Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Moraghan Training - Stevie G
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
A rest day is a day you could easily run on, run fast or run far, but choose not to run on at all. The word is choice.
What a rest day is not, is a day that you can't run on anyway due to being knackered, ill or injured. That idea also counts as regards your lake outing. You ran slowly because you were injured. It's not the same thing.
Question of priorities. Is it long term progress and race results which matter, or other things?
🙂
Ric - today is a proper rest day, to allow recovery from earlier runs. A nice easy bike ride later will suffice to stop stiffness and flush out lactate (and because I like going for bike rides..). With the Lakes, I ran slowly for two reasons - firstly, its difficult to run fast on such terrain, but less obtusely, to make sure I was not exacerbating the hip problem.
The question of priorities is a good one. Clearly it's not long term progress - I'm way too old for anything other than trying to hold the line for as long as possible (that line probably best measured as about 80% WAVA). It's not race results either really, though I do want to put in as good a showing at whatever the next race I'm doing as I reasonably can. I rarely think more than about six weeks ahead, and I don't have one priority, like many others I suspect, but run for varied and complex reasons.
Running for me is about having time outside alone to think or not to think as appropriate. I like feeling fit, and being able to run over hills and beautiful countryside, or put the hammer down on tarmac, but especially being fit enough to run up fells whenever I get the chance. Partly it's about races and earning the respect of my peers. Partly, I run because I am a runner and it's embedded in me (and everyone on this thread I suspect) - and this, together with a constant nervous restlessness, is the part that makes me stubborn and impatient when injured to the point where sometimes the running itself is counterproductive.
Sorry, that's a bit self-indulgent, especially for this time of the morning!
I'm simply imagining how much better you might be if you didn't have so much hard training to recover from.
But that leads to whether or not anyone believes it or not.
Does sound counter intuitive - to go faster, you have to go slower first.
Oh, a run from me.
Setting off at easy effort I felt I was going well. Plenty of smooth power. Six miles done the splits went: 8:13, 7:43, 7:38, 7:32, 7:29, 7:20. Last 100m was an accelerated sprint.
No aches or pains to report.
Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Speedy recovery to all thread patients. Injuries are a right sod!
🙂
You can't beat a bit of self indulgence Bus - says me sat here with my Yogurt and Maltesers desk breakfast!
Track went well last night. As IK and Ryan were doing 10 x 800, a few of us were sensibly given 10 x 700's instead, with 80 recovery. Came out as 7 at 2.10, one at 2.11 and the last two at 2.09 and 2.04. Leg was generally ok, only the last rep when I upped it properly did I get a little bit of discomfort. Probably worked out t about 2.32's for the full distance.
Leg a bit tight this morning on the 6/7 mile commute, should be better on the way home.
Some good insights coming out on the thread. Reasons for running / priorities is always a good thing to think about because it's so easy to get caught up in the training when really for most of us it is or at least should be secondary to the really important stuff in life - like our families, friends, watching kids grow up and being involved in that etc.
That's certainly one thing that being injured has made me think a lot more about. But we needn't forget that running / exercising is a very important factor in life because for me, being long term healthy is a massive reason why I run. I don't think I could motivate myself in the same fashion to go out running often enough or cover enough miles to be really fit, if I wasn't pushing myself in races and having this goal of being a "good" runner (whatever that means).
Anyway - yesterday was a no running day to let things settle after the 13.1 miler on Wednesday. Everything was pretty stiff to be fair. I did cycle 5.6 miles (to transport our 4 year old to nursery).
This morning - I ran 4 miles recovery effort. Taking it really easy and still not looking at the watch - came out at 7:59s and beautifully consistent with something like 8:03 / 8:00 / 7:57 / 7:57.
Most significantly, not a single twinge / soreness / stiffness from the knee. First time since Saturday 4th February. I've never been more pleased with a 4 mile slow run.
Looked forward to today's sesh, shortest volume of all the sessions i do, the 6x300m at 800 pace. I think it's 2min recoveries, but thought i'd try 90secs to cut 3mins off the total basket.
50,50,50,52,51,51
Must admit, on rep 4 i actually thought "i'm enjoying this", but clearly a bit too much causing an ease off! Rectified a bit near the end.
Strange to come away from a 6mile total, with only about 5 1/2mins working hard!
But you have your Tue session for the fast endurance type stuff, and the sunday for the long run. so it all adds up!
4 at lunch, tomorrow off, and leaves Sunday for either a standard long, or a race if i did decide last min (which in fairness i never do!)
Feel so much better even after an easy 4/5 miler.
Things like waking up and thinking sod it, I'll go and run the Yorkshire 3 peaks is what I love about being fit and able to run. Ive mates who train for months just to walk them and then can't walk for a week.
Things have certainly turned round in the last couple of weeks Dean. Sharp stuff on the track!
Nice 700s SC and some decent 300s SG.
What are your plans for the marathon now CC? Too late or perhaps Edinburgh? I remember reading a comment recently from Dave Norman who I think said that a lot of his best performances came after training for a marathon but not actually doing it through injury so all is not lost.
Nice progression Ric.
Still doing Reading Reg?
interesting last week for me. Early signs of a cold last Tuesday which had ruined me by Thursday due to doing a 14 miler on Wed. I tried to salvage something by doing a parkrun on sat which was shit so I did a threshold run in the afternoon to sink myself even further. :-D (I can picture Ric shaking his head) ;-)
Not surprisingly my legs were a bit creaky and lethargic on Sundays 16 which I commented on strava about.
Good luck to everyone at the interccounties!
Parkrun tourist job for me this morning, with my brother in law. We're staying near Ludlow, and came down yesterday evening. Unfortunately my brother in law and his family didn't arrive until late, so I only got to bed around 1, having drunk far more red wine than is sensible. The parkrun starts around 3 miles from where we are staying, so I ran there as a warm up, in my racing flats - a bad choice both for the course and the run there, which was extremely muddy and hilly! It was quite a small but friendly field and after the usual overly fast start by some youngsters, I soon found myself creeping into second place on what was effectively a hilly xc course. It's one small and two big laps, and by the second lap we were catching the tailrunners. The gap to first was too big to close, and 3rd was way back, so in my fragile state I eased off a bit and just enjoyed the route. Unfortunately, in the final corner some guy came out of nowhere, masked by the tailrunners and went past me. I tried to react, but last nights alcohol intake made itself painfully known, and I thought 2nd place at parkrun couldn't justify seeing my dinner again!
This guy turned out to be a complete knob! As I crossed the line I said hello, and made a bit of a joke about him coming out of nowhere, and asked him what club his vest was. His ONLY reply was "I've already done 15 miles as well". My sister in law, who was waiting at the end, told me he had also announced this to everybody at the finish line! I told him I'd drunk a bottle of red wine and several strong beers, which made my parkrun far more impressive than his!
Anyway, time on the watch was 20:20, which reflects the difficulty of the course as well as my slightly hungover state, but still an enjoyable run nonetheless.
Looking forward to the inter-counties reports!
Nice pieces Bus. Only just read the thoughts on reasons for running itself, enjoyed it
(not sure if it's me missing posts the first time scrolling/minimising, or if it's the new site's fault)
And chuckled at the poor guy, he was just proud he'd done a 15miler
I'm sure we've all pulled douchery like that out before, from the "just a tempo" types, to other examples.
You should have cut him dead by saying "it shows mate, over 20mins for 5k?" with a wink
Surprisingly, I managed to dig out your Bledlow 10k post from a year ago, entertaining!
If you do pop on here later today, how would you rank it against other local MT stuff, from ones I've done maybe, Frieth, Chiltern Chase, Bradenham etc.
And maybe even against the XC series Wycombe one, over near the Naphill RAF base, think you did that one year?
Suspected as much! Looking back I haven't done those sorts of course since 08/09!
Was late to the footy today, and had to run a mile in.
After a lie in, a morning lounging around, and wearing jeans and 4 layers, I cannot overstate how awful that one mile felt, for a supposed fit guy!
Typical week in the life of Matt there, good stuff.
Interesting post on your reasons for running, Bus. Like Matt I was nodding along and I agree about being fit allowing you to do things that others can't.
On that note I made a late entry into a local Audax, which is like a cycling sportive with no signage, just check points in cafes and lots of old blokes. It was a cracking day and including the ride there and back I racked up 150 miles in 8:45, so 17mph.
I felt really strong and it makes up a bit for getting no running in. I won't be doing Reading Matt, the foot improves each day and I may be back running in the next week or two but I am not sure my first run should an HM!
It's seeing the same mistakes made over and over again which gets me shaking my head.
There's an adage which goes, 'Any fool can learn from his own mistakes, but the wise man learns from the mistakes of others'.
Where that leaves those who can/ will not learn even from their own mistakes, who knows? Beyond me completely.
Great ride there Reg.
Is it true that on these Audax rides, you can get ticked off for going too fast?
🙂
http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=719564
Accidental long run this morning! It was supposed to be an easy 7 or 8 sightseeing, but 5 miles in I took the wrong bridleway which ended up with me running off my map and a lenghty detour to end up with 10.6 miles. Very nice run though, and the Shorpshire hills around Mortimer forest can be highly recommended.
Think I was the only thread representative at the Inter Counties at the new course near Loughborough, so it's only my report we are waiting for.
Simple aim today was top 100. To be able to boast a top 100 at a national standard race like this is a feather in the cap. 100th = ace. 101 = might as well not turn up. Third in the Berkshire pen, so my place will matter.
Tried to get out quick from the pen, but as usual at these things, I am swamped immediately. Look out for familiar heads to orientate myself, and when the dust settles I think I've started reasonably well. My clubmate, who has gained something of a local reputation for his comically suicidal starts, has somehow got ahead of me from the back of the pen, but this is not entirely a surprise - he led the first 400m of the Hampshire League last week before slipping to 39th. He's given me a lift here though, so I won't be too critical. There are some very muddy bits, and the rest is soft. As the race unfolds, the soft bits turn into sticky ground. Not the photogenic splashy mud of the Nationals, but still pretty sapping.
As the congested first small lap ends, it's into the two big laps, and the field thins enough to start making up places. A spectator shouts "103rd" at someone near me, so I know I'm going to have to work for this. I'm already feeling it, but we must press on. Concentrate on trying to haul in the second Berkshire runner about 40m ahead. At the end of the first big lap, I catch him and pass, and set my sights on some Oxfordshire vests as my next target.
Difficult to describe the rest, it's a bit of a blur. As I enter the small field close to the finish, Andy Vernon comes thundering towards me in the opposite direction. He has a big lead.
At about 300m to go, a Berkshire supporter shouts out that I'm 96th. This is on! But only if this person is a reliable counter. Buoyed by this news, I immediately lose 3 places in a sprint finish, as tradition dictates. So it's an anxious wait for the results. As it turns out, I am exactly 100th. Second counter for Berkshire, and we're 17th in the 6-to-score and 6th in the 9-to-score, which is a reasonably good outing. 42:18, which is 5:40 pace.
Looking at the results in depth, I'm certain that this is a superior performance to the nationals judging by the people around me. Of course, there's always the freak who can't break 16:30 for 5k or 34:00 for 10k, and then run basically the same pace for a muddy XC, but if there's only a couple of these irritating anomalies we can discount them.
Good to finish the XC season on a high.
Reg - commented on Strava, but forgot to say on here, but that's a phenomenal ride - In distance, height gain and average pace! As such, I'll ignore the pain it gives me that you are claiming 150M when it was only 149.9 ;-)
Christ that bloke sounded like a right twat Bus. Sort that puts all his average times on Facebook and they get hero worshipped by non runners. Good cycling Reg, as long as you put mph on the posts I know now well you're going.
Ran about 11/12 mile today, leg not too bad. Now focussing on some steps on my left leg to try and beef it up a bit, it's noticeably skinnier than the right!
Bus - It was 149.97 miles. I did forget to start my watch as we left the halfway cafe though so I think I am ok to claim it.
Simon, don't dig too far back in my fb then
That's definitely the impression he was giving Simon! Pleased to hear the leg held up OK on that one. Is you left leg weaker cos you spend too much time going round in circles???
Reg - I'll let you off then (the curse of the Strava rounding-down algorithm!)
Some bike ride that Reg! Nice hungover Parkrun Bus (and that guy sounds like a dick) and great XCing Dachs!
In the mould of "trying things to see what happens" as per Ric's post above. And to answer Matt's question as to what I'm doing with Manchester Marathon...
The marathon was 3 weeks away as of yesterday. I'd missed the best part of 4 weeks of training, but back running last week. Managed 13.1 miles, albeit not particularly comfortable in the last few miles. Knee okay, particularly after 4 mile recovery run on Friday. What should I have done on Saturday? The sensible answer of course is something like an easy 10 miler. The obsessed runner answer is: 20 miles.
So that's what I tried. I'm now not looking at my watch on any runs at all - I'm giving that a try for a while at least anyway. So, 20 miles just by feel was the plan. All reasonably comfortable until probably about 12/13 miles. And from 15 miles onwards, I was trudging a bit. Some of that was uphill - I had nothing on the inclines. Absolutely nothing. At about 18 miles I could feel my right calf (the other bloody leg!) twinging a bit. Then at about 18.5 miles it felt like it was about to properly cramp, so I stopped and walked home. Marathon is off. Definitely.
Checked the splits afterwards - first 2 miles were at sub 6:30 pace! Downhill but still too quick! Splits jump about from sub 7 pace to 7:30ish (depending on elevation by the looks of it) until about 12 miles, then it goes 7:37, 7:44, 8:09, 8:17, 8:33, 8:25!
Really - I knew that was going to happen but I had to prove it to myself that I definitely wasn't in marathon shape before giving up on it. If I'd ran that comfortably around 7:00 pace, I'd have probably given the marathon a go, as my PB is 7:00 pace, but I'll be miles off that and probably be looking at a death march in the final 6 miles (at least).
So - back to reality. 4 miles this morning at recovery effort came out around 8:20s / 8:30s. Legs still feeling the effort of Saturday for sure.
Now to decide whether I pick this up and train for a marathon or just ditch the idea of a marathon this year...
Ahh CC82 - frustrating. In your shoes I suppose it might be best to leave the marathon training for a bit, especially fir the summer where you can drop the mileage a bit or shorter races. Suppose it all depends on if you want to do a certain marathon and when it is I suppose.
SG - I trust you don't do that FB anymore LOL. To be fair it tends to be the folk who get good who do it. Ones who were good at the start less so. I do stick the odd race report yp there, usually the track PB attempts go on it...Bus - Yes perhaps in regards to the circles! (Nice flying FB photo by the way!!)
Full commute today. Leg still annoying..it ain't going anywhere fast..
For me, 51 year old male, a 1:30 half is 75% WAVA which is the same as a 19:49 5k which I have been running week in, week out this year at parkrun, but I haven't done any long tempos or long runs. I have done a load of long, slow runs which are easily over 1.5 hours but all these have been muddy, hilly and off-road.
Don't know about you, but I could avoid long runs for weeks on end. Do one awful run and then be back on target in a few days. Weekly progression would be something like 10, 16, 20+.
Early 8 miles for me today. Steady stuff starting at 8 minute miling and finishing at close to six.
30 minutes on the indoor bike, a bit of work for once and then a good blast on the Mt bike for 15 miles.
🙂
Ric - you may be right, but I've absolutely made my mind up now...
I'd gone from 60+ weeks (66 in the week I got injured) to something like less than 20 the following week about 7, 0, 5 (miles per week), to doing 43 total last week including an 18 miler. My legs were understandably screwed.
But - I'm going to play it (relatively) sensible this week. Still going to aim for about 40 miles but with a long run of 12 miles instead of aiming for 20! I've penned in Penrith Parkrun for the day before Manchester Marathon as we'll be down near Penrith that weekend. That will be an adequate replacement for the marathon surely...