Official Running Thread

[Curious Orange]

Alternative running training for me this morning, two lots of 20 lengths in 17:15 and 17:17. Consistently not quick. One big difference between being in the pool and being on the road is that nobody can relegate you from a lane when you're out and about. 2 folks were "invited" to join me and an old dear in the crawler lane. Nothing funnier than overhearing, "you're regularly going slower than that guy (me!) and he's not quick". There's some pride in that.

I'll be doing my final hard speed session tomorrow, 30 minutes steady, 50 minutes at 6:45 and then another 30 at steady pace before 19 miles at 7:00 - 7:15 on sunday. It'll be a gentle taper next week and then bang - marathon day!

Is it a 25m pool by any chance? And would it annoy you if I said I churned out just over 80 lengths in about 45 minutes yesterday?

Seriously though, you look all set for a good marathon. All the cross-training that you do really should help keep your muscle groups nicely balanced. Good work!

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Is it a 25m pool by any chance? And would it annoy you if I said I churned out just over 80 lengths in about 45 minutes yesterday?

Seriously though, you look all set for a good marathon. All the cross-training that you do really should help keep your muscle groups nicely balanced. Good work!

It is a 25m pool, I fully appreciate that my timings are very slow! Your pace is probably beyond what I'll ever expect myself to achieve, I don't plan on doing 80 lengths at any time soon! A friend of mine, who is north of 20 stone, did a 100 length challenge a few weeks ago and absolutely spanked it in just under an hour. He's affectionately known as "The Whale".

I have no shame - it's all about the cross training. I've done 450 miles on the road on my bike as well, just slightly more than the total running milage for this year. I do feel like cross training is crucial for the preparation, but we'll see on sunday week.

 

[knocky1]

I was well rested last year and ran out of puff, this year I'm going the other way. Also, I've only really been able to train for 9 weeks. I think it's long enough, but I was starting from relatively nowhere in january. I was a bit overweight and I was struggling to run at any pace - I've dedicated a lot of time and effort into getting into shape and I feel like I'm ready. I'll have run 500 miles prior to the event and I'll run 500 more afterwards, hopefully!

Good luck. I'm going for the resting approach this year. It can't be any worse for me than previous years.
You've penned a rather annoying song there...............

But I would run 500 miles
And I would run 500 more
Just to be the man who runs a thousand miles
To fall down at your door

Da da da (da da da)
Da da da (da da da)
Da da da dun diddle un diddle un diddle uh da

 

[knocky1]

Hove against Brighton on Hove Lawns next Friday. 50 runners from Hove run a 5k clockwise and 50 from Brighton run anti clockwise. The best average time gives the winner. Come on Hove. Free entry and beer, burgers and music on offer. I'll not take part as marathon weekend but may interest some of you.

https://www.on-running.com/en-gb/ev...tBp2pbtdR7uPo-IuGnNFU49dvImMm9l5sPn40FKHsu1v0

 

[jimmygull]

Yep. Best thread on NSC. I can't really add much that hasn't already been covered and it sounds like you're taking the right measures to get it sorted.

Good luck for both races – I reckon you'll be fine. It probably is a bit of maranoia creeping in – it comes with the territory of setting targets.

So turns out the issue doesn't appear to be ITB, but more on the fat pad just below the knee cap. Went to see a physio who gave a reasonably mild soft tissue massage on the quads and strapped it up with sports tape.

Whatever it is, I am not in pain wakling etc, it just came on when I jogged on Thurs. So will rest, ice, foam roll the quad and mild stretching that doesn't aggravate the knee and hope for the best. In two minds to miss out on Brighton and focus on London which will give me another 2 weeks rest. But then of course i will lose some fitness with 4 weeks since my last serious run. So plan at the moment is to try Brighton and see how it goes, if pain is too acute pull out and try my hardest to get round London. Is that what you folks would do?! Either way getting under 4h is looking less likely now, but I will try my bliimmin best, pretty gutted, but sure my story is pretty common in the marathon world, certainly the physio had seen a bunch of people like me in the last few weeks!

Oh well, nice distraction today, and my eldest boy is a mascot (a gift from his brother's charity), so going to be a special day!

 

[dazzer6666]

So turns out the issue doesn't appear to be ITB, but more on the fat pad just below the knee cap. Went to see a physio who gave a reasonably mild soft tissue massage on the quads and strapped it up with sports tape.

Whatever it is, I am not in pain wakling etc, it just came on when I jogged on Thurs. So will rest, ice, foam roll the quad and mild stretching that doesn't aggravate the knee and hope for the best. In two minds to miss out on Brighton and focus on London which will give me another 2 weeks rest. But then of course i will lose some fitness with 4 weeks since my last serious run. So plan at the moment is to try Brighton and see how it goes, if pain is too acute pull out and try my hardest to get round London. Is that what you folks would do?! Either way getting under 4h is looking less likely now, but I will try my bliimmin best, pretty gutted, but sure my story is pretty common in the marathon world, certainly the physio had seen a bunch of people like me in the last few weeks!

Oh well, nice distraction today, and my eldest boy is a mascot (a gift from his brother's charity), so going to be a special day!

Great you've seen someone and got a diagnosis and some treatment. Just rest up and try a run or two later in the week. If pain returns, bin Brighton and get another two weeks rest..... if it is OK, give it a go but don't worry about a time.

On the fitness front, you'll lose virtually nothing in a couple of weeks. The rest might actually help - really don't worry about that.

Have a great day today. Can't wait [emoji16]

Sent from my H8314 using Tapatalk

 

[Curious Orange]

First parkrun of the year! 20:37 according to the watch, but I felt okay doing it.

 

[knocky1]

First parkrun of the year! 20:37 according to the watch, but I felt okay doing it.

I'll stick that in the table before you get back up to normal pace.

 

[Curious Orange]

I'll stick that in the table before you get back up to normal pace.

Feel free to enjoy the moment!

 

[penny's harmonica]

20:31 at Eastbourne on my 50th park run. The quickest I’ve managed for a year. Update for me please gaffer

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Hove against Brighton on Hove Lawns next Friday. 50 runners from Hove run a 5k clockwise and 50 from Brighton run anti clockwise. The best average time gives the winner. Come on Hove. Free entry and beer, burgers and music on offer. I'll not take part as marathon weekend but may interest some of you.

https://www.on-running.com/en-gb/ev...tBp2pbtdR7uPo-IuGnNFU49dvImMm9l5sPn40FKHsu1v0

Up the Hove.

Had a lovely morning/pre-match trot around Regents Park then sat outside an old school Italian cafe watching the Kings Cross world go by. Very relaxing and I’d forgotten how lovely the park is. I used to cycle around it every day when I worked in London.

 

[Curious Orange]

First parkrun of the year! 20:37 according to the watch, but I felt okay doing it.

Official time is 20:38.

20:31 at Eastbourne on my 50th park run. The quickest I’ve managed for a year. Update for me please gaffer

Speed demon! Well done!

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

A very mediocre 22:10 for me but good enough for a (rare) category win, such are the joys of being an old git.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I had friends over from the Isle of Man and I didn't get up early enough for today's run, but aim to do either 19 or 21 tomorrow, we'll see what time I emerge...

 

[Ninja Elephant]

A nice gentle 21 miler today for me, 7:24 per mile average pace. I struggled a little bit toward the end to keep the pace but I think next week will be very different. Time to crack on now and ready myself for the big one!

 

[Simgull]

Another 21 miles for me today, up the Adur, then left up to Chanctonbury, down to skirt by Cissbury and back to the river via Coombe Farm and Botolphs. I did this run a month ago in 50mph winds, today was considerably nicer conditions and took about an hour less! Certainly blew away the cobwebs from yesterday’s pre- match refreshments with [MENTION=15605]knocky1[/MENTION].Time to start tapering for 3 Forts now.

 

[knocky1]

Week without running for me due to back issues rather than pre match drinking with [MENTION=26634]Simgull[/MENTION]

Need to be disciplined and not do those miles this week. The plan was a 2 week extreme taper. Will stick to that with a few little canters over the next days.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Seven days to go. Have prepared with a 6 mile splutter yesterday morning followed by more beer than I care to think about, red wine and fried chicken yesterday and a massive Italian with family friends tonight. Have probably put on enough weight for people to start looking at me unfavourably in the handicap. Will need to toss up between an emergency diet and putting up five pounds overweight.

One or two of you may have noticed I regularly exchange comments with my friend Guy on Strava. He is now going to be known as "Guy The Elite" having finished the SDW50 yesterday in 8th place in a time of 7 hours 22. I'm trying to fathom how that's actually physically possible, whilst being glad that he's not a Brighton fan for the sake of all our table positoins.

 

[Artie Fufkin]

Hi guys, the morning after the Manchester marathon and I'm still in a bit of shock. 2:44:37! The race went like a dream. I had the usual pre-race nerves in the morning and just about managed to eat some toast and have some coffee. I stayed overnight at the Premier Inn Old Trafford close by the marathon village, start & finish which helped with logistics.

A short race report:
The race started at 9am. I had the short walk from the hotel to the village to get ready and drop my bag off. After a warm up and some light drills I got in the starting pen. I was in the first wave behind the elites which was busy but not too congested. Once we set off I tried to stay calm and relaxed and kept telling myself to hold the pace. I felt great for the first 18 or so miles and was really enjoying myself, holding a comfortable pace around 6:25 min mile'ing. I started to feel confident I was in 2:50 range. I got talking to a guy next to me at mile 19 who was saying we were around 2:48 pace. As I was still feeling good that's when I thought perhaps I could kick on and see if I could get close to 2:45. I decided to go for it in the last 10km and increased the pace to just above 6 min mile'ing. It seemed to feel relatively ok! I was passing quite a few guys at this point but I was struggling to figure out the maths to know if getting inside 2:45 was on or not . I had to dig deep from mile 24 and realised it was going to be REALLY close either way! The last mile is one long straight so you can see the finish banner and clock in the distance from a long way out. It never seemed to get any closer! When I crossed the line I couldn't quite believe the time on my watch. I had done it!

2:44:37. Placed 126th (Overall) / 24th (Male 40+'s). A 22 minute negative split sub 2:45 PB in marathon #4. Oh boy!

When I set out on this marathon specific training cycle back on December 3rd, I was more determined than ever to achieve a sub 3. I went deep into the well for this one to take me to a new level. 18 weeks of hard graft, consistency, I think close to 1000 miles banked (I'd say 80% EASY paced), multiple 18, 20, 22, 23 mile long runs, focussed on recovery, stretching and some conditioning just as much as my running, very fortunate to not pick up an injury and stayed healthy. It all paid off in the end. Beyond happy!

If you're thinking of a Spring marathon I'd 100% recommend Manchester. It's billing as a flat and fast marathon is definitely legit. I think there were around 14,000 running so a nice size with not too much traffic. It's brilliantly organised, a great course with very little elevation, smooth turns and nice long straight sections and really well spectated (I'd say on a par with Brighton). The dry and sunny weather helped.

Good luck to everyone running Brighton on Sunday!! You've got this!

 

[knocky1]

Hi guys, the morning after the Manchester marathon and I'm still in a bit of shock. 2:44:37! The race went like a dream. I had the usual pre-race nerves in the morning and just about managed to eat some toast and have some coffee. I stayed overnight at the Premier Inn Old Trafford close by the marathon village, start & finish which helped with logistics.

A short race report:
The race started at 9am. I had the short walk from the hotel to the village to get ready and drop my bag off. After a warm up and some light drills I got in the starting pen. I was in the first wave behind the elites which was busy but not too congested. Once we set off I tried to stay calm and relaxed and kept telling myself to hold the pace. I felt great for the first 18 or so miles and was really enjoying myself, holding a comfortable pace around 6:25 min mile'ing. I started to feel confident I was in 2:50 range. I got talking to a guy next to me at mile 19 who was saying we were around 2:48 pace. As I was still feeling good that's when I thought perhaps I could kick on and see if I could get close to 2:45. I decided to go for it in the last 10km and increased the pace to just above 6 min mile'ing. It seemed to feel relatively ok! I was passing quite a few guys at this point but I was struggling to figure out the maths to know if getting inside 2:45 was on or not . I had to dig deep from mile 24 and realised it was going to be REALLY close either way! The last mile is one long straight so you can see the finish banner and clock in the distance from a long way out. It never seemed to get any closer! When I crossed the line I couldn't quite believe the time on my watch. I had done it!

2:44:37. Placed 126th (Overall) / 24th (Male 40+'s). A 22 minute negative split sub 2:45 PB in marathon #4. Oh boy!

When I set out on this marathon specific training cycle back on December 3rd, I was more determined than ever to achieve a sub 3. I went deep into the well for this one to take me to a new level. 18 weeks of hard graft, consistency, I think close to 1000 miles banked (I'd say 80% EASY paced), multiple 18, 20, 22, 23 mile long runs, focussed on recovery, stretching and some conditioning just as much as my running, very fortunate to not pick up an injury and stayed healthy. It all paid off in the end. Beyond happy!

If you're thinking of a Spring marathon I'd 100% recommend Manchester. It's billing as a flat and fast marathon is definitely legit. I think there were around 14,000 running so a nice size with not too much traffic. It's brilliantly organised, a great course with very little elevation, smooth turns and nice long straight sections and really well spectated (I'd say on a par with Brighton). The dry and sunny weather helped.

Good luck to everyone running Brighton on Sunday!! You've got this!

You deserve that time! Congratulations. Must have been a great feeling to kick on over the last 6 miles. Chapeau!