The second coming of a runner

Week Starting July 1st - 55K for the week

Weight: 86.6KG On Sunday morning, so still heading the in right direction. Was fairly decent all week, but did increase the amount I was eating a little to try stay on top of the extra KM I was doing.

Also had the guts of a cheat day Sunday, nothing crazy but I was visiting a friends house and actually partook in some of the snacks. Definitely didn't do the dog on it or anything!

Plan: 

Deliberated on different plans for a bit, but I never found one that resonated with me. In the end I decided to make a hybrid plan. First half of the week the sessions are from Graduate boards beginner plan, the weekend runs are from Hal Higdon intermediate 1 (same as I did last year). The boards plan is only 14 weeks compared to 18 of HH (and im already a week in…) so I repeated a few of the boards sessions to make up the extra weeks. I break down my thought process behind it a bit more on the graduate thread

Week 1 of 17: 60min V.Easy | 5 X 8 min Threshold | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 8k Easy | 15K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: 60 min Very easy (8.55KM at 7:01/km)

Legs still pretty tired from Roscommon. It's amazing how well the massage gun works though as I did a light session on my right hamstring the night before, which was the worst feeling one, before one of the kids interrupted me and I never got back to doing my left, and my left was much worse than my right when I went to run. Was fine though, just took the pace very very easy

Tuesday: 2 ish Km warmup, 5 X 8 min Threshold + 4 min recovery, 2 ish KM cooldown (14.13KM @ 6:09/km)

Firstly, I misread the boards plan, it was only 4x… whoops. Was ok though, probably could have done a faster pace than 5:40 for threshold, but my legs are still a bit tired so didn't want to push too hard.

Ballinasloe has a lovely running track, that on Tuesdays is open from 10am to 5pm, so kind of no use to me! So I'll probably be doing the speed sessions on the road.

Wednesday: 60 min Very easy (9KM at 6:37/km)

Legs feeling much better than the monday so the pace is a little higher. I do really like that I'm back to the stage where my legs can feel better despite a decent amount of running Monday and Tuesday

Thursday: Rest

Was tired, was happy enough to get a rest day.

Friday: 8K Easy (6:44/km)

It was a nice morning but for whatever reason I just found it a slog, just wasnt feeling it.

Saturday: 16K Easy (6:27/km)

Some people from the run group are doing 10K, so I decide to do an extra 5k before we meet up. I get my timing wrong so I decide doing an extra KM at this point is probably better than standing around for that time.

Big gang doing the 10k and they went out way to fast for me for a easy run (sub 6:00/km) so I let them off. It is kind of nice to know that I'm doing it deliberately rather than just not being able to keep up with them as it was slower than my 10 mile pace from last week.

Eventually caught up with a few people where one of them was struggling a bit so finished off the run with them.

Seems like the numbers doing the marathon from our group are way down this year, I'm currently the slowest of them and probably am the person who puts the most faith in the run slow mantra, so I've a feeling I'll be doing a lot of these long runs on my own. Not the end of the world, I run on my own most of the time anyways, but I'm sure the 3 hour+ long runs might drag a bit more with only my own company :)

Summary: First time going over 50Km in week since the marathon training last year I'd say, feeling pretty good though, especially considering I raced last week. Bit of a step back week next week, which is fine, plenty of tough weeks ahead!

Signed up for the Tullamore half at the end of august to get some more race day experience. I think I lacked it a bit last year at DCM.

Oh for sure, I'm definitely more comfortable with the dropping back than I was in the past but even still my pace was probably a little fast!

Week Starting July 15th - 60K for the week

Weight: 85.4KG On Sunday morning (down 1kg). Fairly decent week, but pretty similar to other weeks. Did a good few walks at lunch time which probably helped.

I think the big drop is really a combination of last week too where the weigh in was artificially high.

Plan: Week 3 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

60min V.Easy | 60min Moderate | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 10k MP | 18K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: 60 min Very easy (9.29KM at 6:28/km)

Legs were fairly tired after a busy weekend of DIY, but felt good after 3 or 4k

+ 2K walk at lunchtime

Tuesday: 60 min Moderate (10.41KM at 5:47/km)

What's moderate pace!? Decided to just go at a pace where it felt like I was pushing a bit but not really goings for it. Wasn't easy for sure but I felt pretty good after it.

+ ~3k walk at lunchtime

Wednesday: 60 min Very easy (9.35KM at 6:24/km)

Was the perfect morning for a run, little sunny with a nice breeze. More of them please!

+ 2k walk at lunchtime

Thursday: Rest from running. 2.5K walk at lunch

Friday: 10K Marathon Pace, with 2K WU and 1K CD (13K @ 5:59/km overall, Maybe about 5:50/km for the marathon pace bit, so need to ease that off a bit.)

This was essentially the same run as Tuesday, but I found it much harder. It was a good bit warmer and I had much less sleep

I did walk today too, probably 3k, but I never started my watch so I guess it never happened.

Saturday: 18K Easy (6:26/km)

First time going over 10 miles in a while.

Went out on my own for 2k, met up with another group of early people for about 5K, then met up with the main group for 10K and did the final 1K on my own after.

Pace was a bit better today than last week, but need to keep on top of it!

Was sleepy tired after the run. Legs were ok, the bigger muscles were fine but my knees felt a little tired.

Summary: 60Km for the week.

The most I ran in a week last year was 72Km so starting to get up to those numbers again. Feeling pretty decent so hopefully can keep it up!

Signed up for Streets of Galway in a few weeks time. It's 8k on a Saturday night, so I will have to do some plan juggling to make it happen, but I'll probably drop the 12K @MP that is scheduled for the Friday and do the LR on the Sunday evening or something.

Not sure what pace/time I should be aiming for it. I will Probably aim for 40mins cause its nice and round, but it could well be a few minutes north of that.

My 10k PB is 55 mins from the 10 mile race, so could I do 30 seconds per KM faster for half the distance as the 10 miles, maybe? We'll find out I suppose!

A 40 minutes 8K would give me a 5K PB though, A PB that has stood for nearly 10 years! (although I don't race 5ks much)

Week Starting August 5th - 44K for the week

Weight: 84.6KG On Sunday morning (Down 1kg). I was pretty good with food again this week, but I don't think the 1kg is really reflective of the week itself, its probably a bit of averaging out from previous weeks. I'll take it etiher way!

Plan: Week 6 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

Plan at the start of the week modified for Streets of galway

60min V.Easy | 60 min moderate | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 5k Shake out | 8k Streets of Galway | 15K Easy

Monday: 60 min easy (9.51KM at 6:20/km)

Got absolutely soaked, which surprisingly doesn't happen to me that often considered the frequency I run. I actually don't mind it too much though!

Tuesday: Easy 85 Mins (12.86K at 6:36 /km)

The plan had 60 min moderate, but my legs are feeling a bit tight and I know I have some racing to do. With Wu and CD for the moderate pace, this was a shorter run than planned.

Wednesday: 60 min easy (9.32KM at 6:31/km)

Thursday: Rest from running. Had to do a bit of driving in the morning. In the evening my left foot was suffering from PF a small bit. Not terrible though.

The runners I used on wednesday are up on 600KM at this stage so may have contributed to the PF, it may be time to move on from them. I bought a couple of pairs of Puma runners in the last few weeks to bring into rotation when the time was needed, first time moving away from Asics Novablast in about 18 months. They might be coming in sooner rather than later!

Friday: 5k Shake out (6:22/km)

The run felt quite difficult for the pace I was doing, didn't fill me with confidence for the next day. Calves are still a bit tight but the PF has eased off a little.

Saturday - Streets of Galway

• Pre Race

Strange to have a lie in on a Saturday morning, didn't get up til a wild 8:30! I don't really run in the evenings at all so kind of hard to know what to do with myself for the day. We still have a lot of work to do in the house so did some more of that, which isn't really ideal pre-run prep!

Was a little later getting to Galway than I wanted to be and then struggled to find parking. I was meeting some people from work who had picked up my bib so did a bit of a jog to meet them but by the time I met up with them we basically had to go straight to the start line so my pre-race prep was not ideal!

My goal was 40 minutes, but seeing as that requires me to run 8K at a faster pace than I've ever ran even a 5k it was ambitious, but something I felt I could probably achieve with the right circumstances, but my legs don't feel 100% and my prep was not exactly ideal, I'm really not sure it's on the cards.

• Race: 

Was unable to make myself up to where the pacers were so I was starting near the back, so the first KM was crazy congested, I did my best to make my way up the field, even using the paths a few times. TBH it wasn't til maybe 4k in before it really spread out to the point it was no mental effort to progress.

I missed the lap time on my watch for 1KM but I knew it wasn't fast so if I wanted to go for this magically 40 minutes I'd have a bit of work to do, so I tried picking up the pace a bit and make sure my average pace is below 5:00/km

Even by the time we got to NUIG (or whatever its called now), about 3k in, I was feeling it. It was quite hot, and my HR was pretty high already (over 180), wasn't sure I had another 5k of this in me. But I decide to start the mind games early and say I'll just keep up the pace til 5k, there is a water stop there and would be nice to take my 5k PB time that I set on a random run 9 years ago! So thats my target.

When I hit 5k on my watch just before the water stop it looked like I probably bet my 5k PB so that was nice. I grab a bottle of water and take a couple of sips which was welcome, throw some over my head and bin the bottle,

I remember from when I did the streets of galway back in 2015 that there is a downhill at lesuire land between the water station and salthill, so I convince myself I'll keep pushing til 6K and see how its going. My calves are feeling ok, but I have a small bit of discomfort in my left thigh, but its ok.

I get to 6k and definitely really feeling it. I continue with the mind games and say I'll try keep the pace up til 7K. Around this time a women in an Ahtlone top passed me out and I decide she's looking strong I'll try the imaginery rubber band trick with her, where I keep up with her to no allow this band to snap.

I get to 7K and my watch showed my lap time of sub 5 and it gives me a bit of motivation that even though im really feeling it, I'm still keeping the time up. I keep trying to keep this rubber band from snapping and its going ok.

Not related to my race, but it was around this time someone seem to run into medical issues in front of me. I'm not 100% sure what happened to them, They were still on their feet I think by the time I passed but there was at least one runner with him and the volunteers at the race had kicked into gear and I could see them on the phone. I have no medical experience or even first aid skills so I'm pretty certain there would have been absolutely nothing I could do, but I still feel bad for just running past it. Hope the guy is ok.

The layout of the route has the final section with a turn to the right maybe 100M from the finish, but you can see the finish line from a long way out, which I found a big motivating factor! At the 400M to go sign, I look at my watch and see I have just over 2 minutes to come under time so still possible. When I get to the corner I went all out and I was really able pick up the pace which I was honestly a little surprised about.

• Result

Watch: 39:59
Gun: 39:57

The race clock was showing 42 something, but I knew I crossed the start line well after the gun. I stopped my watch after the line, 39:59, cutting it tight! Chip time was 39:57, also tight! But I'm absolutely gassed afterward so don't think I had any more to give.

Was the Fastest 5k Ive done (24:13), even the fastest KM i've done (4:36)

Splits:
1: 5:34
2: 4:59
3: 4:42
4: 4:53
5: 4:54
6: 4:57
7: 4:56
8: 4:46
0.1: 2:55

I don't know if there is a difference but I was more proud of myself for putting in the work to make this happen than being delighted with the result itself.

Went back to someone from works house that lived nearby and they had some food for the runners, which was very generous of them as it was an open invite to a relatively large company! And drove home afterwards.

Sunday:

I had planned to do my 15K run but I didn't want to attempt it first thing in the morning as it would have been too close to the race the night before. I ended up being too busy with different jobs to be able to go for the run at all, but I probably was better off not running anyways as my legs are quite tired and my PF is unsurprisingly a bit worse.

I think my ideal day would have been lots of rest and a short recovery run in the evening, but life disagreed.

Gave myself a session with the massage gun in the evening.


Summary:

I think the race on Saturday shows I've made good progress so despite, missing some runs or changing runs from the plan, im not too worried about it. The most important thing for me now is to get back on track with easy running and get on top of the PF again.

Tullamore Half is in 3 weeks time, so have to pick up the pace one more time! I need to figure out what I want to target for this pace wise. Probably sub 2 anyways, that would be a PB on a race distance I actually did try race during my fittest portion of last year so it would definitely be good progress.

Week Starting Aug 12th - 64K for the week

Weight: 85.5KG this morning (up 0.9kg). Not great this week, was away on trips a few days, had a kids party etc. I definitely didn't do the dog on it but not surprised to be up. Going to try be fairly strict this week cause I think the closer I can get to 80kg the better.

Plan: Week 7 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

60min V.Easy | 80min Easy | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 12k | 24K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: 5K recovery (6:41/km)

Legs still pretty sore after Streets of Galway and a busy weekend of DIY, so I decide a 5k recovery run would be more benificial than the planned 60 minute easy. PF from last week is a bit worse after SoG, but feels fine when running.

Tuesday: 60 min Very Easy (9.06KM at 6:37/km)

TL;DR: didn't get to go on the planned 80 minute run in the morning due to a broken fridge of all things. Had an hour and half to fit a run in between work and some other meeting later in the evening, so I did wednesday's 60 min instead.

PF easing off thankfully. I think once I'm not doing stuff at pace, it is manageable.

Wednesday: 80 min easy (12.38KM at 6:29/km)

Was off work today so didnt have to go out as early, so did Tuesdays session. Was quite warm and my legs are still a bit tired.

Didn't track any activity later but most have walked 10k between the zoo and Ikea later in the afternoon judging by my steps.

Thursday: Rest from running. But day trip to galway so did a decent amount of walking

Friday: 12K Easy (6:44/km)

Legs are feeling much better, PF is basically gone. But im bloody exhausted! It was hard to get up to do this run!

Saturday: 26K Easy (6:23/km)

Some of the people in the group were doing 26k so I said I'd just do that loop with them as 2k is not going to make a huge difference

Did 10K with a group before meeting up with the wider group and doing the last 16k.

First 10k was at a fairly decent pace (6:10 ish)
There was someone who started with the 16k who was doing a 6:30 pace, so I decided i'd join him to keep him company and thats probably the pace I would be doing this if I was running on my own anyways.

I did most of the 16k with him. until we caught up with one of the faster group on her own with about 4 left. I said I'd check to see was she alright, but she picked up the pace again so I had to really kick up the pace to catch her and just finished the last couple of K with her.

Felt good during this run, could have kept going. Just as well I felt ok cause I had a kids birthday party to deal with afterwards! Felt fine til about 5 o'clock where I just felt very sleepy!

Sunday: Rest from running, didn't do a whole lot.

Summary: 64Km for the week.

PF fully gone or at least not cropping up so happy that even with a week of decent mileage I was able to get on top of it.

I'm finding the running fine at the moment, I'm almost certainly in the best shape I've ever been in, but definitely struggling with the time commitment of it. It's been a busy few weeks at home and it's certainly been a big challenge to try squeeze the runs in, especially as my shortest runs are 60 minutes long (plus getting ready, showering etc) Hopefully life will clear up a bit!

I've also been having potentially bad thoughts about my Marathon pace. I saw the mcmillon pace calculator being mentioned in the novice thread and I was curious what my 8k time translates to, apparently sub 4…

I know 8ks and marathons are not really comparable, so I shouldn't get too excited, but it is interesting. Tullamore is in a couple of week, I think I might reverse engineer a 4 hour marathon time into figuring out what to target for the half (I suppose sub 1:55) to see is it a silly thought or not.

Week Starting Aug 19th - 31K for the week

Weight: 85.7KG this morning (up 0.2kg). Definitely not a good week food wise. It was a busy week with a large gathering being hosted at the house here. Back on the horse this week.

Plan: Week 8 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

60min V.Easy | 5x5 CV | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 13k at MP | 28K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: 60 min easy (9.34 at 6:30/km)

Feeling good, nothing to report during the run.

Needed to go into the office for the day and starting in the morning I could feel my left calf being warm. Like I rubbed deep heat on it or got sunburnt. I thought maybe it was just rubbing off my jeans funny or something so I didn't think much of it.

Tuesday: ~2k wu, 5 x5 min CV + 4 min rec, ~2k CD (12.7KM at 5:53/km)

First thing, whats CV!? Apparently its your pace for a 30 minute race. I said it should be faster than Galway anyways which was sub 5, so I said I'd target 4:30

But I just didn't feel like I was really able to push, no pain or anything just couldn't get into a good rhythm. Probably did 4:45 pace ones, so not awful or anything.

Warm feeling in my calf was there before run and there after, definitely something up but I've no idea what. Usually DR google can give some indication of what might be up, but I wouldn't describe what im having as a burning sensation, and thats all that google throws up

Wednesday: 60 min easy (9.18KM at 6:39/km)

Met up with someone from the group who hadn't run in a while. Although I was finding a bit harder effort than usual too.

Warm calf still there. Doesn't seem to be impacting me when I wake up, but its definitely there even before running. I decide I need to get this sorted as random body parts don't just get warm for days for no reason. Unsure if its a physio or DR job, so I decide to go to the DR as some of the google results were blood clots etc.

By some form of miracle they see me that morning. DR doesn't do a huge amount, asks if I have any pain anywhere, checks my HR and BP and said they were normal. Kind of doesn't know what it is but prescribes anti inflamotory gel and says to rest for a while.

Not really what I wanted to hear, I'm ok with resting if there is a reason to, but for it to be "I dont know but sure rest for a while" isn't ideal! My wife says to see the pyhsio so I book in for the next day

Thursday: Physio identifies my calf and hamstring on my left leg are tight and a bit of an imbalance in the strength of my different muscles (I'm a bit hairy on the exact explanation of this, so I might be describing it wrong) He said it wasn't bad but he gave some exercise to work on it. He thinks the heat might be caused by muscles rubbing off a nerve or something.

Got dry needling for the first time. Was weird. Felt ok after but after driving home it really kicked in, felt like someone had given me a kick in the calf!

Physio said to rest over the weekend and ease back into it. I asked about racing Tullamore and he recommended just using it as a training run. Kind of frustrating as it was my last pace setter for Dublin. Although I think sub 1:50 was a bit ambitious anyways, but would have given it a go at least!

Summary: 31Km for the week.

First week not running at least 5 times in about 4 months. Oh well. Actually missed the long run at the weekend, was happy to get back out running again this morning.

The warmness is definitely not as present as it was, but probably still there a little.

I was thinking this morning that I might need to be a little bit more selfish with my weekends for the next few weeks in terms of recovery after long runs. I'm stronger this year, absolutely no doubt, but it means I'm not an absolute write off like I would have been after runs last year, but I'm probably doing too much afterwards and not recovering properly.

Life should be a little quieter for the moment so hopefully get back into it without issue.

I would have been devastated with having to miss a few days last year, but feeling ok about it. Just hoping thats the last of it though!

Week Starting Sep 2nd - 74K for the week

Weight: 84.4KG this morning (Down 1kg). Very strict with calories this week, and basically no wasted calories (snacks other than fruit) but definitely over did it early on in the week as I wasn't feeling great. Increased it a bit before the end of the week to try fuel for the long run. Long run was just about ok but I didn't feel great for the rest of the weekend, so despite a good movement on the scales, and this being a lighter week mileage wise, I can't repeat the same again. Will increase calories a bit and see how I feel.

I'll include the calories eaten each day for this week, but as mentioned above, this was not enough calories so I don't recommend doing this.

Plan: Week 10 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

60min V.Easy | 80min Easy | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 13k Easy | 29K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: 10k (6:11/km)

Met up with someone from the group and did 10k. Legs a little tired from Tullamore but not too bad.

1600 calories

Tuesday: 80 Min Easy (12.3KM at 6:29/km)

Probably the worst I've felt after an easy run in a long time. Really tired and just lacking in energy. In hindsight I didn't eat enough on Monday.

1500 calories (what was I thinking!?)

Wednesday: 60 min easy (9.41KM at 6:24/km)

More of the same as the day before. It's absolutely crazy the difference between running well fuelled and not.

1800 Calories

Thursday: Rest

2000 Calories - attempting to fuel a bit for the weekends runs

Friday: 13k Easy (6:25/km)

Much better feeling compared to earlier in the week.

2400 Calories - Specifically trying to add more carbs

Saturday: 29k Easy (6:28/km, 3:08 of running)

Getting into the serious mileage now!

Generally felt good til maybe the last 4 or 5k, where it started getting harder the last 2 were particularly tough. But it was a hilly route (285 m elevation gain, Dublin is 199 according to my strava from last year) on a warm day, with questionable fuelling for the week so probably unsurprising.

I took close to 4 gels for this, 1 Sis gel around 9k in, 1 Decathlon +caffine gel around 18k and 40g of SIS carb drink spread out amongst the run. Ate 4 cola bottles about 12k in. in-run fuelling felt pretty good for this run, or at least didn't notice any negative effects of taking that much, I can't handle 4 actual gels.

Probably not something I need to worry about for Dublin, but I do think my strategy of hydration needs to be revisited for warmer days. We left out a couple of water stops on this run, but maybe im not taking enough.

Was absolutely shattered after this run, didn't have another 13k in me for certain!

2600 Calories

Sunday: Rest. Went for a walk in a local woods with the kids. The eldest has learned how to cycle over the weekend so it might be a fun activity to go for a run with her!

Generally felt fairly terrible (groggy) Legs feel pretty good though.

2800 Calories - Assuming I didn't eat enough on Saturday which is causing me to not feel good. Even had some homemade apple and blackberry tart + ice cream, the one snacky thing I've had all week!

Summary: 74Km for the week, the most I've ever ran in week.

I think most of my summarisation of the week is probably covered in the rest of the update, definitely too hard on the calories. Will tweak it up a bit to try get a better balance, because there is definitely something between what I was doing 2 weeks ago and what I did last week that should work for me!

It's weird to be planning basically the rest of the weeks before the Marathon now. I also have a work trip to the US in a few weeks, so gotta bring my runners :)

Hey, no worries at all!

You can't run from a bad diet

Truer words have never been spoken! I've lost a good bit of weight since April, mainly through calorie counting (and of course running helps) and with the start of marathon training I eased back on the calorie counting and my weight has been pretty stagnant.

I had a couple of things coincicde last week that kind of lit the fire underneath me again with it, but I over swung the pendulum last week for sure. I ran this morning and felt great, so will definitely be a bit more forgiving this week.

For selfish running reasons: I found the half race the weekend before last much harder than I thought it should have been.

Similar to yourself, I've had a pretty great summer in terms of setting pbs etc, and the half was one too, I put that down to weight for me though, I'm nearly 10kg lighter than last year, and it feels like leaving performance on the table if I'm not really focusing on what I'm eating. I had a target of 80kg by the marathon, I'm not sure if it's still realistic, but I should be getting closer to it.

The more long term reasons: I've been overweight basically my entire adult life. I'm in the best shape of my life I'd say, but I'm still a stone+ overweight. My Dad is having some relatively minor health issues at the moment and his doctor didn't beat around the bush and blamed his weight, he's probably similarly overweight to me based on his height. I've got kids and I've no excuses to not get myself into decent shape to give myself the best chance of being healthy for longer for them.

I definitely should incorporate s&c type stuff, but at this stage it will probably be a post marathon thing cause I don't think I'd fit it in time wise, it's definitely the thing I'm struggling the most with this training plan is time management of everything!

Hope your training is going well!

Week Starting Sep 9th - 66K for the week

Weight: 83KG Sunday morning and 83.6KG this morning (So down ~1kg). Including the two just because it really depends on the time of day etc. I definitely didn't actually put on over half a KG on Sunday. Was good week, definitely not as strict as last week and felt better for it.

Plan: Week 11 of 17 (Hybrid Boards beginner with HH intermediate 1)

60min V.Easy | 30min Tempo | 60 min V.Easy | Rest | 13k MP | 21K Easy | Rest/Cross

Monday: Easy 60 mins (6:19/km)

I was sleepy tired, but I felt great. Perfect weather for running!

Tuesday: 30 Min Tempo, ~2k wu and 2k cd (10.4K total at 5:38/km)

Never did a tempo run before so was unsure what a tempo run was! First google result was slightly faster than 10k pace, so I aimed for my 8k pace from Streets of Galway (sub 5:00/km)

It was a bit of a push to keep it up for 6k but felt pretty good afterwards so I had more in the tank for sure. I think my biggest worry about DCM is the mental aspect, so having a few sessions thats a push is probably no harm!

Wednesday: 60 min easy (9.48KM at 6:22/km)

Had to get up super early to get back to help with the school runs as there has been challenges in the morning since they went back! Too dark to run from the house so went to the local 4.5K loop which is all paths and lights and did two

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 13k at MP, 1k WU and 1K CD (Overall 5:55/km)

Aiming for just sub 6 mins /km, felt pretty decent, hard to imagine I need to run more than 3 of them though..

Saturday: 21k Not really that Easy (6:03/km)

Just out with the group and the pace was fairly fast, I felt mostly pretty good. I guess this ended up being a MP pace HM, I wouldn't have been able to do a second one immediately after! Hopefully with fresh legs it will be a bit easier!

Sunday: Rest, just working around the house and dropping kids everywhere!

2800 Calories -

Summary: 66Km for the week.

Felt much better this week so it was a much better balance of eatings etc. Feeling pretty good, but would be lieing if I said I wasn't counting down the weeks at this stage, I've been finding the 7-8 hours a week most weeks challenging to just fit everything in.

Race Information

• Name: Dublin City Marathon
• Date: 27th of October 2024
• Time: 4:45:59

Goals

• A Sub 4:15 - No
• B Sub 4:30 - No
• C Be proud of the effort - Yeah, probably!

Timing Mat

• Woods Quay - (06:31 /km)
• 10K - 1:01:52 (06:06 /km)
• 20K - 2:04:02 (06:14 /km)
• Half - 2:11:00 (06:21 /km)
• 30K - 03:09:03 (06:32 /km)
• 40K - 04:32:41 (08:22 /km)
• Finish - 04:45:59 (06:04 /km)

Week Of Training

Monday: 30 mins Easy

Tuesday: 15 mins tempo (1K WU, 2K at 5:30, 1K at 5:00, 1K CD)

Wednesday: 30 mins Easy

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 3k Easy

Nothing too exciting to report from training, generally felt ok this week physically, mentally was a bit of an anxious mess! Memories of last year hard to put behind me, but i know I have improved so lets see how it goes.

Pre-race

Stayed up in Dublin so a nice leisurely 7am alarm, although I got up at 6:30. Had some overnight oats for breakfast and brought half a bagel with me to eat after the bag drop. Got dropped down near the start point along the canal, was a long walk around to the bag drop and down the start line. I think I had 6k steps by the time I passed the spar shop down near the canal, so probably walked about 6k before the marathon, which was more than I expected to, but I wasn't worried about it.

The start area seemed a lot more chaotic than last year, I remember being much more grouped with the wave 4 bunch as we all made our way to the start, this year the wave 4 bunch seemed to come up against a large group of other runners

Plan

My plan for the day is to target around a 6:10 pace for the first half, which would have me a little bit behind my A goal but if I was feeling ok I could push on later

Race

My plan was to be out in front of the 4:30 pacers early on, and I was in the wave 4 section, but I guess they made their way up in front of the big group of other runners I mentioned so I was a decent bit behind them. Not worried about it at all plenty of time to catch them!

The first few K are a bit messy as people sort of filter into their paces. but I'm happy enough to take it easy til it clears up a bit.

Everything is feeling pretty decent as we get to quays and it starts to open up a bit and I can focus on pacing a bit better. Happy with hows it going. I'm trying to take a bit easier going up hills and feeling comfortable by the time we get to the park.

I passed the 4:30 pacers in the park, funnily enough just as 2 out of the 3 of them dive in to the loo :D This was around the time that the 4:40 pacers passed me last year so I was feeling good that I felt good at this stage.

Nothing really too exciting going on at this stage as I'm just concentrating on maintaining my pace and keeping my HR down, everything going pretty well. Maybe around 14K i think that my calves are a little bit more tired than I'd expect them to be, but HR is perfect and feeling pretty good so I'm happy enough.

The hill around 16K I mentioned in last years update I absolutely crawled up, even still its the first time my HR has been anyway elevated, but it comes right back down when I get to the top so I'm happy out

The 20K mark is around where the wheels fell off last year so I'm somewhat cautious around that point, but energy wise i feel good, HR is still good so I'm feeling happy.

Pass halfway and I'm happy with my time and how I'm feeling, i know its behind the A goal but that was the plan. It's a major relief to not be in the same place as last year

Not sure exactly where/when it happened but I got a stone in my shoe at one point, it wasn't sore, but I decide I'd rather get rid of it now than run on it for another 2+ hours!

One thing I notice this year that I didn't notice at all last year, is there was a lot of people walking around half way or just after. I felt like the only one last year which really added to my embarrassment

My legs start to feel a more tired around the 24K mark and my HR is going up a little, so I decide I'll pull it back a little as there is still plenty to go. HR responds to easing up, but my legs are not really.

I meet my crew around 26.5K, I'm still going pretty ok at this point and I go over to give them a quick hug and get my swap of carb drink. As I start up again from them I feel a twinge in both of my calves, probably not good! But I keep going, and ease up the pace even a little more. I have had these twinges before in races, but usually I didn't have another 16k to run!

I've had a couple more twinges by the time I pass the 30K mark, I know they are probably not going to last at this point! Around the 31k mark I decide I'll walk for a minute or two to see if it clears up, around this point the 4:30 pacers catch up to me. One of them was doing great shouting to try motivate people and I figure my best chance of a decent day is to see if I can just hang on with these! So I pick back up the running again.

Energy wise I'm feeling ok and I tuck in behind the front 4:30 pacer and the pace feels ok for me to do other my legs are feeling it. I'm in behind her for a few minutes and then my thigh just above my right knee starts sort of pulsing (not sore but I could feel it kind of pumping). My thigh has not been sore up to this point but I know I wont be able to stick with them for 10k, so I decide I better take a walk break again, and started making my way over to the side so I'm not slowing down in front of people.

So I navigate to the side and before I even get to slow down my right leg (I think it was my calf) completely seizes and I scuff my foot off the ground, stumble a bit but thankfully I don't fall! I've never had this happen before.

I guess I'm walking now! I could walk ok on it, but anytime I tried to even get back to a jog I could feel my calf immediately.

I was in a pretty dark place last year when I was forced with the reality that I was walking, but I wasn't the same this time around. Having 10K ahead of me is a much different place than having 21K, and plus I wasn't confused to what was happening like I was last year. People calling me by name last year was embarrassing for me, this year I could appreciate the support for what it was! There will be time to try figure out the why this is happening, but I physically can't run so there isn't really much I can do in the moment!

I basically exclusively walk 33, 34 and 35k and most of 36, til eventually it seemed like I could run on it again. I took some extra salt tablets and took my caffeine gel (Just an FYI, the lemon caffeine gel from Decathlon is absolutely disgusting!) not sure if it would make any difference at this stage, but my stomach is holding up ok so decide it couldn't hurt. The 4:40 pacers pass me out while I'm walking, at this point I'm still not sure if I'll get running again and I'm wondering how many more pacing groups are going to pass me!

When I get back running again I've about 6k left, I decide I'll walk up any hills I come across as I'd really like to try run the last 2 or 3KM without stopping. From about 3kish out I hitch my wagon to a woman who seems to be getting on ok and I try stick with her. I don't know was she a celebrity or had her name written in lights on her bib but it seemed like a tonne of people where cheering her on specifically! I must say after a while of this I did feel a bit conscious to be essentially following her.

My crew were around the RDS again somewhere, they had gotten up early to get the car inside the loop this year so they were much better able to get around. I went over for some high fives, I didn't dare stop for hugs this time!

My legs have been feeling okish for the last couple of KM so I think the immediate threat of cramping is gone, so when I see the 800M to go sign and I decide to give one last final push. The crowd once you got over the canal was amazing. My 42K pace was 6:16 and the 0.5 after that was 5:36 so I wasn't lighting the world alight or anything but a decent kick on at least.

This time I hold my hands up crossing the line

Post-race

My legs are in absolute bits after the finish line, my calves and hamstrings are telling my all about what they thought of it. I get my medal and goodie bag and make my way to the bag drop. I find a step to try change my top and put on a top and a coat as I think it started raining shortly after I finished.

I thought there was a lot of walking last year, I was absolutely disgusted when I hobbled for about 10 minutes to find myself at the pub thats beside the exit of the north west corner of Merrion square where we could exit last year! We walked back to the car which was just the far side of the canal, went back to my friends house where I grabbed a shower and then we stopped for food on the way home.

Reflection

I'm nowhere near as dissapointed as last year, I did what I could on the day, but at least for another 6 months, my Marathon time will continue to be an outlier! Maybe there was a few more minutes on the table if I wasn't as cautious when I started running again, but judging how my legs felt afterwards, im not so sure!

46 minute PB is something I guess!

I at least felt like the effort I gave on Sunday was like someone who might have trained for the Marathon! I didn't really feel like that last year. Also I ran the 30k faster than any training run (very slightly, 1 second per KM faster) so at least it was an unknown. Last year I was done at the half after running 10 minutes slower than my half PB.

Again i come through unscathed. I'm very sore but normal sore, nothing injured as far as I can tell, so thankful for that!

Now starts the process of figuring out what I need to change or improved because I must be doing something wrong.

Weight: I'm another 7Kg lighter than this time last year, but still maybe another 7Kg overweight so that's an obvious one to work on.

Mileage: I'm 14K short of 1000 miles done for the year, not huge numbers compared to some people but I'd imagine its probably more than average for +4 finishers

S&C: non existent, needs to be an area of focus

Training plan: Maybe mixing plans wasn't a good idea. It seemed logical enough to me how I was doing it. Definitely felt a big improvement from the speed sessions on the shorter distances I'd ran.

Pace: People who look at my timing mat paces will say the classic case of someone going out too fast. And maybe that's true. But if it is the case, the problem I'm having is setting my target because my pacing was spot on for what I planned to do. My Half PB was sub 2 on a very warm day, so I felt pacing for 6:10 average was reasonable, even me being a tad conservative. Maybe 2 x half + 20 isn't enough for me and I should be adjusting that to 2x half + 30 or something.

Fueling: Obviously a huge improvement over last year. A lot more focus on carb loading the week of. On course I took 5 gels, roughly 800/900 ml of carb drink (+ 3 gels worth of carbs roughly) and probably another 2 gels worth of cola bottles. I also took salt tablets every 5K, alternating between 1 and 2 tablets at a time. I had planned to take one more gel but I didn't seem necessary as I took more carb drink than planned at the end for hydration purposes

Water: I didn't drink much water out on course outside of the carb drink. I drank at every stop last year and I felt it contributed to me feeling sick. I skipped most of the water stops this year, maybe using every 3rd, but that was similar to my long runs where I would have minimal water outside of the carb drink. I guess this could be an area to improve. I didn't feel like I was sweating too much at all thought so I felt I was on top of it, but maybe not!

Whats Next

Recover this week. My muscles are very sore so plenty of rest and a couple of small walks. Won't run til the weekend at the earliest and even then will only do something very short.

Get back into a routine with running. Last year November, December and especially January were very light months for me running wise, I would like to keep ticking over better this year in November and December

Diet. Christmas will obviously be a tough time to be focusing on weight, but November for sure with the reduced mileage is a decent opportunity to get back on top of it (after I've recovered from Dublin)

Limerick. Limerick is booked, training will start back up again in January. I'm doing it with a friend who I was hoping the Dublin result would put me in her ball park of a level so we'd be able to push each other on, but I have been humbled and put in my box!

DCM25. 95% sure I will go again. The crowds and the buzz are absolutely amazing. The logistics around it are putting me off it, but I think I'll suck it up for another crack at it, assuming they allow past runners to book again. Am I able for 2 marathons in a year? I'm not even convinced I'm able for 1 :D . Training wise I think so, we'll find out I guess.