Welcome
Hello, and welcome to my first blog on Runners Life!
Some of you reading this will already know me. For the benefit of those that do not, a brief introduction is in order!
My name is Dave Norman, I'm 31 years young and I have been running competitively with Altrincham & District Athletic Club for 18 years now! I have enjoyed some success, with international vests at the Marathon, Cross Country and Mountain Running but I have yet to achieve my own personal holy grail of competing in a major championship.
When Simon asked me if I would be interested in becoming an athlete on Runners Life, I absolutely jumped at the chance. The site is far more interactive than the Eightlane website where I currently blog my training, and it's obvious that the site is really going places.
Some of you reading this will already know me. For the benefit of those that do not, a brief introduction is in order!
My name is Dave Norman, I'm 31 years young and I have been running competitively with Altrincham & District Athletic Club for 18 years now! I have enjoyed some success, with international vests at the Marathon, Cross Country and Mountain Running but I have yet to achieve my own personal holy grail of competing in a major championship.
When Simon asked me if I would be interested in becoming an athlete on Runners Life, I absolutely jumped at the chance. The site is far more interactive than the Eightlane website where I currently blog my training, and it's obvious that the site is really going places.
Since finishing 15th in the London Marathon back in April (2:19:05), I haven't done a huge amount of training as firstly I needed to recover. Then I started my track season promisingly with a 14:32 5000m time but discovered two weeks later I had been selected to represent England in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon (September 26th). There didn't seem much point thrashing out the training from there on as I knew I would have a big 12 weeks leading up to Toronto so I just 'ticked over' for a few weeks.
The first three weeks of marathon training have gone pretty well. The mileages have been 93, 110, 115 and I've been doing 1-2 long repetition sessions per week and 1-2 progressive tempo runs per week. Last week I did a cracking 12 mile progression run with Pete Riley, Steve Vernon, Ross Millington and Jack Martin. The last five miles were in 26:44 and it felt like we were shifting along really well. I did some similar runs with Gareth Raven and Andi Jones before London and I felt these were the most important runs I did in my build up for that so I'd like to try and make these a more regular part of my preparations.
I hope you enjoy my contributions to the site. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
Keep training hard.
Cheers,
Dave.
The first three weeks of marathon training have gone pretty well. The mileages have been 93, 110, 115 and I've been doing 1-2 long repetition sessions per week and 1-2 progressive tempo runs per week. Last week I did a cracking 12 mile progression run with Pete Riley, Steve Vernon, Ross Millington and Jack Martin. The last five miles were in 26:44 and it felt like we were shifting along really well. I did some similar runs with Gareth Raven and Andi Jones before London and I felt these were the most important runs I did in my build up for that so I'd like to try and make these a more regular part of my preparations.
I hope you enjoy my contributions to the site. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
Keep training hard.
Cheers,
Dave.
Comments On "Welcome"
welcome
Hello mate welcome to Runnerslife,good to have you on board lookforward to reading ur blogs and training schedule.
Darren(Runnerslife) Posted on July 29th, 2010Thanks for the warm welcome guys.
Dave Norman Posted on July 27th, 2010When I did my first marathon in 2002, I was living at home with my folks and I asked my father to write me a training schedule. This was really useful to me, everything he suggested was very logical and the end product was a decent return of 2:21:00 at age 23. For the next five years I pretty much followed the same logic in planning my training and racing until linking up with Norman Poole. I linked up with Norman not because I need someone to tell me what to do. More because I need someone to tell me what NOT to do! I occasionally continue to seek my father's advice and it tends to be consistent with Norman's training philosophy which is reassuring.
Weekly mileage has been honest the last 3 weeks (93, 110, 115) without being staggeringly high. I doubt it will go much beyond that in this build up. I had my best ever spell of racing last winter on the back of a prolonged spell of enforced reduced mileage and I think I'm now at the stage where I've been running for 18 years, have done weeks of 130+ and consistent high mileage, it is no longer optimum for me to go quite to that level and I need to cash in a little bit now. I have a week off work August 16th-August 22nd booked specifically to get a big weeks training in and get the required rest. This is likely to be 120-125. John McCole is staying over for a week training for the Great North Run so hopefully he will do the vast majority with me although John isn't a particularly high mileage guy so I will do a lot on my own but I'm used to it!
Cheers
Dave
I thoroughly enjoy reading what you do Dave and will look forward to it all.
Ryan McLeod Posted on July 27th, 2010Ryan
Excellent Addition
Welcome to Runnerslife Dave and great to have you on board
Charles Posted on July 27th, 2010Great to see you on here - with this being your third blog location in the last 6 months are you worried the supporters won't follow you Dave?!
Bryn R Posted on July 27th, 2010Looking forward to seeing you smash one out in Toronto.
Hello
Dave, never used to catch many of your blogs on 8lane, but I will on Runnerslife as I am always on here. What a great addition Runnerslife guys. Look forward to reading all about your adventures.
A Fan Posted on July 26th, 2010Good to see training is going well, hopefully a marathon pb in toronto mate.
ascott Posted on July 26th, 2010welcome
Welcome aboard Dave!
mentor Posted on July 26th, 2010So your weekly mileage has started to increase but what will your maximum weekly mileage peak at and by when?
Would certainly recommend a couple of long tempo runs every week.
Do you do any core drills/strength/conditioning workouts along with strides and stretching?
Always put in 101% effort!
Good to see another dedicated athlete on runnerslife, as a runner from your fathers era does he have much say on your training?
Robert - London Posted on July 26th, 2010Great addition
What a great addition to the site. Dave you are a legend!! Great runner and a great guy
Big Fan Posted on July 26th, 2010