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jools - blimey some high praise and you've flushed out fishcake, marmite, ed, goldrush (another sub3 at Abo duly noted !), ns2, marigold, marders, dull and even cartman. Shows how long you've been trying for that sub 3. hopefully the next one is in April.
Jools - you know what we think and every superlative is on the money and richly deserved. Fanbloodytastic from you. Superb pacing and to do that in some pretty rough conditions? Outstanding achievement. Über dem Mond.
Al_P - fantastic breakthrough run from you. Your pacing was stunning, and another for whom superlatives apply. That 5k spurt is eye-popping in context. Brilliant brilliant run.
Lev_ Another outstanding fred performance: back-to-back marathons at that pace are remarkable and it would be easy to lose sight of that brilliant achievement in the light of other brilliance around you especially from the pair above.
Blisters - many congratulations on your performance too.
Wardi likewise. Looking forward to the report. Love your post-race response. You will be back at the sharper end if you want it.
Great to see some old-timers back on here like Dull and others but finally ...
Marders you are one of the most modest people I think I've met. There are very few who would attempt to do what you did, and I know of virtually no-one on this planet who wouldn't immediately offer up the explanation. You are one heck of a remarkable person. Speechless.
Good grief, I'm feeling like the new boy again with all the old lags coming home to roost...
Blisters -- didn't even know you were running, well done.
Lev_ -- great stuff to have a stronger performance in the second one (allowing for the weather) -- you've obviously got a nice plateau going.
Al_P -- I'm so impressed by that negative split and amazing time. Absolutely storming.
A lot of hours in the car yesterday and I don't think the back of my thigh liked that. Also I might be a touch DOMSd from the unaccustomed hills on Sunday. Anyway, this _could_ be the start of a tactical lay-off/maintenance downtime... (see, I'm listening). On the plus side, I've got a shiny new bike arriving on Thursday...
Sorry for a random question.... But all in the theme of me getting my running/training a lot more structured (hence why I jumped in this thread) does anyone have a decent excel sheet to log runs and or plan monthly progressions etc?
I am by far one of the least IT literate ppl but would like to have something to record and plan all my future sessions on as it all begins for me on Nov 1st as my build up towards a Spring sub 3.
Any help with the spreadsheet would be great
Hi Slinkz I have actually. It's nothing fancy but you're welcome to a copy. PM me your email address and I'll send you it.
Hope my calves ease a bit today. Still feeling them. Meanwhile I'm looking for a race to sharpen things up in c. 3 weeks. Nothing is quite fitting at the moment but I'll keep up the search.
I hope the marafuners are still enjoying their well-earned celebrations from Sunday.
Wow, I'm right in the mood for another round of P&Ding. Let the 24 week programme begin and see where we get to this time. It's great to see some old timers making an appearance. I may start reading the thread from page 1 all over. Hope the DOMS aren't too bad today. 9st 6lb
It's like 2006 all over again. Must be time for the golden generation to deliver us the world cup.
All we need now is Pug to come on here and declare Jools' run just about acceptable for an average club fun runner. Actually, come to think of it, there have been a lot of Russian women performing above themselves in recent years. Jools, you're not about to disappear off the competitive scene for two years are you???
Seriously though, I hope you don't mind me posting this. We don't send that many red ones out to the lesser spotteds. You are in a select group which counts Nell McAndrew amongst its members.
Not at all. I shall wear it for my first post-marathon run, and puzzle people by jogging very slowly whilst smiling.
Hail Hail
Awesome stuff Joolska! Well impressed.
Still doing a bit. Might even be staring at LS21's arse for a bit on Wed, if he wants to run or drink beer.
That is all.
Well done Jools and all at Frankfurt some good times if not what was hoped for. I blew up at 19 after throwing my plan out the window at mile 3 to "mark" their 3rd guy. He was churning out 6:19s for fun and I had to ignore HR after 14 as it starting getting hard. The last 6 were painful but I got a 7 sec PB In 2:55:52.
a great race with awesome photos and drinks. now to keep my place on the team!
https://totriornottotri.wordpress.com
Disaster! Some old Geordie type ran sub 2:40 on the Newcastle Town Moor marathon at the weekend, thereby setting me a rather stiff target to finish as the World's Greatest Runner (v50, UK) this year.
First week back from injury was 110 miles, which is a good start. Running at a 2,000 cal/deficit day and feeling fine.... just got another couple of weeks to complete the transformation from crippled, fat alcoholic to astonishingly thin and fast runner, before a 1 week taper. First speed session tonight at the Ethiad stadium athletic track.... sore calf permitting.... then off to Italy for a 4-day warm weather training camp in Genoa with our lass. Sadly, it's forecast to piss it down and be 17 deg.
Another lurker crawling out of the woodwork to congratulate Jools.
A fantastic effort, and well deserved
. I am re-inspired to not give up on my sub 2.45 dream.
Good to meet you at the Cotswold Way Relay.
Well done to all the recent marathon runners - this thread has been great reading recently.
I am particularly shamed by those who toughed out 3.30+ times since I bailed out of Abingdon at the last minute when I realised I was heading for that sort of time.
DanA - have you any pictures of Nell in her Xempo shirt ?
Toro - excellent, I have a 2:55:52 on the Fridge (on one of the Timex fridge magnets), the amazing thing is that it reads the same time upside down !
60min turbo and 5M inc 20mins of 30sec effort/30 sec easy (again !), I beat last weeks record distance in the 20min too. Hopefully that was faster leg speed than i'll be needing for Sundays sub60 attempt.
TR - this is a family thread so no pictures. You can have a copy of her tweet on the subject though. Almost as treasured as the retweet I got from Deek.
LD I hate to prick this V50 balloon but you are, presumably, talking about an app like Strava, or Runfantastic or MapMyTracks or BelievemeI'mveryfast? As you know, PO10 is the empirical place so if you make it to 1st V50 marathoner on there I'll be very, very, impressed. In fact I will buy you champagne. Not Krug, obviously. Nor Crystal. And not Dom Perignon either. Just so we're clear.
I'm sure I've told you my Nell story? How she flounced past me in '09 strutting away in the last mile. I didn't realise it was her until I twigged that she might be doing the last bit for the cameras. One heck of a good view I had up the Mall though
I've got to agree Luke that in its own way those battling runs by people when they're not quite where they want to be are damned impressive.
LD whilst I'm gently ribbing you: what about Frankfurt next year as a pair of old codgers?
DanA - thanks, still hurts that she rejected my offer of a drink en route !
NS2's comment about 24 weeks until VLM got me counting, 10 weeks to go is the start of Feb, which is when I'll start doing some marathon specific stuff. That means I might be able to squeeze the Chichester 10K in too (in Feb).
Another addition for Frankfurt 2014 here
TR must admit I baulked at the 24 weeks idea. It's as much as I can do to motivate for 12 weeks of full-blown marathon training.
Frankfurt vs Abingdon? The former looks like a fabulous classy event, but I'd possibly have a chance of a decent V50 showing at the latter. Ho hum.
Anyway, meantime I've just signed up for 4 shorter races over the next 6 weeks. Looking forward to them!
24 weeks to VLM...time to stop lurking and rejoin the fred.
First things first - Jools' run: performance of the year that. Great stuff - that's a story that has been ongoing the entire time I have posted here, so delighted it has ended triumphantly.
Plenty other awesome performances (Al_P) but the above has to stand out.
Kept it up in a low-key way over the summer, 1:20 at the Oxford half marathon a few weeks ago means I am in reasonable shape and only a few long runs away from sub-3. Aim for London remains the same, get another sub3 (they don't come in sweetie wrappers) and as much below that as consistent with work and family.
HR - thats a lot of races in 6 weeks , are some of them shortish ? Tricky thing (in trying to win Age groups) is that you have no control over who else might show up. I was 2nd V45 in the NF 1/2 IM but 1st was 3rd overall (compared to my 29th). Frankfurt would be a better experience, but more expensive and you probably wouldnt win your AG. But then a V50 rock star might show up at Abo....
Nice to see Pisc, 1:20 shape means you are sub3 fit before the training has even begun.
Very true TR. I'd have nicked 1st this year even with my so-so time tho' you can't really leap like that I know: the big 50 is in 3 months. As you say, it only takes a self-appointed V50 Grandee to show up, and there's a lot of very good V runners around as your NF case demonstrates.
Yes: all short, or rather escalating: 5k, 7m, 10m and then, the one I'm dreading, the infamous Hog's Back on Dec 8th. A good thing though is that my coach is right back on my case with some very detailed training plans ahead, including, you'll be pleased to hear, core and strength work.
Piscator another de-lurker, excellent. Joolska look at how you've been flushing out the seasoned thread pros.
Speed session tonight - was 12 secs/mile down on six weeks ago just before I got injured. So, setting a target of around 2:40 for Istanbul.
Frankfurt is possible for 2014. It's clearly the place to be these days.
HR - the Hog's Back has been going for years, nice one. That was a big race when there weren't many road races around when I was a kid. Good thing about hilly (and slightly odd distance) races is there's no time pressure (bit like IoW 1/2) you just push it hard and look at the watch afterwards.
Blimey LD, ok I take that back. That would be damned impressive. I've just been on there and seen my lowly position. Will have to see if something can be done about that but if you do 2:40 that's way out of my range. I must say I'm pretty tempted by Frankfurt. Think of those beers and brockwurst mit mayo after?
TR nice one. Very much coach's thinking too, with all 4 races actually: just run them and leave the times on the back-burner until next year. GGAC will be my local club and the Hog's Back is their baby. They've changed the course by the way and apparently it's made it even better with less main road running.
HR - bet its still a toughie though !
90min turbo, HR was a bit low in the efforts, but I've put in some hard work recently. Need to put some running into the legs over the next few days ready for Sundays 10M.
Frankfurt race report time.... The whole race weekend was quite an experience, as we drove from the UK to friends in Brussels for Thursday night, where Mrs & Al P Jnr stayed for the weekend and I drove on down to Frankfurt with an old uni house-mate (road trip!). The autobahn proved to be quite an entertaining experience. Although it was busy and lots of roadworks/variable speed limits limited the amount of car top speed testing that could be done (record was 206kph and still accelerating, not bad for a Honda!). The friends we were staying with in Darmstadt near Frankfurt where expecting a baby fairly imminently, low and behold we got a text message on Thursday to say labour had started and the baby ended up arriving later that day! This changed the plans slightly and we ended up getting a hotel room for Saturday, but we got the added bonus of meeting the new-born and helping out with running errands/do shopping etc...
We stopped off at the expo on Friday afternoon to get number/chip business done and dusted. Friday night involved wetting the baby’s head with (for me) a very modest amount of local 'Landenbier' and some top quality German grub. Saturday was combination of wandering around Darmstadt and an afternoon trip to the 'Jungenstillbad', which are the town's public baths. This had a great range of saunas/steam rooms and thermal pools, a great way to relax before a race, although there was a strict no trunks policy in the saunas
... We had an early dinner at our friends flat and then got back to the hotel to sort out race kit and get an early night.
Race day dawned with clear skies but fairly windy. The temperature was mild and forecast to rise up to 18/19C, but this didn’t turn out to be a problem as it clouded over (and rained) just after the start. Getting to the start from Darmstadt turned out to be a painless 20min drive to the main parking for the Messe exhibition centre and then a 5min shuttle bus ride to the start itself.
I had plenty of time to sort my gear out go for a jog/dynamic stretch in the small park adjacent to the start line. It was great to meet Lev before the start and we had a good chat in while waiting in the pen ready to go..
0-5km – (17:38)
I got a reasonable position in the pen about 4-5 rows back from the front, but it didn’t really matter as there was a sizable gap to the elites in front and we weren’t brought forward before the gun, so I crossed the line around 20secs after the start. My plan was to aim for 18 mins per 5k which would put me on for a 2:32. The first 1km was a bit hectic as I had to navigate a fair number of slower runners. The combination of that and the tall buildings playing havoc with the Garmin meant judging the pace was difficult. I was keeping an eye on my average heart rate which was coming out a bit high (168 vs marathon HR of 165bpm), but it does have a tendency to spike at the start of a run. Probably a bit of a fast start, but I don’t think it limited me later on in the race too much.
5-10km – (18:30)
As things started to settle down I had a choice between two groups to go with, both with female elite runners and pacers. As my HR was still a bit high (av 166) I opted for the second group, which turned out to be the Brit ladies Emily Wicks and Hayley Haining, as I figured the group in front was on more like 2:30 pace (leading German ladies). As I tried to rein in my HR (and keeping in a group) the pace dropped, but I wasn’t worried as I wanted to keep things under control given the fast first 5k and the prospect of a strongish headwind for 13 or so km from 14k onwards.
10-15km – (18:24) & 15-20km – (18:30)
By 15k my average HR for the last 5k was down to 165 and I was ticking along nicely in the middle of my target pace band of 5:45-5:55/M. At this point I wasn’t pressurizing myself to push the pace down, I always felt that 2:31 would be a big ask and the conditions were far from ideal for an optimal run. So I kept in the group and kept tabs on my HR. At 20k my average HR had dropped to 164. We got pretty wet along this stretch and the wind was strong enough to take a bit off the pace.
20-25km – (18:05)
With hindsight my conservative approach in the first half started to pay off from halfway onwards. The average HR for 20-25km was still 164, but now I was back to sub 5:50 pace. At some point in this section me and a couple of other guys drifted off the front of the group we were in as the pace increased. I went through halfway in 77:02. Around 22k a familiar yellow and blue strip vest of Bournemouth AC pulled up alongside, worn by Ian Habgood. I was a little surprised as Ian has a sub 2:30 PB, but he’d arrived late at the start and had had to work through a lot of course traffic to get up into clear space. I let him carry on as I didn’t fancy my chances of being able to maintain his sort of pace. Unfortunately he took the two guys running with me with him! So I was left to run solo, although I managed to keep them in sight…
25-30km – (18:06)
Things continued to pick up as we finally made the turn at the far end of the course and started to head back towards the city centre. I was maintaining the pace but my HR was now down to around 163bpm. Realizing I was probably running a bit under MP effort now, I started to push on.
30-35km – (17:35)
This was definitely the best section of the race; with 20M bagged I was really motoring and passed a lot of people. Looking back I probably went too fast (averaging sub HM PB pace!) a bit too soon. My lap HR average spiked up to 167bpm, so I think it would have been better to put in progressively faster 5k’s between 30-35 and 35-40. Also the wind was now working to our advantage with the whole 5k, straight, flat and dead downwind!