Trailplus

Great weekend!
Friday evening was orientation - meeting the 40 peeps who came - including around 15 forumites

and some serious runners - one lady going for a place in the Commonwealth Games.
I also had a sports massage - excellent experience could do with a few more!
Shared a room with CdK, Red Haired Girl and JeckMac. Bunk beds, not much room to swing the cat, but cosy!

Saturday started with a 7.30 recovery run - followed by breakfast.

Then a stretching session and the first talk by Keith Anderson on training for endurance.
(Close your ears base trainers) recommended sessions include tempo runs and Kenyan Hills.
Keith is training some of the group so he used them to talk about where they are in their training.

11.00 Threshold running - running out all togther and then splitting into groups - 3x10 minutes, 2x10 and 3x5 - no prizes for guessing which group I was in!

12.30 lunch - plenty of food - you should see what some of the serious athletes eat!!

13.30 Gear - and a retail opportunity from Adidas!

15.30 Kenyan Hill Training - again all run out together and then decide how much you want to do. I just did the one to get a feel for it! It absolutely pelted down with rain during this session - and stopped as everyone made it back to base!!

17.00 Training plans followed by Nutrition.

19.30 Dinner

10.00 Bed!!

Sunday
8.00 Breakfast, so a lie in!

9.00 Talking about the long run - and snow clearly falling horizontally outside the window!

10.00 Long Run - 45 minutes out into the forest and then decide how far you want to go. Fortunately the snow had stopped.

13.00 lunch followed by talk about tapering and the day.

15.00 leave to come home - weary but with lots to think about.

The best things were the chance to talk running all weekend without boring anyone, the staff and other runners who valued all runners whatever their pace, and the fantastic countryside we had to run in.

As a result of discussions with Keith about my schedule going into FLM, I have decided to

• follow the get you round schedule for time on feet but trying to run the sessions, not run-walk;
• do the long slow runs from home, no more races;
• aim for a finish time of 5:50 (2 x recent half marathon + 20 minutes) - but not do a half marathon to get a more accurate estimate - which means running the marathon at 13:30 pace;
• keep smiling!

Runs done
5 km recovery run 45:06
3.9 km including 3 x 5 minutes @ threshold pace
2.5 km including 1 Kenyan Hills repeat

3.5 miles long run at 75% HR
3.5 miles brisk walk back