Dublin Marathon Training - Last high mileage week!!

I can't believe I'm on the last week of my training before the taper starts. I'm rationing episodes of catch-up tv so I have something to do for the next three weeks when the amount of time on my feet drops. Eating large amounts of food won't be an option either or I'll be hauling lots of extra ass around the streets of Dublin. No thanks!
Luckily the next few weeks should be busy from a work and family point of view so that should keep me distracted to a degree.

Training itself is going fine. I'm hitting all my paces and exceeding most. The only problem is marathon pace. I'm not sure if my pace is so variable because I'm just not physically tuned into that effort level yet or if I need to tie myself down to a more specific goal pace......instead of "vaguely somewhere between 8:25-8-40 (but definitely not your actual supposed pace of 8:47!) depending on how you feel....and sure throw in the odd 8:00 for the craic just to mess with the average." I need to pick a pace and then get used to sticking to it during this next few weeks and stop myself running it like a tempo.

I don't have that many harder sessions left now. One bigger interval session tomorrow, two medium distance marathon pace sessions later in the week and the final 20 miler on Sunday. If I remember from last year though, mentally this is where the hard work starts and the temptation to second guess yourself takes over!

I've decided I'll most likely start with the second wave on race day.
For some reason when I put in that I would like to finish under 3:50 I got put in wave 1. Which is fine....except the 3:50 pacers start with wave 2 according to the website. So not fine!

Going out at a nice manageable pace is really important to my state of mind so I need to start with those 3:50 guys. Anyway I'm sure it'll be grand (famous last Irish person words)
Seriously though it will....going down a wave is not usually a problem. It's only if you want to move up one they think you are a chancer. And they would usually be correct so more power to them.

I feel like I need two things right now (i) a good painful sports massage (ii) a good talking to by someone who has run a lot of marathons to put me in my place (or pace)
 

Great Limerick Run Half Marathon - Race Recap

I've been a bit uninspired to write recently but that doesn't mean I haven't been running.  Nothing fast since the Parkrun as I was cutting back on the intensity in the lead up to my first real goal race of this year, yesterdays Great Limerick Run Half Marathon.  It was my eldest's birthday over the weekend so both kiddos got dragged along to Limerick with me for the weekend so I wouldn't feel too guilty for being away from them.  Mother of the year award right here!!

We arrived at the race expo at the University of Limerick with the minimum of hassle just after noon on Saturday.  No queue to pick up the race number which is great but to be honest I've never really had hassle with that so I don't know why I worry about it.  There was a bit of a queue for the goody bags but that mostly seemed to be due to a gaggle of not particularly organised/bothered girls who were looking after that part of things.  They didn't seem to have any sort of system organised and they created a bit of a bottleneck with a lot of volunteers standing around with nothing to do just down the table from them.  Anyway I got out of there eventually and had a quick look around the expo.  I wouldn't have minding having a better look around or a cup of coffee there but as I knew I was heading into an expensive weekend I thought it was a better option to get out with my wallet untouched!

The traffic getting out of the expo was predictably awful and not helped by the first of the rain but we got to the hotel in the end and checked in.  It was fine....nothing fancy but comfy beds and not too noisy so that was what mattered.  Also about three minutes walk from the start line as it happens which was just lovely.  The joy of not having to use any of the portable toilets provided is difficult to measure in euros....probably well worth the price of the room alone.

I had a light dinner the night before the race and a fairly substantial breakfast (kaiser roll with 1 sausage and 1 egg) as I figured that with an 11:45 race start I would be starving if I had something too light but didn't want to go mad altogether and have a full Irish or something and feel like a nap at 10:30!
The nerves had set in by about 10:00 and I was raring to go but I managed to hold off on heading down to the start until about 11: 30....mostly cos I told a friend also doing the half not to let me go down too early!

I lined up about 10 rows back from the 1:50 pacers thinking that was plenty close.  This was a mistake and next time I'm going to superglue myself to them on the start line!  Not much fanfare for the start...a bit of a countdown and we were off!

The problem with the start area was that it was about 4 times as wide as the arch we had to go through for the start so by the time we got through that bottleneck I couldn't see the pacers at all.  Minor panic!  I caught sight of them a few minutes later but they were at least 40 seconds ahead at this stage.  Needless to say I decided not to do any sprinting this early in the game and set my mind to catching them by 5 miles.  This worked out ok and I did catch them on schedule but it did make my pace feel a bit harder than it needed to for the first few miles which was mentally a bit tough.  I found myself feeling a bit negative at how hard I was finding the pace and had to give myself a good talking to.  I concentrated on smiling even though I didn't feel like it (and it might have looked like a grimace to onlookers) and this helped my mental state quite a bit.  By mile 6 I settled in right behind the pacers and gave myself a bit of a breather.

From here until 10 I let myself relax and be dragged along by the group.  The pacers were great and didn't go too mad banking time but gave us enough leeway to not have to kill ourselves totally on the hills.  To be honest the hardest part of this section was keeping an eye out for kerbs, speedbumps and the infuriating traffic cones, the latter of which seemed to have been placed mostly at random!

By mile 10 I had gotten my breathing back under control and I knew I had to push on now if I was going to. I moved in front of the pacers on a downhill and used that momentum to give myself a nice little gap without blowing too much energy.  With 3 miles to go at this stage I knew I could afford to push myself further out of my comfort zone so I tried to keep the pace just under 8 minute miles.  I can't say it was easy but the sound of the pace group behind me was enough to gee me up...how embarrassing would it be to be passed by them after going off on a solo run? The last mile was tough as I was getting to the end of my rope and there were a lot of corners, curbs, a false alarm finish-line arch and a spectator who walked straight out in front of me when I was full on sprint/hobbling for the line.  But I got there in the end for a new PB of over three minutes of 1:48:18.  Yay!!

In general it was a well run race with some good and bad points.  The course itself was enjoyable.  Not as flat as I had thought but I don't necessarily love a dead flat course and the bits in the city centre were well supported with good music and crowds.  They could do with being a bit more organised at the start line so there isn't so much of a bottleneck and have the mileage marked better....I didn't see a single sign for miles or kilometers except sprayed on the road.  Fine if you have a GPS but not everyone does.  Water stations were good and not a war zone as I've seen at some races.  The finish went fairly smoothly and I got my medal, banana and water in short order.  There wan't any other food at the finish that I saw but I was rescued by the kiddos quite quickly and got my warm clothes and money so pizza slice and can of fanta it was!

I didn't use any fuel except for two fizzy worms that my son gave me and a few mouthfuls of water.  No stomach issues and I didn't feel like I ran out of steam, but then it's only 13 miles and I'm not sure I would have been alright for a longer distance.  All in all a successful day with lots of lessons learned!

Lovely lovely normal

Did all my stretching and core work today and then headed up to run with the club.  Went a bit early so I could get a warm-up lap done so as not to make the same mistake as last week.  Ended up doing 7 miles by myself as only the men and some of the faster ladies were there and as I just mention repeatedly I need to concentrate on doing my own pace right now while I'm building my mileage...at least outside of sessions at the track.

Its not that I want to plod along indefinitely at my own slow-ass pace.  I just want to throw in faster stuff when my legs feel like it rather than trying to keep up with faster runners during my easy runs.  I'm new to this running with people thing and when I started going to the athletics club first I wasn't getting any recovery or easy runs in.  For the ego this was probably good but it was no good for my poor old legs and I found I didn't have anything left for racing and I love to race!  With myself mostly :)

So did the first couple of miles at about 9min/mile and dropped that to 8:15-8-30 for the next 5.  Felt very comfortable so would be a good half marathon pace so a safe plan for the half in may could be to keep to that pace for 10 miles and go for some negative splits after that.  That should bring me in under 1:50 but maybe it's a bit conservative?  Early days yet....will see how the build up goes.