UKC

Anyone running it this Sunday?

Weather looks perfect, although maybe a tad breezy, and I'm hoping to get a 3.15 if all goes well on the day. Overdid it with a quick run on Tuesday but I'm resting up now.

Good luck if you are.

In reply to yorkshireman:

Hit my target and beat it with 3:08:15 which I'm pleased with. It's 27 minutes quicker than my previous marathon PB.

Glad to put the pavement behind me now and get onto the serious business of trail races for the rest of the year. A well organised event if a bit of a mess getting into the start pens, but perfect weather and good crowd support.

Will blog a more in depth race report when I'm feeling a little more human.

In reply to yorkshireman:
Wow, huge pb, well done !

Can you share what your training was like for this compared to the previous one, ie have you upped the miles significantly ?

I did 3:25 last year off of about 35 mpw, then since start of December I've being following a structured plan ( P&D ) doing 50-70 mpw, and I'm doing a marathon next weekend, so also hoping for a nice drop in time, although doubt I'll manage 27 mins !!

In reply to yorkshireman: I can only dream of doing a full marathon at the moment. That's a good time too.

In reply to yorkshireman:

Nice work. Always fancied paris.

Did the next best thing today in the blackpool marathon. Gong show organisation; mind numbing course; 100% perfect conditions!!!

Hope you enjoy a good night out on the tiles.

In reply to yorkshireman: well done.. nicely sets up an attainable sub 3 for the fall or next spring.. it never ends..

In reply to steelbru:

My first marathon was London 2010, and my training back then and when I look back in my logs my training was pretty sketchy, lucky to do 20 miles per week. Still I managed around 3.35. I then ran the Richmond Park marathon, so it was on grassy trails with a few hills and got around the same time.

I was getting into trail running and my only other marathon had been the Greensand one in about 3.45.

I did a couple of ultras where I upped the mileage to around 90-100km per week at its peak, but no more, and it was slow running.

Since beginning of last year I've been living in the Alps and last year the running was erratic, and all on trail.

Since November last year I got serious again and have been running 50-60km a week (mostly offroad). I whenever I travel on business I put in some fast miles on flat tarmac but mostly I'm plodding in the hills with my dog, so not very scientific.

The winter made it hard to put solid mileages in, but what training I did do was very hard from a CV point of view as I was often in deep snow. A 8km run could easily take 1.15 sometimes. It was regular too, 5-6 times a week. In old money I would say I was averaging about 35mpw

In the Paris marathon I didn't feel stressed at all from a HR point of view so the work definitely helped, but found the muscle cramps catching up on me towards the end of the race. Basically I'm not used to running that fast for that long.

All my future races this year are more than marathon distance this year and off-road with hills, so the pace will be much slower. This was an interesting sharpener to see what I was capable of on the road. Like Iain said, it never ends, and I'm obviously tempted to try sub-3 but I think I would need to pick an autumn marathon so that I can get the long runs in during the summer.

Will blog something a bit more coherent when I get chance.

Cheers

YM

In reply to yorkshireman: if you arenn't doing long road runs, ideally at least finishing at a reasonable pace, not far off mp.. then you will suffer towards the end. but still 35-40 miles per week is still quite low for a marathon, so a 3:08 off that shows that if you increased to 60.. sub 3 should be very feasible.. maybe target a fall marathon to allow a good solid summer base. Trails are fine, but the long runs especially, maybe once every two weeks, need to be harder, runnable trails, more specific to the event..

Sorry just saw you said re the fall marathon..

In reply to yorkshireman: I'm doing the next yr 1/2 marathon on paris