Spring marathon club

[Runningonempty84]

Anyone want to join?
There must be lots of us getting into the high mileage now, in prep for London/Manchester/Edinburgh...or any of the other spring marathons.

How's it going? Are you aiming for a time? And are you finding the long runs so tiring?!

Does anyone think running 24m 3 weeks before Manchester is too much too close? Something closer to 20 might be less exhausting?

Tbh I think you'd be mad to do 24 miles now, unless you regularly run that distance, find it quite easy, and know you're not going to pick up an injury.

There's a massive difference between 20 and 23/24 miles IME. I'm planning 18-20 this weekend and then starting to taper. Fingers crossed I have something to taper for!

Thanks. It’s not me but a good friend. I thought the same but not sure how to mention it!

I ran 24 miles about 5 weeks before my first (and only as yet) marathon. Not intentional, I got lost and then just wanted to get home so kept running.

I can't fully remember but I don't think I ran more than 8 miles after that as I hurt my foot. I didn't run at all in the three weeks before the marathon, but did swim and cycle,

24 miles three weeks before is risky and unnecessary, but without an injury and taking the last three weeks very easy, it should be okay.

Although it's possible that your friend might change their mind either before or around mile 18!

I kind of want to know if VLM will go ahead before I put myself through a few more 18-20 mile runs. I want to keep my level of fitness but theres a level of uncomfortable past around 12-15 miles that 8 dont want to experience if it's not 100% necessary!😂 can you tell I'm naturally quite a lazy person despite this being marathon number 10...?

No I'm with you Flyingpurplepeopleeater I feel absolutely battered now I'm finally reaching taper. One final long run this weekend. If Manchester gets postponed and I have to do the final 3 weeks of my plan again I might cry I didn't realise when I signed up for my emergency marathon quite how over all of this training I would feel now. Also my knee has developed a niggle and my foot isn't quite right after that last long run.

Yes I know what you mean. Given the announcement today about keeping large sporting events 'under review', I think it will probably be cancelled but that decision might not be made for a week or so.

London marathon is postponed until 4 October.

Sorry for those who will be very disappointed.

Oh no! I haven’t seen that
Manchester will definitely follow suit now.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/sport/london-marathon-cancelled-2020-coronavirus-postponed-latest-a9401056.html%3famp

So having missed the odd long run doesn’t matter now!

Time to rewrite the training diary and enter some different races!

Yep, Manchester postponed too!

I’m really disappointed.

I can't keep up the training until October so potentially would start again in July. I was at 18 miles and planned to go to 21 or 22. I'm just really unsure I want to do it all again. I would be mad to turn down a much sought after ballot place but seriously I just don't think I can do it all again. Maybe I'll just walk it?

@CatherineCawood I know what you mean. I want my Sunday’s back. I was looking forward to short races and getting my speed back. I don’t want to start again in summer.

@Runningonempty84 is your alternate race still on?

@Teawaster gutted for you. Can you rearrange your travel plans or will you lose?

Brighton has also cancelled

What are your training plans for the next 6 months?

My instinct is to concentrate on getting my 5/10K times down over the next couple of months with the odd 10 miler /2 hour run thrown in to help me keep on top of distance running. Then, in June/July I'll start building up the distances again.

I'm slightly relieved about the postponement as I was going to be disappointed with my finishing time (about 5.5 hours). Really hoping that by October I can get a 4 in the front!

For me, I'm going to keep those long runs up. Maybe try and cash in with a Parkrun PB at some point. And then another proper marathon training block from July onwards.

I'm trying to be positive- I ran a half marathon PB last week, and surely with a few months more training, I can be even faster when the marathon eventually comes around. I'm even perhaps daring to hope of running closer to 3:25 in the autumn, which just wouldn't be possible next month. Think we all have to try and see the delay as a good thing, and use the extra months wisely (taking aside the wider context, obviously!)

Look up "Running with Jake" on facebook. He's just done a (lengthy, about 26 mins) video going through various aspects of marathons being postponed and how to manage them.

I'm taking a few days off to rest my knee as it's been getting sore after long runs and there's not been enough of a gap to my next run to let it stop niggling. Last ran on Friday, I've got a massage appt on Tuesday, reckon I'll run again on Wednesday. Might have got over the disappointment of Manchester by then.

Going to rejig my plan to taper for my emergency marathon on 26th April, if it gets cancelled or postponed I'm running a marathon anyway even if it's on my own.

At this point I'm really glad I got a great HM pb out of the training, it might be my last race for some time. I have an extremely hilly ultra in July and I'm really hoping that goes ahead as it's a pretty small race.

How's everyone doing? Knee still not quite right so now everything is cancelled I'm going to spend a week or two stretching and doing strength stuff and get back to running when that's better. Still hoping to run a marathon distance in April, but need to get my knee right first

Sorry to hear about your knee, @SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic . So frustrating. I'm ok; dropped the mileage a bit, but keeping above 30 miles a week just to tick over while we still can.

Ah it's ok I know what's done it - a HM race at full gas followed by a 70k week with 20 miles at marathon pace. Haven't been doing enough stretching/strength work so it's my own fault. It feels a lot better since my physio battered my IT band into submission so I don't think it'll be long till I'm back on form and hopefully won't have lost too much fitness 👍

Quick qu - for how long is everyone running at the moment?

France has restricted runs to 60 minutes and Gove said a 60 minute walk or 30 minute run was acceptable.

I desperately don't want to lose my stamina but recognise we need to protect the NHS.

Please tell me what to do!!

I've been doing about 50 minutes daily, sometimes a bit more. I don't think the 30 mins is a rule . I suppose he was giving an amount of time that will be of benefit to people when they exercise .
However what difference does it make whether you are running or walking in terms of the virus . I remember someone saying you shouldn't do a really long run instead of a number of small runs over a few days . I get that I suppose as there is a greater risk of needing a loo or getting unwell etc

It varies for me. I've dropped the very long runs I was doing in marathon training and not really doing anything longer than 90 minutes.
Due to having to run from home every day, all my runs are very hilly now, so they're a bit steadier than usual too. Not doing the very fast stuff; just ticking over really.

Thanks guys. I honestly thought Gove was limiting runs to 30 minutes! I'm going to work on my speed over the next few weeks/months then so 60-90 minutes sounds good.