Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Shades Marathon Training
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Shades, sorry to hear about your knee. Hopefully it's ok for your race.
Emmy - Happy first Birthday to Evelyn tomorrow
1) nursery
2) her actual birthday
3) her party on Sunday
Big G - that young Trotter is itching to do a marathon isn't he? If he's aiming at London next year at least he'll be 20 then. 132 mile week is impressive, I guess his next aim is a half marathon PB at Bideford?
Emmy-Hope the party and celebrations go well.
My legs are still a little sore around the inner knee and hamstring,but I can walk and jog around fine,should I go for a run or wait until they are completely better?I've read different things so not sure.
I do really admire him, and he's obviously dedicated which is brilliant; most, if not all, of those 132 miles would have been on his own. But a small part of me can't help but wonder if he's doing too much too soon. MarathonTalk sometimes mentions young athletes who do really well as juniors, but then don't break through into seniors as they get injured etc. But when I spoke to him, he's obviously thought about things carefully, and he is aware of the risks, but I think he just wants to give it a go, and I can't blame him - like I say I admire him - for that. It's none of my business anyway and when he does a 26.2 mile training run at my 5K pace, if I had a cap on, I'd doth it to him
Shades, talking of Bideford, there are a large number of Trotters doing it. Like Steve, I am planning on doing it at MP, but I hope I don't get swept along and go too quick. I think I may start towards the back so the first mile or so is relatively slow so all my team mates are off ahead of me and just try and stick to 8:15-8:30s, although I may try and do a strong last mile or so. That's the plan, but let's see what actually happens on the day. If I come back on here and report I've gone under 1:40, you can all figuratively slap me!
Another crappy sleep. If it wasn't for the fact it was beautifully sunny, I would have gone back to bed, but I hauled myself out for six miles. I felt weak and tired but figured it would be good practise for the last six miles of the marathon.
Unfortunately (and because the new Garmin take a little more effort to pull off its base than the old one) I buggered the settings on it so I didn't record any split times, just the total average, which was 10:45. Fair enough.
One slight issue is that the first monthly committee meeting is the day of my Milton Keynes marathon, so it'll be touch and go whether I'll get back in time as the marathon doesn't start until 9:30am, I'll get changed, and then it's a 4hr drive back with the committee meeting is at 7pm. Other than that though, I should be able to make the meetings.
Congrats to Cal, Steve and slowkoala on recent races
Ian - you can bounce and smile as much as you like. You deserve it
Emmy - I can hardly believe Evelyn is one year old. Enjoy the parties
I think the time limit works fine for fast runners - after all if you expect to do 3 hrs for a marathon then a 2 and 1/2hr LSR is probably just right! I read a book by Stu Mittleman where he said that your daily mileage (or average daily mileage) should be a third of your target race. So if you were targeting a 30 miler, then you should be doing an average of 10 mls per day (include a long run at the weekend and you even get a day off!). I think I'm feeling tired in events at the moment because I'm not getting the mileage in and I'm probably doing too much walking to running
The best thing I can say about the Cambridge Boundary Run on Sunday was that I finished. It's multi-terrain, but a lot of road compared to softer ground and hardly any mud this year. I was going to run at the back with a few friends , but they nearly all dashed off at the start and I never saw them again
A short recovery run on Monday and the shin flared up again slightly. A run/walk today, the shin was sore again for a while then suddenly stopped hurting - to be replaced by a very painful niggle on the top of the other foot
Big G - well done on the committee post, you like a good spreadsheet and a few stats so that's really suited to you. Hope you make the first committee meeting, although you'll probably yawn your way through it
I wouldn't slap you if you raced Bideford as there's nothing wrong with racing it, it's entirely up to you.
Re the young Trotter, he must love running and training which is great. Yes, high mileage but a good 5km athlete would train 100mpw but I do think he's too young to race marathons although he will be 20 by then.
I guess he's doing Bath Half then, that's a high profile event and he will be noticed there if he runs well.
Suz - that's great news about your injury knowing that it won't stop you doing your marathon and you know how to manage it too. It's good to try gels and the glucose tabs and some sweets, better to have a selection on race day as sometimes it's not easy to take on fuel and having a choice helps. Glad the 14 miler went well, hope the 17 miles goes well too, remember it's only the last 3 miles you haven't done before and you can always walk them.
Cal - I agree, it's daft to limit the time for a long run. If everyone did that ultra runners would be running 50 - 100 mile races off a longest run of 3 hours.
mowzer - you seem to be a bit battered and bruised and yet another tough event completed. Hope the soreness heals quickly. Must have been so disappointing that they'd run out of food at the finish too.
Re the training mileage, Jim Fixx who wrote the very famous The Complete Book of Running, a good read BTW said something in his book about your daily mileage giving an indication of when you will start to struggle in a marathon. I'd have to check the details but if you run the same distance every day (at least 6 days a week, I think for at least 6 months) then 3 times that distance is the distance you'd run comfortably in a marathon, e.g. 6 miles a day = 18 mile point in a marathon. I think this was without doing long runs, I'll have to read the book again to check.
Lovely morning for a run, but I see heavy rain is on the way just when I have to walk back from the garage, car is booked in for service and MOT. Knee OK, no problem running and just the odd twinge when I'm not running, it's not healed yet though. Only ran 6 miles today, but will get nearly 4 miles walking too later on to and from the garage.
Edited to add that one annoyance is that the championship spreadsheet doesn't work on my PC (I use a Mac and don't have access to a Windows machine). The spreadsheet is quite complicated with lots of code behind it, and it throws errors on my Mac. Again, the committee knew this in advance and they've provided me with a Windows machine, which I picked up last night. I won't make any changes suddenly, but in the background I'm working on a way to simplify it all as it is open to errors with the way it works out the age grading, etc.
If you're preparing for a race you should put in the proper number of training miles to get past the collapse point, the mileage beyond which you simply can't do anything more than what has been called a 'survival shuffle'. Your collapse point is easy to compute, if you never miss a day of running it's your daily mileage multiplied by three. If you occasionally miss days calculate your collapse point by adding up your most recent monthly total and divide by ten. The collapse point is only a rough guide, some runners can run farther than the theory indicates, some less. Nor do collapse point computations take speed into account. all they tell you is that if you train enough you'll probably be able to make it to the finish line. They don't say what you'll look like when you get there. You'll have to experiment to find that out!
Suz-Hope the long runs go OK and the injuries stay at bay.
Mowzer-Sounds like you're having a tough time at the minute,hopefully it will all get back to normal soon and you enjoy it all again.
Shades-Good luck with the mot, always a nervous day.
Managed 5 miles last night again,and legs are pretty much back to normal now,can still feel an occasional soreness but nearly there.quickest recovery ever for me.
re Bideford, don't race it if it will take too long to recover from.
Ian5 - faster recovery = improved fitness, good news.
I'm optimistic that it may just be a wiper blade or two required for the MOT , thankfully I have had a service plan so the cost of the service is covered, it's a big service too this time.
@Mowser - well done for completing a really tough event! How are you feeling now? Any problem from your toe?
Big G - your issue with the mac is one reason why i went back from mac to windows
Shades - how is your knee? Feeling ok?
I managed 20miles this morning with the dogs. They absolutely loved it! Rogue normally has white legs... It took a 15 minute bath to try and get her clean and she's still filthy!
Just got back from a short trail run myself. Muddy, but enjoyable!
Congratulations, Big G.
Shades - interesting. My miles vary a lot - 4 is my usual minimum (excluding parkrun). I often run 6 and occassionally further on weekedays but then a long run on Sunday.
I was definitely doing "survival shuffle" for the last 6 miles of Manchester last year. I hope to avoid it a bit longer this time around...!
A frustrating day for me. It was always going to be a rest day but I'd hoped to get some yoga in. Today was the day the Sky engineer was meant to come. Now they're meant to call you by 9am to say when they're coming, but I got no call, so I called Sky Protect to ask. After an eternity on hold listening to the most annoying music in creation, the girl on the other end checked and said between 2 and 4 so it looked as though I could get to 12pm yoga. But then I check my email and see one saying "you have cancelled your engineer visit." Wait, what?
Well, I figure she's just sent the wrong email out, but I call back to question it, as you do. Another eternity listening to the same music leaves me wanting to stab someone - anyone - in the face. But eventually I get through to someone. Well, the silly girl has accidentally cancelled my engineer. OK, so contact him and tell him he's not cancelled, I say. But apparently, that can't happen due to some crap about risk assessments that defies all logic.
So, thanks to an error on the part of an incompetent Sky Protect person, I now have to wait until bloody Monday for another engineer to come. Jesus wept! Oh and of course, I missed yoga being on the phone. (There are only morning and evening classes, unfortunately, I don't want to do a crowded class at 6pm, especially as it's flow not Bikram).
Now that also means no run on Monday, and I'm not running on Sunday as I'm marshalling, so that's bloody annoying too. Argh, I'm officially exasperated.
Emmy - HBD to Evelyn! We actually passed an 'Evelyn Road' on our run last night and I thought of you/her!
Shades - hope the knee is less inflamed today. Don't overdo those squats! That's interesting to read about the collapse point. It suggests that anyone doing 50 miles or less per week will collapse at 20 miles or before, so that's most of us stuffed then!
Big G - congrats on the committee place.
Legs haven't been too bad after Brighton, although my dodgy hamstring has felt a bit tight. Did 8 miles with my club last night and then 10 on my own this morning. Have a 20 mile race in 2 weeks so may not do the 20 in my schedule this weekend. We have a new parkrun starting on Sat which is only 5 miles away so will probably give that a go.
What a lovely photo of a tired but happy Rogue
Cal - marathons are often unpredictable but you should find the latter stages of your next marathon easier to deal with. Partly because you know now you can complete the distance successfully and also due to another year's training miles in your legs.
That's really annoying about Sky, dopey cow on the phone messing up your week.
SK - I don't think James Fixx means collapse as we might think of it. The book was written 40 years ago and science has moved on, I think he is referring to the point when you body runs out of glycogen and switches fuel and for some that have really overcooked it 'hitting the wall'. He also does say he hasn't taken speed into account so even more important to get the pacing right, so his theory could be a good warning to runners not to start out too fast. I'm going to read the whole book again, it's a very good read.
Good news that the hamstring isn't too bad after Brighton. Will you race your 20 mile race or run at training pace? Will probably do you good not to do a long run this weekend, I expect you've done a lot of long runs.
Rest day for me today, I'm not enjoying taking every other day off, think I will resume daily running from tomorrow, just keep the distances down.
Car sailed through it's MOT, even the wiper blades which I thought were on their way out, so only had to pay the £39 for test. The garage gave me the wrong car key when I left, unfortunately the key wasn't for the new 17 plate SUV which was waiting for collection either.
Good news about the MOT - that's a load off, eh?
SK - glad the hammy isn't too bad. Time for a massage?
Well, after yesterday's frustrations I was keen for a run today. Weather forecast promised blue skies and sun, but what I actually got was a lot of wind and that seemed to bring the clouds with it. Certainly wasn't warm.
I was looking at doing at least a 10 mile run today with 6-8 at MP. What I actually did was a 12 (.2) mile run with 10 at faster than MP. After the first two warm-up miles, I got into a rhythm and that rhythm seemed to get faster. I need to run 10:15 or better to get under 4:30, so I've set that as my MP, but my supposedly MP miles started at 10:03 for one mile, hit the 9:50s for the four miles after that, and then the 9:40s (with 9:37 at mile 11). Funny thing is, I was battling against wind (uh, the weather kind...) towards the end and actually felt as though I was going slowly.
So, as a MP run, it was a bit of a failure, but in a good way, maybe.
I have booked yoga for later. I haven't been to yoga for a week and a half, so even though I don't normally go if I've run for more than 10 miles, I really need to today. My back feels OK again, so I think I can risk it.
Last night I went for a walk with the dog and, errrrrm, "accidentally" walked into a dog-friendly pub with her. Nice ales for me, and a water bowl and dog biscuits for her. Both happy
This morning I took her for a long, hilly, muddy 7.5 mile walk which was really good. It's one of my favourites as it's very quiet, with great views of the River Dart at one point, and Torbay at another. Very nice. Sad to see that a popular woods nearby (Churston Woods) has a lot of diseased trees, so the forestry commission have basically ordered it to be cleared and that work is in progress. Very sad to see, but I suppose necessary. They're not replanting though, which makes me suspicious of development, but maybe that's just the cynic in me. Lots of childhood memories there (I was born in nearby Brixham), as the large woods leads onto a secluded beach (pics below), where very few tourists ever get to.
Brixham Breakwater in the background
Hiske enjoying a dip
I've just got back from a 4-mile run, and as it was dry I ran it in a new pair of shoes, which are the ones I'm going to wear for my marathons They're the same made/model as another pair I run in regularly, but I just thought I'd should try them (make sure laces aren't too tight etc). If the weather is okay, I'll run in them at this weekend's Half too.