DCM 2015: Mentored Novices Thread

JacEim wrote: »

Hi Guys
In a fit of madness I signed up for DCM on Friday (I'm a 43 yr old marathon Virgin)...

Have been doing a bit of running over the past 5-6 months - moving up to an average 20-25 miles per week with some down weeks in the past three months. I missed over a year due to injury / knee surgery but was doing some triathlon / adventure racing beforehand. Since coming back from injury in February I have Usually been doing 8-10 k runs with the odd one of about 12k. Mostly treadmill with some outdoors..

Have started the 16 week Asics sub 4 hour program (my official training started in week 2 in order to land on Oct 26th) & my first run was supposed to be the slow 10 miler in 100 minutes yesterday. I tried to keep to the plan but ended up doing the 10 miles in 88 minutes and felt very comfortable. I kept going and did 21k in 1hr 50 flat (pushed uphill and against a breeze for the last 1k which did tire me a good bit). Today was supposed to be a rest day but I wanted to stretch them out so did a half km walk, 5 very slow km in 32 mins and another half km walk for a total of 42 mins. Legs feel good this evening!!

I travel most weeks and so most of my midweek runs will be on treadmills and weekend runs outdoors.

I started to read this forum yesterday - it's really fascinating, but would need a weeks holiday to read everything!!!

I am about 7 kilos above my target weight (current 89 kilos and 5' 11"), so hope this will happen as my mileage increases and my "focus" on diet improves.

Perhaps some of you might have some views on my plan to hit 3:59:999999 in my first marathon with where I am today / training plans etc???

Would hope to contribute to this log over the coming weeks.
Cheers!!!

Hi Jac, welcome to the thread! Have you run any races before? Any since your injury/surgery?

JacEim wrote: »

Hi Clearlier

The only competitive race I've done this year was back at the start of March - I did the Fota Duathlon
My times:
Run 1: (5K) 22.10
Cycle: (20K) 39.20 (tough cycle as hadn't done much at all in nearly 18 months!!)
Run 2: (5K) 23.30

I was only back training 4-5 weeks at this point, so would hope that my fitness is much better now..
Help ?

I'm not sure that I'd say this in the TDAR forum but duathlons/triathlons are notorious for short run courses. Any idea whether it was actually 5k in length?

22:10 for a 5k standalone would put sub-4 very much in sight. You might be selling yourself a little short with that target to be honest which is possibly which you found the long run last Sunday a bit easy.

What are your goals for the marathon?

JacEim wrote: »

i don't want to start a war with the TDAR guys, I lurked over there for a while !!

JacEim wrote: »

It was a TI event, but no idea if the distances were accurate. I do think that if I was to run a 5k race tomorrow I would give it a pretty good shot for around 21 minutes

I did Ballycotton 10M in 72mins before my injuries...

My genuine target is to just beat 4 hours - nothing more. Bu I don't have long distance mileage in my legs... so is this a realistic estimate based on July 21st and only having done one kinda LSR so far... ?

If you had great endurance and the ability to run a 5km in 21 mins then I'd be looking for a comfortable sub 3:30.

If you follow the sub-4 training plan closely then all other things being equal you'll get sub-4. You can afford to go a bit faster than the prescribed paces but err on the side of being slower as it's endurance in particular that you want to build. Your pace for the first part of your long run on Sunday is edging towards a little fast for a 21min 5k runner and is way too fast for a sub-4 marathon runner. Sub-4 marathon pace is 9:09 per mile and long runs in marathon training are generally between 45 and 90 seconds slower than marathon pace. The first part of your long run was at 8:48 pace and the second part considerably faster. Given your current fitness I don't see why you couldn't train with 8:30 pace as a guide for marathon so if you're following the Asics plan lop 40 seconds per mile off their suggested paces. Don't go any faster than that though!

FWIW I regularly went at slower than 8:48 pace pace in my long runs while training for my first marathon and finished in 3:24. It's counter intuitive but you really want to focus on building your endurance at slower speeds to run well.

JacEim - I think you are very wise to stick with the sub-4 plan. My 5k times are very similar to yours - I have done three marathons at this stage and failed to beat the 4hour mark in any of them (4:03, 4:02 & 4:01). To aim for a 3:30 would be over a minute quicker per mile - imho that is too much of a jump in pace. I would say aim for the sub 4 - maybe even 3:50 - it is your first marathon and you dont know how your body will react to the distance.

jmcc99_98 wrote: »

JacEim - I think you are very wise to stick with the sub-4 plan. My 5k times are very similar to yours - I have done three marathons at this stage and failed to beat the 4hour mark in any of them (4:03, 4:02 & 4:01). To aim for a 3:30 would be over a minute quicker per mile - imho that is too much of a jump in pace. I would say aim for the sub 4 - maybe even 3:50 - it is your first marathon and you dont know how your body will react to the distance.

Thanks jmcc99

What are your usual paces for the LSR and a 10K race? Wonder if there are other similarities between us that might help my target / training.

My scheduled run tonight is: (total 6M)
1m w/up
3 x 1M at 10k pace (I am going to run them at around 7:20 pace) with 400m jog in between each
1m c/dn

Am i correct in thinking that the 10K pace refers to my racing pace ?

Cheers

First run of the week down. Nice and easy 4.2 miles, and thankfully, unlike last week, I wasn't cramping and tight around my calves. Quads are pretty much back to normal, thanks to the foam roller and icing over the past two days.

On a plus note, I'm on track to hit 200km this month for my Strava MTS badge. Never thought I'd be able to get near that kind of distance in a month!

Having the same problem trying to slow the pace without my watch. Did a 7 mile naked run tonight (phone in pocket) and just end up running way too fast. Run felt really good and relaxed so thought I was up around the 9 min mark. Think I'm going to have to bring back the watch

Splits tonight:
Mile 1: 8 29
2: 8 26
3: 8 39
4: 8 36
5: 8 32
6: 8 27
7: 8 00

Tried to slow down today on my 10miler run after work. Thought I was until I looked at my pace. My slowest went to down to only 6,10! I felt good so kept going but I know I really, really shouldn't have.

Did TRX yesterday. Can't recommend enough for anyone looking for all over body strengthening and toning.

Has everyone who plans on doing this actually signed up or holding out?

I'm 150% committed to doing this, that's not in question, but I'm holding off on signing up.

Why didn't I register earlier? I was scared I'll get injured!!

I am going to sign up before July 31st as the price goes up. (Just a heads up for anyone in the same boat).

Hope I won't jinx myself!

Signed up to the full series incl. DCM in June. In for a penny and all that....

I'm in the same boat. Things are going well enough now, so I'm probably bite the bullet in July before the price hike. After that, I'll be crawling it if I have to!

Pink11 wrote: »

Has everyone who plans on doing this actually signed up or holding out?

I'm 150% committed to doing this, that's not in question, but I'm holding off on signing up.

Why didn't I register earlier? I was scared I'll get injured!!

I am going to sign up before July 31st as the price goes up. (Just a heads up for anyone in the same boat).

Hope I won't jinx myself!

Signed up in March and still wouldn't admit to anyone I was doing it but it still hadn't registered in my head I was doing it till I made my first comment on this thread !!

Pink11 wrote: »

I'm 150% committed to doing this, that's not in question, but I'm holding off on signing up.

Why didn't I register earlier? I was scared I'll get injured!!

I am going to sign up before July 31st as the price goes up. (Just a heads up for anyone in the same boat).

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm the same pink, 150% in but having lost a fair amount of cash on Edinburgh earlier in the year I've decided to hold out until a bit closer. The only race series race I was going was the 5 mile so there wasn't much benefit to for me to sign up earlier.

frash wrote: »

I'm not registering until the very end as I attempted to do it last year but had to pull out due to injury in Sept (hadn't registered last year either due to the niggle that led to the injury).

Same story here from someone who also got injured the September before DCM 2014. Have had a couple injuries over the past year so I was thinking it'd wait until the very last minute until the price rose. Having some small troubles with my foot/toes now so I'll see how things look over the next 10days and might even postpone the registration later if I'm not 100% perfect.

Committment not in any doubt! Am dying to get out there for the extra-long runs.

Had an easy run yesterday evening but just at the end felt a real tightness in my calf muscle, a bit like I had a month ago ago after a 10 km race but worse. It actually stopped me running and had to walk the last km home. Very disappointed but going to take it easy this week and see how it goes. Lots of stretching and foam rolling I guess.

JacEim wrote: »

Thanks jmcc99

What are your usual paces for the LSR and a 10K race? Wonder if there are other similarities between us that might help my target / training.

My scheduled run tonight is: (total 6M)
1m w/up
3 x 1M at 10k pace (I am going to run them at around 7:20 pace) with 400m jog in between each
1m c/dn

Am i correct in thinking that the 10K pace refers to my racing pace ?

Cheers

Hi JacEim,

My 10k race time is around 46 minutes, This should be quicker but I haven't done many 10k races, so my timing tends to be off on them. My PB's (all within the last year) are 5k - 21:14, 10k - 46:05, 10mile - 78:20, HM - 1:46 and Marathon 4:01:36.

I'm not sure what "racing pace" is, - 7:20 per mile is about a 46 min 10k, which is quick, Im not sure what the purpose of that training run is (Im not following the plans on here - So im not sure of what they entail) but the run you are talking about is a little like my speedwork, and if that is the purpose of it then your pace is fine.

I'm a member of a running club so tend to fall in with their schedule. I run my LSR's at around 9:30 (But more often then not I end up running them faster then that, which is stupid and something I need to work on)

I do speedwork once a week which involves intervals at 5k pace - so these all tend to be around the 4min per/km. These are usually 400 meter intervals with usually around 12 reps.

I try to do a tempo run once a week which is usually around 45-60 secs quicker than Marathon pace so I will usually run these at about 8 to 8:30 min miles (Sorry about the use of both KM and Mile pace)

I have trained for my past marathons by running 5 nights a week - this time I'm cutting that down to 4 nights a week and trying to bring in a bit more core work on the other day. I am also going to try to train a bit smarter by using a HRM (I haven't tried this before, but have been told it is a very accurate way of getting your effort levels correct for different types of run)

All going well I will try for sub 4 again this year which is a 9min mile (Technically 9:05 but you will run further than 26.2 miles on the day so I will try to have a 5 sec buffer per mile) I will have an eye on 3:50 but this will depend on how the summer of training goes.

As I said above I think you are making the right decision by going for 4hour as opposed to 3:30 - The Marathon is a different beast altogether - and despite it sounding like a cliche, your race really does only start at 20 miles. It is a thoroughly enjoyable experience, I loved the training for it, especially in a group and the day itself is amazing. The crowds at the DCM are brilliant, crossing the finish line on your first marathon is an unbelievable feeling even, if like me, you miss your target by a couple of minutes.