Comments for foot4ward

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 8 by Lewis Birchon

Lewis Birchon — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:45:58 +0000

Thanks Jacob. Personally I find the commuter run a great way of upping the mileage, but they can’t replace the harder sessions (tempo, speedwork, long slow runs, etc.) that really build marathon strength. They’re great for recovery, though!

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 8 by Jacob Aliet

Jacob Aliet — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:56:46 +0000

Good work. Keep it up! I am also learning to incorporate run to-and-from-work into my schedule to achieve my mileage targets. I am learning a few things here and there from you.

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 4 by Lewis Birchon

Lewis Birchon — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:32:40 +0000

Sounds like a recipe for a good tough workout!

I want to crack the faster-paced runs this time in training. Last year I was running between 4 and 6 hard miles, each with a jogging break, around Finsbury Park (which is undulating) with each hitting around 5:50. Although even that isn’t really that much faster than some of the splits on my long runs – and certainly not a minute faster than 10k pace! More work needed, methinks…

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 4 by Julian McGrath

Julian McGrath — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:13:54 +0000

I am no expert and I am considerably slower than you, but given your terrific 20miler training pace it would seem that your threshold pace might be a lot faster? I find the only way to keep a decent pace during marathon training is a weekly killer interval session – I am following an excellent one that works out your interval pace off your 10k RACE pace e.g. 400m is 10k race pace minus 60secs (for me that is 7:15/mi down to 6:15); 600m is 10k minus 55secs and so on…right up to 1600m (1mile) which is 10k pace minus 35secs. The rest intervals are usually 1-2mins depending on the amount of intervals and the distance, but I am always able to finish yet totally spent at the end!! But it looks like your well on top of this running malarky and need no input from me!!

Comment on Garmin Forerunner 405CX: Several runs later by Dan Becker

Dan Becker — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:56:22 +0000

I have a Garmin Forerunner 405CX that I just bought. So far, on 4 runs, It averages measuring my distances around 10% short of the actual distances measured by car odometer. Before I start, I wait for the satellites to get to 15 to 20ft. I may return it to Amazon and look for something else.

Comment on Does TV give health and fitness a bad name? by Wazza

Wazza — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:15:06 +0000

There’s 2 similar shows on AT THE SAME TIME here in Australia Lewis.

One is good old fashioned “Biggest Loser”. This time its “Biggest Loser Singles” with 4 each of men and women, over and under 30. As usual these series rate well at the start and taper off.

The other show is “Excess Baggage” where 8 celebrities are paired with 8 normal people on their weigh loss journey. Its part travelogue as they go to some of the more interesting spots in Australia, part educational and part pantomime. Unlike Biggest Loser this show at least preaches “healthy eating” without specifically counting calories. They also are focussing on all over fitness as each person has been benchmarked not only for weight but BMI, waist measurement (and they are big), as well as a 10 part fitness test including e.g sit ups, push ups, 40 metre sprint, 1.6 kms run, squats, sit and reach etc.

I read this morning that Excess Baggage is in danger of being discontinued as the ratings are so terrible. More likely it will end up on at midnight when the TV ratings period starts again. This one has potential to be more educational than Biggest Loser but may not continue long enough to have an impact.

What’s thrashing these shows in the ratings you might ask – Masterchef ! We are after all the fattest nation on earth. The further irony is we are rapidly selling most of our good land to the Chinese and destroying our self sufficiency in food production.

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 2 by Lewis Birchon

Lewis Birchon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:16:57 +0000

I find it’s easy to get hung up on certain paces. A couple of years ago I was trying to break 40 minutes for the 10k, so focused on running at 4-minute kilometres or 6:26 miles in order to get the pace right. I got under the 40 minutes mark, and have been under by a couple of minutes since, but even now in training I tend to get hung up on those split times.

So, when I see a 6:26 or so split now I’m trying not to think ‘Phew, that’s fast, can I keep it up in training?’ and trying to focus on the fact that I’m feeling good and that I could probably run a bit faster. Seems to be working so far…

Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 2 by HJ McQuarrie

HJ McQuarrie — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:09:21 +0000

Great post – I am also guilty of not running my tempo runs fast enough. I think it’s just too easy to slip from the mindset of ‘tempo’ to ‘steady’, especially when you are trying to sustain it over 5-6 miles. I’ve just done a few weeks of shorter, faster interval sessions, just to try and remind myself of what running fast feels like. Hopefully the next few tempo runs will benefit!

Comment on London Marathon training by Déjà vu…all over again! | RunJunky

Déjà vu…all over again! | RunJunky — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:03:38 +0000

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Comment on Virgin London Marathon training: Week 1 by Déjà vu…all over again! | RunJunky

Déjà vu…all over again! | RunJunky — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:03:24 +0000

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