RW Forum Six - Sub 3:30

2old- i hope not! - they're red panda's a highly endangered species! Racoons do look like they're always scheming!

Darren - im sure you'll be back much sooner than you think! perhaps a couple months clean break might give you the mental break to come back with interest! if swimmings an issue - why not use this as an oppurtunity to develop a stroke?

Daren -  Wise decision to give running a break to recover, and runners always feel sorry for themselves when not running,  but you'll be back,look what you achieved last year, be a shame to waste all that natural talent.

Red -  Good news on your steady comeback.

Well done for the start to Jantastic, my first isn't until tonight, running into and home from work on nightshift.

Mr Z – it makes our provincial little jolly up’s at the county out-grounds seem a little bit backwards doesn’t it! The Glos skipper was saying the other day that having watched it on Sky it seems we’re missing a trick or two… having said that, most of what I’ve seen the standard hasn’t been great, but then I guess that’s the risk you take in T20.

Chick – thank you very much for that, replacement 405CX it is then! They’ve offered it for £78 which seems a pretty good deal so I shall get it ordered first thing tomorrow morning.

Daren – sorry to hear about your injury woes. I know exactly where you’re coming from and it is extremely hard. I’m sure like you've said that after a bit of time off you’ll be itching to get back into it though.

I thought it was raccoons too ....    very cute indeed.

78 quid for a replacement 405CX is great, redders! I paid about 100 for the 410

Rest day for me today on the first day of Jantastic - glup. But I banked 14 miles yesterday at a pretty good clip and am taking it easy today post riding.

Minni - I hope you're right about it being a good spring. I've just about kicked my Achilles twinge, but still got a little ankle stiffness. I've had to rejig my training plans and am actually dumping 2 XC races to focus on getting the miles in

Chick & KFC - the weather in Andalusia was sunny most of the time, with temps around 15 degrees max, so not that warm but perfect for all those climbs. It was an organised tour via Skedaddle.

Spoons & Daren - darn injuries. I feel your pain.

Simon - yep the alpkit gamma is a good piece of kit. Came in useful in Spain actually as we got lost at one point and ended up finishing in the dark! Heel injury - is that a reoccurrence of your PF?

AA, Bro & Mr Z - big up the non boozing. I haven't had a beer since Thursday myself and plan to do the entire rest of Jan 

Carrot - 20 miles, bosh, laying down a marker already, nice one.

first Jantastic run done! gentle 5 mile recovery run  

Daren - sorry to hear you're benched too. Sorry, can't do Saturday as I'm out on a work do

Another hours pilates plus another massage tonight. 

hi all - some really impressive runs going on here...makes us on the road to recovery look a little pedestrian !!

another 4 mile jolly for me tonight and kept it at 9:30mmpace , good news avg hr 155 so it's dropped nearly 20bpm in 1 week...small steps i suppose !! i will stick with this until HR dropping into 140 region.

plan is to do 4 runs per wk...not part of jantastic but its my own target.

keep up the good work all

Yep that's me off the mark too with a late 3m recovery. 

Glyn - its not too late to join...   Jantastic.

There's been a bit of talk on the Asics threads and others about fuelling, or rather not fuelling for long runs.  I'm a great believer of you only get out what you put in and when marathon training make sure I get either a recovery drink or milk and food down my neck as soon as I finish a harder session.  There's all kind of talk going on about running in the evening after not eating since breakfast and not eating for 2 hours after runs the then only proteins. 

Can anyone elaborate on this?  I'd be worried that my muscles weren't getting what they need to recover.

I tend to only have water on long runs (over 16) and really only take gels later on to get used to them for the marathon.

I wonder what the thinking is behind this 'lack of food' approach.

Or really what I want to know is, would it make me faster?!!

Back from Ireland, lots of difficult stuff going on over there so may not be as regular posting for a while.  Tempo run tonight, fast, hilly and felt great.  My New Year's day race has been upgraded to 1st Place FV55 - the person 15 seconds ahead of me was running on someone else's number and was actually about 12 .  Received wine and large vat of jelly babies collected for me by a clubmate.

Back to work and some semblance of normality tomorrow.  Sounds like I am the only person who didn't drink any more [and possibly less] than usual during December.  I also lost weight over Christmas / New year

I haven't ever read anything that suggests not re-fuelling after a run is helpful. I get the arguments about doing a few training sessions on empty, but even people who advocate this approach tend not to recommend it for all of them. There have been some good Marathon Talk interviews on this. Was it Ryan Hall who was told to radically overhaul his diet and eat more?

well just tried to register but doesn't seem to want to accept my user name / pword...

Minni - IMHO - not fuelling before a run makes it harder, not fuelling after a run means you take longer to recover and are more likely to get injured. Best bet is to fuel the same as you would in race conditions (I.e.not much, just gels and water) so your body gets used to it. During LSRs you can get away with less because you're not working so hard. I would take a gel when doing MP in long runs just to get used to taking them when running at MP.

Minni -  I will run some of my LSR's unfuelled but any with MP efforts in I will take gels.  Have previously done 23 miles unfuelled, to try and get the body used to burning fat as a source of energy.  I always refuel straight after run usually chocolate milk.

4 miles slow into work last night.  Just over 9 back home this morning, 1.5 WU then 3 x 2miles with 3 min recovery then 1 mile WD, was worried they were n't going to go well as legs felt a bit stiff during warm up but it's amazing when that beep goes on the Garmin.  6:46, 6:41 and 6:43 avg for the repeats so happy with that after my slowish Parkruns over xmas.  Right I'm off to bed.