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Paris Marathon 2012
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COME ON PAVEEEEEYYYY and BLEEEEEAAASSSSSDALE!!!
I agree with yer_maj - you don't get it Orbutt because it would never occur to you to behave so badly.
Eggy - you're a bigger man than I am
You'd likely kick butt - I'd be butt kicked 
Sal - how will you you cope with no voice? Must say, though, you got a lot done.
Ops, Orbutt - +1 for you don't get it because you're a decent person. Jim henson has a lot to answer for wih all the muppets that got released on society.
I'm NOT coping. It was VERY comical trying to sing the NZ anthem, TWICE! Going to the athletics on Monday evening so it'll go agan then.
NZ have a good chance in the women's shot put.
Simon that's a feckin brilliant story
TD - very good to have you back, I have to say I am in agreement with the Lactate threshold idea, although, Dannirr, I'd be interested in reading Noakes' theories.
I also have 24k today. I can't sleep - too much coffee last night with friends. So, listening to The Antlers' Hospice (it's not a laugh riot of an album), reading my book and having breakfast. Looks like a dawn start (for the first time ever) for my LSR...!
My view is this...
Genetics plays a more important role than everything else... some people, regardless of training or scientific analysis, will just never be able to excel at certain sports - especially at a top level. Choose any sport you wish, and then look at who is the best at it and there will be specific physical characteristics of the best people in that sport. If you are lucky enough to be in that category then great. If not.. you do the best you can do, try to maintain a positive mental strength and avoid injury and enjoy what you can achieve.
Someone who is built for the shot-put is, lets face it, probably going to be rubbish at gymnastics.... its not a coincidence that the fastest distance runners all seem to come from Kenya and Ethiopia.. yes, there will always be exceptions... but I feel that genetics is the most important factor in sports.. the fact that you'll see a 70 year old marathon runner beat you in Paris isn't because all 70 year olds can do that... that specific person is lucky with their genetics.
Quite simply, some people can... and some people can't...
But... everyone can have a go at everything. Just be realistic about how good you can get and don't get upset if your limit isn't as good as perhaps you might want...
DV - I thought TD was the sage on this thread...! Great advice, appreciated.
Iain
Simon - the dad story is brilliant!
hmm...genetics does play a big part but there's quite a bit of head space input in commitment to training, overcoming set-backs, dealing with achievements and pressure etc. There are exceptions to the accepted physical norms for each sport...such as one tall lean sprinter, VB isn't a std sprinter form. The elite marathon runners vary in height considerably. I think there's also quite a nurture factor. The 70 yr old has probably been running for years and years and years, knows exactly what their body can do, how they can push it and their thinking, doubts, toughness is sorted. The nurture factor goes to getting people involved with sports when they're young.
* 'Looks at parallel bars, sadly, but....coping well...wanders off to shot-putt rink....*
That's a fab story , Simon
I think genetics is by far the single most important factor.. the mental issues clearly can't be ignored, but they are further down the list of relevant criteria.
Some people will never be able to run sub-3/4/5 hours marathons or whatever.. it will make no difference what training they do, what shoes they wear or food they eat. Their bodies just can't do it.
Going back to the Kenyan/Ethiopian distance runners.. I think the top 10 fastest ever male marathons have originated from two villages...
oh weel that makes me feel sooooooo much better..........I can now blame my genetics for my short comings!!!
Simon- nice story, made me laugh!!
We still have thick fog here....its been days of the only visibility being 2-3 hours in the afternoon, but in that time its really humid
In my madness and determination this morning I have spent 2.5 hours on a bloody treadmill. Pure bloody torture but kept the HR @ 75-80% WHR, which in terms of speed meant that the tm was set a whole 1km faster than during Paris training??? I assume this is good?!?!
Genetics are our gift. It's what we do with our gifts that make us who we are. I am very fortunate to have a VO2Max score that is almost off the charts for my age. Sports doc told me it is 80% luck, 20% from training. He told me the same with my very high cholesterol. 80% genetics, 20% what I eat. He even advised me not to change my diet suddenly as my body would just synthesise extra cholesterol to restore an equilibrium. So, not such a good gift. Work hard at the things you can change and for the stuff that you can't, don't waste nervous energy on it.
Great story about your dad Simon.
RS - good on you for giving your support to those sportsmen and women.
Orbutt - it's sad that we have to mix with such socially stunted people as you met yesterday. Moral dwarfs.
Iain - tell us how you get on with your dawn LSR. I bet you get some great views and feel very 'worthy' as a result. Loved your defence of the NHS on the Berlin thread!
For the first time in ages, my graphs plotting training stimulus and fatigue (effectively giving me an Indice for fitness), has got a little upward curve in it instead of that incessant decay. Well pleased with that. Maybe an LSR with Neil tmrw will turn it up even more.
Off for a 10 miler around Stone Mountain.
Lovely 16k run with my bezzie mate this morning....she may show her face in here pretty soon as she's going to run Paris with us
Watching Jess do her stuff! Mr Maj is conducting a survey of bottoms....sigh...
TD - good to hear you're on the upswing... you'll be an hour ahead of me again in Berlin!
The dawn LSR was brilliant thanks, the light was just coming through. Ran over the Moor to St James' Park (the closest I have got to the Olympics this year!), through town and across the high-level bridge over the Tyne - a beautiful conceit that appears in Get Carter. I said hello to everyone I met (not that many) and ran along the GNR course into Gateshead to the South Shields turn-off. Then I retraced my steps through Gateshead (it's not too beautful but was peaceful) and came back over the Tyne Bridge - views were amazing from both bridges. I came back through the university and over the Town Moor home. Then went for a swim.
All I could think was, why aren't all my Saturdays like this? Felt very lucky. First time for a dawn run - I usually aim for parkrun on a Saturday and, as much as I love parkrun, this beat it...
Re: my comments on the NHS. It means a lot and I thought that was a rather short-sighted insult to what still is the best health service in the world. (I'm not saying that simpy because I work in it and appreciate people won't necessarily agree.)
Enjoy the LSR with Neil tomorrow.
Iain
+1 on the NHS Iain. We should be very proud of it.
An emphatic gold for GB in the men's 4s. Great stuff.
Love that story Simon!
It sounds like you've had a great day Iain. Sometimes everything is just right isn't it? Lovely.
Simon - loved your Dad's story. What a character
Did a 'Big Fun Run' 5k with Mrs O today - her first 'mass' event. It was fun, and very well organised and the rain held out until we were getting back into the car.
I'm a great fan of the NHS. It has it's problems, yes, but it is always there when we need it. My Dad made a great deal of use of it over the years and the only bad things he had to say were about the food - he still ate it though.
Iain - I'm jealous of your LSR!
I think the past few days of supporting has taken it out of me more than I thought (probably walked at least 10kms on thursday). Only managed 21.5kms and even stopped a couple of times to gather myself. It was awful for the last 10kms. Think I left it too late to go out and the clouds disappeared as I started to run so got very hot for most of it.
hope I can hold it together for 50 hilly miles on the bike tomorrow!
+1 on the NHS!!! It's not perfect but it's always there when you need it. Which is kinda what you want in a health system.
Two five mile loops - and I left the pace entirely up to her. Rolling hills. First loop we ran continuously. Second loop we did a walk-run of 3 min run then 1 min walk (she thinks she might do all her training that way). We both felt a lot better in the second loop - and it was just 2 minutes slower over 5 miles.
RS - when NZ won their gold medals did you shout 'WE BEAT YOU' in anyone's ear
?
William Wallace and Simon's dad please forgive me, I have just purchased four Union Jacks to wave at the marathon tomorrow
. Still got a nice big Saltire for Freya Murray though.
Ran round Hyde Park this morning - couldn't really get near the women's tri, apart from seeing the hindquarters of the last cyclist as she went whizzing past. But have now succumbed totally to all the hype and have booked tickets for the Paralympic athletics, just to see inside the stadium. I have no idea what all the Paralympic categories mean, so I need to do my homework before I go.
Finally got round to doing the exercises my running coach has given me - they look quite innocuous on paper, but involve lots of squats and now my *rse is very sore
.
Now then, now then.
My take on central governor/brain training (and it's perfectly possible that both books/theories went way over my head) vs 'traditional' theory is that they're not mutually exclusive.
Yes, there's rejection of catostrophic failure theories being single arbiters but improvements to the brain side - which I read as the brain releasing the shackles and allowing maintenance of higher/longer intensity - take place on a subconscious level through improvements in traditional training. i.e. you make physiological improvements which contributes new data to the mass of feedback sent to the brain and the central governor refines its limits.
Anyway, in central France on the way back. Haven't ran since Wednesday's failure. Achilles still feels a bit ropey but is improving. Going to try to do a steady and slow long one tomorrow. It'll either be fine or it won't.
I would like to know if the pain in my legs is imaginary or real??? It feels like I have lead weights attached, its awful. Obviously 2.5 hours on tm and 2x5mile walks were to much for me............
DLR - Wishing you have a safe journey home
Dannirr- Interesting.......I think I will be using that when I eventually do ultra.
Looking forward to watching marathon tomorrow. I didn't really plan my hols just so I could see it
!!
* Light relief from the techno-mumbo..*
I confess that I've grown to ...er...like the GB kit.I really hated it, at first, but the more I see of it the more I like it. Or, maybe, it's that I'm seeing more of it on the podium..
.
Anyway...What about that Triathlon finish?
Fantastic, eh?
And it's the mara', tomorrow... Like RR, I ,too ,have competed against our Freya...i.e. I was about halfway round the parkrun when I heard the cheer as she finished. Still, it's worth crowbarring into conversation. (RR, we'll be fab pub-bores when we're mad(der) old bats..)
I was a bit Olympic-ed-out before it all started ...oui, I'd hoped that Paris would get it and that I'd, somehow, get a job...but I'm completely square-eyed and envious of anyone who's actually there....even at the badminton.
Yer_Maj - is your mate as mad as you?
ATM - I got a GB top and whilst I like it, it's a bit odd.
The scoop on the neck is a bit strange - on me anyway - and the material on different panels, is two very slightly different shades od white. One of them goes slightly yellowy when sweaty.
Proud to wear it though.
The reason that you are probably growing to like it is because there is so much blue in it - It's the Union Saltair.