RW Forum SIx – 3.30 – 4.00

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  • Carl DCarl D ✭✭✭

    Well the weather was certainly better at Eton Dorney today than a month ago. It was about 10 degs with bright skies and sunshine on occassion. But there was still a stiff head wind when climbing from the far end of the lake back up to the start area.

    Not as many people this time round as last time either.

    There is no doubt that 4 laps is a monotonous race particularly when the majority of the runners are gone after 2 laps.

    I did not have a great sleep last night and caught caught in traffic on the motorway on the way there so arrived at the start line as the race was about to start.

    The early part of the first lasp was all about passing people out.

    The legs were a tad heavy after my session last night but my strategy was to run at circa 7:30 m/m for as long as I could and see if I could pick it up on lap 4.

    First 3 miles I felt strong and was certainly under the pace a bit. Second 3 miles were a little slower but I only had 2 people pass me towards the end of this set of 3 miles who were on the 10k race.

    After the first 2 laps most people had dropped out so it was very much running on your own which mentally is not what you expect in a race. I always like having people ahead of me that I can wheel in. Keeps me focussed. My mind wandered a bit during the next 3 miles and I slowed a little. 

    Got my racing head on for the last 3 miles or so and dug in. These turned out to be my fastest set which is very encouraging.

    I was spent at the end and am still tired a few hours later. But very satisfied.

    Splits as follows :

    5k - 23:16

    10k - 23:12

    15k - 23:38

    20k - 23:10

    Overall 1:33:16 which equates to 7:28 min/mile.

    This was a whole 3:30 min faster than a month ago. Some of this would be down to the fact that teh conditions were better. Some probably the benefit of training since the first attempt.

    Overall very pleased with my days work. image

     

     

  • carterusmcarterusm ✭✭✭

    Carl - that's great consistent running there. I think it shows your training is going well and on track for a good time at London. Don't forget that when there is a strong headwind you also get the benefit of the wind behind you so I think today;s race shows that your training is going very well. Take a rest and get yourself in good shape for next weeks training. Only 6 weeks to go for you as well ? Good result for you just now too. We had a mare and got beat 4 - 1 by Wigan

    Nell - I wouldn't say that 9 and 11 seconds slower over a mile is failing miserably. How far are you up to on your long runs ?

    Ali - take it from someone who knows, don't get down on yourself for not hitting your weekly target. I used to get really pissed off if I was just a mile off my weekly target but this year I have come to accept that injuries, of course, the weather and family stuff will nearly always get in the way of my training plan. I don't let it bother me any more and certainly feel better for it. Next week will see you get right back on track I imagine.

    So, I took the mutt out on the moors today and we had a nice muddy 5.2 mile fell run (that's the furthest Harvey has run yet. I can tell you all want me to keep you informed of his progress as well as mine !). What an absolutely beautiful day it was; 2 layers less than recently and no hat or gloves needed even up in the fells and the sun was shining too. I saw a couple of horse riders, a few walkers and a couple of people on mountain bikes and everyone seemed a lot happier. My legs felt a lot better than my last run and while I still struggled to breath a bit with my blocked nose I feel that my little bad run of form is over, thankfully. I will try and get out for a few miles tomorrow as well.

     

  • Nell BlueNell Blue ✭✭✭

    HI Carl, Great running. As Carter has mentioned really good consistent splits there. Which must be a good reflection on the quality of training you are getting in. Well done on dealing with the monotony of the course also and improving on the last run, Nice one!

    Hi Carter, it won't be long before the dog starts hiding when he sees you getting the running kit ready! To answer your question, my longest LSR has been 14 miles which I ran last week. It should have been 15 but I fell short the week before and did not really want to take too big a jump (thinking of the ITB!). Anyway last week I nearly ended up in Holland with the wind so was glad to get back home! 

  • Nell BlueNell Blue ✭✭✭

    I woke up this morning and my plan had a time trial for 10K. I was not really looking forward to running that from where I live as it is so up and down. I remembered that the Stroke Association had a 5/10K down at Cramond. Ali, you will know the course, I think the 10K was just 2 times of the Parkrun I guess (never ran it myself).

    I went online at 9:15 after just getting out of bed and was getting some water and electrolytes on board and saw that you could register on the day. So I had to get myself together and get down to cramond before 10:10. Managed it pretty easily as traffic was quiet. Not the best prep for a 10k, quick slug of electrolyte drink and half a nature valley cereal bar!

    Started off and settled next to a couple of similar runners and stuck with the one till the end.

    Finishing time 41:57, splits 6:28,6:35,6:47,6:38,6:44,6:43,1:59. In the original plan it had to finish the 10k in sub 40 mins. I am nowhere near that at the moment (if ever!). Lovely morning, sun was shining and the wind was not too bad, occasional side wind in places but not as bad as it has been recently.

    Felt better than last Thursday running, incidentally after all this talk on time predictions etc, I put the time into the RW calculator and it predicted 3:12:51 for a marathon. If I get that time in May I will be over the moon. After 4 weeks of training, I am pretty happy at the moment lower mileage this week as no LSR but that was in the plan anyway, and will try and run another 10k in a month or so just to see where I am.

  • Carl- that is a great race.  It does sound a tough one though.  I do agree that laps are monotonous in general and don't help time go by quickly.  Well done, you really have done yourself proud with your improvement in time!

    Carter- I do like hearing about Harvey's progress image what type of dog is he?

    Nell- that's still a great 10k time. What is your current 10k PB?  The good thing about Cramond is it is nice and flat, the only bad thing can be the wind but glad you got a nice day.

    After my ankle feeling uncomfortable after the intervals session I took back to the treadmill last night and did 5 miles but quite steady and am avoiding any real speed for a week or so until it feels right again.  Today had planned 17 miles, at LSR pace of 10:00 miles approx.

    I had however agreed to meet my friend who I have been running with fairly regularly today too.  So decided to do 11 on my own first then 6 with her tacked on at the end.

    As I knew the pace would be pretty slow for the last six miles with my friend (she is still starting out and recent runs have all been around 11-12 minute miles with her) I decided to do the first 11 slightly faster then meet her for a nice easy last 6.

    First 11 miles in 1:43:49, 9:27 avg pace. 9:50, 9:40, 9:39, 9:20, 9:20, 9:21, 9:21, 9:23, 9:21, 9:25, 9:20.  Lovely run along an old railway line, nice and sunny and good conditions and I kept a really good consistent pace after the first couple of miles!

    Then caught my friend (she brought me a bottle of water- thanks!) and we did 6.32 miles in 1:10 so 11:05 avg pace.  Was glad to have company and a nice easy pace as we ran a tougher route through town then to the beach, and the weather turned horrible so I was glad it was the last 6 miles not the first.  Was obviously slow for me but my friend was well chuffed as it beat the time she last did for a 6 miler along the same kind of route with me.

    So all in all 17.32 miles with total time of 2:54 and I think works out as 10:02 avg pace so even though split the run in two worked out roughly how I thought for timing.

    Feeling a bit sore now but glad I did it!  Marathon day is 12 weeks from now and having got 17 miles under my belt I feel confident going forward.

  • Carl DCarl D ✭✭✭

    Carter - took your advice and had a rest day today. Turned this week into a proper cut back week with only 33 miles in total. (Frankly I think I would have been shot if I donned the running gear).

    Nell - I think your time for your 10k is a great time. You have not quite been getting the mileage in that you want so I think you are in good shape with loads of time to your marathon.

    Agree with all the comments on teh monotony. It is much more difficult to deal with than you think. The mind says 'not another lap'. Also the lack of spectators is an issue. It sort of becomes a race whilst out training on your own.

    Carter, I am not getting carried away about London. Will need to think hard about my race startegy. My training is going well but I have 3 tough weeks ahread of me before the taper. I need to keep this level of intensity up but leave enough for race day and not get injured. I will revisit this in a few weeks.

    Ali - great running from you today as well. Well done for accomodating your running bussy too. And isn't the weather just horrible. It was t-shirt and shorts weather yesterday and today everyone I saw was back in winter gear.

    I put my race time from yesterday into both teh McMilland and RW race calculators today out of interest as it had come up on here this week. I was surprised. I always thought that RW was a bit optomistic. RW came out at 3:31  whereas McMillan came out at 3:28. Now they are pretty close but I am still not so sure. As I say I will come back to it in a few weeks.

     And yes Carter it was a great result for my team yesterday. My little fella is getting very excited and thinks we might win the league. I have told him not to be daft. image

  • Morning everyone, lots of good running by everyone here, Having read about Nell's 10K, i quite fancy doing one before the Marathon as a maker of my fitness. My last official one was Bristol last year and that was a 50:12. Looking for a sub 43 next time.

    I did a 20 mile LSR last night, the first 10 at and easy pace then 8 miles at MP followed by the last 2 at an easy pace again. Came in at 2hrs and 50 min. Will use the RW race time predictor after my half at he end of this month.

    Our new treadmills are finally here, it took 6 months for them to arrive. I had hopped to have one up and running  image last night for my LSR, but ran out of time. Nice quiet day for me disassembling the old one and building the new.  

    What does everyone have planned for this week?

     

  • Well done to all on some great times and sessions over the weekend.

    Nell – that’s a good time after only 4 weeks of your plan. I reckon if you try another one in 3-4 weeks time you’ll knock at least 60-90 secs off that time.

    Ali – 17 miles LSR with still 12 weeks of your training to go – great stuff. That’s an excellent platform to build on from here.

    Carl – it’s got to be a good feeling to go back and nail it this time. I’m sure the weather was a bit of a factor, but no doubt all of the sessions in the interim have paid dividends in spades. Translated to a busier race scenario with a bit of cover, some support from the side-lines and you’ll be flyin!

    With the exception of a tentative 5m last Friday, I haven’t run at all. The leg responded reasonably well, but I’ve picked up a dose of Carter’s man flu, and the two combined have completely laid me low.

    So last week’s cut back week was a wipe out week, and this week, a real tough week in the schedule,  is not looking great at the moment.

    C’est la vie.

  • Wow great running by everyone this weekend.

    Nell: cracking 10k there mate. I too want to do a sub 40 10k in 2014, but my PB ATM is 41.59, so I too have some work to do.

    Ali: Great LSR. Sometimes its not all about the pace, just getting out there and running for 3 hours, builds up the stamina wonderfully. 

    BK: Im in the same boat mate, need to make up for lost miles this week for the following reason

    I unfortunately had one of those 'lost' weekends. Out on the beers straight after work on Friday, thus did quite a half cut and too fast for my condition parkrun Saturday morning. Then straight down to Stoke on the 11:40 train to see my beloved Arsenal play. Didnt get back to Leeds untill well past midnight, and was beered up to the eyeballs im afraid, and sporting quite a few beer injuries (including a very tight Hammy from my PR I ran too fast).  The 20 miles I had pencilled in for Sunday was longtime cancelled in my mind on the train back in my inebriated state, thus I spent Sunday drinking more beer, and eating crap food. Oh dear!!!!!

     

    Must do better this week, but im going to give the Yasso 800's a go on Wednesday, and on Sunday im running in the East Hull 20m, so at least I know ill do my 20 mile run for sure. image

  • Carl- sure the cutback week was good for you, you've been running hard.

    Canter-
    Yes I am chuffed being at 17m so far.  On my training plan the 17 miler is only called for in a couple of weeks, but I will be doing the Alloa HM that week.  Therefore I swapped the weeks around to get in my 17 miler now one week after my 15 miler, then this week am due a slightly shorter long run of only 13m, but that suits well as I will not knacker myself too much before my HM which is on the 16th.  So has worked out well.  That is one thing I'm doing better at this year is adapting my training plan to sit round events I have planned, I have looked at it in advance to ensure that I get in all the long runs I need to but don't do anything stupid like do a 20 miler then try to race a half a few days later...

    I know it must be so annoying to you Canter but you are doing the right thing resting and you really really are not going to lose a whole lot of fitness by taking a couple of weeks off/easy, believe me, I've been there before and been surprised at how good I felt afterwards.

    Sean- I may have had weekends like that myself...image  But hey ho you'll be forced into your 20 miler this week as you say so that's one thing!

    I'm having a rest day today, was going to go out for a little recovery run but I'm knackered to be honest so am going to take this as one of my days off.

  • Nell BlueNell Blue ✭✭✭

    Hi Ali, funnily enough I have not ran a lot of 10K races and the ones I have I haven't recorded the times. I only started recording times over a year ago and the ones before that all the figures are a bit mixed up in my head now! I think this may be one of my best times ?? I could have prepared better for it, but I kind of enjoyed the spur of the moment activity ;0) Nice running from you Ali, it was a great morning for a run, I think I am a little behind you in the LSR's!

    Hi Carl, Yes best to not push it and take a day off...lol! Yes, I am going to try and get some quality miles in from now. But you are one who knows,  how it is with work getting in the way?

    Hi Canter, yes I think there is a 10k in Dunbar early April. I may try that. You hang in there, It sounds as though you have accepted you just have to rest. Just one of those things plenty of vitamins!

    Hi Stuart, Are you wearing those treadmills out ??

    Hi Sean, I'd like to crack 40 but that feels a big 2 minutes ;0   Sounds like a cracking weekend you had anyway (apart from the bad result!), so just take that as your rest weekend and now get back to work ;0)

     

     

  • carterusmcarterusm ✭✭✭

    Ali - Harvey is a 2 year old springer spaniel. Mental is one of the many words we use to describe him ! Reaching 17 miles so far out from race day is really good going in my opinion. It gives you some flexibility later in your plan too. Have you incorporated any speeds sessions into your plan yet ?

    Carl - no, your team won't win the league, not this year anyway. These race calculators don't take into account the time of the year, weather conditions on the day, the fact that you are X number of weeks into a training plan etc, so I still maintain that you will crack 3:30 this year and I wouldn't be surprised if it's by a comfortable amount of time as well. 

    Stuart - are you back out at sea again now ?

    Canter - man flu eh, well done for making it through to the other side ! don't worry about your lack of running last week, there is nothing wrong with an extra few days rest. It will just leave you feeling stronger and raring to go this week but make sure you don't try and catch up by doing extra miles.

    Sean - sounds like you had a marathon session at the weekend ! Again, no harm done by having the occasional blow out. Shame about the result on Saturday though, it's about this time of every season when Arsenal implode so it shouldn't come as a surprise image

    Nell - are you still playing football (I can't remember when you said you stopped playing during marathon training). 

    My last couple of runs have been a lot better following my sniffles. I can breath a lot easier and feeling stronger. 2 more weeks for me then I start tapering so my plan is to try and hit the 50 mile mark for both weeks or get as close as I can. This Saturday sees my last 20 miler of the plan which is the Grindleford Gallop, a 21 mile trail/fell race, though I won't be racing it. All my running is going to be at any easy pace for the next 2 weeks and during taper time I will add in some speed work.

    Carl - I remember a couple of weeks ago you had a 5 mile run with 3 @ MP pace. What was the purpose of the MP miles, just to get used to running at the pace ?

  • Hi Carter, glad to hear that your cold has cleared up, it's never fun running with a stuffy head. I'm back on the ship but only for two more weeks and the trip is going by quickly. I wish i could run with my dog but she tends to run off after birds and squirrels. 

    Nell, the old treadmill were ruined, we managed to keep them going until the new ones arrived. All set up now and full of training programs including a 5K and 10K race with different gradients. looking forward to playing around with them tonight. 

    Sean as a fellow Gooner, i feel your pain, every bloody season,if its not Blackburn its Stoke! 

    Enjoy your rest day Ali, It's nice to just relax now and again.

  • Carl DCarl D ✭✭✭

    Canter - hang in there. Missing some runs is not the end of the world. Best to get recover rather than go out too soon and regret it later. WE have all done this before.

    Nell - you are right. Work can be a pain when you are trying to pile on the miles. I have to admit that my dedication to donning the running gear no matter what the time has some people questionning my sanity.

    Carter - this marathon race pace is going to be an interetsing dilema. Yes the training is going well so far. But my best race time is 3:58. So while sub 3:30 might be theoretically possible is it realistic. What happens if I blow up chasing it and then do not even get sub 3:40 say. That would be a massive dissapointment. Wheras making sure I have nailed the sub 3:40 and if the gods are on my side pushing on in the last 6 miles for the 3:30 might be more sensible. This is why I am leaving this for a few more weeks. These next 3 weeks before taper are going to have a big bearing on how well prepared I am for the start line in London.

    Sean - that sounds like a blast of a weekend. Somethimes it just needs to be done. Important to get straight back out there this week though.

    Stuart - how did you find the new treddies ? Are they like the modern ones most gyms have these days  ?

    Carter - the 5 miles with 3 at MP was in my plan last week. Normally that session would have had HM pace but as it was 2 days (and in my case the night before) the 20k race, HM pace would have been too quick. I think going forward most of thoses sessions are at HM pace.

  • Carl DCarl D ✭✭✭

    So tonight hada 6m fartlkek session in the plan. Have never done one of these before so probably did not get it right.

    I planned a 1 mile w/u and 1 mile c/d. Each fartlek interval was roughly meant to be :

    4 mins at  HM pace followed by 2 mins jog rec

    2 mins at 10k pace followed by 1 min jog rec

    1 min at 5k pace followed by 30 sec jog rec, and

    30 sec at 1 mile pace

    And about 4 mins jog rec in between each session.

    Did not set up my garmin properly so kept an eye on instant pace and gaaged the timings. From swopping between screens during the jog rec I could see that I was a little over / under in places but overall got it about right.

    I did this on the roads but next time would do it on the track and convert the distances into laps of the track so it is easier to as then only focusinng on pace.

    This was a tough workout straight after a race but I enjoyed the variety. Stepping up through the gears is challenging and it does take alot out of you.

    I covered 7.5 miles in all at 8:08 min/mile pace for the total run.

    A good start to this week. image

  • Nell BlueNell Blue ✭✭✭

    Hi Carter, I am into week 5 of the plan and the footie gets mothballed after week 8. It is a good workout as there are some good young players who play who keep the interval training up ;o) It is just the injury aspect of things that I am worried about.

    Hi Carl, good session again. Wise to reserve judgement on your pacing until further into the training...

    HI Stuart, I am a Birmingham fan so you and Sean probably won't have fond memories of us back in the league cup the other year....unfortunately a Hong Kong guy has ruined the club now!!

    I had a rest day yesterday.

    Today hill reps in the morning and then squeezed in a S+C session in the gym later. 9 miles planned for the morning....

  • Nell- I am like you in that I've not done many 10ks at all officially.  My best official time just now rests at 49:11 from September 2012 which I know now I could beat.  Having done a 22:34 5k I think I'd be capable of roughly a 47-48 minute 10k so I must try one soon to put that to the test.  In recent times I have done more 5ks than 10ks.

    Carter- I love spaniels.  Love any dogs actually.  As to your question on speed- I have done quite a lot of different sessions in my plan so far.  Including a couple of timed 5ks which are always good to get some constant speed, shortish run sessions with strides, and now a couple of interval sessions including the 800m one I did last week which I have surprisingly enjoyed.  Is that what kind of thing you mean?

    Stuart- to ask a question about your job and I hope not too probing- you seem to have a lot of time for running/working out whilst on the ship- is it fairly easy in this way to make time for yourself?  I know some people who work offshore and the jobs sound tiring and maybe doesn't encourage feeling like working out at the end of it.

    Carl- good session.  I like fartlek.  Varied and fun.

    I ran today on the treadmill after work.  Still avoiding speed for a few days given the ankle feeling not great but it was OK tonight whilst running.  (actually worse when not running)  Did 10k in 9 min mile pace whilst watching episode of Luther on my iPad. image

     

  • Good morning everyone, had a poor run last night, tried to do some speed work but found that even on the warm up i was sore and had no energy. Decided to take an extra rest day rather than risk injury. Fingers crossed i'll be back running tonight.

    Carl the new tradies are LifeFitness ones, these seem to be in a lot of gyms these days and look pretty good. Hopefully will be able to get some miles on them tonight. They are full of training programs and preset races, its going to be fun trying them out.

    Ali, work is usually a 12 hour shift, although i tend to be tired after work i have got into the habit of going straight to the gym. Its hard to keep up the momentum sometimes and i find that if i don't start going as soon as i get back on board i tend to find excuses not to go. i have found that signing up for races and following a training plan helps with the motivation.

    Nell it could be worse, we could all be Cardiff Fans image

     

  • Nell, I was at that very game you mention. Ticket cost me £150 too. That day no longer exists in my mind.

    Carl - Not done a fartlek session for years but I remember they seemed to help me loads with losing weight before your big race, so may incorporate some into my training over the next few weeks. Sure fartlek is Sweedish for fun with speed, or playful speed or something along those lines. Dont quite know about that from my memories of them, but looks like you had a decent session on Tuesday.

    Alibali. funny you mention an Ipad in the gym. Thats cool if you're watching a TV programme or film like you were, but last week I saw someone in the gym doing the 'insanity' workout on an ipad. Eh, surely thought the whole point of insanity was so you could do this in your living room in lieu of a gym membership. crazy people.

    So after my 'marathon' blowout this weekend, I got in a pretty fast 5.5 miles that included 2 mega hills on Monday night. I was on a train to Birmingham at silly O'clock yesterday, so was wiped out by the time I got home last night. I'm at a track tonight for a crack at the Yasso 800's ive mentioned, so ill let you know how I get on.

    Im going to run 800m at 5k pace, then jog a 400m at a very slow recovery race, then repeat x 10

    As its an indoor track I figure that ill press lap on my garmin when I start / finish a 800m and then recovery lap, thus when I upload the data ill have 20 laps on there with 800m's being shown as alternative laps. Unless anyone else has a better idea how to set this up?

  • Nell BlueNell Blue ✭✭✭

    Hi Stuart, Yes that Cardiff Chairman is strange......

    Hi Ali, We have plenty of time to go so you take it easy ;o)

    Hope the Yasso workout went well sean. How do you find the indoor track?

    Reason I ask is that I was at the physio today and she still runs, in fact she won the 1500 and 3000 metres for her age group in Scotland last Sunday (think she is 40/41). I think she won the 1500 in 5:22 and the 3000 was slower as the clock broke down and it turned into a tactical race (mind you think that was just over 11 mins!).

    Anyway I am dribbling, she said that at the end of the 3000 metres she is always completely dried out and finds that she is constantly hydrating indoors. Do you find it harder indoors Sean?

    Ran 8.5 miles this morning, mainly between 7:30-40 apart from two one mile sections when I am climbing a hill and that slowed me down....

  • Stuart- wow, so you don't have actually a huge amount of spare time but you really make yourself do it.  Very good.  I think after a 12 hour shift every day all I'd feel like is bed?!

    Sean- yes, on the iPad thing...I would also find it weird seeing people doing Insanity at the gym, as I too thought the whole point of it was for people who wanted to get a great workout in their own home!?  But I bring mine quite a lot now to watch TV episodes/film because when I have to do a longer run in the gym it really passes the time well.

    I think what you're planning with the garmin for the 800s sounds fine.  I couldn't think of a better way.  I've never done using my garmin only on a treadmill so not the best person to comment.  

    I went out tonight to do 13 miles.  This week on my plan is a bit of a cut back week in terms of length of the long run.  Not really planning to cut back otherwise but the long run a few miles shorter.

    At first thought I'd just go out nice and easy at my usual LSR pace but a couple miles in decided I felt good, I thought why not see if I can do the 13 miles at marathon pace (approx 9 min mile is my goal pace for Edinburgh).  I usually struggle to run for an extended period at marathon pace- unlike some of you there is always a huge discrepancy between my training times and race times.  I can't pull out great times in training.

    Was a tough run as it was quite windy but I really knew I was feeling good and trusted my fitness.  Ended up 13 miles exactly and splits 10:49, 10:13, 9:52, 9:12, 9:03, 8:52, 8:40, 8:16, 8:21, 8:29, 8:11, 7:48, 7:52.

    So with a few exceptions really a progressively faster run and my last two miles the fastest of the lot at under my 10k pace.  Overall 1:55:39 and 8:54 pace.

    One of the hardest runs I've done in training recently and I'm really pleased with it.  Hopefully a sign of the fact I can do well/OK at the Alloa HM next week.

  • Carl DCarl D ✭✭✭

    Ali - great progressive run from you tonight and fast too. Seems to me you are in much better shape than you thought.

    Stuart - really impressive stuff getting on the treddie after a 12 hour shift. Takes great mental strength to do this regularly. Need alot of discipline and it looks like you ahev it oin spades. No worries about last night, Every so often we all have a bad day at the office. The important thing is not to worry about it and move on.

    6 miles at a comfortable 8:43 min/mile for me tonight.

    I am planning a progressive run tomorrow night but not as far as yours Ali as I have a 20 mile LSR at the weekend and need to save myself for that.

     

  • Hi Everyone, just a quick question, How Many LSR of 18 mile and above is everyone doing and what the furthest you'll run? I worry that as i am already running 20 miles on a LSR and have 11 weeks to go that i might be running the risk of burning out. Is it work cutting back and then building up again towards the marathon race day?

  • So I had a great track session last night on an OUTDOOR track at the John Charles sports centre as it didn't have an indoor one. They did have indoor bowls, so I must of imagined that indoor track up. ha ha.

      So the plan was to do 800m x 10 with 2 minutes rest in-between each interval. My garmin was accidentally set on autolap by position, instead on manual, thus the thing was beeping like crazy the whole way around and I when I got home I required a big mug of tea and one of those giant calculators to figure out what had occurred.   Anyway the splits were as follows.   2:52.9 2:57.4 3:02.9 3:16.6 3:10.0 3:11.4 3:12.6 3:14.5 3:05.9 2:57.1   total: 31:1.3   Thus my average lap time was 3:06, hence according to the yasso theory ill be doing the marathon in 3hours and 6 mins. Hmmmm. I tell you what if I pulled off a marathon time anything near that I would strip to my keks at the finish line and pole dance the flag pole at Buckingham Palace.  ha ha.   Seriously though, it felt great last night, and it was class having a floodlit track all to myself. I felt like an elite athlete or something off one of those lukazade adverts, although i'm more ginsters powered if anything else.    Gym today for a legs sesh, then 8 miles tomorrow morning, then my 20 mile race on Sunday. This will be the peak week of training for me, and I need it too as i'm off to Munich on Monday.
  • carterusmcarterusm ✭✭✭

    Sean - are you sure you didn't run around the bowling green rather than the track, some cracking splits there. I'm not too keen on the pole dancing though !! Is Munich business or pleasure ?


    Stuart - so far, I have done 6 runs over 18 miles with 3 at 20 and 1 at 21 miles. I had been doing a fair bit prior to starting my training for Manchester so was quite comfortable getting to 18 miles at week 3 of my plan (which I deliberately made a 20 week plan as well). I think you are fine getting there at your stage of the plan but be aware of not overdoing it, as you say. I would always give 2 weeks between doing 20 milers just to give myself a decent recovery period. I have got a 21 planned for this Saturday (Grindleford Gallop fell/trail race) and the following Saturday I've got a 18 mile run which is part of the Dukeries ultra route around Clumber Park. The one thing I would add is that in the last couple of weeks I've been feeling a bit lethargic on all my runs. I've had the man flu so this may account for it and hopefully I haven't done too much in previous weeks, which I don't think I have.

    Off for a gentle 6 miles down by the canal and river at lunch. 31 days to Manchester !

  • carterusmcarterusm ✭✭✭

    Carl – that’s a nice fartlek session. How are you feeling at the moment as I know you were looking at changing your plan to possible reduce miles/sessions each week ?

    Nell – I guess there are some young pups who play football who can be a bit keen going into a tackle. And you obviously have to be careful of injuries at your age image How did the hill reps session go ?

    Ali – we have had to have a dog behaviorist in for our mutt. He was getting very aggressive and destructive and the more we shouted at him the worse he got. Apparently we were doing it all wrong and we should be ignoring him as he was just constantly seeking attention. He got through plenty of Mrs C’s cushions and she was not happy ! He is a lot better now and I try and take him on my easy run on Sundays. I’m looking forward to slowly increasing the distance he runs with me over the summer. As you can imagine with a springer, he really loves it out and about in his natural habitat of moorland, woods, fells, trails etc. I’m also thinking of taking him to some dog agility classes, which should be interesting !

  • Hi Carter, thanks for the good advice, to be honest it been a pretty poor week for me running wise, so im going to chalk it up to experience and start refreshed next week. Will do a shorter LSR on Sunday. Hope you canal run was good. 

  • cartersum. Pleasure all the way, except it wont be pleasure as im going to see Arsenal get thrashed by Bayern Munich.

    I used to be an 800m runner back in the day for Barnet Copthall and my PB was 2.27, so I quite like the distance. However where these yasso 800's fall down is that they dont reconsile that im about 1stone over my fighting weight so at around 15-16 miles fatigue sets in quite badly for me, and I slow down drastically. On my last marathon at York I was at nearly 11 min miles by mile 26!!!!!

  • carterusmcarterusm ✭✭✭

    Sean - 1 stone over your fighting weight ? I wish, I'm more like 2 stone over. My plan this year was to try and shed that but I'm finding that I've not lost anything. I seem to be eating more, albeit most of the time my diet has improved and I guess some of my fat is turning to muscle. Hey ho, too late to do much about it now, I will just have to haul my fat carcass around as it is. I'm afraid I have to agree about Arsenal, if you don't turn up on the day it could be a cricket score.

    Stuart - sounds like a good plan.

    I ended up going down the Trent Valley Way at lunch time which runs next to the river Trent. It was a new route for me and really nice. I decided to run it at MP (8:30) and ended up running  6 miles @ 8:35. While it was a lot better and easier than the last couple of weeks the last couple of miles were harder than it should have been. Still, heading in the right direction and still plenty of time to go

  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭

    Hi everyone.

    I saw Carter pop up on another thread I am an avid lurker/poster on (the Team GB one - it's pure class!) and realised I hadn't been on here and then noticed it wasn't in my "Followed Threads".  Not sure why, although I have noticed my "Followed Threads" do go missing on occasion.

    Anyway, I'm still getting out there and got another sub-1:40 Half on Sunday, so I'm pleased with that.  I have a 20-mile race in a couple of weeks so that could be interesting to see what happens, and I have half an eye on a marathon in May.  I need to up my long runs as I've done nothing over 16 miles in the last few weeks, which is an issue!

    Also, I now have an "official" role in my club as I'm "Press and Publicity officer" which basically means writing weekly reports for the club website and two local papers.  

    I hope everyone is doing well - I know the marathons are fast approaching and it's an exciting time!  I'll make sure this gets added to my "Followed Threads" and I'll try and start posting again image

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