 which was a 24 week plan and jumped into it in Feb with 20 weeks to go. Reason for that choice was it was 4 days of running a week which was all I could do at the time. It had plenty long runs but I ran them all too slow. There was one tempo or pace run each week which I was actually quite good at and always managed them. In April I did the Gas Networks 5 mile and was absolutely thrilled and shocked with my time of 40:50.

Then felt invincible going to Limerick and went out way too fast and blew up. 2:01:xx I think - not sub 2 anyway :cool:

Cork was next and hoped for 4:10/4:15 but the pace felt fast from the start and I was walking by mile 16. The analysis here was the lack of pace miles in my long runs and I have to agree. I couldn’t expect to suddenly up the pace based on 4 mostly runs a week and maybe one day of a pace run etc. I never really analyzed other plans besides the Grads plan which had loads of easy running but way more sessions so I kind of assumed I was doing the right thing with all the slow stuff.

4 days later I ran a 5km and got a pb of 25:12 which was a nice boost that week.

Easy running then for a few weeks and dithering over DCM plans and signed up with a coach for a ‘personalised’ training plan.

Killarney next 3 weeks into that. Finally got a sub 2 hour half at 1:58.

Injured two weeks later, missed a long run; great running for a few weeks; injured again, missed 4 weeks; back running 2 weeks before DCM.

I suppose Limerick and Cork were the biggest disappointments as not only did I not hit targets, I ended up walking in both. At least in DCM I felt good at the start and didn’t feel it was too fast - and was a similar pace to what I started out at in Cork.

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

I dithered around the place picking a plan for Cork and then chose Hal Higdon Marathon 3 which was a 24 week plan and jumped into it in Feb with 20 weeks to go. Reason for that choice was it was 4 days of running a week which was all I could do at the time. It had plenty long runs but I ran them all too slow. There was one tempo or pace run each week which I was actually quite good at and always managed them. In April I did the Gas Networks 5 mile and was absolutely thrilled and shocked with my time of 40:50.

Then felt invincible going to Limerick and went out way too fast and blew up. 2:01:xx I think - not sub 2 anyway :cool:

Cork was next and hoped for 4:10/4:15 but the pace felt fast from the start and I was walking by mile 16. The analysis here was the lack of pace miles in my long runs and I have to agree. I couldn’t expect to suddenly up the pace based on 4 mostly runs a week and maybe one day of a pace run etc. I never really analyzed other plans besides the Grads plan which had loads of easy running but way more sessions so I kind of assumed I was doing the right thing with all the slow stuff.

4 days later I ran a 5km and got a pb of 25:12 which was a nice boost that week.

Easy running then for a few weeks and dithering over DCM plans and signed up with a coach for a ‘personalised’ training plan.

Killarney next 3 weeks into that. Finally got a sub 2 hour half at 1:58.

Injured two weeks later, missed a long run; great running for a few weeks; injured again, missed 4 weeks; back running 2 weeks before DCM.

I suppose Limerick and Cork were the biggest disappointments as not only did I not hit targets, I ended up walking in both. At least in DCM I felt good at the start and didn’t feel it was too fast - and was a similar pace to what I started out at in Cork.

Ye DCM grads are very hard on yerselves haha. This time last year you had just become a DCM grad. You've literally come on miles. But you're right to question things.

Well the good news is you don't need psychoanalysis. Haha. We'll leave that for AMK's log. To be fair in terms of "speed" ariana has hit the nail on the head. You've basically gone from the Novice marathon plan to Hal Higdon marathon plan to customized marathon plan. The novice plan is really designed just to get you around. Hal Higdon isnt really designed for speed either and the custom one led to you picking up niggles. Honestly, and I don't mean this in a harsh way but you can't really do back to back to back to back marathon cycles and expect miracles in terms of speed at the shorter stuff. You've seen gains alright because you're running consistently and upped your mileage. But if you want to get faster you probably need to some specific training for it. I really do feel that spending the year targeting different elements is the way to go. As Testosterscone said in his spotlight thread you can't go too far wrong being in decent 10k shape throughout the year. If marathons are what motivates you there's nothing wrong with that but if you want to get faster I reckon you should be trying some 10k training for a while at least. 10k really bridges the gap between the short stuff and the marathon.

In terms of the disappointments in Cork and Limerick, I think you know the story with Cork. Too much slow stuff in training. I wouldn't be too hard on yourself with Limerick. You have to allow room for trial and error in running. I ran Barefield 5k in January and finished fourth or fifth. The next race in the series was lahinch 5M. I thought I should be up there with the front group and went out hard, died a death, stopped twice.. At the time i was sickened. Looking back im glad I did. A lot of what Luke has said to me over the past year has stuck in my head. One thing was you should try different things in races. Take risks. If you fail you fail but at least you learn something. You tried something in Limerick and it didn't work out. No biggie. On to the next one. Plus it was very hot that day in fairness. I see a lot of people putting a lot of pressure on a single race. If you get into the mindset of doing some shorter stuff, getting a good glut of short races in and forget about "target" races for a while you'll see benefits.

Dont be too hard on yourself K. But it's good to question things. As long as it's with a view to addressing the shortfalls. If you think you're lacking speed, address it. I didn't run 1.19 in Charleville by fluke. It took several years of junk miles and a year of coaching which included babe building, strength training, speed training, endurance training, threshold runs week in week out. Give yourself a chance.

Sorry for the essay. Baba is occupied in the ballpit so I had too much free time on my hands. Lol

Kellygirl

Thanks a mill for that P. I read it earlier on a break at work but couldn’t reply until now. I’m just dying to get back into training now.

I actually just signed up for the Run In The Dark 5km next Wednesday week. I’ve heard it can be congested so may not be ideal but it’s the only one I could find that I’m free for coming up soon. It’s a 10km too but I presume I’m better trying to run the 5km flat out.

When you say strength training, I take it you mean a type of running session as opposed to Strength and Conditioning?

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

Thanks a mill for that P. I read it earlier on a break at work but couldn’t reply until now. I’m just dying to get back into training now.

I actually just signed up for the Run In The Dark 5km next Wednesday week. I’ve heard it can be congested so may not be ideal but it’s the only one I could find that I’m free for coming up soon. It’s a 10km too but I presume I’m better trying to run the 5km flat out.

When you say strength training, I take it you mean a type of running session as opposed to Strength and Conditioning?

In the context above I mean a few things. Hill Intervals for one. Also a lot of work around my 10k pace. A lot of people, when they run a pb, recalculate all their paces but never spend any time actually building strength at that race pace. It's one thing running a pb. Its another thing running that pace on a bad day. I spent a big chunk of time still doing intervals at my 10k pace long after running that pace in a race.

Its important to give yourself time too. You may run a pb at that run in the dark race but really give yourself some time to do a proper block. At worst it'll give you a marker of where you are at.

Kellygirl

That makes a lot of sense. I’d be surprised if I run a pb but I think it will be no harm to go out and see what I can do anyway.

What I am wondering is whether to continue with all easy running until then or to do a couple of sessions to get the legs moving at 5km pace? I actually had one prescribed for yesterday in the recovery part of my DCM plan but I stuck to easy running. It was 6x2 mins at 5km effort with 1 min recovery. Might try it later in the week.

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote: »

That makes a lot of sense. I’d be surprised if I run a pb but I think it will be no harm to go out and see what I can do anyway.

What I am wondering is whether to continue with all easy running until then or to do a couple of sessions to get the legs moving at 5km pace? I actually had one prescribed for yesterday in the recovery part of my DCM plan but I stuck to easy running. It was 6x2 mins at 5km effort with 1 min recovery. Might try it later in the week.

I wouldn't be sure about marathon recovery but I read somewhere from a wise man on here that thinking about any intervals or tempo within three weeks of the marathon is madness

skyblue46

Kellygirl wrote: »

That makes a lot of sense. I’d be surprised if I run a pb but I think it will be no harm to go out and see what I can do anyway.

What I am wondering is whether to continue with all easy running until then or to do a couple of sessions to get the legs moving at 5km pace? I actually had one prescribed for yesterday in the recovery part of my DCM plan but I stuck to easy running. It was 6x2 mins at 5km effort with 1 min recovery. Might try it later in the week.

I don't know what P will say but I wouldn't consider a session yet..

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I wouldn't be sure about marathon recovery but I read somewhere from a wise man on here that thinking about any intervals or tempo within three weeks of the marathon is madness

I also saw AMK, who is a glutton for work, saying he won't be doing any sessions next week either.

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I wouldn't be sure about marathon recovery but I read somewhere from a wise man on here that thinking about any intervals or tempo within three weeks of the marathon is madness

skyblue46 wrote: »

I don't know what P will say but I wouldn't consider a session yet..

That’s my answer. Thanks guys.

ariana`

Interesting posts P, fuel for thought about the strength work in particular.

Kellygirl wrote: »

That makes a lot of sense. I’d be surprised if I run a pb but I think it will be no harm to go out and see what I can do anyway.

What I am wondering is whether to continue with all easy running until then or to do a couple of sessions to get the legs moving at 5km pace? I actually had one prescribed for yesterday in the recovery part of my DCM plan but I stuck to easy running. It was 6x2 mins at 5km effort with 1 min recovery. Might try it later in the week.

I find it difficult to figure out how 5k effort intervals can feature in a recovery plan

I imagine it's going to be hard to dial into 5k effort but best of luck with the race Kellygirl and more importantly the exciting training ahead

Kellygirl

Recovery Week 2

Monday - Easy run
6.78 miles ; 1hr 15 mins running; 11:04 min/mile

This was on my own. Just an easy run while listening to my book. Didn’t feel like stopping after 45 mins so kept going. A girl I often pass in the park stopped me to know how much running I do and had a little chat. I offered to run with her and chat while running but she was heading for home at that stage!

Only thing about this run was I noticed a slight niggle in my right calf again and on the outside of my knee. Nothing bad enough to stop but I’d gone back to my Mizunos which the physio had taken me out of prior to the marathon and wondered if that was related.

Tuesday - Sports massage and a fast walk after

Car was getting serviced and planned to run to the sports massage and go for a jog after. The weather was too bad so the garage dropped me where I wanted to go.

The sports massage was excellent and he gave me various foam rolling exercises and stretches that I have to do daily. I had a chat to him about my running plans and was looking for advice on what I need to do to prevent any more injuries. I’m back to him next Tuesday for mobility and stability work that I will then be able to do at home. I wasn’t in bad shape at all but my quads need a fair bit of work. I don’t enjoy them but I’ve done the work every evening and it is getting easier.

Wednesday - easy run
7.2 miles in 1:16. 5x20 second strides in the last mile

My favourite run of the week. Two friends joined me for this. Generally they are fast but I warned them I was in recovery mode. They slowed right down and we just jogged and chatted and didn’t notice the miles ticking by. I thanked them for slowing down but turned out they haven’t been doing the miles in the last while so they were both struggling while I felt like I was bouncing up and down holding myself back. I finished out the last mile then with 5 strides which were fun.

I was buzzing after this run and it took me a while to figure out why. It was the first run in ages that was just perfect. I didn’t worry once about my leg going or anything else. It was just completely relaxing.

Saturday - 10 miles easy @ 10:41
First 6 miles with a friend and the last few by myself. Picked up the pace for the last mile which turned out to be 9:36. Legs felt a bit heavy at that stage.

This free sport of ours has cost me a fortune this week. I signed up to the Cork HM next June which will be a target race, Clonakilty Half Marathon which will be a fun run and a day out and party after, and Run In The Dark 5km which is on this Wednesday. That’s just to see where I am at the moment really. I’m hoping it won’t be too congested or messy but no other races I’m available for at the moment.

I also splashed out on new runners and back to my trusty Saucony Hurricanes - the 4th model this time. Just wearing them round the house and liking them so far.

Have settled on training plans too:
Starting 18th November: Grads 5-10k plan
24th February: Grads HM Plan for Cork

Dying to get started into them.

skyblue46

Best of luck with the Grads plans. Any questions and I'm here. After doing 3 of them I think they are great. Have to admit I'm a bit worried about how you will control the paces of the very easy days! Haha

Kellygirl

skyblue46 wrote: »

Best of luck with the Grads plans. Any questions and I'm here. After doing 3 of them I think they are great. Have to admit I'm a bit worried about how you will control the paces of the very easy days! Haha

Thanks Sean. Actually I was going to ask you about the 8x1 min hill sessions - what sort of pace are we talking about there?

I think I’m doing ok with the easy runs at the moment?

Swashbuckler

Kellygirl wrote:

Thanks Sean. Actually I was going to ask you about the 8x1 min hill sessions - what sort of pace are we talking about there?

Ah my favorite one of L's sessions. Haha

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Ah my favorite one of L's sessions. Haha

Not one I’m looking forward to to be honest - and every second week at the start :eek:

skyblue46

Kellygirl wrote: »

Thanks Sean. Actually I was going to ask you about the 8x1 min hill sessions - what sort of pace are we talking about there?

I think I’m doing ok with the easy runs at the moment?

Haha...not by the pace chart!

You're looking at 5k pace for the hills....or maybe a touch faster