Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads

Meno plan week 7

Aug 13th

Rest

Aug 14th

1:17:36. 7.44 miles, easy at 10:25.
10:21, 10:29, 10:31, 10:32, 10:26, 10:12, 10:25, 10:33

Decent weather, 21C on the pharmacy sign. 3 groups of runners out and about as I was driving home.

Aug 15th

10-12 miles including 8 miles alternating. Wednesdays session: 1 or 2 mile warm up then 8 miles continuous alternating PMP + 20- 30 seconds/mile and PMP - 20-30 seconds/mile. 1-2 miles warm down. So to summarise: lets say PMP is 8 min/mile. After warm up do 1 mile @ 8:20 followed by 1 mile @ 7:40 and repeat 4 times.

Alternating paces: 9:20-9:30 and 8:30-8:40, respectively.

1:46:11, 11:23 miles at 9:27.

w/u 2 miles at 10:40, 10:19.

Main stuff

Mile|Pace
1/8|9:16
2/8|8:43
3/8|9:22
4/8|8:38
5/8|9:04
6/8|9:13
7/8|8:36
8/8|9:18


c/d 1.23 miles at 10:38, 10:19.

Bit of a deluge of rain after 5pm. By the time I changed and left the office it was fine. Pharmacy sign said 21 again. Rain finally kicked in after 9 miles and I got a decent soaking. Dry spare shirt in the car boot and headed home. Had a slight confidence wobble in this one, around the third alternating section i.e. miles 5-6, then I think did the last two in reverse. Started thinking of the start line at DCM. The. Fear. Silly given how many weeks away it is.

Aug 16th

Recovery. 51:55. 5 miles at 10:23. Almost lost my footing at one point.
10:25, 10:20, 10:21, 10:24, 10:24.
HIIT

Aug 17th
Rest

Aug 18th

1:02:49.
6 miles easy at 10:28.
10:47, 10:13, 10:32, 10:14, 10:23. 10:39.

Serious enough looking accident at the Pavillions roundabout. I then hit a pigeon with my car in Malahide. It may have survived, not sure. Shoe shopping after the run. Oldest pair have more wear and tear now, thought I might get August out of them. Picked up some Asics Kayano 25s.
HIIT

Job application completed.

Aug 19th

3:25:47.
20 miles easy at 10:17.
10:24, 10:19, 10:20, 10:15, 10:18, 10:15, 10:17, 10:17, 10:20, 10:17, 10:16, 10:21, 10:19, 10:18, 10:19, 10:18, 10:12, 10:12, 10:12, 10:18.

Not chaffing with vaseline on the inner thighs. Very much enjoyed it even though I slept poorly last night and it took a while to shake that off. Things ease up somewhat after you turn right at the Man O War pub - hill and it's fairly downwards from there until the junction. Have to keep an eye not to get ahead on pace. Shop bought bar at about 5.5 miles, gel after 13 and another bar after 15. Handful of others out today. Solid reminder as to the distance of a marathon and that there's a bit of effort required...longest training run since summer of 2016.

Total: 49.67 miles.
Target: 45-55 miles.

Meno plan week 9

Ahoy hoy, a little time off work and diversion to the south east.

Aug 27th

Rest

Aug 28th

1:03:03. 6.04 miles at 10:26.
10:20, 10:16, 10:31, 10:38, 10:27, 10:25 (and 0.04 mi at 10:06)

Down to Newtown Cove, then Tramore beach. Tide was out so I ran on the sand and passed mile 4 shortly after the lifeguard hut. Back on tarmac after that. Down here is the national lifeguard training centre, btw.

Aug 29th

We are having a step back week this week, which might also serve as a nice welcome back for those returning from injury. I don't know if anyone is doing the 10 mile race on saturday, but if so skip the session this Wednesday and also forget about the Long Run (although with warm up and cool down you should be doing close to 14 anyway).

Plan: 8 miles including 4 @HMP
Actual: 1:26:16. 8.24 miles easy at 10:28.
10:24, 10:25, 10:29, 10:37, 10:36, 10:32, 10:26, 10:20 (and 0.24 mi at 10:16).

Same route as before, only went a bit longer on the beach with just over 2 miles there. Absolutely lovely, beautiful weather and not a care in the world. I did go up on the stones at one point which wasn't great for footing, or the water bottle. Back to the sand - who cares about wet shoes? Watched Man On Wire that evening. It’s about the bloke who walked between the World Trade Centre/Twin Towers in the 1970s. Makes amateur marathon running look like a walk to the shops.

Aug 30th

54:07. 5.19 miles easy at 10:26.
10:24, 10:24, 10:27, 10:26, 10:25 (and 0.19 mi at 10:36)

Water bottle was acting up again these past days. Finally noticed why - decent size rip in the belt's fabric.

Aug 31st

Rest

Sept 1st

30:30. 3 miles easy at 10:10.
10:03, 10:11, 10:15

Sept 2nd

FD10

Research done in advance - official course video, Singer's course breakdown post and eyrie's recent 10 mile race report.

Slept OK compared to the rest of the week, whilst still waking a bit too early. Threw on some Vaseline and dropped over to Swords. Realised whilst walking through the shopping centre I had left my hat in the car. Took the HRM with me in an effort to bring it to life again, it inevitably fell down to my stomach quite quickly. Toilets I thought were a little hard to find, could well have missed the signs.

We started without much fanfare (slightly late too), up and out past the shopping centre. Knew early on from the volume of people that I wasn't going to get quite up to speed initially. First main roundabout, hello dropped unused gel and boring bypass. Already people using trees for toilet stops. Sweat machine pumping a little on my part. Pushing on to Fingallians roundabout, hang a left into the countryside. Spotted a park run volunteer here (250 man too!), he had a handy vantage point up on the wall. We had some brief respite from the sun with tree cover. Somewhere between miles 2-3 and first sighting of skyblue - Deputy 2018 Novices Mentor/AKA Minister for Sensible Slow Runs.

Middle stretch or so. Kept things ticking over and then we got onto the poorer road surface at one stage. Navigating the crowds a little tricky on some of these back roads. Didn't bother with the first water station. People deciding last second to go for a table and darting across you, the less said about that crap the better. Did grab a cup of water later on, drank half and poured the rest over my head. I had had my water belt repaired - success, no flying bottle. :cool: Better to find out the something's wrong in training (now is the time, as they say) and have it sorted for an event. Somewhere in here the rubber band idea came to mind - I think this was in eyrie's log. So for me, it was a bloke in a grey short with shoes that looked barely 5 minutes out of a box. Following him was mixed bag, heard him say to someone he doesn't run 10 miles often. Right, plan B it is. Somwhere around mile 6 or so I did get an internal blast of 'hello confidence, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again...', which was nice.

Final third. For 7-8 I was shadowing a guy in a white 2017 5k shirt and thought we were probably similar ish. However, a bit like the previous person I adopted, I gave up on him too. I was hesitant (as usual) to pick things up too much as well, and even in the downhills I didn't want to go mental. Suppose it's that balancing act of pushing on whilst trying to keep a drop or two in the tank, and passing others. skyblue was there again at mile 9 and The Muppet gave me a shout out I think before the fire station ish. Once we got towards Carnagie I decided to pick someone to pass out for final little oomph. In this case, a lady with a pink shirt. Managed to get that done. Said hello to skyblue on the main street a bit later on. Didn't notice any medical situations and hope that everyone got on OK. Conn shirt had amassed a good dose of sweat, and because of its tightness was a bit delicate to remove. Finish area seemed like a positive place to be overall. Heat I didn't feel was too bad, tbf...did miss my hat and sunglasses, though. A few others looked like they had just walked out of the shower - during the race, not just at the end. Won't lie in that there were 2-3 odd tricky just gauging myself moments, but general approach as the miles started to roll by was to run tall and proud. For some reason no spark of HTFU/JFDI came to mind - perhaps not necessarily a bad thing.

Garmin yolk - 1:21:54, 10.08 miles at 8:07.
8:21, 8:16, 8:15, 8:13, 8:25, 8:11, 8:01, 8:01, 7:56, 7:45 (and 0.08 mi at 6:03)
HR: 219 avg, 252 max.

Chip: 1:21:50 (at 8:11 mi). (nice to get a text about it, was waiting on the phone when I got back to the car).

FD10 2017: 1:34:37. 2016 was 1:32:XX (can't recall XX as it's buried somewhere in the 2016 novices thread., not this log).

Plan was to aim for 8:10 for the first 5 miles and pick things up thereafter. Looking back, didn't quite nail that 100% and the time's another race target (self-set, yo - 1:20) that I didn't hit. That's a very defeatist attitude, Dougal. :mad: Still, it was my first race trying to aim for lower 8:XX min/mi ish and I was happy to give that a shot and see how the body would do. And unlike last year's FD10, I did actually race it. Outcome aside, training is good at the moment. PB, anyway. For now, TBO 1 - 0 Swords.

As of yesterday evening my right leg's playing up a bit. Could this be from how I was sitting watching the TV?! Had intended to run today, scrapped that to rest. Normally run tomorrow, but again depends on the leg and also meetings tomorrow, so could be Weds-Sun straight through which doesn't give a lot of flexibility if stuff comes up later in the week.

Total: 32.55 miles.
Target: 30-35 miles.

Pomplamousse wrote: »

Well done on the huge PB, great time!
Hope the leg gets better soon. Do you think a sports massage would help? I also recommend sliotaring:pac:

Thanks. Good call on the massage as I hadn't thought of that. Somehow I think you'll get sliotar recognised as a verb before the year's out. :pac:

Unthought Known wrote: »

Congrats on the massive PB. Well deserved after the work you've put in.

Thanks A.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

10-11 minutes is a massive PB for 10 miles, congrats and recover well!

Thanks J. Hadn’t given recovery a lot of thought beyond hydration and food.

diego_b wrote: »

Huge result that, well done! Progressing nicely, keep up the good work!

Thanks!

The Muppet wrote: »

Congrats on the pb, you looked comfortable when I saw you which was at the fire station .

Thanks T. Good to see a local!

Huzzah! wrote: »

Congrats on the PB - an amazing chunk to take off your previous time.

There's a Colum McCann book that's kind of about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Great_World_Spin

ReeReeG wrote: »

Great bloody book

Cheers. Man On Wire's an interesting film in its own right. Decent mix of talking heads, archive clips and reconstruction.

Meno plan week 10 - long post

Sept 3rd

Rest. Leg not great from the FD10. Did some foam rolling.

Sept 4th

Rest and a long evening meeting. Knew I was going to be early in the morning and decided to take the foam roller into the office to do a bit before 9.

Sept 5th

Woke up and the leg felt good again the morning. Had a bit of a smile before starting as I was happy to be back and enjoy running after work. Tried to get a feel for the legs. A truck (with a trailer) did a u-turn at a set of lights and the tyres were certainly working for that. Not something you see much.

1:14:24. 7.13 miles easy at 10:26.
10:34, 10:21, 10:25, 10:14, 10:32, 10:24, 10:38 (and 0.13 at 9:30)

Sept 6th

Got the leg checked out (sports and physical therapist) and was given some things to try. My left leg seems to be longer and I might be over-pronating a bit too. More foam rolling needs doing. :pac: And better warm up. I rarely see people warming up anywhere, tbh. Did HIIT before two runs this week and that was OK. Truthfully, I wonder if the appointment put too many things in my head. And he asked me about ultra running - don't get me started on considering that. :pac: Talked about bringing up the knee some more, I did try this a bit on easy days, but found it initially made me quicker, which I wasn't too keen on. Also talked about diet, water intake and sitting at a desk all day - can't be helped as I'm desk bound in work. Not sure how many changes I can make to technique as consistency takes time. It was a very chatty appointment.

Wednesday's session should have a 2 mile warm up and c/d. Take a 2 minute rest between HMP sections. If you prefer; you can jog 0.5mile between reps and make it a 13-14 mile session.

12 miles with 4 x 2miles @ HMP (say, 8:20)
1:47:57 at 9.00
2 miles w/u 10:06, 10:06
Session 2 miles at 8:26, 8:14
Rest
2 miles at 8:19, 8:13
Rest
2 miles at 8:22, 8:22
Rest
2 miles at 8:21, 8:17
2 miles c/d at 10:32, 10:37

Decided to rest for the in between stuff. Even though I hit pause I'm not sure Garmin was counting the walking for the 2 minutes, so ended up just standing still. Enjoyed the session a lot. Later that evening I was doing some searching and found trouble at the recent Reykjavik marathon with the course ending up 213 metres short. :eek: This is one I'm considering for next year (Spring version), not that this mishap put me off. We'll see.

Sept 7th

51:31. 5 miles recovery at 10:18.
10:16, 10:16, 10:19, 10:21, 10:17
Leg doubts crept in again for the first 2-3 miles here. Maybe because the previous days was at HMP, dunno. Could probably slow the recoveries down, tbh.

Sept 8th

1:02:36. 6 miles easy at 10:26.
10:33, 10:23, 10:22, 10:09, 10:33, 10:35.
Still not 100% happy with the leg just a bit off at times.

Damp morning. We had the tent/gazebo thing up at Malahide park run, then of course the rain stopped before the run had even started. Not even 200 at this one, but first time, iirc, I've seen a woman take first place overall.

Sept 9th

20 miles on the weekend is 10 easy and the last 10 'steady'. Easy should be very easy; at least 10% slower than MP; though I'd prefer 15-20% slower. The steady miles should be about 4-5% slower than MP. So lets say you are targeting 8 min/mile as MP: do the first 10 miles between 8:50-9:40 min/mile and the last 10 @ 8: 20-8:30/mile.

3:14:39 at 9:44.
10 miles easy: 10:34, 10:17, 10:26, 10:23, 10:17, 10:20, 10:21, 10:31, 10:27, 10:37.
10 miles steady: 8:51, 8:58, 9:01, 8:49, 8:56, 8:58, 9:00, 8:47, 8:58, 10:07.

Was concerned about this one with the leg and combing this with more than @ easy. Outcome - sorta put a dampener on the week as a whole in the back half. I started in the grounds of Malahide castle and killed off just over 3 miles. Spotted a park run director going the opposite way and said hi. Then headed over to Howth and back. It was enjoyable re the location and scenery, had forgotten about the planes too. More urban than the long runs I'm used to. Weather chopped and changed between overcast and sunny. Busy enough morning with people, traffic...even some in swimming. Slight delay around mile 9 with the train barrier. I went to near side of Howth and not the lighthouse bit, even the near side was full of tourists. I opted not to follow the 'scenic route to Howth' brown sign :pac: maybe another time. Haven't been out that way for ages, so it was nice to go through Portmarnock and Sutton. Once you cross the bridge out of the former you're on the road as there's no path for a bit.

The early steady stuff was OK, became a bit sore again around mile 15 or so. I thought I might have misread the geography (distance, not location) somewhere, was relieved to see the 6km sign to Malahide on the return. I felt a bit like I was in a race for the those closing stages, though, and just wanted to back to my car because of the feckin' leg. The last mile I wrote off on pace as my leg wasn't happy. If it was a race with 6 miles to go who knows how things would be. Not wincing, but further mileage would probably have hit pain territory. Mentally I was mostly OK, just frustrated.

Fuel - water with electrolyte, bar, gel and bar. Mostly OK, if a little sloshy in the stomach in the latter part of the steady miles.

Total: 50.13 miles.
Target: 45-55 miles.

For now, I'm betting on skipping next week. Continuing would be stupid and out of stubbornness. I haven't been in this situation before with something lingering, and can't quite fully tell what's going on, so I've emailed the DCU RISC physio (she had been in touch anyway) and will get it checked out. Stairs and around the house are fine. Work stairs require a bit more effort, will see what that's like tomorrow. Hah, I synced the watch after settling in at home and about 10 minutes later it told me to move. G'wan. Easy runs would probably be fine, but with just a few weeks to go I need to listen to my body.

Hi.

Forgot say re Sunday that I noticed, even though I used Vaseline on the chest area, I seemed to hit a limit, or else I didn't use enough. Bit windy out on the coast too.

Sept 10th

Rest.

Appt to get checked out again. He was surprised I had managed the 20 miler and tbh, maybe I was a bit too. It hadn’t clicked with me that it was 20 miles even though I’ve done that once in the plan already, this one was different and it being broken into 10/10 didn’t fully register = 20. And still hasn't! Plus, compressing 50 miles into continuous 5 days not long after the FD10 niggle…the body’s bound to feel it.

Sitting at a desk all day isn’t great and then trying to run after that, well, again body isn’t going to be pleased. OK, so I don’t start running completely cold, but need to expand things a bit. He described marathon training as ‘one dimensional’ (in isolation) and I need to compliment it with rotation, flexibility and movement. Over-pronating needs to be checked and a proper gait analysis…not a generic one (classic runner mistake). Oops. But yeah, was a good session, lots of pressing, pushing, shoving, etc, and seeing where things were tight. Resistance band to be acquired.

Were I to keep going as is, I might be OK for this marathon (and other time gains), but not so future ones as an accumulation of problems (by ignoring flexibility, etc), might will likely come home to roost. I think this is a lesson for everyone who posts here, tbh. Invest in the body and not always with miles. I mean, some time ago I saw Cirque du Soleil and there’s no way those lads arrive on stage fresh off the bus and perform at the drop of a hat.

Sept 11th

This week mightn’t be a total write off yet. He didn’t suggest that that I come off the road, not that I’d have been disappointed at dumping this week if needed. No run tonight and lower mileage, below target and some body work to start a good routine there. Will see how the Weds 14 mile session goes as it involves 10 miles MP. Have to keep him posted.

Supple er,…terms and conditions apply.

Meno plan week 14

Oct 1st

Rest. Walk before work. Got the flu jab, all grand.

Oct 2nd

1:00:59.
6 miles easy at 10:10.
10:12, 10:11, 10:09, 10:03, 10:12, 10:11.
HRM 132 avg, 152 avg.

Thought about doing this 5am due to evening duties, but didn’t sleep well and let that go. Small twinge in the leg when I got into the car commuting in the morning.

Oct 3rd

14 miles with 10 alternating around MP.

Wednesday session: 2 miles warm up then 10 miles alternating MP+ 3% with MP -3%. 2 miles c/d. So for a 3:30 MP (8 min/mile) run one mile @ 8:15, followed by a mile @ 7:45 and repeat x 5.

2:08:03. 14 miles at 9:09.
With following the script above, I aimed for ~ 9.00 and 8:25 ish respectively (in hitting either side of an 8:40 MP).
w/u 2 miles - 10:21, 10:18.
8:51, 8:19, 8:58, 8:20, 8:56, 8:24, 8:58, 8:20, 8:52, 8:22.
c/d 2 miles - 10:37, 10:26.
HRM 153 avg, 178 max.

Better mentally than previous Weds. Threw on the high vis with the evenings getting shorter. Still a bit tiring in places (thighs/right hip) and the mental glitch was whether this training craic is worth it at all. I don’t mean re sub-4…just marathoning, in general. Got back to the car, changed shoes and had some water. All felt good again. Went past the 600 mile mark in the plan with this one. Left ankle was a little sore when lying on the mattress that night, not rotating the foot. Putting weight on it was fine, probably just the session chipping away.

Oct 4th

51:31. Recovery. 5.01 miles at 10:18.
10:22, 10:18, 10:19, 10:11, 10:18 (and 8.40)
HRM 125 avg, 151 max
Ankle still slightly funny, but only with stretching and didn't impact the run at all.

Oct 5th

Rest.

Oct 6th

51:06.
5.01 miles at 10:12.
10:27, 9:52, 10:03, 10:09, 10:32 (and 7.19 for the 0.01, think these are just
HRM 152 avg, 179 max.

Nice and fresh morning in Malahide, can't beat that chill as you walk through the forest down to the park run set up area. Felt a bit warmer once I started scanning barcodes. Some good humour makes volunteering more rewarding too! We had two 250s and some visitors as well. Missed out going out to see the EOI stuff going on back home as it slipped my mind altogether. For some reason, I've noticed am lot more tired on Saturday afternoons compared to Sundays. Could be sleep related. I'm also pretty neglectful of foam rolling, etc, at the minute…

Oct 7th

Long run with stuff. I am going to give you a few options here, but basically we want some quality in the long run as it will be our last long one before the day. You could do all the 22 miles steady (i.e. about MP +4-5%) and if feasible try to do the last few miles at MP Another option is 10 miles easy, followed by 10@ MP and a 2 mile c/d.

3:28:53. 22 miles at 9:30.
10 easy 10:11, 10:06, 10:10, 10:15, 10:12, 10:07, 10:11, 10:11, 10:12, 10:05
10 MP 8:38, 8:40, 8:41, 8:39, 8:39, 8:44, 8:39, 8:41, 8:39, 8:43
c/d 10:16, 10:12
HRM 170 avg, 192 max. 73% in the red zone, finally. :P

This was good, enjoyable. Typical of the mornings re weather, overcast and that. Most other runners seemed to have additional layers on. It is slightly dodgy going against traffic in the Man O War with the blindspots. Little bit of a blister feeling on the right middle toe kicked in early - didn't seem reappear until I got home. I had minor contact from a German shepard around mile 16. Was muzzled, tbf - and probably just excited or annoyed about my going by. My near loss of footing was more to do with the wind and lumpy grass. Last few spells of MP were a little tiring, though manageable. Sports massage might be no harm as a final hello to the experts. Fuel - two bars, gel, another bar and water with electrolyte.

The GT 1000s have picked up a decent bit of wear (mostly on the front/toes region) now at this stage, including about a thumbnail size bit through the orange sole to show some white underneath. Am a little surprised, but I suppose they're a few months old. Overall - compared to this time last year, hard to call. I'd have to read back in the log. 14 weeks ago 22 milers were notes on the page. Not to dwell too much on the details of today. There's still a good challenge ahead 3 Sundays from now and 14 miles at MP next Weds.

Total: 52.02 miles.
Target: 50-60 miles.