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Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,203 CMod ✭✭✭✭
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Hi, thanks for the comments.
Couldn't get onto boards until last night with the technical issues. Sorry I couldn’t get to threads, I wanted to wished the novices well too.
Week 17 meno plan
Oct 22nd
Rest. M50 commutes seem to involve people throwing cigarettes out in the morning. That evening – started to get my stuff ready for Sunday and noticed paddydriver of the 2016 parish popped up in the table in the events forum.
Oct 23rd
41:12. 4 miles easy at 10:18
10:20, 10:07, 10:18, 10:25
HRM 163 avg, 174 max.
Oct 24th
Plan. 5 miles with 3 at MP
46:26. 5.01 miles at 9:16.
1 mile easy 10:22
3 miles MP 8:30, 8:43, 8:17
1 mile easy 10:31
0.01 is just the usual stop, then accidentally hitting it again lark.
Last MP was a bit fast.
HRM 13g avg, 166 max
Slight bit of fear kicked in during the MP stuff, re DCM. Hopefully just taper madness…
Oct 25th
40:57. 4 miles easy at 10:14
10:16, 10:07, 10:12, 10:20.
HRM 130avg, 141, max.
Oct 26th
Rest. Expo was a breeze. Right hip a bit iffy on the walk there, played on my mind a little - taper madness again. Pretty chilly in the evening. Threw the chocolate in the fridge, left it until Sun evening. Watched the course video for homework.
Oct 27th
30:40. 3 miles easy at 10:13.
10:21, 9:55, 10:22.
HRM 149 avg, 165 max.
At last week’s someone called me ‘bro’ - first time for everything, I suppose. :pac: Heard some feedback re Mountjoy, probably not for me, though. Quite a chilly morning at Malahide…a young fella got sick then shortly after finishing. I went out after and felt less chilly in the sun. Meant to watch the course video again, but forgot.
Total: 16.01 miles.
Target: 15-20 miles.
Total plan: 734.06 miles.
And goodbye to the paper version.
Oct 28th
DCM - sub 4 hour achieved. Report to follow. :cool:
Legs feel pretty good today.Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,203 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16953
Thank you. I apologise in advance for any eye strain that develops from the reading of this post.
DCM 2018 - Back on familiar ground.
Pre-race
Didn’t sleep very well despite going to bed at 10. However, I am a morning person and things were OK on that front. Alarm, followed by breakfast and Vaseline. Parked up as usual and got a taxi into the city. Saw some seagulls picking away at rubbish bags on O’Connell St. Didn’t feel as cold as here as it has done on previous DCM mornings. Toilet and sit down stop, then went up to say hello to a few internet folks. On the walk up Grafton St I heard some fella talking with what I thought was an Eastern Europe inflection. On getting closer it was probably more Cork/Kerry. More on this sort of thing later.
Dropped the baggage and went through. Toilet stop within the wave area - this year they put them in blocks of 6 rather than side-by-side. This worked well, there were still loads free. Moved up and waited. The sun was intermittent. There was a chap nearby wearing a serious long winter coat, that'll benefit someone if the charity pick up is where these things go.
The Garda chopper hovered a few times. I thought its side door was open and wondered what it would be like to be up there observing thousands. Wave 2 started and us from 3 land started to move forward. I disposed of my throwaway layers as we got closer to 9:30am, was freezing where there was no sun…my teeth were chattering until we got under way. There was a good buzz here. My pre-race mood was a bit flat. I wasn’t very psyched up for it, but wasn’t fearful of the event. Training had gone well, made a chunk of the year go by in a flash. I had a little wristband for Georgia and was trying to keep my eyes peeled for glittery and colourful stuff on others too. Later in the pub skyblue46 had the same one.
Race is a go
Ticking through those familiar streets, happy to let the balloons set the tone, they were a decent bit ahead early on. Congestion's just that. Didn’t notice the marker signs for miles 1 and 2. Mile 3 I'd have missed only another runner shouted it out. I was surprised to see people fall - one in Stoneybatter and the other bloke around mile 4. Could have been the congestion, bottles and an unfortunate step or two. Both fell nearby and it was a little alarming to see it happen. The two of them got back up OK. Quite lucky, if you're not careful you could easily wallop into a metal bollard.
The park was enjoyable, as usual. I let the 4 hour pacers keep motoring away up ahead. During the previous years it's around here where I saw a bearded, grey haired bloke wearing a yellow 100 marathon shirt who seemed slightly hunched. Didn't see him this time. The best entertainment moment was from 3 kid supporters who got super excited about something, brought smile to the faces of many of us running. Not clear what, it just was behind as we were going past. Beautiful morning through the park, sun was perfect, Autumn and lots of banners and support. I was reminded of the that aerial photo that was floating around days before the race.
After the great cheering zone at mile 7 is where there's a little break in the support...the downhill part, with a wall on the left. I say this not to complain, it was actually rather funny because all you got to hear was hundreds of feet pounding away. I enjoyed that because of the collective effort and where else are you gonna notice it? Anyway, amusement continued - someone pointed out how quiet we all were, whilst another quipped the inevitable 'are we there yet?!' Saw no need to catch pacers based on the existence of the downhill. Back into the park and this was the most overcast and coldest part overall. I was thankful not to have to hang around here. One of the 4 hour pacers had a quick toilet stop, as did a few others. I wondered if some deer might show up. I don't remember a lot about the next few miles, still, there was good support as we moved to the half.
It was nice to get through the half largely in step with the pacers. This was the closest I was to them all morning. Going through the half at 1:59 or so meant a negative split was possible. Have I got that right? I'm not an expert.
Anyway, the half - I've a feeling around here is where I may have partly lost the battle in the past, with the 4:10s last year. Mile 14 was a curse in 2017, so in advance my mind jumped forward with slight worry only this time it made no dent in me at all. That was a relief. After 15 or so I saw a Scottish woman with a 100 marathon shirt, had to say hello and welcome. Not a first time tourist to Dublin, but first DCM. It was somewhere here too where I saw a guy with a cancer t-shirt about his late father. I mentioned this in the pub later - the RIP date was 18/10/2018. It's hard to find words for something like that, whilst there were similar illness/serious shirts through the race, this is the only one I saw with a date. Onto Terenure direction and I knew from a 7:30am text that my aunt would be out somewhere. Got the shout out, cue internal JFDI and sub 4 seemed doable.
Mile 20 onwards is definitely where the level of walking goes up, this was very noticeable. I can only imagine what it's like to be in this position, it must feel crappy. Was there a sign about eyeballing the wall or did I see that online, or in the magazine? I did hum and haw here about whether to get closer to the pacers and to crack on overall, but decided keep it handy. Stick to the plan. AKA the house that nop built. :pac: Miles 21-23 were awful last year. Would that happen again? 2018 version says no. :cool: There was no wall on my horizon, thankfully. The watch - I hadn't paid regular attention to much overall. Sometimes it was saying 8:55 min/mi and the pacers were ahead. It did throw up the question of whether I was at risk of going wrong and potentially throwing away a sub 4. At the same time, I trusted the training, believed in the pacers, and myself. I knew there was the odd bit of 8:40 I might be able to call on later, hopefully. At occasional points during the race, the right leg did pop up to say 'hello' now and then, - was this a call back to the post-FD10 soreness or just the grind of 26.2? And at other times the physicality of the tarmac was eating away at ye too.
Fairly late on (maybe mile 24/25?) I said thanks to one of the 4 hours and moved ahead. I knew sub 4 was achievable. I heard another pacer give encouragement to two people who were walking in the middle of a lot of runners...so positive to see. Again, it must be crap to be a mile or two from home, feeling alone with the legs or something not working. I really enjoyed those last couple of miles and was expecting my breathing or something to become laboured. Didn't happen. As we passed the 800 metres sign I spotted another British visitor with a 100 marathon shirt and made myself audible enough over the roar of the crowds - welcome to Dublin. The finish is still a jot or two to go, it better come soon. I could finally see the official clock up ahead - would I squeeze in under 3:58, put last year's 4:11 out of the picture?
Official tracking spec
10k - 56:29 at 9:06
Half - 1:59:23 at 9:08
30k - 2:50:35 at 9:16
Finish - 3:57:25 at 8:50
@ 9:04 min/mi avg
Slight confusion here. On the 28th it said my average was as above, 9:04. Now it's saying 10:14. I've refreshed the browser and compared it to one of the 4 hours whose is more accurate re average. Doesn't matter much now anyway. Looking back the whole race seemed to go by pretty quickly as an experience.
Garmin stuff.
3:57:31
26.46 miles at 8:59.
Splits 9:13, 8:41, 9:15, 8:45, 8:51, 9:02, 9:09, 8:45, 8:48, 8:57, 9:08, 9:10, 9:04, 9:21, 9:19, 9:16, 9:17, 9:05, 9:09, 8:53, 8:52, 9:16, 9:10, 8:35, 8:39, 8:27 (and 7.18).
HRM 148 avg, 178 max
I didn't really look at this in detail after syncing, only seeing it now. It says training effect 3.7 - er, seems a bit light. Garmins be Garmins.
Fuel - belt with water and electrolyte tabs (x2), bar every 5 miles or so and gels every ~ 6, save for the few miles where I tend hold off on the food side. Grabbed water everywhere bar station 1 which I always ignore. Did grab a cup of Lucozade at one point, much of it went down my shirt.
Post race
Got my medal, t-shirt, etc. Shook Jim Aughney’s hand too. After that area you are then directed left, most of us were not walking normally here. Couple of people getting medical help. Got changed, dollop of wet wipes (forgot to fix my hair :pac:) and up to McGrattans to see some new and familiar faces. Right leg was a little hmmm like it had been occasionally during the race. Pomplamousse asked if I was going to do anything to treat myself due to the sub 4...after some food, the easiest thing to do at home was simply lie down. 
Also thanks to those said kind things, I hadn't thought about being proud of it, really. Wouldn't have been possible without the interaction on here. Lazare, sir, you have a hand grip that should probably be patented! It was good to meet aquinn briefly, great 2014 novices t-shirt. WW started trying to put 5k PBs in my head, and Inishbofin. :pac: At my bus stop I got talking to two lads who had also raced. They were from Derry and mother of Jaysus, if could understand half of what they were saying. OK, OK...have to apologise now to people from both ends of this island. :pac:
Days later
I noticed on the interwebs that I missed the Connemara stand at the Expo, dammit. On Tuesday, I had to drive into the city for work and got a warm feeling driving the streets. Almost felt like I was out there again which is a testament to the race itself. The training is long (but enjoyable) and it's mental how it's all over in a few hours. I can't say enough about the support on the streets, it was unbelievable. Body feels good and no little or lingering problems, so far. Just been reading up on the other reports and how the novices got on...well done to all, whether there were more lows than highs, Oct 28th was still yours. Also on the interwebs I saw a video where they let kids hold the tape (with supervision) as the winner came through, nice touch. Same last year too.
What worked? I won't repeat what I've yapped in the sub 4 thread (in response to Murph's query). This report is long enough. PMA definitely helped. 'Sub 4' as term in itself I feel weird about on a verbal and gut level, hard to explain why. I've done another marathon and it just happened to be 3:57. I was probably more invested in the training and hoped I was prepared to take whatever DCM was going to throw at me.
Onwards.Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
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Really evocative report TBO, enjoyed reading that a lot. Congratulations to you! Delighted to hear the day went so well for you - well deserved.
Smiled to myself at this paragraph, because your thoughts during this section seem to have been the very same as my own. This was one of my favourite parts of the course, loved the quiet road just hearing the collective footsteps. When we got back into the park I was saying to myself if we came across some deer it would make the whole day perfect. Not to be, but it was pretty good anywayThe Black Oil wrote: »After the great cheering zone at mile 7 is where there's a little break in the support...the downhill part, with a wall on the left. I say this not to complain, it was actually rather funny because all you got to hear was hundreds of feet pounding away. I enjoyed that because of the collective effort and where else are you gonna notice it? Anyway, amusement continued - someone pointed out how quiet we all were, whilst another quipped the inevitable 'are we there yet?!' Saw no need to catch pacers based on the existence of the downhill. Back into the park and this was the most overcast and coldest part overall. I was thankful not to have to hang around here. One of the 4 hour pacers had a quick toilet stop, as did a few others. I wondered if some deer might show up. I don't remember a lot about the next few miles, still, there was good support as we moved to the half.
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,203 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16953
Thank you!
Not done as much walking as I’d hoped over the break. It was lashing some weekends and I was missing running in that. This week's been my first week back at it since DCM. All's been fine. 4 easy runs at 10:XX. 24.24 miles overall, incl. 9.22 today. First spin out the Skerries road since late Oct, the chickens around here panic easily more so from my presence than they do the cars flying by. I got fairly soaked on Tues and Weds. My forehead was freezing on Tues and the temperature may be why my teeth were a bit sensitive in the days after. Human body, eh? The right hip did say hi again slightly...think on Weds. Haven't given much thought to layers for when the temperatures come down more. I hope there's not snow, well, not bad snow.
I've been mulling things over and despite looking at Spring marathons, I reckon a break from that sort of training cycle is best for now. Still, it's tempting when others are doing similar and I did look at a few like Connemara, Rotterdam, the Flying Pig (Cincinnati) or New Jersey. Maybe New Jersey for 2020. Anyway, next week will be a few runs, then Jingle Bells 5k. Base plan from Dec 3rd onwards will carry proceedings into mid-January, followed by the grads 5-10k plan finishing approx April 21st, assuming I've read the calendar correctly. Wexford 10k is on April 28th. Mind you, Inishbofin could tempt me away from Wexford. Docklands 5k (probably) next summer and then DCM 2019. Already signed up. :pac: On the more immediate winter side, there's a parkrun in Malahide on Tues, Dec 25th. Tempted to give it a go, or else the non-seasonal one on the 29th. Turkey should be gone by then.:P My last parkrun of any sort was 26/11/16. Some young lad appeared to tear a calf yesterday. I got talking to HelenAnne's OH who does a bit of RDing and saw Singer briefly too. After socialising I went out with my purple shirt for the first time, it had that new fabric smell.
Elsewhere, I did one thing of Yoga from Youtube and I’m not that flexible. Truthfully, I’m probably a bit biased against yoga for no rational reason and I’m not sure I can stick the breathing aspect. I have been having a go with the resistance band, this coupled with podcasts, is a good way to kill two birds with one stone. :cool: Diet's become a bit crap compared to how it was for DCM. Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
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The Black Oil wrote: »
I've been mulling things over and despite looking at Spring marathons, I reckon a break from that sort of training cycle is best for now. Still, it's tempting when others are doing similar and I did look at a few like Connemara, Rotterdam, the Flying Pig (Cincinnati)
A favourite amongst the US folk on the FB running group I'm in.The Black Oil wrote: »Wexford 10k is on April 28th. Mind you, Inishbofin could tempt me away from Wexford.
Wexford is probably slightly more PB friendly but it's not a particularly pretty route, which I imagine Inisbofin is. Blasphemy from a Wexford woman 0 -
Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,203 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16953
A favourite amongst the US folk on the FB running group I'm in.
That's encouraging.Wexford is probably slightly more PB friendly but it's not a particularly pretty route, which I imagine Inisbofin is. Blasphemy from a Wexford woman
Inishbofin is rather lovely.
Jingle Bells 5k coming up shortly. Previous times there are 25-26 mins which are meh. I'd like to improve on that a good deal since I managed 23:06 back in the summer, but am not sure the best way to go about Sat. Also uncertain of the angle of attack for the weeks ahead. The calculator (based off of 3:57:25 from DCM) has slower paces than I trained at, really.Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
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The Black Oil wrote: »That's encouraging.
Inishbofin is rather lovely.
Jingle Bells 5k coming up shortly. Previous times there are 25-26 mins which are meh. I'd like to improve on that a good deal since I managed 23:06 back in the summer, but am not sure the best way to go about Sat. Also uncertain of the angle of attack for the weeks ahead. The calculator (based off of 3:57:25 from DCM) has slower paces than I trained at, really.
If you raced Jingle Bells, you could maybe use that as your time for the calculator. I'd be walking if I used my marathon times.0 -
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,203 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16953
Not a lot to report for the earlier part of the week. Tues was supposed to be 60 minutes easy, did 61:25 just to get make it 6 miles exactly (at 10:14 avg). Weds was progression easy, moderate and MP, 6.76 miles at 9:22 avg. I had forgotten to disable the auto lap on the watch after DCM. Anyway, went from 10:15, 9:33, to 8:39 which is very much in line with what I've done before. Not going to post them all as it's a bit confusing with the 1 mi ones and those I pressed manually. It's not a proper plan week, so no matter. Still on the resistance band with podcasts where I can. Friday was a work conference, followed by family party until 3am. For me this was a heavy night of tonic water, ginger ale and chocolate biscuit cake after dinner. As the night wore on I was ordered to bed such was my yawning.
Dec 1st
Jingle Bells 5k.
I almost didn't make this. I left at 9:45am for what was supposed to be a simple enough journey of not even 10k, arriving around 10:08-10:15...at the Chapelizod gate. Well, one sat nav hiccup (my own fault) sent me on what was probably a ~20k trip around Dublin in circles. It told me to go 'off road' and I hadn't a clue what it was on about. Fortunately, I had my phone giving directions as a back up. Even that was a bit tight telling me I'd arrive around 10:39. Fortunately it worked out, I got parked and had an excuse for a light run to the start. Spotted HelenAnne, but didn't stop to say hello. Said hi the Pomplamousse and her OH before the start and after the race. It was a pleasant morning overall. Definitely not as a wintery as previous years. There's already been feedback about the actual start in the thread in events section, so I'll leave that to one side. Great race, as usual.Why not target sub 23? Based on a pb of 23:06 and JB being a fast course I believe?
Based on my DCM time the calculator was saying 24:39 for a 5k. Over the past few weeks that was a big fat nope in my head and I started looking at ~ 21:55 to push for more, and something new. I wrote down a few paces (the calc estimate, Docklands 5k 2018 stuff from this log and something in between the two, say 22:35). I stuck this piece of paper in my bag, but forgot to look at it the night before and at breakfast. It didn't really matter since 21:55 was not at the front of my mind at the start line.
Ball park I was hoping to hit 7:15 min/mi and see how things would go. First thing I noticed was it took the upper half of my body a little while to get used to running at this pace, and mentally, I had a few 'this is not my favourite thing, give me distance, plz' thoughts pop up. This, I'd imagine, was the lack of speed work talking. It did subside and I felt more comfortable, it was an enjoyable morning in the park. Anyway, kept tipping away for 7:15 whilst trying to quicken up when it drifted down to 7:35 ish. I didn't notice the time on the watch at all, only paces. I was trying stay consistent whilst seeing if I could remember the shape of the course and pick up a little, where possible. Memory not so great. As we got to the quicker parts I spotted 6:45 on the watch, but thought this might risk blowing up. :rolleyes: Didn't exactly light the fuse for the final stretch, so it's probably a slightly soft 22:XX. I didn't overtake the women with the dog. The dog was delighted with himself rolling around in the leaves after. Civil Defence ambulance came through a few minutes later. Anyway, no regrets and sub 22 will be taken care of in 2019.
Garmin 22:11
3.11 miles at 7:08.
Splits: 7:20, 7:14, 6:56 (and 6:00)
HRM avg 160, max 170.
Chip: 22:08.
Jingle Bells 5k 2017: 25:43
Docklands 5k 2018: 23:06
Bumped into Lazare a bit later on, he had a good PB morning too, aided by skyblue. There may have been reference to S's age (not by me :P) and I can only assume his hair has become more grey after working with this year's novices. Sorry S. :pac:
Total for the week: 15.87 miles.Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
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