Overdone it?

Thanks Young Cowboy, and if any other lurkers want to get involved feel free!

Skinny, keep at it, you're doing nicely.

I'm quite excited by your race Wednesday.

Stevie its made me realise il have too start paying more attention to my wee achilles niggle as well.First marathon in 4 weeks  and achilles is a bit tight,no pain at all from it but i need to pay more attention to it than i already do if i want too make the start line injury free.

Good luck with your race on Wednesday Skinny,look forward to reading your report

It's a tricky area isn't it, being so thin, and having trouble getting blood flow until you get running.

I remember it as my first real running niggle...certainly cut a few runs dead. Keeping the calf loose seemed to be the cure for me.

Good luck with the marathon chap. I've done 20 halfs but certainly wouldn't fancy a marathon! What time are you after?

First mara Stevie im after a sub 4 mate,should be do able on the back off my half pb(1.49.06).Trainings going good although im a wee bit knackered after some of the long runs.

After Loch Ness its going be half maras for the forseeable future,as im keen too see how far i can go with them as thats the distance i enjoy the most.I know theres a sub 1.40 in me somewhere next year

Not surprised, must have to do some 20-22milers, which must be mentally knackering as well.

Have you been running for long, are you a vet who know's what's what with training? Or are you a relative newbie on an improvement curve?

running for almost 2 years now Stevie,weight had shot up to 16 stone a few years back so started back in the gym after a few years,then started running slowly and just took it from there.Now down to 11 st 10lb ,enjoy learning about training ,so you could say im on an improvement curve.Im finally realising that if done correctly then the training effect really does happen,compared to when i first started i was probably running all my runs too fast and not seeing much improvements.

i take little snippets on board from a lot of people and  i know for a fact if i didnt listen to the advice i would be out doing daft things like trying to run all my long runs at MP,ive done a couple of 20s already in training and the first one nearly fried my brain ,then on Sunday ran the same distance and it felt a lot more comfortable.Best bit of advice i was given is stress+rest=adaption.

Not running every run medium hard was the best thing I ever learnt. Probably took until a couple of years ago as well, so I spent years doing what I fancied.

Well, stick around pal, keep us up to speed with how the training and racing are going.

I learnt from my own training thread that in attracting loads of similar standard runners, you end up with a better knowledge pool, and cameraderie.

Skinny, don't worry old mucker, this thread will still be your training thread though...You're still the main man on here, whoever shows up

The more the merrier! Welcome aboard Cowboy - good to have another dodgy Achilles on the thread! My plan is to hammer the HM for another year before looking at doing a full marathon so interested in how you will get on over next few weeks and on the big day and what kind of total weekly miles you are having to put in.

Coach, your thread's full of people talking about 5 minute something per mile so I find it hard to understand! Dachs training runs make me feel like puking just reading them! (Yes - I'm an occasional lurker!)

I have goals beyond 7th October too but one goal at a time! Perhaps my 10 year goal should be graduating to your thread!

Update you Wed night/Thurs morning.

Cheers, Skinny

Forgot to tell you about my physiotherapist appointment for this week - turned into a letter telling me how to book a physiotherapist appointment online - earliest appointment was 2nd October - 5 days before race day - didn't sound like a good idea if I'd got that far on my own so I've booked one for 12th which is week after - sounds like a lifetime away!!

Sure are some fasties on my thread Skinny, sometimes I feel pedestrian on that thread, and some of their training is far in excess of what I could see myself doing!

Doesn't hurt to book a physio appointment for after a race day! If you smash the race you might need it

Let's see how the 10k and then half come out for starters. You might decide to sack me if things don't go as they should

Am loving following this thread Skinny & Stevie - as another mid forties runner training to get close to that 1.30 HM (mine's the Reading in March next yr) this is all very encouraging and useful. Best of luck Skinny Phil

Welcome Phil, good luck on that.

Might you consider Wokingham instead/ as well as? The year I did both, I found Reading to be about 90sec slower.

In fairness it wasn't a "fair" comparison, as I'd massively targetted Wokingham, had a week off injured in between, and was probably a little less up for Reading, as I felt the work had been done. Reading does have a couple of mild hills, compared to Wokingham's 3 or 4 motorway bridge inclines though.

Thanks Phil - there are a lot of us 'mid life crisis' runners!

If you want to post your training runs and weekly schedules on here that would be great - would be interested to compare what you are doing and how your times are improving.

Will also be great to have someone training for a race beyond mine to help me keep focus post 7th October.

You never know Stevie might even throw in a couple of tips for you too??

Cheers, Skinny

PS Coach, done my 6 mile Easy with Strides this lunchtime - ready for my first big test tomorrow.

Nice one Skinny, you're nice and ready.

2miles warm up starting with easy jogging, ending with a few strides will get you primed for the race.

Then it's just a case of smashing it as hard as you can on the day, and we'll see where you are.Good luck!

Good luck Skinny,dont be a Jessie,and just nail it lad

hope you smashed it Skinny boy.

Expect a good full report tomorrow mate...splits, feelings, atmosphere...you know the drill from my thread

Sod tomorrow - your getting it tonight!

First of all my excuses - I believe this is traditional and necessary to be calling yourself a 'proper' runner (as well as running a sub 3:30 Marathon of course) - felt really off colour last night and all today and I've never been so nervous before a race in my life - my legs were almost twitching waiting at the start - was really worried I was going to bomb out - I think I was also feeling a bit of pressure because of you putting some effort into my running and it was probably the wrong week for Cowboy and Phil to suddenly pop out of the woodwork and announce they were following my efforts (I felt like a mini version of Jess ennis in the Olympics and was worried I would turn into Rebecca Adlington!).

Anyhow approximately 42:20 (definitely less than 42:27) - was well down the ropey thing when remembered where I was and stopped my watch.

Mile splits as follows 6:53, 6:51, 6:46, 6:51, 6:40, 6:40 and 6:10 speed for last 0.25ish.

My garmin tells me that my fastest speed during the last bit was 4:54 pace which i know is bollox but makes me feel good.

 Absolutely shagged when I'd finished but within 2 mins was able to jog across car park and back.

After about a mile and a half thought I was really going to struggle to hold pace but just dug in and focussed on the next back in front of me. No one passed me during whole race.

The route is really flat and although it starts and finishes at the same point it has a remarkable feeling of running more downhill than uphill - really good PB course.

Anyhow off home now to talk to wife about non running stuff but I'm sure I'll have more post run excitement to discuss tomorrow.

Sorry about long post but i'm well chuffed - thanks for your efforts coach - bring on The Cumbrian Run!!

Excellent work Skinny lad and I feel a sense of pride. I hoped you'd be in that kind of mixer, but I wasn't going to say it to add to the pressure

42:20 would be 6.49 pace average, so it's good to see the 6.52 I've had you working to was pretty close.

It also means you're well on course to break the 1hr 35 in the big one, as McMillan suggests you can do a 1:34:23 from that. (That's 7.12 pace, and I've had you working to 7.10 for HMP)

In my experience, I've never hit the 10k McMillan's race calculator suggests I can hit from my half, but have always comfortably beaten the half my 10k suggests I can do. So that bodes excellently, with a few weeks work until the big day.

The interesting thing with your race is you kept it sensible for 4miles, and then utterly smashed 2 miles in 6.40s and saw that through to the finish. I've never managed to keep to that strategy, as I'm very much a hard out, and hold on type,but your approach won out tonight.

Not letting anyone pass all race shows you have the heart of a competitor as well, which will massively help along the journey we've started.

Enjoy the moment for now mate, and I'd recommend you just do a very slow 3mile recovery run tomorrow, slow as you like, and then take the next day off.

I'll have a look at my little plan of your training at work tomorrow, and see how we move forward tomorrow. But the easy couple of days is essential for now, to see how you recover, and to help you avoid the temptation to try and smash on too soon

ps it's your thread mate, long posts after a quality race are essential...your public demand it!

I knew you would nail it Skinny lad.Well done fella.As Stevie said above its your thread so you can post whatever you like on here.

Enjoy your recovery mate  and i look forward to reading about the next progression for you.

Once again well done

right, Skinny, I've inputted all your training into a spreadsheet now, so it'll be easier to monitor.

I've had a quick review of the 10weeks of the plan so far, and they come out like this, with key session + long run included.

1. 32.7miles         6m MP,  13m long run
2. 5.5miles           illness week
3. 34.1miles         3x2m HMP, 13.1m long run
4. 36.2miles          6.5m MP, 13.4m long
5. 23.5miles          3x0.5m at 3k pace (your freestyled session + 8m steady) long run done the next Monday
6. 38miles             previous week's long run + Half Marathon Race off roader
7. 22miles            3miles easy, 3miles steady, 3miles HMP, + injury reduced week
8. 35miles            3xMP+3xHMP, 13mile long
9. 33.5miles          45mins in 5min segments HMP-MP, 13.5m long
10. 18miles so far.   42:20 10k race

The races cloud the stats a bit, as naturally you reduce before one, and then recovery after, but generally 35miles is the figure we've been aiming for, made up of a 10/10.5mile session, 13-14mile long and a couple of 4-6s.

Let me know how you recover over the next 2 days, and I'll set the weekend schedule and beyond.