DCM 2018 - Mentored Novice Thread

corcaigh07

Kellygirl wrote: »

Why not just follow one of the plans here rather than building up a base by yourself? I know you said before you needed a hybrid round work but surely you could tweak them to ensure you are doing the mileage etc?

With holidays etc, I didn’t fancy the structure of the 18 week plan so I’ve committed to the 12 which I’ll stick to like glue!

Let’s see how it goes. Sur, it would be boring if we all did the same thing! I’m willing to accept the consequences if I blow up on the day.

skyblue46

corcaigh07 wrote: »

With holidays etc, I didn’t fancy the structure of the 18 week plan so I’ve committed to the 12 which I’ll stick to like glue!

Let’s see how it goes. Sur, it would be boring if we all did the same thing! I’m willing to accept the consequences if I blow up on the day.

Blow up on the day my arse!! Your mentor and her 2 helpers are part of a very successful '17 novices group who nailed DCM 17. We want every one of ye to do the same! Any blow up is a blot on our mentoring! Haha

ahnoyouregrand

After the last few weeks i was delighted to get week 1 done and dusted. Im away on a stag party next weekend so taking a half day on friday and doing my LSR a day earlier.

skyblue46

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

Mr. Guappa

skyblue46 wrote: »

So week one is completed! Well done to everybody!

The early weeks of the plans are hugely important. They are foundations which our marathon house will be built on. If they are laid down properly then everything else comes that bit easier. This is where we get the engine trained to run long.

Take a bit of time to assess the first week. Did the days and times you ran at seem manageable when fitted into the work/ life picture? Do they need tweaking? Did you follow your plan or find yourself going a bit maverick on it?

Lastly (in this post but probably not in the next 17 weeks), did you take on board advice about paces? Strava has a very useful stat on the leaderboard (a term I greatly dislike) which shows your average pace for your weeks running. A bit of study of these numbers has given me a clear picture as to how all the top club athletes train. Their average pace is a minute at least slower than the type of marathon times they can run. This often includes races which lower that average. This is a lesson to be heeded. People targetting a 5 hour marathon shouldn't have a training average of less than 12 mins per min, 4 hours target should average no faster than 10 mins etc. These are minimums, slower would be better in some cases. How would you be doing based on week 1?

Is that Strava average pace feature just available if you subscribe? I don't see it.

skyblue46

On the leaderboard on desktop or iPad you can see it, not on the phone. I only have free Strava

sumsar

skyblue46 wrote: »

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

Ah that's a bit fast for my liking but if any other meet ups happening don't be afraid to share here guys.

coogy

skyblue46 wrote: »

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

If it wasn't my daughter's birthday, I would be there for sure!

Some other week perhaps?

brownbinman

skyblue46 wrote: »

https://physiotherapydublin.ie/

It's in Phibsboro

also http://sportsmedireland.ie/ they aim to keep you moving, have full gym and teach you correct stretches, movements etc. Basically a PT class

I've found them brilliant

aloooof

skyblue46 wrote: »

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

Is this a test to see who bites, only to be given out to for agreeing to too fast a pace??

Rossi7

skyblue46 wrote: »

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

Can't do this weekend but would definitely be up for something like this again, even during the week

ariana`

corcaigh07 wrote: »

With holidays etc, I didn’t fancy the structure of the 18 week plan so I’ve committed to the 12 which I’ll stick to like glue!

Let’s see how it goes. Sur, it would be boring if we all did the same thing! I’m willing to accept the consequences if I blow up on the day.

12 weeks is on the short side IMO for a novice plan so it is important to treat these weeks as a solid base building phase to prepare you for the 12 weeks. I am guessing the 12 week plans starts at much higher weekly mileage than say either of our 18 week plans as ultimately you have to get to the same end-point as those following an 18 week plan, it is probably the equivalent of jumping into week 7 of our plans.

I'd recommend you have a close look at the early weeks of the plan and make sure that what you are doing now for these next 4-5 weeks will prepare you for those early weeks or build a good base to start the plan to use a more technical term.

So for example if week 1 is 5m easy, 4m pace, 5m easy, 14m lsr then the week before you start the plan you'd want to be doing 4 easy, 3m pace, 4m easy, 12m lsr... Obviously i have no clue what's in week 1 of the plan you are going to follow so this is very generic advice but you get the picture I'm sure.

But best of luck with the plan

Rossi7

aloooof wrote: »

skyblue46 wrote: »

Myself and one or two of last year's novices are meeting for a run on Saturday at 9am at the Hole in the Wall car park. Plan is for 11 miles at 6:05 per km. We'd love some of ye to join us if the pace suits. Don't worry about distance as you can cut it short to suit yourselves.

Is this a test to see who bites, only to be given out to for agreeing to too fast a pace??

I always fear the dreaded "skyblue46 gave you kudos on your evening run" , your never sure if it's a pat on the back or a round about way of a bollicking for going too quick

Damo 2k9

aloooof wrote: »

Would anyone have any recommendations for a physio in Dublin? Preferably city centre / north side, as I want to try get there on my lunch hour / after work if possible. I've a small twinge in my lower back that I want to get sorted out.

There's obviously no substitute for physio, but if anyone had any recommendations of stretches etc in the meantime that'd be great.

Cannot recommend Pearse St Physio enough, but make sure you ask for an appointment with Aidan Woods. Anyone I have suggested him to have been delighted with the results. He got me ready for the marathon last year after a late injury, wasted my time with other physios but thankfully I was able to run.

MY BAD

corcaigh07 wrote: »

With holidays etc, I didn’t fancy the structure of the 18 week plan so I’ve committed to the 12 which I’ll stick to like glue!

Let’s see how it goes. Sur, it would be boring if we all did the same thing! I’m willing to accept the consequences if I blow up on the day.

Having a solid base and a plan is essential for marathon training, you may have to play around with the plan to suit your circumstances.

whiskey_sour

I'm a week ahead of the plan as I'm at a wedding abroad next weekend and there will definitely be no running! So this week I'm on to the hill sprints in my mid-week workout. I live in an extremely flat area, and the only hill I can think of that I could get to on this run is actually a ramp leading to an underground pedestrian tunnel...would that work? It probably isn't the steepest...should I opt to finish my run at the gym instead and hop on the treadmill maybe?
...and another question while I have you? Should moving around the midweek days be avoided i.e. should the 'workout' always be in the middle 2 easy runs?

wannabecraig

I've looked through the thread and can't settle on a solid plan.

Active runner, cyclist. Have done a few halves, doing the full this Oct'.
Doing the Lakelands Half in Sept which I think will be a decent one to do close to the DM2018.

Any links to non-complex plans? I really only have 2 days a week that I can do long puns but I can run to/from
work and currently do about twice a week. Problem is, that's 3.6k each way!

I tried he asics marathon running plan, which I liked, except you can't create an account anymore for whatever reason!

skyblue46

aloooof wrote: »

Is this a test to see who bites, only to be given out to for agreeing to too fast a pace??

Rossi7 wrote: »

I always fear the dreaded "skyblue46 gave you kudos on your evening run" , your never sure if it's a pat on the back or a round about way of a bollicking for going too quick

Haha. I'd never be so conniving or duplicitous! :pac:

But it is great to see who is heeding the excellent advice from the experienced runners and coach who dropped in to dispense their knowledge.........and those who think they know a better way!

skyblue46

whiskey_sour wrote: »

I'm a week ahead of the plan as I'm at a wedding abroad next weekend and there will definitely be no running! So this week I'm on to the hill sprints in my mid-week workout. I live in an extremely flat area, and the only hill I can think of that I could get to on this run is actually a ramp leading to an underground pedestrian tunnel...would that work? It probably isn't the steepest...should I opt to finish my run at the gym instead and hop on the treadmill maybe?
...and another question while I have you? Should moving around the midweek days be avoided i.e. should the 'workout' always be in the middle 2 easy runs?

It's more that that pace run/ hills and the long run are your 2 'sessions' for the week and therefore should be spaced to give maximum recovery time between them. It wouldn't be recommended to do either of those runs closer than 3 days apart.

racersedge

Well into my week two schedule now after this evening. Had to move some runs around to sort around a shifting schedule. Last night I did a 5K run. Upped the pace from last week a touch and felt comfortable throughout. Helped that because I am on a later shift in work this week, I'm running about two hours later than last week. This one led to another important lesson. If you using the Fast/Slow Pace option on the watch, turn it off when it's not relevant. I had it set for my Sunday LSR. I had the watch bleeping at me the whole way around! Personally i would of liked the pace to be a bit consistent. Looking at the stats I looked a bit all over the shop despite having intended target in my head.

Moved my intended Wednesday 8K to tonight. Something has cropped up which would make the run difficult so I wanted to get it banked in tonight. Probably not ideal either as it has meant I have ran three days in a row. Kept a tidy and learned from Monday and adjusted the Fast/Slow Pace band to keep me in check. Overall pacing throughout was a lot better, a lot more steady. Maybe last night's erractic pace had to do with the pacer given out to me all the time!

Taking tomorrow night off now and will be back at it on Thursday. That one is going a little off-plan. My wife want's to get out for a run and her usual running partner is unavailable. She want's to be ready for the trip to Roscommon on Saturday. So I'm going to go out and do a 8K with her, but it's going to be more along the pacing strategy employed on Sunday to have her ready for the run after her injury. So while it's a few klicks more than on the plan (which is 5K), I'm going to keep the pace lower on it to counter that out.

Happy with how the two runs have gone. Feeling good about things so far!

pilot1087

Hi all,

Hope the training is going well for everyone. I've got the bug back now and I'm enjoying it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a run to show on Strava if your GPS didn't capture the route on a Garmin watch? Did my 5KM this evening and the GPS dropped out so it won't upload. I feel a bit robbed!

skyblue46

pilot1087 wrote: »

Hi all,

Hope the training is going well for everyone. I've got the bug back now and I'm enjoying it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a run to show on Strava if your GPS didn't capture the route on a Garmin watch? Did my 5KM this evening and the GPS dropped out so it won't upload. I feel a bit robbed!

It should still upload a run for you even if the route doesn't show. As far as I know it uses an algorithm based on average cadence and stride length to guesstimate a pace.

RayCun

There's an option on strava to add an activity manually. If you ran without a watch or the run didn't record, use the menu in the top right. You can add the distance and time of the missing run

brownbinman

Little niggle this week so no run yesterday or today. Clontarf 1/2 on Saturday, going to use it as a long run and go at nice slow pace

Applegirl26

Week 2 going well. Absolutely loving the early morning runs with the weather so fine. Will crosstrain tomorrow.
Hope everyone is having a good week.

Dealerz2.0

I’m blaming tiredness and the heat...my fellow strava novices made me realise I’ve done last weeks boards plan Wednesday run again instead of this weeks!! Oh well

Huzzah!

brownbinman wrote: »

Little niggle this week so no run yesterday or today. Clontarf 1/2 on Saturday, going to use it as a long run and go at nice slow pace

Me too. I'm liking the idea of having lots of water available in this heat.

We're similar paces, I think. Just to note, I ran Wicklow as a training run recently and everyone went shooting past me at the start. I was on my own for the first 10 minutes or so, but I kept my pace and soon I was passing people out. It's important to not get caught up in the race atmosphere and to stick to your planned pace.

ariana`

Huzzah! wrote: »

Me too. I'm liking the idea of having lots of water available in this heat.

We're similar paces, I think. Just to note, I ran Wicklow as a training run recently and everyone went shooting past me at the start. I was on my own for the first 10 minutes or so, but I kept my pace and soon I was passing people out. It's important to not get caught up in the race atmosphere and to stick to your planned pace.

Great advice for anyone not used to racing, it takes great discipline not to bolt like a race horse at the start! If you do make the mistake (and don't worry we nearly all do at some point ) then the sooner you can rein in the pace the better. Have a planned pace range going into the race and then try to ignore all those around you and focus on your own pace.

NyOmnishambles

Morning all

This weather is fantastic for early morning running

Had a stiff calf this morning so dialled back my planned pace a bit
Also it seems I misread and did an extra mile at pace, no harm done really

Happy running guys and gals

eyrie

Applegirl26 wrote: »

Absolutely loving the early morning runs with the weather so fine.

God I wish I could say the same! I stumbled around the place like a zombie this morning! :eek: Next time definitely having coffee first!