Berlin Marathon

T runner

Thanks DermCU

Im at about 80k a week with hill runs. P and D starts at about 90k on the flat so I should fit into it straight away.

Im expecting a quick improvement once the real training starts.

10k on saturday Im looking for an even run. Hope as far under 36 as I can.

Edit: My monday run should read 6.5 k easy not 19k easy.

T runner

Thursday 25-6-2010

Am easy run to work 14k

PM cycle to Bushy park. Circuits-6 laps-cycle home. Feeling stronger at the circuits. Will do them on monday's also.

Feeling stiffness in legs most mrnings so will work on flexibility too.

T runner

Friday 25-6-2010

6.5k easy inc 6 by 100m strides. Felt strong enough here. I tend to run with good form the day after circuits.

Saturday 26-6-2010

16k inc Dunboyne 10k

Sunday 28-6-2010

Rest day. Dad was up, to watch his county Meath whoop Dublin in Croker. I thought I was watching my county whoop Galway before on the TV but disgustingly Galway and their evil genius P Joyce somehow escaped.

Glad of the rest.

T runner

Dunboyne AC 10k

Warmed up very well for this. Wanted to start slow and work into it as I knew Id no stamina to keep 10k race pace up for 10k.

Started steadish and found myself level with teh two leasing Females (both from Raheny). I figured them to be 35ish so decided to stay there.

We passed the 1k mark in 3.03. Maybe there was a mistake. I felt fine and through the first 3k the pace felt like 10k pace. Although this was too fast for me according to my pre-race plan. I started moving up the field and by 4k I was well up the field but feeling the pace. It was backwards after this. I passed 5k in 17.30 probably losing 10 seconds in the preceding k. The group with the leading female caught me and i latched on for a while. Stopping for water I lost the group. Found it very tough after this. Had to pour water on my head every water station (there were loads mercifully). Kept going losing a good few places and finishing in 36.48.

Had a good chat with Krusty who finished close enough behind. He had a very good run, more so considering he had to do it in trail shoes.

A tough run. Didnt stick to my prerace plan so wont get the full training benefit but happy its over and in the bag.

Marathon training now!!!

T runner

Monday 28-6-2010

12k easy around the coast road and Killiney hill. Started a few circuits in a playing fiels but ran out of time. Too late to finish them now. I wasnt looking forward to the run but being outside in the brightness smelling the groeth reminded me not to take the long evenings for granted. I spent many a tough winter night training for Paris wishing it was summer.

T runner

OK have a schedule from the club for this week.

Monday 60 Minutes easy
Tuesday 24 minutes pace run at steady 85 % effort after warm up.
Wednesday 60 minutes easy
Thursday Circuit Training
10 minutes easy 10 minutes a little faster 10 minutes easy
Friday Jog 35 minutes or rest day
Saturday 6 X 2K with 2 mins rec. try to aim at your target racepace.
Sunday 1Hour 45 Minutes easy


It looks like roughly a Daniels type schedule


Plan to incorporate medium long runs/long runs at a pace a minute per mile slower than PMP with last 5 miles at 30 secs slower than PMP.

If I do a long run like this in a week Ill drop the saturday session.

So a week might be

Tues session
Thursday ML continuous fast run 15 miles

Saturday L continuous fast run 18 miles

OR

Tues session
Thursday ML continuous fast run 15 miles

Saturday session
Sunday LSR

If this is too hard Ill modify. Will take things at an appropriate pace to allow me to adapt. Shoule be on track in two weeks. If its too hard Ill take another faster one out.

Any thoughts on this?

Krusty_Clown

Looks tough. No better man! Any plans to incorporate longer PMP runs? I'm starting week 1 today (P&D), and I have 15 miles with 8 miles @PMP on Sunday. This grows to something like 18 miles with 12@PMP later in the schedule.

Might be worth doing one of these occasionally as an alternative to 2K intervals at PMP, so you don't have the recovery element in between. Wont' be much recovery time in Berlin!

aero2k

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Wont' be much recovery time in Berlin!

...says the man who runs DCM to recover from Berlin, and Enniscorthy Half to recover from a 10k the night before.:D

I like to think of a marathon as a 10k and a 20 mile recovery run - but the recovery comes first!

T runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Looks tough. No better man! Any plans to incorporate longer PMP runs? I'm starting week 1 today (P&D), and I have 15 miles with 8 miles @PMP on Sunday. This grows to something like 18 miles with 12@PMP later in the schedule.

Might be worth doing one of these occasionally as an alternative to 2K intervals at PMP, so you don't have the recovery element in between. Wont' be much recovery time in Berlin!

Yep will definately fit those in. Ill Replace the Long run on sundays roughly whenever P and D suggest a PMP run. The "roughly" there gets me out of it this sunday!

You were saying on saturday that you did more than P and D s schedule of 20+ runs for Barcelona? Might take a leaf out of that book aswell. I lacked 1-2 long runs for Paris I felt.

Krusty_Clown

Yeah, but remember I was loosely following the 55mpw program (with some added mileage thrown in). This program only had 2 x 20 milers. So instead I did 1 x 20, 1 x 21, and 1 x 22. I ran these starting slow, and picking up the pace every 4 or 5 miles, until the last few miles which I ran at PMP, like this 22 miler. worked out really well for me in Barcelona. I'm handy enough on the endurance front, so I was happy enough to accelerate the increase in mileage over the 12 weeks. Hopefully it'll work for me again!

T runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Yeah, but remember I was loosely following the 55mpw program (with some added mileage thrown in). This program only had 2 x 20 milers. So instead I did 1 x 20, 1 x 21, and 1 x 22. I ran these starting slow, and picking up the pace every 4 or 5 miles, until the last few miles which I ran at PMP, like this 22 miler. worked out really well for me in Barcelona. I'm handy enough on the endurance front, so I was happy enough to accelerate the increase in mileage over the 12 weeks. Hopefully it'll work for me again!

i did a 20,22,23 before but all crammed within 3-5 weeks of race day. The 20 and 22 were meant to be like your run but i shot the bolt early and had to finish them easy. The 23 was LSR. Thinking of doing longer runs earlier in the program this time.

T runner

Tuesday 29-6-2010

Lunch: some corework in the gym

Plan: 24 minutes at 85% MHR on grass and tarmac

Did it arseways ave 92%!

Kept the pace though. 3.30 ave and 6.8k in the 24m.

An encouraging improvement on saturday but more like 8-9k race pace than whatever pace 85% MHR corresponds to.

15k total

T runner

Wednesday 30-6-2010

Cycled to work and ran home.

14k, Ran steady enough. Some speed in the legs from tesday night and the weekend gave the run a bit more pep than intended.

Thursday 30-6-2010

8k inc 10 min fastish

Jog then Circuits. 6 laps. Feeling a lot stronger now. These take a long time roughly 75 minutes. After 4 weeks I should be able to maintain this with shorter sessions, Ill need to do a medium long run on thursdays.

Weight coming down nicely. Off meat now for a week (not fish). Though had a small packet of cooked chicken breast this evening. Day dreamed about eating chicken a couple of times today so took that as a sign that an emergency dose of protein was in order. Will suss out a suitablew replacement. Drinking buckets of water, a great way to lose weight.

Did 25 mins after with 10 fastish (3.40 pace) as per schedule.

Heading to Sligo for the weekend to watch Galway get beat back home or else Ill join the mass harai karai in Markiewitz Park.

MoonDancer

T runner wrote: »

Day dreamed about eating chicken a couple of times today so took that as a sign that an emergency dose of protein was in order. Will suss out a suitablew replacement.

Hi T runner, you're flying it!
Just read this & thought I'd tell you about Quorn vegetarian mince. High in protein & low in fat. Don't know if you've ever heard of it, it's in the freezer section in tesco.
Anyhoo Good luck with the log.:D

Peckham

Given that you're looking at Daniels-type sessions, have you considered some of his long runs with tempo thrown in (instead of PMP)?

For example, one of the 20-milers I'm planning on doing is as follows (7 weeks out from race day):
- 2 miles easy
- 2 x 10 minutes tempo with 2 min recovery between
- 10 miles easy
- 15 minutes tempo
- 2 miles easy

I have 8 long runs (16+ miles) in the plans for Berlin. Three of the types described above, plus two long runs with 10-15 miles PMP. The other four long runs are all easy pace.

stmochtas

T runner wrote: »

Heading to Sligo for the weekend to watch Galway get beat back home or else Ill join the mass harai karai in Markiewitz Park.

I was down at the Mayo match last month so hopefully a similar performance from the visitors will occur.

Your training is going well now. On the bike at the moment myself while I get my shin right. Any warriors recces happening

T runner

Peckham wrote: »

Given that you're looking at Daniels-type sessions, have you considered some of his long runs with tempo thrown in (instead of PMP)?

For example, one of the 20-milers I'm planning on doing is as follows (7 weeks out from race day):
- 2 miles easy
- 2 x 10 minutes tempo with 2 min recovery between
- 10 miles easy
- 15 minutes tempo
- 2 miles easy

I have 8 long runs (16+ miles) in the plans for Berlin. Three of the types described above, plus two long runs with 10-15 miles PMP. The other four long runs are all easy pace.

I may do. Im mixing these sessions with some P and D type long/medium long runs. The advantage of the runs above is that they will be done with a large group with the club. If I have to do some sessions on my own I intend to vary. Will probably take a few from Daniels.
I seem to react better off a high volume of easy running so if needs be I will drop sessions to maintain the volume.

Is this your first marathon off Daniels?

stmochtas wrote: »

I was down at the Mayo match last month so hopefully a similar performance from the visitors will occur.

Your training is going well now. On the bike at the moment myself while I get my shin right. Any warriors recces happening

Will have a recce soon I hope!

T runner

Saturday 3-7-2010

WU. 6 by 7.5 mins at race pace. Jogging 2 mins between.. WD

Continuos run all the way for aerobic benefit and specifity.

Did Warriors run road section. Hilly, windy and wettish. Decided on the time/fartlek approach becuase course is so hilly.

Average 7.5min pace 4.01 (6.23), ave heatrate 188. 87% max approx.

Ave HR for rests and warms: 158. pace. 5.03.

Not bad session. It was challenging but first of this type Ive done in a long time.

Distance 17.5k

Edit: Up Sligo!

Sunday 4/7/10


Hill Run: Knocknarea

Up the front from Strandhill.

Then tried an old (very old) warriors run climb through Rathcarrick forest. Unfortunately Coillte did a job on a beautiful path through the forest destroyong 100 metres of it and cutting the second part off to people and animals. I had trouble getting over the 100 metres of destruction and got torn to shreds by brambles in the second unused section. What a pity 30 minutes work could have kept this section open for people to enjoy.

Anyway got through and summitted again. Now i planned to try the current warriors run climb. I spotted a climb that I was looking for from old family photos of 30 years ago. There are pictures of us in a boulder strewn field. I spotted it on the way around and found the way in. It leads to the same steep climb further up the hill but the syeep climbing starts a lot earlier. Had to stop for a few breathers but am a lot happier with my strenght now.

Ran down the front and back to my Dads house.

15k, 1h50.

T runner

Monday 5/7/10

Very tired so a rest day. Last one of these for a few weeks I hope.

Tuesday 6/7/10

12.3 k easy. Two loops around Killiney Hill from Bullock Harbour. Nice and easy. Still tired from weekend.

I hope this schedule doesnt stop me doing big mileage. I know that that definately works. Will give it another week. If I cant progress towards the mileage I want Ill drop one of the sessions.

T runner

Wednesday 7/7/10

Sugarbowl Race. 11k total roughly .

Thursday 8/7/10

AM Easyish recoveryish run 12.5k. Planned to do 20k but up too late. Running along Sandymount strand was lovely. forced myself to push my hips forward---to run upright. Thats the way I plan to run the marathon so I want all these extra miles to get the right muscles strong. I will have to do everything correctly thoroughly to get the time I want.....that reminds me I havent stretched in 2 weeks......


Circuits later. Will do 10k before and after. Time to be upping the mileage.

T runner

Sugar Bowl.

Had a day off on monday and jogged at true recovery pace on tuesday. Im eating pretty well now and so was able to not eat 4 hours before the race knowing Id have plenty of beans. Sipped water and a sports drink and a nice coffee made me feel nice and confident.

Jogged up the route as a warm up with Slogger. He advised that the start was more important in this race than any other LL race because of single file single track for large sections of the early part of the race.

We noticed that some of the single track had been widened by a bulldozer so there was a few minutes running before it narrowed. And narrow it did, meandering through dense fern, half contouring, tricky enough underfoot. We turned and lined up at the start. My ambition for the race was to beat Go Hard, Slogger and finish as high up as possible. I forget to mention this ambition to Slogger during the warmup..must have slipped my mind.

Go Hard has been running brilliantly and had beaten me/quite convincingly in recent battles. He has the potential and the courage to be troubling the likes of Enduro next year, and not just on the forums!

I ran beside Enduro for the first minute or so and felt OK. Aaron and young McDonald joined up and I was soon in 4th. In teh bulldozed section Cormac Conroy, Niall Fox passed and then the 3 of us were passed by Zoran who was determined to get to the narrow section in prime position.

As it narrowed I ran behind Niall and knew that the pace couldnt be too fast here so it was a matter of relaxing and covering the ground smoothly.

As we climbed through the ferns we were encouraged to see that Enduro, Martin, and AAron were only 20m ahead or so of our group: zoran, cormac, niall, myself. It flattened a bit and then climbed and i was delighted to see that i was able to put a gap on the lads on this bit. Getting some climbing endurance into teh legs at last.

This was a slow drag up to the old sugarloaf and main tourist path. I wasnt sure where wed come out but as the cone came into view it became clear wed come out near the top of that path.

Enduro and Martin had moved away from Aaron and a hope sprung in me that I might be able to rein Aaron in over teh remainder of the race.

No sign of the pursuers behind.

The route climbed more steeply as we approached the cone. I was tiring now. I looked back and saw a reasonable gap. The group behind was intact with 4 or 5 in it which meant no one was attacking out of it which was good news for me. The group was being led by Niall Fox in orange.

I didnt see Go Hard or Slogger in the group but spotted them not far behind.

Mistake 1: The evil angel in my left shoulder told me that I could go easy now for a while, bomb it down and completly avoid the possiblity of a hospitalisation due to trying too hard. I listened to the littel fecker.
Slowed a gear and started meandering and taking pointless zigzags to ease my plight. Spotted a few friends from work who gave me a great cheer as i approached the cone. Peterx told me I was 50 secs behind Aaron.
I bumbled up the cone, walking too early and looking behind again I was horrified to see Niall and Posse actually on the cone. I climbed up the gully that the lads were descending so had to vacate that to make way.
Martin had a slight lead over Enduro with Aaron right behind after a great Cone. Enduro didnt look to concerned. This wasnt the first chess game hed palyed on this hill with Martin and the game was usually decided in Enduros favour on the descent. Im not sure Martins brief lead made it off the cone.

I summitted said hello to Nora and Joe and bungled down. Glad to see the end of the cone I sped up a bit. That mistake that was my last 10 minutes runnuing hasnt cost me a place. ...whats that? I hear someone just behind. I know if I look behind Ill see Nialls orange top. Ok hes better on the technical stuff. Theres a nice grassy section coming up, stay ahrad till there and accelerate hopefully thatll sort him. I stay ahead and accelarate but he chases me. At the start of the final steepish descent (the nicest part of the course). I make a big effore to cover this fast if I caavoid being passed here it will be difficult for him on the single track below. I succeed, I hit the flata nd I accelerate again making a gap of 7-8 metres.

Excuseless is standing on a rock. He shouts encouragement and tells me no to go right up ahead. I process thsi and then proceed to go right. A mistake but the fatal mistake was my expletion. Niall had no way of knowing we had veered slightly off course. Another 30 metres and we would be back on track, none the wiser, no harm done. But i cursed and slowed, Niall realised we were offtrack and he was closer to the trail. I cursed my stupidity silently this time. I stumbled back on the trail but was 20m behind with 150 metres of running. I should have attacked like a demon, i still had speed in my legs but I couldnt be arsed. Im losing my competitiveness even on my good days!

Anyway traipsed in 4 secs down on Niall but happy with my improvement.
Starting to come into form at the last race of the league. Doh!

Peterx

good effort T. You looked very comfortable on the section before the cone, very nice style climbing too.
Galtymore as a medium long strength training run to extend the hill season?

T runner

Peterx wrote: »

good effort T. You looked very comfortable on the section before the cone, very nice style climbing too.
Galtymore as a medium long strength training run to extend the hill season?

Maybe now. A medium long walk is always nice! Need another race for my Irish Champs finishers prize too.

Might do one or two of the trail races also. Maybe even the Dublin plod although I need to do a fast continuos long run in the next 2 weekends.

T runner

Thursday July 8, 2010

AM 13k easy. Ran into work, tarmac, concrete, grass, sand. Felt good.

PM Cycled over to circuits. 6 circuits. Found these tough, especially the "Tuck" jumps.
Considered running 5k after but cycled home. Im due to do almost 110k this week so will make it up tomorrow.
The coach was saying that the marathon group will be adding a second strenght /core type session which is great news.

AM 13 k easy
PM 13k recovery

Ran these quite easy. Need to get the mileage in to make my legs strong but have to do a big session tomorrow and a long run on Sunday. Tomorrow is 7 by 2k at marathon race pace . Ill jog 2 mins between each one. Jogging 4-5k over and back to phoenix park so this session might be 25k continuous run.

T runner

Friday 9 July 2010

am 13 k easy
pm 13k easy

Sat 10 July 2010

AM easy swim 40 foot

Sun 11 July 2010

Rest

Mon 11 July 2010

LR 28 K. Ballybough-Howth-Ballybough. About 22/23 at 4.20m/km pace. The remainder easy. Ran out of endurance in the end. No problem though, I can fix that. Ran too hard into a wind in the out part of the run. For all future long runs I must not do this. Should have been 4:30 into that wind.

During Paris I didnt finsih any long runs hard as planned. There are a couple of minutes to be gained by getting it right this time.


Had young relatives over from US and UK and planned my schedule around theirs. Other relatives added to the schedule meaning there was absolutley no time for running, even late at night. I didnt mind though, the lads had a good time. I can do a big week this week after the rest.

Week ahead:

Today: 12k easy + strenght
Wed: 7 by 2k race pace with 2mins jog between. (21-22k)
Thurs: am 20-21k medium long run
pm Circuits
Friday: 10k easy
Sat: Irishrunner 5m
Sun: LSR on hills 2hrs +

T runner

Tuesday 13 July 2010

10k tonight recovery pace. Did 6 by 80m strides. Feeling stiff and tired after yesterday. Will do my strenght at lucnh tommorrow in a gyem. Important to get strenght done early in schedule. I can ease off and just maintain strenght as the weeks go by.

7 by 2k tommorrow. I will get it done tommorrow even if the pace is slow. Getting the session and overall mileage done are most important now. The speed should come as the weeks progress and the leg strenght and endurance increases. Really looking forward to a nice hillrun on sunday.
After this marathon Im a hill runner again.

stmochtas

Coming along nicely T.. Getting nervous about Sunday now. Lets hope the referee has better eyes than the lad in Croker on the weekend. Up Sligo!

Krusty_Clown

What strength training do you do? It's something that's very much neglected in my training efforts.

T runner

stmochtas wrote: »

Coming along nicely T.. Getting nervous about Sunday now. Lets hope the referee has better eyes than the lad in Croker on the weekend. Up Sligo!

The Rossies are waiting in the long grass. I think Sligo will be focused though and Roscommon are an up and coming team whos time will come..hopefully not thie year though! Have my ticket, gonna have to do a hill run in the area though.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

What strength training do you do? It's something that's very much neglected in my training efforts.

Circuits with the club:

30 secs each:
pressups
oblique sit ups. (change sides each circuit)
core (plank,side planks change each circuit)
back extensions
adductors
abductors
forward lunges (left and right)
tuck jumps (these are great)

then its off for a little ramble doing vriations of hops, then jog down a hill, a bit of skipping (high or long) and then bounding, sprinting etc back up the hill. about 250 metres only there.
Thats one full circuit. 6 of those.

Were going to start a second one dont know what that is.
When i do one on my own its usually something similar to above excercises in a gym minus the 250m bit.

Planning to do two a week from now on and ease back to one a week when im strong enough.

They are hard at the start but get easier. Didnt do any for Paris.

Id start with a little bit after an easy run or two and work from there. You want to get your core stronger. You can do it without taking from the other sessions.

T runner

Wednesday 13 July 2010

Got our schedule for this week and sessions were 8 by 2k with 2 mins rest, 34m pace run at 85% effort.

I was tired today after my first fast long run on monday. Felt like a recovery run rather than a session. I snapped out of it on the way to UCD though. Its good to be able to run on a sunny evening. It might be tough but it will be interesting and a challenge.

Did 8 by 2k. It was long and tough enough but am happy with my efforts. Im beating cadence into my legs thats for sure.

During the first 3 reps I kept looking at my Garmin to make sure I was on pace. I was struggling a bit and felt I would not be able to maintain that intensity for 5 more. Decided not to look at the pace for the next two and just run marathon-ish effort by feel. Ran at second wind pace and it felt easier. finished the session.

Checked my splits and a surprise was my splits for the first 3 were among the 4 slowest of the session. So when I paced by feel I actually ran more economically and was less distracted. I didnt have a HRM so was only monitoring my pace. I wasnt changing pace based on what I saw as it was windy and the grass wasnt great in parts. I just wasnt concentrating with the garmin as a distraction.

2k splits:

7.23 7.24 7.26 7.19 7.29 7.15 7.16 7.13

23k Total

Plan for tomorow 13 miles easy and circuits.