My first Marathon and first log log

marathon19 · 04-09-2019 10:59am

The dark mornings are upon us.

Out early this morning for an easy 8 mile.

Pace averaged 9.45/mile and HR was at 128.

Brrr

marathon19 · 05-09-2019 1:57pm

A bit colder this morning, long sleeves for the first time in ages.

Very easy 4 miles at 9.55/mile with HR at 125.

5xstrides at the end of the run, really like these.

marathon19 · 07-09-2019 3:27pm

Had a really relaxing week, just easy runs and a few strides so I was set up for this mornings lsr.

20 miles at 9.52 per mile and the HR averaging 139

Slight pain in the hip from about 14 miles but all in all I reckon I could have kept going for a few more miles after the 20.

Did all the things to keep this run easy.
I had breakfast then chilled out for an hour or so, nothing scheduled so no rush preparing to go out.
Brought 3 gels, one at 8,12 and 16 and a bottle with high five tab in it.
Topped up the bottle twice in Malahide Castle and eased home.
Have to say I feel stiff but not as much as normal.

I think I'm nearly ready.

One slightly annoying thing was my watch showed 20.08 miles when I finished but once the run went onto Strava it only showed 19.9.
Last week was the same,, might add a bit onto my runs from now on.

marathon19 · 08-09-2019 8:33pm

Another Sunday another recover run.

Had a nice easy 2k Park run with the pup and then eased home for 5 mile recovery.

5 mile at 10.05/mi and HR at 135.

marathon19 · 10-09-2019 11:42am

Dark dark mornings

6 miles at 10.05/mi, HR At 128.

Have decided to change it up for tomorrow's 11miler, it's to dark into morning for PMP on my route as there is some grass and track included so I'm going to run it in the evening.

Will probably run thursdays in the evening as well. Give me some recovery.

On a different note I got my wave allocation, 2. Didn't recall giving a time when I applied last November(cheap kbc reg) so checked, was a bit ambitious at 3.45, that was before I decided to used the boards plan as a base for training. I thought my 8.00 to 8.30 10 ks would translate, more fool me.

I'm not making any concrete plan until after the half but in my head now I'm thinking
A. 3.59.59
B. 4.10.00
C. 4.20.00

All depending on how I feel, how my hip is, how the day is, very excited

marathon19 · 11-09-2019 7:54pm

Lovely evening for a run

11 mile PMP at 9.05/mile with my HR ticking over at 148

Really enjoyed that, chomping at the bit to go faster but held it back mostly. Nice to run run in bright.

marathon19 · 12-09-2019 7:37pm

I could get used to running of an evening, lovely mild weather.

Did a nice easy 5 miler at 9.50/mi with the HR at 136.

After running empty in the mornings for so long I had forgotten about being careful with food, had a late lunch which caused some discomfort. Will have to be more careful.

Apart from that I really enjoyed this one,

marathon19 · 15-09-2019 3:23pm

Slight adjustment today, out Friday night till all hours so not fit for running yesterday, did some extreme couching instead.

Started of today with a 2k Junior Park run to shake the cobwebs off then after dropping the pup home slipped out for an easy 16 mile.

16 miles at 9.52/mi and the old HR at 132

Felt really strong even though I didn't fuel for this run.

Six weeks to the marathon

marathon19 · 17-09-2019 12:36pm

https://www.wired.com/story/aging-marathoner-tries-to-run-fast-after-40/

Having read this I'm wondering should I buy a pair of Nike 4% and start drinking beet juice.

Laineyfrecks · 17-09-2019 2:17pm

marathon19 wrote: »

https://www.wired.com/story/aging-marathoner-tries-to-run-fast-after-40/

Having read this I'm wondering should I buy a pair of Nike 4% and start drinking beet juice.

Great read

marathon19 · 19-09-2019 7:35am

Mini taper.

Started the week of with a 3 mile run
Tuesday I slipped in a 5 mile with strides
Yesterday rest
Today rest

Tomorrow calls for a couple of easy miles

Saturday DCHM

Before training for this year's marathon i had only run one race in the last 30 years.
2017 half marathon at Newbridge house, no training plan then so just ran it, had a cold that week(I think everyone in the country did) and had to walk 6km to just get to the start line. On the plus side the route was through North Dublin, loved it, and loved seeing the smile on the other half and pups face when I got to the finish line.
Finished it in 1.56

Depending on heat and humidity Saturday morning I am aiming for anything from 1.45 to 1.50 this time around.

Will be tough, 8.00 to 8.10 pace for 13 miles

Hopefully the excitement will give new a little boost

marathon19 · 20-09-2019 10:43pm

Easy 3 mile tonight,

Half marathon in the morning. Good luck everyone

Kellygirl · 20-09-2019 10:51pm

Best of luck.

marathon19 · 21-09-2019 1:31pm

Just figured out how to get the chip time for today,

1.46.19

Nice day for a run, fairly wrecked at the end but enjoyable. I don't really remember the race mile by mile but there was one section leaving the park at about 7 miles that was bloody hard, a long drag up a shaded residential road. Now I can focus on the big one in five weeks.

Well done everyone, looking at the novice thread it looks like there was some amazing results. All down to the training.

marathon19 · 26-09-2019 10:51am

Since Saturday,

Sunday, 2 km parkrun with the little one at 8.20/mile and hr at 145 then 4 mile recovery at 9.45/mile with HR of 139

Monday, 5 mile easy at 10.22( stopped for a little chat)/mile with HR at 129

Tuesday rest

Wednesday, 10 mile easy at 9.45/mile and hr at 136

Time is ticking

marathon19 · 26-09-2019 8:01pm

I love running in the rain this time of year, not yet cold enough to be uncomfortable. No civilians on the paths.

Sneaky 6 mile, absolutely drowned half a mile in and rained for nearly the whole lot.

5 easy and last 1 at marathon pace

9.30 / mile average

Rest tomorrow then the big one Saturday morning. Going to fuel for marathon. My plan is to eat some toast and have a cup of coffee, relax for 90 minutes, 30 minutes before the start take a gel, bring 250ml bottle with half high 5, other half in pocket. Gel at 30 minutes then every 45 minutes running and refill bottle from 9 miles every 3 miles .

One thing about fueling I have discovered is that the early gels are most important because as the run progresses and the core heats up the body moves blood away from the digestive tract/stomach reducing the bodies ability to take in the carbs. Don't leave the fueling too late.

biketard · 27-09-2019 3:39pm

marathon19 wrote: »

Just figured out how to get the chip time for today,

1.46.19

Nice day for a run, fairly wrecked at the end but enjoyable. I don't really remember the race mile by mile but there was one section leaving the park at about 7 miles that was bloody hard, a long drag up a shaded residential road. Now I can focus on the big one in five weeks.

Well done everyone, looking at the novice thread it looks like there was some amazing results. All down to the training.

Bit slow to reply, but really well done, marathon19!

marathon19 · 28-09-2019 7:41am

biketard wrote: »

Bit slow to reply, but really well done, marathon19!

No worries, much appreciated our.

marathon19 · 28-09-2019 6:04pm

Saturday LSR

20 mile at 9.48/mile and he ticking over at 148.

I enjoyed this one, no drama or niggles. Apart from being thirsty as a mofo from about 5mile this run was slow and easy.

Pizza and amarone tonight yum

marathon19 · 29-09-2019 7:07pm

Easy recovery

4 miles at 9.47/mile and HR at 135

Nice evening for a run,

marathon19 · 04-10-2019 10:29am

October has arrived

Monday was a rest day

Tuesday I did an easy 6.3 miles at 9.47/mi and HR at 133

Wednesday I scheduled a 10 miler, this was 1 easy at 9.48, 8mile at PMP in and around 9.00/mi then a cool down mile at 10.00/mile. Felt uncomfortable because I ate wrong and late for lunch. Not the first time since I changed to evenings. I miss the morning runs.
HR at 143

Thursday I slipped an easy 4 miles in, was stiff from the day before but nice all the same, pissy weather kept the civilians of the paths.
9.40/mile and HR at 139

Rest today and 18 miler tomorrow.

marathon19 · 05-10-2019 11:56am

Lovely morning for a run

18.1miles at 9.56/mile and HR at 140

Just one slice of toast and a coffee an hour before the start for this run. No other fuel.

Strava is acting up again, after the odd time/ distance loss at the half ive noticed more small differences between the watch data and what gets updated on Strava.

Today I purposely ran for +3.00 hours(3.00.11) because I'm a bit OCD, when the watch app data transferred to Strava it showed only 2.57 and 17.9 miles ,a bit annoying .

Apart from the technical problems this was a super session.

Love running.

Now my only worry is to get to the start line healthy, flu/cold season staring

marathon19 · 10-10-2019 8:47pm

Quick update

Sunday did the usual, 2km with the little one and 4 mile easy

Monday rest

Tuesday 4 mile a bit quick, not quit PMP but close
Wednesday 6 mile easy
Today 6 mile easy

Tired but not bad

Rest tomorrow then 14 mile Saturday

Getting close

marathon19 · 15-10-2019 10:53am

Been slow on updates lately, getting mighty close to the big day

Taper time

Saturday 14mile at 9.36/mi and HR at 139
Sunday 3 mile recovery at 9.32 and HR at 137(bottle of wine Saturday night contributed to this)

Rest yesterday

The excitement is building, generally I keep things close to my chest but the last week or so I find myself going on about the marathon to anyone who will listen. Odd

marathon19 · 19-10-2019 1:26pm

Keeping it simple this week

Easy 3 mile Tuesday
Easy 4 mile Wednesday
Easy 4 mile with 6 strides Thursday

8 mile this morning easy

Taper madness

marathon19 · 21-10-2019 3:35pm

This will be a long week,

Every dry throat, sneeze and chesty cough is filling me with dread.

marathon19 · 25-10-2019 10:30am

So the day is almost upon us,

2 mile easy Tuesday
5 mile with some PMP Wednesday
3 mile easy Thursday

2 mile easy tomorrow morning then that's it.

A massive thanks to everyone who contributed to marathon threads especially the mentors. You should be very proud of yourselves.

Marathon on Sunday

skyblue46 · 25-10-2019 11:02am

Best of luck on Sunday. You did a brilliant job of sorting out training paces and taking advice on board. Please God you get the result you want.

marathon19 · 25-10-2019 11:09am

skyblue46 wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday. You did a brilliant job of sorting out training paces and taking advice on board. Please God you get the result you want.

Thanks very much, the advice and knowledge hereabouts is phenomenal. I'd given up on boards years ago as the lunatics have taken over the asylum but after immersing myself in the athletics forums i certainly have much higher opinion of the site as a whole.

You lot are awesome

ReeReeG · 25-10-2019 11:26am

marathon19 wrote: »

Thanks very much, the advice and knowledge hereabouts is phenomenal. I'd given up on boards years ago as the lunatics have taken over the asylum but after immersing myself in the athletics forums i certainly have much higher opinion of the site as a whole.

You lot are awesome

Oh I dunno if we're completely sane around here either, but at least it's a shared madness when it comes to running :pac:

Best of luck on Sunday, hope it all goes to plan for you!

biketard · 25-10-2019 3:41pm

Best of luck, marathon19. You've got this!

Kellygirl · 26-10-2019 8:43am

Best of luck tomorrow.

Laineyfrecks · 26-10-2019 10:11am

Best of luck tomorrow:)

mister paul · 26-10-2019 4:38pm

Best of luck tomorrow

Mr. Guappa · 26-10-2019 4:47pm

marathon19 wrote: »

Thanks very much, the advice and knowledge hereabouts is phenomenal. I'd given up on boards years ago as the lunatics have taken over the asylum but after immersing myself in the athletics forums i certainly have much higher opinion of the site as a whole.

You lot are awesome

Yep... A/R is a great little corner of t'internet.

Best of luck tomorrow!

marathon19 · 27-10-2019 5:14pm

3.59.22

Job done,

Now to some 5 and 10k targets

biketard · 28-10-2019 11:50am

marathon19 wrote: »

3.59.22

Job done,

Now to some 5 and 10k targets

Awesome. Well done, marathon19!

marathon19 · 29-10-2019 10:03pm

I’ve never had the ability to retrospectively pick apart runs and I’ve sort of been dreading writing this report
For the sake of the log and just in case there is anything of value in what I remember I will lay it out below.

A bit of backstory
The log has most of the details of training but the short of it is that I decided to do the Marathon when I moved banks to KBC and was told there was cheap tickets for the Dublin Marathon to be had. Anyone who runs to any degree will have the big one at the back of their mind.
I've run a bit over the past 3 or 4 years, never going beyond half marathon distance but in truth I like running, really like it when I have some fitness.
I’ve started and stopped a lot. Had a minor procedure on my right leg in January so had six weeks of recovery with no running and not much from Feb to June.
That's when I decided to look at the boards plan, anyone who had used boards in the past knew there was a novice plan and when I looked deeper into the forum I was pretty sure this is where I would find any or all information to help me with training. Pretty quickly decided on the boards plan 2019, apart from a few top-up miles (worried about stamina) and two week makey up on holiday-plan I stuck to the basic outline, great plan by the way.

marathon19 · 29-10-2019 10:10pm

The Marathon

Slept well the night before and got up at 6am, made the daughter her breakfast, she still loves her daddy so this is a nice time :-). Had two slices of toast, one with peanut butter which I hadn't planned but that's what I felt like when I woke up. One nice illy coffee to top it off and then sipped away on a half high five in a glass of water.

Left the house around 7.15, found parking on a side street not far from the bag drop area at about 7.45 and mozied up. The closer I got to the area the more people and the better the buzz, amazing atmosphere. Decided to find somewhere to sit and watch the world go by, this proved to be a good decision, unexpectedly I meet some old friends from my home town, this made the wait a whole lot easier.

Then it was time to go, up to the bag drop around 8.15, then another 20 minutes in the big queue to the jacks on the way to wave 2(green) only to discover when I went around the corner at 9am that the toilets at the wave start had virtually no queue, anyway the banter in the queue was fun.
Took a gel at 8.30am and packed another 5 in my pocket. Forgot the high five tabs in the excitement but I always carry a 250ml bottle with a half one already mixed, this saved me many times during the race

So I'm waiting to start at the back of wave 2 and decide it's time to drop the extra layers, the sun is shining, smiles are beaming and the crowd starts to move like a herd of buffalo on the Serengeti. Prepare and hit the button on my watch just before going under the start
09.07am

marathon19 · 29-10-2019 10:11pm

And we’re off

I had a pace band prepared with a conservative start built in, just like the recommendation of the mentors.

Mile 1 to 7
9.20, 9.00, 9.28, 9.15, 9.12, 9.12 and 9.20.

Perfect, feeling like I didn't even get started yet

Then the part of the race I reckoned I could balance the books

Mile 8 to 13, no bother, plenty of water stations, slotted in behind a tribe of people in bright blue tops with Castlebar Leisure centre on the back, they had just passed me and they looked like they were steady, pacing exactly as I needed, this is where my mind wandered, during these miles the mostly women in the Castlebar gang were fanned out like the pacers for Kipchogie a couple of weeks before, had a giggle to myself and sat in behind them. :-) dreaming of glory.

I think it's at mile 10 but there is a serious hill during this section, slowly does it.

8.43, 8.49, 8.46, 8.52, 8.59, 8.59,

At half way I was in and around 2.00 hours, so I knew the plan was still on,

Mile 14 to 20, tough miles, where did all the water stations go? Im positive some were dismantled before I got to them, bottles everywhere but no tables? And when one showed up it was ****ing cups, what eejit thinks cups are appropriate for runners! Still sitting behind the Castlebar tribe, not so big or compact a group here but still 5 or 6 ahead of me, these guy/gals were the real deal.
This is where I discovered Jaffa cakes, why didn't someone tell me about them, I never eat while running, never, I'm careful to not eat much before running as it upsets my stomach and I get heartburn. I was famished around 20 miles and the gels didn't seem to be holding me up. The advise to not change nutrition before or during a run was playing in my head but I knew I was flagging so I took a chance. Took one, yum, then next offering took two and a mile later took another two, wow. These made the difference
Mile 14 to 20
9.03, 8.54, 8.51, 9.02, 8.52, 8.59 and 8.57

There is a hill somewhere here, sneaky fecker ambushed me

Now I went into the unknown, prior to this the longest I had run was 20 mile and at a much slower pace. I could still see the Castlebar group, diminished(I think some had moved on ahead) but still three or four in sight, will have a small cheer for Mayo next time they play the dubs, least I can do.

This is the part that I worked hardest

Mile 21 was a bit deceiving, felt good at 9.07 was right on the button, forgot it was the first of 6 left.
Mile 22 was my slowest mile, struggles, hills, hunger, thirst 9.34. Everyone knows this one.
Mile 23 was about getting back my mojo, I know this was the one that would decide the finish time - 9.20.

At this stage I calculated that I needed the last 3 miles paced around 9 minutes per mile to do the sub 4.

Mile 24 8.49, woop woop

Mile 25 8.51, this was the mile I really felt like I was running a marathon, missed my girls :-(

Mile 26 8.59, I'm going to do it

Last bit, amazing

Over the line with my watch time under 4 hours not 100% sure as I was tight but either way I didnt give a fiddlers as I was so happy.

Receiving my meddle will stick in my mind forever, grabbed a small race shirt for my pup then gradually my body went into rigamortis, slowing, slowing and slowing till I got the goody bag area.
Went to the bag drop and picked up my gear, changed into a dry top, could hardly stand and this is when the misses calls me, “well done, 3,59.22 amazing result” mind blown. Got a second wind and hobbled quicky to see my girls.

What a day

Jaffa Cakes and Castlebar both contributed to my success on the day, the rest was down to the boards plan and advise hereabouts, the misses and pup for their patience and my stubborn streak.

Never again,

Kellygirl · 30-10-2019 12:10am

Great report. Very well done.

Bluesquare · 30-10-2019 8:06am

Well done - great running !

marathon19 · 30-10-2019 9:51am

Missing my runs, will give it till Friday then might slip in a sneaky mile or two.

I've never done an adult parkrun but I go with my pup to the junior every week, I think I might see how the shorter distance feels, look for a plan to keep me occupied for a few winter months.

Time to add some core and strength to my training, might even try a few stretches

biketard · 30-10-2019 11:51am

Fantastic report. Thanks.

skyblue46 · 30-10-2019 5:25pm

Great report and result. Very well deserved. I'm delighted for you.

ReeReeG · 30-10-2019 6:40pm

Ah brilliant result, and so deserved after that training block, congrats!!

Laineyfrecks · 31-10-2019 8:23am

Well done

Great report & great race!

Never say never

Mr. Guappa · 31-10-2019 8:39am

Well done! A hugely satisfying result I'm sure! Great strength to dig in for the closing 3 miles to ensure you got the sub 4.

marathon19 · 03-11-2019 12:31pm

First run after the marathon, junior parkrun

2km easy ish

Felt amazing to be running again, even though I was hungover.

marathon19 · 11-11-2019 3:34pm

Quick update, chest infection knocked me out since last Tuesday, even took a sick day to help get over it.

Flu jab tomorrow so probably try a mile or two Thursday and on from there.

Parkruns and strength/conditioning will be the priority for this winter and spring.

My first Marathon and first log log

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