DCM 2023 Mentored Novices Thread

It was my first actual week of training last week after picking the HH intermediate 1 plan (starting at week 5)

Planned: |5k|10k|5k|Rest|10k|19.5k|Cross|

Actual: |5k|10k|5k|Rest|10k|20k|50 min walk|

I embraced my inner turtle, 7:30/k for basically all the runs other than the long run which I did at 7:10/k, so I could maybe slow that down a bit more even, although it felt fine.

Was happy to get the 10k + 20k done, never ran that kind of distances one after another. Very tempting to tack an extra K onto to the 20K to make it a half, but I'll be doing that distance plenty in the next few months!

Its a step back week this week for me, but it does have a 10k at marathon pace on Friday, so what kind of animal comes after a turtle in the speed charts!?

I hope all your updates are as boring as mine, which means training went to plan!

Week 5

This week didn't go to (Boards) plan with only 21 miles (34Km) done, and most of those were yesterday's long run.

I had a cough that wasn't going away so followed doc's advice to not run until it cleared, as a result I missed Tuesday - Friday inclusive. I know it was the sensible thing to do but I'm not a great patient and found it tough.

So no gym this week and only one game of tennis.

Saturday's easy run ended up being too fast (probably the excitement of being allowed out to run again 🤪) but the LSR on Sunday was more or less on target i.e. outrageously slow.

I'm away this weekend Thurs - Sun so need to have a think about how I get the runs in without heading for the divorce courts. Might end up getting up at dawn for the LSR.

Well done to everyone for getting the miles in (or Kms, I think I'm the only one running in miles ??). And thanks mentors and all the posters for the good advice and solidarity 😀.

Did you get in all the runs on your plan - if not, then why not? 

No. Got to 22.5k done. Enjoyed the strides after 10k on Wednesday & as you’ll see from my Strava only managed 1k of the recovery run on Thursday & Achilles tightened & had to stop running unfortunately. I also have stabbing pain in my right ankle from time to time over the last week for some reason. I may need to return to my orthotics I ditched a few years back. Anyway I’ve had a physio session & hope to get back at it tomorrow after 5 days rest. Slightly concerned I’m starting to miss LSR’s but it is what it is & I didn’t want to risk it.

Did you run the runs at an appropriate pace? 

All my runs Mon/Tue/Wed were done at appropriate pace … my Wed 10k was slightly hilly.

Hills are murderous for the achilles.

Did you get in all the runs on your plan - if not, then why not? 

Only 5 runs in week 5, for a total of 54km. I was on a stags over the weekend so that was a write off. I got my LSR in on Thursday and a recovery run on Friday before we headed off. I didnt get out again until an easy run on Monday.

Did you run the runs at an appropriate pace? 

Yes, sticking to the same pace for the last 3 weeks now and its feel fairly good and consistent. It was a fairly warm day for the LSR on Thursday but got through it ok.

Week 5

Did you get in all the runs on your plan - if not, then why not? 

Yes Ran 5 days/ cross trained 1 day / fully rested 1 day.

Did you run the runs at an appropriate pace? 

All except for the Wed run. Went a little faster than planned but not too bad. LSR was enjoyable and managed to avoid the rain. I am finding that the LSR time goes by much quicker than I was expecting. I think running new routes as I try and work out the distance needed has helped keep it interesting. Again, like last week, it is the second half of the run, as I get more easily distracted, that I am finding the pace sneak up. Hydration went well as did the gels. Gels every 30 mins seem to work best for me. Recovery run Sunday was a horrible wet day session, but used it as something to tick off of my list of weather types, as someone suggested here (Thanks for that mental tip!). Regardless, going extra slow in the rain seems to be a new layer of torture.

The Irish Life half is sold out and I never booked it, gah! Going to book Frank Duffy this morning

Im considering the Charleville HM https://eventmaster.ie/event/PkjMsJDhLe handy for me being down south. but there is a train.

Is a race recommended im in two minds whether I can be bothered attending a pre marathon race.

I'd consider the week a step back week and now return to the plan. An easy week won't have you needing to drop distances. It would be trying to do more than plan in a chase for lost miles that would be a mistake to make.

One thing I have been thinking with the mid training block half is it doesn't really have a proper taper, or at least my plan doesn't, so It's not really ideal conditions for setting your best time in a HM.

It has one extra rest day and a bit of a step back in KMs for the other sessions for the week, but its still 21k the week leading up to the half, while the week before was the most KM in the plan to date.

Maybe just something to keep in mind if your using something like the "2x half plus 20 minutes" formula for your marathon pace, that if you were really going for a PB time in the half you'd probably approach it differently.

On my HH intermediate plan, my half is at the end of week 9, people following the boards plans its not til the end of week 13. I'm thinking about maybe doing Longford as its that weekend, pretty close by and I've a friend doing the full.

I'm a novice so take the advice with a pinch of salt, but I think having the experience of a race day if you haven't done them before will be helpful. It's good to get some practise in of what to expect! Even stuff like the waiting around at the start, what are you going to eat day of etc

What's a good speedwork session for marathon training? I do 15k/10k with 1500 at about 10k pace followed by 500 metres at slow pace and repeat until I reach the distance. Should it be faster/shorter?

Others can recommend shorts, etc. but my #1 suggestion to prevent chafing would be bodyglide (or similar).

If you still have spare recovery capacity after 60km easy a week including a 3hr long run, do some S&C, and if you can do 60km a week including a 3 hour long run + S&C and still have recovery left then make every other long run a progression run up to MP. And if you can do that, you probably don't need a novices thread 😀