Just for the craic

statss

yeah I'll say it to my mates too, there is 4 of us in and around the same level (very competitive between us at the moment so they'll probably tell me to get lost, ha).

blockic

wowzer wrote: »

I started with the 1.30 pacers, I was a bit late into the pen so had no time to check for Blockics pink runners to go and introduce myself to him.

Think I spotted you at some point in among the crowd, were ya wearing the club singlet?

Tough conditions for hitting PBs on Saturday, I was even feeling it a bit in the last 2 miles!

wowzer

blockic wrote: »

Think I spotted you at some point in among the crowd, were ya wearing the club singlet?

Tough conditions for hitting PBs on Saturday, I was even feeling it a bit in the last 2 miles!

Yep that must have been me you spotted wearing the dunboyne vest. It wasnt a day for PBs. It was a good workout for you in your prep for Chicago, you will fly it.

mr.wiggle

wowzer wrote: »

certainly was a day to forget.

Welcome aboard the 3.20 bus, maybe we could gather a few heads and start a 3.15 group because if there was a pacer for 3.15 I'd probably go with that. Something to think about man.

Sign me up lads if you're gonna get a 3.15 group together?
Would love to talk race day strategys with ye if it happens.

Mr.W

wowzer

mr.wiggle wrote: »

Sign me up lads if you're gonna get a 3.15 group together?
Would love to talk race day strategys with ye if it happens.

Mr.W

Deadly, more than welcome to join us if it happens. We will have to decide fairly soon.

Statts any luck with your recruiting mission? I won't know till the weekend if my running buddy will join us.

statss

no not yet, I think they'll be deciding after the Athlone 3/4 which the 4 of us are doing, so I'll let you know then. In the meantime I'll train with 3.15 in mind.

wowzer

Tuesday 24th September

Lunchtime 5.12 miles in 42.12 avg pace 8.14. Just an east few miles with a mate.

Club session this evening was 2 x 3 mile @ HM pace

Wasn't feeling this session at all and struggled to find the motivation to get my arse up to the club. However I'm delighted I did.
First rep was good and felt very comfortable, average pace was bang on at 6.51.
Second rep was a bit quicker with an average pace of 6.31. This surprised me somewhat as I felt just as comfortable as I did on the first one and didn't notice the increased pace.

With the warm up and cool down I did 14.52 miles for the day.

wowzer

Wednesday 25th September

5.17miles in 43.17 avg pace 8.23

A very handy few miles today.

wowzer

Thursday 26th September

10.52 miles in 75.40 avg pace 7.11

This was supposed to be run at PMP (7.20-30) but I didn't look at the watch for a couple of miles so didn't realize I was going too quick. When I seen my pace was at 7.05 I tried to pull back a bit but I was struggling to find a rhythm so I just thought feck it and stayed at the quicker pace.

I thoroughly enjoyed every step of this run and felt very strong and comfortable. I will have to make more of an effort to stick to the correct PMP in the coming weeks.

wowzer

Friday 27th September

8.12 miles in 72.39 avg pace 8.57

a very handy run to work this morning.

wowzer

Sunday 29th September

22.12 miles in 3.06.49 avg pace 8.27

smashing long run this morning, met with a few clubmates in the park and we ran the majority of the marathon route.
Having never done a marathon it was great to get out and run the route as psychologically I like to know what I am facing, especially these hills people talk about.
The run itself went great, no problems whatsoever and I felt good.

Cheers Alan for the 99 and coke afterwards, much appreciated.

1 long run left till the big day.

Almac06

Well done, your peaking at the right time!!! You looked like you finished an easy 5 mile at the end of it.Unreal!!!

1 to go my man!!!

statss

that's a super run man.

Big Logger

Looking good Wowzer!
Feeling excited for you.

wowzer

Monday 30th September

5.81 miles in 50.05 avg pace 8.39

Just an easy recovery pace run today, no issues to note after yesterdays 22miles so all is going to plan.

Almac06, I hope you are right about peaking at the right time as it certainly didnt feel like it last Saturday in the HM.

wowzer

Tuesday 01st October

Lunchtime 4.55 miles in 38.33 avg pace 8.32

A very easy few miles with a mate, chatting about the last episode of breaking bad made this run seem like it lasted 5 minutes.

Evening 8.32 miles in 69.20 avg pace 8.20

Sitting at my desk in work watching the rain and listening to the wind I started to feel like a wimp and I decided I wasn’t in the humour for the club session tonight. I sent out a text to see if anyone else was feeling the same and fancied doing a few easy miles instead, lucky enough I got 2 bites so that was sorted – easy run it was.
Met at the club at the usual time and did a couple of miles around the track, said congrats to Happygoose who is just back from a 2.49 in Berlin he ran a savage race with a negative split (the modest chap that he is, I’m sure the only reason he came up to the club tonight was to get a session in and not to get his little cheer and clap off everyone;)), I then headed off on what was supposed to be an easy 6 mile run.
About 4 miles in my legs started to go dead and they felt really heavy so I think I made the right call ditching the session. The legs haven’t felt like that in a long time and if I’m honest it was a bit of a slog to get back to the club. Generally the legs feel fine after my long runs so it was a bit of a shock to feel so bad last night. I have been feeling very tired lately so I think I’m going to have to try to eat a bit more to compensate for the mileage I’m doing. It’s probably not the best time to be ditching sessions at the business end of a marathon plan but I’m glad I did.
Just under 13miles for the day.


Wednesday 02nd October

5.16 miles in 39.57 avg pace 7.45

Pushed the pace a little to test the legs a bit after last night, all is good..

statss

sounds like you did the right thing alight, probably just accumulated fatigue catching up with you.

what's your plan between now and the marathon, will you be getting any more MP miles in?

wowzer

statss wrote: »

sounds like you did the right thing alight, probably just accumulated fatigue catching up with you.

what's your plan between now and the marathon, will you be getting any more MP miles in?

Going to get 10 MP done tomorrow hopefully.
Can't make Athlone so I may progressively work my way to a few MP miles at the end of my long run this weekend if I feel good.
Then after that I'm not sure, have to figure out a taper plan but I presume there is some MP miles in there.
We should arrange an MP run over the coming weeks.

statss

I'm planning 16 miles on Sunday 13th October, could meet you in PP maybe and do a few miles around 7.30 pace if that suits, sure we can figure it out closer to the time.

wowzer

statss wrote: »

I'm planning 16 miles on Sunday 13th October, could meet you in PP maybe and do a few miles around 7.30 pace if that suits, sure we can figure it out closer to the time.

Yeah that sounds good, I'm at a wedding the Friday before so I may still be in a sorry state that Sunday.

wowzer

Thursday 03rd October

10.32 miles in 74.59 avg pace 7.16

Plan for today was 10 PMP miles, an out and back route from the city centre and along the seafront at Clontarf. First half was brutal with the wind directly against me. I had to work hard enough to keep the pace at around 7.20 but at the turnaround it all changed with the wind at my back. I felt like I was flying along and the pace was around 7.10 with what felt like so much less effort than what was needed for the first 5 miles.
Delighted to have got the run done early as it's lashing out now and the thoughts of 10 dark and wet miles around the back roads of dunboyne is not very appealing..

wowzer

Sunday 06th October

20.03 miles in 2.46.02 avg pace 8.17

Last long run done thank fcuk.
Today was a bit of a slog for me, had company for 11 miles which was great as I reckon I would have cut this run short after 5 miles if I had not been meeting with a clubmate.
I knew after 2 miles that the legs were not in the mood for running today. I had planned on getting a few PMP miles during this run but only managed to do 3.
Im not overly concerned though as I'm delighted to have completed the run while feeling so rough.

Thats 5 20+ milers in the bag now, looking forward to winding things down a bit.

wowzer

Monday 07th October

5.26 miles 46.33 avg pace 8.52

A very very easy recovery run today, no issues after yesterdays slog..

happygoose

Great to get to the start of the taper. Training's been great Wowser and the log has been great to follow, a model of commitment and consistency, ya've gone and done what needs to be done and gone about it properly. The marathon is all about preparation, the hundreds of miles before the start line rather the 26.2 before the finish line and your past 6 months have been excellent, with all this work behind you you're not going to suffer out there and you'll recover quickly. Well done!!

Roll on Porterhouse beers and Bradys! Maybe a birra of La Bucca too!

wowzer

happygoose wrote: »

Great to get to the start of the taper. Training's been great Wowser and the log has been great to follow, a model of commitment and consistency, ya've gone and done what needs to be done and gone about it properly. The marathon is all about preparation, the hundreds of miles before the start line rather the 26.2 before the finish line and your past 6 months have been excellent, with all this work behind you you're not going to suffer out there and you'll recover quickly. Well done!!

Roll on Porterhouse beers and Bradys! Maybe a birra of La Bucca too!

Cheers happygoose, hope you are right about the not suffering part.

Looking forward to these post marathon pints already.

wowzer

Tuesday 8th October

6.26 miles in 37.52 avg pace 6.07

Club session was 4 x 1.5 mile @ HM pace

I ran these way quicker than my HM pace. I had every intention of sticking to the prescribed pace but it just didn't happen. Probably quite a stupid thing to do during the taper but I felt quite comfortable at this pace and I wasn't wrecked after the session.

Im feeling faster than I have ever felt and I'd love to do a 5k or 10k as I'd be very confident of running a PB.

That's definitely it now for the faster stuff till after the marathon.

A total of 8.13 miles for the day.

blockic

wowzer wrote: »

That's definitely it now for the faster stuff till after the marathon.

Wouldn't rule out the faster stuff just yet. A 10km or 5km 2 weeks out from the marathon (probably a 5km ,but not any closer than 2 weeks) wouldn't be bad to keep the sharpness in the legs.

I also like maybe a 3x1600 or 3x1000 @ 10km pace even the week before to show your body that your marathon pace is much slower and manageable in comparison to how fast you can go. That is probably a more mental rather than physical boost.

Just some food for thought.

wowzer

blockic wrote: »

Wouldn't rule out the faster stuff just yet. A 10km or 5km 2 weeks out from the marathon (probably a 5km ,but not any closer than 2 weeks) wouldn't be bad to keep the sharpness in the legs.

I also like maybe a 3x1600 or 3x1000 @ 10km pace even the week before to show your body that your marathon pace is much slower and manageable in comparison to how fast you can go. That is probably a more mental rather than physical boost.

Just some food for thought.

Really, that's good to hear. Thanks for that, it's hard to know what to be doing once the taper starts. Ill keep at the Tuesday sessions so, I probably won't run as quick as I did last night and keep it around 10k pace so.

No chance of getting a sneaky race in this weekend though as I'm at a wedding. It's a pity because I know I would PB. Ah well real life has to come first so I'll have to wait till after the marathon.

statss

blockic wrote: »

Wouldn't rule out the faster stuff just yet. A 10km or 5km 2 weeks out from the marathon (probably a 5km ,but not any closer than 2 weeks) wouldn't be bad to keep the sharpness in the legs.

I also like maybe a 3x1600 or 3x1000 @ 10km pace even the week before to show your body that your marathon pace is much slower and manageable in comparison to how fast you can go. That is probably a more mental rather than physical boost.

Just some food for thought.

+ 1 I'll be doing 3 x 1600 next week Wowzer as part of my plan and 5 x 600 this week.

wowzer

Wednesday 09th October

4.46 miles in 37.46 avg pace 8.29

A nice easy recovery run, nothing much else to say about it.