Sex-charged fop blew my junk TV quiz

[Konstantin]

The field is where I have my usual 100m and 200 m distances measured, but because the evenings are dark, the field's too dark to run in. So I ran on the road instead tonight.

Feeling good is just the session, not dependent on where I do it.

Sorry - being economical with words makes it unclear.

[Konstantin]

Where were we?

Tuesday 12th

12 x 400m (road) off a 74 s rest. Averaged 1:29 which is ideal for me.

Sat 16th

Felt tired, decided not to worry about speed on the long run. Same route, 16.16 m @ 9:45/mile, which is OK. Came down with a cold.

Wed 20

Felt better, got the Z bar out, went disco. 120 curls @ 20kg then 24kg (about 55 over 3 sets) then some at 34kg.

Thurs

20 x 100m, 10 x 200m
Slightly longer rests, and the course was a little under (i usually average 110, 215 metres). Still, a bit faster and I felt happy with the running style. 100 m (98) was average 18.6 s off a 38s rest. 200 (194) was 38.6 off a 54 rest.

The 2 hard running sessions a week is looking good now, I'm putting a lot into most sessions.

Sat

Later start, same route (long). I was naturally faster and got in under 8:58/mile. Total is 10 mile + 10k, and felt good.

Wed

800 intervals. The road I measured is 1.5 miles away, so I do 1 x 3 mins (approx 800m) on the way there and on the way back, and do out and back x 3 off a 1:30 rest to give 8 intervals. I felt like I ran well, but the Garmin calculations put me at around 6:24/mile, I was hoping for nearer 6:00. There is a small amount of hill on the course. Still, a hard run is a hard run.

[gms]

....I'm thinking about doing another marathon. If I aim for one in the new year I can aim just to push out a long run at the weekend and one speed session during the week. As I'll do it in a VRUK vest, continued work on the arms will be important so I'll do a bit of that as well. Morg did OK recently training just once a week, and if I walk/run parts and get round in a crap time, well, so what?

What marathon did you pick? I figure I will have to walk/run parts of mine in December. Hang in there with work.

[Konstantin]

Thanks GMS

It seems we are both under pressure from commitments, so lets just do the best we can!

The marathon I'm thinking of is: http://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/RouteView ... outeID=237
The site is good, you can see hill profiles etc. It seems there is a serious hill that you hit on each lap, and is otherwise fairly manageable. I'm thinking long at the moment and am not concerned about actually completing a marathon as I was 2.5 years ago. I come in after a fairly brisk 16 miles and feel fine - last time my longer training runds were leaving me harder hit. When I get in at 16,the idea of another 10 seems very acheivable, and that's without the taper, prep etc. that always takes me further in races.

I'm even toying with the idea of doing a 26.2 mile lone training run just because the idea is so hardcore...no support, no medal, no chip, no recognition.

I would like to do a marathon earlier (Jan? Dec?) but there's few in my area and I don't want to do the extreme terrain £50 entry ones that are available.

The main obstacle may prove to be time. Business is hard and this weekend I'm going to be working a night shift at something totally different just for the money. This may prove to be a regular occurence, and with the family as well this could prove tricky....we'll see.

[Konstantin]

October stats:

Miles: 96.5
Runs: 9
Average run: 10.7 miles
Average intensity: 6.1
Average enjoyment: 3.72 (high)
Speed sessions: 4 (44%)
Long runs: 5 (55%)
Long run mileage: 76.5 (79% of total - highest ever by a long way)
Log points: 214

[Konstantin]

Thurs

10 x lap of the lake (470 m?) off a 1:15 rest.
Average 1:46

Sat

20.12 miles, 3:10:30. 9:28/mile, plenty of hills. Felt OK at the end, although this was my longest run since marathon in Sept 2008. Very enjoytable long run, and with the extra distance I exercised the mental aspect of longer runs too.

I'm feeling good with distance at a reasonable pace and am ready for a marathon. But none till March. Although the next stage is to do one on my own with no event, just the full distance for training.

[james79]

Thurs

10 x lap of the lake (470 m?) off a 1:15 rest.
Average 1:46

Sat

20.12 miles, 3:10:30. 9:28/mile, plenty of hills. Felt OK at the end, although this was my longest run since marathon in Sept 2008. Very enjoytable long run, and with the extra distance I exercised the mental aspect of longer runs too.

I'm feeling good with distance at a reasonable pace and am ready for a marathon. But none till March. Although the next stage is to do one on my own with no event, just the full distance for training.

Looking good. Have you thought about trying for the London Marathon in April? Not sure if Vegan Runners UK have a few places?

Are you doing any cross country or road over the winter?

[Konstantin]

Thanks James, it feels good at the moment and training just twice a week is working better than I hoped.

London isn't really an option at the moment, I'm restricted to local ones. This is because the wife and kids would never forgive me if I went and did it without them coming to watch. We can go out for the day, but after last time, I'm not prepared to go away and leave my elderly, nervous dog with anyone else. If we go anywhere, he'll have to come with us. But maybe in the future I will apply for London.

Right now I'm feeling that the long distances aren't so long and I could bang out a 4-hour marathon on a reasonable course without too much problem. Two years ago the prospect was a big step up for me.

At the moment my running is about like this:
Road (including tarmac tracks in parks etc.) :97%
Off road (grass) in parks:3%
Cross country:0%

[Konstantin]

Wed 10th

5 x hillsprints. I do my 10 x 1 min there, but did longer ones (1:43). 4 x 20sec hill sprints. 1 min on/1 min off uphill on the way home.

Sat 13th

20:02 miles@9:38/mile. A few hills in there but I felt OK with the distance.

Mon 15th
Pack of cards including Hindu Squats, Chin ups, press ups on medicine ball, ab work, clap press ups, mountain climbers. I don't think I've done this for a while because it felt hard and I felt it next day!

Wed 17th
20 x 100m, 10 x 200m.
Turned out :
20 x 111m (av 20.8s) off a 33s rest
10 x 200m (av 37.5) off a 53s rest. Hard work as always, but a great session.

Sat 20th
16.47m @ 9.19/m. Same long run route at I've been doing, with a few hills. It felt harder today, I've got to watch the distance and not overdo it.

[Konstantin]

No posts for a while and not much more mileage. Logging is part of my training so I'm going to try to keep this up to date.

I had a dose of manflue before Christmas and then the ice came, so I did very little running. It was a shame because distance was increasing nicely and I planned to do a solo marathon in training.

Positives? Cross training is OK and I've started my annual target of 10,000 clap press ups in 2011. 833/month, 28/day and it feels good. I'm curling 20-34kg regularly because a man in an VRUK owes a duty to his guns.

I've started running again with a focus on distance. Early weekend runs are starting again. The first were difficult after a long break but I did 17.3 miles at the weekend. Speed was poor, just over 10mins/mile, but I'm not worried. Last week i did my first speed session for weeks and it was v hard, but it will come.

The idea is to do 2 runs a week and make them productive. I've booked a place in a [img=http://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/RouteViewer.asp?RouteType=A&RouteID=237]marathon[/img] this March. Not worried about time, it's a flattish 2 lap course with one severe hill, we will see.

I'm still thinking about Dartmoor Discovery, a 50k ultra in June but not quite ready to committ to it.

As I said, I need to post, so I will be back.

[Konstantin]

Thursday
Speed session. 15 x 40 secs hill sprints off a 80 second rest. I found this really hard and have lost a lot of ability wrt speed. I need to work hard to get it back.

Saturday
I had comittments all week end so was going to struggle to get my long run in. I set the alarm for 4:30 and left at 5:00. Forgot it would be so damn dark and the sunlight was 2+ hours away!

Running in the dark is great, I love using the middle of the road, and I see cars coming mileas away so it's safe. A few bridges were really dark and a trusting to luck but no problems. Stepped up to about 18.3 miles at just over 10min/mile. I still feel I'm getting fitnes back but on this run I felt I could visualise taking on the full marathon distance.

Got in about 8 and took my son off to county qualifiers (cross country). He needed a top 10 finish but got 18th...tough course and high standard. Just wish I was close to county qualification.

[mabli]

buy a headtorch, much easier to see on a dark morning

[Konstantin]

I have a head torch, although it does need a new battery. But the eyes adjust quickly and I found some of those country lanes were OK once I'd got into them and got used to the dark. Maybe I should just use the head torch for the tunnels.

[Konstantin]

Thursday
20 x 100m off a 32 s rest, average 22s. Garmin says it was average 114m
1 x 1 mile (bit of hill) 7.04. Very disappointed with that mile time, my speed has gone right downhill. The peiod with little running and even less speedwork has made a big impact.

Saturday
Tired and frustrated from other stuff. Didn't do my early morning run, felt like having a longrun-less weekend. Change of plan - aimed to do 10 miles @9.00/mile in the woods - flatter but with some height gain. Did the uphill leg and felt good and was fast enough, so did 5.5 miles. It was about 8:24/mile. Turned round and sped up a bit because I was warm and it was downhill. As it got closer I aimed for 8:30 mile, then 8:15, and for the last few realised I had a chance at 8:00 overall. Had to work on the last couple of miles but finished 11 miles in exactly 1:28:00, 8/mile.

I feel a lot better about the speed now because the last 5.5 miles was around 7:40/mile. Good run and good to break up my predictable routine a bit.

I'm now a bit behind on my 10k annual clap press ups target. I have about a week to do 250 to get back on track before the end of the month.

[Konstantin]

Tuesday

10 x 400m off a 71 s rest. Average 93 secs. It felt better that some of my recent runs but I'm about 6 secs slower than late last year. Speed is coming back slowly.

Sat

Very cold for the long run and I felt tired, so the thought of copping out was very much present. I wore loads of clothes, gloves and hat, and even wore combat trousers. It wasn't too bad when I got going but speed wasn't a priority and wasn't there.

I did a slightly different route to my normal one and finished on 17.27 miles at 9:46/mile. Anything under 10:00 was satisfactory so OK there.

I was tired and sore at the end, but it was non-ideal conditions and reasonable pace so I should be OK with that.

Assuming this is the end of the month I finish on 97.5 miles, 5 long runs, 4 speed sessions, 216 points. The two run week is working better for me and every run since Sep 9th (about 20 weeks) has been either long (10m+) or a speed session.

And I've caught up on clap press ups and am now a couple of days ahead. Pb is still 25.