Sub 3h15

Welcome back Golden Eagle. I am pretty convinced that we ran together on some marathon or other. London or Abingdon probably.

"Running down Skiddaw in lightweight trainers?" Blimey, that is definitely somewhere between a hard case and a mountain rescue case.

For me, 2h20m on the turbo, which was worth 37 miles, or more realistically the full extent of "Gladiator" at 16mph.

Welcome back,GE - it's been a while!

6M for me ended up being 13 laps of a local square as the pavements are still a bit hit and miss around the office.  Sports massage afterwards confirmed that my legs are getting a bit creaky, so have booked in at least one a fortnight up to VLM

5.75m for me round the ind estate..... not great viewing like Jools run too... just not as many laps

thanks for all the comments, very welcome...

Off to bed as have to be on the 0603 train in the morning...

Take care

Morning All

Welcome back GE - hope all goes well with you campaign.

TR - VLM is far enough away to recover and get back at it - hopefully it doesn't cost too many minutes.

Scooby - I've had a similar dodgy shoulder (from carrying my kids around).  I streched it and that didn't do much good so I started some strength excercises which seemed to help.  By the way have you seen the price of X-bionic compression gear?  There was an offer on Swiss airlines as I was coming here - instead of 300 Euro it was 'only' 250 Euro.  Don't think I'll be buing that any time soon

10 miles for me last night and 8 this morning.  The 10 was a bit too fast at 7:33m/m but I couldn't help myself as it was nice to get some miles in on flat snow free ground.

GE - good to hear from you again. Looks like you're making steady progress and on course for sub 3:15.
OO - yes, it's from Winnie the Pooh, as SD says. Pooh goes out for a walk in the snow and gets lost; circles back on himself and mistakes his footprints for those of a heffalump. Piglet joins him and soon they discover that the heffalump is joined by a woozle and another heffalump etc...
AR - those rowing sessions definitely don't sound like wimping out to me!!! And well done on the dreadmill session too.
SD - take care of that shoulder - not sure what to advise.
TR - sensible move; hope it has cleared up soon.
Mennania - not a disaster; hope you find your motivation again quickly.
SJ - I think that was you who saved the day at the last minute for the CCSTF team?
Blisters - nice turbo session.
Jools - I guess going round the square beats going round in circles.
RFJ - a couple of my loops go round an industrial estate; very picturesque. At least the snow improves the scenery.
Bike It - freedom!
I had a bit of an upset stomach last night, which resulted in a pit-stop during my session this morning, but managed 7 miles including 6 x 1 lap 10k paced efforts with 1/2 lap recoveries. I'll soon be thinking of pace in mins/lap!

You can tell my kids are getting old, I'd forgotten about that Gul.

So what will today's weather bring?

Relatively arctic out there it was, this morning. 8 miles incl. 5 x 1000 reps off 2-min jog recoveries, and they came out as 3:58, 3:56, 3:58, 3:57 & 3:55. Happy enough, and an improvement, however small, on last week's similiar effort.

I definitely need to start losing some weight, though, Jesus.

Blisters - That is an impressive length of turbo time. How many bottles of water did you get through?

Have you been to the physio Scooby? I am also carrying a dodgy left shoulder. I think it is from focusing on holding my arms higher and having broken the collar bone 20yrs ago that side has always 'dropped'. I will seem my physio who does trigger point acupuncture if it gets worse. 

Gul - your daily summares really are a labour of love. 

SJ - Careful you don't peak on one side of your body SJ. Otherwise you will be running round in circles!

Good luck on the diet Ant!

5m easy in the slush this morning. Some icey spots. At least the snow on the ground makes everything lighter so saves headtorch batteries. 

Especially for you Ant. 

7mi Tempo tonight, could be interesting............

Keir - Thanks for that; funnily enough I read it minutes before coming on here as I get sent that. But seriously, I think weight is the problem, as I think I should be able to do a set of reps - and a pretty skimpy set at that - a lot quicker.

My alcohol intake is low these days and I don't really go in for cakes and/or biscuits. I think the problem is I tend to have large portions (Missus). Even so, I might have have expected some more weight to come off since Christmas just through ramping up the mileage. But no - only a couple of pounds, if that.

I am turning into just the kind of runner that Julian Goater despises...a plodder. And yet I have tried to mix things up this time round. I'm not following a plan as such but (bear with me, here) I do some sort of reps/speedwork on Tues, a MLR on Weds (up to 11M, but hope to increase this week by week to 15-16M) , a tempo run on Fri or Sat and a LSR on Sunday (up to 18M at the mo). Plus I do two other  easy/steady 7-8 milers. Total mileage is 50-60mpw. I think it should work in principle and esp so given my deliberately "softer" target this year.

Am I just being impatient? Could/should I be doing anything else to fire up my training a bit?

Hope you get back running soon, TR.

Jools/RFJ - I sympathise completely - sometimes it doesn't have to be pretty, the main thing is getting "out there" and getting the session in the bag.

Ant, your shedule doesn't exactly sound like you are becoming one-dimensional ("plodder") if you are doing intervals and a tempo session within your week. I've been reading some of Julian Goater recently. I haven't been sold yet on his enthusiasm for double sessions, but am definitely going to play more with Farlek runs this time, and basically add variety.

I'm currently 3Kg heavier than normal, and 5 Kg heavier than when I ran Abingdon. Although I am running far less, my cardio work is really high nowadays and I seem to be permanently eating. I can't blame Mrs AR as I control the portions

Ant van Oviedo wrote (see)

 I'm not following a plan as such but (bear with me, here) I do some sort of reps/speedwork on Tues, a MLR on Weds (up to 11M, but hope to increase this week by week to 15-16M) , a tempo run on Fri or Sat and a LSR on Sunday (up to 18M at the mo). Plus I do two other  easy/steady 7-8 milers. Total mileage is 50-60mpw. I think it should work in principle and esp so given my deliberately "softer" target this year.

Am I just being impatient? Could/should I be doing anything else to fire up my training a bit?

AvO, that looks like a plan to me. Base/ build/ sharpen. It even looks like it's into the build phase, where you are happy with clocking 50/60 mpw such that it doesn't leave you tired all the time. So much so that you've started to put quicker reps in there. I often found that there were great chunks of the year when I didn't seem to make progress. My regular run was just that, a regularity run. Because it was the same route, certain lamp posts became mile markers, and splits became known. If I was not on form by the end of mile 1, it wasn't happenning. Because I'd done it so many times, my course PB was unattainable unless I absolutely raced it HARD. So it was a plod. I did feel that my times over the cold months were 2 minutes slower over 6 miles: I wasn't prepared to get sweaty.
A few suggestions? Do some running with a club or a group, or just a mate. Mix up the routes. Reverse the course direction (horror!). Enter some cheap and cheerful tin pot races. But most of all HAVE FAITH. You're doing it right, it's just confidence.

Ant van Oviedo wrote (see)

I am turning into just the kind of runner that Julian Goater despises...a plodder. And yet I have tried to mix things up this time round. I'm not following a plan as such but (bear with me, here) I do some sort of reps/speedwork on Tues, a MLR on Weds (up to 11M, but hope to increase this week by week to 15-16M) , a tempo run on Fri or Sat and a LSR on Sunday (up to 18M at the mo). Plus I do two other  easy/steady 7-8 milers. Total mileage is 50-60mpw. I think it should work in principle and esp so given my deliberately "softer" target this year.

Am I just being impatient? Could/should I be doing anything else to fire up my training a bit?

 

Ant: What has been your weekly mileage for the last 10 weeks.

It might just be a case of having to let your fitness catch up with the increase in miles. That you're stuck in LSR mode and aren't recovering enough between sessions to be able to hit top gear and cruise.

I've found that I can do a chunk more of Julian Goater's preaching when I'm running 30 mile weeks, since switching to 50+ weeks I'm also struggling to have the same zip and ability to change gears.

You may be a classic case of having to do your slow miles slower to enable your faster paces to return and avoiding the dreaded "middle" zone plodding.

Off for a run shortly, hopefully the deep compacted snow will throw of enough light so I can see where I'm going.

Ant I would echo the thoughts of the others. That sounds like a very good and varied plan to me. I didn't drink for all of November, incleased my miles and lost exactly nothing. Hit the ale heavy, reduced the miles slightly and in two weeks I lost 1.5 kilos. I think the body takes time to adjust.

Plan was 8 miles with strides today. I didn't fancy strides, but once out the path was quite clear so I went for comfortably pushing. After 4 miles (and a bit of walking on ice) I checked my pace and was running at 7:11 mm pace. So I decided to push on a bit as it felt good.

Total 8.76 miles in 61 mins. 6:58 pace First 2 miles were actually 7:23 pace, which means last 6.76 came in at 6:49 pace. Last 4 being 6:46 pace.

Pleasantly surprised, but more confused than ever. I know it is early days, but I believe I have a comfortable 3:10 in me, but am nowhere near sub 3. Before the run there is no way I would have been confident of running 4 miles at sub 3 pace, never mind speeding up into it.

I have decided to pop pills for the next few days, see how that goes.

Very sad day for me today.  Just after posting this morning my husband returned home from walking the dogs with only one dog.   The puppy (now almost 2) ran off in the dark, snowy fields and we assume got disoriented (it was snowing a blizzard) ventured onto the road and got hit by what must have been the only car venturing out in rural Northumberland.  She was killed instantly.  Poor Mr Minni had to carry her back to our car and bring her home.    We are all devastated and of course we all feel so guilty although there was nothing we could have done. 

Just had a nice 3 miles with mummy dog, so at least that's another Jantastic run logged.

I've been crying like a girl all day.

fraser - I think your weekend home is completely cut off.  Buried in snow.