BQ or Bust!

Tues 27 May
18 weeks to go...

8k@6:13

Legs were quite sore after the somewhat ambitious 26k (16 mile) LSR on Sunday so I was considering an extra day's rest. However I didn't want to get behind in the plan from Day 1 decided to get out and treat this like a recovery run. Not much fun, and felt pretty heavy legged, but it's done.

WTD: 8k
YTD: 496k

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Ps - now would be a great time to convert to miles

Yes, I am actually considering that in the interests of "fitting in". But then again, they don't do miles in Berlin.

Will probably stick to kms for now but will work harder at converting distance and pace for the benefit of all ye imperialists.

Thurs 29 May

40 mins recovery on the treadmill 6k @ 6:40 (3.7 mi @ 10:40)

Sat 31 May

9.03k @ 5:40 (5.6 mi @ 9:07)

In Donegal for the weekend so headed out on the local country roads. Lots of farming going on which made me feel vaguely guilty to not be working, although I did spend the rest of the day cutting grass and other gardening chores.

Sun 1 June

21.1k @ 6:00 (13.1 mi @ 9:39)

Nice easy long run to round off the week. Tacked on a little bit to bring up to HM distance (why not?). Back feeling a bit stiff after yesterday so tried to be as relaxed and as light-footed as possible.

WTD: 56k (35 mi)
YTD: 538k (334 mi)

Weds 4 June

Progression Run

Have taken a couple of days off this week so it was nice to be able to get out to the Phoenix Park around lunchtime for this week's session. Quite warm, and threatening rain, although it stayed dry (could have done with a bit of a shower towards the end to cool down).

The plan was four 8-min reps, at Steady, MP, HMP and 10k pace.

|Steady|MP|HMP|10kP|Avg
Plan| 8:37 (5:21) | 8:21 (5:11) | 7:56 (4:56) | 7:31 (4:40) | 8:06 (5:02)
Actual| 8:32 (5:18) | 8:08 (5:03) | 7:51 (4:53) | 7:27 (4:38) |8:00 (4:58)


Started with a two mile warmup and as you can see I didn't find it easy to dial in the pace - was wearing watch and trying to match the virtual pacer but only taking the occasional glance. Found it quite hard in reps 3 and 4. The final rep had me coming down Military Hill but also back up towards and past the Wellington Monument so both sides of the coin here. 2 miles cool down for a total of 8 miles (12.8k).

WTD: 23k (14.3m)
YTD: 567k (352m)

Sat 7 June

Out to St. Anne's for the first time in a few weeks. Took it nice and easy, running with Colm, who I know from volunteering. Turns out he's Ferris B - everyone's a boardsie! We had a good chat on the way around, hadn't realised he's doing Berlin too. Mrs. M sped past on the home straight for this week's /bragging rights. Spotted Redrunner on his way home as we were coming down to the finish - he must have put in a decent time. Gentle run home afterwards. Total: 10.3k (6.4 miles)

WTD: 41k (25 miles)
YTD: 585k (364 miles)

Mon 9 June

Rest. Went to the pool though, and did a 22 lap (550m) "recovery swim".


Tues 10 June

Easy 10k @ 6:00 (6.2m @ 9:39).

No watch today, just went out for an easy 10k from the office up to Ballymun and Santry Demense. Jogged for an hour and measured the route afterwards on Google Earth and it turned out to be... 9.99k. Followed this with 10 laps of the pool and a sauna.

WTD: 10 k / 6 mi
YTD: 618 k / 384 mi

Weds 11 June

Tempo session: 3 x 2 mile with 5 mins jog recovery @ 7:52 (4:53/k)

This session from meno's plan calls for a tempo pace somewhere between 10 mile and HM pace. I reckon those paces are 7:50 (4:52) and 7:59 (4:57) respectively, so I aimed for a target pace in the middle of that range. Did the session around 9pm, not much more than an hour after dinner, so I worried a little about keeping it down, or maybe getting a stitch.

Miles|Total|Avg|Target
1-2| 15:39 | 7:50 (4:52) | 7:55 (4:55)
3-4| 15:37 | 7:48 (4:51) | 7:55 (4:55)
5-6| 16:06 | 8:03 (5:00) | 7:55 (4:55)
Total|47:22 |7:54 (4:54) | 7:55 (4:55)


After a 2k or so warmup, the first rep felt terrible, which is not unusual for me with this kind of session. However after the 5 min recovery I was feeling better and rep 2 felt pretty OK, although it should have felt harder into a slight headwind. By rep 3 I was trying to pace myself rather than rely on the watch so that's probably one reason why it was a bit slower (the other being it was pretty difficult by mile 6). Still, the average is pretty much bang on target so have to be happy with that - especially as there was no sign of the dreaded stitch or puke!

The last time I did this session it was much earlier in the day and much hotter and my pace was 8:18 - but still, I'll consider it an improvement.

Total with warmup/cooldown: 10.4 miles (16.8k).

WTD: 27k (17 miles)
YTD: 635k (395 miles)

Thurs 12 June

50 mins Recovery 4.4 mi (7k) @ 10:24 (6:27/k)

WTD: 34k (21 mi)
YTD: 642k (399 mi)

career_move wrote: »

This is more opinion than knowledge but given that your marathon was last October I think and that you have been running fairly consistently all spring a PMP of 8:20/5:11 sounds spot on. I like to have a bit of a cushion so I would probably even be doing the PMP miles between 8:10 - 8:15 pace so that on the day 8:20 pace feels like a breeze

Ha - I worry am I going too fast and she tells me to speed up!

Sat 14 June

4.4m (7k) easy @ 9:13 (5:44). Warm and muggy this afternoon in East Point and the Docklands. Lots of locals gathered around the canal lock at the Convention Centre enjoying a swim, wetsuits and all.

WTD: 41k (25m)
YTD: 649k (403m)

Sun 15 June

16.2m@9:29 (26k@5:54) long run. Avg HR 152 (71%)

Another 16-miler under the belt. Hot day but felt good throughout. An out and back along the seafront to Howth via Sutton, to the "plateau" below Shielmartin (the false summit that catches everyone out on their first jaunt up there). Took the St. Fintan's Road route on the way back. I've never been down that descent before, and it was a little steep for comfort.

I only wear headphones for long runs (usually listening to Marathon Talk or somesuch). When my podcasts ran out around after 16k or so I stuck on some music and immediately noticed myself speeding up - I wonder if that's one reason a lot of novices struggle to run slowly enough during LSRs?

Anyway, great to be a full three weeks into the Berlin training. Game on! The "meno plan" is behaving itself so far. Last time out I only aimed for 90 percent of the low end of the suggested mileage but this time I'm trying to hit the mid-to-high end of the suggested range. Which is why I'm ready for the first stepback week of the plan.

So far so good. A week ahead of schedule so will have a bit of flexibility as the races start to kick in in a few weeks.

WTD: 67k (42 miles)
YTD: 675k (420 miles)

Mon 16 June

Rest. Glad of it too. Tidied the back garden.

Tue 17 June

Easy 5m @ 9:10 (8k @ 5:41)

Did a few strides in the middle of this. Hot afternoon in Clontarf. Seafront full of people enjoying the glorious weather.

WTD: 5m (8k)
YTD: 683k (425 miles)

Thurs 19 June

5 miles recovery. Bloody hot out there.

WTD: 26k (17m)
YTD: 702k (436m)

This is what's down for this week:

Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday| Thursday| Friday| Saturday| Sunday| Total Mileage
Easy/rest| Easy/rest| 90 minute progression run|recovery |Easy/rest| Easy/rest|Long run-18 miles easy| 44-50 miles

As I'm doing the Irish Runner 5 Mile on Sat will have to adapt this. I'm thinking just easy runs all week with some strides, race Saturday, then maybe 10 miles or so recovery on Sun. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm not going to try to win the Irish Runner, but might go for the PB - the course isn't particularly PB-friendly but at my level it would probably be on.

menoscemo wrote: »

TBH I wouldn't try to do any kind of long run the day after a race. 45-50 minutes recovery would be my limit. Ditch the session for sure but could you do the longish run (maybe 13 miles??) earlier in the week? Ideally tomorrow but Wednesday might be fine if you keep it really easy.

Thanks meno - sounds good. Don't know what I was thinking there about the "10 mile recovery".

Sat 28 June

Dublin Race Series: Irish Runner 5-Mile

Last year I had a target of sub-38 for this one, but faded towards the end and ended up with 38:03 – a PB but a slightly disappointing one. This year, with the PB lowered to 37:50 at Terenure, I aimed to take a crack at 37:24, which is what McMillan (I know, I know) suggests is appropriate for my marathon target. So I set up the “virtual pacer” for 7:30/mile (4:40/k) hoping to exceed that by a few seconds over the course of the race.

Mrs M and I arrived in good time, parking at the Polo Grounds which allowed us a nice slow 2k warm-up run up Chesterfield. Parted ways as she ducked into Wave 2 with a 44 min target. I headed up to Wave 1 and continued the warm-up, exchanging a wave with FBOT01 on his way to the line. Lined up behind RedRunner and Tang1, wished them luck and we were off bang on time. Of course while I was chatting with the lads my watch had gone into standby so there was a bit of fiddling with it as I went over the line. Didn’t get it going till about 10 seconds in. Damn Garmins!

Lots of congestion over the first mile, especially at the right turn onto North Road, but I settled into a nice pace and tried to take advantage of the downhill drag. (Mile 1 - 7:21.) Knowing that the race would be downhill for pretty much all the first half, I just tried to relax, lean forward and let gravity give me as much help as possible and hit the second mile marker in the Khyber feeling very good. (Mile 2 – 7:10.)

As anyone familiar with the Phoenix Park knows, this race gets tougher at the halfway point, which begins with the climb up Military Road. So while there was 35 seconds or so in the bank at this point, I wasn’t sure if it would be enough (it wasn’t last year!). The pace slowed a little up the hill but I’ve run it a lot in training and wasn’t worried about it. At the top, however, I got a stitch (probably caused by that last half glass of water before leaving the house) but luckily it passed pretty quickly and I got to the S-bends in pretty good shape, if starting to breathe a little heavily (Mile 3 – 7:14.)


In mile 4, the field was definitely thinning a bit and it was nice to be able to run the tangents through the bends. I like this part of the course and its undulations and when we hit the four-mile marker I could see there was now about 50 seconds in the bank for the final push. (Mile 4 – 7:21.)

The final mile by the Furry Glen and into Furze Road doesn’t look as uphill as it seems to be, and it was starting to feel like a slog. But the rain was providing some relief from the warmth and I was delighted to see the 800m marker sprayed on the road near the Glen Pond. A guy I’d swapping places with blew up at this point, just before the turn into Furze Road and the final straight, which gave me a bit of encouragement – nothing like a bit of schadenfreude towards the end of a friendly race! Hit the final 400 feeling tired but strong and for the first time ever in a race, I wasn’t desperate for the finish line. That seemed to make it appear all the quicker and even I could see from a good way out that the time was in the bag, plus a bit more. (Mile 5 – 7:41)

Previous PB: 37:50 (Terenure, May 2014)
Goal time: 37:24
Chip Time: 36:47
Verdict: Chuffed.

Caught up with FBOT01 and Tang1 just past the finish chute – everyone looked happy. Made my way back to the finish line just in time to catch the missus hitting her target for a decent PB so neither of us minded the soaking we got on the way back to the car.

WTD: 39k (24 miles)
YTD: 762k (474 miles)