Boards DCM22 Graduates Thread - A Deeper Understanding

Lazare

Absolutely thrilled for you P.

A phenomenal race, and that all too sweet negative split.

Something great about the novice's mentor going out there and bossing it like that, backing up his words.

Bravo my man, you did good. 👏

Pawwed Rig

It has taken me a couple of days to process it all.

There were ups and downs for me on the day. The positives were that I got a marathon pb and my third marathon under my belt so I am really pleased with that. The negatives are that the wheels came off again this time a km earlier than in Belfast so I really need to look at my prep and race management. I took on more water than Belfast and shortened my gel pack intervals to no avail.

Again I found myself consistently too fast in my km times despite constantly checking and thinking I was slowing down. I had mistakenly registered for wave 3 so did not have the 3:50 pacers to regulate my pace as I had hoped. I spent the first couple of kms trying to get past the crowd around the 4 hour pacers. I soon left them behind and for the first 10k posted 52:06 v a target of 53:20. Again I tried to slow my pace a bit with the second 10km with a more respectable 52:55. I lost a bit of time on 20-30 doing 55:03 but there was definitely a trip to a portaloo thrown in the mix there. For km 31,32 and 33 I averaged 5:30/km and had completed 33.5km when I passed the 3 hour point. So had 50 mins to complete 8.5km which should have been achievable. Then it all went to hell. At that stage I reached the bottom of a hill and my legs just went so I walked for a minute or 2. It was all very stop and start from there on in. I started getting cramps in the back of my upper legs (which has never happened before) so I was gingerly making my way to the finish. It never got so bad I had to stop but it was definitely heading that way. Ran passed my wife and kids within inches of their faces and didn't see or hear them at the schoolhouse. Then crossing the line a girl right in front of me hit the deck and I had no time to avoid her so went head over heels myself. Morto

Time 3:57:28 which is a pb by over a minute v a goal of 3:50.

Learnings - I need to do a lot more reading on managing the body to the end of a marathon.

Take aways Very happy over all. More disappointed that I didn't get to enjoy the business end of the race rather than worried about the 7 minutes I missed the pb on. I see these things as an ongoing plan and will try to increase my knowledge before the next one so I can maintain a relatively even pace throughout. I didn't see the rain as a factor at all other than being mildly unpleasant having wet socks. The support all through was immense which I am blaming for making me run too fast in the early stages 😄. I am still a novice at this distance so have a bit to learn yet but hopefully there will be many more opportunities to learn those lesson.

Again thanks to @Lazare and all the experienced heads here for the advice and tips this year. I definitely learned a lot even if one of those learnings is that I don't know enough yet. You are all amazeballs

Murph_D

That was an awesome race report, @MisterJinx. Brilliant running. hope you're still buzzing!

Bungy Girl

A question please about the pace calculator for the grads plan. I hope to start the base training on Monday.

https://runfastcoach.com/calc2/index.php

When I input my recent times (I only really have the marathon/half marathon as haven't raced anything else in years) it gives me an easy pace of 11:31- 11:57 based on the half (based on my marathon 4:19:xx it is slower again) whereas the Jack Daniels VDOT running calculator gives me a range of 10:17 - 11:17. It's quite a difference and of course the very easy range is even slower. I suppose I got used to doing all my easy runs for DCM 2023 at around 10:30 min/miles, so just wondering if there are more gains to be made by slowing down again. I know I'll struggle with the very easy runs at 12+ min/miles, I feel like I'd be shuffling at that pace. Ultimate goal is to do a decent 5K around April/May time. Thanks for any advice.

MisterJinx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121440214#Comment_121440214

Thanks D, yes I think I am. I was really happy with how I ran the race and I think I've confidence that I have more to give :-)

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121442728#Comment_121442728

I would suggest doing an all out 5k, parkrun maybe, and inputting that time. I think it will give you a more accurate set of pace ranges.

The marathon isn't a good guide for it, and your fitness has improved since the half.

Having said that I wouldn't get too hung up on what it suggests your easy pace should be.

Easy should be effort and feel based rather than pace based imo. Certainly use the range as a guide though.

Running by feel, accurately, is the holy grail for a runner. For most pace ranges, 5k, 10k, half etc it's difficult to do and takes a lot of practise and experience but for 'easy' it's relatively easy.

There is a danger of going too fast of course, so use the range as a guide. Don't worry though if on a well rested day you're running 10 min miles, and on sluggish days you're running 12s.

Bungy Girl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444021#Comment_121444021

Thanks a million, that's great advice. I normally don't pay much attention to the watch as I do try to run easy by feel (which on a good day can end up being 10 min/miles or faster and on another day could be 11 min/miles+. Looking forward to starting the base plan shortly!