VLM 2010 Survivors

Same here Rod. My last two HM have been 1.55 and 1.56 so I know it was the lack of respect for the last half of the Marathon that done me in - thinking I could survive on the Body Fuel alone. My 30k Stamford race was 2.40 with some BIG hills and yet by 30k at the Marathon it was over 3hours!

I'm with Suze about the congestion - but that said I will do the ballot - its infectious, else I may look for other ventures!!

Zaba I think it is for those brave people who have done or  are training for an Ironman event.

Kim I think you did really well last Sunday  that extra 10K is hard, I had 8 gels and that maybe wasn't enough, started the race well hydrated and took water on during the race, we were both new to the distance at least now we have some knowledge, I did respect the distance though

In the meantime I am going to relax carry on training and see where it takes me, I have a race here called the Hilly 100 towards the end of May a 100 mile race with teams of 10 and yes it is hilly, it's a good event even if I don't go that well it will be a good experience, it starts at 5 am and goes on all day, our club hopes to enter 3 teams.

I will do some Parkruns too now I am registered, nice slow one this Saturday so I can build on it!

Evening all!

My Garmin reckons my top speed was 2:02/mile - HAHAHAHAHA - I don't think I'm physically capeable of moving that fast!!

Thought of going for a couple of miles' trot this evening but decided against it, even tho I feel fine. Need to concentrate on some bike/swim over the next few weeks, got the Cheshire tri at the end of May - slight panic!

Soooooooo tempted to go for another marathon later in the year but did promise hubby I would kick back on the training stuff for a bit...will see.

I have two states in my head.  "Injured" and "100% fit".  So having gone from one to what I considered to be the other, I started obesssing once again about making my 100 miles a month target and went from diddly squat in March to 70ish miles for the month by the last Sunday in April.

Why am I surpirsd that various bits have gone sproink again?  In any other area of my life - home or work, or even advising newbie runners - I have a brain.  So why does it switch off and glide into neutral when it comes to my own training?

Somebody take their rolling pin to me.....

Pinks the camaraderie is great I think and hope we will all be on here every day and meet up again.

Its good to enjoy your running, even though it was hard I really enjoyed Sunday the whole thing start to finish. Keep plugging away you are capable of doing sub 1.55 for the HM of that I am sure.

I did most of my LSr's at 10mm if I had gone on my own they would have been 9.30 or so, still will know for next time if I am going for a quicker time the long runs will need to be faster too.

Hash RW this Month page 64 "bestTraining Secret"

You have nothing to prove to anyone so just take it easy I say, easier said than done I guess.

Those 2 weeks of no running at all plus a dam good physio got me to that field In Blackheath last Sunday, that is for definite

Zaba wrote (see)

OT but what is the pirate thing that some has after the RW subscriber thingy???

*Brandishes both rolling pins at Hash*  I think you have nicked my mileage as I won't be making 100 for the month unless I do an LSR in the next 2 evenings

Pinks - training for Abingdon I was advised (by a marathon running coach) to do LSR at MP + 90.  I was also doing a shorter LSR midweek of 8 - 10 miles at not much faster.  I've only gone sub 4.30 once so far but that was there and until 20 miles I was on for around 4.20.  Blew it by going too fast early on due to the effect of knowing lots of marshalls and then running with a group that were just that bit too quick.  I intend to work on sticking to 10 mm next time.

The other suggestion which I did was to run at LSR pace for my target marathon time.  That is my longest ever training run at around 21.5 miles and it did hurt at the end but meant I'd done the time on my feet.  Would need to look at my log to see how long before I did it.

Really interesting reading everyone's thoughts/tips in terms of their split times versus how they trained and how they could improve.

I'll fully admit to not really listening to the "LSR should be slower than MP" advice and just doing my own thing. Looking at my training log, I was consistently faster than my marathon pace on all my LSR's. I just wasn't really sure what time I was looking at since it was my first one, so I just ran to how I felt. All of my LRS's had a pretty even pace throughout and felt comfortable (apart from my last awful 17 miler), so I figured I was OK. 2 weeks before London, I knocked 8 mins off my HM PB with 1h46.

My half way split was 02:01:23, so pretty much a perfect split as I finished in 4:03:32. It's interesting to see when I look at my last few miles, I knocked out a 8:39MM at mile 20 before smacking into the wall at mile 22. Even so, my pace only dropped to 9:20MM for 1 mile before I managed a 9:03MM and a 8:44MM for miles 24 & 25. I felt horrendous at the time. Almost like I wasn't moving!! Can't believe I maintained the pace. Really odd. I think at a different, less crowded marathon I could possibly have bagged sub4 though. I guess I'll find out when I run Leicester Marathon in October... eek!!

Anyway, for those who are disappointed with their times. Every single person in this thread has commented on how danm busy the route was. I wasted a lot of energy getting stressed and running around slower runners & walkers. When you're aiming for a specific time (I had set my expectations of my first marathon a little high) then you're going to waste both mental and physical energy trying to keep the pace up despite the crowds. Also, the support was defening at times and I got quite overwhelmed at a few points by the amount of people cheering. That's got to take something out of you too. Plus... well.. it's London innit. All that energy wasted on the excitement of the occassion when you should be running.

In short, stuff it. There will be other, quieter marathons where you can achieve your full potential. The main thing is that we took part and WE DID IT. Well done everyone

Ooops, sorry for the ramble

Hash .. you're asking why ... could it possibly be that running is a drug and we all need our fix?  Ease back lovely!

 VikW - I managed to go sub-2 for a HM for the first time 6 months ago, after - well - almost 10 years of trying.  For me it was a combination of things .. chipping away at my time, so I eventually had the confidence to know I could go that fast, doing quite a few 10k runs, regular parkrun sessions to keep tabs on my improvements, losing some weight and taking on quite a punishing (for me) half mara training schedule.

MarkStreet - Mr Thistle remembers the hulk - he told me that the 50-something yr old mother standing next him in the crowd was shouting rather obscene things at him!

Chipsy - this running lark eh?  I must've spent the best part of 14-15 miles on Sunday thinking "why the heck (or similar) did I think it was a good idea to do this again??, Whatever possessed me??"  Finished in floods of tears - sheer relief, complete exhaustion, whiff of happiness at PB, but mostly tears of absolute relief at it being over ... and here I sit, 3 days later.. thinking about the next.  Brilliant eh?

Little gentle plod for me today, felt weird for first half mile but after that was revelling in it.  I too can now negotiate stairs in front facing direction.