Sub 3

sounds like they know you personally already LD

And smile: 5M test run this morning and no adverse reaction.  As long as I can hold off the cold I have brewing, I'll be able to race in the Gwent XC league at Blaise on Saturday - it'll be a proper mud bath

Padams.. there is a song that says 'the hips don't lie' but in your case I hope they do!

Selbs.. how's it going fella, are you walking unaided yet?

Jools.. cranky necks must be contagious as RHS of mine+shoulder blade have been a bit troublesome since Tuesday.  Did a delightful blue sky/winter sundrenched 12.5m this afternoon which has loosened it up nicely.  Good luck with the XC, I'm doing a 10k XC at Sherwood Forest on Sunday & I'm expecting wet feet as well.

Dids.. I should be at York Parkrun on the 8th Dec all being well.  You will have to wear a Half-Man Half Biscuit t-shirt or suchlike so I can recognise you.  It is often won in around 17:30 though should the speedy school boys show up you are looking nearer 16:30.  If Johnny Brownlee shows up you've got no chance!

Jools - the neck settled down in the end then? Good news...enjoy the mudbath

TR - there's a lot to be said for those 5m runs imo but then you do a lot of other stuff too with the biking/swimming

Hamstring settling down, did an easy 30 mins on tuesday but it still felt very stiff. Rested yesterday and today just lots of walking. It's loosened up nicely now and just need to pick up my new foam roller from the post office tomorrow. Easy running through til sunday - not a bad week for me to have an easy week to be fair, raced a fair bit recently. Back to it properly next week I'd say.

Jools - bad news then ! ................ha ha, dodnt go and make it worse doing that Xc !

NtS - some sport specific strength work like hills would probably do you good then.

RS - agreed, any running miles are good miles when you run as few miles as me at the mo. Hope to be doing a running commute a couple of days again now which adds a couple of runs. Hammy easing here too !

lol Dids.

Wardi hi, sounds like you are going well, hope you get a good return for the investment in the next long race/next year!  I too have been suffering sore neck/back syndrome, it's going around!  Alas i used to be able to jog it off (well a light run always seemed to help).... nice to see NtS back and running Very fast, hope the marafun comes together for you.  i now have a couple of extra books on the shopping list for xmas thanks to the lurking!

I'm slowly slowly improving, there are positives and negatives.  The positives are it doesn't hurt (much) to walk, and going up and downstairs, even carrying our 3 month old is much more manageable than it was soon after he was born, so must be some improvement there.  I can cross train, swim, and bike (gently) so been doing a bit of those things at the gym, but fighting the bulge.... (7-8kg above race weight, so i don't fit lots of my clothes!).  The quad leg lifts/weights i can do is SLOWLY improving as well, although still pathetic (5kg on one leg - although i could probably manage 7.5 if they had it on the machine now... but not 10 one legged).  Negatives, i can't even do a 2 legged small squat without pain, never mind one legged, zero chance of running even 20 metres still at the moment.

I',m 5.5 months post op, so it isn't looking great.  however i was always told 9 months post op before i try running/get back into everything (slowly).  That feels very unlikely at present, but i have written off 2013 running wise really (have entered some triathlons, more in hope than expectation though of making the line), and will try very slowly to build back up, with the hope of a proper come back in 2014!!  Baby is keeping us busy anyway which is great.

Good luck to everyone starting to plan their spring marathon campaigns, i guess some will be starting the LONGER build up's soon, and others just getting themselves ready for the 12 week burst next year!

Will continue to lurk....

lol LD. That is too funny!

Nice intervals CC2.

Likewise Padams. Strange with the hip. All ok now?

Good to see you pop in selbs. How are you doing?

Great news Jools!

Not too bad, cheers, NtS. Did you run a sub-75 off of 40mpw? Impressive if so. What's your general training week like now then?
Hold on to your hat If it's been 3 years since you were last on, I'd probably just run 2:30:02 at Edinburgh (May '09) when you were last here. I then caught pneumonia, recovered from that, started getting into decent shape and bashed up my knee (home accident) which took nearly a year, keyhole, and a load of physio to get over. Since then I've basically been doing much less mileage and have run 2 marathons - Berlin 2011 (2:34:03 avg 70mpw) and Berlin 2012 (2:30:19 avg 85mpw). I didn't fully appreciate until I typed it that I've only done 2 marathons in the last 3.5 years!
At the moment I think my mileage sweet spot is in the 90-110mpw range (as opposed to previously trying to knock the mileage out of the park). I also 'only' run 6 days a week now (one day off as a family day).
So it's been a bit up and done to say the least, but getting back in the groove now.

Bit of a mad week here. Mrs TT has her last ACCA exam after 4.5 years of study on Monday, so running has been seriously curtailed to support the final push. Not helped by Jr #2 spending half of last night being sick! All being well I'll break 50 for the week and the plan was always to start back track work next week, so all planned for.

Jools - glad the neck is feeling better, enjoy Blaise.

Selbs - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

TT - Hope the SPO smashes the exam.  when does London build up start?

Track last night 6x1K off 2mins.  3.03 average, legs getting used to turning over a bit quicker.

Cheers SL. I'm planning on doing 10 weeks (from Monday) focusing on HM up to Wokingham and then I'll spend 10 weeks building up for London after that. Nice speed!

x-post selbs. Sounds like things are going well with Jr. Nice one! I know it seems like slow progress, but the key thing is that there is progress. I bet it's like watching kids grow - if you're in the middle of it you don't appreciate how much change there is, but if you're on the outside looking in you can see the difference more clearly.

Selbs - nice to see some improvement even if it is slow, good timing for a down period though in that you are around with the nipper lots !

SL - good leg speed, straight back to it after Downton.

-2 for this mornings womble in, tights were on for the first time this winter as well as my heavy duty gloves. Fixtures were rained off lasy weekend looks like they might be at risk from frozen pitches this weekend, but the indoor cricket should be ok.

selbs - at least there is some improvement, and there are more important things in life than running anyway, which are keeping you busy by the sounds of things!

ZaTTu - hip feels nearly normal. Didn't run in the end last night, but did some strength stuff at home and some stretching. Unfortunately it's our work Christmas football and curry this evening - will be trying to take it easy in the football but it usually gets a bit competitive...

SL - impressive 1k reps.

Providing I survive football this evening it's the next Chiltern League race tomorrow. Not bothered about the low mileage week as it's a recovery week and I got the 28M run done last weekend. I'm in Prague from Wednesday to Sunday next week (pleasure, not business!), so just want to be sorted for that so I can get a couple of long runs. Not many weekends left until the ultra now.

This weeks health news.

"In contrast, running too fast, too far, and for too many years may speed one’s progress towards the ???nish line of life."

Something to think about on your next 20 mile tempo run.  But don't worry, there'll be another opinion along next week.

To celebrate that I finally got round to paying for my VLM entry this week.  It'll be my 10th, and I may as well enjoy it as if what they're saying is true it could be my last... 

Not the first report from the same doctor saying the same thing. The fact that he promotes a diet and lifestyle book advocating daily exercise of 30-60 minutes duration is in no way linked to his subsequent research.

And of course the spin put on it by the media is that running is bad for you. I doubt for example that very many of us here run much more than an hour a day on average, and we're likely to be at the more extreme end of the training spectrum.

Between 2007 and 2011 for example (5 years, 1826 days) , I ran 11,500 miles, and spent 1460 hours running, which is an average of 48 minutes per day to run about 10k per day - well within his recommended range, yet I clocked up 10 marathons and 80 other races in that time.

In other news, I have written my training plan for London. 20 weeks starting on Monday. Based on P&D and my previous plans. After 7 weeks of 30-40mpw, I am back on track for some proper training. Very much looking forward to it, and have entered Wokingham and Reading halfs today as well.

SL - solid reps

MtR - seems like you're really back to it again, nice one

Padams - good luck in xc

Selbs - any progress is progress, sounds like you're managing it well or as best you can

Just an easy 30 mins for me, still some stiffness in the hamstring but I was running more naturally. Some rolling and heat should hopefully sort things finally. Probs another easy 30 tomorrow then aim at 1hr on sunday.

Padams - careful at the footy, I leave that to the kids !

MtR - nice one. 20 weeks eh ? Cant get excited about VLM yet, but hopefully I will in 12 weeks time.

5M, 1.75k, 5M for me today. 113M for the month. If I start running again on Sundays and make them longish runs then that will add a few miles, the longest run in the month was the Hayling 10.

Selbs - hope you can get back into it in time. Must be driving you mad.

Jools - good news on your Gregory

SL - rapid. But wouldn't expect anything less

Based on that research, the 100 marathon club must be a pretty miserable place to be with members keeling over on a daily basis.

God knows how many marathons I've run, but if you add up all the maras, ultras, and long training runs over 26.2, it's got to be 150+.  In which case this could be my last ever post.  I'll be lucky to make it until Chrismas.

Dipping my toe in the water on this thread. Looking for some advice planning to run my second road marathon at either Blackpool on 07/04/2012 or Manchester on 28/04/2012. I am also running a 55 mile Ultra on the 16/03/2012. 

I did manage to run a sub 3 at my first road marathon. Want to aim to get sub 3 from the start of training this time. Could anyone give me some advice on how I should deal with my sessions after the 55 mile Ultra in March. Any views on Blackpool or Manchester in terms of rest and dates. My guess is Manchester and work on speed more than distance after the Ultra. I followed the Hanson Brothers plan after running an Ultra in January last year to get ready for my road marathon in early May. 

I know my schedule  probably makes no sense. I have only been running for just over 3 years and I struggle to pick a sane mixture between my preffered trail/ultra running and marathons. Also joining this thread to try and get some training focus  ready for the new year. My recent training and nutrition (red wine) have not been very good!