The "Big 8" Challenge 2011

oldrunner

ecoli wrote: »

Some achievement to hit them all in the same year though you have already hit the harder ones so the marathon should be a cake walk for ya

Especially as we all agree that breaking 5 minutes for the mile is so much harder than a sub 3 hour marathon:)

robinph

RayCun wrote: »

Yes, it would be cool if the guy who came up with the targets was the first to hit them all.

(Although it does put this 'average club runner' standard into perspective )

Whoever came up with the term "average club runner" and referenced it to the level of running we are talking about here must have never actually spent much time with other people in their running club. Or they are just rubbish at maths and don't know what average is.

There are a couple of targets that I'll be a way of getting from this selection yet, so am down towards the lower end of this level. There are far, far more than half of the club member finishing after me in races though. Of 44 from my club that ran a half marathon this weekend I came 3rd, and there are far more that didn't run.

But it's still a good set of target for us to aim for.

Krusty_Clown

robinph wrote: »

Whoever came up with the term "average club runner" and referenced it to the level of running we are talking about here must have never actually spent much time with other people in their running club. Or they are just rubbish at maths and don't know what average is.

You must be an 'average club' runner.
/waits for Robinh's retort about the fine pedigree of his club!

ecoli

Given that this thread was set up to try and stimulate more high end training discussion would be good maybe to begin to highlight some of the approaches made to tackle some of the targets?

robinph

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

You must be an 'average club' runner.
/waits for Robinh's retort about the fine pedigree of his club!

The punctuation is important.

RayCun

Name|1 mile<5 min|3k<10min|5k<20min|5mile<30min|10k<40m|10miles<1hr|Half Marathon<90mins|Marathon<3hrs
ecoli||9.35|16.53|27.41|35.02||1.29.51|||
abhainn|||17:07|28.14|35.04|58:14|1.16.58|2:41:11|
shotgunmcos|||18.46||38.09||1.25.58|
robinph|||17.19|29.03|36.30||1.22.29||
TFBubendorfer|||18:05||37:58||1:23:14|2:59:35|
theboyblunder|||18:02||||1:21:59|2:57:48|
pgmcpq|||19.17||39.36||1.27.13||
Maroontam|||19.45|||||||
Macanri|||18:30|29:02|38:41||1:24:14||
Gringo78||09:52|17:28|29:51|36:47||||
dna_leri|||18:52||39:04||||
BeepBeep67|||17:49|29:18|37:53||1:26:32|
Brianderunner|||18:00||37:33||1:25:01||
Krusty_clown|||17:16||36:54|59:25|1:19:48||
El Director|||18:40|||||||||||||
MisterDrak|||19:42||||1:28:40||
NeedsTraining|||18.07|||||
Clearlier|||||||1:27:16||
seres|||18.46||39.04|||
Larry Brent|4.59|9.45|17.22|28.55|35.50|57.57|80.19|||
Sosa||9.53|17.19|28.13|36:16|59:37||||
In the Woods|||18:44||||1:20:03|
brownian|||18:05|||||2:57:36|
RayCun|||19:39||||||


Confirmation that the 5k target is far too soft :pac:

Krusty_Clown

Name|1 mile<5 min|3k<10min|5k<20min|5mile<30min|10k<40m|10miles<1hr|Half Marathon<90mins|Marathon<3hrs
ecoli||9.35|16.53|27.41|35.02||1.29.51|||
abhainn|||17:07|28.14|35.04|58:14|1.16.58|2:41:11|
shotgunmcos|||18.46||38.09||1.25.58|
robinph|||17.19|29.03|36.30||1.22.29||
TFBubendorfer|||18:05||37:58||1:23:14|2:59:35|
theboyblunder|||18:02||||1:21:59|2:57:48|
pgmcpq|||19.17||39.36||1.27.13||
Maroontam|||19.45|||||||
Macanri|||18:30|29:02|38:41||1:24:14||
Gringo78||09:52|17:28|29:51|36:47||||
dna_leri|||18:52||39:04||||
BeepBeep67|||17:49|29:18|37:53||1:26:32|
Brianderunner|||18:00||37:33||1:25:01||
Krusty_clown|||17:16||36:15|59:25|1:19:48||
El Director|||18:40|||||||||||||
MisterDrak|||19:42||||1:28:40||
NeedsTraining|||18.07|||||
Clearlier|||||||1:27:16||
seres|||18.46||39.04|||
Larry Brent|4.59|9.45|17.22|28.55|35.50|57.57|80.19|||
Sosa||9.53|17.19|28.13|36:16|59:37||||
In the Woods|||18:44||||1:20:03|
brownian|||18:05|||||2:57:36|
RayCun|||19:39||||||

Krusty_Clown

Name|1 mile<5 min|3k<10min|5k<20min|5mile<30min|10k<40m|10miles<1hr|Half Marathon<90mins|Marathon<3hrs
ecoli||9.35|16.53|27.41|35.02||1.29.51|||
abhainn|||17:07|28.14|35.04|58:14|1.16.58|2:41:11|
shotgunmcos|||18.46||38.09||1.25.58|
robinph|||17.19|29.03|36.30||1.22.29||
TFBubendorfer|||18:05||37:58||1:23:14|2:59:35|
theboyblunder|||18:02||||1:21:59|2:57:48|
pgmcpq|||19.17||39.36||1.27.13||
Maroontam|||19.45|||||||
Macanri|||18:30|29:02|38:41||1:24:14||
Gringo78||09:52|17:28|29:51|36:47||||
dna_leri|||18:52||39:04||||
BeepBeep67|||17:49|29:18|37:53||1:26:32|
Brianderunner|||18:00||37:33||1:25:01||
Krusty_clown|||17:16||36:15|59:25|1:19:48|2:48:10|
El Director|||18:40|||||||||||||
MisterDrak|||19:42||||1:28:40||
NeedsTraining|||18.07|||||
Clearlier|||||||1:27:16||
seres|||18.46||39.04|||
Larry Brent|4.59|9.45|17.22|28.55|35.50|57.57|80.19|||
Sosa||9.53|17.19|28.13|36:16|59:37||||
In the Woods|||18:44||||1:20:03|
brownian|||18:05|||||2:57:36|
RayCun|||19:39||||||


Just filling in my recent marathon time. I've a sneaking suspicion we have our first finisher today. Congrats!

Larry Brent

Name|1 mile<5 min|3k<10min|5k<20min|5mile<30min|10k<40m|10miles<1hr|Half Marathon<90mins|Marathon<3hrs
ecoli||9.35|16.53|27.41|35.02||1.29.51|||
abhainn|||17:07|28.14|35.04|58:14|1.16.58|2:41:11|
shotgunmcos|||18.46||38.09||1.25.58|
robinph|||17.19|29.03|36.30||1.22.29||
TFBubendorfer|||18:05||37:58||1:23:14|2:59:35|
theboyblunder|||18:02||||1:21:59|2:57:48|
pgmcpq|||19.17||39.36||1.27.13||
Maroontam|||19.45|||||||
Macanri|||18:30|29:02|38:41||1:24:14||
Gringo78||09:52|17:28|29:51|36:47||||
dna_leri|||18:52||39:04||||
BeepBeep67|||17:49|29:18|37:53||1:26:32|
Brianderunner|||18:00||37:33||1:25:01||
Krusty_clown|||17:16||36:15|59:25|1:19:48|2:48:10|
El Director|||18:40|||||||||||||
MisterDrak|||19:42||||1:28:40||
NeedsTraining|||18.07|||||
Clearlier|||||||1:27:16||
seres|||18.46||39.04|||
Larry Brent|4.59|9.45|17.22|28.55|35.50|57.57|80.19|2.53.59||
Sosa||9.53|17.19|28.13|36:16|59:37||||
In the Woods|||18:44||||1:20:03|
brownian|||18:05|||||2:57:36|
RayCun|||19:39||||||

donothoponpop

Congrats to the winner of the Big 8 Challange 2011, Larry Brent. Fitting that the man who planted the seed, reaps the harvest.

oldrunner

Name|1 mile<5 min|3k<10min|5k<20min|5mile<30min|10k<40m|10miles<1hr|Half Marathon<90mins|Marathon<3hrs
ecoli||9.35|16.53|27.41|35.02||1.29.51|||
abhainn|||17:07|28.14|35.04|58:14|1.16.58|2:41:11|
shotgunmcos|||18.46||38.09||1.25.58|
robinph|||17.19|29.03|36.30||1.22.29||
TFBubendorfer|||18:05||37:58||1:23:14|2:59:35|
theboyblunder|||18:02||||1:21:59|2:57:48|
pgmcpq|||19.17||39.36||1.27.13||
Maroontam|||19.45|||||||
Macanri|||18:30|29:02|38:41||1:24:14||
Gringo78||09:52|17:28|29:51|36:47||||
dna_leri|||18:52||39:04||||
BeepBeep67|||17:49|29:18|37:53||1:26:32|
Brianderunner|||18:00||37:33||1:25:01||
Krusty_clown|||17:16||36:15|59:25|1:19:48|2:48:10|
El Director|||18:40|||||||||||||
MisterDrak|||19:42||||1:28:40||
NeedsTraining|||18.07|||||
Clearlier|||||||1:27:16||
seres|||18.46||39.04|||
Larry Brent|4.59|9.45|17.22|28.55|35.50|57.57|80.19|2.53.59||
Sosa||9.53|17.19|28.13|36:16|59:37||||
In the Woods|||18:44||||1:20:03|
brownian|||18:05|||||2:57:36|
RayCun|||19:39||||||
OldRunner|4.49||17.13||35.35|59.20|81.10|||

3k just over, yet to run 5 mile, won't run marathon

Well done Larry

donothoponpop

Any chance Larry Brent would give us a synopsis of which distances/times he thought were toughest, how best to approach hitting all those times in a year?

Larry Brent

Donothoponpop,

The order of difficulty is probably (from hardest to easiest):

3k or 10m
1m
Marathon
5m
10k
HM
5k

but obviously varies depending on whether you are more speed or endurance based.

The major difficulty is doing them all in one year as if you do a marathon you are less likely to also do a 1m and vice-versa. This is the first year I have done them all, purely because I was doing a marathon for the first time in 3 years. So this took the form of 2-3 months 5k training followed by 13 week marathon training.

As part of the 5k training I did a 1m race on the road. This was by far the hardest for me this year as I only ran at 1500m pace once all year - just did 3k and 5k pace work in 5k training. Course was uphill for half, downhill for half. Having not run a 1m in a while I was caught napping at the start and didn't get away like you have to. So it was an incredibly tough last half mile as I saw the clock ticking down (straight road) and by the end it's like the lungs are going to burst. So that was very tough and knowing I was only doing 1 all year it had to count, so it was real skin of the teeth stuff. So that was the hardest in this case but ordinarily on a track with a bit of prep I wouldn't be too worried about going under 5, would be aiming for under 4:50.

The 10m was no bother having been under a few times and when that's the case the 5k, 5m and 10k are also going to be easy. The 3k was comfortable, not a key race more a pacing job building for 5k.

The half won't be a bother if you're doing the marathon and having been under 3hours before the marathon time was only going to be an issue if I totally blew up (and having seen fellows go out in under 70 mins and not breaking 3 at Chicago and one not even breaking 4 hours :eek:) it's always a possibility.

As a matter of interest the 10m is the only time I'd be happy with the others are all far from PBs or weak PBs (HM and marathon). But the only 2 goals I had this year were the 10m and the marathon. 10m got a 1min PB which I was happy with after an iffy 3 weeks prior to the race but before that I was hoping for 56:40. The 5ks were way off what I wanted but there was just too much going on with a new baby and emigrating, missed too much training, not sleeping, mileage dropped so just didn't have it on the 2 nights I tried for it. I wasn't too bothered as this was just a precursor to marathon training. The marathon was disappointing, expected more, but that will come next time.


So this has caused a lot of controversy with people arguing which is harder, that they're all easy, that they're not equivalent etc. etc. but they were missing the point. It was simply a case of fellows starting running later in life after giving up other sports or wanting to get fit, lose weight or whatever will start off jogging enter a race, just want to complete and then might want to go faster the nest time. So they might set a target. I was that person, ran a 10k as my first race in 42, immediately wanted to do it in 40. A few weeks later entered a 5k did 19:59 on the beach, then entered the marathon race series. The 5m I ran 32:30 or so and I looked on enviously at the lads under 30 thinking they were real athletes, couldn't believe how skinny they were etc. So they were just round numbers really that seemed to be something to aim for. Ran 67:30 for the 10m and thought you'd have to be practically professional to run 60. Did 90:59 for HM, so started thinking about 90 and so on. 3:15 in the marathon and I had the bug (for shorter distances, had started to lose weight and entered the marathon to keep me training rather than giving up after 2 nights like every other attempt to lose weight but got a much greater buzz from the shorter stuff than the longer). Joined a club and got introduced to speed training, Then you enter a club race and run an 800m or 1m, something you might never consider otherwise and that's the ultimate buzz. Nothing like the speed, the tactics, the extremely close competition (ever win, or lose a race on a dip? What a feeling!). First 1m was 5:08 so immediately wanted a sub 5. Had a few attempts the first year and got closer but no cigar. Then the next summer smashed it on the first attempt with 4:55, a few weeks later ran 4:50. So there's a bit of experience needed for the shorter races, lots of training and then improvements come in chunks.

The marathon took 3 attempts but should have been 2 with better training. The 60mins took 5 or 6 attempts and specific targetted training for that distance. The 3k took the most attempts for me, but once you do it once it seems very easy afterwards.

I think doing them all in 1 race would be very doable for the likes of TheRoadRunner or abhainn. Running a 2:40 or so marathon and finishing strongly if you could really pull out a good last mile and dip under the 5 you'd more than likely have nailed them all. There's a target for us.

I think everyone out there who just does 5k up should just jump into a 1m or 1500 just to see. There's a lot of people out there who are fast and don't realise it. If you have a good kick at the end of the longer races, you might find the 1m comes naturally to you. If so it's a great thing to train for and the feeling of a 4 after your name for the first time is up there with a 2 for the marathon IMHO.