From Detroit to Boston

Calvin Johnson

Hello all,

Long time reader, first time caller. Been told that keeping one of these logs helps to stay motivated as well as picking up very useful advice and guidance, so giving it a go.

I ran my first marathon in Dublin in October and enjoyed it loads despite a fairly pitiful effort at training. I only ran up to 17.5 miles as my longest run in amongst 5 weeks training. My time was 4.16 which I am hoping to improve on in Kildare in April and then hopefully again in Dublin.

I'm following an 18 week "advanced" training plan which starts tomorrow with a 3 mile run!

Calvin Johnson

Monday

3 miles - 23'01

Dreadful weather this morning so chickened out and went to the gym to use the treadmill.

Hill training tomorrow, not quite sure how it works but will give it a bash.

yaboya1

What's the story Calvin?
Have you given up the running and gone back to the NFL?

yaboya1

Calvin Johnson

3 miles recovery at 9'30 pace

Just ran steadily in trousers and jacket without looking at the watch.

Calvin Johnson

Had to change plans after Kildare was cancelled.

Decided to enter Limerick as it's only a week later. Going to repeat week 9 of my plan which will include the Bohermeen 1/2

Calvin Johnson

How do I change the thread title please?

RayCun

PM a forum mod

Calvin Johnson

Wednesday

40 minutes tempo - 8:22 pace for 4.78 miles

Ran home from work - was around 8:10 pace for the first 4 miles but hit the nasty hilly section just as I was getting tired and into a horrible headwind. This 9:39 pace .78 of a mile skewed the average pace but overall happy enough with the effort.

Thursday

3 miles at Marathon Pace - 8:17 pace

A real change from my recent marathon pace runs which have been much longer and it was easy enough to maintain it as a result.

Friday

17 miles LSR - 8:56 pace

Splits

8:19
8:44
8:53
9:08
8:48
8:45
9:10
8:45
8:59
8:50
8:52
9:00
9:06
9:14
8:54
9:02
9:20

Did four long laps of Marlay Park in the middle of this long run and probably ended up running a bit too quickly. It felt like a natural enough pace for the majority though and only the last three miles or so were really hard.


Saturday

5 x hill repeats for 0.25 mile

1:44, 1:47, 1:45, 1:45, 1:43

This was really hard - probably shouldn't do a session like this the day after a long run?

Felt like I wasn't quite able to run flat out but quite pleased that the splits are fairly close with the last one being the fastest.

ThebitterLemon

Good session.

I would usually take a rest day or recovery run the day after a LR

TbL

Calvin Johnson

Sunday

8 miles at 9:42 pace

This wasn't really meant to be a recovery run but I needed it to be so after a hard couple of days. Ran the first four extremely slowly but then got involved in a little race with an elderly lady runner in Marlay Park. Went ahead of her but she wouldn't give up and stayed behind me for the rest of the mile. Was glad when she turned off my route!


Need a bit of advice for the next few weeks of my plan. Next week (week 9) is a slightly easier week with a half marathon race recommended on the Sunday. I've entered the Bohermeen race the Sunday after though. I have a week spare due to the Kildare to Limerick switch so should I repeat this easy week twice. Or would it be better to skip ahead to week 10 which has a 19 mile run on Sunday before having the two easy weeks after the Bohermeen race.

Hope this makes sense - any advice much appreciated

yaboya1

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Sunday

8 miles at 9:42 pace

This wasn't really meant to be a recovery run but I needed it to be so after a hard couple of days. Ran the first four extremely slowly but then got involved in a little race with an elderly lady runner in Marlay Park. Went ahead of her but she wouldn't give up and stayed behind me for the rest of the mile. Was glad when she turned off my route!


Need a bit of advice for the next few weeks of my plan. Next week (week 9) is a slightly easier week with a half marathon race recommended on the Sunday. I've entered the Bohermeen race the Sunday after though. I have a week spare due to the Kildare to Limerick switch so should I repeat this easy week twice. Or would it be better to skip ahead to week 10 which has a 19 mile run on Sunday before having the two easy weeks after the Bohermeen race.

Hope this makes sense - any advice much appreciated

I'm not normally one to offer advice as I'm fairly clueless myself, but I would think repeating week 8 would be the way to go. This would then leave you following the plan on schedule in the lead up to the half-marathon?

Calvin Johnson

Decided to follow Yaboya's suggestion and repeat the previous week. Replacing the hill repeats with another 5 x 800 session though for some variety.

Monday

3 miles recovery at 9'28 pace
Nice gentle run to help the legs.

Tuesday

Rest

Did a bit of foam rolling - not quite got to grips with it yet. How long should you do it for?

Wednesday

40 minutes tempo - 5.17 miles at 7'44 pace

Pleased with this after fading on the big hill this time last week. Big improvement in the past few tempo runs.

Splits

7'55
7'41
7'46
7'46
7'29

Calvin Johnson

Thursday

8 miles easy at 8'41 pace

Nice gentle run finished with a quick mile up the hill.


Friday

5 x 800m intervals with 2 minutes rest

Splits:

3'19
3'33
3'18
3'33
3'24

These sessions are always hard, nice day for it though and a decent improvement since I last did these a few weeks back.

Starting to look forward to Bohermeen next Sunday now.

Calvin Johnson

Saturday

Plan called for 3 miles @ MP - so I ran 3 miles at 7'57 pace

Nice and easy. Back up to 9 miles at MP next week which will clearly be much tougher.

Sunday

17 miles at 9'08 pace.

Deliberately went out a little slower than last week as I felt I'd gone a bit too quick for a long slow run. Felt generally a bit tired and not in the best of moods for running for the first time in ages. Got better as time and the miles ticked by and got over-taken by three guys cruising past me and then a pack of Dundrum running club girls. Eventually ended up running a little quicker than the initial pace for the last three miles home.


Monday

Rest.


Tuesday

40 minutes tempo - 5.45 miles at 7'22 pace

Set out with the intention of trying to stay under 7'30 average at least and tried to go as quick as possible. It was kind of a practice run for Sundays HM in Bohermeen to see how comfortable it felt. Must admit it was tough at that pace but I'm hoping the usual race boost might help and I really would like to target sub 1:40.

Am I being too ambitious?

Calvin Johnson

Wednesday

4 miles easy at 8'56 average pace

The 3 mile runs are gone (until taper) and replaced by 4 & 5 milers. Took this nice and steady ahead of the 6 x 800 session planned for tomorrow.

yaboya1

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Wednesday

4 miles easy at 8'56 average pace

The 3 mile runs are gone (until taper) and replaced by 4 & 5 milers. Took this nice and steady ahead of the 6 x 800 session planned for tomorrow.

6 x 800 seems like a pretty tough session with a race planned for Sunday?

Calvin Johnson

It does but then I have a recovery run and a rest day before Sunday.

Finnt

I'd be kind of thinking like yaboya1 would you not take it easy tomorrow on the run up to Sunday?

Calvin Johnson

Hmm I can see now why some don't enter any races whilst in Marathon training. I don't feel good about missing a session but I guess the half marathon is going to be effectively a long hard session in itself.

The plan for the week after looks fierce as well. Should I skip the sessions for Tuesday and Thursday next week whilst I recover??

Finnt

I'm no expert, but what I'd do is an easy day tomorrow and Friday, rest Saturday. Then race on Sunday rest Monday then tues and wed easy and resume normal running on Thursday

Calvin Johnson

Cool thanks Finn, that's what I'll do then.

What do you reckon for distance tomorrow?

I did 5.5 Tuesday and 4 today, and plan for 4 on Friday. Keep it short with 5 or go for a nice easy 8?

Finnt

I'd go with 4 tomorrow and 4 Friday, I know you'd be on an easy run and ripping to do a couple of quick miles, but keep it for Sunday !!

Calvin Johnson

Thursday

4 miles easy at 9'11 pace

Took the advice of Yaboya & Finn and did the most boring 4 miles ever. Roll on Sunday...

Calvin Johnson

Friday

4 miles easy at 8'54 pace

Last run before Bohermeen on Sunday. Took it very easy for the first three miles and really wasn't feeling great. Upped the pace to the 8'20 range for the last mile and immediately felt much better.

I really can't wait for the race to start on Sunday now.

Finnt

Well how're are ya fixed for tomorrow ?

Calvin Johnson

All set thanks.

Hoping to go sub 1:40 to keep on course for Limerick but sub 1:45 wouldn't be a disaster.

ThebitterLemon

Good luck today

TbL

Finnt

Good luck with it!

Calvin Johnson

Thanks chaps

yaboya1

Great result today. Well done

Calvin Johnson

Sunday

Bohermeen Half Marathon

I'd run three half-marathons before. Two in 2008, one I was reasonably fit for and ran 1'57 and the other I wasn't and struggled badly on a hot day to 2'27 having walked a good amount of the second half. Then last summer I ran Clontarf on what must have been the hottest day of the year. I was again relatively fit but could only manage 1'56'58 which I was a little disappointed with.

After Clontarf, I stopped running for a good few weeks but got going again about 5 weeks before Dublin and ended up running 4'16 in the Marathon. I was happy to finish but determined that I would train properly next time and run a better time. So after a quick holiday to the US in November where I ran a 5k (the Turkey Trot!) in 22'06 I found a Hal Higdon plan that I liked and entered the Limerick Marathon in May after Kildare was cancelled. 10 weeks into the plan I was curious to see how much I'd improved. After some discussion with Yaboya I settled on trying to go sub 1:40.

Got to Bohermeen fairly early and after a quick check of the layout returned to the car to keep warm as the weather was awful and getting worse all the time. With 10 minutes till the start eventually got out of the car and jogged slowly down to the start. The rain was really coming down hard at this point and I was delighted when they finally sent us on our way.

Miles 1-5: 7'39, 7'35, 7'30, 7'30, 7'23

Went off steadily but wanted to be around 7'30 pace from the start so sped up enough to keep the first mile in that range. After a mile or so the field had spread out enough and tried to settle into 7'30 pace which has never really felt that comfortable in training but here it did. Mile 5 was 7'23 using a downhill section which I knew had banked me a little room for later.

Miles 6-10: 7'32, 7'31, 7'34, 7'35, 7'27

I began to feel tired coming past the clubhouse just after halfway. Really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep this pace up for another 6 miles. Luckily I found two guys just ahead, one in black and one in red and white stripes (not sure what club that is.) And as a group we stayed together for 4 miles or so. They were chatting together nicely but I just sat on their shoulder saying nothing! After a while I felt a bit guilty and tried to come forward to do my turn like cycling but they seemed to think I was trying to move away from them as they upped the pace and went ahead of me again!

Mile 11-Finish: 7'30, 7'29, 7'38 (1'09)

We came to mile 11 and I knew that 1:40 was looking good as long as I didn't blow up, so I didn't look to push on. Our little group was then swamped by a larger group of about 8 runners moving slightly quicker and in the jostling I fell behind the two guys I'd been following. As we went over the motorway for the second time I ended up running on my own.

I was really starting to feel tired and being on my own wasn't helping but once the short hill was over I knew the finish wasn't far and I just had to run around an 8'30 last mile and a bit to beat my target. I even dropped off the 7'30 pace and it was only as the mile came to a close that I managed to pick up the pace one last time and the average fell to 7'38. I could see the clubhouse at last and really sped up which meant I nearly stacked it on the grass/mud section before the track but just about kept my balance and "sprinted" past 3 or 4 people just pipping a young lady right on the line to sneak inside the top 250.

Chip time - 1:39:06

I was really pleased with the time, it's helped my confidence in running a good time in Limerick an awful lot. Got 8 weeks of hard training ahead so hopefully can improve a little more too.


Monday

3 miles recovery at 9'03 average pace

Didn't feel too bad this morning so decided that I would run a recovery today, run easy tomorrow before resting. Then have got some tough runs to do over the weekend.

Finnt

Fair play man great run.

Calvin Johnson

Tuesday

4 miles easy at 8'32 average pace

Body and legs feeling fairly good

Wednesday

Rest

Calvin Johnson

Thursday

6 x 800 with 2 minute rest

Splits; 3'19, 3'31, 3'13, 3'27, 3'16, 3'28

Returned to hard running after a few easy days and it wasn't too bad. The loop I run these on is slightly uphill on one half and downhill on the other which I think explains the slightly uneven nature of the splits.

Friday

9 miles at MP - 7'59 average pace

An enjoyable run to Marlay Park and back, the pace felt reasonably comfortable.

Saturday

45 minutes tempo - 5.94 miles at 7'34 average pace

Third day in a row of fastish running and it caught up with me a little. First two miles were fine, closer to 7 minute pace but got very tired going up the hill in the third mile and the pace never quite got back to what it was. Considered knocking it on the head at 30 minutes but eventually decided to keep going but was glad when the clock ticked over to 45.

Sunday

4 miles recovery at 9'23 average pace

Set out intending to do my 19 mile long run but a mile into it started feeling unwell. I could have continued and done the run but it would have been very hard work so decided to turn it into Monday's recovery run and resolved to do the 19 miles on Monday...

Monday

19 miles at 9'08 average pace

...which I did. Felt fresher the longer the run went on. Lovely day for it as well.

Tuesday

5 miles easy at 8'59 average pace

Was originally going to be a recovery run after yesterday but felt fine after a mile so picked the pace up a little.


Yep.

belcarra

Smart move delaying the LSR til the following day.
Be careful with all that faster stuff too - you have to allow some slower recovery/rest in between so the body can absorb all the good training before going hard again!

Calvin Johnson

Thanks Belcarra - I loaded the back end of the week with the fast stuff after the half marathon to aid recovery from that. Perhaps I could have skipped one of them.

In general I try and space it out as much as possible.

Calvin Johnson

Wednesday

4 miles at MP - 7'54 average pace

Another nice morning for running.

Calvin Johnson

Thursday

10 miles easy at 8'47 pace

Started slowly and got steadily quicker.

Finnt

Have ya given any thought to your goal in Limerick?

Calvin Johnson

Not yet Finn.

I slightly disagreed with comments made about your target on that other thread. Your training suggests you won't be far off despite it being your first marathon.

Finnt

I know what ya mean, but I reckon I'll go out with the 3:45 pacers, better Finish it and enjoy it that killing myself for a good time. Might keep that for Dublin in October

Calvin Johnson

Friday

Rest

Saturday

45 minutes tempo - 6.18 miles at 7'17 pace

Ran 3 miles to Marlay park at around 7'25 pace and then joined the Parkrun for the rest of the session. I was planning to keep to my tempo pace and not get carried away and race it all out. Which I just about managed, having already run 3 quick miles helped. I finished the course in 21'42 which is actually a 25 second PB. It left my watch showing 44 minutes so I ran out of the park and ran an extra minute at tempo pace before slowing to jog home at a leisurely pace.

Sunday

20 miles at 9'01 pace

Tough way to start my birthday! Left Sandyford and ran to Sandycove and then followed the coast until turning towards Donnybrook and returning home. A break from my usual Marlay Park laps. Started to flag a bit around mile 17 but by mile 20 I was feeling relatively fresh again. Was glad to stop of course but feel like another 6 miles or so would be possible. Another 7 weeks to go...

yaboya1

Happy Birthday.
FinnT reckons it's 6 weeks and you say 7. One of you is going to be very lonely at the start line

Calvin Johnson

I'm sure it's 7!

Finnt

It'll be me running a lonely marathon in 6 weeks time!! I counted my long runs and missed the taper week!

Calvin Johnson

Monday

4 mile recovery at 9'14 paceMuch needed after Sunday's 20 miler. First half a mile was very ropey indeed. Felt much better by the end of the 4 miles but then had to walk all around Dublin with my parents who were over from the UK for a visit.

Tuesday

Rest

Intended to do the 7 x 800 session but felt very jaded when I woke up so decided to take my weekly rest day.

Wednesday

7 x 800m intervals with 2 minutes rest

Splits - 3'19, 3'27, 3'20, 3'29, 3'28, 3'30, 3'25

Was still tired and these were very hard. Always feel great when the session is over though.

RedRunner

Going well Calvin. Good work since your outing in Bohermeen

Calvin Johnson

Thursday

12 miles at 8'40 average pace

Working all weekend so decided to get my long run out of the way today. Legs still felt tired this morning but was surprised how quickly I was running the whole way. Had to put the brakes on a few times to keep at LSR pace. I know it's the lower end of a long run but still has to be a good sign.

Got 6 miles at MP tomorrow and then 45 minutes tempo on Saturday morning. Might try the Marlay Parkrun again for the second half of it.

Calvin Johnson

Friday

6 miles at MP - 7'54 average pace

Nice morning once again and managed to keep the pace below 8 minute miles. Legs are feeling tired every morning at the moment but fine once I get running.

Calvin Johnson

Saturday

5 miles easy at 9'01 pace

Decided not to do the parkrun tempo thing as I didn't have time before work. So just took the 5 mile run very easy ahead of the tempo run on Sunday.

Sunday

45 minutes tempo - 6.08 miles at 7'24 average pace

Had been dreading this all week, for some reason I find the tempo runs mentally challenging. My tempo pace according to the calculators should be 7'20 pace so I set off trying to hit that and for the first three miles no issues. Then I hit a hill and I know it's more about the effort but once over the hill the next mile was slower as well (7'41 and then 7'34) I started to feel very sorry for myself.

My legs are tired, I should just stop after 30 minutes, I can't keep going. All of those kind of thoughts. But I kept going and gradually got back towards 7'20 pace finishing with mile 6 at 7'17 pace. Pleased I kept going and only slightly dreading the one week step up to 50 minutes tempo next week!


Monday

4 miles recovery at 9'01

I'm terrible for looking at my watch far too much so decided to run the entire run today without looking. Just ran by feel and my legs were not as tired as they have been for the past few days. I'm still tired but the legs felt fine and probably ran this slightly too quick but I like to think it was good practice to cover the watch up with my sleeve and try to learn to run more on feel.