Sub 3h15

Based on the target number of runs, I'm clearly the lightweight of the TCCSTFT team 

Working from home today but still out of the house at 6am for a 6.8 mile yomp through the mud. 

Minni - Yes, I mean you could watch that vid over and over again, couldn't you? It's the gift that goes on giving.

Freemers - Hello, yes, the hill thing on Sunday put me out a bit too, but as hills are very easy to come by round here I decided to go for it and in the end quite enjoyed it. As I'm coming back from an injury I've been doing far too much one-paced running, so I've been pleased to have the chance of mixing things up a bit, if only on this small scale. Wait til I start moaning about speedwork come January...

Has everyone seen the vid  Ant?   Yes, I could go on watching it but I've limited it to twice a day.

10 miles bagged for me tonight with including a session that started with 2 miles at just over 7 m/m and gradually cut down to 0.25m @ 6:15.  This is fast for me!

Jan 12 - Poacher - Country to Capital 45 - TBA
Jan 20 - efc-Col- Four villages half - sub 82
Jan 20 - Minni - Brass Monkey - sub 90   OO- sub 80??
Jan 20 - Blisters - Gloucester mara - 3:28 (Don't mock)
Feb 10 - Moof - Wokingham HM - sub 83; Jools tbc , Also-ran sub 84, PMJ same or better than this year 79:34
Feb 17 - Also-ran - Bramley 20 - PMP+10s
Mar 3 - Dylan man - Bath half - sub 1.22; Jools sub 85 (mebbe)
Mar 10 - Minni - Northumberland HM - sub. 1:31
Mar 17 - Moof - Reading HM - sub Wokingham
Mar 17 - Also-ran - Reading HM - sub 1:22
Mar 17 - Lunchtime - Reading HM - sub 1:30; Jools PMP
Mar 24 - Ant - Maratón de Asturias (MaraNalón) - sub 3:10
Mar 25 - CC2 - Loughborough HM - sub 86
April 7 - Dylan man - Taunton marathon (prov) - sub 3.10
April 21 - Poacher + Keir - VLM - TBC
April 21 - efc-Col - VLM - sub 2:57
April 21 - Moof + Jools+ OO??+ Also-ran - VLM - sub 3
April 21 - CC2 - VLM - sub 3.05
April 21 - Lorenzo - VLM - sub 3:10
April 21 - SBD + Minni + LB70 - VLM - sub 3:15
April 21 - Freemers - VLM - sub 3.20
April 28 - Slokey Joe - Manchester - sub 3:00
April 28 - Knight Rider - Manchester - sub 3:10
April 28 - Bike It - Manchester - TBC
May 6 - Lunchtime - Milton Keynes - sub 3:15
May 12 - DS2 - Halstead - sub 3:15 25 -
May 25 - Poacher - GUCR - sub 35
June 2 - Bike It - Comrades - sub 8:30

Oh yes

Sept 8 - Blisters - Challenge Henley - a bath, a commute, survive a mara. 15-17hrs?

Moof - only if I do actually run 8 times a week! 

Poacher wrote (see)

 being severely disciplined by Minni

Is that a condition of being in her team? Hmm, I might join it myself...

I thought you were meant to be 'running' in the video Ant? 

You mean I was going too slow? I thought if I went at my normal speed, the image would be too blurry..

Anyway, that's quite enough of your cheek, lad.

Minni - nice early start! Were you ok after the fall the other day?

I went to a local park to run some long intervals this morning but on the way there it snowed heavily and it was like a blizzard when I arrived. Had the wrong car(for snow) with me so have had to come home. Really gutted - was looking forward to them.

Snow has just stopped so thinking I will put on my spikes and run through the woods at the back of my house instead. Winter running is here!

Hi everyone, I haven’t posted here much since the VLM but have continued to enjoy lurking.  Some of you may remember me as the guy who had to wear his girlfriend’s pants in the Dublin Marathon as I forgot my own.  Check out ‘my gallery’ photos for the evidence - if you can stomach a craic-ing photo

My 20 week training schedule started this week for the 2013 VLM so I hope to post a bit more regularly again. I’m starting pretty early as I have week long holiday in Tenerife in January.

Training has gone well over the last 6 months with me improving my 5k time from 18:45 to 18:19, 10k from 38:21 to 37:42 and HM from 1:25 to 1:23 dead after stagnating for the previous year. I’ve been running about 40- 50 miles a week but I intend to increase this to peak at 75 miles 4 weeks from VLM.

I’ve used an amended version of P&D for my last three marathons but will now be trying a Brad Hudson plan. I’ve hit the wall and slowed to 9 minute miles on two of my last three marathons  and struggled in the other so something has to change. One thing that Hudson does differently is to progressively run harder on the LSR or LHR as he calls it. I have always found the P&D long runs too easy and I think I need to push myself closer to marathon effort a few times.

The plan has a 20 mile run with 18 at MP +20 sec, 24 mile easy, 22 progressive to MP and a few more 20 to 22 mile runs. As the marathon approaches the intervals sessions become slower but longer with more emphasis on HMP and MP pace. This is apart from the 8 x 8 sec hill sprints that are done once a week at the end of an easy run. The MLRs tends to have HMP and MP intervals too.

My last five marathons have been as follows –

Newry 2010        3:26        (3:30 goal achieved)

Dublin 2010         3:13        (3:15 goal achieved)

Belfast 2011        3:18        (on target for sub 3:10 until last three miles)

Dublin 2011         3:09:57 (slowed from 3:08 pace at 24 miles but just achieved my goal)

VLM 2012            3:13        (on target for 3:06 until last three miles)

My goal for VLM 2013 will be sub 3 which scares the pants of me at this stage! Good luck everyone and I hope I get to meet some of you in London.

Welcome back Badbark! Very consistent times. Good luck with the sub 3 attempt!

Do you mean scares the girlfriends pants off of you???

Bagged 5 miles through the trails in the woods this morning afterall. It was magnificent in the snow. Best run of the winter so far. Thoroughly enjoyed it and ran pretty well into the bargain! Had CC spikes on and was sliding everywhere in the mud - glorious! Think I may need longer spikes!

Good luck Badbark. Worth changing things about is you plateaued. Where is the best place to get a look at some of the Hudson plans. I'm currently 'playing' with my plan which I want to start next week and have been thinking about changing some of the long runs

Not sure yet about joining Jantastic as I am going to try and be more flexible in my running for VLM, including more cross training if/when things start to tighten up. Might mean a number of weeks where I'm not hitting the number of runs so I don't think anyone would want me

Today I did my quickest session since coming back from injury, which included 6 miles @ sub 6:45min/m pace. Felt really hard going compared to a matter of weeks ago.

Hi DS2, when does the voting start for the 26.2 comp. Let us know and I'ii put in my vote for you. Good luck campaigning

Also-Ran – I have uploaded scans of the Hudson Level 3 marathon plan to here - http://www18.zippyshare.com/v/92834296/file.html  It’s 6 MB and anyone can download it.

I’ve reduced the mileage and intensity in some of the runs to suit me better.