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Despite my bad day I managed GFA so will be back for another go next year. Back proper training but still not quite where I want to be. Staffordshire 70.3 in 6 weeks, so I really have to get back to swimming and cycling immediately.

My mate has just done the club record (and over 40 record) with his 2:26 on Sunday. But yeah very few 10k runners as fast as what my mate Julian Goater was in the late 70s/early 80s.

Yeah the first one I did 2 years ago was good fun (if that's the right word), it was 40 degrees in Frankfurt and I basically walked the 2nd half of the marathon as had to take on as much water as possible which is why I don't really count it as one of my marathons per se.

Yeah will be no 2 after the one got cancelled last year. Got that half ironman in Staffordshire before that too so running comes down to be replaced with hours on the bike

Yes I saw this earlier today, awful news. When I came through the finish there was some poor dude spread out on a stretcher not looking great. Also a guy I met doing my marathon last year and from local races since I ran past at 10k. He got to 40k in 2:53 and finished in 3:57 as the ambulance peeps wouldn't let him go. He has run 150 marathons and ran 12 under 3 hours last year. You can never under estimate what can go wrong in a marathon. So I had almost forgotten that I get to run another one in a couple of months, but this one is after a 2.5 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride in 30 plus degrees heat - easy peasy eh!?!

Puking, lots of puking. Got a GFA to have another shot next year. Worth checking out my strava for this one, the suffer score is ridiculous, would say I am probably still not recovered from last weeks flu

Not very well....

Well that sucked, not even a PB. My HR was through the roof (higher than my fast 10k) had to stop to puke a few times, managed to jog it for a GFA next year.

Number picked up and I am officially bricking it :-) :-)

Reminds me, heads up, Mizuno are half price on sport pursuit at the moment. I use the wave riders and hitogami and both are awesome.

Haha, behave!! My swimming is awful. You will get to see the results of me not doing any cycling for a few months and then trying to cycle up Mt Tiede a few days after a marathon. Gonna be an epic day of pain...

Excellent effort, 17 mins is a huge jump!! Finally looking forward to the weekend. Not totally cold free but feeling much better than last week. According to strava I did a mile PB tonight so can't be in too bad shape, so I'm going to go for my 6:15s and if it's tough going I will drop 10-15 secs a mile.

Well done guys, great performances this weekend. Have a couple more small training sessions but now it's all about getting to the start of VLM niggle or cold free.

Careful on the first run is my advice, lots of people go hard on the first run and many of these are death marching the 2nd one. Also done much running off the bike? it's a delight!!

The idea that's seemed to have worked for me is by making my 5k speed faster everything longer just becomes easier at faster speeds. This has been something driven into me by Julian Goater (ex pro 10k runner) and it has certainly worked. You would have to keep up the one longish run a week (or at least rack it up closer you get to the Autumn) but more work on doing hill reps and other speed sessions and then trying to smash your local parkrun every other week.

Or do triathlon, cause it's cool :-) which reminds me I should really start cycling again as I'm racing in Staffordshire half ironman in June. Might have to go up early next month and recce the course (I know it's local roads for most of you guys but I'm daan saaff).

6 weeks should be fine although you maybe better doing shorter stuff over the summer to get the base speed up and have another crack in the autumn. I think you would be surprised how much speed you pick up in a few months of doing 5-10k or even HM.

Well first run back and I won parkrun so can't be too bad :-)

7 days no running and VLM next week, not fun!! Flu has been so bad and all I can do is sit and wait for it to go. I still hope I'm in a-form next week, but may have to reconsider my expectations as wont quite be peak.

Well done Mark, excellent effort!! I annoyingly moved house last week, ran twice then got the flu which isn't ideal, but better than next week I guess. Hopefully will be able to do a short recovery run tomorrow.

Very little, maybe a couple of 3-5s and a 2 mile at marathon pace on Thursday. My taper starts this week, just one longish run to go and the rest is shorter/speed work stuff.

Not what I hopped in my half marathon this morning, had a bit of flu (a bit chesty and nose was running) and tried to go hard and clear it out but was just too hard not being able to get the deep breaths in. So halfway I just gave up and went into marathon pace until the end which ended me up a minute or so slower than last year. Live to fight another day and all that....

All triathlon suits are very tight :-) :-) Edit: For example it seems F3 events are using me (in a very tight tri suit) to advertise one of their events: http://www.f3events.co.uk/event/Fugitive-Half-Iron-Distance-Triathlon-1016

I agree above, sub 90 half should translate to circa 3:15 of you get training/nutrition right. Quite right about marathon training, I just ticked off 900km for the year and whilst I don't agree with slogging tons of mileage there is a happy medium and the couple of times I've decided to ignore my body this year I have ended up ill or injured. But man has it improved my speed and I think this is a case off being obviously fitter (had a resting heart rate in the mid 30s last week - although I'm quite a big guy so is normal) and losing a ton of weight. I had a subtle question from a friend who I hadn't seen in a while if I had some sort of long term illness.

Thank you, whilst not really what i am training for, I have sort of achieved a long term goal for 10K time. My first proper run was a 10K when I started just less than 5 years ago and I ran around 51 mins. I would really, really like to run a sub 75 min HM but I think that's a bit out of my range at the moment. My main aim is 2:45 for VLM and I think it's a possible if I look after myself.