|
Mar 2022
11:47pm, 6 Mar 2022
835 posts
|
riggys99
You see ^. It can be done and it’s very specific! Neither Matt or the Grump should write themselves off. Prepare yourself for marathon and run the best race you can.
The half’s mentioned were all part of the build up to the marathons so may be slower than the best half I could run as they had very little taper etc
|
|
Mar 2022
11:05am, 7 Mar 2022
19,072 posts
|
Chrisull
Duchy 20 done, not as bad as feared, lot of work still to do, ended up with 2.46.34, which is 8.20 pace (my pb there is 2.27.03, but that almost killed me, nearly 10 years ago) and a surprise bottle of wine for 3rd in my age category.
Aerobically it was not difficult, kept my average HR below 150 (max 176) for the first 10 miles, could have gone faster in the first 10. The second half is definitely hillier, and I was happy then to let it go above 150, even then there was something in reserve - they changed the course yet again so second half was now notably more undulating with some not inconsiderable inclines although not what I'd call hills, but enough to slow pace, and also the last mile now is effectively the hardest in the race.
So it wasn't a progressive run after all ( you tend to strike up conversations early on, and then go at the pace of people around you which was 8.10 pace), but all my slow downs on the second half match the hillier sections, and indeed I was able to pick up the pace even in mile 19 when it flattened out. My main limiter wasn't aerobic capacity, but legs. I've not done 20 miles since Nov 2019, 17 being my longest. In some ways an advantage as my legs weren't so fatigued, but it's lack of tempo/running at that pace, specifically my quads killed (unusual for me unless it's a flat marathon) and getting up the hills with dead quads late on proved challenging.
I overtook 4 people, and was overtaken by 3 in the second half (it's not a big race), average HR 152. It's a reasonable, if not earth shattering result - being a minute a mile slower is sobering even if some is natural age related slowdown and weight gain, and definitely a good base to work on.
|
|
Mar 2022
12:04pm, 7 Mar 2022
17,255 posts
|
larkim
Sounds like a good day at the office Chris, in the overall context of where you're at. Anything which ends with a prize can't be bad!
|
|
Mar 2022
12:39pm, 7 Mar 2022
842 posts
|
riggys99
Nice work Chris
|
|
Mar 2022
9:13am, 8 Mar 2022
17,265 posts
|
larkim
Starting to lift the sandbags and at least think about Manchester as a proper 3:15 attempt. HR / weight / pace are all heading in the right direction and the lure of the arbitrary 70% fetch WAVA standard at 3:14:09 for my age is undeniable 
The only sessions I've missed from the P&D plan so far were 12 with 7 tempo (substituted a 4.4m race and a shorter warm up / warm down) and the 15 with 12 at MP (did 18 miles steady instead) and I've not had any formal warm up races beyond parkrun this last weekend.
Is 3 weeks out too close to be going for a long MP session in this weekend's 20 miler? Or would upping that to 22 be noticeably beneficial? Or should I just stick to the plan? I've previously done the SC 20 about 6 weeks out with 5 easy, 15 MP as a simulation and extension of the 15 with 12MP in the plan, but there's a decent difference between 6 weeks out and 3 weeks out.
My only other thing to resolve for myself is there's a league race the weekend before the marathon. I won't skip it, and I do recover pretty quickly, but maybe I'll dial that back to a fast tempo rather than an all out racing effort.
Hope I've not cursed myself...
|
|
Mar 2022
9:52am, 8 Mar 2022
3,007 posts
|
B Rubble
larks, I would do the 20 three weeks out but keep the MP to a maximum of 5 miles. Anything more will just affect your race.
|
|
Mar 2022
9:57am, 8 Mar 2022
41,689 posts
|
HappyG(rrr)
Ditto, I wouldn't overcook it at 3 weeks out - 20 miles, last long run, stay steady, put some strides in there, so that it's not just a "plod" or as B Rub says, a few miles at MP, but not 12 miles at MP! That would have been a few weeks ago!
I'm sure you're in great shape. Carry that confidence in. G
|
|
Mar 2022
9:59am, 8 Mar 2022
1,482 posts
|
Daz Love
Good work Chris.
|
|
Mar 2022
10:54am, 8 Mar 2022
17,266 posts
|
larkim
Thanks BR / HG. I'm mildly sceptical that effort this far out will have a direct impact on race day, but equally that cuts both ways - maybe there's zero training adaption too. I suspect I'm only really thinking about training my brain to give me confidence that a long MP effort is sustainable before race day.
5 at MP feels like such a trivially easy thing to do when even the P&D raw plan would have me racing a 10k at substantially faster than that (plan as written would have a flat out raced effort at 8k-10k 15 days before the marathon), though I can see the benefit in terms of locking into the pace for 40 minutes or so.
How do we square the logic that if I could recover from a flat out raced effort 15 days before, then 21 days before 10-12 miles at MP as part of a long run would be more than recoverable from?
|
|
Mar 2022
11:00am, 8 Mar 2022
41,691 posts
|
HappyG(rrr)
Longer is harder Larks. Simple as that! Sprinters do 100m, 200m, 400m etc back to back. You don't see marathons or half marathon even elites doing that. Thunk that's all it is. Do a fast 5k warmup then hit a parkrun flying for a quick 10k total?!
|
