Sub 3:00 FLM 2005

[Deleted User]

And yes, I have started training for London-I had an easy month in October and I am starting to build up again. Last year I didnt start until Jan, and went from an average of 15 mpw to 30mpw which was a shock to my body.
I aplogise for my spelling - I'm rubbish at touch typing!

[Deleted User]

Races so far for me include the Surrey cross country stuff plus Bramley 20 in Feb and Bath Half in March. Off to Lanzarote next week in order to compete in the running challenge and also to kick start my training. Am going to Brighton for the 10K tomorrow but not sure how I will do.

Re: nutrition, I know it is a bit sad but I try and stay well clear of alcohol and sweet stuff. In that way when I do feel the need for a glass of wine or choccie bar then it is so much more of a treat. I make sure that I always have some 'training' food in my drawer at work and I love malt loaf, dried fruit, Nutrigrain bars etc. I always give myself some incentive after a long Sunday run though (Ben & Jerrys Phish Food Ice Cream - 'ave it!)

[Deleted User]

Helen,
How was Brighton yesterday? I had a good run on saturday, felt very strong,and felt like some of my speed had returned so beginning to feel confident again. Not sure where I finished yet.
On the nutrition front, my boyfriend bought a pot of minstrels on saturday. I think I ate half on saturday and split the rest with him on sunday. Not good. However, after my race on saturday and an easy 13 miles yesterday, I feel really energised. Was tempted to run this morning, but decided to take a rest day, as have a hard session tomorrow and racing on sunday.

[Deleted User]

When is the Bramley 20 Helen?

[Deleted User]

Looking to join you sub 3:00 peeps so hello to you all.

Blister and LLL I see you 2 are hear already
and yes i will be looking to run the Glouc 10.
C U there

[Deleted User]

Mornin' everyone!

TwoDogs - the Bramley 10/20 is (I think) on February 20th. Have done this race twice before pre London and whilst it is testing i.e. not flat it is great to run an organised 20 miles and can be used as a long training run or a race.

Tricks - I am well pleased with my Brighton 10K performance yesterday as I did a PB by 29 seconds and finished 9th in 38:32. It wasn't the best of conditions, a bit windy and drizzling but this meant that the prom was relatively tourist free.
Was it the run or the Minstrels that energised you???

[Deleted User]

Helen, Good effort at Brighton, my PB this year for 10km (rather hilly and done with a bad cold) is 39.20. Whats your half PB? Reading is a good course for a PB (they changed the course last year to finish in the stadium).

I think the minstrels have probably done it - I was stocking up my glucagon post race!!!! (In theory). According to my sports nutrition book you should keep eating for up to 6 hours after a race - so I did. They probably didnt mean a 3mile x country!

[Deleted User]

Tricks, my half mara pb is 1:26:06 which I did in Bath last year but I have also done 1:26:28 in Munich in July this year.

I like the idea of keeping eating for 6 hours after a race..........that gives me loads of scope and plenty of ice cream!

Blisters

I'm only here as a pretender. 50 mile is a danm good week for me, and [well I never] my HM pb is down a notch on the achievers' times. But I shall keep visiting, if only to enjoy the view.


And in my dreams I am envisaging the clock saying 3:00:03 and being ecstatic.

nick jordan

Blisters - Come on mate, envisage that clock saying 2:59:59!

Helen S - Great 10k time (and place), you must be well pleased with that.

Just to add a bit of fuel to the nutrition thing. I ran a cross country race at the weekend (just over 5 miles) and was about 30 seconds better than two weeks earlier (judging by my place and people around me). Thats a big gain considering I've had to restrict my mileage lately because of a knee problem (although I am still running 6 times a week). What do I put it down to........

I was about 3 pounds lighter!

[Deleted User]

Blisters - I agree with Nick re: your time aim high!

Ummm there must be something in this weight thing. I weighed myself before Brighton and I was quite light by approx 3 pounds also. I didn't intend this to happen but I think it is nerves and the extra mileage. I don't endorse loosing too much weight tho' as this is probably counter active in the long run (no pun intended).

[Deleted User]

There's no doubt that losing weight is a big advantage. I also think it's hard to lose too much. Trouble is, even if I get down to 12% body fat, my missus starts complaining I look anorexic. I'd really like to try some races at 8% but would probably have to buy one of those false bellies and a make up kit to get away with it

[Deleted User]

I started this thread way back, but have been suffering since June with injury upon injury and then illness, have only just been able to start running again and am struggling to put it all together again, my times are very slow at the moment, not sure weather to continue aiming for sub 3 hours or not.

Last week managed to get back up to a 40 Mile week for the first time in a long time, I have run three races over the last few weeks my slow times.

The races I have run are;

Wilmington 10K 44:45
Bexhill Half Marathon 1:47:04
Brighton 10K 43:07

Things are starting to improve I will continue with the training and see what happens.

I have the following races planned before Christmas

Nike 10K
Thanet 10 Miler

I hope I can start to get back to my previous levels of fitness and give things a kick start.

Training sounds like it is going really well for some of you keep it up I hope to be celebrating a sub 3 hour time with you next April.

LL

[Deleted User]

LL - there is plenty of time to build up your mileage and get some of your speed back BUT do it gradually.
ps welcome back to the thread and thanks for starting it in the first place!

[Deleted User]

Thanks Helen,

I think it will be fine I have been increasing the mileage over the last 6 weeks at about 10% a week, so I am slowly rebuilding things now I am back to 40 Miles I am going to stay here for a few weeks and concrete this level before increasing again.

LL

nick jordan

8% body fat! Hope its not windy!!

[Deleted User]

Hmm - the weight thing might explain why I did a 41.08 min 10km 4 weeks after doing 39.20. I'd been on holiday in the middle for 2 weeks, run less and stuffed my face. I dont own any weighing scales (its now on my christmas list) but I was probably running heavy. I never quite realised what a difference weight made - if you can gain 30 seconds speed with 3 pounds then I must have put on at least a stone whilst I was away (in 2 weeks!!!). Scary. Alcohol is another that is significantly detrimental - last week's x-country, I finished 2 mins behind a girl (who is faster admittedly) having consumed to much the night before, and at the London Champs I was only 40 seconds behind her (having absteined). My half PB is 1:23:45 - which was done at the peak of my marathon training (55 mpw) when I was probably at my lightest, whereas recent half marathons, my training was not so focussed, I was indulging in food and wine and had the odd week off for injury and was therefore probably heavier. That explains alot in terms of my times. I honestly never realised the real impact weight has on speed.

nick jordan

I don't worry too much about the beer, having said that I wouldn't have more than a few the night before any race. However, I do always make sure that I drink more water than beer.

If you want to be really scared that take a look at this.....

http://world.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=fr_en&trurl=http://www.vo2max.com.fr/physio_poids.html

The translation is terrible but if the graphs at the bottom are correct then I think I will be better off dieting than training!!

[Deleted User]

Nick - I looked at the website and I'm really scared now.I didn't even have the nerve to fill out the form to calculate my amount of 'grease'!

[Deleted User]

I've seen that before but it wasnt translated - doesnt make that much more sense, but I think someone else worked out that a couple of Kgs lost = 6mins in a marathon - by which case for me I could follow last years program adn lose the said amount of weight to acheive my goal. It probably doesnt quite work like that.

By the way, what programs, are you, will you follow for the marathon? FOr the past 2 years I have followed the published RW schedules which have worked so far. At the moment, my training is as follows:

Mon - Pilates/Rest
Tues - tempo/fartlek about 7 - 8 miles
Wed - Steady Run - 8 miles (increasing to 12 eventually)
Thursday - track session - 6 miles approx
Friday - Rest or easy 6
Sat - Race or easy 6 (Rest if racing sunday)
Sun - 13 miles (and building...)or Race

So about 40mpw at the moment.

Whats everyone else doing? Does anyone train every day? Sometimes I wonder if I have too much rest.

nick jordan

Personally I don't think it's accurate, but it's certainly food for thought (excuse the pun!).

I reckon I could easily lose half a stone so I could probably squeeze that out to a stone. According to that I would then be close to 1:10 for a half. Somehow I doubt that!

A friend of mine reckons you will be 10 seconds quicker per pound lost over a half marathon. That sounds a bit more realistic to me.

Blisters

You've got to remember that they are talking about body fat reduction rather than mere body mass. Most of the mass lost (or regained) by runners (ie me) is fluid. According to M Le Fit, that doesn't count.

Taking off 1Kg of fat will probably take 6 months if you are already in training. And what a boring diet too.


RUN TO EAT. EAT TO RUN.

[Deleted User]

Tricks - I'm trying to follow a schedule which is in the book Advanced Marathoning by Scott Douglas. This thread has mentioned this publication a few times. I think Nick has used it along with some others. I am trying to follow the 24 week building up to 70 miles a week but it is quite though. The last few weeks I have only managed around 45 miles a week because of racing (Brighton 10K and 4 xc events). I am doing the longish mid week run and long Sunday run (up to 2 hours so far). I do track on a Tuesday and have one rest day.

Regarding weight and running performance - it really is a fine balance!

[Deleted User]

"Regarding weight and running performance - it really is a fine balance!"

Is it a fine balance? I don't recall ever reading a single post on these forums complaining about underperforming due to being too light, but there are hundreds about being too heavy...

[Deleted User]

Hi FOO Bar slow day there

nick jordan

I think the fine balance is between losing weight and training effectively. Thats one of the reason I am trying hard to lose weight now coz I know when I get back up to 60-70 miles a week I find it much harder to limit my food intake.

nick jordan

Tricks - I will be following something based on the same programme that Helen mentioned, not always easy to follow exactly though. A week will look something like.....

Monday - Rest (or 6M recovery)
Tuesday - 6.5M with (6 x 3mins hard)
Wednesday - 10 to 14M
Thursday - 6.5M recovery
Friday - 6 to 10M (tempo if it’s only 6M)
Saturday - 6M recovery (or rest)
Sunday - 15 to 22M

Sometimes on a Wednesday I will do 2 shorter runs. I then get to run with a guy considerably quicker than me (His recovery run is a perfect tempo run for me) and it also allows me to get to my club. As doing doubles doesn’t really help my marathon prep I will keep these to a minimum as I get closer to the race. As London is pretty flat I won’t do many hills either.

[Deleted User]

Foo Bar - not exactly 'under performing due to being too light' but not running well due to lack of energy/food intake. I realise it isn't really the same thing but we all saw Paula pull out of the Olympics because, for a number of reasons, she 'hadn't got enough fuel in the tank'. Thats what I was trying to say :-)

[Deleted User]

Ah, understood. I agree it's easier to do one thing at a time such as losing weight, training hard, building muscle.

[Deleted User]

Nick - that looks like something I could cope with, but I tend to aim to run 5 days a week as a minimum so if I have to miss a day because of work and travel commitments then I can mix days around. I might see if my local library have got a copy of advance marathoning - how much is it to buy? I'm not sure about investing in it as I've promised to give up 'marathoning' if I get my sub 3 (my other half complains he never sees me and he's not interested in running more than 6 miles). I do wonder how people fit the run/work/life/relationship balance.