Brighton Marathon 2011

17475777980254

Comments

  • Evening all

    No running for me or gym for the last 3 days but am planning to go to the gym tomorrow back to work Thursday but was on days it made a nice change

  • Well went up the gym today but just opted for a swim as my back was giving me jip when i got up and not showing any sign of freeing up and my knee was also playing up

    Back on nights Sunday so hopefully will be able to get into more of a routine  every things been a bit up in the air this week with the first aid course the first 3 days of this week and being on days the other 2

    If anybody’s racing this weekend good luck and look forward to hearing about it

    and to all those with a LSR planed my it go well

  • Welcome Ingold, it was great this year, i really enjoyed it. By the way, what drink ARE they using next year?
    Waves to Toby, it is all about routine isn't it!Holidays muck everything up for me image
  • toby: when I had my bad back last year, swimming was about the only exercise I could do that left things feeling better rather then worse afterwards. Having a pool at your gym sounds like a wise choice.

    Peter Pan: Good luck with running your half.

    Grumpydirtbag: shame you can't make it. Wish you a speedy recovery.

    Went out for 5 miles this morning just to get my legs working ready for tomorrow. This was a mix of gentle, fast and slow running. Things felt good, but as usual the day before a race just feeling nervous about how it will go. Am hoping for a PB time, but with 23500 people running, a little concerned the road may be a bit busy for overtaking, though I am in the first wave of starters, so hopefully not to bad. Just have to see how it goes tomorrow I suppose.

    Well done to anyone who ran Beachy Head earlier.

  • SR - so they reckon on 23500 running tomorrow do they?  Well let's see how many turn up in the morning.  My bet is that only 16500 will finish/take part.  Any other bets?
  • SR - Good luck tomorrow, hope that the early walkers don't slow you down
  • SR - just push me out of the way if you need to!  I shall be walking to one edge of the road so as to let others overtake easily, can't stand those who walk in a line together across the road GRRRRR!image
  • Hello everyone,

    I've not posted for a while, but I'm still here dipping in and out of the forum.

    I read something in Runner's World magazine in the second last issue, I think, which I've found really useful in my training. It said that the long run of the week should be no more than 18 miles or 3 hours long, whichever you reach first. I certainly can't run 18 miles in less than 3 hours, so it means that my long runs now are never longer than 3 hours. I've found this little bit of info really mindblowing as I had previously been trying to run further and further with each of my weekly long runs. I had worked up to 18 miles but it took me about 3 and a half hours and was a killer! With this new info, I now know not to run for any longer than 3 hours which means I'm at less risk of injuring myself. Psychologically it's been really helpful as my long runs are no longer quite so daunting as I know I have a strict limit of 3 hours of running.

    I also read that it's a good idea for the weekly long run to go from 2 hours one week, then 2.5 hours the next week and then 3 hours the next week and then going back down to 2 hours and working back up to 3 hours. This has proved really helpful to me, as it means I get a real treat the week after I do a 3 hour run by only having to do 2 hours the next week. I did a 3 hour run today so I now feel great that I only have to do a 2 hour long run next week.  Does anyone else do this? I must say it's been a great discovery for me.

     Good luck to everyone with your training.

    Vince

  • pgbear - are you training for a marathon or just doing 18miles for fun?  It's a bit early to be doing 18 miles in preparation for April next year but all power to your elbow (and your legs!).

    No GSR after all for me as I've been ill overnight and now gutted (in more senses than one!image).  May force myself to watch it on tv but putting together good reasons for having not taken part today.  There are quite a few, one of which any further knee aggravation would muck up my training for Brighton and we can't have that!!!  My training programme starts in two weeks so nearly on my way!!!  Also my kit and costume are already packed ready for April, just have to change the race numberimage.

  • Good morning all, nice and sunny here, hope you all have this weather. Heading out for a run soon, don't know how long, will see how i feel. I have no plan at the moment and it's rather nice image

    Good luck to you all, will be thinking of you.

    Pgbear i have read that too, 3 hours gets me to around the 15 mile mark and i do agree that the mental thing of going out to cover 20 miles which is for about 4 hours is very daunting. But personally i like to stand on the start line knowing i have run nearly the whole way already in training, if i'd only done 15 it wouldn't work for me. But everyone is different and during those last weeks before a marathon i come to, not exactly dread, the long run but sometimes it feels a lonely thing to be doing! I try and find half marathons or similar long races to use for the company. I guess a club is also the answer but i'd worry that i was holding someone up.

    Off to Hyde Hall RHS garden today with my Daughter for their 'Taste of Autumn' festival. And tea and cake in the tea room image
  • Crossed with you GF, sorry to hear you are not competing but better to save yourself for the main event so to speak. Wishing you better soon x
  • I'm doing this, looking forward to it. Is part of my 3 marathon in 3 weekends charity crusade, hoping this will be the good PB one.

     Pgbear, I have only been running for a couple of years and only done 2 marathons but I am not sure about that advice. I hope more experienced peeps can agree or disagree but the way I see it is that you should only be aiming for 3 hours being your longest run if you are aiming to complete the race in that time. I am certain when I say that your long runs should be a couple of  minutes slower than predicted marathon pace but also think you must be used to being on your feet for as long as you plan to run the marathon. For example if you are planning on completing Brighton @ around 9mm pace which comes in around 3hrs 56 you should be doing your long runs @ 11mm building slowly up to do at least 1, possibly 2, runs of that duration. At 11mm this would equate to your longest run being about 22 miles long which again is what I thought was the usual recommendation.

     You should be aiming on buiding up marathon paced runs as one of your weekly sessions every couple of weeks, ending doing about 12-14 miles @ MP just before you begin tapering?

    As I said I could be completely wrong so don't take it as read, is how I plan though...

  • Well hearty congratulations to Birmingham City Council for organising (and I use the word in its very loosest term) one of the worst runs that I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in!

    Billed as the Race Against Climate Change their agenda is to take traffic off the road, so with a 9am start, moved from 10am last year and most trains arriving after 9am, more people had to drive in! The warm up was outside the ICC (and needed as it was –1c at 7am!!) and next to the Start/finish line and that finished at 8.50 leaving the c10-15,000 people just ten minutes to get to their starting bays, fighting their way through spectators. Fortunately for me I jumped a pen and started not far from the front but the race started with runners still trying to get into the start. It was a shambles and utter chaos. Within 100 metres of the start they funnelled a dual carriageway into a single lane and created a bottleneck: genius part1! The first 3 miles are through the backside of the fruit markets and an industrial estate, devoid of any life or support. Dire. After that it improved a bit. Great support through Bournville, though running past a Café where the smell of bacon was wafting across the course was torture! Hit the ten-mile mark and there’s a 2.25 mile uphill section with several tight and one very tight turn in it. Which sadist thought of that?

    Good last mile down Broad Street to the finish and although it didn’t affect me, later runners/finishers complained about the finish. Within 5-10 metres of the finish they were handing out foil blankets and water bottles, so everyone stopped and created a bottleneck to the extent that other finishers couldn’t actually cross the b****y finish line!! Genius part2!!

    However, having played the grumpy old sod, I’m very happy to report back a 1.41.25 time, my back’s a bit sore but (apologies for being sexist) I followed a very attractive young lady around the course who as my pacer!

    I hope the GSR guys/girls had a great day and the weather is as glorious as it is now!
  • Apologies: Rant number 2

    And opening the "goody" bag it's the same T shirt as last year without a date on it.

    All this for £45.

  • I am training for the Brighton marathon, The Green Fairy. I have a 10k run in Brighton in November, but no other runs planned.

    Thanks for the info, Julia T and mattoo. I shall have to give it all more thought. 

  • PGbear,   Long runs are a strange old thing and the trouble with slower runners doing 18/20miles is that they are on their feet too  long, the recovery takes too long and the benefit of the long run becomes lost as you can't recover enough to do other decent runs on the following days.  Most marathon virgins worry obsessively about milage when it is far better to look at the quality of your runs and time on your feet.

    If you get a chance look at training schedules by the likes of Keith Anderson, Liz Yelling and Nick Anderson, they all champion quality above quantity.  Yes definately take a step back week every so often and if you base your training on time then pulling back as you have suggested is just the way.

    I would also suggest spending between now and the New Year building a decent base so working towards a few 10 milers for instance. Come January you have a good spring board to start marathon training proper without become over trained and knackered.

  • Thanks for the info, Dips.  When you say ' working towards a few 10milers', do you mean my long runs till the New Year should be no more than 10 miles?

    My current training is based around just two runs a week. One run is the long run (which goes up from 2, then 2.5, then 3 hours a week and then back down to 2 hours). My only other regular weekly run is a 25 minutes fartlek run where I run as fast as I can at random intervals. I know I probably should do a third run a week- like a 5 mile tempo run for example- but have trouble finding the time. I don't want to run before I go to work and as I only run alongside a nearby canal, running after work in the dark is not a safe option. The idea of running along the streets as I see a lot of fellow runners do around here, doesn't really appeal to me. I occasionally do some hill sprints up a hill by the canal ( at the end of the long run or the short fartlek run), but I don't do them that often - I should do them weekly.

     Vince

  • Another duplicate sent by mistake. Sorry.
  • Ran the Great South Run this morning and thought things went very well over there. Did have a little trouble with slow runners for the first mile, but by mile two the field had just about opened up enough to allow easy over taking, though to be honest the crowd I was in by this time was the right pace for me. Weather was very kind to us, and organisation spot on. I did find the bottled water and Powerade they gave out awkward to drink from, but then I am used to just throwing water down my neck from plastic cups, but that is nothing major and they were very generous with the amount of bottles they gave out. Managed a new PB of 1:08:06, which is what I was aiming for, gave me a position of 361. Feel I could still improve though.

    Green Fairy: sorry you could not make it, just had look and just under 15000 people finished.

    Peter Pan: for such a nightmare of an event by the sounds of things, that is not to bad a time you ran.

  • Evening all. Hope you had a good weekend.

    I had my first run in two weeks today, an easy five and a half miles around the country lanes. I deliberately didn't take a watch in the hope that I wouldn't time myself, but predictably looked at the clock before and after going out image Averaged seven and a half minute miles, which annoyed my slightly as I wanted to run a little slower after two weeks rest, but it seems that that is pretty much my natural pace. Will get back to regular running this week, and may even invest in some new shoes...

    SR well done on the PB. Were you on the tele?

    PP sorry to hear of your problems today. It sounds like BCC made a few, avoidable, errors

    Vince your running seems as structured as mine. I never pay attention to running schedules and seem to do ok. I think it would help if you could fit a third run in. Can you take a 2 hour lunch break during work?

    GF in hindsight its probably for the best that you didn't run. Get yourself healed properly!

    Julia Hope you enjoyed your tea and cake image

  • It's far too early to be doing 18 to 20 milers yet, if you keep that up for the next 5 months you are either going to get injured or so tired of doing them you'll just lose your training mojo and quit. My marathon training begins on 21 December and my first 18-miler will be on 6 February. My longest run will be 20 miles on March 20th.
  • PGbear, definately agree with UW..far too early to be doing that sort of milage especially in that erratic way, you're asking for injury.  I keep my long runs to around 10 miles and sometimes less if I am racing.  

    Firstly, if you want to get around a marathon feeling okish you are going to have to find the time to do more than 2 runs a week. 3 absolute minimum, if you want something then you find the time and the inclination! Running round the cold dark streets doesn't appeal to me but it has to be done so stop being a wimp and get out there. image  I usually do 4 or 5 runs a week depending on what type of training I am doing and yes it is time consuming but its not forever. 

    Unless you are an experienced runner I would knock the so called fartleking on the head and build in a decent base. ie steady running,  Get yourself a decent beginners schedule off the net, try Hal Higdon's and use that as a guide to what you should be doing when you start marathon training later in the year.

  • Ultra Ironwolf speaks sense, and from experience.

    I did a Park run 5k yesterday and was quite pleased with myself.

    Shouldn't our training be targetted at achieving our goals? As long as I can run10k on January 1st I know I'll be on-plan for Brighton. My (older) joints won't take repeated high mileage so I'm employing a 'go for it  once' approach with quality (and only one 20miler) taking preference over quantity.

    If I wanted a decent time I'd have to do many more miles, but that would also need a few more years of conditioning, which I don't have in the  bank.

  • 9 miles trail run done yesterday morning with older dog Oz, he's a joy to run with as is totally obedient so runs off-leash all the time unless I see someone coming. More of a fun run than anything else, as I had to keep stopping to throw sticks for Ozzy on the way up. Coming back down took it slightly faster. OH took my dog Nemo on a 10km run, unfortunately Nemo's a hunter so has to be on leash at all times or he'll take off.

  • Good morning,

    Green Fairy - sorry you didn't make the G.S.R.

    Solent Runner - well done on your P.B

    I enjoyed the Great South run yesterday, though found it incredibly packed and hard to get into a pace especially for the first couple of miles. Still managed to come in over 7 minutes faster than last year though. Loved  the opera singer at the start.

    Sodbury slog next for me  and thats it for this year.

    Of down to Cornwall for a few  days on Wednesday, so hope to get some running in down there.

  • charlotte: Yes I enjoyed yesterday too. Thought opera singer at start was a bit strange, and some of the other music stands a little bit loud. Did enjoy the country band though at about 4 milesimage
  • Oddly the Birmingham Half Marathon forums crashed yesterday afternoon!

    I exchanged some texts with friends who ran, many of whom stopped their watches when they reached thecrowd at the finish line and so far the record is 15 minutes from reaching the crowd to crossing the line. Shocking!!   image

  • PeterPan: wow 15 minutes difference. Over on Great South Run thread at the moment there is mention by a number of posters as to why our chip times are over what our watches told us. A few are e-mailing race organisers for answers. Mine was out, but only 10 seconds over what my watch told me, but even that would have meant I was sub 1:08, instead of just over. But compared to the time differences you guys had at Birmingham, maybe not so bad.
  • SR, it's not a technical issue, simply bad organisation!  Handing out water & foil blankets within feet of the finish when you have thousands of runners starting to finish together isn't a very bright idea! 
Sign In or Register to comment.