Paris Marathon 2013

[Deleted User]

Thanks for Garmin pace advice everyone - much appreciated.

Can report that it's cloudy here in Amsterdam. When I checked into my hotel they offered me a choice of room facing the airport or facing the city. Wanting to make conversation, I asked which was the best. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said: "If you like planes, pick the airport side."

What he should have said was: "If you like flyovers and traffic, pick the city side."

Hey ho, should get a decent view tomorrow at any rate. Off for some carb loading now. And cup of tea loading if I can find one somewhere.

Eggyh73

Jimbob - Great running.

Weedy - Enjoy your carb loading.

DV - Great story.

[Deleted User]

Eggy - how's the groin? Seen the doc now it's safe to (I.e., now he can't tell you not to run Chicago!)?

Eggyh73

Sean - I'm going to do my first post Chicago run tomorrow. That'll be two weeks of no running to let it heal up. Apart from when I first injured it I only get the pain when I'm running, so tomorrow will be the test. If I still have pain I'll look at making an appointment with the GP or physio.

I actually avoided both GP and physio for exactly the reason you've provided!

Running Rodent

Fuelled up and ready as I'll ever be. Weather in Amsterdam is kind of nothing - grey and overcast, medium temperature, should be OK tomorrow. Slightly concerned about transport to the start - 15,000 people on the Metro and the first one doesn't run until 7:40. But I guess it all works in the end. Good luck everyone running tomorrow, see you on the other side.

[Deleted User]

Hi all



DV- ok Thanx, I think?!



I had a rather stressful early start today. Been up since KOC,as usual, but getting kidz ready/organised harder than I thought. Torrential rain and flooded roads in the dark tiger to airport for 6.45am. Flight all on time, kidz not listening/answering but arrived safely. Hotel ok, nothing startling but close to start and metro. Room has 4 single beds and it's warm. All night cafe downstairs so well stocked with water etc. met SiL, and apart from organising everything and walking to much all ok. Kids at fun fair tonight. They are happy and tired. Naomi's wheeze settling and she's excited about tomorrow.



Another Rocky fan here, I have the full box set! When the going gets tough the scene of Rocky running through the snow to the top of the mountain and the original tune helps.......



Nite nite

[Deleted User]

@ATM

I've just sent you a message about hotels in Paris i hope you get it, i'm a newbie so haven't really posted on here before, well since about Apri!! I'm starting to panic about cost of flying/eurostar and hotels etc?? Any help would be helpful.

[Deleted User]

Sleep well and good luck! Still unseasonably warm here (Brussels), hope it will be cooler in Amsterdam tomorrow (afternoon especially!)

ATM

Hello, Nicola...I am, as we speak

Clag

Ran the Gunnersbury parkrun today & thoroughly enjoyed it. Really good to be made so welcome in a strange place. Finished in 23:12 so was pretty chuffed as that's just over a minute off my last 5k. If only my pacing transferred consistently across the distances!

[Deleted User]

Nicola, this may be in ATMs write up, can't remember, but if you want to save a bit of money, look at renting an apartment rather tHan hotel. I got what I think was a good deal from booking.com at 295 euros for 3 nights, near the louvre. You can get cheaper, a bit further out, if you don't mind a bit more travelling. Personally I prefer to be a bit closer. There are plenty of websites doing apartments, though I don't know which ones are good, I think there are good deals to be had at hostel bookers .com, friend at worked booked through them.



Good luck to all doing the 'dam tomorrow.

[Deleted User]

Airbnb.com has made Paris affordable for me this year.



The idea is to rent an apartment/bed from a local. I'm in Montmartre, easy to get to start - cant wait. Three nights for the price of one in a hotel (like last year).



I used the same website for Berlin recently too - ??32 per night, coolest place I've ever stayed.



Iain

Eggyh73

Iain - Montmartre is where all the cool kids stay.



For anyone looking for a cheapish hotel the Ibis in Montmartre is where I stayed last year and that I'm doing so again. It's costing me about ??60 a night for that one. Good transport links to both the start and the expo from that area.

[Deleted User]

Agggggghhhhhh I can't sleep!!



Flat in Montmatre for me too, think it was 400 euros for the week plus agency fee but I canna remember how much that was?

Dannirr

DV - in order to get myself in the mood for the Great Race, I took the 1900 DeDion-Bouton for a little drive today. Different car than you will race, but not too dissamilar in function.  To see what you are up against , see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liC98DaS0eU

Dark Vader

Nicola Bird 2 & Maus   what are your bib numbers and colour..?   I'll add you to the list.

Dannirr...  I can't access that vid as it says private...

Hamsterdamers...   best of luck for a nice day..  report back later..

Jimbob..   good speedy progress there!

Great to see a small Rocky fan contigent on here...  I have the box set of all 6 films too..

Please tell me that no one on here actually runs like this..???????

 

 

Dannirr

Vieo link fixed. Nothing's private anymore

Dark Vader

Dannirr..   that is a superb little video...!   How does the car work..?  Single gearing by the sound of it..?   Left foot brake on the floor?  Is that some kind of fuel adjuster under the steering lever..?

 

ATM

Bonjour..  I'm in the Theatre des Marionettes..I've always fancied seeing a puppet show in French.I might last minutes..

I think the cheapest accommodation option is a room in someone's house...it might not suit everyone and I think you'd have to be very clear about the reason for your stay. ..I've found Bedycasa great .

 

Dannirr

DV - two gears (the biggish lever I use with my left hand) - pull back for low gear, middle position is neutral, forward is high gear (expanding clutch gearbox).  Seperate reverse lever. The little lever you see me operate under the steering is the spark timing - retard for slow speed and advance for higher speed. The fuel mixture control is also under the steering.  Foot brane as you observe, but also an emergency brake (a spiked bar that you release that prevents you rolling backwards down a hill!

Interesting trivia: this car was the first of any car with an independantly sprung rear axle - the so called DeDion axle stil used in all cars today.

Dannirr

Got to watch the live stream from Amsterdam - amazing!  Wish I was there.

Dark Vader

Fascinating..   how do you keep this car and your others on the road..?  Presumably any spare parts required need to made specially..?    Do you need a lead fuel additive or will it run happily on unleaded..?

 

[Deleted User]

Dannirr: that is a seriously cool video. And what a gorgeous looking city you live in.



Any further updates on the LSR baby?



DV: I'm in the pink pen, bib 62660.



My Rocky equivalent music is Pat Benatar...

Dannirr

Lead was only added to fuel in the 30's - so no lead required. Actually, its not even required in later cars really.  Parts are always an isse. The DeDion-Bouton was a very popular car at the turn of the century - and they were the largest engine manufacturer in the world, supplying other car makers - so parts for the DeDion are not too hard too come by. The Delehaye you will race against is another matter - only 3 survive world wide - so parts are custom made. I make many of them myself - the more complex stuff has to be made by someone more skilled than me! Likewise for the White steam car (those videos are also on youtube).

Dark Vader

Red
3434  Neil Belgium
5995  Bedders 
6032  Stray Runner 

Yellow
8186  seanb
8843  Oops
9114  djwolf
10101  Dirty Leeds Rob

Blue
14021  Mark Beevor
14160  Weedy Gonzalez
14467  kaz1
15080  Ward 6
15350  phil in fitter
16171  Steve Duffy 2

Purple
28285  Pauline Macfarlae
28850  Eggyh73
30188  Johnny Lyall
30213  Dannirr 
31612  Elizabeth Ellis 3 

Green
37185  yer_maj
37480  Suzy Martines
37524  SP13
37991  Emmy_H
38591  Febo
39107  Trevor Olver
39658  Iain Moore 2
40116  Nic E
40483  Tiddy
40582  Clag
41369  Monkey man
42380  Running Rodent
42561  ATM
43795  NGUG

Grey
50009  the jimbob
50501  swindon dave
51095  KeyserSuze
51222  James B 73
51614  Mrs dj
52460  TartanPimpernel
52868  Orbutt

Pink
59447  DV
62660  Marathon Maus

 

   

yer maj

We're gonna need a bigger boat....

Dark Vader

Superb..  just superb Dannirr..   I'm really looking forward to seeing cars like these in just a few weeks time..  fingers crossed for a nice day so we can all enjoy it...  

 

[Deleted User]

ATM, thanks for the Paris info, very comprehensive 

Tricky-Dicky

Hi all. After a super hard day in the garden yesterdaynchainsawing the tops of conifer trees and dragging them up hill for 8 hours, I woke up feeling like I had sleep underneath a pile of bricks ( a la Blues Brothers perhaps?!). Anyway, did my really hilly 15k race today and I feel smashed now. Fell back from 43rd to about 67th position after 4k. Legs just couldn't cash in and I had to switch from race mode to haul carcass mode. I'm beaten.



Marathon Maus. What do you want to know about VO2Max? It is essentially a measure of the theoretical maximum amount of useable oxygen your body can feed to your running muscles. The theory goes that the higher your VO2Max is, the faster you can run, but the reality is, there is another limiting factor in your performance that you reach before you get to VO2Max and that is your lactate threshold.



In short races you can run beyond your LT and get into oxygen debt and keep going for a short while. I'm thinking like 3k races. But if you go longer, your body has to claw back the oxygen debt/ lactate acid overload. This happens at a much lower HR than VO2Max which you reach at 100% HR and probably never run at.



VO2max is only really important for a tiny minority of runners and in itself is very hard to improve (80% of your VO2Max is genetic anyway and it is tough to train to improve it). But every runner apart from sprinters will benefit from flattening their lactate profile and shifting the point where they experience a sharp increase of lactate concentration in the blood, to a higher heart rate ( and equivalent running pace).



Ok, maybe lots of that is mumbo jumbo, so I'll let you ask questions to clarify if you want... Interesting stuff to get into Mausey and some sports scientists are even questioning whether VO2Max is meaningful at all because they have found that by changing the testing protocols, you can manipulate the results. I tend to disagree with their conclusions even if I agree with their results... But I am a nobody.

yer maj

I can confirm that my tempo training runs (which I am assuming were an unscientifically worked out kind of lactate threshold pace??) made a stonking difference to my running ability over the summer.  This is anecdotal, clearly, but the science seems to make sense too...

I have got the Cold from Hell.  Feeling very sorry for myself.  Himself is still away, 12 year old hasn't noticed.bah.  The only excitement in my day so far was Bad Kitten stealing Bad Black Cat's food, going crazy on it then biting me on the arse.  Hard.  I have teethmarks and everything....

Where are those Amsterdammers??