So that's "your thing" now is it?

Thanks guys. One of those days I wish I'd have aimed for 3:39 so I could appreciate it more. Race report to follow once I've collected my thoughts.

Thursday 5th April: 3 miles easy at 9:24 pace. Last run before Manchester.

Sunday 8th April: Manchester marathon.

So, after DCM last year (3:41:41) I had a pretty clear target in mind for Manchester, to run a sub 3:30 marathon.
Flew over on Saturday and went straight to pick up my race number. No expo for this, just a few tables for number collection and one small display with some tops. Presumably official marathon training tops, I didn't bother checking.
Like DCM, I'd had my biggest pre-race meal on Friday so headed out for a pasta lunch. Food for the rest of the day would be regular small portions.

A great nights sleep meant I woke feeling great at 6am. Had the usual breakfast of porridge/banana and half a bagel and mixed 500ml of tailwind to sip on for the next couple of hours.

Caught the tram to Old Trafford and saw that the station was right next to the that iconic stadium. Yes Old Trafford, the home of Lancashire Cricket Club (apparently there's a grotty football stadium with the same name quite nearby). This is a major plus for this marathon. The athletes village is in the grounds of the stadium which meant that, as well as a large number of portaloos, all the stadium toilets were open so hardly any queues. Not surprisingly though, quite a few men were still rushing behind any wall they could find on the way to the start line.

Lined up in pen C behind the 3:29 pacer (I'll get back to him in a minute). As usual your starting pen matched the colour of your race number. There was no control here though, it seemed you could just wander into any starting section you wanted.
Back to the pacer. The gun went and pretty much straight away there is quite a steep downhill. I looked at my watch and my pace was 7:20! Strangely though my 3:29 pacer was streaming away at what must have been 3 hour pace. I managed to slow the first mile average down to 7:45, but the pacer just kept going, into the distance until he was never seen again. I wonder if anyone actually followed him.

Miles 1-5: 7:45, 7:52, 7:54, 7:55, 7:53
Ok the pacer is doing his own thing, but that's ok. Been here before and wasn't too nervous about pacing my own race. The first 5 flew by and the support, although pretty quiet in places, was great.

Miles 6-10: 7:58, 7:56, 7:55, 7:55, 7:55
10K marker passed at 49:00.
I am a pacing king! Well that's what I thought at the time. Away from the city now, out to Sale and surrounding areas. Didn't really have a clue where we were, but the support in the towns was really good with some good live music blaring out. Again, felt totally in control and mixing tailwind on the run seems to get easier each race.
At the 3rd water station I finally noticed that the water bottles were 330ml and not the 250ml I was expecting. New plan then for future stops, squirt a bit of water away before mixing.

Miles 11-15: 7:53, 7:57, 7:53, 7:59, 8:05
Half passed at 1:43:55, about a minute ahead of pace.
Again, feeling great and ticking by. The field was spreading out though and at times I did notice I wasn't running "with" anyone. I think somewhere around here, or maybe it was later, we ran through a town with a sign telling us it was the "home of TV personality Karl Pilkington". I for one felt a little overwhelmed at that point. Mile 15 was a little slower and I remember thinking then that I was working a little harder and still not holding the pace.

Miles 16-20: 8:01, 8:04, 8:05, 8:08, 8:31
30K passed at 2:28:18. Still on pace, but that mile 20 pace tells a story. I tried to pick it up, but it just wasn't happening. In my head now I'm trying to work out my finishing time if I run 8:30-ish pace to the finish. I wish.

Miles 21-25: 8:31, 9:39, 9:57, 9:10, 9:16
Mile 21 gave me hope that I could hold a pace, but I was passed by the 3:30 pace group just after. Tried to kick on and stay with them, but that was a no. Miles 22 and 23 were horrendous. The quietest part of the course and I was just wishing the race would end now. Really felt like I had nothing left and the thoughts of another 3 miles felt like hell. Strangely though miles 24 and 25, back into populated areas and back to some really good support, I picked it up again (slightly).

Miles 26-26.2: 10:10, 2:38
Ah for **** sake. Felt terrible for the last mile. The legs wanted to give and I had to walk a couple of times. About 800m from the finish I felt like my legs were going to give way and had to stop for a second. Walked for a bit until this crazy, good crazy, woman supporter started cheering me and calling my name. She was so into it, so encouraging, and it gave me a kick to finish with a run rather than a crawl. I actually checked the photos out today and it looks like I'm in fine form on the finishing straight!

Crossed the line in 3:39:01. A 2 minute 40 PB so I have to be happy even though it was a pretty disappointing last 6 miles. In hindsight I should have maybe dropped back to run with the 3:30 pacer as it looked like he ran a really steady pace and the group might have helped.
Glad I gave it a go, but I have a feeling 3:30 was a step too far at this stage. Looking back at my training, my mileage for the 4 months leading up to Sunday was around 150 miles less than the 4 months leading up to DCM. I also skipped or shortened a few of the Wednesday sessions due to work/life. How did I realistically think that was a recipe for an 11 minute PB?!

Plan for this year is now to increase my general mileage. Run a few miles longer on some midweek runs and get my legs used to the higher weekly mileage. I'm in for DCM again so will see if I can have another crack to 3:30, but will probably go with a different plan this time to change things up a bit.

Great report and once again congratulations on the PB. You'll get another crack at the 3:30 soon enough.

skyblue46 wrote: »

Great report and once again congratulations on the PB. You'll get another crack at the 3:30 soon enough.

Thanks S, 3:30 is the new sub 4

Unthought Known wrote: »

Thanks S, 3:30 is the new sub 4

That's already burrowing it's way into my brain :pac::pac:

skyblue46 wrote: »

That's already burrowing it's way into my brain :pac::pac:

Ooh, DCM pacing buddy? Have you signed up yet?

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Brilliant report Andy, congrats on the PB!

Sub 3:30 isn't easy to achieve, as I know all too well

As Craig says, it's still a massive improvement from DCM 2016, and you've already processed a lot of the learnings from the weekend, so there's much better to come I'm sure. Recover well.

Thanks J. Disappointed for a few hours on Sunday, but if anything it's made me more determined now. I'm sure my wife will be happy to hear that!

Hard luck. It can be a long road to reach the goal but it’s still just a road and you’ll get there. Haven’t followed your log closely but reduced mileage, as you suspect, could well have contributed to the lack of endurance - but then again most of us slow over the final six miles, it’s managing that fade that can be crucial! Well done on the PB.

Tuesday 24th April: 7 mile run home from work at 9:01 avg. Avg HR 141.. The usual run, nothing to report.

Thursday 26th April: 6 miles progression at 8:34 avg. Avg HR 141. Started out easy, but had to pick up the pace to pick up the youngest. Very enjoyable, nice to work a little.

Saturday 28th April: 4.25 miles at 9:02 avg. Avg HR 138.

Sunday 29th April: 10.6 miles at 9:11 avg. Avg HR 141. Youngest had a party in Terenure so I decided to park up and run for a couple of hours before picking her up. Started off lovely, sun was out, so I picked up the marathon route in reverse. Plan was to loop down to the canal, through Ranelagh and Milltown etc. and maybe finish up with a lap or 2 Bushy Park.
Running up Fortfield in fine form, glanced at watch, left foot clipped a raised bit of path and I was gone. Not straight away. Half way through the fall I thought I'd recovered. I didn't. Eventually had to let gravity win and ended up flat out on the pavement, with a concerned guy asking if I was ok. Smiled at him, laughed about how stupid I must have looked, then got up and ran. Stopped at the next garage and bought water and tissues to clean up the blood. Felt the pain in my hand for the first time. Thought I broke 2 fingers, but it now looks like its only the pinky. It's ok just to tape it right?
After that it turned out to be a nice run, especially the last couple of miles running round Bushy.
Tried a torq gel on the run and found it ok. Still not sure about gels. They have tended to make me feel a bit sick near the end of the 2 marathons I used them. They are more convenient than mixing tailwind though so I'm going to try and teach my stomach to handle multiple gels on some long runs.

28 miles for the week.
90 miles for the month.
501 miles for the year.

What's next on the hit list A? Should help you to get a plan formulated.

15 May:3 miles at 9:02. Avg HR 135

16 May: 7.2 mile commute at 9:07. Avg HR 139

17 May: 5.1 miles at 9:12. Avg HR 137

19 May: 4.2 miles with 2 at MP. Avg 8:35. Avg HR 143

21 May: 8.1 mile commute at 9:13. Avg HR 136

22 May: 6.6 mile commute at 9:11. Avg HR 130

24 May: 10 mile commute at 9:17. Avg HR 141

29 May: [Plan: 10m GA] 10 mile commute at 9:18. Avg HR 146

30 May: [Plan 4m recovery] 4.1 mile recovery at 9:47. Avg HR 129

31 May: [Plan 8m with 4m LT] 6.6 lunchtime miles including 3.4m threshold. Calculated LT pace range as 7:18-7:42. Pace for the 4 LT splits was 7:19, 7:26, 7:15, 7:32 so a bit erratic.

May: 125 miles
2018: 626 miles

2 Jun: [Plan 4m recovery] 3.1 mile recovery at 9:22. Avg HR 132

3 Jun: [Plan 14m LR] 15.4 miles at 9:22. Avg HR 137. Lovely hot/humid run. Down to Blackrock/Sandymount/town and back through Clonskeagh. Forgot bodyglide. Big mistake!

39 miles for the week.

General theme is more commutes. So busy it's the only way to get the runs in. Trying to follow the first few weeks of P&D 18/55, but this week was the first I've managed to just about hit all runs. Also trying to pay more attention to my HR during runs and to run according to the ranges in the book. I get the impression that's the key to getting the most out of the plan.

Anyway, my HR ranges for reference:
Max 192. Resting 49.

Rec: <145
GA: 134-155
LR: 142-161 (!)
LT: 157-174
VO2: 178-182

Signed up for the race series so the next race is the 10k on 22nd July.

aquinn wrote: »

I have always eyed up your HR with envy.

How did you work out your ranges?

I was given the following

220 (could be female only?)
- age
- RHR
=
*.75 + RHR = Easy
*.85 + RHR = Tempo maybe
*.95 + RHR = What's next, endurance?

Aw thanks

I'm not sure if that 220-age thing is accurate as that would have my max as 173. I took my max HR from the end of Jingle Bells 5K and it seems close enough. For example, I hit around 170bpm (85% HRR) near the end of my tempo run last week.

The ranges I posted are based on max HR, but they're pretty much identical to my HRR ranges. I'm following the ranges from Advanced Marathoning so:

HRR range = % * (MaxHR - RHR) + RHR

Run|HRR|Max HR
Recovery|<70%|<76%
General Aerobic|62-75%|70-81%
Long Run/Medium Long Run|65-78%|74-84%
Lactate Threshold/Tempo|77-88%|82-91%
VO2|91-94%|93-95%
Marathon Pace|73-84%|79-88%

12 Jun: [Plan 9 miles with 5m at LT]. Ran 8.85 miles with 5 miles at LT.
LT splits 7:33, 7:20, 7:19, 7:30, 7:20
Enjoyed this. Not sure the LT pace is correct, but heart rate is in line with O&D

14 Jun: 9.6 mile commute @ 9:23 avg. Avg HR 136.

BIG GAP! What did I do? Back to UK, drank too much beer, saw Pearl Jam, flew to Florida.

21 Jun: 3 mile plod at 9:09. Up early so a quick plod before the kids woke. Really hot.

24 Jun: 5.7 miles at 9:16. Plan has gone, it a just too hot to do too much. Found a nice 5 mile route.

27 Jun: 5 miles at 9:19. Same route. No point trying to stick to any plan, I'll just tick over until I get home. At that point I'll have 16 weeks of P&D before DCM.

4 July: 5.9 miles at 9:28 avg. Avg HR 136

10 July: [Plan 8 miles GA] 8 mile commute at 9:33 avg. Avg HR 143. Back home so picking up P&D 18/55 at week 3. Head cold meant I was a bit blocked up, but felt ok and legs felt surprisingly strong.

11 July: [Plan 4m recovery] Didn't have time at lunchtime and World Cup semi meant I had to forget about this one. Disappointing night, better team won.

13 July: [Plan 8m with 4m LT] 8 mile commute home with middle 4m at (not) LT pace. Middle 4m was uphill and HR was a bit high with the cold so I ran to keep HR around 165. Splits were 8:09, 8:16, 8:22, 8:17.

14 July: [Plan 4m recovery] 4.2 miles rec at 9:38. Avg HR 137

15 July: [Plan 14m MLR] 13.9 miles at 9:23 avg. Avg HR 138. It rained. It rained the whole run and it felt great. Felt good, picked up the pace to the faster end of my long run range for the last 3 miles.

34 miles for the week.

24 July: [Plan 9 miles with 5m LT]: 9.1 miles with 5m at LT. Legs felt a bit heavy on the warmup and the first mile at LT. Splits were a bit erratic, but that always seems to be the case on this route due the steady climb and descent. Not exactly hills, but the drags do have an effect. LT splits 7:38, 7:06, 7:17, 7:43, 7:37.

25 July: [Plan 5 miles recovery]: 5.1 mile lunchtime run along the canal. Avg 9:19, avg HR 134. Really warm run. The pace felt fine, very relaxed, but according to what I've read it's too fast. Still slightly confused with the paces in P&D. Recovery HR should stay below 76% of max which means I should stay below 145. However the pace was at the fast end of my GA pace range according to P&D (15% slower than marathon pace). Suppose I'll find out soon enough if I'm running these too fast.