This is getting addictive

gramar

HigginsJ wrote: »

4th January

3.48 miles in 28 minutes 38 seconds (8:13 average)

The marathon training plan isn't kicking in till next week so just trying a few things out this week. Went for a run at lunch time just to trial if I could do 2 runs a day.

Really loving the polar flow app and desktop site.

I know you are using it Grammar so what notice do you pay to the "Training Benefit" section?

No notice at all!

I just use it to keep track of the runs. I look at the distance, splits, weekly totals etc I've used the heart monitor a few times but more out of curiosity than anything else. Like most gadgets I have I'm sure there is a lot more I could get out of them but tend to stick to the basics.

HigginsJ

gramar wrote: »

No notice at all!

I just use it to keep track of the runs. I look at the distance, splits, weekly totals etc I've used the heart monitor a few times but more out of curiosity than anything else. Like most gadgets I have I'm sure there is a lot more I could get out of them but tend to stick to the basics.

Thanks for nothing :P

HigginsJ

8th of January

9.44 miles in 1 hour 30 minutes 3 seconds (9:32 average)

My 1 mile splits were as follows

1. 10:44
2. 9:51
3. 9:45
4. 9:45
5. 10:01
6. 8:38
7. 8:41
8. 9:26
9. 9:16
.44 - @ 8:52 pace

Officially marathon training starts tomorrow. I am using a plan from a friend in work who did the DCM last year. That was her 1st marathon and she found it good, finishing in 4 hours 51 minutes. She had been running just under a yea & the plan is about 500 miles in total which seems like a decent amount for my 1st marathon.

The plan calls for 4 runs a week (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun, it was Sat but I find it easier to do the long runs on Sunday)

Part of my plan for the longer runs in to do these in negative splits. In my 2 10k's and the HM my half way split has blown the 2nd half out of the water. Is it a good idea to focus on something like this during the training or should I just take it slow and not put any emphasis on this side of things.

HigginsJ

9th of January

6.07 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes 10 seconds (10:14 average)

2 of the girls from work were going running after work so I joined them as one of them will be following a similar marathon plan to me. Let them dictate the pace so it was ideal.

My work place is putting on Yoga classes once a week from now till March so going to give it a go today to see how I find it.

HigginsJ

Struggled with some balance and stretching in the yoga but good overall. Think it will be of benefit as I go through the training. Must look to get back to doing the core routine the physio gave me last year. Think I will target to do that Thursday evenings.

ariana`

HigginsJ wrote: »

Part of my plan for the longer runs in to do these in negative splits. In my 2 10k's and the HM my half way split has blown the 2nd half out of the water. Is it a good idea to focus on something like this during the training or should I just take it slow and not put any emphasis on this side of things.

I'm no more experienced than your good self but I don't think i'd get bogged down in negative splits at this stage but just make a conscious effort not to start off too fast. Are there any Progression runs on your marathon training plan? These would give you a feel for building pace throughout a run. I think your splits over the shorter distances will level out as you build stamina which marathon training will do. Best of luck with the plan

HigginsJ

ariana` wrote: »

I'm no more experienced than your good self but I don't think i'd get bogged down in negative splits at this stage but just make a conscious effort not to start off too fast. Are there any Progression runs on your marathon training plan? These would give you a feel for building pace throughout a run. I think your splits over the shorter distances will level out as you build stamina which marathon training will do. Best of luck with the plan

Thanks ariana, no there is nothing like progression runs etc. although it is something that I intend to do with some of the midweek ones.

HigginsJ

11th of January

4.77 miles in 43 minutes 5 seconds (9:02 average)

Spent 20 minutes in the yellow heart rate zone according to Polar Flow. I'm not surprised as it felt tough enough at times even though the pace was nothing to write home about. Aiming to do about 6 mile on Friday before a 10 miler on Sunday.

HigginsJ

15th of January

11.06 miles in 1 hour 46 minutes 33 seconds (9:38 average)

Missed my planned 6 miler on Friday due to a sick wife and 2 sick smallies (Ran off my feet for the day if that counts!!) The plan for Sunday was 10 miles but just threw in an extra bit for the missed run Friday. Found it tough going as didn't bring any fuel or drink with me on the run.

HigginsJ

Finally managed to figure out how to embed my running from last year. The tail off in December aside, I am delighted with how my 1st 9 months as a runner went.

The step up in mileage from my peak month of July last year to the 1st 4 months of this year is a bit daunting but as they say, if it was easy everyone would do it.

HigginsJ

17th January

6.08 miles in 51 minutes 53 seconds (8:31 average)

Upped the pace on this morning's run and threw in about 6 sets of strides. The mile splits were

1 - 8:37
2 - 8:03
3 - 8:32
4 - 8:21
5 - 8:28
6 - 9:05 (A couple of sets of traffic lights slowed this mile)

HigginsJ

2nd yoga class done, she definitely stepped it up this week, was a fair deal tougher which is great and awful at the same time.

adrian522

Hi,

Your plan has you running a long run on Sunday and then another run on Monday? What is the Monday run typically? You might be better having Monday as a rest day and putting in back to back days somewhere else on the plan?

HigginsJ

adrian522 wrote: »

Hi,

Your plan has you running a long run on Sunday and then another run on Monday? What is the Monday run typically? You might be better having Monday as a rest day and putting in back to back days somewhere else on the plan?

Hi Adrian, one step ahead of you on this one. Mondays were a 6 miler so I am putting that to Tuesday now with the long run still on Sundays.

So the plan will be Sunday Long Run, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday then will be 6,6,4 going up to 6,9,5 at some point.

adrian522

Sounds good!

HigginsJ

18th of January

4.04 miles in 39 minutes 10 seconds (9:42 average)

Took it fairly steady as was feeling a bit tired after the last few days.

20th of January

5.75 miles in 51 minutes 11 seconds (8:54 average)

Threw in 7 sets of strides to make this a little bit of a tempo run. LSR tomorrow of 11 miles.

HigginsJ

22nd of January

9.01 miles in 1 hour 24 minutes 55 seconds (9:27 average)

24th of January
45 minute yoga class

25th of January
9.42 miles in 1 hour 25 minutes 32 seconds (9:05 average)

Was short of time Sunday so didn't get in the full planned distance, and was not able to get out for the 4 mile run on Tuesday.

Good news is that I had day off and free yesterday (Birthday) so I put in a longer than prescribed midweek run. Going to be working away from home a few days next week so will probably do some miles on a treadmill which should be fun.

I have ran 75.53 mile so far this month so just .18 of a mile away from setting a new record for myself for most miles in a month. This should likely be a new record every month for the 1st 3 months of this year assuming training goes well.

I am finding running 4 days is tough, from a physical & mental standpoint of just getting out there and doing it. Really think I am going to have to find a race between now and April 30th as another 3 months of just training could wear me down a bit to be honest.

tailgunner

It might sound counter-intuitive, but you might find it easier to spread the mileage over five days. It's much easier on the body to run 5 miles one day and 4 miles the next, rather than run 9 miles in one go. And personally, I find it much easier to motivate myself for shorter runs during the week.

And yeah, definitely pick out a few shorter races and/or parkruns between now and the end of April.

ariana`

HigginsJ wrote: »

22nd of January

9.01 miles in 1 hour 24 minutes 55 seconds (9:27 average)

24th of January
45 minute yoga class

25th of January
9.42 miles in 1 hour 25 minutes 32 seconds (9:05 average)

Was short of time Sunday so didn't get in the full planned distance, and was not able to get out for the 4 mile run on Tuesday.

Good news is that I had day off and free yesterday (Birthday) so I put in a longer than prescribed midweek run. Going to be working away from home a few days next week so will probably do some miles on a treadmill which should be fun.

I have ran 75.53 mile so far this month so just .18 of a mile away from setting a new record for myself for most miles in a month. This should likely be a new record every month for the 1st 3 months of this year assuming training goes well.

I am finding running 4 days is tough, from a physical & mental standpoint of just getting out there and doing it. Really think I am going to have to find a race between now and April 30th as another 3 months of just training could wear me down a bit to be honest.

I hope you had a serious piece of cake after that run :P Belated birthday wishes

HigginsJ

ariana` wrote: »

I hope you had a serious piece of cake after that run :P Belated birthday wishes

I had more than one piece to be honest

ariana`

HigginsJ wrote: »

I had more than one piece to be honest

Good job it's important to refuel after a big run

HigginsJ

Things have been a bit up in the air of late, my wifes grandmother passed away just over a week ago so have been a bit intermittent with running in the past week and a half.

29th of January

6.84 miles in 1 hour 4 minutes 2 seconds (9:21 average)

2nd of February

3 miles in 32 minutes (10:40 average)

This was on a treadmill in hotel in Dublin as I was working away for a night. Was a torturous experience, really struggled at that pace, was sweating like no ones business so binned it once I hit 3 mile :mad:

5th of February

11.80 miles in 1 hour 47 minutes 58 seconds (9:08 average)

This would pretty much be bang on marathon pace if I want to get in under 4 hours, was pretty comfortable, threw in a set of strides at each of the 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14 km marks. Need to get something for a drinks bottle as will have to start drinking a bit of something on these long runs, also dropped my glove while trying to get jelly beans out of a pack so had to go back a few metres to pick it up.

Need to get back into the 4 days this week as can't afford too many down weeks if I want to hit my marathon goal.

gramar

HigginsJ wrote: »

This was on a treadmill in hotel in Dublin as I was working away for a night. Was a torturous experience, really struggled at that pace, was sweating like no ones business so binned it once I hit 3 mile :mad:

I tried one myself last year. They are horrible, horrible things.

HigginsJ

7th of February

6.04 miles in 52 minutes and 29 seconds (8:41 average)

45 minutes of yoga

Yoga is tough going, this week she was giving us stability exercises to go through, I sucked so badly!!

Month To Date - 20.84 miles
Year To Date - 103.21 miles

HigginsJ

9th of February

6.1 miles in 55 minutes 28 seconds (9:05 average)

10th of February

3.69 miles in 31 minutes 52 seconds (8:37 average)

The run this morning was a bit shorter than was in the plan, thought the route I had picked was 4 miles but came up a little short, although I forgot my gloves so was sitting in my car seriously considering not getting out

MTD: 30.63 miles
YTD: 113 miles

ariana`

HigginsJ wrote: »

9th of February

6.1 miles in 55 minutes 28 seconds (9:05 average)

10th of February

3.69 miles in 31 minutes 52 seconds (8:37 average)

The run this morning was a bit shorter than was in the plan, thought the route I had picked was 4 miles but came up a little short, although I forgot my gloves so was sitting in my car seriously considering not getting out

MTD: 30.63 miles
YTD: 113 miles

And you mean you didn't run laps around the car when you got back to bring it up to 4.0 :P :P

HigginsJ

ariana` wrote: »

And you mean you didn't run laps around the car when you got back to bring it up to 4.0 :P :P

Ssshhhhh!!

HigginsJ

12th of February

14.03 miles in 2 hours 17 minutes 32 seconds (9:48 average)

Today was tough, very tough, some of which was my own making.

In a positive note to start it is longest distance I have run & 1st time over 2 hours.

Now for what went wrong. My daughter has had a bad cold/chesty cough the lasy few days & if my wife & I managed 2 hours sleep last night that would be the max. For some unknown reason I took no drink or jelly beans (or any fuel) with me on the run today (lets blame tiredness) & I really struggled the last couple of miles (exhausted to be honest, legs felt like jelly). Finally got blisters on the inside of both feet (half way between toe & arch).

MTD : 44.66 miles
YTD : 127.03 miles

ariana`

HigginsJ wrote: »

12th of February

14.03 miles in 2 hours 17 minutes 32 seconds (9:48 average)

Today was tough, very tough, some of which was my own making.

In a positive note to start it is longest distance I have run & 1st time over 2 hours.

Now for what went wrong. My daughter has had a bad cold/chesty cough the lasy few days & if my wife & I managed 2 hours sleep last night that would be the max. For some unknown reason I took no drink or jelly beans (or any fuel) with me on the run today (lets blame tiredness) & I really struggled the last couple of miles (exhausted to be honest, legs felt like jelly). Finally got blisters on the inside of both feet (half way between toe & arch).

MTD : 44.66 miles
YTD : 127.03 miles

Well done on surviving a tough run and some valuable lessons learnt too

Hope your little girl is better soon. Similar going on in my house for the past week, 4 yr wakes up coughing at 2am and stays awake for about 2 hrs then sleeps again (with his arms wrapped around my neck :eek:) and then the baby wakes :rolleyes:

HigginsJ

ariana` wrote: »

Well done on surviving a tough run and some valuable lessons learnt too

Hope your little girl is better soon. Similar going on in my house for the past week, 4 yr wakes up coughing at 2am and stays awake for about 2 hrs then sleeps again (with his arms wrapped around my neck :eek:) and then the baby wakes :rolleyes:

Oh the joys of it, we have a boy who will be 3 next month and my little lady is 18 months, they are both suffering with it at the moment but he is sleeping OK, the little lady is not having a good time, not that you'd know during the day, full of beans!!