RW Forum SIx – 3.30 – 4.00

CW - porridge and honey with a slice of toast for me this morning. Yummy

Spoons - 26 x 1 mile reps sounds straightforward enough

Did 800 reps last week and 400 reps this week. Was planning om 800 reps next  week and 1200 reps the week after. Then back to 400 reps.

Does this seem ok ?

Not sure if I will manage to build up to the 26 x 1 mile reps before Paris.

Morning Spoons - thought I would give you a health status update ! The knee is absolutely fine now. I have been strapping it up when doing my speedwork so that has helped. The ankle is ok now too; I only feel it a little now. It does go a bit stiff after a session but soons eases when I move it around.

Today's question - as stated above, my knee is fine now. However, last night when I was foam rollering it was really painful when rolling on my ITB (both legs even though I only had pain in my right knee previously). Why would this be if my knee appears ok ? What should I be doing about this ?

Cheers

Rest day for me today, from running anyway but I plan to go for a swim later. It will be the first time in many many years I have been to a swimming pool as I am not a water baby. Every little helps as they say.

Tomorrow is LSR day and I have plotted my rought out. It is 18 miles out in the peaks near Strines, Broomhead and Bolsterstone but all on side roads. I will also be experementing with my nutrition as I intend to have some toast and tea before I set up and then flapjacks and jelly babies on my run. I might take the Andrex along just in case 

Carl - the 8, 4, 8, 12, 4 thing sounds fine!

Carter - if foam rollering on the ITB is tight and painful it's because the ITB is tight and needs loosening up. Do more foam rollering. Also google ITB stretches. They will help too.

Enjoy your swim - I swam 2.5km last night - first time in ages - it nearly killed me!

Spoons - I am not the greatest swimmer so hats off to you for the 2.5km. Not sure I could do close to that without taking a few breathers along the way.

Anyone got snow yet ? Looking very grey here.

Carl - I will head off somewhere between 7:00-8:00. I will have to take the mutt for a walk, have some breakfast and schedule in a bathroom break before I head off. The missus is at work at 6:00 as well so if I can get my LSR done and dusted Saturday morning then I tend to be in her good books. I've just google mapped around your neck of the woods and there is a bit of green stuff for you to run around apart from Regents Park - Brent Reservoir and Fryent Country Park; do you ever run up there ? Do you do any swimming ?

Spoons - I havent been in a swimming pool for years, probably 20 of them. I'm not a big fan of swimming and not very good at it but 16 lengths of a 25 meter pool has left me aching all over like I havent ached in years ! 

All this trying to make myself healthy is hurting !

It's a lovely clear blue sky here but very cold. We are expecting plenty of the white stuff tomorrow and where I'm running is a prime location for it !

Spoons - Just had a look at MacMillan calculator and this is what it says for a 3:45 marathon based on my 1:47 HM.

Long run - 8:39 - 9:57

Easy run - 8:35 - 9:35

2 questions.

1) What is the difference between a Long and an Easy run ?

2) It would appear that I am running my LSRs too slow, based on MacMillan. I've been knocking them out at 10:00ish. Depending on your thoughts about this I was going to run my LSR tomorrow at about 9:15 ? 

Wow, hats of to you guys with your 18 milers already! I thought my planned 12 was good! I love to hear others; thoughts on nutrition- I'm sure Dave is trying to starve me!!  Did anyone watch that documentary with James Olympic rower guy doing the marathon de sables? He seemed very undernourished and hydrated by the end!!! (Not that I'm running in any kind of heat tomorrow!!) 

Carter - I started swimming when my daughter joined a swim club. I was there watching so figured I might as well join the masters. It was the hardest thing I have ever done by far. Can't say I'm a natural or even enjoy it but it does make you fit. Fitter than running IMHO.

Re: long run pace. The difference between a long slow run and an easy run is one is longer! As you haven't run a marathon before we don't really know what pace we are aiming for. This will become more apparent as we go on. You are already starting to look a bit quicker than first suggested and we're only 11 days in!

re: McMillan, it's a great tool we all use, but beware, I have only ever met 2 people that have managed to hit their McMillan predicted marathon time based on their shorter races. Most (like me) and considerably slower. The 2 I know are also considered rubbish at short distance / Speedwork compared to longer stuff. 

So - for your long slow run pace - the most important thing - especially as you are likely to be going off road up a mountain - is to not work too hard. Keep it at a conversation pace. You should be able to finish without slowing down or feeling rubbish. 

Don't panic. You're also doing Speedwork and tempo runs. Plus as we get nearer race day you'll be doing marathon pace stuff during your long run. 

If in doubt, run on feel and don't look at the Garmin until you get home!

carterusm wrote (see)

I've just google mapped around your neck of the woods and there is a bit of green stuff for you to run around apart from Regents Park - Brent Reservoir and Fryent Country Park; do you ever run up there ? Do you do any swimming ?

Carter - On my LSR I run around the perimter of Hampstead Heath amd then meander my way to the Ring Road around central London and then head back for Regents Park.  Brent Resevoir is adjacent the start of the MI, Brent Cross Shopping Centre and the North Circular. Very congested with traffic every day of the week and not the safest in the evenings. But thanks for looking. The other grren space in London is Hyde Park and now that the mileage is getting up close to 20 miles I will be looking at incorporating that into the run somehow.

I will go swimmimg if I have to run in the gym but as I cannot stand the treadmill and prefer outdoors even in snow / very cold conditions I tend to avoid it.

Running 5 times a week is about as much time I can devote to exercise at the moment. I have previously tried to incorporate a gym / swin session into my training plans but was never convinced of the benefit. To get real benefit you need to swim hard and then you are using a different set of muscles that get tired and then you are tired running and then you are more suscepable to injuries and all that. To swim hard I would need to spend more time getting my technique right and as I said at the moment I have got no more time.

But if it works for you go for it I say.