Keep Improving

Monday 07/10/13

4.00 - 38.39 - Recovery

On treadmill tonight, legs feel good. 6 miler tomorrow morning easy pace.

Thursday 10/10/13

4.00 - 35.47 - Easy

On Treadmill. Lately have been running this run at recovery pace as the legs were'nt the best. But ran this at easy pace and no problems.

Monday 14/10/13

3.00 - 28.59 - Recovery

On treadmill. Only 6 days left till Amsterdam. Nerves/Excitement (not sure which) starting to kick in a little bit.

Thanks Dazza. Looking forward to it now.

Tuesday 15/10/13

4.00 - 34.38 (8.39) - Easy

Ran on the road at home yesterday evening. Lovely evening for a run. Every little niggle i feel now is being scrutinized out of all proporation.
One more 2 mile easy run on Thursday.

Amsterdam Marathon 2013

Backround

This was my third marathon after DCM 2011 (4.12) and Florence 2012 (3.43). I used Hal Hidgon Intermediate 2 plan. Had used Intermediate 1 last year for Florence and was happy with it. Difference between the two plans was this plan had an extra 22 mile run and highest weekly mileage was 52 miles compared to 45 with the intermediate 1 plan.
I had ran two race’s during the plan this year – Frank Duffy and Charleville Half Marathon. Both of these were disappointments. Ran 1.13 at Frank Duffy, was hoping for a couple of minutes faster and Charleville i suffered in the heat and ended up walking three times and finishing in a very disappointing 1.45.
My plan for sub 3.30 was scrapped and i was just hoping for a decent run and maybe i could knock a few minutes off last year’s time. Had ran PB’s for all distances except the half marathon this year and had approx 200 extra miles in the legs. Had also lost half a stone in weight in the last couple of month’s. Was hoping that some of these factors might help me gain a decent enough time but was very low on confidence.

Race

Stayed in a nice small hotel approx 2km from the Olympic Stadium. Had a decent enough breakfast (Cornflakes & Crossants). Walked down to the Metro station to get the number 16 down to the stadium. Was informed by some other runners that the metro wasn’t coming for another 45 minutes. This was too late for me so the wife and i walked the 2km down to the stadium. I was a bit concerned about having to walk this distance before running a marathon but decided that it would give a decent warm up to the legs.
I had previously put my name down to start in the 3.00 – 3.30 pen, when the plan was to run sub 3.30. So i entered this pen and started about three quarters of the way back in the pen. Was worried about possible congestion but this wasn’t a problem for me.

Miles 1 – 5

My plan was to run at about 3.34 pace which was about 8.10 minute per mile. First mile i took it handy, some small bottlenecks whereby i slowed. Garmin showed 8.12 for the first mile, was happy enough with that. Decided to speed up a little in the second mile as i was hoping to run at an average pace of 8.03 – 8.05 minute per mile to take into account that my garmin would probably be wouldn’t be registering the exact distance.
At the end of the second mile my average pace was 8.03. Plan now was to try and keep this pace. Ran through Vondel Park, feeling ok. Went through 5KM at 25.21, picked some water up. Given cups about ¼ or ½ full. Passed my wife out cheering me on at mile 4 on stadioweg and also she was there at mile 5 when we returned up the other side of that street. My average pace now was at 7.59. I knew in reality taking into account the garmin variation that i was probably running 5/6 seconds slower on average but was being careful not to go any faster than this pace.

Miles 6 – 10

At mile 6 i took my first gel and passed through 10KM (50.22) which meant i had ran the second 5KM at 25.01. Took more water on at 10KM. I was concerned that if the temperature increased i might suffer as usual. So my plan was to take two cups of water at each station and two sponges. I drank one cup of water and put the other over my head along with the sponges. This seemed to help me, apart from being soaking wet.
We headed out by the Amstel River at this point and we would be running alongside it for the next six or seven miles. Could see the lead runners on the far side of the river going at a fair trot. Passed through 15KM mark feeling ok. Third 5KM was 25.12 and passed through 10 mile mark at 1.20.XX. All was going fine at the moment. Can’t say i was finding it easy, but was not struggling either.

Miles 10 – 15

Continued running alongside the Amstel, very quiet in places with little or no support and not much atmosphere. Forgot to take my second gel at 11 miles as planned, remember at 12 mile mark and took it. Passed through the 20KM mark. Fourth 5KM was 25.15. Average pace was still 7.59 and seemed to be running fairly consistently. The fact that the course is so flat probably enabled this. Passed through half way at 1.46.19 (3.32 pace). This was 3 minutes quicker than in Florence last year. Around now, a few people passed by, probably going for sub 3.30 negative split. There was no way i could have went with this pace. Was ok holding the 3.32 pace but didn’t think i had anything quicker in me. Ran through 25KM mark. This 5KM was 24.56 and was my quickest of the race.

Miles 15 – 20

Left the Amstel river and back into the north Amsterdam area. Can’t really remember much about this section, nothing exciting. Passed through an industrial area, again not many spectators and not much atmosphere. Again forgot to take my gel at mile 15 as planned and took the third gel at mile 16 instead and another one at mile 19. Went through the 30KM mark starting to feel it a little harder. This 5KM was 25.16 and my average pace was still 7.59. Was quiet happy and a little surprised that my pace of 3.32 was still holding. Knew though that i would start to come under pressure soon.

Miles 21 – 26

Started to come under pressure at mile 21. Was still passing some runners that were struggling and some were passing me. My average pace started to slip at mile 21 very slowly. Was continuing to take plenty of water and sponges at each station. Legs were feeling it now. There was no way i was stopping or walking, not like charleville. Was going to run to the end no matter how bad they got.

Went through 35KM mark. This 5KM was 26.32, a minute slower than all previous 5k splits. My average pace was now around 8.01/8.02. Kept plugging away and passing quite a few runners. Stuck in behind a girl with a Luxembourg Marathon top on and followed her for a couple of miles. She seemed to be going at a good pace and i was able to hold on. We passed loads of runners at this stage. My average pace was still slipping. At mile 24 it was about 8.04. Went through vondel park the second time and passed through the 40KM barrier. This 5KM was 26.51. Dug in as best i could for the last 2 km, passed my wife just outside the stadium. She was waiting for the start of her Half Marathon and i had just got there as she was about to leave. I entered the stadium, atmosphere was great, finished as fast as i could and across the line in 3.36.14 (PB over 7.30 minutes).

A few months ago, i would have been slightly disappointed with this time, but given the way my training went and the mistakes that i made in not doing enough quality sessions this year, it’s the best i could have expected.

One sad note, was the death of a 45 year old experienced French runner whom suffered cardiac arrest at 41.5 KM’s just outside the entrance to the Olympic stadium. My wife saw him pass some time before i reached the stadium. He was very pale and was stumbling in a bad way. He didn’t look in a very good state and just after he passing her, went around the corner, he went into cardiac arrest. Ambulance was there quickly but unfortunately he didn’t make it.

This i suppose puts things in perspective for me. My wife ran her half marathon in 2.02.13. Was happy enough, even though she would have liked to go under Sub 2 hour for the first time.

Taking this week off work and running (even though i’m itching to get out for a run at the moment).
Having pints, smokes, cakes, buns, biscuits, Indian & Chinese. Probably will have put back on the half stone by Sunday. Plan to get back into it on Monday. Am actually looking forward to it, just running with no marathon plan to follow.

Wednesday 30/10/13

6.00 - 52.08 (8.41) - Easy

First time on the road since the Marathon. Ran on Kilkenny Ring Road, legs feeling fine. Have a 9 week plan done up to bring me to end of year. This week are all easy/slow runs. Plan to start mcmillan 10k workout sessions every Saturday from next week.

Friday 01/11/13

4.00 - 34.49 (8.40) - Easy

Nice handy run on the road yesterday evening before it got dark. 8 mile LSR today.

Monday 04/11/13

4.00 - 38.39 - Recovery

On treadmill tonight during break. Very busy at work this evening and stress levels high. Needed this to give the head a break.

Saturday 09/11/13

8.00 - 1.01.19

First week trying the Mcmillan 10k workouts. Plan was 1 mile warm up, 6 X 1 Mile Intervals (10k pace) with 4 minutes recovery between reps, 1 mile cool down. Planned to run intervals at 6.45 - 6.50 pace.
Wife came into town to run this session as well at her own 10k pace.

When we arrived at the track, discovered that it was covered in frost and was very slippy. Decided to try run these on the Ring Road which was going to be difficult due to a number of roundabouts and also ground was slippy in parts. Anyway, ran first mile WM with the wife at 10.04 pace.

Then started intervals

Mile 1 - 7.00 - Couldn't hold pace. Ground very slippy. Pi**ed off and decided to call it a day. Wife running behind me was able to hit her target so i changed my mind and gave it another go.

Mile 2 - 6.50 - Ground still very slippy but just about managed to hit the time.

Mile 3 - 6.50 - Steep downhill and decided to run on hard shoulder of the road as would have broken my neck in the slippy conditions running on the path.

Mile 4 - 6.45 - Still on the hard shoulder, back up the hill, was tough hitting this time.

Mile 5 - 6.46 - Ground conditions were alot better now, so back on the path.

Mile 6 - 6.47 - Again, not too bad, lost concentration during this mile at half way i was over 7.00 pace. Had to speed up a bit to hit the target time.

Met up with the missus again and ran 1 mile cool down at 10.17 pace.

Overall, enjoyed the run, apart from poor underfoot conditions

Sunday 10/11/13

12.00 - 1.46.02 (8.50) LSR

Found it tough to motivate myself to get out for this run. But found it very easy and time flew by. Happy i managed to drag myself out of the bed for this.