Sub 3h15

Well done all. RFJ - you must be completely bonkers! Inspirational stuff though, well done. 

Early tapering Ant - which marathon are you training for? I'm sure Dad was very proud of you this morning  

As for me, the infamous Spen 20 road race this morning. A very hilly one in West Yorkshire made worse by the cold and wind. Nevertheless, very happy with my time and took a whole 21 minutes off last years time. Hot bath, big fry up, chocolate digestives and a snooze on the sofa watching the rugby. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/282670106

Bluemoon - Good run at Spen 20
Moof - excellent 5k time well done
SBD - Nice 10k
Bike It - 20m bagged despite it being hard, its in the tank now
Scooby - Good work for the 21.4m
Menninia - Also a good 20 bagged
OO - 20.5m in the bag and tanked same as Bike it
Lorenzo - Nice 6th and ven better 3rd from Jnr
Jools - Good 18m done
DS2 - 15 in bad conditions hats off
PMJ - Good strong running in the middle of your 14m
Ant - Good half - enjoy the taper...

Im looking forwards to an easy day tomorrow... this should be my biggest week milage wise with 63.55m, think I hit 60 1 or 2 more times, but dont think I go over what I have done this week, at present feel really strong and really happy to race so well on really tired legs.

Take care

Minni - excellent plan! Get ready for the invasion Ant!

Had a bit of a lie in this morning as I didn't get enough sleep on Friday thanks to my neighbours doing karaoke Christmas songs in the middle of the night (yes, really!). 23.36 miles done on a hilly route so as to avoid having to run the last 8 miles into the headwind, which was quite considerable. It was also snowing. Pace was 8.01s despite me trying to slow it down. It was so cold that my legs just wanted to get me back home again ASAP!

RFJ - cracking running this weekend! And Ant, I love how you've just nonchalantly knocked out a 1.28 HM. How long till the marathon? Time to ease back now?

Respect due to OO50, Jools, Scooby and Bike It for bagging them there miles in what sound like horrible just-get-it-done conditions.

Lorenzo - Well done on that 6th place - brilliant stuff. Just a shame Nell stood you up. Is that round the racecourse gallops and Langley Vale? A beautiful part of the world, but tough going, I'd say.

Bluemoon - Congratulations on that PB - by 21 mins! That doesn't happen every day, so enjoy it! I applaud your post-race re-fuelling strategy, btw. I'm doing the Maratón de Langreo in two weeks, here in Asturias, northern Spain. 

RFJ - Fantastic race, really well-paced. Bodes very well for you.

Speedy - You can invade any time you want!! After the party-induced aggro of Friday night and your frustrating day yesterday, to go out today and nab 23 and more miles is the stuff of legend. As for me, two weeks to go for the marathon. Today's effort was not all that nonchalant tbh, but satisfactory and a confidence-booster. This was officially the first week of the taper and I did 46 miles, which is about 78% of my maximum weekly mileage. It's been a shorter campaign sort of by necessity, compared to other years, so the taper will really start now, and not three weeks out as I would normally do.

Great reading of the weekend's exploits, I can foresee that April is going to see a number graduating from class. Not only that, we have PMJ demonstrating his more gentle side, yes the bloke who smashes up any vans that cut him up when he's running. I suppose that it was no surprise that Ant vO is offering a bed space to all the females on the thread. That suave charm will work every time you know.

The weather we've had in the North East today I wouldn't blame anyone for leaving. Come back soon and tell ubout the run Minni, I know you ran well in tough conditions. Well done Ant and the other racers. Sorry i didn't make it to Spen Bluemoon. I wouldn't relish driving in those conditions today, but I could have done with a race to motivate me. Sounds like you had a crcker anyway, that's a massive PB.

Bluemoon86 wrote (see)

As for me, the infamous Spen 20 road race this morning. A very hilly one in West Yorkshire made worse by the cold and wind. Nevertheless, very happy with my time and took a whole 21 minutes off last years time. Hot bath, big fry up, chocolate digestives and a snooze on the sofa watching the rugby. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/282670106

Greta time but how about a report? The garmin trace looks as though you set off way too fast on the first mile which is uphil as well: 6:23 is sub 2:50 pace and a whopping 30 seocnds plus faster than the average for you run. 

Blisters wrote (see)

I suppose that it was no surprise that Ant vO is offering a bed space to all the females on the thread.

In fact, the invitation was open to all on here. Or was that just for lunch?

Question For those running halfs next week, how much are people tapering for it?

Im not sure how much milage/training to cut for the coming week, i have run around 50mpw for last 4 weeks. im in need of a good half time so i can get a proper indicator of my realistic Marathon pace.Advice welcome.

Thanks

David

AR - ouch! Hope everything's OK. Sounds like you had a brilliant time and what a fantastic country to go running in. Mrs L and I went there a few years ago, but I wasn't allowed to take my running kit!!

SJ - well worth going to, but from what I hear you're better going in June than August: longer days and fewer insects!!! 

Ant - to be honest, I'm not sure exactly where the run went. It was close to the race course, but not actually on it. Didn't see any horses while we were running, but there were a couple of Tesco home delivery vans around and maybe they got frightened off! 

CL: I agree with Slokey.  I simply re-arrange my scheduled sessions so that my rest day is the Friday if possible and my shortest run of the week is the day before.  But no miles are cut out of the schedule (although I did switch weeks around so that Bath fell in a cut-back week).  Back up to 65M this week, however, and something similar next week as well.

Nice running, Ant.  1.28 when not flat out is a great sign.

Carboloader- is it wise to do a half mara next week after a 20 mile race today?

AR if you wanted to man-up you sure went about it in brutal way- stitches and all. Let's hope there's no side effects for your running. 

I would come to Spain Ant but I wouldn't want to play goosberry....

AR Hope everything is fine and no lasting effects. Sounds like a wonderful run.

Ant 1:28 is very impressive indeed, especially at comfortably hard. Bodes well for two weeks time.

Lorenzo Great race and finishing position. Part of the planning is knowing the course. What was your time?

RFJ Very impressive and slightly crazy weekend

Speedy Great finish to a slightly messed up week.

Bluemoon A minute a mile PB points towards great things. I agree a report would be nice.

'OO'50 - You must be mistaking me for someone else, i havent run 20mile today let alone a race, try 4.5 mile recovery lol.

RE: PMJ and reply to marathon pace query

Sorry for slow reply, many thanks, info was really useful.  22m with lots of hills at a more suitable pace than previous weeks.  Nice to finish strong.

Sorry I'm going to do a quick recap of my race today and read back tomorrow because I is a wee bit tipsy.

So after pulling out of the half last weekend and spending the week not sure if I was ill or injured, or both, or neither I wasn't sure what to expect today.   There was a lot of snow on the ground when I arrived at the start of this hilly half and strong winds forecast.  I felt the most important thing was to have a strong run whether that be MP or HMP or whatever, which would get some confidence back.  I was aware that last week I felt ok (ish) till 5 miles then it all started to go wrong so had decided not to go off at pb pace then try and build it up later in the race.

I'm not going to go into the shambolic organisation at the start of the end (grrr ) but a warmup didn't really happen.  The first 5 miles were undulating with quite a climb from about 3.5 -5.5.  I kept the effort at a manageable effort and didn't look at the pace too much but when I did I was quite pleased with what I saw.  Got to about 6 miles when it leveled out with more gentle inclines and was pleased to bag a few fast miles (around 6:40 ish) before the hills hit again a bit later on.  All in all I felt strong throughout and had the oomph to push on where it levelled out.  The last mile was tough into a headwind and the snow came on in a horizontal fashion.  Difficult to see and trying to run about 400m up a narrow drive with traffic coming nose to nose in both directions didn't make for a heroic finish but crossed the line at 1:32:47.  7 fecking seconds outside my pb! But even though, I am pleased to run that time on such a hard course after a week of being under the weather and not full out.  Just the confidence building run I needed right now.

Poacher - after today there's a very good chance I will ditch the Coastal marathon and opt for the TM instead.  A lot better organised.