Friday was a bit unusual due to it being our company’s day out. This year we went to Cappanalea, which seems strange as it is less than 5 miles from home and yet we usually go much further away. I picked kayaking (with an eye on potential future adventure races) and orienteering (as it was the closest thing to running) as my activities and thoroughly enjoyed the day, though the party afterwards was distinctly flat. I think most people were too knackered after a day out to party.
Saturday was yet another easy day, and by then I’d had it with easy days.
MC won’t like it, but I could not stand the never-ending sequence of 5 mile recovery runs any more and took off for a bit of fun this morning. I used to do a lot of tempo runs when training for Vienna and decided to do another one today. As I had no idea what pace I was capable of I paced myself by HR, but switched the display of the Garmin so that I would be able to see the pace, otherwise the ego would have gotten in the way. The plan was to stay between 165 and 170 bpm at all times I stuck to that. Had I seen the pace numbers, I would most likely have accelerated because there is no way I would have been happy with 6:44 pace; I used to do them 20 seconds per mile quicker only 4 months ago. However, that was then and this is now and I’m not in the same shape I was in when I had realistic hopes of running 2:55 for a marathon.
I am getting a bit nervous about pacing Dingle. Funny, I’ve been saying that before every one of my “pacing” marathons. It just seems wrong tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif run a marathon without having done marathon training beforehand. Dingle is a bit trickier than most when it comes to pacing with the undulating course and especially the massive hill towards the end. I think the best way to achieve a certain time on that course is to bank about 3 minutes by mile 20, which mean running the first 20 miles 10 seconds per mile faster, because you will need some time for that final hill. Normally, banking time is not a very good idea, but the Dingle elevation profile is not a normal one.
Why do I even worry? I’m sure it will be fine. I ran a 15 miler in 1:35, going through the half marathon in 1:23, only 3 weeks ago. That’s not a bad shape to be in.
- 5 Aug
- am: 5 miles, 40:09, 8:02 pace, HR 142
pm: ~3 miles orienteering - 6 Aug
- 6+ miles, 47:35, 7:44 pace, HR 144
- 7 Aug
- 10 miles, 1:09:23, 6:56 pace. HR 162
incl. 7 miles @ 6:44 pace, HR 167
hey thomas, great running recently. respect.help me out here if u can....did a disapointing half mara today. 16 wks building up for goal #2 of my 3 goals for 2011. sub 20 5k: done, sub 90 half - failed by 5mins! ( have done faster training runs), sub 3:30 full, roll on october, hopefully i can keep up with u this year....M.R.
ReplyDeleteM.R., a 20 min 5K is roughly equivalent to a 1:32:30 half, so your goal may have been a bit over ambitious. On the plus side, a 1:35 half is still equivalent to a 3:20 to 3:25 marathon; keeping up with me in Dublin should be easy. The worst thing you could do right now is to start overtraining. Take it easy this week after the half, then step back into the normal marathon training.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to consider pacing Dingle in the future? My vacation and running plans converge at the Dingle marathon next year. I can't keep up with your pace group but I'll stop by and say hello!
ReplyDeleteBrian, possibly. But it's way too early to decide, especially if the ultra is back next year.
ReplyDeleteyeah, spot on. i did 1:32:32 earlier this year after the sub 20 5k....thought i was on track for the breakthrough with recent training times , pretty good 10k in may (41:11) based on program ive been following....back to the drawing board...thanks.
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