Sub 3

Turkey Trot HM for me today. Initially I said the target was sub 90 with no heroics, the revised it to MP, without specifying if that was latest MP, PB MP or hoped for future MP. The forecast was for driving rain and up to 40mph winds, so I wasn't convinced any of those targets would happen, but the rain cleared up before the start, and although it was pretty damned windy, it certainly wasn't 40mph. 

I ran it with my nemesis from the summer who was also hoping for a similar time. It was going really well until we hit the hill at 10.5 miles, straight into the teeth of the wind. The hill is about a mile long and fairly steep, but the wind was my main issue. Up until that point we were definitely on for sub 90. By 11.5 miles it wasn't so sure, and there's another big hill to the finish line to contemplate. Some downhill here was welcome, but still running into the wind so not the easy ride I'd hoped for. 

We came in pretty much together, although Nat pipped me to the line. Knowing we were 5th and 6th I wasn't too worried about chasing her down. Prizes for the first three only. 1.29.02 for me. The effort in the last few miles was higher than MP, but for December, on a hilly course and in a stiff wind I'm fairly happy with that. So in April I just need to run that same pace for twice the distance, but with more training behind me, no hills and no howling gale. I think it's on! 

A decent weekend for me too - a parkrun win yesterday, with junior 3 mins behind, the closest he's been.  A beer & curry evening with extended family but it was out for 21 miles first thing, which went much better than expected: 2:21 and fairly progressive given the hills I have in the last 5 miles of it.  Really strong at the end, hopefully a good sign.

Nice running, Speedy (glad to hear you'll be in the sub 3 train ) and well done on the win, CD.  

Good swimming, RS.

Avon XC champs for me.  Not sure on finishing position because they didn't hand out tokens, but the important thing is that the pace was about 20s/mile faster than last week.  Still don't feel quite 100% after the cold, but the main thing is that I felt much more like 95% fit than the 75% fit I felt last week!  4th scorer for the club and fingers crossed we packed well enough...

RS - swimming takes logistics though so its not easy to keep it up when you could run with much less faff required.

CC - good confidence boosting run before the campaign even starts.

good running from the CD family

jools - all this XC should make you fast and strong

had two 2pm kick offs and a 5pm U16 indoor cricket game to juggle. So I watched the U12 footy and U16 cricket (which I thought was the fairest way), the U12s lost 1-0 whilst the U16s won 4-3 and my eldest scored a hat trick.

Still playing about before getting serious post Xmas. local santa dash over 2 miles this morning. Hung about near the front eyeing up a few potential rivals sporting some serious racing shoes pulling a few posey stretches. went out hardish trying not to knock over the smaller runners. Managed to fall into second quite quickly with just a studenty looking type up ahead. Chased him down just before half way and soon created a comefortable lead. Kept up a comefortable pace taking the tape in around 12 minutes. Ok I know most of the serious local runners were probably over at Bicester for the Andy Reading 10k but a wins a win and its my first ever. 

Out of intrest Joolska and ccj do you run off the red start or championship at VLM?

LOL PP sounds like some fun festive running at the Santa dash. Could not grinning at your description of chasing down the lead Santa whilst trying not to send the little Santas flying

After all my dashing around avoiding ice sheets I seem to have come down with man flu. Pretty good timing for once as I should be better for Christmas and have eneted my taper phase for New Years day run.

LD the NE does have some great trail runs in Durham and surrounding area. Loads of disused railway lines which make for a great running surface.

50-60 lengths in the 35 mins, felt a bit stronger today. One of the guys who runs Jesmond Joggers works at the pool and he says I can have a go of the aqua belt tomorrow and use it anytime I want which is good news. Sports massage booked in for wed am, £25 for an hour!! Bloody good deal that even if club members do get a small discount.

CC2 - good effort at the turkey trot.  I've run that race three or four times in past when an ex's mum lived in Keyworth.  Seem to remember it having a couple of killer hills (particularly one at about mile 3?), but also fond memories of setting a big PB there once a week after a mara PB at Luton.

RS78 - physio going very well for her, although I'm shocked by the amount of work being put it in for first term exams.  Don't remember so much as opening a book for most of my first year.

Early 90's & my uni years were spent in Durham, so amused to be reminded by Dids of Klute and Ramside Hall, both of which have seen heavily drunken nights back in the glory years.  In homage to which, I had a few too many on Saturday (first booze for three months), and had to abandon all running yesterday.  Not my greatest display of discipline 

Dan - good stuff. To be fair on our course it tends to be the mature students who do more practice going into the clinical skills centre etc. A lot of the school leavers are on the piss a lot of the time which is fair enough given 1st year you just have to pass. I work with a few lads from the other year group and we tend to be in more than most. I wouldn't say I've worked as hard as I could but I've always been doing some study....there's a lot to take in that's for sure and it's constant so you're always being given new info meaning staying on top of things is the main aim. Same as though, I did nowt in my 1st year the first time. The Unis all seems to vary slightly in their teaching of the modules it seems.

Nice one postie. "taking the tape in around 12 minutes"
-- out of interest, was there a real tape? Do they ever have them any more? I win a race maybe once a year and have never had a tape... I even deplored lack of such things when chatting to the accompanying bike marshall on the way to my last (very minor) victory... the big marathon finishes always have them; when our hearts and our heads are full of Chariots of Fire visions, how can it be right to deny us such a simple and satisfying bit of theatre? :- )

Hi everyone, I'm brand new to this forum and I'm facing my fears by posting in this thread! I've been advised to venture in and told that you will all be encouraging .

I've been feeling way too sheepish to post in here so late in the game (which I told the others, including A.W and DS2 in the Asics 26.2 forum) but I was told to be brave!! PLEASE hear my heart in that I'm not asking for your votes, the competition is about to close anyway so there's my proof, I just wanted to follow the advice of the others who've said finding & following your "target thread" is very well worth the advice I will get. My Marathon PB is a 3:15:01 (VLM '12) so I'm far off a sub 3hr but it is definitely a goal I'd love to pursue in the near-ish future?

I have a long standing swimming / triathlon background but I struggled in the final run leg for years and I’ve only recently (3yrs ago) discovered that I can run. 

x Caroline

Klute was the only nightclub in early 1980s Durham. God, how we loved it - bloody terrible though it was.

Thinking of a Strava UK invasion mini-tour: Glasgow tomorrow, Nottingham thursday, York saturday, Newcastle sunday. It's like Europe in 1939, territory just ripe for the taking.

CaroT - everyone who comes on here improves by about half an hour, so worth sticking around. Can't really say the quality of conversation is very high, sadly. So, here's your chance to make a positive change.

We've not done politics or religion much of late, so anything detrimental to the Pope or   observations on the Leveson Inquiry would make a welcome second post from you.

Oh my goodness, no pressure . Lord Didsbury you sound like quite a character but there is no way I'm sticking my neck on the chopping block just yet if that tells you anything about me . I feel so out of my depth here already x

could have just said "deluded old nazi" and "rivetting stuff" respectively.

CW it was a nice bright orange tape about 2" wide.

I'm not sure that Leveson mentioned washing machines in his report, Dids, but I'm pretty certain that the Pope would favour a Bosch.

"the Pope would favour a Bosch"  - wonderful, CD !!

Been away since Wednesday so only skimmed back I'm afraid, but sounds like there was the usual good parkrunning and XCing at the weekend.

Had a great time in Prague, although it was rather chilly. Managed 2 runs outside which were good fun once I warmed up. Turns out you have two options for running in Prague - a massive hill up by the castle or cobbles everywhere on the other side of the river. Some great parks on the hilly side for training though - miles of trails with not many people on.

Due to the cold I did a bit in the gym too - I say gym, but I actually mean small room with 3 bits of equipment, none of which was a treadmill. So discovered the wonders of the cross trainer - actually felt quite a bit like running, and managed to build up a good sweat, burning 1,300 cals/hr according to the machine.