Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Dublin Marathon - 29th October 2007
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
Sorry for the tardy reply. Some of that horrible work stuff came through the door this morning and I've being busy all day farming it out for others to do.
To the issue of improvement over time....
IMHO the key ingredients* to any prgressive training plan are:
1. The right mix of quality and quantity.
2. Running at different paces.
3. Regular rest and recuperation as required.
4. Avoiding illness and injury.
5. Good diet and supplements if necessary.
Despite popular perception, I am not an advocate of mega mileage all the time - that is sure to result in a failure to comply with items 3 & 4 from the above list.
In terms of a typical training plan (not marathon-specific), the above would probably translate as:
M = 8M Steady
Tu = 6M (incorporating 4 miles Tempo)
W = 8M Steady
Th = 10M (including timed intervals then 2M Tempo)
F = Rest
Sa = 10M Steady (hilly terrain)
Su = LSR (up to 2hrs)
Total weekly mileage = 50-60
The critical day for improvement purposes is Thursday. Intervals (Yasso 800s/Km Reps) should increase in frequency (starting from four and adding one per week to a max of 10) and reduce in recovery time (start at 3 mins, reduce by 15s per week to a min of 60s) as time progresses.
I've got a tattoo that says: "The way to run faster is to practice running faster" It's a myth that high mileage at the same pace will give dramatic improvements. At best it will be marginal.
In peak condition, that Thursday session for me is 10x1000m with 60s recovery and then a five minute recovery before 4 miles tempo. Be under no illusion - it's a killer and I regularly throw up after it but nothing I've found brings you on quicker.
No doubt everyone has a different opinion on this and ultimately it's a case of individual preferences acquired through "trial and error".
SJ
* Excludes the obvious exceptions of sufficient free time, an understanding partner and the motivation to get out there and make it happen.
Okay, everyone, I am officially signed up for Dublin 2007. And BOY does it feel good! See Mr Happy, Ian, Calypso and the rest of you - you know you wanna! - there!
Memo to self: stop logging onto Runners World site whilst drinking red wine. Or at least hide one's credit card at such points!
Chas, LSR stands for Long Slow Run...well thats what I do!! It might be Long Steady Run, Long Sunday Run or Lanky Silly Run!!
Went to the pool tonight...missed tri club thanks to work running over, but I had scheduled it in and you know what a slave to my schedule I am so I went down to the pool anyway. I got in thinking I'll just do a few hundred and lo and behold got into the pool and flamin' tri coach was in there with a schedule!!
So after being flogged to death by her I came home in a heap and had to restore myself with a sweet and sour chicken!!
I just posted on the Santa thread. I felt disloyal.
hmmm.....doesn't sound as good as chocolate tart....or lemon tart....
starting to give a good impression of being preggers - amazing how much bloat a person can gain by stopping all exercise and eating like Jabba for three weeks....
As soon as my gym membership is active the New Regime will start again - should be next week.... Spin classes and Body Pump classes and Pilates classes. And back to swim training too from Monday.
Hope I can start running again fairly soon after that....
Random man knocked on studio door this afternoon - turned out to be a BBC location manager looking for an artists studio to do half a days filming in! If they use my studio that will be a few hundred quid for me, and my paintings in the background! cool eh?
won't know til next week though...
with that and passing the MOT I'm feeling lucky today so have bought my first ever lottery ticket. lol....
Off for a nice bath now, got lots of drilling to do tomorrow! am I lame for being excited about my 204 piece bit set? not that I know what half of it is for, but it was the same price as only buying the three bits I actually needed! and owning nut drivers and hole saws amuses me.
and keeps HH in line! ;-)
Last night I filled my shopping trolley with Hob Nobs, Doughnuts and a few cakes. I'm working on the basis that the only way I'm really going to improve relative to the rest of you is to fatten you all up
(AND ...I shall not be eating anything that isn't part of my 5 a day)
I had a bliddy awful run last night - I thought I was really up for a 5 miler so went to the running club.
I set off with a lady from my club that finished behind me at Dublin but she dissapeared into the distance at about 4 miles - I was knackered. It was like hitting the wall at 19 miles only this time I'd only run 4. I guess my recovery will take a little longer. I felt really good for the first 3 but suddenly felt very tired and lost my oomph.
So since Dublin I have run 2, 3, 3, and 4.5 miles. Has anyone else had such a slow recovery? Suddenly even a half marathon looks like a very long distance.
THis afternoon I think I'll go to the gym and do anything but running. Some swimming would be good I think.
I wouldn't worry, I was chatting with one of the coaches on Tuesday at my club! As I was saying the same sort of thing, that I feel that I am not running at my best at the moment (And I am running St Neots half on Sunday
Ian
At what point do you reach the stage where your recovery is faster I wonder?
The only thing that will happen if you start to push to soon is that you will end up injured. Enjoy the rest
I have put on 9lbs since the taper!
Ah go on pass me a hob nob!
I slept like the dead last night after my swim...I really enjoyed the swim, it was nice to be back in the water again...but I was really slow.
MrGFB is whisking me away for the night, a belated birthday thing because of the fact that for my birthday I had an entourge of 7 with me, I had to travel half the length of Ireland and I had to run a marathon!!
Furman is American but looks like its based on fairly solid theory. The marathon plan is:
http://www.furman.edu/first/2006 marathon program.pdf
It looks very intensive (5 20 milers with the first only 3 weeks in for example) and actually looks similar to yours in a lot of ways, main difference is that they're talking about cross training where you advocate additional running miles.
For the Thur can you mix teh speed sessions up a bit? Hills & the like? I also tend to only run 5 days (leaves teh weekend for teh family) so would the Wed 8 miler be the one to drop?
I've always had my doubts over teh benifit of speed sessions to a marathon runner (how can sprinting for 400m improve my pace over 42Km???) is teh key to make teh intervals longer?
Thanks - much appreciated!
I'm going to sort out some problems on my Sister in laws computer(I built it for her a couple of years ago on a very tight budget) I treid to talk her through stuff on the phone but she's a total technophobe and got stressed just listening to me. She lives 200 miles away. The plan was to combine my visit with the Downtown Salisbury half marathon but then I got given 3 tickets for England V South Africa at Twickenham for that weekend.
So rather than have a relaxing weekend - I'm travelling there whilst my wife stays here as Taxi for our 13 year old weekend Rugby player and completes yet another mock law exam.
Every weekend is booked up for the next 4 weeks - Oh to just laze around, eat and drink too much and walk in the park with autumn leaves underfoot. No chance! -rushing about and getting stuck on the motorway instead!
At least I'll have a lie in both mornings first though. TGIF!
We're not going far...in fact it'll take us probably 20 minutes to get where we're going! But it's a beautiful country house with a 5 star resturant...apparently the food is amazing!
We'll back tomorrow and that means we have the whole weekend off which is brilliant!
I am suffering just like you, this week i have got back into running in the morning, i am only doing 3 miles though and i have to say i find it exhausting, just no energy whatsoever, can't believe that it was only 3 weeks ago i did a marathon!! But my aim is to just keep at it and then slowly increase the mileage each week.
Tiring stuff this running!!
We rented a cottage in the country the week before Dublin which was just over an hours drive away - it was perfect for a bit of R&R.
(Hands GFB a large plate stacked high with an assortment of Choccy Biscuits )
I am even thinking about doing the 10M race this weekend at Epsom.
Yes, you could (and probably should) vary the content/format of the weekly hard session.
The speed thing is all about introducing the concepts of change of pace running and relativity (as a reputed genius yourself, you'll no doubt be familair with the work of Mr Einstein?)
The thought process is that when you can do reasonable numbers of km reps (or similar) at faster than 10k race pace, the next days steady run will seem like a veritable stroll in the park, especially if you're actually in a park.
Finally, I'd drop the Monday session instead of Wednesday. I'm with Saint Bob on that one.
SJ
Ok, I'll drop the Monday 8 mile steady rather than the Wedensday 8 mile steady (???!) All I need to do now is pick a marathon, finalise a full schedule, do the scheduale and run the race. How hard can it be?
On another subject can I place on the record once and for all that being self employed is teh worst job in the world and I would rather flip burgers for a living (again) than do what I do. I need a beer (or 10) but the jagged needle of pain behind my right eyeball tells me that an early night would be a better idea.
Oh to be a pig farmer again.........
My career....
Petrol pump attendant (pocket money at school)
Agricultural student (3 years)
Photocopier salesman(6 months)
Wine salesman (8 years)
"Varnish" Key account manager (3 years)
Nonwovens National Account manager (7 years)
UK General Manager (3 1/2 years)
Many Varied experiences!
I'd like to keep my current salary but have all the fun that I had earlier in my career - most of the years in the booze trade are a bit of a blur