The Four Year Plan

Thanks guys - this week did not get off to the good start I had hoped - dropped frozen chicken fillets on my foot this morning - as you do - oh lordie they are hard and heavy when frozen! :mad: Evil looking little cut that gushed for a while and fairly bruised feeling so I skipped the pool in favour of some sympathy and a long breakfast!

Still feels tender to touch now but hopefully will be okay in the morning for some easy kms.

24k LSR today was great, well I mean it was tiring and all but I felt stronger at the end than I did two weeks ago on 21k lsr.

Had delicious breakfast porridge with fruit followed by coffee and toast. I was feeling lazy so instead of doing stuff around the house like I normally would I dozed on couch for a bit before heading out. Took water with me but no gels etc. Every 6k I walked about 100m while drinking some water and it all felt good. Not sure if it was the additional toast at breakfast, the walking water, the drop in temperature or what but def felt better and stronger during today's run than two weeks ago.

Route was fairly flat with some bumbs... Harold's cross, to sundrive, St James hospital, down Stevens lane, across the river, into pp (never really run in park before), full length of chesterfield ave, turning left at end, sticking to smaller roads and trails, up and down, great views, came back out on chesterfield near the big monument, from there on to chapelizod by pass, across river, inchicore, south circular road, crumlin road, and then turn back toward home rather than continue past hospital. Running in the park was great, never realised there were so many hills and stuff, must run there more often.

24.1km @ avg 6:51/km

Amsterdam forest for next week

Friday was a rest day and Saturday the planned LST of 22.5k. I struggled and having already passed my bf at 20.?? with shouts of, "I'll be back - just two more k to go" I stopped when I saw him at 22.12. At the time, I was a little disheartened that I found it so tough but in hindsight and looking over the garmin data - I ran the first 11km too fast, my legs were bound to be tired jumping back into plan after more than a week off, AND the route was a lot more hilly than any of my Dublin runs. Also it was just my legs were tired - rest of me felt grand. Hadn't even finished the water I brought, and my tummy which is often a bit iffy after a big effort was grand - stomached a sausage blaa no problem

I relieved the legs with a quick dip in the ocean - super refreshing, felt great and made me wish I lived nearer the sea and could take up sea swimming.

Sunday - recovery run didn't happen. Niece's christening was on and I was up late Saturday night finishing the cake and making sandwiches and then up early to go decorate the venue, bring the food etc. By the time it was all over I had drunk a few glasses of wine, was wrecked and figured rest would be more beneficial.

Totals

July came in at 180km - most I've ever run in a month :eek:
Week ending 14 Aug - 29k

Week Ahead

Follow the plan, get back into routine and FD 10 at the weekend

Preparation

I don't feel that I had a great lead up to this, between a week off and then the past week I had a few late nights and super long days in work. Friday evening, I laid out all my gear, pinned on the race number to my top, packed warm stuff for after the race and had an early night.

Saturday morning was up, had breakfast, coffee and headed off to the park. Was parked by 8:50. Walked up to start area from car park, checked out where the bag drop was and found the portoloos. Did a slow 2k for warm up followed by some standing mrytle and a few drills but it was really just miserable so got back into the car, removed some layers, donned my bag liner and headed up to the bag drop, another quick trip to the loo and cowered under a tree for a few minutes before the off.

The weather was awful, strong winds, rain, I was a little cold and wet but all I could think was that "I get to do this" - not I have to but I get to - got a little emotional thinking about a friend of the family who was in an accident a few weeks ago and broke his back - the doctors are saying he won't walk again and this is a guy who is super active, always out running, cycling etc etc. But anyway - the race!

The Plan

My plan was to stick at PMP (6:15/km) or faster but to run more or less by feel. I also planned to walk through the water stations because I'll end up doing this at the marathon.

KM 1 - 2/First mile or so
Found the start very confusing. Two stewards I had asked said there was waves and there was a sign for wave one. Then I thought the commentator said no waves but figured I must have heard wrong when he started to say why waves are important! I was still under my tree when I realised that it was all one large wave so I found a gap in the barriers and joined in - probably a small bit too far back but not too bad. Eventually shuffled through the start line to discover my watch and gone back to resting screen so I am not sure the first km measured properly and it was a bit ahead for the whole race then as a result.

First mile was quite slow, very very congested but I didn't bother wasting any energy weaving, just when I was in danger of being tripped.

Km 1: 6:28; KM 2: 6:13

Miles 2 - 3

Started to spread out a bit more here, these flew along, we were mostly downhill - don't remember a whole lot about these.

KM: 3: 5:48; KM 4: 5:53; KM 5:6:15

Miles 4 - 5
Walked through the water station taking on a little glass/cup - swear the commentator at the start said there would be bottles. Contemplated not stopping as I wasn't desperate for water but decided better to take it on than not. I slowed a wee bit during this section but not much - maybe we were going up hill a little? Apart from the awful hill towards the end I didn't really notice any hills along the way. Have a vague recollection of thinking - cool, half way there. I don't know this part of the park at all - ended up running without a group for bits of this.

Km 6: 5:58; KM 7: 6:16 (slowest of the race); KM 8: 5:53

Miles 6 - 7
More of the same really, walked through the water station, got a shout out from Anna (thanks), although all I could muster was a wave. Around the 6 mile mark as we turned back toward chesterfield avenue I was on my own again with no group and finding it tough so I set my sights on a woman in an orange top just ahead, she was also without a group but I figured if I could pass her, then I could catch up with the group ahead. Gave myself until mile 7 to catch her. She obviously had similar ideas because while I hadn't quite caught her by mile 7 I was on her shoulder and we were with the group. Didn't worry about not having passed her, her purpose had been served.

KM 9: 6:06; KM 10: 6:14; KM 11: 6:14

Miles 8 - 9
Was lovely going down Chesterfield and spotted my BF just where we turned off when bam - the wind!! This was tough, tried to tuck in behind some others but the wind just got you no matter where you were, so decided to abandon that plan, and play reel them in - if I was feeling the wind, everyone was feeling the wind! Got a few and I passed orange top woman. She came back though and we played a little cat and mouse. Was very relieved to cut across the path at the top of upper glen road - I had thought the route brought us back down to go up the hill we had run down earlier.

Km 12: 5:46; Km 13: 5:59; Km 14: 5:48

Mile 10

Ah the hill - well that was unpleasant at the end, although tbh, I thought there were going to be more hills so I can't really complain. I slowed the pace, kept the effort going, and think I passed a few but also got passed by some. Somewhere around here, orange woman passed me and on the hill she kinda got away - well we couldn't have any of that now could we! So I figured there was only about a km left so decided to go for it. Caught up with her as we turned the corner for the home straight along furze road. Except I couldn't see the finish - I guess with the winds they couldn't put the usual thingy up. Anyway, I may have said out loud "where is the f**king finish?" and orange top woman kindly pointed out the green pop up thingy and said it was there, I thanked her and legged it. Didn't see her again

Km 15: 6:12; Km 16: 6:37; 200m (cause of dodgy start) 1:03

Post Race
Staggered through the finishing shoot thingy, got a banana and my goody bag, some water - really not enough though but again only the stupid cups! On to the mayhem of bag collection. Seems like it was particularly bad. I couldn't stay waiting, started to feel a bit iffy so went to see if anyone from the novices was at the tent. Just singer and his lovely wife, so said hello and chatted for a few minutes before heading back to bag drop. Eventually got my bag with my choc milk and water. Everything was wet though so just headed for the car, home and the shower!

Got a text with my time 1:37:35 - a pb (cause I've never raced this distance before). In those conditions don't think I could have gone much faster but on a better day think I could shave a minute or so off easily enough.

Lessons Learned

• Don't cut arm holes in black sack - otherwise my arms get cold and wet waiting in the rain
• Do a proper reccy on the course - there were too many bits I didn't know
• Put clothes for afterwards in a plastic bag so they don't get wet
• If BF coming to the end of the race - avoid bag drop altogether
• Keep running by feel

All in all, happy with how I paced it but on a more gentle day would expect a faster time.

Wouldn't say I enjoyed it as such but the warm-up and waiting around before and after were worse than the actual race if that makes sense!

Thanks Anne...just about to do an update of sorts - it has been middling I would say!

Ahhh - seems like I have no time these days for updating my log. Will check my watch later and put up paces etc but a summary of the last week:

Thur - 6.5k easy
Fri - rest (planned)
Sat - 30k
Sun - rest (not entirely planned, but was in Kilkenny with the in laws and there was stuff on and I just never got out)
Mon - rest (planned)
Tues - 10k easy

The LSR on Saturday was the longest I have ever run! Plan called for 32k but as I missed some of the other long runs in the past few weeks my goal was to run further than my previous longest run (24k), ideally hitting 30k and if all was fantastic to go to 32k. I also wanted to test my fueling strategy for DCM.

First few km were too fast cause I was annoyed - just heading out the door and my mother decides to tell me how she doesn't approve of me training for the marathon, it takes too much time, I am not able for it (this was both a mixture of me personally and all women) yada yada yada... :mad:

Anyway, once the rage had subsided I settled down into a nice pace. After 1:15 I took my first ever gel. High-5 caffeine free summer berries. The texture is a bit yick but taste wasn't so bad. Drank some water and apart from a short lived sugar rush, thankfully without any subsequent crash, it was fine. Got to 20k just over an hour later and decided to nip into the loo at the public toilets in Tramore. This may have been a mistake, although I am not sure I would have lasted another 1hr + before really having to go. Came out of the loo and took a second gel - this one was citrus flavour, marginally nicer but not sure I'll ever get used to the texture. Found it hard to get going again after the pit stop, pace slowed considerably for this last 10k, and I was suffering - or rather my legs were. I did a few body checks and nothing hurt as such, I didn't feel wiped out (I guess the gels worked) and my heart and lungs weren't working too hard. But my leg muscles were fatiguing and I had to really concentrate on not letting my shoulders tense up.

Finished the 30k on the road into my mothers. Stopped running pretty much as soon as the watch beeped and walked the c. km back to the house. Once i had stretched, showered and eaten I felt fine. All in all, not a bad morning's work.

For the remaining LSRs I want to run as much of the DCM course as possible and test out clothes for the day. The shorts I usually run in, start to chaff after about 20k so they are out but I am not sure I want to wear 3/4 lengths - they are very warm!! But my other shorts are VERY short so not sure I'd have the nerve to wear them. Might try them out on my 5k this Thursday. I'll go out early so as to not scandalise too many people.

aquinn wrote: »

Well done on LSR, how are you doing now?

I always wore and trained in 3/4 lengths. Am not a fan of short, shorts.

For DCM I trained in 7" Nike Filament shorts which were grand in training. On the day they started to rub so thanks to a wonderful Sister between mile 13 and 16 she bought me vaseline and an antihistamine.

A, I understand what the vaseline was for but the antihistamine?

And I am grand after LSR and today's 10k. Paying more attention to fueling seems to be helping - tomorrow's 18k with a large number at pace will no doubt test me somewhat :rolleyes: