RW Forum Six – Sub 5 Vanessa Ford with Plum

Felt great this morning so I decided to have a short run round the lake. It's beautiful out there today.

• Dist: 1.67m
• Time: 16.17
• Splits:10:01, 6:16
• Avg pace: 09:45 min/mil
• Stretching 10 minutes

This brings this weeks total distance to 18.65 miles.

Have a good day

Sorry..... conspicuous by my absence again......

I am quite happy with splitting runs over 2 sessions if time/situation permits or forces it, all I would say is that if the planed run is say 5 miles try to split it as 2 x 3 miles so you do a little extra, it is all about getting used to running on lactate stuffed legs as you will towards the end of the marathon.

Always a good idea to do a shortish run the day after the weeks long run again to clear a bit of rubbish out the legs and loosen them off. DOMS is then greatly reduced, well it works for me anyhow......

Nice to see if you can do some core work as part of your training, doesnt have to be an enormous amount but if you can do a bit to strengthen your centre it will help wth the support and posture whilst running.

Have you had any more thoughts on nutrition, whay are you doing feed wise at the moment........  

Morning

My first ever run in the snow .

• Dist: 3.2m
• Time: 30:41
• Splits:9:56, 9:31: 9:22, 1:50
• Avg pace: 09:36 min/mil
• Stretching 10 minutes

As regards nutrition, on my weekday early runs I run before breakfast but on my longer runs I've been eating a big bowl of porridge 1.5hr before and that seems to work although this weeks long run I did feel really hungry after an hour so I'm trying flapjack next time. I do already drink on the run so that's not a problem,

boy you run quickly in the snow...... sure you didnt have ski's on....

Rumour has it that most people cant store more than an hours worth of exercise nutriton, I have always taken it with a pinch of salt but it may just be that a long period of running marathons has conditioned my body to adjust...... the problem you may find is that you will feel hungry after an hour but eating when you feel hungry will take time to alleviate the feeling of hunger so you need to eat before you feel hungry if you follow my argument. Again sorry but it is all tyrial and error as everyone is different but you will certainly need to fuel on the way round, whether little and often/larger less frequent feeds during walk breaks/fluids/solids/gels sweets .......you have to wok out what your body will accept and absorb amd now is the time to do it.....

What date is MK half? 

MK Half is 10th March. I have an added complication (in a good way) that we are having a week in Turkey during the Easter school holidays so will need to jig any schedule around that as I don't think I'll manage my long runs in the heat.

Am trying jelly sweets and flapjack on my next long run

Rest day today so no running, just dog walking.

good cross training  ............. I did some speedwork tonight..... 2k intervals off a minutes rest.  wasnt particularily sharp at all and ate far too close to the session.....going to try a mini detox just eating fruit for 24 hours as feeling really bloated at the moment and got a 10 miler road race on Sunday

When is easter in the plan, how far out from MK?

Easter holiday will be Wk 13 of 16 so the plan is to do a 20 miler the day before I go and one the day after I get back and try and do at least 2 3 or 4 mile runs while I'm away. I'm not really following any plan at the moment just working on 3 runs during the week (between 9 and 12 miles in total) and a long one at the weekends.

Good luck with the detox, just the thought of it makes me want to eat bread

if you are doing consecutive 20's then you really dont want to be churning out the big miles in the week as well..... also if you come back and the week 13 20 miler is a struggle it will not hurt to cut it back by a portion and do it week 14 and then taper.down from there.

How many 20 or 20+ milers have you in the plan?

These are the biggies:

• Wk 8 - MK Half
• Wk 9 - 16m
• wk 10 - Half + warm up jog
• Wk 11 - 18m
• Wk 12 - 20m
• Wk 13 - 20m
• Wk 14 - 17m
• Wk 15 - 10m
• Wk 16 - Marathon

So I will be away between the 2 20 milers but I am only roughly following this plan as I'm not doing all the fartlek sessions. I currently running 3 days at 3 or 4 miles trying to vary pace from 9.30 to 10.30 over them and then running my long run at the weekend - should I be doing more pace stuff?

Cheers

nope you need to find a comfortable pace, then build the distance at that,,,,, you may well find that the pace will increase as your training continues but dont fight it, run to feel rather than pace as this is probably the better way to judge it. especially at the early stage. as the distance increases then you will need to hold yourself back to something that feels too easy at the outset to ensure you have enough gas in the tank for the last 10k..... 

What I would say is to try to up the distance of one of your midweek runs a bit.....Maybe do a 2/3 miler as a recovery the day after your long one and pop the extra mileage on the other midweek one if time and life permit...... 

Hi Plum

Last nights run was only 2.5m in 23:43 - avg pace 9:27 min/mi. As usual I ran faster with the group, coupled with the face it was -3 I think .

I'm planning from next week to switch from the 3 mile club run to the 6 mile one so I'll see how that goes.

club running is great.....good to see its going well

Thanks Nykie and seren nos - it feels good at the moment and fingers are crossed it stays that way

Wow, lovely run in the snow - 5.7 miles in 1 hr 9 seconds - avg 10.33 min/mile. No splits I'm afraid as garmin doesn't like the snow.

I'm very happy with that and more than ready for my Chinese and glass of wine

2 parkrun circuits to help some friends fundraising today plus running there and back:

• Dist: 8.51m
• Time: 1:31.29
• Splits: none recorded today
• Avg pace: 10:45 min/mil
• 10 min brisk walk followed by stretching 10 minutes

That brings this weeks total to 19.92 miles.

nice steady increase Vanessa.....Chinese and wine as  post race nutrition sounds a top recovery  

Was that 4 runs this week?

My 10 mile race tomorrow has been called off because of the weather so it looks like a snowy run along the river for me , 

Been away from the computer for a few days. Yes Plum, 4 runs last week.

Yesterdays run was only 2 miles as it's hellish slippery here now. I'm planning to run 3 tomorrow and 6 friday then a long run over the weekend but will see how it goes as I've had an evil headache all day today so not sure if it's best to run or not run - i'll see how I feel tomorrow.

it is hellish out there...... be careful especially with your knee,,,, rather miss a session and stay uninjured that drag yourself out feeling crap and hurt yourself

Like you say see how you feel look at the conditions but above all be sensible

DAISNAID  

So yesterday I did as you said and gave up my club run at 1.3 miles as it was so slippery I was worried I'd kill myself but today we have had a slight thaw and I managed a respectable 6 miles so here are todays figures:

• Dist: 6.01m
• Time: 1:03.08
• Splits: 10.40, 11.02, 10.29, 10.05, 10.31, 10.16
• Avg pace: 10:30 min/mil
• 10 min brisk walk followed by stretching 10 minutes

You can see by my splits which bits had no ice.

The plan is to do a short run tomorrow (1.5m ish) and 9.5/10 miles long run over the weekend (although I may have to resort to the treadmill as we have more dire weather threatened).