[Aimman]

I did.

OK, let me give you a bit of a portfolio before I start.

Began running in January 2007, dropped 5 stone in under 4 months ( I was a heavy xbox gamer) and did my first race in April 07 ( BUPA 10k in 55:10) and was persuaded by a great friend of mine to run 14 miles of the Cork relay marathon that June. From there, I had a few 5M - 10M races until I did my first Dublin City Marathon in '07 in 4:08 (Ended up having a feaure about me in the Irish Times Sept 4th marathon section by Ed Malone, Google it lol) with enough energy to walk 4 miles home at 2am from Cafe En Seine that night.
Since then, I have run a total of 14 marathons (official and in training) including

Dublin
Cork
Belfast
Berlin
Donegal
Longford

peaking at 3:56 for the DCM in 2008

I wasnt really pushing for speed last year, as I wanted to complete as many marathons as i could to the point where from August to October 09, every second week, i was alternating from Marathon to Half Marathon, where ever I could find one. My major achievement in 2009 was completing the first full Donegal mooathon where only 30 people entered the full 26.2M race. I came 15th, which considering the hills along the way, was a trial of fire for me, and dispite the voices in my head saying 'Never Again' I'm thinking of it for this year. the novelty of being the 15th person to ever complete that marathon route still brings a smile to my face.

Knowing that I didnt put any emphasis on speed work, I became obsessed with distance and endurance which is why i signed up for the Connemara Ultra Marathon this year. Why???? Because I never hit the 'Wall' in any training runs or marathons and I was curious to see if I'd meet it in Conn. Thankfully I didn't, despite the hot weather we had and I completed the 39.3M in 6:36

That leads me to where I am now, and if you are sill reading this, many thanks for your patience, and I dont plan in keeping my entries as long as this.

To be honest, my original plan was to complete the Conn Ultra, and go back to living a normal life of a few runs, buliding up the speed and enjoying the running, but in some ways, I have Ultraman1 to blame. The guy is dead sound and offered to bring me from Oughterard to Maam Cross that morning for the start of the Ultra. On the way, he told me about the 100M run he completed last year in Conn. Of couse, I had read about this and the few people that started, and the even fewer people that finished it. I had a reality check there and then, wondering what I was doing trying to reach 40 miles. even more so, when I got to Peacocks hotel and saw the 202 other enterants that looked more at home with this then I was

Cutting a long story short (too late) I finished the race in 6:36 as I've mentioned, but I really didnt bank on enjoying it as much as i did (in hindsight, during the run, I thought a lot differently) but in the back of my mind, I always though "could I manage any more miles?"

I've watched Tfbubendorfer, Mice Rice, Mithril to name a few hammer out the miles with ease and wondered how far can i go before the wall gets the best of me? I'm not a fast pace, probably never will be and I salute the runners that can break sub 3h marathons and wonder what if. I'm even in awe of the Conn Ultra winner that broke the finish ribbon not long after I passed the 26.2M mark and was delighted with my progress.

In my thirst to see how far I can go, I finally submitted to my nagging voices and signed up for the Dingle 50M yesterday. Today, I thought that perhaps a log might be the best way to cope with it. When I signed up for Connemara, I told as many people as possible that I was doing it so that it made it harder for me to back out. Perhaps this way might make it even harder for Dingle

I've just signed up to a few of the training logs of people who inspired me over the last year and will be keeping a close eye on them for tips. I'm hoping that some people will keep an eye on this log and help me with advice though the training for me to achieve the 50M in September. If anyone want to keep track of my progress, then welcome. I'm no expert, and dont endorse any of the training methods I might use here, but if they help someone achieve their goals, then I'm a very happy man.

Right! enought said, wake up people!!!!!! Time to start this log. If I waffle, post too much, not enough, I'm open to criticism which only comes in two sizes, Too much or too little, either of which I'll take on board and make sure this log is comfortable for everyone.

Let the games begin............

[Aimman]

Went out for a bit of speed work at lunchtime. Planned to run along the new canal route frm the Kylmore road to Inchicore (0.5M fast, recover for 0.5M etc for 3 miles), but they were putting the final surface on it, looked like the Yellow Brick Road, so it was a no go area. Ended up running my old route into Ballyfermot, up the Marathon route hills to Inchicore and back to the job. Ran 5M in 43:08 which wasnt bad for a lunchtime run.

Went out to Phoenix Park in the evening to do a casual 10M. Did a slow 1st mile in 9:46, just to warm up, then put the foot down wherever I could and ended up doing the 10M in 1:24:33 which was 3 seconds quicker than my PB in the Adidas 10M last year, so hoping for good things this year in a race situation.

Resting up tomorrow for the Intel 10k on saturday. When I finally work out a training plan for Dingle, I'll post it here and see how well I keep to it (open to changes on it too, ;-)

[Killerz]

Best of luck Aimman. Like yourself, I am moving from a recent "smaller ultra" to the 50 mile distance, with my race on Saturday week. I don't think I've been quite as dedicated as you have in training though, nor do I have your marathon experience! I think you're well placed for the step up, and will watch this log with interest, as I would consider doing this race next year or in 2012.

50 miles... are we stupid?

[BeepBeep67]

Good luck with goals Aimman - I get nose bleeds if I think of racing longer than 10k.

[Blueskye]

Best of luck with the training. I'd love to do an ultra in the future, so will be following this with interest.

[RacoonQueen]

Good luck ainman as you know I might be joining you in dingle might pester you to join me for a few log runs if I do...30 milers here and there might be called for this time around.

[menoscemo]

Best of luck Aimman, ya mad thing. I googles your article int he irish Times BTW, Nice

[Krusty_Clown]

Best of luck Aimman. I'm going the other direction, I reckon my next Ultra will be shorter than Connemara, at 36 miles, so I'm very interested in your training regime, and how it goes on the big day. Couldn't find the Irish Times article. Any linky?

[gerard65]

Good luck. The thoughts of running 50 miles in one go makes me want the curl up in bed.

[christeb]

You'll be lining up at the start of the Comrades in no time - good luck

[ronanmac]

Good luck, Aimman, I'll remember this opening post as I struggle through "mere" 20 miler LSRs in the buildup to Dublin!

[Aimman]

Cheers for all the comments, its 15 weeks away, so I should be able to get the distance up in time. For Connemara, I had modified the advanced marathon training plan on the cool running site to make up more miles without the speed work. Every second weekend had 2 LSRs of equal distance, adding on 2 more miles each fortnight,peeking at 20Mile LSRs, with a 30M during one of the weekends. I ended up doing more miles then I planned, because in work, I could squeeze in a 5M at lunchtime and then the planned distance in the evening. (was a mix of being addicted to running, and trying to put a big dent in the 1000M challenge.

At the moment, I'm concentrating on pace, because one the Ultra training starts, interval training and speed work doesn't seem to fit in with all the miles. I'm taking part in races from 5k to 10k just to get the body used to running at a faster pace, to give me a bit more confidence.

The basic framework of my training plan will be to step up the LSRs by 3 miles every fortnight and a 30-35 mile run somewhere

On the Weekends of:

13th June 2 x 10 miles

26th June 2 x 13 mile

11th July 2 x 16 miles

24 July 2 x 19Miles

7th August 2 x 22Miles

14th August 30 or 35 Mile run (depending on mood)

21st August 2 x 25 Miiles ( or maybe back to back marathons)

I'll sort out the in between miles over the next week. I know some people wouldnt recommend the jump of 3 miles for each LSRs, thats an extra 6 miles on those weekends, but in order to get to 2 x 25M its the only option without jumping straight into long LSRs in the next couple of weeks, and I cant arrange LSRs for every weekend.

[Aimman]

Originally Posted by Krusty_Clown

Couldn't find the Irish Times article. Any linky?

I checked the link, but unfortunately its in the Subscription part of the Times. Not sure if there is an alternative section in the Times site to see it. I wouldnt recommend paying the €10 daily subscription to see it, I could scan it and mail it if you really wanted to read it.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...603453488.html

[RayCun]

caching to the rescue


Wow, very impressive.

[Aimman]

Ran the Intel 10k this morning. What better way to get a bit of a tan :-) Finally set up my Garmin to try an run sensibly, ie. set up at a planned pace and try to keep it all the way around instead of starting off wayyyyyy to fast and cursing it at the end. the planned pace was 4:35km, but gradually lost pace to run an average of 4:50/km, probably the heat, probably wasn't a good day for me, but I still enjoyed the race. The one good thing I took from the race was that a group of people gradually overtook me after the 5-6k point and for the last km, I was able to step up the pace and started picking them off agin, one by one, with a fast sprint at the finish to claim a couple more places. Clawed back 13 placed in the last km, very happy. finished at 48:23. not a PB, but I'm happy considering the heat.

Good to run again with Gerard65 and meet Robinph and Mithril.

On the way to Longford the afternoon, I was looking forward to catching up with Hunnymonster, ditching the car and doing a few miles, but there were a few delays in their schedule and I got to Longford before they got to pass through it. Never mind, there might be another opportunity.