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Once more unto the breach - A Marathon Mission
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A disclaimer before I start. If you are looking for a triumph against all odds style report, this is not it!
Pre Race
This last few months training had been non existent I had no notions going into this one my goal was simply to race to the best of my ability with the current fitness I was in and use it as a launching pad into next year.
The start of the day set the tone. The little lad has slept through the night consistently for the past 2 months or so;
3 am I hear an eardrum splitting cry through the baby monitor.
Little lad had been a bit off with his food on the Saturday but tummy bug reared it's head in full swing and there was nothing gonna appease him. eventually after a couple of hours he nodded back off and slowly put him in beside mammy to hopefully settle (didn't last long) Thankfully I had no expectations today so lack of sleep didn't phase me.
Drove in and parked up by RDS and walked in from there. Caught a few familiar faces most of which with similar tales of woe regarding there training this year.
Race
Lined up way back past the 3.10 pacers with the view of slowly working up to them and see how I felt and who do I end up beside, Krusty Clown (the costumed character/boards user).
First mile or two and held up with congestion but was happy to take it handy. The plan was to work my way up to 3.10 pacers see how I felt and work from there. Taking it nice handy staying very relaxed and trying to conserve energy as best possible. Came by Dublinrunner feeling good after 3 miles and I was cruising along and ended up catching up with KC again (I knew it was gonna be a better day for the clown than myself despite him probably wilting underneath the hood)
Into the park and dawned on me that I had average pace on the watch and forgot to turn on autolapping however I knew that I was averaging just under 7 min miling without it feeling too bad (was keeping an eye on the HR just to be sure) Came across Fletch (a lad I coach) so I knew I was in around the 3.05 pace range here and decided to work with him and another 2 lads from the club. Kinda tuned out on the pace and just trying to keep breathing relaxed and the body loose. I knew I was gonna have to eek out every last bit of energy given my fitness so wasn't letting any go to waste.
Coming out of the park and feeling good. Made the decision to break the race into 2x10 mile and then go for it in the end so come 10 miles (average pace 6.51) I parted ways with the the lads from the club and pushed on. I figured I should bridge ground to the sub 3 balloon and hopefully slot in and go again. In hindsight this was probably a mistake as even though I didn't feel too bad the HR crept into the 170s and I knew this was too hard to sustain. Came through the half way 1.29.18
Despite cruising along there was no catching the 3hr guys. Came across Duanington who was having a rough day at about 15 miles and he asked me how I was and for the first time I admitted it to myself I was on the edge not blown a gasket yet but was playing with fire.
Managed a few more miles cruising along and at 18 miles I was done. Met another lad from the club who tried to get going but he was in a world of hurt and despite getting going again he was only going one way.
Pace started dropping despite the downhill and coming around by Clonskeagh the pulsating warning signs of cramp. After working through the field well I was now seeing waves of people start to pass me,some I knew, some realising I was done and offering condolences. Miles 22-25 said it all - 8.01, 8.08, 8.25, 8.52 (stopped momentarily)
Limped along trying to ward off full on cramp and then DR came by with the 3.10 crowd and managed to muster up a little.last mile and I was 8.29. Those last few hundred metres I knew I would make it so threw caution and made my best effort at a sprint finish to close the gap. I knew I started a good bit back from the 3.10 guys so I knew that if I got close I would be well under the mark
Crossed the line in 3.09.46 (Chip time 3.09.05)
https://www.strava.com/activities/2820923658
Aftermath
Am I happy? despite a very brief "Gonna stick to shorter distances to hell with this marathon lark" I am happy. There was something about properly racing it even if I wasn't in shape that felt liberating moreso than just doing a pacing job. I certainly hurt as bad as I would have if I was fit and racing and learn the same lessons. probably should have stayed with the guys after 10 miles but I think no matter what the blow up was inevitable as the cramping was down to leg conditioning moreso than fitness as aerobically I held up better than expected.
The one thing that it did stoke in me is a memory of never wanting to feel this unfit for that long in a race ever again which is something i will carry into 2020 and get myself back to where I wanna be and beyond.0 -
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Swashbuckler wrote: »Just to pluck a positive which lot of people on here probably wouldn't realise but you had a very good day on the coaching front in particular one guy who we could almost start calling sub elite
Definitely a good day in that regard with small number of athletes competing
For two of the lads it represented the second year they were with me with back to back sizeable improvements (3.28-3.16-3.03 and 3.05-2.47-2.39)
Also a first as a coach to have someone push past my own PBs which I was delighted with
Throw on top of that a big PB with someone blowing past the 4hr mark by some margins (3.35)
Also had an athlete a bit further afield going above and beyond to help someone else’s efforts a testament to there character
The coaching took a hit somewhat like everything else a few months back with my reliability not being great so was delighted to see they lads rewarded for persevering. To those who I did let down I do apologise and hopefully finally draw a line under all that and move forward again.0 -
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OOnegative wrote: »Yip, second that. Only from what I learned from L I wouldn’t be running the times I am now.
I'll third that! Unfortunately injury has prevented me making the most of it but in the words of a former actor and bodybuilder, now politician.....I'll be back!
Sometimes I don't think L knows how much he is teaching...it goes way beyond what's contained in the weekly email.
L, you had a tough year but definitely no need for apologies. Well done on toughing out DCM and best of luck for the training going forward. You sound nicely motivated.
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Swashbuckler wrote: »I think you need to operate a lottery system for who you will coach. Shake it up a bit.
Didn't let anyone down man. I couldn't (and selfishly wouldn't) do what you do. Stretched isn't the word for it. Plus don't underestimate the learning people get from flying solo for a while. I've definitely learned a lot in the past 6 months rather than just taking something on paper and executing it without thinking too much.
To be fair there was a good few delays in responses (and probably a few mails that I still need to get back to at this stage. I do get a number of people learned alot and that is the aim for the most part to have people learn enough to have the confidence and knowledge to make decisions themselves
I will have to start offering GFA coaching by the looks of it
OOnegative wrote: »Yip, second that. Only from what I learned from L I wouldn’t be running the times I am now.I'll third that! Unfortunately injury has prevented me making the most of it but in the words of a former actor and bodybuilder, now politician.....I'll be back!
Sometimes I don't think L knows how much he is teaching...it goes way beyond what's contained in the weekly email.
L, you had a tough year but definitely no need for apologies. Well done on toughing out DCM and best of luck for the training going forward. You sound nicely motivated.
Definitely motivated so hopefully can keep it going and put this year behind me0 -
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Tuesday
AM 50 min easy (6 @ 8.13 pace)
PM 49 min easy w/ 4 min surge (5.9 @ 7.37 w/ 1k @ 6.35 pace)
More of the same for this one nothing too exciting. Got held up in a meeting so I was in a rush to get back across to pick up lil lad from créche before they closed. Despite the pace being a bit hotter than yesterday the effort was relatively the same. Hard to tell why that was but could just be a severe withdrawal of my usual caffeine intake due to being so busy and stuck in meetings :P
A bit of a surge just to keep most days with a bit of stuff involved and help build back the foundation.
With someone just coming back into it would you recommend mostly easy miles or would you start introducing stuff sooner? Asking for a friend 0 -
Swashbuckler wrote: »With someone just coming back into it would you recommend mostly easy miles or would you start introducing stuff sooner? Asking for a friend
I would generally put stuff into base building
- Strides
- pick ups (something like 1 min hard every 10 min ran)
- 4-5 min HM/MP at end of the run
The aim of these is to have nothing which is taxing so as much recovery needed but to prepare the body so doesn't get a shock when you do start introducing sessions etc
I would tend to add stuff anything up to 4-5 times a week to be honest as it is not something that you should need to recover from.
Have a look at the boards Graduate Plans I put up before (should be floating around here somewhere)
The base phase here includes this sort of stuff (it's the reason i stressed the importance of this before starting into the specific plans)0 -
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Wednesday
Fartlek - 2 x (4,3,2,1 min w/2 min float) 5 min between sets
Splits:
6.29, 6.14, 6.01, 5.24
6.28, 6.12, 6.03, 5.40
Nothing too taxing with this session the aim was just a bit of high end effort with ample recovery. Not looking to be having to dig in just getting the legs turning over. Started off around HM effort and working down from there. Felt good throughout. The mentality of "I am building back up not trying to break down and recover from that" Came away feeling energised so mission accomplished.
Thursday
30 min easy (3.6 @ 8.18 pace)
Nothing special with this one but wanted to make sure I was approaching this right
A) getting consistency back meaning every day
Not going gun ho too early
I am in no hurry to get fit I just wanna get back to a stage where it is as natural as breathing and back into my everyday routine. Miserable weather and procrastination had me not looking forward to this so just got out and got something done. Pace was quicker than I expected as was very much a going through the motions run0 -
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Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote: »Sorry for hijacking your log KSU
Happy for the interaction (it can get pretty lonely in here
:p)So would you suggest adding strides, pickups etc to easy days during a marathon block as well?
Strides and hill sprints I think should be in people's training year round. I know Magness is a firm believer in this as well. There are so many benefits to it even for marathoners.
With the pickups once tempo's come into play probably no need however sometimes putting them in long run can be good in later stages just as a form check exercise. We can tend to plod a bit as we fatigue so can be a way of snapping us out of it.
So something like this in a long run;
16 miles easy w/ 1 min hard at the start of every mile after 10/11 nothing that is gonna be overly taxing (hard being even 5k/10k effort)0 -
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