RW Forum Six – Sub 3.30

Hi Angela. Thankyou for the good luck...it certainly worked, had a very enjoable and successful run this morning.

Its so frustrating when you have to take time of work just to run, but you know if you dont you will just end up in a panic and stressing about getting the miles in. Are you going anywhere nice this weekend?

With all the training and hard work youve been putting in, I think you deserve some new shoes! I feel like im spending less money at the moment as my days off are taken up with running instead of spending, so a treat every now and then is acceptable.

I felt like that in my new trainers on Wednesday. Normally when I put a new pair on they feel great but on wed I wasnt too sure. Im sure its because ive just  got use to my old ones (which ive been wearing since august). Because I wear othotics and their the same brand of shoe they shouldnt really be a problem.  I was just trying to work out when I was going to get to bed them in as I dont want to wear them for my race on sunday, on a long run until ive wore them a bit more and certainly not during speed work until their more bedded in....but im running out of weeks before VLM to actually bed them in!

I cant believe how quickly the weeks are passing, its quite scary. I would love to do new york and chicargo and ive even thought about tokyo, but some how I havent been drawn into Boston. It may just because I dont have a qualifying time at the moment so its still not an option for now. When would you do Tokyo?

Cant beat the British summer time, lol!

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

Week 8 (day 60) Aim; LSR 20 miles

I did my usual route around York today but changed the second half slightly as I didnt have a good finish three weeks ago.

I was getting worried about doing the same route a few times, worried that I would get bored but due to having a break from it for the last two weekends it was actually quite nice to run round familiar areas.

My mum use to love running. She said as a runner you are completley aware of the seasons, the changes in the weather, flowers, trees etc this is something ive certainly picked up on. When I did my second 18 miler on the same route there was snow and ice everywhere, you couldnt see the grass and half of the pavements were unusuable. Trees were bear, there were no plants and there wasnt as many people outdoors and those that were, were not as happy as they were today.

Today trees had leaves, gardens had spring flowers in them, people were cutting their lawns, dog walkers and other people out look much happier and were more likely to greet me.....what a difference the sun and the warmer weather makes!

Today I did my usual route but when I got to the race course I decided to do two laps (roughly 4 miles), this is because it was away from the traffic, there were sections I could run on the grass to save my knees from the pavements, it was much greener and sceenic than the housing estates I finished on last time and there were alot of people around walking their dogs. On my last 20 miler I continued up by the side of the river where it was much more lonely and I didnt feel as safe, this together with it only coming out as 18 miles so I had to loop back round and run around housing estates to make up my miles made me not want to do this again.

The new route was much better, I dont tend to like doing laps or out and back runs as I find them quite dull but I actually enjoyed doing the two laps of the race course and the miles added up perfectly so by the time I was at the bottom of my road I had done the full 20 miles.

I added another 0.5 mile (loop around my estate) as a cool down at the end

My miles reps;

1;  8:28          

2;  8:36

3;  8:21

4;  8:36

5;  8:41

6;  8:39

7;  8:41

8;  8:43

9;  8:35

10; 8:39

11; 8:30

12; 8:37

13; 8:35

14; 8:33

15; 8:30

16; 8:29

17; 8:21

18; 8:31

19; 8:28

20; 8:21

Average 8:33 ( + 0.5 mile c/d @ 9:45 min/ml)

I felt suprisingly good and really enjoyed today. My plan was to run between 8:30-8:45 min/mls, with the first half being slower than the second. It would have been nice to have attempted some marathon paced miles due to the marathon getting nearer but due to the 9 mile race im doing on sunday Minni rightly thought I would be best taking today steadier so hopefully I will make a quicker recovery ready for sunday...something which I completley agreed with.

By mile 18 on my last 20 miler I had had enough. My legs were fed up and I wanted the training run to end...I still think some of this was due to me having to run round the housing estate in circles just to make my miles up (i.e psychological). My last few miles 3 weeks ago were alittle slower reflecting on how I felt.

Today however I felt stronger towards the end and managed to speed up towards the end rather than slow down which im really happy with. My legs were starting to feel slightly tired but not half as much as last time...I think I could have continued on today if necessary....at least for another 3 miles...if not another 6.2!

I decided to try my shot blocks out today so that I get use to running on them. I was going to have one at 5 miles, 10 miles and 15, but I got to mile 5 and was still full from breakfast. I still didnt even want anything by mile 10 but then at mile 13 I decided to go for it, I had one block then and then another at 16.5 miles. I didnt have any problems with them (although I didnt have many)...so another positive taken away from today

  Fabulous Sarah.  Great run, great pacing and great positive feelings.  Definitely the right choice to get a steady 20 done and end feeling strong, rather than adding in MP miles and finish feeling knackered.  9 mile race on Sunday then we'll put some MP miles in to the long run next week. 

Training Diary for Forum 6 sub 3:30 (VLM)
Week 8 (day 62) Aim; 9 mile race

Woke up and my legs felt ok so I decided to race as planned. I was hoping to start of at about 7:10m/m and then speed up over the race, however I ended up setting of at 6:55m/m instead. I was worried that I had set of too fast when my legs started to feel alittle heavy by the 3rd mile but then by the end of the 4th mile they seemed to have a new leace of life. I was over taken by a few people (about 4-5) between mile 2 and 4 but then after that I did all the over taking and passed a surprising number of people. The course was undulating but there were two steep hills just after the 5 mile mark and at 7.5 miles. Im not sure why but I do appear to be quite good on hills as this is where I did most of my over taking. Running in York and doing alot of training on a treadmil, I always find this quite surprising...I think I put it down to the resistance training that I do.

I felt really strong towards the end of the race despite my initial worries that I had gone of to fast. I saw a lady infront at the start of the last mile...I decided to see if I could catch her and possibly over take her. She was quite in the distance so I though I had no chance but it made the last mile quite exciting and pass quite quickly. I actually did catch her up in the last 100 yards but as I reached her shoulder she accelerated, and due to the amount of effort I had put in to just catch up with her I couldnt keep up with her so she beat me by a couple of seconds.

My splits;

1. 6:55

2. 6:53

3. 6:59

4: 7:01

5. 6:59

6. 7:09 (steepest hill during this mile)

7. 6:55

8. 6:59 (second steepest hill but somehow I managed to keep my pace up)

9. 6:25

Average pace 6:55

This race has definatley given me some confidence. I thought that I wouldnt be able to run at

Thankyou DS2. A fabulous race for you two today I see, congratulations.

 Do you have any more races before your marathon?

Crikey!

I did another 20 today, harder than last week but I haven't eaten well tbh this week. Recovered well though and looking forward to entering Monster Month!

Sarah - you are so strong! I think I need you to mentor me next time around.  Nice race at the finish and that must have left you feeling good.  It doesn't matter who crosses the line first in that scenario its knowing you have the mind and legs to put the work in. 

We'll be seeing you in Rio if you can hold that baby off for another few years!