So, what time will you be back at?

Bluesquare wrote: »

Well done ! Super time . That sand at the end was awful!

Yeah the sand was just weird to run on, especially if trying to get a sprint finish, and on a tight corner too, only fault I could find with a well organised event.

P&D WEEK 13: tiredness and fatigue set in but threw in a very disciplined half marathon.

Plan for the week was to maintain the mileage but cut out the speed stuff to try and help recovery post Ratoath race.

Monday: rest day

Tuesday: plan was for 8 miles general aerobic and I got it done late in the evening with an average pace of 10:27- felt fine and positive that I'd kept it slower

Wednesday: plan was for 9 miles with 5*1000meters at 5k pace. Nah didn't fancy that at all after the weekends race. Ran 9 miles at general aerobic pace of 10:16. No issues other than its dark in the evenings and I can't run in fields anymore as there's no light.

Thursday was a rest day

Friday: plan was for 12 miles long run, was able to go in later to work so got out running at 6am. Avg pace was 10:19. The run went good but that afternoon the energy levels went through the floor. Was really conscious I had a tough 24+ hours of running so worried about the legs. Bed early and lots of hydration Friday evening was the plan.

Saturday: plan was for 18 miles with 14 at marathon pace of 9:00 min miles. I'd learnt a tough lesson from Frank Duffy in thinking this was anything other than a tough session. Was still feeling very tired when I got to the park around 8am and I cut short the planned 5 miles pre half marathon race series to 3.5 miles with 1 mile at 9:02. Legs were feeling very tired. Got back to the car and got ready, took some recovery drink and headed down to the start line. Didn't help myself by thinking it was a 9am start rather than 9:30!

Although it was a training run for me it is still a great buzz being among the race crowds in the park.

Dublin Race Series half marathon

Miles 1-3: 9:00, 9:06 and 8:55

Headed off and immediately felt myself trying to put the foot down, a number of times I deliberately changed stride to slow myself back to planned paces, I liked this, this is good discipline. Felt focused but in a different way. Legs felt heavy but nothing too concerning.

Miles 4-6: 8:58, 8:58 and 8:58

Ticking along nicely now, wasn't struggling but was feeling it a bit now. Kept focused, still had the same runners around me, a few runners now falling back and a few sprinting by us . The temperature was climbing too.

Miles 7-9: 8:55, 8:56 and 8:49

That climb out of the park was the main memory of these miles, it's not a crazy hill, but all I remember here was the increasing number of runners walking or struggling, me I was maintaining and actually getting stronger which was reflected in the paces here. Felt great.

Miles 10-13: 8:49, 8:44, 8:48 and 8:53

Again, similar to Ratoath, at this stage around mile 10, I knew I had this MP training run in the bag. Just running, maintaining, in control, all going as planned. The climb up to 12th mile marker is a tough one, lots of walkers, I kept focused on controlling my paces until it flattened out, then I could relax as I was nearly home.

Finished 1:57, avg pace was 8:54- delighted!

Happy with that considering I felt very fatigued and tired from Friday afternoon. Couldn't leave the park without meeting some of the 2018 DCM graduates, met Huzzah!, Mr Guappa and ReeReeG (thanks for the cake!) a novice PY (M), raging I missed the others especially Rossi after an incredible 9 min pb!- brilliant.

Was meant to finish the week off with 5 miles recovery today but left it and hopefully 2 days before the next run will help recovery.

Weekly miles: 45.7
Year: 1207

I'm fairly ready and looking forward to tapering at this stage- 3 weeks tapering can't come quick enough.

Sports massage to be booked for some evening this week.

Plan for the week ahead as follows:

Tuesday: 8 miles with 5*600m at 5k
Wednesday: 11miles
Friday: 4 mile recovery
Saturday: 10k tune up race
Sunday: 17 miles long run

I might take some miles off of that week depending on how the legs feel after Tuesday's run, to try and help recovery, and still not sure what to do about the tune up race planned for Saturday.


2 hard weeks left!!!!!

Additional Edit:

I’ve had enough of Marathon training, this may be a short term feeling, but as of this weekend, I can’t bloody wait for November. Dcm 18, Belfast 19 and Dcm 19 are taking their toll more mentally than physically

Warning to future self: DONT SIGN UP TO SPRING MARATHONS OVER THE WINTER!!!


Speaking to a someone soon after saturdays half marathon, I said and still believe it, I can’t do anymore to go sub 4 than I have this past 18 months, I’m ready, I feel ready, pacing on the day will at this stage be probably the most critical factor in giving myself the best chance.

Treviso wrote: »

Is there actually a taper period in our training plans, I'm failing to see where it starts

I’ll be honest T, I’ve looked at the plan for the last 36 hours thinking “that’s not a bloody taper, there’s no way that’s a taper” . I’ll be dropping more miles during those 3 weeks or I’ll never make the start let alone the finish!!

Unthought Known wrote: »

That's great pacing on Saturday on tired legs! Well done.

Thanks A, appreciate that.

You’ve tried these P&D plans a few times from my brief read of your log, a couple of questions if you don’t mind?

Is the taper a bit harder than you’d expect?

Did you feel ready, this is the plan that has given me a real confidence ( despite what might go wrong on the day!) that I’m as ready as I can be?

The tune up races, late in the plan- did you time trial them or did you find a race?

P&D week 14: nearly there now!

Monday: plan was for 8m with 5*600meters at 5k pace. Ran this Monday evening, hamstring was still a little tight, but went for 5k pace of 8min miles.

Tuesday: plan was for 11 miles, but hamstring was still tight and with a sports massage booked for Wednesday evening, I cut this session in half to 5.5miles at 10:38 min miles. Wasn't worried, but more just didn't want to push it.

Wednesday: a sports massage with some dry needling, got the all clear with no major issues identified.

Ended up with 2 days off running which was great.

Friday:4mile recovery run with strides on the plan but I forgot/didn't read the strides bit. No bad thing. Run was fine, hamstring felt "bruised" from the needling....I've no idea if that's normal.

Saturday: plan was for 9 miles with 8k-15k tune up race, didn't really fancy a 10k race so thought the local park run would be more than enough. Ran nearly 3miles to and from the park run nice and easy. Met Singer very briefly afterwards, he was getting busier scanning bar codes!!!!!

Park run:

I had no real plan here, a double loop of river valley park, thought I should keep it at sub 8 miles, there is a nasty hill that has to be run up twice.

After pre race instructions, the starter said go!!!

I immediately realised I was too far back, and I'd be weaving around runners for a while, a sharp enough downhill is a tough start to a 5k race. The first mile beeped at 8:11, bloody hell, I better get going.

Mile 2: I settled into a nice pre hill and post hill pace of 7:25, felt good, started moving past runners, hard not to go all out in a 5k race but held some back.

Mile 3: again, kept the pace at 7:25 pre and post "the hill". Felt strong finishing out. If I'd actually thought a bit more about it I could have got under 24mins, but happy with 24:10 for a nice pb.

Sunday: 17m long run per plan, and was absolutely dreading it if I'm honest. Falling asleep on the couch Saturday night at 9:30pm was a good indication I was feeling tired out. Is it taper time yet?? Woke up at 7:30 and on the road for 8:30. Hamstring still feels "bruised" from the dry needling. Plenty of distraction for parts of it as the Dublin bike race passed through Swords. Ended up doing 4 laps of the local fields, I don't know why I wanted to stay local, probably in case I wanted to quit early on the 17m, but I stayed out and got it done, avg pace was 10:10.

One week left, 52 miles per plan including a 20 miler...going to move the days forward a day so I can get the 20 miles done on Saturday and I may also runmute two of the sessions more out of killing the boredom and to get the runs done before I get home from work....ill see if all that goes to plan. However moving the days forward to finish Saturday will mean 5 consecutive running days from last week to this.

Going to start making plans for 2020....Berlin looks great...but including all the incidentals, probably too pricey!

P&D WEEK 15: phew!!

This week has been on the horizon mentally, just needed to get through it, get through it and I'd be on to taper, get through it and I will have "survived" another marathon training block. As I've wrote a few times on here, 3 marathon training blocks in 18 months had me wishing the weeks away for a few weeks now, so glad to have made it through...so why was I looking at the spring marathon thread earlier today then :eek:

Monday: 7m with some strides was on the plan, no real issues, got it done, only I was absolutely soaked through Monday evening. Avg pace was 10:09.

Tuesday: plan was for 10 miles with 4*1200meters at 5k pace with 50-90% recovery in between, this was a beast of a session on paper. Decided to run home from work to kill a few birds with the same stone. Weather played ball for the most part. Running through town can be stop start but wasn't too bad at all. Really enjoyed this tough session, felt on high from it for a few days, a great confidence booster of a session.

Tried to keep each section below 8mins, not quite 5k pace but happy how it went.

Rest day Wednesday

Thursday: plan was for 11 miles, so again I decided to runmute this. The weather was atrocious all day but cleared up towards the evening,and only got soaked for the last 3 miles. Avg pace was 9:35, faster than planned but having left work late and herself had plans, I kinda had to do this session quicker than planned. Was also very dark running through river valley park for the last mile. I also ran home in work socks which wasn't ideal, kept thinking I'd have a blister before I got home!

Friday: was supposed to run 4 mile recovery but I skipped it

Saturday: the last of the 3 20 milers on the plan, get though this and I was on the home straight. Woke up and the motivation wasn't there until well after I ate my breakfast. On the road at 8am, a decent morning, decided to run into town and back out again, felt like the high elevation on the return leg and on the higher end of the mileage would be a nice test.

Broke the run into 5 separate sections and ticked them off as I passed each one, a nice way to distract myself from watching miles tick along on the watch. Was also trying to run a faster second half to toughen up the 20 miles. That was a fairly last minute decision but I think it worked well.

All in all a good morning to have under the belt. Garmin heart rate on the watch was 137, so doesn't seem to have been too taxing either.

My hamstring isn't sore to run on, but it's "there" and will keep an eye on it.

Sunday: junior park run visit to Malahide, both girls asked me if it was a longer park run than our normal one :rolleyes::D

No issues for me running the 2k, a nice little leg loosener. Ended up in Phoenix park in the afternoon for a nice walk too. Then spent an hour running after the youngest as I thought her how to cycle- wrecked I was :eek:

So that's it- on to taper now (I still don't think the taper is a taper until the following week).

According to the plan the mileage should decrease by 25%, 40% and 60% over the next 3 weeks respectively. So I'll use last week's 48 miles as the base line and adjust the plan accordingly but I'll also be flexible in how I'm feeling from a tiredness/recovery perspective.

And while I'm here I may as well nail my marathon finish time colours to the mast:

Plan A: to finish
Plan B: 3:55- going out conservatively for the first 7 miles, will use Lazare's (3:58) pace strategy as the foundation for the paces. I really like even splits but it's not an option here with the way DCM first 7 miles start.

This is based (currently in a confident mood!) on 1:47 half in Ratoath and I've a very strong plan under my belt now.


Plan c: 3:59
Plan 4:05

.......only positive comments welcome :pac::D