Auviour Paris: So long and thanks for the cobbles

Oscarr, I havn't got any wind !!  Yer does look like it will be OK by Thursday, temp is looking good too.  Thanks for your kind words, now get back to your rum punch!

FH

Bit early for one of those thanks.............

26.2 Comp, I'm entered..... again !!

New York still not looking too good!

FH

yayyy FH - fingers crossed for you both for 26.2 and the weather!!  Getting through to bootcamp is a prize in itself or was for me

Looks like a gorgeous morning here - am still sticking to my pre ultra-training - 15 mins walk / 20 mins run - so listen here fat - get yaself mobilising ya hear!  I had my body composition done last week so I will report back at the end of 12 ish weeks - will be very interesting to see if there's any change. Not admitting to any figures just now!

Have a great day all! 

OOhhh just been over to Asics 26.2 and had a dabble. Will eat my hat if I get to go again!!!

SB - an ultra? Wow! Good luck!! Hope it goes smoothly!

MCS - yep. I'll be entering too again! Might see you again this year!

I've also entered the Asics 26.2 competition. 
I'm going to join my local running club tomorrow night - looking forward to that
Good luck FH re the NY Marathon, its bound to be affected by the storm to some extent, I'm crossing my fingers that you get there OK, get round and get back with no problems.

Dreadful timing for the New York Marathon.  Hope it all goes ahead and good luck FH.

Good luck also to those entering the Asics compo.  From what was posted last year about how people with injury history were ruled out, I would stand no chance with my knee at the moment.  Besides which, having marathons on three consecutive weeks might be a little too much for me

My knee is crunchy, but not really painful.  So I'm still planning to toe the start line of a half-marathon this weekend.  Three months ago I would have breezed a PB, but now I'll have to take what comes.

Morning

Yayyyyyyyyyy Ten - you're back!  Am sorry that your knees still not behaving - what's the latest from the physio? Hang in there - fingers crossed your body will heal stronger and you won't have this problem again ((( ))))

RRR - yeah - me and oscarr are gonna do the Wall together - didn't you do that??  Any tips?

AC8 - hope you have a great time tonight - just remember that just because you belong to a club you should still train at your own level and that you don't have to turn up to every session.  If you find yourself getting overly tired at first - maybe just go once a week.  Your fitness will soon pick up and then you can think about going twice / thrice - it's perfectly ok to still do some training on your own.  I relish my solo runs sometimes!

How fab would it be if one / all of our little gang got through!  Wishing you all the best of luck.  Just don't get put in the same categories so I can vote for you all!  wonder if they'll use the categories that I suuggested to Alice last year cos I thought their ones were rubbish.  MIne were something along the lines of :

those who run for a sound body} ya see what I did with these two? LOLOLOL

those who run for a sound mind}

those who run to hold back time

those who run for fun

first timer

Legs are on the menu for me this weekend - will be really interesting to see how they teach massage should be done vs how I've experienced it in the past. Have sent in my first essay and the plan is to catch up with some reading today then practice on Ben tonight. I'm pretty sure I used to be less busy when I worked full time LOL. 

Cheers SB   looking forward to seeing how you and Oscarr fare in the Ultra build-up.  Which book did you get in the end?

I don't have a physio.  Currently waiting to see an Osteopath, but the appointment has been put back to December   I'll keep plodding in the meantime.  I don't suppose Asics 26.2 will have an "injury-prone veterans" category this year?  Target: reach start line.  At least the Asics physio would be kept busy.

AC8 - good luck with the new club!  My local club unfortunately meets at very inconvenient times for me, otherwise I would have joined (if nothing else, to be able to participate in some track sessions and winter cross-country).

Hi all 

Oh no!  I admitted to every known injury when I entered last night, and then something much funnier happened - I uploaded a photo of a bloke and couldn't get rid of it [non techie ere], sooooo I had to add a this is not me note!!

Maybe they are interested in passionate eccentricity with an occasional hobble.  

I would love to do it, probably too old and decrepit though until they introduce a special category.

Ten I don't like the sound of crunchy knee, have you googled this?  

AC8 the first time I went to my running club I was so shattered by the warm up I fell over on the way home and bashed my knee.  Luckily I work most evenings now so never go.  

Went to the pool today and did a bit of AquaJogging to tunes before work, and then spent the day face painting and making pumpkin soup.  Excellent fun.

Last night I had a killer massage SB, a conversation stopper focused on glutes and yipeserooni he does not desist so there's no point in screaming.  I got some more spikey balls from Amazon to sit on.

Oh yeah they should have a No Stone Unturned category for prospective cobleurs willing to try anything I reckon, I was even thinking of going to Albuquerque until I read that you need 3 weeks minimum at altitude, so maybe I'll just practice running a bit more instead.

I don't know if this happens to anyoone else, but if i haven't been running for even a few days I feel like I wouldn't know where to start.     

First ever track session for me. I arrived late (thought it was 7pm start time for some reason). There were four other people there for the 1st time (all ladies). I half joined in with a technical workout, but didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing technique wise. It was something to do with gradually increasing pace to max speed over 100m with a bouncy runnng style.

Did a couple of laps to assess my breathing cycle (never really thought about breathing before). I think I'm 3 steps breathing in, 2 steps breathing out.

Did a run at threshold pace run, building up until I pant, then easing off (my HRM tells me what my threshold pace is) for up to 15 mins, and then to finish it off, I set a benchmark time over 1 lap - 80 seconds - not as fast as I used to be at school, but then I am 3 stones heavier. A couple of the ladies were clearly better than me at the longer distances, but I showed them a clean pair of heels on a 1 lap sprint . If I could just keep that going for longer distances I could be quite fast!
Overall an enjoyable session and my lungs are still burning from the 1 lap run at the end. I have paid my membership fee, got my photo taken and look forward to next week. 

I didn't do a warm up or a warm down, or any stretches, so probably not ideal. The club are open on Wednesdays and Friday evenings at the track, and also have a run on Thursdays and Sunday mornings, so I ought to be able to find a convenient time  
As it was a first, introductory session I wasn't really pushed too hard, I'm happy to push myself harder as I know that it will help me to get better. 

US news reports suggesting the NYC Marathon will go ahead on Sunday for those who can get into the City and out to the start line.

The Staten Island ferry terminal on Manhatten remains closed having been under 14ft of water during the storm surge.

Morning all!

Ten - I still haven't gotten a book - I'm gonna use a plan that mcs posted up and am using the time between now and the start of it to build up to where it starts (yip I'm going for the scary looking hardcore one - I'll just do it a bit slower)

reiki - interestingly one of the first things that the course director (physio) told us was that sports massage shouldn't be painful - yet most of the stories you hear are of exactly that.  I've had a few uncomfortable ones myself too! 

AC8 - brilliant glad you enjoyed it - try to remember that by running within yourself you will progress quicker.  If you push yourself to the limit all the time you will just end up over training and your body will be so busy constantly trying to repair itself that it can't develop at the same time. And you risk injury - be patient - train hard but not too hard ya hear - I hereby appoint oscarr and FH as guardians to keep an eye on you.  I'm expecting big improvements from you over the next few years and I don't want you getting injured ya hear

FH - whoop whoop - have a great one! Looking forward to your tale.

Here's a round of up the guesses to keep you motivated:

Choisty 3:27:37

FH 3:28:35

me 3:28:45

reiki 3:28:59

Mike 3:29:50

mcs 3:29:59

AC8 3:33:33

oscarr 3:34:12

I've ordered mince pies so if you could run to my guess please - I'm looking forward to a snaffle session!

Results are up from last weekend's xc - I'm a vet again (LOL).  Managed an amazing feat of being 7th vet but would also have been 7th in the seniors if it'd been V40s.  Happy days - that's my best xc placing for a long time.  Am trying very hard not to compare my waistline to the U20 gazelles on the start line - oh so unfair!

Still - got another TRX training session today - everything is feeling a little more toned already yippppeeee - though I have a bit of a snuffle and headache (I blame the children that cam visiting last week LOL) - echnicea, first defence and lemsip have been deployed

Grrrrrr - cold - go away

RR - any minor ailment I ever google turns up a death sentence!  The crunchiness tends to be first thing in the morning and eases once I start walking around.  This doesn't help when it comes to getting a diagnosis, because there is never any crunchy sound when I arrive at the Doctor's  

The Osteopath will be able to figure out the problem and give me an instant cure.  And if you believe that... 

SB - when does your training officially start for your Ultra, and how many weeks is the schedule?  I'm guessing it's about the same as for a marathon, but perhaps with a higher mileage base?

Hi - back home, washing in and jeans and jumper donned!!

FH - good luck with the trip to NYC

Sleepy - just had my first real look at the hardcore ultra schedule mcs gave us - its a 16 week plan and it starts with 48 miles per week, peaks around 73 and includes weekends peaking at 50 (for Sat/Sun) - the weekenders will have to be slow with breaks - this is way outside my previous marathon campaigns but is probably what's needed for the ultra and i reckon the key is SLOW at the weekends - remains to be seen how much volume in training my body can handle "only one way to find out!!!!" - need to read lots more ultra stuff to get a handle on a consensus about paces to run all these miles at.

16 weeker means starting in early March - means GG, Coniston,Walk For All, CW are all included - to build up to start at 48 mpw will take most of Jan/Feb (good job xc season finishes on 20th Jan) - i'm sneaking off for a 2 week scuba diving trip in early Feb 

My holiday reading was Born to Run and next is Dean Karnazes, UltraMarathon - got to get psyched-up for this ultra stuff.

Welcome home oscarr .  Did you enjoy Born to Run?  I found it very persuasive.

Ten - as oscarr said except I'm not worrying about mileages - I'm just gonna do the duration and will focus on keeping my HR down.  Am interested to see what how the mileage will work out but I'm focussing on time-on-my-feet in the style of a book called Slow Burn by a guy called Stu Mittelman (1000 mile guru type chappie).

Some interesting stats for you:

Have taken 2 minutes off my 15 min walk / 20 min run circuit time in 3 weeks using same HR zones. So whilst it fells very slow - it seems to be working. Will keep monitoring

Have dropped 1% body fat and gained 0.8% muscle since last week (visceral fat remains unchanged and happily low at 5%).

Did lots of one legged squats/lunges today - think I might ache the day after tomorrow.