RW Forum Six - Sub 3:30

Easy session for me last night.  After the rubbishness of my Sunday run, I decided to Garmin-up but to ignore it and just relax and take it EASY.  Well, that kind of worked, but every time it beeped for a mile I had to look...  I didn't get disheartened as I went for a 1 hour run along the beach at sunset, it was truly beautiful   I didn't wear headphones as I wanted to really concentrate on how I was feeling, and also to spend some time appreciating my surroundings and to remind myself how very lucky I am to be running at all given my year last year.

Anyway, my splits for 6 miles were (ahem) 10:16; 9:34; 9:44; 9:56; 9:41; 9:25.  I'm sorry, everyone, you'll have to put up with some woeful times from me for a bit, but I'm just hoping that I get faster in the next few weeks.  Last night's run felt very easy so I picked up the pace at the end and the most important thing I'm taking away from it was that I felt very good when I finished, unlike on Sunday.  I also felt mentally refreshed and much better about VLM.

Today, I'm going to do some 800s.  Again, I'm going to TM them, just for the sake of ease and for my confidence.  I will fit in as many as I can in 45 mins, don't want to overdo it just yet.

X-post Spoons.  I do exactly what Simon mentioned with my rowing machine technique, but I still find I get blisters once I start doing any row above 20 mins.  I use gloves.  I'm a girl and not afraid to admit it 

Meeting tonight straight after work, with nowhere safe to leave the bikd - so parked car at meeting venue and ran 4 miles into work, which will make a reasonable double and ensure that nobody wants me to stay at the meeting for too long

Shildon:  I wouldn't consider an ultra on road, I even find marathons on tarmac pretty boring.  Might be worth considering a few warm-up events off-road, 30/40 milers to see how you get on.  Look at the events organised by the LDWA, very cheap compared to road races [I am paying £7 for 30 miles on Sunday with 4 cake stops and a hot meal at the end] and with people both running and walking the pressure is off and you can just enjoy it even if you are a bit slower than planned.

AA:  Good luck for Wokingham - got your recovery planned for Bramley?  I did a half marathon the week before Bramley last year and couldn't decide whether it helped or whether it was responsible for my legs dying on the second lap.

Spoons:  Give body pump a go!  I used to love those classes...........

speed sheep hi- putting my garmin on is like putting my trainers on i cant leave home without it. Even on  slow runs or recoveries i still take it and always look when it beeps even though some of the time time is irrelevant.  Better than in the days pre sat nav when i would drive my routes to see what the mileage was. With fuel prices now i dont think that would be very good on the bank balance.(did anyone else do this or am i just crazy) 

old4speed 95% of my runs are on tarmac apart from track sessions and the odd cross country when the club are short. I am not a big lover of grass and trails and have never done much mileage on them ever. Theres more choice in these events off road than on tarmac but i dont know if this would affect my running style and cause injury changing surface after never training that way. Any advice?

Nice windy 12.6 mile hilly run this morning averaging 8.05-8.15s.

Just heard on the radio more snow predicted for next week

Minni - First time at Wokingham for me so I will defer to AA's knowledge but looking at last years results it attracts a lot of quick runners.  I'm impressed I've stayed ahead of you for a week on the challenge but you'll cruise past me over the next few days.

SS -  Don't worry about how fast just get those slow miles in to build the endurance back.

5 miles slow for me this morning and that's me until Sunday.  That gives me 61 miles for the week from last friday to today, which is the most i've done for a long time.

Morning all.

Had difficulty sleeping last night so I get up at around five am and have a cup of tea.Quick look at this thread and whose up at silly o'clock posting? No need to name names-dedicated,organised,obsessed,time short,crazy...please choose which apply?

Minni-nice run before dawn...4.55am?????

Shildon-another early start-good run. I used to drive the route, then I used a webroute measurer , now my garmin. I like the subtle vibration in my wrist every so often...so cant do without it

MRZ-told you it would be easy

Spoons-only 2lbs? Think how much fat has been converted to muscle tooTry to stay off the steroids-you'll extend your jaw and spend a fortune on dental work

04S-another example of excellent planning

SS-re GFA-I think this is current-

MenTime (in hours)          Women       Time (in hours)
Age 18 - 40 2.45 -3.10       Age 18 - 49 3.15 - 3.50
Age 41 - 59 sub 3.15         Age 50 - 54 sub 4.00
Age 60 - 64 sub 3.30         Age 55 - 59 sub 4.15
Age 65 - 69 sub 4.00         Age 60 - 64 sub 4.30
Age 70+      sub 5.00         Age 65 - 69 sub 5.30
                                       Age 70+      sub 6.30

Sorry its a bit mixed up but I copied and pasted it. Looks like guaranteed entry for ever for the ladies on this thread...needs toughening up I think Am I going to keep getting sub 3.15 until Im 60? I dont think so.

The TM is not so bad to do a session on.Enjoy the 800s. Im ok rowing as I was brought up on a farm and my hands have remained extra tough ever since even tho I left that life too long ago to mention.

LR tonight if logistics permit. Bit worried about he weather especially as its perfect now.

2old - LMAO re Spoons and his "roids" habit!

Question... Should we instigate an enquiry into the Jantastic performance of the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie team on MT, in light of this morning's doping revelations?????????

Rest day and a massage for me today, but might get on the rower to investigate Simon's "technique" advice! 

2old- Have you sent in your entry form for Abo? The online entry is now closed! You might get in if you post your entry today.

DD- I'll join you on the 3:15 train at Abo, yikes did I just commit to sub 3:15! Best I get some good training in

Shildon Runner- Welcome to the thread, you definitely have the speed just keep cranking up the mileage.

SS- Well done on your run, as you say at least you can

Minni- Do you ever sleep? I only see one 4o'clock and that's when i'm making the kids their evening meal.

Oompa- Which "Rower" will you be using?

I did a speed session last night consisting of 100m sprint, 100m jog,, 200m sprint, 200m jog, 400m sprint, 90's recovery x 5 I found it very good, paces were between 6:02- 6:27.(I only kept the 6:02's for the 100m)

Oomp- So the Aussies use one approach to performance enhancement and Simon uses another...but which is legal? Looks like you're adding massage to the list.

Simon-try a 70s style sweat band. The other technique to keep sweat out of the eyes is to smear vaseline above them to create a sort of wall to direct the sweat down the side of your face.-an idea suggested in RW sometime in the past.It works until you rub your forehead towards your eyes in the same motion then everything goes blurred for a while.

Barry-big mileage and a good feeling knowing that you're also ahead. Im feeling a bit stressed knowing Ive got a lot to fit in due to the time lost due to a ski break coming up.

the vasiline trick works for me  - only a very thin line so its not visible, but it channels all sweat round the eyes down the side of your face

Oompa - ah memories of Milton Keynes are still very fresh. What conditions eh. And the queue to get gear at the end when everyone was going hyopthermic in the car park. Guess you can't legislate for the weather - but they could have handled that better. Probably going to be scorching this year!

Vaseline on the forehead, ew.

2old - that's the GFA - what about the FGFA - what are the times for that?

Gazelle - Hi thanks, my plan is to work on my endurance and hopefully with my speed already ok i should start seeing my long distance times creep back down to what they were 10 years ago good speed session by the way. Ive got 1200 reps tonight which i enjoy

Minni - yes i am in Shildon which is 8 miles outside of Darlington. In the north but not as far north as you.

Bogged down at work yesterday

O4S: well done getting those intervals done in those conditions. I hate encountering random teenagers whilst running .

Good to see Gazelle and Becs popping in.

Minni: enjoy learning Polish. Friend of mine married a Polish guy, lived there, studied the language and now works as a translator for the European Union in Brussels. Amazing. She told me it's goddamn difficult though. Well done on the intervals!

Mr. Z: totally understand you dreading the MLR. I have two this week ...  And because of ice and dreadful conditions yesterday it now means I have to do them back to back. 13 d&d at 4:20 am ; 14 tomorrow . Unless .....   I did the 2nd one on Saturday but is that really clever with a 20 including 10 @ MP on Sunday ??   

Spoons: bored of the gym yet? Concept rowers are evil

Welcome Shildon - you won't believe it but I used to visit Shildon regularly back in the 90s when I worked for Courtaulds in Germany ...  done back to back marathons, albeit 2 weeks apart and the second was painful to say the least. I did about 50 mile weeks back then (Furman plan), so in hindsight it was a dumb idea. Off of high mileage it may be a different story. Never underestimate what two marathons can take out of you.

Met a weirdo this morning that was just about to nick my water bottle (the contents of which were frozen i. e. left it to collect at the end of the run). Think I startled him as I ran towards him full pelt shouting oi, you moron - that's mine !! anyway, he dropped it

Ant - I managed to get a VLM space blanket at MK as i was shivering so much waiting for my stuff that a kindly lady wrapped me in it. Hopefully they will learn from their (many) mistakes this year but never again for me!!!

2old - Maybe we should consult Lance???

I have a Vaseline trick, but i'd rather not talk about it!

Please don't Oompa

Minni:  got your cheap rail tickets?  I only remembered mine today but luckily still able to get them at a good price.

Shildon:  I think our approaches to running are so different that any advice I give you will be unhelpful.  I ran for over 30 years without a Garmin and still only use one sporadically [e.g. never use it to time intervals].  I just like to run, preferably in nice surroundings with some mates, mixed terrain and the chance of a cuppa at the end!   When you are running for a long period I find it helps to have different surfaces as you don't get the same problems with overuse injuries - I always feel worse after a road race in terms of stiffness / aches than I do after an off-road ultra. Once you are off-road the weather conditions are far more significant that they are on-road, so no two events are truly comparable - even the same route from one year to the next.  Also if you take any two ultras of the same nominal distance you can't compare times as the terrain will often be significantly different [more mud / hills / dense undergrowth etc].

If you are someone who likes to monitor pace, go for a time, wants the route signed / marshalled and doesn't want to carry any kit, then on-road will suit you better.  Horses for courses as they say.

Chick:  a water bottle????!!! What the...........................

chickadeee wrote (see)

Bogged down at work yesterday

O4S: well done getting those intervals done in those conditions. I hate encountering random teenagers whilst running .

Good to see Gazelle and Becs popping in.

Minni: enjoy learning Polish. Friend of mine married a Polish guy, lived there, studied the language and now works as a translator for the European Union in Brussels. Amazing. She told me it's goddamn difficult though. Well done on the intervals!

Mr. Z: totally understand you dreading the MLR. I have two this week ...  And because of ice and dreadful conditions yesterday it now means I have to do them back to back. 13 d&d at 4:20 am ; 14 tomorrow . Unless .....   I did the 2nd one on Saturday but is that really clever with a 20 including 10 @ MP on Sunday ??   

Spoons: bored of the gym yet? Concept rowers are evil

Welcome Shildon - you won't believe it but I used to visit Shildon regularly back in the 90s when I worked for Courtaulds in Germany ...  done back to back marathons, albeit 2 weeks apart and the second was painful to say the least. I did about 50 mile weeks back then (Furman plan), so in hindsight it was a dumb idea. Off of high mileage it may be a different story. Never underestimate what two marathons can take out of you.

Met a weirdo this morning that was just about to nick my water bottle (the contents of which were frozen i. e. left it to collect at the end of the run). Think I startled him as I ran towards him full pelt shouting oi, you moron - that's mine !! anyway, he dropped it

Chick - Have you ever considered a career in public relations?

old4speed - i have been running for 15 years roughly with 1 year out when my first child was born and my business was establishing so someone with your experience with over 30 years under your belt for me is worth listening to. You are probably right i think the road type ultras where you are not carrying kit would suit me more and same from a pace point of view. I like the idea of canal path type runs etc. At the moment i need to get the marathons out of the way and then look at the ultra with a long term plan.

chickadee - Hi i take your comments on board re the marathon it seems it could be a bad idea but i will probably make a decision after london as i do not know what will happen at london. As you know anything can happen over 26.2. Yes courtaulds known locally as the paint factory i think you are referring to? Its still there and very important for local employment as after the 80s when the train building left our area we have very little local employment.