Dublin Marathon, Mile 3

Sunday, October 21, 2012

one week til race day!.... WEEK 42

WEEK 42, Oct 15-21, 8 days till race day!

What a difference a week makes. I am happy to say that my knee has made what seems a full recovery and I have been running fine this week. I managed a tad over 7.5 hours training this week; mostly in the gym/treadmill etc, with a couple of outdoor runs and a ride. The weather was very nice this week and there have been some amazing sunrises; thats one of the few perks of getting up and out early :). Here's a couple of pics I took whilst our this week. The first one was out riding from Mannheim towards Heidelberg in the week and the second one was today in the forest behind my house - lovely Autumn scenes!



Monday - AM weights and conditioning at home
Tuesday - AM - gym: weights, treadmil, cross trainer etc
Wednesday - PM gym, including 5km run
Thursday - PM 10km run after work, on the streets
Friday - gym, including 5km run
Saturday - AM - 1 hour ride
Sunday - 13.5k run in the forest

Total - 7.5 hours
Weigh in - 88.3 KG

So thats the marathon training almost done! I have a few small runs and swims in the coming week, but the aim is to keep the legs fresh, carb up a bit and dont pick up any more injuries!

Regarding my finishing time - I would love to come in under 5 hours but in all honesty i will be happy just to finish in one piece and without any permanent damage! I feel fit enough to run the race, but the only concern I have is my left Achilees. Time will tell!

DONATIONS - right now we are very close to 1900 GPB for online donations which is great. I am confident we will hit the 2000 online target by the end of the race!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

A collection of Numbers

This Tapering lark is a bit strange. I am normally outdoing some sort of training right now, but in the 2 weeks before the race you have to taper down and cut down the hours. So right now its 0615 and I am uploading CDs to iTunes to create a playlist for the marathon. Thought i would also waste some time writing down some associated numbers, just for fun:

My  Race number: 12908

Number of people running this year: 14350
Number of KM in a marathon: 42
Number in miles: 26.2
Approx hours of training per month this year: 30 (ish)
Estimated number of hours for me to complete the marathon: 4.45-5.30
Fastest time ever recorded for completing Dublin Marathon: 2.09!!
Target amount to raise for charity: 2000 GBP
Estimated final amount raised for charity in total: 2500 GPB :)
Target amount of pints of Guinness to drink upon completion of race: 12
Estimated amount of pints to get langered after the race: 1!

Just found something pretty cool on the Dublin Marathon site: if you put a race number into this URL you can track that person around the race. its also available as an app for ipone and android...

http://track.rtrt.me/e/TDL-DBMAR-2012#b=RBFDL7J8~2&v=ptrack

Knee is 99% back to normal now which is a huge relief! Done 5k on the treadmill last night and felt fine, so fingers crossed all is well for race day...



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

week 41, Oct 8-14, injured!

WEEK 41, 2 weeks to go.........

The last week wasn't a good one unfortunately. Not exactly sure how, but I managed to pick up a knee injury on my ride side. Maybe it was something to do with the previous weeks run whilst having a pain in my right foot (and as a result i might have been overcompensating on the ride side), but it could have been anything. What I do know is that I noted some pain on Monday evening and from Tuesday onwards i was unable to do any kind of training for the week. Devo'd! I have been very careful with the training all year and avoided injury for the most part, so was very frustrated to have picked up an injury so close to race day. As of today (Tuesday 16th) i am still icing it every night but its getting better. I asked my mate Mike the Chiropractor to take a look at it on Sunday and today had a sports massage, so things are moving in the right direction again.

I managed 1500m swim on Saturday and 1.5 hours in the gym on Sunday, so totaled 3.5 hours along with some walking in the week. Disappointingly I didnt get to do my longest run last week which was meant to take me up to the 30k mark, (would have been my longest run ever) so I will just have to do it was whatever is already in the bank now!

Last Tuesday (the 10th) was the 1 year anniversary of Tommy's death which was quite a sad day and brought a lot of memories of last year back. Also reminded me of when i decided to train for this marathon - it was the day after Tommys funeral in Cambridge. I decided I was going to lose weight, get fit and stop drinking so much beer. That idea evolved into running a marathon, which evolved into the Dublin marathon which in turn evolved into running the Dublin marathon in memory of Tommy and to raise money for a relevant charity. That was over a year ago now and although I am no saint (and doubt i ever will be!), I have lost a good bit of weight and don't party as much as i used to! We have nearly raised 2000 pounds online and more in the Rathmor and Labour club so its been good going. Now all I have to do is fix this knee. Oh, and then there's the 26.2 miles of running i have to get through in 13 days time............

Monday, October 8, 2012

Mid week beer fest and only 3 weeks til race day - WEEK 40

Week 40, three weeks til the marathon...

So I guess its not common practice to get langered at a German Beer festival three weeks before your first marathon, but thats what I did last week. However, I always knew that the date was coming and had informed my training instructor to block 2 days out this week so it was all planned and above board. What i didn't plan for was the 3 days it took to get over the session! 
Myself and my brother James took a bus full of lads down to the annual Stuttgart Beer Fest for a bit of a corporate jolly up, and the craic was brilliant. It started early on Wednesday morning with beer and bacon butties for breakfast in our showroom, and ended up around 0400 on Thursday morning! As i get older these days really take longer to get over, and the fact that I hadnt been partying much due to the training, made it hit me even more. (And I'll admit it; I am a lightweight).

Some pics of the fest:







Managed to get a bit of training in before and after the midweek hangover though, so it was a completely wasted week.

Monday - PM; 4 km run
Tuesday - AM - 1 hour 30 in the Gym, 6k run, weights and row
Wednesday - BEER
Thursday - X
Friday - X
Saturday - X
Sunday - 18.5km run. 06.30 per km pace. 

Total 3 hours 29 mins.

Notes - right ankle a little sore before starting running. As i wright this on Monday eve it feels fine.

DONATIONS - we are up to 1432.60 pounds with the online donations! Thanks to Tessa for her donation this week!! The target is 2000 pounds so we are getting closer but still a ways to go!

So with 3 weeks till race day, this is my last big training week, and boy it looks big. Lots of sessions in the week and 3+ hour run on Sunday which should be up to around 30km will be the longest ever for me so fingers crossed........

Monday, October 1, 2012

4 weeks today!

Week 39, 4 weeks til race day:

Another week of training done and dusted, and another week closer to the marathon. This last week I managed to clock up 10 hours 20 mins of training. Having to get up v early to fit everything in, but I am getting used to getting up at 0530 now. Finally got back to the swimming pool for a session and over the weekend we met some friends in the Black Forest, an area in Germany that is great for outdoor activities. The Saturday was pouring rain so we hit the swimming pool, but this wasnt a training session. It had a swim up bar and relax area so we spent the afternoon at the bar!

Sunday the weather was better so i got my bike out and hit the hills for 2.5 hours ride. We then went to the "action forest" and done 2 hours of a high ropes course which was very hard and sore.

Monday - rest
Tuesday - AM 1h 40 gym, row, bike, run, weights
Wednesday - PM - swim in Schwetzingen 50 mins
Thursday - AM 1hr 10 mins run before work, PM, 50 min run after work
Friday AM - 1 hr 30 gym, row, bike, weights, run
Saturday - X
Sunday - AM 2.hr 30 mins hill ride, PM - 2hr ropes course

Total - 10 hours 20 mins

DONATIONS - thanks to Mike and Kirsty for their "double" donations this week!