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P&D Autumn Marathon Training Thread
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Yeah...but you just jogged round.
15West - Thanks. I'm not too bad on events in Kent, though new ones do keep popping up. It's event elsewhere, notably in London, which I can get a train to, which I don't know much about.
With me the delayed onset muscle soreness tends to arrive on day 2, I'm fine today.
Brilliant result SGB, well done! Hopefully the DOMS won't be too bad.
Thanks for the assessemnts of P&D, very interesting. Phil outside of marathons do you race much? A very experienced marathon runner at my club was telling me it took him about 4 attempts before he got the time his other races indicated he was capable off.
15W - you're just jealous that I can get on the VIP start with the posh bogs without even trying and you're not fast enough.
Never. who wants a posh bog anyway. I love the camaraderie of sharing toilet facilities with lots of other skinny middle aged men.
Velloo - Many thanks. I hope so too!
I'm not at all an experienced runner, I've now done five marathons. However they do take some getting used to as races. I agree that it can easily take a few before one gets the pace right. I've had positive splits and negative splits, but this one was pretty even, first half 1:40; second half 1:41.
Phil - With a half-marathon PB of 1:33 I think you'll smash 3:20, and probably 3:15 quite soon. My half-marathon PB is 1:38, set a couple of weeks ago. At one stage yesterday I had an outside chance of 3:20, but slowed up from 30km to 40km.
Velloo - I do about one race a month - anything from 5K to a half generally.
SGB - thanks for that! I had quite a stressful week leading up to the marathon and also got a bit carried away on the Wednesday night before the race doing speed work with the club so next time I should probably be a bit more careful with the build up.
Marathon pacing is a bit of a black art and even the elite athletes seem to get it wrong. Just look at the men's marathon in the Olympics last year when almost everyone did a big positive split.
I just want to be the one who goes sailing past you at mile 24 rather than the one who is shuffling along in a private world of pain!
Phil - maybe your legs were fatigued going into the marathon then? I did a club session on a Wednesday before a Sunday 10k recently and my legs hadn't recovered, I ran a season's worst! I've also messed up a few races by going out too fast, and by going too slow!
Hope the DOMS isn't too bad for you Chester lot
Well done guys
Phil sounds like there is definately a sub 3:20 in you, just need everything to right on the day. Good to get sub 3:30 so you can concentrate on sub 3:20 now.
W15 well done do you think if you were in a bigger marathon and had more people at your pace to run with it would have helped?
So hard to believe that so many races can't get the basics right, putting a mileage sign on the wrong place is so off putting especially when you are at mile 24 and your mind is wandering.
The mile 24 sign was weird...it was on the other side of the road a bit obscured. I wonder how that happened.Apart from that it was all spot on the be honest. Really recommend Chester.
Not sure if more people to pace with would have helped...maybe? maybe not? All I know was I was pretty blooming knackered in those last miles...but isn't everyone?
Some great times reported from SGB, 15W and Phil... Although I'm not in the same league, we all know that personal success is relative, and I can certainly add to the litany of success!
Essential target was to break 4 hrs... but training had gone fairly well, my HM pb is 1:47:xx, so I hoped to get around 3-53, with stretch target of 3.50.
I ignored the pacers (never even clapped eyes on one after leaving the racecourse). But kept my own steady pace not around 8:35... expecting to lose a bit in the second half of the race.
In short, I just kept going and going and going. Chatted to quite a few people en route. Waved at the wonderful crowds and marshalls. Hardly had a mental or physical wobble.
On the Chester thread, I felt a bit bad saying that I welcomed the hills, which gave me a chance to dig in, use different muscles, and mentally start charging for the finish. [The hills in my previous marathon were much tougher, and even later in the race, so by comparison, these were easy ]
There's a bit of confusion about the 24 mile marker. I'm pretty sure it was in completely the wrong place (unless my brain was gone by then... quite possible!). I was ignoring the distance field on my Garmin and at the 24 mile marker, I looked at my watch and couldn't believe that 3:45 was, from nowhere, a certainty.... Relaxed for a short while but then went through a confused period... somehow not believing it.. seeing my Garmin distance was under and wobbled a bit between pushing on, and mentally settling for a more relaxed finish (sure of a 3:4x:xx finish by then). I really dug deep along the river.. but seeing my chance breaking 3:45 was well definitely gone, I entered the race course and absolutely loved the canter round track to achieve a thrilling time.
A slight negative split (half a minute difference)...
As for P&D... my training was based on it, though far from religiously so. But I'd say that the reports of the Chester marathon from the few people on this thread are much more positive than the average report on the main Chester thread, perhaps indicating that this training programme is better than average.
I think I'll continue to cut out most of the strides, and continue to include a slightly higher proportion of easy miles than P&D state... (I think that's needed for injury prevention in the older runner)... but will certainly follow it again with confidence... and try to get nearer to the 55 mile peak next time round. I was typically 8-10 miles per week light on the '55/12' programme this time round.
Perhaps my next target should be to do something about that HM personal best. At 1:47:xx it's looking a bit flabby now
Runny knows - Thanks for the report. I don't think you give your actual time, but clearly you beat your stretch goal so well done, especially on a negative split! You must have been overtaking a lot of people towards the end.
The 24 mile sign was in the wrong place. When I saw it I was confused. I'd suddenly gone from looking at 3H23 to looking at beating 3H20. My Garmin soon assured me I was right the first time!
Well done Runny Knows! A negative split puts you in a very select group of people who get the pacing right.
Having that 24 mile sign so early must have been a disaster for people without a Garmin as you could potentially try to pick up the pace over the last two miles only two discover there is half a mile more than you thought.
Thanks Debutant and velloo for the thoughts. I think I probably need more 20 mile+ runs in my legs as they just ran out of strength.
Runny Knows - brilliant! Looks like you executed everything just right, well done.
Well done 15 and Phil on cracking times, what a bloody gorgeous day for a BIG FAT DNF for me! Nightmare. Groin pulled mile 2 (I can only pinpoint it to sports massage I had done on Friday) and I struggled on feeling worse and worse until mile 13 when I had to let my friends (one was pacing us, other was my friend who has trained with me) go on as I was starting to slow and could barely jog. I had trained so well without any problems and trained my friend up too for a sub 3:45 and she did it and I bloody ended up on the sweeper bus. Gutted wasn't the word.
Oh folks, I have a marathon group on FB which started out as a Chester marathon group but have changed it to Marathon one. Here is link for it, it is a great supportive group and lots of swearing.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/362117350557150/
Oh right, so that's why you've abandoned us RW losers HeOw. Well, since it's got a good name and I am doing a marathon next year, I might, possibly, consider joining.
And also: well done Runny Knows! Even if you didn't obey the P&D programme to the letter. Though I have to say I think strides are more to protect against injury; I do them at the end of a warm-up and before any faster-paced running so I'm not just launching straight into a tempo run without getting my legs moving a bit first.
ooof. Sorry to hear that HeOw. Sounds painful. Maybe leave the pre race sports massage next time?
Bet HeOw hadn't thought of that one 15W.
I have already added you Lit...
Shit happens 15, it wasn't meant to be. I will be back...
it weren't really the sports massage, was all the shagging I do to be honest.
I think it's all the guinea pigs you have running around 'down there'.
Nice.
Really sorry to hear about what happened HeOw......is it too soon to say that's what you get for abandoning P&D? It probably is too soon.........
Have invited myself to that group thingy - I'm the same person that has also sent you a friend request, to which you most likely thought, "who's this weirdo I've never met wanting to be friends". It's all Lit's fault - she promised sweary status updates and naturally I couldn't resist. Sorry to be all stalkerish
.
Anyway, back to the running. 5 miles for me last night at club run. Rest day today. I really, really want to run more. I feel sluggish already
. Going to stick to the plan though. I'm going to try and eat a bit less/eat a bit healthier to try and avoid piling on the pounds before race day.
To be honest HeOw I think it's because you haven't been following P&D religiously like the rest of us sheep.
It's been a little depressing reading all the reports while not being able to run it myself. But less miles and more speedwork seems to be working out and I can't say I've missed those long runs.
So...who's next? Any marathons this weekend? Where's the list? Tiny - you started taper yet??
I've asked to be added to the FB group....trying to work out who has what real name. I know yours, HeOw, and Tiny and 15w if he joins. Lit? It's a good little game - guess the forum profile