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Milton Keynes 2014
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Hi All.
I too am running the MK Marathon. My first marathon so Im quite nervous already. Was due to start my 16 week plan last monday but have been very ill so hopefully will start this Monday and try to add a few extra miles in here and there.
Hoping to be fit enough for a 4.30 finish but we shall see...
Hi Reece Bewsy, welcome aboard.
Despite a bad start to last week I was able to cram in 36 miles in the end.
Doing my long run tomorrow (15-16 miles) on trails and hills in an attempt to slow my pace down, although today's weather looked ideal.
Welcome Reece Bewsy!
Not bad mileage last week then Lee. Perfect day for a run today, hopefully tomorrow will be similar. I done my 14 miler yesterday and was running to heart rate to try and keep my pace down, but it still ended up being quicker than it probably should have been. The route was quite hilly too, so that helped slow the pace at times. Enjoy the trails and hills tomorrow Lee.
Thank you both!
Good luck with the training. Starting mine tonight and looking forward to it...
Good luck Reece. It's great to start training- if you're doing Jantastic (www.jantastic.me) then there's some great encouragement to log some regular runs.
They have just released details on this years course!
MK-Marathon-2014.jpg
I was about to say about that
thanks for posting it on here 
will see if it's any better 
the bit by the train station looks slightly dull! Other than that not too many out and backs so looks quite good (although most maps look fine!)
Has everyone seen the marathon medal? Looks pretty decent - https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1/1545547_719368651421379_1039651103_n.jpg
Route looks quite nice, does look like a slightly boring/confusing couple miles by the station however.
Medal looks good, will look forward to having that as my pride and joy..
Neil, Reece, agree I don't like the look of the bit around the station, very messy. Out of interest does anyone know what the blue parts of the route refer too.
Jamie, medal looks good. I see they managed to get a Skechers trainer on there.
15, very hilly, muddy and icy miles for me today. Very enjoyable though.
No idea what the blue parts on the route map are. It looks messy and confusing, but I'm sure it'll be alright on the day considering Milton Keynes is built on a grid system, so I'd imagine it'll be a few loopbacks.
15 miles sounds good Lee. I've got 8 planned for tonight with some strides thrown in too. Bought a new headlamp last week, so going to try it out this evening.
15 weeks to go by the way!!
It's been a hectic week but I still managed to get my runs in - a 5-mile speedwork session yesterday and a 5-mile steady run this morning. The speedwork was particularly intense - 1 mile warm up then 12 x 200 metres with 200 metres recovery jogs then 1 mile cool down. First time doing such short intervals - I'm used to doing 800s and longer but it was ok - i got them done.
I believe the blue sections are closed roads and the red bits the redway footpaths.
Putting in a lot more Milage than normal, hope it pays off this race
Ini, nice bit if speed work.
Xyloid, thanks, makes sense.
Booktrunk, you and me both!
Steady 5ish (got stuck on barbed wire) today with a double tomorrow.
Yeah that would make sense Xyloid, hopefully you're right.
Lee - Yes the head torch worked a treat thanks, definitely worth buying for training at this time if year. In the sale at Sweatshop at the moment if anyone else is interested.
Booktrunk - I'm putting in a lot more miles than my previous marathon training as well, so I'm hoping it'll have its rewards on 5th May too!
Gentle 5mile recovery run for me this afternoon with some more foam roller action and strengthening exercises this evening.
102 miles so far in Jan, with 10m after work this evening (Thursday)
Wondering what plans people are using? I was using the RW 3:30 plan but realistically I'm having to drop the fifth run of the week due to niggles and work commitments. Anyone got a good, four run per week plan?
Leebe - stuck on barbed wire? That sounds pretty awful!
booktrunk - some serious volume - if you can keep that up then you'll be in terrific shape.
Neil. I'm on the P&D 18 week Upto 55m per week plan.
I've been running for under 2 years, and my previous marathons were all 3 with some weeks a 4th run thrown in. This is 5 days a week, and i'm finding 5 days running a week is hard work. I am tempted to drop one of the short recovery runs and either cross train or just enjoy the rest, but at the moment i'm sticking with it and will see how it goes... I think i'm just starting to get the benefit of the extra training in my legs, if you know what i mean after 3 weeks of hard work. I'm starting to think my legs are beginning to cope with the miles.
I'm on the same plan as Booktrunk and it's going well so far. I'm up to 115 miles for January so far.
The 5 days a week is working out alright at the moment as I can fit the midweek recovery run in at lunchtime. My previous marathon plan was 3 days of running with 2 days of cross training, and that served me well and I managed to beat my target time by 10mins.
I'm supposed to be on the same plan as Booktrunk and Jamie, but I'm only following it very loosely. I'm aiming for the same weekly mileage as the plan and making sure I do the long and medium long runs along with one speed session (whether that be a tempo of fartlek session) and then just fitting 'other' runs around them.
Today I did a 5.8 mile Fartlek to work along an old railway track and 7 muddy/wet miles across flooded fields home. Neither are on the plan!
I failed to hit my target time at Abingdon Marathon by 4 minutes and I've been advised that I needed more long runs and more medium long runs. If I'm honest with myself I knew I was slacking off on minimal long runs. Got to put the work in to get the results.
Neil, it seems none of my runs are straight forward... I rescued an injured sheep today!
I got tripped up by a low-flying kitchen waste bin last weekend. Pales in comparison to being sidetracked rescuing a a sheep though!
I took up the stadium parking option earlier in the week. Not sure if this was wise or not, but given our usual parking woes in the centre of MK, I figured it was worth the £6.
Last time we parked in MK we got ticketed saying we'd parked in an electric car-only bay, so do be careful if you're running the gauntlet with shopping centre parking - some of the signs are stupidly cryptic.
Am hoping to do a recce of the course at some point. It looks promisingly flat to me though.
Good work on the sheep rescue Lee, what happened there then?!
Welcome Ivor. How's the training going? 4 miles for me today. I'm Parkrunning this morning so will tag an extra bit on the end.
Parking - As I'm fairly local I'm hoping I might be able to find a parking space close by and walk to the start, otherwise I might pay the £6 as well to make it easier. I'll be surprised if anyone parks at the shopping centre in Milton Keynes as it's quite a way from the start/finish. The stadium is actually in Bletchley not Milton Keynes.
Have a good weekend training!
Got to mile 6 of a 10 miler yesterday and developed a sharp pain in the outer fleshy part of my foot below the ankle. Painful enough to make me cut the run short and had me limping for the rest of the day. Its a bit easier to walk on today and I think from looking at Google that its my peroneal tendon (too much hills and speed workouts). Got to be sensible and take time out for a few days to see how it is before running again.
Ivor, hi, hope the bin didn't cause to much damge! I've done the same re parking, I know it would stress me out otherwise.
Jamie, the Thames is in flood around here. Whilst running through the flooded fields home I found an injured sheep marooned on a bit of dry land trapped bewteen two stiles.
Hope everyone's weekend training is going better than mine.
Cheers Jamie - have missed a training run this week as an old ankle problem flared up. Planning on 10 miles tomorrow morning though, to follow up 10 miles last Sunday.
I'm planning on a couple of weeks of quicker 5 milers, and then I'll be starting to ramp up my distances in mid-Feb.
So far, so good - it's going to be my first marathon, and I'm soon going to be in uncharted territory in terms of distance (furthest so far is a couple of half marathons last year). Main issue is going to be managing a couple of longstanding niggles, and trying to avoid swapping running days too much, so I've got good gaps in-between.
I'm not normally brilliant in the winter, so I've been pretty pleased with progress so far.
I'm loving the sheep rescue story - great effort.
Yesterday was one of those awful runs. It was pouring and blowing a gale, and my knee started seriously hurting about 3 miles. Was aiming for a long run pace of 9m miles but ended up averaging 9:30 over 12.5 miles. Was a real tough one - stopped a few times and thank goodness I caught up my wife running a different loop for a bit of moral support! And that was after the physio confirmed that I was far stronger in that area than last month. I guess that's what you get if you try and smash a parkrun the day before...
ivor- good efforts - I'm in the same boat with the first marathon. Half is my top previous distance so I'm unsure how the body is going to hold up.
I rounded up Week 2 of my training with a 12-mile long run yesterday morning. The weather was not as bad as I thought it would be. Once I settled into the run - it was nice and easy at 9:20 - 9:30 pace. Did it in 1:53:29.
Leebe - Sorry about the injury. Sensible thing to stay off the foot. But it sounds rather nasty so I'm thinking it might be a good thing to have a physio have a look at it.
Ivor - sounds like a plan
Neil T - Bad runs - we all have them. We take them with the good - learn our lessons and move on.
Tried my ankle out yesterday on a nice easy long run at dawn with the Mrs. She's training specifically for our local 10 miler, and the differing distances and speeds involved in our programmes haven't allowed us to go out together all that much in recent weeks, so it was a good opportunity to see how she's getting on. She ran 14.5km, and I carried on for a bit and doubled back to rejoin her so I could make it up to 10 miles.
Went really well. She's in great shape and was attacking the hills with gusto, and I felt really comfortable and pretty well within myself, which bodes well. Next Sunday I'm going to do much the same route myself, but much quicker, so that'll be a good gauge of where I am ahead of the training distances ramping up.
We were ridiculously fortunate with the weather, incidentally, as within 2 minutes of getting back it was torrential rain, hail – the works.
Good to wake up this morning without any aches and pains. I'll be pleased if I have a few more Mondays like that.
Hello everyone, just like to introduce myself.
I am 21 years old, and this will be my first marathon. Ran Oxford half in 1:35:42 last October so hoping for sub 3:30.
Just a 5mile recovery for me today, slowly getting back into training after a month no running due to skiing.