Hey donuts!  I've been out of the loop for a few days... started reading to catch up but I still have 2 pages to go.  But all this talk of food (especially quinoa... yum!) is making me hungry.  I'm making some chicken noodle soup right now, and I'm extra proud of this batch because I made the broth myself after I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot a few weeks back.  Also putting in whole wheat noodles (bago!)... I'm a fan of the bionaturae organics line.

DH and I did 10 today in 1:27... I felt nauseous after because we went to Troegs brewery last night and I had one Mad Elf too many.  If you've never had Mad Elf and you have access to Troegs beer, I highly recommend it.  It's like Christmas in a glass!

I'm all for recipe sharing, too.

Everything else, I'll catch up this evening after dinner!

Hi all, and seasons greetings!

Ami, I think we would be able to give you better advice if we could see your log; this would give us an idea of your current paces for training runs of different distances, how recent your PRs are and so on- all together at one time.

Your half time seems to indicate a significant fade compared with the 5k and 10k times, was it a hilly course, hot day, did you get an injury, were you undertrained?

I am not sure  how your training has been going but most of the work is done now, perhaps your long run will tell the tale.

Twofoot, I would agree with the suggestion to reduce the mileage for the week before the half, maybe take off two days completely before race day, the seven weeks afterwards should give lots of time to recover before the marathon.

Banshee, VF and Indi- nice mileage you guys are running, I'm impressed.

About 11.3  in rolling hills today, 8:48 pace. Tired...

Josh - If all I had were XLs and I wore an M, I would have bought a new shirt too.  Congrats  on your wardrobe change.  I bitched and moaned about having to buy new clothes for work two times due to my reducing waistline.  Truth be told, ever time I bought a new set of pants and shirts I was celebrating.

Sprinkles - Happy aniversary!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Holiday, to each and every one of this very special crowd here.  This has been more than a place to talk about running.  You are all an inspiration to me every day, and I look forward to another year of training and racing with you all.

I hope to run my scheduled mileage tomorrow morning before the kids get up to open presents.  It will be my own selfish little gift to myself to get out and run under the stars on Christmas morning.  My second Christmas as a runner.

So here is my marathon pace advice post!  Thank you all in advance!

Shorter distance races:  10K 48:42 on Thanksgiving Day

                                          1/2 1:51:15 November 11

Something you should know about me is that I have a terrible tendency to go out too fast and then blow-up.  For example, in my very first large race, which was a 10K on Thanksgiving 2011, I reached the 2nd mile marker at 12:20....whoops!  I am sure you can imagine how the rest of that race went.  I have really been trying to do a better job pacing myself in races, but for some reason, the learning curve for me is very steep! Because someone asked (Simon, I think), the 1/2 was not as hilly as where I typically train, but had quite a few rolling hills.  The weather was pretty good, except winds started out at 15 mph and then increased up to around 20 mph.  The race was going perfectly and I arrived at mile 11 at exactly 1:30 and was feeling great.  My goal had been around 1:47-1:48 (previous pr was 1:57) so I knew all I needed to do was continue at that pace for 2.1 and I would reach my goal!  Then, for whatever, reason, I had  spectacular blow-up at mile 12 (can you believe that??) and it took me 21 minutes to run the last 2.1.  I don't know if I went out too fast for my fitness level (I wouldn't have thought so) or if the wind just got to me (the last couple miles were straight into the 20 mpw winds), but anyway, it was a very humbling experience.  I really want to avoid this in the marathon, especially since its my first!

Average mpw:  We only started the program with a base of around 30-35, and progress up to 55 mpw.   Have been at 50 for the last 6-7 weeks.  We would have like to do a higher mileage plan but honestly, at this stage in our lives, I really don't know if it is possible for both DH and I to get much over 55 mpw.  Between my work schedule (about 60 hours most weeks) and our 2 small kiddos, we are doing the best we can right now.

Training plan:  Hal Higdon Int 2 with a few added miles (would do 5-6 miles instead of 3-4 when he called for it).  I have tried to get in a midweek long run every week but didn't get much over 10-11 miles during the week.

Race:  Disney...a bit crowded but we are in Corral B so shouldn't be bad.  Very flat.

How long have you been running:  Just about a year.  The Disney Marathon Relay in January 2012 was the first race we ever trained for.

How many marathons have you run:  This is my first

Age/sex:  35, female

Pace of long runs:  Typically 9:45/mile, but sometimes around 9:55-10/mile

Goal:  I would like to say I just want to finish, but let's be honest...I would be lying!  If I am being truthful, my goal is between 3:55-4.  I think I have the speed for that, but am not sure I have the endurance just yet.

So that's it!  Any and all advice would be great appreciated!

So, I had troubles with my HR monitor reading way too high today, thought crap, its broken again, its only 6 months old.  So I adjust it, everything I can do and still just reading way high.  I pressed on it through my shirt and it drops down to normal, about 20 bpm less than what it was reading.  Let go of my shirt, goes back up 20 bpm. My shirt rubbing against it, static or something, is making it read wrong.  So..... remember my marathon when I said my HR was much higher across the board from the start?  I bought this shirt the day before my race, wore it on race day for the first time and today was the first day i've worn it since the race.  So I take the shirt off and put it on 5 times and each time it added or dropped 20 bpm.  I hold my shirt still and HR goes back to normal every time.  I put on my old running shirt and its down to normal.  Remember I slowed down in my marathon not because anything felt tired, just that my HR kept pegging and when I finished at 192 bpm I was only running a 9:30 pace, which shouldn't be possible, at least for me.  If I drop 20 bpm off my splits for the race, I'm EXACTLY around my training paces and efforts.  Could it be that simple?  Could I have been that stupid?

I've had the same problem.  I did two things to get rid of it.  One, make sure the strap is tight enough.  Secondly, I spray the insides of all my synthetic running shirts with Static Guard, both front, back and sleeves.  Problem went away forever.

Static Guard?  What is that, what you iron shirts with?  I'm having the same problem.  It was telling me my LR was at 160HR when I felt I was going at 140.  Average ended up at 145 but the last half was supposedly close to 160 with a 169 as the high.  I would've felt it had I ran at that HR.   wonder what my problem is.

I've had the same problem.  I did two things to get rid of it.  One, make sure the strap is tight enough.  Secondly, I spray the insides of all my synthetic running shirts with Static Guard, both front, back and sleeves.  Problem went away forever.

AmiK:

I still think 9:45-10mm might be a tad too fast for LRs, but I think you've been doing a great job slowing down.  I think your issue will be whether you start out too fast.  In a 10K there is no issue, in a marathon, it's a death warrant.  So, you need to make sure you look at your pace and make it no faster than X.  I think you have the potential of either breaking 4 hours or being very close to it.

Docket and Indy:  Thanks so much for the advice.  Indy, on my 20 miler, I ran the first 10 @ 9:45 and the second 10 @ 9:25-9:30.  I have really been trying to slow them down but when I get slower than 9:45ish, unless it's a recovery run on really dead legs, it feels like such as effort to go slower, does that make sense.  Docket, I am going to post in the racing forum this afternoon.  Again, thank you guys for the advice and I think at this point, I am planning to line up with the 4 hour pace group and try to stay with them until at least 20-22...maybe that will help me slow down (provided of course the pacer actually runs a 4 hour pace).