Sorry, I thought you said get faster before the 100th Marathon

To cut a long story short, training has been up and down since the last entries. speed was starting to pick up, with some nice track sessions and my general easy running pace getting faster, however I have also clocked up another 3 marathons (Highlight was pacing the 4:40 group in Dublin with the Vaggabond and PaulieC) but for the ones I was 'racing' I found myself gradually getting slower which was mainly because of lack of motivation and less weekly mileage clocked up between races. The races were turning into long training runs on my own because I wasn't focused on running with someone during the run for company.

Anyway, back to today. I have three marathons left on the schedule to bring it up to 85 before the end of the year so that I can plan the next 15 in 2014 for the big 100, so that should bring us up to today....

Monday - Decided to start the week of with a brisk run at lunchtime. Progressively picked up the pace for each mile 5M in 40:14 (avg 8:03 pace)

Evening run was supposed to be a gentle 5M run at 9:40 pace to bring todays miles up to 10. Started off grand for the first half in the park and along the canal but when I got out onto the main road and seen a runner up ahead I brought up the pace to overtake them and then the next runner in front etc etc, The last 3 miles were in the 8:00 - 8:15 area and I ended up doing 6M in 55:21 (avg 9:14 pace)

I feel very comfortable running at these speeds for a few miles, but it's just a matter of getting the training right and stretching it out for a whole 26.2M

ultraman1 wrote: »

Nice one eammo....u goin for sub 4:30 in berlin.

Would you believe I missed the deadlinefor the ballot, only seen the thread the day after closing (pitfalls of a high fluting fast lane social life :rolleyes:)

So with a bit more training, might even push 4:29 in Dublin???? :pac:

Wednesday
What about ye? working in Armagh this week, so after a long day on my feet, I managed the wherewithall to drag myself out and run up and down the hills of the city (and boy, does this city have hills). If they ever decide on holding a marathon here, you can forget targeting a PB.

5M in 44:58 (8:59 pace, Avg 81% Max HR) Would have loved to have done more, but it was getting late by the time I ended back at the hotel and it was bang on 5M and started to lash rain. I'd also like to envoke excuse #6, #21 and #46 from the bible of excuses your honour!:D:D:D

After last week's decision to pull out of the Killeigh Marathon at halfway, becuase of a disasterously spiraling slow down, I took a different approach to running this week coming up to Eddie's race to try and rest up a bit, but also work on the hills for strenght also. (yeah, sounds weird)

After the hills of Armagh, I rested up on Friday and Saturday to be somewhat fresh for Sunday. I even volunteered on Saturday morning for the Griffen ParkRun just to keep in touch with running. (Handing out those finisher tags at high speed with frozen hands is not as easy as it looks! )

Plan for Sunday was just to run comfortable and strong and keep the mental attitude up as lately 'the voices' were getting louder in the head during long lonely runs)

A brief description of the Eddie Murphy Run. There's a Double Marathon, 30M, Marathon and Half marathon all run on the same route of a 1M loop in Sixmilebridge. There is also a 400M long hill to tackle each time around. For the last two years, I have done the Double, but this year, I felt the training was seriously lacking to go for it again and just stuck with the Marathon as is was the last preparation before the pacing in Clonakilty.

I got into a good steady pace with Ger O'Brien for the first 5 miles or so, but had to take a quick pit stop because of all the coffee I drank on the way down which meant I broke away from people running at the same pace and I was solo for the rest of the way. Nothing major to report from the race. At halfway, I hit 2:00 on the button and the hill wasn't causing any problems and I was satisfied with how I was running up them. By Mile 19, the hill was taking it's toll a bit an for the last 7 loops, I think I walked part of the hill section only 4 times.

Overall, the body felt good on each lap and in the last couple of loops, I had lots of energy and felt like a big girls blouse for doing some walking up that hill as it wasn't really warrented. Sprinted up on the last stretch for a fast finish and big jump over the line. Unfortunately, the photographer missed it and I had to do it again, but she still missed it. Damn iPhones have a time delay when you press the button.

Finished in 4:08 and got a very welcome massage afterwards. Not a great time, but I'm now pulling things back towards the right side of 4h and work on better speed.

Happy out with the run. I redeemed myself after last week and definitely feel the better for resting up a bit to recover for the race. Will be training a bit more sensibly for the next three weeks and concentrating on hills to prepare for the couple of nasty long rises in Clonakilty.

26.2M in 4:08

Thursday - 6.6M Ramble, nothing major in 1:02 (9:28 pace)

Friday - Found UM1 loitering about outside the house, ran away for 4.2M but he kept catching up. Tried to drug him with alcohol afterwards, just made him want more. Paid him off with a bottle of home brew. 4.2M in 38:31 (9:06 pace)

Working in Cork City for most of next week, finally getting back since the Cork Marathon. Had to check if my passport was still in date. Looking forward to running along the Lee and Model Farm road again, then it's off to Clonakilty on the Friday evening for pacing duties.

Thursday - Out the straight road again, handy 4M in 36 mins (9:00 pace)

Saturday - Clonakilty Marathon
Pacing 4:15 for this one. Not an easy one to pace. Did the 4:30 band last year but this year the Pacing groups stopped at 4:15. RunningCoach gave me the chance to run this band for this race.

With the undulating profile all the way, I did up a pace band for Myself and Gijima to keep 9:30 pace for the first 12 miles banking 2 minutes to take the pressure off for the hills at 12-14M, 16-17M and the long draw at 20M (10:30 pace for the hills) and then the proper pace of 9:40 for the flat parts everywhere else.

There wasn't much good spirits from the few people hanging onto us. I think everyone was more worried about the hills to come. Weather conditions were perfect though except for a slightly stronger than comfortable wind in some places.

Plenty of refreshment at most water stops including coke, chokkie sweets and jaffa cakes. Nice sugar boost before each climb. Crossed the line in 4:14:01, 29 seconds faster than target time, but the last mile was very deceptive with the winding road and because we couldn't see the finish line or hear the crowd, we were cautious that the distance might be a bit long, so we didnt want to give up any of the extra seconds, just in case.

A great pacing gig. Definitely a challenge and and a good experience to pace on a more demanding terrain.

Monday - Lunchtime run along the canal to loosen the legs after the weekend. Was supposed to be a handy slowish run without putting the muscles under too much pressure but at the turn around point on the canal, there was a guy heading towards me swiftly so the competitive streak surfaced and I increased the pace so that he wouldn't catch up. Ended up being sort of a progressive run with splits of 8:29, 8:27, 7:54, 7:46, 7:38 finishing strong. Oh to mix them miles into a marathon (some day :rolleyes:;))

ncmc wrote: »

I can't believe I'm not nominated for anything... not even slacker of the year :mad: I would have been a shoe in for that :pac:

Well done on the pacing on Saturday, sounds like a tough race. It seems like so long ago that I was planning to run it! Maybe next year :rolleyes:

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be on top of the Best Comeback of 2014 poll.

hot to trot wrote: »

Lovely bit of pace there

Pace is improving since I've changed my gait after the 10in10, but I start off running and settle into a hand 8:30 pace. According to Ecoli's log on Monday, he said that when he ran a recovery run at 8:40, it was a bit faster than usual, which according to my sliding scale means I'm getting neither recovery runs or quality fast runs, just slipping into a handy pace. I think I need to start paying more attention to the HR rate and start deciding on doing a recovery run and just watching the HR during the run. And I need to spend more time with tempos and concentrate on the longer distance intervals like 6x800, 8x800, 5x1000 etc to stretch out the speed to longer distances.

RayCun wrote: »

You need to come down to Brothers Pearse and do some sessions

I see the end of year recruiting drive has begun again (Or perhaps you've had a bar installed and planning on a few late night lock ins? )

RayCun wrote: »

I've been hanging around with PVincent too much He's talking about buying a van to roam the area and round up any unattached runners:pac:

I've heard it said that in order to get into the routine of doing something, it should be repeated for three weeks for it to become a habit. I discovered that not doing something for three weeks helps to undo that habit hence the reason why this log slipped all the way down the pages to rust under the hull of the Titanic.

Without further ado and resisting all attempts of putting it off for another day, it's time to reboot the log and get back into all this running social lark:

Tuesday - Lunchtime 5.1M
Time to shed the Holiday pounds, put the liver to other uses than trying to figure out what to do with all that alcohol and get myself pace ready for this Saturday's Parkrun pacing gig. I think today is the furthest I've run since Marathon No. 93/94 during the 2 in 1 day in Lexlip on 21st June. :eek:

Marathon No. 95 will be Longford which I think I have run the whole route more times during training sessions for Ultras than the actual marathon race. Two and a half weeks should be enough time to get race ready... Shouldn't it???