Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
P&D Spring Marathon 2018
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
Great to see Scott getting back into some form.
One thing has stood out for me this week and it’s Spoon’s mammoth 21x1k session. Incredible.
on the subject of Zatpoek, I have just got a book out from the library about him. Hope it will inspire me to further PBs.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned but Abingdon is now open for entries. After Sunday’s performance I will be targeting this and the Salisbury half as my Autumn focus.
Pace coming on nicely Scott.
Good luck Steve. Keep rolling those glutes.
Millsy, have thought about Abingdon, but I get the fear of repeating a race that I’ve run a PB at. Might stick with Snowdonia late October and target Worcester 10k in September.
Westy’s beast from ththe east was in force this morn. -3C on yet another recovery. But actually a lovely day. Sunny with no winds.
I then signed up for a random Body Conditionig class at the gym. Didn’t really know what to except but got worried when it started with marching and dancing. Fortunately after the first 30s it turned into a useful single leg style workout. Still, only bloke out of 25 there.
MP run went ok - better than last time. Seemed to be always running into the wind which was annoying in that it made running harder and I couldn't hear my podcasts.
Enormous session with the 20x1000m the other day spoons. Grr to the canal littering.
Thanks for the infos on RunCamp AWC - sounds helpful.
Sorry to hear you've not been well for so long HA.
ramjet hope its a one-off with the guts.
I also hope that Jools hasn't gone down with anything in the meantime.
Good mileage Millsy
At least the 24 women got one bloke to look at SQ.
I abandoned thoughts of the track yesterday for my intervalls as it looked quite wind exposed on the map and after a read up on the internet I wasn't sure about the free access. Took myself off to some local woods instead with more shelter from the wind.
There is (amongst other distances) a marked loop of 1.2km on a decent hard packed forest road so ok for my 5x800m. Difficult to run a constant pace however due to the loop being on a hill - I did it by effort rather than pace. Looking at the results I had a bit of a slow no. 3 rep but got it back together for no. 4 and 5.
Nearly got lost on my way back home, my orientation skills in the woods are not good at all, sorted it out just before it got dark though.
Rest day today.
Stringing together some good training this week. Ran 14 miles @ 6.50mm after work yesterday which felt surprisingly really good. 90 mins on the bike this morning followed by a gentle run to work.
Running the National XC tomorrow but got a hard bike session in the morning so just going to run round near the back and soak up the atmosphere (before no doubt sprinting the last km for kicks).
Also entered into an undulating 10km on Sunday morning because a load of mates are doing it. Will see how I feel on the morning. Tired legs at the moment though.
Have a great weekend all. Beer on the agenda for me tonight.
Last Sunday, I was unable to get out until 8.45pm, desperate to get past 30 miles for the week... and ran 15.5 miles through the deep woods on my own. Not sure how safe that is but wildlife everywhere... deer's eyes shining in my torchlight, barn owls, foxes. Got back 11.10pm - thinking that Tom's alarm would be going off soon!
But the really interesting run this week was 11 with 7 at 89%HR Max. 3 weeks ago, those LT miles came out at a disappointing 7:45. then 7:40 the next week... and two weeks on, all on the same section of a path, it came out at 7:13!! Need to get this below 6:55 by mid-April to believe I'm anywhere near my MP target... a pace I thought impossible 2 /3 weeks ago. Half Marathon in 9 days - now looking forward to it a bit more!
All achy from yesterday's epic run but my daughter wants to take me out running...gulp.
Westy - sounds like a great MP run, good excuse to take it easy today although you’re daughter may have other ideas.
Hazel - well done on the reps, it’s always hard to do those on hills or trails so you did well to keep the effort high.
Spoons - sounds like a crazy session so a,axing you not only got it done but were so consistent. Everything is going to plan for you, 2:45 here you come!
Joe - good luck with the weekend racing. Nationals sounds very competitive, where is it being held?
SQ - hope you enjoyed the aerobics, I imagine they are harder than they seem so did you manage to keep up?
Ramjet - Many questions but as you said best left unasked and unanswered
Took the opportunity to also do a parkrun today as it’s a recovery week. Felt good on the warm up although a slightly tight calf after some strides. First km in 3:36 and sensed I was on for a fast one. Maintained the pace through 2km but then it started to get hard and by now was on my own in 7th. The 3rd km is slightly uphill and always the slowest, dropping to 3:50. By now it really hurt and not sure if I could hold it to the finish. As it doubles back I almost collided with a runner coming the other way as he pulled out to overtake. Somehow managed to get to 4km in 3:45 and then the finish couldn’t come soon enough. Surprised to find pace from somewhere to come in with a 3:40 and cross the line in 18:32 and promptly dry heave. However a new a PB by 3s and with cooler weather there should be more to come. Even better that I managed to just hold off a 10 yr old boy. Shorter LR tomorrow but should still be a 70 mile week. Calf still a bit tight though so hope it is nothing to worry about.
Hope you enjoyed the parkun/long miles combo this morning Millsy
Should have learnt by now Westy that us runners are always running into the wind
Always good to do a session on a trail type loops Hazel adds a bit more difficulty to it
Enjoy the national today everyone running it!
Some massive progress on that run NE
Good work on the pb John, hope the slight calf niggle eases during the day
First full session today, you'll be pleased to hear it's an easy one to understand.
8 x 3mins (90) on grass. Rep paces were 5:49, 5:35, 5:37, 5:33, 5:35, 5:42, 5:38, 5:38.
Parkrun PB John ;-) Always one to celebrate in my book.
Fab pace Scott and very consistent.
Enjoyable parkrun for me this morning. The course was altered due to icy conditions and I am pretty sure it was a bit long. Otherwise my time of 20 mins would be below par. But I felt strong and beat the club mates who I like to beat. This week has been a struggle energy-wise so it was great to feel fully alive again!
Got back from Cornwall late last night............lots to catch up on........I will read back later!
I've had a great week away with lots of lovely family time, beautiful weather, great beaches, plenty of delicious food and drink.....and....lots of hills! I think it is fair to say that my legs took a long time to recover from Wokingham so just took every run easy. Covered 55 miles at 6:50 m/m avg...longest run 14 miles (Friday). A bit more like it now back on the relative flat lands of home this morning...22 miles @ 6:35s...legs slowly coming back to me.
Apparently it might become a bit on the cool side this week....
Quiet on here today!
Nothing like a parkrun blast to feel better Ramjet
Sounds like you still fitted in plenty of miles whilst away Tom
Disappointing day yesterday with England losing in the rugby, lets hope Arsenal can do better in the cup final later
Knee was a little niggly again on todays 60 min long run at 7min mile pace. I suspect this was due to very little stretching/rolling yesterday as had a mate down. Will concentrate on that later. However it capped off the biggest mileage week for some while with 41 miles
Macca... was that a met yellow warning for snow, or a met warning for yellow snow? Could be brown snow round bran-flake central.
Great discipline Scott... looking good. Good luck to Arsenal. My mum would not be pleased with me to want City to lose, but their *alleged* flouting of fair play rules etc does not endear them to me.
JohnOz... congrats on beating the ten-year-old... and on an excellent PB.
Westy.. no my run was along the river wye along... edge of the forest of dean. So I know the path well and it's well used in the day... but still several miles when you're not near any sort of proper road. And, btw, have I not heard of retirement announcements from you before?
Tom... great half-term. Good family time but still dedication to the running.
Hazel... my woodland navigational skills in the forest is a bit like yours. They should cut down the trees to make it easier.
Pretty good week for me. I already reported that my pace for 157bpm for 7 miles had improved hugely the other day. Just hope it was genuine... certainly given me a boost... but will be glad when I see some other tangible evidence.
Slow 20 miler today.. my first of this campaign - the second half quite hilly... on a beautiful but very cold morning. I did have a ten minute break when I saw a sheep in the latter stages of labour... contractions every minute... but was getting cold and worried that my proximity might be worrying the poor animal. Pity the little lamb being born on that hillside on such a cold day. 42m for the week... Getting some really good consistency these last few weeks.
Nice sessions from Scott, Hazel & Westy. Excellent progress NE.
Nice parkrun PB John.
Ticked off my 81st venue, Shrewsbury, en route to Mold for the Wrexham HM. I was pretty much certain I was going to use it as 20M w 13@MP beforehand. My lurgy blossomed over Fri/Sat into a vicious cough & felt so sluggish at parkrun (19:48) that I wasn't confident of managing the HM let alone at MP.
Early night dosed up with cocodamol left me feeling well enough to have a go.
Wanted to get there around 10am so I could get a decent warm-up in but got stuck in race traffic for 25 minutes over the last mile. Only managed a 2M plod & noticed a strong wind which was going to make it hard work.
The start was a lot less organised than Wokey. I started just in front of the 1:30 pacer but there were people around me that looked like they'd be lucky to break 1:45.
We started promptly and after 100 yds there was a slight downhill. I was ticking along around 6:35-6:40 m/M feeling OK.
First up a 4.5M loop then a longer loop along narrow country lanes. Plenty of fast folk around as it's the local PB hunter's race.
Hit halfway when the delayed arrival, coffee & immense queues came back to bite me. Jumped a gate about 9M for a comfort break. Jumping back over I spotted the 1:30 flag leading a large group up ahead so I pushed on overtook at about 10M then worked my way back to my earlier position.
Final score 1:29:06 chip, 1:28:05 watch so I'd only lost a minute. Gun & chip position identical! 236th of over 2,000.
Broken 5M plod rounded it up to 20M, my first of the campaign. 85M for the week too.
Glad to hear things are progressing well Scott. Nice session.
Hope the massage does the trick Steve.
Was only 20x1k Millsy - 21 would have been crazy
Solid week from you.
Nice work on the MP run Westy.
I often find I dip in the middle of a set of reps Hazel, easy to lose concentration when the end still feels quite far away. Good stuff though.
Busy weekend Joe.
Great progress NE.
Congrats on the PB John. You know you’re running P&D when 70 miles is a recovery week!
Better end to the week Ramjet, good to hear.
Welcome back Tom. Solid mileage given you were on holiday.
Big mileage and impressive race given the illness Jooligan.
I rounded off my biggest ever week (121 miles) with a tough long run, again from the NAZ Elite plan (although I think it’s originally a Jack Daniels workout). 2 miles warm-up, then 4 miles tempo, 10 miles steady, then another 4 mile tempo. I was tempted to skip it as it sounded so tough, but I’ve been doing more of these sessions within long runs this time around and I feel like they’re the next step in improving my training, so gave it a go.
First 4 mile tempo came out at 6:04/mi, so a touch slower than HMP but given I often struggle with pace in tempo runs I was pretty happy with that. Straight in to 10 miles steady, which averaged 6:51/mi so right around my average long run pace recently.
The second 4 mi tempo was more of a struggle - I think the mileage and the big session Weds caught up with me and I just couldn’t get the legs turning over like I wanted. It also felt a bit breezier by now which didn’t help matters. Only managed 6:26/mi for that one, so not even goal MP, although the heart rate was also well under MP effort (I wore the strap, so hopefully it’s pretty accurate).
Weirdly I had no issue ticking along at a slightly steadier pace, and averaged 6:46/mi for the last couple of miles feeling comfortable. So it wasn’t like I bonked, the legs just wouldn’t shift in to a higher gear when asked.
Anyway, in the context of the mileage this week, and the big session Wednesday, I’m happy enough. This week felt like a key week and it went pretty much as well as I could have hoped.
Finished the recovery week with an enjoyable 16 miler. Had my best legs today. The pace dropped to 7 min miles in the second half but the effort still felt nice. 16 miles in 2 hours. Whatever beast may be coming I have enjoyed this continental weather this week.
Got some intervals today, 6x800. Lovely.
The beast is here - but think the worst weather will be midweek, with maybe some snow for some. I would check local forecasts when planning your runs...as could get very windy and very cold and you may not want to be out in that for too long.
Congrats on the new PB John and by the sounds of it there is still a lot more to come. Could do with some of that warmer weather right now.
Tom - Glad to hear you had a good time in Cornwall, sounds like a decent break that.
Jools - top work as ever, you are a running machine.
Spoons - no excuses needed for that monster session. You've been absolutely hammering it lately, if you can't hit paces a small amount of the time it's nothing to worry about, hardly surprising in fact. Still a great run and good practice running on tired legs.
Westy - it's f***in freezing.
Pretty decent weekend of training/racing for me. 2.5 hours on the bike with 3x20 minute efforts, a couple of hours recovery and then the national cross country. A fantastic event, pretty much everything that is right about running at the moment; brilliant atmosphere, all inclusive, no frills, just get on with it and run.
Legs were absolutely toast, so I knew it'd be a case of just running around and enjoying it. I found out that even going around a hard cross country course at 'general aerobic' pace is still pretty knackering and it was a really good workout. I ran most of it with a mate from Fulham running club, and we chatted away as we made our way round. This seemed to annoy a fair few people immensely, so much so that a few people had a go at us for not taking it seriously enough. Is that unreasonable? I found it quite amusing..
Not much rest (but plenty of beers) before a 10km race in Victoria Park the following morning. Knew from the warm up that the legs wouldn't be agreeing. Ended up running 37:30 which is bang on marathon pace and it was pretty much exactly marathon HR but couldn't muster anything faster. Interestingly, had I ran at the same pace as Wokingham the previous week I would've won and come away with a huge trophy. You've got to pick your battles I guess..
NE: nice LT session – pace coming back nicely and good 20 miler
John: great parkrun PB
Scott: nice consistent pacing on the reps and nice mileage week. Hope the knee is OK
Jools: another HM
great work
15 miles for me on Saturday was a bit of a struggle as the snot and cold has been building a bit. Sensibly took Sunday off and feel a lot better today. Am thinking I’ll be my 7mi LT run tonight before the Beast arrives in earnest later in the week.
Exotic wildlife you might meet out on a run JohnOz, I've only ever seen any of those in the zoo. Well done on your parkrun PB. Could you send some of your weather here please? Be careful with the calf niggle.
Nice reps session Scott, hope your knee is okay.
Lovely trip to Cornwall Tom with nice mileage.
Good to see Jools around. Nice HM time considering the conditions, you not being 100% fit and your comfort break.
121 miles in a week is massive spoons. Respect. It is only in the last 2 years I have been doing more than that in a month.
Nice 16 miler ramjet.
Good weekend for you Joe.
Hope you have good conditions for your LT run later AWC.
I got out for an MLR on Saturday of just over 11.5 miles. Due to the weather I moved forward Sunday's MLR a day and cut it a bit as I had gone over distance on Thursday's run. I also didn't fancy being out in -3 and up to 30 mile an hour winds for 2 hours. Was well wrapped up and quite enjoyed it. Pace all over the place due to undulations and the wind but on average it came out as MP + 10% which I'm happy with. Was happily doing MP (8m/m) downhill with a tail wind and then 10 m/m up an incline against the wind.
Yesterday did a hike in the nearby Jura mountains rather than a 7 miler GA. Will have to be a bit flexible the next couple of days as the weather won't improve wind and temperature wise until at least Wednesday. Will try to get out for the planned runs and if necessary shorten them. Would be good to get the LT run done on Friday (potentially in snow / rain - nice!).
Spoons - Epic week, not surprised the legs wouldn't turnover like you wanted, especially after your 20*1km session!
NE - Great progress over a few weeks.
Easy 11 miles for me on Saturday and then a recovery 3 on Sunday. No issues with the post tib, but been icing after my runs and foam rolling too. Dress rehersal tomorrow 8m with 2@HM pace....hoping it's not icy!!
Solid effort on the trails, Hazel. Hopefully the soft surfaces will help recovery time too. Impressive reps from Scott as well.
Really nice weekend of racing and having fun, Joe. Cracking attitude. Love to see someone really enjoying themselves.
Very good improvements, NE. Keep it up!
Excellent parkrun PB, John. Bodes well at this stage of the campaign. Hope calf ok.
Good luck with the LT so soon after the LR, AWC. But sensible pre-beast.
Solid 67M week, Tom! Half term break sounds lovely and well deserved. Strong week from Jooligan too – impressive pacing on all fronts by the sounds of things. And a hell of a week from spoons. I think the long run is impressive and good preparation for when muscular fatigue comes on towards the end of the marathon.
Having consumed far too much alcohol on Friday night whilst staying with my best man and family, I took the buggy to Market Harborough parkrun the next morning. I always enjoy new parkruns and whilst it was very cold, it was a beautiful day. It was flat and tarmac the whole way, so good for a buggy, but narrow, very twisty and with three loops, a little busy. Still an enjoyable trot out and a good way of clearing the head. I was impressed with first finisher did it in 16:xx – not easy on that course with the turns and overtaking.
Yesterday was Bourton 10k, a local race put on by their running club, albeit a very popular and fairly renowned course. It was 1C at the start with a reasonable wind. Worryingly, I found this, whilst racing at least, quite a nice temperature. God help be in spring and summer races. I’d had a fairly gluttonous week, but was feeling mostly recovered after only recover running. That said, my hip is still very bruised, tight and swollen from smashing it into a post last Monday. A bit worried that I might put my knee under stress and so should probably get it checked out. As per, I went out too hard, with a 5:33 first mile. After this the pace settled quite nicely. I managed to get into a group for most of the headwind and went through half way in 18:03. Whilst it certainly wasn’t a target race, this boded well for my PB of 36:10. I gave it some on the return, and seemed to be breathing very loudly – probably very annoying for anyone around me. By mile 6 my Garmin average pace had be at 5:48, 1s inside of what I am sure PB pace was. I was on! So a little disappointed to cross the line 15s outside of a PB, and a good lesson in not relying on anything other than elapsed time for the very tight margins. Still, it was faster than expected and a good day out with lots of club mates. For a fairly cheap local 10k I was also highly impressed with the high quality long sleeve zipped top all finishers received.
An enjoyable recovery with spoons this morning, before contemplating a short marathon block. I wonder how the weather will affect things.
No such luck with Arsenal NE
Big long run to end the week from you
That's a very pleasing run Jooligan considering the lurgy, hope it clears soon
121 miles?! Jesus Spoons and even in the high mileage you're managing to hit some big sessions
I seriously can't believe some guys had a go at you and you're mate Joe, what idiots! Big weekend for you, must have been shattered come Sunday afternoon
Some good long runs from Ramjet, AWC and Hazel
Fantastic news on the post tib Macca!
Might be sensible to get things checked out SQ if you are worried at all as don't want it stopping you further down the line. Despite that a quick 10km and not far off the pb
Just a cold 30mins for me today along with exercises at the gym
6x800 went okish today. Intervals were close to 5:30 with a tailwind, and closer to 6 when running into the wind.
Looking at forecast some areas in NE and SE England going to get some snow tomorrow...then Scotland on Wednesday...and then Friday most places could get some, along with some strong winds. Nice. Should all be over by Sunday, hopefully. Think it's time for spring, don't you?
10M easy along the canal, feeling pretty wooden. Started at 8:40m/m but it gradually came down to 7:15s. 7:40m/m average. Canal mostly frozen with a thin layer of snow on top. Got to feel for the ducks skitting along on top of the ice.
Left hip still sore from the bash and knee a little swollen. No pain at all when walking or running, but tender to touch. Tried to get a doc appointment but nothing for weeks. Have booked in with sports massage lady today to get her take on it.