The Middle Ground

Simon, our parkrun instigator's going to do Bushy too. Hope you enjoy it! 

BR, consistent consistency, long term game plan etc.... I know you're experienced enough to make it work. Hope you start to get another upwards curve of improvement soon.

Phil, I'll be using my Inov8 150s which have elastic laces as standard! 4k run/14k bike/4k run. Just something a bit different to try out  No idea what to expect, but I'm looking forward to it. Need to get on the turbo trainer a bit beforehand 

The wind has gone, pretty much overnight  down the track for 8*200 (200 walk) today. 30.9, 30.6, 30.0, 30.0, 29.4, 29.5, 29.7, 29.4. Really relaxed, never felt like I was pushing the pace which is great. 

Also, this picture of yesterday pretty much sums up the conditions. 

Hello! Sorry been a bit busy this week, not sulking or injured just working lots, running and organising!

alehouse wrote (see)

Good news, Wardi!

And good news, Curly: who would have thought we would get to 22222 posts!

Phil: that's a serious session! And serious question: is there any chance of doing some/alternate reps clockwise?

I was surprised even to hit two to be honest Alehouse

Good to see some awesome sessioning from Philpub this week, some good post bagging from Duck and a good return to consistent runnng (if not electrifying) from BR

50.6 miles for me this week, including 18.4 miles lsr today slogged out after a tough 7.8m XC yesterday... ran well but a little lacking in the mental side to be honest. Need to refill that section of the well over the next few weeks with training and enjoying myself.

Working all day tomorrow, but loving work at the moment. Didnt get the other job (apprentice for a strength and conditioning company based near Hampton that help athletes with the cross training side of stuff). Looked interesting but okay with job no.1 at the moment

Love the picture Duck and some tasty times there for a relaxed run - you were getting those times by pushing quite hard recently if I remember rightly so shows some improvement

Good training going on again guys and girls

Simon - indeed, it is mind boggling to see how any coach could justify and advocate 30 miles per week for a marathon whereby endurance is the biggest factor in performing over that distance!  I hope the guy manages to do well as he is believing in her advice!

18 miles for me today, which wasn't great, but it's miles in the bank for London and now hopefully 2 weeks of running, sleeping and eating to give a boost to fitness before the return to work!

That `Plateau' thread is guided by a Level 2 coach.  I hope that that level 2 qualification is in endurance training, although she does not seem to show much `deep' knowledge or expertise.  Her other half is a 2:28 marathoner, so you'd think she'd know a bit, but she's not from the fine tradition of British club coaching like Steve Smythe or Mike Gratton.  I wonder if she's been surrounded by competitive runners with our ethos or wannabes willing to pay for 1:1 coaching sessions?

How highly rated is a "level 2 coach" by the way?

I ask, as a chap at my old club who used to put on sessions was one.

And all of his sessions were always a miscellaneous amount of reps, random recoveries,no guidance whatsoever on pace,  and low volume, or wacky stuff like firing a firework into the air and when it went bang you'd sprint torwards it

I would suggest that most people on this thread are well beyond Level 2 in their understanding of running.

I've red through that whole thread...

Plan shocking, but thats no surprise. Attitude of "coach" was the worst bit, dismissive, rude and arrogant.  And now asking him to give up booze and snacks when he would lose weight by running some more. Funny how that fixes everything isnt it

Right off for the busiest shift of the year and then its party time!

He'll be giving up cheese next and where will that leave the world??

tommygunn - I don't think I'm familiar with Running Times - is it a UK magazine?

Personally when it comes to coaching I don't look necessarily whether someone has a qualification, although  in a club that will be the person who sets sessions, I look at how knowledgeable and experienced in running a person is. 

A level 2 coach can set and take individual sessions.  However you need to be on level 3 or 4 before you are licensed to develop a programme for a runner or groups of runners. 

Morning.  Reasonable miles for me yesterday at 13.5 with two grade five climbs in there (grading for the bikers...).  Did a double loop and the first was very slow because of running with a partner, but the second I did alone and quite a bit quicker even for a slow pace.  Athletics is on a break, so like Hilly it's getting the miles in and eating, sleeping, drinking and waking up feeling like the world did end for the next couple of weeks.  Supposed to be around 55mpw at the moment but you know how plans work, best intentions and all that.  Probably veering between 35 and 50 over the last few weeks depending on work.

Didn't do my summary of the year yet.  So:
Fastest 5k, 10M, HM and Full.  Ever.
Fastest 100m and 200m in nearly 25 years.  When age-graded, the 200m becomes my all-time PB!
Fastest 1500 in nearly 25 years.
Selected and ran for East Wales in the Welsh Regional xc championships at V40.

That's the summary that makes it all look good.  In reality nothing is improving as quickly or easily as consistent training would allow.  Inconsistency is due to a multitude of factors, some definitely avoidable, some much less so.  Motivation for VLM is not as high as it should be - so I've switched my personal message slightly.  Now it's 'get sub-3 at this one and you don't have to do one again'.

Goals for next year:
PBs at 100m, 200m and 400m.

(See which direction my motivation's gone?)

Ratzer - looks to have been a fine year when written down  Maybe time would allow you to concentrate more on the shorter distances and forget the marathon.  Or is the marathon a burning desire to conquer?

Thanks tommygunn, I do recall reading it now.  I read the USA RW forums/online magazine a few times and believe it is a better quality read than the UK one, although I don't suppose I should say that on here

Nice race time goals for the next year!

My only goals for 2013 at present is to keep injury/illness free, be consistent and more specific with my training, race as much as I can without getting injured and give London marathon a good go!  Of course I might add more goals as time goes by

A short run this morning and off to the gym soon. 

Tommy, I share a couple of those goals. I know 1sub 1hr 20 is a nice round number, but that should be sub 1hr 17 to be in sync with the others.

For me, goals would be

General

• Keep enjoying training
• Keep injury free
• Do some new races

Specific

• Sub 17 5k,
• Sub 35 10k
• 1:16:xx half

If the Section 1 aims come to pass, those section 2 goals should be pretty doable on paper imminently on current fitness.

But we know running never seems to work like that

Actually doing more than 1 5k in a calendar year might help! And not getting arsey conditions or DNS ing at target races of the others would help too.

Ratzer- Good year from you then! Mine isn't so impressive so I'll avoid putting it down....

Curly - Consistent training from you. And good that you are enjoying work.

Duck - Speedy session. It's weird how quickly the wind has gone isn't it.

16 very hilly miles for me yesterday and 11 very hilly ones this morning. Calfs not enjoyed it at all and very stiff now! I've just sorted train, hotel and entry for Dewsbury. Best part of £100 lighter so hoping a) It isn't cancelled from bad weather and b) I run a stonking PB 

fair does Tommy, is probably a fair adjusted target for a first one.

My first one was 1hr 41 as a contrast. But within a month that was down to 1hr 34. And that was off a lot more casual training to say the least!