Moraghan Training - Stevie G

SG - Yes, I'm getting that feeling!  I'm sure I'll win one one day.  It doesn't matter too much, but my son keeps asking whether I won and it'd be nice to say 'yes' once.

Have you considered that the speedy chap in the santa get-up may actually have been the real Santa?

Dachs - my youngest thinks i win every race as i come home with a finishers medal, as only the winners get medals !!! 

SS - you mentioned a page or so back that you didnt like the Asics Hyper XC spike, what is it you didnt like about them?  was it quality  etc....?  

reason i ask is i have tried on a few pairs... Brooks mach 13, NB RX240, saucony something or other & the asics hyper and the asics fit the best.    I cant find a shop with the waffles to try on.

Dachs, a  Viking chap from my old club used to ask me after every single race in his stern accent, "Did you win", to which I'd of course answer no.

The one bootleg 5k run in club colours I did win once, I had to blimming seek him out, and as if i was on Deal or No deal say "ask me the question".

That and being "interviewed" for my 5k win, and managing to contradict myself and generally chat all manner of bollacks made the day quite a surreal one.

I was lucky enough that all the quick fella stayed at home for the Leicester Marathon last year. 2:45 was good enough to take the race win.

I have a question for the thread. I've been absent from here for a month since I did my back in and wasn't able to run for 3 weeks. Anyway, I've been doing some gentle running for the last week but there are only 5 and a half weeks to go until Abingdon. I'm in no shape to run a marathon, having done only 3 runs over 30km in the last 5 months with all my injury woe. I could hopefully get into shape to run a 3:05 or maybe a sub 3 in the next few weeks, but it's going to be so far off my best that I'm wondering if I should just can it, or as a 3rd option, just run it for fun and do 3:25 or so. Any suggestions most welcome.

Waz, a marathon sounds a world of pain at the best of times, let alone if you're going in underpar

Question has to go back to you, would you be happy "only" a sub 3 when you've done 2hr 45 before? Other question, is would you run a marathon as a training run? Or for fun?

Warren - i wouldnt force/rush my training to "race" it if i was coming back from injury but i would be prepared to use it as part of my comeback as such.  So build your training up naturally and then go and have a pleasant trot round. You might enjoy the pressure off event and slowly mark the first half and then raise and enjoy the second half. 

Warren. Don't. No marathon attempted, when not in shape, is ever fun in any shape or form. I did Abingdon once in this condition and was already tired at 5 miles. I was twice as tired at halfway, and double that at 20 miles. The blisters on the inside of my overweight thighs didn't help either. After 22 miles the level of purgatory went off the scale. Shit! I even walked for a bit. I still ran ( a term used in the loosest possible way) 3:05. Never again. Actually it took two more errors involving the distance before calling it a day on marathons. The errors were doing them in the first place. On reflection, no marathon is fun period.

Ric F, really? As slow a marathon as 3:05? Sounds an incredible meltdown....Not!

More reasons not to run a marathon!

A nice 12.5 miles in 92mins for me. Feet up for the evening now. Legs responding surprisingly well this week.

You're an animal Stevie! I thought I was pushing it a bit doing a double Monday, intervals Tuesday and my long run today - but my race was only half the distance of yours!

Warren - difficult quandary to answer that! Why don't you try a long progression run building to MP and see how the legs feel before you come to a view?  If you have a nother marathon coming soon, it could be useful as a sociable training run if you take it easy and  it doesn;t actually set you back.

14 hilly off-road tonight for me in 2 hours. Luckily back just before the heavens opened! Bit of an odd one, as the first 8 miles felt very sluggish and I was beginning to think it was a mistake, but then miles 8-12 felt full of running for some reason. 12-14 was a different matter!

SG - yesterday's recoveries actually came out at about 1:45. Maybe still a tad long, but I didn't want to push too hard so soon after racing (my excuse anyway!)

Thanks for the ideas guys. Just as insight to my level of masochism, I really enjoy 50km training runs around Box Hill. I have a lot of natural endurance and can run at around 75% max HR for hours on end before I start to feel like I need to stop. I think I'll probably go for Dean's suggestion and run it as a very easy training run and will see how I feel at halfway and just try and enjoy the second half as much as possible. I think I would probably be more satisfied with a 3:20 that felt nice and comfortable than busting a gut to run something nowhere near my best.

It's still 40 or so days to go. Tonight I managed 8 miles with a few quickish ones to finish. That's a lot of progress since doing 5km of painful run/walk this time last week.

Dean - what a cracking HM on the weekend! I have to agree with SS that you've got a 70 min half to unleash sometime in the not too distant future.

Great running weekend running from Stevie See, Bus and Dachs as well.

Just to get SG shaking his head in further disapproval I've been accepted for the Sandstone trail 'A' race which is 17.1 miles with 1000ft of climb. Fantastic route and one I know well. However, it's the day after the first XC race of the season. Tough weekend! So come Monday the 1st of October I may be wheelchair bound!

Warren, you're a braver man than me to run a marathon and 'enjoy' the second half. What a beast.

it's interesting seeing some of the sessions going on in this thread, is anyone training for the chester marathon here?

Stevie G you seem suprised at the 10m on monday but its a nice short one really that i thought.

after Lake vyrnwy my week so far has been

Monday

10.37mile in 1:14:45 at 7:12 pace.

Tuesday

20.83mile in 2:31:08 at 7:15 pace. first 10mile at 6:30pace, 4.4mile with run club at at a slow 9-9:30pace (new member) then 14.4-end of run at 6:30 pace.

Wednesday

AM)- 8.47mile in 1:03:27 at 7:29 pace.

PM)- 10.52mile in 1:19:52 at 7:36 pace.

thursday will be most likey 17mile with a brisk 10 in middle with a long time lurker of here. then a track session in the evening with run club.

Crikey Andy - 10M the day after a half is just about comprehendable, but then 21 the day after that, a (big 19) double on the Wednesday and then a 17 on the Thursday! 80M in 4 days, with one of them a race - that's a whole new level of masochism! 70M in 7 days would be a big week for most of us! What's your usual weekly mileage and how did you do at Vyrnwy?

I'll get me coat......

Andy, 10miles the day after a half marathon isn't a short one to anyone on this thread....but clearly as you're doing upto 40miles a week more than the highest on this thread, it's a different scenario all together!

100+ miles a week is a hell of an outlay...

It's a bizarre dual world I live in. The guys at work think I'm some kind of amazing training animal..yet in reality they don't know the half of what my training involves.

Then I come on here, and it's like wow...there are some true extreme trainers out there

ps...as UG hasn't posted for a while, I'm sure he won't mind me quoting a session I spotted he'd done.

17x1100 at 3.44 a rep off 90secs.

So that'd be a mere 11miles or so at 5.25ish average pace.

Standard.

Warren, the advice on the marathon is going to depend a lot on your mental processes. If you are a "I've started so I will finish" guy then I would say don't start as there is potential to do a lot of damage by grinding out those last 6 miles when your body is not ready to do so, but if you are able to review the situation as you go and be prepraed to have a DNF against your name then I would say start.I have done marathons before with a specifc goal in mind at 20 miles and when I missed that goal I have pulled out: if you stop at 20 you can run on Monday, if you do the 6 and get a poor time then you can be out for weeks.

The Abingdon course is not too helpful for someone in your situation: essetially a long and thin two lapper it means that at abut 20 miles you are about 6 miles as the crow flies from the start so no easy way to pull out at 20.

Andy, 16x400 at 10k pace is quite a standard doable session.

17x1100 at what must be between his 5k and 10k paces is plain mentalism. I got the impression that a coach had set it for him too...must be a coach from the school of pain.