Halstead marathon

Hi jason, nice going. be careful with that cold if it comes out!

It was lovely out there today. I ran 16.5 miles at a local park.

Somehow managed over 40 miles this week despite having 2 days off. Halstead is 20 weeks away come Sunday so still in base building mode at present. Haven't been in this shape at this time of year 19 years!!!

Evening all, I'm tempted to have a go at Halstead this year, I'm almost certainly going to do Great Bentley Half in Feb and Essex 20 in March, so would be able to fit them into marathon training I reckon.

I've been concentrating on shorter distance races this year, so have improved my speed nicely, just got to build the endurance back up again.

Hi Sweep - I'm tempted by the Great bentley half as well as the Essex 20. Although I live in Kent they are ok for me and I know the area well.

Good work Jason. Coming along nicely!

Had a rest day today having run for the past 4 on the trot. Will do around 10 tomorrow.

Halstead voted 4th best UK marathon in RW. In this months copy! Hopefully, we can get quite a few following this thread. helps with the motivation, especially with so many doing London, this will keep us going for the extra 5 weeks after everyone else is relaxing!

Hi jason,  be careful of that groin. They can easily develop into something nasty and a couple of easy days now will be worth it rather than picking up a really bad injury.

Managed a steady 7.4 miles this morning in horrendous conditions - very, very windy and heavy rain!

Speak soon. Enjoy the NY celebrations everyone!

Hey hey, 

I've entered Halstead marathon for the first time this year- I travelled for the disaster that was NYC marathon last year, and decided I wanted a considerably cheaper experience for my next marathon.  I live in Colchester, so its nice and local for me too.

I'm following Hal Higdon's intermediate 1 plan - I find when I add too much speedwork to my training, I end up getting injured and having to take weeks out - this one's good as the majority is done at easy pace, and the "speedwork" is just at marathon pace.  Jason, why not take a look at the Hal Higdon plans - they're really simple to follow -  I find a lot of training plans require u to speak a foreign language to understand them, and carry it with u to remember what you're supposed to do on the run!

I work in London, which means a very long day- I've devised a plan where I do a morning run before my commute, one of my evening run's is done in London beofre I get on the trian home, and the other is after getting home, but stays easy.  Then I run on Saturday and Sunday- usually in the morning, but I allow myself a lie in on both days if i need it.  When I used to live in London, it was easy to make my during the week runs a run home, but 60 miles is a bit far for a weeknight

From what I've heard the hills aren't that bad- given I live only a few miles away, I hope I can cope with the undulations, and hopefully get a marathon PB in this years race!

I still haven't entered yet, looked the other night and for non affiliated it was £28.50! So I'm plucking up the courage lol ...I'm sure a few years ago it was under £20...think they're milking all the "uk's best ranked etc" stuff on here.

I've used Hal's plans 4 or 5 times, they won't let you down. Good, honest, solid. Especially for a first marathon. For my last I took the beginners schedule, copied the long runs and mid week distance runs, then added either one tempo or one interval a week and filled the rest with 5 mile easy runs. I chose an easy plan, with only one 20 miler as I'd done so little running in the previous year I was almost starting from scratch, but following my plan to the letter I still managed to get my second best ever time?!

lardarse i thought that was the norm these days?

ive been having a look into the hal higdon plans and they do suit my running needs, will have to adapt my plan as and when i see fit 

i do a fairly mixed run during week nights as the club on wednesdays mix it up quite nicely. (as im still aching abit from wednesday now)

sundays will still stay my LSR and will gradually build up 20 miles soon anyway as i think im doing something called essex20 

even if i treat it as a LSR i dont mind! just be good to go that bit extra

You certainly don't have to follow a plan, and with your age on your side you'll be able to get away with a lot more than someone like me who's old enough to be your dad! lmfao! Gulp!

However, it's good to use a respected plan as a reference, so you don't forget to build in rest weeks for instance and observe the distance progression, it's so easy to think you're superman when you write your schedule only to find you've bitten off more than you can chew 8 weeks down the line and something suddenly starts hurting, then you run different to compensate, then something else hurts...

I looked at the essex twenty but it was too close to Rome (marathon) for me, which is only two weeks after. If you fancy being a masochist and want to run two 20 mile races one week after the other have a look at the Tarpley 20 its at Bury (st Edmunds), I'm doing that one, going to race ten miles for a target pace at Rome and lsr the other ten miles. Gives me 3 weeks to recover

everyone always says that about my age! i thought 23 was old to start running until i met most runners 

just looked at the running calender for feb-march i have got:

sunday 10th-braintree boggle (26.2 mile trail marathon with refreshment pit stops)

sunday 17th- XC in leigh on sea (usually around the 5/6 mile)

sunday 24th-XC hosted by springfield striders (same again mileage wise)

sunday-3rd march essex 20 

quite a nice month i think 

hows the rome training going lardarse?