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Thats a good sign, it means your aerobic ability is improving and your fitness levels are getting higher.
Just to let you know I completed the Paris marathon in 4:03:18 - a pb by almost 30 minutes. Thanks for the training programme. I felt much stronger during the race and didn't flag too much towards the end.
A bit gutted at just going over 4 but my leg went into a spasm at 22 and I thought I was done for. Managed to stretch it out and despite a couple more incidents managed to get home.
Thanks for your help - much appreciated!
Everyone was saying that I should have used gels and that might have avoided the problem - any thoughts?
Cheers
John
Thats a fantastic result John a PB by 30mins is massive, a big big well done on that!
Last 6-miles of any marathon is the most difficult anyway at the best of times, even I hit the wall and had all kinds of aches and pains.
The only thing the gels would do is give you a carbohydrate boost, which is a good thing. Not knowing what drinks they had at Paris I would not know if these would have helped, certainly if you only had water, then using the GELS would have helped you some, but if your already having energy drinks during the race, then not much is gained in my view, anyway nevermind about not going sub 4, thats your next big target!!
Once again well done, look forward to catching up with you at the BUPA Manchester 10k.
I can't leave myself at 4:03 and have decided to do the Dublin Marathon at the end of October. Benefit from training over the summer when the weather is good - I hope. Thought I would train for a 3:45 - any thoughts or advice?
J
Just found out that I can't enter my 4.5 mile race as my partner (Chris) has double booked me. We're going to someone's birthday party the night before in York and it may be touch and go if we make it back for the start of the race.
So I'm looking at other races for either the weekend before or after the intended race.
I've found a 6k road race for ladies only with on line entry on 2 July and there is a 10k or 5k multi terrain race on the same day.
Chris reckons that I should do the 6k race perhaps because the intended race is 7.5ks but I don't know whether I'll turn that into a time trial race (so to speak. So I perhaps thinking the 10 multi terrain race would be better.
I know the training place for those months is geared to a 4.5 mile race but I can't decide between the 2 so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I knew you would want a crack at going sub 4hrs!!!
Dublin actually is a good choice, think its a pretty quick course by what other runners have said.
At this stage, my advice would be to have a little break and fully recover from Paris, then do a few weeks of shorter stuff to get the speed back into your legs, then start the marathon training again.
I would be inclined to say USE YOUR PARIS PROGRAM as a start point for Dublin, because the program cleary suited you as the improvement showed. Difference being? To get the 3:45, you will need to try and get your weekly mileage a little higher, maybe increasing by 10-15mpw, and adding a few extra efforts to your Interval sessions, so basically the same outline for the training program but just more of it, to increase your ability to sustain a higher pace for longer.
Slowely build up to this though, dont put it on yourself all at once, just add it gradually on a weekly or 2 week basis and see how your feeling and how it fits in with your other commitments.
The fact your training for the 4.5mile race, means you could probably do either of those races and do just fine!
I would actually go with your partners suggestion and run the 6k road race, I know your tempted to use it as a time trial but being about 4-miles in length means its ideal to the distance your training for.
If you really do not fancy the idea of this though, then I would opt for the 5k multi-terrain event. maybe 10k would be pushing the boat out to far at this stage, what with your recent injurys.
So my best advice would be the 6k race in the ideal world, if not, then opt for the 5k multi-terrain event, where your probably run very well actually.
Thanks for that - I'll give it a bash.
First run since Paris is later today and I'm planning a light week. Thought that I would do a 6 miler on Monday, some hill work on Tuesday, another 6 miles on Thursday and then a longer run next weekend of maybe 10 miles. Although I went up a munro on Thursday, over 3,000ft2 including a fab snow wall and ended up walking over 12 miles! Maybe a bit soon after Paris cos my legs felt like lead yesterday!
I'll get back on the programme as you suggest in a couple of weeks time.
The hardest bit is the long training runs at the weekend - I hate the thought of 2 1/2 to 3 hours out on the road - needs must!
I would give the hill sessions a rest just for the remainder of this month, your body will need 4-weeks roughly to recover from a marathon effort. By all means do some light striding work to get the legs turning over quicker, but avoid any hard interval type work for the month after the marathon, then start hitting the training during May.
Yes the long runs do take some motivation to complete, maybe you can get a map and see if you can come up with an intresting route, that maybe goes off-road or goes somewhere where you have never run, so it turns into both a training run and exploration run as well, this will help focus the mind and keep the intrest.
My training is going really well at the moment. Tuesday and Thursday's sessions this week have been really great. Instead of doing 10 min on grass and 5 min on pavements I tried 10 min on the pavement and ended up doing 1.2 miles with a pace of 11:03 per mile.
Thursday's was a 20 min run on grass instead of 15 min with a pace of 12:15 per mile which felt fairly easy.
I'm still having problems with the long run though. I was a wee bit out of puff and including the scheduled walk breaks (1 min x 3) the pace was 12:15 per mile and that was over 4.7 miles.
With how things are going at the moment I think Tuesday's run will be 15 min on pavement and I'll keep increasing this by 5 min providing it feels okay until I get to 30 min. For Thursday's I'm thinking of making this 25 min, then 30 min. I think that if I only increase one of these 2 sessions each week it will be more manageable.
I'm not going to mess too much with the long run and still stick to the 15 min run/1 min walk plan however when I'm not increasing the distance for a long run I'm planning on doing the first run segment slightly longer by about 5 min.
Do these tweaks sound okay?
Yes these tweaks look very good, being sensible with the gradual increase will keep any injuries at bay touch wood, will also increase your aerobic endurance.
I would not be too concerned with feeling (out of puff) on the longer run, it maybe your pushing the pace just a little too hard and you may need to back off slightly which is common on a longer run.
For example
My long run is either 12-14miles, I usually run this at about 7:30mm pace, where as my shorter sessions are usually 6:15mm-6:45mm pace, see the difference?
All sounds very promising though keep me informed on how things are going.
I will!
I may do an extra race which is at the end of October and will need some help with the programme for it, however, I'm not doing to decide for another month so will keep you posted on that.
First race since Paris last night - a wee 5K. Hobbled round in 20:58. Going to work on speed over the summer and run Dublin at the end of the year. Any thoughts on a regime for the next couple of months?
J
Yes the fact you have done the marathon will take a little out of the legs and slow things up a bit.
When is DUBLIN, is it November?
I would suggest for the next 4-6 weeks, keep the mileage pretty low each week, and concentrate on re-building the speed back into your legs, so maybe drop the longer interval sessions such as the 4x5mins for a month or so, and focus on doing sessions such as 10x2min, 1min on and 1-min off, you can attack these harder and this will help the speed.
Try also doing a few sessions or steady runs off road on grass or tracks to save the legs, then maybe during june start adding longer reps and then build on the mileage gradually during the summer.
Hope you dont mmind me popping in but i am after some training advice. I have just done FLM and am also down to do Edinburgh. I kept well within my pace at FLM but would like to try and speed up a bit for Edinburgh. I got taken out by an evil winter virus in late Feb and the knock on effect has been I have lost my speed. It also meant that by the time FLM came around I saw it more of an enjoy the day rather than go for a good time as i had Edinburgh in the back of my mind for that. Basically I would love some hints and tips on what to do over the next few weeks to optimise my time at Edinburgh. Planning a 20-30min jog on saturday and if all goes well an easy 5-6miler on sunday
Thank you!
12/04/2006 3.1 24-34
14/04/2006 3.7 30-55
16/04/2006 6.2 50-36
18/04/2006 3.1 31-26
19/04/2006 3.1 25-29
21/04/2006 3.5 30-32
23/04/2006 5.2 53-11
26/04/2006 3.1 22-58
I have several targets which is confusing me as to what training I should do:
06 May - 10K - I will aim for sub-50.
18 June - 5K - Aim for PB - 23.15 currently - so beat yesterday in training and feel good today.
02 July - Half M - Happy to get round in 1:50-1:55.
03 Sept - 10 miler - Will know target nearer the time but thinking 85 at the moment.
How can I get a good balance of getting decent pace at small distances and also build up my stamina without the two interfering?
The days I'll have free to run will be:
Monday PM, Wednesday AM, Thursday - club run, Weekend - maybe long run?
My PBs are all from 1998, I have been running on and off since then but am motivated again and want some PBs!
Any advice would be very useful.
Cheers
Over the next few weeks its best to keep the mileage down and let the body recover from FLM. Keep the runs steady and slowely increase the training.
Then adding some interval training whilst keeping the mileage low will help increase the leg speed.
Once you feel happy and can handle the increased training intensity, then start to build the mileage up again on a gradual basis weekly, including the weekend long run.
Not sure when Edinborough is though so giving a time frame for training is difficult, if you like I can help with a program once your back into full training over the next few weeks.
The best way forward is to train for the Longer event which is the half marathon.
When doing the faster Interval or tempo like running, doing shorter efforts will keep the leg speed high and by doing the long run which is important for the HM your endurance should be high as well.
Give me a few days and I will email you a training plan example of what you may like to do.
Good target to aim for would that be a PB time if achieved?
Going by your 5k race its certainly possible, you still have the marathon training in your legs so endurance will not be a problem over that distance!
Thanks for that. Its not long til Edinburgh, 6weeks on sunday to be precise. I thought I would gett back into training over the next 2 weeks, train hard for 2 weeks then taper hard for the final 2 weeks. Some advice on some specific sessions would be absolutely fab! I followed the RW 3.45 schedule for London, but had to drop the speed stuff due to illness. I have a 20mile race on the 21st May which I am using as a training run..it includes some hills, which are a rarity around where I live.
BTW club runs will be around 6 miles I'm told (went out last night with them for the first time and did 5.6 miles - very hilly course so will now rest until Sunday just to make sure I recover)....they do it as one big group so can go whatever pace I want. Did 8.30 miling yesterday and that was fast enough with hills as not used to them.
Have only just got over knee injury so am careful not to go downhill too much so last night was a test and I do ache today but not bad. Got an analysis session with a poditrist next Friday who will make sure that I'm doing everything I can to stay injury free (i.e. stretching and make sure my insoles are correct).
Popping in looking for a bit of advice, if poss???
I've never raced 10K before and have been looking for a local one to sign up to. Then a friend of mine mentioned that his company (Dell) are running a charity 10K near me, so I asked him to sign me up. He dropped round teh card and it's not at the end of May, as I thought. It's actually the 6th of May (Saturday week!)
Now I know that there's not much I can do this week that will materially affect my fitness but what would you reccomend I run in training?
I also have a couple of specific questions:
- The course is apparently quite hilly, how many hill intervals should I try and do this week?
- How many days rest should I have prior to the race?
- Do I need to bother with carb loading?
I have been running for a year and have no worries over the distance (I have completed 2 marathons, the most recent Paris on April 9th) but I had high hopes for a good time in this race (well, good for me!). Paris was 4:00:44 and since then I have only run twice (two 5 milers at 38:26 and 36:36). Is 42 mins a resonable target?
I will know a lot of people at this race who will all know taht I have been running for a while so I will get an unmerciful slagging if I don't do well - all help much appreciated!!
Your be fine running between 15-20miles!
I never actually went over 20-miles whilst training for London 2004, and only ran 3-times over 2hrs for my long run.
15-miles or just above still amounts to a fair time on you feet, so your still getting the effects of Long Distance Training.
Is it really that close?
What you have planned is about right, it will take a good 2-weeks to get London out of your legs, then put in the two hard weeks and taper after your 20-mile race.
Your Key sessions should be at least one long run each week. And a medium long run of between 8-10miles mid-week if time allows.
For speed.. use roads for this! 4x5mins at race pace, with 2-min walk/jog recoveries, if you feel upto this. and try some shorter reps like 10x2-mins off 90sec recoveries again on the road and if your legs feel good, these should give your system a bit of a shock and your gain a little leg speed. Another session worth you trying is just a plain Fartlek, where your adjusting speed every 25-30secs, either going very fast or slow, but do not hold the same pace for any longer than 30-secs, this will be tough in parts but is less stuctured and you go by how you feel.
The warmer conditions will also help with you staying injury free as the ground becomes softer to run on.
I will try and get a example plan emailed to you over the weekend.
With two weeks left before the race, speedwise there is not a lot of things that can be done! though you can easily overtrain and ruin your chances of a goodtime!
I would actually suggest running maybe two more hard sessions at the most, the last being next tuesday.
Skip doing a long run this weekend if thats your usual plan and either sat or sun, do a Hill session. Not sure the area your located but try and find a hill thats going to take around 30-40secs to run up and do 8-10 efforts on the hill with a jog back for recovery, shorter hill then add 2-4 reps to the session.
Tuesday, on the road or grass if dry, do either 8x2mins hard. 2-mins jog recovery, or a simple 1-min on (fast) 1-min off for 10-efforts.
After this say Thursday do a steady 4-5mile run then friday a short jog.
Take a rest day on saturday then the race sunday.
For a 10k Carb loading is generally not needed as you dont want heavy carbohydrates in the stomach, but no harm in having pasta say friday night and keeping it light for saturday before the race, say a lasagne or something similer.
42-mins would be a good target on a flat course, but don`t be disapointed if you do not achieve this as Hills can lose you a good few mins on some courses, plus you have only recently ran a marathon, so your have loads of endurance but may lack topspeed.