P&D spring marathon 2017

muddyfunster

Joe - I'll be going by hr/effort and ignoring pace (I'll maybe have a glance at pace at the halfway mark) I'm most likely going to wear the club vest from my profile pic as people from the club will be out to spot me, but if it looks a bit warm out I'll switch to a lighter weight bright orange vest. Both paired with black shorts and Saucony runners (either turquoise or grey). In any case, I have a funny feeling that I might spot you with a bit more ease !

Speaking of shoes, I'm having a bit of taper madness in the form of a shoe dilemma. Lightweight Kinvara's have a few hot spots and tend to yield blisters but initially they have a barely there feel. I have some less lightweight but even comfier Freedom ISO which don't have any hotspots but I am worrying that they will feel disproportionately heavier as the run wears on.  I raced Wilmslow in the Freedom ISOs., and I've taken both pairs of shoes out on 20 mile runs.

Started comedy and carb loading last night with a simultaneous binge on The Trip to Spain and a bag of oatmeal and raisin cookies. 

Just Coop Going

Muddy, I'm really happy I'm not the only one who considers a bag of cookies to be carb loading. Yours were slightly healthier than my Belgian white choc version though..

Updated my target - I'm going for 'fun but respectable' with 3:59. It's a good 15 minutes slower than Manchester was, so I'm hoping it'll be ok. This is my first marathon double so anything could happen.

Made the last few amendments to the costume today, my poor Boston's are covered in Velcro, but it'll be worth it.

London 23rd April

Lit 3:29
Slowkoala  
Tom13 55-70 18w  2:41 #1286 Blue Start
HA77 DIY 2:39 #1088  Blue Start, White and green Bracknell Forest Runners vest
Muddy DIY 60-70 2.47 #21007 Blue Start
Bluemoon86 70-85 18w sub 2:50
Sorequads 55-70 18w 2:52 #33319 Red Start, light purple Almost Athletes vest 
15West Daniels Sub 2:50 
Millsy 55-70 18w 2:54 #31825     Blue Salisbury vest with "Millsy" on the front
Jooligan 55-70 24w 2:59  #28604  Green Start  blue MIND vest with JULES on, black shorts & red Bostons  
Macca 2:59 # 30734 Green Start - Macca on vest
Mattywarr 18-55 Sub 3.05 (GFA)
Joe Blogs-BR 2.47 #24598   Green Start - Speedo's + snorkel
Lou Diamonds 40-55 2.55-3.00 
TrevO – Will see after Brighton
Just Coop Going -  3:59:59 (GWR) #24573 Green Start - Bananaman 
Tommo81| 33-55 18w | 2:56 | #32589 | Red FGFA start (I think)

Southampton 23rd April

FBT Pick & mix 45 12w 3:15
AWC 33-55 18w 3:28  #8545

Just Coop Going

ITV have released a full list of GWR attempts and there are no other tv characters (or swimmers Joe!). Thank goodness. I feel for the 5 x chefs.. what a race.  

ML84

Tom13, I bet you didn't type your 2.41 with a straight face! 
You run 2.40 pace at about 4am most mornings. You've had a cracking build up so go and get the time your training deserves. 

15West

Hello all...just popping in to wish all those running at VLM on Saturday the best of luck. I'm still running it, still hoping on 2:50 or thereabouts. Haven't done as much running as I'd like or I've done in the past, work has got in the way a bit more this time, so not feeling too confident, but also not feeling too bothered. Just hoping to enjoy it if that's at all possible.  Weather looking pretty good.

Joe Blogs-BR

Full list of GWR attempts is at the bottom of this page - http://www.itv.com/news/london/2017-04-20/which-london-marathon-record-would-you-most-like-to-break/

JCG - like you said, gutted if you're going for the chef one. so much pressure!

Westy - great to hear from you! good luck for sunday, we'll all look out for you. agree re; the weather. 

Tom13

Just been at the expo-visited the London Pride stall several times! 

Jooligan

Followed P&D rigidly so far this week so 5M recovery done. Pleasantly surprised to find I was still 75kg in spite of my alcohol fuelled Scottish Easter break & lighter training load. Celebrating with steak, spuds & cavolo nero but no booze.

Off to London tomorrow so I'll kick off the FML:

Tom13 2:37:30 SBC
JB-BR 2:47:30
Millsy 2:54:30
Macca 2:59:45

Best of luck everyone. I'll keep my eyes peeled at Green start for fellow threadsters & may be catch a few afterwards in the pub though I'll be heading for a massage first courtesy of my charity: MIND. Might do a tour of London feasting on freebies after too - if I can still walk!!

Millsy

All packed and ready to go. My traditional Thursday 3 miles round the block is in the bag.

here are my predictions 
Sorequads 2:52:25
Jooligan 2:56:50
Tommo 2:54:30
Tom13 2:38:45 (sandbagger captain)

final weigh in at 67kgs so let the carb loading begin. Will be heading straight to the London Pride stand at lunchtime tomorrow. 

Reg Wand

Good luck to all running this weekend, my predictions are as follows

Tom13 2:39:04 SBC
HA77 2:38:48
Joe 2:48:30
Millsy 2:53:28

HA77

Here's my predicitons:

Tom13 2:39 SBC
Millsy 2:53
Muddy 2:37
Sorequads 2:51

Tommo - I'm quite obviously not designing a tardis, it's clearly an update on the flux capacitor. 

Joe - Interesting take on carb loading. I take it you're still doing your water only, no gel strategy in the race? I know there is evidence for carb loading but I don't think I need to stuff myself for 3 days. I generally eat lots of carbs any way so will eat pretty normally until a day before when I'll try to get more in.

Reg - Predicting a close finish between me and Tom. I like it, especially as you've put me a few seconds ahead.

Millsy - Might see you at the London Pride stand later.

Tom13

Morning all. 6 miles with strides done and dusted around the streets of Ealing-feels good to get the last training run done! Like Joe I won't be doing any specific carb loading. I'll just eat what I normally do-a bowl of Pasta this evening, another tomorrow for lunch and the usual inbetween. Don't want to try doing anything different at this stage.

Tom13

Got a very busy day ahead including: London Eye, Natural History Museum, Planet Hollywood and Hamleys (my boy has been saving his pocket money for months!) before a day of feet up in hotel tomorrow. Went to Buckingham Palace yesterday and walked down the Mall........very exciting......I can't wait!!

muddyfunster

I think you mean 2.47 for me HA77 - there's no way I'm finishing ahead of Tom. If that's not a typo then your SBC needs some adjustment! 

HA77

Right you are Muddy. That would be a stretch from your target time.

Tom - you must be just down the road from where I'm sitting at work. Sounds like a fun day.

Weather forecast looking pretty good. 

Joe Blogs-BR

Tom - sounds like a great day in store. Better than my day at work!

HA - yep, it'll be water only. got a bigger than usual bowl of porridge this morning, but will probably pass on carbs for lunch and then have some for dinner. 

Interesting that most are steering clear of me for a prediction - does that mean it could go either way? 

Weather looking awesome at the moment. Will be at the expo tonight around 6ish. 

Millsy

Enjoy your day Tom! It's amazing how far you can end up walking when in London so get your feet up tomorrow. 

I don't eat a massive amount of carbs so just switch over for about 48hrs before a race but without going overboard. 

Weather looking ideal. 

Maccatheknacca

I did the expo yesterday, you would need a lot of thimble fulls of Fullers to taste it I reckon.

Tom - my kids loved the earthquake simulator at the NHM, although they keep asking if we get earthquakes in this country so maybe a little traumatised. Enjoy your day.

800g of carbs yesterday without too much effort, similar today then a more normal day tomorrow.

As I'm playing catch up in the FML I'm looking for the value somewhere but I see everbodys got Tom covered 

runspoonrun

Best of luck to all the Londoners. Forecast for Sunday is looking pretty good, very little wind! Look forward to loading all your numbers in to the tracker and seeing how you get on.

HA77

You're right Macca, you need a proper swig of beer to appreciate it properly. Maybe I can just fill my waterbottle with thimble fulls. 

Joe - I had you in my predictions but got concerned about floaty chaffing, snorkel attachment issues and overheating due to swimming cap so took you out. 

About to jump on a train to the expo now. ExCel is out of the way.

Get your FML predictions in and I'll put it all together next week.

Joe Blogs-BR

Tom - 2:38:45 (SBC)
HA - 2.40:03
Millsy - 2:52:45
Macca - 2:58:21

HA - cheers for the vote of non-confidence. panicking now. Hope the expo is fun. 

Annoying that the London tracker app only allows 10 people. I've already fully loaded my work and personal phones and could add loads more which I've just written down (for afterwards obviously..)

Woke up at 4.30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. It's Friday FFS. 

muddyfunster

My FML picks.

Millsy - 2.54
Tom - 2.35 (SBC)
HA77 - 2.36
SQ - 2.51

Gone shit or bust for the value in light of the decent weather conditions on Sunday  

Reg Wand

Joe - Do you have to breathe through a snorkel the whole way? I may have to drop you from my team if that's the case.

HA - I have you ahead purely because Tom doesn't know how good he is.

Reg Wand

As I missed last round I need to gamble on big points so I am chucking Lit into the mix and dropping Jacques Cousteau

Tom13 2:39:04
HA77 2:38:48
Lit 3:09:00 SBC
Millsy 2:53:28

dct

I laugh every time I read 'SBC'.

HA77

Joe - I think you'll smash it but there's potential for outfit issues. Also I'm sure you won't overheat due to the swimming cap given your lack of coverage elsewhere. I noticed you predict my habit of just missing benchmarks to continue. Hopefully i can muster something extra if it looks like happening again.

Muddy - I like your optimism. Any decision on shoes? If you've done some long mp runs in the kinvaras I'd go for them. Did you get the hotspots running at mp or was it when running faster? I find mp much more forgiving on my shoes/feet than LT or hmp. 

On my way back from expo now. Straight in and out job for me. I'm surprised spoon didn't make a trip down to spend a day in the adidas shop.

Joe Blogs-BR

Reg - no breathing through the snorkel fortunately. I've fixed it so it's more like a periscope - should be no worries there. 

HA - honestly I think you'll beat it, losing points was worth it for the comedy prediction. I'll be all over the adidas shop later I'm sure. 

runspoonrun

There's an Adidas shop? Well I'm even more jealous now... 

Tommo81

I've only just realised 'FML' stands for 'Fantasy Marathon League'. I assumed it was for the other meaning of 'FML' of 'F*ck My Life'!

I missed the Brighton prediction so I might take a punt on Reg Wand as SBC in a surprise twist. But I won't. Here's my stabs in the dark:

Lit: 3:29:15 (as she's pacing.)
Millsy:  2:53:44 (I imagine he's like a metronome. In a running way of course.)
Lil' Joe Bloggins: 2:47:01 (that snorkel will cost him a second.)
Coop: 3:59:05 (again she's running within herself to meet a time.)

I think drafting Millsy for 26.1m & then out sprinting him at the end has a romantic idea about it. However, I think a male version of the Sian Welch & Wendy Ingraham would be more accurate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

muddyfunster

HA - I decided on the comfier ones - my 5m easy yesterday in the Kinvaras gave me a few little nips, especially where the path was broken up a bit. The mp rehearsal in the week provoked a bit of soreness with them too, so I think I'll go with the comfier ones.

X-post with Tommo: I know I shouldn't laugh at that, or I will be surely rubber legged/crawling down The Mall in front of millions on the telly on Sunday. But  absolutely weeping.