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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Right, Stevie G has the conch, so settle yourself in, and let's all have a race report shall we.
I was originally just going to steal in and do a one liner, and bugger back off, but instead, let's have a 4 post one shall we?
We shall? Then let's...
(ps time will tell if this counts as 1 of the 4 pages or not)
Or that scene from 'Without Limits' where Steve Prefontain wins a race with 12 stiches in his foot! Hope you're on the mend Scott.
Marlow 5. Have done this race 8 years now, it's joint 1st with the Tadley XC as my most raced event now.
Always nice to come "Home" having raced with the Strides for so long, and know so many of the roads so well through training sessions.
(Having said that, I never quite recognise some bits of the route, however many times I've raced it
)
Have been training well, but last 2 weeks I've had a slightly worrying stitchy/tightness thing that impacts breathing a bit! Meaning you sound like you're working at a pace faster than you're at.
However, I got some 5.20 paced 800s off in midweek, and there wasn't any major stress with this race, as if it felt bad I could always slow down (not stop...for reasons explained later!)
Having only done 6 races in 2014, including 2 of those bootleg PARK.runs, I was happy to get a 4th race in by the end of the 5th month! That still sounds utterly tiny compared to the past, but will do my best to regularly get more off, especially shorter stuff later on.
(ED you've used 2 posts and still not got to the actual race)
erm...yes the race. Having cynically won the "Social" team award in 2013, we thought we'd put one together again this year.
The form said 4 to score, we got 4 in our squad...more on that shortly...
Sorry Scott. Didn't do the Alton today as some family business in Bath imposed. never mind, I've Staines next week.
Well done on the races Bus, Ss.
🙂
So Bus, Big Phil, Little Iron, and myself were signed up as the dream team.
First colossal error was not signing Dachs up, having not realised he'd be turning out. As we'd kept it fairly low key ourselves, between us all we'd massively made a tit up of this.
Anyhoo..it's 4 to score, and the only other social teams with 4 members on the list looked to be the Women's Institute Feminist Lobby Over 70s, and the "We're too stupid to all spell our team name the same way" Gang.
So a shoe in....it looked
more onthat later (ED ...just how much later, we're post 3 and you haven't even started describing the race)
Sorry...so a nice warm up, breathing like a bastad, a few strides, wheezing like an old bastad, and just thinking, "race day magic will sort it".
Slightly different form than usual, doing good mile of it with my old mate Stevie Fell, with his unusual, "even though we're 23seconds into the warm up let's do some racepace surges" style.
Saw Dachs. Not sure when he became so lithe I feel a fatty in comparison, but he looks the part for sure these days.
Saw the boy Sikora, who is actually about 5 years older than me, but he still looks like a boy. A boy who hasn't been given quite the food he nutritionally needs, but a good lad, and a recent 2.39 marathoner! Was wary. But has he got the short distance speed?
But have I got the short distance speed?We'll find out.
Other faces included old pal Matt Davenport from Maidenhead, who I used to race about 10 times a year but probably haven't seen in 3 years, Paul Gregory, who won the Wycombe half at 52 years and years ago, and a whole bunch of keen looking kids.
Anyway, the stupidest longest countdown ever started, with some funny man throwing a 6 1/2 in to pee everyone off, and then slight uncertainty on whether we were going on the second after 1, a buzzer or some old guy screeching something.
Either way we're off. Sikora is already ahead. Have I lost him before we're even out of the gate? 400m?
First mile inclines, yet often comes out fast. Think I've seen a 5.10 here before, but today was a mere 5.30.
Splits are a little odd, as typically my watch would go before the actual split and you have to do some (shoddy) maths on way.
Anyway, today was deemed as a time trial by the M man, and that was before I started whinging about that "nice to have" being able to breathe. Therefore, not overdoing my normal overdoing was the key.
Nice mile and a half in, and down some random well to do backstreet, and I'm absolutely monstered by a whole gaggle of geezers. Fell's there, Gregory's there, a couple of other hungry looking geezers are there.
Fark. Am I running through treacle, is Bus coming through, is the whole field coming through?
Relaxed a bit, and responded, and sat behind them for a bit, in the lead up to the offices industrial estate bit.
I'm breathing like someone who has spent years just eating crisps and then tried to sprint up the stairs. Fell's noticed it. But he's too polite to say anything about it.
He's fallen off the pace a bit, couple of the other lads have too.
It's me, Paul Gregory and some muscular bloke for the bit up the incline near the fire station.
Sat with them at too slow a pace for a bit, thoughts on time seem to have disappeared entirely, but I saw a ridiculous just sub 6 mile In there.
Shanked me a bit, and upped the velocity a bit, ditched muscle boy, and it's me and Gregory to the end now.
We're 11th and 12th (if some random can be trusted).
Slight down to up the pace, can feel nothing behind us, so just need to see it in.
Young lad James from Aylesbury is coming back so hard in the race to the 4th mile that it's like he's being blown backwards by a gale
"I'm so knackered from shifts" he cri
cries to Paul, who also has some sentimonies of knackeration.
Lovely I think. And can smell top 10 for the stats!
If the time wasn't already under what would be ideal, the long straight as Bus mentions definitely killed it.
However, the beauty of a 5miler is it's basically 10k pace but shorter!
Fellsy and me had recced the last 1/2mile earlier, which has about 37 bends and never ends, so knew every cm of it.
Coming up to the high street, about 2cm off the back of Paul, my body tried to force me to go past, but the entrance to the field is always a longer run in than you remember.
Therefore, held off right to the gate, and like an absolute bastard sprinted in, to beat a now 60 year old man.
10th place, 28.32
(Ed...we got there finally!)
Seeing as I did 27.44 here 2 years ago, it's a fair chunk off that, but that was a top line performance, right in 5 sharp mode, and I could breathe fully that day
Chatting to a vast amount of people post race, seemed like everyone was a fair chunk slower than they'd look for.
Seemed off, as it was a decent temperature, and the wind on mile 4's leadup was the only real wind. Unusual.
The team prize?
Well.....
it turns out, it wasn't top 4 to score after all.....it was top 3.
And what should have been a comfy stroll to the prize, (with Phil a bit ill, to not spoil his report!)
erm.....wasn't.
On the plus side, we do now have another hard luck story to file alongside the Wycombe 10k route error, the Wycombe 10k stitchup/snitch up, and no doubt a few others I've forgotten.
So to conclude, a nice day out, for race number 4 of 2015.
And off to the docs tomorrow!
Stevie see - mental start son! Don't feel you have to do a ridiculous start just because I've been doing more sensible ones recently
Tidy line in the sand though.
Bus - homo erotic splendour in that t shirt, and top 20 fare. Can't ask for more than that.
Solid race anyway SS. That is certainly a tasty start, so not surprising that you paid for it later. Great to get you mug on TV, and at least you managed to summon up a sprint for the cameras.
Good work too Bus, with a nice set of retches in there for good measure. I'm sure it was a spectacular sight for the spectators. In the Reading Half a guy suddenly started stretching behind me, and I did wonder if you'd quietly entered the race.
Has anyone tried that South Korean 'recovery drink' from the goody bag yet? Not sure it's WADA approved. It's foul. I drank some of it, then tipped the rest into the flower bed. Fully expecting a beanstalk to have grown by the morning.
Edit..Dachs, yes had many weird goody bag drinks this year. Coconut water definitely better than beetroot juice!!
So I had been dragged into a 3000m at Eton BAL meeting as we were well down on numbers. Bloody windy yet again, so wasn't feeling particularly hopeful. So best laid plans up in smoke with a 67 first lap (oops) so tried to calm down and get it towards 72's. So the lap times came up to near 72's and hit 5.55 ish for 5 laps. So suprisingly managed not to drop off too badly and ended up with a PB of 8.56.4
So made up with that, good warm up for the Cottisford 5k on Tuesday. I think actually doing some track training this season has helped!
Great report there SG. Took me longer to read it than it took you to run the race. Good battling with local types, and a nice fast finish.
Bad luck on the team prize. I could sense the feeling of a terrible injustice amongst you all. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the winning team's tyres were mysteriously slashed...
Great PB Simon! That's not much slower a pace than your 1500 the other day!
Nice one Simon - very impressive time!
SG - quality report (or is that quantity
). I'll try the t-shirt wet next time if you like 
. Not quite top 20 though - 21st, darn it! Even without the retching, I thought the wind in that 4th mile was worth a good 10-15 secs, but both are time wer down about the same on our best at Marlow.Team MTSG will be back!
Paul Gregory is amazing - just not right that a 60 year old can still be running at that speed! The F70 winner was pretty darn sprightly too - running up onto the stage!
Dachs - downed that drink in one before I realised how bad it was
. Not much chance of that being me just behind you at Reading!!! Anyway, where's your report??
Simon, you remind me of a slightly less bumpkin version of Ed O G for some reason. Random, but here we are. Nice turnout!
Dachs, just seen the official results, and the geniuses have managed to completely miss Bus out of Team MTSG, despite us going to the trouble of specifically pre race checking all 4 were signed up.
I had my complaint hat on, ready to fire one off, but then read it's done on positions not time, so we'd have been squeezed out anyway. Kings HW got very lucky today. Firstly that HX mis-represented it as top 4 to score, and secondly that Old Fox Phil was a little ill. Lucky bums.
I'll add them to the payback list.
SS - 3:15/km
I saw that on a bike once.
Haven't touched the recovery drink, but did snaffle the mars bar and rocky bar before going for a cooldown jog with SG. He jogged, I tried to keep up.
It's like Arya's list from Game of Thrones "Wycombe 10km, Wycombe 5k/10k, King's Church,..."
I thought there was a quality field today. Like most of you I'm guilty of seeing people standing in certain start pens and think no chance. Today a lot of them finished higher than I'd have thought.
Anyhow - Marlow 5 was me breaking my 5mi virginity. Dachs had previously said he was running at 10km pace. Some guy in the crowd said run it like a 5km and hang on for 10 minutes. After Shinfield I was told to see what happened if I aimed for a 39:59 10km pace. After all, SG said I only had to finish, the prize was ours from the get go.
So all on track for the first few km (no apologies for metrically pacing an imperial distance race). I found a pack to run with which always helps; pushing the pace but not working too hard. It got a bit lonely heading through the business park and up the hill where the pace started to suffer.
Through 5km at the top of the hill in 19:50 and then on to the downhill. Like last Monday I couldn't push the downhill as I had pushed too hard on the ups. Turning in to Bus' alley where the wind was funnelled it got harder, and then wiggling round and round the backstreets of Marlow, convinced I had been there before. Perhaps a course recce next time!
I knew how far I had to go, but didn't know where we were in relation to the finish so struggled a bit. Every turn should reveal the park, but just another road instead. Finally we came out at the end of the park and I kicked even though no one was there. Through the line in 33:08 & 75th place (I could have found 8s on the course!) where I was handed a M t-shirt. Disappointed but this proved to be the correct sizing once compared to Bus' shrink-wrap version.
It's a nice course and now with the course knowledge I could do faster. I went hard, but didn't feel wrecked like I did at Shinfield. Next year I probably won't TT a few days before either
A good effort and turnout all round. Reading have some speedy guys and the performance of some of the older types is quite amazing. Almost 1000 runners too.
I'm also liking this getting out of bed late and paying a pittance to race frequently thing.
good work Iron. Although I was still up at 6am as have to eat 3hours before a race!
And apologies from both the organisers, and me for the bungle up! We need to find some other event where we can have a Team MTSG turn out.
Was Bus optimistically squeezing into a small then? Guy at work wears what can only be described as his younger brother's t shirts to try and lookmore muscled. Is that what you're saying Bus was doing?
ps there was no Wycombe 5k outrage. It was the Chiltern Chase 5k that caused the outrage...well to others anyway.
My report is in haiku format.
Twenty-six minutes
Extra seconds fifty-three
What a load of shite.
I almost spat my drink out!
Bus - Paul Gregory beat me in ten Leighton 10 4 years ago. Bloody machine that bloke!
Stevie- ha ha. 'Slightly' less? Have you heard me talk? Oo-aar!! Nice for the man himself to say well done. He'll be pleased it wasn't as fast as his sneaky last minute 3000m last year
Are you a cider drinker Simon
?
Dachs - even beating yourself up in haiku! Despite not being where you should have been, it's still a bloody good time. The form will come back soon enough, and another notch up will follow...
SG - I need to think about whether I should be taking sartorial advice from you at the moment. Apart from anything else you'll have me wearing a studded biker jacket and leather cap if I'm not careful
Can do the odd pint, Bus.
But they say you are what you drink - and i'm a bitter man
Taking up Dachs' report format
I felt really bad
Each mile slower than the last
I should not race ill
Having said that, it was a local race. I walked up to the numbers desk and they just gave me my number, no name needed: they knew me. Every marshal cheered me on by name and there were also countless others cheering me on by name in the crowds.
The start pens were sub-30 (off the cards this year) and 30-35 (surely if I can stand up I can run sub 35) so went to the back of the sub 35 pen. Met up with a few familiar faces and chatted.
One guy I know is Julian Hucks (his son Oliver came 8th in 28:15) and we travelled to VLM 2012 together where he ran 2:52:58 as a 52 year old (and calling it 2:52 is a bit of a liberty) and he has 6 top 100 rankings on po10. bus and I were talking about this on the journey to the race, so bus has 3 including 27th v40 20 mile in 2011. I have 13 including 17th for a V45 track 10,000 but for comparison my 20 mile puts me 22nd as a V45 is 2012.Somehow po10 seem to cover over my all time #1 slot for V45 3000m steeple chase no water jump record.
The purpose of this ramble? I just suppose some reflection. Runners like to beat themselves up there are people on this thread who are real superstars (you know who you are, those of you who get fed up with coming second in races, who say "Damn you David Moorcroft and your longevity") The reality is that some are better than others but compared to the general public we may as well be pseudo-gods. So I'd like to pat Team MTSG (the larger thread and not just the select band from yesterday) on the back and say "Well done old chap."
OK, in SG style with ed comments lifted from Viz and Jock Itch, back to the race. Race really played out in two halves. Splits (6:20, 6:31, 6:47, 6:52 and 7:02) show I slowed all the way but up to about halfway I was steadily passing the optimistic starters (and there were some who were awfully optimistic) and then the second half was just simple maths with those running a steady 4 mins per km passing me. Nothing left in the tank for a fight.
Good solid run Iron - I have to say that trying to run a 5m at 5k pace then hanging on sounds a painful way of tackling a 5m race, but you live and learn I suppose.
Nice report, and thanks for the pat, PMJ. However, your reports often forget to mention your time. Is it a bit like watching one of those films, where you have to work a lot of it out yourself?
OK, a slightly fuller report. I wanted to run this at 10K target pace, which is somewhere in the 5:10-5:12 mixer, with the target race being Bristol in 3 weeks. Not worried about position yesterday, it was all about pace, so overall target sub 26, with a B target being a club 5 mile record (26:40, which I've beaten at least twice in 10Ks, once by a considerable margin). Had my doubts about the sub-26, but thought the B target was a banker.
Went out at 5:10 for the first mile, and this immediately placed me at the head of a little group out of the park into the town centre. Support was good here and felt strong. I knew this pace would start to hurt before halfway, and was mentally prepared for it - a 5:13 second mile did indeed feel quick, but the pace was in the right zone, and the front group had whittled down to just me and another guy. We ran alongside each other for the next mile and a half, but the pace was slowing and I was starting to struggle badly. He began to pull away and open up and gap, and, despite really trying to dig something out of the bag, I had nothing to respond with, and was now running solo into the wind. I knew my A target was well and truly gone, but this last mile put paid to my 'straightforward' B target as well, and finished second in 26:53, absolutely shattered.
Went through 5m in 10 seconds slower in a deliberately sub-par effort last weekend, and managed a fast last 1.2 miles on top of it. Maybe I should've just run that one hard and not worried about Marlow.
Serious rethink needed. This is not where I intended, or expected, to be at this point, and the chances of being able to run a 10K at 10s per mile quicker in 3 weeks look pretty laughable. Strange thing is that I've been training well, the paces have been good recently, and I've felt strong all week, but it's now been a long string of bad races. So, options include canning Bristol and taking time off to rebuild, trying to eke out another sub 33, which I think might be manageable, or carrying on regardless and hoping for a breakthrough. If I was training badly, missing my training paces, not enjoying my running, feeling tired and low, it would be clear that a rest is what's needed - but that's not the case at all now, so not sure. It's these kinds of moments when you could do with a coach.
Still, good to see all the thread boys, lovely day, really nice race with good support, and I appreciate that not everyone appreciates someone whining about running a 26:xx 5 miles, so I'll shut up now.
Good sentiments there Philip, and a pretty respectable time given how rough you looked! Hope it all clears up for Sunday (and that you haven't given it to me
)
Simon - me too! Mind you, that saying is not entirely true as my favourite bottled tipple is McEwans Champion
pat on the back for the marlow 5 sharpers - mixed degrees of success and some not truly reflective of current capability. plenty to come when health and form return
Stevie See - nice work on the 10k, decent time plus a sharpener for our head to head at christleton on friday
Simon - boom! great work on that 3000 in less than ideal conditions. smashing a sub9 out this early is a great marker. good luck on the 5k, sub 15.30?
Bob - cheers, i have those 2 records in my sight, just need to get right again. im struggling to hold the faith, as im under cooked at the moment, because we havent started the focused speed work yet. plan was always to start it late may so i can peak in august. just didnt think i would be this far off without it. i guess i underestimated how much hard work i did last yr to get those times. Coach is convinced i will be fine and he is rarely wrong.
Dachs, I wouldn't write off Bristol just yet if I was in your shoes, but would be tempted to treat the next 3 weeks as a sharpening taper (if you know what I mean!). You are clearly feeling a bit jaded so maybe have a couple of days off completely this week and cut back on the volume, but not the pace.
Don't underestimate a few things about Marlow yesterday that could easily have added 30 secs or so onto your time:
1. That incline at the end of mile 3 always causes issues. it is just at the time when you are starting to tire and having to focus on the pace. It is also barely noticeable, so the pace feels harder to reach without the mind really understanding why. It is on pavement, so you need to concentrate a bit more generally. All of these make it a bit sapping.
2. The wind for the second half of mile 4 was pretty strong, especially if running alone. It also came at a time when you would have been focussing on trying to regain the few seconds lost as above, so again, psychologically sapping as well as physically.
3. I know it doesn't really bother you, but you didn't have a lot of company at the sharp end, which could have helped you through a bad patch.
Right, plan this week is for 40M with Thu and Fri off, and relatively short runs in between to try and be fresh fro Sunday's 10k. Today is 2x5.5M easy xc (though this morning had to be a bit faster than I was planning as I nearly missed my train!). Tomorrow will be easy reps. 2 x 5.5M again on Thu, then 3 easy with strides on Sat.
Nice report Phil, even if it is a timely reminder about racing when sick. It must be nice to be on first-name terms with an entire town.I'd comment that you weren't at the back of the 35minute pen, as I was 3 rows in and could just see you in the distance
Dachs - my 2p (I'm always banging on about recovery) research functional vs non-functional overreaching.
Then drink that recovery drink/climb the beanstalk; whatever is more appropriate.
Has anyone run Fleet 10km, or know of a pan-flat windless 10km?
Dachs, I've been in that boat for 18 months now.
Spotted you on the telly SS. Sounded a windy affair again by what the commentators were saying too.
Great result on the 3000 simon, especially on a training schedule quite heavy on alcohol and football!
Iron I would recommend Self Transcendence races in Battersea Park if you want a fast 10k http://uk.srichinmoyraces.org/races/london There is a 10k in June and July. The'ye early starts at 8 am but at least its usually cool then and you're used to early starts as a triathlete! Standard is very high with lots of good London Club runners but at least you'll get a good time and they are all UKA registered so on Power of 10.
From my humble perspective maybe there's an over-racing issue Dachs? I pulled out of Alton 10 that I'd entered as wasn't over Shinfield. Will aim for Hook 10 instead next week.
Matt, yeah, pretty much, details are in the report i just did
Just back from the docs. seems I have Costochondritis which apparently is the medical term for inflammation of the cartilage that joins your ribs to your breastbone.
That's a new one! But explains why it's been a bit breathy and achey this last couple of weeks.
Goes on its own apparently...in time!
Justifies yesterday being a bit under what I'd like though, rather than it being simple chimpy BS excuses!