Sub 3

CD - there's a (once famous) restaurant in Newcastle called the Fisherman's Lodge which only has 5* or 1* reviews. It's pure Fawlty Towers. After the first hour there (in which we saw an argument with the owner/customers and piss poor service) I was ready to give it 1*, but the lunacy of the owner and some unexpectedly good food meant I gave them 5*s in the end. 

The owner replies furiously to the bad reviews and makes things far, far worse for himself. "The reason I set my dogs on you was....", "it was only the one ginger pube in your glass....", "it's not easy when you've had four chefs walk out in the last month...." etc.

Anyone reading Tripadvisor in advance would be baffled.

There's definitely an art to interpreting online reviews.  (Although it's pretty much a given that you'll never hear about the 3-star consumers.)  Like reading race reviews; if the only bad thing that anyone can say about the Chichester 10k is that they're bored of getting mugs in their goodie bag, I'd say that's a ringing endorsement.  Sent off my voucher today for my next pair of Nike Zoom Elites.  (With enough left over for a pair of socks.)  Hurrah!

8 x mile on the track this evening. Will be a big volume week with a 13 mile MP run on Thursday as well.

Padams - luckily I dont swim at weekends - phew !

PP - nice one on the mile reps, two more and it'd be Crowie reps time (when my knee aches less I must do that again soon).

Also might borrow something from Pete Jacobs soon (he knows about running marathons on tired legs), he talks of doing strides towards the end of long runs as an alternative to progressive long runs. Seeing as my knee likes a change of pace, I might do some strides every mile of my next long run. Should help with the boredom factor too.

15M for me at about 7.40m/m - bit of a guesstimate because Garmin had a mad patch on the out section of my out and back route and decided I ran the mile which included the Staple Hill tunnel in 6.07.  I'm sure that isn't the case.  I added an extra 0.25M on at the end and figure that probably corrected for the error, so the total run time of 1h55 turns the average pace from 7.34m/m (Garmin's maths) to about 7.40m/m.  Or something.

TB - weather certainly is pretty wild up here isn't it, I got snowed on last night with a clubmate. XX at Wrekenton on sat will be interesting, probs a mud bath.

Jools - solid, you seem to have knocked out loads of miles already

6m last night, 7.59, legs weren't too bad after sunday's 20. Club tempo tonight, first time I've been in a good while so that'll be fun yet hard.

PP - after the Leyland Half (January the 2nd, freezing day) a bloke complained there were only 2 water stops. Oh, and he wasn't even running in it.

My best online critical comment about the Victoria Park course was the path was 'aggressively cambered'. It's about 15 feet wide, car-free with a camber of a few inches at the edges.

Tmap/MtR - my reading pace must have decreased then! Mind you, I do only read it on my walk to work, whilst trying not to walk into trees/lampposts etc.

I'm actually quite enjoying it to be honest, although it does feel as though I must be approaching the end, yet I am only 60% into it.

I usually take online reviews with a pinch of salt, its like film reviews, the amount of times I've loved a film that's been slated by the critics.

10 miles with 6 x mile reps for me done this afternoon, feeling pretty good about them, didn't feel like I was pushing hard but still ran slightly under my goal pace.

I'm going to be running Wokingham too this weekend, looking forward to it.

I slayed the CBA demons tonight. Realising I had limited opportunities to run I forced myself out the door to realise that my legs felt quite strong (as they should after a cutback week) and I was well fuelled. 16.5m bagged. Pace was nowt special and largely depended on which way the wind was blowing. 2 x 10m tomorrow.

good miles there Jools

Andy D - good man, a St Annes sand blasting ? 16.5 is good stuff, but to back it up with 2 x 10M is proper Jonesy marathon training. He used to back up his Sunday long run with a Monday 2x10.

No sand blasting tonight fortunately. I think there was enough rain during the day to stick it down. Also nice that in the last week the wind has reverted to it's usual direction, with a tailwind on the way home.

Al_P: no worries, I took a punt on the size 9.5 because I had a sudden thought that maybe picking over-roomy shoes has contributed to my blister woes. I sent them back in the hope of getting a 10, but only if they were still at the sale price (which they're not on the Milletts website now). Should have got into gear earlier really instead of prevaricating through most of the sale period.

And I saw my first little egret a couple of weeks ago -- had to look it up on the RSPB website. And cormorants are now ten-a-penny where there were none, while all the herons have disappeared.

LJ: not sure about my mileage. This week is a bit messed up with work trips but that will make for a taper for my weekend race. After that, I'll see what I fancy doing. If the niggles stay off, I may try and keep the miles up, yes.

Marigold: I'm all for pitiful efforts in the taper! Short but sharp is my taper mantra. I get down to 1x400m a day or two before.... but then tend to be guilty of running them flat out to boost self confidence, but risking damage.

Nice midweek miles Jools & Andy D - and good luck with the double 10 tomorrow.

A W.. nice session there.  If I'm doing 1m or 2k reps I tend to find I end up with around 10m after the 2-3m warm up plus the reps.

PP.. 8 is a lot of mile reps, hope they went well.

4.2m on the treadie first thing (snowing outside!).  6.5m with the club tonight inc 6 x 800m around an undulating housing estate.

TR.. plenty of fillies up here - club nights are about 70% girls at the moment! 

Some good training yesterday, particularly 16.5M by Andy D, 800m reps by Wardi and mile reps by AW.

10M inc. 8x800m(ish) (90s recovery) on the road for me, the first one was 2:30 then they got a bit quicker, with the last few at about 2:24. First bit of speedwork in a while, but there was a nice little group of us at that pace which made it feel a bit more comfortable.

I suspected it was slightly short of 800m, but it was pretty much bang on having just measured it online, so I'm pleased with that pace.

Good pace Padams.  

AW - another good session.

Wardi - good double with sone speed.

Charlie - hope the race goes well and you never know, the consistency could help with the niggles too.  

Jools and Andy D - nice long runs.

Marigold, Al - this is how you taper:

Sunday - 18.5M @ 5.42 pace
Monday - 14.5M @ 5.30 
Tuesday - 10M @ 5.20 and 12.5M @ 5.30
Wednesday - 10M @ 5.10 and 12.5M @ 5.30
Thursday - 8M @ 5.15 and 10.5M @ 5.24
Friday - Missed, tried to run at 9pm but too tired and stomach ached.
Saturday - 6M @ 5.12

Sunday - Marathon 2.17.39, new world record
Monday - recovery run 10.5M @ 5.50 pace 

This was Jim Peters' training, copied from an article by Ben Fish on eightlane.  Oh, and his daughter was born the week before this and he was feeling "off colour".  Makes us look like a load of nancies...

Speaking of which, I did 5M and 11M yesterday, final 3M of the 11 at 5.40 pace and I thought that was quite hard.

Recovery run at 5'50 pace! Hahahahaha!! I can't do mile reps in that. Mind you, yellow card for him wussing out on his Friday night effort - shows a lack of commitment that.

Andy D - should be some good tired-legs training going on there.

Jools - nice mid-week mileage again.

Padams - Nice pace!

Wardi - Mile reps were spot-on, i.e. pretty comfortable, as I'm saving myself for Thursday's MP run.  Managed to get them all 5:26 - 5:29 at what felt like sustainable HM pace at a guess.  We'll see - Brighton HM coming up in 11 days.

Great post LJ. Jim Peters was tough as nails! Congrats on the pb.

Likewise, congrats to PP (very impressed!) and AW on their respective 10k pbs.

LD - just before the 5m you were on your sickbed. I think that removes the right to be disappointed with the result. Well done in the circumstances.

Nice 10k LS21.

And a nice training HM from Marigold!

Nice long runs from many.

I'm about to become a coachee again! As Mrs TT should be qualified (result of her final exam on Friday, and I'm confident, even if she's not), and therefore not studying, and I am easily distracted and tinker a lot if training myself it seems a good fit. Especially as I have never been as fit as I was when I was being coached before (partially because my training has been very intermittent over the last few years). What it means for the smaller races I have entered I'm not sure yet (some of them may be used as reduced efforts, or binned altogether), but I'm looking forward to it

PP - Crikey you're flying at the moment.

Padams - nice 800m reps.

AW - Sounds like a decent 10miler with reps.

TT - who will be coaching you?  I have a lunatic South African (gold medal at Comrades) who gives me a bit of advice.

Some good midweek mileage from Andy D and Jools, speaking of which I did 15+5 yesterday, and 10+5 today, legs are feeling o.k, not sure how track will go tomorrow though.!!