Staying Motivated With Slow Progress & Injury Worries

Laois_Man · 22-11-2012 4:31pm #1

I started a workout regime at the end of June this year and I have become frustrated with my rate of progress, niggling injury concerns and slightly fading motivation. I stumbeled across this forum by accident in the last few days and I read some of the threads on here and I thought they could help me. They were both inspiring and disheartening in different ways. So I thought I would write my story

So, my stats, as of last June:

Gender: Male
Age: 38
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 202Ibs (14st 6lbs)
BMI: 29.0

You would think 202Ibs isn't badly overweight for a male of my height. And it’s not the worst. But I guess my body shape makes it look worse. I have an hour-glass figure. I have no weight on my arms or legs and I have no ass at all. So the majority of the excess weight was gathered around a huge belly. When I would tell people my weight, they actually never believed me - it looked worse than it was.

I was stuck on bang-on 14st for a long time and I thought to myself I hope I never got over 200Ibs. Then I did and I saw a certain picture of myself at the end of June and it looked awful - and it made me determined to do something about it before the Summer evenings were gone and before the weight got more out of control. And a big belly like that is dangerous for someone my age, so it was more than just a cosmetic concern.

So, I started on June 28th - determined to start doing something every single evening. I even had the 2013 Dublin City Marathon as a goal in the back of my mind and a 16 month lead-in time sounded reasonable. But I was unsure how to start, what to do, how far to walk/run. So for the first evening, I just power walked for about 2.5 KMs. As soon as I finished, I thought it's not enough and on night 2 the following evening, I extended it to 3.5Kms. On night 2, I started throwing a bit of running into it already but I struggled to run for half a minute for couple of times along the route. It took me about 33 minutes to do that 3.5Kms if I remember right. But I wanted to quickly build it up - I tried to build it up too quickly infact.

A couple of weeks in, I was doing 5.8 Kms (with a 10-15 minute break after 3.5Kms) and trying to run most of it. I was enjoying it. I quickly wanted to lengthen and quicken my stride and after doing the 5.8KMs for the third time, and sitting down for a bit after it, I found when I got up, I had an awful pain in my right quads. I didn't think much of it - I said I was after pulling something in my leg and thought it would be OK in the morning. But it wasn't. It wasn't OK the next morning either. Or the next. It was getting no better and I wasn't even walking without a bad limp.

I ended up in the GPs for a different reason but mentioned this to him while I was in there. He diagnosed it as a back issue and referred me to a physio. I tried to keep doing stuff but was in too much pain. But the physio got me back to a place where I could run within 10 days for about 2.25KMs - although very slowly.

I gradually built up my pace and distance back to 3.5KMs. Very gradually. I had cut back to running every second day instead of every day. But every time I tried to really push myself hard, I would get pain again. Not as bad as before, but enough to make me nervous. I was nevous of being injured for a while and nervous that I would never get back into it again after a long lay off if I hurt my back worse. I went up to 4Kms every second day. And then to 5Kms which is where I am now. The first time I did 5Kms around mid August or so, it took me something like 34:00. I contiunued at this, and got my time down to under 30 minutes after another 5/6 weeks or so.

Since the clocks went back, I have changed my running to mornings before work - I didn't fancy the dark/cold evening run and mornings feels safer too. Now I am doing the 5Kms 3 times a week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. The fastest time I have done my 5Kms yet is 28:30 on Halloween morning - But I usually do it around 29:00. I am getting frustrated because I have stopped making progress – It is now over 3 weeks since I even ran 28:30 and I never seem to get much faster than 29:00 again. And I'm still in a situation where if I push myself hard, lengthen and quicken my stride too much - I get that slight pain that makes me hold back, now usually in the left quads.

My weight is now down to 185IBs (13st 3Ibs), I am still motivated, but I am sensing it starting to wilt and I don't want it to. I would have hoped to be down much more than 17Ibs after 5 months of effort. An average weight loss of 3.3Ibs per month doesn't fell like enough although (even though it's still weight loss). And my time is too slow - Even when I was younger, playing football or whatever, I never had much natural pace, but I want to be faster. I have seen some of the times logged on these threads and mine feels pathetic even in comparison to some who started heavier than me and who were doing much better after a similar time period.

I want to find ways to increase my rate of progress. I am already doubting my ability to run a marathon even though it's still 11+ months away. I have much smaller goals in my head (like getting to 5k in less than 27:00 for starters) but I keep that marathon as a big goal in the back of my mind.

So I have been casting a constructive critical eye over my lifestyle. Although I have changed my exercise habits in these 5 months, I have never really changed my diet much – It’s not a terribly bad diet and I am not much of a drinker but I certainly could improve a fair bit. And I probably need to get better at doing warm ups and warm downs before/after runs. My physio had given me some exercises to strengthen my back when I was seeing him in July but I don't believe they're doing much - although I do think my back is a bit stronger, but I put that more down to the running itself. My back is still a huge obstacle and a cause for nervousness. The last thing I need is something that will put me off the road again for a couple of weeks - or worse, longer - only to end up end up back at square one after a long layoff and never take up the running again.

So, I am here in an attempt to keep myself motivated, and to seek advice. I have read some other threads here about the couch to 5K app (I don't have a fancy phone for stuff like that). But is there a training/diet plan online that others here in similar shape to me are following and which you would recommend?

Is there certain warm-up/warm-down routines you follow and would recommend?

Should I be doing something else other than running – like aerobics or something. I have this issue with exercising indoors – I don’t want to do it, I don’t think I would keep it up - running is what I enjoy and I don't want to make it harder for myself to remain disciplined (getting up an hour earlier on Tuesday & Friday mornings is hard enough). But should I make myself at least try to do it to strengthen my body and in particular my back?

Any advice from anyone, in particular people who are, or were in similar shape to me would be greatly appreciated. My long term plan is to update my progress on this thread from time to time and try to ensure that I have good progress to report here and maybe it would help with motivation.

Thanks for reading.

Deedee2012 · 22-11-2012 5:28pm

Wow that's a long post! I'm fairly new to the running forum and definitely no expert. I did the couch to 5k program last year and ran DCM this year it is more than doable. Your 5k time is excellent for a new runner, mine is only slightly faster. I joined my local running club in April as a beginner and that has set me on the right path, I was terrified joining but it has been brilliant and I love the training sessions. I joined the mentored novice marathon thread in the training log forums this year and there were loads of people at the same level as myself. So you should look out for the 2013 one when it starts up. All the advice I've received is to run slow and gradually build up your mileage. Just running 5k every run and trying to go faster isn't going to yield you results. Gradually lengthen one of your runs each week (10% increase is often quoted) to try and increase your weekly mileage, you need to build a base before you try for speed. Otherwise you will get injured. Well done on a brilliant start, target a local race to keep your motivation up. The experts here will have plenty of advice for you.

Laois_Man · 22-11-2012 6:41pm

Deedee2012 wrote: »

Wow that's a long post! I'm fairly new to the running forum and definitely no expert. I did the couch to 5k program last year and ran DCM this year it is more than doable. Your 5k time is excellent for a new runner, mine is only slightly faster. I joined my local running club in April as a beginner and that has set me on the right path, I was terrified joining but it has been brilliant and I love the training sessions. I joined the mentored novice marathon thread in the training log forums this year and there were loads of people at the same level as myself. So you should look out for the 2013 one when it starts up. All the advice I've received is to run slow and gradually build up your mileage. Just running 5k every run and trying to go faster isn't going to yield you results. Gradually lengthen one of your runs each week (10% increase is often quoted) to try and increase your weekly mileage, you need to build a base before you try for speed. Otherwise you will get injured. Well done on a brilliant start, target a local race to keep your motivation up. The experts here will have plenty of advice for you.

That's given me a lift. I just had a snoop at the opening few posts of 2012 novice marathon thread and it looks really good.

The intention has always been to build up milage. I was hoping to increase to 6K very soon - once I got my 5K to about 27:00. But what you say about building up milage before pace (which is consistent with what I have seen some others on this forum say while I've been browsing it) suggests that my approach might be arseways

That's what I'll try then. I'll do my 5K in the morning and try go 5.5K on Sunday without worrying too much about speed (as long as I'm keeping it reasonable) and go from there. I have been saying for years that I want to complete a marathon before I'm 40 and 2013 is the last one before then.....Yikes

Thanks!

Laois_Man · 11-12-2012 4:54pm

Not everything went to plan since I started this thread. Pretty much immediately, I got a bad cold. I tried to be a hero and go out running with it but had to stop after 2K. I couldn't go out til a week after that which brought me up to Nov 30th.

First run or two back were fairly hard but since then, I have felt stronger than ever before and I am less worried about my back. It seems the week off has actually helped me. Although I put back on 1.5 pounds, I am a bit quicker, its not as much effort and recovery is easier.

Since I got back to it, I have done 5x5K and plan on doing another this evening. Over the Christmas holidays, I plan to gradually start doing some longer runs. I just wish the frost would feck off coz it's been impossible to do my early morning runs for the last week and I am not a gym member so I don't have access to a treadmill (besides, I hate them anyway) and I hate evening runs after work during winter. It's not helping!

Laois_Man · 24-12-2012 1:11pm

Been pleased with how it's gone the last 2 weeks. Already upped my milage. 5.5k to 6.5k and did 7k this morning for the first time (fairly slowly, but not worried too much abouot that at the moment). Out of 8 sessions since my last post, I've run 47.5K. Gonna be bold for the next couple of days and hit the road again on Thursday or Friday. Pleased at the mo anyway!

Laois_Man · 08-02-2013 4:33pm

I haven't updated this in a while but I have had a decent January's training (decent for me that is!!).

Since Jan 1st, I have been keeping track of my runs in a spreadsheet. In January, I ran a total of 91 Kms (56.5 miles) over 13 sesions.
Where at the start of the month, I had been doing 7k distances with every 3rd session being 5k, the second half of the month I increased it to 8K every time (except once when I did 5K due to soreness of the calves). My best 8K so far is 46m 05secs - plenty of room for improvement - but my progress has been shunted somewhat by calf trouble.

So, I have switched focus a little over the last week and last Saturday I started some cross training in an effort to firstly, strengthen my core which would hopefully make me less injury prone and secondly, to give my calves some rest at the same time.

I found some workout videos around the tinterweb and trying to do them has really hit home to me how much my upper body and core badly needs strengthening - I've struggled a lot - and I've also struggeled a lot with trying to actually find video's that are at the right starting point for me and which help me progress and which I can do maybe 2/3 days a week. The amount of video's around the web is very overwhelming and they often give conflicting advice.

I first tried to do the "IronStrength Workout" on RunnersWorld.com - not a good starting point for someone like me - too advanced - I did some of it but I largely bombed and got very disheartened. I was in agony for 2 days after it. I have continued to do some bits from it this week but I have spent more time in the last few days looking for the right workout routines to do than I have spent actually working out. So today I started this one - much easier starting point - some of it perhaps a little too easy - or maybe I'm doing it a bit wrong - but I'm only starting.

I haven't postponed the running altogether though - I have done 13K this week just to keep something going somewhat.

And I have entered my first ever race - I am doing the first race of the Urban Trail series in Marlay Park on Feb 23rd (the 8k route). This is a good race for me to start on - not too intimidating. Looking at the results of the same race from 2012 on the website, out of the 573 runners who entered the 8k route, I would finish about 290th if I ran around my current PB time - which is pretty much exactly middle of the field - and I still have 2 weeks to get better.

I also have my eye on the Inistioge 10km River Run in County Kilkenny on Easter Monday - but I'll try get through this first one first!

drquirky · 08-02-2013 9:39pm

Not a whole lot I can say but just wanted to urge you to keep at it! 17 lbs is nothing to sniff at and is an impressive achievement! Just keep plugging away consistently with the running week by week and you will get faster! Running races is a really good idea as it gives you goals to focus on...

Also maybe keep it as simple as possible with the supplemental stuff just basic push ups and sit ups in gradually increasing numbers 3 times a week should get you some results. Hang in there though, you're doing great!

Pisco Sour · 08-02-2013 10:46pm

Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. Clean up the diet, it will take pressure off your running as it will mean that your weight will not be solely determined by staying injury free.

Good luck.

Laois_Man · 11-02-2013 12:19pm

Thanks for the encouragement.

I have improved my diet over the last couple of weeks but there's room for improvement there too.

My weight sort of hit a plateau for a good while but now it's started coming down again - bit by bit - partly due to the improved diet and partly due to the cross training too I think.

I tried some sit ups last week and for the first time in a long time, I felt some pain in my lower back again, so I'm going nowhere near them again for a good while. Press ups, 4 sided planks, lunges and jump squats seem to be serving me well. I'm hoping if I can get other area's to be stronger - especially the glutes, the injuries will stop.

Laois_Man · 01-03-2013 12:17pm

Time for my overview of the month of February.

I ran a total of 89.5 KMs (55.6 Miles) over 11 sessions in February - not bad considering it's a short month and that I was taking it easy with an injury for the first 10 days or so of the month.

Doing a bit of analysis on my spreadsheet, my pace is picking up bit by bit even though I'm running further - I am running 0.54KPH faster that I was in January. Started running 9K per session on Feb 14th and I am now running 10K for the last 2 sessions.

I have been mixing in a bit of Fartlek/interval type training - but only a little so far.

I have tried to continue with the cross training also - but I have to admit I have been guilty of slacking off on that over the last weeek or so. I have to kick myslef up the arse on that one! On the other hand though, I have continued to improve my diet bit by bit.

Highlight of the month was my first ever race which was in the Cross Country Urban Trail series in Marlay Park on Feb 23rd. Although it was advertised as a 8Km race, it was actually nearly 9K. And I finished well inside the top half of the field whcih had 520 starters over the two-lap race.

So I am already signed up for my second race which will be 10K Run 4 Life 2013, organised by St. Laurence O’Toole Athletic Club, Carlow on March 10th.

My next race after that was to be Inistioge 10km River Run in County Kilkenny on Easter Monday - but that has been cancelled. So intead, I have my eye on the 10K route of the Slieve Bloom Run in Clonaslee, Co. Laois on Easter Sunday.

As Ronald McDonald might say - I'm Lovin' It!

Steroo · 01-03-2013 2:15pm

Well done on your first race and even better that you've signed up for more, keeps the motivation up. Reading your threads I can only advise that you concentrate on building the distance of the training runs and forget about pace. Run at a comfortable pace. Pushing it will only gas you early and increase chances of injury. Built slowly and try be as consistent as possible, 3 or 4 runs a week. Good luck

Laois_Man · 11-03-2013 12:44pm

Fantastic day in Carlow yesterday at the Run 4 Life 5K/10K. I aimed to complete my 10K in under 55 minutes. Hoped to even manage sub 54 minutes. But I actually did it in 52 minutes and a bit of change. So I'm delighted.

I also managed to rope a friend into doing it and there was some light hearted competition between us. And I beat him - he came in 4 minutes after me. But he did that with no training whatsoever. So I'm gonna have to work hard to stay ahead of the fecker in future runs cos he's gonna start training now. So even more motivation there. He'll be insufferable when he gets ahead of me!

I have my eye on the Kildare half marathon on May 12th at The Curragh. I'm thinking maybe that's too much too soon? I don't think I would have had another 11K in me yesterday - certainly not at that pace. I won't sign up for anything til I see how the next few weeks go anyhow.

Laois_Man · 14-03-2013 11:12pm

Trying to take advice from the DCM Novice 2013 thread. So I just got home from my first LSR. Still timed it out of curiosity. Did 12K in 1:17:30. Couldn't really have gone much slower than that without actually walking. I feel less tired than I normally do after my 10K run. When I stopped, I felt like I had at least a couple more Kilometers in me if I wanted to do them which I haven't normally felt after my previous 10K training runs. I guess that's a good thing but it makes me feel like I should maybe have gone just a tad faster to get the full benefit of the session. I don't feel like it's a most worthwhile session if I'm not knackered at the end of it.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

menoscemo · 14-03-2013 11:19pm

Laois_Man wrote: »

Trying to take advice from the DCM Novice 2013 thread. So I just got home from my first LSR. Still timed it out of curiosity. Did 12K in 1:17:30. Couldn't really have gone much slower than that without actually walking. I feel less tired than I normally do after my 10K run. When I stopped, I felt like I had at least a couple more Kilometers in me if I wanted to do them which I haven't normally felt after my previous 10K training runs. I guess that's a good thing but it makes me feel like I should maybe have gone just a tad faster to get the full benefit of the session. I don't feel like it's a most worthwhile session if I'm not knackered at the end of it.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

You shouldn't feel knackered after every run.
Even after a speed session, you should always feel like you have another few repetitions/Km's in you if needed. Leave racing to the races.

Best of luck with the training.

blockic · 15-03-2013 12:12am

menoscemo wrote: »

You shouldn't feel knackered after every run.
Even after a speed session, you should always feel like you have another few repetitions/Km's in you if needed. Leave racing to the races.

Best of luck with the training.

Yup sounds like you done it just right tonight laois man. It's difficult to comprehend at first but you will notice pay off in the medium term.

Laois_Man · 15-03-2013 11:07am

Hmmmm. Still feels like I should have been going just a little bit faster. To be axact, the distance of my LSR was 11.8Kms in 1:17:29 - so my pace works out at 10:34 per mile whereas previous 10K training runs were around 9:10 and my 10K race last Sunday was 8:25. So my LSR seems TOO slow at MORE THAN 2 minutes per mile slower than my 10K race pace from last weekend! Do people not see my sense in that?

But another question. I'll obviously build up my LSR distances - I'm thinking maybe by 1K every second week. And just to be careful, I'll pare back my other 2 or 3 runs per week to 8K - just for a little while - and increase them also. Should I be doing these 8K runs at the same pace as my LSR or should I go up one gear?

career_move · 15-03-2013 4:30pm

Laois_Man wrote: »

Hmmmm. Still feels like I should have been going just a little bit faster. To be axact, the distance of my LSR was 11.8Kms in 1:17:29 - so my pace works out at 10:34 per mile whereas previous 10K training runs were around 9:10 and my 10K race last Sunday was 8:25. So my LSR seems TOO slow at MORE THAN 2 minutes per mile slower than my 10K race pace from last weekend! Do people not see my sense in that?

But another question. I'll obviously build up my LSR distances - I'm thinking maybe by 1K every second week. And just to be careful, I'll pare back be other 2 or 3 runs per week to 8K - just for a little while - and increase them also. Should I be doing these 8K runs at the same pace as my LSR or should I go up one gear?

I was doing my lsr's for Dublin at 10:30 - 11:20 pace. It's the right pace for you at the moment if you're hoping to go sub4. My time was 3:57. If you do races in the run up to Dublin you can adjust the pace of your LSR's if you want to target a faster time

The best thing with one of the 8k midweek runs might be to run it at an easy pace but add in some strides where you sprint for 100m then walk or jog back to recover and repeat 6 - 8 times

Laois_Man · 15-03-2013 6:12pm

career_move wrote: »

I was doing my lsr's for Dublin at 10:30 - 11:20 pace. It's the right pace for you at the moment if you're hoping to go sub4. My time was 3:57. If you do races in the run up to Dublin you can adjust the pace of your LSR's if you want to target a faster time

The best thing with one of the 8k midweek runs might be to run it at an easy pace but add in some strides where you sprint for 100m then walk or jog back to recover and repeat 6 - 8 times

Thank you!

I was hoping somebody would suggest adding sometihing of a variation to my "midweek" runs - Save the running getting a tad boring.

(Although I can see myself having the LSR in midweek as I have already done this week and doing a 'normal' run at weekends).

Laois_Man · 26-03-2013 1:06pm

Bit of a conundrum; I had ear-marked the Allenwood, Co. Kildare 15K on April 14th as a good race to do. I'm really interested to see how I get on over that distance (dunno why they didn't add 1.1K to it and call it a 10 mile race

).

Anyhow, the 'Great Ireland Run' is on the same day and that looks like a much better buzz and ocassion. But it's only 10K.

There were only 123 runners in the Allenwood 15K last year - and it didn't clash with the GIR like it does this year. So it looks like something that could be a bit of a flop event. On the other hand, I have (perhaps crazy) notions of testing myself over the half-marathon distance on May 12th in Kildare and I'd really like to do a 15K as a build up to it - or to at least help me decide if the 21.1K in May a wise thing to try at that point.

Laois_Man · 31-03-2013 11:01pm

That time of the month again. Overview of March progress.

During March, I ran a total of 117Kms (73 Miles) over 12 sessions
Year to date, that's 297.5Kms (185 Miles)
- not a lot compared to some people here but a year ago I wouldn't have thought I'd run 73 miles all year never mind in one month!

Highlight of the months was my first official 10K at the the St. Lawrence O'Toole Fit4Life event in Carlow on March 10th in a time of 52 minutes and a bit of change. That was 2 or 3 minutes faster than I thought I'd do!

Been trying to mix up my running distance and type of running a bit better. Where I had been running 8K every time at a similar pace, then 9K, then 10K, I started varying my runs since the middle of the month and doing 12K LSRs and temporarily cut my the other 2 weekly runs to 8K each.

I have to admit I did a foolish thing - I made a mistake of being too keen and doing 2 LSRs in 3 days and ever since then, I have been feeling a slight, dull pain in my lower back again - a different type of pain than my back injury last summer, nowhere near as bad and more localized pain. I'm really annoyed to be worrying about my back again - I thought that was all behind me months ago. Anyway, I have eased up on the sessions a bit over the last few days but I plan to increase my LSR to 13K in the morning and my other 2 runs are now 10K since a week ago - attempting some interval spurts doing those and finding them very hard.

Since I have been a lot less focussed on running an (unofficial) PB every time I go out, I have been doing a lot of stopping along my runs to stretch my troubesome calves which seems to be helping them lots. But the stop/start is making the running itself much more difficult.

The focus for April is to start running a bit more frequently - every 2nd day. Maybe reduce the distances of all runs except the LSRs for a week or two at the start. Trying not to annoy the back!

I have also signed up to an 8 week Pilates class which I am hoping will help my back and provide good cross-training at the same time. That will hopefully start in a couple of weeks.

I have also just become the proud owner of a Trigger Point Grid Foam Roller and I plan to use that - especially on my back and those pesky calves. I've only tried it once so far - for some reason it seems to have made my calves more sore. Wtf?

I'm thinking of visiting my phisio for him to take a look at my back before it gets out of hand. I may need to just stop running for a week or so to make sure I don't do too much harm. I'll know more after tomorrow's LSR.

Race wise, my aims have chopped and change a bit as my training has progressed. I've decided the Allenwood 15K looks like a bit of a flop event and although I'd like to do the distance, I'd much rather do the GIR on the same day - looks a great occassion - so I am signed up to that.

I had notions of doing the Kildare half marathon on May 12th but I have doubts that I'd be ready for that. Been hoping to find a reasonably local 10 mile race around that time of May but nothing doing. I'm really anxious to get a HM under my belt so I might still give the Kildare HM a go - the condition of my back will also have a big say in that. Not sure at this point if it's too soon.

Perhaps I'm being over ambitious or over enthuasiatic but I would like to do at least 3, maybe even 4 of the following half marathons, well spaced out, between now and mid-September or so.

May (Kildare on the 12th)
June (Ballyheigue Kerry on the 16th or Waterford on the 29th),
July (Clontarf on the 13th ),
August (Dublin on the 5th or Laois on 31st)
September (Carlow on the 1st or Dublin on the 15th)
...and I'm sure other options will pop up along the way also.

Or as Dell-boy might tell me....maybe I really am a plonker!

docjewel · 01-04-2013 6:59pm

Laois_Man it might be worth your while putting a question over in the mentored thread about the amount of half marathons you've planned.From recollection from the previous years threads others would have been thinking along the same lines of a half marathon a month but if I recall correctly they were advised against same(but I am open to correction on this)

rasher_m · 01-04-2013 7:07pm

docjewel wrote: »

Laois_Man it might be worth your while putting a question over in the mentored thread about the amount of half marathons you've planned.From recollection from the previous years threads others would have been thinking along the same lines of a half marathon a month but if I recall correctly they were advised against same(but I am open to correction on this)

I remember this. Runchick was planning on doing a few halfs and she was after getting an injury and she was being advised to cut out the next half she was planning as it was thought that racing a few halfs and following a marathon plan was probably a lot for a novice and may cause injury.

blockic · 01-04-2013 7:41pm

docjewel wrote: »

Laois_Man it might be worth your while putting a question over in the mentored thread about the amount of half marathons you've planned.From recollection from the previous years threads others would have been thinking along the same lines of a half marathon a month but if I recall correctly they were advised against same(but I am open to correction on this)

Yep, I would advise not to do a HM a month during your marathon training. It would hamper your prep for the marathon as each HM will take the place of a long run, as a result preventing you from having ideal build-up of milage on your LSRs.

I would totally recommend doing one, and it is likely that this would be in the plan, especially to guage your race pace. Possibly you would even get two in if you really wanted. But that would the max that should be done IMO once marathon training starts.

rasher_m · 01-04-2013 7:55pm

blockic wrote: »

Yep, I would advise not to do a HM a month during your marathon training. It would hamper your prep for the marathon as each HM will take the place of a long run, as a result preventing you from having ideal build-up of milage on your LSRs.

I would totally recommend doing one, and it is likely that this would be in the plan, especially to guage your race pace. Possibly you would even get two in if you really wanted. But that would the max that should be done IMO once marathon training starts.

I agree with your second point about getting one in maybe a month before the marathon, to guage your pace for the marathon. One such as the Dublin half is close enough.
The first point doesn't really come into it, if you wanted to get your mileage in for the lsr you could easily add more miles to the half if required and do them as warm up or cool down.
I think the main point of not doing many of them was that it could cause injury when you're not used to an intense training plan plus racing a long race such as a half.

blockic · 01-04-2013 7:58pm

rasher_m wrote: »

The first point doesn't really come into it, if you wanted to get your mileage in for the lsr you could easily add more miles to the half if required and do them as warm up or cool down.

Yeah, I see where your coming from there. I was under the assumption that he was intending to race every one of them and thats why I raised that point. But yeah, no hassle running more HM if you intend to run the others at LSR pace as part of your longer runs.

Laois_Man · 02-04-2013 11:38am

Glad to report after my 13K LSR yesterday morning, my back is perfectly fine. I felt it a tiny little bit during the first few Ks and later during the day, but I feel absolutely nothing as I type this now. I’m still gonna be very cautious with it though. No more of doing 2 LSRs in 3 days. Lesson learned.

Thanks to Blockic, rasher and docjewel for the advice. I actually was thinking of doing a half marathon per month from June (or even May) to September....hence the "plonker"!

I try....I really do try to accept advice I am given on here. But I find myself questioning things even the likes of Hal Higdon are saying. I am still struggling with the concept of 'the slower the better' in an LSR. At the start of a plan, yeah OK. But why doesn’t it matter if I run the thing a bit faster? Surely doing 21K is still a valid build-up of mileage even if it is an attempt at a respectable race pace? Although I would push myself a bit, it wouldn't be going all out....it would just be an exercise to measure my effort and my pace at that point

HHN1 starts more than 4 months before marathon day. The only race that HHN1 includes in its plan is a HM on week 8. I have a couple of problems with this...
• It's not much decent race distance experience to go into 26.2 with....
• It makes it difficult to see evidence of your progress, or to quantify your progress.
• I'd get bored if I only had one race in over 4 months of training.
• And above all, how am I supposed to know if I'm equipped to run 26.2 miles at say 9:15 pace if the plan doesn't allow me to try do it much - even for 13.1 miles?

In any case, if the plan doesn't start until June 24th, doing a couple of HMs before that date doesn't actually get in the way of following the plan at all.....right? Plus, I am already doing as much work as week 5 of HHN1 plan - and the plan calls for a HM on week 8 and Kildare HM is still nearly 6 weeks away and I certainly don’t intend to reduce my weekly work come June 24th just because a plan starts on that date.

Laois_Man · 07-04-2013 8:36pm

Dunno what the heck's wrong with me. My LSR's as of today are only up to 14K but my legs have been really really tired over my last 3 runs. I'm in the GIR next Sunday and I'd hate to cover the 10K in a slower time than my first 10K on March 10th. That would be incredibly disheartening. But if the race was tomorrow or the next day, I wouldn't have a hope of matching that time. Think I need to rest over the coming week. And just to prevent the onset of cobwebs, do a steady run at a really good pace on Thursday or so - but over a short distance (just 5K or 6K) and no other running all week. I'd be good and fresh for Sunday I think.

I hope!

Laois_Man · 09-04-2013 10:32pm

Devastated! I did a quick 5K run this evening and now my back troubles from last July are back with a bang, full force. Last time this happened, it was more than 2 months before I could push myself with confidence again. I don't think I'll be able to take part in The Great Ireland Run next Sunday, but if that was the only consequence of this, I'd be very relieved. It was only a 5K training run FFS!

I'm very worried about this!

Laois_Man · 03-06-2013 12:58pm

Been nearly 2 months since I updated this. As can be seen from my April 9th update, I got injured that day and it was April 29th before I got out to do any run worth recording. So April was a bit of a write off - 66Kms (41 miles) over 8 sessions throughout the whole month.

May was my busiest month since I started all of this (even though it was into the second half of the month before I got fully back to the distances I was doing before that injury). For May I ran 128 KMs (79.5 Miles) in 13 sessions.

June is off to a decent start and did a good 15K LSR on Saturday night and will do 10 or 11 K this evening with a few strides thrown in.

The injury is OK now - touch wood. But having missed the GIR in April and having not done an actual race since the Carlow 10K on March 10th, I would really like to do one before the 18 week plan starts. So, I'm thinking of tackling the "Half on the Head (Kerryhead Half Marathon)" in Ballyheigue on June 16th as I will be in the area anyway....just as an experiment and to see if I can use it to help me set my LSR pace (my LSR on Saturday night was 10:30 - not sure if that's just right or a little too fast). But I'm really not sure if this is an appropriate race for me (sounds very hilly) but the other alternative is the Waterford HM on June 29th which is after the plan starts - which is probably a no-no?

Anyone ever done the Kerry Head half who can share their thoughts on it? The description on the above link doesn't make it sound too bad.

Laois_Man · 01-07-2013 10:27pm

So, June is done and dusted and I have passed the one year milestone of when I began my fitness regime. This time last year, I'd never have believed you if you'd have told me I'd be still at it.... 2 stone lighter than I was this time last year, now 174.5 Ibs (12st 6.5ibs). But I still could do with losing another 10 Ibs to be honest.

But the bad news is I'm injured again. Actually, 2 injuries. One from running and another from a swimming pool incident. (I won't say too much about that - you'll only laugh at me)

I said on my last update above that I was thinking of doing the "Half on the Head (Kerryhead Half Marathon)" on June 16th. Well I did it - and in hindsight, it probably wasn't wise. I loved it for the first 10.5 miles or so and was running faster than I intended to - faster than I knew I should to be honest (being well on course for a sub two-hour finish at that point). Plus, it was a really really difficult course in difficult weather conditions too. Despite having a very uncomfortable last 2.5 miles, I finished the HM in 2hrs 6 minutes which was still faster than I intended to do it in. I just couldn't make myself slow down in those first 10 miles and got a bit fooled by the fact that my training was ahead of some of the HH training plans for a half marathon (even though I wasn't actually following a HM plan). But we live and learn. That experience will stand to me when I do a full marathon.

So in the 2 weeks since, I have only ran 8.6 Kms. Up to then, June was going so well (for me). The month overall saw me cover 109.2 Kms (67.85 miles) which shows how well I had been doing up to the injury.

Now the situation is I feel I probably need to make a final decision as early as this week on whether I can do DCM this year or not - and since I have already missed the first 2 weeks of the 18-week training plan and am unlikely to get much if anything done in the next few days, it will probably be a no go. I feel a little bit better today but other than that, I haven't improved much at all in the 2 weeks. I have a physio appointment and Pilates tomorrow which will go a long way towards making the final decision.

But I don't want to get too down about it. I might just have to re-adjust this years main aim to a really strong finish in the September Dublin Half-Marathon. I can do a marathon in Limerick in April or Kildare in May possibly (assuming they'll be run on the same weekends next year as they were run on this year). Although I haven't fully given up on this years DCM yet....I'll probably just try to get back to 10 Mile LSRs again without thinking too much about race targets for a bit. For now, I'd be just happy to be able to complete a slow 5K without pain and be able to walk up the stairs normally after it.

Laois_Man · 30-09-2013 3:34pm

So September is finished and I have neglected my training log for 3 months now - But only because there wasn't really much to say. Due to missing 11 or 12 weeks of training, I have long since thrown my hat at any notions of running DCM.

The injury I got in the 'Half on the Head' in Kerry on June 16th really screwed me up. I could only manage 5 miles of training in the entire month of July and eventually I figured I was doing more harm than good by even trying - so I decided I'd just have bite the bullet and take an entire month off running altogether. So I did no real running from the end of July to the end of August.

I'm delighted that in September I have got back into it somewhat. I am purposely holding myself back a bit but I ran 57 Kms (35.5 Miles) in September over 10 sessions. Although getting a cold at the start of the month didn't help either.

I am actually very happy with how strong I feel in terms of my fitness. It hasn't digressed as much as I thought it would and it doesn't seem to be taking me as long to get back up to previous levels as I thought it would. And dare I say, I even feel stronger and faster than before (the odd time I get the urge to take a few fast strides)

I'm still not 100% confident....I am being very very cautious and I am still not entirely convinced that all my problems are behind me. I did a few 5Ks and then a few 7.5Ks over September. This morning I did an 8K for the first time in a long time. So I'm getting there. I hope. But as I say, I am still holding myself back a good bit. My main issue at the moment is this dull pain in the lower-left back that I feel a little bit over the first 1-2 miles which isn't even related to the injury I have had all Summer.

The weight has crept back up a little bit too. After getting down to 12st 4Ibs, it has crept back up to 12st 9.5Ibs which has annoyed me a bit. But not too bad for the length of time I have missed training I suppose.

Race wise, I have no real targets other than to just keep plugging away at the training. In the back of my mind I am thinking my body will never let me be the long distance runner that my head wants me to be. Seems like I'm always going get set-backs and maybe I should just concentrate on the 10Ks or even the 10 mile races. I'll just wait and see how I get on over the next month or 2. Although training through the Winter is going to be more difficult for me this year than it was last year due to new circumstances.

I'm thinking of going up to DCM on the 28th as a spectator somewhere near the finish line and see if I can inspire some encouragement to everyone else. I have never even been to DCM as a spectator before - and who knows, I might even end up getting inspired myself

Staying Motivated With Slow Progress & Injury Worries

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