Lochaber Marathon 2012

dave 8:30/ mile is tooooooo fast for LSR pace- if you do 20miler at that pace, you'll wreck yourself- remember that you need to have some energy left for the race, at the end of all the training!

My 10k and half times are similar to yours. I've had a few marathons- vary between 3:56, and 4:21- so either side of 4hr is a possibility. Remeber 4 hr is 9.09 min/mile, so your LSR's are suppoed to be slower than that! You can argue that any LSR that takes more than 3-3.5 hrs is counter- productive, becuase it takes too long to recover from, so if you're just shy of the 20 mies in that time, don't worry, but PLEASE don't speed up!

Interesting discussion on LSR pace.  I'm on the Furman 3-runs a week programme and their long run paces are a lot faster than other programmes - presumably to make up for the far lower base mileage (e. 32 miles this week for me - 20+6+6). 

My marathon times are mostly grouped around 3.35-3.40 and I run my long runs at c8.15 pace which I find OK - whether I'd be better off running longer and slower I'm not sure.  It seems to have worked OK previously but then maybe it hasn't as my 10K and HM times suggest I should be able to do 3.25 for the marathon. I've never got near doing target time of 3.30.and ending up averaging c8.15 in the race itself anyway?!

Ah it gives me a sore head just thinking about all this....

Watched the BBC 2 dpocumentary on the WW2 commando training in Lochaber last night - some nice ariel shots of the A830 road to Mallaig whetted the appetite a bit...

Kenny-yan - I suspect that there is no single "right answer" - everyone is different and you have to listen to your own body; what works for one person might not for another and we've all got different stengths and weak points from an injury perspective.

Certaily agree with tricialitt that doing the long runs slower in the first instance is probably a good idea as it reduces the risk of getting injured if you are pushing your body too hard week after week; and you only know how near you are to getting injured after you're injured and then it's obviously a bit late to do much about it.

Another 20 miler for me this weekend - weather looks poor, so most of it will be spent inside watching the rugby.

 Hope everyone is well and training going OK.

You're totally right, 14May, we all have to find what works for us. And because us 'normal' runners can only do one or two marathons a year, there's not much room for experimentation.

Got 6 miles in today and touch wood, the leg feels right. So hoping that that's the first step on a now not so long road to Lochaber. But have had to knock tomorrow's Watford Half on the head. Loads of snow in the Black Country spreading south so a trip down the M40 tomorrow is not really on. 

 Good win for England

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend

Have been feeling sick all week, haven't eaten a full meal for about 4 days. Last run was 6 milesto, +6 miles from work on tuesday.

 Am heading out now to try a LSR- this could eaasliy be a disaster........................

HHMMMmmmmmmmmm, well, under the circumstances, 9.5 miles was proably the best I could hope for- at least I made it without any major dramas.

Cold out there, too. 10weeks to go- oh sh1t.........this iss going to be a struggle!

Well done on the run Tricia. Not easy if you've not been feeling good.

Thanks for the reminder Kenny. So that gives me 8 weeks for some serious miles and  2-week taper

8 miles last night, a bit quicker than I'd planned, but no issues. Don't want to push too hard this week so resting up tonight. 5 miles down the club tomorrow and then a slow 10 on Thursday.

Hope everyone's fit and enjoying the weather. It's bloody freezing here. 

Bright and crisp here, feeling better, tempo run this morning- hard work, as I've been at <75% HR Hadd- style training until now.

A work colleague has just entered this........suddenly there's a risk I'll get all competitive, and take the trainig more seriously!

Spoke too soon about it all going well: hamstring strain for me - not run since 20 miler on Sunday; very sore earlier in the week but a bit better today so I'm off to the physio tommorow - fingers crossed nothing too bad and that a few days rest is sufficient..

They say that something happens to most people over a 16-week marathon training programme - so this forum is just proving the point.... anyone out there problem free so far want to tempt fate?

Injury update - physio session on Thursday; easy 5 miles on Friday and 15 miles easy today - touch wood hamstring seems OK; also broke in my new shoes which made me realise how little padding was left in the old pair and which may have partially accounted for the  hamstring strain.

Thanks for the advice Goldeneagle - it's firmly planted in my mind and you're right, I probably have a bit of leeway having done a couple of 20 milers so far. Mind you please don't mess about with a chest infection; I tried to run through one when marathon training in early 2010 and ended up on 4 different courses of antibiotics, two blood tests and even a chest x-ray - I coughed non-stop for about two months, felt like someone was sitting on top of my chest all the time and didn't run for about 4 months - not fun!

Difficult conditions looking at the TV for those from 'Albion's plains' - it's not often Scotland is 7-8 degrees warmer than doen south - hope everyone's finding some way of getting miles in.

14May, obviously things have moved on a bit now. Sorry to see Mick go in a way, Wolves fans should never forget what he's achieved over the past 5 years. Top bloke. But it was time for a change.

On a more relevant note, although the leg's good now and the chest infection has pretty well cleared up, I've decided very reluctantly to give Lochaber a miss this year. I just don't have enough time to build up the miles and if I try to do too much too soon I'm just risking injury and further time lost. So I'm going to look for a May marathon, maybe Windermere or Edinburgh (where I've already entered the half so have accommodation booked)  if I can get a transferred place. 

Good luck to all you guys. Hope you stay injury free and have great runs. Hope to meet up with you somewhere in the future.