Runners United: Where we support each other through the good runs, the bad runs and everything in between.

[Themasterandmargaritas]

15/10/11 - Donadea Forest Trail 10k - rhetorician
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
16/10/11 - Aviemore 10K: Piffpaffpoff
16/10/11 - Richmond Castle 10k: Stickylittlefingers
22/10/11 - Shockabsorber 10K Richmond Park - sfx
23/10/11 - Thruxton Mass Attack Duathlon- DebitheScot
23/10/11 - Big Fun Run 5k Edinburgh Holyrood Park - Bumply
23/10/11 - East Coast Run 10k - Ibbydibby
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
30/10/11 - Nairobi Standard Chartered Half Marathon - M&M
05/11/11 - Glendalough Trail Run - rhetorician
06/11/11 - Lancaster Half Marathon - Fannybanjo
06/11/11 - Bonfire Burn 10K - Futurity
13/11/11 - Stebbing 10 Mile - bonkers20
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby, MoshiMoshi
27/11/11 - Bicton Blister (10M) - RunningAllDay
22/01/12 - Four Villages Half Marathon (Helsby) - Fannybanjo
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
04/03/12 - Milton Keynes Half Marathon - pawsnclaws
11/03/12 - Cambridge Half Marathon - Futurity, Runnerstipple, Cherry (what have I done??)
25/03/12 - Edale Skyline - (21 miles. 4,500 ft climb) Hatwoman
10/03/12 - Blackpool Half Marathon - DrNortherner, Fannybanjo
01/04/12 - Reading Half-Marathon - RunningAllDay
22/04/12 - VLM: ibbydibby
29/04/12 - Shakespeare Half Marathon - FairyBasslet
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity
09/06/12 - Blenheim Sprint Triathlon - Cherry

fanny you really do crack me up - I've no time or energy to do the maintenance required to be a lipstick lesbian: I'm a jeans and t-shirt type (although I scrub up quite nicely when i can be arsed wear a suit - I have a weakness for Karen Millen)

The elevation for Saturday is here - I'd be interested to see how it compares for those of you who often run hills...must get on.

DP is showing nesting signs (this never happened last time) and I think we are about to embark on a house de-clutter and cleaning programme

i could do with one of those house declutter and cleaning programmes....(i just watch em on telly!)

just a quickie to say thanks re my 5 miles....a little stiff this morning, achilles mainly - and am surprised i can move my thighs! but im at work this afternoon so best get moving - am going to make a soup in a mo from the yummy soups thread so the kids have something other than sandwiches for tea (i say kids - one is almost 20 and the other is 14! they should be making me soup!)

Orange - varicose viens - yep sounds like it to me. i had mine stripped on my right leg but could never be arsed to go back for the left - wish id had them done at same time tbh. If its aching id nip and see a gp, sometimes they can inject them to reduce them but mine were beyond hope and had to come out.)

moshi - tickes = pita. i never give them - even bobbies have their limits!

hello to everyone else (im still getting to grips with all your names! apologies - but ive just read about 4 pages and i cant remember who is doing what....my legs may be working better but my mind clearly is not!)

see you all later!

Great to see you again too DrNo. Kids fine now but had smallest had a chest infection which laid her low for a while. How's your running doing? Before I left you were flying....

Hi sfx (waves back) - how was the 10K around Richmond Park? Bet it would be a great venue to do it.

How exciting peaches! Getting very close indeed. Hope you're feeling good. Ditto your DP rhet. Nice idea on the stuff for the hospital bag, your DP will certainly smell nice when she comes out! My bro's just had another little one - saw my new niece this weekend and had almost forgotten just how goddamn cute babies can be.

monkeywench and cherry, two running neighbours now! Will have to bug you both with questions about local running knowledge. Am going to be doing that run to St Albans not infrequently I think (6 miles I figured). The packed train thing had crossed my mind but I figured that sweating furiously and breathing heavily when I got on board would help me find my own space on the train!

Saw your race report wheely - wow, you had to pretty chuffed with your performance. Well done! Thanks for best wishes on house fiasco move.

Good to see you again too fanny. Hope you're not too shocked! You still working towards sub 1.45 for your next HM?

Right, off to bed, I hate it how that means I miss all the chatting!

hi everyone, just popping in quickly.
been a bit lax recently as have had a chesty cough/cold. went out this morning for 40 mins or so - nice enough but horribly muddy - not bothered about the filth it's just really hard to get any speed up as I was sliding all over.

rhet - I had a look at your hill - pretty savage. I work in average feet per mile - your route is 167 feet per mile. One of my regular routes is 119 - most of mine are somewhere round that, plus a little bit more for races. The most savage race I've done was 233.

I bumped into another runner I vaguely know today and we chatted about cows - both of us had taken a detour to avoid them - turns out that, according to the rumour mill (which is not very good, let's be honest), someone was trampled in the field at the end of my lane - and the police were called. will endeavour to find out if it's true whilst also endeavouring not to further spread rumours - which is very hard.

Scared! I might have to do my race on Sunday by myself as my friend who was doing it with me may not be able to do it due to illness. She was going to give me a lift (not really an issue..I can find my way there) and run at the back with me as I expect it will be full of club runners. Looks like I will be last by myself!

You'll be fine futurity. I just looked online to see where your race is, as I don't think we are a million miles away from each other, to see if I could maybe make it, but there are no on the day registrations. Otherwise I'd have tried to come and do it too. Although as a 10-11 minute miler I would have been behind you!

Thanks Runnerstipple ...I think they only recently got full up so took down the on the day registrations which is a shame.

hat you've scared me now - if someone who runs as many hills as you do calls it 'savage' I might well be more in walk/run territory. Which is also fine, I guess.

rhet - there may well be points when you realise you're "running" slower than walking pace!

futurity - you'll be fine on your own... (says she, remembering her posts from saturday) but its not as nice as having someone there . Could your family not go along to support so you know there's someone there willing you on ?

Been looking at smartcoach this afternoon as well as other plans. Smartcoach is good as its geared up to your current speed/distance, I Liked that but it seemed to just build and build until race day and I think I'd prefer to get to a peak a few weeks before and then just maintain. Also was based on LSR, 1 tempo or speed and then 2 easy runs. Whilst I'd like the sound of that in some ways had been assuming just 1 easy run was the way to go. But, I might take things from that and the RW sub-2 plan which is good for my needs as quite a few long runs at 12/13/14 miles.

Thinking I might get out and do 5K this weekend and then start gently-ish next week and then into the plan the week after which gives me 14 weeks I think once the plan starts.

Did body balance this morning. Made me realise how weak my ankle still is as I was all over the place trying to balance on that leg. Must make an effort to strengthen it I think !

wheely DH has said he could come with the kids but in someways it would easier without them as I could just do my own thing and not feel I had to rush off at the end (when I want to collapse!)

Forgot to add...agree with you about smart coach peaking too late ...I will fiddle the plan to do higher mileage a few weeks before the run to be on the safe side.

wheely for my HM training I peaked at 14 miles around 3 weeks before GNR which worked well. My aim was a

Tthanks for input futurity and fanny.

Fanny your 14 mile peak sounds about right for me this time. I want to aim for 1.50 this time with an ambitious hope of 1.45 later in the year.... That's the ambition anyway. If I was able to run another 3 miles at same speed as Sunday it'd be 1.49 so I think its possible with the right training.... Whatever that is.....

It's my turn to go to bookclub tonight !

Fanny the RW sub 2 hour plan takes you up to 14 miles I think. I wonder why the difference ?

Aw thankyou peachs
Thats a shame futurity. You will be fine though.
I have just read though but so tired from work not sure much went in so apologise if I have missed anythng important.
No running today but contemplating on doing some ab work if I can muster up some energy.

wheely I've ran in training 10 milers in similar times to your race last week and I have to say, those last 3 miles are a marathon when you race them. My GNR 10 mile time was 1.23 but then the alloys were robbed and I rolled to the finish on
bricks . Didn't help that the last 3 miles of the GNR not ideal. My only training plan this time has been to do majority of my steady runs at HM pace so I feel comfortable at desired pace. You won't have any problems with getting a 1.50 HM, have you ran more than 10 miles before?

Wheely I think the classic one does, this one was the more in depth one. The 1.25 to sub

hello all - great to hear discussions of training plans etc etc going on. I'm simply going to run through the uphill 15k on Saturday and then resume a couple of months heart rate training - keeping all runs at < 70% of max HR. Problem is (1) that HRM is banjaxed and (2) that I can't quite be sure which HR to use - one formula would give 135 as limit (which is ok, if very very slow), but I have a book on heart rate training and his formulas, with my resting heart rate (which I think is about 52, but conservatively 55), suggest 146 - that's quite a difference. Both are easy running for me, so I am splitting the difference and going for 140. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be running faster paces at that HR...and then I will add in some speedwork again. I should build good endurance - and already feel much more comfortable and happy out on the roads. I don't dread my running, or ever feel that I will struggle to finish.

Yes Fanny. I typically find the last few miles difficult mentally so won't know what will happen in a half. ;my race time was not really much quicker than my training runs (1.24 - 25) but guessing that was a result maybe of not doing any speed training in the last 6 weeks due to injury.

I have run up to 11 miles in my training for GSR and 10 a few times so hopefully that's a good starting point together with getting back to intervals. And trying to get lots of 13 milers in before the event.

We'll see, 1.45 is a plan by the end of next year not Feb.

Hi all! So cherry and I have realised we live 10 minutes walk from each other!

futurity you'll be fine, I think once you know you're on your own you go into your own zone and it can be ok. Is there much support on the route?

Hills. Hmm. After a lot of reflection I'm really feeling that the hills round here are what you lot would call gentle inclines. Plenty of long slow climbs but nothing short and steep which I would like for hill intervals. There are some super steep hills near school but I always have ds3 with me then.

Busy day today, one of the mums in ds2's class has a personal trainer and has roped us all into doing an outdoor circuit class in her enormous estate garden with him. It was wet and really hard but just what I needed, squats, lunges, planks, skipping, crunches, running wearing leg weights .... Everything aches, especially my Dinner Lady Arms upper body. Good stuff though, right?

Then took ds3 to see Peppa Pig live, which was painful for all sorts of different reasons!

rhet I can't be arsed with HR monitor! However I see the science in it and will probably add one to my Garmin. What pace would you ideally and realistically like to get to? This race you've got on Saturday will probably put you out of your comfort zone and I think it'll do you the WORLD of good, especially for your confidence.

wheely well sounds that your training for 10 miler worked so by adding on the miles and doing a good few 12/13/14 milers before will stand you in good stead. The more 13 plus miles I do, the more efficient I have become at doing them well. Whereas before the GNR I had only completed a 13 miler and 14 miler. Obviously the more long distance runs we do, the better we become! You've loads of time to get very good at the distance, your base now is great.

fanny realistically? I'd be happy to get to just about 9.30 min/miles, a bit faster for racing...I just realise that I need to build up from the bottom (yes, you'd appreciate that!) - and the HRM thing is a better number for me to be fixating on as I run than a pace that I struggle to maintain. I think this approach doesn't work for everyone, but I've seen very little progress this year, and this might be just the thing. We'll see.

The book I have doesn't actually suggest extreme LHR training - just that the majority of your running would be genuinely easy. He has a case study of a runner that actually sounded a lot like you as a runner (or based on what you post here). I could scan it and send it to you if you liked...