Paula Radcliffe believes she is in the physical shape to break the women's course record in Sunday's ING New York Marathon, though she insists her first ...

Video: Paula Radcliffe prepares for the New York marathon

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Video: Paula Radcliffe prepares for the New York marathon

ITN NEWS

Radcliffe Going For Win In New York Sky News

Radcliffe targets course record

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Friday, 30 October 2009

A BIOMECHANICAL COMPARISON OF KENYAN AND JAPANESE ELITE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER’S TECHNIQUES

CLICK HERE

BUT DO KENYAN ATHLETES REALLY LEAN FORWARD WHEN THEY RUN?

Run to win: the training secrets

of the Kenyan runners

By Jürg Wirz CLICK HERE

Thursday, 29 October 2009

APPROACHING THE 4 MIN MILE speed BARRIER!

Wed 28th
I ran over the sandhills in the afternoon at a moderate aerobic pace for one hour and seventeen minutes.
In the evening I headed over to Dunes fitness centre to meet up with the guys and girls, for the 6.30pm speed session. There was a really good turn out which included some really quick runners, Steve Wilko was here [ sub 2 mins for 800, when fit] Steve McLean [ fresh from his mountain 2 day marathon and with a 2.17, 800 m, p.b.] and Chris Dunn who seems to be flying right now.
We all did the first effort together about 600m along the wooden board walks of the pier.
The fast guys pulled away from me, I glanced at the Garmin which showed 12 mph, I relaxed a bit thinking this was fast enough until I got more warmed up!
Once we got onto the Prom we split into two groups, the fast group decided on 8 x about 400m with a min and a half rec.
Once again the guys pulled away from me and I finished a few seconds back, but like on my Monday session I got faster on the next effort and managed to hang onto their backs, looking at the garmin showed a steady 12.7 mph. I just about kept up for the rest of the efforts as we got even faster,.
Looking at the Garmin graphs shows me hitting a max 15 mph quite a few times, whats amazing is on my own I would only reach these sort of speeds on a flat out 100. I didn't time the efforts but I reckon most were around 70 sec 400m pace or better. Training with a group makes running fast much easier, if you train on your own you really should think of at least once a week training with a group, it could take you up to the next level! =45 mins

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

20 x 400 !

20 X 400, 200 rec
A brand new challenge for me! I've run 8 x even 12 x, but 20 !!!
This was one of Pete Magill's sessions, to be run at 5k race pace [ about 10.65 mph, 5.38 pace for me] he tells you to run without timing yourself, to go on feel.
After a 10 min warm up I got straight into them, the prospect of 20 seemed very daunting!
The first couple were a bit on the slow side as I warmed up and my eyes adjusted to the dark, but soon I was getting faster and by the 10th felt quite confident that I was going to make it through. The drills seem to be working and I felt the best I've been for a long time.
I felt even better on the last ten and looking at my average pace over the efforts I look to be well under 5.30 pace, my fastest was at 5.05 pace!
10 mins easy then I ran the last 1 and 3/4 miles home at MP pace [ 2.45]
Starting to feel like I did before London, the new training seems to be working!

Sunday, 25 October 2009

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RUN A 2.05 MARATHON?

Training Log of one Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot
Marathon training:

Very interesting reading, it shows just how important the easy-mod aerobic run is [remember he can run a half marathon in 1 hour] in a well balanced training programme, also note he did only two interval session during the week.
READ MORE

My training

Following Peter Magill's advice I ran one hard and one less hard session plus a long slow run, rest of the runs at easy-mod pace. I will increase up to 10 hours running per week once I get into the new year.
Felt good most of the week until I got ill on Friday
Sun 25th
Easy run sandhills with Tess =43 mins
Sat 24th
After a stomach bug on friday I felt some what better but started to feel drained 40 mins into my long easy run over the sandhills and pinewoods, the last 2 miles felt like hitting the wall in the marathon, I guess the bug took more out of me than I thought! = 2.15
Fri rest

Nutrition for high performance sports

Friday, 23 October 2009

UNLOCKED THE SECRET TO FASTER RUNNING, REALLY!

I asked Younger Legs masters coach Pete Magill why he thought my race performances were going backwards this summer, his answer not only told me why I was getting slower but how to get faster again!
Pete says; 3 hard workouts a week is absolutely insane for someone our age (I'm 48 too). I wouldn't last a month doing that. And I doubt you'd see any improvement, even in the first weeks. One hard workout, one long easy-paced run, and one less-hard workout combined with as much volume as your legs can comfortably handle is the best plan for our age. Also, we don't respond well to the excessively long tempo or the tempo runs tagged onto the end (or in the middle of) our long runs the way some younger athletes do.

One of my masters athletes who I'm currently training for the marathon called me before his half-Marathon 2 weeks ago. He was panicked because his friends told him I hadn't been training him hard enough - not enough distance and not enough long tempo, etc. I calmed him down. And he ended up running his half-marathon PR ... by 11 minutes.
Be smart. Be sensible. And good luck!!! Pete

Straight away I thought to my training for the London marathon at the start of the year.
My training in Jan and Feb was not going well, I was doing 3 hard sessions a week, at the start of March two of my friends told my they were following a Runners World training programme, THEY SEEMED TO BE RUNNING WELL SO i THOUGHT I'D GIVE IT A TRY, THE PROGRAMME WAS JUST LIKE PETE RECOMMENDS,
After 3 weeks I ran a 20 mile race and flew round running 2.05, only a few seconds off my 2004 p.b. I kept getting stronger right through April and had a very good London running just a minute and a few seconds off my time of 10 years ago.
I checked through my old training logs and found a period at the end of 2007 when I was running really well, 58.30 in a 10 mile race on a cold Nov day, a p.b. in a 8.5 hill race and lots of high placings in trail races. Again the training I had been doing had just two hard days a week and followed Pete's recommendations! This period of good running came to an end when I increased my training to 3 hard days!
So there you have it, Pete is right, I have the proof right here in my training logs!
I'm going to follow Pete's plan up to Christmas and see how it goes.
If you read in this blog that I've increased to 3 hard runs a week please remind me I'm training to go slow!