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

AW  - Good luck with your quest.

As others have said, with a 1:22 under your belt and Steve as your coach you've got every chance to achieve the target.

Looking forward to following this...

AW re Parkrun Saturday. It's quite short so I don't see a problem if you feel you want to, go fast, in doing so. I would recommend not to go flat out from the start though and try and hold something back and see if you can run a faster second half.

To test pace judgement and control perhaps try building the pace up each kilometre ie approx 3:55, 3:50, 3:45, 3:40, 3:35 which is 18:45 or 5 seconds faster per kilometre gives 18:20?

A.W - have you done Cambridge parkrun before, if so what is the course like?

I like the idea of progressive parkruns, always a good feeling to be passing people in the final km where you're feeling strong and they're hanging on

Thanks parkrunfan.

Ok Steve, will give the progressive splits a go! will try and run the first at 3.50 and go from there. It would be nice to get a PB if weather/course allows.

Not sure about the course at Cambridge Hilly, I know its flat, but I think the paths are gravel. Given the amount of rain over the last few days I'm not sure how it will be under foot!? Looking at past events at Cambridge there seems to be some quick times, so we will see!

good luck - yes looks fast course but looks like times were on average 45 seconds down last week.

If it was anything like here last week we had some nasty ice about!  We're off Congleton parkrun this morning.  Love Saturday morning and parkruns!  Hope you have a good run A.W

Do you do parkruns often Steve?

One thing I'm definitely doing for London is 10m marathon pace tempo efforts. Never done that pre marathon day before. MP is a pace is a bit of a funny one on the day I've found. I ran 6.01 for my pb in Notts half and I'd say I feel much more comfortable racing half pace than I ever have at marathon pace.

A few 10m tempo efforts even up to 12m should hopefully make things feel easier or more familiar for the race itself.

How did Park Run go Alex??

Indeed, how was parkrun? Mine was soggy and windy and I had to work rather hard for HM pace but 5k effort . I'm also blaming the Santa hat for slowing me down. That and the fact I've hardly run at all for the past two weeks. 

Hi Alex.  Congratulations on the place.  Think I'll follow your progress, if that's okay.   I'm in for London.  I did 3.06.30 last year and would love to do 2.59.59 this year but I don't think that's likely.  My half pb is 1.29.33 and my 5k 19.18, so looking very inadequate next to you!  I followed Knight Rider 12 months ago and found his thread helped keep me motivated during the long winter months and the advice from Steve was excellent.  

My recent running form suggests I've been playing to much golf recently so hence an identity switch to my alto ego!    My parkrun this morning was slowest for two years    chs...

I suggested 18:45 for Alex and it seems he did 18:44 but don't know if he followed the possible pace guidelines!

Hilly I've done 67 parkruns and did Hilly Fields for first time today - was 2nd in 21 minutes - lots of excuses - was very muddy and waterlogged and slippery in places and lived up to it's name as quite hilly and then had to do the club hill session right after so otherwise might have been a few seconds quicker!

Hi Golfer - yes need to improve that half time a bit and your 5k time suggests you could with your obvious good endurance with that half marathon to marathon conversion.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the late update today, been a very busy day from start to finish!

10 mile MP tempo efforts sounds like a lot of hard work RS78!!!

CC2 - my parkrun was much the same, see below!

Hi golfer, good to have you along for the ride, Don't worry about the parkrun, not a great day for them!

So my parkrun today as Steve has said was 18.44 in 12th. The course was very wet, very muddy and very slippery, much like everyone else's! So all in all the time I think was reasonable considering conditions! I felt in control the whole time and was strong from start to finish, haven't looked back at my splits but think they were pretty even. I felt like I was running within my limits, so finished feeling like I could have carried on.

10 miles tomorrow, think I may be swimming not running looking at the rain outside!

Good to see you're a fan of parkruns Steve  Did my 70th today in a similar time to you, but on a much flatter course by the sounds, but like everyone else have described in conditions that were very wet, and windy and for me 3 times around a lake. We've managed to find 2 to do on New Year's Day which should be fun

A.W - that's a very prominsing time especially given the conditions!  Always good to feel strong and in control.  Enjoy your 10 miles!  I'm just off with a group to do 18 and have to say not really looking forward to the howling wind that's blowing and kept me awake last night, but hopefully running on the Trans Pennine Trail should give a little protection from it!

great run in the conditions AW and must have been a busy day to post at 2.55am!

I did just over 10 muddy miles today on a route that was the worst I've known in 40 years of doing but it was actually a very nice day for running . Not entirely because of the mud, it took about the time  I would have expected to have run  15 miles 30 years or so ago though suspect had I had a Garmin back in the 70 and 80s, I would have found some of  those weeks I logged as over 100 were probably low 90s! 

That howling gale is no fun at all. For some reason I decided today would be a good day to get the spikes out and practice XC running before the Notts County Champs. Newcastle Town Moor is currently largely under water, except for the two monster hills that were navigated 3 times each. It took 41 minutes to run 4 miles. I finished covered from chest to feet in mud, with frozen feet and looking like I'd been dragged through a number of hedges backwards, forwards and backwards again. 

well done SG - obviously conditions better down South. I did the National at Town Moor in 1986 and it was covered in snow and the hills were tough.

Snow would have been preferable! 44mph winds we've had today apparently. I can quite believe it. At least I know the hills at Wollaton Park are significantly smaller, and any boglike sections are likely to be distinctly less deep as well. As for the wind, well, I can only hope for calmer conditions! 

Although the winds howled through the night here once out this morning they weren't as bad as I thought - phew  I don't think I know any runner who enjoys training in windy conditions!  Give me rain, snow, hail, heat, but please no wind!

Looks like some of you have fun weather. It rained non-stop down here in Kent all day yesterday. I was meant to run a recovery run so was a little relieved that my wife had us running around everywhere and I struggled for time. Felt a but guilty but having just logged my best two back to back weeks for 18 years my body was saying take it easy anyhow. managed a solid 16.5 today though.

Steve - I often think about how I used to just estimate distances in the old days. No cheating nowadays!!

A.W. Nice going yesterday in those conditions. Did you run progressive splits as Steve had suggested or was it just a case of staying upright and remaining smooth?

Speedy - sounds not  alot of fun. We had nothing more than a strong breeze on the top of the downs. 44mph winds is not pleasant!