Sub 2 hour marathon

[Rignold]

Is anyone else following the attempt to beat the 2 hour marathon barrier tomorrow at Monza?

I for one find it very exciting and don't give a hoot for all the bleatings about Nike and publicity stunt and pacers etc etc. If they succeed it will be an astonishing feat of human performance, and lest we forget, Roger Bannister used pacers for his 4 minute mile.

Just to put it into perspective, we often tak about the 30 minute 5k here, To do a sub 2 hr marathin they will be doing twice that speed. 5k every 15 minutes for 2 hours. I don't actually know anyone who can run a 15 minute 5k (although our very own Absent Owl apparently did it in 16 in W4 so perhaps s/he has a future as a record breaker), let alone sustain that sort of pace.

It is going to be live streamed on the Runners world website and I shal be watching with avid interest.

[pollyp1 Graduate]

Nope, and I'm not in tomorrow (but may try and find it later) but in a similar vein I listened to a chap on radio 4 the other day who ran 50 miles a day for 6 and a half days, in the lake district. Crazy man.

[Irish-John Graduate in reply to pollyp1]

Yeah!!!! Who in heck would want to spend time in THAT hellhole of a place?

😂😂😂

[AbsentOwl]

Think i was on something that day! But its an incredible feat of endurance from the runners that partake.

[Rignold in reply to AbsentOwl]

aha! The 'special' pre-workout. I promise not to dob you in to the testing commitee if you let me have some.

I have actually steered clear of pre-workout since my heart incident, being reckless but not entirely stupid, but there was one occasion last year when we were slated for a particularly brutal Crossft WOD and a maximum 1 rep deadlift attempt, and I had been sent a sachet of an 'eperimental' preworkout by a friend (perhaps the inverted commas should be around friend). It was blue crystals that smelled faintly of ammonia but y'know... gotta show the youngsters that age don't quit.

... the first indication I had that all was not quite rght was during the workout briefing. I suddenly realised I had not heard anything the coach had said, and could only hear a hgh pitched buzzing in my ears and aircraft radio traffic. Then I noticed everyone was staring at me. I was apperntly gurning like a loon. They though I had St Vitus dance. Then it felt like I had fire ants under my skin and i had inadvertently become castrato. Attempting to speak only induced greater hilarity from my box 'buddies'. I briefly toyed with the dea of causing devastation to the entire county and sowing the land with salt. My head felt like a million watt bulb. My teeth made a unilateral decison to annexe Burgundy.

I PR'ed my deadlift by 25kg and couldn't get out of the car unaided for more than a week.

Sadly I have never been able to acquire more.

[runlikeagirl Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Hopefully not mandatory for week 9...

[Rignold in reply to runlikeagirl]

depends which plan you sign up for

[runlikeagirl Graduate in reply to Rignold]

What would Laura say?

[Rignold in reply to runlikeagirl]

I confess I didn't listen to Laura after W1. I found a jolly Californian who had a taste for the Beastie boys.

[Rignold in reply to Rignold]

going to be mandatory for pollyp1 in her record attempt. By the bucket.

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Damn that clean living s**t.

[Rignold in reply to pollyp1]

Ziggackerly!

oh, and you may only eat kale, steamed chicken breast and cod.

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Sounds good. It's the blue crystally stuff I'm a leeetle concerned about. Oh, and the 5 a.m starts.

[Irish-John Graduate in reply to pollyp1]

I prefer Toilet Duck meself ☺

[AncientMum Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

No, still haven't stopped laughing

HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahAhahaha

Have you considered a career in stand up?

[runlikeagirl Graduate]

I did read one poster a few weeks back saying they managed 5k in (I think) week 2 which meant that that if s/he walked 2k in 20 minutes (a good fast average walking speed I do believe) then s/he ran the remaining 3k in 8 minutes. Some very talented couchers on this programme.

[Irish-John Graduate]

I definitely want to watch! How can I see it over here R?

[Rignold in reply to Irish-John]

runnersworld.com/2-hour-mar...

[Irish-John Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Most excellent Thank you

[Rignold in reply to Irish-John]

De nada, compadre.

[Irish-John Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Happy Cinco de Mayo

[Rignold]

I have actually done the Monza F1 circuit on foot. Although long before my running days. I worked for a tie in the F1 circus and had a little ritual of walking each track whilst drinking a bottle of champagne. Someties n the dead of night, and not always alone. I generally managed it sub 2hrs but that was just a single lap, not 17 or whatever they are doing.

[pollyp1 Graduate]

Having looked into this I'm pretty amazed that anyone can run the distance in two hours two minutes 57 seconds.

[Rignold in reply to pollyp1]

tbh I doubt any who does started with C25k. The programme is good but not that good.

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Oh, great! Now I have to re-do my goals! Pretty amazing, none the less.

[Rignold in reply to pollyp1]

No reason you should not be the first. I get first dibs on the exclusive story though.

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Yeah, right.... ohhhh, you're serious!

[Rignold in reply to pollyp1]

always.

I can draw you up an initial training/nutrition plan if you like. We start tomorrow at 0500

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

One of my favourite film quotes:

"it's 06.00"

"what does the '0' stand for?"

"oh my god, it's early"

[jo4t15 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Does the nutrition plan include the blue crystals? If so we're all going for it!

[Rignold in reply to jo4t15]

We're working on it

slate.com/content/dam/slate...

[pollyp1 Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Scary. I prefer the chemist from last night's Lethal Weapon (what? tmi?).

[runlikeagirl Graduate]

With a bottle of champagne and blue crystals. Let's all head to Monza!

[Irishprincess Graduate]

I've just read "Two Hours. The Quest to Run The Impossible Marathon" so this is very timely! Shame it doesn't count officially but WTF! A run is a run.

Every time I hear or read the word "Monza" I'm reminded of a grotty cinema in Dublin moons ago where a few of us went to see "The Awful Story of the Nun of Monza". And it was. Truly awful.