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First Timer Tony: #asics262
Ant McNeill
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Welcome to my Asics Target 26.2 thread. I'll be posting regular updates on my progress towards next Spring's Paris Marathon.
I'll be tweeting too so please follow me (https://twitter.com/anthonymcneill).
Please drop by and post your comments, advice and criticism (go easy!). I look forward to chatting to you all.
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Good luck Tony. I will be popping over from the sub 3-30 thread.
Congratulations once again Ant!
Do we call you Ant or Tony?
Very best of luck!
Hi Malcs - thanks for posting.
Call me anything you like really!
-I chose Ant because it was the best available username when I registered on Runner's World but most friends call me Tony.
You're always welcome. I'll popover to yours for a natter and check out what the speedy runners are up to.
Ant McNeill wrote (see)
They will be wearing shorts over their tights I can tell you.
Many thanks Gingermagic, Santas little Tigger and Millsy for the encouragement and a warm welcome to the thread.
I'd better start posting hadn't I? Have you seen Tim's description of the Asics Shopping day on the Sub 3.30 thread? He's set out on a blistering pace!
Varying my running routine
After the frenetic last two weeks, there’s a strange calm to the Twitter #asics262 feed and the Runner’s World forums. It’s going to be a short-lived pause for the 5 winners though, with personalised running plans being drafted for us by Steve and Sam as I write.
I have to say that I can't wait to see mine. At the Asics Shopping Day on Friday, we each had a one-to-one with our running coaches. My coach, Sam Murphy went through my 5km, 10km and half-marathon times. I’ve decent-ish PBs from 18 months ago, but I’ve slower performances more recently as I’ve let complacency take over.
My running has reached a certain level of ok-ness; I can comfortably - i.e. hold a conversation with fellow runners - do a half-marathon in under 2 hours without any preparation. But I have definitely plateau-ed and need the jolt of a new challenge to take my running performance up a notch. When I told Sam I was aiming for a sub-4 hour finish, she looked at my recent times again, consulted a page of calculations and let me know that I was about 5-6 minutes off pace. Is 5-6 minutes over marathon distance a mountain or a small hill? It certainly looks less of a challenge than, say, Tom's sub-3 hour finish, but then again I'm less of a runner than Tom.
The other point Sam made is that my running routines lack variation: I do about 25 miles a week of urban pavement pounding and another 7-10 miles on the weekend of more trail/park terrain on the weekend. That’s a decent amount of miles per week but it’s all a bit single geared. I really need to mix things up a bit - fast/slow, long/short, pavement/trail, flats/hills - if I’m going to improve enough to shave 5+ minutes off my time. This is why I’m looking forward to what kind of combinations Sam is going to come up with for me.
I'd be interested to know how other runners mix up their routines. If you've got any ideas please post 'em here!
Hi Millsy, I know Paris quite well but only as a walker and public transport user (half the time underground) and so I'm looking forward to seeing the city from the slightly funny angle of being a runner in a race.
What did you most enjoy about running in Paris? What was the hardest part?
Thanks Gingermagic. I can't tell you how made up I am at Paris being my first marathon. I've not mentioned this on the forums or Twitter, but I lived there for a year in 1989-90. Some of the runners in the competition - e.g. Amy? - weren't even born then! So, there are multiple reasons for me wanting to run a marathon but there are even more for wanting to run this particular marathon as it kind of a special place for me.
Great to see your thread up and running Tony! No pun intended!
Looking forward to following your journey and hearing about you smash your 4 hour target! #sub4grouprocks
In terms of variety in your running routine I am sure you will get all the necessary advice from the professionals but from my experiences the variety of trails is great for improving your running. I have always found interval sprint training on the dreaded treadmill to provide massive improvements in speed and strength and also weightloss! I don't know what your corner of London is like but finding a challenging route with a good range of up and downhills to run regularly I am sure would be very beneficial for you.
Agree with Gareth Tony, Sam will sort you out for sure.
There's loads of things you can do. As well as intervals, threshold runs, and slower runs you have different terrain, hills etc. to mix in and then within those runs you can vary them further 200s, 400s, 800s and so on, progressions, alternating miles and more. Steve even had me doing the individual intervals differently so with 1600's each 400 would be run at a different pace for example.
Every session I did last year was different across the whole plan. I remember Isabel saying that the plan Sam put together for here was incredibly varied too.
Sam is a brilliant coach and she'll know exactly what you need to do (Thought I'd get my crawling in early)
Malcs tells me you're a top bloke and that's a mighty fine recommendation.
I'm sure you have great potential and Sam will help you enormously.
Will be following you closely and right behind you on your journey.
The hardest bit was the section that goes slightly out of the main bit of the city somewhere around 5 miles and half way. Not a lot to look at and very little support. There also wasn't any energy drink until quite late on.
The second half back into the main part of the city was awesome. Loads of support to keep you going. Just what you need for your first 26.2.
It was well worth putting in all the training.
Good luck Tony, for me Paris will always be meeting up with some other threaders under the Arc then standing in the April sunshine looking down the Champs Élysées listening to Chariots of Fire. completely cheesy, absolutely unforgettable
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I'm interested in Sam saying you're 5-6 mins off the pace for a sub4. All my PB's (5k/10k/half) are slower than yours, yet the RW race time predictor says I could do 3:55. Wonder what she's using to calculate that? Oh well, l be following with interest!!! Roll on Monday...
Hi Brb! thanks for the post. I followed up Sam's comments by checking out a number of online race predictors. I used my most recent half marathon time - rather than my Pb from 18 months ago - as this is the most accurate indicator of my running. You'll see that I've lost 30-40 seconds a mile of pace that I need to get back - although in fairness the slower hm time was a little bit about having done the Pine Ridge trail 10km the day before.
When I put in my most recent hm time - if you put in 5 or 10km times you get a faster and maybe less accurate finish time - here's what I got as predictions:
All pretty much in the 4:05 ballpark Sam suggested. What do other runners think of these predictors? Have they been accurate in predicting your times or are they more of a motivational tool?
Hi Gareth, thanks for your post and great to see you on this forum!
I'm going to embarrass Gareth by tbanking him publicly for all the support and advice he gave me over the last 2-3 weeks. He was one of the unsucessful sub-4hr bootcampers and has been brilliant in tweeting and blogging his support for me - not to mention the DMs full of advice. I took his advice then and certainly will again.
Sam mentioned joining a gym for some strength training. I'm going to follow this up but hadn't thought about using it for the treadmill. I'm not a fan of them - running's about getting out there - but I can see how the more precise control of pace and incline that I might get from a treadmill would help me.
I live in Kingston upon Thames and have some great running routes: along the Thames, Bushy Park and Home Park (both pancake flat) as well as Richmond Park (more undulating than hilly) and so don't have the same access to proper hills as Amy in Sheffield. I might check out some routes further afield - maybe around Dorking/Box Hill?
Anyone in the south London/Surrey area with some good hilly running routes?
Thanks Malcs. I did think last Friday that Sam was a really good coach. There I was blabbing away and she was just calming appraising me, thinking through my strengths and weaknesses. There were no false reassurances that I'll finish sub-4 - just concrete pointers on what I'm doing wrong and what I need to do right.
Don't get me wrong : it's great to have fellow runners on the forums and Twitter and irl say "yeah mate, you'll smash it" but you really need a coach who'll tell it to you straight and say "no you bloody well won't if you keep running like this"!
btw thanks for the tips re: intervals etc - I can see I'm going to have to learn how to use my TomTom beyond get signal and go!
Thanks for the post and the interest DS2! For the record Malcs has been brilliant too - I can see this is the beginning of a great runners' bromance!
Thanks Millsy - useful to psychologically prepare ourselves maybe for a flat spot post-midway where we've to rely just ourselves for motivation. I felt a shiver of excitement at the idea of coming back into the crowds of the city centre for the final stretch! That plus Mr Puffy's description of post-run triumph (under the Arc de Triomphe) really got me fired up. Come next April, I don't know if you'd be able to hear Chariots of Fire for the noise of excited high-fiving, back-slapping and whooping from the RW 5! ????
Interesting viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kcYmsKcRZQ
Thanks for sharing those sites Tony, I have been evaluating my marathon aspirations since asics 26.2 and seeing everyone's varying times and goals. My HM PB is 1.39, my 10K PB is 44.30 but my marathon PB is 4.10 looking at the links my marathon times are all estimated in around the 3.24-3.28 area suggesting I was in the wrong category for bootcamp and I am aiming low in my marathon aspirations! Judging by your times and your dedication and passion I think sub4 is well achievable and a 5-6 minutes deficit is easily reversible over 26 miles!
Now I understand Tony; Sam's looked at your most recent times, not PB's. Well as all my PB's have been achieved this year and my half PB was in October, I guess I'm safe using that... With my half PB of 1:52.53, RW predictor says 3:55.21 and Running for Fitness says very similar 3:55.41 (Macmillan site not working currently) so fingers crossed I can achieve it!
As for you Tony, I'm sure with Sam's expert advice and bespoke training plan you can achieve sub4!
Fantastic video - loved the visualisation of the route from west to east and back again taking in the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes. I am getting really, really excited now! A few of the avenues (e.g. Daumesnil) are really familiar (my best friend lived there and I borrowed her flat on a few occasions). The route also skirts close to Boulevard Voltaire in the east where I used to live. God, I can't wait For this race. Need a lie down as in danger of spontaneously combusting through over excitement!
Thanks for the thumbs up Brb. You look bang on for the sub-4hr finish. Sam is getting my plan to me later this week and I'll certainly post it here. It might be worth you giving it a go as it sounds like we're not a million miles apart in terms of pace?
Thanks for the vote of confidence Gareth; it won't be for want of trying if I fall short of the sub-4hr finish! Your times are interesting with some speedy work at 10km and HM that does suggest a full marathon time in the sub-3.30 category. Out of interest, when did you achieve that marathon time and have you gained pace between then and now? I have heard some horror stories from the faster runners at the Teddington SRC getting their marathon tactics wrong and blowing up before the finish line.