How I learned to stop worrying and love Jack Daniels

deconduo

Paris Marathon 2022

Background

After a few years of on/off running I completed my first marathon in Paris back in October. I half-followed a plan but quickly fell off the wagon and ended up going into it with about 200km total done in the 12 weeks leading up to it. Still it was enough to get me around in 4.31, and I mostly enjoyed the experiece. I quickly signed up for it again this year with the goal of doing it properly this time.

With Christmas and New Years over and no real running done since finishing the marathon in October, I realised I was in trouble. I had 3 months to go until Paris and was in danger of half-assing it again. I grabbed the Jack Daniels book that was gathering dust, looked at 2Q plan and figured 'Sure why not'. Jumped straight into week 12 as I was already too late to start at the start.

Full training log is below, but a quick summary is that it went pretty well. Starting off my Easy pace was around 6.50-7.10/km and at the end of the cycle it was dipping under 6.00/km on a good day. Got out running consistently (750km over the 12 weeks), no injuries, no covid, and only a handful of nights out. My last big workout was 24 km @ Marathon effort, where I averaged 5.35/k. It was a bit of a struggle to finish but I figured with a good taper on fresh legs I could keep that going for the full distance, close enough to have a good crack at sub-4 if I got lucky on the day.

Pre-Race

We had 7 people from our little running group over for the race so it was great to have some company. I was over on the Friday morning and got to enjoy a little bit of shopping, some nice galettes and a swim in the hotel pool. Headed to the expo with our group on Saturday to pick up the race numbers. Also got suckered into buying a massage gun, but I have no regrets!

On race day - forecast was 0C starting off, rising to 8C in the afternoon. I wasn't sure what to wear - but I settled on a light long-sleeve baselayer with a singlet over it, and figured I could drop the long sleeve if I got too warm. Stomach was a bit unhappy, but nothing I could do about that - jumped on the metro and headed to the start line.

I was due to go off in the 09.20 wave - with the rest of my group either in earlier or later waves so I was on my own at the start. I dropped off bag and got to the pen at 09.05. There was a huge crowd and I ended up somewhere in the middle of the wave. They were letting groups of people off every 5 minutes or so. Finally got to the front and kicked off at 09.45.

5km: 26:55 - 05:22/k

I figured I’d start around 5.35/k and figure things out as I went on, possibly speeding up in the second half if things were going well - and hopefully having some time banked if they weren't.

It was slightly downhill along the Champs-Élysées for the first km but even still I was surprised when my watched ticked at 5.19 and I felt fine. Slowed down a little bit when it flatted out around the Opera House and the Louvre. My right quad felt very tight from 2km to 5km and I was worried for a while that my run was going to be very short! Thankfully it loosened out and I hit the 5km mark well ahead of schedule with HR comfortable at the upper end of Z2.

10km: 27:23 - 05:28/k

Even though it was 2-3C I was sweating in the long sleeve at this point. I knew my wife was at the 8km mark, so I quickly shed the hat gloves and base layer at this point and went with just the singlet from that point. I lost about 30s taking off the top, but it was well worth it as it warmed up throughout the day. A slight uphill to Bastille at 9km brought the HR up to low Z3.

15km: 26:57 - 05:23/k

The next 5k brought us into Bois de Vincennes, noticed a much smaller crowd compared to October but still a reasonable turnout of flags, banners and bands playing music along the way.  Felt great and was churning through the km markers. Breathing and HR stayed steady.

20km:  26:46 - 05:21/k

Slowed down for a bit of a hill at 16km and then opened up the legs for a nice downhill section. Enjoyed this part of the race the most, where everything felt great, the weather was perfect and there was an awesome crowd heading into the halfway marker.

Half: 01:53:37

At the halfway point I knew I was in a pretty good place. The sub-4 was definitely on barring something terrible happening, and with a minute and a half in the bank there was a chance of a 3.50 finish! I knew from last year that the second half was tougher (I was 4 minutes slower) - but that was now the goal time in my head.

25km: 00:25:49 - 05:10/k

The next few km ticked along nicely, coming out of the woods, back around the Bastille for the second time, and starting the section along the river. The sun was starting to intensify, and I noticed the HR drifting up to the top end of Z3.

30km: 00:28:36 - 05:43/k

Running along the river, up and down tunnels. Even though the temperature was only supposed to be 6-7C at this point, the direct sun felt like 20C+. Spotted a Dublin Marathon shirt and had a nice chat for 1km until we hit a tunnel and my HR dropped enough for me to pick up the pace again. The cool dark tunnels provided a nice short repreive from the heat, but were over too quickly!

35km: 00:28:17 - 05:39/k

I knew that passing the Eiffel tower at the 30km mark meant the toughest part of the course was coming up. A long drag to the 34km marker and then a hill up to 35km. I was struggling a bit here, and had to force my second last gel down as my stomach was no longer playing nice. A sigh of relief coupled with some determination when I crossed the 35km marker. The rest was flat but some quick maths let me know I needed to average 5:24 to come in under 3.50. My legs were tired, sweat was dripping off me, and HR was definitely in Z4 now.

40km: 00:27:01 - 05:24/k

This was the point where I knew I needed to just push through the pain and get to the finish line. The fun times were over, now was time to endure and suffer until the finish line. Where the first 5k seemed to go by in 5 minutes, this 5k took hours. The main thing that kept me going was seeing the kms tick over on target, 5.23, 5.21, 5.25, 5.22, 5.23. Choked down a gel at the last water station which I hoped would carry me to the finish.

FINISH 00:11:32 - 05:15/k

1km of struggle and then I knew I was going to make it. The last km was a victory lap and I was able to appreciate the crowd coming up to the finish line. I even had enough in the tank for a little sprint at the end! 2 others from my running group were already at the finish and spotted me immediately, which was great. Water and a banana and a bit of soaking in the atmosphere – and then on to the pub for a victory pint.

Final time 03:49:10

So a 40 minute PB after an intense 12 week cycle - turns out consistent training actually works! On to Berlin now in September where I'll try actually completing a full 18 week cycle, and starting from a much stronger base as well.

deconduo

Week T-12 (62km):

Thursday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 9E + 4.5T /w 3min jg + 1.5T + 3E

Actual: 3E + 3T /w 3min jg, 1.5T + 3E

Sunday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 12E + 4x 1.5T/w 1min rest + 1.5E

Actual: Completed as planned.

 

Wasn’t up for it for the first session and cut it a little bit short. Felt much better for the Sunday session. Easy pace 7.00min/km, threshold pace 5.25/km.

 

Week T-11 (68km):

Wednesday: Intervals

Plan: 9E + 3x 4min I /w 3min jg + 4x 1min R /w 2min jg + 3E

Actual: 4E, 15x 30s R /w 70s jg + 4E

Sunday: Long run

Plan: 22E

Actual: 25E

 

Ended up doing a different intervals session with my running group. Still ramping up so was happy to do a slightly easier workout. Went a bit longer on the long run then.

 

Week T-10 (54km):

Wednesday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 6E + 2x 2.5T /w 2min rest + 3E

Actual: Completed as planned

Sunday: Raheny 5.2 Mile

Plan: 7.5E + 1.5T + 12M + 3E

Actual: 4.5E to Raheny. 8.5km race @5.14/km

 

Good run on Wednesday, completed as planned.

Sunday’s planned marathon workout replaced by the Raheny 5Mile. Despite the initial lack of fitness, 3 weeks of running everyday with some quality workouts thrown in there had pulled me up to an estimated VDOT of 37. Lots of work still to do but this was the first sign I could potentially do a sub-4, was really happy with the run.

 

Week T-9: (60km):

Wednesday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 6E + 2x 2.5T /w 2min E + 1.5T + 3E

Actual: 6E + 2x 2.5T /w 2min E + 2.5E

Sunday: Trim 10 Mile

Plan: 7.5E + 13.5M + 3E

Actual: 16M

 

Slightly shorter Wednesday session due to lack of time more than anything else, but was hanging a bit near the end so not too unhappy about cutting it short.

Replaced the planned Marathon paced workout with the Trim 10 mile, where I ran it mostly at M effort which was comfortable at 5.41/km. I ended up picking up the speed a little bit for the last few km and sprinting the last 200m uphill into the wind to finish in 1.29.59

 

Week T-8 (82km):

Wednesday: Intervals

Plan: 12E + 5x 3min I /w 2 min jg + 3x 2min I /w 1min jg + 3E

Actual: Completed as planned

Sunday: Long Run

Plan: 25E

Actual: 30E

 

Intervals session went as planned. Stretched it to 30km on the long run as I was feeling good. Average pace 6.35/km for the long run and felt comfortable throughout. Legs were definitely tired afterwards.

 

Week T-7 (54km):

Thursday: Marathon Workout

Plan: 3E + 15M + 1.5T + 3E

Actual: 2E + 16M + 2T + 2E

Sunday: Marathon Workout (Deferred)

Plan: 4.5E + 18M + 1.5E

Actual: 2E + 20M + 1.5E

Slightly tweaked the Thursday run but kept the spirit of it. Averaged 5.44/km for the M effort and 5:02/km for T. Skipped the Sunday workout due to storms, delayed it until Monday.

 

Week T-6 (78km):

Wednesday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 45minE + 2x(3T w/2 min rest) + 1.5T + 1.5E

Actual: Parkrun on Saturday

Sunday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 3E + 3T + 60minE + 2x(1.5T w/1 min rest) + 3E

Actual: Completed as planned

Monday was the deferred session from the previous week. Ended up skipping the Wednesday workout due to work conflicts and having a short recovery from Monday. Raced the Parkrun on Saturday to make up for it and got my first PB in 2+ years - coming in at 23.48. My previous best was 24.09 back in November 2019. Sunday's run went as planned despite it being another stormy/windy day.

Week T-5 (82km):

Wednesday: Intervals

Plan: 10E + 5x(3min I w/2 min jg) + 4x(1min R w/2 min jg) + 1.5E

Actual: Completed as planned

Sunday: Long Run

Plan: 27E

Actual: 30E

Good week overall and the peak distance completed. Both workout completed mostly as planned, going a little further in the long run again. I found the I/R intervals the easiest to hit the target paces on throughout the whole cycle, so looked forward to those days.

Week T-4 (78km):

Thursday: Intervals 

Plan: 10E + 5x(3min I w/3 min jg) + 1.5T + 4E

Actual: 10E + 5x(3min I w/3 min jg) + 1.5T + 1.5E

Sunday: Marathon Workout

Plan: 1.5E + 13M + 1.5E + 10M + 1.5E

Actual: 1E + 24M + 2E

Ran out of time on Thursday so cut the cooldown short a little bit. Workout finished as planned otherwise. I tweaked the Marathon workout on Sunday but completed the spirit of it if nothing else. Average 5.35/k for the Marathon effort - which was a struggle at times, especially towards the end of the workout. Still it put me in a really good spot for hitting the sub-4 goal.

Week T-3 (61km):

Thursday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 10E + 4x(6min T w/1 min rest) + 2E

Actual: Completed as planned

Sunday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 1.5E + 2x(12min T w/2 min rest) + 10E

Actual: Parkrun Saturday + 12k Easy on Sunday

Work schedule messing things around again - ended up pushing the Intervals to Thursday. Was down in Tralee for the weekend and did a bit of parkrun tourism - legs felt like lead the whole way around. I strugged to come in at 25.05 after going almost a minute faster a few weeks ago. The 12k easy run the next day was tough enough as well. Start of the taper at least, so I hoped things would get a bit easier.

Week T-2 (54km):

Wednesday: Marathon/Threshold Workout

Plan: 6E + 1.5T + 3M + 1.5E + 1.5T + 3M + 1.5E

Actual: Skipped

Sunday: Long Run

Plan: 15E

Actual: 17.5E

Another week, another skipped Q1 session - replaced by a parkrun once again. This time another PB coming in at 23:24 - the effects of the taper kicking in. Probably shouldn't have been racing a parkrun this close to the race - but I was scheduled to do a bunch of T/M running so hey - probably adds up to the same thing. Long run on Sunday went mostly as planned, slightly longer but overally the weekly distance was on target.

Week T-1 (30km):

Tuesday: Threshold Intervals

Plan: 3E + 5x (800m T w/2min E jog) + 3E

Actual: Completed as planned

Sunday: Race!

Plan: Smash it

Actual: Yup

Tuesday session went as planned, and then did about 10km less easy running across the rest of the taper days compared to what was on the plan. Figured it was safer to go too light than to risk anything at this point. Race day report is above ^

deconduo

W/C 4th April: Recovery week complete, and legs are mostly back to normal

Mon: 1.5k easy on grass - Very slow, just to make sure the legs still worked after Sunday. 7.30/km

Tue: 3.5k easy - 6.40/km, a little bit better but still slow.

Wed: 5k easy - 5.50/km, tired legs but back to normal pace now.

Thur: 5k easy

Fri: 5k easy

Sat: 11k easy, was at a wedding on Friday so no parkrun today. Got out for a longer run in the evening. Put on the Boston 9s for the first time in a while and definitely noticed the lack of cushion. Felt weird to run so close to the ground again :D

Sun: 5k easy with some hill sprints (and a 50k cycle)

Training for marathon #3 in Berlin starts at the end of May, so I have a few weeks of base building before starting back on Jack Daniels for a second round. I finally got the bike out for the first time today as well and did a nice spin out to Dun Laoghaire. I have two Triathlons that I signed up for as well, but Berlin is going to be the primary goal for the rest of the year.

deconduo

Took a minute off my parkrun time this morning, down to 22.30! Probably means that a 3.30 marathon in Berlin is not impossible if the training goes well.

deconduo

W/C 11th April:

The problem of finishing a fairly structured plan and not being sure of what to do next. Did random stuff from day to day. Not enough easy running this week I think, too many workouts. Will take it easier for the next few weeks.

Mon: After a week of easy/recovery running I was ready for a little bit of speed so I did a mini threshold workout. 1km Threshold/1 Easy/1 Threshold/1 Easy/1 Threshold. Average 4.55/k for the Threshold KMs, HR was fine but legs were tired.

Tue: 11k easy

Wed: 1 Mile solo Time Trial. Watched a great video about the mile race - I've never tried to run a mile before so decided to do it on a whim. Completed it in 6:23 which was faster than I expected - was torture! Also got to try out a new pair of Alphaflys that I got in the recent sale - found them a bit firm initially but they softened up in later runs thankfully.

Thur: 8k easy

Fri: 12k easy

Sat: Parkrun PB - 22.30. Knocked almost a full minute off - felt great. Massive improvement from all the marathon training. Target for Berlin has to be 3.30 now after that.

Sun: 15k easy - too long a run to do before a race, but got peer pressured into it.

Mon: Battle of Clontarf 10 Mile. I had two 10 Miles finished before, 84 minutes in Trim 2020, and 90 minutes in Trim 2022. Plugging things into the Jack Daniels calculator meant that the Paris marathon result suggested an 83 min 10 Mile but the parkrun on Saturday suggested 78 minutes. I figured I'd split the difference and aim for 80 minutes, and have a PB as the fallback plan if things went south.

Ended up clocking in at exactly 8 minutes at each mile marker, with a little bit of a push at the end to hit 9M at 71.30 and finish in 78.52! Right - after a 1Mile, 5k and 10Mile PB this week it's time to give my legs a rest and stick with easy running (and a bit of cycling) for the next week.

Unknownability

Congratulations on all the PB's.

Hope you can stay fit until Berlin and give it a good crack.

deconduo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118943993#Comment_118943993

Thanks! Yep staying fit is the main thing now, when I started running first back in 2019 I got a good 6 months before injury followed by lack of motivation killed my training and progress. I've been lucky to avoid both since picking things back up again this year! I need to be careful not to overdo it now that I'm inbetween plans - and continue to dodge covid as well.

deconduo

Chill out week this week:

Tuesday - 12km easy

Wednesday - 5km easy

Thursday - 11km easy

Saturday - Ride Dingle - 60km cycle

Sunday - 5km easy

Total 50km running/60km cycle.

deconduo

Well I got covid and fell off the wagon for a while. Had just started the planned 18 week cycle for Berlin when I final got Covid. Ended up losing about 10 weeks between struggling to recover from covid and then a very fun but unproductive summer holidays. Put on a chunk of weight as well 😑

Back to proper training for the last 4 weeks at least, with 60km/80km/60km/80km complete. 2 weeks to go to Berlin so starting to taper a bit now.

Originally had eyes on 3.30 but that definitely isn't happening. 3.45 and a small improvement over Paris would be nice. Training runs have put marathon pace at roughly 5.20-5.25, but longest run I've done is 27km so we'll see.

deconduo

Last week's workouts:

Thursday - Threshold Intervals

8k easy

2x 12min threshold /w 2min rest (4.52, 4.52)

3x 6min threshold /w 1min rest (4.52, 4.55, 4.52)

3k easy

Sunday - Threshold Intervals

2k easy

3x 12min threshold /w 2min rest , (4.47, 4.45, 4.47)

10k easy

Everything completed as planned, though 80 minutes of cumulated threshold running was very tough.

This weeks planned workouts:

Tuesday - Marathon/Treshold Run (Last proper workout before taper)

6k Easy, 6min Threshold, 3k Marathon, 2k Easy, 6min Threshold, 3k Marathon, 3k Easy

Sunday - Long Run (Taper has begun)

90min Easy

deconduo

Tuesday - Marathon/Treshold Run

6k @5:56 / 6min @4:46 / 3k @5:07 / 2k @5:57 / 6min @4:47 / 3k @5:09 / 3k @6:06

19.5k total

Good run (apart from being a pain to type out), hit all the paces. Felt fairly fatigued at the end.

Sunday - Long Run:

17.5k @6:01

Great weather, legs were a little tired after 15k or so but felt good otherwise.

Good week overall, total distance of 57k - 7 days until Berlin now

deconduo

20/09/2022

It's race week!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 60' Easy

Wednesday: 20' Easy, 8x45s @5k effort /w 75s jog, 20' Easy

Thursday: 40' Easy

Friday: 40' Easy + 6x Strides

Saturday: 35' Easy shakeout in Berlin

Sunday: Race

Week went well and I felt good in all the runs. Tapering plus slightly cooler weather meant the easy runs felt very easy.

deconduo

Berlin Race Report

Training:

As mentioned above I've done about 6 weeks of solid training hitting 60-80km - not really where I wanted to be. However I was hitting the paces in the workouts for a 3.45/3.50 marathon so the plan was to hope the 12 weeks of training at the start of the year for Paris would carry over enough to drag me to a slight PB.

Pre-Race

Got up at 7.15, had a Maurten Drink 160 for breakfast. Got dressed and then headed to the start.Walked about 20min to the Brandenburg gate from the hotel and met up with some of the people I was over with. Hugged the wife and set off following the crowd for another 20min to the start line. It was my friend’s first marathon and she was nervous so chatting with her helped calm my own nerves.

Race

I figured I’d run on feeling to start with and figure things out from there. First 5km was smooth - some minor niggles that sorted themselves out after a few kms. Crossed the 5km line at 26.10 on the watch with HR in the upper end of Z2 and feeling comfortable. It was a good pace so I figured I’d stick to it for as long as possible. 

First does of caffeine of the day with a gel at 6km. The cups were awkward and I ended up just walking all of the water stations for a few seconds to grab them and drink. Took a cup of the Maurten 160 drink when it was available as well at each of the stations.

Support crew were waving flags at 7km and I got a good boost from that :) 10km marker came up and I was still doing pretty even splits. HR was a bit higher now, low Z3.

Cross the halfway point and I knew that my 3.45 target was looking good, and even 3.40 was an outside possibility. I’ve never managed a negative split in a race before so I didn't think I had a massive chance. In Paris I felt comfortable up until the 24km mark and then started to struggle at that point. I passed the 21.1km banner happy but acutely aware the hard part was yet to come.

At 25km the run felt tough but under control. Legs weren’t too tired, breathing was ok, HR at the upper end of Z3. Overall I was just ‘in the zone’ and the km markers started to pass one by one. 30km ticked by with my fastest split, and 35km quickly followed. Ok, not to get too excited but <3.40 is on the cards here. 

A little bit after the 35km mark and the race finally caught up to me. My legs were getting heavy and breathing was difficult. The pain was kicking in, now felt similar to the middle of a tough threshold workout, except those were usually 1-2km and I had 6km to go. HR was now in Z4 and I could feel it. I did some quick maths and figured I needed to hit 5:10 on every km to the finish to get under the 3.40 mark. Right - target locked in.

Every time I glanced down at my watch it showed my pace as  5.15 or 5.20 - I’d push myself to go faster for a few minutes then lose concentration and slow down to my body’s ‘comfort’ pace again. The last 6km was torture of forcing the pace up and trying to not drop concentration through the pain.

I kept looking ahead for the Brandenburg gate but at this point it was endless turn after turn after turn with nothing up ahead. Finally after what seemed like an hour I turned a corner and could see it in the distance with just under a km to go. I think I had about 10 seconds of ‘banked’ time at this point so I just pushed as hard as possible.

Saw the Kerry flag from my support crew about 100m from the finish so gave a quick thumbs up and then collapsed over the line. Watch had me just under 3.40 - success!

Post Race:

One of the guys in the group had finished ahead of me and I spotted him in front of the Reichstag. The rest of the crew then started to filter in, with great times across the board. We grabbed a coffee and then headed back to the hotel to shower. Then we all went out for food, drinks and a great night.

Splits:

5km: 26:05 (5.15)

10km: 26:10 (5.14)

15km: 25:59 (5.12)

20km: 26:18  (5.17)

Half: 1.50.06

25km: 26:08 (5.14)

30km: 25:51 (5.10)

35km: 25:48 (5.10)

40km: 25:52 (5.10)

42.2k: 11.09 (5.04)

Final: 3:39.20

deconduo

W/C 26/09/2022

Rest week after Berlin.

• Mon: Rest
• Tue: Rest
• Wed: Rest
• Thur: 25' recovery (6.09/k)
• Fri: Rest
• Sat: 45' easy (5.52/k)
• Sun: 65' easy (5.46/k)

W/C 03/10/2022

Building back up the distance

• Mon: Rest
• Tue: 65' easy (5.57/k)
• Wed: 65' easy (6.17/k)
• Thur: 65' easy (6.03/k)
• Fri: 65' easy (5.44/k)
• Sat: 55' easy + 5x strides (5.52/k)
• Sun: 90' easy (5.42/k)

Good 2 weeks overall, recovered quickly after Berlin and my easy pace has gotten a little bit faster. Next week is more of the same again, mostly easy running with some strides - and lengthening the long run a bit more. Mini-taper for Dublin after that.

deconduo

W/C 10/10/2022

Same as last week, just adding in another day with Strides, and stretching the long run a bit more.

• Mon: Rest
• Tue: 65' easy + 5x strides (5.57/k)
• Wed: 65' easy (6.17/k)
• Thur: 65' easy + 5x strides (6.03/k)
• Fri: 65' easy (5.44/k)
• Sat: 65' easy (5.52/k)
• Sun: 120' easy (5.42/k)

Good week overall, with the strides breaking up some of the monotony of the easy runs. Looking back at a 10km easy run this time last year I'm about 90 seconds per km faster, and HR is 8-10bpm lower, so its good to see the clear improvements.

This week is more of the same, with the only change being some M pace running on Sunday (3km Easy, 13km M Pace, 3km Easy). Then one week of taper to Dublin.

deconduo

W/C 17/10/2022

• Mon: Rest
• Tue: 65' easy + 5x strides (5.58/k)
• Wed: 65' easy 40' easy (5.58/k)
• Thur: 65' easy (5.55/k)
• Fri: 65' easy + 5x strides (5.54/k)
• Sat: 65' easy 30' easy (5.45/k)
• Sun: 3k easy, 13k@MP, 3k easy (5.18/k)

Slight niggle with lower left leg this week, cut 2 runs short as a precaution but seems to be doing ok. Will keep an eye on it dring the taper.

Sunday run went well, despite torrential rain and wind! Looking forward to next week now!

deconduo

W/C 24/10/2022

• Mon: Rest
• Tue: 45' easy (6.07/k)
• Wed: 3.5k easy + 3.5k MP + 4k easy (5.31/k)
• Thur: 45' easy (6.00/k)
• Fri: 45' easy + 5x strides (5.51/k)
• Sat: 30' easy (5.49/k)

Unfortunately the niggle is still there in the left leg. Not sure if its going to flare up tomorrow or leave me alone - so we'll see. Plan is to go out at 3.40 pace and see what happens.

Unknownability

Best of luck tomorrow!