RW Forum Six – Sub 3.30

Sarah- nice mile intervals and very cheeky doing only 3 of them tut tut.

Carter- what sort of intervals is Spoons giving you?

Spoons. wrote (see)

Re: intervals, you can increase the quantity, or increase the length, or reduce the recovery, or increase the speed. Or mix it up a bit. So - maybe do 8 x 800s one week, then 12 x 400s the next week, then 4 x mile reps the next week. The truth is it doesn't really matter than much. Mixing it up is good to keep things interesting and they all push you in slightly different ways. 

Brolish - I'm starting off with 8 X 400m tomorrow and then, as per Mr Spoons, will start mixing things up. I havent done an interval session before so it should be interesting to see how I get on and then decide what sort of session to follow on with.

Brolish - I am hanging out on the thread with Caretr and Spoons. I am doing Paris on 7th April and working towards a goal of 3:45.

I am going to be doing 800m intervals starting with 4 reps tomorrow and building up to 8 reps over the next few weeks.

I ahve never ran 800m reps before. When I did interval work last year it was based on time not distance.

So this wil be a bit of an adventure. If I find this too much then I will probably step it back to 400m and build up from there.

Remember chaps its good to mix your interval work up.  Building up the 800s isn't necessarily the best interval training for a marathon regardless of what some of the schedules say.  Mix it up with longer reps at a slower pace etc.  Spoons will tell you this anyway.

Minni wrote (see)

Spoons is a nutter - thankfully Sarah got the kinder mentor! 

Minni- glasgow to Edinburgh goes along the canal towpath, so farly flat/ easy to navigate, as far as I understand- I do a fair amount of canal-side running, as I live just at the end of the forth and clyde canal near dumbarton, so it is "normal" terrain for me- the main obstacle being badly- trained dogs.

I am getting over my cold- not able to do any fast running due to wheeziness ( not usually a problem ecept when I've just had a cold) so am doing 3 - 5 miles per day of recovery pace running, in the hope that it is better than nothing. I will aim for a long run at the weekend ( missed last weekend's , as I was sick, but I was already up to 13 miles before that). Intervals are not even worth considering at the moment.

Sarah- the warm up  marathon will be run at very slow pace- I did the inagural perthshire marathon last year 6 weeks before my 40 miler. (I have a marathon pb of 3:56,but am more like a 4:10 marathoner these days). I just pottered around , wearing my ultra kit ( racksac, etc, ) and eating as if I was doing the ultra ( crisps, flapjack, chocolate milk- all perfectly digetistible at that pace)- I took 4:30 to run it ( hilly course)- but my recovery was great- it's amazing how easy it is , if you just go slower! - I'll take the same apporach with this one again- basically using it as a supported long slow run, with extra motivation not to give up half way! Inreality, if there was arunning group I could join, that suited my working hours, that would be better, but I can't make any of the sessions except maybe a sunday.....and I need my lie- in by sunday!

Neurosurgery is best suited to slightly odd people like me, I think - the neurologists are the clever ones. I can't think of a more interesting job, but it can be disruptive to normal life.

Well done on the fell race Minni.  I don't think you'll go wrong with Moraghan training you as he very well informed!

parkruns that are near to each other do at Christmas/New Year arrange for one to start at 9am and the other 10/10.30 to allow people to get to both.  Last year we did Edinburgh on NYE and Glasgow on NYD.  This year we thought we'd do 2 on the same morning as they were within a 20 minutes drive, so decided a weekend in Winchester/Southampton and a day out in Windsor/Eton would make a good New Year weekend

Sarah - we do travel in the UK quite a bit as we both love to visit interesting places (History is our degree subject and passion - BR more that me) so with parkruns everywhere now we try and take one in most weekends and visit the area, which works well with a run and seeing some interesting places and parks that normally you may not go out of your way to see.  Two for instance being Oldham and Dewsbury where the parks are fantastic and very well kept!  The history behind some of the parks is fascinating

tricialitt - some dog owners really annoy me.  This morning on my 20 mile run I was jumped on my a dog and although the owner called it back she had plenty of time to get it under control before we reached her!  Then we came across another owner and dog who was quite the opposite whereby she stopped with her dog (a young dog) patted it and called it a good dog to train it no doubt not to chase after us.  I guess it's a bit like some parents - some are good and their kids well behaved, some are bad and their kids out of control...

The thing I hate most is when a dog start after me- I stop, stand as still as I can, with my arms crossed over my chest, and shout to the owner to call their dog off. They cannot avoid noticing that I am scared of their dog. Most owners fail to appraciate that shouting "he's very friendly" or "he won't bite" is no consolation, and what they need to do is get it away from me.

One stupid woman the other day didn't even attempt to call it off- I was close to hitting out at it by this stage, as it was jumping up and barking in my face- she then said _ "you should run somewhere else"- Grrrrr.

I always try to thank people who call their dogs to heel and control them as I shuffle past, and I've even been known to stop and pat well trained dogs like that.

Yes I agree some dog owners should be more aware and personally I feel unless a dog has been trained properly to not jump up on people it should be kept on a lead at all times.  I often think how would they like it if I ran up to them jumped on them and licked their face lol then said I'm only playing and being friendly  I also feel for small children who are terrified when one comes bounding over!  My son had an incident with one when he was small where it knocked him over and then was jumping all over him.  I actually like well trained dogs, but bad dog owners with bad dogs yes grrr and I could moan all day about them!

I ran 9 miles with my dog this afternoon. She has now slept all afternoon ) 

( I agree with many of the comments )

Many of us run with phones with video cameras these days.  In the case of a threatening dog, it would be great to have the presence of mind to take out the phone and start filming the aggression of the dog and the reaction of the owner.  As allowing your dog to act in an aggressive manner to someone else is an offence, you then have evidence to take to the police.  It might bring forth an appropriate apology.

Tricia pardon me if you've been asked this a million times, have you read Saturday by Ian McEwan?

I did a comfortable 5 miles tonight, got right in the zone, it was a bit foggy with a bank of low cloud...there's a massive oil refinery about 5 miles from here and on nights like this the light diffuses across the cloud so you can just see where you're going on the lanes.  There was one break in the cloud and I could see Orion aiming straight at Jupiter, fantastic.

Sarah I run early at the weekend but midweek it's after work unless I can't sleep for some reason.  Monday and Thursday are club nights so I go straight from work.

Dogs...yes I try to thank the responsible owners, but the aggressive ones just don't get it do they?  I usually come across them on the canal towpath or riverbank, one bloke threatened to push me in once so I just wait now till they call them off then explain politely why it's a problem for me.

Well that's been a long day!

Carterusm I did the mile reps yesterday and they did become slightly uncomfortable towards the end, and that's me only doing the three repeats instead of the four that I was supposed to do! In my training up to now I tended to do my speed training on a tue in one of two ways, the first was km repeats, but I did 1k fast and then 1k recovery (which probably wasn't that good as its far too long) or I did 1:45 min quick and then 1 min recovery, and was trying to extend the quick part every fortnight. I quite enjoyed doing the varied sessions. I'd never done the mile repeats which I did actually enjoy yesterday (once I'd got home)!

Minni, I'm prob like you, if I've set a pace or a time or anything, then that's what I have to achieve!

Carl you sound like me, the main speed session I use to do is on time, which is much easier on the treadmill, but outdoors yesterday it was probably a lot easier basing everything on distance. Good luck with your reps tomorrow.

Brolish, that's me told!

Tricialitt that sounds like a far more pleasant way to run a marathon...Minni can I change my target time? Bless you, people have said that about neurologists and GPs too...maybe we're all an odd bunch!

Hilly that sounds like a fabulous way to tour England. I think some people forget that we have beautiful places and history on our doorstep. I use to travel the country watching my football team but had to stop when I went to uni. I still go to all the home matches but I think it would be impossible for me now to go to all the away games and keep my marriage!

I was bit by a dog when I was younger and my mum was bit by two whilst she was running so I'm not a big fan either, although I do realise that there are some nice ones out there. Luckily around where I run in york the dogs (and owners) appear to be well trained. I really wouldn't appreciate being told to run anywhere else by a dog owner.

Hi AGF, sounds like you have a well trained dog that knows when to run and rest.

A pet hate of mine is people racing with head phones on and getting in your way and cutting you up. I'm forgiving if they have it on quietly though so they still retain their awareness!

Training diary for forum 6 sub 3:30 (VLM)

Week 1, Day 3. Recovery run.


I went to the gym and did my weights and core strength training for 45 mins. Doing 25 reps on each machine/free weights

Recovery run 3 miles @ 8:57 min/ml - (treadmill) I found this so difficult as I got easily bored....maybe that's why I tend to do a lot of my runs faster than I should to make them more entertaining!

12 miles on the exercise bike, on the hill setting level 9 for 32 mins (whilst reading a journal)

Sarah - do you think you would have been better with a longer recovery on the mile reps?  Perhaps next week you should do 4x 1m again instead of 2x 2m.

It is boring running slow but worth it. You don't want these runs to affect your harder sessions.

However I got very carried away on an easy 8m today so I need to practice what I preach...

 

 

 

Hi Minni, I'm happy to try anything so what ever you think is best.

I've just read about your easy run today....I feel less guilty now but it sounds like you had an enjoyable run.

Hi Ladies. Have read most of this thread today (bit addictive this marathoning stuff im finding out ). Im a novice runner been running for the past year quite reguarly and have a place for VLM. Commitiment levels quite high at minute and would be great to even get a sub 4 but amazing to get near a  3:40  . Hopefully this thread will help pull me along to something near that. Would just like to wish everyone good luck with thier training and goals will be watching from a distance.

Hi LTB - why watch from a distance? Join in! What's your running background and what race PBs do you have? I ran my first marathon in 3:43.