Don't stop moving...

MiniMonstera

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122669293#Comment_122669293

oh brill, thanks a million for that link.

crisco10

Week 15 (Total Weekly Mileage; 96.6 km)

Monday: 23km @ 4:42/km. a very wet one. battled through it gamely as a I did a tour of the various parks in the Stillorgan area. Left hamstring felt a little "there" at times.

Tuesday: 8km easy. down to Dundrum and back to buy some gels. Hamstring there again, it would come but within 30 seconds dissipate.

Wednesday: 8km easy

Supposed to do 8km with 8 x 100m mixed in, I warmed up but within first 50m of first rep, I knew my hamstring wasn't right so canned the sprinting bit and just did 8km easy.

Thursday: 6km easy

Supposed to be 6 x 1.2km @ 5k pace session, but felt like a terrible idea on a sore hamstring so rejigged my runs over next few days making this a super easy day. Hamstring felt fine, if very faintly there. My calves were like balls of meat though, so tight. Had a couple of sessions with massage gun on hamstring and calf to try loosen the whole leg a bit over the day.

The Podcast I was listening to (not a running related one) did mention a technique to handle tricky situations, "Stay Focussed, Don't Panic, Pick Small Objectives". I thought it was a good framework that might come in handy on marathon day.

Friday: 35km @ 4:39/km (5k @ MP ish)

So busy weekend which means no running on Saturday. Idea here was to start easy and if left leg felt sore, curtail to about 15km (which is the mileage equivalent of the 6x 1.2k session) and try LSR again on Sunday. Or if leg felt fine, just keep going until 35km. I had previously hoped to put in about 20km of MP into this LSR but that felt like a stupid idea with a fiddly hamstring so just went for nice and easy LSR pace. I did throw in 5 MP kms at the very end because I was feeling good though. Think I finalised my fueling strategy too. Normal Gels at 0, 30, 60, 90 mins, Caffeine Gel at 120, then a jelly snake every 10 mins from there to the end. Idea being as I fatigue, my stomach is only having to handle a jelly every 10 mins rather than the "bang" of a gel. It's also less faf to eat a jelly than take gels with water etc etc.

Got to end, did the school run and started work a happy Friday morning bunny.

Sunday; 16 km @ 4:26 /km (4 x 1.2k @ 5k ish off 150 seconds)

This was Thursdays session that I put off cos of my hamstring. Felt ok and was cruising but then hamstring was a bit “there”. Session was for 4 to 6 reps so I went for the lower end. Splits were all in and around 3:30/km pace which was acceptable.

Now into taper! Sports massage tomorrow…can’t wait. The past 9 weeks have been really consistent thank god. Bar about 3 sessions where I’ve had to dial back intensity because of niggles I’ve hit all the runs of the plan. 6 days a week and hitting the mileage. Can’t ask more than that tbh.

It’s funny, next week is “only” 66km in total. Strange bars we have now.

MisterJinx

Well done, have a little glute/hammy issue myself, nursing it at the moment and hopefully holds until the physio appointment next week. Super mileage and consistency from you. Nearly there!

MiniMonstera

Brilliant! I've a shin niggle but I'm not really worried about it. How could we not have niggles at this point - amirite?

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122696946#Comment_122696946

That's true! Lol

crisco10

A double week update for the first time in a while!

Week 16 (Total Weekly Mileage; 70 km)

Started the week with a nice sports massage in physio and hamstring wasn't tender or anything so happy with that.

Lots of easy running in this week, with Monday (7km), Tuesday (16km), Wednesday (8km) and Friday (10km) all at ~4:45/km pace. Again, I was supposed to do some pickups and short intervals but tbh I was very hesitant to test my hamstring.

Although this was officially week 1 of taper, it was still a meaty enough LSR, of about 28km. Did it on Saturday and ended up with 28.5km on the board. I tried out a few final race day kit combos, including the AlphaFlys. I'd been a bit concerned that the Vaporflys started to hurt my heel in Ratoath a few weeks back so wanted to see if the AF's would still be ok beyond 2 hours running. They were fine. My other test was running sleeves, and buff, since it was a cold morning. These were fine, and the sleeves actually offer a location to store some gels. So if DCM is a cold morning, I think I'll be grand with a combination of those which can be stripped off and thrown at some of my supporters at some point in the race.

It wasn't in the plan, but did last 2 or 3km at MP too. Average pace for 28.5 was 4:39/km. Other notable thing was that Marlay Park was HEAVING with runners at 8am. lol

Week 17 (Total Weekly Mileage; 41 km)

Total clusterf*/ of a week. It was always going to be hard, I was at a 15 hour-a-day agenda work session Mon - Fri in Lisbon.

So, was delighted I managed to squeeze in runs on Monday (7km), Tuesday (5.5km) and Wednesday (8km). The Wednesday run included 2 x 1 mile at something like 10k effort. It was supposed to be a more intense session ( 3 x 1 mile @ 5k) but I was wrecked from late nights and early mornings so being honest, I just did my best.

Then had to leave the event early on Thursday cos my son was in and out of EDOC…whole house was bloody wrecked to tbh. And to add to it, my wife had her own work event Thursday/Friday, so we basically handed over 2 sick kids over via text message (and Granny and Grandads house).

Final worry is that there has been reports of COVID at both my event and my wife's. :facepalm:

Saturday: 20km @ 4:49/km. Things had settled down enough that I felt ok enough to get up and do this on Saturday morning. But the run itself was pants. I've lost my headphones so no distractions, and I was tired, maybe a bit fluey, and maybe some tapernoia in there too.

Anyway, was always going to have a week like this at some point in the plan, and in a way this week (week 1 of the serious taper) was the best time to have it.

crisco10

Now, the other thing I have been toying with is target time and pacing strategy. I started jotting down my thoughts using the same framework discussed in the podcast I posted over on the Novices thread., which I will just dump below. Happy to hear any holes in my thought processes!

Purpose

WHY am I doing this, whats the core purpose?

To return to marathon after 10 years of solid running, and test myself. I want to see what my ceiling is.

I believe that is sub-3.

Conclusion for target time: 2:59:59 (with a little bit of buffer) so 2:58:00 say.

Experience

Minimally experienced at marathon having done my first and last one in 2014 (3:24 finish time), but a lot of races from half and down in last 10 years. I traditionally negative split most longer races, and can pace them quite well.

In 1 previous marathon, I was 30 seconds off even splits, but had significant wobble from Miltown to Heartbreak Hill and then through Ballsbridge.

I also had a minor panic when I struggled to hit MP in the 1st 2 miles of that race. So in essence, I started slow, finished slow with a solid 20 miles in between of relatively even paced running.

Being aware of that minor bonk; and minimal experience since then…

Conclusion….Target Time: 2:57:00

Race history

1:02, 10 mile race in July puts estimated Marathon time of 2:55 to 3:05

1:21:48, Half Marathon in Mid September (1 week after a tough 35km with 18km @MP session) puts estimated Marathon at 2:55 again.

Both races had negative splits, last km was the fastest and neither felt like I “fell” over the line. So strong races in other words. The Half was a notably flat course, albeit a windy day.

Conclusion…Target time 2:55

Training results

I have hit all the LSRs since Start of August. Training paces have been good, highlight being 18km @ 4:08ish at start of September.

Have missed one MP session (due to miles/KM confusion) but inserted an extra (less intensity one) at End of September. That workout was also very positive, handled 4:00 to 4:10 on mara route well across 3 intervals.

Conclusion….Target time 2:55 to 2:57?

Risk tolerance

Low.

Assume my median finish time is 2:57; I would be a lot more disappointed with 3:01 than I would be happy with a 2:54.

I have been distracted by things like Boston Qualifier, or GFA for London. But they are not the main thing. The main thing is trying to tick the bucket list box of sub-3.

Conclusion Target Time….2:57

The conditions on the day

Course has rolling hills, 3 significant drags (Phoenix Park, Crumlin, Clonskeagh)

Lots of people/podcasts saying 1st half of DCM is the harder half. And if you are a little behind pace (or just on) at halfway, you are in a better spot than having time “banked”. Lots of stories of people blowing up (and not just people who are undertrained) in last third.

Message from the course is don't go out too hard!

Weather scenarios:

Perfect Weather; dry calm, temp 8 to 14 degrees…..2:55

Ok weather; showery and/or blustery >14 degrees…. 2:55 to 2:57

**** weather: torrential rain, gales…..>18 degrees 2:59

Conclusion

Reading through the above; 2:57 is the most common time to appear. So, bearing in mind the course, I think I would ideally go 1:29:xx to halfway at Crumlin and see how I feel, if I feel good I can accelerate and aim for 1:28:00 2nd half, to achieve 2:57.

If I all winds were at my back, I could even think about accelerating more at UCD but that would be it. Think with that strategy, the quickest I would achieve would be 2:56:30 or something which I would be more than happy with. But it's also the most likely to achieve the ultimate goal of sub-3.

So average paces of 4:14 to halfway, and 4:10 in second half. Or thinking about it differently a little over 21 minute 5ks for the first half, and a little under in the second half.

MisterJinx

Nice bit of analysis there and a broad range depending on conditions, very best of luck on the day. You managed taper week #1 better than me, I had a lot of work as well and only got out twice and my tester 5K at PMP didn't go well, such a slog :-( hopefully it'll be better on the day! Send me your number and I'll keep an eye on the tracker for your time.

healy1835

Some great stuff going on here. Inspirational stuff actually. From where you were to where you are now is quite the journey. Your PB's aren't a million miles away from where mine were when I broke 3hrs for the first time.

You've covered most of the variables in your earlier post. You didn't mention whether you were going to use the pace group or not? I've used them in past for certain races, but always found the DCM groups a little to big and a little distracting. I'd suggest starting a little behind them and then reel them in after Castleknock. Depending on how quick your going you should beback past them by the 25k mark at the latest.

Anyway, best of luck on Sunday.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122757111#Comment_122757111

Fingers crossed, I'm trying to find the balance in driving myself to work hard, but also be philosophical and remember the 1km walk I went on on 28/10/21 that required a 3 hour nap after to recover from.

I should have mentioned the pacing group actually; I was going to chat to them at the Expo and see what they were targeting getting to half in and based on that either run ahead of them or behind them for the first X of the race. I'd agree with you in that I'm not massively keen on running with them, but there is benefit to having them in sight obviously.

In my one other DCM, I was planning on doing similar with the 3:30 pacers, and as you say I reeled them in toward top of Cheserfield Ave, and drifted on to do 3:24. Maybe I'll aim to do that again, I'm a slow starter generally.

crisco10

I'm also going to leave the fundraising link here, if anybody wanted to be so kind. It's a niche charity but they were quite helpful to me when I needed them.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ChrisDCM

MisterJinx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122757467#Comment_122757467

Done and best of luck, P

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122758883#Comment_122758883

Thanks a lot!

MiniMonstera

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122757467#Comment_122757467

Done.

Go smash it! Only one more sleep!

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122764718#Comment_122764718

Thanks a mill. Same to you!

SuspectZero

All the best tomorrow man, give it socks!💪

crisco10

2:56:5x or so. Delighted obviously. Will do race report instead of working on Tuesday.

crisco10

Race Report

Apologies it’s a looong one. More diary entry than Race Report.

Build Up

Far from ideal, was surrounded by (COVID related) illness and felt tired. Even went to see Hamilton on Thursday with a mask on, very 2021 of me! I also slept in the spare room so as to not be disturbed/infected by my wife.

Basically, I had full on taper madness.

Further to that, my wife really put the scare on me by reminding me that the week I had my stroke, I had felt similar (bit generically fluey/tired but no real symptoms like a cough or congestion). Thanks for that. Anyway, she sent me to bed on Saturday night asking me to remember to come home on Sunday. Ha! Note taken!

The one highlight was that the two runs I did go out on I felt good. Tuesday’s strides were grand and the 3km @ MP on Wednesday felt ideal.

Morning

I was surprised that I slept well (although Garmin told me I didn’t!). And other than a minor panic about a phantom taxi, arrived to the bag drop in good time to change my shoes, and stroll up toward Wave 1. When I came out of toilet, the 3hr pacers were just there walking towards the start. So made sense to just go and stand near them in the pens while having my first gel of the day. The weather was crisp and perfect, I had an old hoody on which did just perfect until 0842 when I flung it over the railing.

Race

0 to 5km (21:02, 4:12/km)

Mother of god it was congested. Probably was way down on pace in first 500m, but overheard the 3 hour pacers deciding to make a bit of a surge to find their pace and followed them. This settled me into a nice on pace rhythm apart from having to do a frogger hop over a bollard that came from nowhere. Liked the new route down by Parliament Street, was a more gentle hill than the old one down by the Brazen Head. Started to feel a bit more present in the race at this point, and saw first of many “You’re running better than Dublin Bus” signs.

Across the Liffey and at this point, I was about 10m ahead of the pacers but running at their pace. Remembering the hill up through Stoneybatter, I was happy to keep consistent effort and not chase pace this early on. On one of the many DCM prep podcasts, the point was well made that the highest point of the course is at 11.5km in Castleknock so don’t kill yourself in this 1st section.

A sign promised me “Free Oasis Tickets at the finish line”

6 to 10km (20:58, 4:11/km)

As I entered the Park, I started to feel a bit more squeezed and got cut off a few times which was needlessly stressful. Then I realized the pacers had caught me up and were right beside me and I was being subsumed by the pacing group. Realising I much preferred to be in the relative open area in front, I upped the pace slightly to put myself in that nice sweet spot 20m in front of them. Took my 1st gel after picking up water bottle around 8km. Annoyingly also had a growing feeling of needing to pee. Hoped it would go away.

Saw my 1st two “supporters” in this stretch too, was nice to give them a good wave and enjoy the crowds in the park. The corner onto Chesterfield Ave. at the zoo was pretty raucous.

At this point, the pacers also introduced themselves. Can’t remember everything he said, but the one that stuck was when your struggling focus on your breathing. Happy with my pace up through here, I’d been checking my elapsed time/pace band against mile markers and was maybe 10 seconds ahead of 2:59:30 pace.

11 to 15km (20:58, 4:11/km)

Feeling of needing to pee wasn’t abating, so I dove into portaloo at top of the hill in Castleknock. I figured doing it at top of hill would mean I could use the downhill to find my groove again. Immediately felt better tbh. And got out to see the pacers about 150m ahead of me now. That was fine, I knew the next few km were downhill so I would probably reel them in without much panic. I caught up with them in the Furry Glen somewhere, and I felt better when I saw one of the pacers weeing as well. lol

16 to 20km (21:03, 4:13/km)

Had drifted ahead of the pacers by the time we came to the exit of the park, and also high fived a friend on the way out. Back in my groove 20m ahead of the 3 hour group. Chapilizod was bonkers, (but not as mad as I remember it in 2014!). Took next Gel at water station. A few pesky climbs in this section which I had mentally prepared (as well as running once as part of an LSR), shortened the stride and tried to keep breathing slow and steady. If you exclude the km with my pitstop, this was my slowest KM of the race at 4:17. I actually snook a peak at my HR at this point too, which was only a smidge above Z2. Was happy to see that, although it being wrist based, its accuracy and relevance is arguable.

I did start to have my first physical wobble of the day, my hips/ITBs were both getting sore. In a way, I took comfort that it was both, as it meant it was less likely injury, more likely just pain. And pain is something I have become good at handling – a daily mantra of mine is “it’s only pain”, all be it generally referring to headaches. My pace didn’t change and I was still glancing every so often over my shoulder and seeing pacers there. My mile split checks were also now about 20 seconds ahead.

Got through the wobble by trying to focus on getting to Crumlin Shopping Centre, where I was hoping to see my wife and kids. Dolphins Barn was another crowd highlight, so loud, with Des Bishop chief cheerleader! There was definitely one more turn in the road than expected, which was my first mental wobble of the day.

21 to 25km (21:01, 04:12/km)

Reality hit a little when wind hit me at start of Crumlin Rd. That said, I was expecting this, in 2014 I really found this stretch hard from the canal all the way to KCR. Tucked in behind a few big lads as best I could…

I love my family. Highlight of the day was high five with E and C at about mile 13. Wife gave me water bottle which meant I didn’t have to bother with the cups on the water station. She videoed me and I was going smoothly, but I know at the time my hips were sore enough. I even sped up looking at Garmin data.

Cruised over halfway mat in the afterglow of that, and just about acknowledged that I was pretty much bang on pacing plan. Halfway a smidge ahead of 3hr pacers.

Chip Time for half: 01:29:23

Now I had to start making decisions, hold pace? Increase? I decided to not get excited yet, I was a little worried that I had leg pain so early in race. Hold pace and try maintain comfort until the real “halfway” point around 30km.

To get around the leg pain, I decided to set some short term goals which was to get to my next supporters at Bushy Park, then get to ReeRee at Milltown ….then…

26 to 30km (20:49, 04:10/km)

Still focused on my short term goal of getting to Bushy. I had good experience of this part of course from Terenure 5 Mile, so was ready for the deceptively long section at back of Terenure College. Entertained myself by trying to run through the gaps in the speed bumps on this bit. And delighted to turn onto the lovely smooth road down past Bushy Park. As expected I gave more supporters some waves and was happy for the brief distraction. At some point through Rathgar, I stopped monitoring the pacers and just did me. I was still checking my Mile Splits and was probably about 40 seconds ahead.

I went to school around here, so got a few shout outs from people I hadn’t seen in years which was also nice.

31 to 35km (20:54, 04:11/km)

Orwell Road. Always quieter, and the real halfway.

I started to get a bit emotional thinking about seeing family later on today after the finish. Pushed the urge to cry down and focused on converting that emotion into positive emotion that I am strong, well trained and well supported. Took final gel here, this one with caffeine. Suspected I needed the boost. From here on, food wise, I just took a jelly snake every 10 minutes. I also took solace that my food pocket was getting emptier and emptier.

Next waypoint was ReeReeG in Milltown, she took the best picture I have seen yet of me. And then just concentrated on that little hill up to Spar and not blowing myself up.

For the whole race, I had been hearing people on the side of the road say “oh, look here are the balloons” which meant I was exactly where I wanted to be, ahead of the pacers by a little. But, it dawned on me that I hadn’t heard anyone say that in a while. Not the time to start pacing myself so just let it flow from here. Less than an hour to go. Body still sore, but sort of more manageable than previously.

Got to Eglinton Rd junction, and was so glad of that session I had done in September (3 loops which included Eglinton Rd to N11 at MP). I had this broken down km by km already so just let my legs carry me through the rolling hills which culminated in Heartbreak Hill. Got an outrageous shout from a woman I used to work with, I can still see her impassioned face now. Loved it.

36 to 40km (20:37, 4:07/km)

Top of Fosters Ave. Almost there. From here its simple really, roll down the hill, then round the corner to N11 and from there it’s approx. a ParkRun to go.

Saw a large group of my family on Fosters. They didn’t see me until I shouted at them so no pictures or anything just a panicked wave. I shouted “Hello” to grab my family's attention and the whole crowd cheered though, made me crack a smile.

I was still accelerating gradually; and happy to do so. At this point, there was only 30 mins or so to go, and you can do anything for 30 mins right? Basically, my chances of blowing up were diminishing every km I banked. So race strategy from here was just to see the miles away. They were definitely getting longer!

23 Mile marker at UCD, check, 24 mile marker at bottom of Nutley Lane, check.

Breathing was still really controlled, but legs felt a bit like Declan Moffit, they couldn’t stop moving the way they were moving right now. So even though I was starting to realise that an easy pace from here would be a sub-3, I wasn’t sure I could actually run at that pace. It was either 4:0X or nothing. In keep with my training block, I actually started accelerating to get the damn thing finished.

41 to 42.2km (9:35, 04:03/km)

From Nutley, I had visualized this before. Run a bit, then you’ll see the 4 Seasons, then get to 4 Seasons, then get to the Dodder, then your basically there so enjoy the purple mile or whatever its called.

Tried as best I could to execute that. Gave a big wave to the big screen. Around this point, I realized I had fallen into step with a guy who was really enjoying it (cheering to the crowd, running easy) so I reckoned I would try to at least cling to him and let him lead me home unknowingly. Worked a treat and enjoyed the wall of noise up to and including the final 300m.

Final acceleration home, with a skip over a potentially ankle breaking pothole, and I was there. Last sprint to ensure sub 2:57. Perfect Day.

Aftermath:

Splits of Interest:

Full 2:56:57

1st Half: 1:29:23

2nd Half: 1:27:34

Fastest km, the last km, 03:55

Fastest 5km, the last 5km, 20:20

Fastest 10km, the last 10km, 41:12

Fastest Xkm, the last Xkm, …. lol

Wandered back to bag collection and chatting away to randomers then LUAS home to have a glorious pub lunch with some family. Very content with my mornings work.

Conclusion:

• I hit my pacing plan well, which meant I generally enjoyed the race. In fact, particularly in the 1st half, I felt the time was flying by.
• Conversely, I’m not sure I could have gone much quicker. Felt like my wheels wobbled on the axles just the right amount. Maybe could have been up to a minute quicker and finished in more pain, but that’s wild conjecture really.
• 28 min PB. Thanks very much.
• Really enjoyed how my pace evolved naturally once I allowed it to, a very nice way to race.
• I had been worried about lack of MP/intensity in the training plan, but it was obviously ok. And the large focus on endurance clearly paid benefit (5 x 30km+ runs) .
• I do love DCM. As a supporter and a runner. And I genuinely think Sanctuary Runners is the best running club around. They bring so much atmosphere and enthusiasm.
• 3 years from a Neuro Ward in Beaumont Hospital (almost to the day, I got out on 26th Oct ’21) to Sub 3. That was beyond even my wildest dreams to be honest, and facilitated by all in my support network, particularly my close family.

kd82

Brilliant write up and congrats on the Sub 3. The halfway split was so spot on even with the pit stop. You managed it perfectly. Well done

MiniMonstera

Just superb!! Hats off to you! Cracking report 👏🏽

Laineyfrecks

Brilliant race report & even better performance. As has already been said your story is inspirational, bug huge well done💪😊

Lazare

What a dream race!!

You executed it so so well. I'm taking a whole load of inspiration from that.

MisterJinx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122775549#Comment_122775549

All round such an excellent result. Delighted for you, relieved for your wife and impressed with the execution.

Lambay island

Superb stuff ! 👏

crisco10

What a lovely response to my Race Report. Thanks all. It's a really lovely tribe around here. Was one of life's good days for sure. And it seems to have been for a lot of others which is brilliant to read/hear.

After all the excitement of DCM, its all been a bit of a low! basically felt like a celebrity all week with the congratulations raining in. But now, its apparent that no one else really cares. lol

I had returned to the idea of joining a club again, to give myself access to like minded people and also help with focus in the long term. But basically, it's really hard to figure out how a club would fit into my life. Tuesdays, I play 5 aside, which is the day most clubs do their midweek session. Then the weekends, the meets are too late…My aim is to be home by 9am ish on weekend mornings to spend morning doing family life. Returning an hour or two later is non-negotiable.

So long story short, I'll just keep being a lonely warrior.

Week Commencing 28th October (11km):

Got a glorious massage on Tuesday, then easy runs on Wednesday and Thursday. These felt ok, specific creaks in my hips and ITBs but nothing mad.

I then played golf on Saturday (carrying my bag around) which I felt in my hips. Shelved running for a few days, no rush here.

Week Commencing 4th November (44km):

Jingle Bells is 4 weeks away, so have decided to just follow the "smart" plan on my Garmin with its daily suggestions. It's a little disappointing to see all my stats sliding (ACR, Predicted Race Time etc etc) but obviously I'm aware that my body has underlying recovery to do!

Weds: 11km @ 4:50. A summers day in November. 15 degrees and sunny. Loved this lunchtime run around Marlay

Thurs: 6.3km easy

Friday: 11k inc. ntervals.

7 x 1 mins off 3 mins. Did this on the way into the rugby match in Lansdowne Road (a whole other disappointing conversation). The 1 mins were supposed to be at 3:20 or so, which basically felt like 80% of a sprint, but the minutes disappeared quite easily. Had to back off in one of the splits because the footpath in that area was remarkably uneven and dark and I wasn't gonna break my ankle doing a little session on a Friday evening.

Sunday: 16km easy. did this first thing, and wonder of wonders came home to a house that was still asleep. Love when I get away with it like that. Felt a bit tired on this one.

Dubh Geannain

Only dipping into the post Dublin logs now. Congrats on an excellent run and great report.

crisco10

Nothing really to report the last 4 weeks, was taking Garmin's Daily Suggestions with Jingle Bells as the target race.

Got out 5 or 6 times most weeks, with average mileage of about 50km per week.

My experiment showed me that I don't really like the Daily Suggestions, they seemed a bit soft overall. But I could put up with that because maybe my body was saying to my Garmin it was still in recovery mode.

What really irked me was that it kept changing the plan! I would look ahead a few days and see a fun session, and maybe even start to look forward to it or plan when I could do it. Then I would wake up the next morning and that session would have been replaced with something else or in the worst case "30 mins Base". So my one paragraph review is that it was fine for just keeping ticking over, but I wouldn't use it in place of an actual training plan for a target race.

Jingle Bells Race Report

Ha, after a pretty good week of weather, Storm Darragh tried its best to call this one off. Went ahead after a 6am course inspection by Donore (fairplay!)

I arrived to Phoenix Park about 850 and parked near zoo. The weather was GRIM, so resolved to hide in the car until 0920, jog straight to start line just in time for start. Really didn't want to be standing around in the wind and sideways rain. Pace wise, my plan all along had been to run the first 2km at something between 3:30 and 3:36 and then just see how I could survive the last 3km, but with a savage wind across and into us in 1st 2km, it was impossible to set such a strategy. So instead resolved to run hard. I even just tucked my Garmin under my sleeves out of sight after starting it.

1st km (3:49)

As fecking always, I started too far back. I actually think it's one of my biggest weaknesses, and it's so fixable. But I always underestimate how many people will elbow into the 10 yards at the front of the pack. Massive crosswind, so nice to be shielded from that; but was nowhere near my hard pace and knew it.

2nd km (3:44)

Up Chesterfield Ave, was tricky but the crowd was big so plenty of shelter. I was trying to pick my way through the pack wisely. If I went too far out to the right, I would get blasted by the wind so tried to weave as best I could. My cousin also drifted by me at this point having made the same mistake as I at the start line. Physically I still felt I was running comfortable, I actually did think I could maintain this pace indefinitely.

3rd km (3:38)

Finally turned off Chesterfield and the crowd had thinned so could start running my own pace with ease. I knew I was in 3rd km because I was feeling the beeps on my watch, but didnt know my pace or time. Tried to up the effort a bit.

4th km (3:27)

This is more like it, stride flowing, feeling like I'm working.

5th km (3:11)

My physio had said the last km is almost like a joke and he wasn't wrong, but I was still have expecting a sneaky uphill that never came. When the finish line appeared, the race clock was reading 17:55 or so. I knew sub 18 was on for me because I was a good 10 seconds late crossing the start line so sprinted the last 200m. Crossed for about 18:07 gun time, but watch said 17:55 which ended up as my chip time too.

So 1st ever sub 18, and a 12 second PB compared to a COVID-era Virtual Race. Which was great obviously, but I felt a bit flat to be honest. I just didn't think I had used enough energy; it felt more like a Tempo run than a 5km race. Spent most of the day wishing I had another chance to do it (even in the same weather conditions).

crisco10

2024 Wrap Up.

2,522km; 228 Active Days; 202 hours running; 84% of that running at Easy pace or slower.

4 PBs:

• 5k: 17:55
• 10 Mile: 1:02:21
• Half: 1:21:48
• Full: 2:56:57

In summary, my best running year since I started in 2013. Every race I ran was a PB , and in most cases a big PB too (12 seconds, 5 mins , 6 mins, 28 mins respectively ). In fact my split for the 2nd half of DCM, was my 2nd fastest HM ever. I have also broken my 10k PB multiple times in sessions and longer races. So, basically fitter than I have ever been.

Why was it such a good year?

• I attribute this mostly to the fact that despite doing lots of running since about 2018, I haven't focused on training blocks and races (for various reasons!). 2024 was the year I managed to do that, signing up to DCM at the end of '23 gave me the long term goal that I needed. I was also healthy enough, and kids old enough that I could give sub 3 a red hot crack. So essentially, I finally cashed in on years of foundation building that I had been doing. That's my theory anyway.
• I was also incredibly lucky to have all my disruption in early part of the year. From May onward, I had no sickness or injuries or life to get in the way. 6 months of uninhibited running was a dream. I still can't believe how many of the runs I completed in the 4 month DCM training plan.
• I really enjoyed my running. Like going to bed on Friday night, I couldn't wait for my alarm to wake me up for LSR on Saturday.

2025 Look Forward:

All of the above makes it hard to consider what 2025 could look like. Having had such a close to perfect year with mostly "easy" PBs, I'm not sure what to do this year. I have entered the Dunboyne 10k in March to hopefully get a formal 10k PB and give me something to train toward over the next few months. I have also ordered Pfitz's shorter distance book to try and be a bit more structured in my training for that one!

But after that who knows? I have a place for DCM '25, and would hope to get into Boston '26 using my DCM time from October. But compared to last year I don't have that big shining goal to write on the wall. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely a thing.

I did complete one mini-goal already, fancied coming 1st in a ParkRun, so did that on New Years Day with a sprint finish. haha. 18:22 or so. Actually my first time racing people more than the watch, it was a fun experience. I just went with the leading pack from the start, idea was to go at 3:45ish for 1st 3k and then do what was needed to win in the last 2k. Worked ideally, last 2k splits were 3:39 and 3:23 as I pushed on.

MachineRunKelly

"All of the above makes it hard to consider what 2025 could look like. Having had such a close to perfect year with mostly "easy" PBs, I'm not sure what to do this year. I have entered the Dunboyne 10k in March to hopefully get a formal 10k PB and give me something to train toward over the next few months. I have also ordered Pfitz's shorter distance book to try and be a bit more structured in my training for that one!"

Don't underestimate the power of accumulation. People often make the mistake of trying to reinvent the wheel when they make a breakthrough thinking the need to change the approach to change the results. Often it takes years of consistent work for big break throughs. Keep doing what you are doing and you will more than likely see big PB's very few of us get to a point where the laws of diminishing returns kick in

crisco10

Update March 3rd.

No logging since New Years but plenty of running. I will briefly summarise…

Been following this ( https://www.defy.org/hacks/calendarhack/?d=2025-07-27&p=frr_8k10k_01&u=km&s=1 ) plan from Pfitz’s Faster Road Racing book.

I started in about week 3 to align with Dunboyne 10k as the Race Target.

Broadly speaking, the plan has 3 key sessions a week, a “General Aerobic + Speed” on Monday/Tuesday, a lactate or VO2 max on Thursday/Friday and then Endurance (aka Long Run) on Saturday/Sunday.

Other easy/cross/shorter endurance sprinkled through the week.

I won’t go through it week by week, session by session, but so far with 3 weeks to go I have hit most sessions (if not paces). Weekly Mileage has been a steady 60 to 75km.

The plan has been pretty challenging but enjoyable, clearly the Lactate/Vo2 sessions are trickiest and most work.

For example, the (6 × 3 min uphill @ 3K-5K race effort, jog down recovery) was a pretty brutal session but I survived. I silently dread these types of session, but love the rush when they are done.

In a weird way, the LSR on a Saturday has become pretty boring. Which is funny, given in the marathon plan it was the highlight of my week. Clearly the differing focuses of the plans impacts my enjoyment.

The only disappointment so far was that for the 1st Tune Up race 5km, I had planned to do ParkRun but then with being away in Spain the whole week before with work, I decided it would be better to do a local 5km TT on my own to simulate it. Anyway, came in at 18:45 or so. Which given I’d be hoping to do something like 37:00 (pace TBC) for 10k was a poor performance. And I’d also done 18:22 2 months ago in Parkrun. Not sure if I am 1) overestimating my condition, 2) was tired from Work Travel, and 3) missed the stimulus of race day. If I had to guess, it was probably 20:40:40 split between the 3.

I have another tune up race in plan for this weekend. And unfortunately, it’s my wife’s Birthday on Saturday so I probably can’t disappear to do Parkrun (leaving her with the kids) but I will probably try the TT again and see if it’s a different result.

Whatever else, I certainly still have my mojo which I’m delighted about. Logging plenty of miles (with variety).

Finally, was in Boston last week, and wow what a running city. Every morning the paths along the Charles’ river were thronged with runners. Amazing to see. Made my session go by that bit quicker. Session, for the record, was…

3 × 1,000m; 3 × 800m. All intervals @ 3K-5K race pace (jog 50-90% interval time recovery)

First 5 intervals were fine, but the last one, I lost all my form with fatigue. Can even see it in my running stats:

this is ground contact time, 1st rep is lovely consistent striking, but by last rep its up and down like bejaysus.