Target 26.2 - First Timer Steve's Journey to Paris

re laces... lol... when I bought my trail shoes they came looped laced like above, I thought 'hmm, good way to tie laces..must be a trail thing' never thought to apply it to my normal running trainers..

Hey Steve......how is everything going so far with your training? Are you enjoying the variety? Are you doing Dorney Lake Half Marathon as well?

Loved your step by step pictures for the shoe lace tying. I have had similar problems before too.

Enjoy your next run tomorrow. Doing it in leggings again?

Ten - it's tough, isn't it?! I guess it's because at first the distances are very achieveable and distances you run all the time a lot faster... so it's getting yourself in the correct mind-set and thinking ahead, as you said, to when it all ramped up a bit and the runs are a lot longer...

Looking forward to the strength circuit as well Sam.

SB - how strange that you run PBs when not expecting too! Hope I'll be doing the same - got a bit of "going sub 20mins for 5k" competition going on with RunnyRunRun and Sarah O and they are a lot quicker than me! I need all the help I can get 

Your times are pretty similar to mine - I just shade you on 5k but you definitely win the 10k race!

Seren - smoked. Easy. Next?

Sarah - it's a great way of doing them up! (although, as I have already intimated, I am easily pleased!)

Jen - haha well give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Ady - Loving the variety - I've always only ever just gone out for a run and never thought to structure it, mix up the sessions a bit... Loving every minute How about you?

It is a bit of a trek but, yes, going to do Dorney too - be great to catch up.

I keep meaning to post pics of me in the leggings, but I don't want to scare people away from the thread!! 

Haha...I've got my wife to take a photo of me in my leggings, but saving that for the before and after shot, which I'll post just before Paris. It's not for public viewing at the moment.

Glad to hear you're also doing Dorney LAke. Should be a good race. 

It's been excelent so far. It's amazing how much more alert I seem to be when I know I'm having to run at a certain pace. 

Hey hey hey!!  Found you!!! better late than never!! Tigger has joined the party!!

( Tigger - TR24, interested? See 26.2 thread! )

Morning all... I've sent Steve the runner's strength circuit I mentioned and I've, ahem, delegated the task of uploading it here to him. It's a PDF. Will that work methinks? You've all forgotten what a Luddite I am.  
I had forgotten how hilarious Ten is. Is your core disappearing in a pillow of mince pies already Ten? Save it before it's too late

..

Core work is certainly one of my weakness, I'll look forward to reading the doc later,

Thanks Sam

I like the 'worst case scenario' of 3:58 based on a 1:52 half ! My best this year was 1:44 half followed 5 weeks later by 4:05 full - must do better!  Steve has youth on his side so his targets should be achieveable.  (My next go will be Abingdon 2013)

Steve, Great postings! Keen to see what core exercises are needed- mine was so poor at BC Sarah nearly choked!!

Re Shoelaces- I was told to tie mine like that when I bought racing flats- works a treat. The last bit about the double loop- thats the first part of a surgeons knot- are you planning to retrain so soon after the legal success?

Hi Steve, love the thread! Just found out that Brighton is supposed to be a hilly course so not sure if its ideal for a first timer like me but as I'm guaranteed a PB, I can't complain! My other half has decided that we should take a dreaded trip to Oxford St but just maybe I can persuade her to detour past the Topshop etc and into the Asics store!

Paul - some runners think that if a marathon gets one metre above see level it's a hilly course - I blame London for spoiling everybody!

It isn't hilly - honestly! Enjoy it. Finishing your first marathon is one of lifes great joys!

Ady - I agree the world is probably not quite ready for the sight of us in leggings...

Maybe we should agree to a public outing for the leggings at the Dorney Half?

Tigs - what took you so long?!? It's not a party without Tigs... any burning questions for the first-timer?

SC - yep, one of my weaknesses too - I do a few sit-ups and push-ups then completely run out of ideas! Plan to follow...

oscarr - you're not filling me with confidence! When is Abingdon?

Clive - Thanks and yes, I'm loving the laces too - great way to do it (although was tough trying to figure out exactly what pics to take for the step-by-step guide haha)

PAUL - thanks, really enjoying writing it, so I'm glad you're enjoying reading it! Haha exactly - can't go wrong with a guaranteed PB! I'm in the same boat, so as long as we can drag ourselves to the end, we can both be really proud of ourselves...

You should definitely visit the store - it's kitted out with so much stuff and the staff there are great, they really know what they're talking about. One of them is seriously quick as well - 30mins for 10k and 1hr 7mins for a half mara!! He measured his heart-rate on the treadmill and resting it is 48bpm. I thought he was about to start flat-lining...!

Jen - coming up

DS2 - can't wait to cross that line

The long-awaited Strength Circuit

Well, without much further ado, I give you the Sam Murphy Strength Circuit © complete with handy illustrative photos of the various exercises described being demonstrated by the lovely Sam Murphy herself.

Sam explained to me that this strength circuit, whilst not being high impact, should be done 1-3 times a week and would be most effective if carried out on days with less strenuous runs.

The best advice she could give?  As always, it was: listen to your body.

Sam - I must confess that I cheated a bit - my best mate is an award-winning web designer, so he solved the posting problem for me. It's not who you know, it's what you know

Training - Week 1

Today I went out for a 4 mile jog ((10.15-11 mins per mile) with 3 sets of Acceleration Strides to finish.

I have actually just realised when typing that, that I mis-read the training run before I set out and I actually completed the four miles at Comfortable pace (9.10 - 10.15 mins per mile) by mistake  Sam, I'm really sorry - please don't slap my wrist...!

My splits for the four miles were (1) 9:13 (2) 9:22 (3) 9:20 (4) 9:11 which, if I had been running at the correct pace would have been great!

I felt really good the whole way round and finished with more energy than I started with - I had another early start at work today and had to travel to another hearing so I was feeling a little washed out as I headed out of the door but by time I had finished warming up I was feeling pretty good.

Sam showed us some great active stretching exercises at bootcamp that I find really help me to get the blood flowing and get you in the mood for a run, much more so than the static stretching I have always done before.

As a side note, and on the plus side, we won the hearing and the client was delighted - when we got back to his bar, he cracked open a £250 bottle of Cristal champagne... would have been rude not to have a glass! My job may involve long hours... but it isn't all bad

Santa loves bacon wrote (see)

 

 

Seren - smoked. Easy. Next?

 

right so I now discover you are an essex boy and that you prefer smoked to unsmoked......................3 rd strike and you are out

Steve, thanks for sharing the strength curcuits, I'll be adding those to my program, I just tend to do high knees, heel flicks side to sides, squats and lunges etc as a warm up anything else you could recomend.  Sounds like a very happy client, I hope you enjoyed the glass or two of bubbly