'Manchester Arf Maz

[Kallyfudge]

Signed up for it (The Manchester Half Marathon) just now Pretty certain I've not run this distance ever. Did a fairly relaxed 10k today and got a PB, Have been increasing my training volume recently and think training for this will help a lot. I've been pretty obsessed with parkrun (had 9PB's in a row) and want to get over the 5k thing (although stay doing parkrun). I want to do longer runs without Parkrun dominating my thoughts and training/week, if that makes sense?

Anybody else doing this one? Its 2 months away, on 15/10/17 so good time for training, need to be careful and keep up with my stretches!

Excited

[Katie204 Half Marathon]

Hi Kally - good luck with the Manchester HM. I am doing the Royal Parks one on 8 October. I am still r-e-a-l-l-y slow, but I am determined to get round.

Great to hear you are doing so well with the Parkruns and nailing those PBs!

[Kallyfudge Marathon in reply to Katie204]

YAY Hi Katie!! I need to sort out a training plan (do you have any pointers? I might go with training peaks) Thats the week before, I am sure you will do well! Will that one be flat? On the promo stuff this one is advertised as a fast HM. Did you get to see any of the world athletics? I saw the marathon today on TV, think it inspired me to sign up for something.

[Katie204 Half Marathon in reply to Kallyfudge]

Hi Kelly - I am using the Zenlabs HM one, which takes 14 weeks. There's a phone app for this, and I play it every time I go out. It's a run/walk programme, which I'm finding has made me a shade faster than continuous running.

I didn't see the world athletics, which is a bit shameful since it's only up the road from me. A couple of weeks ago I did a HM workshop organised by the Royal Parks HM people. That was useful - and we ended by running a section of the course. Hyde Park was a bit more hilly than I expected, but at least I know now what I will be dealing with.

I think that's the answer for the HM - make sure that you have practised the distance at least once, and try out as much of the course as you can beforehand. I did that with my first 10K last year and it did help with my confidence.

[Kallyfudge Marathon in reply to Katie204]

Ah I've never tried Zenlabs, that sounds good. Im using training peaks to plan stuff and my watch will guide me through it which is very helpfull. But there are cases of people looking at me wierdly as I swear at my watch (it beeps if I am running too slow or too fast and I cant tell my own pace)

Thats good they did a workshop! And at least you know to expect hills, surprise hills are the hardest hills. I still havent checked the manchester route. Theres just over 9 weeks and my plan officially starts after next week so just adding easy miles and trying unsuccesfully to do lots of stretching.

[Tomas Marathon]

Great that you've signed up for it, and I'm sure you'll have a grand time training for it. It always helps with the motivation to get out for the longer runs when one has a specific target in mind.

Depending on how your weekly schedule looks (i.e., are you inflicted by a normal 9-to-5 job and family life, or can you go for a run whenever you want to) the training might mess with your parkrunning. If you do the long run either Saturday or Sunday, you probably don't want to have been chasing a 5k PB Saturday morning. On the other hand, you could use the parkrun as a nice warm-up, and then continue after it for a longer run to get the mileage up.

Usual advice applies - make sure to get some good long runs in, increase the distance gently but steadily, make sure to take your recovery, make every 3rd or 4th week a cut-back R&R week where you give your body extra time to recover, think about nutrition and water, practise everything before the race day so you know what you're going to eat and drink and whether it makes you want to go to the loo. And remember to keep it enjoyable

Good luck Kallyfudge , you can do this!

[Kallyfudge Marathon in reply to Tomas]

Thankyou Tomas! Good points, I've never worried about eating whilst running before but should start trying things out now. Yeah I might have to stop chasing parkrun PB's, I can do long runs on weekdays however so its still possible but Ill have to take emphasis off it. I could also just make weds a long run day, I think Ill still get parkrun pbs but try not to tread friday as a rest and carb day etc. Its exciting, going to look at training plans. Thankyou Tomas.

[ju-ju- Marathon]

you are on FIRE!! Wow wow and wow... go you!!!

[Kallyfudge Marathon in reply to ju-ju-]

Thankyou Ju-ju- Going to be a parkrun tourist this weekend at portsmouth, looking forward to it! My motivation to run has increased a lot since signing up to this one july was a lull. I saw you running in the rain, it looked pretty hardcore!!