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ASICS Super Six: Alex (Sub-4:00)
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Steve - would love to come to track - same time same place?
Jill - sounds as though you totally tricked them on the cake front - nice one. I took a chocolate fruit cake to Istanbul for the BF's birthday which continues to be fresh and delicious (I also brought some home) - think it was the almond meal, dried fruit soaked in rum ane the extra quantities of chopped chocolate I popped in.
Tonight after my do-gooders run I'm making Runners World's very own banana and peanut butter muffins, or flapjacks, I'm not sure which. I picked up some awesome dried fruit in Istanbul that will be making its way to a baked good somewhere soon!
Would be interested to hear from runners who eat pretty solid things on the run - just finished reading Pam Reed's "The Extra Mile" about ultra-running and her two wins at Badwater. To be honest, it was not well written and I in no way whatsoever was able to identify with Pam. However, any tales of long distance running always get me inspired. Anyway, my point is that she eats PORRIDGE and MASHED POTATO while she's running. I know ultra-running is pretty extreme, but I always hear of runners chowing down on bananas and jaffa cakes and pretty normal food stuffs while running - any thoughts on this?
And following Steve's advice, here's the plan for this week so far:
Mon - 30 mins spin at lunchtime, charity run in evening (assumed to be medium distance, with frequent stops and starts).
Tues - Track / speed session in the evening.
Wed - Run 4 miles hills (treadmill).
Thurs - 45 minutes strengthening class in the morning, 9 miles after work (will see how knee feels as to which bridge across the Thames brings me back so can alter distance if need be).
Fri - 5 miles easy on arrival at Purple Patch.
Sat - 'running session' and 'natural (possibly barefoot?!) running session' at Purple Patch (unknown distance, might email ahead to check).
Sun - long run at Purple Patch (15 to 18 miles depending on knee)
I shall have to dig out my cook books Alex
JMC at this stage you should probably aim to run the first half at marathon pace and then see how you feel. If you feel very comfortable then aim for a second half - if not just try and maintain the pace as well as you can. I don't see a problem in racing a half flat out in February but in some ways it is best to get some more good training done and then run a better half in March when you are fitter and stronger.
Alex - yes 7pm start - ideally aim to get there around 6.45pm for a good warm up. Run the other way around the track to warm up to counteract the anti clockwise bends in the session.
The hills on the treadmill should be fine the day after the track as long as you go no faster than marathon pace.
USB - training advice is also given on this forum as well as cooking lessons as you wait for Bud!
I do really believe Bud is one of the greatest marathon coaches in the world and also one of the nicest genuine guys I've met in the sport but because of his many committents I did wonder whether he would be able to devote sufficient time to do this justice. I am happy to give extra help any time he is too busy.
Hi Steve
I know you did post a while ago on one of the threads (maybe Pete's) about hill sessions but I didn't do it then due to the leg and now I've forgotten what to do! As Alex has but it is a 4 mile session and I remember identifying a loop but not how many or what sort of effort
I honestly wouldn't disagree with you there Steve but have heard from another source that he has a habit of taking too much on and I think on this occasion we are the ones who got the short straw. Really all I want is for RW to sort things out so that I can get the advice about sessions when needed and I'd prefer it to be official with them acknowledging your extra contribution (if you get my drift)USB
There is no set session for hills and you can adapt to your needs and surroundings.
if you have a good circuit say 800m with at least one toughish up and a not too sharp descent. You could do 8 laps and time each one - keeping a good even pace ie marathon pace but working the ups harder and letting the descent take you down - ideally you would say run laps of 4:10, 4:08, 4:06, 4:04 etc rather than get slower so for the early laps you hold something back.
alternatively if you have a hill of 400-800m - I would suggest 4 complete hills at a steady pace, 4 short hills of around 100m ie approx 25-30 seconds where you pump the arms and legs more vigorously and then 4 longer ones again - all ups followed by a very slow jog/walk back or alternatively if you are able to do a circuit on the hill, just run continuosly for around 8 minutes with harder up efforts and relax but quickish on descent.
Thanks Steve
Finding a 400m hill turns out to be a bit of a challenge round here (unless i go off somewhere with headtorch). I think I've got a road of about 400m which isn't ideal as it has flattened by 400m but does have a good rise to start with so I'll use that and see how it goes
That should be fine - as long as you can run up for most of 90 seconds then it will serve its purpose.
In the spirit of looking forward and considering the bigger picture I found myself pondering long runs while stirring the pasta sauce.
The schedule runs along with 18, 18, 20, HM, 20, 15,10
However I realised that the first 20 miler coincides with the next training day and doing it on the Saturday before vanishing for the day on Sunday is going to stretch my Brownie points to the limit.
I seem to have 2 options for dealing with this.
(1) Given that I actually did 18.6 miles yesterday instead of 15 up it to 20 this weekend.
This would then look like 20, 18, ??, HM, 20, 15, 10
(2) See if i can take a day of leave on the day after the training day and do the 20 miler on the Monday instead (I think i've got enough hours left). This would leave the long runs intact but would I'm sure have an impact on the interval session that week (4 x 2K reps).
What would you suggest is the best option? If option 1 how far would be a reasonable compromise distance?
I'm just back from the Good Gym's February run - and it was fantastic. About ten of us set off from a hall in Bethnal Green, ran about 3 miles to a community garden where the council had dropped a load of free compost, but in the wrong spot. We then spent half an hour shovelling the compost into sacks and moving it via wheelbarrows to the garden, and ran the 3 miles back again! I'm covered in soil and a bit smelly (amazing how warm the inside of the compost heap was because of all of the fermenting earth I guess) but happy to have multi-tasked on this evening's run.
And as for the ITB - it felt fine, despite spending half an hour being needled this evening before my run (physio worked on both sides of my back too).
Pace - I averaged about 6 minutes per km, which included traffics lights and quite a bit of chat along the way.
If anyone wants to get involved, the next Good Gym task is on Monday 14 March.
USB
I think what is happening at the next training day is being decided in the next few days - the practicality of doing 20 on Saturday and then something faster on Sunday isn't good and not sure everyone wants to run 20 miles around the circuit that Bud suggested for the last Training weekend. I am presuming it will be at Birmingham Uni still.
The possibility of just moving everything back a day is better - ie speed/pace session at the track on Sunday and then long run next day is better but that would also mean moving Tuesday speedback and then missing a session probably Thursday's one.
So summarising, I can't give you a definite answer yet what is best but moving this week up to 20 looks a very good option as it takes a bit of pressure off the weekend in march and judging by your great run at Stamford, you are obviously ready for it.
For anyone who thinks going from half Mara to 30k to 20 miles is pushing it I do have a solid endurance background.
Thanks Steve, I'll let you know how I get on.
Hi Alex
the session will be based around 1000s
I've tried Lucozade beans but find they're not great in winter as when they get cold they're quite hard. Instead I'm a big fan of the Jelly Belly beans (including some with caffeine), which contain 24g of carbs in each bag (of which 17g are sugars), 80mg of sodium. The beans are a bit bigger and softer than the Lucozade ones, and the caffeine ones every now and then are definitely a boost.
Now, the Irish fruit cake is nearly gone, so there'll only be healthy home baked goods from now on.
The session was great - it poured with rain as I warmed up, and due to overplanning my journey, I arrived early and ended up doing no less than six warm up laps in the wet! We then did sets of 1,000m, varying between 1,000m steady; 400m hard + 200m easy + 400m hard; 600m fast; um Steve? What else did we do? I do remember running bloody hard though and recording some fast times over 1km (faster than my usual speed sessions anyway).
According to the satellite watch (which has produced a lovely map with endless concentric circles looping over and over), I ran the following 1km splits:
4:59 (warm up - started too fast)
5:22 (warm up)
4:58
4:42
4:41
4:37 (wooo!)
4:36 (double wooo!)
10:58 (not sure what happened here - my watch kept beeping and flashing 'lap error lap error' - no kidding)
Now about to embark on some serious foam rolling and planning a 45 minute easy run tomorrow morning. Long run through the City and along the Thames on Thursday night.
Steve's group was awesome and speedy as usual - hi guys! I love it that you're reading these threads and asked me how Istanbul was. Thanks for pushing me to up my speed tonight (even if I was still one of the slowest).
Just to bring Alex away from her favourite subject of food back to training! - she came along to the club session at ladywell track today where we had over 30 runners - the session was basically 1000s but runners of 3:30 to 4:00 for the marathon were given a little bit of rest so the session for Alex was 2x1000, 600, 1000, 600, 2 x1000 - with some reps speeding up each 200 or hard 400, relax, 200 hard 400 or alternating 200 fast, 200 steady etc
Alex did the reps in I think an average of inside 4:40 per kilometre which after a break shows her basic speed is in really good shape and now just needs the endurance to be able to hold the basic pace and I think her ITB stood up to the sessio ok
I got "lap error" on my Garmin recently. Pressed the lap button and it stopped! Allegedly it's something to do with stopping too close to the Auto Lap. Anyway, it should cure you of the beeps if you get it again.
I had trouble with mine tonight due to the rain. It reverted to just the watch time and the bezel froze too. I'd had it locked but because the rain had stopped and I wanted to put the light on I freed it up - big mistake!
Glad the session went well, you are really lucky having a track to go to. I used one at a local (private) school last summer, really nice
I want a track.....
The rain is where I fall out of love with my Garmin too...it just goes crazy, and I get the compass on the screen. Irritating. However, it does actually keep going in the background so eventually stopwatch comes back. Still rubbish flaw in the design though. It is why I do speed sessions on the treadmill though sometimes, because I know how long/how far etc...
In health news, I have a blister on the bottom of my foot which frankly is very inconvenient.
Hi Alex, I've been reading your thread for a while, Your a bit quick for me, I'm nearer Bridgets speed. Love all the cake talk, the running's not bad either. Good luck for Paris.
Hi Suze! Have you got a marathon coming up?
I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay quick over the longer distance - I'm a bit of scaredy cat and try to rein it in for fear of exhausting myself later on! The next few weeks are going to be about really improving my endurnace I htink - testing myself at marathon pace over increasing distances.
I think it's not that it isn't water resistant generally, more that the rain pelting onto the bezel confuses it and it goes into a sulk.
sinbux - trouble was last night was intervals and I didn't know if the beep would still go off or not! I've still not tried out the Timex as it only seems to do intervals by time and not by distance.
I faded in the second half last year. Would love to do a negative split this time so I have been starting my long runs slow, then doing a block at MP in the middle to end of the run.
Hope your ITB troubles are now under control.