Marathon Newsletter Week 7

Dear Marathon Runner,

I've had a marathon newsletter recovery week due to my parents visiting, so please accept my apologies that this finds you so late. You all sent some great positive feedback, which was very much appreciated - I'm quite excited to see how much more I can find from the training data, and whether I can turn the information into some sort of training plan generator when I'm finished. Anyway, I hope you're all running happily, and now that the mileage is creeping up, still managing to find time to be with your friends and families.

First up, the weekly stats. We've 657 VLM Fetchies listed now (oooh, 700 = 2% of all the runners in the race), and 483 of you ran (the best so far), median mileage was 29.19 (up by over 2 miles on last week - steady there!), with a median long run of 13.1 (mmm, is that the smell of half marathon season?). It looks like bits are between teethses, and noses are being ground. I'd just like to clarify that the figures given here represent the average (median actually) runners in each group, and not the bestest. Anyway, let's have a breakdown:

Week 5 summary 3:00 3:15 3:30 3:45 4:00 4:15 4:30 4:45 5:00
Race Pace 6:52 7:27 8:01 8:35 9:10 9:44 10:18 10:53 11:27
Total Mileage 51 38.4 34.9 35.5 27.1 33 24 23.3 15.2
Average Pace (mins/mile) 7:22 7:51 8:20 8:45 8:57 9:24 9:41 9:42 10:19
Longest Run 18.9 16 16.4 17.2 14.9 13 13 11.2 9.9
Longest Run Pace (mins/mile) 7:20 7:54 8:22 8:49 9:06 9:43 9:38 10:14 10:43

All groups except the 5:00'ers have shown a mileage increase this week, and there's a bit of a long run pace increase in everyone quicker than 4:00, but the rule holds yet again - faster runners do their long runs slower than race pace. My random mid-newsletter tip this week is to go out on your route before you run it, and hide some water or a sports drink somewhere. I think maybe the salt in it will help avoid overnight freezing, and you can pretend to be a pirate as you hunt for it.

It's probably time to think about the shape of your long runs as your training reaches its peak. I'll cover tapering in a future newsletter - for now let's concentrate on those peak miles - as your long run stretches towards the three hour mark, they take some planning to fit round the rest of your life. I read somewhere once that your five longest runs should add up to 100 miles - but that seemed an awfully big ask as a 4:15 runner. So I looked at the training logs for a more realistic picture.

3:003:153:303:454:004:154:304:455:00
Longest Run23.022.622.322.022.022.022.021.120.9
2nd Longest Run21.521.120.920.220.020.020.020.020.0
3rd Longest Run20.220.220.020.019.719.018.718.118.0
4th Longest Run20.020.019.218.318.017.417.116.816.1
5th Longest Run18.918.118.017.116.016.015.515.015.0
Total104102100989694939190

So the "5 x Long Runs = 100" rule holds for runners aiming for 3:30 and quicker (although please remember the usual caveat, that these are all average figures, and you are *not* an average runner), but the figure drops smoothly and consistently. It looks like pretty much everyone should aim to do at least a couple of 20's, and that even the speedy folks still average out at a fair way less than full marathon distance. Maybe in coming weeks I can look at our groups, and see how things are progressing with your five longest. In terms of fitting these all in, I found that it worked for me to build to the first 20-ish miler, then have a shorter week, then the second 20, then a shorter week, and then the third.

I'd also like to take a bit of time to tell you all about Fetchpoint. This is one of those wonderful things that rose not from a "management directive", but from the community itself. In a purely functional sense, it's a gathering of Fetchies by the side of the road on race day, who will shout and cheer and hand you stuff to help keep you going. In an emotional sense, it might make you cry your eyes out. As this newsletter is kind of focussed around VLM, I should tell you a little bit about the VLM Fetchpoint, but the basic principle is the same at any race. Anyway, at VLM, you can see Fetchpoint across the road from mile 13, then you come back right past them at mile 22. It's a very welcome hundred yards of red and yellow balloons and FE shirts, grouped into numbered stations, where you can arrange for your fellow Fetchies to be waiting with a gel, a hug, or a can of strong continental lager and a snog, whatever you need. It's one of those times when wearing Fetch colours is a real bonus, and if you do a little dance or something, you'll get the biggest cheer in return. VLM FETCHPOINT NEEDS YOU! IF YOU'RE A RUNNER OR SUPPORTER, VISIT THE WEBSITE SET UP BY JOHN66 TO LET THEM KNOW YOU'RE COMING: http://londonmarathonfetch22.webs.com/

That's it for this week - next time (gosh that's only a few days away), I'll be trying to answer a query about whether mileage or time-on-feet is a better predictor of marathon time - and I hope it'll be further evidence that in order to be a faster runner, you need to *slow down* unless doing speedwork. Please do some or all of the following:

  1. Visit the VLM Fetchpoint site: http://londonmarathonfetch22.webs.com/
  2. Send this newsletter to friends and club mates, post it on your club forum (might give some of them a laugh if nothing else), and tell *EVERYONE* about it.
  3. Add a prediction of your VLM time, even if it's just an estimate, and keep logging your training - I hope to squeeze plenty of motivational stats out for you.
  4. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to try to cover in future weeks - there's a discussion thread

Happy Running,
Ian Williams aka 'Fetch'
Editor, www.fetcheveryone.com