Great result ANS and a great post. Inspirational.

That muppet (Heckler's "friend") who cheated in the FLM should be made to read your post. The reason most people enter these events is for the sense of achievement you get when you finish - it makes all worthwhile.

Fantastic a-n-s.

A great post to bring up your 500.

WOOOP! *celebrates*

And to add to the celebration, I've actually finished my report Just have to stick in some figures, so y'all can enjoy my company sooner than you thought

Just trying to work out my new training plan now tee hee... *is the best procrastinator on the planet* Tried using the smart coach thing but it didn't look any good, so I'm going to invent my own! I was wondering what I should be doing this week in terms of recovery though? My left hip is a bit achey as per usual but otherwise nowt a lil yoga can't sort out. Twas thinking an easy 3 miler tomorrow afternoon should just about do it... and then another on friday morning followed by nowt til training starts again on monday, which will most like be an easy run.

I'm thinking Paris marathon would be a good one, but I quite fancy the Amsterdam one also... Hrmmm, some further thought is required me thinks!

Plus, FLM cheat is an idiot... totally losing out...
...I'm STILL SOOOO happy It's funny because I'd almost covered the distance and stuff I didn't think it'd be such a big deal, but yeah... I didn't actually think I'd get under 2 hours, my how I under-estimated myself!

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Mr Octopus has taken over, and you will all bow down his awesome power of massage-magic. Bow little ones... Bow.

I too have looked at the Smartcoach thing, and to be honest it all looks a little poor - I choose the 'VERY HARD' training level, and my longest run is 14mi (two of) and I only do one speed/strength session a week? Most of the runs are short easy runs around a minute and a half off my goal HM pace! Leaves a lot to be desired methinks! and I dread to think what it'd suggest if I wanted to do the 'maintenance' program

Guessing you found the same ANS? Congrats on finishing the report too - you must be a geek, you've a full two nights left!!

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Runners Forum Winter Social @ Castle Combe - Been, Gone, a complete success
www.richardsimkiss.co.uk - 'Lady Godiva Half Marathon' Race Report Added 27/10/08

Fantastic result ANS you will be talking about this for weeks, the feeling stays for quite sometime.

TT

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A loser is not the one who runs last in the race. It's the one who sits and watches and who has never tried to run.
Bird in Boots Oh what have I done FLM09

That's nothing, last year I had my dissertation done and dusted a full two weeks before the deadline :O

But yeah that's pretty much I found, I don't mind just doing one speed work out a week at the moment, but yeah it had me starting back at 9 miles for long run, and I don't wanna do that, I wanna go back to 12 again, and start building up again. Have no idea what I wanna do for speed though. Was thinking 6 miles at 8:10 mins/mile to start off with once a week, so... something like:

Monday - 4 miles easy (9:10 min/mile) - yoga
Tuesday - 3 miles easy with some
Wed - 8 miles tempo (with 6 miles @ 8:10min/mile) - yoga
Thurs - 2 miles easy - pilates
Fri - rest/cycling/running with beginner friend
Sat - 12 miles easy - yoga
Sun - rest

And then swap every other week with the tempo and do intervals (1 mile@7:56min/mile, 0.5miles@9:10min/mile - x5, to start off with).

Basically that sorta outline, but increase the mileage on the long run every two weeks by a mile and add a mile on to the tempo/repeat on to interval... and chop like 3 seconds off the pace.... and maybe have a rest week at the end of May with like 4x6 mile easy runs.... and maybe add a mile on to the easy runs every after each easy week?

I have no idea if any of that sounds reasonable... but to me it sounds like something I'm comfortable with for now... I realise in the half I was being really cautious and stuff, I think that this plan is cautious enough for me but with still a bit of challenge in there.. does this sound OK to those seasoned trainers out there?

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Mr Octopus has taken over, and you will all bow down his awesome power of massage-magic. Bow little ones... Bow.

I think it sounds like a pretty good schedule... building up the easy runs will be very worthwhile, and after each easy week would make sense. If you wanted to work on speed a bit more further down the line I would suggest doing some shorter repeats of say 800m as a fast a pace as you can maintain over every effort - just to make your body realise that it can manage faster than the 7:56/mile pace you'll be doing in your 1 mile intervals. I often think the more variation we can put into workout paces the better - i'm sure it stops the body getting stuck into a rut Fartleks always good if you get bored during a run - run randomly sprinting/speeding up between lamposts n stuff, though you can get some funny looks

I hope you don't think I'm being critical of your planned schedule - far from it, I just thought I'd bounce a few ideas around for you if you decide to change it a little further down the line

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Runners Forum Winter Social @ Castle Combe - Been, Gone, a complete success
www.richardsimkiss.co.uk - 'Lady Godiva Half Marathon' Race Report Added 27/10/08

No no, it's all welcome!

I know I could do more speed stuff, and actually thinking about it, the reason why I only do one speed thing at the moment is because I always thought I needed loads of time around to recover from my long runs and the speed workouts, and that's not the case at all, so after this next half I'm going to change to speed on tuesdays and thursday with a shortish easy run on wednesday... and to start off with I guess I'll mess about with different types of workouts and see what I like. Living in Sheffield it would be bloody stupid of me not to include some hill workouts - might do those at the end of my tuesday easy runs actually, just a few repetitions won't hurt!

Thankies I'll crack on with actually writing up my plan (I find it a lot easier to plan my life when I know exactly what run I'm doing on what day heh).

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Mr Octopus has taken over, and you will all bow down his awesome power of massage-magic. Bow little ones... Bow.