Dublin marathon pre race thoughts...

The biggest worry I have about Dublin is the profile of the route... i.e. it looks damn hilly!

from the profile on the internet, there is a steady hill from 2miles to 5 miles... which then goes bak downhill at 8 miles. From 12 to 15 miles there is another sharper hill - which I am told is along the Crumlin road (and normally into a head wind!) - then the course rolls slightly downhill to mile 20 where there is a sharp steep hill for 1 mile then free wheeling to the finish....

Looks worse than it sounds!!!

Banter hotting up...

The emails are flying and text messages been rattled off at a ferocious pace between myself and Jonnsie at the moment... the reason - THE BET... ultimately it has put a very different slant to the whole Dublin/NY marathons coming up as there is now alot of money at stake, and even more pride etc...

From what I can ascertain Jonnsie has put in a few well paced shorter runs, of about 8miles... but nothing in the way of Long 20 milers... also he has had more weekends on the town since Medoc... But he will have the massive advantage of knowing my time as NY is 6 days after Dublin... so I need to run quick enough so he doesn't think he has a chance... anything sub 4 hours should put me in a great position, as I think he will struggle to beat that... But who knows...

I suppose having this kind of pressure on a race makes it much more like a pro... running the times we do (i.e. not fast) after a few marathons there is no real fear factor and apart from a desire to run a personal best, there isn't much else of an incentive... so interesting from that perspective, to be racing under pressure and against the clock

Last week preparations going to plan... staying off the booze! HAve put in about 20k of light enough running... and no nigles or concerns... have the play list for the race all set! starts off with Start me up by teh Stones and finishes with the Box by Orbital (which is possibly where I end up!!!)

Bring it on !

tapering down to Dublin...

I've started to notice a pattern to my tapering down before a marathon... It consists of bugger all running and going out and drinking alcohol...

In this vein I ran very lightly last week - although I did run a pb for the 5ks to work - but I did manage 20k Saturday morning over the hilliest route I could do in flat Copenhagen... This 20k was after a half bottle of red wine the night before, and on an empty stomach, also I managed to wipe the memory of my ipod (when it says don''t disconnect, then don't!!)... End result, felt like crap - stopped to drink water than take it on the run, and in taking 2:05 was back to the prospect of another sllloooooowwwwwwww marathon in Dublin next week!

It seems I have an inbuilt self destruct mechanism w.r.t. marathon running... Which is fine, except this time I've got a LARGE bet about my time, and more importantly I feel like I've been running enough to finally start showing some progress... So - I have promised myself no alcohol until after the marathon, to eat properly between now and then, to keep myself hydrated between now and then... And to do some light runs to keep myself fresh and joints loose!!!



saying and doing though are two very different things...

and the time was...

21:06

!!!

21:14

after Sunday's long run, I decided to attempt to beat my 5k pb... tomorrow morning I'll attempt it - but I've put this post here so that there is no backing out... It seems to me that alot of running is in the mind before one steps outside... and that overcoming the perceived (and real) pain beforehand is half the battle...

carpe diam!

37k

the second of my 3 big runs in the weeks leading up to Dublin went pretty good.. set off at 6:30am streets were very quiet, especially as it was a Sunday morning and the weather was dry but cold... as approached the city you could start to see the sun breaking up in the east over the skyline... As I came to the bottom of Stroget - which is the equivalent of Dublin's Templebar or London's Leiscester square I suppose - the drunks were lying in the litter strewn streets and people will still filing out of bars and clubs... a guy perched on the back of a bike coming towards me outstreched his hand for a high 5 and I obliged much to his delight... it made me think of all the time I had spent "on the town" and all the "lost hours"...

Although not an inspiring route, I followed the road into and out from work - mainly because it is exactly 5k, thus allowing me to time my splits as I ran... I have started runnign with a "money belt" - one of those belts you see american tourists wearing to "hide" their valuables when abroad... mine contained 3 energy gels and my newly acquired ipod nano... I have to admit that running to music does alieve boredom and at times, depending on the track, give you a real boost!

After 30k, i.e. 6 laps to and from work, I changed tack and ran to Sonder Marken. I done this as I wanted to test myself on some hills at this stage.. the run up to Sondermarken is a slow steady hill, and the park itself is very undulating with two killer hills... I pushed on but legs did feel tired... technically, this was the 3rd longest distance I've covered non-stop... and compared to NY and Medoc I finished much more comfortably - afterwards it was especially notable that I could sit on the couch and play with Cora rather than roll around in agony (MEDOC!)

so the time of 3:12 was good, can be improved on, and splits positive - except for the last one...

24:04, 26:01, 25:55, 26:10, 25:44, 26:12 & 37:56 the last split was 7k - so did slow down, 5.2min/km to 5.4min/km ... but not the end of the world!


one thing I've noted is that the concept of 3 long runs per week is great in theory, but in practice induces laziness - and may actually be counterproductive... so going to revert to running every day for next week... idle feet and all that!

question marks...

ran 22.5km home from work with 5k splits... but left with more questions than answers!

Have decided in the last 3 weeks to Dublin would run 25k odd tues and thurs and then 30+ on saturday morning... to get the most out of the last runs, and to concentrate on distance rather than frequency... but tonight's run seemed better than the times:
5k splits; 25:01, 26:37, 26:03, 28:05 and 15:15 for last 2.5k i.e. from 15k on I was really slowing up... very annoying. but will have to wait until thursday's run to see if true or not.

Breakthrough??

Mon 3rd:
5k to work then 10.8 home on own via the Zoo

Tues 4th:
5k to work, 16+ home via graveyard... again on own

Weds 5th:
5k in and back...

Thurs 6th:
5k in and 10.8 back, repititious but enjoyable running home via lakes and F'berg Alle

Fri 7th:
rest day!!

Sat 8th:
32k... in 2:44:46

This was the "breakthrough" moment - I think... !?

5k splits of 24:24, 26:05, 25:17, 26:16, 26:04 & 36:37 for last 7k...

So what changed? Well haven't drank in almost 3 weeks... have been doing some better 10k runs of late, and perhaps most importantly tried out some energy sachets after 10 and 20k... these energy sachets need to be consumed with water, and made a BIG difference....

The sub 4 hour marathon is within grasp!!!

distance in week 3: 90k

Autumnal musings...

Ran in total a half marathon yesterday, 21km. Getting out of bed in the dark is less of an ordeal at moment - the hardest thng in the morning is trying to locate a pair of dry and clean running socks!!! THe run in is by street light, yesterday morning was particularly foggy - there are few people up or moving about at thattime of morning, so there is an eerie quietness on the streets.... Depending on when I leave time wise, I normally am running into the dawn, which you can see over the spires of Copenhagen - probably veru pretty if had time to stop and admire the view!

As finished the 16k after work run last night ended up running into he setting sun, hidden behind some trees at end of our road... a certain symmetry. Must say am enjoying my new 'long' route... which takes me from work, via Kogens Have (a very pretty centre city park) then on round the lakes - close to 5pm there are many other runners around the lakes... then on up Frederiksberg Alle - the so called Danish Chammps Ellyses... which goes to the entrance of Frederiksberg Have... straight up the hill onto Sonder Marken down another tree lined alley finishing at the Carlsberg factory! (probably the best factory in the world....) behind Carlsberg is the graveyard which never ceases to amaze me with its size... then after a lap of that head back via Falkoner Alle home - into the setting sun!

It struck me yesterday that a large factor in long distance running is eating enough food to have the energy to expend it while running... demolished a mars bar, kitkat, bunch of grapes and a banana - plus a litre of sports drink after teh run last night... decided to start making a very conscious effort to eat more during work every day... will keep you posted!

week 2 of Bet update...

Weds 28th:
ran 10k, in and out to work - took it easy after the long run night before

Thurs 29th:
ran in to work, ran home with Ole alongside on bike (very Rockyish!) then through sonder marken and few laps of "the hill" then home - about 13k all day

Fri 30th:
rest day!

Sat 31st:
in Sjaelland's Odde at Steen's sunner house... ran along beach track to Dybesø ! very pleasant if did rain non stop... about 12km

Sun 1st Oct:
No long run this weekend, ended up running two laps of Frederiksberg Have and Sonder Marken, about 10km...

Week total: 76km but no long run!!