Talkback: ASICS Target 26.2 Team: Craig

SB: I'm hanging my head in shame... I have to admit to not eating adequate fruit and veg. Will attempt to improve. Promise . Will start looking for stuff next month I think, post payday...

Emma: I don't think you have to worry about not finishing do you? I think just going for it could be good. Might be liberating even.  About tomorrow, have a nice evening. I'm on the 6:10 train up there in the morning, gonna be nice. I wouldn't put money on you being at the back mate and don't matter anyway really all going at our own paces. Be interesting to see Lee, Colin and Rosie tearing the place up... I don't like dogs either...  had my first nip on arm a few weeks again and really jumpy around them... If they are off a lead on a public footpath, I soooo want to have a go

Splits today (figured out that programmed session will not split miles on the Garmin..)

Summary    55:46.8    5.27    10:35
1    10:34.7    1.00    10:35
2    10:31.6    1.00    10:32
3    10:39.7    1.00    10:40
4    10:37.8    1.00    10:38
5    10:30.4    1.00    10:30
6    2:52.5    0.27    10:32

Ave heart rate of 135 bpm

On heart rates, did some maths and resting heart rate is now 54 bpm and tested max is 197 bpm (did a stress test some time in November I think). Much wider bands than I expected... Think I'm getting fitter... Which is handy seems that's the aim of the game. 

Have a good day folks and speak to your all on 

Morning!

Emma - cross country is so much friendlier than you'd sometimes think and everyone is really encouraging.  Even if you are last - who cares - you'll have done it and every race makes you a little bit stronger.  There is usually an amazing spread of abilities which I think is totally inspiring - so many folk just there because they enjoy it and don't care about how fast they are. I absolutely love it so I may be biased but I say give it a go. (Plus - there's usually tea and cake at the end but this seems to be a league by league arrangement so you'll have to check locally)

Craig - I forgive you - even the cheap (Tesco Value/ Sainsbury basic / grow some of your own) stuff is better than none - usually it's just doesn't quite conform to the marketing guru's perception of size/shape but an apple is an apple whether it costs 71p for a bag of 5 (Tesco value) or £2 odd. (P.S am very jealous of the stats you can produce - it's so interesting - can't wait to get my footpod so I can look at mine.

Hope you both have a fabby fabby day tomorrow - we'll be there with you in spirit - my first ever parkrun tomorrow followed by a 9.5 'undulating' miler on Sunday.  Tell us all when you get home! 

Any plan is bad which is not susceptible to change............thought for the day on my desk calendar as I PACK UP and move offices after four years here..........BT openreach here ready to turn off my broadband..............how will I manage!!

Four lovely miles this am into work in daylight.......at a nice 8.30 average, my half marthon pace. Lovely to run in daylight as january comes to an end.  Cycling is one of my favourite sports and I want to do LEJOG later in life and cycle in France too. I have a book called the Tour de Mont Blanc which is a walk in the alps since I was 22 and still not done that yet so plenty of long term goals for me as I head into the fifties!! I have had so much stick off my 10 year old about that this week..................will be strapping on my HR this weekend too Tenjiso to keep me slow on the lsr.

Have a good weekend especially the famous five tomorrow!!

Sleepy Bear wrote (see)

If you can dream it you can achieve it oscarr. I don't think you're daft enough to try to set yourself unrealistic goals but there's definitely no harm in keeping an overall goal (Boston) to work towards - besides if you don't try you'll never know will you?

Entering the Lakeland half - just me - Ben'll be dog sitting that day.  We'll plan to try and give you a shout once we work out where your route goes.  Will send you my mobile number (to your inbox) nearer the time so we can try and meet up beforehand if you like.

Happy Friday everybody (for tomorrow).  Rest day in my world! 

p.s Craig - not seeing all that much fruit or veg in your diet - Ruth - get him get him get him

All - hope the day is going well for you and looking forward to the feedback. Did a good run this morning with a 3 mile slow run to the local Park Run (Reading) then 3 mile slow back. Park run route was very claggy (northern term for stickey) so even with XC shoes it was slippery and heavy going - happy with the time of 23:15 which is slightly quicker than bootcamp on the track so i must be fitter now

Hey oscarr - yip our parkrun (Black Park) was muddy too - pb for me (only by 6 seconds) and I wasn't killing myself either - happy days. (Not quite as quick as BC for me but then it wasn't on a nice bouncy track!) You're running well if you were even quicker than there - I traditionally don't get my pbs til at least May - hope this is a good sign

Wonder if the guys have finished their canal run - am looking forward to a chatty run with my friend tomorrow ...

Well done SB - see that your Ben did really well again with a sub 16 min - impressive.

Wonder if Sam has been able to cycle fast enough up and down the canal path to stop Emma freezing at the sight of a dog and Rosie heading up the M5 towards Edinburgh ?? Tee hee..!!

good 14 miler there Tenjiso!

Hope you made it back okay Craig - good to meet up with you again. Thanks for the coffee at New Street - my round next time!

Hi Guys,

Yesterday was quality. We went out for a 2 hour run down the canal in Birmingham, very scenic and all that. Emma and I stuck together as we ran. It was really nice for me, I'm totally not used to having other people about for my training runs, so 13.5 miles ended up being a lot easier than it would otherwise have been, thanks Emma and sorry for being shy and snotty... Hope we didn't get too naughty with the paces... 

Sarah's replacement Lucy was great and had a look at my iffy calf... Seems to have stemmed from my lower back, so had some treatment for that... First sports massage, so that was interesting, painful and great. Leg feels sore today, but she warned me about that, not too bruised though .

Ruth was encouraging, thanks very much. Snacks got today and off to work with me tomorrow (on new bike to new office). Fresh start and all that. 

Sam was great (as always). Thanks and hope I didn't let you down. I completely know that I don't like running on tracks... Really don't like it... Need the real world to cope so happy that the local one is inaccessible! Thanks for yesterday, including carry the drinks. 

Colin: no worries mate. Good job I had it, would have fallen asleep on the train (last time I did that I was going to Southampton and ended up in Devon...). 

The group are really cool and I'm really lucky to have Lee, Colin, Rosie and Emma to share the experience with.  Seeing them run is inspiring.

Good work on the runs folks and here's to the next few weeks. 

Hey Craig, it was good to catch up - didn't the day fly by? I kept realising that I had half-finished conversations with everyone... I was going to show you those strength exercises and didn't get round to it. And forgot to explain accel strides to Emma!

It was fun on the canal - worth logging the Brompton up on the train in order to keep an eye on all my 'chicks' throughout the run! You and Emma did a really good job - amazing how you made it back to the turnpoint at EXACTLY the right minute. Good pacing, I'd say. And yes, thank god the marathon won't be run on a 400m oval, eh?

Not sure that riding slowly for 2 hours was best race prep but I went ahead and did canterbury 10 miler today anyway and did OK. Not a pb by any stretch but a respectable 73.41 and my hip behaved perfectly.

Hope you enjoyed a well-earned rest day today - and now it's on to week 6. It's a bit of a departure from the sub 4.30 schedule this week for Craig. Partly because there's no long run but also because he has another club race - a 5 miler. I've also swapped the hill session on Tuesday for the fartlek missed from last week, as with the calf twinge, think it's best to avoid doing demanding hill training this week. The mileage drops temporarily but  what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality And it's good to have the odd break from long runs. His legs won't fall off. Honest...