Valencia Marathon Week 7/12

October 23rd - 29th

Monday - Little bit sore on waking and with a travel day ahead, the best decision was to rest.

Tuesday - 10 miles ez (16k) with RCSI, a very therapeutic run for me as I recapped my race performance with the group and unloaded some baggage.

Wednesday - 7 miles ez (11k) an early start, nice fresh morning.

Thursday - 10 miles ez (16k) with RCSI, a few 400 meter reps in the middle, not at any great pace.

Friday - 5 miles ez (8k) around Bohernabreena reservoir, on the foothills of the Dublin mountains. A beautiful, quiet location to run and gather some thoughts.

Saturday - 20 miles ez (32k) some lingering fatigue in my legs and possibly in my head from the race. I'm normally good at putting disappointment behind me but for some reason negativity is loitering. I spent a lot of the run trying to get to the bottom of it and my assessment is that I'm bordering on overtraining. Some of the signs - feeling a little unmotivated, letting my good nutrition practices fall by the wayside and finally, low heart rate numbers on easy runs that don't equate to an easy perceived effort. Hopefully having an awareness of all this will help me make better decisions and I can turn this ship around.

As mentioned previously I've downgraded my target time by five minutes, however it may still need further adjusting!

Sunday - If I was having a pity party for myself the day before, today was the complete opposite. Super excited to cheer on all the Dublin City Marathoners, with a special interest in the twenty six DBR runners participating. I was at the 17 mile marker (27k) with two of my daughters, cheering and taking pictures Link to photos

Conditions were almost perfect, no wind, cool but with heavy showers. All the DBR guys ran superbly well and they put a smile on my face that is still holding.

Now all I have to do is bottle their elation and sprinkle it over the next five weeks of my training and I should be good to go, hmm sounds a bit too easy, let's see.

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Valencia Marathon Week 8/12

October 30th - November 5th Monday - 5 miles ez (8k) back up to Bohernabreena reservoir for some more peace and quiet. Tuesday - 9 miles ez (15k) I enjoyed the run but was made aware of a slight niggle to my right calf. This was most likely caused by wearing my vaporfly shoes for last week's long run. For me it confirms these are only to be used for 5 and 10k races going forward. This run brought October to a close and although I've felt pretty meh throughout, the volume of work is there, 224 miles (360k) the total. Wednesday - 10 miles (16k) with 5*1 mile (1.6k) at half marathon effort off a 2 minute jog recovery. First session since Valencia half marathon, ten days ago. There was a little bit of dread leading up to this, my confidence needed a strong session. Wore the Mizuno rebellion pro to help with my calf niggle and they did the job just fine. They've now covered 300 miles (500k) and they still feel nice and bouncy, however they do stink and are becoming quite squeaky

Valencia Marathon Week 3/12

Plan for this week is to increase my mileage from 50 miles (80k) to 54 miles (86k). I'll do this by reducing the weekly intensity, dropping Friday's session in favour of 100 meter strides sprinkled throughout. Monday 9 miles (14.5K) easy, glorious weather to start the week. Tuesday 9 miles (14.5k) easy, listening to the Inside Running Podcast, highly recommend. Three Australian marathon runners of sub 2:20 standard, they discuss their training, running news, answer some listeners questions and plenty more. Wednesday 7 miles (11k), back to Marlay Park for my 5 miles (8k) at 160 heart rate. No such issues getting my heart rate into the correct zone. Only my third week doing this session and it felt very controlled and comfortable, covering the route in 36:17. I've mentioned previously that the goal of this workout is parallel lines between heart rate and power/pace. I use power rather than pace due to the undulating nature of the course. Looking at the picture below and you c

Valencia Marathon - 12 Weeks to go!

Last year's Valencia Marathon resulted in a small personal best. I ran 3 hours 18 minutes and 31 seconds, it was my first time to ever run a negative split (second half faster than the first half) and my eleventh attempt at the distance. I'm definitely a slow learner! It was very satisfying and not once did I experience any weak spots throughout the 42k. Needless to say, I was thrilled, however I left this wonderful city thinking, what if.... What if this wasn't my third marathon in eight weeks, what if I concentrated on a good diet (eat more), what if I did some strength/core work? So here we are, twelve weeks out and my motivation is sky high. I want to run another personal best, feel strong and have a smile crossing the finish line, it doesn't sound like much, but to an experienced runner, we know what's involved! Time, commitment, patience, effort, recovery, support, to name a few. I've made some rough sketches that are starting to form a plan. Some of which

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