I'm in love!

Yup! In love with my new shoes. I took a slight risk trying a different type of shoe but stuck to the same company (Saucony) as they have never let me down yet.

I tried the Saucony Cortana 2 (last years model as I'm brokedy broke right now) which is a neutral cushioned shoe as opposed to the Omni that I have been running in. I'm a suppinator rather than an overpronator so I should be able to get away with this and if I can't then it's on my own head.

From the minute I put these on they felt so fitted to my foot but light at the same time. I did an easy run yesterday just to check them out and they felt lovely but I wasn't sure if it was just because it was a gorgeous evening and I was just coming off a rest day. So today I brought them out for a shortened interval session (I have the HM Saturday and also was celebrating my daughters exam success so didn't want to keep everyone waiting.)

The plan was to do 4 miles total with 1 warm-up, 2 hard and then 1 cool-down. Was on my own too so wasn't sure if I would be able to push myself fully.

I needn't have worried.  The first hard mile came in at 7:10 and the second at 6:47! My first every sub 7 minute mile! Very very happy with that :)

Back home with a big smile on my face to celebrate....the Junior Cert results rather than my sub 7 minute mile which I didn't bother mentioning at home as nobody cares except me :)
My daughter did amazing by the way and I'm a very proud mammy. 

Dublin City Marathon Training: 7 weeks to go!

This was a big week of training. Probably one of the toughest before the marathon itself as from now on a lot of the faster miles disappear in favour of marathon pace miles.

Mondays tempo was followed by easy miles Tuesday and then a killer but very enjoyable (yes that is possible) session on Wednesday of 1 mile warm-up+2miles @10k pace+1mile@5k pace x 2+2miles 5k pace+1 mile cool-down. I looooovvved this for some reason and am secretly hoping we do it again this week.....when it will probably kick my ass all over town.
My day was made by one of the guys turning to me after a repeat and saying "Did you just improve a lot all of a sudden?" My little wannabe runners heart skipped a beat!

Thursday and Friday were mostly easy miles as knew I was about to trash my legs this weekend and didn't want to end up sidelined in these big weeks.

I did my long run Saturday - 19 miles @ 9:05 average. Felt ok. Not great but they can't all be.
It seemed longer by myself but luckily I met up with a friend between 13 and 16 when I really needed it and she dragged me along. Fueling went ok. My strategy is very high tech as gels etc don't seem to agree with me. What I'm doing is taking packs of jelly sweets (I recommend sour patch kids) which I know I can stomach as I've used them before, and turning them into runner fuel by emptying in one of those tiny sachets of salt you get at deli counters. Don't knock it until you have tried it! You barely taste the salt as only some of it sticks to the sweets anyway and you don't feel as if you have been beaten and robbed by a running shop for something that once again sends you running to the portaloo (I'm talking to you Gu, Honeystinger, Hammer and don't even get me started on sports drinks!)

So what does one do on the final day of a week that included no rest days and the day after a tough long run?
Climb the highest peak in Leinster you say? Don't mind if I do!

Had a beautiful day for a jaunt up Lugnaquilla so set off with my friend G and made good time completeing the return trip in 3 hours including the sandwich but not including the pint of Guinness each at the bottom. Yum! An auspicious end to a 66 mile week......my highest mileage ever.

Scandal!

No not with me. Life is wonderfully uneventful at the moment and that is fine by me. The Scandal I'm referring to is the TV show. I have managed to binge watch the first two seasons of this in the last few days. I'm not really a TV person but something about marathon training makes me want to put my feet up more in my free time (when I'm not running of course.) Also a distraction is handy during foam rolling and donkey kicks etc. to make it less head wrecking.
Anyway....Scandal. Love it. Love Olivia Pope. Love her wardrobe. But how how how does she wear so much white and still drink red wine? I would end up with an array of slightly speckled off white clothing.
I suppose this is what makes it not real.
Get a grip girl!

Starting to focus on the Athlone Flatline Half Marathon on September 13th now.  Haven't done specific training for it...just sticking to my training for DCM. Next week is a step back week with mileage anyway so it fits in nicely.

Tempo this evening. Only girl at training so ran with the guys and felt very comfortable on the whole, and held 8 minute/mile average for the six miles. That course is on grass and on very rolling hills so hopefully that kind off pace is realistic for the very flat half on roads with a pacer. Or maybe I'm deluding myself but hey-ho...I'll find out soon enough!

Dublin City Marathon Training: First 18 miler!

Amazing long run again this morning.  Evil thoughts of changing my marathon target time entering my head.

This was a big mileage week but not much intensity so everything but my interval session were at a fairly easy pace this week up to today.
The interval session happened on the treadmill due to work and family constraints which made it very easy to dial in the paces but not any easier to actually execute.
This was 1 mile warm-up + 1 mile at 5k pace + 2 miles at 10k pace (this sucked!!!) + 1 mile at 3k pace + 1 mile cool-down. There was sweat everywhere after this!

Did two extremely easy 10 milers Thursday and Friday.  Didn't even bring the watch and just enjoyed being out there and refused to get intimidated by people passing me.

Which brings us up to todays 18 miler.
Splits were:
8:50
8:35
8:17
8:23
8:30
8:36
8:26
8:06
8:19
8:34
9:50
9:21
8:23
8:11
7:56
8:13
8:20
8:19

The 9+ miles in the middle were where C had to stop with her knee and jog back to the car which is really bothering her.  Hope she feels better soon!  Also I forgot to stop the watch while we refueled at the cars at that point.

Sooooo! What to do.  I'm going to do a slower long run by myself next week and then see how I get on at the half marathon.  I am aiming for sub 1:45 which I had thought was a bit unrealistic but....maybe not!

High mileage week!

Well high mileage for me anyway! I'll top out at about 55 miles this week with quite a few of those being marathon pace miles. There isn't that much speed-work on the schedule this week to temper the mileage increase so I'm going to try to do what is there exactly as prescribed. I'm trying out the treadmill at work tomorrow after everyone else has left.  This lets me dial in the session and hopefully just keep the legs turning until it's over. I'm quite looking forward to it in masochistic sort of way.

Conveniently this also fits quite nicely with the real world outside running in that I have to go to meetings in two different schools tomorrow night. Maybe you can see why I'm looking forward to a treadmill interval session now? Anyway getting the run in immediately after work is probably the only way it's going to happen and I hate missing sessions so that is the plan!

Legs feeling good. Fingers crossed, touch wood etc. that I will stay injury free.  Might book a sports massage for later in the week to fend off the evil eye/niggles.  

Cheeky!

Got an unsolicited text message today advertising a singles mixer in a nearby town. I thought that was really not on! Firstly how did they get my phone number? Is it someone I know as a joke? Or worse.....the ex?

If it was an e-mail or some kind of facebook ad thing I'd be less freaked out as you almost expect this kind of rubbish online but it's not as if I've even tried to re-enter the dating pool so what the hell is this all about?? Or am I overreacting just a tad? Perhaps :)

8 mile tempo Monday felt strong. 5 miles easy today did not....but not overly worried about that the day after a hard session. It's a step back week this week so track tomorrow is my last really hard workout of the week with just a 9 mile marathon pace run Saturday and 12 miles easy on Sunday. In fact the hardest part about Sunday is going to be entertaining my friends adorable but energetic twins while she cruises through the Jog for Jockeys 10k in well under 40 minutes!

Sooooooo

Almost a month has passed since my last post...how did that happen? It's been so long I had to go back and have a read over my previous posts just to see what had been happening at the time. I'm a bit disappointed in myself to be honest as I really wanted to document this training cycle and see what has worked and not worked when I look back after the marathon. Back to it then!

Training has been going well. The long runs are starting to get longer (obviously) and I'm up to sixteen miles (more on that later)  The mileage is in the high 40's the last couple of weeks and I'm tolerating it well which I attribute to maintaining a fairly good base all summer.  Not starving (any more than usual) and not really feeling it in the legs so far.  Fingers crossed this will continue!

I can't even remember if I'd mentioned my target time here. It's 3:50 so a pace of 8:47 minutes/mile.  Now this had been intimidating me a bit and I was wondering if this was a realistic target. I didn't really have any good reason to doubt myself but that has never stopped me failing to believe in myself before so why break the habit of a lifetime!

This week of training has been a bit of an eyeopener though! Firstly I did a longer session at the track of 6x1200m at 5k pace. To say I was scared beforehand is an understatement but I hit every interval at or under my target pace of 7:30. Happy happy!

The second key workout happened almost by chance. An athletics club night out last night meant that I was contacted by some of the other girls doing long runs to see if I wanted to run with them yesterday morning instead of doing our long runs alone on Sunday. This was lovely of them to offer and I accepted but was really nervous. They are both 3:30ish marathoners so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. Faster than my long run pace anyway! They assured me they wanted to take it nice and easy. Conditions yesterday were perfect and to cut a long story short we ended up doing the entire thing at 8:39 minutes/mile. Easily. On a hilly route. While chatting. To be honest I felt like I could have done a few more at the same pace or faster.

This of course was a massive confidence boost and I'm delighted.  But also it now begs the question....is my target too soft? In my opinion it's too soon to tell. I'm edging towards making a decision once I do the twenty milers. Today my legs are fine and I'm enjoying a lovely rest day which I'm taking very seriously here on the couch. The foam roller beckons!