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Take it easy Ricky/Ali, get plenty of rest in and get those injuries sorted.
Carl - Manchester marathon on 06/04 ?
Just took the mutt out for a walk and it's freezing already out there. I have a long run planned for the morning so an extra layer will be added. Stay warm people
Hmmm - I stayed up late to watch some cricket and then also got up early to see two wickets fall. Not ideal!
Anyway, I'm off to do the parkrun for week 5 of the 8 week challenge for a London Marathon place
I'm hoping to do the Bicton Blister off-road 10-miler tomorrow, but I'll decide in the morning.
Big_G = how rubbish were we at the cricket...How did the parkrun go ?
So, this morning was my first long run of the Manchester campaign. As you know, I have been steadily building back up my mileage after that pesky ITB. I am chuffed to report that I managed 16 miles @ 9:38 pace. It felt very comfortable until towards the end when the legs started to get tired but overall it was a bloody good run and I am very happy indeed.
Excellent news Carter - that sounds like a great run and must be a good confidence booster!
Yes, the cricket was very poor! Not good
parkrun was good. It was one of those great mornings where it was crisp with frost on the grass, but the sun was out. I didn't race it but managed around 22:30 and it felt very comfortable. I did push in the home straight so was tired at the end but I really enjoyed it
Hi Guys, Wow busy on here at the moment. Just been catching up and there seems a lot going on. Well done on the running Carter. Sounds like you need a bit of recovery time Ricky.
Did you decide on that HM Carl?
Big_G you do not go for the easy runs do you?
Hi Ali, I have gone to the Body Balance classes on a Sunday evening when my son attends his Rookie Lifeguard session, but haven't attended for a while as I have gone for the reading book option. I might go back into it soon as I did find them helpful. Seems a kind of cross of Yoga and Pilates...
I have had a couple of weeks of easing off the miles. Ran two 5 milers during the week and a longer run of 8-10 on the weekend. The last 2 weeks I have played football again on the Thursday evening and that has seemed to have put back a bit of spring into my step ;0)
I purchased a pair of Inov8 Bare-X 180 running shoes about a week ago and have ran a couple of times in them. They are a zero drop and I can really feel them promoting the mid-front foot fall. I certainly have felt the muscles in the top of my calf on both legs. So for the moment I am using them on the shorter runs.
I am off early tomorrow morning down to Kirkley Hall in Ponteland to run a 10 miler. The ITB seems to be behaving itself again. I have eased off on the pace and miles the last 2 weeks. I went out for a couple of miles with my wife this morning whilst the kids were at their swimming lesson which felt good, so looking forward to the 10 miler tomorrow now. Not sure how I will run I will see how I will feel tomorrow...
I think the good thing about the Edinburgh Marathon is that it is at the end of May and if you are performing a 16 week training plan then you do not have to start until the beginning of February which means you can get a good bit of winter conditioning in and you don't have to worry about Christmas and New year ruining the training. I feel 16 weeks is enough for me, I think I have had enough and I think my body feels the same at the end of the 16 weeks ! Also with the Marathon being the end of May it gives you a bit of time to get used to the change in climate.
Good luck tomorrow Nell.
Nell - I'm genuinely interested in what you (and anyone else, for that matter!) thinks of a standard week for me. I say "standard", but what I mean is the below is what I'm doing to "tick over" between now and Xmas. I'm not following any specific plan at the moment, and I'm just trying to enjoy my running, which I am.
However, does the below sound like I'm doing too many quick sessions?
Generally, I would usually do 3 sessions a week at mainly an easy pace with 2 sessions a week at a faster pace. One of the faster paced sessions is the Wednesday Club session and the other tends to be parkrun. However, this week and last week it will have been 3 faster sessions and 2 slower sessions as I'll have raced a 10-miler both Sundays (presuming I do Bicton Blister tomorrow). I know this probably isn't ideal, but I just fancied doing these races.
This week I've done:
- Tues: A flat 10 miler at about 9:15min/mile. Comfortable, with no issues at all.
- Weds: 7 miles, including a tough hill-repeat session. Gasping at the end of the efforts.
- Friday: A flat 6 miles, again at about 9:15min/mile. Comfortable, with no issues at all.
- Today: parkrun at about 7:15min/mile. This wasn't raced (apart from the last half a mile or so where I pushed on), and I felt fine and really enjoyed it.
- Tomorrow will be a 10-miler. Not sure what pace as it's an offroader and I'm new to that, but I'd hope to get around in about 1hr30 (9min/mile average). Usually this session would be at about 10min/mile pace if I wasn't entering an event.
This will total 35 miles. Last week was similar with a total of 38 miles.
For info, next week it'll only be a 4-day week due to other commitments. It'll be 2 easy-paced sessions , a Wednesday club session and parkrun totalling about 25 miles.
Any thoughts on the above?
Carter - great run from you today. 16 miles and no troubles. Make sure you keep these long runs slow to suport your recovery. Really pleased for you.
Big G - another solid run from you considering the late night and early morning.
So you have managed to do 5/5 parkruns in a row. 3 more and you are in wit a shot for London.
In all the years I have lived over here (22 this year) I have never really got into cricket.
Unfortunately I could not make the parkrun this morning. MY OH told me last night that I had a meeting with the headmaster of my son's school at 9.30. I had to bite my tongue when I found out.
So after running 4/4 my slimest of slim chances of getting a place in London dissapeared in a puff of smoke. Funny really.
Nell - sounds like you are getting the balance right for you at the moment. And you are so right about a late May marathon. It does mean that you are not under undue pressure to get out over the festive season and can build a base for longer.
I have decided not to put myself under pressure with the HM in early December. I could do it but to get a good time and try and go for a sub 1:40, I would need to be getting 4/5 quality sessions in each week and I just have not got the time for that as I am mega busy at work and cannot guarantee getting home in time to go back out 3 nights during the week.
Much prefer to do my own thing for a few weeks and enjoy the running and get down to marathon training after Christmas.
I am now focussing on finding the right marathon in May. Edinburgh does not work as I remembered that I am doing the Bupa 10k in London that same day.
Milton Keynes is a possibility. It is on the Bank Holiday the beginning of May. Last year it was very warm that day. It is a raifly flat course, only 4000 runners and ends in the MK Dons stadium.
This would mean starting an 18 week training plan just before New Year.
So today I went out and did the same 12 mile route that I did last week after only very short runs during the week.
Today 8:14 min/mile average which is 8 secs/mile faster than a week ago.
I could probably have gone for a little longer but was begginning to get hungry so thought better of it.
This is not an easy run and not at LSR pace but I do enjoy teh mixture of park running and road running and it feels good to run for this long at a reasonably fast pace.
Certainly a running for fun type of pace. Legs do feel a little tired but overall have a satisfied feeling of job well done.
Nell - good luck for your race tomorrow.
You too Big G if you decide to go for it. Sounds to me that you are running for fun at the moment. And you are not really going all out on your parkrun (even if you are running faster than I can on my parkrun course) and with it being so short I would not really count that as a speed session.
You are getting some off-road races in and as long as you are enjoying them I would say keep doing it.
35+ miles a week is a really good base mileage to build up and enjoying it while you are doing it makes it even better. It is so easy for the training for long distance running, to become a bind and when there is a marathon looming you have to be disciplined about teh training. Whe there is not, I say get out there, mix it up a little and enjoy it.
Hi Big_G - Everyone is different I guess. You have a good balance in your sessions and certainly a good base for your marathon training when it comes. With work and family I find it hard to dedicate so many miles all the year around I see from your sessions that you include a hill rep session which is good for conditioning. Do you perform any other strength and conditioning sessions?
Good luck tomorrow Big_G
Hi Carl, sounds like MK could be the one then, and it will give you the chance to not worry about your schedule over Christmas and New Year.
Oh yes and running on Christmas Day?
No way I am going to even go near that one. I think an explosion would occur in the house following me being critically injured ;0( to be honest there is too much fun and children's games to play to consider going for a run!
Just leaving to pick my son up from the Scotland v Australia game, there will be a lot of unhappy scouts I guess ;0(
Nell - I don't really do any other exercise, except for the odd swim every now and again. I do try and keep up the stretching and some basic core work, but I'm not as on top of that as I know I should be....
I used to have a gym membership but I gave it up about a year ago when I began taking running a bit more seriously.
Hi Big_G And the way you train works for folk, as I say everyone is different and different strokes and all that.... Maybe over the winter period if you brought in some strength and conditioning it may bring something else to your running? It may be worth experimenting....
A guy I know who runs sub 3hrs just runs and cycles, I don't think he performs any S&C. He is happy with what he does...
I have always tried to perform some S&C as when I was playing football more than I play now, being a small fella you get pushed around a lot so always had to keep that strength. I do find that it does help with the running, but that is just me. I also know I have to have a good biomechanical balance to keep the ITB at bay.
I think it certainly helped on those hills at the end of the last marathon ;0)
Hi Carl, That 12 mile run looked a good training run. Nice and undulating...
Yes I am afraid guys, the Aussies are giving us Brits a pounding on all fronts at the moment. Just got back from Murrayfield where there were a lot of very drunken and happy Aussies. One drunken fellow called another a w+++er to which my 10 year old daughter asked what one of those was
Luckily along came 4 guys all dressed up as Kangaroos and provided the diversion required to avoid that question..... to which I am very grateful to them ;0)
Hi Carl, Get yourself down to the cricket in the summer, tremendous day out...
Nell - those body balance classes look good
Carter - 16 miles - that's great
Hi all.
A quick update is that I did the Bicton Blister 10 this morning. It's actually 10.25 miles (who's counting
) and I got around in an unofficial time of 1:31:51 which I'm quite pleased with which is an average of 8:57min/mile, so my previous estimate from my post yesterday wasn't far off.
After last weekend's Drogo 10 this is my 2nd off road race and this was was runnable all the way, which Drogo wasn't. I did have a couple of slow miles on one or two of the hills, but I enjoyed the event and covered the last mile (which was on road) in about 7:30 so I'm pleased with that. I got absolutely caked in mud though
A massive highlight for me was when we were winding down through some woods at around 5 miles on a tricky section and in the distance I heard what sounded like bagpipes. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me as I couldn't see anyone playing, and I had just about convinced myself that it must be someone with a good sound system of some sort. However, the music got louder and I turned a corner and suddenly these 2 bagpipe players came into view. It was a great thing for such a local race in the middle of nowhere and really put a spring in my step for the next mile or so
The profile of the race is below, so it's quite challenging I think. You may be spotting a pattern emerging after these events, but I'm now off t'pub
Big G - It seems to me that you are enjoying these off road races. Funny how you get to a stage where deciding one day to race a 10 mile event is no bother as the base endurance is there from a really solid year of training.
I suspect that the variety of training and races that you are getting in at the moment will do you the world of good whatever your focus in the first part of next year is.
A visit to t'pub after a race like that is well deserved and probably necessary.
Hi Spoons, Yes I think Ali will agree the Body Balance classes are pretty good. Usual thing with these type of classes, when you master not falling over most of the time it is what you put in to what you achieve in the class.. I must get back into them again, but not tonight as I am into a good Stephen Leather book at the moment and fancy a good hour on that instead ;0)
Well ran the Kirkley Hall 10 miler today. It is a 2hr drive from Edinburgh so I was away at 7am this morning to give me plenty of time. Got there just before 9 as the road was pretty clear..
The course was not as challenging as Big_G's pretty much undulating with a few minor hills thrown in. I started the run with my usual white fingers, I had chosen to wear my running tights and log sleeve top with a compression t-shirt underneath.
Started the run and by the time I got into the second mile I was actually beginning to think I wasn't really up for the run, I thought I would just see how things went over the next couple of miles.
Over the next couple of miles 3-4 I kind of settled down a bit and the pack spread out and I got into a bit of a rhythm albeit the course was undulating. Carried on through miles 5-6 pretty much the same and passed a few folk, then pretty much found myself amongst similar paced folk, (now I was boiling, typical!) so settled down there. Miles 7 and 8 were pretty flattish so I enjoyed those two miles pretty much. back to undulations on mile 9 but now the finish was coming up I was focussing on finishing strongly. last mile and started to get motoring, but as I was trying to kick in there were a few folk behind me going into a similar fashion. Amazing how this is so off putting, as you think you are going well but other are catching up and on the last stretch of 200Metres a couple passed me, I was spent...
Splits for the run: 7:11,6:53,7:03,6:52,7:04,7:04,6:54,6:46,6:55,6:19
Finishing Time: 1:09
I had planned to go for a 7min/mile pace and pretty much stuck to that, the only times going over being the miles I hit hills. I think maybe if I had ran this whilst in the middle of a training schedule I may have done a bit better. Saying that, I am happy with the time after the marathon as I have really only had a couple of easy weeks after the rest.
I had a few folk come up and thank me for pacing them through, which was nice. Even the couple that overtook me at the end....lol!
Now the plans are to take the miles down to about 20-25 per week for a wee while and get a plan together for some winter conditioning to get myself ready for a 16 week schedule for Edinburgh come February.
I want to get some miles in on the Inov8 Bare-X 180 running shoes also as these are a zero drop I am going to have to bring these in gradually. Not sure whether I will run a Marathon in them though, the Kinvaras are still top of my list for the longer miles. I will have to see how I get on with the Inov shoes....
I think it is time to give the body a rest though and the physio has mentioned I should ease off for a couple of months to recharge. She knows what she is talking about as she is a superb runner so I will follow her charge ;0)
Big_G - we will make a fell runner out of you yet !
Nell - terrific pace so soon after your marathon. Enjoy your rest.
A 5 mile recovery run for me this evening at a very gentle 10:30 pace. Week 1 of 20 is finished with a total of 38 miles. Week 2 is going to be a cut back week.
Nell - that is a cracking pace!! Well done!
Carter - I know I've only done 2 of these and they're not 'A races' for me but I find I'm enjoying them for several reasons. For example, I find I turn up and don't have any nerves on the start. Usually for halfs or marathons I'm quite nervous on the start line so I'm hoping this new mindset will transfer into my 'A races'.
Compared to what I'm used to, they seem more like adventure courses than a 'race' as such. For example I splashed through some obstacles that can really only be described as bogs, scrambled up and down some very rocky trails and tried picking the quickest route through some thick woods. Great stuff. Don't get me wrong; I know many people do race them and some are stupidly quick!!
I think because one off-roader can't really be compared to another it's more a case of me just doing my best on the day rather than rigidly trying to stick to a specific pace. There's certainly no time to relax on these courses and although I'm relatively slow I'm hoping it'll help with my road running, but we'll see.
Anyway, I'm planning another off-roader in 2 or 3 weeks time
Hi all! Wow so busy! Lots to catch up on.
Carl- that was a speedy run for training you did with your 12 miler. Good stuff. Sure you've got a sub 1:40 HM in you!
G and Nell both running solid races. Nell very speedy for a 10 miler.
G I understand what you are saying about off roaders not being comparable to each other. I am thinking about doing a series of Cross Country events soon in Aberdeenshire... they are either 3 miles or 6, you can choose. And it's normally quite a small field. It's 3 events in total and looking at the times of runners who did them all last year, times for the 6 miler for example can vary for one runner from up to 5-6 minutes for the different races.
Therefore turning up on the day is literally about 'racing'- trying to beat other runners and your own expectations, and not really about time so much at all!
I've been very busy with work this week but have still worked out on 4 days. Sadly my achilles tendon is still pretty sore (don't really know what to do with it- suggestions?) so I've mostly been doing some tough cycling at the gym and weights for upper body. I like to feel like I'm still doing something and getting those endorphins going even if I can't run so much. I've ran for less than an hour combined this week, just a few 10-20 minute jogs but the leg is really telling me not to do more than that.
Ali - well done for getting some other training in. It's always tough when injured
Regarding achilles, I've had issues there in the past. The main exercise I did was heal lifts on the edge of the stairs whilst holding on to the bannisters for stability. I was told to stand on my toes on the edge of a step and lower my heal down slowly. I was also told not to go back up again with my weight on the troublesome achilles. I hope that makes sense....
Yeah that makes sense G. Will try, thanks.
Ali - another one is to gently squeeze your achilles and move your foot up and down. This will probably hurt a bit, but I'm told it does some good. My physio recommended it to me and it basically helps to get rid of any crap (I'm sure that's not the word he used, but I don't know what the proper word is
) that may be in/around the achilles.
Run Nation results out today and I finished 27 out of 184 which I am pretty pleased with. There were mainly club runners above me so I can live with that.
Hi Ali, There was a review of the Loch Ness marathon in Running Fitness, sorry you didn't get a mention, even after coaching folk through the race!
I had a visit to the physio today and legs are nice and soothed now, although I didn't have any aches last night. Physio said I could have gone harder then ;0) She was happy as she said the quads felt fine with the wear and tear seeming to be in the glutes. That made me feel good as she said with that feedback from the body I was running well.. what didn't make me feel good was the elbow in my glutes
Big G / Nell - great running well done
Great result at your race there Nell! Well done. Do you have a target time in mind for your next marathon?
I don't know if people have picked up, but I can be a bit of a geek in some ways, and I find that running helps nurture that along nicely. I have been monitoring the dropout race for the parkrun London Marathon places in an attempt to estimate how many people will be left at the end. I was way off with my 5th week estimate! My estimate said there would be 4617 people left after 5 weeks (which was a 35% drop, an estimate based on the previous week drop out rate) but in fact there are 5747 people left, which was only a 19% drop. Obviously, fewer people are dropping out the further they get into the competition.
parkrun also introduced a thing where if you get a PB on a certain weekend, your entry counts twice but the email they sent out didn't say how many people obtained this.
I'm now wavering about whether to continue. The odds are so slim, and there is a local off road race on Saturday 7th Dec that I am tempted with, but if I do the race I won't be able to do the parkrun.... If the number of people in with a shout continues to drop at 19% a week for the rest of the competition, there will be over 3000 people chasing two entries, with an undisclosed number of those people counting twice! So in marathon speak, it seems like I am now at mile 20 and the race has really started. I need to decide whether to continue to dig deep to be in with a shout of obtaining my goal
Thanks Big_G, Regarding the parkrun and VM places. rememeber what Bob Monkhouse said ' You've gotta be in it to win it!' But then if a race comes up you really fancy is it worth worrying about it? There are plenty of marathons out there. Personally this year I found the castles marathon more enjoyable than the Edinburgh marathon. The Castles marathon being very low key compared to the Edinburgh one.
With the castles marathon I didn't have to waste time running around folk that had gone up the front only to hold everyone up, and pretty much straight away the field thinned out and you could get on with the running. Folk were really friendly and on the whole it gave me a real buzz. I think that is what made me run so strongly considering it was a very undulating course and at the end hilly!
Next marathon will be Edinburgh again. Time in mind? I have someone who offered to pace me and reckons I can go for sub 3:10, that kind of scares me! Considering I got 3:20 at the Castles marathon I would obviously like to improve on that and go for sub 3:15. My pal has other ideas though ;0) We will see.....
What marathon have you got in mind for spring Big_G? Come to that what marathons is everyone else planning on? I know Ali will be with me in Edinburgh.
Nell - I'm not really sure about marathons for next year yet. If (and it's a big if) I get into London, I'll do it, but that will be more for a good weekend away as my Club organise a coach and all stay in the same hotel close the start line. As well as the parkrun places, I have a 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 chance via my club of getting in.
If I don't get into London, I'm currently not sure if I'll enter another one for the Spring. I've got two halfs in the Spring where I'd like to see if I can get under 1hr40 and that really is my main target. I do have a marathon in mind for May, but I haven't entered it yet and will decide much nearer the time.
I'm also thinking about doing the Club Championship, which doesn't have any marathons in it but doe have some more, urrrm, "interesting" races. This one is in mid-January and is an offroader and is 11.5 miles. Looks tough! I'm hoping that some of these tougher offroad races will then make a flat and fast road half seem easy!
Blimey Big_G that is a 700ft climb there isn't it?
I was talking to a coach the other week and he did say that an undulating course for a marathon can make things easier as you are varying the muscle use as opposed to just using the one muscle set on a flat course. I suppose I can see the reasoning there. I did think about going into the draw for the Boston Marathon at work, the company is based in Boston and we have free places every year. Well I say free, we have to raise $2500 for charity if we are successful. Plus we have to fund travel and accommodation.. I decided to give it a miss this year.
Big_g - get some trail half marathons in next year too, you know you want too !! I'm sure there will be some terrific ones down where you are, although they generally aren't PB courses which is what you're after.
Nell - are you enjoying 'resting' at the moment or are you itching to get back out there ?
First run of week 2 tonight was 5 miles with 2 @ tempo pace. Last week I did this run and had to split the 2 miles with one mile steady. Tonight, I did them consecutively which felt hard but good. Average pace for the 2 miles was 7:17 which I was also pleased with as my target pace was 7:15 and I didn't look at my watch once
Hi Carter, I went out for a 5 miler this morning in the inov8's. When I say rest I mean cut down the miles ;0) went ok, it is quite a radical move from the 4mm drop to zero and you can feel being pushed mid to front foot. Although when I started relaxing I was feeling it moving back towards the mid foot but on the front side. I am going to keep using the inov8's for the shorter runs for the moment and see how I get on. If anything you certainly feel it in the calf muscles more than when I went from 8mm to 4 mm.
You sound like you are really getting back on track carter. I did find after my ITB problems that the structure of a training plan seemed to help in a way. Just try and keep the strengthening exercises up, as you will need them when upping the miles ;0)
Hi all how are we? I have been a tad inactive due to how busy I've been.
So after last week mainly working out at the gym due to my achilles tendon today I decided to get back to running, I did 3.7 miles in 32 minutes, and though it was very short I must confess it felt hard work due to how tired I've been and not having done much running. But very glad to be back.
The ahcilles still feeling a bit sore but much better than last week. Probably will keep the runs fairly short this week though till it gets better still.
Nell- I personally think you should go for 3:10 in Edinburgh...what's the worst that can happen! Your 3:19 at Castles was a much harder course than Edinburgh, you know Edinburgh and you've done it before.
G- good idea to focus on halfs in the Spring, maybe you could do an Autumn marathon instead, I really liked doing an Autumn marathon this year because training across Summer is lovely with the nice weather instead of training in miserable winter. I'm definitely a sunshine runner!