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Berlin Q or Bust: Road to sub 2:45

healy1835

I've decided to stop trawling through others' logs for tips and information and instead, start my own.

Bio:
I'm 35 and I've been 'running' for just over a year. Played soccer for years, but 2 ACL ruptures and ops put paid to that about 5 years ago. Had gotten into the gym at that point, was in decent enough shape. Got bored of the gym, decided to do Gaelforce West in Aug '14, bought a bike, cross trained for that for about 4 months, enjoyed the running aspect, the bike not so much. Completed the race, started a new job, and promptly sat on my ass until May of last year when I decided I needed to commit to something to get rid of weight I'd put on in the meantime.....so I entered last year's DCM and so began my running career.

Running:
So I was/am lucky enough to work with a friend who is quite an accompolished middle and long distance Irish athlete so once I had entered the Marathon he was kind enough to take over coaching duties.
Without going into too much detail I trained through the summer, and arrived up at the Frank Duffy 10 miler for my debut race...hand held bottle in tow and really really clueless as to what was happening around me! I was looking back at my splits from the race last night and the 1hr 23 I ran seems soft now but I had never ran over 20k prior to that race and wasn't confident in my ability to run 'fast' for extended periods of time. Anyway, I was happy with the race, realised the hand held bottle had to go I wasn't as slow as I thought I'd be. Training really kicked on after that as I got fitter and more confident. I ran 1:37:50 in the Dublin half marathon and a 44min 10k in Blessington....the latter two after joining the DCM Novices thread led by Dubgal....I found the thread a great help, hence I'm belatedly back here starting my own.

DCM 15:
Did it in 3:39 which was my 'B' goal and I was delighted! My goals had changed from just completing it to sub 4 to sub 3:45 to sub 3:30 as training went on. On the day the 3:30 just wasn't in the legs and I definitely think the lack of Long Runs over 30k did for me in the end (I only had a 30k & a 32k under my belt)

Goals:
So having completed the Marathon I had just been tipping away not putting in major mileage maybe 40k a week. This was due to a few minor illnesses I managed to get, a few illnesses in the family, I've 4 & 2 year old boys at home. So when I started this training block at the end of May I wasn't in peak condition but I was waaaaayyyyy ahead of where I started last July. Trainings gone fairly well, missed 2 weeks at end of June/start of July due to a bad dose, but that's cleared up and I'll just jump in here at Week 10 which was last week and start from there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, any advice or observations are welcome. Johnny

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Swashbuckler

healy1835 wrote: »

Had a 22 Miler @6:40ish planned the Sunday...

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

healy1835

Swashbuckler wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

'planned for me' that should have read

OOnegative

It’s amazing your dedication J, it helps having a top class man calling the shots like you have but you’re still the guy that has to put the hard miles in training wise. Fantastic to see and I picked up the love you had for running straight away in Dalystown. Keep it going man.

djemba djemba

Would love to help out the 29th but we are currently on the track that day, but if that changes I will head over

AuldManKing

Swashbuckler wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

healy1835 wrote: »

'planned for me' that should have read

I dont think SB was making the faces due to your poor sentence construction :pac:

healy1835

OOnegative wrote: »

It’s amazing your dedication J, it helps having a top class man calling the shots like you have but you’re still the guy that has to put the hard miles in training wise. Fantastic to see and I picked up the love you had for running straight away in Dalystown. Keep it going man.

Why thank you

that was the day I met your good self for the first time and the first time meeting anyone from Boards. You were higher on my own running ability than I was at the time too if I recall correctly

Wouldn't mind giving that race another rattle at some stage. Still can't believe they get away with calling it the 'Mullingar 10' though

healy1835

djemba djemba wrote: »

Would love to help out the 29th but we are currently on the track that day, but if that changes I will head over

Track eh? Thanks for that though

healy1835

Thu: 7 Miles Easy: 51:33 @4:34/km

Steady enough effort for an easy run, but legs felt fresh after the few days off.

Fri: 13k Easy: 1:02:07 @4:47/km

Easy miles and chats with running buddy.

Sat: 7 Miles Easy: 56:09 @4:59/km

Early miles before a trip up to Dollymount strand with the gang

My first time out of Kildare since August

Sun: 19 Miles inc 5 Steady/10 MP/4 cool down 5 Miles@4:09/km, 10 Miles@3:53/km, 4 Miles@4:32/km

This morning saw a return to some harder stuff. Emphasis was on the first 15 Miles, with a steady 5 miles followed by 10@6:15. Felt pretty decent truth be told, although I was beginning to tire towards the end of the MP. Cool down was due to be 5 Miles but cut it to 4 miles as I felt a bit under fuelled and was near home when 19 miles beeped

Back in the game. Just under 50 Miles for 5 days running.

healy1835

Mon: 12.4k Recovery: 1:01:41@4:59/km

Tue: 9 Miles Easy: 1:11:42 @4:57/km

Got this in before the mother of all hail showers. Have been quite lucky in dodging bad weather the last few days. I've a feeling that's gonna end in pretty spectacular fashion tomorrow evening by the looks of the forecast!

Wed: Session: 4x2k off 3 mins.

This was, without a doubt, the worst session I've put in for a long while! Late starting it as I got caught on a phone call whilst trying to exit the building. Then about 300m into the run I decide to pop back into the school to go to the toilet (I really should have known better than to do this). Of course I get caught by a delivery of PPE stuff and held up for about 10 mins.

Out again now and have already decided to shorten warm up considerably, and now realise I'm gonna have to cut a repeat and change seasion to 4x2k from 5x2k as I've collect my two lads and time has slid away on me.

Oh yeah, I also should mention that I had to do session with my phone on my person as there was a couple of work related phone calls that I just couldn't risk missing. I know what you're thinking reading this and you're right, I should have just knocked it on the head.

Had to make 2 phone calls during session, also got caught down a country lane with an articulated lorry that was trying to reverse around a corner.
Session ended up just being annoying. The couple of breaks really melted my mojo and I never felt comfortable at any stage of it.

Ended up with splits of 7:04, 6:57, 7:06, 7:08 for the 2ks. Only got in 8 miles of running which was considerably shorter than planned.

shotgunmcos

"Only" 8 Miles
"Only" 4x2k reps @5:40 pace

Sure, what was the point

And now you are working on the run too, on session days .... :rolleyes:

healy1835

Thu: 15 Miles Steady: 1:37:36 @4:02/km

I just want to detail this in my log for posterity's sake! Trying day in work, grimmest of grim evenings but I dug in and churned this one out around the bog. Proud of that one. Food now...

healy1835

Fri: 7 Miles Recovery: 58:24 @5:11/km

Caught up on a couple of podcasts on the saturated plains.

Sat: 14.5k Easy: 1:10:30 @4:52/km

Easy miles passed quickly having chats with a buddy.

Sun: Session: 3x2 Miles @HM effort off 5 mins.

Had no real route in mind for this but wanted to get off the usual routes, so I headed out towards Kilcullen via Baroda Stud, a route I would use for LR's a good bit, but never for sessions. Pretty bumpy and narrow roads, but it's quiet and this was a Sunday afternoon. Plan was to run 5:50's or close to it.

Session went fine. Felt good on the first rep (11:40), ropey as f*!k on a tough 2nd two miles which were uphill and into the wind (12:06) and really put it in coming home, trying to visualise being in the last 2 miles of next Saturday's TT, for an 11:26 final split.

Ended up just shy of 13 miles for the day.

110k for the week, including a 4x2k session, 15 Miles steady and today's 3x2 miles. Easy week planned with a 400's session on Wednesday and then a little taper for HM next Sat.

healy1835

Mon: 8 Miles Easy: 1:08:04 @5:17/km

Saunter about the town with clubmate who I helped pace to a 2:46 Marathon a couple of weeks back. Oh to re-experience that warm and fuzzy post-marathon glow

Tue: 8 Miles Easy: 1:04:34 @5:00/km

Wed: Session 14x400m off 60 secs

'Cruising 78-75 secs' was the description that accompanied this entry in the plan. It had been a while since I'd done a 400's session, and what used to be a favourite session of mine, was now a little bit hazy in my mind. I'd usually hit the track for a 400's session but I wanted to break in the new boots I'd picked up for my birthday, Next%2's, for Saturday's HM. Preferring not to run on the track in them, I pitched up in the local industrial estate to run these on a 600m loop. Session went fine and the shoes were as advertised. Nicer upper than the previous version to be sure and the laces seemed to be a better design.

77,74,74,75,76,73,74,74,74,77,77,73,77,76

Short warm up and cool down brought up about 10k for the day.

Thu: 5 Miles Easy: 42:09 @5:14/km

An early attempt to run off the funk from last nights match. *exhales forlornly.

Little jog tomorrow and then up to the PP Sat morning. Hoping the change of scenery provides an extra stimulus. AMK doing a stellar job in setting it up.

Lambay island

All the best for Sat- you are in great shape!

aquinn

Hey,

Ran on the newly laid tarmac North road during lunch and it is just fantastic. Great surface so lovely and bouncy.

Not sure of route but send down AMK to investigate, he would love that.

All the very best.

Swashbuckler

All the best for the weekend lad.

What a penalty shootout.....I'm trying to think of another penalty shootout where the keeper ended up the villain...Zero saves out of 11 and a missed penalty!! Unheard of!

AuldManKing

aquinn wrote: »

Hey,

Ran on the newly laid tarmac North road during lunch and it is just fantastic. Great surface so lovely and bouncy.

Not sure of route but send down AMK to investigate, he would love that.

All the very best.

Havn't been down all week - must take a look.

Route is all done - emails sent, t-shirts printed, medals engraved, Drug testing advised, AAA certified, Superstar on board

OOnegative

Best of luck tomorrow J, hope all goes to plan. I’ll blame AMK if it doesn’t, cause you’ve the training done.

OOnegative

AuldManKing wrote: »

Superstar on board

You were already a Superstar in our eyes A.

Treviso

Best of luck tomorrow J. Sounds like there will be a good pacing group for it

Comic Book Guy

Best of luck tomorrow. You're in super shape for it.

healy1835

1:19:10 for the TT. Tough enough going in the PP this morning. Will throw up a report later on as it was relatively action packed

thanks again to AMK. Some hero

healy1835

Half Marathon TT: 1:19:10

This was the first occasion since the Carlingford HM last March that i actually had that race-day sensation. Heading up to the PP, the summer finally arriving and the fact that I'd be in a bit of company all contributed to this.

Training has been going well, and since it was 4 weeks since my 10 Mile TT, this was a fairly logical next step. It gave me an impetus and gives me a couple of weeks until I actually start training for an Autumn marathon

This was originally just meant to be me in the PP with AMK taking up pacing duties for some of it. However, AMK being the man that he is, decided that he'd get a crew together for it to give me a bit of help. I didn't expect the crew to contain Ireland's most recent Olympics Marathon qualifier and this definitely was an extra motivating factor in the build up. Indeed, if AMK hadn't of gone to so much effort I may have pulled the plug mid week as work has sort of gotten all encompassing at this moment in time. It won't always be like this of course but it will be until the end of June anyway. Anyway, this is getting a bit unwieldy now, so on with the actual running!

My plan was to go out with an easy enough first mile, 6 mins ball park, then move down towards 5:55's for the next 5 miles and hopefully finish off with 5:52 miles or faster :rolleyes:

Route was 3 loops of a North Road/Chesterfield Ave loop and a Furze/OS road triangle combination. Introductions were made, and a decent group of about 8 of us set off down the North Road. First mile clocks in at 5:58, which was fine. During the second mile, after we had crossed over onto the left hand side of Chesterfield Ave, my damn shoelace opens. As long time readers of the log will know I've a chequered past with shoelaces, so for it to happen again (in a pair of shoes whose laces I confidently labeled 'A big upgrade' before the TT) was pretty annoying. By my reckoning I lost about 15 seconds on the group and the second mile clocks in at 6:08.

AMK is down below on the bike waiting for the group to turn down OS road and I can sense his concern as I turn the corner about 20 meters off the back of the group. Tell him not to worry and that my lace opened. I'm already making back up to the group. Moving well now and by the time that we return to the North road, I've left the rest of the group behind pretty quickly. This was surprising as I was expecting at least one other runner to be there with me, but It was a tough day out there and a few people struggled I think. The gap to AC out front is dwindling and at least I have some visual on her. (5:54, 6:05, 5:57, 6:00, 5:56).

It was around this stage that our leader took a wrong turn and this resulted in my almost-solo effort becoming a solo effort. All of a sudden I'm realising how warm it is, the route is annoying me now (note, nothing to do with the actual route!), Chesterfield is a drag, the roundabout onto the North Road is not navigated very well by myself. Mile 8 comes in at 6:07 and I'm in real danger now. Moan to AMK on the bike that 'I'm f*%$ed', I'm actively considering throwing in the towel here. The race director succesfully manages to cajole/distract me through the next, more favourable, mile down the North Rd (5:58). Once I get back onto Chesterfield the pain returns. I'm slowing considerably. Times have now gone out the window, I just wanted the achievement of not DNF'ing. 6:06, 6:08 miles follow down OS Rd and Furze Rd.

Turn back onto the Chesterfield Ave for the last time during the 12th mile. I tell AMK that I'm going to run on the hard shoulder instead of the footpath...and promptly slip going around the corner. Stay upright, but I slow to a shuffle for a few meters. I can't DNF at 12+ miles though, I might never lace them up again if I pull off a stunt like that. Get going again and manage to limit the losses to a 6:12 mile. Last mile and a bit is down the North Road and I manage to summon a bit of chutzpah for a 5:58 13th mile and a bit of a sprint finish for the 200m.

1:19:10 in the end.

So reflections...there's no escaping the fact that I was expecting to run sub 78 and hoping to get close 77. A few factors worked against me on the day; the expected company didn't materialise and having to run it solo was tough and unexpected. Laces opening was unfortunate, but my fault. Slipping was unfortunate, but my fault. Weather was unfortunate, not my fault I suppose

AMK really went above and beyond setting it up, so serious plaudits to him for that. Easy few days ahead now and then into the Marathon Block.

Laineyfrecks

First of all Well done!

Now just from my recent TT I will say fair play for not stopping, I know I wanted to stop, feeling the pain & struggling but like you I really didn't want to drop out, takes guts & fight to keep going when target A is gone out the window! We are at different levels of running but disappointment is the same to everyone. As I said in my report it just proves that this running lark can be so unpredictable & we have to take the bad with the good to become better runners!

Enjoy the easy runs before your marathon block, I have absolutely no doubt you will be as consistent & hard working in this block, just as you have demonstrated over the last few months, which will help you to reap your rewards

ThebitterLemon

It’s all part of the journey Krusty 2. Well done.

TbL

shotgunmcos

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

It’s all part of the journey Krusty 2. Well done.

TbL

+1 well done on the effort. Not long ago <80min was exciting. We learn more from what doesn't go to plan. Double knot your shoelaces!!

Swashbuckler

Ballsy run man. I know it mightnt feel like it but pushing close to 79mins on what was clearly an off day in that heat. Mental toughness there. Not the result you wanted and not the one you're capable of but 79 on an off day! Yes please...

Murph_D

Well done, J, some running in tough conditions. I find an extra loop before tying the bows, finished off with a double knot is pretty foolproof! This was quite a setup - very cheeky having traffic stoppers and all! :cool: You did it justice.

healy1835

Thanks to all for the above observations

It was what it was; a half decent score on the board on a day when the performance could have gone south in a much more spectacular fashion. Onwards...

Nothing of note has happened over the last week, just easy efforts. Increasing mileage back up over the next couple of weeks to make sure I enter the marathon block ready to roll. Running since the TT;

Sun: 10.2k: 53:15 @5:15/km

Mon: 12.4k: 1:01:41 @4:59/km

Tue: 8 Miles: 1:07:48 @5:16/km

Wed: 7 Miles: 54:11 @4:48/km

Thu: 17k: 1:23:18 @4:54/km

Went down to Monasterevin to pace a session for my erstwhile training partner who is starting his latest comeback. He's hoping to get back in PB shape (2:55ish) by Amsterdam. Session was 6x1 Mile, averaged about 6:20. He's entrusted me to draw up his training plan...

Fri: 7 Miles: 57:12 @5:04/km

Sat: 14 Miles: 1:45:04 @4:40/km

Sun: Rest/Hungover

Last bit of a blowout before training ramps up. Beers will be few and far between from here to October, certainly no heavy days anyway.

Mon: 10 Miles: 1:18:03 @4:51/km

Tue: 14.7km: 1:10:44 @4:49/km

Bit of a tempo planned for this afternoon, looking forward to working hard this summer.

MrMacPhisto

healy1835 wrote: »

TSession was 6x1 Mile, averaged about 6:20. He's entrusted me to draw up his training plan...

This is a very positive development I think. Trust is a nice gift to receive.

By helping another athlete out it encourages a period of reflection on training (both the student and the master's training). After all, a good educator should practice what he preaches

Best of luck with the next block of training