Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
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
Just back from a freezing cold Barnet ground. We won, but just getting out and home seemed the real victory!
I'm surprised Reading half is still on. Yes they might be gritting streets, but 15,000 people rampaging around, and tonneloads of marshals out in these conditions doesn't sound a great recipe.
I dare say we'll weasel through to the nationals based on last year, but that's a gruelling course, so whether that's a victory is up for debate
Oh we've put some tents up, and will give you a blanket after!
Soton 10/HM I have places for
Woken up to loads of snow. Ridgeway off roader apparently is the latest cancellation.
Reading half apparently still on! Madness and i expect instead of 15,000 they'll get a third of that. If they don't see sense first.
From being irritated the relays clashed with eastleigh and reading, to all being off!
Why anyone would want to take an animal out in these conditions, I'll never know. I thought these types were animal lovers. Surely it would be better to let the dog shit itself in the house or better still, in their bed.
Then the owners will be close at hand to let the dog lick them on the lips, after it's finished licking it's arse!
I prefer cats myself.
🙂
🙂
Anyway moving on from animal apparel, just entered Maidenhead 10 as a replacement for Reading. PB is 63:xx so I reckon that should ensure one PB for the year.
Told myself id just do 6 for a 50mile week but ended up extending to just under an hour for an 8. That'll do today
You've done well to find roads to trust enough to put that sort of effort in.
I Saw off a couple of low 7min miles, but wouldn't have fancied having to lift that to mid 6s today.
Reading sent out a mail earlier about how people can collect their goody bags until about 6pm. Maybe worth doing if you're in walking distance, but who would drive to an event that has been cancelled in large part due to dodgy roads, just to collect a bag for a race they haven't done?
I saw Wilmslow half have rescheduled for mid June! Bit of a different prospect doing a half in the summer isn't it! Wokingham did theirs in May one year, and got a scorcher I believe, it's all a bit of a lotto May onwards.
Wokingham was 4 weeks ago today, since then I've put in 45,54,62 and 52 mile weeks.
Fairly flimsy by my standards, but to be expected with a recovery week, 2 unseasonal snow dramas and 3 Manchester round trips in that spell.
Hope it picks up a bit now. Although Maidenhead 10 is now only 12 days away!
Bit of a wipeout weekend then. Well at least the Northampton parkrun went ahead. Jesus Christ I have never been so cold watching a race ever, but the missus has finally got to her 40th parkrun, before her 40th on Thursday. Its opposite to where the football ground is at sixfields.
Then took in proper footie, Leighton Town v Oxhey Jets (comfy 2-0 home win) and just went out for a 6/7 miler sunday morning. Pleased to have entered the LFOTM this month, chance to blast away the relay cancellation annoyance..
The shame with the regionals is that it gets you into the relay mode, on a shorter, less awkward course than the finals, that while it still has terrific standard at the front, has a bit more realistic standard throughout.
Oh well, it's what it is!
Freezing cold 6 today, like eye wateringly cold. Had warmed a bit by 3miles, but while the pavements weren't too bad, 7;22 average says it all.
Baring some incredible thaw, i can't see the Dashers session tomorrow being sensible, though I dare say they'll still have a go.
It's a 2 person relay, basically smashing laps of a coachpark. Sounds fun, and i missed the last time as well, doh! Fingers crossed.
Now that public transport has been mentioned. Later today I'll have a train journey for a bone scan. Just routine check up stuff. Later this week I get an MRI scan on something or other.
Unless I call off the deal, I'm destined to have these on a regular basis for ever. It's awkward should I wish to live somewhere else.
Living in the middle of nowhere can be attractive until you need something like a specialised hospital.
So, eleven miles for me early on. Still a pile of snow and mud to negotiate through the woods but manageable.
Was it cold SG? for some reason I never noticed.
🙂
Cancellations, cancellations. Looks like a very decent HM effort in any case Reg, so fair does.
Cannot understand the medal/goody bag thing. I think there were a few who ran the course anyway, and then maybe I can see it, but not doing the race for whatever reason and still insisting on the medal is odd behaviour. Imagine if you lost your vision just before your driving test. It wouldn't be your fault you couldn't do it, but equally you wouldn't expect to get a driving licence out of it.
With Reading cancelled, I decided to crank out a long run in the afternoon instead, which had been scheduled for Wednesday evening, but now I can squeeze a session then. Did 24, broadly thinking start at 7:05s and do each 6 mile segment 15 secs per mile quicker than the last, so finish with 6:20s. In the event, the 12-18 miles bit was quicker than intended, so the whole thing averaged 6:32 pace. Cranked out a 5:50 for the final mile, and finished feeling strong. 2:36:44 for the whole run. Decent long run I reckon. I mean, it's not a sub 2:40 training marathon or anything, but it's OK. That'll be the furthest one. 4 weeks until the marathon!
SG pavements round our way were pretty much fine in the afternoon, except in one or two short sections.
In other news, I had a dream last night that Philip M Jones was a potato farmer, and was retailing individually packaged artisan potatoes in a shop. This infuriated Stevie G, who demanded to know why PMJ didn't just have sacks of potatoes. So PMJ pulled a lever, a door opened, and loads of sacks of potatoes cascaded out and buried SG.
The Reading half was one fiasco wasn't it.
The ludicrous stubborness of the organisers insisting on staying on, despite severe weather warnings, despite southern athletics advice being to cancel all races, and despite all other events nearby being cancelled.
"We've already put a tent up, just dress warm", the advice.
Then the day comes, oh heck, 13.1miles of snowy slippery road. Ahhh, maybe we'll cancel then, don't worry, it's not like anyone has travelled very far, or is on route now or anything. All 15,000 will be from a mile walk away
Then tweeting hours later that you can pick up the race pack gear up to 6pm, again, surely only suiting you if you live within a mile or so. As if a race is unsafe to get to, who the heck is going to drive along to pick the race gear up?
All very strange, and while we can chuckle, anyone seriously wanting to have raced must have been gutted. All those sponsored runners must be frustrated too.
Ric, sexy outfit. Usual drill is that you need the layers to get used to the conditions, then your inner furnace makes it all feel fine again.
Bus and Pete where are you? Pretty sure it's 2018 hol number 3 or 4 for Bus, but Pete, no smashing of the parkrun scene?
'Cannot understand the medal/goody bag thing. I think there were a few who ran the course anyway, and then maybe I can see it, but not doing the race for whatever reason and still insisting on the medal is odd behaviour'
This is the 'running world' isn't it. I suppose we're all part of it, but the bit we are in is a world away from what the 'leisure runners' inhabit
Too much cheese before bedtime for Dachs I think..funny tho and a very impressive training run, likewise Reg.
Big hands Ric. Big hands...'Brother Lee loves' from Kenny Everett?
I'll start with the congrats; firstly to Dean for incredible double gold indoor results; amazing speed and impressive to be able to win from the front as well as your trademark fast finish!
Dachs; Just a couple of miles short of a casual marathon at about 2'50 pace in conditions where a half had just been cancelled. Scarcely believable for ordinary folk.
Great training as ever from Simon (proving your XC experience was no more than a minor blip), SG (great speed on those short reps), PMJ, Iower and Ric (those miles must pay dividends later in the year). Also a great casual HM training run from AG especially as you have been injured (I'd be happy with that time in a race when fully fit). Take it steady Matt L and Matt H though I, more than most, know how hard that is when you just want to get out there. Keep the faith Alehouse and Scott E; must be tough at the moment for you guys.
Onto me and little to report. Still struggling with my calf injury. I am at least running again and was going to try and muddle my way through Fleet HM yesterday had it not been cancelled. Not done a run of 10k or more for 4 weeks and had clocked under 40 miles this month so wouldn't have been any more than a "prove you can still run" job. Anyway went out this lunchtime in Windsor Great Park instead (actually lovely conditions, very sunny) and managed a 10 miler in abut 74 mins but still with calf pain at about 5/10 level. Not sure what the issue is now as my physio reckons she's fixed the prob and my calf isn't tight. Hopefully just a matter of getting used to distance again. Certainly no rampaging parkruns SG either; in the last 3 weeks I've missed one and did the other two with my daughter at around 27 min pace. I've also somehow picked up an elbow injury; only really sore when lifting stuff and the physio just said "oh tennis elbow, nothing much to worry about, just stretch it out" so guess I just grin and bear that one. Anyone had an injury there?
Realised yesterday I haven't run a proper Po10 race since my DNF in the Battersea 10k back in November and not finished one since Fleet 10k last October (unless you count Ealing Mile in early Nov). There have been some xc's and parkruns since but not even one of those at proper pace for a month. Can't wait to get back racing injury free.
I'm still around too. Just been manic at work for financial year end, and I've had bugger of all of interest happen to worth making an effort to post - bar a fairly spectacular fall last week en route to the station which saw me completely covered in mud, dripping with blood and thinking I'd dislocated my collar bone (I hadn't). Any recent posts would have just meant moaning about my hip and back....
Not read everything but must say congrats to Dean for the double gold!
Cracking long run dachs too...
Holiday number 1for 2018 is next week SG. It's a two parter. I'm heading up to the Lakes by train on Tuesday then walking round the route of the Bob Graham. Even though I'm taking a "leisurely" 3 full and two half days to do what proper fell-runners aim to do in under 24 hours, it is still a pretty serious undertaking, particularly if there is still snow and ice by then on the high fells. The big issue is that it's pretty committed once I start as all B&B's are booked and there's not much option but to walk over rough and remote terrain between them! If it goes well, I'm going to extend the 42 peaks to 50 in celebration of being (almost) 50. Second half is the usual Easter week with the family in Braithwaite.
I was dressed very similarly for my LSR yesterday Ric, but with a windproof rather than a t-shirt over the thermal to try and keep out that bastard of a biting wind out!
Guess I just got the best of the weather: I was out before 8 so it was round zero degrees and it seems the weather warmed up a bit to turn the snow to slush then cooled down to freeze it all into sheet ice. Odd how many walkers shivering in big coats looked at me in shorts and said I was a fool to be out dressed in such but I was clearly warm and they were clearly cold. The guy I felt for was a sheep farmer who had a field full of ewes at the top end of Piddington ready to lamb and really wanted to get them down somewhere more sheltered.
The days when I stripped off to minimal running kit and got running to avoid freezing, are long gone.
I've had one warning of the consequences of inadequate clothing in icy conditions, and I'm not risking that again.
🙂
If you are running at a decent effort, you are burning about 1,200,000 calories an hour. Note that is calories with a small c: all food is labelled with kcal or Cal so 1,200 Calories an hour.
Say you weight about 65kg and you have a typical body composition, then you need about 54,000 calories to heat up by 1°C so after 1 hour you have heated up by 22°C and have died!
Alternatively, you can convert 1,200,000 calories an hour to Watts and it is 1,400 Watts or 1.4 kW.
So, when you are running, you are carrying a 1.4 kW heater with you. The trick is to make sure that heat gets to the parts where you want it.
That's why I wear this fibre-pile lined cod-piece ;-)
https://www.sportswarehouse.co.uk/buffalo-supporter
I never used to feel the cold running, and would have been out in Sunday in a vest. These days I do though, and it seems to take longer and longer to warm up. Probably just because I'm so slow!
7.5M this morning. OK during running, but back and hip really stiff now after sitting around.
Pete and Bus, frustrating times, but you'll soon be back to what you love!
Phil, the true nutters of course are those who go walking in such temps, in shorts! They're the ones I find really odd.
(for some reason this didn't post from ages back...but still had it drafted when i signed in now)
4miles this morning, cold and sluggish. That drive to Slough does serve one purpose, gets you prepared for the run versus going from your front door!
Tonight is a pairs session, something like sections of 7mins, 9, 9, 7, with 2min rest in between.
So basically 16mins each roughly between the pair.
I'll try and get with our top guy to ensure i don't have a lazy level recovery.
As for those who go walking in the cold wearing shorts. Years ago, I was fishing the canal down Harefield way one day when some old guy came walking along using those ski poles for support. However, it wasn't those that caught my attention, it was that he was wearing what appeared to be a leather 'g' string and not much else.
I ignored the creep and wondered what would happen once he reached the Coy Carp pub section. There would be people out with their families down there.
🙂
It's most likely it takes an "incident" to start thinking through the "what ifs" that can happen on runs.
I never gave it a second thought years ago, although I'd rarely be out in some offroad isolation like some on this thread.
That Wycombe half was obviously my main watershed moment - the pure luck that was at a local race, stumble distance from home.
Other than that, once my hip locked, about 1.5miles from work at lunch, and i had to stumble back, and being so delirious on a boiling hot 15miler, i lumbered into a newsagent with a sodden tenner to buy some water. He gave me a discount, which says it all about the state I must have looked.
These days, I at least have a band with my details on, and often if it's a long run or particularly hot will take some cash too.
Ironically, the one day I did get outrageously lost (the 19miler having set off for 13), was one of the few times I had my phone with me.
Even using the maps app didn't seem to help too much. I think that was because running is so super slow compared to driving, so the directions came up too slowly to help!
I think the peak of concern that day was turning up at a location i'd been at 4miles previously, knowing i was at least 5-6miles from home still, "IF" I could find the quickest route!
Which at that point I feared was basically running through a random field of assorted landscape next to the motorway!
Thank goodness for a country lane that pretty much took me back to civilisation (after climbing over a fence into a random field)
Phew.
Pairs relay session tonight round a coachpark. Have been looking forward to this one for a while.
Not quite sure on the distance of the oval, but probably somewhere in the 400metres type terrain, so somewhere near the equivalent of 16 of those, although as it's chunks of 7-9-9-7 between the pair, you'll end mid rep on some.
When there's no chance of a rescue, such as when there's snow all over the place,I always take an extra warm layer in case of having to stop - hypothermia is not much fun!
Nice run home tonight - fastest off-roader for a while and just got back before it was too dark to run. Had to be assisted by nurofen today though - this back.hip/sciatica thing was giving me real gyp after sitting down for even ten minutes, and kept making my leg give way. The NSAID seem to do the trick - just don't want to take them often.