Becoming a Real Runner

cwgatling wrote: »

You know what's next

Yeah, Conn Ultra followwed by the 100m, 800m and Long Jump at the graded meets :P

Oisin11178 wrote: »

Ah jesus niall lets get a bit of perspective here. The course is very flat with some minor undulations at the end of both laps. The goody bag is absolutly irrelevent but ive seen alot worse tbh. They close the entire golden mile stretch of the blackpool main street for 6 hours. The road is about 4 miles long and is the main road in Blackpool. You can never stop people from running across the road inbetween runners it happens in every city marathon. The water stations were excellent i thought, every 3 miles and perfect size water bottles, not to big and not 2 small. I think they were about 300/400ml. The race started on the dot also. Number collection on the morning and took less than 30 secs.
EVeryone has a different perspective on races i suppose but i thought it was a decent race. Well done on your time by the way.
Well done on your time

Not disagreeing with what you said, just not a good course for a first timer looking for a big city experience. Perfect for an experienced marathoner looking for a fast time.

Monday

A mixture of Drunk/hungover and tired meant I didn't get out for a recovery run

Tuesday
3.3 miles recovery (9:15 pace). Legs heavy and a bit sore but no niggles. Regretting not getting this run in yesterday as it has delayed recovery by a day.

Wednesday
5.7 miles recovery 8:53 pace, 131 HR) much better. Legs are still heavy but moving more freeely. I know how it goes from here so I'm pretty positive about racing on sunday. Won't make up my mind until staurday though.

WTD 2 days running 9 miles

2011|No. of days Running|Miles|2012 |No. of days Running|Miles
January|28/31|256.3|January|28/31|290.1
February|24/28|236.9|February|27/29|283.2
March|23/31|221.9|March|11/14|116.5
April|22/30|176.4|||
May|25/31|198.5|||
June|24/30|180.6|||
July|28/31|269.4|||
August|23/31|244.6|||
September|22/30|200|||
October|26/31|187.5|||
November|28/30|210.1|||
December|24/31|194.3|||
Total|297/365|2576.5|Total|66/74|689.7

outforarun wrote: »

Just re-read your Blackpool report. Great running you make 7:17 pace seem simple! When following your log I like to think that you're 12 months ahead of me. But of late you've pulled 18 months ahead. You're putting in savage mileage as well. I'm experimenting with a less is more approach at the moment - fingers crossed it'll get me under 3:30 in June. Don't think a less is more approach will do for a sub 3:15 though. Cross that bridge when I come to it.

Yeah thanks. Felt very easy to be honest. I was waiting a wall that never came. The nidweek MP runs really helped as well as the multiple long runs. Tapered I can take a few more minutes off that I feel.

As for you I think you are selling yourself short going for 3:30 again. You were in 3:30 shape last year and were just unlucky. This year your tempos etc are much faster and you are training more sensibly (slower recoveries). Don't set yourself soft targets. you need harder targets to push you on.

Bit of a mad week in work, very busy in work so not much time to update.

Monday
3 miles
in Madrid before breakfast. Nice and easy (8:25/mile)

Tuesday
Still in madrid, no chance for a run.

Wednesday
5 miles after work on home soil. Pace 8:02 HR 138. First time ever I am running 8 minute miles whle in the recovery HR zone. I always said that when I was doing that I'd have made it :pac:

Thursday
Got a rubdown from CFiz ahead of sunday, and with fresh new legs ran home nice and easy.
6.2 miles @ 8:13 pace. Meant to go slower but this was as slow as the legs would go.

Friday
6.1 miles in the morning back to where I left the car to run home the evening before. Pace 8:42/mile



WTD 4 days running 20.3 miles

2011|No. of days Running|Miles|2012 |No. of days Running|Miles
January|28/31|256.3|January|28/31|290.1
February|24/28|236.9|February|27/29|283.2
March|23/31|221.9|March|24/30|204.7
April|22/30|176.4|||
May|25/31|198.5|||
June|24/30|180.6|||
July|28/31|269.4|||
August|23/31|244.6|||
September|22/30|200|||
October|26/31|187.5|||
November|28/30|210.1|||
December|24/31|194.3|||
Total|297/365|2576.5|Total|79/90|778

So that's it ahead of sunday (I may do a few miles tomorrow in Galway though). I have to say, touch wood everything is good. Legs feel great,pace has never been better for the effort levels and having been away the start of the week I haven't had time for taper madness. I only just got a moment now to begin to prepare food/drinks parcels and the reality of the race is sinking in.

Plan will be to head out at 8 min/mile at least for the first 26.2 and go through full at 3:30. The dream Goal will be to continue the pace over the last 13.1 and run 5:15, but the main plan is to get under 5:30 so hopefully I'll be able for at least a 2hr last half marathon.

Can't wait

Davis Big Limo wrote: »

make sure you keep tomorrow's run short.

ha ha, don't worry, i'm not planning on a 20 miler;)

Really tough day at the office for me. Got through the full in 3:29 bang on target but felt cramp in the left hamstring coming up the hill after lenaune and it stuck for the first time at about mile 29 (a full 4 miles sooner than last year). From there on it was a matter of run/shuffle quarter a mile, stop stretch walk a few minutes repeat.
Managed to jog the last 2 miles just under 10 min/mile to come in just under 5:40 (2:10 for the last 13.1 after two halfs of 1:44:xx )

Stil a PB on last year by 11 minutes so not all doom and gloom.

39.55 miles in 5:39:28 (av pace 8:36/mile)

The goal was to get under 5:30 and to get as close to 5:15 as possible. This would require 3 x 1:45 half marathons or 8 minute mile pace.

Got up nice and early and had a big breakfast of pancakes and fruit. Got the bus out to Peacockes for the race briefing and mingled with the other runners. Great atmosphere as usual. I was feeling pretty confident. I wore a siblet with sleeveless under shirt and a hat. I knew it would be sunny but the temperatures were to start at 3-4 Celsius and rise to 13-14 max. I stuck on a pair of gloves and stupidly assumed there’d be no need for sun block.

Got onto the course just before 9 and was feeling confident. I went straight off at an 8 min/mile pace. Several people had agreed to join me at that pace but I couldn’t find any of them. I chatted to people as they went by or I passed but none of the guys were targeting my time. A lot of the guys going past actually said they were going for around 6:30!! Needless to say we passed later but I’d say they had a tough time. After a mile I spotted a guy looking back at me and sure enough it was corkrunner71 who’d agreed to run with me. Soon our group grew to about 6 people with the same approx target of getting to full in about 3:30. The weather was already becoming hot it must have been at least 13+ already. Ditched the gloves. The stomach felt dodgy and I was barely able for my mountain dew that I’d dropped off at mile 10 (I had 5 drop offs and managed to stomach 2 bottles of mountain dew, 1 coke and 3 gels in the first 22 miles after which I could stomach no more and I ignored my last 2 drops Included in the drinks were 3 electrolyte tablets and I also had a sachet of Diarylite with water). We went through half at 1:44:xx as planned but to be honest I knew it wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been. Looking at the HR stats now I was well into the 150’s and I was running this pace in the high 130’s earlier in the week. Granted there were a lot more ups and downs in Conn but I reckon the fact that my arms shoulders and neck were rapidly burning up may also be a factor!!

Miles 13-26 were a repeat of the first 13 pace wise with a few more ups and downs. From 15 on it was just myself and Corkrunner71 as the others dropped back a bit. These miles were hilly enough and we seemed to be into a constant headwind. From mile 15 on we began cutting through the full field which was a welcome distraction as we got a great reception and plenty of clapping. We picked off a few ultra runners too including the then 2nd lady (she eventually came in 4th just 20 seconds behind me) and met up with two other lads just as we came into lenaune. I told Corkrunner to push on at this stage as he was looking much fresher than me (pulling away on uphills) and I ran with the two boys for a few miles. Passed the full marker in 3:29:10 bang on target but tbh I felt I was in trouble even had thoughts of pulling out. I was asking all ambulances I met for sun block to no avail as I felt I was really burning up.

I left my two new buddies here as they went to eat some provisions and ploughed up through the first of the long hills from mile 27-29. I decided not to look at my garmin anymore as 5:15 was probably out the window so I said I would just run as best as I could and not get too caught up on time. I reckoned a 2hr half for a 5:30 finish shuld still be easy. Ooking at the garmin these two hilly miles were 8:40 average which was better than expected. Coming to the top of the hill I felt a lot of twitched in my left hamstring- a sure sign of impending cramps. So I slowed down on mile 30 but at mile 31 the inevitable happened and I spent about 30 seconds pushing out the cramp against a road sign as the runners streamed by. I got running again and re-passed runners but within a few minutes It was same again. This continued for the next 6 miles and it was the most frustrating 6 miles of my life. It took all my will not to come off the course tbh and DNF. I constantly passed and repassed the same people and after 5 or 6 times they stopped cheering for me as I went by. Some people on seeing me stopped were encouraging me to keep running and I felt like telling the to F-off. ‘I would if I could’ I said instead. After a few stretches I realised that I could get as much relief from walking so adopted a run-walk strategy, never managing to run more than 3 minutes before the next cramp. Looking at the garmin these miles were 9:30-10 minutes which is quite suprising and means that the running bits were almost at 8 min/mile pace which is perhaps a mistake.

I got to the bottom of the ‘Hell of the west’ at mile 35.5 and decided I would try to run and ignore the cramps. Big Mistake. I managed to go for about 5 minute straight before getting a shocking pain in the back of my leg which resulted in me standing stationary in the middle of the road screaming until luckily I had someone stop and stretch up my toes to relieve the pain. (that mile was 13 minutes L) In the middle of this the 2nd and 3rd ladies came streaming past like they were out for a jog. Finally got going again and walked the rest of the hill before starting a slow uncomfortable 2 mile jog down to the finish (10:12 and 9:36). At least 5 ultras came past me and it was so frustrating as they weren’t going that fast but I could physically do nothing about it. Eventually crossed the line in 5:39:28, which despite all the problems was a 11 minute PB. I proceeded to the finish area were I could do nothing abut sit down in a heap for 30 minutes saying ‘never again’. Claralara and Marthastew came home about 10 minutes after but I could barely get up to congratulate them. They were jumping around like hyperactive children, full of energy. I decided there and then to quit while I was ahead.

Conclusion

I guess I am just not cut out for long ultras. I put in more miles this year in training, and was more savvy (taking on loads of electrolytes) but got the cramps much worse than last year. I never get cramps in Marathons, even 50k so it must be the fact the distance is just too much. So I am officially saying I will not be doing any races longer than 50k for the foreseeable future.

Blackpool may have been a factor as I probably peeked for that (just like I did in Longford last year) so I’ll learn from that and not do a marathon within a month of a goal race again. I can’t grumble though I got a great marathon PB in Blackpool and nice 5 mile PB in Raheny too. So all the miles have given me loads of reward.

Weekly total 5 days running 59.6 miles

2011|No. of days Running|Miles|2012 |No. of days Running|Miles
January|28/31|256.3|January|28/31|290.1
February|24/28|236.9|February|27/29|283.2
March|23/31|221.9|March|24/31|204.7
April|22/30|176.4|April|1/2|39.3
May|25/31|198.5|||
June|24/30|180.6|||
July|28/31|269.4|||
August|23/31|244.6|||
September|22/30|200|||
October|26/31|187.5|||
November|28/30|210.1|||
December|24/31|194.3|||
Total|297/365|2576.5|Total|79/90|817.3

Next targets

I have been emailing Larry Brent since Blackpool and he has kindly agreed to coach me to Berlin with an optimistic goal of sub 3. I guess the 3:10 in Blackpool off no taper at least give me a shot. I’ll be taking this week off completely on Larry’s advice before working on speed and sharpening through the spring before beginning a marathon Programme in the summer. I’m looking forward to being coached, my training has been without proper planning for a long time so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

tunguska wrote: »

I think you'll do it. You're welcome to join our group for marathon training by the way, Gerry woods and paddy are in and they'd be perfect for you to work off.

sounds great. Hopefully Larry's sessions will fit in with yours, I'm sure they can be tailored. What marathon are you'se looking at? Dublin again? Didn't know gerry was going long again.