Becoming a Real Runner

5.7 miles in 47 minutes this evening Pace 8:20. Easy run the average Hr was only 145 but the legs felt really heavy, I set out a lot faster but mentally and physically I wasn't in it and I had to force myself on past 3 miles. The right leg in Particular is very stiff.

I hope it was just a bad night. Speed work planned for tomorrow 6 x 1k at 10k pace. My pack for the Great Ireland run came in the post today aswell. I am quite nervous and excited about sunday now...

The logs have been really active recently and I have been really enjoying reading all the Race reports and analysis from the weekend racesjust past. As a result of Misty Floyd's Rotterdam training programe and subsequent performace the famous 'improving for the next time' thread containing the now legendary Tegat posts on Training popped up. I remember at the time reading his advice about two big workouts per week and lots of easy miles in between and thinking 'ah sure most of my miles are 'easy' '. Now reviewing Misty floyds training and performance in Rotterdam, I saw that his PMP was under 7min/mile. Today when asked what his 'easy' pace for those 4-8 mile mid week runs, he replied around 8 minute miles. I read all this but it didn't quite sink in.

This evening while driving to the park after work, the light bulb went off in my head. Most of my 'easy runs' of late have been done at 8-8:30 pace. This is close to the same pace that Misty Floyd or Krusty Clown would call easy pace, so WTF? Now that I think of it, all of my runs in training for DCM last year were at or below PMP (9:09 back then) and guess what? I couldn't sustain it over 26 miles. What would my PMP be if I were in marathon training now? At a stretch it might be as low as 8 minute miles but proabably closer to 8:30 so..... I concluded my easy runs have not been easy at all, I really should be doing them much slower and concentrating on two big runs a week- a speed session and an LSR for now, but if I start going for longer stuff, that will become two big workouts- outside of this I really oughta be running much slower and more importantly enjoying it!!

So this evening I did 7 miles in 1hr 5 minutes, that's 9:20 pace with a HR of 142 :eek: I guess that's what easy should be (not 10 bpm faster as it usually is). Most importantly this evening I really enjoyed it. No suffereing at all, no thoughts of giving up. I think I am going to enjoy my running more from now on.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. I puked when I crossed the finish line, maybe I shouldn't be proud of that but I am

plodder wrote: »

If you heard someone gasping loudly for the last 3k, that was me.

At that stage I could only hear myself gasping loudly

May as well throw a race report together.
Up nice and early and had breakfast a good 3 hours before the race. I had eaten well the night before (good clean food) and wanted to avoid the sick feeling I usually get in races when the going gets tough :rolleyes:. I got up to the gates at Phoenix park at about 12.20 and jogged up the two miles or so to the start.
I dropped off the bags and went to see the start of the elite womes. I met Seres who also had Boards Ac vest and wished her luck with the 'Big Girls'. there was a great atmosphere. The women were off and I was straight into the elite/club runner pen. Felt like a bit of an imposter as I did a few warm up sprints up past the start line with the RTE cameras on me!! I quickly spotted another Boards Ac top, it was Sklarker. He was thinking of a similar target to me (44minutes) I though about maybe following him around. Alan Foley (foleyalan!!!) came over to us and introduced himself. The boards tops were proving a hit!
I started about 10 rows back and took 7 seconds to cross the line. My target was 44minutes thats 4:24/km I knew the first half was quick and I was happy to do it in about 21:30. Anyway I thought I was off nice and comfortable but a glance at the garmin showed 5:35/mile pace wtf!! I had to consciously make myself slow down.
Still the first k flew by and the Garmin beeped at 3:57 (t-27seconds). I knew this was way too fast but I felt great. I slowed down even though it felt wrong. Second and third ks went by fine. I wasn't even breathing heavily!! 4:08 and 4:12 (t-55seconds) at km 3 my HR had only reached 172!! this was a doddle. I passed the monument and knew robinph would be there I saw him from a distance and ran up to him and gave him a wave. Trusty as he is he got a snap and shouted Go:boards!


So I was now on the Kyber Rd and the course was downhill for the next 2k (first 3 were dead flat) I knew I was way ahead of schedule here so I held myself back to conserve energy, I let the HR drop back below 170 but the next two splies were 4:11 and 4:08 so I was 1:24 ahead of target and through 5k in a PB (20:40) I thought 44 minutes would be easy.

I was thinking at this stage that 23 mminutes for 5k was all I needed so mentally I let it slip a bit up the first hill after kyber pass. The hill itself wasn't too bad, but he S bends were flat and I was still at my climbing speed. I saw an 8min+/mile av pace on the garmin for the 6th k and had to push muself on to reagin respectability. 6th k 4:35 (t- 1:13) 7th K was pretty flat before the hills at glen rd but now it started to feel tough. Even the flat bits felt uphill 4:26 (t-1:11). The long drag at the upper Glen rd began. Now it's not steep but it is unrelenting the pace had slowed a lot here (4:37 t-57 seconds) I was begining to really puff and the legs were feeling it. I got one of those dark thoughts of quitting at this stage. I remember doing dsome mental maths at the 8k mark Basically I knew I had 9.5 minutes for the last 2k (I was 34:30 for 8k or 5 miles a pb by nearly a minute) so 4:45 would do. The 9th k was the worst, it was the lower Glenn rd and I slowed to what felt like a crawl from the lake up the winiding hill. I remember looking at my watch to see the pace climbing well over 8 min/mile. That would actualy se me fail to meet target. I put the head down and gritted out the hill. I felt sick at this point. Garmin bleeped at 4:49 (t-20sec) I was going backwards was I going to make 44??. At this stage I was on the flat and the end was in sight I regained breath before the final push. At 400m to go I saw I had 2 minutes to beat 44 minutes, I felt for sure I would get it now. Pushed on and did the 10th km in 4:24 and 8 seconds for the little bit extra.
I crossed the line in Bits. bent over a railing to catch my breath. I went to spit up the flem and couldn't help a little bit of puke coming up, I was hoping the cameras wouldn't catch that.
Overall 10k in 43:44, Pace 7 min/mile HR av 172 max 177 (seems a little low but didn't feel it!!)
That was a hell of a tough course. I reckon I could take a minute of the above if it were flat...

After the race I immediately met Afoley who was well finished and changed into a boards Jersey. Sklarker quickly joined us and then Robinph, Racoon queen and Rainbow Kirby, then Magnet an maybe others (sorry if I missed someone). We were to meet in Ryans at 3 so after about 15 minutes chat we all headed down. There we were joined by Seres, Aero 2k, Tunguska and Xebec. Great to meet so many boardsies, we should do this kind of thing more often.
Myself RK, RQ and xebec stayed late into the evening drinking manys the pint, we got so tipsy at one stage we even stopped talking about Running and our conversation turned to all kinds of wonderful things such as football T'was great craic!!!

Anyway summary for the week: 6 runs, 1 race (1pb) 35.8 miles

Back on the Horse tonight.
6 miles easy in 53 minutes (8:50 pace) AvHR 143

Nothing much to report, legs a little stiff.
Resolution for the next few weeks: must do more hill specific training!!

I have been thinking a bit over hte last few days about my ever recurring problem of not being able to hold pace over a race. I can never make anywhere close to even splits. I obviously have the speed but can't hold it.

With that in mind I went out to do a long tempo session today. This also feeds into the old Tegat 'Big workout' idea. I want to get used to doing these big runs midweek if I am going to build them into a marathon plan in the summer.

Anyway plan today was 2 mile warmup- 2 mile tempo- 1 mile recover- 2 mile tempo- warm down
so warm up: 9.15 (141), 9:15 (141); tempo: 7:17 (162) 7:01 (168); recovery: 9:34 (149); tempo: 7:09 (162) 7:01 (168); warm down: 0.6miles at 9:11 (154)

Total: 7.6 miles in 1:02 pace 8:10 HR 155

Really good session I think, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was thinking all the way in the tempo's 'about something I read to describe how they should feel: "comfortably hard". I think that sums it up.

tempo wrote: »

Wel done on the pb.How long have you been running?The reason i ask is that i could never wear a Garmin in a race and find it hard to understand how a runner could wear one in a race unless a Marathon.

A garmin is just a watch

Tempo run today. 2x 2 mile at tempo pace with 1 mile recovery between.

I have to say I founbd this really tough today, much tougher than last week. I guess it's just that I have had a busy and quite stressful week at work. I am also in the middle of moving house which is never easy. I was all for giving up after the first 2 mile tempo but in the recovery I convinced myself to go again and I'm glad I did now.

Tempos were: 7:25 (159) 7:05 (166), 7:28 (163) 7:08 (168). as before the second mile is always faster though overall the times are a little slower than last week.

Total for the day 7.9 miles in 1hr 05. av Pace 8:15, av Hr 154.

Managed to make it out today despite last nights pints. I have to say I was spurred on by reading some of the times posted at the RTE 5 mile yesterday. Several people in and around my level from previuos races posted sub 34 times, including Sklarker who was a minute behind me at the GIR a few weeks ago. I guess it goes to show that the GIR was a tough course, I am determined to get back ahead of a few of those who overtook my 5 mile time from Raheny on the 'best of 2010' thread at the sportsworld 5 mile race in a fortnight. That will mean going into the low 33's though :eek:

Anyway I did just over 9 miles in Corkagh park this morning which looks like it will be my new spot for weekend runs. The first 7 were at around 9 minutes with HR low 140's. I decided to do the last 2 at some kind of 'Pace' though. I wasn't sure what pace, just felt I should get the HR into the high 150's and see what happened. I think I will call it Half Marathon pace as the Splits were 7:43 (156) and 7:12 (158). I think I will work half marathon pace as being around 7:30 from now on as that would get me under 100 minutes.

Overall 9.2 miles in 1hr 19, AV Pace 8:39, Av Hr 146

Total for the week: 4 runs 29.6 miles. A bit Crap and next week mightn't be much better as I am playing poker all weekend (hopefully, If I don't get knocked out on friday )

OI wrote: »

No way, I'm at 9 min miles for 5 at the moment. Unbelievably unfit. If you are really stuck and need to make up the numbers, I'd consider it but I'd feel like deadweight.

check out the thread. The B team is more of a laugh than anything serious and if you join we could bump someone fster up to the A team.

Intervals today. I did my usual 6 x 1k with 400m (approx) recovery. I went back to Marlay park again this week as I really like the 1k course, unfortunately woddle couldn't come this week.
Anyway, I have to say these were quite strange. The first felt really tough in the legs (even though it was quite slow) I nearly called it a day. they got gradually easier and at the end it all felt easy. I really don't understand, another thing is that my HR was really low, even though I felt like I couldn't push much harder at times. I laid it all out in the last one and still coul donly get the HR up to 165 average. On most of the laps my max HR was only in the mid 160's. I have a feeling my max HR is dropping, I noticed in the GIR it was lower than most races even though I definately gave it my all as evidenced by puking at the finish line.

Anyway the laps went: 4:15 (157) 4:01 (162), 4:13 (160), 4:12 (157 ) 4:15 (161) 4:04 (165)

Overall 10k exactly (6.2 miles) in 48:25, Pace 7:48, Av HR 151

I had a real big session tonight as I am not sure I'll be able to get a long run in this weekend. The plan was a long run with two big 3 mile tempos. I was quite nervous about this as I have struggled doing 2x 2 mile tempos in the last few weeks so I wasn't sure If I would be fit for so many fast miles.
Anyway I needn't have worried. This went really well I concentrated hard on trying to relax while running fast and in the recovery mile between tempos I was still going quite fast unintentionally, normally I'm wrecked and hardly moving.
Anyway the session went 2 miles warm up (9:37, 8:36) -> 3 miles tempo -> 7:25 (158), 7:01 (165), 7:01 (169) -> 1 mile recovery (8:37) -> 3 miles tempo -> 7:11 (161), 7:10 (167) 6:53 (169) -> 1.1 mile cool down at 8:10 pace.

Overall 10.1 miles in 1hr 18min 30 sec at 7:46 av pace and 157 Av Hr.

Incredibly I was though 10 miles in 1:17:45 - that would have been a dream race time over the distance 6 months ago and yet I ran 4 of the 10 miles at easy/recovery pace tonight. This run has given me real confidence ahead of the sportsworld 5 mile next weekend. I am planning to break into 33:XX

OI wrote: »

Jaysus, you have come a long way, won't be catching up to that any time soon. Wish I had kept training now.

Keep it up and you'll get there. I have found from reading other logs that the key is to get a few key sessions a week (1 tempo and one speed if you are going for shor stuff, and 1 Tempo and 1 LSR if you are going for long stuff) and keep the rest of you runs really slow and easy. BY slow I mean a minute or more below Marathon pace.
I heard it said that keeping your slow sessions slow keeps you rested allows you to do your fast sessions fast I wish I had followed this advice when training for DCM last year. I think we both did all our runs at PMP or fatser yet we couldn't make PMP on the day :rolleyes:

In saying all that I was surprised that the run went so well tonight.
BTW you are only a few months behind-After christmas I was in bits and could hardly do 9 minute miles and I was injured for about a month in February. You'll be flying come the summer.

This is Misty Floyd's Marathon training Programme as designed by himself and alongthe lines of what our resident forum expert Tergat has suggested. I will be followin something similar to this. The key is two 'big sesions a week' one is a long tempo run e.g 6x2 miles at HMP in midweek and an LSR at the weekend with PMP miles at the end (e.g. 16 miles with last 5 at PMP). The LSR's start long from week 1 so by the end you should be used to it.
Everything else should be 'easy' pace. Misty was running 8 min/mles for these runs and his PMP was about 6:45. You might notice my easy runs are now at low 140's HR (they used to be low to mid 150's). I am actually doing these midweek tempo runs now so I will be used to the regime come June and at that stage I will be dropping the monday/tuesday 1km intervals from my plans altogeher.

Have a look through misty's log yourself to see what he was at. I already have his permission to copy his plan, I am sure he won't mind if you do too :P