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[beecee]

well hit the big 4-0 last year, and felt it when i tried to catrch my 4 year old, she took the preverbial p out of me!

so got on a good healthy diet, lost 2 stone ( still need to loose another one maybe) started training at the start of the year.
only once a week the now, and play footy another night, she cant run away from me now!

[charlesr]

Well done dude. "Age is just a number" as Haile says (he's around 46, but is pace setting the London Marathon this year), but if it prompts you into action, then all good. 2 stone is epic. Keep up the good work.

[charlesr]

Went for a mountain bike ride this morning. NO BRAKES!!! Bum.

So went for a 22km run through the woods up and down (and up and down and up and down etc) the South Downs. In my MTB clothes... Feet are a little sore and the heavy shoes picked up half the mud in the forest and felt like lead, but apart from that it was great fun. Hit a bit of a hydration wall at 18km though - found myself walking at one point. I was like WTAF???!?? Overtook loads of bikers

Massive egg burger as a reward.

[Taka]

Back from the Silverstone Half Marathon, finishing with 1:32:36. Could have defo gone faster and even possibly contended for my PB but the incredible headwinds put an end to that. Very pleased with the result nonetheless and a good faster paced training run and endurance benchmark to take me to London in 6 weeks.

[charlesr]

Fast enough! Well done dude. What are you VLM targets (and fallbacks)?

[Insom]

Anyone else doing the Rat Race Dirty Weekend in May? http://www.ratracedirtyweekend.com/
I am no where near fit enough for this but me and a mate have just booked this as it looks superb! I am a bit of a fatty but I do run 4 miles 5 times a week plus some gym time, so I am hoping I don't make too poor a showing.

Looks like it will be a great bit of fun and a lot of friendly people helping each other out. I will probably not manage the Full Mucker and have to switch to the Half Mucker when the opportunity arises!

[Taka]

Fast enough! Well done dude. What are you VLM targets (and fallbacks)?

Thanks Charles. It was hard not making car noises in my head as I went round the first few hairpins

I want to do the following at London:

C goal - to simply PB (3:52:31 from last year)
B goal - sub-3:30 with 8:00 minute miles
A goal - sub-3:25 with 7:49 minute miles
A* goal - sub-3:20 with 7:38 minute miles (this is a real pie in the sky goal!)

I think right now, I'm somewhere between my B and A goals. The Bramley 20 a few weeks ago had me finishing feeling uncomfortable, but with some fuel still in the tank.

[charlesr]

Bet you could have kept a decent pace for 6 more. As I noticed on my run today, it's mostly in your head. Which is mental. I felt like death, down to 50% speed but seeing some riders up ahead spurred me on to catch them. Suddenly I was back to 90% speed. If only I could tap into that feeling whenever.

[Mr M0by]

Congrats on your Silverstone Half. I meant to enter this but somehow inexplicably I thought I had and then forgot about it until recently when I realise I hadn't. I am running the Colchester Half in a fortnight though and the training is going well. Regarding your goals, barring injury, I'm certain you'll hit sub 3:30. I don't think you'd hit 1:30/1:35 for the first half and slow by over 30 minutes in the second. Is your PB from the VLM previously or elsewhere?

[charlesr]

I've set my jantastic goal for March as a 5k in 19m
Probably a little insane. 3:48 each km. hmm.

So to warm up for a 5k, runnersworld suggests:
15-30min walk / jog
8x100m strides.

Seems like a bit of overkill. What do you normally do for a parkrun if you are aiming for a pb?

[Terry Tibbs]

Out of interest, what are these strides I keep hearing about?

[charlesr]

If it's 8x100m strides, you do 100m starting off walking and increase speed to 95% of flat out by 50m and then slow again.
Just a way of getting your muscles ready.

[Taka]

Congrats on your Silverstone Half. I meant to enter this but somehow inexplicably I thought I had and then forgot about it until recently when I realise I hadn't. I am running the Colchester Half in a fortnight though and the training is going well. Regarding your goals, barring injury, I'm certain you'll hit sub 3:30. I don't think you'd hit 1:30/1:35 for the first half and slow by over 30 minutes in the second. Is your PB from the VLM previously or elsewhere?

Thanks Moby! What's your goal at Colchester? My marathon PB was from last year's VLM, but is wildly out due to being shoved in one of the last start pens. I had to fight through so many waves of runners, I was destroyed by mile 21. I managed to minimise the damage by keeping all my remaining mile splits under 9 minutes. I'm hoping to negative split on the day, which has always yielded my best results in 10k and half marathons and mentally just seems better for my soul in the second half.

Charles, I cover about 1.5 miles as a warm-up before Parkrun, with the remaining 200m at faster than 5k pace. Seems to work well for me and gets me through the gears. Problem is, you want to time it so that you have maybe 5 - 10 minutes before you actually start running to avoid cooling down too much. I always neck two beetroot juice shots before a big PB attempt and whether placebo or not, I do genuinely believe I get a small boost from it.

[charlesr]

Beetroot has a high nitrate content, but doesn't contain the necessary balance of co-factors to make maximum use of them during the race. It should help though. Just not as much as my products imho.

I'm definitely getting back on form again after my Achilles injury. The long runs are getting longer (2hrs) and the fast runs are getting faster. Did a 5k this morning in 19:55 and wasn't breathing too heavily, so I'm now confident of hitting 18:59 with some heavy breathing! Only have to knock off 11 seconds per km. Recent PB for the last few years since I started running again is 19:30. I used to go lots quicker at school....

[Terry Tibbs]

If it's 8x100m strides, you do 100m starting off walking and increase speed to 95% of flat out by 50m and then slow again.
Just a way of getting your muscles ready.

Thanks for clarifying. So are these generally recommended pre race? If so, I may try to work some in on my next race day.