Sub 3

ha ha, I'm not wishing doom on anyone, just saying that the perfect campaign and race doesnt exist, you have to get to the start line as best you can and suck it up on the day.
My usual downfall is a calf strain - lost the first 10 days of March last yr with it (and then got a cold for race day and struggled a bit), missed 2 weeks of the last 5 in 2009, in 2010 I walked home with a sore calf 8 days out, had a test run on the Thurs and toed the line and struggled round.........but I did them all and am proud of them.

Marigold - top bombing in the 5K there. What changes do you make from the icing first for the next 8 weeks ?

2hrs on the turbo earlier, felt grim by the end probably the mixture of sweating my nuts off and freezing at the same time.

Dids - you've had your day then, you had best quit now ! A slight +ve split is ideal too. We've got no chance of convincing TT to run now though !

Marigold - very nice, will be interesting to see what you can do at Bath. Surely for a celebrity such as yourself, a pic in AW is not really noteworthy?

Snowing again this morning here, so another road ride missed. 3 hours on the turbo instead inc. 4x30mins at moderate effort (230W). It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting to be sat there for that long.

A local club organises marathon training runs with water stations etc., so going to do that tomorrow - 17M plus a mile to two before or after hopefully. Can't wait for the cake provided at the finish!

Nice one, SL - which 5M was that?

From the photos I've seen I'm quite glad I had a concert today and couldn't do the National XC.  Conditions look even worse than the Mids XC and a total mudbath!

Busy couple of days running. Two 13 milers yesterday at MP +15%, then a 20 miler today at a very easy pace catching up with an old friend this morning. This mornings run was a fat burner in a snow blizzzard. So within 24 hours I have run 46 miles, which felt like a nice way to mix up the training a little.

From the top of Penshaw Hill I could see them setting up from the national XC championship race. There was at least 3 inches of snow on the course. Luckily I do not feel the need to take part in XC races.

SL - My road 5k PB is just under 15 anyway so I can live with it! Nice one on the 5 miler!!

Marigold - I see,  2 x 20 each week both with MP. I guess you can include MP in them now as its time to build towards a peak more.

Padams - impressive turbing, esp inc 30min reps. Beats me by 60mins !

SL - nice to see your legs have come back after Bramley

TB - great stuff, 2x13 on Friday backed up with a 20 today. CW did you see that ?

The National wasn't too bad actually. Admittedly I did come out of it looking like I'd been bog snorkelling in my vest and shorts, but it was much easier to run than the Midlands. Parts of it weren't too bad at all, and the worst parts were pretty much the same as the best parts of the Stafford Common course. I didn't race all out - got a 10k next Sunday I want to blast out a PB in (ever hopeful), but my pace was 40 seconds per mile faster than at the Midlands, and it was 2km longer. I just scraped inside the top 100 with 99th out of 427 ladies and a free mud pack thrown in. Not sure it will do my hair much good but my legs should be super soft now.

CL -- crikey, it really is grim up north there! Well raced in that mire, CC2. (And good luck with the achilles CL.)

SL -- my mind boggles at what a confidence-booster means for you...

Good miles TR, with the swims and bikes too. TB's awesome exploits hadn't escaped my notice! You're going to give me a rollocking for burning matches myself today, but I've pumped up my fragile confidence left, right and centre when I was wondering if the unaccustomed big miles had just left me sluggish and feeble, especially looking back last night at runs I felt I couldn't do now in the run-up to Abo2010 (2:43 on about 40mpw)...

... so today with no rucksack, no head-torch, no tracky bottoms, race shoes, HRM for first time in about a year, after a day off with some extra carbs, two gels in the proceedings, and after my weight suddenly dropped about 2lb on Fri (Vicks First Defence seems to do it? ;- ) I did:
    5x{0.5M avg 5:16/M, 0.5M light + form drills},  (~5K pace, peak 160 bpm)
    few miles easy to bring it up to 10M so far, pit stop + 2 gels
    10M in 60:43 (6:04/M) feeling actually enjoyable, 153 bpm/86% stable
    6.22M @ 7:05/M now feeling easy, marathon split 2:53:xx
    1 for luck, total 27.1M in 3hr (6:38/M overall avg or ideal 2hr40 MP+10%, avg HR 141 bpm/81%)
-- I'd planned the 5x0.5M and 10M mara effort because I was worried about my speed, but ad-libbed turning it into another overdistance run as my legs still felt fine after I passed 20 -- last chance for a bit though as I'll want to take it easier next week in prep for the Cambridge HM the week after (which I rehearsed again today in the 6.22). Just doing all this once reassures me that feeling sluggish during the higher miles isn't something I should panic about, and I may not do it again this campaign. Not so worried about speed now either. I will stick with some overdistance easy runs though -- looking back at 2010, it did come after some epic multi-hour (if very slow) runs in the Lakes. Today running a marathon felt totally normal and that's how I want it to be.

LD -- I'm almost tempted to call your bluff But on my bike now to do a family shop at Tesco instead, as penance...