Auviour Paris: So long and thanks for the cobbles

a good approach, that - 9 min miling for 20 then see what's left in the tank - hope there's lots left and you go under 4

Luke - its such a short distance that you don't have time to start slow and build up etc so you have to be ready at the start to go for hard running from the gun if you want a good time - so, best tip i can give is do a long slow run as warm up (say,2 miles) and when the gun goes go flat out at your best 5K pace and maintain it

Looks like the tapering is going well mcs.  Not long now!

I'm pretty snowed-under, hence not posting often.  The wife and daughter left last Saturday to visit relatives in China for a few months.  It was particularly hard watching the daughter leave because she didn't really understand and believed she was going back home from the airport.  She was asking me questions like "are we going to the Zoo tomorrow?".  Breaking my heart  I'm counting down the days and will be keeping busy to hopefully make the time fly.  I've booked a 10k race for the day after they return so I have something to focus my training during my countdown.

My training is going well.  I've switched the majority of my runs to early morning and on the treadmill - so that I can do the training while my son is asleep.  I'll do longer runs midweek while he is at school and catch-up the work on Saturday's.  I'm gradually adapting to a new routine while being a temporary single parent

Yesterday I did a 9 mile run at 10:30 pace and completed it without ever going over my recovery heart rate.  This is good progress for my more ambitious target for next year - to knock around forty minutes off my marathon time.  I believe I can do it if I keep progress steady.

Tomorrow is V day   I'm hoping that I can be back training a week afterwards, so I can get cracking with 10k training.

Ten - good to hear from you  - sounds like you've got yourself very well organised and i'm sure the time will fly by - still biting my lip with all those V jokes !!!!!

mcs - i would just pray for an easterly breeze so that the last 8 miles is wind assisted - think about what pace to start out with cos its downhill for the first couple miles and you don't want to miss out on the gain that can give whilst still starting gently; it means that your average pace won't settle out until well into the race so need to make that adjustment if you are using your garmin as a guide;alternative is to see how much you gain before it gets flat then add that to split times at mile markers - i'm sure you'll work it out

yep agree will be tempted to go quickly for the first couple of miles. Listening to marathon talk this am on the run into work, the interviewee said that in Boston the first mile or so is down hill and that one guy ran off early one year at about 4.10 pace which he reckoned was equivalent to 5mm pace. So I reckon the first few couple I may go around 8 with out trying to hard which should feel like 9s. After that as you say I will have to be careful to get into mara pace as it levels off at sealevel. I hope an easterly is possible not looking that way at the moment.

http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/long.html

North easterly wind, thanks for that Oscarr......not much of a breeze but a few days to go so can change.

mcs - good stuff - can see you are getting in the right frame of mind - be positive and keep thinking things like "must have enough energy at 20" - "strong at 21" - "its only a 10K from here" - "keep focussed and keep my running form"- "relax, just enjoy myself !!!!!"

Hope you have a nice calm race day mcs.  I read that wind assistance from a tailwind is only about half of wind resistance from a headwind at the same speed.  Mother nature was having a laugh when she invented that one.

http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/long.html full sun showing now!!  22 miles done this week with an hour on Sunday to come think its time to chill and eat alittle must dig out the carb loading suggestions from Ruth the Asics nutrition advisor. 

mcs - remember, no shed building next week !! as easy a week as you can muster

MCS,

Have a great last 8 days of tapper and like Oscarr says "no shed building next week" !!

FH

Got myself injured Did some hill running as part of my plan - a fast 5m on Wednesday. Hard a sore left achillees after that. Rested yesterday, tried another fast 5m today and after a mile or so it hurt, and after 1.5m I stopped running and it really hurt :/
Guess I'll have to rest a few days now. Hope I won't be out for too long. Anybody had anything similar?

Thanks FH - I read on the BBC website - rest for a week. Seems like good advice

AC8 - if it is the achilles then be careful cos if it does get badly injured it can take months to fix cos there is such a low blood flow to what is a very tight tendon area and it heals really slowly so a weeks rest with icing daily could prevent long term injury

Thanks oscarr. I have had a bit of trouble with my let leg. Tore a calf muscle, was on crutches for a month. Gradually recovered, then tore it again... Then after taking up running it hurt again - last November/December - in the achilles area. Rested a bit, got running again, now a few months on, thought I was over the injury but it hurts again. 

I'm concerned about missing training, but know that if I'm injured I can't train/do anything much! I know from past experience how slowly it takes to heal.