Como Una Cabra

healy1835 wrote: »

Best of luck mate. How many weeks is the plan?

18 week plan but I've allowed for 19. Had signed up for a 10k in Munich in October so am slotting in an extra week for that.

I ended up doing these at my current 5k pb pace. Even at that I was forcing myself to slow down a little. I'll have to go back and look at the book to see if it recommends that I slow it down to closer to 10k pace. Anyway, pleased with how it went and was able to maintain pace for all 12 reps. I'll be interested to see how quickly I recover because once the plan fully kicks in, I'll have another session two days after this one.

Rep|Time
1|1:26.5
2|1:26.9
3|1:27.0
4|1:28.1
5|1:27.1
6|1:28.1
7|1:27.0
8|1:26.9
9|1:27.6
10|1:27.7
11|1:27.5
12|1:27.5

shotgunmcos wrote: »

What was your recovery between reps? Do you set the watch by pace to control them?

I ran 400m recoveries and just went at what felt comfortable. For me that was no slower that around 5:00/km pace.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|10|10.01
2|Intervals|12|12
3|Rest|0|0
4|MP|14|14
5|Easy|12|12.13
6|Easy|10|9.21
7|Easy|15|16.14


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
Total|202.6|206.09


3 weeks in now and the weekly mileage is beginning to climb. Have gotten used to the longer mid-week runs so am happy about that. Have also had a few unavoidable social occasions over the last few weeks so glad that I've managed to keep the show on the road.

I want to focus on getting some proper rest and my diet in order because I'm all over the place lately.

The two sessions went well this week. I was down in Galway and did my first Marathon pace run on Wednesday. It was 14km with 10 of those at Marathon pace. I was aiming for around 04:13/km and I had no problem maintaining that pace.

Thankfully I haven't had any problems from last week's fall but have had a slight twinge in my right heal. I've had an injury there before, so I'll be keeping an eye on it over the next while.

I’ve been doing these reps down by the royal canal for the last few weeks. There’s a nice stretch of flat (almost) ground with a decent surface, and it’s almost exactly 1km in distance. I guess I’ll have to find somewhere new as the distance continues to creep up for these.

This was easily the toughest effort so far. The 1st, 3rd and 5th reps didn’t feel so bad, with a bit of a breeze at my back, but I paid for that as I ran in the opposite direction for the 2nd and 4th ones. They ended up slightly slower and I was working hard to keep the pace up.

Overall, I’m happy with it though, as the legs were feeling a little bit rickety beforehand, and there’s not much tiredness in them today. Tomorrow’s run includes 11k at Marathon Pace so will be a bit of a test.

Rep|Distance|Time
warm-up|2k|10:28
1|1,000m|3:37
Rec|400m|1:56
2|1,000m|3:41
Rec|400m|2:16
3|1,000m|3:38
Rec|400m|2:04
4|1,000m|3:40
Rec|400m|2:09
5|1,000m|3:38
Rec|400m|2:05
cool-down|2k|9:58

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|10|10.01
2|Intervals|10.4|10.02 EASY
3|Rest|0|0
4|MP|16|16.19
5|Easy|10|10.42
6|Easy|13|12.28
7|Easy|15|16.32


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
Total|430.2|437.09


The legs were beginning to feel a bit of fatigue by the time last Monday came around so I decided to ditch the planned intervals and just went with an easy run. I thought about doing them later in the week but knew that I was going to have two Marathon Pace efforts, on the Thursday and the Sunday (Frank Duffy 10 Miler), and figured there would be little benefit to trying to squeeze in another session, especially with the tiredness in the legs.

I've been using Saturdays to do my longer runs, and this generally involves running as far as parkrun at an easy pace and finishing out the last 5k as a part of a crowd. I feel like this has been working well so far.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|10|10.01
2|Intervals|10.6|10.62|
3|Rest|0|0
4|MP|16|16.01
5|Easy|10|10.01
6|Easy|15|15.01
7|Long Run|15|15


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
Total|594|601.47

Last week was a bit up and down. It started well enough with the last of the faster interval sessions.

Then on Wednesday I had 18k with 14@MP. I knew after 2k that I was in for a tough time of it. After 3k of running straight into a decent breeze, it dawned on me that I probably should have adapted my pace a little. I hadn't and I didn't. Instead I kept going and spent the next 11k telling myself that I hadn't a hope of maintaining this pace for a marathon. Afterwards, I was happy that I'd stuck at it, because I genuinely felt like bailing out around half way around. On reflection, I didn't give my self enough rest after the half marathon on the Saturday, hopping into an interval session on the Monday and then just one day's rest before this.

I'm doing the same MP effort tomorrow morning so it'll be nice to have a comparison with the legs relatively rested.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|10|10.01
2|Intervals|10.6|10.6
3|Rest|0|0
4|MP|18|18 – 14@MP
5|Easy|10|10.01
6|Easy|15|15.01
7|Long Run|15|16.23


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
9|92.2|92.49
10|78.6|79.96
Total|764.8|773.92

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|10|10.01
2|Intervals|8.8|8.8
3|Rest|0|0
4|Intervals|7.6|7.61
5|Easy|8|8.5
6|Easy|8|7.81
7|Rest|0|0


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
9|92.2|92.49
10|78.6|79.96
11|101.4|101.21
-|42|42.73
Total|908.2|917.86

Another fairly good week, and my second with over 100k in the bag. I did the second of three sessions with 15k at Marathon Pace and it was a big improvement. I think I’m adapting to the pace and definitely found this to be the easiest MP run so far.

I shuffled things a little towards the end of the week, reducing one of the Easy runs by 3k and increasing the Long Run from 27 to 30. It was the most comfortable 30k training run I’ve ever done, including a few kms at Tolka Valley parkrun.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|13|13.01
2|Intervals|16|16
3|Rest|0|0
4|Tempo|19|19.01 with 15km@MP
5|Easy|12|12.01
6|Easy|13|10.01
7|Long Run|27|30.01


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
9|92.2|92.49
10|78.6|79.96
11|101.4|101.21
-|42|42.73
12|80.8|83.84
13|100|100.05
Total|1089|1101.75

That’s 15 weeks of the Hansons plan completed and it certainly feels differently to the other times that I’ve trained for the marathon. In the past I’ve been tired of training at this stage, and looking forward to the distances reducing leading up to raceday. I’ve been running more weekly kms this time, and although the legs are beginning to tire, the final three weeks have just crept up on me. I definitely think that the absence of the really long runs (32) in this plan have suited me.

Three weeks to go and there are still some tough mid-week sessions to get through, but hopefully things will go smoothly from here on in.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|13|10.05
2|Intervals|16|16 – 3x3,2km@MP-5secs
3|Rest|0|0
4|Tempo|20|20 with 16km@MP
5|Easy|12|10.05
6|Easy|13|12.2
7|Long Run|27|30.15


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
9|92.2|92.49
10|78.6|79.96
11|101.4|101.21
-|42|42.73
12|80.8|83.84
13|100|100.05
14|85.8|87.24
15|101|101.45
Total|1275.8|1290.44

Nothing major to report except that I decided not to do the final 20k with 16@MP, preferring to rest a little, and settled for 14k with 10@MP. I felt that the longer effort would take a bit too much out of me with only 10 days to go to the race. In the event it was a real confidence booster as I had really struggled with this same run earlier in the plan, and this time I sailed through it.

A few little niggles beginning to creep in now, but nothing that's overly worrying me. I feel like I've done everything I could have in this block of training and definitely feel fitter than I was heading into last year's effort. There is always that niggling doubt about the lack of any really long runs in this plan (although I did sneak in a few 30s instead of the recommended 27s), but I feel like I've done plenty of longer runs in the past and they'll stand to me.

Day|Run Type|Planned|Actual
1|Easy|13|13.01
2|Intervals|16.0|16 – 6x1,600 @MP-7secs
3|Rest|0|0
4|Tempo|20|14.37 with 10km@MP
5|Easy|11|11.01
6|Easy|13|12.94
7|Long Run|13|13.1


Accumulated
week|Planned kms|Actual kms
1|63|65.74
2|66.6|66.86
3|73|73.49
4|73.2|74.38
5|80|81.38
6|74.4|75.24
7|87.2|87.72
8|76.6|76.66
9|92.2|92.49
10|78.6|79.96
11|101.4|101.21
-|42|42.73
12|80.8|83.84
13|100|100.05
14|85.8|87.24
15|101|101.45
-|10|10.08
16|88.8|88.96
17|86|80.43
Total|1460.6|1469.91

aquinn wrote: »

Massive congratulations, well done.

Thanks a million. Nice when the training pays off like that.

Everything that I did in the lead up to this race was focused on doing a better job than last year. In 2017 I went to pieces at the 30km mark and suffered all the way to the finish. I felt that I had unfinished business and the plan was to rectify that. The goal this year was to enjoy the marathon, run it well, and, hopefully, come in under three hours.

Pre-race: My legs were knackered on the Friday and the Saturday. I had pains in my shins, calves, knees, and was just generally tired. The Hansons plan really doesn’t have as big a taper as P & D, and I was wondering if I had given myself enough time to rest and recover. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling all that confident about hitting my target pace of around 04:15/km.

On Sunday morning, I was feeling quite a bit sharper which was a good sign. We arrived at the starting area in plenty of time, and I was able to go to the bathroom for the third time. Three seems to be the magic number for me pre-marathon so it was good to hit my first target of the day.

After dropping off my bag, I did a light jog for a few hundred metres and did a few minutes of dynamic stretching. I then made my way to the 03:15-03:00 pen. I stayed a little bit back from the pacers at the front, intending to ease into things with a few kms at slower than Marathon Pace. My thinking was that I’d prefer to be hunting them down towards the end, rather than getting that sinking feeling if they were catching me. I was in the pen with ten minutes to spare, and spent that time reviewing my strategy in terms of gels and zero tabs. I usually take four Gu gels, but opted for 5 this year, planning to take them at the 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 km markers. I also wanted to keep my salt levels higher so had planned to use Zero tabs at 10, 20 and 30. Finally I’d struggled with upper-body stiffness in previous races, so decided to try to shake out my arms a little after every water station.

Start - km 5 – 04:23/km

This was all about getting comfortable and not panicking. I had told myself beforehand that I’d be happy to hit 04:30/km for the first kilometre, and slowly up the pace from there. I hit 04:32 for the first, but for the next while I was stuck in a group going around 04:25/km. I was starting to get a little worried, but told myself to keep calm and to avoid wasting energy by weaving in and out of other runners, as I had last year. I crossed the 5k mat quickly calculated that I was 45 seconds down on target pace.

To km 10 – 04:16/km

Things were spreading out at this stage and I started to move up a gear. I settled into a nice pace, and I crossed the mat with the 45 second deficit still intact.

To km 15 – 04:15/km

At this stage, I had to start telling myself to slow down. At this part of the course on my previous attempt, I sped up too quickly and it cost me further up the road. I noticed that I was actually telling myself to slow down out loud. This would continue for the next 20k. They have the racing line marked out in Valencia, and I started to follow it as the crowd began to spread out.

To Half – 04:14/km – Through half way at 01:30:22

I continued at a steady pace up until the half way point and did a quick scan to see how I was feeling. I was happy that I had kept to the plan in terms of the gels, zero tabs and arm loosening. I checked my face and found that there was a bit of salt building up, so decided to drink more of the water with the zero tabs for the remainder of the run. I felt that I probably could have sped up slightly here, but I decided to be a little more cautious, knowing what was to come. I noticed that most of the local runners had moved away from the blue line and into the more shaded areas at the side of the course and I had the sense to do the same. Maintaining pace during the sunnier parts of the course was just that little bit more tiring, and I figured that I’d need every ounce of energy. I really like the challenge of managing yourself during the Marathon, and was glad that I was keeping on top of things and making good decisions.

To km 25 – 04:13/km

This was my third time doing this race and I had always found this part of the course a little tough. It’s not like there are any hills or anything, and the support is great, but for some reason it gets to me. I think it’s maybe because I really enjoy from half way until around 30k in the Dublin Marathon, and I just don’t get that same boost here.

To km 30 – 04:14/km

I had set a few distance goals beforehand and the first was 30km, the place where things went wrong last year. Also, the longest distance I had run in training was 30km (the plan only prescribed 27), so now I was entering unknown territory. The pace for kilometre number 30 was 04:15 and I told myself that I was feeling decent.

Around this point, I met a Japanese guy who was clearly enjoying himself, flexing his biceps to the crowd as he went and cheering on other runners. I remember being grateful for the boost that his energy and enthusiasm gave me, but was a little pissed off that he was finding it so easy.

To km 35 – 04:16/km

The next target in my head was 32km and I was still with my Japanese friend as it approached. For some reason I decided that this was a good time to see if holding a conversation was a good idea. We established that we were both feeling decent. He told me that we could support each other to the finish. I remember telling him that I blew up at 30km last year and felt much better this time. I also told him that I had no doubt that today was going to be the day. Just then, I noticed my pace slipping a little with a 04:18 followed by a 04:20, maybe brought on by the effort of talking. It was time to refocus, so I upped the pace slightly and before I knew it I’d lost my new running partner and I was back on pace by km 35.

To km 40 – 04:10/km

From experience, I knew that the last 7.2kms were quite friendly if you have anything left in the tank. During training, I was focused on the goal of getting to 35 at a steady pace, and then giving everything that I had left to bring home the sub 3. I knew this was when this attempt would be won or lost. The problem was that the tiredness was finally coming, and the quads were starting to give out. I upped the pace slightly, but worryingly I was getting a twinge in my left calf. It felt like it was very close to cramping up and I knew the game would be up if that happened, considering I hadn’t left myself much of a margin for error. I slowed down again but I was still hitting 04:10 pace, and the pain receded. There are some unavoidable metal grills/grates across the road at some stages during this part of the course and I felt every single one of them on the soles of my feet. These kilometres were beginning to feel longer and longer as I kept glancing at my watch. I wasn’t concerned about the pace anymore, but rather kept checking how long was left. Then, from nowhere I got an unexpected lift.

I heard a couple of Spanish lads talking to each other, and one was trying to encourage his clearly-exhausted friend by telling him that they were catching the 3-hour pacers. It’s probably a darker side of my personality that I always get a boost when I see that someone else is suffering more than me, but I didn’t give a damn about that at that point. Also, the pacers? I had completely forgotten about them and had just assumed they’d get in ahead of me as they had started ahead, and I’d lost plenty of time over the first five kilometres. I knew that the sub-3 was in the bag if I finished in front of them, and out of nowhere I felt strong again. I started to speed up at the 38k marker, and with zero bother from the calf, I glided past them at 40.

To Finish – 04:06/km

It’s hard not to enjoy the last few kms of a Marathon when you’re feeling strong, and the crowds here make this one even better. It’s quite tight with people on the left and right all the way down the long straight towards the finish area. I was in a good mood now, feeling like I had energy to spare, and I, perhaps foolishly, used it to throw the arms in the air and get the crowd going. The last kilometre is rough enough as there is a change from the regular surface to these uncomfortable cobble-like stones, and then onto the bouncy blue platform that makes up the last straight to the finish. I took it all in for the last hundred metres. The sun was shining, the crowds were roaring, and ‘A Kind of Magic’ was blaring on the speakers. I decided that, for once, I wasn’t going to have a finish-line photo of me stopping my watch so went for the arms up in the air as I crossed the line.

My watch read 02:59:11, but my official time was 02:59:09, meaning I covered the second half in 1:28:47 for a lovely negative split.

Post-race:

I really enjoyed the few beers with all the lads from here, although it made the journey home through Madrid yesterday extra tiring.

In terms of whether I’ll have another go at the marathon. Well I’m not sure. This was my sixth and my intention was to stop at five but felt that I had unfinished business after last year. Now that I’ve met my goal, and enjoyed it, I’m just not sure how motivated I am to try and take more time off this PB. In any case, I know enough to not try to make that decision right now, and am just going to enjoy the fact that I set out to do something, and executed it as well as I could have.

Cheers. I'm going to write something longer on the Hansons experience but I found it to be a positive experience overall. I never felt the same levels of tiredness that I got with P & D, and found that the weeks were flying by with all the midweek sessions. I used to feel very grateful by the time the taper came around as I was exhausted. Didn't get that this time. On the other hand, I really didn't feel that I was rested going into the last few days of this. I suppose that doesn't matter when I had the energy during the actual race.

In fairness to P&D, I improved with every marathon I did using it, so maybe I would have gone sub-3 if I'd used it again. Maybe the real benefit of the Hansons plan was that it was just something different.

If I go again, I'll use the same plan.

Things have been fairly quiet on the running front for a while, as I had decided to pull back a little in the New Year. After hitting my target in Valencia, following the Hansons plan, I then ran PBs over the 5k and Half distances, before putting the brakes on for a bit. I did a good chunk of strength training earlier in the year, and have recently been out on the bike quite a bit ahead of a 100km sponsored cycle this weekend.

Despite the lower mileage, I’ve kept things ticking over and have been involved in the Raheny 2-mile race series over the summer. It finishes up tonight, so I’m going to give it a good lash to see how I go.

The weekend before last, I finally got around to doing the Warriors Run up in Strandhill. This was certainly an experience, and one I’d like to repeat again next year. I might even take the unusual step of running up a few hills beforehand in preparation. I had to walk a lot of the ascent, and I found the downhill section was much harder on the body than anything else. I definitely think there is room for improvement there with some focused training.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2647492945

Anyway, the plan for the next while is to start increasing the mileage again, before taking on the Seville half in January and , qualification times permitting, the Boston marathon in April. I've also pretty much given my word that I'll join the local running club, so that will be an interesting change. Lots to look forward to, so I’m excited to see how the next few months turn out.

Monday 15th March – Nice recovery paced effort into Fairview Park, out the coast and back through a fairly muddy St. Anne’s. Mostly trails and grass.

Distance – 14km
Average pace: 5:13/km

S&C – The Challenge – Fourth week back doing this push and pull routine. Beginning to feel stronger again.

Tuesday 16th - Session – 2x4.8kms with 1.2km recovery

I slowed the pace down a little from around 3:42/km to 3:44/km given the reps were increased from 3,200m to 4,800m this week. To be honest, I think it would have been a whole lot tougher if I hadn’t. The under armour wasn’t necessary for the first time in ages and it was nice to feel a little bit of heat at first, but then predictably, it felt like I was getting too hot. I think the 1,200m recovery was just about right.

Rep 1: 18:00 @3:44/km
Rep 2: 17:57 @3:44/km

Total Distance - 20km

Wednesday 17th – Recovery run through Fairview Park, and back home via the Alfie Byrne Road.

Distance – 5km
Average Pace: 5:33/km

Thursday 18th – 11.2k @ Tempo pace
Total distance – 19km

11.2k in 43:19
Average pace: 3:52min/km

I have moved up from 6.4km to 8km to 10km and now to 11.2km at Tempo pace over the course of this training plan. The last km was tough today but I’d say it was no tougher than the last km felt when I was doing the 6.4km back in January. The training seems to be working! I’m really looking forward to getting back to Marathon-Pace workouts all the same. They should feel a whole lot easier after this.

healy1835 wrote: »

Didn't do the 10k with the brother?

Nope, but I could be tempted to give it a lash in a few weeks. I'd be interested to see what I could manage. He's flying it!