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Gul - Still a serious annual mileage total that. Enjoy your time away with Mrs GD.
Abbers - That's an early xmas do. Enjoy and I hope Sunday is not too arduous. I find I need 2 days recovery now after a big night.
SEdan - Congrats on the place. Things will settle down and your'e already making good progress, so crack on and you'll be grand.
TAR - 130 is a good month for me. I managed 101 in November and that included a training run half and a raced one. Why are you doing all the treadmill running?
Leslie - Still knocking out the miles with work and an ify hammy. I too have had to keep an eye on mine for the past 4 weeks or so and the hand brake is useful in times like these. Well done!
MsE - What type of puppy do you have? Good luck with the Hogs back race!
Zero for me today. Work is mad again and might be another zero tomorrow. Hope to do some running over the w/end.
Finally managed to grab some time and get on here to post - it's been a manic couple of weeks with visits to yet more of the country's cultural hotspots - Colchester and Stevenage last week, Hull and now Preston this week.
Firstly, a bucketload of best wishes to Poacher. As you say, it sounds as though you got off lightly but that can't excuse the driver's behaviour. Don't worry about the beauty contest entry! Hope it all heals soon. Commiserations on the Berlin entry as well - hopefully things will get better now that we're in December.
Nice one SEdan - I can't remember how old you are but I'm guessing you've got plenty of years' worth of running left in you to get the sub-3. Sounds like a focus on getting the GFA for London should be the no.1 focus.
More great early morning runs from Gul - over 2,500 in a year is going some and shows great consistency. Enjoy the weekend.
MsE - I could well have been tempted by the Hogs Back but I see from the website that the online entries have closed and you've got to get there early on Sunday to get one of the remaining entries on the day. I'm also planned a hilly 20+ miler on Saturday so not sure what state my legs will be in. Do you fancy the Brutal run down at Longmoor on New Year's Eve? I've done a few of them in the past and they're great fun if you like what I term extreme XC without all the climbing nonsense that makes up things like Tough Mudder.
200 miles on the nose for me during November (following exactly 200 in October as well, both unintentional but feels nice and neat), the last few days in decidedly Arctic temperatures, although I steadfastly refuse to wear leggings even in the coldest of conditions.
8 moderately hilly ones this morning at Gul o'clock to take me through 2,100 for the year so far so still neck and neck with PMJ. A few easy ones planned for tomorrow although I haven't yet worked out which part of Preston is the attractive bit to aim for.
Don't know if anyone else noted the details of Sedan's post but the timeline is
Prior to November 2016 enter Berlin 2017 marathon ballot.
Get a ballot place and run Berlin in the autumn of 2017 and bag a GFA.
Spring 2018 enter the London "ballot" via the GFA route.
Spring 2019 run London.
That is planning 2.5 years ahead. When I was the age to have ankle biters (great phrase Leslie) 2.5 years was plenty of time to add a couple more to the collection.
Come on, I passed through 2,100 Wednesday lunchtime so I am a day and a half or 36 hours ahead of you, hardly "neck and neck"
I expect you may pass me this weekend, same as you did round Billingsgate, as I only did an easy 4 yesterday, today is a day off raking leaves in the garden then parkrun pacing on Saturday and XC on Sunday so no long one. Will have to try and get a long run in on Monday during a week in Germany. A morning flight leave me a clear afternoon next to Nuremberg airport so it may be laps of the perimeter fence.
Nice miles PMJ, Lorenzo. Preston is a tough town but plenty of good countryside round there if you can get to it
Good luck racing MsE - sorry about the pet-related misidentification
TAR that's 100m more than some of us - nice work.
Today's #gymfail - fella on the neighbouring treadie was in a black windproof two-piece sweaty crinkly nasty polyester leisure suit. It's 37 degrees outside and maybe mid twenties in the gym, so he was dripping and rather fragrant after a few minutes. Why why why? Unless he's training for somewhere even more unpleasant.
Poacher - unfortunately I only had time for 4 easy miles this morning. I was staying in the centre of Preston so it was residential streets and then a run round the park near the football stadium.
PMJ - I've got a long neck! Long run planned for tomorrow so might sneak ahead of you for 48 hours.
TAR 130m on the hamster wheel you deserve a medal
MsE goodluck sunday
Lorenzo scary monthly total consistence there ,watch that neck
PMJ enjoy lapping the airport
Sedan the future can change quickly as PMJ says so just do what you can
15m (average 8:12) sneaked in this morn as I had to be back home early ,pace a bit slow for my liking but it's been a bit of a recovery week.
How are you feeling now Poacher - hope you're not getting too many strange looks!
Good 15 there Leslie.
My legs felt a bit heavy when I left the house this morning, so the first 10 miles or so didn't feel like much fun but I kept it going to bag 23 miles in total. Garmin logged 750m of ascent and descent as the run included Leith Hill, Box Hill and a sneaky 20% for about 400m after 20 miles. The overall pace was a bit ploddy but I pulled it together for a couple of sub-7 minute miles at the end.
Off to see the cycling at the Olympic velodrome this evening.
Easy parkrun in 20:59 pacing 21:00, XC tomorrow.
Blimey, Lorenzo, that's a sterling effort, but showing off a bit with those final couple of miles
Good discipline, Leslie - job done in the only available time slot . . . . .
great pace job, Philip - do you use a watch, or rely on your "inner pacer" ?
built on last week's 17 with my daughter with ano 17 today with her - like Lorenzo, legs grumbling to start with - first 5/6 miles - but felt better as run continued.
Hope Gul is enjoying his weekend celebrations . . .
All very quiet on here today!
Sounds like your runs with your daughter are getting to be a regular thing Birch - it's a wonderful feeling to be out there running together.
Great fun at the Velodrome yesterday evening. Followed up yesterday's long run with just over 10 chilly, trail miles this morning with a mate to take me up to 62 for the week.
Today was Handy Cross XC for the Thames Valley XC league. For those not from this area, this is very different to the Saturday XC races. This is a race for a number of local clubs and guests. There is only one race so all ages from juniors to vets run as well as male and female so a wide range of abilities and speeds.
This has loomed on my calendar for a few weeks and I wasn't sure about it but the emails went out asking for runners and I had my miles done so didn't need a long one so turned up slightly apathetic and even standing at the start line still wasn't up for it. Gun went and we were off, well sort of. The start is on a single track on a steepish downhill and it was walking pace for a while before the field stretched out. Once going, the mojo returned but a quick glance round showed the errors of the start and I was way back and had to start picking slow runners off (not helped by the fact that the way to the start was up so people had to pass through the entire field to get to the back and many didn't). Settled into it and got a good rhythm going. I've done zero hill work this year so easy up the hills and ensure I got into a good pace immediately off the top of them and pick up those who passed me and a few more.
At about 3 miles into a 5 mile race I pulled up alongside a Sandhurst runner who just would not let me pass. If I stepped to the side to pass him he sped up, if I tucked in behind him he slowed down. He even jumped form one side of a path across to the complete opposite to counter one overtaking move. Was temped to ask why he was being such a twat but I knew there was a steep downhill and up again at 4 and I was fast down and slow up so knew it would shake out over that section and it did with him falling back. That 4th and last big uphill is the last sorting of places and a cavalry charge back to the finish. Got passed by a TVT guy in the last hundred metres or so: hat off to him as he is a big guy and must be 85 kg to my 65.
Little annoyed with the eventual position as I must have lost 20 to 30 seconds pissing about at the start but other than that, a good day out.
Lorenzo excellent fast finish 23 miler and a good week .
PMJ did the twat think he could outrun you ? bloody cheek with 2 miles to go ! not bad for a cnba start though
went out for a 12 miler came back with 19m
average pace 7:26 m mile , not too bad after 15 yesterday 
to bring me up to 67m for the week .Felt a lot stronger today after a week of running on empty.
Great week there Leslie, but why even follow up a 15 with a 12 and then make it 19? Good pace: any races planned: you need to cash in while you are flying.
Don't quite know what he was thinking. With my slow start I was moving through the field and could see he was moving backwards so he had fallen off the group I was targeting. In XC I am all for a bit of tactics, so certainly if you are ahead of someone then you get to choose the line you want to and if it is narrow you can shut it down for a while and hold people behind you, but his tactics were a little too far.
PmJ I was lacking in miles this week with nightshifts and tiredness and 2 long(ish) runs back to back helps you run on tired legs which is important for a mara
I did think after yesterdays plod I wouldn't have anything left today given how the rest of the week had been and 12 would have given me 60m for the week.. but was wrong and I've already ran a few 17's and 18's and felt strong today,back to 12hr shifts tomorrow so my schedule has to fit in as best it can ....even if its not the normal approach 
and Yes I've a race planned in june
Looks like your XC went better than mine last weekend PMJ- good effort.
Glad to hear you are exercising there Poacher.
My parkrun was an 18:50, bit below what I hoped but getting back there. 41 mile week and also over 2100 this year.
Junior has been offered a place at London Marathon by her Uni. She is far too young at 19 but has decided to accept. Just hoping the training is not too intense and she treats it as an experience rather than a race. Any views?
OO53: just listened to the marathon talk interview with Charlotte Purdue and she has started marathons young. Wisdom seems to be if you are fast then you can develop speed and move to marathon later, but if you are just a diesel then go straight to marathon.
http://www.marathontalk.com/podcast/episode_357_charlotte_purdue.php
For what it is worth, I did my first few marathons while at uni and no harm done.
OO53 - I would strongly discourage junior - much more appropriate to be targeting XC and shorter distances.
Poacher - hope you're recovering from what sounds like a horrific experience - fitness is to be valued over good looks
TAR - Keep the faith - your time will come
Sounds like all threadsters are training well and generally getting faster.
A bit of a lean time for me over the last few years:
London 2013 - 2:13:xx
London 2014 - DNS
London 2015 - DNS
London 2016 - DNS
Having struggled with the niggling injuries, I thought I should try a different approach. So I've been rowing since June and even managed to complete a Rowing Marathon (technically 49.2Km) in September in a time of c. 4:15. The good news is you recover quicker from a rowing marathon and having kept the runs going, I've suddenly found myself in reasonable running form.
So Brighton Marathon beckons, 18 weeks today. 21k today and 91K for the week, so everything feels quite positive at the moment
Anyone run the Paris Half Marathon in March - it looks more attractive than the Berkhamsted Half - but there's obviously the logistics to sort out ...
Welcome back SBD. I have done the Paris half and it was fast and flat as far as I remember. You will also need a medical certificate to race in France. A pointless farce and another barrier favoring UK races.
Junior has made her mind up so it's more a case of damage limitation. Like me she is has quite a broad range. She is already doing the XC season but has also ran 2 half M's this year, her best at 1:24:XX. I was thinking of 3:15 as a not too stressful target- and I might even slow down this year to pace her, though we'll probably be on different starts. I heard that interview PMJ- she is quite something isn't she...
Welcome back, SBD (waves)! Good luck with your Brighton campaign. Are you on top of your injuries now?
OO - your daughter certainly sounds determined. When I was very young I was told by a family friend who ran at international level and who also mentored me at hockey (I played internationally) to not run marathons until I was much older. Those words stuck with me but I suspect had I not had that talk so young, I might have been more resistant to them. Perhaps it is a good chance to really focus on her strength and conditioning? That can only help both in terms of mitigation and in giving her extra protection from the battering 26.2 can do?
PMJ - good racing as ever but how irritating for you.
Leslie - you are running really well at the moment. As PMJ says, you need to hop into a race soon!
Lorenzo - you are so strong on those long challenging runs. When is the next race?
I didn't do very well on Sunday. Remind me not to drink anything before a race again please. After a nice relaxed trip to the start line of the Hogs Back Road Race in Loseley Park on a stunningly beautiful crisp morning, I completely messed up my race by having a pre-race coffee as it was so cold. I never run on anything apart from a slice of toast when I am racing a marathon. And it came back to bite me in the form of an almighty stitch around mile 5. I was running strong and had plenty left in the tank for a faster finish but the stitch had me holding my side. So after running in 2nd place the whole way, I was beaten into 3rd just towards the end. Nooooooooooo!
Curiously am going to listen to Charlotte now as I get the brood ready for school. Happy Mondays folks!
Oh my goodness me! What the hell is the matter with people? MsE has been yakking away on here for about 12 years with all sorts of inane jibber-jabber and only now drops a subtle hint about her past as an international hockeyist. I represented my school house in the 50 metre backstroke when I was 10 and I'm still banging on about it now. I came last, but I don't usually mention that bit.
OO, I think it's easier for non-talented runners to treat their debut marathon as 'an experience, rather than a race.' So you've got no chance with your daughter. She's going to race it, whatever her old man says.
GerardM - treadmill running seems to be the only way I can stay free of niggling injuries (take note, SBD). So, aside from the occasional parkrun, it's pretty much all treadmill these days.
welcome back, SBD - good miles there; fingers x'd for Brighton . . . .
enjoyed reading about the XC fun & games, PMJ - satisfying to get the better of the silly tw*t
bad luck with the stitch, MsE, but still a podium finish !
great miles, Leslie . . .
Lorenzo - yes it is a great thing to be out there running a long way with our offspring . . . speaking of which - OO - I agree that 3:15 off a 1:24 half should be a "less stress" goal - but there is the added factor of it being a debut at the 26.2 - similarly,my daughter (at 24, a few years older) is making her mara bow at Manchester; she ran 1:34 half recently, but has a goal of sub 3:45 to qualify for VLM the following year. On the face of it, a "soft" target, but she's heading into unknown territory, so we'll see how the next couple of months go.
Saying all this, my son's mate (at age 24) made his debut at this year's Manchester and won the thing in 2:22
9 this morning with pal - v.cold and frosty, but lovely bright sunshine . .
I believe so, OO . . . .
OO - just checked out the XC local league standings (it's the final fixture this weekend) - is that your daughter top of the U20 pile?
Thanks for the welcome back messages.
TAR - I have been using the treadmill a lot over the last year. It does help, but ideally you need to be training outside if the plan is to compete outside
OO - I quite fancy scheduling a fast, flat HM and the UK options are all looking a bit hilly - do you think it's worth the extra effort to run at Paris (a 40 minute train time to London helps)?
MsE - I guess we're only one run away from our next injury but touchwood I seem to be injury free. I had given up on the marathon earlier in the year and started to focus on the rowing (I used to row in the past and my son became involved in the last year so this rekindled the enthusiasm and before I knew it I'd signed up to row 50km between Lincoln and Boston in September!). I entered Brighton in October when they reopened entries - more in hope than expectation. I have been training 7 days per week since June, but this only included 2-3 running sessions per week. However, I thought I'd try switching to 7 days running per week to see if the body would cope and so far it seems reasonably happy. All very unexpected, but I feel I should try and give the marathon training another go over the next few months whilst the body is willing!
Brighton Marathon is on 9 April 2017, so 2 weeks ahead of London. I've decided to use a similar P&D 18 week plan I've used previously, so today is day 1 and a steady 10K on the treadmill once I've escaped the office.
Is anyone else running Brighton?
SBD - see you on the start line! Like you, my P&D 18 week schedule began today, but I'm on the up to 55 mile version. Following it to the letter meant today was meant to be rest/cross training, but as my training window tomorrow is non-existent, I swapped sessions so today was 8 inc 4 @ HMP. HMP section was around 7mm, which is about right given my recent 1:32:xx at Salisbury. As for a Feb HM, I'm considering a new event being hosted at Thorpe Park, but no definitive plans yet.
Some big runs being logged over the weekend, I never cease to be impressed by you lot. Congrats to MsE on the podium finish too, even if it's a little frustrating it wasn't one step higher!
Unless you want to make a weekend of it SBD, I'd personally stick to the UK. Not that there are many about in Spring I know. I did many races in Paris when I lived there and it's a great running scene, but the practicalities and cost stop me going back.
Yes Birch that's Junior OO, she is going well and leading her XC league. Sheffield Uni has a great squad (male and female)- it was one of the reasons she wanted to study there. I have to race her in a 10km in a couple of weekends and I've already accepted she'll beat me
. Hopefully I'll be safer at the marathon.
SBD - Welcome back and it's great to hear you are running injury free again after a few lean years. The rowing sounds tough but I'm sure it's great for building your fitness. I'm relatively new around here but always nice to see past forumites making a return. Brighton seems to be a popular alternative to London.
OO - Which parkrun did you end up doing? Junior is a runner who obviously has talent and I'd say it would be very difficult to dissuade her from aiming for a good time but as others have said and we all know a marathon is a different thing altogether but I'm sure she'll run a smart race.
MsE - Shame about the stitch, they are awful things and the only thing you can do is take the foot off the gas. 3rd place is a good place to be in race and it doesn't sound like you are fully able to focus on training at the mo, so well done. Never played hockey myself but used to enjoy watching the girls playing on the astro turf back home as we used to share it as we trained for football on the same nights. They were a fit bunch and quite tough too.
TAR - I wasn't sure if that was the reason but you seem to be able to get some running done so that's a good thing.
Abbers - Nice start to the schedule. A friend of mine just started his today too.
PMJ - Sounds like you got into your racing after not feeling up to it. Always satisfying when that happens. The Sandhurst guy sounded like a fool. 65kg is light indeed! Is that you at racing weight now? I'm just not built to be that light and if I were I would look awful at my age now. 85 is heavy for a runner but I'm guessing he was quite tall?
Birch - Another nice long run banked for you and your daughter and backed up with a 9 too. Very nice! 2:22 is some debut by your son's friend. Makes you wonder what he could run for the distance if he focused on it.
Not much running for me lately but I did manage to squeeze in 9 miles while my son was at footie training on Saturday. Was only meant to be an easy 7 in a comfortable time-frame but I got lost in the country lanes again and ended up having yo run a few 6:4x min miles at the end to make it back in time to fetch him on time! Made it there with less than 2 minutes to spare!
Work and childcare issues mean I can't run much this week either but I'm hoping to get out for a 15 miler on Sunday which will be a long run for me.
Tough to find the time with a young family Gerard- gets a lot easier when you are older- one of the few benefits. It was Southwark parkrun. Fast flat course where I ran 17:58 earlier in the year- just shows where my pace is at right now.
Welcome back SBD - good to hear from you. Sounds like you might be in pretty good shape for Brighton.
MsE - don't be too hard on yourself. 3rd place is still pretty impressive. As things stand, my next "race" is the Country to Capital Ultra in mid Jan, but I'm very tempted by the Brutal down at Longmoor on New Year's Eve. Fancy either of them?
An odd collection of runs today - gentle run down to the station followed by a couple of miles into the office at the other end, then 5 miles across town in the evening to meet up with a mate followed by a mile and a half back to Waterloo and a run back home from the station. 5 separate runs making up just over 10 miles. I was definitely going quicker than the London traffic.