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A Slow Journey to Faster Times

yaboya1

So I finally decided on Seville for my Spring Marathon. The date & costs suit me well and the race seems to be pretty well reviewed by anyone who's previously run it.

This is my first attempt at a training log so please go easy on me!

I've run three previous marathons (3:39, 3:35, 3:34). The aim in Seville is to finally go below 3:30. I've had various things go wrong on me in all of the above, so I think my target is pretty achievable. I haven't done any running since Chicago last month, so I plan to ease back into it gradually for the next month by doing a couple of short/medium runs during the week with a long one at the weekend. Then from the beginning of December I've decided to follow the 12 week 'Up to 55 miles per week' marathon schedule from the Advanced Marathoning book by Pfitzinger & Douglas.

My biggest problem in the past has been going too quickly on my long runs. There are 7 different paces in this plan. I have estimated what pace I should be running them at as follows:

MP runs: 8 min/mile
Long runs: 9 min/mile
Med-long runs: 8:45-9 min/mile
General aerobic runs: 9:30 min/mile
LT runs: 7:35 min/mile
Recovery runs: 12 min/mile
VO2 max intervals: 7 min/mile

If anyone has any comments/observations, I'd be delighted to hear them. Otherwise I'll be back as soon as I get back out on the road.

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yaboya1

Monday 18th August (Day 15/56) - Rest/Cross Training

After a solid week of training I allowed myself a few beers last night. Spent this morning on the golf course (for the third day in succession) recovering from my hangover. Back to it tomorrow!

yaboya1

AuldManKing wrote: »

Just seen your 5k time - that's an amazing performance!
Well deserved though.

B'Stard.

I knew you'd be pleased :pac:

outforarun

That was one of the best 5K race reports (or pre-golf warm-up reports) I've read. Especially the sound of nothing piece. Proper racing. Progress on here is relentless, the long runs, the sessions, the races, they all keep coming and you keep batting them away. Podium and a 39 second PB over 5K! Make sure you stay injury-free and it should really be job-done come Berlin.

yaboya1

Tuesday 19th August (Day 16/56) - 10m (with 6 x 1,000m @ VO2Max)

2.5m warm-up

6 x 1,000m splits (with 2:00min recovery)

1 - 3:27
2 - 3:26
3 - 3:25
4 - 3:26
5 - 3:26
6 - 3:26

2.75m cool down

After my new 5k PB on Saturday, I needed to adjust the target splits for this session to 3:27min/km. Before I hit the road this morning, I foolishly had myself believing this would be comfortable having strung 5k together in a row at that pace on Saturday. Surely it would be easy running 6 x 1k intervals with recoveries in between? I even reduced the recoveries I had taken in the same session while training for Seville (2:30>2:00mins). How wrong I was! This was very, very, very difficult. I actually can't believe I ran at that pace last Saturday after this morning

. The first interval felt ok, but I knew starting the second one that reducing the recovery time had been a mistake. It was too late to start again now though

. Managed to hold the pace through that and the next two a little easier than expected. However the fifth & sixth were extremely painful. I needed to walk the recoveries after both of those while trying not to vomit at the same time. I was four seconds down on the last one with 200m to go, but couldn't allow myself to miss that having hit the others, so put everything I had left in the tank into hitting that and clawed it back to 3:26

. Delighted with the session and happy with my decision to run on empty this morning, as I think my breakfast would be all over Clontarf promenade now if I'd eaten any!

Two thoughts for the day, one of which myself & Ferris B were discussing on our long run last week:

1. Training is not supposed to be easy
2. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger (can also be applied to life in general)

I survived this morning and although I've got a lot of miles to cover in the next seven days, Longford is my next hard effort. Looking forward to that, although I'm not relishing the VO2 Max session (5 x 1200m) in a fortnight's time :eek:.

overpronator

Great session and result in Marley. I was doing a 10k type session last night and similar to yourself I just couldn't fathom how I strung 6 similar paced miles back to back just over a week ago, mad!

Ferris B

Well done on hitting those splits. Although wish I hadn't read your post as I've to head out for this same session later. Can't wait.:eek:

tang1

Savage stuff, your recovery is unreal after the effort you put into Saturdays 5k.

AuldManKing

Just a question as to why you'd want to do a VO2 max session just a few days after a hard vO2 max session (5k race?)

You're flying at the moment - no doubt...........but just be careful with the faster training!

yaboya1

AuldManKing wrote: »

Just a question as to why you'd want to do a VO2 max session just a few days after a hard vO2 max session (5k race?)

You're flying at the moment - no doubt...........but just be careful with the faster training!

I'm just blindly following the plan, and that's what it says.
Who am I to argue?

Murph_D

Did the plan specify a 5k race for Sun? I think AMK is right to gently point out the risks here.

yaboya1

Murph_D wrote: »

Did the plan specify a 5k race for Sun? I think AMK is right to gently point out the risks here.

The plan had an 8-15k race scheduled for last Saturday. I only ran a 5k as I have the Longford HM this Sunday (switched this week & next week around). I think I'm supposed to be a bit tired completing some of these sessions, as it all stands to you even more when you're fresh come the marathon.

overpronator

Cumulative fatigue is what marathon training is all about!

Murph_D

I'm fatigued just reading about yaboya's exploits.

yaboya1

Wednesday 20th August (Day 17/56) - 16m Med/Long
16 miles @ 7:55p/m average

Since my next scheduled rest day is not for another six days, I took a dublin runner style 'fake day off' with almost 36 hours between yesterday's session and today's. However it was more by necessity than design due to my working hours. I was feeling very tired & sore before I got under way and decided just to get this one done without worrying too much about the pace. Once I kept below 8 minute miles I'd be happy. Since I wasn't concentrating too much about the speed of the run, I needed something else to focus my mind on. After reading the thread about people who draw things when they run, I decided to try something out myself. This is for all visitors to Dublin who might get lost from time to time: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/569921497 :pac:. This was only supposed to be a 15 mile run, but I ended up doing 16 as I miscalculated where I'd finish. When I did finish (after some stretches), I amazingly felt much less sore than when I started. I don't feel tired now but I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight!

Splits:

Mile 1 - 7:56
Mile 2 - 7:59
Mile 3 - 7:58
Mile 4 - 8:04
Mile 5 - 7:54
Mile 6 - 8:01
Mile 7 - 7:57
Mile 8 - 7:57
Mile 9 - 7:49
Mile 10 - 7:46
Mile 11 - 7:55
Mile 12 - 7:55
Mile 13 - 7:42
Mile 14 - 7:51
Mile 15 - 7:54
Mile 16 - 7:58

menoscemo

A+ on the elephant there.
No idea what is coming out of his head though. Has he got a bat on a lead?

jebuz

he's trying to spell something, what's that skip? who's fallen down the well?

yaboya1

menoscemo wrote: »

A+ on the elephant there.
No idea what is coming out of his head though. Has he got a bat on a lead?

jebuz wrote: »

he's trying to spell something, what's that skip? who's fallen down the well?

I'm assuming you're both joking but in case you're not, it's a W and an E signifying West & East

menoscemo

yaboya1 wrote: »

I'm assuming you're both joking but in case you're not, it's a W and an E signifying West & East

I wasn't joking!! I see the E now, but if you rotate the 'E' 90 degrees clockwise it definitely looks like an elephant, that's what I saw first.

yaboya1

Thursday 21st August (Day 18/56) - 6m Recovery, 4m Recovery

Nothing much to say about either of these, except that I wore sleeves both this morning & tonight and wasn't too warm. It seems the summer is most definitely over!

A.M.
6m Recovery
6 miles @ 8:42p/m average

Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:47
Mile 2 - 8:40
Mile 3 - 8:34
Mile 4 - 8:50
Mile 5 - 8:35
Mile 6 - 8:45

P.M.
4m Recovery
4 miles @ 8:45p/m average

Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:37
Mile 2 - 8:51
Mile 3 - 8:52
Mile 4 - 8:41

I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment, but I am in the middle of a demanding 8 days (83 miles) and have had to fit every run so far this week around long shifts in work. I always felt that this would be the most difficult part of the plan and it's proving to be so at this point. After next Monday, it begins to get that little bit easier in the run up to Berlin. There's light at the end of the tunnel......

overpronator

Keep it up lad, your training has been brilliant. Fair play.

yaboya1

Friday 22nd August (Day 19/56) - 12m Med/Long
12 miles @ 7:46p/m average

I wasn't worrying about the pace today with Sunday's race in mind, so instead focused on finishing my compass. I nearly f*cked up the S by taking a wrong turn in the back streets of Dublin 8, but managed to correct it before it had any detrimental effects

. Here's my handiwork: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/570941073

Splits:

Mile 1 - 7:51
Mile 2 - 7:48
Mile 3 - 7:42
Mile 4 - 7:52
Mile 5 - 7:46
Mile 6 - 7:55
Mile 7 - 7:55
Mile 8 - 7:44
Mile 9 - 7:40
Mile 10 - 7:40
Mile 11 - 7:40
Mile 12 - 7:33

Duanington

Masterful !!!!

FBOT01

Aren't you the right little artist.....nice work both in design and execution:)

yaboya1

Saturday 23rd August (Day 20/56) - 5m Recovery
5 miles @ 8:27p/m average

A few easy miles before work.

Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:26
Mile 2 - 8:31
Mile 3 - 8:39
Mile 4 - 8:19
Mile 5 - 8:19

Best of luck to all in the FD10 this morning!

FBOT01

Good luck tomorrow.....and as always enjoy!

overpronator

All the best for tomorrow!

Tom Joad

Best of luck tomorrow!

Ferris B

Good luck tomorrow P. Don't stay up all night watching the golf!

Murph_D

Echo that - bring it home!

RedRunner

If tomorrow goes as well as your training has been going you'll have a great day. Best of luck