FLM Training: Wardi

Thanks for all your advice guys.  Bring on the big day!

Steve: well done on the 2.8 miler - brilliant time.

Gavin: good to see you back on track and thanks for the tips.

Wardi: Looks like you're in top shape and ready for it - good going.

One final thing Steve: do you think its wise to set off at 6:45's rather than 6:50's?  What pace are you setting off at Wardi/Gavin?

I think 6:50's will be cutting it too fine for the last few miles and doesn't give me much of a buffer.

Neil. I would like to get halfway by 1:28:30-1:29. First half of the course is ment to be only very slightly quicker I think. I am planning to run first half at 6:45-6:48 pace so that I have a minute or so at halfway to play with. The only problem is that I found the first few miles are a problem in that due to the crowds of runners I did 8:45 for mile 1 and 7:27 for mile 2 in 2006 because I got held up by runners around me. I got into 6:45 pace after this (nearly 3 mins behind sub3 pace after 2 miles!). I cant remember which pen I was in, I think it may have been 4, so hopefully I should be in pen 1 or 2 this year and get a better start than that.

 If you run at 6:50 pace every mile you will only have a 39 seconds buffer for a sub3. Saying that, some people advise to run a negative split, steady first half 6:50s then pick it up a little in the second half. Personally I feel more confident having a little buffer to eat into if I need to. E.g If I am having a bad mile at say 22, I can afford to run a mile at 7:20 pace and still be under 3:00:00.

I'm really feeling excited about the big day and I keep telling myself that with a better start and i'm sure my training has been better, a sub3 is going to happen this year!!

 5 miles today, 1 at MP. I think i'm only going to do 10 miles for my long run and on Saturday rather than Sunday because I think the weather is going to be better, plus an extra day to recover before 13th. 2 miles of the 10 at MP I think will be ok.

8 days, 19 hours and 2 minutes to go (at time of posting)!!!

Neil

I agree in your case, it is best to reach halfway with a slight buffer - 1:28:30 seems about right. It shouldn't make much difference to how you run the last 6.

Of course you could say 1:27 gives you 3 minutes in hand and then you can run 1:33 for the second half but the quicker you go through halfway, the earlier fatigue will set in and the key to breaking three will be getting to 20, still feeling strong - say in 2:16-17 and being able and strong enough to run a sub-43-44 final10K

In my view Wardi with his extra mileage and experience could be slower at halfway - say 1:29:30 as I think he doesn't have your speed but he may have more endurance.

You could run with the RW pacer - I guess the danger there is they might reach halfway in just over 1:30 and they have advertised as running 6:53s (which gets you there 30 secs too slow) but I think it can help take some of the pressure off yourself to follow rather than have to make the pace yourself.

It does get a little crowded around the pacer but it is far easier to follow than any of the other groups

Hi Guys,

Gavin- Glad to hear you are back to good health and straight into some quality training.

Neil- Just recieved my copy of R.W. mag. I noticed your name as the 7 mm pacer for the Blackpool half. If that was you, you should have no problem achieving your desired pacing.

Some good pacing ideas being banded around. My favourite plan is to run bang on 1hr 30 for the first half. Feeling confident that I will then be fresh enough to up the pace for the next 7miles gaining that essentail buffer for the last 10km. However, I know that in reality, I'm more likely to be through halfway in 1hr 25min cursing my own stupidity!

Had a slight knee ache this week, so dusted off the bike for a bit of x-training work. Reckon it should be fixed for tomorrows 12 mile plan including a couple at M.P.

Getting quite excited about the big race now. Can't quite believe how all consuming the whole build up has been.

Enjoy your weekend runs!

Wardi, I noticed the times at previous LMs too.......it definitely pays to run as even a race as you can.

IMO you know you need to be doing no worse than 6:52s but so long as you're doing 6:45s to 6:52s (and feeling ok) I wouldn't worry about it in the slightest. If you find yourself consistently quicker than 6:45 then you might want to actually focus on your pace.......but if not then just run and enjoy yourself!

Personally I like buffers, and when I eventually attempt a sub 3 marathon I think I'd ideally like to go through half way in about 1:29.....but there's no point in busting a gut to do it if it makes the run uncomfortable. If you end up not going under 3 hours then I doubt it'll matter if you went through half-way in 1:28:30 or 1:29:59. I remember when James Cracknell just missed sub 3, because he went through half-way in something like 1:24......now that's too quick!

Obviously I hope you do break 3 hours though! Good luck!

Mike

Last longish run today. 12.3 with 3 at M.P.(-10 sec).  Legs felt really fresh, starting to feel the effects of the taper.

The knee ache has disappeared as well. Just need to don my issue gas mask for the final week to avoid catching a cold off Mrs Phil! Need to be more subtle.... or I'll end up sleeping on the sofa!

More good tactical chat above. Hopefully we can avoid doing a Cracknell. Is he racing this year? He should be brimming with endurance after his row, cycle and swim epic!

Wardi- In your experience, what time do you advise arriving at the start area?

Laters Folks

I've put myself into the isolation ward. Can't be too careful.

I've been to Sutton Park in Brumingham today for the Midland Counties 12 stage Road Relays. Every time I went off for a run I got hailed upon and rained upon. Early warm up, proper warm up, race. It was almost funny. Almost.

Mine was leg 11 out of 12. Although the slowest out of the team by a few seconds, at least I was there on merit because the reserves were a bit orf my pace. Here's the good news: by finishing 13th we've progressed to the Nationals.

Race report?
Partly cloudy, partly showery, occasionally sunny breaks, and periodic hail showers, even a bit of sleet. Lovely. The 4 hour wait for my slot saw me freezing my brasil nuts, hence a few warm up miles. It was also my first visit to the course, so useful to check it all out. Eventually it was my turn, and I had 50-70 metres to chase down. The first mile, uphill, I definitely held station, even closing a bit. (6:22). The second mile along the ridge was into the wind, which increased under the shower clouds, and I definitely made inroads. (6:13). The third mile was downhill and a bit cross country-ish, but target increased his gap. OK I worked the steam train to its fullest (6:05) and finished in a rain shower. Job done. 18:36, so not completely disgraced.

A nice little bit of speed work. Better late than never.

I'm just going to Hi-jack the thead with a brief statement.

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE PHOTO ID TO THE EXPO FOR REGISTRATION.

Bye bye

Wardi First of all hope you have a good run next week, I've been reading the thread from day 1 and found it all very interesting.

Thought I could give you a little bit of  advice which really helped me go sub 3,use a pace bracelet  I picked up one from the Expo,it helped me pace myself easily.

All my 10k splits were within seconds of each other,reached half way in 1.29.30 finished in 2.59.17.

Doing it again this year hoping to go a little quicker.

Last long run done. Still feeling a little out of sorts from throat infection earlier in the week so decided on 10 miles 8 easy and 2 at marathon pace.

Thank goodness it wasn't FLM this weekend looking at the weather in London today. I hope it's going to be a bit better on the 13th!

Have a relaxing week everyone.

Wardi do you know any more about the pens at FLM? What predicted finish time is pen 1, 2, 3 etc do you know? As you know I have a pb of 3:00:31 from FLM in 2006 and I put a predicted time of 2:55 this time I think so would hope to be nearer the front than last time.

Pacing wise, I am edging more towards 1:29:30 at half way now.

Gavin

you should be in pen 1 - I think their cut off prediction time is 3:00.

Well run wardi -

I did a 4.4K relay today - nowhere near level of my Thursday run (blaming it on the cold)

I think I need to do part of my Sunday run tomorrow as so average today and think I need a relaxed longer run

Managed a nice little outing today, 8+ miles at an average 6:51m/m pace. Nice to get the legs turning over properly.

By the way.

Has anybody got a training programme that I could use? I've got a race next week and thought that I ought to start doing something about it soon.

Blisters start the schedule on Saturday - run 25 miles at 7 minute miles and if you can do that you can break 3 hours the next day.

actually seem to recall that was Running Fitness's day one run for their sub 3 schedule about 6-7 years ago and was followed by 20 hills the next day - the start of a near four month schedule and if someone could start the session like that they probably didn't need the other few months!