DCM training by complete novice.

menoscemo

Hi Guys, as the title suggests I have just began training for the Dublin City Marathon aqnd though I'd start a log to keep me motivated and hopefully get some advice along the way...
Bit of Background first: well I am a complete novce at this running lark even back in my fit days at school I was only ever good in the 100m sprints; didn't even have the endurance for the 200m . I played fair bit of Gaelic and soccer back then but detested the old laps...anyway after years of inactivity I lost about 2 stone last year and joined a gym in August. On my first gym visit an instructor set me a programme of weights and cardio, I specifically told him to leave out the threadmill and he set me up on Bikes, rower and x-country ski instead. Eventually got bit bored with the routine and strted mixing in a bit of threadmill before christmas, starting at 1km, I quickly worked up to 3 or 4km and that's when I caught the bug!. Then I was on holidays round the new year and decided it would be a great idea to run the Marathon in October. Since late January I have been runing 3 or 4 times a week building up distance and speed. I have gradually left the gym behind and started hittin the roads for most runs. As of now my stats are:
31y/o male 5"8, just under 12 stone (75kg)

Fastest 5km: 23m30sec (achieved just now-took a minute of previous best!)
Fastest 10km 51m 40 sec
Longest run: 13 km (last weekend)

I am generally doing short to medium runs during the week and a longer one on a saturday morning. I plan just to get round in October but would secretly like to come in around 4 hours. I am following Hal Higdon's Novice 1 Programme and am currently starting week 3. I know it is only a 16 week programme but I want ot start early because I will be taking a 4 week holiday at the end of July (I will be doing voluntary work so will be getting excercise, and hopefully a few runs). Does this sound OK?

As for races I plan to do the 5 mile on July 18 and the Half marathon on 26th september. I will also be doing the Sportsworld 5 mile road race on sunday (just signed up today) and hope to get around 40 minutes.

I will try to track all my runs here, please fell free to jump in and tell me if I am going wrong.

menoscemo

By the way, I forgot to say, when buying my trainers (nike air pegasus), I enquired about a Garmin/heart rate monitor. I was recommended to just get a nike+ pedometer and watch. It just measures distance and time basically, but i find it very erratic. For example today I pushed myself over my normal 5km course (the same watch measured the run 5.01 and 5.05km on two previuos occasions) and took 1min of my PB but the watch measured it at 4.74km today. Has anyone else got one of these/find it a problem? Would it be worth ditching this and buying a Garmin- I am a real lover of stats!

--amadeus--

Welcome!

Nike+ I don't know that much about but I have heard that it needs to be well calibrated. You could always use Google Pedometer to double check. The Garmin is great but it is pricey and so you'd want to be pretty sure you'll stick to it before you stump up the cash.

HH is a great program, should do the job for you. Good luck with it and fire away with any questions

menoscemo

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Welcome!

Nike+ I don't know that much about but I have heard that it needs to be well calibrated. You could always use Google Pedometer to double check. The Garmin is great but it is pricey and so you'd want to be pretty sure you'll stick to it before you stump up the cash.

HH is a great program, should do the job for you. Good luck with it and fire away with any questions

Yeah just used google pedometer and it came out a 4.97km, so when you dodge a few cars and pedestrains it should be dead on 5k! I've calibrated the thing loads before but sometimes it's bang on (last week it clocked me at 6.00km on a 6k threadmill) other times it's way out on the same calibration. Might just get a garmin anyway, from what i see it gives heartrate and splits which I would find useful.
Anyway plans for the rest of the week: I usually do two more 5-8km runs and then a long one on saturday but since i have a race on sunday, I will probably do 6k tomorrow and a 10k on friday.

Krusty_Clown

menoscemo wrote: »

By the way, I forgot to say, when buying my trainers (nike air pegasus), I enquired about a Garmin/heart rate monitor. I was recommended to just get a nike+ pedometer and watch. It just measures distance and time basically, but i find it very erratic. For example today I pushed myself over my normal 5km course (the same watch measured the run 5.01 and 5.05km on two previuos occasions) and took 1min of my PB but the watch measured it at 4.74km today. Has anyone else got one of these/find it a problem? Would it be worth ditching this and buying a Garmin- I am a real lover of stats!

I used to have a Nike+, but couldn't really get into it, as it was too inconsistent. But a friend of mine swore by it (until he too got a Garmin). At the very least, it's potentially an inexpensive motivational too, and if that doesn't work, keep the packaging, and give it to someone else (that's what I did!). Oh and best of luck with the marathon goal. It's not really 20 weeks to Dublin marathon, is it?!

menoscemo

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I used to have a Nike+, but couldn't really get into it, as it was too inconsistent. But a friend of mine swore by it (until he too got a Garmin). At the very least, it's potentially an inexpensive motivational too, and if that doesn't work, keep the packaging, and give it to someone else (that's what I did!). Oh and best of luck with the marathon goal. It's not really 20 weeks to Dublin marathon, is it?!

Thanks, man, it is still 23 weeks away by my calculations but with 4 weeks holidays and possible injuries, just want to get things started early. Hopefully I can hold back a bit if everything is going well:D

I will probably ditch that nike+ thingy; besides I went with the intention of getting a Garmin but the guy sold me this!! Still have the box, what is the best garmin (or similar) to get? Would like HR moitor and an ability to give me 1k splits.

Krusty_Clown

menoscemo wrote: »

I will probably ditch that nike+ thingy; besides I went with the intention of getting a Garmin but the guy sold me this!! Still have the box, what is the best garmin (or similar) to get? Would like HR moitor and an ability to give me 1k splits.

Can you borrow one from someone for a week or two? It's a lot of money to spend, before you figure out if you can get any benefit from it. It works for me, but mightn't suit for everyone. The 305 is excellent, but is slightly large. The 405 is smaller, but has a couple less features (plus some extra features). There's new models of both of the above, so they should be coming down in price soon.

MrCreosote

Hi menoscemo
Good luck with the training and log! Will keep an eye on this one as I will be doing my first marathon at the DCM myself.
Never used a gps myself. At the moment just using maymyrun and my mobile phone. Might splash out and get a watch sometime! I find mapmyrun very accurate for distance and useful if I'm doing one of the usual runs.
What race are you doing at the weekend?

menoscemo

Thanks mr Creosote. Just checked out map my runs and it is similar to google pedometer. Maybe a combination of this and nike+ will be fine for me. I was thinking I would like to check my splits, like last night I think I went out way too fast over the first 2km and paid for it at the end. I will think abou the garmin over the next week or so and see.

By the way I am running the Sportsworld terenure 5mile on sunday. Check it out here: http://www.sportsworld-terenure.ie/2009/01/5-mile-classic.html I saw an ad and the start is right beside my house, so i signed up yesterday.

menoscemo

Gym Day today so did a confortable 6km on the treadmill in 31mins followed by a 40 minute weights session.

I say comfortable but mentally I find the treadmill boring- spend the last half of the run looking at the screen and counting down to the end. Also the Nike+ watch got the distance all wrong again, so I am just gonna use it as a stopwatch from now on...

Plan for the rest of the week is rest tomorrow, 10km easy on friday and my first race on sunday morning.

Sub430

Hi Menoscemo.
I'm also doing the DCM for the first time this year so will keep an eye on this.
On the treadmill I used to have the same problem counting down the clock, now I just stick my towel over it and run until the tready stops. It goes a whole lot quicker.

menoscemo

Did a handy 10.5km yesterday evening in 55 min 30sec. I took a new route down by the grand canal which was really nice, but I must remember not to run that route again at 6pm on a friday evening! I had to do some serious traffic dodging and was forced to stop at least 5 times. Anyway I was pleased with the run because I wasn't even breathing heavy at then end. Had loads more left in the tank. I went through 5 miles at exactly 43 minutes so I hope to cut 3 off this on sundays race.
I think 5 miles in 40 minutes should be possible although I am sure that drinking 10 pints of carlsberg last night did not help my chances! Unfortunately I am about to head into the pub for the ManUtd-Aresnal match again, However I do hope to leave staight after the game with no more than a pint or two consumed (wish me luck!)

MrCreosote

Hey good luck in the race tomorrow!

menoscemo

So I did the 5 mile classic this morning and overall found it enjoyable, but feel there is a lot to learn and improve. I made several schoolboy errors. Firstly the 10 or more pints on friday night couldn't have helped, either could the 3 I had yesterday while watching man united lift the league! Thankfully I managed to get out of a potentially difficult situation (there was talk of races being cancelled) and got home by 5pm. My next error was ringing the chinese at 9pm last night: at least I could still taste the sweet and sour chicken (with chips and fried rice!) this morning and all the way through the race. In fact I am lucky it didn't make a reappearance around the 4 mile mark!!
Another thing I have learned is not to start the race at the back, I must have took at least 30 seconds to make it to the start line after the gun went off, and then spent most of the first mile overtaking stragglers.

Anyway I did the race oficially in 40minutes 37 seconds, It was a comofortable pace throughout- I took 8 1/2 minutes for the first mile and seemed to do 8 minute miles all the way after that. I reckon I could have broke 40 minutes if I had been at the front of the queue. In terms of legs and lungs, I felt good all the way through but when I tried to up the pace between mile 3 and 4 hoping to break 40, I got a sickly feeling in the stomach that wouldn't allow me to faster!!

Anyway that is a time down now. I plan to do the 5 miler in Phoenix park in July so it will be good to see how much time I can take off todays performance.

menoscemo

Did a 5km gentle jog yesterday in around 26 minutes.

I normally do my long runs on the weekend but since I am not going to get a chance this weekend, decided to get it in this evening. So I am just back from a 9 miler (9.2 or 14.8km to be exact) in 1hr 20 minutes. thats 8min 41sec/ mile or 5min 24 sec/km pace.

Several firsts for me tonight: Longest ever run, first time running in the pouring rain, first time to get hungry during the run (I will bring jelly babies next time maybe) and first time to get nipple chaffing :pac:. Anyway overall i felt good. The pace was comfortable, at least I wasn't out of breath, but my legs, knees and feet were sore by the end (I guess that is normal).

As I mentioned before i am followin HH novice 1. I am currently in week 4 even though the DCM is 5 months away. as I said before I am heading on a 4 1/2 week holiday in a few months. My plan is to work up to week 12 in the HH Progaramme (barring injuries) and when I come back, go back to week eight and follow through to the end. Is this wise? I reckon the holiday will put me back a few weeks anyway, and as a novice the more base miles I get in the better surely?

menoscemo

GYm day today. My legs were a bit stiff after yesterdays long run, so I used it a crosstraining day today. 40mins between bike and crosstrainer follwed by a weights session.
Given my dislike of the treadmill i think it might be a good idea to use my gym day as a cross training day from now on.

rainbow kirby

menoscemo wrote: »

Given my dislike of the treadmill i think it might be a good idea to use my gym day as a cross training day from now on.

Hehe, might be a good idea. I know I absolutely hate treadmills, to the point where I mentally can't do more than about 5km on one.

Welcome to the logs, and the best of luck with the DCM training

menoscemo

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Hehe, might be a good idea. I know I absolutely hate treadmills, to the point where I mentally can't do more than about 5km on one.

Welcome to the logs, and the best of luck with the DCM training

Yeah exactly! For example last night I did 15km on the roads at around 5"24/km pace (I am guessing slightly over 11k/ph) and it was relatively handy. But 5 or 6km on a treadmill at 11km/h leaves me panting and sweating like a paedophile in a barney suit
Glad to see it is not just me!

menoscemo

Nice gentle run tonight, just over 4 miles (6.7k) in 36 minutes. That's 8"45/mile pace or 5"25/km

Might not get another run in this week due to a heavy social/work schedule. Only missing a 3 mile run anyway, so maybe will clock up a few extra k's next week if my hangover is too bad on sunday

menoscemo

So I played a bit of football at the weekend but that's all. I got my new Garmin forerunner 405 in the post on friday after only ordering it on thursday. All-in for under €250 including postage and a HRM as well.
I am delighted with it. Spent the whole weekend playing with it and still am not half-way to understanding it!! anyway got my first run in this evening, it was my normal 5km course which my trust garmin measures at 4.95km or 3.07miles. Anyway i did that in 24.31sec or 7min59sec/mile pace. Avg HR 165, max HR 178
In true woddle style i will throw you up the details:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6135596
I think I am going to have fun with this watch, I am a bit of a stat freak. I have to set up the watch so it gives me mile splits, also I don't know why it gives me my distance in km on the watch but the pace in min/mile. I would also prefer not to have a virtual partner. I will have to fish about through the manual to find out what is going on.

menoscemo

5.08 miles in 42 min 10 sec this evening. Avg Pace 8.18/mile, avg HR was 159

I managed to set up the watch to take mile splits: 8.32, 8.29, 8.19, 8.15, 7.59. Happy with that, gradually upped the pace and my avg HR was still only 162 for the 5th mile.
Having trouble uploading the data to Garmin connect though, the website seesm to be down.

menoscemo

Missed a couple of days there due to champions league final/hangover. Went to gym today and did 3 miles in 25 minutes before weights.
I have my longest ever run scheduled for tomorrow- 10 miles. I am a bit nervous about it in this weather. I can carry half a litre on my belt, will probably have to stop to buy more water along the way, will also be brining jellies to keep the energy up, got hungry in last weeks 9 miler.

I think i have been running too hard in training due to my HR readings. going to try to keep my HR betwen 150-155 tomorrow, I just hope that doesn't slow me to a crawl!

menoscemo

Just back from the 10 mile run, what a lovely morning. Nice fresh breeze at first, started to heat up at the end. Managed to last on the half litre of water I brought out, but sipping on a nice cool lucozade sport now

Anyway, I concentrated purely on keeping my HR under 155 and let the pace look after itself. It felt unbearably slow at times. but was a nice pleasant run overall. Never thought I would call 10 miles pleasant!!

Total 10.05miles at 1hr 40min 58s. Avg pace 10m 02s/ Mile. Avg HR 152

Splits were: (pace/hr) 9"32/145 9"30/150 9"46/150 10"10/152 10"24/155 10"23/155 10"00/153 10"19/153 10"27/154 9"54/152

The run was thorough soem of the nocer more affluent areas of dublin, lots of people out, lots of runners
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6285633

menoscemo

Did a kind of speed session today instead of normal 3 mile jog. Went to to UCD track, did 3 lap warm up, then 5 laps of 200m sprinting and 200m recovery. Followed that with 3 lap warm down and jog back to the car. 2.8 miles total.

menoscemo

5.02 miles tonight in 42 m 7s (8"23 pace). Left it till after 9pm until the sun was going down to go out, so had my tea bout 2 hours beforehand.
I felt awful tonight, I don't know if it is the effect of eating before running, the heat or what but I was slower than last week (on the same run), and had a much higher avg HR (162 compared to last weeks 159) despite having to stop for about a 30 second breather between mile 2 and 3. I felt sick at this point and my HR was way up. I have the garmin on autostop so you don't see that in the overall time. I came home in bits, felt my left foot and right knee. I feel like the long slow runs are taking away my pace on the shorter runs. what is the problem? I think i will take a few days break, maybe go to the gym tomorrow but no running.

Anyway the spits tonight were 8"01(155) 8"08 (167) 8"27(165) 8"49 (161) 8"33(162) 8"33(162)

menoscemo

I am just back from the gym, my right knee feels a bit weak. I am a little worried as it is the same knee I had cartlidge removed from last year. I am going to keep an eye on it. I avoided running and did cylcling, rowing and weights.
My long run is down as a 7 miler this week (taper week) so I will probably rest up till saturday and attempt to do that in 9 minute miles/below 161HR (whichever comes first). Hopefully I will feel better than yesterday.

menoscemo

I Was feeling quite depressed about running towards the end of last week. My times seemed to be getting slower, my knee was starting to hurt and I was getting pessimistic about the whole marathon persuit. Thing is I planned on doing it on 4 hrs or less and always said if I wasn't going to be capable of that then I wouldn't do it at all.....hopefully I will change my mind or meet my goal. I decided it best to lay off the running for the rest of the week. Being a 'drop back' week I didn't miss much anyway, just a 3 mile run and a 7mile long run.

Anyway got stuck back in tonight. This is my week 7 on HH novice training. The plan for the week is 3-6-3-12. The 12 mile looks daunting- I will almost be at half marathon distance!
Did the 3 mile tonight. 3.02 miles in 24"50 at 8"12 pace. Avg HR 159. 6 miles planned for tomorrow, it will be an old favourite course of mine that I haven't done in weeks.

menoscemo

Ok feeling much better about todays run. It was my normal 10k course over which i posted my 10k PB (see post 1). Well thanks to my forerunner 405 I discovered this evening that not only was the course not 10km, it was not even 6 miles!! I can scrap that PB. I had to run around the block just to make the 6 miles...anyway I reckon I beat my previous PB for the course without pushing my self.
Todays stats were: 6.02 miles in 52"03 at 8"38pace (Avg HR 156)
Splits: 8"48 (148), 8"46 (156), 8"49 (156), 8"24 (158), 8"32(155) 8"32 (162).
I think that is quite consistent and for me represents progrees, especially in keeping the HR down, seems that by slowing 10 or 20 seconds a mile, my HR drops significantly and I can sustain the pace/HR over quite few miles. I hope I am over my slump.

menoscemo

Gym day today. I was going to do 3 miles on the treadmill, but I have a tight achilles on my right side so I stopped at 2. Did lots of stretches and hope it is ok for saturday. I have a 12 miler planned for then.
Did some weights and rowing after aborted run.

menoscemo

The achilles cleared up miraculously yesterday after lots of stretching, so I went out for my scheduled 12 mile run this morning. I went out with 9 minute miles in mind and although I didn't quite achieve that, I am happy overall to have completed the run.

12.02 miles in 1hr53min55sec. avg pace 9"28/mile avg HR 161.

I Have to say that was tough, the kind of tough where you say 'why the hell am I doing this' half way through. Thankfully my route was straight out, straight back, so by the time I felt like giving up, I was far from home and had to get back. That made me tough through it!! Next week's long run is 13 miles, so I will be up to half marathon distance. In january I could barely run a mile, so I guess this is progress.

menoscemo

So this weeks plan is 3-6-3-13
I have a stag night at the weekend and will be going away, So I will try to get the loing run in on friday evening.
Tonight, I really tried to run a slow 3 miler, never did one below 25minutes before. So Tonight was 3.1 miles in 28"20 avg HR 148, my lowest ever on a run.

I am just wondering why my HR was so low when the first 3 miles of the 12 miler at the weekend were a similar pace with a much higher HR. Saturdays first 3 miles went (pace/hr) 9"09/150 8"59/161 9"09/160 Tonights splits were 9"14/139 9"11/144 9"13/149

The runs are within 10sec/mile but the HR are out by over 10bpm. Maybe it is the running in the evening over morning??