BQ or Bust!

OOnegative

Fantastic stuff Denis, great grit & determination shown over the closing stages to finish it out. Plenty of upward progression left in you yet.

Annie get your Run

A superb report, massive well done on the pb, delighted that you're delighted Sorry to have missed you 3 times, luckily the most excellent D3 crew were out in force!!! Congrats on the 2ND NYQ too. Lovely as always to catch up in McGrattans. Recover well D.

annapr

Always believe in Jimmy and the mantra #veryproud

Younganne

Well done Denis, great report and great running, you so easily could have stopped trying but you kept it going when the going got tough. Congrats on another GFA for New York.

chickey2

Great stuff and a great report as always!

racheljev

Brilliant stuff D, both the report and the marathon. Congratulations on the pb and the NYQ - about to head to the expo to pick up my number for this year's run!

ThebitterLemon

So where are you doing it....

Too soon?

Congrats on the PB Murph, some achievement to be lowering PB's for a lad of your vintage

TbL

hot buttered scones

Great report Denis and a great result. Congrats on the PB.

Singer

No mention of the medal(s)? Wait a sec, did you leave the country over the last 6 months?

jake1970

Great running D and an equally great report, it certainly looks like a firm endorsement for the Hanson plan. Congrats on the PB and the GFA for New York again.

diego_b

Excellent report there Denis, well done on the big chunk off your pb. You're improving at a nice rate.

Mrs Mc

Congrats D loving that mantra great report well done.

Murph_D

Mon 30 Oct - Weds 1 Nov

No running. Very sore quads for the first couple of days but all good by Weds. No complaints about the race itself - happy with the way it went. Took a bit of a turn in McGrattan's soon after arrival - nearly got sick on Ferris and had to go on the water for a while. :eek: FBOT to the rescue with the Dioralyte. I think this suggests a decent enough effort was expended.

Looks like our club M50 team will end up with a decent National Marathon Championships showing (at national, provincial and county level), but not counting any chickens yet as results are still provisional.

Thu 2 Nov

40 mins easy at rush hour with P. We had thought of taking the canal, but it was too dark so had to stick to the busy roads. Legs felt surprisingly good.

Fri 3 Nov

Another 40 mins easy on the seafront. Legs not as cooperative as yesterday but not bad at all for post-marathon week.

Sat 4 - Sun 5 Nov

No running. The Hanson people recommend taking a fortnight completely off. Having done those couple of recovery runs to reassure myself that my legs still work, I’ll do no more now for another week, possibly recommencing with a typical tempo-ish parkrun next week. That will leave three weeks before the next competitive outing, Jingle Bells on Dec 2. The week before that will be Run The Line, for fun and sociability only!


WTD: 14k (9m)
MTD: 14 (9)
YTD: 2,696 (1,676)

Murph_D

Mon 6 - Fri 10 Nov

No running.

Marathon team placings confirmed: masters M50 silver medals at national, provincial and county level. Delighted to be one of the scorers, so one of the 2017 running goals achieved. Individual M55 bronze at county level too, a nice bonus.

Sat 11 Nov

St Anne’s parkrun (20:35)

Gave this one a bit of a lash, and was definitely in race mode. A bit of bounce in the legs after a whole week off. Might have done better had I lined up a bit closer to front as the first 500m was very congested. Settled in though and was only passed once as far as I remember. That was on 2nd lap as I slowed to ward off some discomfort. Passed him back with 1km to go and held position, although it required a good strong finish to do so. 27th finisher. The 20:35 matches the Tom Brennan during the summer, which I think was the only other 5k this year. Sub-20 next time out hopefully. Cooled down with another couple of kms in the park, with Anna and Aoife. Laura_ac celebrating 50 parkruns also, so the feather boa got another airing. An excellent morning.

OOnegative

Well done on the medals D, delighted for you.

Younganne

Woo hoo, congrats on the medals D, great result.

denis b

Well done D. The individual bronze, in particular, must feel special. I sense more medals

chickey2

Great news on the medals, well done!

hot buttered scones

Congrats on the medals!! Well done.

diego_b

Great going on that haul there D!

Murph_D

Sun 12 Nov

Trails 9.6k (6m) easy

The Mrs wanted to reacquaint herself with some off-road stuff in advance of Run The Line, so I joined her for a few miles on the Howth loop, through the wonderfully named Bog of Frogs (not an amphibian in sight) on BG’s recommendation. Took us a while to find the trail - we were doing the first part it backwards, meaning the markers were not always visible. Crossed the golf course (no sign of Ferris or FBOT) and across the Main Road before turning back after 40 mins or so and retracing. Had forgotten to wear trail shoes and it was slippy enough in places. Nearly came a cropper on one section when I couldn’t apply the brakes and almost had to dive into the ferns to slow down. Narrow escape! Very pleasant run, despite the cold.

WTD: 16k (10m)
MTD: 30 (19)
YTD: 2,712 (1,686)

adrian522

Big Congrats on your medal haul D. What could you do with a full marathon specific plan.

Sounds like you are a fan of the Hanson method anyway!

Murph_D

Thanks A - I do enjoy contributing to team success. With the exception of our very successful coach J, I think our club has had relatively few competitive M50+ runners historically, certainly in recent times, so it’s nice to be contributing to a new tradition. Plenty of aul lads coming through the ranks - we fielded two M50 teams this year - so the club is definitely getting stronger in this important category.

Hansen HM and full M plans are very similar so I don’t think a full M schedule would have made a lot of difference. Yes, I am a fan. Tempo running had been a weakness previously and the approach really seems to deal with that. I’ll be giving it another spin next year, if only to get the value out of my kindle-edition purchase.

adrian522

Did you buy both the HM book and the Marathon book?

career move

Congrats on all the medals. Super

Murph_D

adrian522 wrote: »

Did you buy both the HM book and the Marathon book?

I did. A lot of crossover. But there was a kindle sale on. The M version does recommend some dynamic exercises and stretching which I didn't do, so that's something to tackle next time out.

Wubble Wubble

Excellent, well done on the medals, a very successful year!

Murph_D

Mon 13 Nov

Rest. A little sore after the weekend.

Tue 14 Nov

Club session: 6x800 off 200 active recovery.

Jogged over to Irishtown with aquinn (great to be able to do this again, welcome back A). The session was 800s. Usually we get 75 secs recovery, but tonight was supposed to be 200m at HM pace, as the coaches seem to be experimenting with cruise stuff. I joined a pacy enough mostly female group and managed to stay with them for the session. Just tucked in at the back and followed the crowd, which got smaller as the night wore on, as it often does. Recoveries were nowhere near HMP but this was a tough session all the same, as 800s always are. Splits a bit off as the finish point wasn’t always clear (to me). Home again on foot to log around 15k (9.5m) for the night. Settled in to watch the match. Certainly lonely round the fields of Athenry after that, I’d imagine. :rolleyes:

Approx splits (800): 3:15 3:17 3:22 3:17 3:15 3:11

Wed 15 Nov

Rest.

Thu 16 Nov

7.6k (4.7m) recovery on the seafront with the Mrs. Chilly enough. Bumped into Mrs Mc (I think - it was fleeting, and dark).


WTD: 23k (14m)

Huzzah!

Murph_D wrote: »

I did. A lot of crossover. But there was a kindle sale on. The M version does recommend some dynamic exercises and stretching which I didn't do, so that's something to tackle next time out.

How do you find reading books like this on a Kindle? Something has always put me off but the Kindle versions are so much cheaper.

Congrats on the medals!

Murph_D

Huzzah! wrote: »

How do you find reading books like this on a Kindle? Something has always put me off but the Kindle versions are so much cheaper.

Congrats on the medals!

I love the portability of the kindle, but to be honest it's not great for running books like this, which make a lot of use of detailed tables of figures, schedules etc. But the bookmarking and highlighting features are good, as well as the ability to have constant access through the kindle app. I tend to transfer the schedule and other key bits and pieces to a google doc that I can access on the go also.

It's nice to be able to leaf through a physical book though. Ideally, the electronic version would be free when you buy the physical version!