Hill Training for Connemarathon, in Dublin

gosuckonalemon

Hi,

I am doing the Connemarathon on April 1st. I am aware that the hills are meant to be pretty tough going.

I live in Dublin City centre and so have no quick access to hills to train on.

Can anyone reccommend a suitable area to hill train?

I don't have a car but could cycle (ideally less than 10km away) or take a dart or bus.

I know I could use the incline on the threadmill but know it wouldn't be the same.

Thanks in advance

guapos

Dart out to howth and run the bog of the frog route
http://www.discoverireland.ie/Activities-Adventure/bog-of-the-frogs/71522

Hope its of some use to you

RoyMcC

Often used to get the DART out to Howth and do the haul up the hill - about 1.2 miles iirc, and around the peninsula. Then the DART back from Sutton or even trot back into town along the coast.

PaulieC

+1 for Howth Bog of Frogs. The Discover Ireland site says it's 10k, but I have it measured at 7.4 miles here. A good mix of tarmac, singletrail, mud and even a bit of beach thrown in.
Another option would be running around Dalkey and Killiney or going to Shankhill and doing some of the Dublin Way trail (although I am not sure how hilly it is from that end)

tHE vAGGABOND

I did the half there last year and trained in the Phoenix Park, focusing on getting routes which involved every hill possible and it was fine training wise..

griffin100

Park your bike in UCD. Head out the front gate, turn right, turn right again at lights on Fosters Avenue and keep running straight crossing the two big junctions until you get to the LUAS bridge in Dundrum - and then do in reverse. About 5 miles in total - see here
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146570003

gosuckonalemon

THANKS A MILLION, HOWTH SOUNDS LIKE JUST THE JOB!

Out of curiosity is the route signposted or pretty obvious?

Micilin Muc

I regularly run in the Dublin Mountains and don't have a car. I sometimes cycle to Three Rock, or run all the way to Three Rock or Hellfire Club. Dublin Mountains Partnership have loads of info on trails etc. You should also check out different sections of the Dublin Mountains Way, and Recreation Sites on the same website.

PaulieC

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

THANKS A MILLION, HOWTH SOUNDS LIKE JUST THE JOB!

Out of curiosity is the route signposted or pretty obvious?

You could pretty easily miss the signposts, I did the first time. It's pretty obvious for the 1st half - you start directly across from the Dart station and run towards the harbour. You go around by MCGuirks golf shop and up a hill, with the water on your left. Keep on that road and you eventually come to the trail car park and then just follow the paths around the side of the cliffs. This is a pretty good surface, packed gravel paths. As you come close to the lighthouse, down a hill, you come to a gate, which leads onto the lighthouse road. Directly across from you is a house. The trail continues on on the left side of the house. From here on it can get a bit disconcerting as it is a singletrail, quite muddy most of the way and predominantly closed in by trees for about a mile. Once you get back out in the open, just keep following the path. After you reach the beach and back up onto ssome rocks, you come across a grassy path. Thurn right here, back up the hill. I think there is a signpost here. Follow this path up to your left and you eventually come back to the road. Turn left at the road, crossing over to the other side as the trail continues a couple of hundred yards on the right. Again, once you find the trail it's pretty obvious. You cross a golfcourse (following the path of the white stones) and then you're into the "bog" It gets a bit twisty and turny in there, but as far as I remember, it's quite well signposted. You're almost there when you get down into the housing estate, where the trail is very well posted.

HTH

gosuckonalemon

cambo_gueno wrote: »

You could pretty easily miss the signposts, I did the first time. It's pretty obvious for the 1st half - you start directly across from the Dart station and run towards the harbour. You go around by MCGuirks golf shop and up a hill, with the water on your left. Keep on that road and you eventually come to the trail car park and then just follow the paths around the side of the cliffs. This is a pretty good surface, packed gravel paths. As you come close to the lighthouse, down a hill, you come to a gate, which leads onto the lighthouse road. Directly across from you is a house. The trail continues on on the left side of the house. From here on it can get a bit disconcerting as it is a singletrail, quite muddy most of the way and predominantly closed in by trees for about a mile. Once you get back out in the open, just keep following the path. After you reach the beach and back up onto ssome rocks, you come across a grassy path. Thurn right here, back up the hill. I think there is a signpost here. Follow this path up to your left and you eventually come back to the road. Turn left at the road, crossing over to the other side as the trail continues a couple of hundred yards on the right. Again, once you find the trail it's pretty obvious. You cross a golfcourse (following the path of the white stones) and then you're into the "bog" It gets a bit twisty and turny in there, but as far as I remember, it's quite well signposted. You're almost there when you get down into the housing estate, where the trail is very well posted.

HTH

Jesus, that sounds a bit complicated but a bit of an adventure none the less. Thanks a million for your detailed post and I'll let you know how I get on!

lynchieboy

The connamarathon is a great marathon, no big crowds no congestion just plenty of space to run your own race and beautiful scenery, the difficult hills are a bit exagerated i think, the main one comes about 22 miles and is 2 miles long but up to that its pretty normal.

jester1980

Howths great, i started running it 6 weeks ago once a week in prep for Conn. I drive out and one week ill run the hill from the Howth side and the next week run it from the sutton side, its a big loop and is bang on 10.5k. The Howth side seems like the last hill in Conn and the Sutton side seems more like the second hill in Conn. Enjoy.

Krusty_Clown

lynchieboy wrote: »

The connamarathon is a great marathon, no big crowds no congestion just plenty of space to run your own race and beautiful scenery, the difficult hills are a bit exagerated i think, the main one comes about 22 miles and is 2 miles long but up to that its pretty normal.

There's a medium sized hill at the mid-way point too. Also, if you run the marathon fast enough, you have to make your way through the 2,500 person-strong half marathon field, but you're right, it is indeed a great marathon, with beautiful scenery.

metamagical

If you're living in the city centre, don't knock hill training in the Phoenix park - you won't get the sustained drags you'll have to contend with in Connemara, but there's a great loop there to run laps or intervals on: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/69174818

Start inside the Chapelizod gate, where the Acres Rd and the Glen Rd meet. Run alongside the path that leads up to Mary's Hospital, then take the trail next to the steps to ascend up to the top of the Acres Rd (where it goes into the Hospital). Turn right and descend the Acres Rd to where it joins Military Rd, and turn hard left to follow the trail that ascends towards the playing fields. Take a right here, run down towards the S bends, taking a sharp right to go off road into a little ravine, then sharp right again and climb the steep short hill back up to Military Rd. Follow that down to the trail you climbed towards the playing fields, and ascend again, this time turning left at the top, back onto Acres Rd, which you sprint hard down towards where you started.

There are no long hills in this, but if you run it hard, it's great for developing both your calves and quads and your aerobic ability. As it's over a mile, it would make for great (long) interval training for a marathoner

Oisin11178

Go up howth head the long way through sutton and you effectivly do the 2 big hills in conn back to back with a short downhill in between.

The hill in leenane according to my stats there is 261 feet gained over 1.75 miles. The hell of the west according to my stats has a net gain of 285 feet over 1.7 miles. So

Howth head up through sutton the stats for the 2 sections are 214 feet rise over .86 miles and 250 feet rise over 1.35 miles and these to are back to back if you take out the small downhill section so much harder than the 2 climbs in conn imo.

The only real kicker about the hills in conn is where they come in the race esp the hell of the west.

IKO

Hi,

Can anyone compare the Dingle Marathon to the Connemara marathon when it comes to hills? I did the Dingle half marathon last September, Connemara is my first marathon, so wondering how the hills compare?

Thanks

T runner

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

Hi,

I am doing the Connemarathon on April 1st. I am aware that the hills are meant to be pretty tough going.

I live in Dublin City centre and so have no quick access to hills to train on.

Can anyone reccommend a suitable area to hill train?

I don't have a car but could cycle (ideally less than 10km away) or take a dart or bus.

I know I could use the incline on the threadmill but know it wouldn't be the same.

Thanks in advance

Howth is a nice run and it will help a little for sure.

Are you doing half or full? And what time are you aiming for may i ask?

Unfortunately you need to get good at climbing these hills at road running paces. Therefore you need some of your long hills on road not off.

If youre going off-road the hills should be shorter and harder. Metamagical's Phoenix park loop looks very suitable for tough intervals that will get the legs very strong.

The hill from sutton to the summit carpark in Howth is not dissimilar to the last big hill in Connemara. You could cycle as far as the causeway to Bull Island; do a tempo run from there to Howth summit (8k) jump on bus back.

Or do a long tempo run from town to the Summit and bus back. The hills need to be taken with a workmanlike effort: turn the legs over but leave a bit in reserve. Hold back slighly until youre at least a third of the way up....and then keep holding back a little.

Dont knowck the threadmill. At the end of threadmill runs ramp it up and youll get the benefit of climbing when tired (optimal). Threadmill is great becasue youre leg turnover is always high. Leg turnover flattens hills.

jester1980

Oisin11178 wrote: »

Go up howth head the long way through sutton and you effectivly do the 2 big hills in conn back to back with a short downhill in between.

The hill in leenane according to my stats there is 261 feet gained over 1.75 miles. The hell of the west according to my stats has a net gain of 285 feet over 1.7 miles. So

Howth head up through sutton the stats for the 2 sections are 214 feet rise over .86 miles and 250 feet rise over 1.35 miles and these to are back to back if you take out the small downhill section so much harder than the 2 climbs in conn imo.

The only real kicker about the hills in conn is where they come in the race esp the hell of the west.

Thas fantastic to hear, been doing alot of training the Sutotn side and no bother to me, felt the other side was a little harder.