Swashbuckler's Marathon Debut?

Yeah definitely agree. I have to abandon all thoughts of my previous 5k/10k times. Maybe thats normal or maybe its the lack of marathon training experience in the legs. Maybe the more blocks you do the more accustomed you get? You seem to have little trouble getting your 5k pace out of your legs in a marathon block.

Haha i dont disagree...

It's part of Daniels philosophy. He places a big emphasis on threshold and marathon paced sessions. Then mixed in with that you'll see vanilla long runs and 5k sessions in equal measure but not as frequent as the threshold and marathon paced stuff.

And before you say it, yes I know it's a plan from a book and ideally we'd all be coached by someone who understands our individual needs as an athlete but set that aside for a second and imagine following a book plan was the greatest thing ever 😄😄😄

Great Limerick Marathon 2022 – Daniels 2Q Plan Week 6 – (03-Jan to 09-Feb)

Another very solid week. Feels like the issues from the first few weeks are behind me and I'm ticking away nicely here.

Thursday, Feb 3rd

Plan: 120mins Easy

Actual: 127mins Easy (16 miles), 7.56min/mile avg. Average HR 135.

Shoe: NB Fuelcell TC

A further sign that things seem to be settling - this run was nowhere near the slog that the 15 miler three weeks previous was. I thoroughly enjoyed this run. To the point that I was asking myself on the last mile could I pick this up to marathon pace and I definitely felt like I could - so there was more in the legs and mind for sure. A confidence booster of a run. Been a long time since I spent that amount of time on feet.

Friday, Feb 4th

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 5 miles, 42mins, 8.23min/mile

Perhaps a better indicator of the improvement was how I felt on the recovery run the day after. The best I've felt on a recovery run in this block. Still kept it very very handy regardless. Sticking to the mantra of two big sessions followed by two very slow days.

Solo parenting the three that evening til the next day with the missus getting her first night away since the baba was born. Handled it far far better than I thought I would.

Saturday, Feb 5th

Plan: Rest

Actual: "Rest" - is it ever truly rest when kids are involved. Missus returned early afternoon to a very peaceful and happy house.

Sunday, Feb 6th 

Plan: Easy plus strides

Actual: Easy plus 6x20s strides, 8.3 miles, 68mins, 8.09mins/mile avg

Felt super here. You know you're marathon training when you go from feeling like you're struggling too much to asking yourself are you too fresh.........Felt too good on this run. Loved it. If only you could bottle those days.

Monday, Feb 7th

Plan: 40mins Easy/3x2T off 2mins/2E

Actual: 40mins Easy/3x2T off 2mins/2E

Shoe: Saucony Endorphin Pro

Very very very tricky conditions with the wind. It seemed to get worse as the run went on too especially on sets 2 and 3 of the threshold work. Tried to go on effort but got sucked into fighting the wind at times which is unlike me. Character building. Wanted to stop with 800m to go which says a lot. Will draw on that when the going gets tough on race day. Happy with my days work although I know small parts of it were probably higher than threshold effort. One of those nights with the weather - but three weeks ago I wouldnt have finished this session. At least I had the sense to let the effort level come back down once I wasnt getting blasted in the face with wind. Interestingly the HR data suggests I was within threshold for most if not all the time.

40ish mins Easy: 8.09/8.04/8.19/8.08/8.12

2T: 6.11/6.07

2T:6.13/6.12

2T: 6.16/6.15

2E: 8.11/8.03

Total: 13.66 miles, 1hr41mins, 7.21min/mile average

Tuesday, Feb 8th

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 5M, 42mins, 8.20min/mile average

Very good again - tired but not a slog.

Wednesday, Feb 9th

Plan: Easy with strides

Actual: Easy 7 miles incl. 8x20s strides, 58mins30s, 8.19avg

Nothing major to report. A little tired and didnt drink as much water as I should this morning but legs felt ok and the strides woke them up. Run of the mill tick the box easy run.

_______________________________________________________________________

Planned mileage for the week: 54

Actual mileage for the week: 55

Time on feet: 7hrs 18mins

Miles in the block to date: 318.6

Number of MP miles: 17

Number of Threshold miles: 31

Comments

• Very solid - some good threshold work and a very nice vanilla long run. Not getting over the top happy. It is what it is and its more to do with the entire block than a few random sporadic good weeks. Happy with progress though.
• Diet - same as last week. Good but I love my snacks....maybe i'll get more disciplined at some point soon....maybe.
• Sleep was pretty good the past week aided by a couple of late evening naps with the baba while the missus got a break - I now understand why the elites nap so much - a few hours here and there on top of the normal sleep makes such a difference.
• Anyone interested , or know anybody interested in a free Adare 10k transfer?

Next weeks sessions;

Q1: 2E/6M/1E/6M/1E (looking forward to this! hopefully the weather holds up)

Q2: 6E/3T/3minE/2T/2minE/1T/2E

Big week coming and the first of the peak mileage weeks (Target peak mileage for me is 60 miles).

Great Limerick Marathon 2022 – Daniels 2Q Plan Week 8 – (17-Feb to 23-Feb)

Anyone else sick of this feckin' weather?! I'm sorry I didn't title this log "The Windy Road to Nowhere".

Thursday, Feb 17th

Plan: 10E/2x2T off 2mins/2E

Actual: 10E/2x2T off 2mins/3E

Shoe: NB Fuelcell TC

10 miles easy before even touching off the faster stuff - god I miss 10k training 😂

This was a big session and a toughie. Long day at work, kids put to bed and reluctantly headed out. Weather was crap, as has been the theme of this training block! Headed out towards Raheen for the 10 mile "warmup". Felt good to be honest. Always a good sign when my easy miles naturally fall around 8min/mile. Did the first of the 2T on North Circular Road. I'm determined I'll have that road beaten before it gets a chance to beat me on the day. Going around it at 6.10 pace after 10 miles easy should put me in good stead. The wind was all over the shop, particularly for the threshold miles so I went purely by feel and ignored the watch. Not forcing the paces on this plan as I said last week. Headed back in the Condell Road for the second 2T. To be fair the Condell road is flat although slight headwind in place. Legs were very much feeling it by the end but was very very happy with my nights work. I forgot to mention the feeling of panic when I saw "Low Battery" flash up 8 miles into the run. "Great" ,I said, "I've done a Healy on it". Amazingly the battery lasted a further 9 miles. Once the threshold stuff finished I saved it off and restarted for the cooldown. It never died. Three miles added on for cooldown giving a decent 17 miles for the night. Satisfied. But tough.

10E: 7.55/8.03/8.06/8.00/7.56/8.03/8.04/8.03/98.04/8.08 (there's nothing quite like that horrible feeling of seeing mile 10 approaching an end knowing you now need to pick it up to threshold for two miles)

2T: 6.12/6.20

2T: 6.14/6.04 (was working hard by the end - HR suggests threshold. Breathing suggested otherwise)

3E: 8.30/8.16/8.07

Total: 17 miles, 2hr11mins

Friday, Feb 18th

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 4 miles, 33.30mins, 8.23min/mile

Storm was about - got out early in the morning but was very blustery. Kept it local to home.

This was essentially a double day being only 12hrs since the end of the previous days session! Knowing I had two big session this week and only 54 miles to make up in total I kept this shorter than usual.

Saturday, Feb 19th

Plan: Rest

Actual: Solo parenting two of the kids followed by taking the eldest to the circus - she had a ball. Then taking the little one overnight. Yes, "Rest".

Sunday, Feb 20th 

Plan: Easy plus strides

Actual: Easy 6.7 miles incl 6x20s Strides, 55mins, 8.11mins/mile avg

More wind so I stayed local again! And GPS never unstupided itself meaning the average pace is off.. Felt great.

Monday, Feb 21st

Plan: 8E/5x3min Interval off 2min/6x1min R off 2min/2E

Actual: 8E/5x3min Interval off 2min/4x1min R off 2min/2E

Shoe: Saucony Endorphin Speed

First of all - when this is all over and done with, these session in the Daniels plan are the ones I will not miss..

Secondly - the Speeds are just a great shoe for this pace. I love them.

This session was a bit of a progression on the session from several weeks ago although it had two extra easy miles tacked on at the start. Back then I really struggled with this session. I still do, but less so. Similar daunting feeling closing out on 8 miles knowing you need to hit 5k effort. 3mins has never felt so long. This was just plain hard. Trying to manage the windy conditions didnt help but to be fair I used a stretch of road that had more of a crosswind than a tail or headwind. Completed the 5x3mins ok. 6x1min cant be that bad can it? Yes, it can. By the fourth rep I could feel the legs just really fatiguing over the last 20 seconds of the rep. Decided to leave it at that. These sessions really take my calf muscles right to the edge. No point forcing it. What is an extra 2 x 1mins gonna buy me? ANother big one in the bank. Really feel like I'm getting into the meat of the plan now.

8E: 8.01/7.59/7.59/8.02/7.56/8.03/8.01/8.15

5x3mins pace for each: 5.41/5.42/5.40/5.42/5.41 (semi half jogged most recoveries)

4x1mins pace for each: 5.07/5.10/5.15/5.23 (shaky legs by the end of the 5.23) (walked most recoveries)

2E: 8.29/8.18

Total: 15 miles, 1hr59mins, 7.55min/mile average

Tuesday, Feb 22nd

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 5 miles, 42.30mins, 8.29min/mile average

Very tired - legs, body and mind

Wednesday, Feb 23rd

Plan: Easy with strides

Actual: Easy 7 miles incl. 8x20s strides, 59mins, 8.25avg

Felt good - wind very bad again today. Legs pretty much recovered. Strides were "poppy".

_______________________________________________________________________

Planned mileage for the week: 54

Actual mileage for the week: 54.7

Time on feet: 7hrs 20mins

Miles in the block to date: 433.5

Number of MP miles: 29

Number of Threshold miles: 41

Comments

• The weather was cat. So I'm very happy I managed all days as planned plus all sessions more or less as planned.
• Sleep has been very poor. Missus has been in the spare room with chesty cough (not Covid) so I've been on night duty.
• The Daniels 5k sessions are , so far, the most difficult on the plan. They also are very much against my philosophy on running. I think they carry a real risk of injury given the volume and pace. I felt like I wasnt a million miles away from cramp if I forced the extra 2 x 1mins.
• I feel stronger, even though the paces aren't necessarily showing it.
• Next week is a biggie!

Next weeks sessions;

Q1: 18 miles easy (technically 120mins but i'm bumping up this)

Q2: 2E/12M/2E (Yay more marathon paced miles!)

Just over 8 weeks to go!!

My calf muscles would disagree 😂

Honestly it really felt like I was about to cramp. I know what you're getting at and I'm honestly not one to take the easy way out and start doing it regularly.......but.......on that specific session I honestly think the load is too much...At least I think its too much for me....5 x 3mins at 5k alone is a decent nights work. Doing that as part of a 15 mile session with an extra 6 x 1mins at mile effort tacked on at the end.....I dunno.....its one of those sessions that really shows you who the Daniels sessions are really targeted at (I'd argue not debut marathon sub 3 runners!).

Honestly the form was gone - even 6min/mile pace would have been a wobbly, leggy chore.

Yeah I get you. For me the real mental testers are the threshold and marathon paced sessions. Yesterday it was a case of do I really want to risk injury for a couple of one minute reps.

Great Limerick Marathon 2022 – Daniels 2Q Plan Week 9 – (24-Feb to 02-Mar)

A lot going on this week!

Thursday, Feb 24th

Plan: 120mins

Actual: 18 miles (145mins)

Shoe: NB Fuelcell TC

Before anyone says it, yes I know this was much more than the plan! To be honest, looking at the vanilla long runs in the plan, if I stick to it rigidly then the max long vanilla run will be about 18 miles or so. I'd rather have at least a couple of loner runs with more time on my feet even if that goes against my specific plan. If I had gone with the 55-70mile 2Q plan id be running 18 and 20 milers at this stage. Anyways, excuses out the way.

Headed out towards Raheen for this one. Hadnt been feeling great all day. Just general tiredness from the weekend. This run was fine. But it was a slog. I completely get what AMK meant several weeks back when he said he would rather not do Daniels next time as its an unsociable plan. I'd much rather have company for these long vanilla runs but I don't really have any choice but to run these solo given work, family and life constraints. I dont see many people running their long runs on a Monday night 😂

This was my longest run ever, believe it or not. Happy to get it done. Didnt take on water or gels. Hit hard by the wind coming back in the Condell Road on Mile 16...Was cursing the wind.....again....

Total: 18 miles, 2hr25mins, 8.02min/mile average

Friday, Feb 25th

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 5 miles, 42mins, 8.23min/mile

Very tired. No pain or niggles...Just tired. Kept it very easy.

Saturday, Feb 26th

Plan: Rest

Actual: Rest. Had a nice day actually. Got the two eldest out and about to the playground. They were fun. Had a nice evening.

Sunday, Feb 27th 

Plan: Easy plus strides

Actual: Easy 8.4 miles incl 8x20s Strides, 70mins, 8.38mins/mile avg

Absolutely wrecked all day. Zero enthusiasm heading out and..................loved every minute. Running makes zero sense.

Monday, Feb 28th

Plan: 2E/12M/2E

Actual: 3E/12M/2E

Shoe: Saucony Endorphin Pro

Well then - a biggie...Probably the biggest on the plan to date. 12 miles at marathon pace.

I've been getting a little braver with my routes lately. Given how I felt in the first few weeks of the plan I was keeping the routes generally flat. It was just too much trying to adjust to the new stimulus and then throw in lumpy routes to add to the mix. Well around weeks 4-7 I started to adjust to the stimulus and so now I'm taking on board some inputs and learnings from some experienced folks and throwing in some lumps and bumps into my session.

First 6 miles were reasonably comfortable. I really didnt pay too much attention to the watch - checked it every now and then alright but was trying to go by effort. Weather was much improved so that wasnt really a factor til later in the run when it started to heat up.

I hadnt really preplanned the route too much and at mile 7 I was faced with a dilemma opportunity. As I passed by Jetland I had planned on taking a right and heading back in Condell road (pretty flat). The pedestrian lights turned green just as I was about to turn meaning the possibility of heading up that nasty hill at the GAA grounds was now in play. Made a split second decision to take the harder route and head up the hill. To be honest, I'd be annoyed if I didnt face that hill once in the training block. Pace fell back a bit but effort level was about right (I think).

Hit by the wind on Condell coming back in around mile 10/11 of the marathon paced section. Finished up with a two mile cooldown for 17 miles all in.

This was a tough session and to be honest its very hard to judge marathon effort. Like what does it mean to run marathon effort on mile 1 versus mile 12? I can honestly say my effort level at the start vs the end were not the same.

Either way this is one of those sessions that give a big confidence boost. That being said, Duanington had mentioned the notion of smashing all sessions out of the park on AMK's log. It really resonates with me. I've always worked best when not all sessions were monster sessions, especially when working with Luke. This Daniels plan well and truly feels like every session is a big one. Its a pretty relentless plan. I'm not sure i'd follow it again to be honest.

One other thing worth noting here was my approach mentally to the session. Thought it might be of interest to some. I tend to break up these sessions into segments. For this I initially focus on just the first 3 miles. Forget the rest. Once those 3 miles pass I note in my head that I'm one quarter of the way there. Park that and think about the next three. Once done, i'm half the way there. So the fraction is always moving in the right direction to keep me positive in my mindset. I'm also counting down. So only 6 miles left to go, then five then four and so on. The last few is just pure concerntration knowing its almost done. Works for me anyway!

12M: 6.54/6.55/6.51/6.48/6.44/6.43/6.58/6.46/6.56/6.51/6.53/6.46

Total: 17 miles, 2hr02mins, 7.10min/mile average

Tuesday, Mar 1st

Plan: Easy

Actual: Easy 5 miles, 44mins, 8.25min/mile average

Back in the office again and boy what a novelty it is to be running in the Raheen/Dooradoyle/Mungret area again. Loved it. Tired but easy.

Wednesday, Mar 2nd

Plan: Easy with strides

Actual: Easy 7.2 miles incl. 8x20s strides, 60mins, 8.20avg

Felt pretty recovered and energetic today - again buoyed by the fact im in new surroundings.

_______________________________________________________________________

Planned mileage for the week: 60

Actual mileage for the week: 60.5

Time on feet: 8hrs 03mins

Miles in the block to date: 494

Number of MP miles: 41

Number of Threshold miles: 41

Comments

• Solid week but probably the most fatigued i've been in a few weeks.
• Sleep has been very hit and miss still. Little one waking every night around 4 or 5am but going back to sleep soon after. Still a disturbed sleeping pattern for me though.
• Back at work so adjusting to a new routine between work and home.
• As said above this is very much a "knock it out of the park every week" plan.

Next weeks sessions;

Q1: 2E/6M/1E/4M/1T/1E (emboldened in the plan so open to change - will see how the body is tomorrow)

Q2: 5E/3x2T off 2min/1T/2E