Mums Running Club

Sonya - I'd read the 20 miles as weekly mileage, doh!!! Sounds like you'll be fine. Lsr should be around 60-90 seconds a mile slower than marathon pace, is that what was too slow? If so, stick with pace or you'll burn out!

Don't know the answer Caro, sorry! But I work in a profession where my job share works less days over year but gets paid the same! hopefully good news from physio?

Camlo - a lot of it is finding a programme suited to your needs. The Macmillan running calculator is really helpful for ascertaining where you're at at the moment. Eg it would be stupid for me to aim for a,sub 3.45 as my times currently make that unattainable. Plans are good if they work for you!

Hoggle - hope op goes ok.

Got to leisure centre to find class full as I should have booked but nothing on website. Rah! Looks like scary instructor tomorrow instead :-S

EF yes. One vet works for 3 hrs at one of the practices, and you get a day off in lieu, so over the yr each vet only works one.

Yes Brookie, I was wondering about your news too. Hope not something bad, was hoping you had something exciting to announce in new year.

Caro - I work Mondays, and my leave is calculated including bank holidays, so yes, if I have a bank holiday off I have to take it out of my leave allowance - but we obviously have to cover all the bank holidays so I'm often working, and then can take a day in lieu. It sounds as though you would have to count them as part of your leave, which I agree, doesn't sound as though you'd then get many extra days to play with - although obviously you need to take fewer days off to get a week off, as you're only working 2 days. Ours is actually worked out as number of weeks, and part timers leave is worked so that you get the same number of total weeks leave - 6 weeks + 2 days.

Anj - I've lost track of who I'm friends with on fb! I'm VH on the running mums section if you want to find me. I only did about a mile, but O is only 16 days old, so am taking it slowly. I also stopped running at 11/40 after a bleed and a haematoma on the scan, so it's been a while! Feel fine today though, so will probably go out again tomorrow, and I'm going to enter a 10k in march - am excited!

JT - sounds like hardcore meds - hope they do the trick!! V annoying about the class, especially when you've bothered to get yourself there.

We went to ikea this afternoon to look at various things, and gave the children tea there, but I came over all tired as we were in the children's section and nearly had a serious sense of humour failure. Luckily hubby recognised that our time was limited and did a reasonable job of chivvying the children before I went into major meltdown - E was not impressed at being hurried past all the toddler beds and other exciting climbing possibilities!

I can't keep track of my husbands decorating whims - it seems his current plan is to strip loads of wallpaper in the next few weeks and then get someone in to skim the walls, then move the children around so the baby can have E's room and she gets a bigger one, then redecorate the sitting room....I was exhausted just hearing about it, and struggled to take part in the 'what furniture should we get' conversation on the background of rather limited sleep last night. Suffice to say, we both felt the conversation was rather unsatisfactory!!

Caro it's hard. Because they apply the policy to f/t as well it would be hard to argue discrimination. Could you negotiate simply that if Christmas/boxing day is a mon that you get an extra day. It's not going to be too frequent. Andy's colleague works pt incl mon so I'll get him to ask her.

Oh god Vixo, couldn't hubby wait a wee while to get carried away with all that DIY, I'M exhausted hearing about it and it has nothing to do with me!!!

Not sure why I am being bracketed with MM and Lotte as I am definitely not in their league!

Camlo - you are focussed girl aren't you at the mo , would agree with Angelicats re the tricep dips etc. I usually find that running with my small ultra pack is more than enough for my body to train with - and I'm sure that altered my gait somewhat which is why I am loving my new vest-stylee pack.

MM - sounds like it is going to be one manic weekend for you guys - lots of excitement and adrenalin, so much so I am guessing that whatever the weather it will be awesome!  Ouchy ouchy to spikes on gravel though!  Keep on top of those niggles.

I use schedules to keep me focussed and ensure I do quality sessions if I need to prioritise during the week, doesn't mean I stick to it but does ensure training is kind of in balance - well 'ish' anyway; is always a joke comparing what I have done vs what I should have done!!

JT - blimey that's quite some meds collection there but great to hear you can progress to power walking and the swimming is fabulous x-training too.

Slow runs - well I think my biggest mistake in past marathon training was running the Easy/recovery runs too fast ... early in the schedules it always feels too easy but once the mileage ramps up this isn't quite the case. It was only once i started training for the ultras I started to understand the true benefits of the different paced training runs.  I guess I sit somewhere between MM on high mileage and the perceived lower mileage of things like the FIRST schedules for achievements.  My first sub 4hr mara was done on a FIRST schedule and got me 3.55, but when I followed the 50 mpw schedule from Pfizinger and Douglas (with amendments and slightly lower mileage) I got a 3.34 mara (with a 1.37 half pb)

Brookie - Anjelicats said exactly what I was thinking too - come on, tell all ...

another one who had a day that didn't stop but somehow it's 9.50pm and I STILL haven't done my lesson plan for tomorrow ... supermarket, 5-miler in forest, de-junking kids rooms, school pick-ups, impromptu tea at new friends house (just moved into town and was their hubbys 40th) whilst also squeezing in cub drop-off, eating birthday cake, getting S home and into pjs before cub pick-up and on and on and on!!!  Think I must have done yesterdays 8-miler at a bit of a pace though - road running, shock horror, as quads a bit trashed today!!!

I have two pilates classes tomorrow - a morning one and an evening one. Four people in each class and they are signing up to a block of five - drop-in is not great for pilates as it takes a fair few weeks to get the hang of breathing etc.  JT - hope your alternative class is waaay less scary!!

JT - I'm on 100mg of beclometasone/formoterol 2x per day ...

Thanks EF and vixo. I think if they do that it would be a deal breaker for me possibly. Or I'll go back to saying I don't want to work Mondays, or try and argue that I don't want bank hols included in my hol allowance, as its already far less than I used to get. This yr already we are about to book 2 wks for summer holidays, I need a day off in May half term, a wk off in sept, then if I have to subtract bank hols that won't leave any days for school concerts, kids b days, school inset days. That's not taking into account hubby being in the Far East and my dad not being able to come and stay to pick up the kids etc.

Plus they told me that they don't allow the same employees to take holiday around bank holidays all the time to keep it fair, which is fine if you're a full time employee! Not that I'd be able to take much leave around bank hols anyway, as I obviously need to stick to school hols now.

Thanks everyone you all sound lovely and very supportive. I've done myself a little programme (I did one for my half in nov although a few doses of sickness and diareah in our house last year wiped me out and I didn't stick to it as I'd have liked), so hopefully I can stick Ito this one!! Going on my first long run tomorrow while my oldest is at pre school as hubby just finished nights so can leave my little on with him, just starting at 10m as I have a dodgy ankle when I overtrain.
My programme consist of 3-4 runs per week I tend to do them faster than I should so want to leave recovery time, anyone else empty this method or is this a bad idea? This is my first marathon so have no idea?

Caro - don't forget being part time you can cover colleagues when they need time off to accrue some extra days for when you need them.
May look at some plans / schedules but defo not 'following' one!! Will ditch the weights - was only looking at a way of adding some upper body work to my run and the rucksack of books was too bouncy! why do long runs need to be soooo sssllllllooooooooowwwwwww.?
come on Brookie - I'm staying up now just to hear your news!!
Vixo - yawn.......... Get some rest when you can.
CC good luck with the classes, sounds great!
2 glasses of Pinot noir and too squiffy to write much more!

Hi Melanie, I have two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old daughter and a husband who commutes down to England on a Sunday afternoon returning to NE Scotland on a Fri eve so I am a single parent during the week ... so my training is usually focussed on weekday stuff (he can be less than helpful about me running at weekend sometimes).  My schedules ALWAYS allow for sickness and school holidays - especially the summer holidays as they totally kill my training schedules!  I now have a treadmill because I am fed up of training going totally to pot.  I think you need to vary the paces of your runs, even if you do less of them.  That doesn't mean they have to all be easy, just need to mix it up a bit.  If I am totally pushed for training days then I do a long run at easy pace (later on that will include sections run at Marathon pace too), a speed or hill session, and something of a medium distance 7ish miles run at a tempo pace - ie faster than a steady plod.  An extra run might then be a medium-long run or an easy run.  Every four weeks I have an 'easy' week with less mileage. 

I am sure JT and MM and others will have words of wisdom too for you though.

Camlo - my long runs are usually slow these days cos I choose such hideous terrain to go on and that slows me down no problem!!  I can't remember the technical reasoning behind why you do it - long unpronouncible words etc and building up of endurance (of which you have loads anyway!!), allowing body to adapt to burning fat as fuel as that lasts longer I think (but you also do that by training on an empty stomach). I actually think endurance running tends to strengthen your upper body anyway, just not in a gym-bunny obviously muscular kind of way.

Wish I was two glasses down on a bottle of Pinot Noir!

oh yes, and finally, birthday present suggestions for an 8-year-old girl please - quite a studious one at that, but quite outdoorsy but not massively girl ... is Js best friend and I'm a bit stumped.

Except I can't really camlo as I won't have childcare except on mons and tues. however, I think I have poss thought of the answer, similar to your suggestion I think. Basically a full time employee gets 20 days (4 wks) to play with plus bank hols, so I would want the same. 4 wks to play with which would be 8.5 days, plus bank hols. Most of the time that would be 4 days, then occasionally a few more. Does that sound like a reasonable request?

Oooh such a lot to post on. My updates will take a while so better on the laptop than my phone. And I've probably built it all up too much now!

Loving the legal advice, training plans, crazy stories of family life on here! Gotta sleep now though. Bit anxious about my brother and his wife at the mo. they live in east Belfast and it seems a bit unsettled there at the minute to say the least.

Operation was short-lived - they found that his liver was too damaged to attempt the procedure do sewed him straight back up. Now they go home and wait for his liver to fail then he'll have a transplant. They've been told it could be anything from one month to two years - the longer the better as he's so young to be undergoing such major surgery. What a terrible thing to be looming over them however they are being very strong and positive.

Sonya I would stick with your 30mpw now and build from there, so you might do slightly more mileage than the schedule says. Stick to the paces though. So important to do this as this is the main reason for burm out or failing to hit your marathon target. if you don't know what 3.45 pace feels like you will run it too fast at the beginning.

Mel. Don't run too fast. Stick to paces especially in Jan for a spring marathon.

Yes I'm hoping to run the final run with him of 20k. Boring route as will be dark but there will be about 8 of us doing all or part of this run so should be good.

Interesting Caro. I think bank holidays are extra to normal holidays aren't they. When I worked part time we had 24 days holiday (full-time) plus bank holidays, so I lost 4.5 days or something but had all the bank holidays. I had fridays off not mondays though.

Hoggle - how awful for them. Will they be coming home now? That's the kind of thing you absolutely dread as a parent. My weepy moments with this baby have all been awful imaginings of things happening to the children, and wondering how people even begin to cope.

Caro - that sounds reasonable as a request. Are you allowed to take your Saturday's as annual leave? I think the nhs works out leave so that part timers have the same amount of time off in total as they would if they worked full time (and that varies based on seniority) - at least that seems to be how mine is worked out. We aren't allowed to take weekend days as annual leave, they have to be swapped, so on our system you'd only have to ask for 8 days instead of 7, which doesn't seem that terrible. I probably end up working 3 or 4 bank holidays a year which gives a few extra days to play with too, and is handy as not difficult if hubby isn't working.

Sonya- I have bn reading book recommended by Caro '4 months to a 4hr marathon', paces in it r roughly long run 90sec-2mins per mile slower than marathon pace, tempo runs r 10-15sec per mile faster than marathon pace, recovery runs 'u can't go too slow'. The title is a bit misleading as it actually gives training plans for anything from sub 4hr to sub 5. Interval pace it gives for sub 4hr is 2:05 per 400m and it adds 5sec to that for every 15min extension on marathon time, so estimating for a sub 3:45 marathon it would b 2:00 per 400m.

Don't know Vixo - but given that a Sat is only 4 hrs it would be a waste of a days leave if I had to take a whole day.  But swapping is hopefully straightforward, and they have said they let us have the roat a good time in advance which hopefully will let me get my requests in.