RW Forum Six – Sub 3.30

12 miles on the exercise bike Sarah?! I can do treadmills but exercise bikes are a 10 minute maximum.  Always need music for the treadmill.  Well done on today's rest day  

LTB I ran my first marathon after about 3 years of running, my half time was about 1:46 I think.... I managed 3:53 as my first off about 40 mpw, if you're following something like P&D you'll stand a very good chance of finishing under 4 hours

I used to be a bit scared of dogs after one chased me when I was doing my paper round as a teenager! I found running where dogs are (ie, everywhere) has kind of helped as it's only one in 500 or so that try to attack you.  The rest either ignore you or sit obediently at their owners feet, gazing up at them and wagging their tail. One went for me on Sunday so I must have a good few months of incident-free doggy encounters to look forward to

I sleep through anything, very rarely have trouble nodding off.  I've fallen asleep at the cinema, in nightclubs, and had a few 'heavy lids' moments at work.  I would LOVE to live in Spain just so I could have a siesta!  The only trouble I have is getting up on a morning, I could sleep forever if I was left to it

Minni wrote (see)

I would say it isn't safe to ask your husband to do it for you! Mine would wrongly assume I meant something else!! 

Hahaha....good point!

Last time I had a sport massage it was a few months ago...it is on my list of things to do but I only seem to be free after my long run on a fri and I was worried that having a sport massage on tired muscles may do them harm, but it was only guess work and not theoretical!

I will suggest the movie to chris and see what he says (think hes watching celeb big brother now....means less ear ache for being on hear now for me )

See this is why I love these threads, you can come in and chat about your training.  I am aiming at 3:30 yes.

The plan called for 3 miles steady (24 minutes).  I could feel yesterday's run a little, and had I foolishly carried 2 boxes of copier paper up the stairs at work today so my back was hurting a bit.  I didn't want to get involved in any hills, so that left this one loop, I jogged half mile to where it starts, then tried to keep it at 8mm...

That's where it goes wrong, I just find it hard to run at a particular pace from the get-go.  I was tired to begin with, the pace was up and down like a yo yo, and I was just glad to get it over with.

Junk miles? What do you think?

We had a physio in our club who used to do my legs for £25 once a month, it really helped.  Because she ran with us she knew what we could and couldn't do; in fact I ran all the way through a bout of Achilles Tendonitis under her supervision in the year that I did manage to get 3:36.

I sleep through anything, very rarely have trouble nodding off.  I've fallen asleep at the cinema, in nightclubs, and had a few 'heavy lids' moments at work.  I would LOVE to live in Spain just so I could have a siesta!  The only trouble I have is getting up on a morning, I could sleep forever if I was left to it

Carrot im so jealous. My husband is like you, he can sleep anywhere at anytime...its so annoying. When I use to work nights, he would go to sleep with me (he said to help me relax and sleep) in the day and he would be asleep snoring whilst I laid awake!

I really hate the exercise bike, I get so bored...thats why I read medical stuff whilst doing it, both take my mind of each other

Mr Puffy  i can relate to you. Before I came on these threads, I would just go out and run, normally as fast as I could for as long as I could. I do find it so hard to slow down and stick to paces.

I reckon all miles/runs are good, if your legs havent benefitted from them (by getting the paces wrong etc), your mind will have, you will have learnt what went right/wrong with it to help future runs become better

I didn't take my watch I just ran comfortably, prob 9mm?

Evening Sarah! - 12 miles on the exercise bike?? Eeek!!

Carrot - Sarah: Thanks for sharing experiences gives me alot of hope that i will break the sub 4 which would be great! But starting to gain a bit more confidence that i could go quite a bit quicker. I done an 8m run with 4m Tempo in middle earlier at about 8:07 mm. Felt quite comfortable. Am going to do a 3-5m recovery run tmrw. Read the article Minni posted on recovery runs and really bought into the reasoning behind them.

Sarah: Have not yet signed up for a shorter race, had a little look at Halfs near or not to far from london and most seemed like they were full or not available for some reason. I will have another proper look into it. Do you strongly advise doing one? or no any that might be an option? Is it better to get in a race half even if it is expense of a longer mileage wkend run?

Thanks, Hope everyones well

Sarah- poor cat??? It's me who you should be feeling sorry for, I promise you the cat is spoilt rotten!

I used to get a sports massage every four weeks before the spring mara mainly because I was having issues with tight hamstrings. Didn't seem to have any problems in the run up to the autumn mara so stopped going but I think I'll start again.  I think it's a good way to pick up on things early on rather than wait until they turn into injuries. My physio is also a very good club runner so he knows what to look out for.

Hello Mr Puffy! Sorry if you have said already- what plan are you following?

Afternoon all,

I'm guessing I may be following the same schedule as Mr Puffy as I also had a 3 mile steady run scheduled for yesterday. I'm doing this one

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-ultimate-marathon-schedule-sub-330/129.html

In the end I did just over 4 miles as that's the length of my usual lunchtime circuit at work, but did the first and last 1/2 miles as a slow warmup/down and averaged about 7:45/mile for the rest, a bit faster than intended but I didn't feel like I was pushing myself at all.  

No run scheduled for today but I went to the gym this morning, for the first time in about 3 weeks. I found it quite hard work (mainly doing resistance work rather than CV) but rewarded myself with a large sausage sandwich for breakfast afterwards. I'm wondering though if I would be better off actually resting on my "rest" days and giving the gym a miss.   

Regarding Life of Pi, I read the book and really enjoyed it but I can't help thinking I'd be disappointed if I watched the film. I think that's often the way if you read the book first though. 

Hi LTB, as you know I havent been running that long but from what I have read and heard doing a few races before the marathon actually helps your training. You will be able to practice what it will be like on the day of the marathon with people around you, excitement/adrenaline etc and learn how to maintain a pace despite people shooting off around you. I have tried to do my schedule so that every 3-4 weeks I have a week with less milage and a shorter long run, like a recovery week, as ive been told that if you increase the milage every week and dont give yourself a bit of a break, your more likely to become unwell or injured. My recovery weeks are the ones that have a half marathon scheduled. My mum also told me that even though you are doing less milage for the race because you will be going alot quicker and will be pushing yourself more than on a LSR, you will still benefit from it (i.e that its almost like doing a longer run due to effort). Other people on the forums will probably know better than me, but thats what I was thinking.

Brolish wrote (see)

Sarah- poor cat??? It's me who you should be feeling sorry for, I promise you the cat is spoilt rotten!

I used to get a sports massage every four weeks before the spring mara mainly because I was having issues with tight hamstrings. Didn't seem to have any problems in the run up to the autumn mara so stopped going but I think I'll start again.  I think it's a good way to pick up on things early on rather than wait until they turn into injuries. My physio is also a very good club runner so he knows what to look out for.

Haha, I will re-phase my earlier comment....what a lucky cat

Think im going to book a sport massage now for in two weeks time as its the brass monkey on the sunday so i wont be doing a long run on the friday...you never know it might help me get a PB!

Hi Andy, I completley agree....books are always better than the movie. My OH doesnt fancy Life of Pi so I dont think we will be going to see it now. He did buy me the highlights of the olympic games though so I might be watching that later today instead (seen as though work seemed to clash with most of it).

I try to do resistance training 3x a week, I feel so much better for it. I didnt get chance to do any over christmas and new year and felt all un-toned (if thats a word). I think if im pushed for time and something has to give then I will cut down on my resistance training but im going to try my best to keep it up as I do think it makes a difference to the way I feel. Despite York being flat, I tend to have no problems when I do hilly races and I think that is all down to the resistance/strength training that I do. The coaches on the ascics threads recommend rest or cross training....im wondering if resistance training would count....i will ask!

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

Week 1, Day 5. LSR - 15m

First today I walked into town along some of the route that I was going to run on by the river (as I had an appointment with a physio for a knee pain that has luckily settled). Most of the paths that I normally run on were under water....this left me with a dilema......do I run around the streets of York or on the roads near to where I work (rural with no paths), or do I go to the gym and do it on the TM.

Due to the amount of traffic (always a nightmare on a friday) and padestrians around town, I decided to do my long run on the treadmill....sorry Minni

Whilst I was there I decided to do my resistence/strength training first with stretches in between reps. This took me 50 minutes today.

My run....well it wasnt the most entertaining of runs and I had a few strange looks from others in the gym as I was on the treadmil for 136 mins and 37 seconds in total.

I gradually increased my pace over the first 5 minutes until I was running at 8:49 min/mls, I managed to keep this pace going for 5 miles but then I got a little bored and increased it to 8:41 min/mls - think my legs just needed a change in rhythm and pace (in retrospect I would have been better slowing down rather than speeding up, to stay within my aimed pace, but I was getting bored and I was actually running at least a minute slower than my usual pace on the treadmil for my longer runs.

I stayed at this pace 8:41 min/mls for the next 9 miles and then I did the last mile a little quicker at 8:33 min/mls as my legs were feeling great and I wanted to get of the damn TM! I cooled down for 5 mins (.27 miles) with the TM cool down setting and then did some stretches

I had set the TM on to hills, level 2 so the incline was varying between 0 and 2.2% for some variability and to mimmic outdoors alittle more

I completed my 15 miles just slightly quicker than the pace that I was aiming for, but it was much slower than my usual pace (by just over 1mph) so im quite happy and my legs feel great...almost like I havent even run.

Lots of posts today

Minni/Brolish - I too used to have regular sports massages and enjoyed them mostly except the cross friction ones which killed!  I also had one or two that I think caused more damage than good!  One I had done was free after Cardiff marathon and it was way to hard for my already damaged muscles.  I remember nearly crying with pain when it was being done and I didn't say anything - I would now!! BR and I massage each others these days, more to do with saving time for running rather than finding time to go to a sports therapist!  Although we did have one after a race a few months back.

Hi Sarah - glad the run today went well and you got the lovely conditions we had today!  Always positive to feel like you've not run afterwards, shows your power of recovery is good! We went for a lovely run today, only 6 miles, but started at Sheffield Encliffe Park and went up towards The Peak District.  As it's the last day of our Christmas holidays before return to work on Monday we made it a leisurely one and I stopped to take a few pictures along the way

We have the book Life of Pi, which BR has read, but I haven't.  I enjoy books more than films also and so far I can't say that any film I've watched that is also a book is better.

Yorkshire XC Championships tomorrow - should be interesting as out for a curry tonight!

Sarah- nice TM running!

Surrey xc Champs for me tomorrow and no curry tonight!

Sarah - I started reading that with a when you said you'd done it on the TM but then it changed to a when you said you'd got to 14 feeling good and finally a at the last mile! 

That's a great run at a great pace.  Its interesting that you didn't start to tire near the end as you have in your other longer runs, probably because you'd started a bit slower.  

No matter how far I run I almost always speed up in the last couple of miles.  I just can't help it, once I know I'm on the home straight so to speak it just happens automatically.  When i first started training for marathons I used to run my long runs with a runner who had a 3:02 time to his name and he always made me run faster at the end, so that's possibly where it comes from.   I don't think this is a problem and must be beneficial so long as it doesn't leave us too knackered.