Anyone have tips for Connemarathon Ultra 2013 Training Schedule

hot to trot

Experienced marathoners have mental strength to dig deep and push on when facing tough times. For those who might not be as used to feeling challenged with lots of miles to go , and newbies to long distance, I found this useful...

http://www.trailrunevents.com/ul/schedule-50k.asp

It allows enough training even when you miss out on some of the long runs. Just ensure you are keeping the pace slow and it will give you great confidence.

Canine Marathoner

did this last year in 5:44...hoping to improve considerably this year...on reflection, i think i did too many back-to-back runs too slowly and intend to train more cleverly this time round: less junk miles, more bang-for-buck approach...

Aimman

A couple of other things which need to be taken into consideration in Connemara Preparation, which you might not find in a Marathon Training Program are

• You'll most likely get the munchies during the race, especially after you pass the Marathon mark and your body is wondering why you haven't stopped running. Normally, people can get by with gels for a marathon, but for Connemara, you should consider eating something at one or two of the drop off points, but get used to eating the food on some of your long training runs, like bananas, nutrigrain bars, pancakes with peanut butter, potatoes with salt. Not a whole picnic of the lot, but one thing you can eat to stop the hunger, will distract your taste buds, easy on the stomach but more importantly, getting some carbs, protein and salts back into the system.
• Run up some hills - Not the short bursts of hill work in boot camp, but get used to long inclines. There are a few scattered along the route and in any case, you can walk them all, but if the body is used to the incline endurance, it will stand to you to take them at a better pace when you pass the 26M mark in Lenane and the infamous Hell Of The West.
• Don't shy away from training in bad weather. If the weather on the day is bad, you'll be spending quite a few hours battling the elements (as anyone from the recent SixMileBridge Ultra will know). If you're used to very bad weather, you have less chance of wanting to drop out. Now, the weather in Connemara has been favourable for the last 3 years, but it's good to be prepared, just in case.

For the last three years in March, I have run from Howth to Bray for a 30 mile easy paced training run and was joined by a couple of people last year and there were good numbers doing the run again this year. The advantage is that it's all on the flat because of the seafront, but there is a nice training challenge around 24M when we have to scale Killiney Hill, plus, we can drop into shops along the way for supplies. I'll put something on the Connemarathon thread in the new year and we can try to get a group of us all starting out.

nshan

Hi, I am doing my first ultramarathon in connemara. As part of my training I was thinking of doing the tralee marathon which is on paddys weekend but am wondering if this is too near the ultra as regards recovery.

Canine Marathoner

wow, quiet on here...

did a marathon distance training run last week taking in some hills...went well...will prob do a slow 50k at the weekend...and maybe another marathon distance one 4 weeks out...will see how it goes...

just looking to pip last year's time as a base target...

any other progress to report?

sideswipe

Canine Marathoner wrote: »

wow, quiet on here...

Yeah, thought that myself- only 6 weeks to go on Sunday:eek:

Going well for me so far, 50K in 4:20 in Donadea last weekend, about 3 back 2 backs done. planning 2x20 miles next weekend and doing Barcelona 3 weeks before hand, doing 50-70 miles a week, just hoping that will be enough to get me through comfortably, really need to get some more hill's in though.

belcarra

sideswipe wrote: »

Yeah, thought that myself- only 6 weeks to go on Sunday:eek:

Going well for me so far, 50K in 4:20 in Donadea last weekend, about 3 back 2 backs done. planning 2x20 miles next weekend and doing Barcelona 3 weeks before hand, doing 50-70 miles a week, just hoping that will be enough to get me through comfortably, really need to get some more hill's in though.

Hey Sideswipe, it was good to run with you for a while on Saturday. Well done on finishing in 4:20!
Going by last year you should be well capable of 5:45 in Connemara at least and if things continue to go well between now and then you could have a serious shot at 5:30!

Best of luck for the rest of your training.

sideswipe

Cheers Belcarra, good to meet you too and sorry I didn't catch up with you afterwards. The thought of 8:30ish min/miles over those hills is a bit daunting at this stage but I'm really looking forward to after saturday, really enjoyed the experience. Are you registering for Chicago later on?

belcarra

Just get a few more runs around Howth or perhaps in the Wicklow Mountains and you'll be well sorted!
In fairness, after the finish I got really cold and hit off home without much delay so missed out on much of the banter.

Yip, I have a date with my laptop at 6:01pm...I reckon it could fill up very quickly given the situation with New York and Berlin selling out so quickly. It's funny when there's such pressure on to get signed up that you kinda forget about the fact the damn thing costs $200!:eek:

Canine Marathoner

sideswipe, what pace you planning to run Barce' at? was there a few weeks ago on holidays ...hope you're going to take Barce' nice and easy and save those legs

sideswipe

Canine Marathoner wrote: »

sideswipe, what pace you planning to run Barce' at? was there a few weeks ago on holidays ...hope you're going to take Barce' nice and easy and save those legs

Thats the million dollar question at this stage! feeling good so would love to go for a pb (currently 3:28) will see how the next couple of weeks go first before deciding. I don't really have a time in mind for Conn, just to complete it, but if I do take Barcelona easy I might have a stab at 5:30 for Conn.........in other words I haven't a clue :rolleyes:

Canine Marathoner

yeah sideswipe i did it last year in 5h44m off a mara pb of 3h15m...pretty disappointing yield...just didn't manage the pace well on the day (and a variety of other factors)...from my limited experience i'd suggest caution in barcelona if conn is your goal A race...but more experienced hands on here will lend better advice...but if Barce is your goal A then at least you've somewhat of a recovery time...we're prob going for around the same time in conn this year so i'll see you on the road...

sideswipe

Canine Marathoner wrote: »

yeah sideswipe i did it last year in 5h44m off a mara pb of 3h15m...pretty disappointing yield...just didn't manage the pace well on the day (and a variety of other factors)...from my limited experience i'd suggest caution in barcelona if conn is your goal A race...but more experienced hands on here will lend better advice...but if Barce is your goal A then at least you've somewhat of a recovery time...we're prob going for around the same time in conn this year so i'll see you on the road...

Thanks for the advice. When I originally penciled in Barca I was thinking of tagging on a four mile warm down to make a good final XLSR (even picked hotel 4 miles from the finish:cool:) or maybe doing another 14 miler the day after for a final back to back, I just don't know what would be of most benefit for Conn, and also the unknown of the effects of running a hard marathon 3 weeks before a 39.3 Mile race, am beginning to obsess about it already decisions, decisions
The last 4 weekends have been 20+20, 14+10, 50K race and a 22+18 mile, was planning another 20+14 this weekend but might take it easier as I'm starting to feel a little wrecked at the moment, so feeling the need to recover a bit.
Hope your own training is going well.

belcarra

sideswipe wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. When I originally penciled in Barca I was thinking of tagging on a four mile warm down to make a good final XLSR (even picked hotel 4 miles from the finish:cool:) or maybe doing another 14 miler the day after for a final back to back, I just don't know what would be of most benefit for Conn, and also the unknown of the effects of running a hard marathon 3 weeks before a 39.3 Mile race, am beginning to obsess about it already decisions, decisions
The last 4 weekends have been 20+20, 14+10, 50K race and a 22+18 mile, was planning another 20+14 this weekend but might take it easier as I'm starting to feel a little wrecked at the moment, so feeling the need to recover a bit.
Hope your own training is going well.

Make sure you are not running the LSRs too fast. Perhaps ease back on the pace this weekend to see if the body copes better with all the mileage.
There should still be no need to alter target pace for Connemara though.

sideswipe

belcarra wrote: »

Make sure you are not running the LSRs too fast. Perhaps ease back on the pace this weekend to see if the body copes better with all the mileage.
There should still be no need to alter target pace for Connemara though.

I've been doing most of the LSR's at 6 in the morning with no breakfast and without gels or food so running too fast hasn't been too much of an issue!!! I only took 2 gels for Donadea and felt pretty good so I'm happy with that. Typically LSR's have been 9 min/miles for the first run of a back to back LSR with maybe 30 seconds less per mile on the second back to back which always seems to feel easier. Thinking about it now I'm probably running the second run too fast so will probably take your advice and slow it down this weekend.

My main debate now is weather too give Barca a good lash as this will effect how I approach the the next couple of weeks of training as well as possibly effect the last three weeks before Conn i.e. trying to taper and recover. I guess I'm kinda flip flopping on my A + B goals which is probably a dangerous game at this stage!

What kind of taper do people usually do for Conn?

belcarra

sideswipe wrote: »

I've been doing most of the LSR's at 6 in the morning with no breakfast and without gels or food so running too fast hasn't been too much of an issue!!! I only took 2 gels for Donadea and felt pretty good so I'm happy with that. Typically LSR's have been 9 min/miles for the first run of a back to back LSR with maybe 30 seconds less per mile on the second back to back which always seems to feel easier. Thinking about it now I'm probably running the second run too fast so will probably take your advice and slow it down this weekend.

My main debate now is weather too give Barca a good lash as this will effect how I approach the the next couple of weeks of training as well as possibly effect the last three weeks before Conn i.e. trying to taper and recover. I guess I'm kinda flip flopping on my A + B goals which is probably a dangerous game at this stage!

What kind of taper do people usually do for Conn?

Yep, you gotta make up your mind regarding priorities for sure. Keep procrastinating and you could well fall between two stools!

Regarding taper, I personally favour a 2 week taper for a marathon and I think a 3 week taper for the Ultra would be fine. Of course Barca complicates matters in this regard. Run it conservatively and it could be just your last big LSR before Conne, but race it and you'd have to build-in recovery time and then taper is on top of you before you know it.
So, I suppose unless you have a strong feeling about Barca you should run it conservatively, perhaps a 3:4x marathon rather than a 3:2x?

menoscemo

belcarra wrote: »

Yep, you gotta make up your mind regarding priorities for sure. Keep procrastinating and you could well fall between two stools!

Regarding taper, I personally favour a 2 week taper for a marathon and I think a 3 week taper for the Ultra would be fine. Of course Barca complicates matters in this regard. Run it conservatively and it could be just your last big LSR before Conne, but race it and you'd have to build-in recovery time and then taper is on top of you before you know it.
So, I suppose unless you have a strong feeling about Barca you should run it conservatively, perhaps a 3:4x marathon rather than a 3:2x?

From what I have seen SS could even run 3:15ish?? It might be worth the risk, pity not to cash in on that fitness and set a big PB. With 3 week recovery you'd still get around Conn ok, maybe not race it optimally but certainly still get a decent time. I would say sub 6 is a formality even after racing Barcelona...

Food for thought anyway.

belcarra

Ya I agree, he could well do 3:1x indeed. I was just using his current pb to make the point.
Just needs to balance up running the ultra strongly (which he may decide to never do again) and giving it a fair shot against the pb in barca. He can always pick any random marathon in May or June and still run the marathon pb.

TFBubendorfer

sideswipe wrote: »

What kind of taper do people usually do for Conn?

Same as for a marathon, usually.
Three weeks seems normal, but everyone has his or her own ideas.

sideswipe

menoscemo wrote: »

pity not to cash in on that fitness and set a big PB.

Food for thought anyway.

That's just it, I feel my Marathon PB is way too soft at the moment and am itching to take a bite out of it, but as Belcarra says I fear falling between stools. I haven't done much at PMP for a PB either. The other option of course is to take Barca easy and remain focused on Conn and aim to set a new Marathon PB there!

Toblerone1978

Do anyone who done this before got this on a GPS linky, perhaps Garmin or Strava. Ideally for the 39.3 race but I would be happy to look at the marathon profile as well.

I would like to see the profile of the course in a simple form, the 3D verson on the website doesn't do it for me. :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance!

statss

here's the full that I found on Garmin connect previously

http://connect.garmin.com/course/2694010

sideswipe

Toblerone1978 wrote: »

Do anyone who done this before got this on a GPS linky, perhaps Garmin or Strava. Ideally for the 39.3 race but I would be happy to look at the marathon profile as well.

I would like to see the profile of the course in a simple form, the 3D verson on the website doesn't do it for me. :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance!

Page 1 of the Conn Thread has them all

ultraman1

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/164696495
ultra course

hot to trot

sideswipe wrote: »

The other option of course is to take Barca easy and remain focused on Conn and aim to set a new Marathon PB there!

I personally think it would be a mistake to get a marathon pb as part of an ultra. For your marathon best you want to give it all for 42.2km so that the tank is almost totally empty and you have done the best you possibly can given the conditions on the day.

If you have enough left to cover another 21.1km then it might be your fastest recorded time for that distance but you cant really say its your PB.
Give Barcelona a lash. You have plenty of time to recover and enjoy a good run at the Ultra as well. Also it will give you a better idea how to pace yourself for the longer distance. The atmosphere in Barcelona on the day will want to make you run fast and you may regret not being able to feed off that support in the closing stages of the race.

sideswipe

hot to trot wrote: »

I personally think it would be a mistake to get a marathon pb as part of an ultra. For your marathon best you want to give it all for 42.2km so that the tank is almost totally empty and you have done the best you possibly can given the conditions on the day.

If you have enough left to cover another 21.1km then it might be your fastest recorded time for that distance but you cant really say its your PB.
Give Barcelona a lash. You have plenty of time to recover and enjoy a good run at the Ultra as well. Also it will give you a better idea how to pace yourself for the longer distance. The atmosphere in Barcelona on the day will want to make you run fast and you may regret not being able to feed off that support in the closing stages of the race.

Thanks for that, I wasn't 100% serious about trying for the PB in Conn, in all honestly the distance is starting to frighten me a little! Was wrecked after a hilly 20 mile last weekend the thought of running that distance again was a sobering one!


Have pretty much decided on giving Barcelona a lash, what I'm struggling with now is tapering for it while still keeping an eye on training for Conn.......any suggestions more than welcome.

ps just read your 24hrs race report over lunch h2t, excellent stuff well done!

hot to trot

Your recovery times will be getting quicker with all your back to backs. One good marathon effort will be as good as two runs back to back . Tapering on distance after it and upping the shorter tempo pace will have you in good stead for a very successful Spring.

TFBubendorfer

sideswipe wrote: »

Was wrecked after a hilly 20 mile last weekend the thought of running that distance again was a sobering one!

Don't worry - that happens every time you train for an ultra, and on race day we're all fine.

sideswipe

Ok it's ultra taper time for this!
As I've been kind of making up my training plan from week to week I've no idea of what I should do for this.
Last week was a difficult one as I picked up a pretty heavy head cold that had me question weather I should run Barcelona, decided to run by feel and not kill myself.
It was a bit surreal getting up and heading to the start line- my heart wasn't in it at all. When we got going I slowly got into it. I really surprised myself with how strong I felt after 5k or so, the back to backs seem to have had a positive effect. In terms of effort it was my easiest marathon to date and a 5 min pb with a 3 min negative split. Did a 3 odd mile warm down straight after to make it a nice round 30 mile final long run.

So I'm looking for some input into my plan for the next couple of weeks, I'm thinking-

This week-
Mon - rest, Tues - 7 mile recovery, Wed - 5 mile recovery w/6x100 strides, Thurs - 5 mile easy, Fri - 14 easy (possibly some mp or hmp miles?), Sat - 16 mile hilly, Sun - rest.

Following week-
Mon - 7 mile easy, Tues - 6 mile tempo (7 min/mile) w/2 mile wu & wd (10 mile total), Wed - 5 recovery, Thursday - 4x1 mile @ 10k pace (6:30 min/mile) w/ wu & wd, Fri - 10 mile easy, Sat - 14 mile easy, Sun - rest.

Final week-
All easy running of 5-7 mile with a few strides and pmp miles thrown in.

So any thoughts?? Was thinking I'd like to do some quicker stuff this week but it depends on recovery from yesterday + shifting the remnants of this dose that's lingering on. Ideally would like to balance out the quicker stuff over the two weeks rather than having one week more recovery based but will try and listen to the body.
I'm really eager to get the balance right and not to over do it and get to the start line in Conn fit and healthy so any advice welcome!

TFBubendorfer

sideswipe wrote: »

So any thoughts??

To be honest I'd cut out the 14 and 16 mile runs. You already have your endurance and right now all you should worry about is recovering from Barcelona.

I'm in a similar position as I ran Tralee on Saturday, except that for me Tralee was the goal race and Connemara is a fun run. I won't run at all for about 10 days and anything after that will be just nice, short and easy.