I am running FLM on 23 April.

I have entered the Cranleigh 21 miles race on 26 March, and the Reading Half on 9 April. My plan is to run Cranleigh as a long run, ie slower than Marathon pace. Good plan, or can I afford to push the pace?
But then how do I run Reading? It will be 2 weeks before London, I am likely to be in the best shape I will achieve this year, what do I do? Long run pace again, or do I push it to Marathon pace, or do I actually race it?
Help please!

I think you'd recover adequately if you raced Reading. If you're unsure then maybe use it as a marathon pace test.

If FLM is THE event of the year then best not to risk it all and do 10 miles at MP then push the last 5k. You'll probably get a pb anyway and you can do another 1/2 post FLM where you can let rip.

Thanks TC. FLM is my priority this year, so I need to be in good shape, but feel it would be a shame not to race Reading if I feel good. I think your suggestion of running it at MP and then pushing the last 3 miles if I feel OK makes sense.

Im in the same position as Greg Im doing FLM,but the only race Im doing is the Bournemouth 1/2 on the 2nd April before a taper.
I feel that it takes me quite a long time to recover from a race so anything done before the 1/2 is a waste of valuable training mileage

I'm doing the Oakley 20 on 2nd April as a last long run before FLM. It takes the body 3 weeks to recover and benefit from a long run like that, hence that is why training schedules suggest the 3 week taper. I will atempt to run the 20 at marathon pace and make sure I taper well so I am fully recovered before the marathon.

Never run a Marathon before, could you suggest the amount of running which is wise during the taper? I will be running 40-45 mile weeks, and my plan for the taper is :
- week 1 : 36 miles
- week 2 : 26 miles
- week 3 : 15 miles+ FLM
Does this look reasonable?

I would drop week 3 down even more... all the work is done by now and you only need the bare minimum just to keep you from climbing the walls.

My last week usually consists of 2 x 3 mile runs and a 2 mile run... Something like Tues 3 miles, Thursday 3 miles, Saturday 2 miles... it's just to keep your legs loosened up.

It will also mean that your legs will feel fantastic at the beginning of the marathon, which makes it all the more hard to keep the pace down... but you must keep the pace down, coz you'll need all the strength you've got for miles 20 to 26!

Thanks, that's really helpful. Looking forward to an 8-mile week. Be able to catch up on shite tv...

If you can recover from a half in two weeks normally then go for it but probably with TC's suggestions of 10m marathon pace.....

I'm in a similar position, I have a 10k I'd like to enter (as it was the first race I ran when I started running and have done both since I've been running), but it falls the week before a marathon I've entered. I know if I'm feeling good and have trained well I'll want to go for it on the 10k as all I'll have done are long training races in the previous few months. But I know that if this were to happen it could mess up my marathon prep.

Any ideas?

personally I would never race a 10k a week before a marathon, but it depends what you want from the marathon I guess.

If you want a good time at the marathon or even a PB then I wouldn't risk the 10k...it'll take too much from your legs.

From the looks of those numbers:
- the numbers look OK - except I might add on a little more to weeks 1 and 2 - but this is based on my own personal experiences where I think I've tapered too much and gotten too fat in the race prep...
- week 3 itself does look about right to me - I guess that's 3 runs of about 5 miles - but I also like to do a race kit run the day before (only 1-2 miles)

I don't really want to comment too much... mainly as I think I've stuffed up my tapering before in the past!

Sorry, but I tend to disagree. I think week 1 and week 2 are just about right considering that he's just dropping about 10 miles per week.

But what you do need to watch Greg... as Hollywood points out... is that you don't eat too much during weeks 1 and 2. Lower your intake a little to compensate the lower mileage but make sure you get enough protein to continue the repair/recovery from your last longest run, which should have been 3 weeks from Marathon day. Save the carbo-loading for week 3 from about Thursday onwards, your biggest carb meal being on Friday night and then carbohydrate snacks throughout Saturday.

Thank you you lovely people.

If you need anyone to eat the surplus food - then please let me know

Just treat the long races as marathon pace efforts.
Nice to get your drinks etc on the course!