Marathon Improvers Thread.

Wottle

Hit 221 miles for August while on holidays, very warm and concentrated a little more on volume than intensity.

Came home last Wednesday not knowing what shape I'm in, had a bash at 5 miles at half marathon pace and that went well, so a little more confident on the sub 90 attempt.

Unthought Known

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119573387#Comment_119573387

Congrats on the PB. Those times rang a bell so I checked back on Strava for DCM 2017 and I had a target of 3:45 that year. Ran the Dublin half in 1:43:39 and finished up with 3:41 at DCM. I would start out at 3:45 and see if you're up for pushing on later in the race.

event

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574046#Comment_119574046

221 miles in August. Some going tbf

Cartman78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574787#Comment_119574787

That's fair going alright....done 253* myself.

*Kilometers 😎....about 157 Miles

Kellygirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574579#Comment_119574579

Oh that’s reassuring! I’ve always started out slow in Dublin and picked it up after Castleknock so hopefully would do the same this year!

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574787#Comment_119574787

I've never done that amount in August before, it's normally a disaster. Nice to have focus but not sure I'd be in a rush to do another Autumn marathon, very lazy outside of the running.

event

So had Ratoath today, figured 7 weeks out I'd find out where I was.

PB was newry in May, 1:33:59. Had in my head I just wanted to beat that.

The first 2 were both ran in 6:51. For some reason I then thought sub 1:30 was on. Big mistake. I then ran 6:53, 6:53, 6:42, 6:57, 6:53. Then the wheels came off. The power absolutely sapped from my legs, thought I was gonna collapse.

7:08, 7:20, 7:20, 7:16, 7:10, 7:07.

Came home in 1:32:08. So a PB of 1:51. Happy with the result but annoyed with myself that I got carried away and I wasn't able to carry it out.

But a PB is a PB and I now know I need to pace myself better on my LSRs, I think that affected me

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119599805#Comment_119599805

Just add a minute to the finish time and that was my experience today. My heart rate was quite high from early on but yet I insisted on pushing.

2 minute PB but I really should be breaking 90.

Congratulations on the PB.

racersedge

Look at it this way, lads - your day today might not have gone exactly to plan, but it also gives food for thought for the marathon ahead and what might need tweaking ahead for the big day. Nearly prefer an ‘off day’ race before the marathon than having that the day of it! Tough as your days might of been, congrats on getting the results!

FinnC

Its a great sign when bad days are still PB days.

Dont be so harsh on yourselves.Well done to you both.

Kellygirl

Well done to both of you. Not sure if applicable but the humidity down here in Cork was so high today. 92% at 9/10am and probably went higher. It may have affected you also?

event

Heat doesn't bother me too much but I did think the race was at 9 so at my porridge at 06:30 :)

Kellygirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119600823#Comment_119600823

Did you carry any fuel? I had a similar issue in timing with breakfast in Waterford last week and took a gel before the race then which I wouldn’t normally do but I felt it helped a little.

MooShop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119600023#Comment_119600023

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119599805#Comment_119599805

Jaysus I wouldn't be so hard on yourselves. Think of it another way, if you didn't get carried away and ran a steady pace within yourself and PB'd by a minute you'd be feeling better about it as you executed a race strategy well, it's all relative.

But you went out hard, weren't able to hold hat pace but managed to hold on and probably ran a quicker time than you may have anticipated otherwise?

So, I'd definitely be taking it as a positive, and as someone above said, use it as a learning to possibly tweak race strategy for the marathon. Either way fantastic PB's for you both.

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119601188#Comment_119601188

Appreciate the feedback, I'm definitely sticking with my disappointment though but agree I need to look at my Amsterdam target.

I reckoned I was in 88 minute shape, 18'35 for 5k, 31'10 for 5 mile, big mileage in August and a 5 mile tempo last Saturday that was quicker than today with a much lower heart rate.

My gut feeling is that STH was off with me today. Afterwards I had no colour in my face till late this evening and was quite dizzy when I got home, fine on the drive home but by the time I got to the living room I was spinning and lay down on the floor with feet up, my guess is a drop in blood pressure.

I wear a chest strap and have done for years, my average heart rate today was higher than my 5k average heart rate, this has never been the case before.

Im actually annoyed at myself for continuing to push and not stepping off the course.

MooShop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119601238#Comment_119601238

That may be the optimism of a novice on my part!!! Very much a running novice and learning as I go, though found myself being overly tough on myself after my first few races so try to take learnings from disappointments and bring them into my next race.

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119601458#Comment_119601458

I agree with you, and normally any day you PB should be a good day.

I'm hoping there's a reason for today's high heart rate/poor performance, otherwise I'd throw in the towel :-) as effort to reward ratio is not worth it.

event

Yeah on reflection it was a good day. I'm not training for a half, I'm training for a full. I'm more confident of hitting sub 3:30 now. And I'll do the same for the full. Go out for it and if not on, hang on for a PB

Unthought Known

I can't see you having any trouble with sub 3:30 after that performance, just don't throw it away at the start. It's not like you fell apart with 8 and 9 minute miles at the end.

Congrats on the PB by the way!

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119601552#Comment_119601552

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602433#Comment_119602433

I'd agree with Unthought Known, 3'30 very achievable and if anything, maybe a bit soft.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119600075#Comment_119600075

I'm going to go with this mindset, the bad one is now out of the way :-)

Not feeling as plssed off this morning. I looked back at my Seville Marathon and the Malaga Half in preparation.

I ran a stinker in that 1'48 and went on to run 3'25 on the big day.

Perhaps a little over trained yesterday.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119600315#Comment_119600315

I thought conditions were pretty good yesterday.

Sandwell

Well done to both of you on the PB. It does sound like something was a bit off in your case @Wottle but hopefully it's just one of those things and nothing that's going to reoccur.

Another solid week for me on the Hanson Advanced plan. The 3x2m at MP-10s on Tuesday was probably the toughest session of the week. It's slower that HMP so it really shouldn't feel as hard as it does but I guess it's the cumulative fatigue that's to blame. The 9 miles at MP on Thursday felt a good bit easier than last week's effort and HR was noticeably lower. This morning I managed to get the 16 mile steady at MP+40 done before the deluge set in and it was the first time that I've felt that pace to be reasonably comfortable over the two hours. Once again the HR was much lower than it's been on similar runs over the summer. This is the first week where I've really begun to notice the improvement in fitness that comes from the plan. Long may it continue!

Cartman78

Question for those doing DCM (or other marathon in that timeframe)....

What distance are you running at PMP this week?

woody1

feckin covid this week, have managed to avoid it for 2 years , thankfully very mild dose, only really miserable for 1 day,

still testing positive 5 days later, feel grand , going to chance a very easy run later on and see what happens, but dont really

know what to think about trying to get back on track, supposed to be doing 26k this weekend , that wont happen,

i think maybe the way to go about it would be to try to build easily up to the 3/4 in 3 weeks, see how getting to

there goes, but i guess theres a realistic chance the whole thing is in the bin .. have to see what next few days bring

cullenswood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119625148#Comment_119625148

I did 16km in the middle of a 22km run on Wednesday at PMP and will be doing 13km during my long run this weekend (broken in 2 mile chunks on and off PMP). The rest was all easy pace.

Unknownability

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119625148#Comment_119625148

10 miles at PMP and 16 miles at PMP + (30/45s)

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119625148#Comment_119625148

20 to 22 miles tomorrow with 4x3 miles at Marathon heart rate rather than pace.

One month till Amsterdam

Unthought Known

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119625148#Comment_119625148

4 x 1.5m MP-10 last Tuesday. Dublin HM tomorrow so hopefully MP-LOADS!

Cartman78

Ok...thanks for the replies....sounds like I'm not too far off the mark so :-)

Did 20K last night broken into 5 * 4K (3K PMP + 1K PMP+30 secs)....a bit convoluted maybe but focused the brain a bit.

Will throw in some more PMP in this weekend's LSR

After returning my beloved Nike Tempos I actually did the session in the Vaporflys....it was my first time really appreciating them properly I have to say, everything felt very easy and no muscle pain whatsoever today.

Treviso

16m at PMP last weekend. This week a quite unbelievable 24m run with 18m@ PMP+10sec

Sandwell

I'll be doing 9 miles PMP this weekend. Like Wottle I'm one month out from Amsterdam. The Hanson plan I'm following has those miles as part of a weekly long Thursday tempo but my schedule is all over the shop this week so I'll be doing them as part of a long run tomorrow instead.