The Middle Ground

Simon - Meb wears them

YD - I hate the green silence. The laces just do not work for me

alehouse wrote (see)

Was also just commenting on parkruns (rather than today's effort) as they coincide with your target distance. There seem to be rather a lot of them now!

Yep, bearing in mind proper 5k road races seem to be really few and far between,certainly down my way, i'll have to embrace these things sooner or later.

If I'm still messing about my mid summer I might just cheat and do a track 5k

Nice one Duck, enjoy the geekery of your book

Stevie nice solid outing there, I would have thought a big 16:xx will happen before long. I think Dulwich parkrun is quick and certified, PP has run it I think.

Simon – well toughed out by the missus, is it a going to become a weekly new year’s resolution type activity for her?
Hope the rib clears soon and that weight will go as soon as you drop the kids off.

Reads like an excellent few days training Hilly.

Well done to Mrs WJH

Josh the laces on my Green Silence need a quadruple knot to stay tied but other than that I can’t fault them for £30.

Loving the determination to get back to it Alehouse, good on you old son

Good news, went for a test jog this morning and the niggle didn’t put in an appearance. I think/hope it was just one of those accumulated fatigue things, where a particular muscle takes a battering and seizes up and gets sore. A timely reminder (Simon) to do more stretching and strength work.
prf, I will take go out for another test run tomorrow, if after a couple of miles easy it feels ok I will put in a few efforts, nothing too taxing, strides/light fartlek type of thing, if I come through that unscathed I will run on Sunday. I am going to Skipton that day for a party anyway, so assuming I am fit to do so, I may as well run as I am in the area.

Is there going to be a little table of 2013 race aims put together, or have I missed it, or is that too formal?

I set some targets last year, I think a bit influenced by some of the more "confident" guys on the other thread, and I think I only hit one of them in fairness! Therefore, this years targets I think would be "Minimum" and "stretch" for each distance.

SG - how about something totally crazy like taking part in a race north of Watford

Thanks for stitch advice, Duck, Hilly, PRF. We'll bear it all in mind on Sat.

Duck, I seem to remember previous rib problems taking 5-6 weeks, but I wasn't running when I had those. I think it's getting slightly better - alcohol seems to help.

SG, it's been more like 4 months of bad luck. I had an excellent summer though and despite various problems the fitness is getting better weekly so I've not to much to moan about. Well done on the 5k. Check out the WAVA difference for track 5ks before you start cheating
I was actually going to go back and build a little table of 2013 goals. I only hit one of my 2012 goals as well, but since I made them all tough I'm pretty happy with that.

WJH, congrats to the missus. We will have to organise a smackdown Decent test last mile for you there.

Alehouse, a run is a run ... or something like that. Good progress.

YD, the parkruns are probably going to be an occasional test of fitness for her (until she's hooked). She has a couple of running-related resolutions though. I'm not worried about my weight - Christmas Day was the only day of gluttony I've had, I'm just always surprised how much food/water my body can hold to cause such a weight gain overnight. Glad your niggle seems to have disappeared. It's funny how they come and go.

BR, I think the furthest north I've raced is Battersea

BR, I've done some "south midlands ish" races. That's north enough for now 

  Although if there's some big thread meet up at a fast flat course sometime it might be interesting.

Simon, I talk as if I've tried for sub 17 loads of times and failed. 2 5ks in a whole year on undulating lapped courses probably isn't enough of a try just yet to get cynical

Stevie – there were a few posts about 2013 running aims, but they were all wishy washy ‘I want to enjoy myself in 2013’ type aims. Though I agree with BR

Simon – as you say it's funny how niggles appear, I think this time it was my body reacting to me jumping into heavy miles after a short down period. I think there should always be a bit of a build up after some down time. I just expected my legs to accept the higher mileage all of a sudden

Just back from a brisk 8mile fartlek, the good news is that I got no reaction from the niggle. Didn’t feel particularly fit or fast, but some rustiness is to be expected after a disrupted 10 days or so + loads of eating and drinking has occurred so I need to work that off!
Not sure what to expect at the race on Sunday, if nothing else it will provide good training to kick start the new year.

Well done YD and glad the niggle felt okay.

alehouse - good work and a start!

Nice base building YP.

Another good run this morning with 15 miles - 8 very easy, 5 @ 7:21 average, 2 very easy.  Legs felt a bit heavy, but it's what I would expect at this stage of training.  Feels good to be back to normal kind of training though and really looking forward to building back up the miles for the marathon.

Good miles Hilly, building nicely.

Just been on a (virtual) shopping trip, got myself some new trainers, shorts and a headtorch. Merry christmas me

Hilly.. some nice mileage totals recently, how I wish I could join in! 

Alehouse.. good to see you threatening some short efforts soon.  This week's AW mag has the 2012 World's fastest times for all recognised distances from 100m to the Marathon if you want a comparison. 

Duck.. many congrats on that Parkrun win!

Y D.. nice to see the niggle may be on it's way out.

Simon.. sorry to hear your rib is still problematic.  I reckon a few weeks is about right for full recovery.  Thanks for asking about mine - it has improved by about 50% in 2 weeks but it is still a bit uncomfortable to run on.  I can manage 4-6m now and hopefully I can gradually up this as the discomfort recedes.  BTW your 5lbs weight gain sounds like a fine combination of over-eating & constipation!   Speaking of which, the painkillers I was given (Tramadol) had 2 side effects - the immodium effect and the very drowsy effect.  I stopped taking them after a few days and put up with the pain.  The Doctor actually gave me 200 of them!

I might just turn up at the York Parkrun on Saturday and cope with 5k of discomfort.

Another one for the xmas day 5lb gain here Already back on the wagon though - normal food resumed today so that will drop off!

Sorry to hear of sore ribs for Wardi and Simon its not nice when they are bad!

Good to see Alehouse getting in some "walking"

And the BS calcultor coming out for Stevie on the 5k front. We were thinking about popping up to Wycombe on Saturday but are doing Upton Park now (just jogging around). When we finally get up there you are obligated to come along too

Duck well done on your win

Nice milege from Hilly, including some PRF pace easy running!

12 from me today with a bookend session tomorrow to look forward too. Feeling okay at the moment, looking forward to Sundays long run in Bristol (although not sure where I am going to run yet - depends on flooding I think).

Where is Phil? His FB suggests some 5lb weight gain too with all of the food porn recently...

YD good to hear your niggle had cleared up

Food porn, love it

Wardi - if I come to York on Sat, how much do you want for the remaining Tramadol?  

Only kidding, sounds like progress if you are considering a parkrun now.

Right two pounds off this morning after yesterdays 12 miler and just got back from a tough session called bookend:

3m easy to steady warm-up (overall average pace 8:42), strides,
4 x 400m at 5k pace each with 90s recovery
3M at MP, 90secs
4 x 400m at 5k pace each with 90s recovery
cd

First two 400m reps I got caught on junctions by cars and its really hard to get back up to pace so they were a little off but otherwise all good with:
6:42, 6:51, 6:29, 6:28, 7:37 for MP, 6:30, 6:29, 6:28, 6:19

OUCH thats tough! Didnt think I would be able to do the second set of 400s but did, but boy I am glad tomorrow is an easy run Gonna be stiff in the morning!

Great session that Curly. I find sessions where you change pace up and down quite tough, which tells me I should do more of them.

I did a session of 1m@threshold – 10x400@5k(ish) – 1m@threshold quite recently. After the session I think I said I would make the bread thicker and have less filling run a bit faster next time out. So maybe something like - 1.5m – 8x400 – 1.5m.

Curly, the idea of you doing 400 intervals across busy roads is quite scary

Stevie normally they are quiet but normally I run that loop in the evening, I guess its just Christmas traffic to pubs/shops etc.

YD blimey that sounds tough too - dont think I could have done my 400m reps all at once - the MP was a welcome easier section aerobically. As usual it was my lungs struggling. Off to work in a mo so that should stop my legs hurting too much - nothing like 4 hours on feet for keeping the blood moving.

Curly - a whole 3 miles warm up?? Have you not read the advice from one of the Asics coaches??  Next you'll be running over 50mpw and then are bound to get injured.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

alehouse wrote (see)

Was also just commenting on parkruns (rather than today's effort) as they coincide with your target distance. There seem to be rather a lot of them now!

Yep, bearing in mind proper 5k road races seem to be really few and far between,certainly down my way, i'll have to embrace these things sooner or later.

If I'm still messing about my mid summer I might just cheat and do a track 5k

Erm, what is the difference between a parkrun and a `proper 5k road race'?

Mind you, I was having a conversation with a respected clubmate last night who was still unsure about parkruns, thinking that they may divert people away from club organised events (he's the director of the Barnsley 10k and South Yorks HM).  I would suggest the evidence is quite the opposite.

Curly - nice session.  What is the idea behind alternating 5k and MP and how will this  session progress towards the marathon?