Chris, stick around, with your potential, you'll fit in well on here.
Lou, good questions. All training plans are personalised, which any lurkers reading Skinny's schedule need to appreciate. That wasn't necessarily just a half marathon training plan per se, that has developed from what he's done before.
I wouldn't especially have 3-5k pace work in a half marathon build up anyway, but with Skinny's niggles I certainly wouldn't have!
There were some sprinklings of 10k and tempo work thrown in, for some faster material, but the bigger focus was on MP, MP and HMP mixes, and then progressive runs starting at MP ending at HMP or Tempo. Those get you fit pretty effectively.
By the time Skinny was doing his HMP peaking sessions it was clear he was ready to smash his pb.
And taking 2.20ish off a pb when ill shows that pretty conclusively.
High maintenance? Eek! It's probably safest for me to sit on the sidelines as SG's advisor. I'm not sure I've got it right myself yet (3.5 mins positive split at VLM. Boo!) and I've certainly got ideas for tweaks for the next one; I don't know if anyone's heard of Canova but he's got some pretty gruelling ideas regarding long runs working around MP.
Lou - yes, I believe the bar staff were in swimwear. That drink offer sounds quite dangerous, similar to one at my old student union where it was styled on a stock exchange so the prices went up and down (supposedly) based on what had been purchased. I remember one night it broke and Pernod was stuck on 15p, needless to say I've not drunk Pernod since that night.
Lit - excellent photo.
Hi Chris - will be keen to see how you get on. We have fairly similar current times and goal times.
Phil - we have a coach at our club who has recently been talking about long runs at MP. I'll have a look at Canova, but think I'll stick to a more traditional approach this time as it will be my first.
Welcome Chris.
Lit - looks wonderful; I don't know how you could resist.
Chris - welcome and come back and visit as often as you like. Tommy sounds like he's already sizing you up for some competitive PBing.
Lou - your game??? So are you suggesting that we each have to submit two photos??? What does McF think about this idea - I don't want the thread closed down.
PhilPub or PhilPup - I'm geting confused
Richard - did you do Coniston14?
Bob - await parkrun time - you've been training well so probably depends how nasty weather was but I'm guessing close to 20 mins - just not sure which side.
McF - I'd forgotten about your relays too - hope that's gone well - relays sound a bit like you're probably not going to be running with like paced runners so sounds hard work.
StevieG - your fan base is growing - do we share the royalties when you write your book? Don't worry I've worked out the response regarding current training charges for myself!
What I thought you meant was that there was a completely different pair of marathoners you were comparing the situation to (PMJ being the, er, less young one) and I wondered which of the two PhilP was meant to be in the analogy...
nope, the scenario was young chap who doesn't post anymore who was a lot faster than Phil J, but experience massively outweighed keenness and pace. Marathon finds that out in a way lower distances don't.
Back from the very rainy National Relays. That was very humbling after last weeks third! We did ok considering, 57th out of 65 (plus a few teams that didn't have a full team). Beat both our local rivals. On the face of it could do better but the standard was unbelievable. Mo Farah was registered for his club for the man's race but don't think he was there! The fastest girl ran the course in 13 minutes something . I ran it in 19.01, second fastest in our team of four. Was a very random distance of 4.35 kilometres. I was the first leg and they went off like frigging rockets. Never have I seen so many sharp elbows on a start line! (And that's coming from me!) Course was really quite undulating as well and I was very relieved to see the finish.
The foot held up ok, put Ibuprofen gel on it. Hurts a bit now though.
Skinny - unless MrD has set up hidden cameras (in which case there will be Strong Words) there will be no submissions of any climactic pictures from the McF/MrD household.
Richard - it's suposed to be the most beautiful/scenic road race in the country (or something like that) - was it? I targetted it this year when it was in March as a good tough run that I could enjoy too and would set me up for the year - will have it in as a possible for next year when thinking about what I'm going to do but my current thinking has a flat March HM in it.
Unlucky with the injury but 11 min mile pace will at least have maximised your opportunity to enjoy the views.
Bob? No MG report to refer to but it's not like Queen Stalker to dish out the performance winks without something good to report.
Lou - hope you enjoyed the Wobbler - obviously you didn't think the Trembler would provide enough pain and suffering
Thanks for the welcomes everyone. Went out for my last long run this morning before Birmingham next week. Would have liked to do maybe 10 or 11 but ended doing just under 9 at 08:30 pace for most but then a few hills on last stretch took it down to 08:37 so wondering if a 01:45 for Birmingham may be a bit ambitious.
I'm going to continue building my base Nov Dec get the miles up to 35 to 40 a week and do some speed work in Jan/Feb. Then I will be entering the raceways half marathon at long marston airfield. Its very flat but a bit boring as its laps but hopefully with the right training it should be a good course to try for sub 01:35.
My PB for half is 01:39 and 03:35 for marathon but I was a lot fitter then. Just getting back into the running as recently we had a baby and running had to take a back sit for a while. He is a year though now so we are both getting back to our running.
Anyway I will keep you updated on my progress. Tommy it would good to hear how you are getting on as well if we are both aiming for similar times.
I think I will do just a few short runs this week. Maybe a 3 5 and a 2 before race day.
Hi Chris, I think it hard to predict times based on training runs. Even if you include a substantial amount of race pace running it all seems so much harder during training. Never ceases to amaze me how long I can sustain a pace for during a race.
Bob – do we have some news?
Rich – how’s the Achilles today?
Lit – You seem to have top notch runners beating down you door to coach you.
So a last minute decision to run today, despite my plan to continue to take it easy for a few more weeks. Unusually late start to the race, but I still managed to be in a rush to get out of the door for my lift. In doing so I forgot my trail shoe and also my garmin.
I am aware that I’m a bit of a slave to my garmin so, whilst feeling a slight pang of anxiety, I also felt a little thrill at the thought that I might experience that oft talked about ‘running by feel’. Given the unrelenting rain since last night I was less thrilled about the idea of a wet, muddy cross country race in road shoes.
Got to the start at the local leisure centre in plenty of time; registered; changed and had a cup of coffee, then jogged the half mile up to the start. This included a couple of hundred metres up a muddy path which was as slippery as I feared. Did a few laps of the field with a handful of strides then lined up with about one hundred runners in the rain.
Given my long layoff I wasn’t sure what my current fitness would be like. There was about a half dozen from our club, including a couple of ladies who I knew would running around my pace, so I decided to stick close to them and see how it went. Set off downhill sharp left quite soon came to a steep, muddy uphill climb. To be honest I think I managed quite well, or at least no worse than others with more appropriate footwear.
The course was two laps of the Welcombe Hills Country Park and not surprisingly it includes a few hills. Potato Hill, Temple Hill and the obelisk viewpoint are shown on the map and the race planners made good use of the local topography; steep up and down broken up with short sections of ridge and furrow to break up your stride.
The field thinned out quite quickly. One of my target ladies shot off so I let her go and stuck fairly closely to the second. I went passed her a few times on the flat and downhill, but she kept pulling back on the uphills. This continued up and down on mostly grass surfaces, churned up by livestock though gates, but I was pleasantly surprised that I managing to stay on my feet without too much trouble. The first steep, muddy slope on the second lap was the only time I remember losing my footing briefly and a section running down hill across caused me to veer widely.
About halfway round the second lap I passed a guy walking up one of the hill and decided I was feeling quite good. I gradually pulled away from my clubmate and set my sights on an old chap a hundred metres or so ahead. Passed him and looked to the next guy – dressed in black – another hundred metres or so ahead. He must have picked up the pace toward the end too though because I wasn’t able to make up any ground before finishing in 17th place with a time of 43:28.
So, first race in a while and I finished in a respectable time and placing and felt fresh the whole way. Very happy with that.
I feel I should recommend this race. The course is fantastically tough and, at only £6 in advance and £8 on the day, including a medal and soup for finishers, like all Stratford AC races is excellent value.
Sorry all - busy weekend! Report over on t'other thread, and yep, cracked 20:00 for the parkrun with a 19:58. Hardly a barnstormer for how much it hurt, but in the blustery conditions, at least meets one of my targets for the year and will get me a V40 PO10 ranking.
Well done to Lou and 'Flooze, hello to Chris - and sorry for anything glaring that really ought to have been mentioned tonight - will have a proper read back tomorrow!
Comments
Chris, stick around, with your potential, you'll fit in well on here.
Lou, good questions. All training plans are personalised, which any lurkers reading Skinny's schedule need to appreciate. That wasn't necessarily just a half marathon training plan per se, that has developed from what he's done before.
I wouldn't especially have 3-5k pace work in a half marathon build up anyway, but with Skinny's niggles I certainly wouldn't have!
There were some sprinklings of 10k and tempo work thrown in, for some faster material, but the bigger focus was on MP, MP and HMP mixes, and then progressive runs starting at MP ending at HMP or Tempo. Those get you fit pretty effectively.
By the time Skinny was doing his HMP peaking sessions it was clear he was ready to smash his pb.
And taking 2.20ish off a pb when ill shows that pretty conclusively.
Young pup. Love it!
High maintenance? Eek! It's probably safest for me to sit on the sidelines as SG's advisor. I'm not sure I've got it right myself yet (3.5 mins positive split at VLM. Boo!) and I've certainly got ideas for tweaks for the next one; I don't know if anyone's heard of Canova but he's got some pretty gruelling ideas regarding long runs working around MP.
Ha! Only a 1:16 positive split for me.
Based on that LIt maybe you should offer Phil your services, not the other way round.
*insert dirty joke of your choice here*
Lou - yes, I believe the bar staff were in swimwear. That drink offer sounds quite dangerous, similar to one at my old student union where it was styled on a stock exchange so the prices went up and down (supposedly) based on what had been purchased. I remember one night it broke and Pernod was stuck on 15p, needless to say I've not drunk Pernod since that night.
Lit - excellent photo.
Hi Chris - will be keen to see how you get on. We have fairly similar current times and goal times.
Phil - we have a coach at our club who has recently been talking about long runs at MP. I'll have a look at Canova, but think I'll stick to a more traditional approach this time as it will be my first.
Welcome Chris.
Lit - looks wonderful; I don't know how you could resist.
Chris - welcome and come back and visit as often as you like. Tommy sounds like he's already sizing you up for some competitive PBing.
Lou - your game??? So are you suggesting that we each have to submit two photos??? What does McF think about this idea - I don't want the thread closed down.
PhilPub or PhilPup - I'm geting confused
Richard - did you do Coniston14?
Bob - await parkrun time - you've been training well so probably depends how nasty weather was but I'm guessing close to 20 mins - just not sure which side.
McF - I'd forgotten about your relays too - hope that's gone well - relays sound a bit like you're probably not going to be running with like paced runners so sounds hard work.
StevieG - your fan base is growing - do we share the royalties when you write your book? Don't worry I've worked out the response regarding current training charges for myself!
ps apologies, just re-read my post "phil's just a young pub, it was phil who..." post
I did mean Phil Jones on my thread!
Though obviously Pub Phil is a top man for marathons too!
doh!
So I am still old then? Thought so. Carry on!
compared to the other Phil you're still a very young pup
What I thought you meant was that there was a completely different pair of marathoners you were comparing the situation to (PMJ being the, er, less young one) and I wondered which of the two PhilP was meant to be in the analogy...
So how old are the two Phils?
Coach - no running until Wednesday - got to go to Paris for a meeting.
Sounds good but actually I won't leave the airport.
PS: Skinny - you and me are the show ponies in SG's training stable. He'd be lost without us!
OMG it's not Charles de Gaulle airport is it? Locally known as 'the seventh circle of Hell'.
nope, the scenario was young chap who doesn't post anymore who was a lot faster than Phil J, but experience massively outweighed keenness and pace. Marathon finds that out in a way lower distances don't.
Skinny, noted, the extra couple of days give you a nice break. We can have a build up to that 10miler,then see what the plan is.
it is that very airport!
Oh, well in that case it's not surprising you don't get to leave. Takes about 2 days just to find your way out.
Back from the very rainy National Relays. That was very humbling after last weeks third! We did ok considering, 57th out of 65 (plus a few teams that didn't have a full team). Beat both our local rivals. On the face of it could do better but the standard was unbelievable. Mo Farah was registered for his club for the man's race but don't think he was there! The fastest girl ran the course in 13 minutes something . I ran it in 19.01, second fastest in our team of four. Was a very random distance of 4.35 kilometres. I was the first leg and they went off like frigging rockets. Never have I seen so many sharp elbows on a start line! (And that's coming from me!) Course was really quite undulating as well and I was very relieved to see the finish.
The foot held up ok, put Ibuprofen gel on it. Hurts a bit now though.
Skinny - unless MrD has set up hidden cameras (in which case there will be Strong Words) there will be no submissions of any climactic pictures from the McF/MrD household.
I'm puzzled by the talk of multiple Phil's
I don't think the multiple Phils and climax conversations were linked but I like your thinking!
Well done on the race.
Bad luck today Richard. Sounds like there could be worse ones to have to jog round.
I've made a last minute decision to do the Welcombe Wobbler tomorrow. Should be fun iv the rain keeps up.
http://stratfordac.co.uk/item/468905
Lou, well done on finding a race with an even stupider name than all my poultry-themed events.
Well done also to McF, Richard and Bob on their performances yesterday.
Richard - it's suposed to be the most beautiful/scenic road race in the country (or something like that) - was it? I targetted it this year when it was in March as a good tough run that I could enjoy too and would set me up for the year - will have it in as a possible for next year when thinking about what I'm going to do but my current thinking has a flat March HM in it.
Unlucky with the injury but 11 min mile pace will at least have maximised your opportunity to enjoy the views.
Bob? No MG report to refer to but it's not like Queen Stalker to dish out the performance winks without something good to report.
Lou - hope you enjoyed the Wobbler - obviously you didn't think the Trembler would provide enough pain and suffering
Right, like I didn't learn how to stalk people's parkrun results even before the event results come out from you, Skinny.
Thanks for the welcomes everyone. Went out for my last long run this morning before Birmingham next week. Would have liked to do maybe 10 or 11 but ended doing just under 9 at 08:30 pace for most but then a few hills on last stretch took it down to 08:37 so wondering if a 01:45 for Birmingham may be a bit ambitious.
I'm going to continue building my base Nov Dec get the miles up to 35 to 40 a week and do some speed work in Jan/Feb. Then I will be entering the raceways half marathon at long marston airfield. Its very flat but a bit boring as its laps but hopefully with the right training it should be a good course to try for sub 01:35.
My PB for half is 01:39 and 03:35 for marathon but I was a lot fitter then. Just getting back into the running as recently we had a baby and running had to take a back sit for a while. He is a year though now so we are both getting back to our running.
Anyway I will keep you updated on my progress. Tommy it would good to hear how you are getting on as well if we are both aiming for similar times.
I think I will do just a few short runs this week. Maybe a 3 5 and a 2 before race day.
Hi Chris, I think it hard to predict times based on training runs. Even if you include a substantial amount of race pace running it all seems so much harder during training. Never ceases to amaze me how long I can sustain a pace for during a race.
Bob – do we have some news?
Rich – how’s the Achilles today?
Lit – You seem to have top notch runners beating down you door to coach you.
So a last minute decision to run today, despite my plan to continue to take it easy for a few more weeks. Unusually late start to the race, but I still managed to be in a rush to get out of the door for my lift. In doing so I forgot my trail shoe and also my garmin.
I am aware that I’m a bit of a slave to my garmin so, whilst feeling a slight pang of anxiety, I also felt a little thrill at the thought that I might experience that oft talked about ‘running by feel’. Given the unrelenting rain since last night I was less thrilled about the idea of a wet, muddy cross country race in road shoes.
Got to the start at the local leisure centre in plenty of time; registered; changed and had a cup of coffee, then jogged the half mile up to the start. This included a couple of hundred metres up a muddy path which was as slippery as I feared. Did a few laps of the field with a handful of strides then lined up with about one hundred runners in the rain.
Given my long layoff I wasn’t sure what my current fitness would be like. There was about a half dozen from our club, including a couple of ladies who I knew would running around my pace, so I decided to stick close to them and see how it went. Set off downhill sharp left quite soon came to a steep, muddy uphill climb. To be honest I think I managed quite well, or at least no worse than others with more appropriate footwear.
The course was two laps of the Welcombe Hills Country Park and not surprisingly it includes a few hills. Potato Hill, Temple Hill and the obelisk viewpoint are shown on the map and the race planners made good use of the local topography; steep up and down broken up with short sections of ridge and furrow to break up your stride.
The field thinned out quite quickly. One of my target ladies shot off so I let her go and stuck fairly closely to the second. I went passed her a few times on the flat and downhill, but she kept pulling back on the uphills. This continued up and down on mostly grass surfaces, churned up by livestock though gates, but I was pleasantly surprised that I managing to stay on my feet without too much trouble. The first steep, muddy slope on the second lap was the only time I remember losing my footing briefly and a section running down hill across caused me to veer widely.
About halfway round the second lap I passed a guy walking up one of the hill and decided I was feeling quite good. I gradually pulled away from my clubmate and set my sights on an old chap a hundred metres or so ahead. Passed him and looked to the next guy – dressed in black – another hundred metres or so ahead. He must have picked up the pace toward the end too though because I wasn’t able to make up any ground before finishing in 17th place with a time of 43:28.
So, first race in a while and I finished in a respectable time and placing and felt fresh the whole way. Very happy with that.
I feel I should recommend this race. The course is fantastically tough and, at only £6 in advance and £8 on the day, including a medal and soup for finishers, like all Stratford AC races is excellent value.
Good stuff Lou - respectable time too!
Sorry all - busy weekend! Report over on t'other thread, and yep, cracked 20:00 for the parkrun with a 19:58. Hardly a barnstormer for how much it hurt, but in the blustery conditions, at least meets one of my targets for the year and will get me a V40 PO10 ranking.
Well done to Lou and 'Flooze, hello to Chris - and sorry for anything glaring that really ought to have been mentioned tonight - will have a proper read back tomorrow!