nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Firedance

Revenge is a dish best served in Ballycotton...... go get him P!!

Kennyg71

Best Luck Sunday P, have a good one:)

Mrs Mc

Best of luck Sunday P see ya down there.

yaboya1

Friday 4th March - 90 minutes Easy
90 minutes @ 126bpm

Extended the easy run home from work. Very cold out, but definitely glad I did it this evening rather than this morning. Rest day tomorrow ahead of Sunday's race.

adrian522

Cool, I'll see what the others in the club who are racing are doing. The session is a 2 mile loop @ Tempo but really you can run it any pace you want. I may just go easy/steady as you say.

Yeah, I'll be there too. First race since June!

yaboya1

adrian522 wrote: »

Nice Session. I'm in 2 minds on what to do for the rest of the week. I might try do 2-3 race pace miles this evening with the club, and add in a warmup/cool down and leave it at that.

There's some way more knowledgeable than me on here, but I wouldn't do more than 2 @ race pace tonight if I was you. I'm actually a day later doing that session than I originally intended, hence why I left it at the two miles myself. Easy miles with strides might even be better at this stage?

adrian522 wrote: »

Is this Ballycotton you are running?

Yes. See you there?

adrian522

Nice Session. I'm in 2 minds on what to do for the rest of the week. I might try do 2-3 race pace miles this evening with the club, and add in a warmup/cool down and leave it at that.

Is this Ballycotton you are running?

tang1

Best of luck Sunday P, I'm sure you'll run a great race. Don't let FBOT beat you again!!

yaboya1

Thursday 3rd March - Race Tune-Up

1-mile warmup, 2-3 miles @ goal 10m race pace, 1 mile easy, 5 x 1:00 “on”/1:00 “off” @ 10K race pace, 1-mile cooldown

I decided to try the above workout which I've used before in the week of a 10m/HM race. Since it's a ten miler on Sunday and we've only around 72 hours until I'm on the start line, I went with the two miles instead of three at goal race pace. Target for those was around 6:10, with sub 6 pace the goal for the one minute 10k sections.

1m wu - 8:10 approx
RP 1 & 2 - 6:10 approx
1m easy - 8:10 approx

5 x 1min @ 10k pace

1 - 5:37
2 - 5:50
3 - 5:51
4 - 5:51
5 - 5:55

1m c/d - 8:51

Messed this up in a few ways. Because it's almost two separate workouts, I couldn't set it up in one on the Garmin. So rather than do the first four and set another one up mid-session, I used the w/u, race pace & easy mile as my warm up, with the one minute 5k sections as the main interval session. Shouldn't matter too much, but just means I don't have exact mile splits for those and it probably resulted in me running too fast in stages. I struggled during the RP miles, but found the one minute segments relatively easy. Turns out that was because I covered a mile in there somewhere at 5:48 :P

No idea what to expect on Sunday.

FBOT01

Duanington wrote: »

Jaysus , I was going to complain in my log about how horrific the run in ice cold howling gale was this morning ( in the office for 9) .....I'll change that to how much I enjoyed the easy miles on this beautiful morning, thanks P

He was running with the wind while you were against it, D so it'd say both descriptions are probably accurate

Firedance

Duanington wrote: »

Jaysus , I was going to complain in my log about how horrific the run in ice cold howling gale was this morning ( in the office for 9) .....I'll change that to how much I enjoyed the easy miles on this beautiful morning, thanks P

+ 1 to that, could have been much worse than it was

Duanington

yaboya1 wrote: »

By the time I had finished though, it had developed into a beautiful morning.

Jaysus , I was going to complain in my log about how horrific the run in ice cold howling gale was this morning ( in the office for 9) .....I'll change that to how much I enjoyed the easy miles on this beautiful morning, thanks P

yaboya1

Monday 29th February - Rest

No excuse not to run on what's going to be a rare day off in the coming weeks. I could say I was being sensible, but the truth is it was probably just plain lazy!

Tuesday 1st March - 60 minutes Easy
60 minutes @ 131bpm

Ran home from work. The body is still feeling pretty lethargic. Probably due to the tough weekend and the last of the jet lag. I won't worry too much about it.

Wednesday 2nd March - 70 minutes Easy
70 minutes @ 124bpm

Was awakened by the howling wind hammering against the window before my alarm went off this morning. Really icy, biting breeze when I got into it. By the time I had finished though, it had developed into a beautiful morning.

tang1

Your visit to the Tang Palace didn't affect you adversely anyway, nice run to have in the bag P.

yaboya1

Sunday 28th February - 20m (with 12m @ MP)

Joined the DNS crew in the PP this morning for this one. Two mile solo warm up, a further five with the whole crew (FBOT01, Ferris B & Murph_D), before myself and M kicked on for the 12 MP miles. Target was 6:45 for those. One mile cool down to finish before a summary with the gang over a coffee. Very happy with that, especially considering the rolling course. I was drunk towards the end, but hung onto M's coat tails to come in just about on target.

7m w/u: 8:14p/m average

12m @ MP: 6:46 p/m average

1m c/d: 8:11

yaboya1

Saturday 27th February - St Anne's parkrun (18:27)

Solid enough run considering the prep. Doesn't look like I've lost much fitness in the last month. Hopefully I can improve it a fair bit over the next seven weeks.

yaboya1

Thursday 25th February - 60 minutes Easy
60 minutes @ 146bpm

Two hours later getting out today due to a lie in, after an exhausting but hugely enjoyable day spent at the Atlantis Palm Aquaventure park yesterday. Found it impossible to keep the HR down in the conditions. Headed out towards the Burj Khalifa and back. Last night of the holidays tonight. Heading to Meydan for the racing carnival, which I'm really looking forward to

yaboya1

Chivito550 wrote: »

It's a long long story which I don't want to get into. The very short version is that it is awfully far from home and family.

Understandable. I have family who don't live there for the same reason, but would otherwise.

Chivito550

yaboya1 wrote: »

Maybe I'll be back to rectify that someday then
Loved Australia. Such a great place. Why did you leave?

It's a long long story which I don't want to get into. The very short version is that it is awfully far from home and family.

yaboya1

Chivito550 wrote: »

Ah you should have told me you were going to Melbourne. It's not slang. The tan is a 3.8km loop around the Royal Botanical Gardens. It's the most popular running trail in Melbourne, so much so that people have a "Tan PB", and there is a list of the fastest times ever recorded on it. Craig Mottram holds the record. Each year there is a big club event called the Tan Relays. It's a real mainstream spot though with runners of all abilities on it throughout the day. It's even floodlit at night. You could even see some top sportspeople training on it if you're lucky. A lot of AFL players use it in preseason, and most distance runners do. My friend spotted David Rudisha on it once, along with the lead singer from The Prodigy going for a slightly less intimidating jog.

Maybe I'll be back to rectify that someday then

Loved Australia. Such a great place. Why did you leave?

Chivito550

yaboya1 wrote: »

I'm not familiar with 'The Tan'. Mustn't have stayed there long enough to be educated on that one. What and whereabouts is it? 'The G' is about the extent of my Melbourne local slang.

Ah you should have told me you were going to Melbourne. It's not slang. The tan is a 3.8km loop around the Royal Botanical Gardens. It's the most popular running trail in Melbourne, so much so that people have a "Tan PB", and there is a list of the fastest times ever recorded on it. Craig Mottram holds the record. Each year there is a big club event called the Tan Relays. It's a real mainstream spot though with runners of all abilities on it throughout the day. It's even floodlit at night. You could even see some top sportspeople training on it if you're lucky. A lot of AFL players use it in preseason, and most distance runners do. My friend spotted David Rudisha on it once, along with the lead singer from The Prodigy going for a slightly less intimidating jog.

yaboya1

Wednesday 24th February - 60 minutes Easy
60 minutes @ 142bpm

It is Wednesday right? My body clock is all over the place. Slept a total of 18 hours yesterday with just a short break for some food in between. Did get out for an hour this morning though. Fine to start with, but really started to heat up as I went along. My plan to run down the beach was scuppered as it was closed. Boarded up with cranes behind the wooden perimeter. No idea what they're doing. Seems to be building sites everywhere over here. Constant improvements going on. In saying that, it does seem a bit fake/plastic as some parts are really barren & undeveloped, full of wasteland and derelict buildings. Don't really know what to make of it. Photos below of some impressive skyscrapers and an air conditioned bus stop. You'd never guess the areas in between resemble some sort of no mans land.

yaboya1

Chivito550 wrote: »

Did you go for a run around 'The Tan' when you were in Melbourne?

I'm not familiar with 'The Tan'. Mustn't have stayed there long enough to be educated on that one. What and whereabouts is it? 'The G' is about the extent of my Melbourne local slang.

yaboya1

aquinn wrote: »

Whatever, you can do that on Dublin bus :P

Happy holidays.

Missed my chance for an Australian Starbucks mug I see.

Never works for me on Dublin Bus. The bus also never comes on time, so a double kick in the balls

Yeah, too late. You'll have to head over yourself

Chivito550

Did you go for a run around 'The Tan' when you were in Melbourne?

aquinn

yaboya1 wrote: »

On board WiFi here.
Don't know myself!

Whatever, you can do that on Dublin bus :P

Happy holidays.

Missed my chance for an Australian Starbucks mug I see.

yaboya1

On board WiFi here.
Don't know myself!

Firedance wrote: »

speak for yourself!!

never mind the running P, look at that beach #seriousenvy

enjoy Dubai!

Thanks!
The busy one is Bondi. The other one is where they film the soap 'Home & Away'. A place called Palm Beach about 25m north of Sydney. Beautiful spot.

Firedance

aero2k wrote: »

Might be a bit of a squeeze in the overhead locker too:D.

Stop trying to annoy us all with pics - we prefer the cold wet and windy weather!

speak for yourself!!

never mind the running P, look at that beach #seriousenvy

enjoy Dubai!

aero2k

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Pics look great P - not sure she'd get that case through customs !!!

Might be a bit of a squeeze in the overhead locker too:D.

Stop trying to annoy us all with pics - we prefer the cold wet and windy weather!

Mrs Mc

Pics look great P - not sure she'd get that case through customs !!!