London marathoners assemble

[KittyandTeal]

As the ballot spaces start being allocated I thought I'd start a thread for those of us lucky enough to get a space.

I was rejected through the ballot but I have had a charity space since June so I'm running (and raising £1400) I've been training for a half so I can get the distance under my belt. Im up to 11 miles now in just over 2 hours. I'm slow but getting there. I'd like to get in under 5 hours but I'm happy to just be running it.

I did the September 100 mile challenge which was good. I'm trying to stop myself booking more races at the beginning of the year although there's a couple I really want to do!
I hope you're feeling better soon though. I've not been out much this month. I did a half marathon on Sunday and parkrun this Saturday. My ds is back at nursery on Monday so it'll be back to normal!

Just had the email - I have a place supporting my hospital charity. The fun starts now!! What have I done? As if my life isn't crazy enough.

Woohoo! That's awesome two! I'm so glad you got a space. How much is your target?

Hi, I'm running my first ever marathon at the London Marathon (I've only really run 10km up until now) and nervous and excited! I got a charity place affect years of ballot rejection. I'm writing a blog to stay on the straight and narrow: swappingginfortrainers.wordpress.com

Any hint and tips or training buddies are very welcome!!

Fantastic FS will have a look at your blog.

Kitty - my target is a whopping 2.5k. it is the first time I have ever done a sponsored event and so hopefully people will be generous. In denial.

My DP has run numerous marathons and ultra marathons which is a mixed blessing. He is very excited for me but at the same time can be a bit dismissive. He is a bit crazy - on one run he decided to swap gels for cold roast potatoes! Has been known to run with a cold espresso in a water bottle too.

Brilliant FS. I was considering a blog too but I'm not sure anyone would be very interested.

Does anyone else struggle with speed work and motivation? I'm a little under the weather but I went out with a friend to do 5x 400m hard 400 recovery. We managed 2 sets and then ended up just doing 3k at a steady pace instead.

I hate speed work and do everything to avoid it. Urgh. I'm a bit annoyed with myself

Speed work is no fun Kitty! Have you tried fartlek? Or pyramid sessions -like hard 1 min, recovery 1 min, hard 2 min, recovery 2 etc up till 4 then reduce back down. Sometimes the variety makes it less unpleasant.

No I've not yet emummy. I've been doing a mixture of intervals and sustained tempo runs. I think my marathon training plan has a few fartlek runs which I'm keen to try. I've not looked at a pyramid session. Do you go back down the pyramid as well? I think I'd almost be better doing it upside down and starting with longer hard and moving down.

You can do them any way you like Kitty, I guess the idea is building up then easing off again. I used to one that went 15 sec, 30, 45, 60, 90,90, 60, 45, 30, 15 with equal amount of rest after each hard bit, and that was quite fun. But I think there's only so much fun you can get from intervals! Maybe we should reward ourselves with a big cake afterwards!

Emummy and Kitty can I ask what do you use to time these sessions? So u programme something to tell you what you're meant to be doing?!

I run with a 1990s Casio watch!!

But Xmas is coming and my present list of running-related stuff is growing....

I like that emummy, I might try that.

Chocolate I have a garmin forerunner and you can program walk/run intervals but they are all the same time iyswim. I'm looking at a slightly better gps watch with an interval program. Any stop watch will do though.

Yesterday I was running around a pond that I know is 1k all the way round so we just ran half and walked half. It was horridly hard though.

I'm thinking of upgrading my running watch too. I have a basic garmin at the moment. Is anyone using an app or similar to keep a record of their training runs? Any recommendations.

I've just completed my first official training run. It was a hilly 10k. A bit disappointed with the time which is ridiculous as I haven't run further than 5k in over 3 months. I think I'm going to need a change of mindset.

Off on hols tomorrow for half term. Not sure how many opportunities there will be for running but might sneak in my trainers anyway.
Happy weekend everyone

I have a basic garmin too but I also use strava on my phone. I use both because strava is great for looking back and comparing but with my garmin I can look at half mile splits too. However, over the past few days they've been really off. Yesterday garmin thinks I ran 5 miles and strava 4! I'd like to get a watch that connects to my phone so I can use my watch while running but so it records it to my phone.

I like the numbers and splits etc though, my friend doesn't run with anything, just runs a set distance and works out roughly how long it's taken

I've got a Fitbit blaze which I love - its my new toy! It connects to the gps on my phone, and has a built in heart monitor which seems pretty accurate. I also like being able to just look at the watch face to find out my current pace, distance etc plus it's purple and looks pretty

Not been a great week running wise, partly due to a cold and partly due to a 60 hour week at work. Going to go out for a gentle run this afternoon then start over next week properly!

I have a Tomtom runner, it syncs with the Tomtom app on the phone and I also have it linked to Mapmyrun. It can be set for intervals, laps, and can be set to goal pace. I haven't used goal pace yet but might start to keep my right on the long runs when the proper training plan starts.

Do you think it's fairly accurate emummy?

Seems to be, it usually agrees with time & distance in races.

Cool, it's my bday soon so I think a shopping trip may be in order

It's definitely a good excuse for new gadgets. I've been looking at a Garmin or equivalent too. I tend to use Runkeeper on my phone mostly at the moment. Although yesterday at Parkrun I opened Runkeeper and my phone died completely - so for once I was running without Runkeeper, music or podcasts. And I ran my best time this year ... Not sure what that tells me but I'd get very bored for anything longer without distraction. What do you all listen to when running? I tend to podcast and audio book rather than music.

I podcast too, mainly running ones and Tough Girl.

I used to listen to music or science podcasts but I got really annoyed one day, pulled my earphones out and never went back! I use garmin and strava but I don't listen to anything anymore. That's one of the reasons I have to run in pretty places, so I've got things to look at. I found that I got a bit of sensory overload listening to something, looking at the scenery and concentrating on my form and breathing etc

Any recommendations for running podcasts? I love listening to stuff before bed

I listen to Marathon Talk, Running Commentary and Marathon Training Academy. Also Tough Girl, which has interviews with women athletes and adventurers, such as the ultra runner who ran up Snowdon 3 times as a training run!

Thank you! I'm definitely going to have a listen to them

I've decided to concentrate on my speed an short distances. Yesterday at parkrun I decided to push myself and finally got a sub 30! I'm so pleased. It's not a flat route and it's taken a year!