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P&D Spring Marathon 2018
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Though I am injured now. That knee niggle pre-Abo has come back with vengeance. It felt fine at parkrun, then walking to the post-office and *boom* knee is now unstable. I think I'll be out for a couple weeks at least. So I bought myself a pair of trail shoes, they're disgustingly bright pink and cheap, but they were the most comfortable shoes in the store. I need to find some mud to rub them in.
Quick review - thanks for the welcome back, I really need to keep up. You're right HA, the commute home will be fantastic for a mid week MLR in the summer, it's pleasant as well as the right distance. I've learnt too much about all your late night toilet habits.. and Jooligan. you never run with a headtorch in the woods at night.. are you part animal? It would explain a lot.
Four Villages Half 21st Jan
• Ramjet - P&D 70-85 - 1:23
Wokingham Half 18th February 2018
• Sorequads - P&L 12 week 60-80 - target sub 80
• Phil - 50-70 mpw - Sub 72
• Tom-50-70 mpw- loosely following P&L 12 week- Sub 75
• Jooligan - FJ 70mpw PR & race every w/e A 1:25, B 1:26, C 1:27
• Coops - P&D 50-70 incl club intervals & hills - 1:44
Bath Half Marathon 4th March 2018
• 1SteveMac - P&L 12 week - Mix of 2 plans (peaking at 50 ish miles) - Target Sub 84 mins.
• Tom-50-70 mpw-loosely following P&L 12 week-Target-PB-73:07
Reading Half Marathon 18th March 2018
• AWC - P&D 55-70mpw - Target 1:29
Manchester Marathon 8th April 2018
• RunSpoonRun - TBA but plenty of miles - 2:45
• Tom-50-70 mpw- Sub 2:45 (If I decide to do it!)
London Marathon 22nd April 2018
• Reg Wand - P&D 55-70 variant - Target 2:39
• Joe Blogs - Sub 2:30
• HA77 - sub 2:30
• Ramjet - P&D 70-85 - 2:55
• JohnOz - P&D 70-85 variant - 2:55
• Jooligan - 70mpw & Race hard all year & hope for the best - A 2:59, B 3:05, C 3:14
• Phil - 50-70mpw no plan - sub 2h30
• Sorequads - freestyle 6 week plan - sub 2:50
• AWC - P&D 55-70mpw - Target 3:10
• 15West - P&D 55-70 - sub 2:50....subject to change.
• Andy85 – P&D up to 55 variant – target 3:30
• dct – sub 2:45
• Coops - P&D 50-70 incl club intervals & hills - 3:40
Newport Marathon 29th April 2018
• Northender - P&D up to 55ish. - Target 3:20 (please)
Assuming you've downsized then FBT?
Loving your definition of recovery Joe, have a good race!
Any idea what the knee problem is JCG?
Another 15 mins on the treadmill yesterday, took me ages to work out the pace was in kmph so average pace was really slow
2 mile w/u, 2 mile at marathon pace, Northampton Park Run (16.01 on my garmin, unofficial pb and course best by quite a big chunk), 2 miles at marathon pace.
Good luck to everyone racing over the weekend, although cold the conditions are good.
In other news my daughter is being a total shithead teenager today.
Sounds like another run is called for Westy - take her phone with you as punishment
19:22 at FoD PR this morning, my 3rd fastest time of 170 runs there in far from PB conditions followed by a 7s PB at the 2.3M Blorenge Fell Race. I set my PB in 2013 & wasn't even close in 14, 15 or 16.
I ran 50M Mon-Fri this week at around 8:30 minutes/mile average with NO speed or hillwork & a high HR alert on the watch. I've been doing this for 4 weeks now to balance my race heavy w/e. I've noticed that it takes til Wed/Thursday for my pace to return to normal if I've raced Sat & Sun. I could easily run faster than I have been any day of the week but then my HR would be significantly higher than 70%. Having a high HR alert has reined in my impulse to flog myself just slightly too much all week then produce slightly unsatisfactory race performances. I suspect combining w/e races with hard P&D sessions in the week is why I became injured earlier this year - an injury I am still managing. I briefly got faster but then injury took it's toll on my times.
Front loading the week was the favoured strategy of the great British marathon runners of the 80s. They would then race hard every w/e - usually Saturday afternoons if memory serves. This is a great book if you're looking for an inspirational read: http://www.gabriellecollison.com/books-gabrielle-collison/british-marathon-running-legends-of-the-1980s/
Fingers crossed (again) for you Scott!
Nice session that Phil and a solid tempo from Westy.
Great day's work Jooligan. I have also resolved to do all my recovery runs at 70% Max HR as I build up the mileage to my highest ever. You can't be smashing out sessions every day.
Decent XC for me today on a fairly runnable course. It is often hard to judge your own performance with XC, especially if you have never run the course before. Sometimes I resort to looking up the po10 profiles of those who finished around me and judging by that I did OK. Average pace of 7:15 doesn't sound great but there was plenty of mud!
Hope you can finally get injury free Scott-seems like it has been going on forever-must be so frustrating!
JCG-hope the knee improves asap.
Excellent tempo sessions Westy and Phil.
A very impressive day of racing Jools-not that it comes as any surprise!
Good work on the XC Ramjet particularly in all that mud.
Got out early for a Sunday (5:45) to get my run in today. 15 miles @ 6:17 m/m. Felt good. Now off to the Bath Christmas market for the day. Have a good Sunday everybody!
Well done Ramjet. XC pace is always so hard to compare. I've been racing in the same 2 leagues for about 5 years now so I can tell when I've had a good/bad day by looking up familiar names in the results.
Just got back into it after 4 days off to let the quad heal and seems much better today after a gentle tester. Felt as if I had I been on a taper as pace was quicker than I expected but still a looonnnngg way to go.
Won't mention the cricket, not such a big deal here either surprisingly, which may say more about the quality of the current team.
Really impressed by the Norwegian guy at Fukuoka - sub 2:06 FTW and a new record for non Africans. Goes to show how the marathon is a different beast from shorter distances, he has a pretty average PB of 27:55. Mo must be worried as the pressure is on him, especially as Kipchoge is running VLM...
A typical weekend for you Jooligan, would expect nothing less than a couple of races
I suspect an afternoon at the Bath Christmas market will be harder work than that run Tom
Comeback continues, 20 mins on the treadmill today
Sounds like promising progress Scott.
XC today was pretty good. 141st doesn't sound great but it's a seriously competitive field so pretty happy with that. Went out steady for the first half-mile as legs were still complaining after yesterday's brutal Fell Race in spite of a 2M wu but then they started to flow & I felt great for the next few miles as I worked my way through the sprinters but then it started to get hard. The course was 2 laps, mostly grass over sand with a few short steep climbs up onto & along some grassy dunes. I'd overtaken a couple of rivals & was chasing another as we got to the 5th mile. Cling on til the first of 3 climbs in the 2nd half of the lap when one of the guys went passed me. I tried to maintain contact but lost him on the next sandy climb & was now aware of the other guy on my shoulder so kept pushing but on the final climb he too went past me & although I closed out the final 400m with everything I had they were both going away from me. 6M in 38:19 though so 40 minute 10K pace in a XC after a hard Saturday is none too shabby.
Fantastic pace and early start as normal Tom.
Good luck with the recoveries John and Scott.
10 easy miles for me @ 8:00 min/mile to bring up 64 for the week.
First day of the plan tomorrow. I will be swapping around the days quite a lot to do the long runs on Saturday so tomorrow starts with the 12 mile MLR after work. Must remember to go easy on the cups of tea in the last hour of work!
Cracking pace on the xc Jools. You seem to be in excellent shape atthe moment!
That's decent milleage Ramjet-great position to be in to start the plan.
Sounds positive Scott-fingers crossed and yes the Bath Christmas markets were much harder work than yesterdays run-It was rammed!
Glad you are getting back into it John. Looks like you are going to cruise to an easy victory in the second test.We may as well come home now to be honest!
A seven mile jog to start the week.
Well done Jools.
12mi yesterday, then a day of xmas market hell.
Got a settled few days, then some windy wet weather midweek, then cold cold cold for the foreseeable.
Nice XC Jools. I also did XC, the same series that HA got a win in last week. Alas no win for me but I did finish 5th on a very hilly course.
Congrats on a great parkrun Phil - sounds like things really are coming along nicely.
Jooligan - normal service resumed with the 3 race weekend, love it. Interesting training method you've got going on there, I think you're right to keep it easy in the week if you're going to race that much. Like Phil says, it's all about what you enjoy doing the most.
Nice XC Ramjet, I do a similar thing re; having a stalk on power of 10 to see how I've done.
John - I saw that. I've got to say, unfortunately, I'm extremely sceptical rather than impressed. Hopefully for no good reason.
Tom - you my friend, are crazy.
Reg - Didn't have you down as a Christmas markets kind of guy. Do you do presents in your household?
CTS Dorset for me on Saturday. The 'half' marathon measured at 16 miles with 3,800ft of climbing. I think this is the most climbing I've ever done in a race by about 3,500ft, so it was certainly a bit of a shock to the system.
Decided to pace off my club mate, who won the previous year, but he sailed off into the distance and I found myself in 6th after 10km. He'd said there would be walking, which I took with a pinch of salt, but we hit the second hill and I see the top 5 ahead of me, all power hiking as running was actually physically impossible, it was just ridiculously steep.
The only tactic that seemed worthwhile employing was to keep stubbornly moving forward in any way possible. I slowly picked off 5th and then 4th, and in the last few miles started reeling in my mate, but couldn't quite catch him.
Crossed the line thinking I was 4th, but we'd both gone past 2nd (who'd stopped and was walking) so I was actually 3rd, which was a nice surprise. We were all inside the winning time from last year, but the guy who won was some mountain goat who managed to put a good 10 minutes into us.
I think it was actually harder than a flat road marathon and my legs are saying the same today, I literally cannot walk. In fact, it's in the top 3 hardest races I've ever done.
Good result Reg.
Interested to hear how you get on in the Vaporflys Phil. Did you wear them at parkrun? Congrats on the PB.
Bad luck on Snowdonia Jooligan. As annoying as ballots are, I think they are the fairest way when you get massively oversubscribed races like that. Great racing as ever.
Sorry to hear about the injury JCG, hope it heals quickly.
Great work at the XC Ramjet and Reg.
Nice long run Tom. Don’t get me started on Christmas Markets. It was the Worcester “Victorian Fayre” this weekend which made town a nightmare. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve become averse to large crowds since leaving London!
Glad the quad is feeling better John. I saw the Fukuoka result too, very impressive especially given the way he sped up towards the end. Although like Joe I can’t help but be a little sceptical when an athlete makes such a huge jump - sad but true. Interestingly his new coach, the esteemed Renato Canova, actually posted on Letsrun to give some background on how he made the leap: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8566162&page=1#8566399
Congrats on the podium Joe, sounds like a very tough race! Impressive just two weeks after such a big marathon result too.
I had another good track session on Saturday morning. I felt a bit rubbish on the way up there but good once I got to the track. 5x800 averaging 2:42 (most 2:41, but a 2:44 in the middle spoiled things!), which is 3 seconds quicker than I managed two weeks ago. Definitely had at least another one in me but wanted to keep a lid on things ahead of Telford.
It was a nice confidence booster although I'm still not certain where I am fitness wise - the track sessions I’ve been doing are the fastest I’ve ever ran, but the tempos have been disappointing which leave me worried about the endurance side of things. I’ll find out on Sunday I suppose - although currently the forecast in for heavy sleet so not ideal!
Jools - That's a great weekends racing. Sounds like a good plan you have there with taking it easier in the week, obviously is helping you recover for your weekend exploits!
Tom - That is VERY early for a Sunday run!!
Phil - Brilliant parkrun time!
10 miles for me. Still not feeling 100% as I can't shake this cough. Doctor said no need for antibiotics, but did give me an appointment for a chest xray if it doesn't clear up this week.
I really need it to go soon, as my 12 week P&L plan starts next week!!
Well done also on the XC Ramjet.
Jools - Great double race weekend as usual. You seem somewhat surprised that your legs didn't feel great the day after a fell race.
Joe - Sounds like an awesome race. Well done on the podium.
Tom, Westy - I don't mind the idea of Christmas markets but they're always so crowded and I really don't like mingling with the great unwashed.
Great pace for that parkrun Phil. Sounds like you're really ticking along nicely.
John - Glad that quad issue has settled. Following the cricket at work now. All looking good so far.
Nice track session Spoon.
Steve - Hope the cough clears soon. Might be better to rest and let it clear properly. I struggle to do that though and always end up trying to get back into it too soon.
My wife had a day in London yesterday and parked her car in her usual spot at a park just off the M4. Came back in the evening only to find the park locked up and unable to get out. There were some delays and cancellations on the trains so I loaded the kids in the car and picked her up. Serious brownie points there. Anyway, it meant I didn't have my car to drive in this morning so ran the 21 or so miles. I was quite looking forward to it last night but didn't really feel up to much this morning. Not sure if it was the backpack or what but just didn't feel the spring in my legs like when I'm running well. Was hoping to run through Windsor Great park but a big gate and a park warden telling me to go away meant I ended up running on a busy road in the dark with no footpath, not much fun. Then the last 10km or so I was stop/starting every few 100m for cars, school kids, prams. Probably the first run in a while I really didn't enjoy. Not to worry, got it done.
Tom -I'm actually a pom down under so it pains me to see the collapse, although as I write this there seems to be a mini recovery going on. HA77 however must be pleased.
Fast 800s spoons, looking good for your 10k.
Well done on surviving the Xmas markets people. Hopefully that's you in the clear til next year now.
Top racing from Reg & JB. Nice report too, glad you took it easy
That's only 235ft/mile JB - Saturday's fell race was over 600!
Thanks for the link Spoons. Fingers crossed the weather plays ball at the w/e. Last thing you want is an icy course. Planning to come up to Worcester Pitchcroft Saturday if it doesn't look too awful for a crack at sub 19
Ramjet: good luck starting the P&D plan - glad I have another couple of weeks yet but it does seem close now
Jools: more racing from you as usual which I find incredible! I don't know how you manage to stay injury free - I guess your body has just got used to it and built up lots of resistance.
Spoons: nice track session
SteveMac: hope the chest is ok and clears up soon. I've had a chesty cough fro about 3 weeks and only seems to have disappeared in the last day or so
Victory 5 mile race in Pompey yesterday (33:06) - 10s PB but it was a poor race from me to be honest - I was out drinking all day Thursday in London and then again on Saturday at the Liverpool game in Brighton, so didn't get a lot of sleep and thought about not doing the race. I really sabotaged myself badly and it shows me that I can't just turn up without preparing properly and looking after myself. Felt like I let myself down a bit to be honest but its a good lesson to learn. It has certainly refocused my mind on what I need to do if I want to PB at London in April.
Unlucky on the Snowdonia entry, Jooligan and Ramjet. I was on a train so reception kept coming and going. The projected time varied on each update as well, so I imagine that’s how you were caught out. There are always places sold through their FB page, so you’ll get in still if wanted. Although maybe fewer unwanted entries this year – normally everyone is pissed at midnight 1st Jan when they enter! Really looking forward to it. A punchy target might even be sub 3.
Solid HR capped running, Jooligan. Very sensible (!) to balance out your weekend racing. Although difficult front loading the week if you have raced the previous weekend, I would have thought? I hope to see you at Pitchcroft parkrun this Saturday. I haven’t done it before, despite running there a thousand times. But it just works before refereeing. See you on the start line and again a few minutes later when I die from going off too fast.
Bad luck on the Berlin ballot, spoons. It does feel weird/a bit sad/very exciting planning marathons so far away! And a very fair point about those who make rapid leaps in a short space of time. I will read the letsrun at some point. Another rapid track session. Good luck for Telford.
Impressive extended run commute, Reg, and great XCing.
Tom – that is awesome. My wife had bought two chocolate advent calendars for friends. I went mental and ate all 48 chocolates in one go a few evenings ago. Whoops.
Great session there, Phil. And impressive too from Westy. Also enjoying our resident weather expert predictions. Genuinely useful.
Haha – great racing Joe. I’m missing the brutal off road racing at the moment. Enjoy the backward stair walking.
Hope you feel better soon, SteveMac. P&L waits for no one! But seriously, wait until you’re better.
21M pre work is very impressive HA, and should leave you feeling smug. Annoying it was so disjointed.
At the same time as the Snowdonia entry was Bourton 10k. A good, fast and local road race at the end of Feb. Last year I just pipped Chrissie Wellington, but James Cracknell took me on the final bend. It will be a week after Wokingham half, so I won’t be fully recovered, but will seek to piggy back off the fitness gains.
Got my ‘long’ run in on Saturday. A Tom-esque 4:55am start as had a busy morning at work. 14M that was marginally progressive in effort, coming out at 7:05m/m average. I think the P&L long runs peak at 17 or 18, but my average pace across the week has been faster than normal.
10M easy this morning, powered by the supermoon. Tomorrow’s planned tempo is 11M including 18 and 16 minutes LT.