Dublin Marathon 2016 - Mentored Novices Thread

We're up and running for about 2 weeks, and it's 6 weeks to the start of our 18 week training programs. In other words, yesterday was 24 weeks until the big day. :eek:

Assuming I haven't missed someone, I count 31 Novices (and not-so Novices!) so far! I think I have responded to all introductions - but do let me know if I have missed yours!

As I wrote this last night - 3 more new novices have signed up! Welcome, I will respond in detail later!

I love the weekend reports like "I've just done my 9 miles", wait till the distances go up and it's a matter of great pride to add your notification to the list! In the meantime, there's been plenty of questions about plans, number of runs per week, cross-training, other races to run during the training.

Many times the advice for novice marathoners is to "just go ahead and enjoy your first marathon", which I something I completely agree with. However, what does "enjoying your first marathon" really mean? Let's consider what it does not mean. It surely can't be being reduced to run-walking from about 13/14 miles, or being in tears at about 18, or pulling out at 20, or crossing the line while thinking "never ever ever again" (and still thinking that the day after!). Or injuring yourself in your determination to get to the start-line or over the finish-line even tho the body says 'no'.

That said, all of the above happens all the time. To me, enjoying your first is to be able to finish in reasonable fashion, having had a great, tough day with all the support and atmosphere, having given it all (within your limits), to get reasonably close towards a realistic goal, to get the reward for all the hard work from the past months.

Last year, a colleague of mine ran without much prep (he had a done a couple of marathons before, years ago). He went off like a rocket, crossed halfway in 1h50, and had a nightmare second half of >2h35 - walking most of it. He hated every step of the second half. He hasn't ran since. Enough said

Our fabulous mentor of 2015, DG, and all her predecessors before her, repeatedly talked about respect. Respecting the distance and the training required. Respecting the signals your body sends you. Respecting the conditions of the day itself. Especially to those of you who have not yet covered the distance or are coming in on a relatively light base, I want to say the same thing. You're signing up (or are about to sign up) for an epic, but enormous effort - there's no doing this half-heartedly. Running a marathon is hard! Training for your first marathon is even harder. Think back to your first half marathon and consider running the same distance again. Think back to the training you did, and double it, both in distances and times running. Madness!

In many of the responses to new novices joining, I suggested to already start structuring your training per the tried-and-tested plans, and to start increasing the mileage. Oh, yeah, and to slow down. This is all to do with the respect that's needed for this journey.

For those of you still contemplating which training program to use, I would urge you to make a choice and start thinking about the weeks ahead. Ideally follow one of the plans in use here, we'll be familiar with the plan and you'll have fellow novices doing the same routine - but that's obviously up to you (the more experienced club runners should follow their club's plan). Most of us have plenty of other things on in our lives, so make sure you plan ahead. I got a copy of the boards plan early as soon as last year's thread started, and got myself a spreadsheet, and started planning:

• What will I do in the weeks until the program starts? The boards program hits half marathon distances from week 3 until week 16, every weekend (with the exception of the FD 10-miler). The HHN1 program has 9 12+ milers lined up from week 6 onwards. This is serious stuff - best to start increasing the long runs slowly already (a mile a week tops).
• Which weeks will be a challenge due to holidays, work, vistors, other hobbies? It'll be hard to fit it all in. Start making notes and see where you need to possibly adapt the schedule.
• Which week-days and weekend-days will work for me? We've mentioned it before, you don't have to follow the days per schedule, but you want to bring in some structure.

For reference, I have attached a screenshot of how my trusted spreadsheet ended up looking. It really helped me get to grips with the planning side of things - and to fully appreciate what I was about to sign up for. Especially during the summer months I had to rejig several weeks quite extensively. It's like a jig-saw, you're trying to fit all the pieces in the limited amount of time / space you have. The two key takeaways are: don't sweat it too much, and if you need to drop a run, don't feel bad about it, but try and keep the longer runs in.

Note (and I have said this to a few Novices) - you don't have to sign up for the full thing just yet. You have plenty of time. There's absolutely nothing wrong with coming along for the ride until the tune-up races in August and September. Especially if you haven't ran or raced a half marathon yet, the race-series events are really good goal in their own right. There'll always be DCM 2017.

A last point about races. Since we're about to embark on a training program for the marathon, most races and PB aspirations should be put on hold. Really!? Yes.

The program contains 2 tune-up races in August and September (10M and HM). I would hope you will all compete in these, if time and geography permits. If it doesn't suit, try and find similar races around similar times. Those races are superb events - in terms of perfecting your race preparation, racing strategy, and meeting fellow Novices, and honing the skill of a nice, juicy race report. Everybody has full permission to go at full tilt and translate all the hard work into some fine PBs. But… that's about it. We discussed this endlessly during last year's thread. If you're committing to the big day, that's where you focus needs to be. Don't blow it all on a race that's not your goal race.

Don't be tempted when you see your friends or training buddies churn out parkrun PBs on a regular basis, while you run much longer and much slower ("because this random internet dude told me so"). Even running races as "training" has the habit of backfiring. I personally can't do it, if I have a number of my chest and I see runners in front of me that I can have, I am gone. You need strong racing discipline to be able to run a race at LSR/easy pace - I would simply not put yourself in that position at all.

(Of course, there are exceptions - the local club's annual 10k, or you're holidaying somewhere spectacular and they have a parkrun / race. Again, don't sweat it. Work away. But the main point is to keep your eye on the price. The price is DCM in October!).

So, in summary:

• Don't wait until the start of the training plans. Pick a plan, lay it out in front of you, adapt it to suit your needs, and start adding a few weeks at the start. The time is now!
• Pick a race in mid/end June, a 10k or so, to get your last racing kick. Nail it, write a cool race report here, and then get stuck in the training plans. If you run regularly with others that are not doing DCM, let them know of your plans, so they won't give out to you for slowing them down (believe me, I have been there).
• Respect the distance and the training plans. Adapt the plan so it works for you. Slow down.
• Most of all, enjoy it!