Southend 10k in 11 days time.[/quote]

Good luck with that one Dave.

Luther. This is very interesting to read and as Dave said You've started something.

I'm 35

5' 6"

9 stone 12lbs

10k 41mins 54secs

10 mile 1hr 8mins

1/2 marathon 1hr 28 mins

full marathon 3hrs 53

what do you think?

Yeah good luck with the 10k!!! Right HF...

Your VO2max is around 49.2, your 10k time is translating well to the Half, but the full marathon should be around 3hr 15!!! What happened?? Did you hit the wall bad? What was your half time when you did the marathon?

Your engine is 3086. Your weight should be 10st3 'normal' but could go down to under 9st for 'world class athelete'. Remembering that Coe was 5'10" tall and 8st7lb.

You are slightly under the average height, your weight is good. I expect you have got 'relatively quick' quite easily. Have you got a good size chest cavity? IE lung volume? At 3086 I'd expect you to be able to increase that by 15% through mileage and interval training without to much difficulty... like I said earlier, when you've BEEN really heavy, you know what sweating like a PIG really is. You are the other way round, you've got to push the engine, whereas us fatties have the engine pushed just getting up so it's pretty good power when we lose the weight - make any sense I hope?

HF: If you improved your engine by 15%, your VO2max would rise to 56.6 and your times would improve as follows:

10k: 37min10
half: 1hr23
Full: 2hr51.

Get those intervals in! Get that mileage up progressively!! Marathon runners should be between 50 and 75 miles per week...

Thanks Luthor1.

Yes. I should have done better for the marathon. I was extremely cautious in that run as I had taken part in two previously and had to walk on and off from 19 miles on those two. I wanted to finish by running all the way so that explains the slower time. I will push myself harder on the next one.

My half split on the marathon was 1HR 59m 12s

I don't know how my chest cavity is.

it makes perfect sense. I was 12 st 7lbs only a couple of years or so ago so Know what you mean about the sweat thing!

Cheers Luthor1.

Those times will give me food for thought Luthor1.

If only time wasn't an issue with getting those miles in!

I did manage to reach 40 to 50 miles with my last bout of marathon training.

One day I may be able to call myself a marathon runner!!

Thanks for that taking the time out, if you have any more advice for me i'd like that Hayley

Dave - intervals are so much fun. Really feels like you've had a hard workout, and you will notice the improvement in heart-rate, and heart-rate recovery extremely quickly, it's good bang-for-bucks training. BUT it has to be done with a target in mind - like my interval above is my target to run a 6-min mile. Since I cannot run one at present (I die at 2min50 at 10mph) I split it up into 6 parts with rest, so my body experiences 6miles at 10mph, just with rest involved. I still do the same 'effort' just broken up. As I reduce the rest and increase the effort eventually I will do 1 continuous 6min mile. Then my speed will go up to 11mph, or 12 and so it repeats... For intervals though, do LOADS of warmup and EXTRA stretching on the quads and hamstrings.

HF: 30mpw should really be plenty for you to have scope for improvements, but it depends what you want improvements *in*, ie which distance because the preparation and training is different. Ideally for a given event you want to break up your training into similar % of each as the even itself, so marathon is 99 aerobic, so 99% of your training should be in aerobic exercise zone. 3km is 100% VO2max, so conversely training is focused in a different area. 10k is the tricky one, because it's 90%vo2max so 90% should be at that effort, however you also need to do a long run of twice the 10k distance for endurance.

Hayley: what distance are you most interested in improving?

Well funny you ask, distance is where i fall short iv never run further than 7 miles, i do alot of fast running shorter distances.
But then i find it hard to go further, i burn out after 7 miles, dont know why i feel its because i might be going to fast but i find it hard to slow my pace down.
I d love to do half marathon, and improve my 10km time.

Maybe try running to your Heart Rate Hayley. That will probably help you pace yourself better.

Ok - so start with a rest day, doing NOTHING. Then warm up, set yourself out a 1.5mile course, as flat as possible, and jog it at 6min mile pace, 10mph (pace derived from your 5km PB). Then rest and stretch for 90seconds. repeat this circuit with rest 5 times. Next time you do it, drop the rest to 60secs. Continue to drop the resting times until you think you can remove 1 of them completely, maybe the first rest, so you do 2 laps before a 60sec rest. This is the key, see where you are, monitor your pace strictly and build it up progressively using rest and massage. You may think about taking on jelly babies regularly during the 4th lap to see if that affects your stamina.

Distance running is in the mind. Remember that "I WILL DO THIS LAP!!!".

EDIT: HF is perfectly correct, heart rate will rise gradually with time whilst your pace stays the same. Once your HR goes over the lactate threshold you may be running level-pace, but you'll burn out and hit the wall. Usually during training the 4 mile mark is the crippler if you're training in your lactate training zone.