Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Yep, I like this.

For my DCM block last year (Bob Williams plan) all speed work was 10k pace. Felt I got a lot from it.

Thanks guys, resting until Thurs as per physio's advice, then will run easy until Sunday. Visiting him then on Monday to see what's what.

Well overdue an update here, and am promising myself I will do so regularly.

What's what was he gave me the green light to pretty much crack on, albeit with another week of gentle easy running. Music to my ears obv. Said it's the type of injury that responds well to activity. Am still feeling it but it's improved, and most importantly the anxiety around it has gone.

Missed a chunk of the plan though, but barring a 4 day spell of rest I kept running albeit easy peasy. Picked things back up Hansonwise Tue Aug 1st. So will log from that point.

Tue Aug 1st - 3x 1m, 10k target pace. Fell short of target pace but felt real good to be back on track sessioning. Ran this at 6:40am, more on this below.

Thurs Aug 3rd - 7m Tempo (MP). Original pre setback target was 3:05. I felt that a little too spicy now so adjusted and targetted 3:10 (4:30km pace). Wore the new Endorphin Elites to test, the Amsterdam race shoe. Absolutely loved them, felt they greatly improved how I land, feels like they encourage landing on the mid/forefoot. Pace felt fairly effortless, although I did average 3:12 by the end of it. Good session though and felt bulletproof all day after it.

Fri Aug 4th - 6m easy - Ran 10.3km, 5:29km, 125bpm. Reassuring looking back at last year's block and seeing the big improvements in this type of run.

Sat Aug 5th - 10m easy - 5:39km, 129bpm

Sun Aug 6th - 10m easy - 5:36km, 131bpm

Mon Aug 7th - 8m easy - 5:35km, 126bpm

Tue Aug 8th - 6x 800, target 10k pace, 400 recs, WU/CD - Alarm went off at 5:50am for this one and I've learnt something. I had the option of doing this one after work, which is rare enough. When an alarm goes off at 5:50am and you have options, you take them. I need to not have options. Brought the gear to work thinking I would rock up to some available public track after work and session the hell out of it. Turned out I ended up working late unexpectedly and got home at 9:50pm. I had made a promise to myself that no matter what happened I would get this week done, no excuses. So with that in mind I set out at 10pm to the local industrial estate to get the session done.

It was glorious. Felt like running during lockdown. Not a soul or sound around. I was running the middle of the road, could have ran naked.

The most interesting thing happened. I nailed the pace. I don't nail paces on sessions. I don't worry about it though as I tend to do alright on raceday. Target was 3:12 per rep (time, not pace lol). Ran 3:12, 3:13, 3:10, 3:11, 3:13, 3:08.

I rarely if ever run speed sessions at night time, always at the crack of dawn. The last session I ran at night was my 5x 1k build up to Leixlip, and I nailed that too. Am thinking there might be something there, and that maybe I should calibrate my morning sessions to suit. Particularly the MP ones. Would love to hear people's opinions on that. Edit - reading over and it's maybe unclear what I mean. Should I accept that I'm a few seconds slower early morning, and factor that in to my target?

Thurs Aug 10th - 8m Tempo (MP). Again I targeted 3:10 pace. Wore the Endorphin Pro 3s for this. Was bang on 4:30km pace for it, so slight improvement on previous week. Felt like hard work though towards the end. Draggy finish to my route but it should be feeling hard anyway.

Fri Aug 11th - 7m easy - 5:36km, 127bpm

Sat Aug 12th - 8m easy. Met my buddy @tunguska at Marlay parkrun. I ran a few miles easy beforehand and finished with parkrun. Ran parkrun itself mostly easy although I did pick things up a little in the second half and couldn't help myself putting a bit of boot down for the last km. Great park, fantastic to see the amount of runners milling about there at 8:30am. Picked up some great nuggets of advice from tunguska as usual. Superb athlete and all around awesome guy.

Sun Aug 13th - 15m Long - For the uninitiated, Hanson alternates Sunday long runs between 'Easy' and 'Long'. Long is 30 - 40 secs slower than MP. So I set out this morning targeting 5:00km pace. Went really well, averaged 5:03km. Did feel the hip niggle more strongly than previous days, and had to stop at about 6 miles to stretch it out. Not too concerned though, discomfort came and went.

Target for now is between 3:08 to 3:12. I'll reassess that though in the coming couple of weeks. 3:05 may well be back on, we'll see.

Onwards.

Monday Sep 4 - 8m easy - 5:34km, 116bpm. Out at 6:20am for this one, an achievement for me for a Monday.

Tuesday Sep 5 - Strength session, 3x 2 mile, 800 recs. Set out just after 6am. As mentioned above, I'm finding these sessions as tough as they're supposed to be. First rep was bang on pace at 4:20km. Second rep averaged 4:22, third rep 4:26. Bit of a climb on that third one so the GAP probably evened it out. Couldn't wait for it to finish though. Felt the session did it's job.

Thursday Sep 7 - 9m Tempo. Again, just after 6am. With a little bit of time pressure I shortened the WU and CD to 2k each, back to school is a bit of a pain in that regard. Tempo went amazingly well, the conditions were absolutely perfect, a stunning morning, warm but not hot. Miles just flew by and I nailed target pace (4:30km) bang on. Definitely one of my best ever sessions, brimming with confidence after it.

Friday Sep 8 - 7m easy - 5:42km, 118bpm

Saturday Sep 9 - 8m easy - 5:40km, 124bpm. This was a bit of a slog tbh. Had a few beers Friday night and was feeling them. Ran at lunchtime in the hot sun which added to it. Brought a 250ml soft flask with me, don't think I've ever done that before for anything other than a long run but I needed it. Demon drink 😊

Sunday Sep 10 - 16m Long Run (steady). Met up with @Laineyfrecks and @Sandwell in the PP for this one, Lainey was doing an hour steady (plus more that didn't overlap), which is the same pace as me (5:00km) and Sandwell had a 10m easy on his plate. Was excited to meet Sandwell, he ran Amsterdam last year, or should I say smashed Amsterdam last year, following the Hanson method. He's following Hanson again this year for Berlin so it was great to be able to bend his ear about it. Such a cool guy, the miles ticked by real quick with all the interesting conversation between the three of us. Had a slight bit of dread yesterday about this one, given the 8m easy felt rough, but it went by in a breeze. I did have a little wobble at about 12 miles with a stiff right leg, stopped for about 20 secs and shook it loose and managed to continue on strong. I get that often enough so nothing to be concerned about. Felt really amazing all day after it.

60.5m for the week, for my longest week ever.

Onwards.

Likewise E, was such an enjoyable run, and coffee after 🙂

Consistent week again thankfully. It's all we can hope for in the final stages of a mara block, just to be able to keep going minus mishap.

Mon Sep 18 - 8m easy. 5:43km, 124bpm. An evening run, after getting kids to bed.

Tuesday Sep 19 - 3x 2m, 800 recs. A little after 6am for this one. Decided on the industrial estate for this one as my preferred route up Lyons (Country) road towards the canal was flooded the previous Sunday.

Woke up, looked out the window and gulped. Holy moly the weather was insane. Swirling rain, howling wind. Feck it, has to be done. The Industrial estate route is hilly too. I was actually laughing out loud at one point at how absurd it was. I was running uphill into a screaming gale with rain hopping off me. Needless to say I was way off pace. Target for these sessions is 10 secs faster than MP, so 4:20km. First rep was 4:30, second was 4:36, third was 4:38.

Weather aside, I don't think I've absolutely nailed any of these Tue sessions yet. An observation rather than a concern.

Wednesday Sep 20 - Rest day. Got almost 9 hours sleep Tue night which was fantastic. Bed early again Wed night in prep for the first of the 10 milers.

Thursday Sep 21 - 10m Tempo (MP) - A couple of months ago, looking forward at the plan I dreaded the days the tempos hit 10m. I knew by the time they came knocking I'd be well fatigued. Hadn't ran a 6m yet at that point, the thoughts of a 10miler! Had read so much about how tough Thursdays were anyway, and now we're at the business end of it.

Got up at 5:30am and got myself ready. Set off at 5:45am. I mentioned above that my usual route for these was flooded on Sunday. Well I only forgot this fact. 😃 I remembered as I turned up the country road out of the village, decided to crack on and see if it had cleared. It hadn't.

Road was pitch dark, was running under star light. Beautiful, but not ideal when you're trying to figure out whether you're about to run in a lake or a road. I ran in a lake. Just at the end of my warm up.

Stopped for a bit, took off my shoes and socks and dried my feet with some tissues. Socks and shoes were soaking though, so put them back on and squelched off on my 10 mile Tempo.

Went so so well. Felt so strong throughout. Nailed target pace again averaging bang on 4:30 km. I'm feeling so absolutely amazing on these Thursday sessions, and it's in no small part down to the focus on recovery on Wednesday. Bursting with confidence now because of that. I'm dying with fatigue come Tuesday, but am bouncing back real quick after a day's rest. With fresh legs after the taper I should be in good shape for this.

Fri Sep 22 - 7m easy - 5:33km, 122bpm

Sat Sep 23 - 8m easy - 5:31. 123bpm

Sun Sep 24 - 16m Long (steady). Target pace 4:50 - 5:05. Average pace 4:54, 137pbm.

Last of the long runs. Decided last minute to head to the PP for this one. Was planning on running the same route as two weeks previous. 6m in I bumped into @Laineyfrecks . She was out doing 25k steady, at the same pace as me. We joined up and ran her Furze rd loop. Was magic, the miles just ticked by. Had some really great chats, and we both got excited talking about Amsterdam. So so close now.

I feel ready, feel like I'm in good shape.

Man I love mara training. It's tough as hell but Jesus does it make you feel good.

61.59m for the week. Peak week, and my longest ever.

Onwards.

T minus 36 hours. Excitement is real now.

Had a roller coaster of a couple of weeks, battling a fair bit of negativity for a few days. Things definitely seem to be lining up now though, and am feeling a nice degree of confidence.

Monday Oct 2 - 8m easy, 5:36km, 125bpm. Nipped off a little early from work for a PP run. This felt pretty good, the niggle didn't feature that much, only a slight bit of sensitivity at the beginning which cleared quickly. I was using this run to decide on whether or not to do Tuesday's session. The Thurs tempo was on my mind also, I really didn't want to miss it, so Tue was getting shelved if this run wasn't comfortable.

Tue Oct 3 - 6x 1m @ 4:20 pace, 400 recs. Rep on the watch is 1.61km so the target for these was 6:58. I've been struggling all along to hit target pace on these sessions. Some were tough conditions, but a lot were fine and flat and I still struggled. Couldn't believe how amazing I felt on these ones though. I just felt an incredible sense of zen or something at the pace, like everything was working perfectly. Stride felt so fluid.

Reps were 6:58, 6:58, 6:58, 6:51, 6:55, 6:58. So so happy with this session, confidence through the roof after it.

Wed Oct 4 - Rest day. Kept a close eye on the lower left leg, ready to abort the Thurs tempo if need be, but really really wanting to do it. I felt good.

Thurs Oct 5 - 10m tempo, target pace 4:30km. Usual 2km warm up and set off. Big difference now to Tuesday, mentally. I had this weird negativity that I couldn't shake. I think I felt pressure to nail the pace here, for the sake of my confidence. Was dreading not hitting it and how that may make doubt creep in. This made the run feel tougher than it should. Had to work hard to get my head right. About 4 miles into it I managed to do that thankfully and the rest of it felt like it should. Hit 4:30 bang on average pace, but it was overall a tough enough jaunt.

Felt the niggle pretty bad then on Thurs evening/Fri morn, but wasn't getting too concerned. Tuesday's session helping there. Decided to sit out Friday and Saturday.

Sunday Oct 8 - 8m easy, 5:33km, 133bpm. Met up with S and E for this in the park. They were doing 10m so started a little earlier than me. Arranged to meet at the roundabout outside the visitors centre. I parked up and jogged towards there. It hurt pretty bad. Previously to this it would hurt for a couple of mins then warm up and I would be fine. This wasn't easing as quickly. Felt a little bit of doom I have to say. I met up with the guys then and jogged along with them. It started to ease but didn't fully clear until about 4km in. Felt totally fine from that point on. Worrying though.

Monday Oct 9 - Plan had 6m easy but I decided to do 5 v easy. Headed to the park again to run the Furze loop, a gorgeous little 2m loop that E introduced me to. Kept pace very very easy but again the sensitivity took a good 3 - 4k to fully clear. It seems from Dr. Google that it's an achillies thing, so at this point I'm thinking running gently on it is better than resting.

Tue Oct 10 - 8m v easy. Things improved a lot here. Sensitivity lasting only a few minutes.

Wed Oct 11 - Rest as per plan. I'm really battling demons the previous few days I have to say. Finding it hard to get the belief and confidence I need.

Thurs Oct 12 - 8m v easy. Every time I set out on these runs I'm nervous of the first stride, how is it going to feel, how long is it going to last. I've made plans in my head to do a couple of miles warm up on Sunday morn so I can go out at target pace.

Zero pain or sensitivity. Like a miracle. I actually can't believe it. So delighted. Confidence and belief back.

Fri Oct 13 - 4m v easy. Again, no issues. Happy out.

So, all go now then. About to go to bed to be up early for the trip to airport. Can't believe it's actually here. Gonna try fit in a shakeout tomorrow, but if I can't get it done I won't be too put out.

I'll be working off 5k splits and plan to ease into things. Target is 3:10.

I've hit target pace bang on on every single tempo session, so I'm feeling good about it.

Fingers crossed for a good day out in the Dam.

Cheers J 😊👍

Amsterdam Marathon 2023 - Race Report

Ambivalence, Bittersweet, whatever the terminology, that's the emotion right now. Although mostly sweet, 80/20 sweet.

For the purpose of this log, and to help my development as a runner I'm going to focus a little on that 20%, in the hope of getting some knowledgeable, no holds barred feedback from you guys.

We flew over on Sat morn, myself, @skyblue46 and @Laineyfrecks. Such an exciting day, we parted for our hotels then met up a little later at the Expo.

Expo was great, a really fantastic buzz about the place and number collection was pretty seamless. We went for a bit of grub then parted ways again to bunker down in our hotels.

I got everything ready for the morning and settled down on the bed at about 7pm for the night. Watched the Rugby then went to sleep.

I felt a fair bit of unease I have to say on the Saturday night. I'm a big proponent of belief, and how powerful it can be if it's unwavering. I had to fight a little to instill it in myself on Saturday night. I think mostly though it was just pre race jitters, as I woke up Sunday morn feeling good, and feeling confident.

Went down at 6:30am for the hotel breakfast, had a muesli and coffee, then back to the room for a banana and began sipping on a Maurten 320. The hotel breakfast was packed with runners which was great.

The three of us had arranged to meet at 8:30am beside the bag drop. I got off the tram and made my way there, about 1200m away from the venue. I got caught up then in a disgusting hail storm and had to duck for cover. Panic a little as it was 8:30 and I was still about 800m away. The hail stopped after 6 mins or so and I jogged to the meet point. Chaotic there with everyone trying to get changed and ready in the sparse dry sheltered spots. Met the guys then and we dropped off the bags. We then struggled to find our entry point to the stadium. It was really poorly signposted I have to say, the event was really well organised except for this. Loads of people were milling around with panicked faces trying to find where to go.

We finally discovered our entry point and joined the melee of people. It resulted in us starting way way too far back in our corral. In hindsight we should have gotten there earlier but without experience of it who's to know. I found the whole start experience to be bit confusing and panicked, but again, a product of us getting delayed.

Somehow we're off and running.

My race plan was to spend the first 5k easing into goal pace. My 5k target split for 3:10 was 22:30 but I planned to go through there in about 23mins.

I ran a 5k shakeout on Saturday morn and spent the whole run visualising that. Hitting 5k 30 secs off goal, being 30-40 secs off each 5k split up until 30k then picking things up, ie, the dream mara.

Congestion was brutal though and I hit 5k 63 seconds behind, 23:33. I'm not too bothered by it though at this stage, it can still be pulled back. I managed to finally get to goal pace for km6 but hit frustrating traffic again in km 7.

This part of the course is a hairpin, I looked over to the left and saw the 3:10 pace group. I had planned pre race to position myself between them and the 3:20s. I noticed then that they were approaching the 9km marker and we hadn't hit 7 yet. Dawned on me then actually how far back we were starting off.

Around this point too I came upon the 3:30 pace group. The road was wide enough here for them not to be a problem and I eased by them without issue. As frustrating as the congestion was, I have to admit to it being a buzz overtaking so many people.

Second 5k split came in at 23:04, so we're now 97 seconds off target.

It's mad to think but I wasn't able to fully get into goal pace, relatively uninterrupted until 10 or 11km in.

Haven't mentioned fueling, but I was pretty good this time out. Had an alert on the watch every 30 mins and took a Maurten 100. Also had some electro chews that I munched on regularly, and took water at every station.

10 - 15k was pretty good pacewise, in and around goal pace for most of it, 22:47 for the split. Things had opened up a little.

15k - 20k - 23:01 split. Around the 16k mark, running along the beautiful stretch along the Amstel I got the expected seizing up of the right leg. I've mentioned this before, it's a weird thing that happens me very regularly where my right leg just, I dunno, goes funny. It's like I can't fully bend it or something and am dragging it. It always works itself out and I'm brand new again but it affects my stride and pace. It lasted a mile or so before clearing up.

I started to feel a few little warning shots of cramp in the right calf at this point, around 18k or so. Not enough to slow me down, but enough to scare me and add a bit of dread. I figured it was related to the weird seizing thing though and settled the mind.

20 - 25k - 22:52 split. We're on the return stretch of the Amstel for most of this and the weirdest thing happened that had me scratching my head and doubting myself. So I told you I passed the 3:30 pace group at km 8 or so. This stretch is very narrow and I all of a sudden came upon a congested group of 'slow' runners. Looked ahead at the flags and saw 3:30 and nearly lost my mind. What the hell is going on here? I can't get passed them, try running the grass to the left and it's all uneven ground, try go through the middle and it's too chock full. I eventually get around them but was forced to run at 5:00 pace for a good 500m or so. I thought maybe I had read the previous flags wrong but no, Elaine said the same. Still can't get my head around it.

25 - 30k - 22:37 split. A good split, and am feeling really good right now. The odd warning shot of cramp in the left calf, but I'm still convinced it's fine.

In and around 30k I hear someone in the crowd shout 'C'mon Ireland' and I immediately know that it's Sean. I turn around to look and sure enough, he's on my tail. Just like Denis in our mile race, the crowd giving the game away for him 😁. I waved to let him know I saw him.

30 - 35k - 23:17 split. Cramp is real now. Right calf. Can't maintain goal pace because of it. It's not forcing me to stop, but it's forcing me to dial it back. I'm just sh1t scared of it locking up, I know if it does I'll have a really bad time of it. Mad thing is though, I have periods where it's not a problem and I run strong and fast, unaffected. Happened around the 20 mile mark. I all of a sudden felt zero cramping and ran strong for about a mile. Then bang, a warning shot telling me to cool the jets. Sean caught up with me around 31k or so and we had a check in chat, he looked so strong, and sounded well in command of things. He pulled away and stormed on.

35 - 40k - 24:09 split. Yeah. Pretty brutal. Plans of lighting it up on the last 5k have to be ripped up. Just trying to run at a pace that won't require me stopping. You stop you're fooked. Thankfully I never did.

I got another of those out of the blue bursts of feeling 100% and picked up the pace to goal for km 41, happy bleedin days I thought, felt awesome all of a sudden, ready to storm home for the closing mile, but then boom, the calf screamed at me, and the left quad and had to pull it back again.

Into Vondelpark for the closing kilometre and I can't quite believe I'm almost there. Agony but I'm running. Through the wall of crowd, past I AM AMSTERDAM, through the line of international flags and under the arch, on to the Stadium track and I still can't believe I'm here, the race is a blur, an epic, an instant, an emotional numb wreck of a human floating the last few metres, I look at my watch and see I can say I ran a 3:15 because nobody cares about seconds in a marathon.

Under in 3:15:47.

Embrace Sean straight away, him after running an absolutely amazing race, whacking his target with a glorious negative. Then we see Elaine come in after running the race of her life, a truly astounding heroic run. A massive negative and a target obliteration. So so happy for them.

I'm happy too. As I said, I'm 80/20 happy. It's a big PB, 11 minutes, and if you'd offered me a 3:15 marathon two years ago I'd have bitten your hands and feet off. If you'd offered me 3:30 I'd have bitten your hands off and here I am getting frustrated because a 3:30 pace group was in my way.

I get all of that, and I do realise I've come a long way, I'm delighted with how I've improved, but I can't help being a little bit (a teeny tiny bit) disappointed with the result.

I thought I was capable of 3:10 (or better) this time out, based on previous results but I obv wasn't. Maybe my mileage wasn't up to scratch in the early part of the year, I can improve on that. Who knows. The joys of this thing.

The 26.2.

It's a beast. A beautiful beast.

I'll be back for more.

Thanks a mill folks, ah I am proud of it.

The cramping is very frustrating though, and I've really got to get to the bottom of it.

I did all I could think of to mitigate against it, took magnesium supplements for about 8 weeks, drank a zero every day for months, gobbled a load of electro tabs during the race and it still happened.

Determined to fix it.

Cheers for that J 😊

Cheers man, that's really nice to hear. 👍️

Thanks a mill P 🙂

Thanks a mill J, and I guess you are all bang on, I should stop being hard on myself and focus on the good.

Cheers D, that's excellent feedback.

I definitely was feeling a little tired at the expo, but only now that you mention it, as in, I'd forgotten. Maybe it contributed somewhat.

You make a good point about S & E running perfect races, I've thought a good bit about that.

We all had the exact same circumstances, congestion etc, and they both pulled off clutch performances. It keeps me honest to myself in my post mortem.

Wow guys. I'm bowled over by those comments.

I'm a little stuck for time this evening and will also be tomorrow, I'll be back on as soon as I can to come back to you.