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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and a Merry Christmas to you all,
This is my first ever post on the RW Forum so it's all a bit new to me, but this past week I got one of my Club's (Derwent Runners - Derby) London Marathon allocations through the club ballot and I'm having a good hard think about what my target time should be. I'd really like to go for a Sub 3 hour marathon and I wanted to know what other people thought and whether I'm way off the mark.
I do have a little bit of marathon experience having done one before (Edinburgh 2010), finishing it in 3:28:38, which was under my target of 3:30 but the time included a bit of a break for a rather desperate portaloo trip and having to walk off a stitch. However, since then I've got a fair bit faster. As a bit of a background my PBs in other races are:
5k - 17:45 (December 2011)
10k - 37:16 (October 2011)
Half marathon - 1:22:32 (December 2011)
My feeling is a sub 3 is achievable, given the half marathon time a couple of weeks ago and a good solid 4 months of training. However, I was wondering what other people thought.
OM
RS- nice to see things are going well
Lev - great stuff, still on the upward curve.
OM - its defo on ! The 1:22 is sub3 worthy, you just need to put some miles in over that 4 months now. What sort of training do you intend to do ? You might not get much response on here for a while given the time of year, but you will in January
As an irregular poster I thought I'd pop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas. Hope you all have a pleasant time.
Lev - sub 80 half in training with 12 weeks to go. You are better than you think, you really need to start believing in yourself. I cant see how you wont be sub 2:40, maybe knocking on 2:35 if you keep the consistency over the remainder of the schedule.
OM as TR says, it is definitely on. You have the speed, now its about buiding the endurance.
As for what I've been up to... apart from lurking of course. Just ticking over since Liverpool in October and now starting to build towards London. I am following an 18 week up to 85 P&D schedule that hopefully will see me go sub 2:30.
Lev / RJ - sounds like you are both in the right place for spring targets
Ode - yeah, 2.59 train at Gloucester the plan. None of this banking early minutes this year. Purely a training run so no taper. Bigger picture is Barca in March.
17.15 at parkrun this morning (2nd fastest ever); felt a bit lethargic, but reasonably happy since I did a five hour run with Jools only two days ago. Speaking of which...she must be just about done by now. Hope so.
Will be at Bushy parkrun tomorrow as is traditional. Expect to see a few familiar faces.
Good speed Dan, Santa hat on tomorrow?
Ode.. great to read about conviction and conception in the same post.
Many congrats to you both.
RS.. nice to see you getting some decent distances in again.
Good long efforts from TR & Lev too.
All the best with your build up RJ, your improvement curve has been very impressive so far!
10.3m this afternoon, very blustery. Spent the morning setting the table for tomorrow's family onslaught. The last time I saw so much cutlery was in a hotel! Should get about 5m in early tomorrow, a bit of a club tradition on Xmas morning.
Looking forward to news from Jools HQ.
Hope everyone has a cracking day tomorrow, merry Xmas to you all.
DanA - more nice 5king !
Wardi - nice cross-training (running and domestics - mind you I was pretty nifty with the Vacuum cleaner and washing machine earlier too)
Jools - brilliant, never doubted you'd do it.......well done Mr Anonymous too.................a gentle 5M tomorrow will give you 100M !
Nice training going on in here, seems like every thread has people doing long runs today.
Just 6 easy for me today as I jogged round Swindon parkrun.
74 miles for the week so good consolidation after last weeks 80.
Merry Humbug etc...
Brilliant Jools...you're going to enjoy tomorrow. What's the next challenge?
22 miles this morning, 20 of which were at or below 5.50m/m.
Merry Xmas to everyone, happy running.
Popping in to say congrats to Jools on her epic achievement, a mind-boggling distance.
Congrats to Ode on the babe-to-be, hope the rest of the pregnancy goes smoothly.
Ticking over here, building up miles and fitness but no long runs or sessions so far. The in-laws are coming round on Boxing Day so that might be an excuse for the first long run
Merry Xmas
Jools - Excellent effort on your very long run.
Lev - Fast training run there fella. I just hope you don't overdo the quick stuff but it looks like a sub 75 on the cards soon.
SL - 20 in 5.50's. That just blows my mind. How do you motivate yourself for that sort of run when not racing? Was it on your own?
Bushy Park run this morning in 17:40. Wore the festive santa hat and spoke to Dan (Xempo) who got me by 4s. I was finishing quickly and closing in on him but only because the first lesser spotted was on my heels and didn't want to be chicked.
Now spending first Xmas day at work until 10pm (not a drop of alcohol in sight.....).
Safe to say this will be my first and last as have a new job come Feb so no more shift work and training should become more consistent.
Top training RS and very impressive runs there Lev and SL. Also well done on your 5Ks Dan, JH1, GAWD (that only got you 2nd?!) and continuing mileage Gobi.
OM -- you are definitely in the right ballpark for sub-3. Top tips are a low-residue diet the day before the race and some Imodium just before it!
And, of course, congratulations Jools -- just read the blog and gosh it took some determination yesterday. For once the great British idle, overindulgent Christmas would be entirely appropriate (whether that's what you've had today I don't know!).
4x0.5M (but at about my 10M PB pace :- ( ) yesterday and 3M with a silly hat this morning. That gives me an unusual streak of 5 days, and I'll probably do a longer one again tomorrow -- phew.
Just checking in to say Merry Xmas to everyone! Especially Joolska - great effort well done.
First 20miler for me in build-up to VLM2012 yesterday, hilly road, wet and windy. 67 for the week.
Great good luck to the VLMers and those in the build up to 2012 marathons.
In my news: they went into the hip and found that although there is a small femoral bump and minor labrum tear those aren't causing the problem, which is outside the hip. 6 months physio ahead to sort it. Today I officially become a cyclist with the Ghost 6000SE set up and waiting by the front door for the sun to rise. I'll be taking it up to London next week where I hope to get plenty of training done.
Boxing Day is a great one for blowing out the cobwebs so good training / racing to all.
JH1 - All my runs are by myself so i'm used to it and it wasn't flat out, no real inspiration needed but there's plenty about, including our very own new ultra runner
Hey people thanks for the advice. It sounds like a Sub 3 is on the cards, I just have to get some good quality training in.
TR - Up until recently, I've been running 6 days a week. Normally 1 x tempo run, 1 x interval/speed session, 1 x long run and 3 x easy runs. Averaging about 40-45 miles a week. I haven't sat down an wrote a training plan yet as I only found out I was doing the VLM about 5 days ago, but the plan is to generally keep the same pattern work outs and gradually increase the mileage to 55-60 miles a week, working my way up to 4 or 5 20-22 milers before the race.
RJ - Glad you think I've got the speed, I'm going to get pleanty of miles in to work on the endurance.Good luck with the sub 2:30 target, that'd be an amazing time.
Dan A - I'm planning on getting 4/5 runs in the 20-22 mile range in (including the Ashby 20 which is about 4 weeks before the VLM). Do you think this is enough, or should I be doing more?
CharlieW - ha ha, thanks for the tip. It's the only race that I've ever had 'stomach trouble', but I might want to carry some immodium just in case!
On a seperate note, I've obviously been a good boy this year because I got a Garmin for Christmas. I'm off off out to play with it now!
more nice long runs from Brian and SL, not sure about folks racing on Christmas Day though !
JH1 -good news on the new job and more consistent hours that it will bring, get signed up for Sept 23rd !
OM - 3 easy runs of how long ? You have more than enough speed with the 1:22, so probably need to set about building endurance. You could do worse than a routine that has a midweek 13 or 14 instead of your intervals, keep your tempo if you like and make your easy runs 8M ish. You should also look for more like 8 to 10 20 to 22 milers. Some folks like one or two longer long runs in the 24 to 26M range, but as long as you bag enough other miles it doesnt matter.
I would also look for a 20M race 6 to 8 weeks out instead of 4 weeks out, and would try and run this at teh intended raced day pace - others dont like this though and say its too dangerous and too close.
For now, just concentrate on building miles and consistency. Stick around here and folks will help and encourage you along the way.
Bagged the enforced December rest day y'day, but did 13M earlier today. I always feel carp after a rest day, I much prefer an easy short day !
When I posted this on fb earlier a beady-eyed fellow sub-3er spotted that those Adios are not designed for this sort of thing. I have responded by showing that the key lessons of the sub-3h forum have not yet left me, namely that I decided to wear them because the green matches the writing on the bike. First things first.
Seriously though, will search out some SPD's in due course, and need to get a green gillet / top to match up with the bike.
Feels fabulous to be back at last in training. It has been grim for the last 4 months and as you can see, there's quite a beer belly to shift
Or you would see if I could post the image
Got it in below this one by using i.e. instead of safari.
Comments about weight not permitted
Not sure if that will work, but anyway. Me on my bike is the gist of it!
HR.. obviously you are wearing one of those Michelin style jackets
Good to see Brian getting into his stride & stunning pace from Lev & SL.
Congrats to the Park runners, Dan A, GAWD, JH1.
Nice 13m TR, that should have shifted the figgy pudding!
5m early yesterday with a bunch of clubmates. 7.5m today with 12 x 400m in the middle.
Intervals this evening were uncomfortable but solid enough.
Good to see the training going well for people in here.
Speed work yesterday was 5k @5:37pace in 17:29 ie 10k race pace felt good in me new inov-8's.
Also just noticed I have had a very good training week due to getting out the door at 5am every day so dont have any interuption/distractions therefore really enjoying it,
Also a certain jools is an inspiration I mean that takes some serious resolve to complete something like that. Fairplay
looks like more good training even over the xmas period by the usual suspects!
Congrats Jools on amazing achievement - i bet your legs are sore!! Hope you recover well and get to use all that great endurance in a marathon in the spring then!
OM - what the others said - sounds like if you add some more endurance miles and keep doing what you have been doing - touch wood no injurieis, then easy peasy
My Saturday planned long run was cut short when my right hammie (on my dodgy hip/glute/hammie side) started feeling like it was either going to cramp - or tear/tweak... so i slowed right down to a crawl and headed straight home - got 11 miles done. Then 2 days of rest for xmas/boxing day (although managed a game of golf in the mild weather yesterday). lots of ice and stretching and headed off to try and get the long run done today. Managed 21.5 miles in around 2:40 in the end so job done. hopefully all the sore bits start to ease off soonish.
Merry xmas everyone, hope it wa a nice time! back to work for me tomorrow.