ASICS Super Six: Alison (Sub-3:30)

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  • Great to see you are back here chatting Kryptoimage

    we do love to hear about all the sessions good and bad as everyone has themimage

  • omigod omigod - thank you RW!

    Not only am I in a video montage - v cool, v motivational, a bit like Rocky movies... image

    But also, to one of my favourite songs by my all time favourite band - Rebellion (Lies) by Arcade Fire. imageimageimage

    This could be the happiest moment of my life! image

  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭
    Its all a sign! image
  • "My training montage" is here - sorry, should've said earlier.

  • Well you were easily the tallest lady thereimage
  • As usual TommyG! Also, cheating today with an extra 3 inches from new Christmas boots image. Tallest person in the office!

    What do people think about  something I get a lot: "it's easier for you to run faster because you're really tall."

    Am wondering if there's any science in this at all. So, yeah, I have long-ish legs, but also therefore long-ish body. Am not convinced it's an advantage to be tall. After all, you don't see many female 6ft marathon runners, do you?!

  • We have a very quick lady in our club who is tiny (about 5 foot I should think) and that includes marathon
  • Paula Radcliffe is fairly tall especially for a marathon runner. you're in good company there I think
  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭

    I'm titchy and use that as an excuse why I cant run up big hills off-road! 

    What have you decided for tomorrow ? Its a rest day for me image

  • Having written rather a lot of schedules in recent times, I agree they aren't perfect, have an element of vagueness about them but short of doing one for every 5 minute timeband they have to be vague and will therefore say things like run at marathon pace or 10k pace or half-marathon pace - agree words like steady, slow or easy are even vaguer. While all runners can benefit from help and advice the runner themselves has to find out what pace is right for them and adjust the pace accordingly to what is right for them each day - they should never blindly follow a schedule and force themselves to run a pace they aren't ready for.

    What I hope will happen from now is the week ahead will be posted, I will suggest small changes to fit in with the current fitness and then Alison will decide what's best for her and come back if she needs more guidance and then she will post her sessions.

    I genuinely believe Moraghan had his heart in the right place and his gripe is not with the runners but  the system, schedules, advice etc but it could easily be seen as negativity towards individual runners even though it isn't.

    Hill circuits and hill reps are different but options are given to provide a choice. 4M does include a warm up and warm down so it isn't very much - around a kilometre warm up and down should suffice which leaves around 4k for the session

    Ideally I would go for the circuit but that is only reliant on there being a hill that you can run down without smashing the knees on as I like to keep a similar pace throughout but an increase in effort on the ups.

    I like to find a 400m to 800m hill with preferably  a harder up and a longer gentler down - along and round 2 avenues of trees, If you can find a 400m circuit, then it' s10 laps - trying to run evenly over the 10 laps (or 5 if it' s 800m).

    The alternative is to do hill reps - if you can find a 200m long hill (or a clear point say 200m up a much longer hill), I like to do around 10 reps - start reasonably gently - don't sprint and just aim to run reasonably normally in leg action, but slightly exaggerated driving arm action. Jog slowly or walk back . After 8-10 reps, I quite like to do some shorter 100m reps (ie half the hill) where I do drive the legs a little harder and make the stride faster.

  • AndyVAndyV ✭✭✭

    Hi All, especially our host and mentor

    As a former supersixer the best advice I can give is just tell the forum how it is after each session whether it be good, bad or ugly. You've done 3h44 before (i think?) so take huge encouragement from that. Forget targets for now and "worry" about them in April. Train to the spirit of the schedule making allowances for whatever your base currently is. On that note how are you currently fitness/training wise (early Jan) compared to in previous marathon years?

    Most of all ask Steve MC any questions that come to mind. If you are thinking it you can bet your bottom dollar many on the forum are doing so as well.  You can also rely on your mentor to respond ......just make sure you take his advice on board. 

    Best of luck  

  • Thanks for the advice about the hills Steve.  After some fiddling around measuring I've found one that is just about 200m and just about 1K from home too.  I'd quite like to do the circuit but can't find anything that works for distance.   Obviously hills vary, can I assume that it just needs to be something that will make me work a bit?
  • USB

    Actually you don't have to worry about the distance of the circuit too much - not a problem really f it's a kilomtere and you do it 4 times as long as you work reasonably hard and work the hills harder.

    Hi Andy V - Thanks for the comments how is it going?  Hope you are fit and healthy.

  • Hi Alison, congratulaions on making it thorugh image! Just looked at our monatage and the ones from the previous years. Makes it all seem real and what an amazing thing weve actually won. Think the use of  'a beatiful day' by elbow, for the class of 2010 definatly added to the drama to! Hope the trainings going well
  • Hi Pete! Congrats to you too. Hope training's going well, and I look forward to catching up at the end of the month.
  • This morning, I headed out to find a hill - harder than you might think!

    After a mile, I found one - quite gentle, but a hill nonetheless. Ran up and down it at about 9min miles (red wine last night *might* have had something to do with the pace...) for 2 miles' worth, then headed home.

    Was good to seek out a different route and to try to keep the same pace (albeit slow - wine) on the ascent and decline - I think it was about 600m, the hill. Trying to pick knees up more on the ascent - makes stride quite short! But also trying to increase cadence. 

    So that's it for today. Staying away from wine as am looking forward to tomorrow's 12 miles...

    Am going to seek out new trainers - Asics of course image. I have a neutral gait, but I think they have more than one neutral shoe - any thoughts on their range? Could just go by colour! 

  • Hi all,

    Useful discussion on paces - I'd found I was slower than I wanted to be at the start of my last marathon campaign and tried to make sure I was at the right effort level and assume that the speed would improve, which it did.

    Alison, it'd be interesting to have a quick summary of what other sessions you've done this week and how you've found them. Hope it's all going well.

  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭

    Hills and wine - not a good mix! 

    Thanks to Steve for the advice on running hill circuits.  I know this will make me sound very stupid but I've never thought about doing that before.  I am surrounded by hills and I've always just run to a hill and gone up and down it so many times.  However, to run a circular route which includes one hill makes perfect sense.  I have a circuit on my doorstep which will about  0.75 mile in total and has a hill that is probably 300m .  Perfect! 

    I always run up the hills on my toes with short steps, then stride out on the way down.

  • I think people may think we are less mad if we run a circuit a few times instead of just going up and down image

    I've worked out a circuit that can have either 280 or 380m of up depending on which way I go round it.  The flat bit to close the triangle makes it exactly 1K. 

  • All this talk of hills (up / down or circuits) makes my head hurt....I've always hoped that hill circuits meant you could run around the bottom of a hill, without having to go up it (or down).

    4m for me tonight, now for a monster spag bol & ready for a LSR tomorrow.

  • To avoid the mad looks on hills, I do a zig zag up and down some parallel roads that come off a fairly steep hill. It probably makes the recoveries a little too long but I get lots of up-hill stretches in without going past the same traffic jam again and again...

  • Excellent session. well done Alison and everyone who ventured out in snow, rain or cold or even mildness!

    This is tomorrow and coming up on the schedule and here's what I think you should aim for presuming you haen't oerdone the wine!

    Sun 12M steadyish at 8:30-9:00

    WEEK FOUR (Jan 17-23): approx 34M

    Mon Rest
    Tue 1M jog, then 5 x 1000m at 10K speed - approx 4:30-4:55 with 200m (or 1-min) jog recoveries, then 1M jog
    Wed 7M easy at 9 min miles

    Thu 5M steady at 8:00 to 8:30 miles

    Fri Rest
    Sat 4M easy in 9 minute miles 
    Sun 12M in approx 1:42 to 1:48 (First 6M easy in 54-56 mins, last 6M nearer marathon pace in 48-52 mins)

  • Kryptonite - check out Upsy Daisy's thread over the last 2 pages. CC2 has posted on there as to what the range of Asics shoes are as she works in a running store and knows the range inside out and has advised UD on her options.
    Good hill running session and hope tomorrow's long run goes ok
  • Not so much wine tonight - just the two... glasses! Thought grape juice was full of antioxidants!
    Have enlisted company of a another 3.30 Paris hopeful for tomorrow's 12 miles - we're going to aim for 8:30mins per mile.
    Amusing message from yet another 3:30 hopeful chum of mine following same plan, trying to seek out a hill for today's session, somewhat struggling as he lives in Holland! He's gone to run over a bridge a few times!
  • I fear it may be some reflection of me that I have no qualms about running up and down the same hill continuously! It isn't half as bad as the looks I got whilst spending 3 hours aqua joggingimage

    Enjoy tomorrow, Alison.

  • K - 2 glasses must count for at least 1 of your 5 a day image

    Have a good run tomorrow, you'll be finished well before me

  • I am currently in my "giving up alcohol until the marathon" phase. This usually lasts around 2 weeks but I am confident I can extend it this time to maybe 3 weeks.
  • I find that if I have one big glass of red wine the night before I run I always perform better image

    Anyhoo how did the session go then Krypto ??

  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭

    Hills - my run this morning included 3464ft of ascent.  Does that qualify for hill reps? image

    Hope the session was good Krypton.  Its always easier with someone else, I think. 

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