sub 4 hour group,if anyone wants to get together

Martin - you may remember you paced both me and Tutu to sub 4 in VLM 2010... as steady as a rock. Guess you won't charge much for your service at Brighton 

Easy 7.5m this morning in the forest as part of our Club Children in Need effort. 3 (and a bit) laps of the Wilverley enclosure circuit (2.25m). The record is 21 apparently 

Darn it, I doubt that pacing would help me n my dodgy knee!

Sorry Martin there's no WAY I could run at 8.xx pace in a mara, even with walk breaks.  Mind you I sometimes wonder if I really should just HTFU and stop *thinking* slow thoughts.

AMAZING swim this morning. About to blog about it because it was just so uplifting and so different to the one a couple of weeks ago which I think really freaked me out.  Don't know what's changed -but my mental attitude may have a lot to do with it. And I don't think the sea temp has dropped that much lately which perhaps has given me a chance to acclimatise a bit.  And of course the wonderful sunny blue sky is massively helpful.  But today was 37.xx mins. Actually did some faster swimming as training rather than just swimming to try to warm up. And a lovely atmosphere, too. 6 of us all similarly paced having a huge laugh.  We even did the Seal Salute (whipped off our costumes and whizzed them round our heads).

Then a good walk with AR which helped because we needed to sort loads of stuff out. Then a quick snifter at the pub and now am on the sofa in front of the rugby. Need to do the ironing though..zzzz

Awesome marathons Jovi and Martin.

Oh Susan . What a horrible shock. Carpe diem.

Seems a bit blunt to post my blog now, but it does talk about feeling glad to be alive so here goes.

I made it to the 10k in Battersea Park yesterday and it went well although I didn't quite PB: Time 40:54 - 3 seconds outside. Splits 04:02, 04:02, 04:01, 04:01, 04:05, 04:03, 04:12, 04:12, 04:07, 04:09. (I actually thought I was running at 4:00/km over the early kilometres, but my watch very slightly over recorded the distance as 10.1 km.)

I just didn't have the stamina to maintain my pace. Up until k7 I felt really comfortable at the pace of around 4:00/km, but at that point fatigue hit. As iklebutn noted in our Skype conversation this evening "hardly surprising with all the parkruns". Also my Running School course spanned half of Septmenber and all of October and as a result I was running short intervals and focussing on technique - nothing over 10k in October. Time to up the mileage over the winter! I'm hopeful that with increased stamina I can get much closer to my 40 minute goal.

So sorry to hear your news Susan.

Bad news Susan. Friend of mine died this August only 50 with brain tumour he had run London Marathon at least six times under the banner with a championship place and was a sub three hour runner.  He got married two years ago for the first time to a friend of ours and then got this earlier this year, went blind and suffered badly. Really tragic..... ENJOY life folks its very short........ Sorry to mention that, must be Monday morning blues!!
Great running to those who went sub four this weekend very envious. Well done.
Had a 7.5 miler yesterday morning watching the sun come up over Monsal Head as I came out of one of the tunnels on the trail, lovely run. Rabbits, birds, heron in the river and not a single person around, well it was 7.30am.  Need to build stamina over the winter as anything over about 17-18 miles my stick legs dont like. Any suggestions? The ticker is good its the legs that let me down or maybe its the head?

Gosh Susan and mcs sorry to hear of sad things.

Yes, life is short but wide.

mcs, as AH said... Carpe Diem. Sure we've all regretted things we haven't done or said to friends/ family, then you leave too late. I have 3 sisters and didn't talk to one for 3-4 years.. we don't get on that well, but have made up.

That early morning run sounds lovely. As for endurance, a longer weekend run, mine is always 11-12 miles minimum, but often more. Also strengthen the legs? You get speed & endurance then - that really has worked for me, going sub 3:30 and from 48 min to 40 min 10k in a year. Could be at a gym, or at home. Only need a few things.

Cicero, your answer is a lot like mcs's but for 10k distance - you need to get longer runs in, maybe 8-10 miles for endurance? Also need to be sub 4 min km to get your target, say 3:55, even less if an undulating course. Maybe book a half marathon to help. Time on your technique will pay off soon.

I'm just waiting on the right 10k course to go sub 40 min after that race yesterday, worked out average 6:20 min mile pace for ~5.4 miles. So close.

AH noticed any theraputic benefits with the cold swimming? I read a bit about cold thermogenesis and wondered. and no I'm not tempted. heard mentions of better sleep, recovery etc. Or just a placebo thing.

http://www.fitnessfg.com/2012/07/cold-thermogenesis-fitness-feature-you.html

Just going to start a 16 week schedule to a 9th March race, its a 21 mile very hilly fell, road, trail, field race near us. So going to imagine its a marathon and use a marathon schedule. I have plugged in my 1.42.50 half marathon time and 25 to 30 miles per week training on the RW Smart Coach and notice immediately that the Sunday long runs are longer than I have been doing. It starts with a 10 miler so guess I need to up the longer runs. Find them abit boring, when training for Edinburgh this year when I missed by 8 minutes I did most of the long runs bar one I think. Did tend to run them abit fast so probably an error.  My 10k time done in training not in a proper race is 46 minutes but that was on my own, so know with others around me could do better.  Off to google leg strengthen exercises. I do cycle but maybe need to up the mileage and do more hills.