Eye of the Tiger Beer.

The Catalan adventure continues. 50 miles as planned, all of them pre-breakfast and some of them reasonably hilly, 4,200 foot for the week and even more last week, a quick scan through Strava reckons they're my hilliest weeks running ever. If I'm being honest I'm getting a little sick of running in the heat and hills, every run is a good deal tougher than my usual commutes but it's better than rapidly losing fitness. I took today off just so I don't get too burned out.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
8th July|10.2 miles|8:57|Down Diagonal to Primaveraland, along the beaches to Las Ramblas and then back up to Gracia.
9th July|10 miles|9:09|A bit of a random run, up Diagonal to Camp Nou then back to Gracia via some parts of Barcelona that I wasn't very familiar with.
10th July|5 miles|9:46|Hungover and out later than usual, so decided to go up to Parc Guell.
11th July|8 miles|9:17|Up towards Tibidabo, except I followed a road that I kept seeing cyclists on, just before the awful stairs. It quickly turned into lovely path, winding around the hills. I cut it a little short and hopped off but will be back to see where it goes.
12th July|7 miles|9:25|Another hungover run, this wasn't pleasant in the heat.
13th July|10.7 miles|8:51|Looking for a less brutal way up Tibidabo, I followed a different road the whole way up. Turned back once I got to where the stairs end. Looks like there are some other cycle trails up there to explore.


Total: 51.3 miles
Next week: Probably a higher chance of missed runs due to finishing up working over here so transitioning to full holiday mode, a friend coming over and a trip to a theme park.

A week with two days off running (!), but the with some reasonable quality too. The week started in Port Aventura (not a total success due to the kids not enjoying the hot weather), and I didn't bring my runners with me so that was a day off. My Barcelona adventure came to a close on Friday, but I didn't go out for a run that morning due to the logistical problems of not wanting to pack sweaty running gear, and by the time we got back home I was in no form for a run after a long day hanging around the airport with kids etc. Saturday's parkrun time trial went pretty well. The purpose of it was to see how much speed I'd lost in Barcelona. I was worried that the trip would be similar to last summer's SF trip where I completely slacked off, however it didn't really turn out that way and I ended up doing some running of reasonable quality (i.e. a lot of hills) though nothing fast. I did Malahide parkrun just before we left in a slightly disappointing 18:55, and then yesterday I ran 18:36, my third fastest 5k (though after a rest day). I've no idea what this really means other than I guess I haven't completely lost all my fitness

I started into the first run for DCM today with a 12 mile long run at Hanson long run pace. The prescribed pace was 7:29 according to the book, however I ended up doing it all a bit faster, mostly because I turned off mile splits so was mostly using my Garmin's current pace to track my speed and was trying to keep it under 7:29 and doing a bad job of that The effort got a little hard near the end, but otherwise was comfortable enough and an enjoyable run.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
23rd July|10.7 miles|8:53|Up my now favoured route around the foothills of Tibidabo, which avoids the staircases and extremely steep roads, along the trails for a few miles and then down through Vallcarca.
24th July|10.2 miles|7:57|Another of my favoured routes, down Diagonal to El Forum, along the beaches and then back up to Gracia via Las Ramblas and Passeig De Gracia. Decided to throw in some faster miles along the beach but quickly got put in my place by the heat, effort level was very high, so eased off. Still a good paced run overall.
25th July|10.7 miles|9:01|Another run around the foothills and my last run in Barcelona.
27th July|9.2 miles|?|To, from and Malahide parkrun in 18:36
28th July|15.7 miles|7:38|Including 12 miles at 7:17 average pace. Fastest 7:11, slowest 7:20. Did loops around Rivervalley which has some good drags, and it involved running into the wind for a long stretch.


Total: 56.7 miles

Next week: Obviously I'm going to start messing with the plan :pac: For the next few weeks I'll just do the Tuesday Vo2 max track sessions at the club. The distance is the same as the Hanson sessions (4.8 or 5 km) and the purpose and pace is pretty much the same, though the reps are progressively longer in the Hanson plan. When the plan switches the Tuesday session to be "Strength" instead of "Speed" then I'll start doing those instead. Thursday will be 7@MP. I will probably switch the long run to Saturday as I have a wedding drinks thing to go to that night. The following weekend I'll be in Italy for another damn wedding so I will do 12@Hanson Long Run pace again. I might cut the commutes down a little, especially on Wednesday which is supposed to be a rest day.

Two Hanson sessions that went well, and some running around Edinburgh. Though the real highlight was my 9 year old kid deciding he wanted to do parkrun with me on Saturday morning. He's not a great runner, as has been clear from many Junior Parkruns, but we got through it together and have probably bonded as a solid father/son unit as a result We finished in just under 43 minutes, so it's probably a bit cheeky to count as "running", as in reality it was a mix of very slow jogging, lots of walking and occasional inexplicable sprinting. I did sweat though and had to have a shower when I got home.

Other than a bit of tiredness, and I think my appetite has stepped up a gear, running is going fine and I have no niggles to worry about.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
26th August|10 miles|8:56|A commute
27th August|7.6 miles|?|Up at the crack of dawn to get the Hanson session in before flying to Scotland. Session was 3 x 1600 at 6:02 so decided on 3 x sub-6 1 miles: 5:58, 5:57, 5:58.
28th August|5 miles|10:47|Morning run in Edinburgh, went up Arthur’s Seat (800+ feet climbing). It wasn't very runnable near the top, and I got stuck behind some people on the way down. Good fun hopping around the hill, and it was funny to be at the top in shorts and t-shirts compared to all the hikers around me who were fully dressed for some Scottish weather conditions (it was very windy in fairness). On the way back down I started to question why on earth I was running up a rocky death-trap in a pair of regular old runners when I'm supposed to be training for a marathon... it was good fun though.
28th August|5 miles|8:44|A few non-hilly miles around nice parks beside the University (The Meadows).
29th August|5.9 miles|8:36|Running randomly around Edinburgh, skirted Holyrood and some of The Meadows again. Some DOMS in my quads from the hill running.
30th August|10 miles|9:04|Commute, still some minor DOMS. Passed the 2000 mile mark for 2019.
31st August|3.1 miles|13:17|Rivervalley parkrun. Not sure if this counts as a run....
31st August|12 miles|7:23|Out after dinner with what felt like was a gigantic stomach. I was worried that this would get sore or otherwise interfere with the planned session, though it didn't really happen. 8 miles at MP: 6:40, 6:42, 6:42, 6:45, 6:38, 6:42, 6:41, 6:36. This felt great and I could have continued for a good while longer. Heart rate data agrees. I did this around one of my session spots in Swords, on a tarmac path around Ridgewood pitches. It's about a 500m loop and has a slight elevation change on each lap which keeps the effort changing. My 10 mile PB is 6:36 pace... looking pretty soft now.
1st September|13.5 miles|8:44|Only 10 on the plan but no harm in something a bit more. Not much more than 12 hours after the session though, legs were a bit creaky at the start and I've been tired all day since, just as you should be during marathon training! Went out to Malahide Castle and surroundings.


Total: 72.4 miles (including the parkrun! :pac:)
August total: 290 miles

Next week: Hanson sessions starting to get serious. 6x1 mile at ~6:30 pace on Tuesday (prescribed pace for 2:55, doesn't seem impossible), 8 miles at MP on Thursday and 16 at ~7:20 on Saturday/Sunday.

scotindublin wrote: »

Serious week Brian; great run on Friday.....well on track to the sub 3 train on Marathon day.

Thanks! Plenty of time to mess things up You're in the mix as well I reckon!

healy1835 wrote: »

Does the Hanson plan you're following give you the option of racing a half? Would be very interested to see how you'd go in a HM right now. Things ticking over very nicely here B

The book says "don't race a half"

The reason is that there's too much recovery involved and it messes up your training. This post goes into more specific advice than in the book, but it basically reckons that now is too late to race a HM, other than running it as a tempo: https://lukehumphreyrunning.com/modifying-your-marathon-plan-for-a-race/

It's been 4 months since my last race :eek:, another 5 weeks isn't a problem.

I'll just have to run a HM PB in the second half of DCM :pac:

Another good week, with an actual PB to make this training log mildly interesting! It's been pretty grim around here over the last while, with tables and tables of training with nothing to show for it.

9@MP on Friday ended up going very well, I'd slept well and was able to do it in the morning in between some work and children related errands. I jogged over to one of my preferred loops in the Swords area and started looping, had no problem hitting pace, running a bit faster than prescribed. I was daydreaming and looking at my watch during the third mile and ended up nearly 10 seconds faster again. I pulled back a bit but kept the momentum going... it started to get a bit tougher by the 7th mile so stepped things up again, and again threw out a fast mile so pulled back. I'd been aware that the paces I was at was faster than my 10 mile PB pace, so in the last mile did a quick calculation and figured that if I did another mile but a bit slower I'd easily beat that, so started to head back home and ran a comfortably fast mile, which resulted in a 36 second Garmin PB of 1:05:36 :cool: :pac: :rolleyes: I know you shouldn't really be beating PBs in training, but it was a little soft and my training paces are a bit aggressive at the moment (hopefully that's a good thing).

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
23rd September|10.1 miles|8:47|Commute
24th September|12.2 miles|?|Over to Irishtown as usual, and as usual I did my own session. Pretty simple: 2 x 3 miles @ MP-10 seconds with a mile recovery in between. Target pace was 6:30, came well under on the first rep (6:23) and then bang on with the second (6:30). Had to work a good bit on the second rep.
25th September|10.1 miles|8:51|Commute
26th September|10.1 miles|8:55|Commute... obliviously jogged past aquinn and mister_paul while entranced in a podcast or something. Got mega-drenched on the way home.
27th September|13.1 miles|6:58|MP session as above
28th September|9.9 miles|?|Popped over to Rivervalley parkrun, and for no good reason ran it a bit hard. Not too hard though, 20:35. I'd volunteered to do barcode scanning after running so I didn't want to be too down the pack Got to meet Dealerz2.0 after he had used it as a session! As always, some nice chats and a lovely group of folks to partly spend my morning with. It was my 25th time volunteering (mostly pacing in fairness) so hopefully a new t-shirt on the way soon
29th September|14.3 miles|8:31|Up early and out the door at twenty to seven. Easy short long run, popped out to Portmarnock along the coast. I got to jog alongside the Great Dublin Bike Ride for a bit. Weather was pretty miserable and legs felt a bit sluggish but was grand for an early morning run.


Total: 80 miles
Next week: I have a busy week with work including a social outing on Wednesday night, so I'm not sure I can make it to the club on Tuesday. I probably have to wedge in that 3x2 miles somehow likely on Wednesday. 10@MP on Friday then the last 16 miles@fast long run pace on Sunday. I guess the next 11 days are the peak :eek: :cool:

So I guess this is the peak week or so? Last of the long runs are done, though the Hanson taper really only begins with 10 days to go, so there's still another 10 days of work to do. 2 of the remaining 4 sessions are hard enough (10@MP) but nothing new. The other session reduces the rep length and the book generally prescribes a slight reduction in milage over the next 2 weeks.

I got pulled up by the local Hanson police on Strava (fbot) on my paces, which can be seen below. I don't think I'm doing any damage to my chances of running sub-3 by going faster, the paces generally feel appropriate and I feel like I'm adapting well to the higher milage and relentless focus on tempoish paces. I'm not changing up my target time... well, at least not until somewhere around Crumlin.

Niggle-wise, my left foot and leg have been a little niggly. Some mild throbbing in my left foot on-and-off during the week was a bit noticeable. I have some tightness in some muscles here and there on my left foot which may or may not be related to the foot weirdness. I plan to keep treating these niggles the same way as I have been doing so far - other than documenting them here, completely ignoring them until they go away

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
30th September|10 miles|8:59|Got utterly drenched on this commute. Ran the first few miles with crockmac.
1st October|12.5 miles|?|Over to Irishtown to do my Hanson session, along with the usual jog over with crockmac, dynamic warmup and jog back to the bus after. This was 3 x 2 miles off 1/2 mile jog. If I were training for 2:59 by the book, the pace would be 6:42. The pace for 2:50 is 6:19, which is what I ran: 6:20, 6:19, 6:18. This was good and I felt great throughout.
2nd October|8.7 miles|8:53|A delayed and slightly truncated commute into town in the morning due to bringing the younger kid to the doctor and then attending a conference respectively. Had a shower before the conference in a handily located Flyefit.
3rd October|9.3 miles|9:03|Blustery commute back home from The Convention Centre.
4th October|14 miles|7:00|Was a little worried that I'd have to move this around due to the storm, but not much of a storm happened. 10@MP, ended up at 6:33 average pace (only around 2:52 pace :rolleyes: ) though the last couple of miles were a little hard. Not race hard, but a good deal harder than the previous week. Interesting stuff during this run was running 2 seconds slower than the previous week (so no PBs this week!) but a bit more consistent on paces, aside from one where I had to stop to tie my lace (cost me about 5 seconds I reckon). Also there was an eighteenish month old boy being walked around the park by their grandparent (well, I assume) and on every loop he gave me a huge smile as I approached and so each lap I gave him a smile and wave. Helped break up the loops for a bit anyway
5th October|9.7 miles|?|Jogged over to Rivervalley parkrun planning to just keep jogging... when I got there I found out it was pacer week so signed up for 22 minutes just before it got started :rolleyes: Not entirely easy due to some residual tiredness from the previous day's session and the usual Rivervalley hills, but not hard either. Went across the line in 21:57.
6th October|17.2 miles|7:08|Last of the infamous Hanson 16 mile not-a-long-run-long-run. Went out on my now usual loop which has a mile warmup and ends up finishing outside The Pavillions. Lovely morning though windy, which meant a few slightly harder miles running into the wind. Half way through I noticed that Scullion had released a podcast about the previous night's marathon so stuck that on. He was particularly maudlin about his performance, complaining a little about not wearing Vaporflys but depressed at his performance. He ran a solid race but I guess it didn't result in the kind of breakthrough he was looking for. He ended up talking about milage a bit, I think he has a point. Surely if I can knock out a few of 80 mile weeks, he can knock out a load of 100+ mile weeks! Oh, the run. After that I needed a bit of a pick-me-up so stuck on some up-tempo music and sped up a little, which somehow felt easier. Ended up at 7:04 average pace, 2:50 target pace in the book is 7:05.


Total: 81.8 miles
September total: 330 miles. 10% increase over my previous record

Next week: 4 x 1.5 miles on Tuesday (sliding back down the ladder) and 10@MP on Thursday/Friday. I'll probably do 13-15 easy on Sunday. Probably won't be hard to do another 80 mile week between the sessions and commutes, but I should probably stop chasing miles as hard so won't be upset if it's just 70+ :rolleyes: I will probably use this week's MP session as a dress rehearsal - wear the new Nikes, new shorts and eat my first gel since last year's DCM.