GFA London 2018 Target

2»

Comments

  • Scott DScott D ✭✭✭

     

     

    Would you say 18:42 5k to 1:27 HM is not a necessarily a good conversion of speed to longer distance?

    I agree that I need miles, and not necessarily fast miles.  I did all my long runs at around 8-8:30 mm last year except for the HM (7mm) and the 20 Miler (7:30mm).

    I know I only run 22 miles a week but I do Triathlons in the summer so I also swim once a week for an hour with a club, which is very hard on the legs. Prior to a few races in October I was also cycling once a week (3 x run, 1 bike, 1 swim) so it’s not like I was resting my legs!  I stopped cycling purely to concentrate on the running races so I was doing miles before but for the last 3 weeks in a row I’ve been racing 5m to HM so I’ve lowered my miles in order to recover in time for the next race.  It would probably be more than 22 miles if I wasn’t racing – which is now, so I can increase!

    I don’t think I’ll be running 70 miles a week though, is that really necessary?  I probably can’t find 70 miles in a week and I’ve read that cross training helps so I plan to keep my swimming.  I’ll certainly ramp it up slowly so that I’m up to about 35 by the end of the year though.

    I’m going to implement the below plan pretty much immediately:

    • Monday – Yoga (could run there and back for a recovery run which is about 3 miles)
    • Tuesday – Club Tempo run (6:30-7:00mm – 5-7 miles)
    • Wednesday –SwimFit (1hr)
    • Thursday – Club Interval training / speed work
    • Friday – Rest (or easy 5 miles if resting on Saturday)
    • Saturday Rest (or easy 5 miles if resting on Friday)
    • Sunday – LSR

    I can add miles to Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday runs.

  • Thanks for the explanations everyone. I have to say that I look on some Strava feeds with horror at the training paces and intensities involved, so glad to see that people get good results from moderation too.

    Scott, for what it's worth, I made London GFA with my first marathon in September.

    I felt a bit undercooked on the endurance side as my last 20 miler was 35 days pre-race but I did do 13@mp two weeks before relatively comfortably and the time for that scaled up fairly well to the full distance.

    I wanted to get 5  x 20 mile long slow runs in (so 7.30-8 min mile paces) but in the end only managed 3, though I did 3 x 18 miles during the 12 week mileage build up. I didn't go much beyond 2 hrs 35 in terms of time on feet. I think from what you've presented there, your mileage can get to 45 miles pretty easily if you get the 20 mile long run in.

    My mileage was all over the place. A bit of illness and work/family taking over meant some weeks I'd get 20 miles in and others 60 miles. I also cross trained instead of doing some of the P&D recoveries when I couldn't get the miles in but cross training was limited to 30 mins, whereas P&D would have you recovering for maybe up to 45 mins on some occasions.  In the end I averaged a bit less than 45 over the 12 week campaign, so it could be feasible for you too. However I'd have preferred to do more and it may be wishful thinking but I think I'd have had a more comfortable last 8 miles with a bit more mileage behind me.

  • I raced a 20 miler 4 weeks before my first marathon in Brighton this year. I did the 20M in 2:25 and went on to do the marathon in 3:17 ( was aiming for sub 3:15 GFA).

    Next year I will not do the 20 miler and see what effect it has. I am not sure if the 20M race pace affected my marathon or not, but I was bang on pace till mile 22 and then I lost "oomph" and struggled for the last 4. Will see if skipping the 20 race helps or not next year.

  • ML84ML84 ✭✭✭
    I'd certainly be upping your mileage Scott. It obviously depends on how much you want the GFA I suppose.
  • My Mileage has already increased to 30 miles a week with seemingly no real effort having stopped cycling and having finished the period of 3 successive weeks of racing in October, HM then 10m then 5m.  I’m still swimming once week though which is a real leg-killer when we do kicking as it’s sandwiched in between the days I do my tempo run and my interval training but Swimming will stop in December through to April to make way for an additional run.

     

    I’ve got my plan almost in place and I’ll be running 40 miles a week from January onwards if not in December – I’m going to see how the additional miles affect me over the last few and next few weeks and if I feel good I’ll be at 40mpw by mid December.

     

    I have the following races in the diary that I need to work my training round though so it’s going to be tough:

     

    Jan 15th – Benfleet 15m Trail (2.5m easy, 10m close to but not quite MP, 2.5m easy – the middle 10 are flat, the first and last 2.5 are very hilly)

    Jan 22nd – Club XC Race (5m 6.30-7.00mm)

    Jan 29th – Club XC Race (5m 6.30-7.00mm)

    Feb 5th – Gt Bentley HM (target time of 1:25)

    Feb 19th – Club XC Race (5m 6.30-7.00mm)

    Mar 5th – Essex 20m Race (either 10m at 8mm and 10m at 7mm (MP) or 1st Lap at 8mm, 2nd at 7.30mm and 3rd at 7.00mm)

    Apr 2nd – Manchester Marathon

     

    I’ll need to fit my long runs in either on Friday evening where I’m running XC on the Sunday, otherwise I’ll be running them on a Sunday morning followed by a Recovery run Monday lunchtime.

    It looks like I will need to incorporate more long runs than I planned though as I didn't plan on doing any more than 3 at around 20m including the Essex 20.  At least one of the long runs will be simply 3 hours on feet though, if only for confidence.

  • Scott DScott D ✭✭✭

    Hi All,

    Just a quick update. 

    I spent a week snowboarding in the first week of Jan and came back with an Achilles injury that put me out of action for a couple of weeks but after seeing a physio the problems cleared up pretty quick.

    First race to see how training had gone was the Half Marathon on 5th Feb.  I'd only really had 2 weeks of training and I'd not pushed it too hard and far because I didn't want to go from under 5 miles a week to 30+ too quickly.  Original target was 1:25 to put me on track for GFA and I finished in 1:26:37.  In the circumstances, I was pleased. It was a PB and my first 3 weeks of training for the Marathon were very minimal.

    A pretty solid February of training followed as well as a trampolining incident where I jarred my knee and feared the worst but whilst I'm limping around in the morning and after long runs, I'm seeing physio pretty much 1 every 1-2 weeks and he's not concerned as it doesn't seem to cause any problems when running.

    Onto the 20m race which caused much debate on here.  I decided to run the first half 7:30mm and the second half 7:00mm to give me a time of 2:25 (which wasn't really that important).  First half felt really comfortable if a bit faster than anticipated and I averaged 7:24mm.  I was really pleased that I managed to pick up the pace and run the second half with an average of 6:56mm giving me an overall average of 7:10mm and a time of 2:22:54.  I was really pleased with the run as I pretty much ran it perfectly to plan although I expect some might say I should have run the first half slower?  It was also a very hard 3 Lap course with 3 hills on each lap and wet and windy for the first hour or so.  It's a very hard course to get any rhythm going or momentum - I also knocked about 10 minutes of last years time which I ran well for 15 and then struggled for the last 5.  It was all-round a much better, stronger performance which gives me great confidence in running Manchester in under 3:05. 

    Thanks for the initial advise on not racing the whole of the 20 miles, fingers crossed it has done my legs a favour and I can smash Manchester and get my GFA.  It was a very hard target for me but I didn't want to make it easy for myself!

    Cheers,

    Scott

  • Scott DScott D ✭✭✭

    Oh, also, I probably should have posted an update after October as I took chunks off all my distances from Sep-Dec on distances I hadn't run in a while and fully fit:

    End of last year times:

    5k - 18:24 (Nov-16)

    5m - 30:54 (Oct-16) / 30:38 (Dec-16)

    10k - 38:48 (Nov-16)

    10m - 65:49 (Oct-16)

    13.1 - 87:48 (Oct-16)  / 86:37 (Feb-17)


  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭

    Well done on the 20, Scott and the improvement over other distances. Just observing your other times over the last few months and they are pretty similar to mine but it is noticeable that you drop as the distance comes in. By example your 5k and 5 mile times are faster than mine, your 10k is identical then your 10 miles is 2 minutes slower than mine from December and the half is over 2 minutes slower than what I ran in October.

    I'm still debating whether 3.05 is possible for me.

  • You do need to be well trained for the long runs.  If you're skimping on them then your marathon time won't be as good as predicted. Simples.
  • Scott DScott D ✭✭✭

    Thanks DTI9. 

    Yeah that was an observation from previous PB's I've posted and something I've been trying to address.  I guess I'm not too concerned about the longer distances not quite matching my shorter distances so long as I'm still improving and feel like I'm on track.

    I feel like I could run a quicker HM in Feb had I not had the few weeks injured with very little training.  I think I can go under 1:25 if I were to have run it yesterday for instance.

    I've been working on 2 things mainly for this marathon (although as always I feel like I could have done more!):

    1.  Converting short distance speed into long distance running - ie progressive runs, negative split runs, last 1, 2, 3 miles at MP on long runs etc. 

    2.  Plain Endurance.  Acknowledging the important of a long slow run and just ggoing on long steady slow runs of 15-18 miles at 1.00-1:30mm slower than MP.

    I'm sure you are no further away from the 3:05 as I am as it looks like you are more effective over long distances already.


    Cougie, there has been no skimping on long runs except for when I skimped on running altogether due the injury.  Especially as it was the long runs causing the injury!  Fortunately I was able to recover within 2-3 weeks and get some long runs under my belt.


Sign In or Register to comment.