The 2023 Graduates Thread - What's Next?

Hope everyone is getting on well with their running!

I'm somewhat back on the horse since my last update before Christmas, but still really easing back into it!

I had a chest infection over Christmas, not sure if thats what I was complaining about in my original post too, but haven't had the same issues since I finished up that medication (but probably not running as much!)

Had to travel for work in early January and came back with covid, other than being really tired I was generally ok, but it 100% had an impact on me for a maybe 4 weeks. First run back after Covid was an easy enough 5k and my heart rate hit 190 towards the end!

That seems to be behind me now as I feel my running/fitness is now more in line where I should be for the amount of training I've done (not very much!)

I dropped to the half in Kinvara the weekend before last having originally signed up for the 3/4, but even the half was a big stretch, I had only run 10k or over once since the start of December. Really difficult conditions and I did ok for the first 18km and struggled the last 3, but came through ok.

I sure am glad I didn't sign up for any Spring marathons though! Although I am a little jealous of the club mates who are starting the ramp up the miles now, would have liked to have been in that position, but it will come again soon enough!

Going to get myself back into a routine of 5 times a week starting this week, just do some easy KM to get myself used to it again. 5K out of the way already this morning so off to a good start.

First week of back at it under my belt.

All easy: 5K | 7K | 5K | Rest | 5k | 20K | Rest

Didn't set out to run marathon distance, but a happy accident.

Generally went fine. The 20 on Saturday was probably a bit of a stretch considering where I am but it went ok, stopped for a couple of walks around 15K in but was able to pick myself back up again and finish out the last few KM without issue. Was tired today, slept in til 9:30, the luxury!

Hope everyone had a good week!

Slowly (in more ways than one) I'm getting back into a better routine. Had a few days sick a couple of weeks ago which was a minor blip in upping the weekly KMs. Hit 40km last week with 6 days running, which was mostly easy and then two runs with intervals. I am yet to get around to anything over 10k since the marathon and want to get better at making the time to get a proper long run in each weekend, especially with the weather getting a bit better. Also looking forward to a parkrun but something keeps getting in the way each Sat morning. I'd really like to get back into them as when I was doing them regularly, I could see slight improvements over time, and it's a good way to push yourself that extra bit when surrounded by a few others. I usually squeeze in a strength and conditioning workout and yoga once a week too. For the running plan, I'm still using the Garmin watch suggested runs. It's convenient and simple to follow so does the job for now.

Hi all. The 15 week marathon plan in the spreadsheet starts around mid July. Should I just follow the base plan and repeat weeks 5/6 until then? Since DCM2023 to the end of April I've just being doing 2x 10k's a week + the odd park run. In May I've been on the base plan. Or are you supposed to have started this months ago and work through the tabs?

Thank you

Thank you Mr Guappa! So Monday 10th June it begins :)

Did a slow 20k on Sunday and felt grand so it looks like the legs still remember which is encouraging.

How is everyone getting on?

I actually can't believe the marathon training should start again next week! I have a race next Sunday so I'll probably start a week late.

It definitely feels much different this time around for me, everything was new, I only ran my first half in July and started training after that so every training run longer than that was my longest run, there was a certain amount of going into the unknown.

Ignorance was bliss in someways, but now I have 1 marathon under my belt, one that didn't go at all well, so thats the only point of reference I have!

I'm feeling good though, I've been running consistently 5 or even 6 times a week since the end of April and have been focusing on losing some weight. Down 8kg or so, unfortunately I'm only down 2 or 3Kg from my Marathon weight, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to lose a few more during the summer.

Haven't been running very long distances in these few weeks though, 10 miles has been the max, so it will be interesting to get back into the swing of things.

Still haven't picked a plan though! I liked Hal higdon intermediate 1 last year, but I think there would be no harm incorporating some speed sessions, so if I'm modifying plans I probably should be just finding a different one! Will take a better look over the weekend.

The Runkeeper app is quiet good and it has speed sessions in the traing plan. It also guides you on your run, which is very handy for speed sessions.

I had a look at the Runkeeper plan it gave me today, my initial thought is I'm not sure about it.

A lot of the long runs, including the only 32k on plan, is at race pace. That race pace 32K is also only 3 weeks prior to DCM. Maybe race pace long runs would work for me, but it definitely feels like a leap of faith to change my approach that much!

The weekly mileage seems a little lower compared to what I did last year, despite putting down I'd run a 6th day (I only did 5 last year).

HH intermediate 1 went very well for me for last year other than the race, but thats kind of an important part of a plan :)

Will have to ponder some more

Thanks to Mr. Guappa for setting this thread up. I'm a bit late to the party. I was part of the 2022 novice group. I briefly joined Lazare's graduate thread too but not for very long. I ran consistently to the end of 2022 but then between one thing and another I didn't run much at all for nearly a year. Consequently I lost all of the gains made in 2022. But for the last months I'm back at it and have a spot in this year's Dublin marathon. I've decided I'm going to follow the Boards Novice plan again. Doing this mainly because I know it works but also I don't think I have the fitness levels just yet to take on anything more advanced. TBH I'd be really happy with a similar performance to 2022. I plan to train with a goal time of 3:59, though I think that might be beyond me atm and will adjust as necessary after a few weeks. I have signed up for the Marathon race series, so looking forward to that too. Back in March I did the Skerries 10k in a time of 49:31. I hope to post some updates in the coming weeks and look forward to seeing how others are getting on too.

Hope everyone running is going well!

How terrible of an idea would it be to just combine two different plans?

I'm thinking of doing the the boards grad plan for the midweek runs: 60mins easy on Monday and Wednesday and a speed session on Tuesday

And then following hal higdons intermediate 1 for my weekend runs: up to 14 K on a Friday (sometimes at MP) and long run Saturday

Both plans (adjusted forward a day, to bring the long run to Saturdays) have a rest day Thursday and rest/cross/recovery on Sunday, so structure wise they are pretty similar

The boards plan step back weeks seem to be all looked after by shortening the long run, the HH plan also shortens the weekend runs so it should look after the step back

The boards plan only has me doing one 3 hour long run, which for me wouldn't be 20 miles. I know there is a school of thought that anything over 3 hours is too much, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take that leap!

It's a lot harder to plan long runs, especially if out with the group , using times runs rather than distances. If I'm on my own I can keep a fairly consistent pace overall so I can predict what distance a time would be, but not so much with the group.

I haven't drawn up exactly what the plan looks like in terms of distances per week or whatever.

Would be interested to hear what you think!

I think time based is probably more relevant for the faster (less than sub 4hr) runners. I prefer distance over time based myself as I wouldn't be that fast.

thanks for reply.

Sorry, should have mentioned it is the beginner tab I'm using for the boards plan, so the plan for this week would be

60 Very Easy | 5 x 8 min threshold | 60 Very Easy | Rest | 8K | 15K | Rest/Cross

Boards Beginner would have been:

60 Very Easy | 5 x 8 min threshold | 60 Very Easy | Rest | 60 Very Easy | 70 min Threshold | Rest/Recovery 20 mins

HH intermediate 1 would have been:

5k | 8K | 5K | Rest | 8K | 15K | Cross

It is a bit of a step up in KM to combine the two plans compared to just HH, at least for now anyways. I started doing the hybrid plan this week to start somewhere: 60 V.Easy was 8.5K and 9k this week. The threshold run was 14K with wu and cd. So I have 32k done at this point, while I'd only have 18K with HH.

The boards plan doesn't really ramp up the midweek runs at all, they are always 60 Easy with a speed session, and I don't see any of the other sessions being any longer than 14K. HH does eventually have weeks that start with 8k | 13k | 8K, so not a million miles off.

Yeah I had considered just adding speed sessions to HH, but I was kind of worried that at what point am I essentially just creating a new plan anyways.

I feel ok so far for the week, and thats even after racing a 10 mile on Saturday. I have had 3 months of between 30-45K a week leading up to this, so while 55Km projected for this week is a step up, it's not a huge change. Boards plan only would probably have been similar KM anyways. Next week is a step back with HH too so that should drop back to a projected 45K for the week.

I know there is no magic 8 ball which will say its the right thing to do or not. I just didn't find a plan that really resonated with me (yet?) so said I'd just try something!

The Saturday threshold was a typo, but I did run 5x Threshold on Tuesday… :/ (there is 12 minutes of my life I won't get back!)

I'll properly combine the plans and print them out this weekend to avoid such mishaps in the future!

Yup, to be honest I had missed that! I combined the plans last night and only realised it then. Hopefully my running will be more successful than my organisation attempts!

This is the current iteration of the plan, we are in week 2. Roughly 975km on the plan + DCM (I'm rough guessing for some of the Tuesday sessions distances, but its probably close enough).

Last year I started HH in week 5 and did 750KM, so comparing the two plans from week 5 on, its about 60-70KM extra in total, which should be ok spread over 12/13 weeks

Tullamore is a week later than HH Race half should be, so I just swapped those weeks around. I also reduced the running a little that week. I ran a training run as the half race last year (Just went out locally but at race pace), and it went well from a time point of view, but I think getting an extra race day experience will be helpful as I think i was a bit green last year.

I might do streets of Galway (which is 8k) instead of the "12K (P)" (marathon pace) and push the 23K til Sunday (depending on how I'm feeling). Not overly bothered on a time for this so don't need to go flat out or anything, just more for the social aspect nearly. Not signed up yet though.

Just in relation to Tullamore Half - it's almost sold out so don't sit on the fence regarding entry.

Was catching up with this thread after a little while and made me think I better get my ass in gear. I hadn't put any thought into which plan for this years DCM, and it's hard to believe it's that time again!

After looking at Boards novice plan from 2023, Boards beginner plan in the spreadsheet and Hal Higdon, I might try the hydrid approach like witnessmenow as for long runs I need distance goals (I am really slow and not getting any faster). A mix of the beginner and novice plans, or maybe I could just do the novice plan. I do like mixing it up midweek though for more speed, when time goals are fine. What I have to consider when making the plan is I need to have at least one yoga session per week and one S&C. Another thing is that I play 5 a side once a week which I'm not sure helps with the training. I can do the Thursday run early AM and then football in the evening. I'll drop the football at some point though in case of injury. Last thing is that I joined a running group a few months ago, which is great for the being social while running, and mixing it up training wise, but being as slow as I am, their easy pace is my PB pace. I think that might be a bad idea as risk of overdoing it and injury will increase, and it's probably not ideal for improving my base fitness. So, I might do the shorter sessions with them and do LSRs by myself.

I've been running 4-5 a week since spring but had hols in June and a bad dose so missed a good chunk then. Did Clontarf HM last weekend in 2:27 which I'm happy enough with considering training was limited for the 5 weeks previous. Didn't walk any sections and it was a tough day with the wind and heat.