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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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I used to do a bit of road racing with a cycle club and every Tuesday evening in the summer we did a 10-mile time trial, all officially sanctioned etc. Were all those races?
I ran for an athletics club B track and field team, and on a good day the team filled a minibus, on a bad day it was a couple of cars. One day I ran 110m high hurdles, 400m hurdles, 3,000m chase, 5,000m and a leg of the 4x400m relay, on another 800, 1500 and 5000. Do all those count as races? Or a vets league, where I did a 200 as a warm up before an 800?
I have run half marathons as part of a long run and won't even go into parkruns, but I do have a 38:13 parkrun on my powerof10 listing, does that count? At the bottom it says: "Total Performances: 282"
Dachs - still a very strong race and time considering the conditions. and considering your race calendar recently its underlined a great few weeks.
Bus - sounds like hard work out there but a low 80s is still a very decent result. nice one
Well done on the HM, Bus. I'd make sure I have a pile of food at hand after one of those, mind.
Not done so many races lately, but road race number 200 came along in 2003!
Probably over the 300 mark by now but not by much.
What qualifies as a race is hard to say. Some appear to do dozens each year.
Last year I was done by one race. The previous year I appeared in six.
Had a day off yesterday. Some improvement but suspect there's more to the sluggish response than mere fatigue. Could be low phosphorus/potassium levels. Always the possibility with having to ingest masses of calcium.
Run 12 miles early on, but with many stops and hold ups. Sometimes it was traffic, sometimes it was on account of feeling I was working too hard.
Final miles seemed as plodding as the rest but the mile splits indicated otherwise. Final five miles went 7:40, 7:29, 7:24, 7:09 & 6:47. Such is the advantage of an average downhill stretch with a following wind.
🙂
Andy Vernon won Reading in a shade outside 63 and Charlotte Purdue was first lady home back in 58th place overall (72:15).
Can't help but think that some of this is driven by prize money. Reading had no fast Kenyans out as first prize was just £1000 but looks like Andy would have won £1000 first prize, £3000 first Brit, £1000 for sub 64 (would have been £1500 if he was 8 seconds faster) so £5000 is a useful purse, but the Brits in New York finishing 10th and 11th got $300 and $200 (Callum $10,000 for second).
Surely someone in British Athletics needs to ensure our athletes run appropriate races and not chase purses.
I'm happy to count parkruns, as I race them. I've never turned up at any of my "events" and not given it what i had that day, so am happy to tally 184 up.
That's obviously not to say all of them were the maximum ability i had on the day, as other factors kick in.
Maybe if i ever turn up at an event knowing i'll just cruise round at easy/tempo it'd be a different story.
On the subject of how many races we have all been involved in, I had a dig through some diaries in an effort to count up how many I'd been in since 2003. I got up to 2007 where I found a 10k race in which I ran bang on six minute mile average. The note at the bottom of the entry caught my attention - I weighed 138lb's that day.
Ten years later but nearly a stone lighter I have my doubts about getting anywhere near that pace.
It's become like that.
🙂
Hi All, good racing over the weekend considering the weather from PMJ, Dachs and Bus. Dachs - thought you'd just be a minute or so down on your PB, which is still really good going. Still don't know how folk can keep going that fast over so many miles!
Decent weekend for me - kicking off with a trip to St Albans so the missus could do the Parkrun (she's trying to do 40 different ones before she's 40. Then to Bedford so the kid could do his kiddies athletics. I went over the Embankment to do 10 x 3 mins, which was pretty tough into the wind every other rep and hard on the leg too! then a nice afternoon of non league football and then rugby on TV with beer and snacks.
Leg was a bit ropey, but set off on my LSR regardless and instead of doing 12/12 and catching the end of the Leighton 10k, I stupidly did the 17/17.5 hilly loop. Legs were in bits at the end, but took dead on 2 hours, so pace ok in the end. Leg surprisingly OK today, very surprising after yesterday...
The course actually measured long it seems based on the GPS. Most have it at 13.2 to 13.3 which is unusual, Reading is normally spot on, not sure if the course was slightly different anywhere. Regardless he should have had a pace band or been using the manual lap button.
If you're a 1.30 pacer, you're starting however far back, so have to account for traffic in the early miles, and then keeping a pretty consistent pace, which is a talent in itself.
Relay on Saturday is apparently 4mile for the long leg, not 4.5miles, and is 3laps of just over 1.3miles.
Sounds more fun than what I imagined would be a big 100metres out and back, and barren middle stretch, with runners quite drawn out.
This way, with 50 odd teams and such short loops it'll be insane carnage. And hopefully mask how we're doing, as legends fly past
This week with Saturday in mind, went for 3x1mile aiming at 10k pace, or 1.22 lapping off 90secs
Again things came faster than planned
1.18,1.21,1.21,1.19
1.17,1.20,1.22,1.20
1,18,1.20,1.21,1.19
I added up the exact 100ths of the splits, and the 9metres on the end and the miles came out as
5,22.96
5.22.89
5.22.42
So more like 5k really. No wonder i could feel that "need to poooop" intensity feeling come on near the end.
Even my 5k pb was slower per mile than those, so promising, probably!.
Fast laps SG. You need to lay down a 5k and 5M soon!
Are your reactions really sharp enough to be self-recording splits to 100th of a second though ;-)
Rest day yesterday, and the legs were surprisingly OK. Easy 5.5M this morning, and legs were heavy but nothing too outrageous.
Probably overthinking it, and the 10ths are enough. It's just sometimes if you think it could be a 1.20.99 lap and you report it as a 1.20, you're almost stealing a second off the time.
Or something.
Best not to get too precise....otherwise Dachs and I wouldn't have done EXACTLY the same time (8.55.2) for the 3000m last August....
I guess mostly just taking the number as it comes is safe enough
in the real scheme of things.
easy 4 now. Trying to remember the easy part!
Firstly, good to see PMJ was pleased with his race at Reading, good to see a comfortable sub 1:30.
Fast reps again SG. I'm not sure 3 x 1 mile at 10K pace would have been a particularly useful session, but at close to 5K pace its a lot better.
Re pacers, I don't know the 1:30 pacer from Sunday, but I do know the 1:25 and 1:35 pacers, who are comfortably capable of those times in their sleep, and I suspect if the 1:25 guy was off, he might have been getting duff information off his GPS. He was only 30 seconds off on chip time, by the way. At the end of the day, people aren't machines, and runners ultimately need to take responsibility for their own race.
Simon, that 0.02 seconds was a lifetime. I'd had a shower by the time you finished.
Think I was at the wrong race on Sunday. Two chaps who I comfortably and consistently beat in the XC races went just under my 10K PB at Eastleigh. Scott knows them, as they are from Hampshire. Eastleigh was my preference originally, but I did Reading mainly as my son wanted to do the kids' race. Bloody kids.
Thought clearly it came out as a full on session in its own right.
I remember someone, can't remember who arguing vociferously that it WASN'T a surprise that Reading HM and Eastleigh were the same day, but i'd say the biggest half in the south, and arguably the fastest 10k in the south on the same day IS quite surprising.
some of those times in the "kids" 3k race, my word. Some 16 year old did 9.01 and i'm sure a 13 year old in the 9.12 type domain!
SG - Flying!!!
Good HM running Bus and PMJ
Ah, sorry SG, missed that it was a pre-race session. I guess the notion of you having a proper race to prepare for is now alien to me
. Makes sense then.
The kids race wasn't quite 3K this year. My watch had it as 1.73 miles. Having said that, it is a race that is kid-focused but not exclusively so, so adults can enter. The winner is usually one of Reading AC's junior phenoms. Can't comment on this year's winner, but the winner is usually capable of well under 9 for track 3000 at the time.
Scott - yes, I've also beaten the other guy you mention twice in the Hampshire League this year. Frustrating!
GPS is no excuse, there are mile markers and you have to check pace against the mile marker. He was 21 seconds down at 5k, 27 at 10k, 31 at 15k and 50 at 20k. He then got 20 seconds back over the last k so that is 30 net and 5:59 pace for the last km and a bit. You can see him flying home on the video.
Responsibility, agree it is up to the person, but if you are tired and trying to beat 1:25 you can be forgiven for getting your head down and just following blindly.
As for rounding up or down - SG, please behave. Do you work for Strava? The rules are straightforward. At whatever number of decimal places you are realistically working to, 5 and above rounds up and below that rounds down eg 0.46 and 0.54 both round to 0.5 despite being a 0.08, rounding to 0.1, of a whatever unit between them...