Cobbles & Red Wine - Sarah’s Paris Marathon Plan: Sub 3:35

Good word - I'll try to nag you for one every month or so and then by the end you'll have a 4 word mantra to always remind you of your mission

Reminds me of the first time I ever cooked for my parents as a teenager - no one told me you had to boil rice before you put it in the parcels in the oven.  Oh how they laughed! Harumph LOL

Another good run RRR with great description  - quicker than me again and good you didn't feel too tired. You are definitely well ahead of target if you can stay healthy.

Blimey RRR - you are flying along at the moment. Steve will be amending your target at this rate. Just be careful not to do too much too soon at too fast a pace. Recipe for injury! You are going to do great things as long as you stay healthy, as he says.

I have the same problem - trying to hold back! For me I think the problem is that it's so long since I've been this fit that I feel like a beginner who doesn't know what he is capable of. I imagine it's similar for you? I had to fight myself on my progressive long run yesterday (15.5 miles at 7:54mm average) and not sure what I can achieve. One thing I do know is that if I try to do too much this spring and don't get my GFA I'll be gutted so I'm erring on the side of caution rather than taking the risk of a bit quicker in training!

RunnyRunRun wrote (see)

Evening Andy!

You might not get away with the ‘Not me, guv …’ excuse if you’re using your own name! Reckon those IT guys might spot it’s you …

Good luck at parkrun tomorrow!! Remember we’re expecting BIG things!! No pressure (cough, cough!). Are you wearing your new trainers?

Afternoon Sarah

How do you change your username on here?

Pleased to announce new Parkrun PB  but only by 6 secs!  I thought I'd got my pacing better this week so I was a little disappointed with my time. I was also a bit surprised at the official time as I started my phone app on the "gun" and stopped it as I crossed the finish line and Nike+ gave me a time a whole 10 secs quicker than the official time

Still wringing a few more miles out of the old shoes at the moment, planning on breaking the new ones in for Silverstone.  Is SteveMarathonCoach going to let you do that?

Congrats on a great long run yesterday. If you keep that up your Paris target will be nearer 3:25;00 than 3:35:00!

 RRR

Lost my post!

Will attempt to write it all again.

 Cream eggs: I did not think I had to say anything! Although I think at the moment your chocolate intake is probably needed as this helping you increase your carb intake.

I would really like to see some carbs from either sweet potato, pearl barley, quinoa or sweet potato in both lunch and dinner. Stick to recommended portions as these won't be large. Some veg do have more carbs than other such as parsnips, butternut squash, sweetcorn but these are not enough alone when training for a marathon. If you are concerned about calories then only have chocolate a couple of times a week or a very small amount each day & cut the sugar out and you won't put weight on YET you will get better nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in your diet. Snack on fruit, low fat fruit or natural yogurts?

What type of orange juice do you drink?

Thanks all for recipes!

As Sleep bear mentioned look in whole food section in tesco for quinoa. Not sure it is in ASDA.

I know you have started to buy cous cous but not yet seen this in your diet too much! 

Ruth  

Hey Sarah. It sounds as like you're absolutely flying at the moment. Training looks like it's going really well. Jealous of those countryside runs. I'd find it hard to stop running with scenery and fresh air like that!

Hi Sarah/Runny

Been following your thread from the word go - I'm a shy lurker! I find your enthusiam very inspiring. I'm hoping for somewhere in the region of 3.45 - 3.39 but I'm not sure yet. My endurance is good (ran 20 miles on Sat) but my speed is rubbish and I REALLY HATE 10K races. Will continue to follow quietly. Good luck and keep the posts coming !

Buffy

Evening Derrick

Wow! Trans Penine trail looks amazing! You ever been tempted to make a few days of it and do it end to end?

Evening SB!

That was a fab idea and I like the idea of a mantra … Something to get me over the cobbles and towards the finish line! It was actually surprisingly difficult to think of a word though! I asked my boyfriend and he kept coming up with ridiculous suggestions and I wanted to throw something at him by the end…!

Oh and remind me to decline any dinner invitations from you …!

(Unless you're cooking the bacon and leek thing - that sounded AMAZING!!)

Evening Steve Marathon Coach!

Thank you for the feedback and glad you liked the description! Must work harder on my pacing!! But it was SO nice to actually run in the daylight rather than at night that I think that buoyed me on a bit too much!

Evening DS2!

Eek … nope! 3:30 sounds scary enough to me - that’s quite fast enough for my 2nd marathon …! You’re right I need to keep a closer eye on the pacing. I got a bit carried away with the run really as it was such a gorgeous day and nice trails!

Wow! That’s a fantastic run! I bet you were over the moon with that one! I’ll have my fingers crossed you get your GFA this Spring! You’ll have to let us know on the Asics thread so we can all give you a collective (virtual!!) cheer!!

Evening Andy!

Woo woo for new parkrun PB! 6 seconds is still 6 seconds! AND a PB!! Also I bet the paths weren’t fantastic which might have slowed you down a bit – I think there were record amounts of mud at most of the parkruns this weekend!! A bit irritating about the time difference though … Are you doing the same one next weekend? Maybe it was a problem with their timer and you’ll be 16+ seconds quicker this weekend!!

Yes Silverstone is in the plan! And I’m planning on making the engine noises as discussed for a bit of extra speed! The time seems to be flying by doesn’t it … can’t believe it’s coming up in about 6 weeks!

Evening Ruth!

Thanks for the helpful advice! I’m proud to announce I had both cous cous and a sweet potato today. Can’t say I’m converted to the idea of cous cous though … it really IS just sand with bits in isn’t it?

I’ve saved the pearl barley recipe that SB has given me and I’ll be trying Mrs Malcs’ idea too as they both sounded yummy. But I AM missing the salmon and tuna…

The orange squash is just an Aldi one. It’s 20% fruit apparently not that I’m sure that means much. I don’t really drink fruit juice as I prefer just to eat the fruit.

I’ll get some quinoa ordered next week and add this in as well … but I can’t say the idea of frog spawn textured grain is really appealing (Thanks for that Malcs!!!). You can’t say I’m not committed to this … trying frog spawn style food!!

Evening Ady!

Fab to hear from you! I’m really loving having a training plan … it’s nice not dithering about what’s best to do to hit the target you want. So much simpler …!

How’s everything going your end? Sorry to hear your parkrun was such a mucky one last weekend, but it means it will be a doubly big PB next time!!

It was so nice getting out on the paths yesterday and the gorgeous weather made it even nicer! It reminded me of all the lovely warm training runs I’d done last summer for Liverpool! I’m really lucky – live very close to the start of a big cycle network so I’ve got a 24 mile route mapped out for me already!

Let me know if you’re down this way again and fancy a parkrun or a run on the trails! I’m sure the respective partners and children will be happy to sit in a nice warm pub while we run!

Evening Buffy!

Lovely to hear from you! Woo hoo!! Another 10k hater – we SHOULD definitely start a petition to get those darn things banned!

Wow! Sounds like your endurance is fantastic! I’m pretty sure I couldn’t knock out a 20 miler at the moment … I could probably manage 16 or 18 but I’d be panting at the end like a dirty phone caller. Not a good look for a lady.

Have you entered a marathon this Spring?

Food Diary 14th January

Breakfast: ½ cup porridge oats made with water with dash of milk, 3 teaspoons sugar.

Lunch: Bowl of cous cous with chilli. Portion of baked ham.

Tea: Stir fry with green beans and with extra mushrooms and chopped chicken. 1 x large sweet potato.

Snacks: Cup of red and green grapes, 2 x small choc chip cookies, 1 x thorntons chocolate and a teaspoon of Nutella (while making 3 year old a sandwich! J ), 2 x tablespoons of mixed seeds,

Drinks: 3 x coffee with small amount of semi-skimmed milk, 4 pints of orange squash,

Exercise: Short walk in the snow and a (pathetic) snowman built. 2 hours house cleaning. 

Mon Jan 14th:             Rest

Tues Jan 15th:             5 x 1000 in approx 4:00-4:15 starting every 6 mins (7M in total) (6:26 – 6:50 min/mile)

Weds Jan 16th:          8M steady in 8:30-9 min miles

Thurs Jan 17th:           7M with middle 3 miles at HM pace

Fri Jan 18th:                Rest

Sat Jan 19th:               6M of hills or fartlek

Sun Jan 20th:              16M steady in 8:30s - 9s

Week total: 44M

Youve lost me with that one, (  trans pennine trail looks amazing ? ) , running it would be an achievement its 215 miles long !!!

Coast to coast on the bike is on my bucket list lol!! , its the trans pennine trail.

It was my rest day yesterday....... my tuesday session is same as yours, i,m hoping the weather dosen't have an effect on our training .

Afternoon Sarah,

I wonder why when we are both hoping for sub 3:30 that your sunday runs are a couple of miles more than mine .

My run this sunday his 12 mile again with the first 6 mile at 8/5 to 9m/mile and the last 6 his 8m/mile, don't know whether to up it to 14 or not.

I think steve the coach may be able to explain to me , what are your thoughts ?