Becoming a Real Runner

I suppose I better do an update as things have been going quite well over the past few months. I have been doing lots of races; not as many miles as last year but lots of quality. My club have a 7 race series which I have been doing every Tuesday for the past 4 weeks (3 more to go). While I haven’t raced them flat out; I have ran a lot faster than tempo runs and given the fact they are general over very hilly courses; they have definitely ‘toughened’ me up a bit.
Otherwise I have been doing an official race most weekends as well. Some have went very well and some not so well. I did the superfast Enfield 5k at the end of May. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/316260956. I was delighted to get a PB of 18:35 but at the same stage a little disappointed as I felt I had wanted to get under 18:30 and didn’t feel too wrecked at the end. I just felt that I was a little out of practise over shorter races.

Next up was the beer mile which was distaster . Took a lot of confidence away as I got chicked by claralara for the first time and digger beat me for only his second ever time. Report here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=85088993&postcount=505

Two days later was the Dublin novice road race; a 5k in Raheny. I had agreed to do this for the club but was still feeling very ropey from the beer mile (more accurately the celebrations) as it was less than 36 hours after the race. I turned up anyway thinking I would be happy to run under 20 minutes but was annoyed to see digger and CL turn up too as I reckoned I could be in trouble again. So it proved as my 19:03 was 15 seconds behind CL and I only managed to hold off digger by a few seconds. Let’s just say I knew I could do better but my stomach was in no shape to go faster (as evidenced by my fart before the race ). Fair play to Cl though on her win in the Ladies novice race.

After another tough club race on the Tuesday I took it easy for a few days ahead of The Dunshaughlin 10k. This is one race I had targeted for a good time as I felt my 10k PB was particularly weak (39:45). It was an evening race so I made sure to have a good long lie in and relaxed all day before it. I lined up at the start and had sub 39 in my head but as I have been doing recently, decided not to look at the Garmin. I knew the key to this race was to get to the hill at 8k with enough in the tank to push on. Off we went and I got a slow start. Spent the first mile getting up to speed (it is a downhill start) so was happy to hear 6:10 called out at the first mile marker. From here on it was a matter of constantly passing people. I noticed one lad in a blue singlet going at my speed and cutting through the field so I decided to track him. This turned out to be a good plan as he was very consistent and going past people. I am sure I annoyed him though as I was right on his shoulder. I had a frog in my throat and kept coughing regularly. He must have thought I was going to fall off the pace. Heard 12:20 at mile 2 so was happy, then I heard 18:40 at mile 3 and feared I was slowing. We went through 5k in 19:20. I wasn’t feeling particularly good at this point and felt the sub 39 would be tough given the harder 2nd half however……we were now in a group containing about 7 runners including Mr Drak and a few SW girls who usually beat me. My pacer went straight through the group so I went after him. Mile 4 is nicely downhill so I was delighted to hear 23:38 shouted at mile 4- we had made up time (or was the 3rd mile marker long??). I was feeling better now but mile 5 is the hardest with a short hill followed by a longer one. We hammered up the short hill which brought us to KM 7 and joined the next runner. However my pacer did not push past and I noticed he was struggling for the first time. Sensing blood I went for the kill and pushed on. I hit the long hill at 7.5k and started reeling in the runners in front. Passed about 10 but I had a Donore girl in my sights (funny gait girl)- she had gone well ahead at the start and was paying now. I flew by her halfway up the hill and just about caught another girl at the top- a dunshaughlin girl called Emilia who normally pips me in races. I had to keep the foot down on cresting the hill to stay ahead. 31:00 was called out at 5 miles (a 38 second unofficial PB) so I knew I had sub 39 in the bag and the urge was strong to drop off the pace. I kept seeing targets up ahead though so the motivation was to catch and pass. I felt like I hammered the last mile but coming into the finish straight I was absolutely spent. I had passed a group with about 600m to go but with absolutely no kick left a few of them came back by me in the home straight . Anyways I can’t worry as I felt I gave it my all. Final time 38:29 Splits: 6:07, 6:16, 6:17, 6:03, 6:20 (2 hills) 6:06 and 6:09 pace for the last 0.21. It turns out I ran the second 5k in 19:09- 11 seconds faster than the first half. Gotta be happy with that.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/331648138

Another club race on the Tuesday which I took at HM pace deliberately to give me a chance on Friday night. Fridays race was St Cocas 5k. I did it last year and had a terrible run (19:20); mainly because I was just back from 10 days at the Euro Championships, but it was the scene of my ugliest defeat (digger passed me over the last 800m) so I had some revenge in mind. A stressful day at work, meant I was feeling neither fresh nor confident at the start line; when I saw Belcarra I even offered to pace him to sub 20 and would have done so I f he accepted.. Strangely I was not nervous either- just wanted to get the race over with. Again I did not look at the garmin so I only knew the mile splits afterwards…….Got off to a really poor start. People I should be challenging seemed to be 20 mts ahead at the first corner. I ended up getting stuck behind lines of slower runners who went out too fast so I had to do a lot of swerving and side stepping in the first half mile to find some clear road. I was a bit annoyed but maybe this actually helped? After a mile I saw I was closing on Emilia from Dunshaughlin so I figured I wasn’t going too bad, passed her quickly before the long drag up over the motorway bridge. Again I had a surrogate pacer (in an Amsterdam Tshirt) so I followed him as we cut through the field. Soon we passed the sign say 2k to go which was a surprise as I had missed a few markers. We had already negotiated the 2 main hills so the rest of the course was straight forward. I spotted Charlotte and Brendan from Donadea up ahead. They had fast starts but were fading; my pacer was pushing on and I was trying to hang on to his coat tails. With 1k to go I went past Charlotte (1st time ever in a race under HM ) and at 800m to go I went past Brendan (he beat me by over a minute in a 10k a few months ago) but I was totally spent at this point and didn’t kill him off. As we came into the home straight there is a drag up to the finish and he came back past me; again I had absolutely no kick. All I could do was hang on but was delighted with my time of 18:22. A 13 second Improvement on Enfield on a course that is much slower (I would conservatively say 10-15 seconds slower).
My splits after the race revealed remarkably even pacing: 5:56, 5:56, 5:56!! Not intentional in the slightest but curious nonetheless!!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/334512763

The best new of these 2 PB’s is that McMillan now predicts a sub 3 marathon for the first time ever!!

So for next month I am going to cut back on the races. I have 3 club races left but as I say I won’t be flat out in those. Hoping to build up the miles in July which should set me up for a decent time in the national half. After that I have 7 weeks specific training for the goal race which will be the Charleville Half at the end of September; then I’ll be pacing DCM which should be a bit of craic.


month|2012 Run days|Miles|2013 Run days|Miles
January|28/31|290.1|25/31|243
February|27/29|283.2|26/28|237
March|24/31|204.7|26/31|234
April|23/30|187.8|24/30|156
May|29/31|240|27/31|187
June|20/30|176|28/30|211
July|30/31|309.2||
August|28/31|257||
September|26/30|227||
October|25/31|171||
November|27/30|201||
December|28/31|210||
Total|317/365|2757.8.5|156/181|1268

statss wrote: »

super update. just one question, what % of your heart rate max is 160BPM?

Max is 186-187 so 160 is about 85%. As I say i ran Blackpool a few years ago at 160 av and I had no taper for the race and it felt easy (wasn't training for a marathon). I haven't worn a HRM for a marathon since but I reckon I can average closer to 165. I don't tend to get any HR drift so the HR I start out at is the same as what i finish at (barring hills, wind, slowing down or speeding up).

statss wrote: »

that's bang on so, was just checking as mine is 197 so 170 will be my target HR when I get to that level in the HADD cycle. You are in great condition, your weekly schedule looks pretty sweet, do keep us updated, the 2 x 10milers @ 160 will be very interesting.

HADD would suggest you can get your Max HR-20 for a marathon if you are aerobically conditioned (this is one of the reasons I say 165 is possible for me). So if 170 is a step up for you on previous Marathons it is a good training target but be prepared for it to be higher in the race.
TBH I would never have HR displayed on the Garmin in an actual race as:
a) It can be inaccurate
b) you might surprise yourself and be able for a higher HR
c) if you have a goal time you have to hit a certain pace regardless of what your HRM shows :P

So since the last post things have pretty much gone to Pot . I don't think I hit any of my february goals and just about managed 2 session for the month; 1 MP session (9 miles at about 6:55 wind assisted) and 1 HMP session (3 x 2 miles @ 6:22 pace).
I did the Donadea 50k but didn't feel great on the day. Running 7:35 pace felt pretty tough in the muddy course and I ended up dropping out after 6 laps (18.5 Miles). In retrospect my HR for the entre run was 160 bpm which I had been using as a Marathon paced effort up to then, so it was well over 2hrs at marathon effort and could be considered a session in itself. The only positive from the race is that I lasted a lap more than Jackyback and 2 laps longer than I did the year before.

February was also a month of niggles which prevented a lot of hard training. Firstly the old hip injury flared up after a bout of hill sprints (have done no hill sprints and few strides since ) and then I had a seriously sore foot after Donadea. It was obviously caused by the stabilizers coming uder stress in the muddy Doandea loops. That menat I missed a session the week after the 50k.

At the start of March the plan was to run Bohermeen HM in 89:xx as part of a 20 mile run with 13.1 @ MP. I arrived at the startline in what should have been a fresh state having had an easy week in the build up. I was late and only managed a 2 mile warmup. Pace felt fine at the start but Krusty's pacing group got a bit of a gap at a waterstation and I struggled to catch back up. Myself and Davemcmahon formed a group behind the peleton and I felt we would reel them in but it never happened. At 9 miles I was totally screwed (HR up to 10k levels) and had a monster stitch and dropped off the thing completely. I told Dave to push on and he did (hitting his 1:29:xx target) and jogged home pretty dejected in 1:32:xx. Didn't bother trying to make up 20 miles so settled for 15.
I had pretty much resigned myself to forgetting about racing London at that point but then ended up on my death bed with Manflu for the next 5 days which in a way was a relief as I had an excue for the poor run. The only problem was I had 5 days of no running followed by 5 days of jogging short distances before the legs started feeling in any way normal again. That is not exactly Ideal 5-6 weeks out from a goal marathon :rolleyes:

After that I actually put in 2 solid weeks of training before a 2.5 week taper started. I Managed 2 x 20+ mles at a steady 7:30 pace and 2 decent MP sessions (10 miles straight and 13 miles broken into 5,4,3,1).

It has definitely been a struggle to hit desired MP on any of my MP sessions, only just about managing it on the last 13 mile one (but with a fade from start to finish), so I am not really sure where this leaves me. It's certainly not the training block that I wanted going into my first serious sub 3 attempt :pac:. I have found I have realy struggled to recover from hard sessions, needing almost 4 days before I can face another session or long run. Must be getting old. I really don't know how oldies like KC and Beepbeep do it

The only positives I can find is that I am at least as good a shape as last year when my training was also crap, probably even worse in fact. I managed 3:04 then while feeling in 3:02 shape aerobically on the day (having lost 2+ minutes over the last 6 miles due to cramp). Given that my Long runs have been much better than last year (I could barely manage to break 9 minute miles and ran no 20+ mile runs in the last 7 week ) hopefully the legs will be a bit more resilient this year and I can avoid having to slow up.

With that in mind I don't really want to put a definite time pressure on myself for next sunday. I just plan to run as best I can on the day. I'll go out and run the first 10k at what feels like a sustainable effort and have a look at the watch at that point. Bearing in mind that the first 10k in London is very fast, If I am at 6:4x pace after 10k I will concentrate on digging in and trying to hold pace for as long as I can; but if not I reckon I will just try to run as fast as I can and see what happens. Looking at guys like AMK having done pretty much a perfect training block and being much faster than me but still failing to nail sub 3 makes me think I haven't a chance; but you never know ;):):)

month|2012 Run days|Miles|2013 Run days|Miles|2014 Run days|Miles
January|28/31|290.1|25/31|243|27/31|268
February|27/29|283.2|26/28|237|26/28|252
March|24/31|204.7|26/31|234|25/31|216
April|23/30|187.8|24/30|156|5/6|41
May|29/31|240|27/31|187
June|20/30|176|28/30|211
July|30/31|309.2|??/??|220
August|28/31|257|??/??|140
September|26/30|227|??/??|209
October|25/31|171|??/??|203
November|27/30|201|28/30|241
December|28/31|210|28/31|242
Total|317/365|2757.8.5|311/365|2524|82/96|772

RayCun wrote: »

You still have plenty of miles in the bank, and plenty of experience to draw on. Rest up this week, let the crowd carry you, and negative split it home.

I sometimes look at guys on the Sub 3 support thread asking if they can go sub 3 off a 1:21 half with envy.
If I can go sub 3 off a 1:32:4x half it would be pretty epic

Davis Big Limo wrote: »

Fvk it i am in the same boat. I really don't see the point of either us going around for a jolly and posting a 3.02/3 for a small pb. Go out at sub 3 pace and be prepared for the wheels to come off and a major blow up. I think i would be happier with that outcome than not giving the sub 3 a proper bash.

A small wager of two pints will keep us both honest (last one home buys them):)

Don't read into it that I am not going to give sub 3 my best shot. If it's on it's on. If I am still there at 20 miles I'll be prepared to hurt don't, worry.
I have done the kamikaze before in Berlin 2011 and it hurts I was falling off the pace and maxing out my HR by 10 miles there and it took until mile 17 until I gave up the ghost (already 2 minutes off goal pace). I'm just saying I will know by 10k if I even have a chance of sub 3. I know how these things are supposed to feel at that stage and how they are not...

BTW you are on for that bet. I can never resist a wager

tunguska wrote: »

I think if you tried for the sub 3 by running even splits you'd die a death. Why not leave the door open but at the same time make sure you dont blow up. If you're working off a 92 minute half then I think the best approach would be to run the first half in 97minutes and go for it after that. I mean 97 minutes should see you very comfortably to the halfway point and not in any trouble whatsoever. You'd be chasing it all the way to the finish and theres nothing that accelerates you more than passing loads of people and there'd be no shortage of them in London. You may not end up with a sub 3 but you'd definitely come out with a big negative and a decent time, it'd be a lot more fun aswell.

Sounds like Fun, but no way i am selling myself short
I know I 'raced' a 1:32 half but I was sick. I'd like to think I could still race well under 90 on a good day.

Last year I went through half in 1:30:59 and felt very comfy, I reckon I am at least in the same shape and on the right day a bit better. PB from then is 3:04. If i go out in 1:37 I will need to come back in 1:27 just to get a PB and 1:22 to break 3. Given that my Half PB is 1:26 I wouldn't be giving myself much chance . London is a definite positive split course by the way. The first half is very easy, the 2nd half is just 'easy'.

BTW finally got round to reading your old log today in work for the first time (after all the talk over the years) that was short and sweet. I can also see why you closed it down so quick. Much the same reason I don't pot much in mine.