Sub 3h15

Great running Speedy, and just reward for the effort you've put in. And you too RFJ, double sessions- very impressive.

I could never manage those miles on a bike Blisters- respect.

I'm dry today- couldn't touch the stuff. But I did go for a pamper wet shave, haircut, and eyebrow trim at the Greek barber. He even 'flamed' my earlobes which was interesting. This was a birthday gift. Fantastic.

Planning 16 tomorrow but may stretch to 18 if I have time.  

OO Nice time and target V50

Minni Nice and impressive family day out

RFJ Very well done.

Speedy Major congratulations, you must be feeling very proud

5 miles recovery today. All very enjoyable.

I am currently 4 days and 21 hours dry. I drink a hell of a lot, so it is an issue. I was tempted to have a couple tonight, but I know what a couple means.

16 tomorrow, but may become longer. I intend to run it all at a very slow pace.

18 miles is the distance the cool folks are running tomorrow . 

I was 8th in the County Champs, which actually isn't my highest ever finish position. Bizarrely, the year I came 7th I wasn't selected for the Inter Counties and only one girl ran for Notts. The year I got drafted in at the last minute I had actually finished 10th. 

I'm waiting for the call up Speedy

The way that I look at it is if I was fit now I almost certainly wouldn't be in April. - Good point RJ! Races in Jan need to be taken in conext with the bigger picture in mind.

Like the family Parkrun Minni.

Scooby, good luck with being in the dry dock. I'm trying to cut out the alcohol too at the moment mostly during the week on school nights! I'm hoping to shed a bit of weight gained over Xams too.

Managed to get a photo of my new XC Salomon shoes. It will interesting to see how they look after 14/15 miles of XC tomorrow!

17M for me today, did 16 last week, 15 the week before, but after a summer and autumn of ~100M per month I'm struggling on the long runs, However, I'm with RJ, I'm taking solace in that fact that if I'm this unfit now then it's going to be hard to peak too early.

Congrats to Speedy - another cracking performance

How are the shoes looking now KR?

Thanks to RJ and TR for their comments and wise words. TBH, I've never really looked at the higher mileage P&D plans as the bottom number looks so scary!! But the point is well made that it's the totality of the plan that's important.

That said, I'm in the position where I'm going to struggle to be able to get 6 or 7 days' worth of running in, so want to make sure that the 4 or 5 sessions I do really count.

With this in mind, would it make sense to look at (say) the up to 70 miles a week schedule but strip out the recovery runs and treat those days as rest days? That way a typical week would be 1 long run, 2 medium runs and a speed / LT session whereas if I follow the up to 55 miles per week there's only one medium length run in there, but 2 recovery runs a week.

What are people's views on the benefit of a recovery run? Intuitively I would have thought that a 20 mile run followed by a rest would have a greater benefit than a 15 mile followed by a 5 mile recovery the next day.

Hope this isn't too much of a ramble!!!

Lorenzo - Call me controversial, but I would skip the recovery runs, but make bloody sure I made the other runs all count.

KR - Nice pic, but don't go dancing in those shoes or it might all go a bit pear-shaped...I've got a pair of Salomon XA Pro 3Ds, and while fairly nifty, they are pretty bulky, too.

Jase/KR/TR - I have decided to christen this campaign "I'll Be Ready When I'm Ready, And Not Before (IBRWIRANB). 14.2 miles today at 7:45mm, quite bumpy, too. 16 planned for next week. 46 miles bagged this week. Feeling happy. Why ever should I be doing more at this point?

Speedy - My problem is that I could never decide whether to represent Kent (my place of birth) or Surrey (where I always lived). Consequently no-one ever called me. A similar thing happened with football - my dithering between England and Holland (Ma Ant is Dutch) cost me about 50 caps, I reckon.

Slokey - x-post - You know that's a moral victory.

Lorenzo - I wouldn't say 5m is a recovery run.  A 20m run is always going to be better than a 15m but why not then substitute the 5m for a 3m, run slow?

Here is a good article about recovery runs.

18 miles banked today.

Surprisingly good day at the SW Inter-Counties XC for me.  Legs felt rubbish for the first 2 miles of my 4 mile warm up but seemed to loosen towards the end and then had a surprisingly good run, finishing 15th overall (it's a fairly loose comparison but I was 19th the last time I ran there in 2008) and 3rd team scorer.  We won the team prize as well, and I think that's the first time I've actually been a scorer for a winning team - I'm usually frustratingly the first non-scorer!  All in all, pretty pleased with where I am now.  Just need to keep it together to the end of April

Does that mean you get a call up too Joolska?

only managed 14 this morning but at a decent 8:30 avg. pace. 49 for the week. 2 weeks until the brass monkey in York- anyone else here doing this?

Work 2moro

Doubt it, OO: we have a combined Avon/Somerset team and so the chances that I'll be in the top 9 out of the 2 counties (especially considering girls who will get discretionary picks) are slim.

Well Done Jools. Did you get a prize?

Lorenzo I think the 55 is too light, but am struggling mentally with the 6 days upto 70. Listening to a few on here, I have decided to try to not stress at this stage, especially with the interval/tempo session. I am going to try and listen to the body more. Hoping to average 5 runs a week and over 50 miles, missing the odd run here and there.

As I said ealier I dropped the 13 on Wed (as felt tired), but then did 13 on Fri with MPM (instead of 9 with tempo). I will be more flexible in future weeks also, getting the miles in the legs is the most important thing.

In relation to the above todays plan states 15 miles. I decided to run 15-18, but entirely on feel. It is the first time in a long time I have not looked at my Garmin and calculated pace(s).  Anyway being the mature man that I am and as everything felt comfortable, I dragged it out so that I could join the 20 mile club.

20.23 miles at 7:55 mm with HR 74%. Bit tough mentally towards the end, but it felt great. Gives me an 11, 13 and 20 for 55 miles for the week off 5 runs.

I am going to celebrate by jumping off the wagon tonight, but only having a couple.

DXB - 3 weeks out I would do a long run with 5-6 miles as MP towards the end. Welcome and all te best

Jools - Well done on the XC

Some good long runs going in TR / SD / OO

51.61m for me this week, so a good start of a decent solid base - onwards