DCM 2018 - Mentored Novice Thread

I'm back with a bang. Achilles tendon seems to have mended nicely. Still feel the need for a bit of strapping whilst running but all good. Even managed my 10k on Sunday in place of the finglas run. Watched a video of it, looked like a really nice route. I've our tag rugby final on fri evening and then it's 100% focus on this running craic. Next step is to start trying out the energy stuff gels etc and see how they fair out, trial and error I suppose to see what suits.

Finished my week training today as I fell a bit behind with my schedule. The runs are going well but what I'm finding the toughest is being organised. It's not my strongest point and I'm a bit of a Phoebe tbh Keep forgetting gear to bring into work or not having food bought/ready etc. Don't have kids so no excuse.

On the running front I am up to weekly total of 30 miles which is surprising this early. For my previous marathon years ago 33 was my max mileage. Knees are a bit sore now and then but nothing serious. Think I may have to buy new runners. Got a 14.5m lsr in on Sat but took 4 hours due to taking pics and calling in to feed a cat. Perhaps just a tad too slow :rolleyes:

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

I have a stag (2-nighter) coming up at the weekend
I'm really enjoying the training. When I'm not running I'm thinking about running! If someone asks me to do something, go somewhere or if I've an event coming up my first thought is how will that impact my training schedule. I may need to work on my running/life balance!!

Ha ha, you have officially caught the DCM Running bug .......soon all Novices will be in conversations with family and friends and scanning them for the words 'running' or 'marathon' and will immediately get a glazed over look and switch off if these words are not present.

This running madness will last at least up until December 31st of this year.

Enjoy the stag with the lads.....I suggest that you only drink electrolytes and water on the weekend and then home to bed at 8:30pm each night....the lads will have to understand......after all you are training for the 'Marathon' ....:D

smashiner wrote: »

Ha ha, you have officially caught the DCM Running bug .......soon all Novices will be in conversations with family and friends and scanning them for the words 'running' or 'marathon' and will immediately get a glazed over look and switch off if these words are not present.

I've had this but in reverse. Family and friends are the ones getting a glazed over look and switching off when I start talking about running! :pac:

eyrie wrote: »

Yes, this!! Well only my poor boyfriend actually, I've kept it quiet around everyone else so far. Which means he gets stuck with listening (or not listening, let's be honest :P) to ALL of it. And he gets the dubious honour of driving me to races and having to stand around and then cheer like a mad yoke. Heh, I'll owe him the medal if I make it to the finish line I reckon.

My O/H is a runner. He's following the same training plan as I am for the same marathon and I even manage to bore him senseless with my running chat

coogy wrote: »

Question for my fellow novices!!!

Have any of you been taken by surprise by just how enthusiastic you have become about running since you first made the decision to run the marathon?

I'll be honest, I can remember back in November, arriving home with my new running shoes and staring at the box thinking "do I really want to do this?"

Even my first few weeks of running were plagued with indecision about how far I wanted to take this and on a couple of occasions, was only short of sending a 'can you come get me' text to my wife at home, after only 3k of a 5k run.

Now, I find it impossible to go a day without thinking about running in some way, shape or form and on rest days, I am restless

I get more than just enjoyment out if it, I would say that I benefit from it more than any other form of activity I've ever done and I've been pretty active over the years with various sports.

Can't quite put my finger on it but I am LOVING this!

+1



Really enjoying it. Last week I had to go to London for work and I kept all my runs going even though I was knackered.Would previously have used circumstances like that to allow myself off the hook for that week and probably the next week too - running doesnt seem like something I should do anymore, its something I enjoy!!

chabsey wrote: »

Thanks, I agree I need to slow down / lower the intensity. I'm thinking (hoping) now that this ankle issue which I've been obsessing about today is more to do with tight muscles than an actual injury. Ibuprofen doesn't do much...so maybe rolling or trigger points might work it out.

Well, after resting it for 48 hours I had my intervals this morning and the ankle is still an issue. Have a physio appointment this Friday anyway so I'm off my feet until then.

Rossi7 wrote: »

I think your learning the hard way regarding keeping the easy pace easy, doing intervals this morning with a dodgey ankle wasn't the greatest of ideas. Not having a go, I was like that myself at the start hammering away each run and strained my calf 3 times in about 6 months. We'd similar times on Sunday, just looking at your Strava and not one of your runs have averaged 6min k's. Just to give you a bit of context, I averaged 4.30 per k on Sunday my run yesterday was 6.17. 
It's not just you, were all at it. I wince when I see some of the "easy run" paces, we are only fooling ourselves for the sake of Strava. As the LSR's increases, we'll all end up on the physio table if we don't make the easy runs easy.

Fair enough, my currently injured status serves as proof of your point. What I'll say in my defense is that I'm following the Hanson's plan and the paces etc that I've been hitting are based on the calculations of my planned finishing time. So, running events aside, I have actually been pretty close to their paces.

Intervals this morning wouldn't have been my choice but the layout of the plan is specific enough that if I was to skip it after taking the Monday off I would have messed the week up considerably.

Obviously messing my ankle up is a worse outcome than messing the plan up but I didn't go into the run this morning knowing my ankle was going to be a problem, it had faded quite a bit and I wasn't sure if the final sprint on Sunday or just general usage had caused the problem.

In any case I'm off it now and not feeling wonderful, this is the first injury that feels like it might be a proper one and not just a byproduct of tightness elsewhere. Very annoying.

chabsey wrote: »

Rossi7 wrote: »

I think your learning the hard way regarding keeping the easy pace easy, doing intervals this morning with a dodgey ankle wasn't the greatest of ideas. Not having a go, I was like that myself at the start hammering away each run and strained my calf 3 times in about 6 months. We'd similar times on Sunday, just looking at your Strava and not one of your runs have averaged 6min k's. Just to give you a bit of context, I averaged 4.30 per k on Sunday my run yesterday was 6.17. 
It's not just you, were all at it. I wince when I see some of the "easy run" paces, we are only fooling ourselves for the sake of Strava. As the LSR's increases, we'll all end up on the physio table if we don't make the easy runs easy.

Fair enough, my currently injured status serves as proof of your point. What I'll say in my defense is that I'm following the Hanson's plan and the paces etc that I've been hitting are based on the calculations of my planned finishing time. So, running events aside, I have actually been pretty close to their paces.

Intervals this morning wouldn't have been my choice but the layout of the plan is specific enough that if I was to skip it after taking the Monday off I would have messed the week up considerably.

Obviously messing my ankle up is a worse outcome than messing the plan up but I didn't go into the run this morning knowing my ankle was going to be a problem, it had faded quite a bit and I wasn't sure if the final sprint on Sunday or just general usage had caused the problem.

In any case I'm off it now and not feeling wonderful, this is the first injury that feels like it might be a proper one and not just a byproduct of tightness elsewhere. Very annoying.

What are you basing your planned finishing time off ?

bucketybuck wrote: »

Speaking of results and not goals, and since the first race of the series is now done could I ask again about what paces I should be hitting?

My 10k from Sunday was a PB of 46.30, average pace of 4.38 and going by the McMillan calculator this could translate to a marathon pace of 5.11 and a time of 3.40.

My goal time was 4hrs, a pace of 5.39.

Based on my latest race should I be revising that goal time and increasing the paces accordingly?

Marathon predictions from any site, not just Mc Millan, are a bit optimistic at best. They also assume that you are equally as well trained, something which takes a few training blocks to achieve normally. I'd stay thinking 3:50-4:00 hours if I was you and maybe do MP miles at 5:30 per km

Murph_D wrote: »

Well it is a marathon improvers thread. For most of us, the biggest improvements come in the first few marathons, based simply on increased base mileage and the resulting endurance.

Assuming we train sensibly of course. Not sure about chabsey’s history and whether paces are appropriate or not, but Hanson plan itself (like any other I’ve seen) is very specific on this. You train based on results, not aspirations.

It’s such a simple principle, but one so often ignored.

Not sure I fully understand the idea behind training based on results vs aspirations.

So for example my previous and only other marathon came in at 3:38 and I got this with relatively little effort (in comparison to now I mean). From reviewing my training logs I was doing *maybe* three runs a week although this varied (downwards), no warm ups, no stretching, taking weeks off at a time - basically a shambles where any kind of plan was concerned. My legs hurt sometimes but in hindsight this was from lack of stretching. If I'm being 100% honest the run itself was not difficult and I felt I could have continued for another few KM without a problem. I'm not saying this to boast or show off but to highlight how I decided on my current plan.

Now my 5K and 10K and HM times have remained pretty much the same as they were when I last ran the marathon, I've never tried to improve them, just ran them as I found them and generally got PBs during events. With that in mind I thought it should be possible to knock 20 mins or so off my previous marathon time if I put the effort in.

I don't think that's unreasonable if a proper plan is put in place. However, if I enter my current 5 or 10K times into a finishing time calculator I get an estimated marathon finishing time of 3:31. I don't see that as realistic or frankly worth the effort I'm putting in now.

Again I'm not trying to be awkward or blasé about this and perhaps I've misunderstood the idea behind training based on results vs aspirations but I don't think I was being stupidly optimistic with my times.

On the other hand, who's injured now

yido1882 wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm new to this thread too. I've been reading through it recently and have got loads of great tips.



Have you raced before? If so what are your PBs?
10km - 44:11 (June 2018)
HM - 1hr 48 mins (March 2018)


Do you still need to take walk breaks in your training?
No


How much training do you currently do ?

I'm now ruuning 4 times a week. I cycle 5 times a week(125km in total)



What do you want to achieve?

To complete the marathon, hopefully in a reasonable time!


How many days a week can you train? And what plan do you intend to follow?

4/5 days a week. I'm following HH1 plan, I'm on the 8th week of the plan now



What is your biggest worry/fear/doubt (if you have any!) in signing up?
Getting injured or sick before the marathon


Why are you running this marathon?
I wanted to try keep healthy and needed something to aim for to stay on track


The thing I'm struggling most with at the moment is what pace I'm supposed to be running at....

Sorry I missed this one. Just had a look at Strava and you won't be surprised to hear what I say....the pace you are supposed to be running at is significantly slower than you presently do I know I'm sounding like a broken record but it's for one simple reason....there is a right and wrong way to train. Someone can train the wrong way and still complete a marathon. On the other hand someone can train the right way which improves endurance, makes runs more enjoyable and reduces injury risk. You'll also run a better race than if you train badly. This is for everyone, not directed at you personally! :pac:

Want to say thanks to Skyblue46 for telling me to slow down! Was starting to tighten up last week(likely from combination of running 6 days a week far too fast and also doing this on hilly routes) and the advice to cop on and slow down came just in time. Went for 12mile LSR this evening after work after 8 miles yesterday morning. Really concentrated on slowing down and did about 9mins/mile yesterday for 8 and 9.25/mile this evening for the 12miles. A week ago before getting that advice I would have absolutely dogged myself through these runs at least 45-60seconds/mile faster and would likely be seriously injured tomorrow. Thanks again!