Running

Y U no return under DSRs?

Fuck it's hot. My body needs to adapt to this sudden rise in temps.

Maybe I should ditch the LS merino and gloves. What do you think @kl ?

don't throw them too far, cold wind and driving rain cant be far away...

Virrata. The shoe of heroes.

@Sainsburys_Ed
This is the first year in 3 that I've got a complete set of toenails. Probably because I'm only running 10 miles a week. (exams)

#theresalwaysnextyearforPBs...

:(

T shirt and shorts today, but I did wear socks, sorry @kl.

First run back after the 20 mile trail run weekend before last. Crawled round but it was good to be back out on my feet, and the knee didn't play up. Happy days.

I ran the 100m from lane 4 on the mcr commonwealth warmup track today. A steady 30s in jeans carrying a folder, including time taken to leave track and remember to stop the clock (strava'd it for the lolz).

@eyebrows don't worry soon you will be qualified and have loads of time.....oh....wait!

Lucy Gossage somehow manages it maybe you should drop her a note and find out how she manages a medical career and being a pro triathlete!

Feeling pretty good again today, even kick drills in the pool weren't too bad - makes me think maybe I didn't push myself hard enough at the weekend!

Toasty warm. Not sure why I thought 1pm was a good time to do a run today. Mad dogs and Englishmen...

At least it'll be ~10 deg C tomorrow morning when I run in to work.

finally back from paris. my first of three has gone ok. having missed the lion share of training since the end of feb I was coming into the race feeling totally unprepared to cover 26.2 at all and was fully expecting a nice long chat with the wall as I limped the last 5 miles.

instead I managed 'ok', the first 3 miles I had weird shin splints (same as london last year. wtf) but they disappeared, I'd eaten a little too late the night before for my final carb-loading snack, so hadnt managed to fully clear the deck before the race so a pitstop at a portaloo at mile 9 saw me running significantly lighter after and about 30secs faster per mile.

things went well for the next 4 or 5 miles but as we hit the stretch along the seine we had to go up and down loads of underpasses as we went under bridges crossing the river and the such and the slight inclines coming out of them really started to take its toll on my pace and I began to drop my speed slightly.

at mile 18 the bastards put up a big graphic either side of the road of a brick wall with 30k on one side and 20 written on the other so my run-addled brain thought for a split second i was 2 miles further than i thought which was a bit crushing when i checked the watch and knew i wasnt. why they think it's a good idea to remind people they're probably about to hit 'the wall' i do not know, particularly as they killed our people's princess using one in the same city #4evarinrharts

the last 6 miles of the paris course take you off into a big park which is hilly as fuck and sparsely populated with people cheering aka it's a bit shit sandwich to run through after you've done 20 miles already, there was also a seemingly massive gap between water stations at this point and given the hot temperatures everyone seemed to be gasping for water. by some miracle though as i felt the last drops of moisture leech from my body through my sweat glands some wonderful little french child held up a full bottle of water (with sealed cap) for someone to pass by. i'm not ashamed to admit I sprinted over and snatched it like an american at a black friday sale, that little kid probably saved my race at that point as it was just enough for me to make the final push (i even skipped the final water station a mile or so later as by this point I was pushed for time).

speaking of time, not having finished my training and being ill for 50% of the last 2 months i had no clue what time I'd be posting, I thought I'd set my virtual pacer on my watch for 8:25 min/mile and see how I got on, I was doing ok and hitting about 8:35 avg up until about mile 16 but the lack of miles began to show and i steadily dropped pace for the rest of the race, my bronze goal and the time i feel i had to beat to 'save face' from myself at least was 4 hours so while I wasn't particularly pleased as my plans went to shit for the sub 3:30 i wanted I was not too disappointed when I crossed the line at 3:58:00 on my garmin (3:57:55 chip time).

it's five and half minutes slower than london last year but conservatively I'm missing over 200 training miles and I stopped for a poo.

I think london next week is going to go better, I'm confident I can avoid the wall and my kit, fuelling (pre and during the race) and recovery all were pretty much spot on. just need to work on keeping a more even pace.

i'm hoping to go sub 3:50 in london as the course is flatter, i'm in a decent start pen (3:30) and i think paris's run will work as a good training run.

then all things going well I'll aim for sub 3:40 in copenhagen in 5 weeks.

Hahaha nutter!

Was looking forward to a race report!

Given that your training has not gone well that's a pretty damn good effort, and goes to show that there's quite a bit of benefit purely in experience!

What's the plan for between now and London? and how will you cope with the 3(?) weeks before Copenhagen?

I would have thought if you can survive London without breaking you'll be flying by Copenhagen!

will run 4 miles tomorrow to loosen the legs and see how they get on with running but my legs are back to normal as of yesterday evening pretty much.

sunday I plan on doing 10-13 miles easy pace. next week I'll do a run on tuesday and one on thursday but that's it i think.

post london i'll have 4 weeks to copenhagen so I'll be recovering as much as possible so i can do a longish run on the following sunday, then I'll try to do two full weeks of training at about 40 miles per week and then taper for the final week.

thanks to a post on facebook, I saw there were 100 spaces left in berlin marathon in september if you paid a 60euro donation to charity on top of the entry fee so guess who's now running berlin in september :D the website has it at 23 weeks away so if i take a week off after copenhagen I can pretty much start my training plan again from week 2/3 with 3:30 in mind and run it on one of the fastest courses in the world.

Berlin is fantastic. PB'd there last year and going back again in September.

really enjoyed myself in berlin the other week for the half marathon (except the whole smoking in bars thing) so looking forward to going back again

Berlins definitely on my list, want to have a crack at a sub 3 next year, the only problem is that I'd only have 4 weeks to train for it, but would obviously coming off the back of a tri race season...

Someone was telling me part of the reason Berlin is so fast is that the tarmac the Germans use is faster... if so = mental!

@HatBeard given the amount you run anyway, plus spring miles in the legs I really doubt you need to follow such a rigid training plan for so long in the run into Berlin surely taking a step back is counter productive and hard to stay motivated for, I would have thought 6-8 weeks of focussed high mileage before a decent taper would have been enough. with the time spent in between enjoying running, but also working specifically on speed, technique and form to ensure you increase efficiency after which time maintaining a sub 3:30 pace will undoubtedly be easier!

I have evidence to base that on, other than my own experience in Brighton, but I'm sure there are plans for "advanced runners" which are about that long when coming of an excellent base...

Good point on build-up plan. One of the reasons I don't (personally) like the idea of racing more than one marathon a year is the fear of being a bit mentally stale, cracking on with a new schedule when you've just recovered from the last one. With a good base, not to mention a handful of marathons already in the legs, I'd be tempted to stay short/sharp for a while then have a couple of months' max for marathon specific training from early/mid July onwards.

re: Berlin course, I don't know about the tarmac but apart from it being flat, the roads are generally nice and smooth, and you also get lots of nice looong, wide, straight roads. Makes it very easy to coast along with metronomic splits.

it's really the last 2 thirds of the plan i'm worried about and i missed most of that training this time around, so i have been running but it's been so sporadic I dont feel like i've been through a training cycle at the moment and my goal is somewhat ambitious so I want to put my all into it.

that said over summer i'll be playing basketball this year and riding my bike a little so there'll be a lot of swapping out easy runs for other activities until i hit the real meat of the plan by the beginning of august.

Parkrun PB by 30 seconds, hopefully even under 24:30 depending on the timing.

Dry ground makes it so much easier; a good 1.5km of the Wimbledon Parkrun course is a 2" deep mud/sticky bog in damp conditions.

Even better is this was at 86.6kg this morning which means, according to VDOT, losing 10kg (to get down to a "normal" BMI) gives me a target time of 21:52 for 5k and 3h28 for a marathon. If I could get to a racing weight of 70kg (BMI 23) then that's 20:22 and 3h14. Blimey. Anyway, long way to go before then.

Have to push harder on one of my 10k runs now. Current best is a 55:02 but I should really be pushing for closer to 50 minutes. It'd be lovely to do my 11.7km commute in under an hour (current best is 1h07). In fact, that's a good target to set on Strava.

Balls!! Had to walk home 4 miles today as I've pulled something in my inner thigh. Not what I wanted a week before London, I think I'm screwed.

It is a little better now but I don't think there is much chance of recovering in a week.

Join the club. I've just been to see a physio who diagnosed a minor calf strain. Rest, rocktape and protein are the recommended cures. Hopefully 18 weeks of training won't be wasted.

Are you going to get a sports massage?

I probably should but I was crippled for 6 months by a physio a few years back so won't go near them now.

Fingers crossed for your calf hope it all comes good, hopefully we'll both be back on here a week today crowing about having smashed our pb's :)

Justified concern then. Hopefully your taper mind is making things seem worse than they actually are.

6 days...

Just threw up everywhere after a measly 4.5km. Ate lunch a little late today but still none the wiser as to why. Feel fucking terrible now.
Edit - thrown up everything inside me over the space of 30mins. Never thrown up from running over any distance. Not amused...

Hope niggles are just that & you all make start line next week.

Measured a new route yesterday and kinda drew a Giraffe... if you tilt the screen and squint a bit...

1 Attachment

^ legs too short

well done giraffe boy......
all my focus is on another sub 40 k in june, that ll do me, #oldbastard