Sub 3

TT, you mean we should point sills at the padams' '2:45 marathon off 5 miles a week' program without telling him the bit about running 70 miles a week for 3 years and a

I too am having fun with Strava. I live in Washington(UK) and have taken down all the records between work and my home. It is good fun, I  have setup a couple of my own segments ona hill near me to challenge myself as well.

I think I am lacking some local competition, unlike LD!. My only real challenge so far was to take down a one mile segment with a 200 ft climb, about 8 miles from my house. I am convinced that the person set the record  on a mountain bike, as 99% of his Strava activity was cycling. Anyway I jogged nice and and slowly to the start point and walked the 1/2 climb before the start of the segment and then took him down by 14 seconds. Was more than a little pleased, as I am sure this guy seems to go around breaking running records on his bike!

Not sure if anyone would be interested but I have created a Strava Sub 3 group to see if anyone on the thread is interested in joining and sharing times etc.

See http://app.strava.com/clubs/17943 for more  

But Zattu, I have at least produced some statistics over a 30 year period, and a group of elite half-marathon athletes that appear to make your basic claims about training seem completely without foundation.

At least give me some non-anecdotal evidence.

(As for me, all I can tell you is that I am built of muscle, bone and tendon - so am at least some form of shrivelled apple. I have trained to a hard marathon training plan and seen big improvement and a plateau similar to the elites. In the absence of ANY evidence to the contrary, I conclude that I have fulfilled MY potential. for the sake of an argument, you will obviously want to argue that it not the case. However, just saying "no, it can't be so, you are not an elite" proves nothing).

LD - I have provided/referenced non-anecdotal evidence which you skipped over already and I don't really see the point in repeating myself as I have no interest in an argument/discussion "for the sake of an argument", so I suggest we leave it at you believe that you have fulfilled your potential (your prerogative after all) and I'll stick to my belief that, irrespective, you're failing to grasp one of the most basic principles of training.

Zattu - maybe repeating yourself may be a good idea, since I'm struggling to find where your non-anecdotal evidence is.

Njord -- which marathon will be the quick one in 2013, if you know -- VLM? And did you mean it about arthritis or is that just general codger-dom?

NtS -- I'm very paranoid about getting ill now. I wash my hands always before eating; at work, I dry my hands on a paper towel and then use it to operate doors until I get back to my desk (bit OCD!); and if any of the family get sniffles I start using Vick's First Defence, echinacea and Zn supplements just in case they help. I haven't had a proper illness for ages now so maybe some of that helps.

SL " No triples for me the wife would go mad at the extra washing" -- you must have much higher standards than me about reusing kit for a few runs!

AW nice reps yesterday.

sills -- welcome! I'm on for a 50 mile week this week but that is unusually high for me out of marathon training. I did a sub-2:50 on 40 mpw average (but with some big weeks and some small); my record is 65 miles in a week. I'm known as a lightweight mileage-wise, though if anything it's edging up now, so I'll be interested to see if it helps.

Al_P -- geek alert -- if you're to catch up on a flight, is that on-board wi-fi or some neat means of caching pages for offline reading?

Third commuting double day in a row, and my legs seemed a bit reluctant this morning. Also I was heavily clad in layers and big gloves, carrying my usual 2kg rucksack, and wearing super-grippy studded trail shoes to cope with the icy patches... what I'm trying to say is that I have every excuse for only averaging 6:02/M in my 8x{0.5M hard, 0.5M light} reps. ; -) (Total 10M in 69 min.)

Sills I am currently averaging about 40 miles a week. I have a 30 mile race on 01/01/2013. Will be looking to do no more than 60 miles a week as I get ready for a marathon next spring.

Tim - looks like your best bet is to claim the streets of Newcastle and Durham. Doesn't look too hard to wipe them slow moving geordies off the map. 

What is truly amazing is the complete absence of ANYONE in Sunderland using Strava.

Tim - 30miles on new years day!!! rather you than me.  ;-)

CW - looks like a good workout.

Anyone doing the Gloucester marathon?

CW: Obviously SL runs harder than you and sweats more, hence the extra washing.  You need to put more effort in!

Decent enough 6 miler this lunchtime.  Perfect conditions: no wind, nice & crisp without being icy, felt really good.

Tim - 30 miles on new years day puts me to shame, I was proud of myself for doing the Somerley 10k in the midst of the festive period last year!

Thanks for the mileage updates, I'm currently at around 25mile p/w but looking to start bring this up ready for the spring. Compared to those achieving similar HM times I would also say I seem to be a little light on the miles.

CharlieW - considering the commute approach but 15 miles each way seems a little far, how do you find the 10M commute?

sills I have run commuted on and off for the last 4 years. The distance has never been a problem, any where between 4 and 11.5 miles, The two main poroblems are pack weight (4.2 Kg) and the time to walk home afterwards before school chucks out.

An icey 7.7miles with 2 hills this morning for me.

Thanks postie. Whilst my work laptop is "ultra performance" it's certainly not runner friendly wieghing in at over 3kg, a macbook air it is not! For me to take the plunge, I definitely need mrs sills to be onboard...30 miles in a day is bigger than my average weekly milage at the mo, I fear a lift home may be in order!

the threads are busy, must be my favourite time of year with all the competition places thread and then the alternative places threads !

Its not all the washing that bothers me, I save all mine up and do a couple of sports kit loads at the weekend, and include the kids footy kits etc (The SPO insists on doing their cricket whites though). Its all the changing that takes time. Some days at the mo I need a load of layers for a 6am turbo, some other dry layers for a frosty MTB commute, then get changed to swim (or the odd 5M run)  lunchtime, then get changed back into the MTB commuting gear after work !

sills -- I'm very lucky; it's only 3M by road to my workplace, or 4M along a beautiful river towpath, so returning is no problem. I do longer runs by going further up the river and/or looping round a couple of extra villages. If I'm in full-on training then once a week I do a 12-14M session with reps and/or tempo on the way in, but just do the minimal 3M jog home. I tend to run to work 3 days/week and cycle the other 2.

Also on the laptop front, I rarely carry mine, but sometimes leave it switched on at work so that I can remote desktop to it from a home PC via a web-based VPN, which works very nicely. That way I can also work with other equipment on my desk plugged into it. But if I do need to carry it, and know I'll only be using it at home, I remove the battery and CD drive to keep it as light as poss, and have a second mains adapter at home to power it (no battery needed).

Essentially run commuting is about being organised with the right kit in the right places.

If I'm lucky enough to secure a lift to work (rare since my car share got pregnant - how very dare she?!) I will sometimes run the 14 miles home from work. Can't run there - no showers. 

Sills - during marathon training I will start at around 60 miles per week and build to a peak of around 85. But I'm a girl, and I think girlies have to work a little harder for Sub-3.

I find running home very motivating The first time I ran to work I was shocked at how less motivated I felt. it just did not feel right! 

I managed to get a lift into work into this morning. So tonight I am going to do a 10 mile run home. It will be the interval session I have been putting off all week because of snow and ice on pavements and paths(Or was that just an excuse?). Going to run 0.5 mile fast and 0.5 mile easy. Going to be of those sessions that will hopefully seem like a better idea once I get started  

I'm starting to think an early drive in and a run from the office is going to be the way ahead. I only spend 1-2 days a week max in the office with the rest of the week with customers or working from home so will need to carry everything on me on the commute. Was just thinking about whether I could somehow make more of the half hour I spend in the car when I do head into the office.

Speedy Goth - a peak of 85, good on you! I'm planing on trying to get up to 60 before the spring.

Working from home today so no commute needed and an easy 7 miles at MP +30 done, now to get some work done