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ASICS Super Six: Alison (Sub-3:30)
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Hi
Hope all well with those aiming to break 3:30. Obviously early days so far - the intention will be to report here every day after christmas to answer any training queries.
Have a good christmas
Hello all!
Sorry for silence - been super busy, as am sure we all have, with finishing up work, shopping, wrapping, eating, drinking, more shopping, travelling, and trying to fit in some running!
Had 2 decent 5 mile runs on Tues and Weds, but have since relocated north of the border until Jan, and it's still fairly snowy and icy up here.
So I went for a slippy-slidey 3 miles today. Am having to run in a weird flat-footed way, and my right big toe is sore as a result
. Can anyone offer an explanation?! If snow doesn't melt soon, I'll have to locate a dreaded treadmill...
What other news? Who's going running tomorrow?!
Hope everyone's well and got safely to where they need to be for tomorrow. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!!
P.S. There's an article in today's Times (can't find online) about how mince pies are good for runners!
Also, congrats to Minni!
We're gonna tear up 3:30!
Poor Tommygun2...
Next time it'll be you.
Where do I find the rest of the winners? Could someone send me the link?
K
well done on the training so far Kryptonite - running in snow can cause injuries putting extra strain on the calf muscles as the foot struggles to keep balanced and causes niggles as you probably don't run in a normal relaxed way with the big toe sometimes getting separated unnaturally from the foot.
Evening all...
congrats Kyrptonite....I suspect I'l be following your experience closely as we're both looking for 3.30 this year, and my PB is 3.40 - very similar to yours.
I did that in Paris this year - it's a great marathon, very memorable, and a weekend break in a foreign capital went down well as well. Even had tons of crazy frenchies as well. I'm aiming for Brighton in 2011 being my sub-3.30
So...just one question, that hopefully they answered at the selection weekend you went to.......is it realistic to think you can knock 10 mins off a marathon PB, if you trained properly (ish) for your previous PB??? I can see someone knocking off 3 or 4 mins off successive marathons, but a whole 10 mins?
Yes a 10 minute PB is feasible in early marathons even if the first or past marathon training has been good. It may require small improvements in speed and endurance and adjustments in pacing strategy and fuelling.
10 minutes equates to 23 seconds a mile and requires around 4 minutes improvement in half marathon speed and 2 minutes in 10k
How much improvement is likely in any marathon doesn't really become clear until a few months of training are in the bag and you've done a few races.
Well that's cheered me up, trying to take 9 minutes off mine to go sub 3.30 and not feeling confident at the moment. I definitely have a psychological problem with racing where at the end of every race I think I couldn't have run the distance any faster.
Steve what sort of speed work do you recommend for the marathon?
Anyway, time to eat so i can run my socks off early tomorrow
I have to say that lake really depressed me when I read his/her first post yesterday. I also had a really good day when I ran 3:44, and 3:30 is going to be tough, but I have to believe it'spossible, otherwise I might as well not bother.
So, please, let's keep this a positive thread!
Of course it's not going to be easy and will require lots of hard but sensible training but it is most definitely possible but it's not of case of having to break 3:30 to make it worthwhile. If you do the training well, race to your potential and give 100% then that is all is required.
re speedwork - it has to be a blend of running at 5K, 10k and half marathon speeds so that when you run at marathon pace, it feels fairly comfortable and doable and the speedwork enablles you to become a better 10k and half-marathon runner which ultimately should mean you become a better marathon runner.
Alison well done for winning through.
3:30 is a great target. As you say, it it's not possible there's no point in bothering. And if it's too easy, there's not much point either.
But good advice from Steve Marathon Coach above - it'll all be worthwhile if you have a great race and run to your fullest potential. (And if you do, I suspect the pb's and target times will come good, too.)
3.30 wil be a doodle!
Evening all..
Alison, forgive me if I came across as negative! I suppose I'm more than aware of the depth of experience on this board (& thread) and wanted to hear others in the same boat saying that it was a realistic target.....which they did!
And Steve summed it up:
I'm newly invigorated & determined........just need to run a bit now.
Bring it on Lake!
Alison - is this week two for you?
Hi Alison,
Do you have your training schedule posted on the website anywhere? I'm doing the Paris marathon too, but aiming somewhere between 3.00 and 3.30 it's my first marathon so i'm not sure what to expect. my previous pb half marathon is 1.33 but i have upped the training and joined a club since then. I've made my own schedule up which ties in with club training and events but it would be nice to compare with what you guys are doing. Might see u super sixes either at Reading or Paris, you lot are doing Reading too, is that right?
Matrichards44 .... the link to Alison's schedule is above. I'm not sure what week she is on, maybe 3?
Krypton .... How is the schedule going? I'm interested to know the paces you're doing your runs at. I notice your brisk pace, based around a half marathon time, is set at 7.47. This would indicate a half of around 1hr40 but I think your pb is 1hr46? Some advice I got on here before I started training was to set my paces to my current times then reassess them every month or so. My current half pb is 1.36 but I ran 1.40 in October so I'm using that at the moment (7.38). However, when trying to do 4 miles at that pace a couple of days ago I actually averaged 7.55. I struggled to get the pace on my own, its easier in a race with others around you. What advice was given to you when the paces were set?
Al the times given for paces are approximate and you have to take into account your current fitness, what training you have done the previous days, what training you have got coming up and what paces you prefer training at - I train a lot slower on my slower runs than people who run significantly slower in races but it seems to suit me and others can't run too slowly.
For brisk runs as long as they are sub-8s or close to that then it's not too important but agree as you get fitter and stronger then these runs can potentially be quicker as long as you aren't too a lot more volume.
Minni - Steve's said it all really, but I think 7:38 (or whatever) should be tough at this stage in the plan! In fact it should be scaring you...you dont want to be peaking now or you will be struggling come race day!
I'll go back to lurking now
Hi all,
Apologies for my silence – I have been meaning to update my thread, but just have so much to say, I don't really know where to start...
(@Minni - today is Day 1 of Week 3.)
Several things are worrying me - my pace is far too slow at the moment. Thinking about last week's speed sessions, I had to do them on the treadmill as still icy outside (am back to London tonight though, where I hear it's been gone for weeks already - phew!).
So, just as one example, let's consider Thursday: 1M jog, then 2M (approx 15 mins) brisk, then 1M jog Jogging is fine - can do that no bother!
But "brisk"... according to the plan brisk means 7:30 per mile. I don't call that brisk - I call it very very fast and nearly impossible for me to maintain for 15mins! I did it as best I could, having to hop on and off treadmill every now and then. I didn't know if it was better to try to maintain the fast pace (I calculated it to be 13km/hr for treadmill purposes) for as long as I could, with little 20 or 30sec gaps every now and then, or to have done the 2 miles at a slightly slower pace, but continuously.
Anyway, it was tough, but am pleased I gave it a go. This kind of training definitely gets me out of my comfort zone, which can only be good. I don't have access to a treadmill in London, so we'll see how I get on with these sessions this week on the road/path. I wonder if it'll be easier to just keep going (treadmills so boring) or tougher and having to keep an eye on Garmin. I might have to enlist some company to keep me going... you know who you are!
On the longer runs, my pace is still a bit slow too. I chatted to one friend about his training - he says he does all his training runs at faster than his marathon pace... This really worries me as at the moment I can barely do a mile at a time at 8mins. I'm really going to have to pick it up over the next few weeks. I agree, Minni, that it is far easier in a race scenario, or even just running with someone else. I don't do any of my non-speed runs at faster than (or, right now, anywhere near) marathon pace, and this is something I'm going to try to do more.
So, at the mo, I am feeling really very slow and very behind. I can't even imagine achieving my PB again, let alone 3:30, but am hoping that by the end of January I'll be going a bit faster. Did anyone read the article on Chrissie Wellington in yesterday's Observer magazine? She did her first marathon on no training in just over 3hours. Sigh.
I think the general gist of this (epic and a little rambling – apologies) post, is that I just need to run faster! And stick to 2011 resolutions - one of which is chocolate only at weekends. I don't think athletes eat choc everyday. Must think like an athlete, eat like athlete and hoepfully run like one too...
Ooh - just saw Steve's post and feel better already.
Am trying not to be too down about my slow training pace as I didn't do any pace training when I did my PB, but I just seem to pick it up on a race day.
I think it would of course help if I could maintain my race pace outside of a race scenario though!
@Matrichards44 - we get entry into an Asics HM - am yet to decide which one I want to do, but it won't be Reading as am doing a different HM that day - Water of Life. Will let you know though. I will ask the other Super 6 which one they're doing as would be good to have company. Hope training going well!
Alison - I wouldn't get hung up on pace now and I certainly wouldn't aim to run all your runs at faster than MP. You won't get the best out of the quality sessions and you could end up injured.
Most people will be running the long runs at around MP (+ 60 secs) with some a little faster and some a little slower. The only MP miles I will be doing will be as part of a planned quality session for that week or ,as training commences, as part of my long run. These runs will always be sandwiched between recovery and easy runs which will be around MP (+ 90 secs) or even slower. I'm not concerned about the pace of these runs as I want to go into my next quality session prepared to give it my all.
I have followed the RW schedules in the past and have always found it odd that they expect someone to be able to achieve those paces from the second week into training. Personally, I never hit the paces specified until some weeks in. I would concentrate on increasing the weekly mileage and the long run for now.