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Turning a mule into a race horse.
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17 mile LSR done at 11:00 avg pace.
Mostly done at around 10:45 but took a half mile walk after the half marathon mark to get a drink into me and stretch out some tightness. Didn't overly enjoy the last few miles. Aerobically absolutely perfect, legs not so much ! They certainty weren't easy miles
but it's an improvement on last weeks LSR, and came off the back of an 8 mile MP run midweek. 0 -
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Thanks again for the posts and thanks given to my little emotional outpouring there. Really appreciate it. Back on the horse as such.
Tuesday
Most definitely a cross train day. Digging graves is very hard work !
Wednesday
4 mile easy @10:21 avg
Got back out on the road. Plan was meant to be 4 miles easy but my heart wasn't in a slow run. Legs were sore too - which I only copped afterwards was more than likely due to the dig on Tuesday and not a hangover from the LSR on Sunday which had me worried at the time. Decided to blast out a half mile at all out pace to clear cobwebs / frustration with life whatever. Worked a charm too.
Thursday
Plan was meant to be 8 miles. No direction given on pace so it was meant to be on the easy side. Last weeks 8 miler was at full MP which went into a 17 mile LSR at weekend. This weekend is a little longer again hence I presume the lack of a pace run midweek. I ran this on feel at the start. Legs were a little heavy so relaxed into it as taught on the chi running course which resulted in a pace increase. Still felt easy so kept going. As the miles ticked by ever increasing and breaking through MP as well I decided to turn the run into an impromptu pyramid session coming back down to slow easy pace by mile 8.
10:14, 9:57, 9:50, 9:38, 9:25, 9:59, 10:07, 10:36
I do solemnly swear I will run tomorrows 5 mile easy at proper easy pace. 0 -
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The 5 mile easy run I promised to take it easy on - well you couldn't take it any easier than skipping it :pac: Wasn't feeling too good on Friday and ended up deciding to leave it off the schedule. Knew the LSR was coming up today and felt it would be unwise to do it yesterday.
Today
18 mile confidence booster Avg Pave 10:38
Furthest ever ran. Took in a section of the marathon route from castleknock up as far as walkinstown roundabout having ran 5 miles to get to castleknock first. Ran into some trouble when taking my second gel of 4 I found there was only 1 left in the belt loop
Plan had been to take one at 45 minutes and then every 45 min thereafter but that had to change obviously. Stuck with the planned gel then as I figured psychologically I would be ruined if I tried to stretch it out. Stopped briefly for an isotonic drink after 2.5 hours instead
The drag from the canal up to walkinstown broke me in 2012. I set out today to face that hill and put it to bed as such so it wouldn't have negative memories on the big day. Today coming at it at approx the same distance covered ploughed up no bother. Turned right at walkinstown and headed back down towards ballyfermot and ultimately finished with the last 1.5 miles uphill from chapleizod gate to chesterfield avenue in the park. Had enough juice to take out mile 18 uphill as the fastest of the day and could have gone on if needed.
Splits:
10:48, 10:38, 10:32, 10:41, 10:39, 10:49, 10:21, 10:40, 10:36, 10:34, 10:42, 10:38, 10:26, 10:43, 10:28, 10:33, 11:22 (pit stop needed) 10:18
Legs are sore but am very happy with that confidence booster.0 -
Step back week this week on the HHN2 programme.
Schedule is meant to be 5m easy, 8 mile MP, 5m easy and a step back LSR of 13 miles at the weekend. A sure sign of progress now that 13 miles feels short :pac:
Bit of a stressful day today. Ended up with only a 45/50 min window to run this evening. 5 miles easy was not going to happen in that time frame. I may have got this wrong
but rather than cut the mileage I went for a speed increase to get the 5 in and ran it at a fraction faster than MP - Avg 9:20. Will take it a bit handier on the 8 mile to compensate. 0 -
Piss poor run today.
Fecked it up big style
Nice day - hot day. Mrs Mule takes the 4 kids (two of our own, one nephew and one new puppy which is nearly as much work as a newborn baby) out the back garden. I cheerfully bid them farewell, exit via the front door, lock it and post the keys back in. A perfect plan until a rather pissed of Mrs Mule rings me multiple times half a mile in (I tend not to answer the phone when running) to inform me that I had locked the back door before leaving and she was stuck outside.:o:o Had to turn around then - could hardly leave them locked out whilst I went off to run 8 miles. Ingenious plans of using garden grabbers to reach the keys were foiled by my big hands not getting into the letter box properly. Plans to take out one of the windows vetoed by Mrs Mule in favour of waiting for her sister to arrive with a spare key.
Once the key arrived I headed back out but my heart really wasn't in it. At the same time and no doubt amplified by the head not being right it was an awful struggle legs wise. Very niggly, heels played up, easy pace wasn't feeling easy. The 5 miles at MP had clearly taken it's toll last night too. I decided it would be pointless to do 8 miles at that point. These were meant to be MP, I was running them easy because of last night and feeling like it was the end of a 20 mile LSR. Cut it short and turned around to bring it home at 6 miles.
Yeah I wussed out
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2 miles less? I don't think you have anything to be worrying about:)
Well done again on the 18! Are you doing the Half?
Afraid not - am snookered with work. I work mon-sat every week so unless a race is on Sunday or an evening I'm unable to do it unless I am on holidays. Would have been nice to smash a PB and get a good handle on a marathon target but will just have to trust the instincts (and the advice received here) 0 -
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I ended up skipping a midweek run for the second week in a row. Couldn't be helped unfortunately. What it did do though was left me slightly fresher than normal and on top of that facing a relatively shorter LSR of 13 miles.
I decided to give it a bit of a go today. Part of me is second guessing myself now with the marathon target pace. Even stepping it back to 4:10 - is that enough ? Last weeks LSR sounds great to say I had a bit left in the tank but that was still less than target MP etc.
So off I went today aiming for around 10:15 pace which would be MP+45 rather than the 10:40ish I have been doing my LSRs at. Now there was a small caveat to this - I had moved this back to Saturday as it was shorter but I was still up at 5 this morning for work and wasn't sure I had the energy in me for it. I figured though that this would be a good opportunity to practice running hard on tired legs.
Strange run - after 5 miles I had an involuntary walk. Fatigue hit me like a freight train. I was watching a video posted here during the week of a girl who fell in the middle of a 600m race but got back up to win the thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsOBaV_93yQ for anyone interested
Anyway - kind of inspired by that I got me a dose of HTFU and started running again. Got back in the groove and threw in a MP mile. Then later another one and then right at the end I threw the kitchen sink at it.
Splits:
10:32,10:11, 10:15, 10:10, 9:59, 10:40 (the walk), 10:18, 9:25 (MP), 10:24, 10:08, 9:28 (MP) , 10:02, 8:36 (the kitchen sink)
The end result: A new all be it unoffical PB of 2:13:34 for a HM (watch paused for a couple of minutes whilst I nipped into a shop for a drink - the actual run time was around 2:11:00. My previous raced PB was 2:18:30 so that's a big improvement there when 9 of the miles were ran easy enough.
I've taken a bit of confidence from that. 2 MP in there and an 8:36 which for me is relatively fast. It hurt, it was a struggle but it was exhilarating too to realise there was still something in the tank after 12 miles at a level above my normal easy.0 -
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Well done today. Nice to have a confidence boost like that.
What's the lsr plan for the next few weekends? What does the plan peak at?
Thank you
The LSRs before taper are 19 next weekend, then 12, 20 and another 12 as taper begins. The longer stuff is uncharted territory for me. Never got further than 15 first time round hence why the confidence isn't there just yet. 0 -
Pacing Mule wrote: »Thank you
The LSRs before taper are 19 next weekend, then 12, 20 and another 12 as taper begins. The longer stuff is uncharted territory for me. Never got further than 15 first time round hence why the confidence isn't there just yet.
Cool so you'll have done an 18, 19 and 20 before taper? You could always turn one of 18 or 19 into a 20 to have 2 x 20 under your belt for a bit more confidence.
Sure you did 18 last week so you shouldn't have any problems with the 19 and 20:)
Anyways, great to see things panning out so well for you this year:)0 -
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Alright folks - this will be a slightly long one but I'd really appreciate if you bear with me and offer some advice at the end.
Today I set off to do 20 miles. I had a route mapped out in my head that would finish at the top of heartbreak hill to give me a good insight into the clonskeagh drag etc. I left my house ran down through blanchardstown, castleknock and chapleizod hill, straight up that mega hill to the bottom of kylemore road and up to join the marathon course at walkinstown roundabout. Aimed for a pace around 10:30 which would be MP + 1 minute. Would be happy with 15 seconds either side of that depending on the terrain and stage of the run.
Things didn't go very well at all. By 10 miles in I was starting to hurt. Knees, hips, legs in general were all giving out much more than I would have expected at that point in. Then a gradual realisation that I had messed up the route and that I would be landing up heartbreak hill at 17 miles and not the 20 planned. Of course I was still going to run 20 miles but now it felt like 23 if you get me as I had being counting down the route in my head by roads - just down to terenure then to milltown etc So was feeling a bit demoralised all round.
Things continued to hurt a but and got gradually worse but I did make it up from Milltown to Clonskeagh and heartbreak hill unscathed. A good confidence booster to have met them whilst uncomfortable and not be cracked.
That said by mile 18 I was really hurting and involuntarily slowed down for the last 2 miles. The last mile in particular was a total painful slog just hanging on for dear life. If I didn't have a goal of 20 miles I'd have stopped at 18. I had no chance of finishing off 26.
Splits are ...
10:35, 10:24, 10:22, 10:23, 10:32, 10:39, 10:26, 11:23 (took a walk up that steep hill out of Chapleizod as I figured it made no sense to shred myself trying to run it), 10:45, 10:48, 10:38, 10:51, 10:53, 10:46, 11:01, 10:31, 10:48, (up Clonskeagh / Roebuck) 10:58, 11:23, 11:25
Finished in tatters legs wise but absolutely perfect aerobically. This wasn't the issue at all.
So although I nailed Clonskeagh and Roebuck which was great I am really concerned that I am nowhere near a 4:10:00 marathon and am wondering should I be looking at cutting goal times back ?
My own observations / thoughts / questions ...- Slight head cold over last couple of days could be a factor.
- Miles 2-5 were a little fast. Did I overcook it then ? However considering 9:32 is target MP that shouldn't be that bad.
- Did I really nail the clonskeagh drag considering I totally fell apart after them (I think I would have anyway tbh)
- How much will a proper taper effect things. Can I realistically expect enough of an improvement to not be worried.
- Is it normal at this point novice wise to be struggling that much on a 20 mile LSR.
- The last long LSR 2 weeks ago was an 18 miler which went so much better. I could easily have done another 2 onto that. Should I put this down to a bad day and see how the 20 miler in 2 weeks goes ?
I would really appreciate the experience / thoughts of the more experienced members on this ! Thanks in advance.0 -
Pacing Mule wrote: »Alright folks - this will be a slightly long one but I'd really appreciate if you bear with me and offer some advice at the end.
Today I set off to do 20 miles. I had a route mapped out in my head that would finish at the top of heartbreak hill to give me a good insight into the clonskeagh drag etc. I left my house ran down through blanchardstown, castleknock and chapleizod hill, straight up that mega hill to the bottom of kylemore road and up to join the marathon course at walkinstown roundabout. Aimed for a pace around 10:30 which would be MP + 1 minute. Would be happy with 15 seconds either side of that depending on the terrain and stage of the run.
Things didn't go very well at all. By 10 miles in I was starting to hurt. Knees, hips, legs in general were all giving out much more than I would have expected at that point in. Then a gradual realisation that I had messed up the route and that I would be landing up heartbreak hill at 17 miles and not the 20 planned. Of course I was still going to run 20 miles but now it felt like 23 if you get me as I had being counting down the route in my head by roads - just down to terenure then to milltown etc So was feeling a bit demoralised all round.
Things continued to hurt a but and got gradually worse but I did make it up from Milltown to Clonskeagh and heartbreak hill unscathed. A good confidence booster to have met them whilst uncomfortable and not be cracked.
That said by mile 18 I was really hurting and involuntarily slowed down for the last 2 miles. The last mile in particular was a total painful slog just hanging on for dear life. If I didn't have a goal of 20 miles I'd have stopped at 18. I had no chance of finishing off 26.
Splits are ...
10:35, 10:24, 10:22, 10:23, 10:32, 10:39, 10:26, 11:23 (took a walk up that steep hill out of Chapleizod as I figured it made no sense to shred myself trying to run it), 10:45, 10:48, 10:38, 10:51, 10:53, 10:46, 11:01, 10:31, 10:48, (up Clonskeagh / Roebuck) 10:58, 11:23, 11:25
Finished in tatters legs wise but absolutely perfect aerobically. This wasn't the issue at all.
So although I nailed Clonskeagh and Roebuck which was great I am really concerned that I am nowhere near a 4:10:00 marathon and am wondering should I be looking at cutting goal times back ?
My own observations / thoughts / questions ...- Slight head cold over last couple of days could be a factor.
- Miles 2-5 were a little fast. Did I overcook it then ? However considering 9:32 is target MP that shouldn't be that bad.
- Did I really nail the clonskeagh drag considering I totally fell apart after them (I think I would have anyway tbh)
- How much will a proper taper effect things. Can I realistically expect enough of an improvement to not be worried.
- Is it normal at this point novice wise to be struggling that much on a 20 mile LSR.
- The last long LSR 2 weeks ago was an 18 miler which went so much better. I could easily have done another 2 onto that. Should I put this down to a bad day and see how the 20 miler in 2 weeks goes ?
I would really appreciate the experience / thoughts of the more experienced members on this ! Thanks in advance.
Think of the positives, PM. You finished a tough 20 mile run and got the miles done. Honestly at this point in the game just getting through the 20miler and the time on your feet that went with it is the most important thing. Everybody has a couple of runs in the course of a marathon programme that are awful- hell, I barely scraped through a session and had to walk home, I DNF'd a HM....but these are the days you'll look back on as the reason you run well in DCM.
I would;t really make any decisions on your target pace off a tough LSR....it doesn't really tell you much. Do you have a big PMP workout in the next week? See how you feel on that and go from there. Don;t overthink this run- there are a million different reasons it could have been really tough and strangely enough you could head out on the same run next week and feel great. Running is weird that way.
Anyways pat yourself on the back- grinding out 20miles is bread and butter stuff in marathon training. You'll be fine....0 -
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Hi PM. Don't worry about the 20m feeling tough. It's easy to forget that you're in the middle of a tough training plan and running, I would guess, consistently higher mileage than you ever have before.
I agree with Dr Q about leaving the MP miles till next weekend. Give yourself time to recharge the batteries! I'm not sure if you've been doing MP miles in the middle of your long runs. I think not so if I were you I would most likely split the MP miles into 4 x 2 or 3+2+1 with 2 min slow jog in between. The 3+2+1 is nice because when you get the 3 done mentally the 2 and the 1 are easy peasy
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