Wed 2nd Jan 2008

Guess who starts work again tomorrow? Today.

I suppose that I ought to review other things in my life. Now that Christmas and New Year are officially history, a period of sobriety could be called for. The mileage will be needed to help the weights line. After yesterday's decent outing I suppose that plodding is on the agenda. Longer slower calorie burning miles.

Have fun whatever you do.

Morning Blisters

Longer slower calorie burning miles - i like it

What: 6 miles
Why: because i can
Last Hard: Still can't remember

I have a gut feeling (you know, the 'watch that jelly wobble' feeling) that I need to do some calorie burning too, Blisters!

Resurfaced after the festive season's excesses scraping in on barely right side of 80 kilos, and plenty of brain and liver cells never made it to 2008. The food back home is still great and the assorted breweries still concoct a mighty fine 'triple' beer.
Even managed 2 runs along the country lanes around my dad's to at least transport some oxigen around my body too. It didn't get rejected as a foreign substance, so some success there

Best wishes to all and I've raised plenty of glasses to toast for great things to come in 2008 for all of you individually. Cheers.

What: club run
Why: get the year going and catch up with friends
Last rest: yesterday
Last hard: getting out of the car yesterday after driving for the better part of the day.

PS: I'll try and read back a bit at some point

morning

cheers to you too imski for 2008

great result yesterday gobi, impressive splits and finishing position. lots more in store for you this year

hope you are over the lurgy pammie

what - warm up,  8 X 100m fast,   warm down
why - session is called pure speed but it probably won't look like that
last hard - 2 days
last rest - 3 days
lyrics - yes

Hiya

what: 2 x (3 x 120 with walk back recoveries)
why: getting the legs to turn over fast
last hard: two days
last rest: hmm not sure....
lyrics: yes

Sort of session I love but I couldn't do it justice. My legs are really tight after the effort of Sunday. I know they were stopping me really going for it. First rep was 19 seconds and the others were all about 21. Interestingly the other girl there ran her first 120 in 17 then the other 5 all at 19. She is always faster than me - but the pattern was very similar. The plus to take from the session was that even only firing on two cylinders these reps were up to 2 seconds quicker than I could have managed 3 months ago. And they were even. But I am a bit pissed off.

Ah well a joke bonus is that I can now say I have run reps with an Olympic Sprinter! True! He ran the 400s for the UK at the Sydney Olympics, and is still a member of my club down here. Needless to say even out of shape and carrying a bit of extra weight he still 'won' every rep. The boys were doing 150s to our 120s.

M Pretty good day's effort there, excelllent tempo run and you have to factor in the long walk. I loved your post on the new intervals thread. Says it all (about you) really.

AF That is a brilliant achievement. So great to actually see your name that high in the rankings. Cor!

clink That was some cautionary tale. I am listening.
After last night I have decided NOT to go to track tomorrow. I've got to go back to London anyway so I will just make it sooner rather than later - and hope to be fresh and de-tightened by Sunday for the next scheduled session.
PS Why 'clink'?

nightnurse Further to the above and to your questions to me a day or two ago, I guess I am hovering on the edge of being injured so I am going to ease off for a day or two.

My training isn't exactly painful - honest, but yes all that speed stuff is high risk. I do have the right build for a sprinter - being what I think is classed as meso/ecto. It's hard to be objective about one's own body but I guess I am what you would call petite but not skinny. I DO have strong legs. And yes the weight thing is tricky. High mileage would be totally counter productive but you do have to keep the weight down somehow without losing muscle mass. According to the recent debate on mmm marmite's Weight and Performance thread my ideal sprinting weight is 7st 12/13. i'm currently 8 stone 1 or 2 so there's my New Years resolution.

But 3 or 4 pounds can be dead hard to shift!
SIGH

Cheers Clink, a nice way to start my new year. It is my first PB since I turned 37 so hopefully the sign of a good year ahead. Amzing thing for me was the HR. In August I ran the same speed as a split in a 10km and my average HR was 172 for the race yesterday was 161. That and my mileage being through the roof is surely a good sign.

What: 10 miles easy AM
6 miles easy PM
Why: easy day
Last hard: yesterdays intervals, not my best move after yesterdays race.
Last rest: 11 days
Lyrics: Oh yes, great band

Morning all, missed off yesterday's thread (was around but couldn't find it yesterday morning, then got sidetracked in afternoon) so happy New Year to all. Not that I am complaining about being sidetracked, it was by family New Year's Day celebratory lunch - the turkey we didn't have at Christmas and the trimmings (including home made bread sauce, home grown brussels, parsnips and broad beans) followed by homemade mince-pies (including the mincemeat) and HP5 on DVD! SO no wonder I needed a refreshing run this morning to clear the cobwebs and general sofa induced lethargy.

What: An hour in a forward motion
Why: To blow the cobwebs away and shift some calories (see above)
Last Hard: yesterday morning, running whilst passing all the revellers from NYE on their ways home

Year End Stats: 2225 miles, plus untotalled amounts of cross-training
Year End Highs: Tokyo Marathon and personal worst in February
Year End Lows: Ongoing running-trots

Seems to have been lots more good running going on and plenty of New Year's resolutions being set down for the collective. So here we go with mine.

1. Sort out personal problems
2. Make decision about FLM and training ASAP
3. Sort training regime out
4. Regain 'healthy' weight if possible through less mileage and more cross-training
5. Try to stick to numbers 1-4 above...

Well there we go - how well I stick to them who knows!

good plan sharkie, i think if you listen to it you'll know what it wants you to do. also you aren't doing longer runs on it so that's in your favour. (i raced a half marathon as it was still getting worse, i don't know what i was thinking about really). the clink think is just a mucking about of my first name (clare) by mrC from many many years ago, sometimes comes out as cling or clurk, he spouts a lot of rubbish. quite separately my brother stephen was called stink when we were kids.
when i signed in i thought it was just going to be a codeword to get on the forum but now i'm stuck with it!

gobi
the heart rate stuff is very comforting because it gives you the idea of how much better you're going for effort, in a kind of miles per gallon way. you're running much more economically and it's coming through in the race times
a lot  of my training miles are now coming out about 2 mins per mile faster at lower and mid range HR than a year ago but i'm still waiting for a significant showing in race times (i.e. at higher end of HR) . i think this will only happen when i can get a flat out mile at closer to 6 mins

Morning

looks like snow is on the way if you believe the forecasters...
What : 5 easy miles
Why : recovery run after yesterdays long one

Clink, indeed. I hate HR training as I think it is an excuse to run slow BUT I love to monitor it all. What surprised me was how much is has dropped for the same pace in 5 months.

The only downside is I still don't sem to run any faster :¬0

Morning all,

Back at a desk in one of our offices today - rather depressing after a relatively long break.

What: nothing
Why: still recovering from being ill over Christmas - have run gently for the last 3 days and think a day of rest is called for now.
Last hard: no idea
Last rest: Saturday
Lyrics: yes - two days on the trot - if I get tomorrow's it will be a PB

Ah yes, the new year starts...here in Bonnie Scotland, we also get today, 2nd Jan, as holiday, so for me it's the first 10K of the year, in my local village Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire at 1130.

It's cold, wet and miserable, which is actually unusual for here.  Might be better in the offices today folks.

Have a good year all..

.

here in NZ it is also another public holiday on the 2nd.  some shops open but lots still shut. 

sharkie - definitely sounds like a good plan to head back to london and recover.  good session anyway - and i'm very jealous of you getting to train with an olympic sprinter!

what: 10k easy
why: getting some miles in, legs needed a rest after yesterday

Morning All

 Also back flying the desk.

What: Maybe 7 miles late
Why: Nursing a groin strain, if I'm sensible I wont run
Last Hard: But when was I ever sensible?
Last Rest: 4 days

Good morning all, good morning desk

Back to the same old same old

Well run Blisters and Gobi.
Fantastic achievement AF, now you need to find 2 minutes. And well done PH for loads of PBs.

Now that I am back at work I have checked my 2007 - 871.1 miles in my first full year of running. I had targeted 1000 but lost focus for a couple of months in the summer. Main achievement was completing my first half-marathon in 1:44:xx.

December mileage a brutally disappointing 63.2. Consolation comes from doing that in effectively 2 weeks thanks to the flu.

For 2008:

Complete first marathon, PBs at HM and 10k.
Mileage target 1600 which may be ambitious but it's ONLY 30 a week.
Stretch properly and stay injury-free.

More generally I will also be moving jobs and moving house this year, including a possible (re)emigration. If the emigration comes off I will be aiming for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon as my debut at that distance.

What: 6 miles at lunch
Why: 1600 miles to do this year and I already wasted the extra day
Last hard: 2 days
Last rest: 1 day (family business binned yesterday's run)
Last lyrics: 1 day

Morning peeps.

Yesterdays lyrics were: New Years Day by U2, but you all knew that anyway !

Yup official holiday up here in Scotland as Geoff has said,so house quiet all the rest still sleeping.

Today: 30-45mins steady.

All the best to those racing today and I skimmed through the rest of yesterday and believe some good Ne'er Day performances. Will read back, but well done to all concerned.

Right weight loss starts again ,officially, today, one of my 2008 resolutions peeps.

Commiserations for those back at work - I've lost track of the days recently so had forgotten that today wasn't actually a Bank Holiday everywhere. Why it that??? Anyway, bet the Scots and Irish are feeling suitably smug, as too are our Kiwi 'cousins'.

I should be myself (student, permanent vacation etc) but am 'back' hard at work on my next academic challenge, my dissertation (due in five months time) and badly behind schedule due to various issues pre-christmas (not least funding being cut for the scheme I was set to use as a case study).

That said about a permanent hol, have seemed to have spent considerable amounts of time on work over Christmas period this year (probably a realisation of their importance as they actually count to final degree mark this time round)! Still cannot complain as company has more than made up for it (well I have to say that, after all I am living with my parents permanently!!!)

Morning, just about to scope what work I need to do for the start back next week, then I'll reward myself with a run, possibly from the gym, then it's a change of scene!

SamtheMan -  Got a suggestion for you. BR used to have runners' trots problems when he first started running a lot until he cut dairy products from his diet. Maybe you could try it?

What a gloomy morning it is up here, overcast and dismal conditions. 

Hello again

• What: swim this morning, run tonight
• Why: kick start

Have a good one!

Morning all,

AF - Wow! 

Sam - that sounds seriously frustrating, the situation with your case study.  Hope you can rescue it somehow.

Hello Geoff!

SGQ - sounds a good decision.  Those viral things have scorpionic tendencies - the sting is often in the tail.  Stay conservative in your runs. 

I see Gobi's been up to things again.  Shall have to check back. 

Sympathies to all you who are back at your desks.  I shall be heading that way myself, though the distinction is a blurry one given the nature of the job. 

Me? Aborted interevals session. Wondered whether it was a good idea on the way out, legs didn't feel good, but seemed to work ok.  Intended 4 half-mile ish reps with recovery one tour of the paddling pool, but got to the end of the third rep, while recovering adductor went into spasm, managed to get it out by massaging it, but my attempt to run caused it to seize again.  Gave up, started walking home.  Tried to jog a bit after it let go, but by then the rest of my legs were having none of it.  It was cold out there.  Trying to type now is interesting.  Still, be generous and call it 3 miles.  

Friday, all being well, shall attempt 5 miles - creep up on the distance.