5K

Hi Tricky, yes that's correct, I believe it would be the best option in most cases. You effectively reduce your own wind resistance, whilst simultaneously increasing that of your opponent. However at 44 I would be a little wary of taking on too much (again speaking as Friend not expert) I'm thinking Marathons and Skinny Africans in particular, I may be speaking out of turn, and please don't think I'm suggesting you would struggle, but personally I would recommend trying this out over shorter distances first, at least until you've perfected the technique.

Dash I'm sure you have your reasons for such a comment, and I guess you mean well, I just checked your profile and noted your hobbies, I have to say I'm disappointed I expected on this site that you would be a kindred spirit or at least a fellow athlete, to find out you're some kind of drag queen was not as I would expect, but having said that, good luck to you, each to his/her own I say.

Tricky you're welcome, I wish you well in your attempt. Mike you have sparked a lot of interest here, and clearly many of us are rooting for you this weekend, good luck with your saturday effort.

Thanks for the support!

Tricky - I hope you don't mean me getting sub 17 this week, off a 18:48 last week, and this weeks route being harder? 

I will stay on the tail of first place and try to stay with him/her, will be tough though, some of these guys have been running for years and I don't have the legs they do yet.

Mike you can only do your best, good luck with it, and let's hope you do well, I'm sure everyone would like to see you improve your time

I wouldn't waiver in your self belief Mike. 18:48 after 4 weeks training of 15mpw, not sure what can hold you back. OK, maybe sub-17 will be hard this week, but maybe by the week after you can do it? A young wolf like you should be able to tear up all those old dogs, worn down by the tens of thousands of training miles they have already run.

Mind you, I've noticed in all those interviews with the elite sportsmen and women on the tv at the moment, they do seem to work extremely hard and have been doing it for a while. In fact, I hardly ever hear them saying that they combine their main sport with something else. They seem so single-minded and focused.

Anyway,  with the footie season just round the corner Mike, I'm sure that extra training will help lift you even further. Do you think you can be in to the low 16 minutes by mid September? Cheers, good luck tmrw.

If I can avoid injury and progress in my training I think in 2 months I can break my parkrun record. 

Mid september is a bit too soon i think. 

Mike, 90% of this thread is silly nonsense, so let's get real here.

If you break 16:06 on a measured licensed 5k road race/park run before October 6th (the saturday) I will personally drive to your house and kiss your feet.

Unless that 18.48 effort was run with a cigar on, or involved a quick sit on a bench reading the paper there's no chance pal. However, it is guaranteed you can take that 18:48 down hugely over time.

This game is about consistent and long term training, you do yourself no favours setting silly unattainable short term targets.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

If you break 16:06 on a measured licensed 5k road race/park run before October 6th (the saturday) I will personally drive to your house and kiss your feet.

You may want to give it a couple of hours after he's run 16:06 before kissing his feet.

he's got to break 16.06 Dachs in the next 2 months

... 16.06 = no feet kissing

Stevie G's not wrong Mike. The most sensible way to establish a goal is not to say what you can achieve in a month's time. It's better to look a few years down the road, having a grand target. Then you ask yourself, "What do I have to do in order to realise that goal?". Do I leave home and take up altiture training in Mexico, do I run twice a day six times a week, do I give up drinking beer and playing football.... etc etc. So it's a working backwards. I want to be there in the future, so thias is the next step i have to take. In your case it may be to join a running club, or to start running 4x/ week. I don't know.

What I do know is that if you set an elite goal, you have to make elite sacrifices. Also, it's not a sensible goal to set your ambitions relative to other people's performances - perhaps not until you get to a very high level of competition. It may well be that there are people on this thread who have runs tens of thousands of miles in training, in rain and wind and snow and turned their guts out on to the pavement/ track in order to become faster.

So if you just turn up and say that because you are naturally talented, you are going to beat people like us in a month or two (which you might!), then it's a bit of a slap in the face for those who've done all that work. Mind you, I have a feeling like Stevie G is suggesting, that the improvements will be quite tough to come by unless you become a lot more focused and dedicated.

So we may have been joshing with you a bit, but don't doubt the sincerity that we'd like you to do well and succeed in realising your goals. Just don't be a muppet and think that there is any other way to do it other than through bl**dy hard work, whatever your age or talent. Wishing you well.

Good post tricky, you've reduced the silly posts percentage on the thread substantially with that one.

Stevie G - I'd like to disagree, on the basis of 56 posts (this being one of them) I count 28 as silly, 6 as sensible and the rest as totally f*****g ludicrous so Tricky has reduced the overall silliness by a very small percentage, and certainly not substantially.

You may be right again Stevie although I don't think you've brought all factors into the equation. Apparently this thread has been read 1199 times so far. So it must be a lot more entertaining than it has been informative. No one has been nasty either which is good.

I might also add, that good advice has been dispensed here to our young friend, but as with everything in life, we don't always realise the value of what is in front of us, at the moment it is offered. I've had so many slapdowns in life in one way or another but that's the sort of process you go through to become perceptive and aware of others. I guess it makes life fun.

Now Mike, I'm begging you to make all us smug old gits look like chumps by doing the run of your life tmrw.

predictions for tomorrow's race? 18.48 to beat?

i go 18.41

All we can guarantee is that it will be 5 to 10 seconds faster than second place, because Mike will have been hanging on his shoulder until the sprint finish.

I'm backing youthful exuberance - 18.30