If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

Kellygirl

Baby75 wrote: »

You will have a great base after cork, even with accounting for a holiday which I say you will be able to get in a run or two on with some easy running and a mid-week session and long run you will still have 6 good weeks beforehand or have you picked a plan for DCM yet! too soon may be lol

Not yet. I’ll see how Cork goes for a start. I’m also conscious that August I’m going to have the kids off school and then both starting in new schools in September so won’t have my usual Wednesday for long runs that I had for this training cycle.

I looked at the grads HM plan the other evening but can’t figure out how to get two days together to do the session before the long run.

Kellygirl

Week 19 - Cork City Marathon Training - 1 week to go

2nd week of taper so low mileage.

Monday: Planned 4 miles
Actual: 4.17 miles @ 10:37 min/mile

Did this with a friend. Nice easy run and fairly evenly paced.

Wednesday: Planned 4 miles
Actual: 4 miles @ 9:47 min/mile

Did this with another friend. Bit fast I suppose really. I’m not very good at pulling people back. Didn’t find it hard though. Was very hot which I was happy with as need some heat training. Spent the next 2.5 hours gardening before school collection.

Saturday: Planned 8 miles
Actual: 8.01 miles @ 10:08

Did this with another friend and again wasn’t very good at slowing down with all the chatting. I’d a night out last night with loads of dancing and a few drinks. A lie in helped. Spent all afternoon and evening gardening again so body fairly tired at this stage. I wanted to get the garden finished before heading in to the last week of taper.

Passed the 600 mile mark too today.

So, here I am heading into the last week. Been watching the weather closely. The forecast is varying from sunny to rain and temperatures 12 degrees to 20 :eek: Hopefully the 8:30 start will help if heat is a problem.

Quiet week ahead planned - no more gardening or heavy work and have to try watch the diet too and start carb loading later in the week.

quickbeam

Getting excitingly close now!!

Baby75

make sure you take this week nice and handy so close now and enjoy the carb loading what way are you thinking fo doing it
over a week or 3 days

Kellygirl

Baby75 wrote: »

make sure you take this week nice and handy so close now and enjoy the carb loading what way are you thinking fo doing it
over a week or 3 days

Ah just three days before really though I’ll include carbs at dinner and maybe lunch a bit more as the week goes on. I need to try to eat well the next few days though. I’m going up lbs the last couple of weeks which is annoying me.

ReeReeG

Best of luck on Sunday kellygirl, hope the taper has gone well! I'm actually gonna be a spectator in Cork, have some friends and family running the half marathon, so I'll keep an eye for you too  Really hope it all goes to plan for you!

Kellygirl

ReeReeG wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday kellygirl, hope the taper has gone well! I'm actually gonna be a spectator in Cork, have some friends and family running the half marathon, so I'll keep an eye for you too  Really hope it all goes to plan for you!

Thanks ReeReeG. Taper has gone well really - a few moments of madness and obsessing over paces and weather but what will be, will be now. Weather looking more favourable now this morning. I’m drilling it into myself to go out slow!!!

Give me a shout if you see me. There’s a tracker this year on rtrt.me so you’ll get my number off that.

Wubble Wubble

Good luck on Sunday K !

Swashbuckler

Best of luck Sunday. Looking forward to the report!

ariana`

Nearly there now K! Best of luck Sunday.

Huzzah!

I have a moment’s access to WiFi and wanted to pop in to wish you luck. Hope it goes really well. You’ve a great block of training put in!

OOnegative

All the best Sunday, knock it out of the park. Run well!!

Kellygirl

Thanks all. Looking forward to it now. Tomorrow will be a long day as just want to get going. Will be going in to register round lunch time and looking forward to getting my number etc.

Baby75

Good luck K, looking forward to hearing all about it xx

hot buttered scones

Best of luck tomorrow and have a great day.

Kellygirl

hot buttered scones wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow and have a great day.

Thanks HBS. Hope you are recovering from your injury.

Kellygirl

Week 20 - Cork City Marathon Training - 11 hours 25 mins to go

Monday: Planned 5 miles
Actual: 5 miles @ 10:45 min/mile

This was a nice run. Loads of my group were out for the final decent run before tomorrow. I let them all go on ahead and stayed with 2 of the girls to go slow! Nice chats!

Wednesday: Planned 3 miles
Actual: 3.12 @ 10:21 min/ mile

Taper madness set in here. I could barely move my legs (I thought). They were sore and lots of injuries I thought for the first mile. Loosened up slightly but when we got to the last half km I said to my friend I needed to do a nice fast finish. God it felt good after - and all the phantom injuries were gone!

Saturday: Planned 1-2 miles
Actual: 1.6 miles @ 10:24 with 3 strides

Just went out the door and ran up and down the road before collecting my number at the expo. Oh boy, the sweat! If this humidity continues it’s going to be fun. Forecast is for 96% humidity !!

Went in to collect my number and t-shirt. Met a few friends and grabbed a coffee and had a look round.

I think I’ve carb loaded and hydrated as well as I can. I’m aiming for 4:10 and hopefully a bit under that. I’m starting with the 4:15 pacers and staying with them for minimum 5 miles hopefully. I wondered during the week would I even find that a bit fast - hopefully not!! Will pull ahead when I’m comfortable. Planning on smiling and enjoying the race and looking forward to the celebrations after!!

Must go get everything ready soon!

The Black Oil

Best of luck - enjoy!

Kellygirl

This is long!!

Cork City Marathon
Goal time: 4:10
Actual time: 4:27:50

As per my normal style I had planned this race to a T. I ran the harder parts of the route on all my long runs. I knew it backwards. I spent an evening calculating elevation and creating pacebands to cater for the hills and a slow start with the 4:15 pacers for a couple of miles. I had it all sorted in my head. Two nights before the race I spoke to my pacer from last year and she encouraged me to change my paceband and go with the 4:15 guys for at least 5 miles and then pull off. New paceband created! I was completely confident I could do 4:10 no matter what and was hoping I’d actually come closer to the 4 hour mark.

Did a short slow run Saturday morn and discovered my watch was broken again - not recording elevation.

For the few days beforehand I carb loaded almost exactly as I did for DCM. I hydrated really well as the forecast was for hot and humid weather. Nerves set in big time the night before and I was lying in bed wide awake till 2am. Got up at 6am then, ran downstairs for my coffee and porridge. Back up, showered, lashed on the sun cream and body glide and got collected at 7am. Cloudy but I didn’t even need a hoodie - it was going to be a hot one.

Miles 1-6
9:37; 9:23; 9:23; 9:33; 9:27; 9:34;

The start line was so relaxed compare to Dublin. Hopped in beside the 4:15 guys a few minutes before go. My watch took ages to find gps but next thing we were moving so just started it anyway. It was a very slow start and we couldn’t get past the relay runners but eventually pulled past them. There was a bit of weaving in and out of people for a while. All was grand and I was smiling away going down the quays and one mile was done. Crowds were great. My throat was really dry though for some reason and I was looking forward to the first water station. As we ran out towards Blackpool the leaders were sprinting towards us. We ran around the sleepy streets of Blackpool with a few of the residents out but not many. Got to the first water station and a little sip sorted me out. Poured some over my head too. I was determined to stay cool as long as I could. I still had water in my bottle by the next station so I poured it over my head and took another bottle. Had a chat to the pacer who had run 136 miles in a 24 hour race a week earlier !! I took a gel at 45 mins. We ran through the relay change over and waved at friends and passed the 5 mile point. I knew I wasn’t in a position to pull away so decided I’d stay with the 4:15 guys. I was beginning to feel that I’d be lucky to cling on to them, never mind pull away but hoped it was just my mind playing games. I was comfortable running but doubts were creeping in. I was very nervous of the heat and sweating like no tomorrow so kept pouring water over me.

Miles 7-16
9:29; 9:47; 9:50; 9:29; 9:42; 9:58; 9:52; 9:50; 9:51; 9:52;

Through the tunnel and we hit the first drag - that was tough enough. I normally slow down on hills but stayed with the pacers. I was in front of the group beside the leader all the time. This took a bit out of me and more doubts set in along the Link and up the slip road to Mahon point. We slowed down a bit on the link which helped. We’d a bit of a downhill then into Mahon so I recovered there. Took a bottle of water at Mahon point and added a salt tap to it but lost the lid. I drank the water quite fast so as not to spill it and lose it - and proceeded to feel like puking and got a stitch. Luckily it didn’t last. Went through the next relay change over and saw more friends including a girl I run with all the time which was nice. As we went through the car park onto the Blackrock walkway I think the group must have stopped or slowed for cups of Lucozade. I kept going as had a gel to take and was ahead of them for a most of that part of the route. Pace was still nice and steady but I was beginning to feel it and more doubts creeping in. I decided in my wisdom I’d walk over the footbridge rather than racing up it as it’s quite steep. The group were with me again at this stage and I announced I was walking this part - big mistake. I had no idea the size of the group and they all ran past me and suddenly I was behind them and a load of relay runners. I picked it up again and could see the halfway point ahead so went through that in 2:07:xx which was ok for a 4:15 finish. I stayed steady rather than racing to catch up with the group and caught up with them eventually. As I came on to the marina though I decided I was dropping back a bit. I didn’t think I had it in me to keep up the pace in the heat. I was terrified of over heating and collapsing or something. I knew the sponges were coming up and they were amazing! Soaked myself. I felt I was going really slow then but it wasn’t that bad really. Another lady who had dropped back spoke to me for a bit and we both admitted we were struggling in the heat. I ran through the relay changeover and waved at more friends and got round the corner and decided to walk for a little bit as we entered the city again. I hoped if I gave myself a little break I’d be able to keep going until the end. I felt slightly dizzy but not sure if that was in my head.

Miles 17-22
10:41; 10:31; 11:40; 10:34; 10:05; 10:40;

Major drop off in pace here. I consciously decided to slow down and just get through it and try to enjoy it. I decided I’d walk the hills and then I could look forward to those breaks. The people in Ballyphehane were amazing. Loads of noise and kids out with jellies, oranges etc. The hoses were amazing - I loved running through them. Not sure if walking the hills was a good idea as I was breaking my stride but did it anyway. As I ran past the Lough there more sponges - heaven! Then a girl came long side me who was doing the relay. She seemed to cop I was struggling and started chatting and stayed with me for a few miles. She was just fab and so encouraging. A runner herself and just back after her third child so the relay was a walk in the park for her (she made it look that way anyway) and she seemed to just want to help me. I told her I was going to walk the steep park of Farranlea road but we ran it and then I insisted I’d stop and walk and to head off without me. My head playing silly buggers again. Onto Model Farm road and was running down towards the relay change over and spotted my friend who was doing the half marathon so quick hello and I kept going. I had worked out that if I did no more messing and under 10 minute miles I could just about do under 4:20 and get a pb so I was going to do it. Time to get the head down and just go for it. Not sure if my maths really were right actually as it took me ages to even work that out! My head gets very stupid towards the end of long runs! I also was calculating 3 miles left as opposed to 3.57 which I needed to do to get to the finish line.

Miles 23-26.58 or finish
10:22; 11:57; 11:28; 10:07; 9:00

Started picking up the pace and was doing ok here I thought and around onto the Straight road with 3 miles to go and next thing got an awful stitch. Had to walk holding my side and kept trying to run but couldn’t. I walked most of that so annoyed thinking of my family waiting for me and my son getting impatient. As I got to the Mardyke I got a bit better and started running again and held my side for a while and then it seemed to go. Had a funny incident between mile 25 and 26 running along a narrow wooded part behind a bunch of chatty relay runners. I liked their pace so just stayed behind them and then they announced they would slow down and save themselves for the finish line. I just said from behind that in that case could I get through and they all just parted in the middle and cheered as I went through. My watch hit 26 miles as I turned onto North Main Street. God, what sort of raceline did I actually run??? Crowds were fab all the way to the end. Searched for my family going down Patrick Street and got to see them so ran over for High Fives. 9:00 min mile for the last half mile which was a nice finish. Through the line in 4:28:xx according to the clock and 4:27:xx on my watch which I’d given up looking at so I wasn’t too impressed!

On a positive note it was a 22 minute Course PB. It’s also a record in Garmin Connect as my longest run :-)

Post Race Analysis
Maybe I let my head mess with me too much. I was too scared of the heat. Maybe I need to quit going for pbs and just enjoy the day. Maybe I’m just not that fast. Maybe I didn’t follow right plan - though I don’t think it was that. I’m the guts of a half stone heavier than DCM. Maybe that was part of it. Whatever it was I have a lovely photo of my 5 year old in awe of my medal and he doesn’t care what time I did. He declared it was his best day ever and tonight he asked if I have my medal ready to go to school with him to show his teachers and his class. He’d like if I’d stop and give him a better High Five the next time I’m heading for the finish line!!

Fourth Marathon and best I’ve felt yet after one. Assumed I wouldn’t be able for stairs today and usual stiff legs but not bad at all. Even went out for a little recovery run just to move.

ReeReeG

Firstly, well done on the course PB! Sounds like the type of race many would have quit on, but you persevered despite the doubts and tough headgame. Raging I never got to cheer you on, but was following my friend around the half-marathon and she was also struggling so needed to give her the boost! It was a really tough day for running, never mind racing or chasing PBs. One of my brothers (who is a FAST half-marathoner) absolutely struggled in it, and I've never seen that happen him before so I think it speaks volumes really!
I love how happy your son was, super cute that he wanted to bring the medal, nice to have such a big fan!!!!

Onwards to DCM I guess...! See you there

ariana`

Congrats on the course PB. I love that your 5 year old was so proud of his mum, what a great inspiration you are to him. Marathon are beasts they truly are, just finishing one is a massive achievement, to finish 4 inside 12 months is absolutely amazing and in tough conditions this one, of all years we trained through the Winter with snow underfoot and then we get this type of weather for racing :pac: But you finished a mentally tough race with a smile on your face, major respect

gypsylee

Well done on the course PB. Sounds like a beast of a marathon in the heat. Congratulations on completing another marathon. Great inspiration for your son.

Wubble Wubble

Congrats, so hard to tough it out in the heat, but you got a massive course PB and didn't step off. The little fella should be proud of you all right

Kellygirl

Thanks all. It’s interesting seeing everybody else’s reports from the day and while I don’t wish a tough day on anyone I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

One thing I thought of on the day was that it’s funny how I won’t allow myself stop to walk on a training run but I just seem to give up a little on race day. I suppose it’s the faster pace etc and wondering how far I can really push my body when it is slightly into the unknown and I have a fear of collapsing. Hope Dublin is nice and cold on October 28th!! :-)

Huzzah!

What a really great and honest report. You trained really well, gritted it out to the end and got a course PB. Congrats! Your five-year-old is right to be proud and you're setting such a fantastic example to your kids.

Kellygirl wrote: »

Hope Dublin is nice and cold on October 28th!! :-)

At least you'll have trained through a summer for DCM

eyrie

Whatever it was I have a lovely photo of my 5 year old in awe of my medal and he doesn’t care what time I did. He declared it was his best day ever and tonight he asked if I have my medal ready to go to school with him to show his teachers and his class.

This is just so lovely. Worth doing for that alone I'd say!

Congratulations Kellygirl! Great to get a course PB, great to complete your fourth (:eek:) marathon and great to get through it on such a hot day and still feel in such good shape afterwards.

Now to look forward to the 5th!

Baby75

Kellygirl, what a great report do not underestimate how much the effect of the heat had on that time you have in your head will be achieved congratulations on a massive course PB

I just love your son's reaction that just makes it so special and what a great example you are setting him I loved the picture

Now roll on DCM training!! dare I ask what plan are you going with, still leaning towards the grads plan

Kellygirl

Baby75 wrote: »

Kellygirl, what a great report do not underestimate how much the effect of the heat had on that time you have in your head will be achieved congratulations on a massive course PB

I just love your son's reaction that just makes it so special and what a great example you are setting him I loved the picture

Now roll on DCM training!! dare I ask what plan are you going with, still leaning towards the grads plan

I was afraid I was coming across as a Negative Nelly in my report to be honest

I’m now not really sure what I want next. I think I’ll just stick to my plan and drop into the half marathon grads plan when I feel recovered from this and then maybe do the plan for DCM if going well. I’m worried about having even less flexibility than usual over the Summer with kids off but hopefully I’ll manage it. I suppose I’m also re-evaluating my goals too and what I want out of DCM.

ariana`

Kellygirl wrote: »

I was afraid I was coming across as a Negative Nelly in my report to be honest

I’m now not really sure what I want next. I think I’ll just stick to my plan and drop into the half marathon grads plan when I feel recovered from this and then maybe do the plan for DCM if going well. I’m worried about having even less flexibility than usual over the Summer with kids off but hopefully I’ll manage it. I suppose I’m also re-evaluating my goals too and what I want out of DCM.

K i think the grads plan would really benefit you. The plans you have been following have been very similar, i think the change will give you a lift mentally and challenge you physically. Now, that's just my two cent worth without knowing your goals

aquinn

Did you really do 4 marathons in 12 months, not really?

I think you did really well on Sunday and I loved the pictures at the finish.

With that heat letting the fear in your head take over is nothing to beat yourself up over. The humidity and the heat had me in fear in the days leading up to the half. I felt constantly parched and had a headache from the humidty. In those conditions I feel you were right to err on the side of caution and not pass out and end up needing care and attention so well done.

I think you did incredibly well.