Sub 3

Wardi I wouldn't get away with that. The future Mrs No7 does a little running occasionally & I am still encouraging her to commit a bit more time to it, though the cold snap has put her off again.

RS78 I certainly won't be making any decisions just yet, just concentrating on Wokingham for now & post honeymoon I will have a think about my aims for the rest of the year. I am more suited to the endurance side of things so i am quite tempted to spend the summer doing a couple of sessions a week on the track & seeing if i can improve my weaker areas.

CaroT - you had best learn to like long runs and miles then.

Al_P - nice one on the 10k, enjoy the VLM plans.

LJ - nice to see you back to it

RS78 - over the ton indeed, hoping to get over 150 but wont be commuting over Christmas, so maybe a minimum of 150 should be the target.

Stephen - could you not have worn a smaller pair of shorts for your glory moment?

CaroT - Don't know why I said you'd improve by 30 mins on the sub-3. I effectively improved 18 mins when I started on these forums. Anyway 10-20 mins or something. Once we get you reading Hadd and other good stuff, you'll soon be running high mileage AND ENJOYING IT!

Al_P - canova AND barefoot running? Interesting how we fall into two tribes. In the blue corner are the scientists with their Noakes books and heart rate monitors and hard evidence, and in the Red are the conspiracy theorists doing the Aussie carbo load in their compression socks.

Anyway, in a bad mood - my trip to Glasgow was cancelled as I was on my way to the station. So bang goes the neeps and tatties and jocks scrapping on the pavement outside and instead it'll be left over chicken served by Lady D, moaning about the badly applied hair highlights she's just had done.

Getting very jealous of all those winning tapes. (You're not even doing my tragi-heroic sprint through the finish while waving your arms in the air for a win ST, much too calm and collected :- )

AW  -- nice reps -- is that the magic Yasso formula that some used to predict marathon times? I did 8x800m last week, but significantly slower.

AlP -- very well done on the landmark 34:xx. I have to warn you though, I've been finding sub-2:40 an impossible struggle so far, on a slightly quicker 10K PB (34:12). But then with the notable exception of the GER, I seem to be age-plateauing overall anyway. We'll see this time...

Welcome CaroT!

Wardi - that's some good consistent mileage. I'll be up York way for New Year, but not over a Saturday which is a shame as I could have popped along to the Parkrun if we were

LJ - sounds like you're getting in some good distance, my last two weeks have been 33 & 35 miles respectively, time to start building back up now...

TT - Be interested to know what does your bench mark run consists of.... Btw after much reading and spreadsheet digestion I think I'm getting my head around the Canova training materials

Dids - Haha I'm firmly in the blue corner then (still not got the hang of heart rate yet though...), definitely the science & engineering type, I'm generally very broad minded and open to new ideas (although you could substitute that for 'young and foolish' if you prefer!). Suppose I'm the type of person who wants to know why we do things the way we do, instead of just doing it... An interesting comparison to me is my sister-in-law (has a 2:50 marathon PB), who does a lot of her running on feel and uses homeopathic medical practices. We've clashed on training styles in the past, but she's also helped me out hugely when I've got injured on a few occasions and we share similar views on running shoes & diet. It's a bit ying and yang in the end I suppose, you need a bit of both approaches to get a good balance IMO

Sounds like there's going to be a strong forum turn out at Wokingham then, should be a good race! I'm also planning to do Bramley 20 (Mara training run), Eastleigh 10k, Stubbington 10k, maybe the Chichester Priory 10k and either the Salisbury 10 or Mad March 20 (same weekend, not decided yet). Also might run the John Austin half, which is a local off road race for charity in the New Forest, can second last year so tempted to see if I can get the win this time around....

And on a longer term note for 2013, I've entered the Frankfurt marathon in October.

Think there was some sub3 action on the Today programme this morning. MtR wull be able to confirm. Not running related, but very assured performance.

Frustrating build up to the eighteen week schedule with a bad cold and now, Dr. Web tells me, pleurisy, with painful breathing and very sore neck. Better now than later, though.

No winning tapes here, just one victory in a XC mob match. Felt good though!

Lord Didsbury, you ( & I ) will be glad to hear that those shorts have been relegated to the back of a bedroom draw somewhere, they served me well through may races, deffo 2 victorys possibly 4 in those shorts, but it got to a point where I was feeling a little bit too self conscious / uncomfortable at the start of a race worrying that my Jacob's were on display.

I treated myself only the other week to a couple of pairs of shorts from the same company that are a little bit longer in length, so hopefully I will not feel as self conscious at races in the future, there's definately been a few occassions running through villages during races wearing those short shorts where I'm not sure if the locals were offended by the spectacle or liked it haha

TR & Lord Didsbury you are right.

I've never followed a specific (16 week?) marathon training program before so if you've got a recommended one I could start getting my head around? For the past 2 years when all the road races have started up after the New Year, I was racing a lot on most weekends so my 3 (4 max) long runs had to fit in on the rare weekends I wasn't racing leading up to my Spring marathons.

If I'm going to follow a program I know I wouldn't be able to race a lot which is fine as I'd have this bigger goal in mind and it would free up more time and energy for longer runs. I also think that finding a long run training partner would help to motivate me. I've always tended to go on my own very early in the morning so I've stuck to the same well lit areas and it hasn't been very riveting. I do take music but I'm wondering if some company would help be more helpful.

My husband calls himself a social runner so he wouldn't want to go for long runs but he's offered to follow me on his bike or meet me at different places on my long runs before so I 'd be silly not to take him up on the offer . A much faster lady from another local club has offered to do long runs with me so I must take her up on the offer too and not think that I'll be holding her back all the time.

Al_P - Stubby 10k (if fixtures allow - I have a number), Chichester 10K and maybe Salisbury 10 for me too. DOnt think I'll be doing any 20s this time, but possible MMH20.

CW - with more run frequency and miles you might get closer to 2:40.

CaroT - you can still race, but you will still need to do the long runs too, either around the races or on another day. Also do most of the races untapered. Learn to run long alone, and embrace the boredom (no music) you have to get to know yourself ready for when the going gets tough. You wont have a long run partner there at race time. If you still dont like long runs or arnt prepared to suck some up then you are in the wrong game. Do something else that you might enjoy more.

Where's my bike, I'm late now.

I've won a few races over the years (not any major ones obviously!) and don't think I've ever had a tape to break. Never really thought about it before now!

Al_P - don't blame you on binning that session part-way through. Even without the other reasons, 3x5k would be really hard!

ZaTTu - the hill up to the castle is a bit of a beast. The route up I took the second time was much steeper, and I was on the verge of walking (must have been doing 9-10 min/mile), but annoyingly there were lots of people around and it would have been too embarrassing. Then I hit a huge flight of steps and had to run up them too!

CaroT - running with others will make a massive difference on the long runs. When I used to run them on my own I dreaded them, but now I do them with clubmates (or at least do a large chunk of my long run with clubmates), it's just a social thing to do on a Saturday morning. Running with a faster runner will be good for you too!

Track session was 15x400 last night but I didn't fancy running that fast, particularly on a slippery track, so while they did a 100m walk/jog back recovery I did 300m to meet them back at the start of the next rep. Meant that the 300m had to be fairly quick (starting the reps every 2:30) and it was more like a fartlek. 12M total with a few extra miles beforehand.

CaroT - on 2nd thoughts, listen to Padams rather than me. I was looking for an email earlier and was in a "how long does it take to accept a game of cricket, the other 5 accepted Saturdays email by Sunday and you still havnt accepted/declined and it's Wednesday" mood.

Padams - more like Fartlek indeed, ever do Parlaufs (sp?), I remember doing them as a nipper. Cant remember what they were though.

remembered that I didnt do any pre VLM races this year, not sure its ideal but maybe it did me good.

No tapes broken here, but I've beaten Marigold  ;-)

TT - No plans as of yet, last year I planned to do 5 easy(ish) then 15 hard but abandoned that on the start line for 20 hard! 

I managed to twist my ankle on saturday hobbled home and have been resting since, 3 miles this morning felt o.k so hopefully no lasting damage.  I was panicking for a while as it's the ankle that I broke a few years ago.

 

CL - am sure you are right, i also saw MtR on the BBC/london news just after 6:30 last night for a good few minutes and agree with your assessment on the assured performance!  looks like is 60 days (or however many it was) of fat to fit is going alright to me!!

I won a very low key local 10k a couple of years ago.  The two kids who were asked to hold the tape had wrapped it around their hands and didn't think to let go.  I was almost catapulted backwards 10 yards 

In a fit of enthusiasm I've entered Brass Monkey in Jan, and Wokingham & Bramley 20 in Feb.  Probably won't do both (possibly race one & treat the other as training), but nice to have the option.  Have re-entered Barcelona marathon in March as the main spring target.  Got my best two marathon times there (2.45 & 2.48) so makes sense to go back.  Calf is still troubling me, but the motto for the next three months is...No Pain, No Spain.

Al_P - it's one of my standard runs. A long (13-18m), sub-MP tempo, run by feel. I've done it often enough that I can rely upon myself to stick to the effort and not worry about the pace. In this case it was 18 with 13 @ 6:21. 8 weeks out from Berlin it was 20 with 16 @ 6:14. I was slightly wrong though saying 19 weeks to find 19-21s. It's actually 11 weeks to find 19-21s and then match the progression I made in the last 8 weeks pre-Berlin. Much of a muchness really. IMO, you don't need to benchmark. Your 10k pb tells you what shape you're in, so just concentrate on nailing the workouts at the appropriate effort. I'm glad you've found the Canova stuff useful, but remember that it's the aim, not the method, that is important (though as you've already said you'll scale down the workouts, etc, it sounds as if you've got that aspect nailed).

Sorry Padams, but knowing the terrain I actually lol'd at that Were the steps those annoyingly sized ones which are too deep to run properly? I remember some that seemed to go on for ever!

Lucky on that ankle SL! I guess in my case a lot of it with Bramley will come down to how I recover from Wokingham, but I was thinking I may just run it evenly and (reasonably) hard, rather than trying to do any specific kind of workout.

Nice motto Dan A

Well after a full and frank discussion with Mrs B about the merits of running a 30 mile trail race on the 01/01/2013, I am withdarwaing from the event. Which now excludes me as a Grandslam entrant for the 4 race series. 

As I am one to always look for the silver lining in what was a difficult discussion last night! I have kept up my training through the dark months. I guess my main race in this series was the 110 miler(my first attempt at a 100 mile run) and entrance to the 55 and 60 mile races is still fine. I am also able to start giving my spring marathon training my full attention. 

Oh and to top it all. My man flu has now taken full control of my body. So no running for the next few days at least.

Tis the seasons to be jolly .... 

Running streak broken at 54 days by yesterday's crash course in media tartdom.

We launched a new project yesterday (www.streetlink.org.uk) and I managed to complete 19 media interviews during the day, some of which ran multiple times on various outlets. From 5 live at 5am to BBC London TV news at 18:45pm it was a pretty full on day - with a conference presentation during the middle. The tough part was going to a little radio studio in Broadcasting House and being given a list of 11 local radio stations that wanted to interview me - one after another!

Today programme was the highlight - tick that one off the bucket list!

Felt pretty knackered afterwards and went to the pub instead of home to go for a run in the freezing fog.

Out again this morning with the dog for 4 miles. Still tired, and still freezing fog, but really enjoyable.

 

Tim – Not sure what the cons of your 30 miler could be? Was it one of those “and what am I going to do whilst you are out enjoying yourself” discussions? NYD is, in our household, as dull as dishwater so I’d be tempted to take your place. However, it is also usually a day for just lying around hoping that at some point you’ll be well (sober) enough to boil the kettle or reach the remote control. So, best not. I’m thinking of doing a Boxing day race though (after a guaranteed tee-total day at my parents) and a risky one on the 30th,  after hosting another of my near disastrous pie-eating evenings.

 

CaroT – motivation for the high mileage is key. Running with friends helps on the long ones, (although I always look forward to the long ones)  but at some point you are largely on your own for the majority of the bread and butter boring 7-8 mile runs. I would imagine that different people find motivation in different ways? Perhaps fortunately, (or more likely because the chances of me winning a race anywhere are zilch) I have an obsessive focus on a marathon to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. And a target time, of course. I don’t care about other races, but I care passionately in having, say, run 95 miles at the end of the week. With the benefit of hindsight, I know I’ve missed out on a lot of good races as a result. 

Still, it appeals to my vanity when you get someone who is almost overawed when you tell them your marathon PB. (Although I think a lot of people stop listening after you say the "two hours and....." bit)

I'm sure you could work something out that will let you combine things. Much as it pains me to say it, latching on to these disciples of Canova might do you good - it's not dissimilar to other plans, and you'll be able to compare your fortunes here with others that are following it. 

MtR - any links to clips of your interviews?

I used to write foul-mouthed poems pretending to be "Chantelle", a 14-year old Man U fan with an obsession for Ryan Giggs, and was asked onto Radio 5 to read them out, (sanitised versions) with boring old John Inverdale interviewing me. I then did the same for "Women on Top" which was a feminist sports programme on the same channel.

Today, I would probably be under house arrest.

This thread has been moving way too fast for me to keep up, but I notice a good win by SL, and Al_P joining the sub-35 club (welcome!  I take it you haven't heard about the induction process yet.  It'll happen when you least expect it...). Good to hear that illness is subsiding for ZaTTu and LJ.

And welcome all the new people.  Advice from this thread certainly helped me not completely disgrace myself on my first marathon, so I'm sure it'll be useful to you all.

I've been keeping my head down trying to string some consistent mileage together, after a couple of weeks torpedoed by separate bouts of illness, and some minor niggles on what seems like almost every joint below my waist, but have now managed a couple of 50+ weeks in a row.

Also finally did Woodley Parkrun, which is right in front of my door, and is, I like to imagine, essentially a parkrun in my front garden.  This of course engendered a Lord Dids-style belief that I am the rightful holder of the course record, so I set out with the aim of being the first to break 17, which would have given me that record (it hasn't been going long).  In the end, I was way off with 17:29, albeit it was a win.  Next time though,,,