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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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In the 2017 results, a 14.59 would have been second team! Yesterday I think that would have been only good enough for top 15.
Bit of a long trek for a mile, but grabbed 2 Datchet team mates for the hour or so over there. Nice and early leave at 4ish again! Getting there not far beyond 5, but we all know if we left at 5ish we might find extreme traffic. It's the rule of the sod!
The team was decent, 2 of us looking for a flat 5 or so, and Sat who would be looking sub 5.30.
On arrival, we were slightly put off by there being an A and B race. The B race going at 7, and the A at 7.25. Young lad Chris was begging me to go in for the B race, but as the cut off was 18mins, it was a clear case of trying to relay that it could well be a pretty pointless solo time trial. And in solo time trials it's a hard mission to bust juice. Having seen him knock back an ice cream (!) and tea about 90mins before the 7 start, I was glad he had an extra 25-30 to work that off!!
We entered a customary borderline dodgy name, using the surname of Chris "Hunt" as the basis.
"Bunch of Hunts"
Bit of milling round. I've spotted Jamie B from Clapham. Once met in a decade, now twice in a few weeks. Looked out for the man Joe S - found him, always good to meet a forum face. Small world this running scene!
No race would be complete without some sort of drama. AFter over 2 hours 20 of wandering, preparing and a 1.75mile warm up, it was suddenly 5mins to the start.
Having noticed that my lycra under layer had lost their elastic, I compensated by tying the shorts incredibly tight to keep it all together - Genius.
Less than genius, was realising i needed a 2mins to the start pit stop. Bit of borderline panic, and lined up, before one last dive for the bushes, and by pure magic the cord loosened - PHEW
Leg 1 then - front row, tight packed crowd scene. No idea what the standard would be around me, as last year a sub 5 would have been 14/15th overall!
We're off, and a whole bunch have flown down the road, a few more overtaken me. It's clear the standard is pretty good this year.
The route is basically a half mile out, round a coned roundabout, and back.
Doesn't feel too hard, doesn't feel too easy, so probably spot on effort out, and have a decent few metres of room.
A few foolish checks of the watch, but i'm tracking sub 5 ok. The roundabout takes a bit of momentum away, and I'm sure i clocka 5.45 moving time. Stop checking the watch I tell myself.
We carry on, and i'm seeing 5.20 and 5.15s so slightly wondering what;s going on, but before we know it, it's coming to the run in, and put a decent shift in to get it sub 5 again, and I can see the clock and a packed gantry of watchers.
Some clown is leaning over the last digit, so i can only see 4:5x
As I monster in, I only see the final digit on the finish line, and I go over on
4:56 which would match the Gosport pb last year.
Waiting game now to see if that stays at that, orgets rounded up. I suspect it might become a 4.57, but either way, takes those wind affected 5.08/5.10s off my shift. Didn't do any strides tonight, and turned up feeling a little tired, so happy with that.
I'd imagine i was around 20th on leg 1.
Satnam puts a decent shift in, around 5.21/22, and maybe loses 2-3 places.
Chris gets those places back, and clocks a watch time of 4:59:90, which i'd be very surprised if he gets lucky and sub 5s on the officials. Still a good shift though.
He's got very good speed over very short distance (up to 200s), and I keep telling him to sod marathons off and smash short stuff!
All in, we're 15:19, for 20th out of 175 teams, so a good little turn out.
Even if we'd swapped Sat for a sub 5 guy we'd have only been 14/15th, so a much higher standard as suspected
Winning team comfortably sub 13:30, so 3 tasty guys to go sub 4.30!
Race 21 of 2018 done, closing in on the record of 24 for a year. Murder Mile on Friday night in Wales, and maybe a parkrun locally around there the day after.With a relay the next Thursday that could be our 24.
One last note, as we were strolling off later, for a warm down, i clocked Joe S with partner in crime just ahead. I was going to catch up and would probably have said something foolish about them being the most attractive running couple seen in many a year, but some geezer stopped us, chatting about would we do a "Boomerang" with him.
Come again son?
Apparently some completely pointless Instagram thing where you get in a line, all do the same action and it keeps repeating it.
We look a bunch of colossal dolts...it's on fb if anyone wants a chuckle.
Held us there for about 10mins messing about.
With a 6am start, earlier run, the trek there,, the hour drive back to Slough, and then my ACTUAL usual drive home, i was utterly ruined by 11, and one of the worst sleeps ever, one of those waking dead ones
4 today, and maybe hills tonight though
Nice report - My lot were 2nd.
https://uk.srichinmoyraces.org/files/battersea_relays_30-07-18.pdf
Not long after I joined we broke the world 100 by a mile record when all 100 club runners broke 5 minutes! Doubt the club would get anywhere near that now!
SG - really enjoyed the report, and great to meet you. Looks like you had a really decent run, don't think the course/congestion was ideal for fast times, on a track you'd be 5-10 seconds quicker I reckon. Saw that boomerang, made me laugh. Standard was decent last night; interested to see the results when the individual times are released.
As for the most attractive running couple comment, that must be 90% katie and 10% me - what I don't have in good looks I make up for in stupid hats.
I had a piss poor run; around 5:16 which is about 20 seconds slower than I should be capable of. Turns out that not running for 2 weeks and eating and drinking crap doesn't prepare you for a mile race; who'd have thought it?
Katie smashed it, running a 5:30 odd. She's going to catch me soon enough.
If anyone wants to read my Ironman exploits from a couple of weeks ago, there's an essay on my blog. Managed to qualify for the world champs in Hawaii so it wasn't all bad;
https://spragginsblog.wordpress.com/
Aley - well that's just mental, but I think you know that. And these days a single sub 5 is heroic
Joe - nice report/s from the pair of ye. 3am wakeups is mad enough. 9hours or so out exercising at pace is just unthinkable. Especially now when i'm in short race mode! I can't remember who I mentioned the Kona thing to, but it was a running bud, and they were impressed, and saw it as a big deal, and I got the feeling they knew what they were on about!
Haven't had any dental issues for a few weeks, so naturally today found what i'm pretty sure is an abscess in the gum. Spent ages googling everything about it, and you can get them anywhere on a scale from "brushing teeth too hard", to massive colossal issues, so naturally i'm convinced that the worst case scenario is nigh
Please let it be the best case, a cheeky drain and antibiotics!
Can barely feel it, which I'm hoping is a great sign, as they say it can be one of the worst pains you can have (!) so hopefully the Welsh mile is still on Friday.
Hills with the Dashers tonight gave me a little taster of how it will be.
6x4mins on a loop, both directions mixed in, this time with a 3min recovery which I enjoyed!
Very humid stuff, had to ruin everyone's evening after lap 2 by whisking the shirt off top reveal my pallid "Boy bod" but it made it easier, and I seemed to be getting quicker per rep...
One of these staggered sessions where if you complete the 0.6m ish loop before 4mins is up, you carry on a bit. Meant some of us got all the way up and round another section before strolling back. No overtaking, but a good blast around.
Worked well after a mere 1mile race yesterday.
Good work SG - nice miling. Trust me, if you had an abscess, you would know! Good luck on Friday
Good to see Dachs there but won't steal his thunder.
Look at it as a specialised form of body building.
However, two things are needed, or is is more?
One is the need to gradually build muscle and the capillaries to do the job with. The other is to avoid training that is essentially of a 'take out' form.
So it's down to diet, long easy paced runs over an extended period and avoidance of race efforts during that phase.
The phase is about 12 weeks.
Can you do that?
Numbers of parkruns, or racing performances?
Pick your priority. But you ain't having both.
🙂
Shame Pete - you'll get there eventually mate! I'll wait for Dach's report.
Track mile last night at the last Eastern Vets at MK. Conditions nice, slight breeze up the back straight. Went off in front, with Chris Westcott from FVS right behind (Chris is doing the v45 1500 in Malaga too), although he's more 400/800. Didn't get a split for the first 400, but didn't feel great, but not awful. 800 in 2.15, so not too bad and starting to hear Chris drifting off the back of me, which calms me a bit. The bell came in 3.23 I think, couple of secs down on Saturday and felt much more tired than I was at Oxford. But (a big but) I knew that I didn't have a howling gale to run into on the last 100 m or so! That's how it panned out and I finished up with 4.35.3, a PB and Eastern masters league record.
So getting there, bit annoyed as I think I could have gone sub 4.30 on Saturday if the weather would have been better.
A pb Simon, with all your 100s of races, incredible fare! 5-10secs quicker road versus track you reckon?
Pete, don't worry too much old son. I think you can "get away" with turning out short distances when the weather is so ferocious, but there's a distinct distance where you get affected, and that for me would be 5m/10k and up for sure. Probably that reason alone, whereas Staines was probably the start of your comeback...and a different reason.
You won't be able to resist parkruns, but maybe you can tempo them, have a decent 6-8 week block of training, and come back big for September onwards.
I wouldn't dream of racing 5miles and up until i've done a good block of tempos. I suspect the Marlow 5 came out 30-40secs under last year's for a mix of two things, more humid, and lack of proper tempos...
A few more short races to go, and then it'll be time to put something similar to what Ric talks about, no races, and a gradual step up from steady stuff, to the tempos, and then tidying them up. Probably getting the long run back up to 15 too, maybe midweek pre work as that went fairly well pre Wokingham.
Will have to target some stuff in October/November, as Sep needs to be training, probably mid Aug on as well.
pete, have to be honest I laughed out loud when I read you wanted to run on completely fresh legs so you had 2 days off
Hard luck on the 10k Pete, seems like you run better when you don't expect to run well.
Nice relaying from SG and Joe, who probably shouldn't even be running races yet!
I am racing this weekend so having a pretty easy week, that was until I left for work late and had to ride quite hard to get to work. Surprised to average 22.5mph and a nab a KOM with a backpack on. Shows me that I am going ok despite not doing too much this year. Running has dropped off a little and I've been having an achilles niggle for a couple of weeks. It's not bad but enough to avoid quality and I'm maybe doing 3 runs a week.
Thanks for the advice guys. Reg you are spot on; think there is some psychology to it; expecting a good time adds pressure and that a) causes tension and b) messes with your head when its not going as well as you hoped. Need to just turn up 5 mins before the off and go like at parkun!
Agree Dean even more (lol) rest needed before the next flat out attempt.
Ric; take your point and appreciate the science lesson as ever
I see him on strava now, it's all super slow stuff, but 100-120mile weeks! "Recovery" run being his favourite phrase, I sometimes wonder from what.
But hey,a good guy, and he's doing ultras now, so probably doesn't need too much speed!
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www (.) solidwooddiningtable (.) co (.) uk
Cheers All
SG - Obviously depends on the course, mile wise. Westminster is flat - but quite wide. The Charles Bennett races near my folks in Poole is a brilliant course - a square country lanes course, that's where I did my 4.31. That race is superb, but only happens in the Olympic years, I'm trying to get my training group to do it in 2020. James Thie won my race - he was camping nearby so ran it!
http://www.wimborneac.co.uk/charles_bennett_mile.htm
Yes Pete, bit more taper like Dean says. definitely don't do what I do..training tonight then BAL 5,000m in Liverpool on Saturday..(saying that..it's only a really hard stamina training session..). Reg - sounds promising form, but you've got a good level of general fitness from the cross training I suppose..
Tasty couple of miles there Simon. A windy mile is hardly ideal, and the low-key masters stuff doesn't exactly pull the big performances out either, but you can hardly have too many qualms with PBing at a middle distance race at 45 when you've been running years.
Excellent track mile Pete, bit of an unusual one for you! Re Yateley, you had my views last night, but what's your long run like? Don't ever recall you mentioning one.
SG, sounds a good mile rampage there, and you're consistently under 5, so that's got to be good. Sounds like a fun event, but difficult to justify an hour and a half trip into London to take part for a mile. Fingers crossed for good dental news.
Good relaying too Joe.
Alehouse, impressive times on that list, but to be honest to hear olden days runners talk, I'd have expected them all to be sub 4:20.
Yateley last night - race 3 of the series, but this is the only one I managed to get into this year as it sells out too early - and I used up my "don't you know who I am" trick last year when sneaking in late.
Wasn't really sure how last night would turn out. Training times seem to indicate being in decent form, but I have kept the training volume high, with 90 miles last week including my first 20 since Brighton on Saturday, so expected the legs to be feeling it.
Start was a bit more deranged than usual, with a load of people flying off at a clearly unsustainable pace. At 1km I found myself struggling to hold on to the back of a group of 6-7, including a number of eager youngsters. Soon however, this whittles down to a smaller group for whom this is a little more realistic, and by 2km it's really just me and 3 young AFD chaps. An aged blob of green amongst the youthful red.
Yateley's a bit up and down in places, so when I realise I have a bit of an advantage on the uphills, I make sure I get to the front on every incline, just to get in people's heads for later in the race. Tactics, innit.
Anyway, it all feels pretty swift, and one of the young chaps is pressing forward and seems to be itching to go off the front. Feels like it might be a bit quick for me, but stick with him and make sure he can't build up a gap. Sure enough, he can't make that surge stick, but we do now seem to be down to three, one of whom is starting to clearly struggle. Go through a water station, but I slap a cup out of someone's hand and continue onwards with my thirst unquenched. Me and this other bloke have a gap at 5km with him a couple of metres ahead (16:15 at this point), but once again I catch up to him. Decide it's my turn to put him under a bit of pressure, so I squeeze the pace a little. Not a proper move as such, but just enough to see how he feels. As it turns out, this is enough and I start moving slowly but surely away.
By 7/8km I can't hear anyone behind me, so it's mine to lose. Can I get a decent time though? It's a sponge station now, and my retarded left hand slaps not one but TWO sponges onto the floor. Good god, what is wrong with my co-ordination?
Putting my rogue limb to one side, it's time for the glory run in, and a bit of a surge for the line sees me in at 32:50. That's a season's best, and my second fastest on this course (32:42 last July), which I wasn't expecting so pretty happy with that. Another voucher for whenever I decide to go anywhere near Scott's shop, which might be never.
I'm not saying doing a flat out 5k each and every week plus another distance race won't make you fit. I'm saying, that doing that won't make you faster.
Hopefully I'm correct in saying that SG is operating in the area of speedwork and races. This follows a period of steady running over a considerable time frame. This pattern is likely to lead to improvement.
Dean and Simon meanwhile are training in an incredibly exact manner. It's calculated to the second with a coach making observations and adaptations based on results.
I'm following a pattern which should lead to a race. The problem being is that some set back occurs before I get to the point where I can (race)
I've spent years moving along the line until sometimes I get some sessions going, then something else goes twang! so it's back to the start again.
Of course, I could just race on injuries and niggles. However, I've had super set backs lasting months on end after doing that.
I suppose the analogy could be used which compares runners with money in the bank. Training is supposed to be putting money in, racing is what takes it out.
My training it could be said, is putting money in the bank. Problem is, it appears to be eaten up by bank charges.
🙂
Congrats on the win Dachs; you're too modest to mention how much distance you put on the 2nd and 3rd by the end; 39 and 47 seconds respectively which is very impressive at your level. By the way, the reason I never mention a long run is because its too dull; aim for between 7-11 miles once a week (usually shorter end unless pre a HM) and run about 7'15 pace. Best guy in our club (he ran 35'50 last night) reckons the upper end of that distance zone is necessary even if targeting only 10k's and should also look to start a bit slower, but run the last 3 miles or so at tempo. Seem to recall you promoting that speeding up strategy too, so if both of you say so that's good enough for me
Pete there's part of your answer! Too short a long run and too fast!
Don't think you need to do tempo ending to it unless it's near the peak of a block but a 12-16 benefits you all year round.
One serial winner told me that on winning a race it was quite clear that at that moment, everyone wanted to be him.
Wrong! they wanted to be the first over the line being themselves.
Pete, for all the chewing of the cud, the fact remains that you clock up more racing miles than anyone else on the thread. That's got have some credit, surely. let alone the pace.
🙂
Dàchs, congrats on the win. good confidence for malaga
Brilliant effort from SC for the league record and a track PB! Solid mile at the relays SG - was it a PB or match?
Pete, regarding the training, I do agree in part with the others. However, I am a firm believer that a solid tempo (not racing) each week brings around a lot of gains, especially coupled with even a single mid-week session. It's a fine line, that took some gauging, and often more in the way of progressions.
When I was in form a couple of years ago, around the 28:20 5miler, I was tempoing parkrun each week, mid-19s, alongside two sessions. I'm attempting to get back to this weekly tempo, as continuous hard efforts offer more than cruise intervals (in my opinion and experience) - but again, trying to gauge effort is proving tough.
I've every confidence you can bring the speed back, just dial the parkrun back 3 times a month and go balls out the 4th - and perhaps an intervals session in the week.
Speaking of tempo, 4.6mi done today on a hilly route at 6:42s - seemed comfortably tough until I went up the hill for the last time.
Half marathon on Sunday - off road and not the flattest of courses, but the flattest on offer here in Cornwall. Plan is a steady 8-9mi and then pick it up for the finish. Nowhere near race fit, but gotta turn out for the club!
Matt - still waiting to see if it's 4.56 and thus pb equalling or a 4.57.
Imagine this wait if there was a chance it could be 1 second quicker than the pb
That 28.20 got me checking your PO10 (actually 28.19), as, I didn't remember you ever quoting times anywhere near that pro rata.
It stands out massively on your account. Did you just not get the chance to race much else when at that fitness and then work reduced your mileage? Or is it that most of your races are hilly bastads
Either way, if you can get anywhere near that fitness again you should obliterate your pbs across the scale!
It was the end of a string of improving performances. Just before I ran a 17:45 at parkrun, as well as 36:56 10k pavement PB during a 40min progression.
Sadly I got flu around Christmas, then injired for the best part of 6 or so months, then also had finishing uni and moving... Still trying to get back to where I was! Confident a good 6 months will put me back on track.
But now, like you say, it'll be a case of hilly races down here!
You were tossing up your options for autumn, fancy GSR? I'm gonna be there!
I do fancy gsr. It's way too long since i did any 10miler. We're talking 2013 for.goodness sake.
However i need to get a few last short ones in then properly focus a schedule and targets.
Simon - how can you be annoyed with a PB?!! Annoyed is me, scraping up the rear wheel arch, rear panel and trim of my new car tonight on the garage wall by trying to manoeuvre it in too tight a space, being too lazy to move the car next to it and give myself room - total dick and it going to cost me!!! On the plus side, my daughter (who it is intended for as she is learning to drive) is very pleased as she thinks I can't tell her off if she scrapes it now!
Pete - I very much share your pain and seem to be in the same boat at the moment! Slightly controversial perhaps, but I think relying on parkruns as a tempo substitute is wrong for two reason - we run them too hard but they are a little too short to be effective at what we are trying to do. I reckon regular tempos, to be effective, need to be at least 4 miles and run slightly easier than parkrun pace.
Double bike today. Not as fast as Reg (not many can be!!!) but a pleasing 19mph for the 15.6M to work this morning which is the best I've done for a while. Bit more back to normal at 16.3 for the hillier and much hotter ride home! Cornwall tomorrow....