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Berlin 2016: Back to Basics

TheRoadRunner

The last time I started a log it ended in disaster but I'll tempt fate and start one again. I kinda enjoy writing down what I've done/plan to do and the feed back I get so I'll give it another bash and we'll see how we go. Short term goals are Frank Duffy 10 mile, national half marathon. Ideally I'd love to run PBs for both but the Frank Duffy 10 miler is a tough cookie and I heard the route around where the half is to be run are undulating.

Once I get through them I'll decide whether or not to run the Dublin marathon. This will depend on how I'm running and also my work/home schedule.

My PBs to date are
5K 15:40 (2007)
4 miles 21.01 (2008)
5 mile 26.45 (2007)
8 mile 45.02 (2005/6 ?)
10 mile 56.10 (2007)
Half Marathon 75.20 (2008)
Marathon 2hrs 47 mins (2009)

This year has been a good one so far. I haven't ran any PBs but in the last 2-3 months I have been in touching distance of most of those listed above. Training this year hasn't been as intense as before. A lot of my running was easy. I ran 2.48 for a marathon in April and apart from a couple of races and tempos all my training running was very slow. What's more my 5k and 4 mile times were really good (21.15 and 16 minutes) which I was amazed at considering I hadn't done any real pace running to talk about. I have an excel sheet with all my running this year. I'll try and post a modified version in the next few days to show what I've done to date. Going forward mileage will vary from 50-65 miles per week. Anymore than this I generally pick up injuries.

I'm going to continue on as before but will try to get some more tempo stuff in the legs. If I feel it isn't agreeing with me I'll drop it and keep plodding instead. I'd rather be a little slower but injury free.

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RacoonQueen

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Thanks lads, if I get my hands on any East Africans bar Tadese they are dead men.

Thursday: rest
Friday: 20 mile leg loosener. Legs feeling good although I'm physically knackered from work. Good night sleep should do the trick.

Race strategy

miles 1-5 sub 31 mins
miles 6-10 30.30
miles 11-15 30 mins
miles 16-20 30 mins
last 10k as hard as I can for as long as I can.

If I blow up I blow up. If very early on it doesn't feel sustainable I'll revert to plan B which is basically anything faster than 2.47 (London marathon PB ) Nothing to lose everything to gain.

Viva LaRoadRunner

20 miles? What ultra are you training for?

Good luck. Make sure you don't let Abhainn pass you out.

TheRoadRunner

RacoonQueen wrote: »

20 miles? What ultra are you training for?

Good luck. Make sure you don't let Abhainn pass you out.

woops, fixed that. Don't want to get ultraman1's hopes up. I think Abhainn will be in front of me from early on so no need for me to watch my back

liamo123

Best of luck Dave... Burn it up man

theboyblunder

good luck! enjoy the race

Abhainn

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

woops, fixed that. Don't want to get ultraman1's hopes up. I think Abhainn will be in front of me from early on so no need for me to watch my back

Sandbagging again:)
I was hoping you'd be sheltering me from the wind from 5 to 13 miles. See you at the start big boy

Woddle

Best of luck, you seem to be in great form and leave Kipsang alone

menoscemo

Good luck!!

Krusty_Clown

Hope you have a superb experience Dave. Run a time that'll make me sick.

TheRoadRunner

Abhainn wrote: »

Sandbagging again:)
I was hoping you'd be sheltering me from the wind from 5 to 13 miles. See you at the start big boy

You won't rile me you bollox. You might see this big boy at the start but you won't see him coming up behind you in the showers

BeepBeep67

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

You won't ride me you bollox. You might see this big boy at the start but you won't see him coming up behind you in the showers

FYP

- have fun chaps, keep it between the ditches

drquirky

Good luck Dave! Rip it up.

myflipflops

Run well. As Prefontaine said:

'The best pace is a suicide pace and today looks like a good day to die.'

tHE vAGGABOND

Good Luck

Krusty_Clown

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hope you have a superb experience Dave. Run a time that'll make me sick.

I'm sick.

tunguska

Thats a classy run off feck all training, well done Dave. You can defintely go sub 2:30 in october.

TheRoadRunner

tunguska wrote: »

Thats a classy run off feck all training, well done Dave.

Thanks but hand on my heart the missed weeks weren't as bad as I first feared. The only thing I probably missed out on was 2-3 20+ mile runs. They may have helped. In fact I'm sure they would have helped as I'm shuffling in a lot of pain today. Also I've been flying in recent weeks so didn't loose any real fitness to speak of.

Patrick_K

Savage run boss, congrats.

TheRoadRunner

London 2012 was a bonus marathon for me from day one. I had the GFA number but had no real plans on running it. When I realised RoadRunner Jnr II was set to arrive in May I decided I’d love to set London as a goal marathon and give it a good lash as there is a good chance my Summer racing will be curtailed and it would be nice to do a big event.

Initially set myself a goal of another sub 2.40 as I didn’t think I could push on from Berlin without a minor change in my training/.build up and with the time I had I wouldn’t be able to enact such a change. Picked up some nasty shin splints mid January through a combination of increasing the mileage too quickly, new shoes and generally being a fat fcuk. Was well pissed off and missed the guts of 6 weeks training but I get disciplined and went on a diet. Even without running the weight was coming off so this was a good sign. The dilemma was then should I postpone London and run Kildare or the likes but I had my heart set on London and decided worst case scenario I’d run London regardless of the time. Initial plan was to get into sub 3 shape and run with Brianderunner, when that witty git managed to drop me on the S-bends in the Phoenix park back in March I was a little worried. However the following weeks were absolutely magic. I went from running 30 miles to 80 in a matter of weeks and what’s more I didn’t feel as if I had lost that much fitness. I've had 30 months of consisting training with no injuries and these have given me a great base. I know it looks like I did very little training for this marathon but my running over the last 2-3 years needs to be considered and as I've said I did loose very little fitness in the 6 week lay off. I probably could have done with an extra 3*20+ mile runs but I can't complain. I was also worried about the lack of threshold and MP sessions but said I’d roll with it and give sub 2.40 a lash on the day and see how far I could get without dying a death.

Confidence was quickly rising as I was running with a friend in work who was targeting sub 2.35 and I was comfortably keeping up with him. When I banged out 12 miles at 6 minute mile pace I knew I had a chance but purposely avoided doing any road races as I knew a bad race would seriously dent my confidence. Between Berlin and London (6-7 months) I have run 1 race, an impromptu trail race. Not ideal preparation. However last time I ran London I got shin splints in the lead up to the race, I much preferred the lead up to this one and I was full of (brittle) confidence

Come race day I was ready to roll, I set out the masterplan and knew if I could get to 20 miles with a sniff of making the goal time I’d manage to pull something out of the bag.

Race day was perfect, nice weather, little wind and a relaxed trip to start area and nice warm up in GFA pen. Crowds were brilliant and London really knows how to put on a marathon in style. Cutty sark, tower bridge and birdcage walk were deafening, rockstar treatment. Race started and after 3 miles I had a horrible feeling in the calfs. They weren’t cramping but they were twitching, hamstring started not too long after either :eek: Wasn’t due to fatigue or tightness, felt more like a electrolyte deficiency if that makes sense! Decided then and there to lash into the gels in the hope that they’d help. I took seven in all and was retching taking the last, thankfully the stomach was able to handle them. I won’t bore you with all the details but 9 to 20 miles hurt an awful lot. This was a new sort of marathon hurt for me, obviously not as intense as 5/10k pain but I was breathing through my arse and my legs wanted to pack it in. My quads were cramping and I had an internal pain that can only be described as visceral torture. The last 10k was great, I was still in pain but I knew the pain would be over soon and when you’re in the business end of things with a time on the line the endorphins silence the little voices in the head. I was also constantly passing people which always helps. At the same stage in Berlin an increased level of intensity brought quicker mile splits, that wasn't the case this time. An increase in intensity was required just to maintain the pace. Having said that I did run a 30-40 second negative split in the second half which is very satisfying. Watching a recording of the race last night I realised I must have literally had the head down as I can’t remember passing any of the landmarks. I managed to lift the head coming onto the mall and drank that in.

Post race I was banjaxed for about an hour. Took me 40 minutes to have a shower and when I sat down at a tree I had the horrible feeling something bad was about to happen to me as my entire left hand side from my arse to my jaw started to get very stiff. Luckily enough it was just a severe cramp. The rest of the day was great craic. After a few cans knacker drinking I met up with shels, dermcu, robinph, witty-brian, abhainn and runforest in the Coal hole and we exchanged some war stories. Good times

Legs are still in a jocker. I have to loose the service lift in work to get up and down the stairs. Managed to run a few minutes quicker than what I had trained for, so going to take it easy for a while and give them some TLC. No immediate plans race wise etc.

Result was a very satisfying 2:38.37.

TheRoadRunner

Thursday: 20 minute recovery run. Legs still stiff and tender. Ran on grass. Had hoped to get a sports massage but finding it hard to get an appointment. Quads are very sore, rest of the body isn't actually too bad all things considered. Will continue taking hot baths.

Abhainn

Amazing result considering you were only 2 mins outside your PB.
You have a natural talent that will certainly see you lower that Berlin time soon.
I wanted 5:59's all the way last Sunday. Deep down I wanted 2:36:44 or better. Thanks RR for indirectly pushing me that little bit further

Over to you now, how low can you go?

TheRoadRunner

Abhainn wrote: »

Amazing result considering you were only 2 mins outside your PB.
You have a natural talent that will certainly see you lower that Berlin time soon.
I wanted 5:59's all the way last Sunday. Deep down I wanted 2:36:44 or better. Thanks RR for indirectly pushing me that little bit further

Over to you now, how low can you go?

Ha ha thanks Joe you're some bollix

sure I had to take it handy on Sunday so you could run faster than me over at least one distance

great run again from yourself, im sure you can lower that also. Sure aren't we both brilliant

TheRoadRunner

Friday: Beautiful 25 minute jog around Maynooth campus followed by a couple of lengths in Ireland's oldest indoor swimming pool. Legs better than yesterday and I have now regained the ability to walk down stairs, hurrah. Just realised that Sunday was my 10th sub 3hr marathon. Thought I was brilliant until a friend of mine told me had ran 20 sub 2.50s and 35 sub 3s

Looks like I will be running a local 10k the end of May. Was told a weekend warrior in work reckons he wouldn't be as fast as me over races 10 miles or above but he'd be better over the shorter stuff. Seems childish on my behalf but he is a cock. Anyway I thought I'd already put him in his box by hammering him in a work charity 5k before Christmas, I was in a full Santa suit and still finished minutes ahead of him.

TheRoadRunner

Saturday: Rest day, on the beer, love it, post marathon guilt free beer. Nothing taste as sweet. Had a four in one as well, the food of champions. It has it all, carbs, more carbs proteins and essential* fats (*may not actually be essential fats

)

Sunday: 6 miles @ 6.45 pace. Legs feeling surprisingly good. Tried to go a little slower but weather was poxy, I was hungry and I was running to my folks to have my dinner so was hard to stay disciplined.

Monday: Rest day. Could have got out if I had really wanted but was too much hassle and another rest day won't do me any harm.

Tuesday: 6 miles @ 7 minute pace. Nice easy run on the canal. Going to start building back up slowly. I've had a week of eating and drinking what I want and while I didn't go nuts it's time to get the diet back onside.

Just looking through race calendars for the next few weeks and I really want to get back to racing. I've raced very sparingly over the last number of months and am dying to get going again. I know I need to listen to sense and my body and not jump into a race too soon but I'm really biting at the bit.

Have a fridge magnet with my London finishing time on it. I've been smiling all week when reaching for the milk. This morning I wasn't smiling as much, still satisfied but am now thinking how much faster I can go. I'm never fcuking happy, the day I am is the day I'll become a jogger I guess.

ultraman1

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Have a fridge magnet with my London finishing time on it. I've been smiling all week when reaching for the milk. This morning I wasn't smiling as much.

no milk?

TheRoadRunner

Wednesday: 8 miles @ 7.10 pace. Nice easy run legs feeling good. Right hamstring tight. No fear of pulling it but a little uncomfortable.

Thursday: 8.5 miles @ 7.10 pace on rolling back roads. Enjoyable has had great company. Hammy still very tight. Went to town on it with "the grid" roller and felt a massive improvement almost immediately.

Friday: 9.5 miles with Ecoli @ 7.06 pace on grass/road.

Saturday: 5 miles easy in Corkagh with shels. Legs feeling good although hammy still literally a pain in the arse.

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I really want to get back to racing. I've raced very sparingly over the last number of months and am dying to get going again. I know I need to listen to sense and my body and not jump into a race too soon but I'm really biting at the bit.

EPIC FAIL

I'm sick of training, even if it is technically recovery stuff. I usually race quite well in the 2-6 weeks after a marathon. I really wanted to race this weekend so was going to do Le Cheile 5k on Saturday but couldn't do it for a number of family reasons. Was a bit disappointing as I ran a low 16 minute time there a couple of years back off a 2.48 marathon so reckoned I would have been in the mix yesterday. Watched that race and decided I was going to run either a 10k in Summerhill or Drogheda the following day.

3.30pm start was a big turn off for the Drogheda race so Summerhill it was. I'll be honest I was worried that the race might be a bit of a shambles as it wasn't advertised greatly and was a local affair to raise funds for a community centre. I was very wrong, this was an excellent race (5/5 from me). Full road closures, km markers, water at 6k and a really nice fastish course. Great friendly vibe and lots of tea and sambos afterward. Everybody also got a nice commemorative mug. Would recommend this very very highly.

Regards the race itself. Long story short I finished second. Was hoping for a 34.15-34.30 so was delighted with 33.54. I was well beaten in the end but if I had of had a bit of fight in me I could have minimised the gap that the eventual winner had over me (about 30 seconds). Haven't done any threshold work of any note so I guess I can't beat myself up too much. I have it in my head that I need to lower my 10k to 32.30 in preparation for a decent attempt on Dublin. That's what I'm going to work on for the next 6 weeks. I'm glad I raced today as well as being a great relaxed friendly experience I am also 20 odd seconds up on where I thought I was. Probably 30 if I had somebody close to me or a bit of HFTU. I've another few crazy races planned in the short term also. I'll see how they got fit in.

Viva la resistance
Viva LaRoadrunner

TheRoadRunner

Abhainn wrote: »

I wanted 5:59's all the way last Sunday. Deep down I wanted 2:36:44 or better. Thanks RR for indirectly pushing me that little bit further

Over to you now, how low can you go?

Was thinking about Joe (not in a sexy way

) on my run today. By the time I'd finished I'd come up with an intermediate plan for Dublin (if I can get training done) and one that is a little longer term goal. Nothing better than a bollix to get you motivated

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Regards the race itself. Long story short I finished second. Was hoping for a 34.15-34.30 so was delighted with 33.54. I was well beaten in the end but if I had of had a bit of fight in me I could have minimised the gap that the eventual winner had over me (about 30 seconds).

Was also thinking about this run while training today. 34.15 was obviously a weak target in hindsight but I didn't know how legs were going to be so close to running a marathon. Funnily enough plugging my London time into McMillian gives a 10k time 6 seconds quicker than what I ran on Sunday. Mr McMillian's calculator really is a decent predictor and I can say that as I hadn't biased my race by looking up predicted time before the race. Has worked well for predictions with me in the past also.

The other thing regards the race is that I didn't really throw the towel in, looking back at my splits my fastest miles were 3 and 4. First guy got away from me at 2.5 miles so I was obviously chasing. Did loose time on mile 5 and definitely lost 15 seconds I shouldn't have but that's forgivable as first guy was too far ahead and third guy was too far behind so no one to push me on, added to that I was breathing through my arse.

Monday: 6 miles recovery @ 8 minutes pace on grass. Legs a little tired.

Tuesday: 8 miles easy @ 6.50 pace. Legs grand except for some tightness in calves. Wore racing flats on Saturday and the lack of support always takes me a couple of days to get over.

Might be running a sneaky race (;)) tomorrow evening if I can get out to it.

Abhainn

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Nothing better than a bollix to get you motivated

It worked for me:D

TheRoadRunner

Abhainn wrote: »

It worked for me:D

Ah pronator isn't that much of a bollix. He's a bollix all right but not the worst. Sure worst (excluding myself) post here

TheRoadRunner

I've decided to close my account and have asked the mods to lock this log. See you guys at the start line of races.

Cheers
Dave

TRR

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I've decided to close my account and have asked the mods to lock this log. See you guys at the start line of races.

Cheers
Dave

Ehhhhhhhhh OK so in a rage I closed my account and locked the log but have had a change of heart

I initially decided to stop posting as I couldn't resist getting involved in frivilous arguments with people I have no time for on the main forum.

So why the change of heart. Basically I've missed posting to a log. I am traditionally not a keen diary keeper or logger of my training but have been keeping a log here in some shape or form since late 2008 and quite frankly I've missed it. I also haven't a rashers what I've done for the last 8 weeks running wise so want to put a halt to that. I could have set up a independent online training blog but realistically who would have read it? I enjoy writing $hite and reading other logs. Most of my current training partners have originated on this forum so I'd like to keep that going into the future. I also enjoyed the feedback I got on this log.

So here goes.

Since last posting I've transferred to a new club, had a new addition to the family so been just trying to get out as much as possible. Overall little or no structure. I ran a couple of relatively decent but unspectacular 10ks (sub 34s), three 5ks (high 16s

) the highlight included individual and team medals in the dublin novice (a 34 year old novice with a 2.36 marathon PB, you couldn't make it up). Did a half marathon in 78 minutes last week and although well off my best was pleasantly surprised with that. I seem to have one fastish pace at the moment and it's 6 minute miles. It seems that the miles over the years have paid off though and I can churn a good few of them out though. Obviously I need to work on that.

Last 2 weeks have been decent and I'm back on track mentally. I'm not setting (or should I say stating) any major goals just yet. I'll see how things pan out but if things go to plan I've a few PBs that I want to attack before the end of the year.

TheRoadRunner is dead
Viva TRR