Marathon training... as a new Dad

TedsRevengeP

Hi guys,

Going to dip my toe in here and start a log to try and keep me on track. I've previoulsy ran a about 8 marathons. But this is the first one since becoming a dad 8 months ago. I also have a full time (demanding) job that can require overtime.

I plan to use a programme that I had when I was a member of a club a few years ago. I need to make a lot of weekday runs work in my lunch hour. Roughly my week will look like -

Mon - easy run at lunch
Tues - session at lunch
Wed - medium run of 6 or 7 miles - hard to squeeze in at lunch, will just see. Maybe an evening run.
Thurs - session at lunch
Fri - rest or easy run at lunch
Sat - run of some kind with jogging buggy. This is new to me so need to see what i can/can't do here.
Sun - long run

The last good while I've been building a base of consistent running with some speedwork and medium long runs. Keeping my weekly total around 30 mpw.

PB'S-
Marathon 3.23 - Dublin 2016
Half Marathon - 1.29.10 - Dublin Half Marthon 2018
10K - 39.40 - Dublin Night Run 2018
5k - 18.50 -parkrun 2017

My struggles - with a new baby and busy job I guess tiredness, eating well. Sticking to the plan long term. I'm definitely good in the short term but have had a habit of training for a marathon like say Dublin across July/August, but then losing motivation dropping off in Sept/Oct and turning up to the start line and making a balls of it. I've also been bad with long runs. I usually do them, but really plod along. No paced miles and I maybe don't do enough of the real longer ones - 20m or whatever.

Goals - just to run a good marathon, lose some weight and some PB's along the way would be good. As busy as things are at home there is less boozing, hangovers etc. so I hope to be more disciplined.

TedsRevengeP

Mon - 4m easy.

Tues - 30 min Fast continuous 7min pace
Felt very tired before the start but grand when I got going. Was able to do it up at Grangegorman where they have a kind of a track around their soccer picthes that 0.75 of a mile long. It has a significant drag on one side so wasn't all flat either.
About 4m @7min pace. 5m overall.

TedsRevengeP

Wed - planned rest day.

Thurs - Fast progressive

10min @ MP, the next 10min @ approx HM, last 5mins @ approx 10K. 3 min active recovery between each.

Did this at lunch. Felt great, and as a result I did these too fast.
1st 10mins - 6.55
2nd 10mins - 6.45
Last 5mins - 6.17

5m total. Had to cut short the warm down to get back to work in time.

TedsRevengeP

Fri - 7m easy into work. Felt good.

KSU

Good luck with the training I know when I was at the 8 month mark was when balancing all plates started to get tricky

If you are stuck for time and looking to get a good workout the below is one I use in a pinch that i find great and was designed as a marathon training session

Mona Fartlek

2x90 secs hard (90 sec steady as recovery)
4x1 min hard (1 min steady)
4x30 sec hard (30 sec steady)
4x15 sec hard (15 steady)

The whole session including the recovery is 20 minutes on the nose so with 15 min warm up and cooldown you are in under the hour and as long as you don't overcook the hard sections and make sure you run steady rather than easy on the recoveries you are working consistently throughout the session.

Aside from this if you can get the odd double run (lunch and after work) could help bump the miles up a bit.

TedsRevengeP

KSU wrote: »

Good luck with the training I know when I was at the 8 month mark was when balancing all plates started to get tricky

If you are stuck for time and looking to get a good workout the below is one I use in a pinch that i find great and was designed as a marathon training session

Mona Fartlek

2x90 secs hard (90 sec steady as recovery)
4x1 min hard (1 min steady)
4x30 sec hard (30 sec steady)
4x15 sec hard (15 steady)

The whole session including the recovery is 20 minutes on the nose so with 15 min warm up and cooldown you are in under the hour and as long as you don't overcook the hard sections and make sure you run steady rather than easy on the recoveries you are working consistently throughout the session.

Aside from this if you can get the odd double run (lunch and after work) could help bump the miles up a bit.

Cool - this looks great.

Yeah well I'm lucky I'm close enough to the Phoenix Park at work so a run at lunch is easy to do and like you say, a few doubles might be possible.

Thanks

rainbow kirby

Significantly slower than you (5 hr marathon), but I've got two very young kids (3 and 16 months). Run commuting is going to be by far the easiest way to get the miles in and you can stretch it out if you need to, and parkrun with the buggy on a Saturday morning is a lot of fun. If you can make it work, finding a good group for the Sunday morning long ones will help too, as you know it's much easier to do these things in company.

TedsRevengeP

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Significantly slower than you (5 hr marathon), but I've got two very young kids (3 and 16 months). Run commuting is going to be by far the easiest way to get the miles in and you can stretch it out if you need to, and parkrun with the buggy on a Saturday morning is a lot of fun. If you can make it work, finding a good group for the Sunday morning long ones will help too, as you know it's much easier to do these things in company.

Yeah. Have only started the buggy running but looking to stick to that on Saturdays alright.
We're movng in August so I'm going to have a longer train commute. No idea where I stand with that yet, maybe I can get off somewhere and run in to work from a certain point. But I may also be doing the creche drop on the way to the train so might not be able to leave as early as I want. All to be figured out.

Also the move is why I'm starting marathon training this early, I expect to have to pause or slow for a week or two here or there.

The Sunday long run - again once I move (to Rush) I need to suss out running in that area. Bound to be a marathon group of some kind around.

TedsRevengeP

Sat - 11m long run.
About 1hr 45mins. Tired enough starting after little sleep the night before (baby was awake) but felt good when i got going. Slow enough up around Dollymount Strand due to the tide being in and being forced to run on the loose sand.

TedsRevengeP

Sunday - rest day. So I have 2 optional rest days in my week. Will usually keep it to 1 and do an easy run on the other but considering it was my first fathers day, I took it off.

So that's Week 1 down. 32miles.


Monday - Interval mixed pace. 20 x 400m.
After a slow-paced lap, the 19 divide into 3 x 5 laps: 5k, 21k,10k, 21k, 5k. Each followed by 2 x lap jog.
Did this session up at the pitches at Grangegorman and found the pace on my Garmin was fluctuating a lot. This may have been down to running close to trees, tall fences, poles etc on the track. I'm guessing maybe they threw the signal off. So after the first few odd pace readings I tried to focus on measuring by effort. Which worked well I think.
It's definitely a tough session. Again I was very tired before but happy enough when I got going. To make this work for lunchtime I only did 1 lap for recovery jogs. Could have done with the second but just wouldn't have got back to the desk in time.
5.75miles overall.

FutureGuy

Parkrun with a buggy is a great dad life hack. Strength training by pushing 20 kg around!

TedsRevengeP

FutureGuy wrote: »

Parkrun with a buggy is a great dad life hack. Strength training by pushing 20 kg around!

Thanks!
I expect to be at St Annes in the next few weeks. Fariview is closer to me but it's 3 laps with quite a few turns and some off road bits.

TedsRevengeP

Tues - 7m medium LR

Wed - Fast progressive

10min @ MP, the next 10min @ approx HM, last 5mins @ approx 10K. 3 min active recovery between each.

Did this at lunch. Felt good enough, very bloody warm. I know I'm not hitting the right paces, for instance HM and 10k are too close together but anyway.
1st 10mins - 6.57
2nd 10mins - 6.51
Last 5mins - 6.19

5m total. Had to cut short the warm down (again) to get back to work in time.

TedsRevengeP

Thurs - Rest

Fri - 5m easy commute into work

Sat - 4m easy with the running buggy.

Sun - 12m long run. Felt really good actually.

Overall for the week that's 39 miles. Pretty happy since I had to move my two sessions to earlier in the week.

Next week is a step back easy week.

TedsRevengeP

This is a stepback/easy week.

Mon - Rest

Tues - 5 miles with 6 x 100m strides. Did this early morning due to a busy work day. Even with yesterdays rest day I was absolutely shattered doing it.

TedsRevengeP

Lucky it was an easy week as I had to take an extra days unplanned rest due to work commitments.

Wed - Rest

Thurs - 5m

Fri - Rest

Sat - 3m with running buggy.

Sun - 13m long run.
Headed up the coast, Dollymount, Raheny, St Annes and back down the coast. At this stage the plan called to drop to planned marathon pace for the last hour. Going by my shorter times that's 7.15 per mile.
For me right now that feels like a lot, and it's still early. So what I did was at mile 5 decided to just push on and run by feel rather than the watch. These miles all worked out to be between 7.15 and 7.50.
Then at mile 10 I was still feeling OK but I turned out of St Anne's and into a really heavy wind for the last 3 miles home. So I relaxed and just rolled those last 3 miles to home. Overall felt strong.

Doing anything in a long run other than plodding along at easy pace is new to me, so will ease myself into these sorts of runs when they come up.

Overall this week, 26miles.

TedsRevengeP

Mon - 5m at lunch

Tues - meant to se a session but a mental morning in work meant getting out late, not having enough time, no breakfast either. So on an empty stomach I made a balls of it, bonked and gave up to just do 4.5m.

Wed - 7m, hot. Even got a ittle sunburnt.

Thurs - 31 min Fast progressive 10min @ 7.08, 10min @ 6.50, 5mins @ 6.40. 3 min recovery between each. Very hot today, but got it done. Def fell achy and tired legs the last day or so. Need to plan rest days better I think. 5m

TedsRevengeP

Fri - Rest

Sat - 4m with running buggy. Clontarf half marathon was on so enjoyed watching a bit of that.

Sun - 12m LR. Was grand. Pretty tired and slow to start but grand when I got going. Last mile or two though, I seemed to twinge something small in my lower back. Was killing me for ages but gone by the evening. Kinda feel it again this morning. Will keep an eye on it.

Mileage for the week - 37.5. Overall a solid enough week apart from messing up the session Tuesday. Hopefully this back thing doesn't cause issues this week.

TedsRevengeP

Hit a bump in the road last week. Whatever I pulled in my lower back was still at me across last week so was smart and rested.

Wed - 4m
Sun 4m

Wekkly total of 8. Feels ok now and I'll ease back into things this week.