RW Forum Six - Sub 3:30

Barry- not good news re the calf, really hope some rest will sort it out.

SSheep- good luck with your tempo roday.

Free- when are you 2x 20m races? I like your progressive strategy... or you can just do AA and race them all out!

14m into work this morning including 3x 2m @ tempo (7:05- 7:07). Much faster than any of my tempo runs/ intervals so far so very happy with that. Now I just need to pretend that I'm capable of doing some work rather than napping at my desk...

Free- I dream about running all the time, most often that I'm on the track and the finish line keeps on running away from me...

Mo should be DQ'd for not trying, like that bloke in the 800m at the Olympics.  As for "getting to know the set up of the race", that's fooling nobody.  He could be the celebrity starter and do that (he may have done that already, I can't remember.  And "giving something back" means taking all the media coverage away from the very impressive elite field they've got this year.  It'll be 13.1 miles of Mo-Cam, an interview after he's stopped, then it'll be time for the wheelchair finish, the last couple of miles of the elite women and 20 minutes of the elite men before it's back to Mo doing photo-ops with Barney Rubble back at Tower Bridge.

You were probably following your garmin route that took you into a cupboard.  There's a lesson for us all there...

CD - agree on Mo, especially given the fantastic elite field already there this year, which must be the best ever. Trouble is jo-public won't have heard of any of them.  Even less chance for us mere mortals to get on the telly this year - although you probably will if you manage your normal solo run down the Mall to the finish line

Bro - my 20's are the next two Sundays. Not ideal to have them one after the other but there you go!  I'm just glad there are some races like this to do as I'm getting a bit fed up with doing the long runs on my own.  I've also got a HM and a 21 mile race, again on back-to-back weekends  (CD - I guess you're not doing Cranleigh?)

It wasn't so much running into a cupboard that surprised me - most of my runnig dreams end up with the course taking a strange route, but the fact that I would enter an ultra - unthinkable in real life

Free- I did 2 x 20m back to back during my Copenhagen campaign and it was fine.  As long as you can hold back and not race both of them! I really enjoyed doing them half easy/ half at MP.  Like you I do all my long runs on my own and don't mind but it was nice for a change.

Freemers - no, I'm not doing Cranleigh, I've left my best spring race on the roads round there too often in the past.  Unlike brolish I end up racing them!  You're welcome to stay the night before though.  Maybe you entered the ultra with the intention of only running half of it?

Freemers: simple explanation for the dream - the 50 mile ultra was timed to be at least partly overnight and you got lost in the dark, happens to all of us at some point (and to some more often than others) 

Minni wrote (see)

What a beautiful day.  Makes you almost forget all those long hard miles in the snow and ice.  1.5 mile intervals bagged along with a run along the river with the dog as a warm up.

Enjoy the sun folks.

Chick- no idea about my peak milage (all down to the boss) but I doubt it will be much higher than this. I have 3 races in March so won't be able to ramp it up too much with all the tapering/ recovering.  Hope the weather starts improving for you, you must be sick and tired of it by now! Well done for getting 3m in, I always feel better after recovery runs.

Arrgh - darn cold / chesty cough has struck. Cycle commute was tough yesterday and might have to miss today's run. First cold of the winter though so can't complain. 

Still sunny here. 

SS - Oh god, the exam dream....I still get that sometimes! Great running today and I hope you enjoyed the cheesecake

Freemers - re 20m progressive runs a great idea.

I did something similar at Bramley 20 last w/e: 7m @ 8:20; 7m @ 8:00 and last 6m @ 7:20.

It had a true "tide going out, tide coming in" feeling to it and passing scores of people on the last stint is great for a confidence boost.

This was on tired legs after a full-on Wokingham HM the previous week

Dubai Dave wrote (see)

Spoons: with the training your doing it has to be a Tri for the comeback, 53 mins for 2.5K is impressive 

I have a few ideas......

I agree re: Mo. I think it's a real shame. It would be far better for him to do the GNR and the GSR which are also televised and do them properly.

Tempo run done for the week - 4 miles @ 7.00 - 7.10 pace. The bloke on the treadmill next to me was doing the shortest intervals I've ever seen - basically he'd put the speed up to about 10-11 mph and blast it for 10 seconds, then jog for a couple of minutes and repeat lots and lots.  Not sure what he would be training for doing that!

Nice running Minni

Mike - thanks, that's convinced me. I think I'll go with the 5 mile blocks....just need to be disciplined with the pacing!

SS: The cycle track is on the way to Bab Al Shams provided you are going on Al Qudra road and its goes right past the gate of Bab Al Shams ( thats where we drink coffee on the Saturday ride). You can't miss the start of the track there is a huge archway with green bikes hanging off it.  Lime Tree cafe moments are ace!