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RW Forum 5 - sub 4.30
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Very curious about Loch Ness- its certainly on my wish list.
Rachelcjen, i did a half marathon this year called Bacchus, which is in Surrey and is a copycat of medoc marathon. I'm doing the full marathon this year! If only it was before my wedding that would be great as my hen. Last year there was a hen party there all dressed up in silly costumes and enjoying the vino en route. What is GA? I think its good to rest, and if you still feel a bit dozy tomorrow, just start your run gently. Your legs will soon perk up when the blood is flowing through them a bit faster
Now, where is my mentee???
I have messaged Pipski for you
Nurse R: I'm poor at cycling and I hate swimming, so tri's not really on the menu (but then again, I said that about running!)
Angela: GA is General Aerobic. I'm following the P&D plan and that is what they call moderate effort runs, 15-25% of marathon pace. And I am definitely thinking of doing the Bacchus now, that could be fun!
Well done pipski, looks like this is going to be another great thread,
NR, I ran Loch Ness this year and I highly recommend it, fwiw make sure you get lots of hill work done, especially downhill, the first 8 miles are predominetly downhill and quite steep in places, and if your not careful could wreck the legs, the hill at Dores goes on and on but it's not too bad just add a hill at the tail end of your LSR, 1-2 miles in length ideally
Angela - great photo.
Thanks for the vino information. I like to understand what's behind being told to give up alcohol.
What about coffee - if that another no, no?
..... she asks while drinking another mug of coffee to try to rid the hangover.
Quadrathlon is a tri with a bit of canoeing thrown in.
This is the one I did and it was a fabulous event. Fabulous weekend from start to finish.
Thanks StewartC, I'll keep that in mind. It's easy to forget that running down hills needs to be worked on, just like running up them. No shortage of inclines around here so I can get loads of practise in
NR, lots of hills up here too, where are you from?
The Borders. You?
Highlands, Inverness got to love the hills living in Scotland
Meldy, thanks, I messaged Pipski too but I guess she must be on holiday?
Rachel, thanks for the explanation of GA. Would definitely recommend Bacchus- so much fun, and the entry includes another glass of wine and a hog roast at the end
. Here is my blog from the race this year: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/bacchus-half-marathon.html
Minni, with coffee it really depends how much you are drinking. I believe that caffeine was either a banned or controlled substance by WADA at one point, though isn't anymore. I would say for the recreational athlete, its not something to worry about so long as your not having any more than 4 cups a day. In which case it might be worth reducing your intake for general health anyway. Caffeine does have proven sports performance benefits, so some people would recommend a reduction of caffeinated drinks during your marathon taper so that you can take caffeine on the day of the race and it have a more pronounced affect than if you hadn't modified your intake prior. From a nutritional standpoint, if you are trying to keep an eye on your diet as a whole, either to maximise your sporting performance, or to control weight, what may be more important is what you add to your coffee - if you have it with a tablespoon of sugar and half a pint of cream, it could have quite a big effect on your energy intake.
Many people think caffeine is linked to dehydation, but again, if you're having 3-4 cups a day or less, it will not dehydrate you, and you can actually include it in your calculations if you are monitoring your fluid intake to monitor hydration levels.
Personally, I'm a tea drinker, and I don't have that much - usually a mug of tea first thing in the morning,and I may or may not have one mid-afternoon, but I find even with my relatively small intake, if I miss that morning cup of tea, I get a really horrible headache in the late afternoon from the caffeine withdrawal, which is why I personally wouldn't bother with cutting out during the taper. But then I find a caffeine gel gives me enough of a boost on race day. I'm sure we'll talk more about pre-race and race day nutrition strategy as we get closer to marathon day.
StewartC, hello, welcome
Nurse R, that Quadrathlon certainly looks challenging! Well done for completing it
Today's run of 8m with 10 x 100m strides completed. The legs seem to have recovered OK and it was a nice run.
I thought I'd post my plan for the week. I'm following the P&D plan, although with some amends this week due to New Year Park Run
Mon: Rest
Tues: 8m GA (@11:24) with 10 x 100m strides (done on flat)
Wed: Richmond Park parkrun, with a 3+m slow run there and back (so about 10m in total)
Thurs: Rest
Fri: 10miles GA (@11:24) (will probably be Richmond Park, so hills)
Sat: 4miles recovery.
Sun: 15 LSR (@10:54). Again, probably Richmond with inc hills.
Nurse R - Borders? Me too! Where about?
About 6 miles from Lauder. Where are you?
Angela .. she may well be
We'll give it a while and then go to plan B*
*what ever that might be
Nurse R - I'm just on the English side of the Border, at the foot of the Cheviots.
I lived near Lauder for a very short period.
Angela - thanks for the coffee info!
Nice run Rachel. I did 10 miles today to bring me to my total of 1000 for the year
. I was supposed to do 6 at marathon pace yesterday aNd 3-4 recovery today, so instead, I did a varied pace session. Mile 1-2 warm up, then mile 3 @ marathon pace, I then cycled through 9mm 9:30mm and 8:30mm (though this was usually a bit faster) to complete 10 miles at an average pace of 9mm. Pretty tough run for me, and it was in the driving rain, which I'm sure made it harder!
thanks minnni
happy new year everyone!
Anglea - this rain is pants. Nice running though.
Have we given up on Pipski?
Today's run was mixed. Run to parkrun was OK. Parkrun itself was a challenge as there were hills (my usual run is flat), so I focused on form. Downhill - keeping the flow and using the gravity; uphill - keeping cadence even if it was slow overall. the run back was horrible, as cold wind against me, cold sleety rain and just not fun! Total miles 8.87
And I think we need to wait for the weekend to see if Pipski turns up from holiday?
Minni, tell me about it! I didn't set an alarm this morning, so missed Parkrun even though it was at 10am! Luckily no hangover... Only had a few glasses of prosecco and finished the last one around 10 past midnight. Here's to sobriety! I've Been looking outside waiting for a break in the rain to do a recovery run, as I did an insanity cardio plyo DVD today, but there hasn't been one. So shall have a nice recovery run tomorrow instead. My schedule has had to be juggled quite a bit because of my sisters wedding but now I can focus on it properly. Started the very plous diet today too, aNd actually feel great and not jealous of my OH munching through the remaining chocolate biscuits!
Rachel, well done for waking up for parkrun! I must say I really don't know why I didn't set an alarm! Probably because it never occurred to me that I might sleep beyond 9am, but I had a poor night sleep wise the night before. Richmond park is so beautiful! lucky you get to run there. With hills up and down, I've found the best thing to focus on is shortening the stride, both on the up and the downhills. You certainly do well to use gravity on the downhills, but if you over stride, you can mash your quads, fatiguing them for later in the race. By shortening your stride, your cadence will go up, but you will be landing more lightly and still going faster down because of gravity. On the up, you can use your arms to power you up the hill, and think of opening ur chest out/pulling ur shoulder blades together (though not excessively) so you don't slouch. Basically standing up enough to give your hip flexors room to flex
On previous downhills, I've tended to lean back and try and slow, today was an attempt to do something different (and it wasn't that too steep downhill). Will make sure I think about short strides and maintaining cadence next time, to report back. I currently use my arms to some extent on uphill, but better if fresher, need to make sure used throughout. Next run with hills is Friday, so wil ltry that.
Where, where, where, where's Pipski . . . to the tune of the Where's Wally theme song
Am I the only one that remembers watching that cartoon???
Rachel The benefit of training
we can try different things out. (and then forget it all during the race!!) no, seriously, downhill technique is important, although not sure it will be a consideration for London 
Though I do recall a slight downhill in the early stages of the race. You've got to make sure that you're not adjusting your running so much that you end up braking, as that is likely to jarr your joints a tad. Although, i'm not sure I would advise what I did when I did the Great Trail challenge in Keswick, which was come flying downhill so fast that there was no way of me stopping if anything got in my way, going at a pace of 6mm in a 22km race, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast for me, so much so that I had a fair challenge trying to catch my breath after 
So, people, what do we all do for strength and conditioning? Do we do anything?? Do we need some help???
Help please!!!!
oh dear I'm not very good at anything to support my running.
As I'm learning more in my training, i think its really important to work on those parts of the body that running doesn't work much - ie the upper torso and arms, so if you do have access to a gym, then weights such as chest press/bench press, lat pull down, bicep curl and tricep kick backs, as well as some core stuff ...I like (well, hate) leg raises... I've been reading a book on running anatomy, which i think i mentioned in the pitch thread. Makes an important point that during the marathon that your weakest link is what will slow you down. If you don't train anything other than by running, then its likely your core or upper body are what's going to slow you down in the race, because you will end up slouching, which will lead your running to be less efficient. That said Minni, you're doing pretty well so far
I try to do some squats (body weight), sit ups and press ups most days, but would love advice on running-specific strengthening stuff.
Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR all
Totally agree with what Angela said regarding focusing on what is weak. For me whilst my legs have gotten a lot stronger from the running a basic core workout from youtube has indicated that I need to strengthen up (to put it lightly)
For me i have been doing a plank routine of 20 secs on front, 20 secs on one side, 20 on back, 20 on other side and some single leg squats, push ups and crunches.
Trying not to go too mad and do myself an injury!!
Angela I am looking at my current training plan and feeling that it lacks the variety I need to keep it interesting. In terms of changing one of my sessions for an interval session what sort of pace/distance/recovery would you recommend?
Hills. I need to know about hills. Please
.
I can't go for a run of any distance around here without going up, but I want to work on specific hill training.
So what length of incline, how many repeats and how often, should I be looking at doing?
I can't believe I'm asking this. I must be getting serious
Love the fact we're all into this thread even without the mentee!!
I'm a big fan of resistance work. I do 2 sessions a week of power squats/ deadlifts/ bench press/pulldowns etc etc all the basic power moves. I am convinced that building stonger muscles has been one of the reasons I am injury free, and as an older runner I am very keen to keep it that way.
There is a really good 30day plank challenge I found via facebook, but I dont know how to share it on here. A lot of my running club friends have taken it up for January.