4 weeks and counting.

Consistency is the key. 4 weeks and counting.

The last 2 weeks of my training has been all about putting in the miles and making sure I stay injury free. No races since the Blarney half marathon which I am well glad of as I don’t think it would have served me any benefit. Since Monday week I have put in approximately 115 miles and I am starting to feel it. I notice the spark was not in my legs today when I was running. To be expected to be honest.

What has pleased me is that I’ve made good progress in my last two trips to the track. My plan at the start of my training 12 weeks ago was to bring my 800meter repeats up to a total of 10 and to run each of them in a time under 3.10. This has been the case for the last 2 weeks so there is definitely progress on that front. I plan to do 1 maybe 2 more track sessions at most before the marathon. I think that’s enough. I have also been putting in a bit of hill work so hopefully that will build up a bit of strength.

Over the last week I have been looking at my training for the Cork marathon earlier this year and it seems like I was running 10 seconds faster in training five weeks from the marathon than I am now. The whys of this I am not sure. Maybe it’s the track sessions or maybe the hill work as I didn’t do these in my training earlier this year, so hopefully as I ease up on the training the speed will pick up again. I hope this is the case as I feel I have put in the training over the last 12 weeks to bring me up to at least the same level of fitness as I was in June. In the last 12 weeks I have 497 miles clocked up in training so I think that’s more than enough at this point. I should be around the 600 mark by the 26th of October. Anything more I think would be counter -productive.

Lastly, last Monday night I went to an AAI road running workshop in the University of Limerick. Guest speaker on the night was Thomas Chamney the Irish 800 meter runner. Interesting to listen to how the pro’s run. Anyway my point on this is one of the recommendations made was that no speed work should be included in marathon training in the final 6 weeks of your program. I didn’t know this and it’s something I will be looking at in my next program. One of the main points of the talk was that consistency in training was the only real way of improving and that the likes of injuries that effect the training are always going to be the block in potential improvements. Listen to your body and if you feel there is something wrong then stop and get it seen to. Let it linger and something bigger will affect you and more than likely set you back long term.

That’s about it for now. More of the same in the week ahead. The next event will be next Sunday Oct 4th. the Cork to Cobh 15 mile road race takes place. This is my last race before the marathon and I will be using it as a training run rather than a race. I will be targeting 7:25 per mile in this race. If I run under 7:20 then I will look at it that I can’t pace myself. Most people have told me that it’s not a good idea to race 15 miles just 3 weeks before a marathon. After this I will set my marathon target time in stone.

Anyway take care and next blog will be after the Cork to Cobh.

P.S Thanks to Fergus for the schedule template and basically most of the content. It has been great to keep my training on track. (I can now blame somebody else if it doesn’t go to plan :-) !!! )

Paudie

6 weeks and counting down fast.

Hi all. It’s been a while since my last update but I was on holidays for a week so that’s my excuse. Plenty of nice easy running on holidays and with lovely weather so happy days.

Lake Garda was the location and morning running was a pleasure there.

Maybe too much as of a pleasure as the section where I ran was a tarmac surface and zero hills.

Approximately 6 miles in length. Morning running a must as the temperature got up to about 30 degrees during the day.

Only problem with this is that I’m not sure if it did me any favours in regards to my marathon training as no hard training was involved (interval, speed, hill) – Still, all work and no play…..

Since my last update I have hit the track to do some 800 meters sessions. These are getting better for me. My last session (2 weeks ago) had me doing 8 x 800 meters at 3.10 with 400 meters recovery in between.

Plan is to hit the track again tomorrow and hopefully bring it up to 10 x 800 meters for the next 3 weeks.

Since my last blog I have had 2 races. Ballycotton 5 was the first. With this I was hoping to get into the top 50 but I only improved 2 places from 62 to 60th so disappointed with that.

Second race was the Blarney Half Marathon yesterday.

Last year I did this race and had the race from hell. From mile 4 I was dead in the water and every mile after that was a struggle. I finished in a time of 1:34:50 last year.

This year was strange. A very hot day and my plan was to try to run 7.05 per mile. This was not to be but at no stage during the race did I feel bad. My finishing time was almost the same as last year at 1:34:49. This while feeling good. I’m really not sure what this is telling me. Did I not push myself enough?? Did the week’s holidays take the kick out of me??? I’m really not sure and I do think that I should have put in a better time than that but how I felt this year compared to last year has no comparison.

My split times are as follows:
Mile 6 was an uphill section so I can understand the 7:54 but mile 12 at 7:39 and mile 13 at 7:22 are a mystery, I felt good so it must be a case of getting lazy close to the end. Something for me to look out for during the Cork to Cobh 15 mile race in 3 weeks time.

1 Mi
6:50.42

2 Mi
6:47.55

3 Mi
7:00.64

4 Mi
7:00.55

5 Mi
7:21.11

6 Mi
7:53.78

7 Mi
7:07.88

8 Mi
7:05.07

9 Mi
6:54.86

10 Mi
7:16.72

11 Mi
7:12.46

12 Mi
7:38.03

13 Mi
7:21.84

0.19 Mi
1:18.33
(Mr Garmin tells me 13.19 sh that why the last interval is 0.19.

At this point I need to look at my training and see where I am. To be honest I am not very happy as of now. I don’t seem to be getting over the 50 mile mark in the week and I think it’s starting to tell. My running is not consistent and if I have any hope of getting under the 3:15 in Dublin then the training needs to improve over the next few weeks.
6 weeks and counting. Tonight is a rest night after yesterday (shins also sore so no harm to rest them). From now ‘till the Cork to Cobh will be crucial in the training for Dublin so fingers crossed.