A Wee Gathering (The Marathon) - Tues 9th Feb

[ewanwelsh]

Hi,

The next gathering will be on Tues 9th Feb at 9pm. Usual spread of food will be provided.

This month’s subject matter will be ‘the marathon’, always a hot topic that appears to be becoming popular again.

This is open to everyone, you don’t have to be intending to run a marathon or even yearn to run a marathon.

It’s really just an excuse to chew over the running fat in a controlled environment rather than bore poor unfortunate souls who have to endure your despondency at the recent weather conditions as it meant you couldn’t do the 6 *1mile reps at 10k pace at exactly 16 and 3/4 weeks from race day, as dictated by your marathon schedule, therefore you already have convinced yourself a PB is out of the question.

As a guideline for the evening, this is only to wet yer whistle, we could discuss such matters as, :-

· What’s the best approach to breaking up the weekly runs based on your available time (not everyone can fit in 80 miles per week !)
· Recommended weekly sessions (what’s your must-do weekly session), for example an ultra and general all-round runner (‘earnest’ wee Stuartie, as he was known) I knew years ago told me irrespective of what race he was training for , which would be anything from 10ks up to 100 miles/24 hour races , both road and hill races, he always did 6*1mile reps on a regular basis as it gave him conditioning to be able to train (he also embraced aerobics "wae awe ra burds", that was a sight for sore eyes!).
· Long run, how regular, what pace, when do you do your last long run
· Best approach to tapering
· What’s your own experiences, how can you stop slowing down so much over the last six miles.
· Do you aim to race the marathon, or run the marathon !

Again, it requires reasonable participation (in terms of quantity, happy to accommodate any unreasonable personalities) to be worthwhile, would also be useful if the marathon doyens of the club came along, if you can (I know who you are….) and tell us yer stories……….

I’ll leave you with another pearl of wisdom, of which there were many, from ‘earnest’ wee Stuartie, …“aye, yer running fast son, but are ye running hard”, he always wore a circa 74 world cup tracksuit, if that paints a picture for you.

Cheers

Ewan

[andywiggans]

I'm thinking a wiry Billy Bremner, Ewan...?

[ewanwelsh]

Andy, indeed you are on the right track...............

As a note, we have the room booked from 8.30 onwards, therefore we can start to gather at 8.30 and look to set the talk in motion at 9pm....

Cheers

Ewan

[andywiggans]

I think I'll be there - whether I get to the club to run first depends on mrs w and her compooter class (and "the programme" of course - Ilkley may not be at the optimum latitude for training at that particular part of February...).

[arthur]

Hi Ewan

Where is the "wee gathering"?


Arthur

[Paul]

The Wee Gathering will be in the back room at ILT&SC.
IH will be providing a buffet but NB the Tennis Club also has a hot supper option available on Tuesday nights now.
See you all there!

[ewanwelsh]

Hi,

Just a reminder about this week gathering , Tues 9th, after the club run.

Subject matter is the marathon, for all its woes.....please come along....I would be keen to see any of the more experienced marathon runners turn up to tell us their tales....

Here's some food for thought on approaches to training for a marathon (taken from a previous thread)...this in terms that suit both the traditionalists and the modernists (by including HR levels)……

1. One session where you get to the point of being sick in a repetitive manner (VO2Max shorter sessions 400 to 1 mile efforts or hill reps)

2. One mid distance run where you can run and listen to a conversation but only respond in grunts (high tempo 85% max – 6 – 8 miles flattish route)

3. One steady run where not only can only listen to a conversation but also respond in a reasonable manner (low tempo- 75% covering 10 miles with some hills)

4. One long run (3 hours in time where not only can you converse , but you are the one driving the conversation for the first two hours, for the third hour you reduce your conversation as you practice beginning to concentrate, similar to what happens in a marathon but at an easier pace (0-2 hours 70% , 2 – 3 hours 75-80% effort).

5. A couple of dead easy runs where you take in the sights, breath the air, nod to cyclists and generally appreciate ones good fortune to be in healthy state (< 70% effort).

Chuck in a few races and an 18mile time trial (run like a coiled spring ready to leap into action) at some point about a month out of the race and you’re sorted…..apparently….please note I am not qualified in anyway so follow this advice at your own discretion.

Cheers

Ewan

[ewanwelsh]

Hi,

Approx 25 honest souls turned up for the chat on the marathon,……from the experienced to those about to run their first over the magic distance…..and a few just their for the craic (and chips)…...thanks to all who wholeheartedly came along……and to Sally for her solid contribution with regards to her own training, specifically as it was used as the focal point of the discussion….

Good luck to all who are running a marathon in the coming year…..I left with the notion of contemplating another attempt……best laid plans of mice an men and all that…….Paul O’L left deeply contemplating the benefits of an easy run !

And if anyone wants the recipe for Tablet , give me a shout……

Next up…

INJURY PREVENTION & RECOVERY
Why am I always injured, my calf had been sore for a decade, everytime I run on it it’s still sore, even though I try and ignore the pain, why o why o why is this the case? ……………ever found yourself in that situation, well come and find out about the mechanics of it all from a professional physio

March (date to be confirmed) : A session with Mike Bryant on injury prevention and recovery, and lets face it, that’s one element that we all have shared experiences with.

So please do come along to that one, bring your own ice packs………don’t bring your yoga mat, we’ll leave that for another evening…wouldn’t want any hernias occurring

Following on from Mike’s session on a later date (tbc)…

FAVOURITE RACES…come and tell us about you favourite race, don’t be shy, let other people know what races are out there that they could be doing, could be one you do annually, one you’ve overcame various obstacles to get there, it may have been the best of the worst, could be a race in Europe, or perhaps a far flung “classic” fell race that provides the best cakes. Is it the best race for value (we are in Yorkshire after all), one of the big city marathons or ½ marathons, is it one that has personal feelings associated with it, one you did 20 years ago, your first race you’ve just completed, or even a race you plan to do…..if we have a lot of people then you will only need to rabbit on for a few minutes…or should I say some members may be limited to a few minutes.

Feel free to post a note on the forum on you’re favourite races, we could get a ‘playlist’ together prior to the evening.

On a final note, it’s all down to attendance, so please come along, even if you just want to listen in, everyone is welcome.

Feedback is always welcome, if you want it to go in another direction, if you want a specific subject, if you want more chips provided, if you think having a chat just takes up valuable training time , anything at all just let me know.

Cheers
Ewan

[andywiggans]

I thought it was a great session, Ewan - thanks. Apologies to all if it seemed like I was babbling on too much, but as you can understand marathon training's quite high up in my priorities at the moment! I thought it was really useful having Sally there for her experience - with her having "been there and done it".

[ewanwelsh]

Andy,

Appreciated your input Andy, it’s great to hear everybody’s perspective and also to know that we all go through the same dilemmas, amount of training, fitting it in with everyday life (make it part of your everyday life someone once suggested to me !). Good luck withyour marathon.

Thinking about it retrospectively I think it would be useful to conclude…..

A lot of it is personal choice as to how much time you care to apply to the training and subsequent expectations on race day.

There was the discussion on overall mileage, mainly as we mentioned how improvement on the marathon evolves, the conclusion was basically experience and the build up of mileage over a number of years.

However it is probably worth noting that plenty of people happily run marathons in a contented manner, without the high mileage.

As an example here is a link to some schedules from the Edinburgh marathon site, I know a couple of acquaintances who followed this to an extent and were just under 3 hours (they were approx 1.22/1.24 ½ marathon runners)……of course you could argue if they built up the mileage they would be under 2.45 !

http://www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?training_plans

As we use to do the weekly sessions on this in our lunch sessions this was christened “The lunchtime method”

Hope this is useful

Cheers

Ewan