DCM to Boston Week 2/26 Done & Dusted

Slight amendments to the training plan this week, as I listened to my body, and added in a planned Rest Day on Monday, after a tough first week, and tired legs. But I didn't relax too much, and on Tuesday I threw in a Speed session with a good session in the gym, warming up well, and then running intervals of 4x500m @ 4:30 pace, with no effects, and heading towards the weekend I eased back on Friday, by walking around 9Km to collect my Race number for Sunday, which while not a logged workout was still a decent time on my feet.

Saturday saw me head off to parkrun at Hartstown, with my thoughts simply on a good even paced run. Sometimes when you least expect it, things slot into place. It was a bright sunny morning, and I eased into the run, maintaining a steady pace, with a strong kick finish, and managed a parkrun PB in 24:06 - Totally unexpected...

This brings us to the end of Week 2, and today it was another race, and the Terenure 5 Miler. Again, no preconceptions of a great time, but a Race Based Tempo Training Run on another bright sunny day. It was an Irish Warm Day, with temperatures around the 15/16 degrees mark, but that had little affect on myself, and I started the run along with the 40 minute pacers, holding steady over the first 6 Kilometres, very consistent withing 7 seconds of each split, before feeling the run from Saturday in the legs and taking it down a notch over the last two splits, finishing in 40:19, over a minute ahead of my time from the RTE Race last week.

Synopsis:

Week 1: 38.2 Km
Week 2: 34.6 Km

The Week Ahead:

Will take a Rest Day to allow recovery, and keep the speed/interval session in place, as I continue to build the base miles, rounding off the week with the Virgin Night Run 10K on Sunday.

Nice pic today with two running friends, Patrick & Lesley-Anne, taken Sunday after the Terenure Race.

The Medal for DCM 2016

To Be Collected by 12:45pm on October 30th - #DCMtoBoston

DCM to Boston Week 1/26 Completed

As promised an update on my first week of full-on training for the Dublin City Marathon in October, and my goal of achieving a Boston Marathon Qualifying time.

The first few weeks of the plan are all about base building, and getting the body used to running seven days a week. Nothing too strenuous, simply easy runs each day. Relatively short distances, and seeing how the body copes with the recovery. I haven;t used this plan since 2007/08, and obviously I am nearly ten years older too, so it will be a learning curve, which may require some tweeking as we progress, but the first week has gone as well as can be expected.

I had a 40 Km week plan, and missed only by 1.8 Km, as I had a shorter, but slightly sharper run on Friday, in preparation for a couple of races over the weekend. It may seem strange to build in races to my training schedule, but I enjoy the craic at races, and also I have a commitment to the Business House Races for work. I am not seeking fast times, or hard races at these events, but I will continue to participate as often as I can, and at this stage in the training, the races fit the plan at the weekends.

The training went well, although I can confess to feeling tired all week, and the legs are feeling it. I ran the two planned races at a conservative pace, completing the 5 Miler, BHAA RTE race, at Donnybrook, in 41:24 (63.05%), which was a little quicker than I had planned, and the Patrick Pearse 5K on Sunday, in 26:21 (59.91%), which is a little slower than I had hoped, so on balance, almost perfect.

Week 1 - Aim 40Km - Achieved 38.2Km - Weight 86.1 Kg

The plan for Week 2 is the same as Week 1, with the only difference being that 5K will be run on Saturday (a parkrun) and the 8K will be run on Sunday when I take part in the Terenure 5m Race. Again, the "races" will be run conservatively, and I look forward to another decent week.

To round off, tow pictures from today's Patrick Pearse 5K - One of my running group turning out in style from #RSP, and teh second of me being grateful the race is over as I crossed the line...

And now it's Serious - DCM to Boston...

In my last post I explained what I had been up to in the last four months, and the fact that it was all building up to a serious effort to come. I ran my first Marathon thirty years ago, in Windermere, the Lake District of England, clocking 3:23:59, and fifteen years ago, I was privileged to run the Boston Marathon, and always said I would come back one day. As most readers would know, Boston has some pretty high qualifying standards, and sadly, over the last fifteen years, those standards have been too hard for me to attain. The standards are worked on age, and you are able to qualify for your age group on the day of the race, in advance.

Let me explain.

In March 2018 I will turn the ripe old age of 60, and on April 16th 2018, the Boston Marathon takes place, just over a month after my birthday. However, the qualifying window for 2018 will start in September of this year, and if I set a 2018 Age 60 standard from that date, I can make it in... So, we move on to the Dublin City Marathon on October 30th 2016, this year. I will be 58 and seven months or so, and if I can run the standard this year, I will be able to run in 2018 in that age category. The actual standards haven't been published for 2018 yet, but the ones for 2017 are likely to stand, and that means a sub 3:55 is needed, although that in itself doesn't guarantee you entry, as the more under the standard you are the higher chance you have of making it - They can only accommodate so many.... Still with me?? Not sure I am, but, having looked at recent years, I am going to aim for a 3:45 run on October 30th.

The Perspective:

I need to put this into perspective as to where I am now, and what I can expect to achieve. I haven't run a Marathon since 2008, and certainly haven't put in anything like the mileage required for a sub 4 Marathon in recent years, so already a tough task. As an older runner, I have been using age graded tables for many years, it enables me to compare my performances of today, with those of past years, when I was younger, and obviously more able to run faster times. If I was to run a 3:45 Marathon in Dublin, it would be an age grade of 67.17%, again, the perspective, my all-time marathon best of 3:13 only gave me an age grade of 65.64%, the task gets tougher..... Final threat is my weight. I'm starting off at 87 kilos, and this is well above what an ideal Marathon weight should be, so I need to lose at least 7 Kilos over the coming months. Hence the reason I am going dry for 6 Months - The task seems impossible...

Think - Believe - Achieve...

My running group at the Runners Support Page uses the catchphrase of Think, Believe, Achieve to inspire... Well, above, you can see the way I am thinking... I truly believe that if I can get everything to line up, get the training done, stay injury free, lose the weight, then I WILL Achieve...

The Plan:

I devised a training plan for a 3:30 to 4:00 Marathon many moons ago. It worked well for me over the years, with 12 of my Marathon finishes being under the 4 hours, and 9 of those under 3:45, so I do have some experience, and know what it takes. Obviously I am older, maybe wiser too, and my body will not enjoy being put through the strains of an intensive programme, but with no pain, no gain. This is my best opportunity to achieve my dream of getting back to Boston, and I am prepared to put the effort in.

The Journey To Be Travelled:

Hopefully you can join me on the journey. I plan to update the Blog every week. Giving insights as to where I am at in preparation, reports on races I take part in over the summer, all with the one goal of lining up at the start line for DCM on October 30th with the capacity to run 3:45 on that day. By all means comment on my progress, kick me up the butt if I start to slide off the plan, and share my journey.

This Week:

Just so you can kick me or cheer me along, here is this weeks workouts. This first phase is all about Base Building, and all runs will be easy, at slower than 9 minute mile pace, or around 5:40 per km, with the exception of races, where I will be looking for a faster run, just to keep that little element of speed in the legs in this phase of the training. I will introduce speed and hill work into the plan around Week 9....

Week 1/26

Monday: 5 Km EASY - Tuesday 6 Km EASY - Wednesday 5 Km EASY - You get the picture about EASY....
Thursday 6 Km EASY - Friday 5 Km EASY - Saturday 8 Km The RTE 5M Race in the BHAA series - Sunday 5 KM Pearse 1916 Race.

I'll report back next Sunday with the weeks progress and next weeks plan....... Wish me luck....

It's Been a While...

For once, my absence from posting has not been due to a lack of running, more my idleness in blogging. In the first four months of the year, I have been running, training and racing too. These few months have all been about relaxing and enjoying my running, without any real pressure. All this has been about the lull before the storm, as my next post will explain..... (Cryptic here!)...

So, after my return from my holidays back home in Argentina, it was back to the winter blues and a build up to the Rock n Roll Half Marathon at the end of April, in Madrid. January saw my training around 67 Km, not a huge build up, but I was working on my speed a little, after some slower races in South America, so my runs tended to be short, but sharper. Two "races" were run, with a parkrun at Hartstown, completed in 25:51, with the Raheny 5 Miler at the end of the month rounding things off. February saw a few blips as I had a bout of plantar fasciitis (not sure how to spell that correctly), but I did manage to improve on my parkrun time at Hartstown to 25:28, but only 42 km run, due to the niggles.

March saw a better distance covered, with over 100 Km for the month, and a further improvement at Hartstown to 25:05, actually ran this on my 58th birthday. A few 15 Km runs in there too, as the Madrid build up continued.

April sees the real start of the spring to summer races, with the start of the BHAA series. Two BHAA races this month, the first the 4 Miler at St Annes in Raheny, where I improved by over a minute and a half on last years effort, with a 32:29 clocking, with the following week bring the 10K BHAA race out at the K Club in Straffan. This race was a little disappointing, as the reverse happened as I was around a minute and a half slower than last year, hitting 53:13 this time, not really sure why, but it was still an enjoyable day out in Kildare.

This brings me up to Madrid. This was never a time targetted race, but having run two under-performing halves in Dublin last year, I was certainly aiming for a more consistent run, and a much better time than the two 2:25ish runs last year. Paula and I headed off to Madrid early on the Friday morning, with a small bunch of #RSP runners also heading over, Rachel Hyland, Hayley Morris, Jennifer McAteer, Michele Mowlds, Karen Kelly and a few more to boot. We were staying with an old friend from Buenos Aires, and after popping early to the expo and collecting our numbers, we caught up with our friend Melanie, before she flew off to Birmingham for the weekend - must have been something we said :)...

Saturday was spent sightseeing, and we were up bright and early on Sunday morning for the race. Parque Retiro was the location for the start and we caught up with the #RSP gang in the corals, and my plan was to try and run around 6 minute pace for the entire race, keeping that consistency I tend to lack. Hayle, Rachel and myself started together, and before too long, Hayley had disappeared, as she was in great form and able to push faster right from the off. Rachel and myself kept in sight until around 10Km when I lost her as I walked through a drinks station, not to be seen again until the finish chutes. My plan was working, for the main, with the first 5Km in 30:22, followed by the next in 28:32, where the course flattened out, after a long drag of the first 8km - The hills weren't steep, just long and gradual. Slowed a little in the third quarter, clocking 31:07, and the last quarter almost saw me face planting the Madrid streets, as I tripped on an uneven surface around 18Km, doing a wonderful Bambi impression, but thankfully keeping upright, just.... I actually thought I had pulled a hamstring, and walked for a couple of minutes to ease off the strain, but thankfully all was OK, and I picked it up again, hitting that last quarter in 31:47, which included another couple of hills, these being a tad steeper, if shorter, than the first half. Back into the parque for the finish and given the way the temperatures had crept up, I didn't really kick out too hard for the line, finishing comfortably in 2:08:34, an average pace of 6:06 per Km, which, if I hadn't done my Bambi impression, would probably have been a minute or so faster - Just the consistent race I wanted to run.

Back home to Dublin on Monday night, with Paula heading down to South America for a couple of weeks, and a recovery week, as things will start to get serious from now on in. But before April was out, I had another parkrun to complete, and on Saturday last, I headed over to Waterstown, the one with the gentle inclines, and ran a nice steady training run in 27:47, as Sunday, MayDay, I was heading over to Boyne and the 10 Km race there, with THAT hill, I remember well from last year.

The Boyne 10K was not my best run, struggling a little, as I went off too fast, clocking 5:15 pace for the first 4 Km, and my legs feeling like lead. I eased right back, and when I came to THE Hill at 7km, I simply walked up the hill - There was no need to push as I wasn't looking for a fast time, but I have to confess it was a struggle, and although I managed to kick hard on the finishing straight, it was a relatively poor time of 55:50, some three minutes slower than last year, but the craic was great, and a few beers afterwards with the #RSP gang soon had me forgetting the poverty of the run.

So, that brings everything up to date, and the next post will map out where I am going.... Stay tuned.......