Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Paul Simon there, with some inspiration for keeping going on the long runs. And Art Garfunkel, the inspiration for my huge orange charity wig.
As I type, there is indeed a patch of snow on the ground. Just back from my step-back 7 miler before the white stuff descended. It was certainly a tad chilly out there, and that probably contributed to the unexpected 3:39 marathon pace. On top of 5 miles tempo and 3 miles fartlek, another happy less-is-more week put to bed.
February will bring long runs of 12, 13 and 15 miles, and probably a couple of annoying weeks' commute to Cambridge, which will nigh on scupper my midweek runs (although I have my eye on a 2-3 mile early morning trot between Paddington and King's Cross, to keep things ticking over).
I suspect the Aussies have a better handle on dealing with blood-boiling temperature, unlike the hand-wringing tarts running Britain PLC. A bit of snow - no, really, it's not very much at all in the wider scheme of things - and the UK's shut; no buses, motorways shut, railways in chaos, flights cancelled, schools closed . . . effin useless :mad:
About as good as Andalucians are at organising race starts
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Another week done, nothing much to report -- no news is good news. A 12.4 miler in the bag last night at 3:59 marathon pace -- quite hard going, and leaving me with a few aches and pains today, but ultimately very gratifying.
Thoughts during the longs runs are turning to race-day matters -- in-race carb replacement, and pacing. According to this old article, I need 30-60g of carb per hour. I seem to remember that last time, I planned for one 25g gel every half hour, which would mean 50g an hour.
On Friday morning I picked up some jelly babies in Sainsburys, intending to try them out on my long run. Unfortunately, most of the packet was gone by Saturday night... :o They're 5g of carb each, so about 10 per hour, 40 in total... might have to see if I can get hold of a pink bum bag.
Pace... beating 4 hours is pretty important, as there's a couple of hundred quid riding on it now. Constant pace? Carefully timed routine marked out on a wrist band? (I'm thinking 3 miles @ 9mm, then crank it up to near 10K pace, winding down each mile and finishing at 10mm.) Follow a RW pacer, perhaps? Do they run at steady pace, or allow for some slow-down? Any recommendations from the floor?
I'm no use to you there, MD. My Almeria game plan was to go hard out for as long as I could. A tight hammy at 16k put paid to that
In Paris (my 26.2 PB run) I went with the 'balloons' (RW markers). The 3:45 lot were just ahead for ages and I knew that couldn't be right . . . turned out they were slow and had to leg it for the last 10k - bet their runners loved that! I think the FLM pacers are pretty solid; my advice would be to go with them. They are bound to be erratic at stages where they hit traffic, but all in all I reckon they'll get the job done.
Cheers, and congrats on another week banked without mishap.
This diary's looking good
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
marathondan Wrote:Another week done, nothing much to report -- no news is good news. A 12.4 miler in the bag last night at 3:59 marathon pace -- quite hard going, and leaving me with a few aches and pains today, but ultimately very gratifying.
Thoughts during the longs runs are turning to race-day matters -- in-race carb replacement, and pacing. According to this old article, I need 30-60g of carb per hour. I seem to remember that last time, I planned for one 25g gel every half hour, which would mean 50g an hour.
On Friday morning I picked up some jelly babies in Sainsburys, intending to try them out on my long run. Unfortunately, most of the packet was gone by Saturday night... :o They're 5g of carb each, so about 10 per hour, 40 in total... might have to see if I can get hold of a pink bum bag.
Pace... beating 4 hours is pretty important, as there's a couple of hundred quid riding on it now. Constant pace? Carefully timed routine marked out on a wrist band? (I'm thinking 3 miles @ 9mm, then crank it up to near 10K pace, winding down each mile and finishing at 10mm.) Follow a RW pacer, perhaps? Do they run at steady pace, or allow for some slow-down? Any recommendations from the floor?
Running a race with sweets of some kind can be a good idea, especially as you can use them to sort of incentivise yourself. Not sure about eating 10 an hour though. All that fumbling might get tedious. Maybe you could find a bigger dose and aim to eat one every miles or every 2 miles. I did this in one marathon, and it helped me to count down the miles.
As for pacers, they normally aim to run at an even pace, especially on a flat course like London. If you're keen to do a particular time, especially a nice round figure like 4 hours, following a pacer is a good idea.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Thanks EG & Sweder. I'll try out the jelly babies on the next long run, and see how I get on with the fumbling. 10 per hour is roughly 2 per mile. Gels are of course a bigger dose than JBs, but not as tasty.
Re pacing, I have already consulted the Bible (that is, the Holy Word of Hal). He also advocates even pace. (Why he needed a computer specialist to develop the pace charts, I'm not sure - although of course Hal dates back to the age of steam.) But I checked in my hard copy of his book recently (the King James, one might say) and he added a remark to the pace section, that slowbies (in which he definitely includes 4-hour runners) might struggle to keep an even pace, and could consider a gradual slowdown.
My 2005 pace went like this (I already have it on a spreadsheet, of course :o):
I meditated upon the Word of Hal again last night. Apparently the slow-down approach is called the Myers Pace Table, and goes like this:
Miles 0-12 completed in 3.756% of finish time
Miles 12-18 completed in 3.8086% of finish time
Miles 18-23 completed in 3.8725% of finish time
Miles 23-26.2 completed in 3.95% of finish time
So for a 3:55 finish I would be looking at:
0-12: 8:50 MM
12-18: 8:57 MM
18-23: 9:06 MM
23-26.2: 9:17 MM
That might just sound like a plan. I'm still tempted to start faster and finish slower, but that's a strategy recommended by almost no-one.
7 mile tempo run late last night in fairly heavy rain. Well, it felt like tempo, but the watch said more like HM race pace. Still, I don't believe in going all-out during training. I guess that's why I don't fulfil the marathon times calculated by the race predictors.
This was sandwiched between some major glosswork in one bedroom and half an hour of baby-settling in another. I fell into bed about 5.5 hours before the alarm was due.
marathondan Wrote:I fell into bed about 5.5 hours before the alarm was due.
I know you don't always get a lot of choice in this - few of us do - but don't underestimate the power of a good night's sleep. Pots and kettles from the man who posts 24/7 on here I know, but I've noticed recently my post-run recovery's so that much better after a good 6 or 7 hour kip.
Could be I need more sleep as I get ol . . .
. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
You're not wrong, Sweder. Last night I went to bed at 10.30, and slept through the alarm till 6.20. I lost an hour with the littlun around midnight, but that's still the best part of 7 hours. The mileage is starting to ramp up now, and things will have to start to give a little. The first thing might be to get a decorator in to do the next bedroom... :o
The first blot on my copy book. Not bad going I suppose, although under the less-is-more regime there is little room for excuses.
I had planned to complete my three runs on Mon-Wed-Fri, leaving the weekend free for a visit to friends, and a total of six children (excluding the infant) terrorising us more and more as the years pass. But I opted to slip this to Mon-Fri-Sun, leaving more time to finish my decorating, and optimistically thinking I'd be up for a short fartlek on Sunday night, having driven home and unpacked all the luggage.
Monday night was good, as previously mentioned: 7 miles at a relatively sedate 51:42 10K pace, but a good result nonetheless.
Friday night was my longest effort to date, a small stagger short of the half-marathon distance. This was completed in 3:55 marathon pace, again a decent result. I tried out Mr Sainsbury's excellent fruit jellies - softer than your common or garden jelly baby, and packing 10g of carb each (50/50 sugar and starch, just like those expensive gels) I happily necked one per mile to keep the batteries topped up. A success I think, I just need to work out how to transport them on the day.
Saturday, unsurprisingly, I was stiff and a little jaded, and then in the afternoon a very mild stomach bug was evident - nothing serious, but enough to put me completely off Saturday night's beer, curry and home made butterscotch pudding . By Sunday lunchtime I was back to two-helpings-of-roast-pork fitness, but a tiny seed of long-runs-make-me-unhealthy-how-will-I-ever-get-to-26-miles fear was sown. Needless to say I cancelled the short fartlek.
Fortunately this week is another step-back, so only a 10 to look forward to at the weekend. Another 7 mile tempo on Tuesday night and hopefully I'll be back on track.
Blimey, only another four ground-breaking long runs left to go (15, 16, 18, 20) before the big one.
This step-back week was completed with only one more minor concession to my wobble last weekend –- Wednesday’s short fartlek was downgraded to easy pace.
Friday night was a 7.5 mile tempo run -– although at 52 min 10K pace, still not really worthy of the name. Random thoughts in no particular order:
Mentions of the arrival of spring seem to be pushing their way through the snow reports in all of the training diaries, and this is no exception. I’m down to one layer, and the shorts will no doubt make an appearance soon, even for late night runs. Only one other runner spotted tonight – and she appeared to be wearing a ski jacket of some sort. All I know is that if your clothing rustles when you run, it’s probably too thick.
When someone stops me for directions, I expect it to be for an obscure local address. Last week someone asked me how to get to Slough. This week it was Birmingham. Next week I’m expecting Manchester at least, if not Edinburgh.
Am I alone in finding the following church poster faintly amusing? "Coffee morning Saturday – with stalls."
Sunday night was 10 miles easy, accomplished without too much fuss, in 3:57 marathon pace. I’m starting to go a little stir crazy on the long runs –- plenty of time to think, yes, but I find myself unable to think about much other than running. So I took the mp3 player for a change, loaded with Radio 4 spoken word worthiness. Apparently I listened to articles about transport policy, interbreeding between first cousins, Vatican II, and wild big cats in Wales. I didn’t take much of it in, but it was comforting to have a succession of pleasant middle-class voices burbling away, and it did indeed pass the time.
By the end I was feeling a bit encumbered –- water bottle, mp3 player, bag of jellies (not really needed at this distance) as well as the thick jumper round the waist intended to simulate the mild inconvenience of a tutu. I swung by the house before the final half-mile mini-lap and was able to jettison most of the junk, which was a great pleasure. Transport of supplies during the race is an issue to be addressed. I never used to like bumbags, but maybe considering the other crap I’ll be wearing on race day it won’t be an issue.
The remaining unfortunate incident to recount was that I badly startled a young woman. I’ve previously had a few people look round with a start as I approach from behind in the dark*. This time there was a young woman ahead in probably the only narrow and badly-lit section of my 5-mile circuit. I considered calling out "excuse me" at about 20 yards, but that seemed ruder than nothing at all. So I expected a quick startle and step to the side as I approached. What I didn’t expect was that she would just leg it at the sound of my footsteps without even turning round. As the path opened out she realized her mistake and stopped; I crossed over as I passed, in an attempt at politeness, and we exchanged apologies without me breaking stride. A minor case of running etiquette breached by me I think –- it would probably have been best (had I not been zoned out on the iPod) to have stepped out into the road and avoided the encounter altogether.
I also broke in a new pair of Asics 1120 this week –- although with modern technology the term "broken in" is a bit of an exaggeration. I picked up two pairs for under £80 after Christmas on the web. But it seems they’re now out of production, so next time it will be a trip to the running shop for gait analysis, and more like £80 for one pair.
Heading for a 15 miler this week –- so far I’m feeling confident. I also got hold of some tutu material, so will start putting my dressmaking skills to the test…
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* There’s no unsmutty way to write that.
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That running etiquette problem is familiar. The i-plods don't help, wether worn by the surpriser or the surprisee.
I've made a few people jump in my time, often at night. You'd think they'd feel the ground shaking . . .
Good stuff Dan.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Feb 09 - A Hazy Shade of Winter
