The Qwer Old Fella's Marathon Method

April 29, 2024

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Location:

Tralee,Ireland

Member Since:

Oct 01, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I've never worn compression socks.

Short-Term Running Goals:

To do a race.

Long-Term Running Goals:

1. Break the world record for the marathon in the 50+ age group, when I'm 50 in 2015.

2. Never wear compression socks.

Personal:

Married with two girls (6 and 10).

The Qwer Old Fella's Marathon Method is a four year experiment.

The first year (2012) was about getting back into running, staying off the smokes and booze, while sticking to a healthy eating plan and shedding mountains of lard. All boxes ticked.

Year two (2013 - age: 48) Injured Jan through March. Build back up and work on my 5k speed. Goal 15:45.

Year three (2014) will be about doing my first marathon in the spring. (Just for the experience and on a tough course - maybe Tralee; goal time, 2:30ish.) Then begins the prep work for Berlin 2015

Year four (2015) is all about breaking the world record for the marathon in the 50+ age group - it's only 2:19 :).

The above might sound nuts; it is, but then I'm nuts. Please do not copy any of the training I do: if you do, you are likely to end up running like me - not a good idea.

The idea is to have a laugh along the way. If I fail, I don't know what I'll do - my whole belief system will crumble and I suspect that this little rock might just stop spinning for a couple of seconds. Jakers, I better not fail for all our sakes. That's some burden, even for SuperBam.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Mon, Mar 04, 2013

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

No run yesterday or today - I'm recovering from the gruelling exploits of the weekend's marathon predictions.

Although my leg has held up well to the 3-5 mile easy runs, I decided to take two days off so that I could hammer my leg and lower back with some intensive soft tissue work. I want to make sure that I'm 100% sorted before I start training properly.

Last night, after releasing just about every muscle in the right side of my body and a good few on the left, I felt like I'd been struck by lightning: sharp and tingling pulses zipped through my body - unnerving:) and sometimes unpleasant. Today, I feel battered and bruised and lopsided - I'd better be careful walking down to school to pick up the kids - I might fall onto the road and get run over.

Hopefully everything will settle down by tomorrow afternoon - I'm supposed to be running with Grace.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 0.00	Weight: 0.00

Comments

From Jake K on Mon, Mar 04, 2013 at 07:52:02 from 155.100.226.191

I was pretty impressed by those predictions!

From Neasts on Mon, Mar 04, 2013 at 10:16:30 from 75.169.62.136

You know what they say, if you release them and let them go, if they really love you, they'll come back. :-)

Where did you get that uncanny ability to predict with such accuracy?

From Bam on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 03:39:41 from 89.126.28.24

I thought I'd be close - within a minute - with Jake and Riley (I would've had Riley within the minute if he hadn't stopped for the potty. I was very confident that I'd be close with allie's, so long as her leg didn't play up too much.

I thought Jake would run a conservative(ish) race because of his achilles (I was more concerned about his hamstring because he hadn't done too many long runs at or close to mp). I suspected that he'd go out with Riley and that they'd be running at about 2:23 pace for the first half. I expected the pace to drop a touch and then for Jake to push hard with 10 k to go. I thought he would then ease off the gas. I didn't account for the Kenyan fella - Jambo rafiki. I haja mayai mawili:)

With Riley, I thought Jake would break him with 10k to go - mainly because of Riley's cold and because his max mileage is around 80. I knew Riley would hang on and run well but the potty break took a good bit out of him:)

allie was more of a gut instinct. I looked at her recent 10k time along with her training, took into account the cold weather and altitude and then, barring any disasters, I knew I'd get close.

SlowJoe and April - I was days out because of the wind.

Now, if allie, Jake and Riley were to...

allie - 2:43 within 12-18 months! Jake - 2:17 within 12-18 months! Riley 2:17/18 within 12-18 months. But that's, if, and only if, they were to... But I doubt they will - too set in their ways:) I mean that in a nice/good way.

From Jake K on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 08:53:47 from 155.100.226.191

You should have warned me about the hamstring! I forgot about that muscle group! Its funny (well, not really) that everything I was concerned about wasn't a bother... but man, around mile 18 that hamstring really started to fatigue and it got concerning. You're right - I never really "tested" it in training with the really long workouts or hard long runs. That was actually the kind of stuff I had planned to do over the 5-6 weeks before the race, but obviously the plans changed and all my training got a lot more conservative.

I don't think it will be a bother in half-marathons, as they aren't really long enough, but I need to get that right hamstring stronger before I take another stab at the marathon. Right now, its definitely a limiting factor for me. It will be especially problematic off a faster pace, too.

From RileyCook on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:16:48 from 132.3.57.78

Bam your predictions were great! Very interesting and while you would've been within a minute without my pit stop, a bit wiser prediction would've assumed a one-minute pit stop for me! I mean I have not yet finished a marathon without a pit stop!

In fact last Monday running with my buddies they were wondering how fast I would have to run to win and I told them "Remember there's a 90% chance I'm spotting everyone a minute by taking a pit stop so take that into account!"

Anyways I'm going to tweak my training by doing... and then I should be in ... shape!

From Jake K on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:22:42 from 155.100.226.191

Now I'm actually kind of scared that Bam knew my hamstring would come into play. He might be some sort of omniscient figure.

Riley - Jeff Galloway would say the pitstop actually gave you an advantage :-)

From Bam on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:28:27 from 89.126.28.24

Jake - there are no mights or maybes about it:)

Riley - I should've had the perspicacity to see the pitstop (metephorically)- imagine if I plopped that cheeky little detail into my prediction - that would have been worrying:)

I think both of you will have a great year - that wasn't too difficult to predict.

From RileyCook on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:28:36 from 132.3.57.81

My coach had the same uncanny ability to know almost to the second how fast you could run a race. Only he would tell you beforehand and scare the crap out of you, but eventually get you to believe him.

One time though it was the other way around, Ken and I thought we could run 13:59 in a 5k at Eugene and he said, "No, not in that good of shape, maybe 14:10-14:15" Ken ran 14:11. I had bad allergies up there and didn't race well 14:3x.

But Bam you seem to be like coach. In 11 weeks you'll have to tell me how fast I can run Ogden Marathon. And be sure to add a minute buffer for a pit stop.

From Bam on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:35:48 from 89.126.28.24

Riley - will do. I'm off to have a look at the course profile. I'm guessing it's downhill - not good for those with Delhi belly issues:)

From RileyCook on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:38:05 from 132.3.57.79

Well it is a Utah marathon, so yes it's downhill. If remember right it's downhill for first 8, then rolling to like 17-18, down to 23-ish, and then very slightly down/flat for the last 5k.

From Bam on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:43:41 from 89.126.28.24

I've just had a look and I know why you're running it: 12 porta Johns en route:)

From RileyCook on Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 13:44:59 from 132.3.57.80

Haha, 12 porta johns and plenty of trees, shrubs, and bushes!

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