From Marlboro Lights to Running Tights!

Thanks Steroo ,

Looking forward to it now. reading ur log during the year I was always pushed on by your progress as we were doing same plan with similar times for previous marathons. hope I can keep the upward progress curve on Monday !!

Monday June 3rd Cork City Marathon.
26.2 miles @8:28

Got up at 6.30am in an unusually spritely mode. ….always a good sign. Downed a pint of cold water and cooked breakfast. Usual two bagels with bacon, plenty butter and cup of tea. Took the dogs for a walk and got back home round 7.15. Showered , dressed and hit the road. My good wife was taking the role of race director and had employed most of her family on parts of theroute with spare gels, bottles of water and salt tabs.

Got to cork for around 8:15 , parked up and met a few guys I knew around the start. Was a good atmosphere round the place and even though it was bit overcast it was humid enough to suggest once the cloud gotburned off it could get very warm. Did a small warm up about 500m more to see if I could pop to Mcdonalds to use the facilities but nothing was happening. Knew then I would probably have to schedule a pit stop. Forgot HR monitor but in hindsight it was probably no loss as there was a lot of beeping going on around me and it wasn't mile markers!! Sometimes the less you know the better!!

Lined up a bit behind the 3.45 pacers as plan I had inmy head was to follow them to 20/21 miles and see what I might feel like there.I had 3 targets…. most optimistic sub3.40, realistic sub 3.45 and at all costs sub 4. My main consideration was to not have a DNF. After 18 weeks of P&D no matter what the conditions I knew only being too aggressive could cause a blow up and the dreaded DNF.

Mile 1-5 Splits8:20, 8:34, 8:28, 8:29, 8:36

Started off about 30m behind the 3.45 pacers. First few miles reeled off and great support allalong the city centre. Passed the pacers around mile 3 as there was a huge crowd behind them and also wanted to be a bit ahead if I needed a toilet stop. Saw the leaders passing back against us round mile 4 and saw how impressive their pace was. Breathing was perfect and found pace very comfortable.

Mile 6-10 Splits 8:39,8:29, 8:19, 8:18, 8:18

Heading out for the tunnel I had to take that unplanned planned pit stop.When I got back out the bushes the pacers had moved on up the road. This suited me for a while as I could forget about pace and get some salt tabs in the water bottle and took first gel at mile 6. Met ncmc before the tunnel and had a chat. The pink shirt and runners made me ask was she the one who was a very regular contributor on boards! Through the tunnel and this is where the heat hit me like getting off an airplane in a hot country. Even out of the tunnel some of the runners around me were talking about it and it you could sense achange in the atmosphere as reality dawned. Anyway next water stop I poured a bottle on top of my cap. Kept doing this throughout. The cap was great as it left the water cool you down over time. Collected a bottle of water with salt off my wife at mile 10.

Mile 11-15 Splits 8:30, 8:38, 8:37, 8:42, 8:12

Was getting very warm now and getting fluids /gels on board and salt tabs into bottles was a job in itself. Sometimes I had a bottle in each hand while trying to open a gel. Think I moved ahead of pacers here toget some clear ground for a while. Was chatting to ncmc till around mile 11 until she pulled over for a salt tab. Popped Gel 2 here. Passed half way at 1.51 on garmin and was still comfortable. Mile 14 on the walkbridge over the south ring I felt my vision getting blurred and felt my legs go light under me. I thought oh my god how can this happen at only mile 14…..was certain I was gone that I had hit the wall but just as I was wondering what could I do....( ..brain said you need to run it out of you ...holy **** did I read that somewhere on here ) I got over the apex of the bridge and felt grand again. Realised it was the bridge waving under the weight of people as another runner along side me had felt the same thing. Popped another gel just in case!

Mile 16-20 Splits 8:23, 8:19, 8:30, 8:38, 8:38

Things were now really hotting up. Sun was getting stronger and I was saturated from water and sweat. No chaffing though and clothes were perfect even though some were relatively new given change in recent weather conditions. Had last word with ncmc here around mile 16 and I moved ahead of the pacers again at the sponge station. Actually saw a bunch of young fellows looking too cool on their bikes at the corner after the sponge station. Threw the wet sponge from the opposite side of the road ,shouted incoming and watched as it slapped one ofthem perfectly on the puss. Was a burst of laughter from behind. Moved swiftly on as they had bikes and if they were messers like I am I thought it better to move on quickly!! Gel at 18 and wasstill feeling ok but it was getting hotter. Was thinking about the last 5/6miles as I had planned to be at 20 miles @2:50. I was then thinking of trying asub 50 10K. Slowed a bit to pick up pacers again and said it to pacer Alan. He said I would be off my head to go off so early in such heat. Ok so Alan

Mile 21-26.(2) Splits 8:33, 8:29, 8:38, 8:33, 7.58, (7:32 )

Popped last gel which I got off my wife at mile 21 as could only carry 4. Even though my breathing was fine my left hamstring was starting to cramp around 23. Felt if I went faster it might help but was working with pacers and other guys now and miles were ticking by nicely especially the straight road which is a drag mentally. Once we got off this on the last water stop at mile 25 pacer Graham (I think ) picked up 4 bottles of water for each of us. Then one of the guys pulled ahead of the group and that was it I was gone after him. Caught up to him quickly enough but then just kept going and went as fast as I could till the end. My left leg was still at me and I had to slow a couple of times with it but I still managed the last 1.2 miles as my fastest. Passed loads of people and got great encouragement from even from runners I was passing.

Crossed in a chip time of 3:43:30 an improvement of over 32 minutes on DCM 12 and position 332 out of 1204 finishers.

Felt Completely different to when I finished DCM . I walked for a while, had a banana , got a rub down and walked to my car with my wife, went home had lunch and walked my two personal trainers (Labradordogs ). After Dublin I could hardly walk out of the finish area !!
Things I learned from Marathon number 2

I have endurance.
I don’t have enough core strength or flexibility.
I felt yesterdays marathon was like a game of chess between my brain , my lungs my legs and the sun. This time the brain won out, left leg lost it for team legs, the lungs even though battered for a good part of their life are fighting back . The Sun is more than welcome to have another go!!

Thanks to my race director;)

ncmc wrote: »

Great running D, it was nice to meet you and chat with you for a few miles. As the pacers pulled away from me, I couldn't really see their balloons, but your orange hat was like a beacon! You nailed that race, sounds like it went exactly to plan. Well done on a fantastic time.

Thanks N ,
That orange hat was selected by my wife and niece so that they could see me coming. Needless to say I wasn't gone on it!! Didnt notice u were not with pacers till around 20 miles. Glad to see u still got a decent pb in tough conditions. Kinda made me hold on to pacers as there was only 4 of us hanging onto them for last 5 miles. Fairly high attrition rate from what was there at halfway. Will hopefully meet u again clinging to a 3.30 pacer group somewhere!

Post Cork City Marathon runs

Friday 7th June
3 miles in 30 mins

Sunday 9th June
5 miles @ 9.00

Tuesday 11th June
5 miles @ 8.50

All runs above done in evening sunshine in Mallorca. Did a lot of swimming and messing in the water so think it was a great way recovery for the legs. On the flip side I have eaten out every night , drank alcohal every night and even though I confined myself to one box of fags on holidays ....(3 per night with few drinks) I now feel like beeched whale again. One thing good though I think is that thats the end of the fags. Did not enjoy them like I did before on holidays and it was like there was a little bird on my shoulder telling me your a waster and what were you training for the last six months. Get more of a hit from the endorphins now .....so thats it out go the marlboro lights for good. Need to clean up the diet now again and start a core strenghening/flexibility routine

Friday June 14th
5 miles @ 8.45

Saturday June 15th
5 miles @ 9.00

I am feeling like I need a plan fairly soon as 5 miles seems to be the happy medium now. That said its only two weeks since marathon and I don't want to get an injury either. Wanted to do a 10K yesterday but had to meet a few friends on saturday night for pints so out went that plan. Might be a blessing though as I think it still to soon for me.
Plan now I think will be DCM 13 with attempt at 3.30. (brain is wondering is 3 marthons in 12 months too much for the body.....if i stop I will have to start again sometime....Oh god the thought of that is enough so we keep going) Charlleville HM in september should be a good indicator of where we'll be. current half PB is 1:40:30 from bantry at end of April. I wonder what I need to be targeting for a 3.30 marathon.......thinking 1:35 HM . Will probably stick with P&D 55 mile plan but was thinking of doing the 12 week version for Dublin starting in August. Maybe the Meno version might be an option too but I think 6 days a week will be pushing it for me timewise. Enough rambling I need to find a few more inspired logs to make up some plan for next few weeks.

Sunday June 23rd

5 miles @ 8:55

Tuesday June 25th

10 miles @ 8:50

2 miles warm up

then did 6 miles progression run

8:57, 8:40, 8:20 7:57, 7:48, 7:24

2 miles cool down

Been waiting to do this with a week or so as tired of running one pace all the time. Felt good this evening and bit more looking forward to getting back into it soon. only issue was getting reminders from both hamstrings, just little darts every so often. Doing a bit of stretching after runs now but prob not enough. Core work plan is non existent , just cant get into a routine of doing it.
Would like a crack at a 10K Friday night on a nice flat route but think I might err on side of caution and leave for another while as wary of hamstrings still.

outforarun wrote: »

Only just found your log. Great progress. You made Cork sound effortless. At this rate I think you'll pick off a sub 3:30 pretty handily.

Thanks Outforarun,

read your race report after CCM and subsequently read your log, you certainly have put a lot of effort into getting near that 3.30 and with an uniterupted lead in and a cooler day I'd say you can't be too far off. TBH i think my race report probably made it sound more effortless than it actually was. I have no doubt though that at my current level if I tried for a 3.30 I would struggle to finish so I'm hoping another 15 or 16 week dose of P&D will see me able to run 8 min miles comfrotably for 20 miles and then hope I can hold on again. Thats the plan in my brain anyway.....
Therefore I am going to focus more on LT runs this time and work off 7min/mile pace for these. I started last P&D plan struggling @8min pace for these but at end of it I was comfortble @7:30. Therefore aim is to get to be able to complete 7 consecitive miles of these around @7min pace. My planned HMP would then be 7:15 m/m and PMP 8m/m. Now actually seeing this in print is quite scary when you consider the imorovement required :rolleyes:...... maybe I'm strecthing it a bit but I can't aim for sub 4 again

Saturday june 29th
4 miles recovery @ 10

Sunday june 30th
3 miles recovery @ 10

Monday July 1st
11 miles @ 8.43
In germany with work so did this run in beautiful sunshine on a route I did previously in april. This place is made for running. Great trails off road no cars and its got everything, flat for miles if u want , head for the hills if you like , all bikers and runners say hello ! And I dont have to listen to the radio here with paul williams and his scooooope like he had gone into Afghanistan and stole the anglo tapes off one of bin ladens sisters. Oh dear I must admit I was thirsty after the run and ze pils is very good. Danke

Ps I had a look at the meno plan. I need to look again when I, m sober. 10 by 0.5 mile repeats on week one with 1 min recovery. I think I, ll take the easy option and have a cut off the P &D 85 mile per week plan. Have to go I,m being lapped in the pils round here by some germans who think we irish are great crack. Fwhat do you veen he picked 7 villion out of his arrse? Woops

Tuesday July 2nd

5 miles @10 min pace. straight from the Byran Robson book of endurance techniques......... a bit 80's but still not very enjoyable.

Wednesday July 3rd.

8.5 miles @ 8:50

After changing to the vino on Tuesday night I was feeling up for it and decided in my wisdom to see what these 10 by 800m repeats would be like. The theory was that it might be easier than the 8 miles with 4 at LT pace ( now LT pace seems to be getting away from me at the moment ...this 7 min mile plan might have to be adjusted after this.)

As still in germany found a perfect spot after 1.5 miles warm up to this. Decided to try to keep pace between 6.45 and 7min miles as much as possible. This was tough going but managed to complete it and found a bit for the last one. odd splits were on slight incline, only noticed when lungs were burning.

anyway splits were

3.29
3.24
3.30
3.24
3.29
3.23
3.30
3.22
3.29
3.10

Interested to see since about this Yasso/Meno guy and the time predicter. Sub 3.30 ????? I don't think so today anyway!! Remember doing 5 x 800m at similar pace with 90 second running recovery in P$D bout two months ago but maybe after another few months running !!

Friday July 5th

5 miles @ 9.45 Recovery run. wrecked tired after long day travelling on Thursday.

Sunday July 7th

10 miles @9.30
Meant to get up early to do 13 miles but it was 11 before I got on the road after a BBQ on Saturday night. It must have been 25/26 degrees by the time I had 7 or 8 miles done and as I had the two dogs with me they looked as if they were going to keel over so I cut route short and called a halt. I wasn't really feeling it too much but my pace was slowing towards the end so I had the 40 miles done for the week anyway which is enough for the time being as I want to up it gradually again.

Started P&D basic core exercises tonight. Was sweating buckets after it so may have done some of them properly but I doubt it.

Monday July 8th

8 miles @8.45

Hit the road at 6 after getting out the car which read 28 degrees. I was like a guy after a bout with Mike Tyson after this run. I am trying to do these easy runs at a bit faster pace and still easy if you know what I mean as I feel I need to up all paces gradually to ultimately feel comfortable at my new MP. I also try to use the heat to rid the body of all recent toxins of which there are many ...with this weather the BBQ is another bloody excuse for eating sh1te and I'm not one to resist. Did 100 sit ups before the burger :rolleyes:

Passed the 1000 miles for the year tonight. Its not until you write it down that it dawns on you the effort, time and luck that you can actually do this in six months.

YTD Miles 1002