RW Forum Six – Sub 3.30

Evening Sarah & Minni! - Wow it's really interesting reading about the warming up! I definitely don't do enough either. Will have to make a special effort too - Sarah let us know how you get on with longer warm ups!

Sarah - I've got 7 miles on New Year's Day, 4 x 1 mile at 7-7.15 min/mile with 3 mins in between. I think the rest of the mileage is made up with the warmup / cooldown. How about you?

sarah tinsel toes osborne wrote (see)

Most women I know seemed to peak between 35-45.

Oh dear, that doesn't bode well for me

Well done Sarah. I also don't warm up enough, maybe a five minute brisk walk or jog. Maybe I should start doing more.

Ladies please warm up before you race or do speedwork, the older you get the more you need it! I always do at least 3K before any race / spped session other than a marathon where you can warm up over the first 3 or 4 K, 

Agree with DD.  I picked up a calf problem in summer from inadequate warm up, having previously considered myself indestructable.  At 42 I'm having to be a lot smarter.  Lack of warm up will find you out one day, contrary to advice being handed out on other threads.

Sarah - well done on the race!  4th can't be sniffed at  Yes as others have said 4 minutes of warming up isn't really a warm-up, but I think it is a mistake we all make at the beginning thinking that warming up will take too much out of the bank before the race.  The thing about warm-ups is they should start very, very slow and gradually as the muscles warm-up you're more able to get moving and closer to race pace in the last few hundred metres.  Depending on the distance of the race I will do anything from 1.5-3 miles with 4 x 100m strides followed by a few drills and stretches.  I do sometimes turn up for parkruns and not warm-up but then I'll warm-up within the first mile.

Sorry just realised my friends were at Chevin Chase yesterday, which for some reason I thought I'd read you were doing.  They were from Rothwell Harriers and Hyde Park Harriers.

Minni - yes I went sub 3.15 with the coaching.  I was very naive about running in those days  I did continue to receive support from MG to get to 3:06 and posted on a thread he was on before getting 2:56 and yes it was an amazing feeing! 
Did you post back then as well Minni?

Your pbs are very good and no reason why you shouldn't go sub 3:15!  Is it London you're going next year off the GFA start?

Hilly - Green GFA start.  This will be my 7th London.  I did post back then but on the sub 3:30 threads and onto the sub 3:15 when I ran 3:31 on my third marathon.  However, it took me another 5 or so marathons to finally break 3:30.  A bit like you I was very naive!  Because I had such a good endurance base I thought I didn't need to do any interval training - just keep doing more of the same and the times would follow.  A mistake we all make.    Power of 10  In the NE rankings I have the 7th ladies marathon this year and I'd really like to see if I could get that a bit higher.  

Doing Edinburgh just after London was a big mistake this year and left me quite tired.  I seemed to suffer from various mild illnesses over the summer that didn't really stop me running but stopped me doing any quality.  So the autumn half marathons were the same as last year, around 92/93.  However, I ran the Newcastle marathon in 3:25 off no real marathon training and this was at a conservative pace.   This filled me with confidence that 2013 could be the year!

RunnyRunRun wrote (see)

Sarah - I've got 7 miles on New Year's Day, 4 x 1 mile at 7-7.15 min/mile with 3 mins in between. I think the rest of the mileage is made up with the warmup / cooldown. How about you?

Im aiming for 7 aswell....initially I was thinking about doing it as a speed session.....but now thinking about it it might be a more steady run as we are going to a friends for a meal and drinks on new years eve and it may get messy  but we will see!

Hilly wrote (see)

Yes as others have said 4 minutes of warming up isn't really a warm-up, but I think it is a mistake we all make at the beginning thinking that warming up will take too much out of the bank before the race.  

Sorry just realised my friends were at Chevin Chase yesterday, which for some reason I thought I'd read you were doing.  They were from Rothwell Harriers and Hyde Park Harriers.

 

 

Thankyou Hilly, it does seem like im not the only one in making the mistake of not warming up  but with yours and other peoples advice on here, it is one of the things im changing - hopefully your advice on here will save a few possible injuries in the future for myself and fellow readers, so thankyou 

Phew.....panic over....no awful pics of me caught on camera struggling yesterday!

Minni, thankyou for the UKA link....I didnt realise all my runs would be listed there for me to see. Its made my day, except that it doesnt have my first few races that I did as I did them under my maiden name of Osborne, and now I do all my races (except those abroad due to my passport still being under osborne) under my married name of Attwood!

 http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=414110

Minni - it seems a lot of people suffered virus this year.  I had some really strange virus whereby I thought I had something really bad wrong with me.  From July through to October I suffered severe muscle weakness, headaches, sleepiness and a fatigue that felt like my nervous system was being attacked.  Never had anything like it before. After blood tests could find nothing wrong with me I was then sent for a brain scan, but by the time the scan came through being cancelled twice I was over it and thankfully the doctor at the hospital said I didn't need the scan and even more thankfully there was nothing seriously wrong with me just some strange virus. Trying to run through it caused injury to my calf as all my muscles felt tight and strained, so it's only really since November I've been back running again properly.  I have now completed a few 50 mile weeks and am climbing back up.  Shouldn't take me long though as I'm used to higher mileage and my strength is my endurance.

Sarah - power of 10 is great!  I'm not a fan of race pictures either, they always catch my worse side

Making me feel guilty about lack of pre-race warm-up 

Is there a race distance above which you wouldn't bother?  Say for example, using the early mile or two of a marathon to gradually warm-up and thereby not go out too fast?  Or do you change the amount of warm-up for different race distances?