Talkback: ASICS Target 26.2 Team: Craig

Tenjiso wrote (see)

Oscarr - that's a very useful description of the shoes.  Do they also have neutral/stability trail/XC shoes like the road shoes?  From your description, I could do with a reasonable pair of trail shoes for a route that starts and ends on road (about 3 miles), then goes along tracks/bridal path and across some fields (3 to 10 miles).

Ruth - could I ask you to comment on my tea and coffee consumption please - on average I have the following numbers of mugs per day;

Tea - english tea with semi-skimmed milk and no sugar - 5

Coffee - strong flavoured with semi-skimmed milk and no sugar - 3

De-caff coffee - after dinner - with semi-skimmed milk and no sugar - 1

I have a good balanced food diet on most days.  Thanks. 

Louisa Setchfield wrote (see)

Good luck with the job Craig.  And wowsers that's a few early runs this week - good work!

Sam: I have a question if that's ok?  I'm following the RW sub 5:00 plan and tomorrow it says I'm meant to do a '3M hill session or circuit', but I'm not sure what that might consist of.  I'm planning to do it at the gym for once on the treadmill for a bit of a softer surface as I've run on road for the last 3 weeks, but not sure what a hill session might consist of.  Any pointers?  Oh and just started reading your Marathon from start to finish book - very interesting read!

Hi Louisa, hope you manage to get this response before your session.

 I recommend trying to replicate a hilly route. So jog easy to warm up (5 mins) and then settle into your steady pace (5 mins). Set the gradient to 3-5 per cent and run for 1 minute, maintaining an even effort level as you had on the flat (ie. you might need to slow down to keep your effort level from going through the roof!) Go back to flat running when the minute is up, returning to your steady pace for 4 mins. Repeat the hill/flat bit 4 times in total. Finish with 5 mins easy jog. That should be about 3 miles. Adjust as necessary for your pace though. Hope that helps. Really pleased the book is proving useful

3 cups of tea and 1 lovely Monmouth coffee for me today!

Anyway - time to look ahead to next week's training for Craig and everyone else on the sub 4.30 programme. We've also got the training day in Birmingham to look forward to next Saturday. (Believe me, the video will be entertaining as I careen up and down the towpath between Craig, Emma and Rosie on my borrowed Brompton bike

Craig's week 5 is pretty similar to the 4.30 Ultimate Schedule, other than some day juggling. The only difference is the long run is longer by 2 miles. This is the first time a 'fartlek' session has appeared on the prog, so thought I'd explain a bit about it. All you RW readers know it's the Swedish word for 'speedplay' I'm sure. But what should you actually do? Although it's often recommended as a good informal type of speedwork for beginners, in my experience, they often just end up not knowing what to do. I recommend planning out what you're going to do first. For example, the other night, I took my group on a lampost fartlek round the only lit streets in Rye. You had to run very easy between the first two lamposts and then speed up to tempo pace as you passed the next one and then to your 5km pace for next one, then back to easy again. There was a 4-5 min jog in between and then the same on the way back. So Craig, this is an ideal opp to try out your new revised paces. You could divide it down into 3 x 1 miles and run quarter of a mile easy, quarter mile brisk, then quarter of a mile fast then quarter of a mile at 800m pace. Then back to easy for start of next mile. Or you could do it by minutes and do 5 mins easy, then a pyramid of 'fast' efforts lasting 1, 2, 3, 4 mins with equal length running easy between each one, finishing with 5 mins brisk! Or something! Just an idea. I concede that fartlek is meant to be a bit more spontaneous than this, but it gives you a framework.

Week Five w/c 23/1/12 (26M)
Mon Rest
Tue 1M jog, then 3M (or 30 mins) fartlek, then 1M jog
Wed Rest
Thu 4M steady
Fri 5M slow
Sat Long run – 2 hours with last 20 mins at marathon pace. (Training day)
Sun Rest

BoDuke wrote (see)

Phone & anger.... Let me type... You stupid... Thing...

Funny, but this is a bit like telling everyone about my running then includes the rest of my life and the stuff going on too... I suppose it shows how central running becomes in our lives without realising it. Becomes Integral to who we are and what we do... Interesting.

Definitely Oscarr - it's nice to hear about every-one's trials and tribulations!

For goodness sake I've been reviewing my new kit and writing made up recipes!

Bad luck Craig! Hope things work out for the best as these things usually do....

Will look forward to see how you're gonna work out your races after Paris.  I've only just come up with an annual plan that I feel comfortable with.  Basically looks like this

Oct - Dec - No intervals but xc races (and build up to 50 mpw)

Jan & Feb - Start intervals + xc races

March - 10k or ½ marathon

April & May - concentrate on 5ks

June - 10k

July - 10 mile

August - ½ marathon 

September - Marathon

Any views? 

Hi Guys... Recovered from vrazt week by going into town and parting with £500 for a new oven. It was I either clean it or get a new one: not a hard decision that, bring out the plastic...

Now down to target weight!!! 69.9kg when I jumped on the scales yesterday. Then the office manager bought pizza for everyone... Oh...  

Back to regular early runs now as Thom is back to Nursary on Monday. That'll make him happy then...

Tenjiso: The paces are below.

Slow 10.30-11

Easy 9.45-10.30

Steady 9-9.45

Brisk 8.30-9

Fast For mile reps or longer 7.40-8
For 800m 3.40-3.50 per rep (or 7.20 to 7.40 pace per mile)

Long run tomorrow is going to be interesting...

SB: That's looks like some careful planning there, you building up the distance over the year and then dropping again after marathon.  Interesting... Think work might have called me last night, but if they don't that flight suit still on offer? 

Oscarr: very much indeed. In trying not to sound too cheesy, it is love.  Forms a central part of life: food, drink, sleep, time, effort, pain, sweat and sometimes blood (when forgetting to put Bodyglide on sensitive bits...)  are all given over to it... One black coffee, no sugar and a can of Pepsi Max thus far. I don't do decaff either...doesn't have the same

Sam:  Saturday is going to be interesting then. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with everyone again and also going for this run with the others.  Tuesday's session will be the first time I've done fartleks, so was a bit worried about what to,  Good guide, thank you.  Think I'll start with pyramids and see how I go from there and try to be playful and not too serious.  Going to take practice to get used to varied speed at random. I can hold a pace once i've gotten used to it, but then struggle to be stable once it's changed, need to keep checking, so think this will be really useful. 60 laps? Noooooooooo That would be why triathlon is never on the cards for me... 

Louisa: Hope you got your session in and was goo?. Not a gym member but looked at this nordic treadmill thing in the shop... Have you seen them???????? something like a 45 degree incline!!!  I could feel my legs burning and my lungs objecting just looking at it.

Emma: And very good they are too!!! 

MWW: So sorry to hear about that.  Hope they both get better as soon as possible. So upsetting when your children are ill . Surprised me then first time Thom got ill, I thought I was going to explode... Did you get your long run done and did it go OK?

Right, I'm going to pull a rose bush out in the garden now. What a Rock 'n Roll lifestyle I have... Didn't see this coming when I was 20... 

Oh, no splits:

Thursday

   Time     Distance Pace

1    11:05.6    1.00    11:06
2    17:14.7    2.00    8:37
3    11:09.9    1.00    11:10

Friday:

Oh, not recorded each mile but ave pace was 10:38. Raining like hell too. 

Hey Craig - looks like we have similar target time for our training run - so lucky you can have me bending your ear about recepies etc for a couple of hours!

... oh what's that -  you've decided to run a 7min miles instead?!

We are so critical about ourselves aren't we?!

Its the chats on the long runs that keep me going - I don't go out in the evening so it is my LSR that actually provide my social life. You can have great conversations as there are no other factors (like kids) stopping the flow of conversation. I really love running with the two folks that I run with. Colleen especially (who I did my mara prep with last year) has become one of my closest friends.

We can have a good old gossip on Saturday!

None of you looked bad/silly/tubby/any other negative adjective in the video - just had a nosy! Silly billies .  You two seemed to be the stars of it - did the others run away?

mcs - I'm doing Fleet but had to pay for it as it was full by the time they contacted us.  They've very kindly said I can have 2 places next year instead awwwwww.  Sounds like you've a busy weekend on your hands - enjoy!