DCM 2017

Everyone will have their own story of the Dublin Marathon 2017, some good, some maybe not so good.
The important thing that we all should remember, is how lucky each and every one of us were to be in the health to make it to the start line. I had promised myself a long time ago, no matter what the outcome of any race, I would not be disappointed as long as I kept that philosophy alive.

There is only one Dublin. No matter what other marathons are completed, Dublin will always be special. My training up to the race had been very start stop. I had some very good periods of progression, and the usual plateaus, where I felt I was going backwards. I went on holidays, I got sick, I had a very busy time at work, and I had a family, the same as every other year, and most other participants who run as a hobby.

Having run the Longford marathon two months ago, I had feared that I may have screwed up my chances of a good marathon at Dublin as it took me a longer time to recover than expected.
However, a reasonably good run at the Dublin half marathon, and a pretty solid 3/4 three weeks ago, and I was hopeful that I had some descent stamina built.

As I am sure many thousands of others were doing in the week before the event, I tapered, tried to carb load (I find Halloween brack is brilliant), and watched the weather with dread. Thankfully, on the day, the weather turned out to be pretty much perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, a light breeze, and while it was forecast to be slightly overcast, it turned out to be beautifully sunny.
As I like to be able to keep to my own schedule, I slightly anti-socially drove in on the morning with Brian, instead of getting the bus. I did miss the atmosphere of the bus though, the price to pay for the convenience of getting home slightly earlier at the end for the well earned hot bath.

Parking the car only a short walk from the start, we joined the enthusiastic crowds making their way to the baggage area, and the sense of excitement tinged with nervousness was palpable. There is no 'one size fits all' runner, we come in all shapes and sizes, and the old addage of never judge a book by its cover is certainly one which applies. When running a marathon, you will try anything which might ease your journey and help you that bit quicker towards the finish line, but it truly amazes me how many gels some people think they will need, most likely discarded somewhere as they fall out.

After losing Brian along the way to the start line, I dropped in my bag and made my way to the start for a little warmup, Nothing to much, just a few short strides to get the blood flowing and the heart rate slightly elevated, along with the last quick pee break. I tend not to drink very much on the morning of a race, other than a cup of tea and a few small sips of water. The hydration should be done over the three or four days previous.

I jumped in and positioned myself a few rows behind the 3 hour balloons. I saw a few friendly faces from the Balbriggan club, but couldn't spot any of my own club. The nervous and excited chatter between friends and acquaintances continued, and the one question I heard asked many times was, 'are you going for it?'. Never, was the 'it' articulated, as we all knew what 'it' was, and it was a question I heard repeated many times as far as 20 miles.

At the off, the usual congestion. I had read a tip to stay on the left side at the start, as the first turn is to the right, and that worked very well. Even at my relatively forward starting position, I was still amazed at the runners who were clearly running for a slower time, had started so far forward, and only served to slow the first mile down as we tried to pass. So even though the first mile was very stop start, the watched beeped at 6:53, perfect, 1 second slow.

Mile 2 was about trying to settle in and get the legs warming up properly, but the usual problem of getting dragged along by the exuberance of those around me meant a faster mile 2 at 6:40.
 The 3 hour balloons were slipping away nicely, my plan did not see me running in a large group, fighting for water at the aid stations, My training is usually pretty solitary, and I am just fine with that.
Mile 3 6:56, better, taking back some of the faster mile, very important not to go out too hard!
Mile 4 6:43, doh! A flatter section and I was getting carried away again.
Mile 5 6:50, some water and a gel taken on board. Very important to drink at every station to avoid the cramps and dehydration I had experienced in the past.
Going through the phoenix park, it was really great to see some cheering cub members, it really gave me a lift, and can be better than any sports gel!

Mile 6 6:48, steady enough, going through the 10k mark at 42:43, position 913. Mile 7, 6:59, that's ok, don't worry about a few slow miles this early on, its a long way! Keep drinking, keep steady, stay focused. Mile 8, 6:40, a downhill section, just let the legs turn over slightly faster, don't push the pace. Alot of runners passed me here, and I thought, so what?, I am running my own race. I could still see the sub 3 balloons ahead of me, though quite a bit now.

Mile 9, 6:44. I was getting a bit worried here, the pace was very comfortable, and I knew this would be the danger zone, I needed to keep things under control. Mile 10, 6:47, mile 11, 6:59. That was again a slow mile, but there was probably the steepest section of the race at this point, and I just let myself flow up the hill, not pushing the pace, keeping the head held up and the breathing steady. Plenty of water, and another gel, starting to take on the sports drink now too, although they tried to give me cups, I just grabbed the bottle anyway and carried it for a while as I drank, the only way I knew I would get enough into me.
 Mile 12, 6:43, a bit fast, but back on a flatter section of road with some great crowd support which really helps you along.

Mile 13, 6:48, and going through the half way mark in 1:30:05, position 893. That is a pretty good indication of how the marathon goes, I only passed 20 people in 10k, and all around me, still the talk of whether we were on for 'it'. The halfway point is always the first stock take for me. Comfortable or no? Today, reasonably comfortable, no great signs of trouble.. yet! The aim was for a slightly negative split, and I couldn't get much more accurate than that.

Mile 14, 6:59. That did throw me a bit. Was that a harder mile, was I starting to fade? The first doubts creep in, take a gel, keep drinking, keep running, shake it off, head up, concentrate on the breathing.
Mile 15, 6:47, better, but did I push that too hard?, am I going to regret that! Keep running, keep breathing, head up!
Mile 16, 6:43, okay, that was fast, but felt comfortable, the doubts start to ease, the rhythm is good, only 10 miles left. The talk of 'it' is less.
Mile 17, 6:42. Danger zone, running too fast, if I don't get back under control I will blow up!
Brian is in front of me. Wait! What!

Mile 18, 6:42, still fast, but comfortable. Comfortable be damned, I will be walking at 21 miles at this pace. Going through 30k 2:07:34, position 680, passed 213 runners. I start to come across the walkers now, where I have been many times, the first casualties of the war with the pace and distance, the distance winning.
Mile 19, 6:43, oh well, I guess I will just go with it! It is not as easy as it sounds just to slow down. The body has a rhythm, the stride is what it is, to slow would be to try and disrupt that, and at this point, anything that disrupts anything will be detrimental to my health!

Mile 20, 6:40. Now I am in the real danger zone. This is where I have  blown up on many a marathon, hit the wall, fallen apart, crashed and burned, whatever the term, I have walked quite a few marathons from this point, but today I was still running, and at 6:40. But for how long? It could all come to a sudden grinding halt very quickly. Stock take at 20. Comfortable or no. Well, no. Can you be comfortable at 20 miles? The best I could say was that I was still running, and running well.
A 43 minute 10k would get me home, focus on that.

Mile 21, 6:44, water, gel, breath, run.
Mile 22, 6:57. Okay, steady, that hill appeared they call heartbreak. It's not so much heartbreak, I call it the 'quite annoying' hill, as I would much rather it was not there. But it is, and to be fair, there is quite a nice downhill stretch immediately after.
Mile 23, 6:43. The downhill, and the support, again, a great lift from some clubmates, I even managed a smile and a bit more than a wave. It was like taking two gels at that point, and I knew I was on the finishing straight. 3 miles. Break it down, I can run three miles any day, thats all I need, three miles, keep running.

Mile 24, 6:39. The fastest mile of the race, the adrenaline pumping through my body was pushing me along, the finish within reach, and surely I could allow myself to push harder now, and I became even more nervous. What if I collapsed at the last mile? How slow could I run and still make 'it'? Two 7:30's would do it? No! Push, run, breath, repeat!

Mile 25, 6:40. Almost there! The crowds are cheering the atmosphere electric. Keep the head up, keep running. I want to stop! I feel as if I have made it, finished now, where's that fecking line, jesus these miles must be measured wrong, they are definitely longer than the other ones. No more water, no more gels, just me and the last mile. I catch the three hour pacers, and pass them, my heart racing, surely now! Surely I won't fall apart now, but I might! Shit, steady, steady, don't screw this up now.
I don't think I have much say in it now, my body has had enough, it wants to get off this sadistic joyride, but the brain just won't let it yet!

Mile 26, 6:44, there it is, in sight, that big beautiful gantry, and even though I have no glasses on, I can still see it says 2:xx:xx. Run! Last .2, can't trust the garmin. I have absolutely nothing left. No sprint, just keeping the same steady pace that I have done for the last 26 miles, over the line for a finish time of 2:58:54, position 462, arms raised up, running under that finish line with the clock showing a time I honestly never believed it would as I ran under it.

Like so many others on the day, each with their own personal victories, I felt a sense of pride to have finished in a 'good' time, and relief that I had achieved what it has taken me 11 attempts to do!
I had done 'it', the sub 3.

Then I was shattered! The emotions came, and I felt a little teary as I often do, and a great sense of gratitude to life for allowing me be here on such a beautiful autumnal day, collecting my medal, and meeting my friend afterwards. Off I went to change, and a nice cup of tea in some great company as we exchanged stories of our adventures on the streets of Dublin.

I felt a little awkward with the congratulations of my sub 3, although I was very grateful and humbled, but in the same vein as I will never be too disappointed with a 'bad' race time, I can't be  overly proud of a good one either. It's all relative, and both within our club, and for thousands of others, there were some great victories. A massive congratulations to Danny on his sub 3 also, and to Karen for her national medal, and to Ciaran and others on completing their first marathon.

The legs were not too stiff today, as long as I kept moving. I mowed the grass, and as tempted as I was, while I went for a walk, there was no running! I will definitely loose at least one, and probably two toenails, but 'its' worth it!

Now what?

Updates

So it's a long time since I posted, for various reasons, but if I want to have any record of what training I have done this year I figure I need to put it down.

After the long 20 miler in the previous post, training didn't really get any more consistent. I was still finding the long stuff challenging, so I decided to try and step back a bit to hopefully progress.

I concentrated on trying to get some faster miles done, weekly mileage for the next week was only 40, but there were some quality sessions. The long run the following Sunday was only 12 miles, but ran at 6:45 pace. I also did 6 days of running subsequently. Some old reliable tempo's were reintroduced, starting with 5 miles at 6:30, then 6 at 6:30.

I started to get a head cold, and it progressed slightly to my chest. Never the less, I ran the Dublin race series half marathon. Enough has been said about the organisation of the event, and although the first half of the course was 'challenging', I managed a 1:25:09. This did surprise me somewhat, as I had started out very conservatively, and found I had lots left over the last few miles, the last mile being a 6:11!

Immeadiately after the race, the chest infection took hold in earnest, and I spent two days in bed. So back to a tentative running schedule, not really getting any high mileage weeks in. My speed sessions consist of 4x2 miles, at 6:20 pace, 3 minute intervals. These are good workouts I find.

I ran the Irish 3/4 marathon on Sunday. Again I went out conservatively, planning a 7:00 minute mile pace, and ended up finishing in 2:15 for a 6:52 average. This was faster, but felt like a natural pace, so I just went with it. Surprisingly, yesterday there was very little tiredness evident, but I just did an easy 5 miles to recover.

A speed session today with the club, which I haven't done in a very long time. A mile warmup , then 7x800 at 5k pace. I did feel the effort on the last 800, but overall a very solid session, with 4 easy miles to finish.

If I can get some good quality sessions in over the next two weeks, I might have a shot at a descent marathon at Dublin. Gary's plan as always a bit unconventional when it comes to the concept of a taper, with 60 miles each week for the next two weeks.

Holiday to 20

It turns out I didn't do very much running on holiday.

I just can't spend very long jogging on the spot, that, and the lack of air conditioning in the gym meant I got fed up by Wednesday. I didn't run Thursday as we went ashore to Cannes, which is very pretty, but there is a reason only wealthy people can afford to live there.

On Friday I utilised the running deck, and did a full 6 miles.

Saturday, we travelled back, and with a very early start, again no run.
On Sunday, I figured I'd test out the endurance with a planned 20 mile run.
Up to now, I had been running my long runs around about 15 to 20 seconds slower than planned pace, but today, concious that it had only been exactly two weeks to the day since Longford marathon, I decided a slower, run to feel, pace might be more appropriate, cover the distance, not worry about the time.
Sunday was a very blustery day, but I was well motivated for the run.
The standard long run route is an out and back, but of a west, then east, orientation. Given the strong winds, the first 10 would have been directly into it, and after a few miles, I changed course to get the effect as a crosswind. Without looking at the pace for pace, the first few miles were between 7:25 and 7:10. Just water and 3 gels, one every five miles for nutrition.
Things were going quite well up to 12 miles. The effort was ok, but after that, my knees really started to give me some pain. This was quite surprising, as I don't usually get a physical pain running, normally it's the wall, which is physiological. I pushed on, the pace dropped a little, most miles around 7:25 to 7:35 now. But things didn't really get any worse and quickly enough I was 18 miles. I knew the last two would be tough, and while not easy, I got through them and did the full 20 with an average of 7:28, 2:31 hours, which is probably one of the longest training runs,min terms of time on the legs, that I have every done.

Monday, rest day, and while stiff, I seriously contemplated a run to recover, but decided against.

Today, I had planned to try a 10 mile tempo. However, a short notice change at work meant I needed to go in earlier, so I had to cut the planned run very short. From the off, it was evident that the 10 miler would have been wishful thinking. The legs were very unsteady starting off, and only gained some comfort after two easy miles. I upped the pace in mile 3 to 6:18, but eased back then for only a four mile run.

I need to get some pace back, tempo's are required. However, starting back at college next week, I know the sub 3 is now gone. I intend to just try and keep some fitness to go out and enjoy the run at Dublin. There will be other years.

Update, and Longford Marathon

Not much training updates in the last few weeks, and this one comes from a sunny destination on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

After the last post, the following week was reasonable.
50 miles in total, which was a bit disappointing, but a good effort long run that week saw an 18 mile run, 7:05 average, with the last few miles at sub 3 pace.

The following week was taper week, and that was a bit of a disaster. It was so much of a taper, as a full stop, ally getting one 6 mile run in.

No matter, I headed off to Lonford on Sunday morning to line up for the marathon distance.
I wasn't really sure what the object of the exercise was, but it seemed like a good idea to sign up at the time, just in case I couldn't do Dublin.

 It was a good morning, no wind, but very humid, with temperatures forecast to 21 degrees.
Very convenient parking, almost right at the start/finish line. Collected the number, toilet break, warmed up. Longford is definitely the smallest marathon I have attended, with the field for the full only just short of 200 runners.
As I set off with the 3 hour pacers, I set a target of 20 miles with them, and ease back then if I felt overly taxed, and keep going for maybe a sub 3:10.
The pace at the off was very comfortable, there were two pacers, and a group of about 8 of us after 9 miles or so.
The first challenge was hydration. It was cups. I don't do cups. Trying to get sufficient liquid down from a cup while running at pace is difficult at best. Thankfully, after 9 miles, bottles of water replaced the cups. Unfortunately, sports drinks were also served in cups, and when I say sports drinks, the 'brand' was not identified, it being poured from 5 litre drums.
I was not convinced the sports drink provided the required contents, maybe I was too reliant on my own particular source of lucozade sport.

Passing through half way in exactly 1:29:45, and the usual half way assessment I believed I was m pretty good shape. The pace still felt easy, my breathing was good, and I was pretty confident that I could make the 20 miles, if maybe not the full way.
14,15,16,17, all passed comfortably, with a 6:40 at mile 16.
Then the problems began. The course is very flat, with only really one frag at 17, and even then it is not too bad. However, just before that, you come through a village, over a narrow bridge, and as the road is not closed to cars, we had to negotiate cars and pedestrians, and navigate through the village. Our group at this point was only four, one of whom would be the eventual female winner, and one pacer, with one other runner. The other 3 hour pacer had been dropped at about 15 miles.

After the hill, and hitting 18 miles, I was still there, but now struggling. The wall approached.
I tried to stick with the lead lady, and when I looked around, we had pulled away from the three hour pacer. I was in no shape for that sort of pace, and very shortly after started suffering badly.
I managed to hang on to finish the 18 miles at 6:54, and after that, bid farewell to the lone pacer and fellow runner, and dropped back.
Surprisingly, I didn't drift too far back for the next mile, but after that, the walking came.
Suffice to say, I walked a fair bit over the next few miles. The only positive thing about a small marathon, is that if you do hit the wall and start walking, there are not a lot of runners passing you by. I was passed by second and eventually third lady, the 3 hour pacers who had fallen off earlier (he eventually finishing 3:08) and about 3 other runners.

One i got sufficient water and 'sports drink' into me, the glycogen levels restored somewhat, and I managed a slow jog for the last two miles, finishing 3:16:08.

A lovely shower and Jacuzzi afterwards at the hotel which was exactly at the finish line, and I was back in my car for the solo drive home.

Monday, the legs felt extraordinarily good for having run a full marathon the day before, with only small soreness. Tuesday I felt like a run, but didn't, not wanting to risk injury. By Wednesday , all,trace of the marathon seemed to be gone from the legs, and a small easy 5 miles revealed that was not exactly the case, as while the legs were not sore, the effort was high.

Thursday, 6 miles easy  pace again. Friday, 7 miles at 6:50 pace all the way felt pretty good.
Saturday I headed off on holidays, and there is a great gym on board which so far has been well utilised.

So, a good test of what needs to be done over the next 8 weeks. While disappointed to hit the wall, there is time to find that 7 miles of pace yet.

Strength Building

Thankfully the sore quads disappeared, the two consecutive rest days did the trick.

Tuesday I did a mini speed session. Two miles warmup, and then 4x1 mile on the track. 5:50, 5:56, 5:55, 5:58. All under 6 minute miles, but didn't feel as comfortable as they would have a few weeks ago. Two miles home for 8.

Wednesday, 8 miles easy, which turned out to be 7:10, and not pushing hard so happy with that.

Thursday tempo run. One mile warmup at 7:20, then into a 10 mile tempo session. As recently, I set the watch to 6:35 pace. The first few miles were honest enough, all at 6:32, 6:31 pace. And thankfully that continued. As I approached what I thought was 8 miles, I was getting pretty tired, but was reasonably pleased, and confident of finishing the last two miles strongly. The watch beeped, and turns out I had only 7 miles done at tempo pace. I did utter a few expletives! The last mile was pushing it, 10k effort, but I finished in 64:45 for the 10 miles, and another easy mile home for 12.

8 easy on Friday, which were actually easy, 7:30 pace average, but while I kept the pace easy, there was no soreness or obvious fatigue at the previous day's efforts.

Saturday was intended to be an easy 6 miles, but circumstances meant no run.

Sunday was a nice morning, and out I went for a planned 18 miles.
Plan was 10 @ 7:15, 4 @ 7:10, and last 4 @ 7:05.
It didn't really work out that way though. The wind was on my back on the out segment of the first 9 miles, and I just ran to a semi easy feel, which saw the first 9 miles at 7:06 average.
When I turned into wind, I realised why they had felt so easy. However, I had to adjust the plane, as there was no point in running the same pace all the way. So I kept the next 5 miles at the same pace, but because I was into a headwind, the effort has harder. The last 4 I decided to pick things up a bit to test myself. Mile 15, 7:01, 16, 6:51, 17, 6:53, 18, 6:58.

Finished well, and happy with the pace only a few days after the 10 mile tempo.

As always, Monday was a rest day, but looking back, I should have done an 8 mile easy run. My legs actually showed little sign of the previous day's run, and as it turns out, I didn't get out Tuesday, so that was two days with no run. The plus side of that, is that I believe I was a lot stronger in the legs after two days break last week, so maybe that will stand to me this week also.

I do however, feel exceedingly overweight today having not run for two whole days!

Two Halfs don't make a Whole

Continuing in the disjointed training pattern this week.

Long run Monday. 20 miles at 7:07. Avg.

Tuesday, rest day.

Wednesday, 10 miles. I had some serious soreness in my quads after Monday's long run. While I was delighted with the run, and how it had gone, I did push the pace faster than I had intended, and now I was paying the price. The 10 miles were easy, at 7:25 average

Thursday, again, I was still quite sore, so 8 miles, again at an easy pace, trying to give the legs a chance to heal, but they were still very sore.

Friday, although I was still sore, I knew I needed some kind of a quality session for the week.
Plan was 1 warmup, then 13 at 6:35. It was ambitious , and the first easy mile I was still feeling quite sore in my quads, but I decided to give it a go. I often find that the fast twitch muscles required for the harder pace runs will feel entirely different than the feel of a pace maybe a minute slower.
And so it proved to be the case. While the harder pace felt easier, the soreness was still evident, albeit a lot less. I dropped into a nice 6:30 pace after the first two were a bit fast at 6:23, 6:26.
Up to 8 miles I was going really well. At that point, the pain in the quads was getting more pronounced again, and the legs began to protest loudly. At 10 miles at the 6:30 pace I gave up. The last two miles were 8:05 to home in a babystep shuffle, and quite a lot of discomfort, to finish a 13 mile session.

Saturday, surprisingly, there was actually little sign of the previous day's effort, in that while the legs were still sore, they were no more so than they had been setting off yesterday.
My intention was for 8-10 easy miles. I set out to just run to feel, with the hope of a 7:20 - 7:30 pace, and I was able to achieve that quite easily. Again, I was sore, but running. As I approached 10 miles, I decided to extend it a bit, testing my stamina after the previous day's tempo.
All went well to 13 miles, then I started to get into difficulty. The legs, again, very tired, and my energy was sapped. I pushed on home with 15 miles at 7:21 average.

The difficulty with this is, that I am afraid I am telling my body that I am fine to half way, but then it can quit. I have been here before with half marathon training, thinking two consecutive 10k's will produce a good half. They don't, you just fade at about 11 miles.

I knew I needed to give my quads time to heal, so I binned Sunday and Monday's run.minhavent had two days off for a while. I have a lot of time pressures this week with family life and work, it will likely be shorter, harder sessions until the weekend.
Hopefully the quads will have recovered when I head out tomorrow, otherwise, it's damage limitation.

Out of Sync

The week started of well enough.

Tuesday was a 10 mile session. 1 mile warmup, then into 9 at a snappy pace. Not quite tempo, but all around he 6:40 mark.

Wednesday was 8 miles easy.
Thursday again, no speed session, but another tempo session of sorts but only 8 miles, a bit faster this time at 6:35 average.

Friday I ran at work. This was unusual for me, as I was doing my office day from our HQ building, which is fully equipped with some really swanky shower facilities.
I started off at an easy enough 7:30 pace, but found myself settling in at around 7:05. I pushed the last two under 7:00, and did exactly 10 miles, with a 7:13 average.

Saturday was 8 miles again, fairly easy, in between the heavy rain showers.
That gave me 44 miles for the 5 days. I was 'on call' on Sunday, which required me to be available to take phone calls at short notice throughout the day to trouble shoot any company problems which might arise. This meant a long run was not feasible, so I decided to defer it until Monday, and just took a rest day.

It was a long time where I had gone for a long run without having done a run the day before, and the legs felt really fresh heading out. The plan was for 20 miles, and the pace should have been 7:20, with the last 10 at 7:15. I have been considering the pace calculator prediction times, based on recent run times. They consistently put me well under 3 hours for a marathon distance, although I have learned to be sceptical of such predictions.
However, if I was to train towards a sub 3 or better, I decided to test the waters a bit with regards to pace. I set out at 7:10 pace, and to see how it would develope.

The first 10 were very comfortable, as they might be, on a long run, the first 10 are just travelling and that's where the real work starts. I was using just water and some gels for the later stage.
By 13, the pace was still flowing really well, and I felt I could go much faster, conciously holding back. At 15 miles, a natural flow produced a 6:51 mile. However, that's where I suffered a bit of a set back.

I had placed my water bottle by a gate, and as I was running a four mile loop, I would get some on each lap. At mile 16, the water was gone. So from just after 12 miles, I had no drink.
Whether it was real, or perceived, I began to really fixate on being very thirsty.
There was no big drop in performance however, although I was gasping. It started to rain and I was thankful for it for a change!

Finishing back at the house on 19:78 miles, I was so thirsty I couldn't be bothered rounding off the mile, and I drank water and a sports drink by the plenty when I got n the door. This brought me around quite quickly, and I was sure if I had some fluids along the way as planned, it would have felt easy over the last few miles. In the end, it was 7:07 average for the distance, and I was pleased with that. Even in training for Dublin last year, I would never have hit that pace over that distance. It actually felt easier to run faster. I think it might have something to do with stride length , and how long the foot is in contact with the road.

I was toying with an easy 8 miles today, but my quads were a bit sore, so I thought a rest and recovery day after the hard workout would be more appropriate , and so I did a light strength session instead. This does kind of put me out of sync though when considering weekly mileage, and I would consider tomorrow my start day, and Sunday my finish day, so not too sure whether to count the miles as for last week which would give me 64, or into this week.
It's not really important I suppose, the session is what's important, and how I recovery and progress from it.