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Following the success of my 2-day training regime on Tuesday/Wednesday, I've decided to give tomorrow's South Downs Marathon a pop.
Can confidently say that I won't be close to 3 hours, and 4 seems quite a stretch.
Pacemakers I can cope with if they start at the start, but if they come in half way it is nonsense. Next we will be having guys like William Perry (The Fridge), 335lbs of reduced wind resistance lined up in relays along the course so the nominated winner gets to sit in a pocket behind him.
Cycling has this to the extreme, guy called Fred Rompelberg cycled at 268.831 km/h with some assistance ....
But with my last 2 marathons having ended in cramp at 21-22 miles, in the same leg with the consequent sciatic nerve problems in those same muscles indicates to me that I need to work on this area.
Cycling technique is also important - it seems less so because the bike forces you to move your main muscles in one way. But my guess is that the 20 years of riding 50mpw to and from work has made me a better cyclist than if I'd started 2-3 years ago. Some of that is judgement and bike handling, but pedalling technique can also be improved significantly. The classic method of course is riding a fixed wheel bike over the winter - which I plan to do at the end of the year.
Tmap: Best of luck this weekend! Any other races on anyone's agenda?
I'm leaning towards doing my audax ride this Sunday (130 miles). Starting in Hertford, it goes west past Welwyn Garden City & St Albans to Tring, then east all the way to Saffron Walden, then back to Hertford. Covers 5 counties, and the highest point in each county (none of which are that high!)
This whole debate seems to be a little narcissistic to me. If we look at e.g. 10k then there is only one winner and that is Bekele who does it in 26:17. The other 6.9 billion people in the world are crap because they are not as fast as him.
There are people on this thread who win 10ks and get medals for winning 10ks and are happy with the medals, but if they stepped up a standard then they would not medal.
In reality everyone races at a level and it is nice to get some form of recognition from time to time. I place top 10 and it is nice when, from time to time, there are a few club mates round and you get a team prize. If you are used to winning races, a team medal will mean little to you, if you seldom or never win in the open categories then it means a lot.
So let's remember, there is only one winner, the rest of us are crap, and sometime we choose to ignore this and take pride in the fact that although we are crap, there are others more crap then us and in the pile of crap assembled that day, we are amongst the less crap.
Beautifully put, PMJ...
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Good luck TMap at SD, and MTR on your audax - is that a fancy biking word for a long race? Is it different from a sportive? Low-key 10km for me on Sunday, just a hard training run.
MtR – tad harsh, I said you probably had poor body position not that you were carp ! Sounds like you are going through lots of the stages that I went through. Use the Pull Buoy to show you where you legs should be but don’t use it lots. I bet that you would also benefit from swimming a bit quicker – I improved a lot when I realise I was dawdling too slowly.
Clearly – I like that aspiration, but its more to do with you achieving a certain level rather than winning a prize. I have a similar Race New Forest aspiration (AG Podium) but its more to do with reaching a certain standard (from zero) rather than winning a prize – I couldn’t care if the prize is a whack round the chops.
Tom – I guess that a certain amount of technique would be good on a bike and maybe a certain amount running too.
PMJ - you lost me there
I’ve managed at least 90mins of aerobics every morning this week, 4 days of it has involved sitting down though.
Get your point though - I did two 10k's last year in identical times. One of them was only good enough for 65th place, but the other was an easy win and I got a bottle of bubbly!!
Anyone doing the Southend Half Marathon on Sunday?
My legs have been very tired all week (and groin aching also), after 33 miles at the weekend including 2 hard sessions and then a track session on Tuesday. Got 20+ miles in yesterday (am 6 miles @ 7.34 pace and pm 14.5 miles @ 7.30-ish pace) but felt tired from start to finish in the evening run. Intending a couple of easier days now before Sunday but I think I'll be racing on tired legs anyway so I'm not expecting a great time. The big picture for me is Chicago/San Sebastian (at the moment I'm thinking of doing both) in Oct/Nov so I'll increase the training through the summer and hope that I have a few good race days in the process, if I have lots of rubbish ones as well then so be it.
My riding on the bike improved when I learned not to stick my knees out and to ride better cadence. That said a lot of big lads really push big gears when time trialling. Technique has made me better on the bike though.
Running technique may not make a lot of difference given some of the ugly runners you see winning races but usually if some thing is very close it is the chap with the more efficient action who wins through.
Biggest gain for running technique I think is lack of injury.
Swimming has to be the one where technique is king as I know people who cannot run a mile or ride 10 miles without dying yet glide through water with a speed I can only dream of.
Tom - it did make me laugh so much
Scobos - nice to see you, a quick check of parkrun results will give you an idea of how I use them for whatever I see fit. Nice to see you in here.
Not last minute at all. Decided almost two full days ahead of the race.
Gobi - so heels on the pedals, feet and knees sticking out isnt the way ?
JH1/LMH - 250 folks on the September waiting list !!!!! Not sure if the places go live (like usual) or get given to the waiting list folks in order. If its on a go live thing, then dont snooze or you'll lose - and miss the thread smackdown.
Swash 2012 is only 3 weeks after VLM next yr, wont be doing both next yr.
Gobi do you get many big gear pushers in Tri's? I would have imagined that would ruin their running legs.
Hail Hail
scobos - I never named you, you 'fessed up yourself. And nor did I say it was a bad thing, I only used the example and asked a question. If you feel the need to defend yourself, your conscience must be bothering you
. Welcome to the club on that one. Personally, parkrun can be used for many things (and you know that I've used it for different training options myself), but what I've never done is use it for (as PMJ says) is gamesmanship or packing the race. And before you think thats me accusing you again, its just me stating what I use parkrun for, and not making any comment on what you use it for. Apologies if you're offended by my asking a vague general question. Bet your training buddy loves his staff discount too 
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If someone else runs 26.17 there can there be more than one winner or does everyone become crap?
Dull
I’ve been spending a lot of time at 70 to 80 rpm in the last few weeks, instead of my usual 90 to 100 rpm (probably explains some of my lower HRs). So that I can improve my muscular endurance and also so that I can turn a bigger gear on race day. I thought bike racing is about cadence, and TTing (which is what ½ IM and IM are) is about turning bigger gears.
dont think I've ever done anything with style though, maybe I should stick to staying out of ditches rather than gear choice !
hope the rain holds off until after 9pm, my eldest has an away game at 6pm that is 20M away, so I'll be miffed if it gets rained off. Then I'm going to blow the froth off a few and carb up for a 3hr bike ride early doors.
Off out to France on Tuesday for 5 days of cycling in the Ardeche finishing with a 1 day stage of 220k up mountains.
http://blog.ardechoise.com/en/parcours/ardechoise/
As I understand it, you can spin comfortably at 90 rpm and are working on some strength building over gear work. THis should mean that you can push a bigger gear than usual at 90rpm in the future.
Sorry about the bike talk Tom. But it was you who brought up technique
So RB, you're not accusing me, but if I read it correctly (and no doubt you'll state it's my interpretation and not the one you're placing upon it), you're more-than-strongly implying that I entered into 'gamesmanship' or 'packing the race' (or are those words also attributed to others?).
And why wouldn't I name (rather than 'fess up') myself? Nothing to confess to and much better than tossing half-baked accusations or implications around (albeit disguised as simple observations) for the sake of debate. Mr M doesn't need any help from me or anyone else to produce his best race performances. If he gets an improvement in performance from running with or around me from time to time then so be it...we've never discussed it and can't imagine we ever will.
As for your last sentence? I've got absolutely no idea of the relevance or context of it but I'm not really bothered about receiving an explanation.
Thanks for the friendly welcome (back) from others. But maybe I'll just get back into lurking mode and become a Johnny One Post from time to time (if that's not a contradiction). The parapet on this particular forum can be a dangerous one to stick your head above.
JH1 - Swashbuckler 2 is 4th Sept, I'm pretty sure I'll be toeing the line - ribs allowing.
Keir - sounds about right then. Turning a bigger gear at 90 rpm will do nicely.
For example, the last time I won was when a bloke pushing his son in a pram was ahead of me at the 3km point and we were detoured over a 50m stretch of boggy grass.
Anyway, he didn't complain when I took full advantage of this, and sprinted on whilst he was struggled through it, and noone else complained that a two year old boy came second.
4-5 years ago I bought a couple of pairs of Onitsuka tigers for £20 each in a closing down sale. Sadly I never had the nerve to run much more than five miles at a time in them as they were so flimsey! When I was at Uni the Onitsuka Mexico 66 was the shoe of choice which made Dunlop Green Flash seem like a pair of Doc Martins in comparison.
At the moment I'm training in Asics Hyperspeeds, though my favourite shoe of recent years were the Ekidens (as worn by Paula and BR), closely followed by Asics Ohano.