Paris marathon 2013 here we go! A.W's Sub 3 attempt!

Impressive stuff AW though do try to take on Steve's advice on the pacing.  

Having been in the goldfish for a while I know its hard to reign in the relative speed on some sessions. Steve can testify to my then inability to stick to his guidelines . I got injured and could have missed the big day. However I should add that at the time i was a novice so your years of running will no doubt give you more leeway to push the fine line without getting injured.

Great start, just carry it through to April.

Alex, looks like a good time to catch up tomorrow. i think everyone will have some niggles after the snow and a good time to check everyone out and get a good old mot. see you in the am.

Afternoon AW!

Sounds like you're absolutely flying!! I've been taking it so steady in this snow, I don't think my legs will go over a 10 min/mile any more

See you tomorrow!

Enjoy the trainig day AW

Hi Sarah, thanks for your help last year. I'm planning a few more sports massages in this campaign. With the running on the snow & ice are there any stretches that are any good to compensate for the niggles you get slipping 'n sliding all over the place?

Hi Alex

Like you I'm hunting a sub 3 time, at the Manchester Marathon. Not quite as exotic as Paris, but hey, c'est la vie! 

Hope the snow hasn't put paid to too much of your running over the last week or so. I find bits of my legs ache that don't usually, due to making more effort to keep balanced. Best of luck with the rest of it - I'm using some bits of the training plan you're using, very similar to the one I'm following. I notice there's quite a bit of varied speedwork, which is interesting - I like the fact that it's not just about grinding out loads of miles.

Good luck and keep running

mike 

A great session at Birmingham University for Alex. Track and towpath were out of use because of the snow but there was a road circuit available. Ran five reps starting at marathon pace and very fast last one. 

Hello all,

Did'nt get chance to post yesterday, was a great day and got some really good advice and feedback. I will elaborate in a moment.

golfer - your getting some great sessions in too. 8 miles at just about marathon pace is a great run. Like you say, its better than a few weeks ago, so your making improvements. There's still loads of time left to get to where you want to be fitness wise. In answer to your question, I'm clearly in beater shape so far than previous campaigns, but its still early days, I need to improve still. The main difference is the structure - keeping to weekly organisation of runs, the 3 sessions of quality a week instead of 2 and having you guys to keep mr on my toes and make sure I put in that extra bit of effort!!!! And yes our PB's are very similar, mine is 3.06.10, that is 4 years old though.

AndyV - I've taken the advice on board and be more careful in future, your right, having your training out there for all to see does make you a little more likely to over do it, I certainly feel like I should be going as quick as possible sometimes as I have to post it on here, but that's not always necessarily a good thing.

KR - yesterday was a really good day, I will post about the run and other bits in a moment.

Simmo - Good luck with your sub 3 attempt in Manchester. Like you the snow has given me the odd niggle, which I'm glad to say after a good going over with Sarah the Asics Target 26.2 Physio yesterday, are nothing to worry about.

Steve - It was a really enjoyable session yesterday. Thanks to you, Ruth, Sarah and all the guys at Runnersworld and Asics for a really helpful and enjoyable day.

So I'm going to go through yesterday in chronological order!

Yesterday started for me very early! Was up at 5am to walk my dogs and get ready for a 7.20 train to Birmingham.

On arriving my first session of the day was to see Sarah the physio. I'd been having a few issues over the last week, so was quite anxious to find out if any of the niggles were anything serious. Thankfully they're not! My foot problem seems to be a touch of tendonitis on top of my foot, the problem seems to be originating from a lot further up my leg however if I've understood correctly. Tightness in my hip, back and glute on the right side has had a knock on effect all the way down causing tightness further down. The cause of this I think was mainly due to the running on snow and ice.

After a good bit of work on the tight areas it freed up my movement and helped reduce the discomfort on the foot.

I have some exercises and stretches to work on to help manage the issue and hopefully it will be ok.

Thank you Sarah! Will let you know how it is after my long run today.

We then had the running session. The track was not usable as it was covered in snow and ice, so we used a loop of road around the university campus. The loop was 0.75 miles, and we were to do 5 laps.

The session was really fun, and structured so we all set off a different times so we would finish together. Each rep would get progressively faster, starting from marathon pace and our target was to run each rep 10 seconds faster.

There was loads of other runners using toe loop, I guess with all the ice about it was one of the few places to use for speed work!

So we had about 1 mile of warm up and then in to the reps!

Splits were - 4.57 (6.42m/m), 4.47 (6.32m/m), 4.36 (6.16m/m), 4.27 (5.56m/m), 4.09 (5.36m/m)

Very happy with my pacing and speed, last rep was hard effort!

I then had a meeting with Ruth,

I know Ruth is going to post up details of what we went over so wont go over much. We talked about my recovery for the most part and how important it is that I get a better approach to my post hard session nutrition. In short I'm going to address this by making sure I get a recovery shake immediately after the session to start recovery and then follow that up with a snack or lunch depending on when the run is.

The other main point was about my race day plans for fueling and carb loading/pre race eating. I'm going to trial my race day nutrition today on my long run, taking gels at 7, 12/13 and 18 miles. I will then also try a gel during my half marathon to make sure when I'm running hard I can stomach the gels.

The last port of call was to have a chat with Steve. We discussed the structure of the second half of the schedule and talked over how things had been going. We also set some targets and plans for the racing and training ahead. I have a 10k next weekend and then a half marathon the following week, so we will have a clearer picture of where we are after these races.

All in all things have been going well, I'm certainly happy with my training so far, and think Steve is too.

All that was left was a few pictures and a bit of video and the day was done! As I've already said it was a great day and I'm really appreciative to everyone. Ady, Steve, Mel and Sarah for being a great Asics Target 26.2 team! Steve, Ruth, Sarah, Sam, everyone at Asics and Runnersworld for all their help, advice and support.

Thank you!

A.W wrote (see)

I then had a meeting with Ruth,

I know Ruth is going to post up details of what we went over so wont go over much. We talked about my recovery for the most part and how important it is that I get a better approach to my post hard session nutrition. In short I'm going to address this by making sure I get a recovery shake immediately after the session to start recovery and then follow that up with a snack or lunch depending on when the run is.

The other main point was about my race day plans for fueling and carb loading/pre race eating. I'm going to trial my race day nutrition today on my long run, taking gels at 7, 12/13 and 18 miles. I will then also try a gel during my half marathon to make sure when I'm running hard I can stomach the gels.

Hi AW, maybe Ruth will go into to more detail when she posts but I was wondering what sort of recovery drink she suggested that you take?

I sometimes take a whey protein shake with skimmed milk after a hard session but I wonder if I would be better taking something with more carbs in it.

Good luck on the rest of your training!!

Hi ZiggyTheSpider,

I'm sure Ruth can give you some guidance when she next comes on. The recovery drink I have chosen to use is a For Goodness Shakes 3:1 (protein/Carbs) recovery powder which is mixed with water. Tastes really good!

Running is full of highs and lows. Unfortunately today was a low! I had a terrible run. It actually started out ok, I ticked off the first 6 miles at 7.30 pace and felt pretty good. In the back of my head I knew all was not well though, I could feel my stomach was not right and as time went on it was getting worse.

By 7 miles, before I had even taken on any fuel/gel I had to make a dash for the public toilet and from then on it was an awful run. Today was meant to be a trial run of my fueling strategy for Paris, I plugged on and tried to keep to the plan taking a gel about half a mile after my pit stop, things just got worse though and I had problems with stomach cramps for the rest of the run, had to make another 2 unscheduled stops and decided enough was enough at 18.5 miles - was meant to be doing 21.

I did take another gel at 12.5 miles, but I'm no further forward in knowing if they are right for me due to the stomach problems. I dont think it was the gels causing the problem as I had to stop before I'd even taken one, and I've used the same gels on a previous run with no adverse reaction at all!

I'm sure Ruth might be able to advise better and give me some idea! May be last evenings meal, I didn't get to eat until quite late (9.30ish) and I did eat loads then was out running early at 8am after my normal breakfast. Had a takeaway pizza which is quite unusual as I usually make my own, so have a feeling I may have overloaded with foods which my body's not used to and not reacted well??

Hopefully just a one -off and due to the late food and the type of food.

there's still plenty of time to trial the gels.

and it was still some miles in the bank at a fair pace. After yesterday's hardish session on the road, it may have been a blessing that you weren't able to run 21 at a solid pace.

I had a bad run too possibly not helped by finding the only shoes that felt comfortable on my blistered and cut bunion from last week's run were a five year old pair of worn out racing shoes with zero grip or support.

Started slow for first 3 miles on my own, then did around 10 miles with faster runners and found even 7:40s were making me very uncomfortable. Back on own dropped to 8:30s and even a gel failed to liven me up. Struggled to 22 and last couple of miles over nine. I did same distance as last week in snow and this was a bit quicker in overall pace but last week finished full of running and felt strong and this week really struggled. I should have been fresher as did parkrun and hill session day before last week and virtually nothing this week.

On plus side, it was 22 miles when yesterday wasn't sure I would be able to run because of the foot.

Hi AW. Sound like you had a great day yesterday. I saw Sam Murphy at the Canterbury 10 earlier and she said you are looking very smooth.

I will read your full report on the day later on when I've got a bit more time to digest.

Steve - that bunion seems painful but respect for completing 22 miles with that going on!

Sorry Alex, you asked last week about when I was racing next but I didn't get a chance to reply. Anyhow, it was this morning. Weather was pretty kind but very windy on the exposed parts. Also, I'd forgotten how hilly the course is. Anyhow, was hoping to run inside 72 minutes which would make me feel on track for a Sub 3:15 and chip time was 70:58 and felt strong all the way so pretty happy!

Have a great week everyone. Not long for you guys now - 10 weeks?

Nice 22 miler Steve despite the problems!

Nice run today DS2, well inside your target time and feeling strong. Looking good.

Meant to say in my previous post that despite the stomach problems, my legs felt really good and full of running even at the end. It was just my stomach disrupting my run and making it a bad outing for me! So there is still a positive in today's run!

Thanks AW. Better to find out now about the gel, I guess. You seem to be recovering really well from all runs and your legs seem incredibly strong. Sam Murphy said you have a lovely fluent running style!

well done on 10 DS2 -see you were half a minute up on Sam