Are you inspired by Alex Vero's ambitions, or slightly insulted?

Marmite How's the training going? I've got my 6 weeks of base training done since injury, so starting on 14 weeks of harder stuff this week... need a race thsi weekend to get a baseline as haven't raced properly since last year in July... so god knows what I'd do now for a 10k.

Cheers Pug

Pug,
Good to hear that you've been able to get some consistent training in after the various woes that you've endured in the not too distant past. Have you any idea of your target time for Amsterdam or are you waiting to see how your race goes this weekend?

Training has been going ok. Seemed to take forever to fully recover from London this year. But since then have been getting a fair few miles in and a decent sprinking of races. Finally got around to registering for Amsterdam yesterday, so, see you there.

Alex,
Don't know if you're looking at this thread at all? If so, how's your training going? Are you on target for a crack at sub-2:30? How's the movie shaping up?

Target times for Amsterdam, haven't got anything in my mind... I'm running Congleton half 2 weeks earlier then taper, so I'll get a judgment off that... as for now, I'm simply hoping I can get 14 weeks of injury free running in my legs if so then I should do something decent... but for now, No.1 prority is remaining injury free...

 I know Alex looks at this trhead... been speaking with him recently and he's only just started back after a long layoff like myself... but he's running Amsterdam, and we might even run it together as I imagine we'll be in similar shape by then. 2:30 will most definatley NOT be on though, even Alex will admit that!

As for the long recovery from London, well, in the long run as you knwo it'll probably do you good... I was stupid after Edinburgh last year, within 48 hours I was knocking out an 8 miler at 6:05 pace with the club... which is insane really... hence 5 weeks later bang

Cheers Pug

Did Alex Vero try to become a Keith Anderson in just two years? KA was a natural since he run 10k in 31m in his first year. On top of that it took him years of very meticulous training to get a 2:17 marathon. Nature and nurture.

Still, AV's training log could be interesting if it were more detailed and updated more often. For example, it would be good to know how many miles a week he was doing before getting injured and the length of his mesocycles (weeks or months?)

Alex's blog explains it

http://www.theroadtobeijing.co.uk/roadtobeijing.htm

Its shame it didnt work out for him but some people  have alot more obstacles in their way than others.

Im pleased Alex is giving him another chance. Hopefully with the extra help he is giving him, he'll be a different runner in February.   

IanRunner - Cheers for that, he must have put the update on today as I did check the site this morning.

I guess you can't blame the guy for not owning up to the lack of training, not going to get many chances to fly to the UK in his position. Talk about second chances, AV must really believe in him to send him back with the funds to train full time for 4 months. Will be very interested in the results next year.

Having just read through most of this the think that most appalls me about Vero's claim was the lack of ambition.  2:15?  2:15 - that shows precisely the problem we have.  Why would anyone aspire to run 2:15 when that is mediocre at best at International level?  Such a time, should he have, amazingly, managed to reproduce it in the race would have got him somewhere around 20th.  What is the point of finishing 20th?

Far more interesting would be to say that you planned to qualify for the Olympics and win the Olympics in a time of sub two hours - being the first person to have done so.

And that is what I intend to do.

Saviour,

Sounds very interesting. How are you planning on doing this? What is your current marathon time?

Good Luck 

Cheers IanRunner. 

Details.  Details.  Details

I have simple idea that the more one runs, the faster one gets.  But more specifically, working on speed, then building up endurance.

Current marathon time is 3hrs

i wish Alex much luck

He does'nt insult me particulary in the slightest -

having said that - i realise what some are saying

i expect ( actually i know ) there are some that i peeve with my posts and ambitions

thing is it's there to inspire -

can't win them all -

Marmite You still on for Amsterdam then? What kinda time you going for? I've had about 8 good weeks of running now injury free and ran a TT Half last Sunday just for an idea of what shape I'm in... and the answer is not that good rofl. However, I'll eb toeing the line, if you see me over there mate, be sure to give me a shout. The last year I've had, I just wanna get around without breaking down hahaha... let me know how you're doing anyway fella!

Cheers Pug

Tom, ye of little faith.

 If I were Bekele then I have learnt English nearly as fast as I run.

 Sadly I am not, and am starting a lot further back than he is.

I am in my early thirties and started running two years.  Messed around for the first year, started taking it more seriously in the second.

Due to my advancing years it will have to be 2012 as I wil practically be a OAP in 2016.

My plan is to develop outside the gaze of the public eye, get to the Olympic A standard from a race where I will just be 'jogging' and then take the competitors unawares.  When I start of with a punishing pace they will pay me no heed and put it down to exurberance and realise only too late that I can maintain that pace throughout by which point they will be unable to react.

Good idea about the sub 2 hour thread, I may start one once I have got my sub 2:30.

O, and as for injuries...who can say?  I have never incurred an injury of any note before but then I have never undertaken the kind of intensive training that I will need to to achieve this

Keep us informed of your progress SOBMR,

A blog or thread detailing your training would  be very interesting.

Pug,
I mentioned over on the Amsterdam thread that I'd switched to the Half a while back. I couldn't get my head straight to focus on another marathon this year - I guess that London took more out of me, both physically and mentally, than I had initially acknowledged. Furthermore, the only way I'm going to run the time I want for the marathon is to improve my half marathon time by a further 2 mins. So with that in mind, I've decided to spend the rest of the year focusing on the half, with a view to getting faster, then focus on the marathon after Christmas and aim to run either Paris or Rotterdam. So, in response to your question regarding time, if I can get within 1 minute of my current PB for the half, I'll be happy.

Really good to hear that you're back in business. After the tough time with injuries that you've had, I think it's great that you're back out there and racing again. Do you have a target in mind for Amsterdam? Very best of luck and let us know how you get on.

SOBMR,
Hunter S. Thompson has some excellent advice on how to win a marathon by taking people "unawares" in his book, "The Curse of Lono". Unfortunately, Dr. Thompson's degree of sobriety was roughly equivalent to your grasp of reality ; - )

So with Amsterdam now here, I looked back over the thread a bit, and back at the Road To Beijing website. I saw a nice looking an interesting 3min video trailer for the documentary, which implies that the climax to the whole project is the Amsterdam marathon, now focusing on 3 athletes (Vero, Abebe, and Ben Moreau). How will they fare? Exciting stuff.

But that short video trailer aside, you'd have thought the project had died on its arse. I hope it hasn't. But training logs, results, blogs, reports pages are all sitting as they were months ago. It doesn't look good.

Shame - despite (or maybe because of) the disagreements that Vero caused amongst the running community, it promised to be an interesting piece of work - whether he made it or missed by miles, and still interesting when the focus changed to Ethiopian v. British talent, training, opportunity etc..

mmmm...marmite wrote (see)

SOBMR,
Hunter S. Thompson has some excellent advice on how to win a marathon by taking people "unawares" in his book, "The Curse of Lono". Unfortunately, Dr. Thompson's degree of sobriety was roughly equivalent to your grasp of reality ; - )

Quality...

Marmite Well, to be honest mate, I ran 1:19:50 for the Swinton half Marathon 11 days ago which came out of no where as I thought I was no where near in that shape in such a short period of time... however, target for Amsterdam is sensible for once, 2:28 and Sub3... simply because I just don't have the long miles in my legs   However, it'll be onwards and upwards and a sub 75 minute champs attempt near the end of November as I forgot to send my GFA app in as I was on holiday at the time... pillock I know!

Good luck in the half mate, I'll keep an eyeout to see how you do...

 Cheers Pug