Half marathon - any one doing one?

Week 2 complete, fun with intervals through the week, nice easy 9 miles this morning in the freezing cold! More hill repeats next week, hope the snow goes away.
Well done all on running efforts. I hate burpees, did total of 40 during bootcamp last week, yuck!

Good luck today Sven, look forward to hearing about it.

How did the juniors go Cherryminx?

That sounds like a rough week Sirona, hope you're OK. Burpees are my nemesis. Fifty is very impressive. I prefer classes too for strength. Julian Michaels DVDs I also enjoy and I try and go for ones with more of a weight element but I think I need someone shouting at me.

Plan for today is a shortish long run, according to my plan, so taking the DC along too. We found a great local parkrun which is very hilly, so we're going to do that more for training.

Best of luck for your race today Sven, hope it goes well!

Not run this week as I have my 10 mile race in the morning
I am so looking forward to it I have been itching to run all week. But I want fresh legs for my hilly challenge tomorrow. Course profile is hills, hills and more hills with very little downhill for 7.5 miles. Then downhill from there. I am not bothered by time tomorrow I just want to finish it and get the heart shaped medal.

Maybe just your legs getting used to the trainers LadyC? I have to rotate my shoes in gradually. Hope you're feeling better now.

Yeah it can be a bit of pain finding the time for the longer runs FiftyNine. It's one of the things that puts me off the idea of training for a marathon.

That would be extremely annoying CherryMinx, have you tried a cup of coffee a while before to get things moving before the run ? I have to go to classes for strength training, they are indeed very boring to do in the house.

Have had a lazy week, family bereavement and all that that entails. Didn't do my long run this week, no time, only managed 8 miles but pushed it faster the last couple of miles rather than the usual plod. Decide to try and time myself doing 100 burpees - gave up at 50 and have two cracking bruises on my knees as a result Back at it tomorrow.

Sirona I try to do 8-10 miles on Sundays (but have not had time to go that far so far this year!), plus parkrun and one or two shorter runs of 3 or 4 miles in the week. I am never going to be fast - I'm a 2:20-2:30 plodder depending on the conditions - but I like the distance and the headspace that comes with a long run.

Well done on your distance Cassandra

Enjoy junior parkrun Cherry and DD

Hi al, I did 16km on Sunday which went well, but my legs are still aching today (Tuesday) even though I did a recovery run yesterday.
I think it may be my new trainers but I bought two pairs and the other pair are the same as my old ones, so I'm breaking them in and hoping it's nothing more serious.

Hi Jaggy. Well done for taking on a half marathon so soon after a little one and bf too. I had a section myself with my first and it takes a lot of recovery I found - some friends breezed through theirs though.

Yay for jelly babies chutney!

The IT band is miles better thanks. It's been an ongoing annoyance or pain sometimes from the summer. Suspect it may originate from my hips so going to try to do some work on them. Probably should go to the physio again but there's always something else to spend the money on at the moment.

That's a lot of hms FiftyNine. I was considering doing another in June after the one in March, what sort of mileage are you thinking of doing after March? Are you going to keep your long runs up there or scale them down again? I only had the one caffeine gel and one non caffeine.

I don't mind hills but hate hill repeats. My town's on a hill and I'm half way up so I'm always running up or down at some stage. There's two particluarly nasty gradient ones that I try to avoid unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic that day as I can't get up them without stopping to walk, they're that steep for me.

Oh FiftyNine hill repeats are such fun, not! I did a 2 mile easy run, then 2 sets of 5 repeats up a 250m hill with jog down in between. Then one mile easy run afterwards. You can also do ones where you run up and down repeatedly at the same constant pace but I'm not so keen on them!

Welcome Jaggy well done for running with a little one!

Well done on your 7 miles chutney, glad the jelly babies helped

Hope your IT Band is better today Sirona. I think I'd had 3 or 4 caffeine gels over the course of a long run when I was feeling weird that time, maybe 1 or 2 are OK

emummy tell me more about hill repeats. Where I live it is very flat, but I am doing the Sheffield HM in a couple of months and that is super-hilly. I have a hill about 2 miles away

Well done Irian!

The Royal Parks isn't until October. I think I will be doing HMs in March, May, June, Oct and Dec this year.

Hello all, can I join you? I have signed up for the Edinburgh half in May. Never done a half marathon before. I did a 10 mile about 18 months ago and discovered the day after the race that I was pregnant with dd. I am just getting back to that sort of distance after pregnancy and recovering from a c - section.
I did 15k today. Very windy and rainy so it was a slog. I am mostly just doing one long run per week at the moment but plan to add in some 5ks and intervals once it gets a little lighter in the evening (and I get dd to take a bottle before bed rather than bf).

Seven miles done I felt much better than last week and overall pace was much better, I'll put that down to the jelly babies! I made sure to have a snack in the car for when I was done, so felt fine after.

Well done on the hills emummy, sounds like hard work but I'm sure it's done a lot of good.

How's the niggle doing today Sirona?

Nope I'm the opposite in life than running Aye. Life I'm full of enthusiasm and energy then run out of steam and frequently cba finishing things. Running, I dawdle for the first half, speed up the second and go hell for leather as much as I can at the end. 'Finish strong' as I've always been told to do :)

11.5 done this morning. Tried a caffeine gel today and was fine. I think I noticed a difference with them? Not sure if it was just a coincidental good run where I didn't flag at all. I checked the electrolyte tabs and they have twice the amount of caffeine in them compared to the gels so maybe that's why they made me feel weird, especially the way I overheat and guzzle liquid in the gym.

Did a class last night that involves lots of different movements. My IT band has been very niggly since. Didn't annoy me running but can really feel it now. Will be an ibuprofen and rest day tomorrow I think.

Good luck for tomorrow's run chutney and well done on the hill repeats emummy. Ten is some going!

I always start slow and speed up, especially if there's a hill coming!
First hill repeat session on the plan this morning, did all 10, still amazed I managed it. Nice to have a good session, gives a wee confidence boost.
Good luck with 7 miles chutneypig

Great news FiftyNine

Fantastic Irian, brilliant to get that under your belt.

I'm definitely on the side of caution Aye, DD is the same, with DH and DS the opposite. I always worry that I won't finish if I start too fast and I also want to enjoy it. I've always struggled with sport of any sort, maybe there's a lack of confidence for me too? Always that slight doubt that I can do it.

I've had a very sluggish week on the training front, had to miss out an interval session because of work. Today's not looking good on the parkrun front weather wise but hoping to do seven miles tomorrow, the longest yet. But I do need to source some jelly babies today!

Well done Irian, that is a good time! And now you know you've got it on the legs. The memory of that can carry you through a few k on the hard days!

Did you feel like you were edging on the side of caution where you don't want to go too fast at the beginning in case you don't make it to the end, then when you get to the end you think that you probably could have pushed it a bit harder?

Or are you the opposite where you go off quite hard and then hang on for dear life?

I have a theory that people are either one or the other and that they apply the same rules in other areas of their life too

My friend I sometimes run with and I are total opposites in that regard. I can't get my head round how she has the bravery to blast off the start and she can't understand why I'd have my last kilometres as the quickest!

FiftyNine I'll go have a gander at that thread! Thanks.

Fantastic FiftyNine, when is it?

I think that's a really great time Irian, bloody well done! Remember in an actual race you will probably naturally go quicker too with all that adrenaline buzzing through your system.

I get that LadyCassandra, I remember trying to run on holiday on the Med and it was horrendous for my poor Irish blood even at 9am. I'm a tad jealous thinking of all your lovely sunshine as I'm looking out at the rainy, freezing day here.

I did it! 2 hrs 27 but I reckon that's OK for a first time. Really tired... haven't felt as knackered as this after a run for ages.

Congrats 59! I didn't get a place :( got a London marathon place so shouldn't grumble

Just checked my email and much to my surprise I have a place in the Royal Parks HM

Sirona believe me, it's the only time to run here, it's hitting 25•c by 10am, and I just can't run in the heat! It also means I can go totally guilt free, everyone is just getting up when I get in after a run and a sneaky coffee!

Oh wow LadyCassandra that is dedication running at 5.30am every morning. You sound like you're in a really solid position this year.

Enjoy your run today Irian

I'm so glad you said that FiftyNine. I sometimes use the electrolyte tablets in the gym and ordered the wrong ones by mistake with caffeine in them. They made me feel very weird, kinda spacey and wired - and I'm no stranger to lots of super strong coffee per day. As a result I haven't tried the caffeine gels yet just the normal ones. Honestly don't really notice a difference but maybe I'm not out long enough yet. Was going to try a caffeine one tomorrow as I've to do an 11 miler - will report back but if they make me feel the same as the tabs I'll probably just bin them.

This thread gave me the shove to do a fast run yesterday. Was only 5k and I hated every second However I missed my 5k PB from 2014 by mere seconds so now the competitiveness has kicked in and I'll definitely be doing one next week. Must beat my time!

Back again after a few weeks away from this thread! Great to read about everyone's progress!
I've signed up for the Sydney HM on 15th may (our anniversary break has been postponed!) and started training mid Jan.
I'm in a group so it's easier to stay on track with training. Our coach is slightly obsessive and the group run every day At 5.30am It does mean my training it pretty varied: I do my long runs on Sunday (doing 16km this week), recovery run (6km) Monday, 7km Wednesday and then hill repeats on Friday.
DS(7) and I have started to do Parkrun every fortnight, we have only done 2 so far but he is doing really well, he only walks a little bit.
Did the same HM last year and went from being a non-runner at beginning of Jan, to starting training beginning of March, so I think I'm definitely in a better position this year after running for a year, and starting training earlier!
Last HM I somehow ended up running the whole way with my coach and I had a couple of gel sweets, must find out what they are, but generally I don't eat on long runs, and seem to get through somehow! I usually have a banana before I start, but even that is tough when it's 5.30am!