Bananaleaf's journey to DCM2019

Monday - Strength and Conditioning (60mins) For the moment this is being done at home with some light weights and body-weight exercises. I will head back to the gym at some point, but for now, doing it at home is handier.

Tuesday - Sports massage and 6km easy pace (8:49min/km)

Wednesday - 2km warm up and 2km cool down at easy pace. 1.6km speed work (short intervals ranging from 30secs to 60secs)

Thursday - 20mins Yoga and 20mins Pilates. At home

Friday - 11km - was meant to be easy pace but was a little bit quicker than it should have been because I was with a friend and she was under pressure to be finished by a certain time. It still felt easy though (7:55min/km)
This run was done in the Phoenix Park and was more or less miles 4-9 of the DCM route (I got a bit lost around Mt Sackville )

Saturday - 5km - was meant to be easy pace but was a bit quicker than it should have been again. Didn't feel as easy as it should have (7:06km/hr)

Sunday - 12km LSR (9:04km/hr) I opted for a short LSR this week because I want to start the plan fresh.

Total kms: 39.9 :rolleyes:

Just to explain where my 'easy pace' and 'LSR' pace is coming from... back in Feb/March I started slowing my running right down and trying heart rate training. So, 'easy' became determined by however quick I could be, provided the heart rate stayed at 149bpm or below.

Since end of May/beginning of June, I have kept this approach for the LSR but have sped up the other runs slightly to make them about a minute or less slower than the LSR pace. Thus, easy pace became somewhere around 8:30min/km.

Tonight is 'Marathon plan eve'. Tomorrow I get to officially say that I am training for DCM. :eek:

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

Thanks for that - I've just recently started paying a bit of attention to HR for easy stuff. I was trying to work out my ranges there using your formula and I think I noticed an error in your zones: 75% of 130 is 97, not 87. That would put your upper level at 157.

Oh wow, that is even better than I thought in that case. Thank you

Plan|Monday|Tuesday|Wed|Thurs|Fri|Sat|Sun
Boards|rest,cross or 3m rec|3m easy|5m with 5 x hill sprints|4m easy|rest,cross or 3m rec|13m lsr|2m rec


This week was spot-on according to plan.

Monday - I went for a short swim and a visit to the sauna to loosen myself out after the hilly half marathon on Saturday

Tuesday - 3miles easy. @13:42mins/mile. Learning from last week's mistake, I kept this very easy. I also had my monthly sports massage today. It was very welcome after Achill.

Wednesday - 5miles easy with 5 hill sprints. @13:39mins/mile. I really enjoyed the hill sprints.

Thursday - 4miles easy. @13:40mins/mile. For this run I headed out to Clonskeagh and ran miles 21-24 of the DCM route. I found Roebuck Road to be very easy. I wonder how those words will taste when I'm eating them on October 27 :pac: I made the decision that evening that I won't return to that section of the course again as it may be useful for my last memory of miles 21-24 to be "this is so easy"

Friday - 20mins Yoga.

Saturday - 13miles LSR. @14:10mins/mile. A last minute change of plan meant that we wouldn't be at home Sat morning so I had to come up with a 13mile route on the spot and if possible I wanted it to end with a parkrun. It didn't work out that way so it had to be 5miles out - parkrun - 5miles back. However, due to very good timing - if I do say so myself - I only had to stop once (for about 1min to get barcode scanned) and that was it.

I was quite tired after this run. It amounted to a total of 3hrs 6mins. This is going to become more of an issue as the LSRs get longer, so I may have to look at upping the pace gently.

Sunday - 3miles recovery. @15:25mins/mile. I did this run at 7:45pm this evening and it was still boiling out!

Total miles: 28

I found this week very rewarding. I was delighted to do every single run exactly as it was meant to be done. No modifications, no substitutions and no excuses.

I also found it tough though. I'm a bit worried about how long the LSRs are taking me. I am going to seek some advice from my DCM mentors about this. I enjoy them and the pace is very relaxed. I don't really want to speed them up, but it will most likely get to the point that I will have to. However, I am down on sleep this week. The heat means that my sleep has been more disturbed than usual, so at least that goes some way to explaining things.

Plan|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday|Saturday|Sunday
Boards|rest,cross or 3m rec|4m easy|6m easy with 5 x 100m strides|4m easy|rest,cross or 3m rec|15m lsr|3m rec


This week was tough on me mentally. I honestly can't say why exactly, maybe unbeknownst to myself I was stressed about the 15miles on Saturday as this would see me doing a distance I've never run before.

Monday - Walk with the dog. Rest and lots of stretching after Sunday's 10km

Tuesday - 4 miles easy @12:09min/miles. No more 3m easy runs on a Tuesday as we move up the miles. I had come to think of 3 miles as "just 3 small miles" so am looking forward to also viewing 4m that way after a few weeks of them. Also did some Yoga today too.

Wednesday - 6 miles easy with 5 x100m strides. Average pace @11:51min/miles, the pace slightly faster due to the strides. Another very hot day so for my rest in between strides I just stood rather than jogged in between.

Thursday - 4 miles easy @11:50min/miles. A little faster than normal as I ran with a friend so lost my focus a little, but not too much.

Friday - Walk with the dog.
On Friday evening I got my running and hydration belt ready for the morning. In recent weeks I've been having doubts about the belt. I'm worried it is going to be too cumbersome, but up to now I've been stubbornly going out with it anyway. As my paces get a bit faster and the distances get longer, therefore the fuel needs getting more demanding, I just know the belt won't work for me. And I know I need to start figuring out an alternative now. This is part of why we do the training runs I know, but for some reason it really knocked my confidence on Friday night.

Saturday - 15 miles LSR @ 12:50min/miles. I brought my music and podcasts with me for this one. I structured it so that I would do 12miles before parkrun and the final 3 would be parkrun. By mile 10 I was really quite tired and remember thinking to myself "This wouldn't even be half way through the marathon". I HATE that I start thinking this way so I started focusing on the fact that I was going to have over 50km done by the end of the week and how amazing is that and look at how fit I am these days that I'm out running all these miles. My timing was excellent this week and I approached the beginning of parkrun just as everyone was setting off, so I blended right into the tail end, not having to stop or slow down much at all.
Having the company of other runners in the last 3miles was great and before I knew it I was finished.

Fuel: I decided to drop the belt and took 2 x 250ml bottles with half a zero tab in each bottle with me. I dropped one into a bush after 3miles for collection on the way back, at 9miles. After 45mins I took a gel (about 3miles), took another at 6 miles (about 1hr and a half) and then a banana at 9miles. I didn't take anything after that as I knew I'd be okay to finish, but I was fading towards the end. Next week I will take same amount but maybe space it out a bit better.

Sunday - 3miles recovery @15:08min/miles. I did this on grass. I haven't been experiencing any pain, but thought that it can't harm me to do some of the easier miles on grass where possible. I found it hard to run on the grass. I went for a swim and sauna afterwards to help stretch me out.

Another week of no S&C. I will definitely do some tomorrow, even if it is only a small bit.

Am away next weekend in Co Clare so I will have to figure out a 16mile route around Lahinch. I am staying in Liscannor and I know of a 5km route close to where I am staying so could do that 5 times (ish) - would make fuel and water situation easy as I wouldn't have to carry anything. On the other hand I'm worried about the temptation to cut the run short if I do that.

Total miles: 32

This is the most mileage I've ever done in a week and it also included my longest LSR to date. I feel good so far and I adapted well to the slight rise in pace this week. My LSR should be closer to 12:30min/miles, not the 12:50min/miles that it was this week, but I'm not worried about that.

Thank you for reading

Plan|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday|Saturday|Sunday
Boards|rest,cross or 3m rec|5m easy|1m w/u + 5m pace + 1m c/d|3m rec|rest,cross or 3m rec|16m lsr|rest,cross or 3m rec


Monday - Walk with the dog and 25mins Strength and Conditioning.

Tuesday - 5miles easy @12:08min/m

Wednesday - 7miles - 1 warm up, 5m @PMP, 1m cool down @11:31min/m average. The warm up mile was just under 13mins and the cool down mile was 12:36. The 5 marathon paced miles were supposed to be done in 11mins each and my splits seem pretty good:
mile 1 - 10:54
mile 2 - 11:02
mile 3 - 10:57
mile 4 - 11:06
mile 5 - 11:01
But ... I'm finding it hard to get a steady pace going for the PMP miles. I fluctuate between 10:35 or 11:20. Each mile comes out around the 11min/m mark but I spend very little time running at that pace. Maybe it doesn't matter but hopefully I will get better at this with more practice at PMP miles.

Thursday - 3miles recovery @13:25min/m

Friday - Walk with dog and I also went to a Yoga retreat on Friday so did some Yoga too.

Saturday - 16miles LSR @13:32min/m. Upon reflection I am happy with the run, but it was tough and the first half of it didn't go as planned.
The plan had been to run the Cliffs of Moher Cliff Walk. 8miles out and 8miles back. I had researched as much as I could. I drove out to the carpark the afternoon before and told the carpark attendant of my plans and asked if would be possible. She told me that it would be fine to run the route but she advised that I do it early as it would be busy in the afternoon. She also advised me about the uneven terrain.

I was restricted in terms of timing because I was on the retreat, so could only go at 1:30pm though. So, off I went. The first 4miles were fine. It was, as the attendant said, busy, but it was okay. The walk was narrower than I expected so it was awkward trying to get round some walkers, which slowed me down a bit. Also I hadn't realised that parts of the walkway involved climbing up or down steep and dangerous steps which slowed me down a lot too.

Once I hit the 5th mile the rain came. It completely changed the terrain and things got very precarious very quickly. I no longer felt safe - if I kept going it was pretty much a certainty that I would fall and get injured. It was also getting REALLY busy at this point (around the visitor centre) and there was no way I was going to be able to continue without a lot of stop-starting, so I turned back.

Got back to the car with only 8miles done. 8 more to do and I was soaked to the bone, disappointed, angry, cold, tired, fed up. And out of routes. I thought about how pathetic I would feel logging 8miles instead of 16 so I asked the carpark attendant if she had any ideas and she sent me off in the direction of the sea - a route she didn't know the distance of, but she was sure I'd manage my 8miles. Which I did. 4 out and 4 back to the car. It was tough. I was really really tired by 14miles. The remaining 2miles were horrible. My form was terrible. I was shuffling along like I was escaping an attack. The last 2 miles were faster than easy pace but slower than PMP. I just needed to get it done at that point. It was the hills for sure. The route had an elevation gain of 586m.

I also did 2 Yoga sessions as part of the retreat on Saturday, but I kept it very light and didn't overdo it at all. I spent an hr in the hot tub and sauna too purely to relax my muscles of course!

Sunday - REST. Again, there were 2 Yoga sessions as part of the retreat and again I just did gentle stretching poses to loosen the legs.

Total miles: 31

healy1835 wrote: »

Three and a half hour LR with an elevation gain of nearly 600m!! Some going

Thank you. It should stand to me for DCM I hope