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Shades Marathon Training
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Hopefully my half on sunday goes well so it doesn't put a different time in ny head.
Cal, I agree that I think you need to race the Half and see how you get on. You're obviously running well and if that translates into a PB for the Half then your sub-4 could be possible for the marathon. What's your current Half PB again?
Steve, that's still a good time although I can understand the disappointment. I reckon go and give another a crack. Pacing these things is hard sometimes!
Shades, yes, really Berlin is going to be my best attempt at a decent Autumn Marathon effort both in terms of the course, but also being fair rested beforehand. I do know I had a good race on Sunday, but I can't quite explain it - I'm just not quite feeling the fitness is there. Apart from Sunday where I admit that I did feel strong, generally, I feel quite ploddy a lot of the time. I can't explain it really. McMillan shows 3:19 for a small PB off of that Half time. Maybe I should just go for it and see what happens, but I also do want to enjoy the event and if I'm walking with 6-miles to go, that's not very enjoyable! There's a few weeks to decide yet. Maybe go through Half at a bit under 1:45 and if I'm feeling okay push on, and if not just try and hold the pace. I know it's not really the advised thing to do, but on occasion I just decide almost on the start line or in the first mile or two - I seem to know pretty early on if I'm potentially in for a good day or not. That's what happened at Malta anyway, where I overtook the 3:30 pacer early on, which was never part of the plan...
After yesterday's 4-miler, I went along to the (just under) 7-miler with the club. Bang on 10min/miles when I was running, although there was some stopping/regrouping, but it was a nice 11 miles for the day. I don't want to mention the "A-word" (achilles!) but mine have been uncomfortable a bit over the last week or for the first time in years, so I'm doing the old heel drops as I don't want that coming back! Similar pattern to last time in that it's fine to run, but it's difficult going down the stairs first thing. That's how it started for me last time.
Big G, not brilliant about the achilles. Once that sets up shop it's bloody hard to shift. I know - I've had it for a year and a half now and it doesn't seem to want to go away no matter what I do.
Shades, yes - I'd welcome it if they put the clocks back a bit earlier, but that'll never happen. I don't care about light evenings, honestly, but I like light mornings.
8 mile recovery run today. Achilles was a little bitch for the first mile or so. I told it to shut up.
Has anyone used,or know anyone who uses a polar watch? Thinking about getting a new one soon and some of theirs look good but not sure of many who have them.
Which half are you doing on Sunday? Flat/fast/hilly?
Ian - I know a few folk that have Polar watches and rate them highly. I had a quick glance at GPS watches available a few days ago and I may go for a Polar next time, they're very highly rated for heart rate training too.
Big G - if for any unforeseen reason Berlin doesn't go well for you then you can ease back and have a go at Loch Ness, which despite it's hill is a fast course. As you say you know fairly early on whether it's going to be one of your faster marathons.
I'm not deliberately pushing you, Cal or Ian to race as fast as you can by chasing the race predictor's marathon time, it's just that you are all (touch wood) injury free and not recovering from any illnesses and as we all know these opportunities need to be taken when we can. I absolutely agree the decision on what pace to run should be taken on the start line, only you know how you feel at that time, mentally and physically, I've done all my best PB's like that.
Is this achilles discomfort both achilles or just one? If it's both you've maybe done too much speed stuff recently or it's possibly your shoes.
Cal - I don't care about the light in the evenings either, I don't even notice what time it gets dark.
Steve - you've been training really well so hopefully the next race will be much more enjoyable for you.
Stability balls yet again at Pilates, really tough work out, my legs were like jelly when we finished
Yes, I did well at Loch Ness last year. It beat me up though as I was shattered and hobbling for a few days after it!
1 of the shops near me sells Polar watches so may go and have a play with one at some point and see what I think.
Re Loch Ness, yes I remember you saying it took a while to recover last year.
Ian - that's good, I guess you don't want it to be windy in that location.
Good that you can go and see the Polar watches, makes a difference being able to do that. Let us know what you think about them.
Went to go for a run and aswell as my calves still being a little sore,my knee was playing up and didn't feel right at all so decided not to run,hopefully the days rest will fix it.
Steve - no easing up for you then
Well I'm exhausted. Circuits at 6:45 am. and then I had an hour's appointment at 8am for my gym programme. So for the half hour in between I'd packed a little flask of coffee but the instructor stopped me drinking it before my body composition analysis as apparently caffeine distorts the results. All very interesting and lots of detailed analysis and a very comprehensive gym programme including homework... the core stuff. Appointment ended up being 2 hours long by the time we'd gone through everything and they were right he's quite tough and this plan should certainly get me where I want to be. I told him I want to lose 10ish pounds so my initial targets are to gain 2kg of muscle and lose 5kg of fat. He wants me to stick to roughly 2,300 calories a day, and log everything on MyFitnessPal for a week or so to see if my protein/carbs/fat ratios are roughly as advised. Next review booked for 5 weeks time.
After all that I went food shopping on the way home, am tired now.
Steve, right back to it there!
Ian, fingers crossed the niggle comes to nothing. I've not used or looked at Polar watches so no help there at all.
I had a rest day yesterday but went for a 7-miler this morning. It was a bit blustery but I enjoyed the run out.
Would have gone today but went out much later to run (it was pissing down early on so I decided I'd wait for 9am when the sun was going to come out;as it was, I didn't manage to shift my carcass outside until nearly 10) so I missed the morning classes.
A productive session, though - 9 miles with 2 x 2m at LT pace (roughly). Two miles warm-up (easy-steady pace), two LT, one recovery at Chester MP, two more LT, then two to cool down (easy steady again). Felt knackered after that.
Very hard to gauge the correct pace with my watch readings being all over the place. I still haven't found a way to fix that (and yes I've read the online manual). Pain in the arse. I may end up wearing my old Garmin alongside the new one purely for pacing.
My fitness Pal is a right faff to set up, but I know will get quicker.
Achilles OK today?
Cal - glad the bite hasn't made you poorly for more than a few days this time.
Maybe trawl the forums or start a thread on RW, you can't be the only one with that query on your Garmin.
Shades, achilles is no better or worse really. It was fine on the run anyway, but a bit stiff first thing in the morning.
Regarding MFP, once it’s set up it’s okay to use. IE, if you eat similar foods throughout the week, once it’s set up it’s easy to add those foods into the current day’s diary. Many (all though not all) foods can be scanned into the app via the bar code, for example pasta, tinned toms, cereal, etc etc.
Big G - I nearly gave up on MFP, ended up having to uninstall and install it again. Scanning won't be much good for me, I cook from scratch, don't eat packaged stuff like cereals.
I have a fairly good idea on calories so I can select the nearest to what I've cooked and don't think I'd be too far out. I will need to up my protein so stocked up on cottage cheese which fortunately I like.
Was a bit shocked at the calories in the swirl of olive oil that I had on my lunch though. 119 calories
Shades-Busy morning there,hopefully worthwhile.
Not so good for me,knee has been bugging me a bit all day,doesn't feel like i've got the full range of motion with it,really bad timing,amazing the way moods can change,I was buzzing after Sunday and now wondering what will happen.
After the 7-miler this morning, I went for a 5-miler in new running shoes this afternoon. They were sitting there in the corner pleading to be ran in
I often get a niggly knee which can trouble me up and down stairs and grumbling when I stand up and walk, but it's OK when I run.
Big G - you rebel!! But good for you for finding out. I think there'll be quite a few complaints so if Trotters change the rules to allow both kits then all will be well. However your new kit is the same colours as old so wouldn't make any difference when running for team events, I'm sure that would only apply if new kit was very different.
Years ago you could have different colour kit as long as they were registered. I was in one club and we could choose if we wanted a black or a white vest.
Achilles must be OK if you're doing another double
Good to see YT did well on Sunday winning the 10k after only 3 weeks training, coming back from injury.
I expect UKA's rule re team prizes relates mainly to events such as XC which are highly contested by clubs and important to know if the guy in front of you is in a rival team when sprinting for the finish line.
Ian - that's a great way to get the roads repaired.
6 miles for me this morning, really chilly wind on the way back. I only did one set of everything at the gym yesterday but I'm aching already today
Just done a 5-miler with the HR monitor on. I decided to just go out at my normal training pace/effort, not having HR displayed on the watch and with no HR alerts. It was a normal route with a couple of inclines that I ran up, to see what the results were afterwards. I'll discount the first mile as HR wasn't right for the first half mile or so (162bpm, even though I was running steadily).
2. 9:49min/mile. 143bpm (mainly uphill)
3. 9:14min/mile. 143bpm (mainly downhill/flat)
4. 9:27min/mile. 145bpm (mixed)
5. 9:41min/mile. 147bpm (mainly uphill).
It wasn't a totally flat route and running slowly up the moderate hills the HR peaked at 158 on a couple of occasions. 73%-79% Max has me at 142-154bpm. So I'm a bit torn as I feel I need to run up the moderate hills to get better on the hills, but even running slowly/steadily it goes over the higher HR limit. But it was a nice run out