RW Forum SIx – 3.30 – 4.00

CW - that's fantastic news well done

CW - great run today. And good news about the shin splints.

Just back oin after my LSR. It was COLD. I spent a few hours standing on the side of football pitches this morning so think I had not fully thawed out before I went out. And it felt like the cold had got inside me it was that bad.

Had no fixed route planned before I went out sp after looping round the top of Hampstead Heath / Highgate I made for St Pauls, crossed the Thames on the Wobbly Bridge, South Bank, Hyde Park and back via the perimter of Regents Park. So CW our routes crossed briefly albeit at totally different times of the day.

No ide of my stats as my watch packed up after 14.52 mile s. I was wondering for ages why my average pace kept going out.

I have my startr and finish time so I will be able to work it out later. I was targeting 17/18 miles and I think I might have done 17ish.

And I went over on my right ankle in a bit of a pot hole. It feels ok at the moment but I might need to treat it later.

Carl - at least you got out in the cold weather and logged some more miles, well done. Let's hope the ankle is ok.

CW - well done to you too, sounds like a good run.

I went out about 8:30 this morning about 30 minutes after tea and toast. It was very foggy and really cold out in the exposed peaks. Actually it was bloody freezing and it took me a couple of miles to warm up properly. I felt my breakfast lay on my stomach for quite a few miles and it felt quite uncomfortable. I had a total of 4 jelly babies during the run but I dont know if it made much of a difference really, I guess this will be something I learn about my body as I progress. So, I covered 18.1 miles in a tad over 3.00 houes @ 9:58. The course I cose looked nice and flat on Google maps/earth yesterday but there were 3 nasty little climbs, 2 were about 0.5 miles and the other was about a mile. On top of that there were a couple of long drags to get up. Here is the link to the run - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/261202092. To get a better look at the elevation have a look at this - http://app.strava.com/activities/37283822.

Spoons - a couple of thoughts about todays run.

1) I have done a couple of runs of similar length to these over the last few months. When I finished those I could hardly move and had ceased up straight away. Today, though, my legs felt ok considering the effort I had to put in. This would indicate my endurance and strength is improving ?

2) I'm not sure how much benefit I am getting out of running so much on hills. Yesterday, you suggested that I run on feel rather than looking at my watch and that's what I did. However, because of the hills, the effort I had to put in to achieve a 9:58 average was more than is probably required for a LSR. I would say my average effort over the run was about 5/6 out of 10 where I understand a LSR should be about 2/3 ? Obviously, there is a place in a training plan for running hills but I was thinking of trying to run my LSR over a more flat course ? At the moment, after all of my LSRs I am knacked but I shouldnt be. What are your thoughs and suggestions on this ?

I'm having a couple of beers tonight. It's my first beer since 01/01 and represents somewhat of a record for me at not drinking beers for 11 days

In addition, I started to feel a bit hungry about mile 13/14. I did take some flapjacks with my but while I felt hungry I also didnt feel like eating anything, if that makes sense

Wow, I can't believe you ran so far on jelly babies!! That's a looooooong run! And in the cold too!! I felt hungry on my run too this morning. I guess as you say, it's trial and error!

I had a banana sandwich, cup of tea and granola bar about 2 hours before I went out. Then only thing I had whilst running was one Clif Shot Blok which I think I prefer to gels. The last mile or so was tougher than I thought it should be.

But I now know that I ran 18 miles in total having tracked my run on googlemaps.

My sportswatch must have lost its GPS connection around mile 14 and it was another mile or so before I noticed. At this point I was comfortable and running at about 9:20 min/mile avg.

Running blind I actually sped up for the last 3 - 4 miles and finished with an overall average of 9:11 min / mile. It was getting late and I knew dinner would be ready so I did know that I had increased my pace.

While probably faster than I should have run overall other than the initial 2-2.5 mile climb whilst I was warming up, the last mile and for a little while immediately after going over on my ankle I was comfortable and running at conversation pace.

Ankle is ok at the moment so I might have got away with it.

If it is very cold again in the morning I might do my recovery run at the gym and then go for a quick swim. Probably only going to do 4 miles tomorrow rather than 6 as I have put the odd extra mile in here and there this week.

Good running today everyone.

Well done on getting the long runs done in the cold. 

Carter - at the minute you are building strength and endurance. It's obviously working because you didn't feel do fatigued at the end which is good. I would continue running on feel, using the hills and not worrying too much about pace. When you are doing MP sections it would be worth running on the road on a flatter route so you can get the pace bang on. 

It's probably already been covered, but as I was late to the party: what marathons are people training for? What dates? Mine is Virgin London Marathon Sunday 21st April.

I maybe running Brighton. Haven't decided yet. 

It's official. I'm never drinking again. 

I too am feeling the effects of a booze-fuelled evening! Can hardly move today. 

The trick with treadmill running is to keep adjusting the incline a bit. If you just keep it on 0% it's too easy and you always use the same muscles in the same way. 

I've done 2 hour runs on a treadmill whilst watching a movie.... 

Spoons. wrote (see)

The trick with treadmill running is to keep adjusting the incline a bit. If you just keep it on 0% it's too easy and you always use the same muscles in the same way. 

As it was a recovery run I stuck it on 1% incline but kept it there.

If I use the treadmill again for recovery, should I vary the % inlcine as you suggest ?

For recovery I would probably keep it at 1%. Easier the better for recovery runs.

Evening. I've had an afternoon stroll around Derwent Valley Damn with the missus this afternoon. I've just got back in from a 10.6 run at 9:16. It was meant to be a recovery run but I started off at a nice pace and just kept going. I ran on feel rather than the watch and I knew it was quicker than it should be but it felt comfortable. At about mile gill 7 the legs started tiring a bit but I kept ticking along nicely. The last 1.5 are uphill so I slowed down a bit. I've just climber out the bath and am feeling good now.

Rest day tomorrow

It looks like there is some good progress with the running this weekend from everyone.

Sppons, hope the hangover is feeling better now 

CW - I'm running the Manchester marathon on 28th April

Just to add, my weekly total is 49 miles which is the most I have ever run and I'm feeling ok after it