DCM 2017 Graduates: Onwards and upwards!

Welcome DCM graduates 2017!

Now that the dust has settled on incredible day in Dublin, it's time to get the ball rolling with the next phase of your running life but first off, I have to say a huge well done to all of you on your achievements over the last few months and on the day itself and you guys absolutely smashed it. I also cannot commend highly enough the efforts of Wubble Wubble, AMK, ScotinDublin(The list goes on and on...:)) in their continous support and guidance throughout. It's a mammoth task and really is fantastic to see the help and encourament that people like them are willing to give which really makes the Novice thread the shining beacon of all the good in this forum.

As for your new mentor, Wubble has passed on the reigns to me to accompany all you guys over the next few months as best I can as you look to explore new goals and adventures (I'm not sweating...I swear:pac:). A little background on myself, I've been running for almost 5 years and run a wide variety of events from the track to the roads to the trails to cross-country. When I'm not running, I'm reading about it. Science is in my blood so along the way, I've developed a huge passion for everything training so hopefully, I can use some of tidbits I've picked up in that time to help you guys in this thread and set you up with some useful knowledge that will help you for the rest of your running life.

Ultimately, you guys are the driving force in this thread and I am only here to guide you in the direction you choose but I will say this. Running is a hugely diverse sport and I'd encourage all of you to explore your options, you'll never know if your true passion in running is just around the corner if you don't look. There are events ranging from 100m to hundreds of miles, different surfaces from tracks to grass and roads to mountains if you so choose and you will never know how much you could enjoy them unless you try.

Instilling a love for running is the best performance enhancer you will ever get and is probably more important than any training you will ever do so find your passion and what makes you tick.

Any questions are more than welcome and encouraged, we're all here to learn and improve so feel free to ask about anything you're not sure of.

Keep those answers coming, they will be a hugely helpful resource for you guys get the best out of this thread.

That's all for now, gotta run:)

So about now, a lot of you guys will be starting to feel recovered after the marathon and may even be starting to feel strong again, don't worry if you may have lost some speed over the last while either as the marathon will provide you an excellent base to regain that over the next few weeks. It's also probably time to start thinking about training and how to implent it. It's important to know that training that the best training is the one that suits you as an individual and takes your strengths and weaknesses into account but the key points are pertinent across the board.

Aerobic Development/Base:

You are probably familiar with this as this type of training made up the vast majority of your marathon training. This is your endurance and is hugely important in distance running and the dominant factor for your performance from 800m all the way up to Ultra marathons and will make up most of your training every week. A strong base of aerobic running will make you faster and stonger. The ranges of running intensity to improve this are are between Tempo and recovery runs including efforts like easy runs, Marathon pace runs (even if you aren't training for a marathon) and steady runs which would fall between MP and easy as well as as Tempo runs mentioned above. Any running you do at those intensities will directly improve your aerobic endurance.

Race Specific Training-

This is what makes you sharp and be in peak shape come raceday. It builds on top of the aerobic base you have built to run faster. The idea with this type is to get your body used to the stress of running at race pace. Alot of the time especially with distances of 10k and under, this is achieved through interval training or speedwork where you run at race pace for a given time/or distance with a recovery in between. Intervals are usually broken down into to smaller segments like doing 800m repeats at 5k pace etc with recovery before the next one etc. The idea behind this is to breakdown the pace into more manageable sections and gradually progress as you get closer to raceday without the stress that running a flat out race takes on you when not tapered. Kind of similar to how many of you ran 20 miles in training for the marathon but ran 26.2. For the marathon distance itself, specific training mostly revolves around marathon paced running like tacking on MP miles to the end of a long run or having a midweek session at marathon pace.

Strength, Conditioning And Mobility

This is a big but often forgot about part of training, As many people here came to running late in life,our bodies are a little bit out of whack on this side of things as we've picked up bad habits, weaknesses and muscalar imbalances over the years. This can be cause for poor running form and injuries as some muscles may not be able to work right or to their fullest potential. Good attention to strength and mobility can work out a lot of these kinks and help your performance as well as resistance to injury and consistency in running will lead to breakthroughs so this is an important one.

Racing Skills:

This is something that will improve hugely through experience. Knowing when to push and when to hold back and generally getting a good feel for your body. It will take practice and patience to get right whether you are the person who goes out too quick and fades or the person who goes out too slow and finishes like Usain Bolt. Experiment and get out and race!

As I mentioned earlier, the best training for anyone is the one that suits your strengths and weaknesses. How do you find that? Well... the first part is identifying where your emphasis should be and then take your ideas from there to understand what you need from training. I borrowed(or stole...whatever:pac ) this idea from Myles Splitz's thread here but thought it might be useful for a lot of you guys to get thinking about your own training and where you need to put emphasis on to improve. This will be something you can come back to any point in future when you need to access your position again

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101621143



Strength/Power
This is gym strength/ explosive power and speed in relation to how well you cover ground (i.e if you 100m speed is the same as your 1 mile speed you could guess this is probably poor)
Posture and Form
This is your day to day form and how your running form is in relation to niggles/ injuries that have been picked which were postural related as well as how efficient your stride may be (for performance as well as injury prevention
Aerobic Engine
This is where most people will look when evaluating and feel that they were not aerobically strong enough and whether there Marathon stacks up with shorter distance PB's
Focus/Discipline
This goes beyond simply motivating yourself to get out every day but asking yourself, did you drop many days without an honest justifiable reason, did you follow your plan exactly, did you run correct intensities (hard days sufficiently hard and easy days truly easy)
Robustness
While it ties in with the others regarding injury sometimes it can be a way to highlight an issue in training we don't realize we are making


Strength/Power| 5/10etc
Posture and Form|
Aerobic Engine|
Focus/Discipline|
Robustness|


Hopefully this proves useful and can get you guys thinking and sharing insight on your training. I hope to get going on drawing up a few plans for this years Graduate thread over the next while which will hopefully be up after Jingle Bells/Waterford Half. No offense taken if you don't want to use it:p but it could come in handy in illustrating some ideas and thoughts when creating or critiquing a plan. I will say that the graduate plan Baby has in her opening post is excellent with great attention to detail and ability level so I would recommend everyone have a look or think about it. Most importantly, explore your options!:)

skyblue46 wrote: »

This is a great idea! I'll spend some time mulling over it though. Looking forward to the training plans too. I've joined a gym to help address strength and flexibility issues. I had planned to use the running track there for some interval training but I read on another thread that the track surface is a danger to my health! :pac:

:pac: They're not called track fairies for nothing;)

Great stuff Skyblue! You're well ahead of the game:)

Kellygirl wrote: »

Must find some race reports for Clonakilty last year to do the same and start looking at elevation profiles. I did it myself but my watch froze and lost the data. Want to plan my pacing for that.

Got you covered;)

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1563654394

Kellygirl wrote: »

Am I completely mad?

Yes:p

Personally, I don't know how anyone does back to back marathons like that. I can't imagine been able to do it but maybe I'm just not built for that sort of thing, one seems to be hard enough for me:pac:

I know for many, that first marathon experience will feel hard to top and a bit like chasing the magic dragon but running is game of patience. Where I worry here is that your body might not be fully up to the task of handling the rigors of the racing. A single marathon alone is tough and when you add a half this weekend on top of it with a marathon next weekend again, I think you are asking a lot of your body to resist and I woner where you draw the line or it gets drawn for you (injuries, sickness etc). A marathon, even 10 minutes slower than your best is no easy task, even running 26 miles is no easy task and especially since you don't seem to have slowed down at all since Dublin.

I know your motivated right now and want to push on but there's many ways to use that motivation like a spring marathon and use that fire to up your training over the next few months. A sub-4 could be a very likely possibility for you come springtime or even Cork;) so maybe be something to think about.

Kellygirl wrote: »

I think I don’t put myself under huge pressure physically doing races so that’s why I can keep going or have been able to recently. I wouldn’t be very confident of my endurance if I pushed the pace so I stay comfortable so I know I can keep going. I have a fear of blowing up and not enjoying a race!

Yesterday doing the MCI Half there were a number doing the full totally at their leisure. The full was 5 laps and there was a table that people had left all their fuel at and literally people were stopping, having a drink and sweets and off they’d go again. I was thinking I could have easily done that too!!!

Then my last reason for thinking of doing it is that i’m not sure I’m in a position to do any more marathons. So much as I’d love to give Cork a bash again in June I think it will have to be the half but I will go hell for leather for that and that’s my next race after this anyway. Sub 4 in Cork would be some dream though - can’t imagine it!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that anything I say isn't going to change your mind:pac: All I can do is share my thoughts. If you do decide to do it, just go handy and if anything doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to knock it on the head. You'll have many more great days ahead if you look after yourself.