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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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i think a comment sticks out in my head after malaga. from a stoke ac team mate who is 23 ish and a very talented xc/5k/1500m and races in british champs to get into the full GB squad for the major international champs, he said this was effectively a triumph of mental strength, that form and fitness will return but now everyone knows the other side is as strong too, most others would have DNS or DNF but i leant into a punch i knew was coming and almost dodged it and stole the gold against the odds. as my mother said had the win been 4.05 or similar it will be easier to take but 4.14 there will always be a part that says i missed a big chance. But it is that which will drive me on to run faster at the next champs.
simon - i only kept my troubles from you because you were a big threat with that 4.09. if you were rubbish i would have told you
Dachs - your 5k was stacked and both races run in incredible heat. for your half we were warming up running 7.45 pace and the sweat was running of us. to get that time and position in those conditions was superb.
Cheers Dean - Your build up was very sensible in regards to where you were at the time, especially in what you let on. My wife keeps telling me that I give too much away LOL. Like I said, it's not really a situation we have that often tbh. It would have interesting to go back and try and run it eyeballs out, possibly the American guy is the only one I think I would have definitely beaten..like we said, the dutch guy was strong and you and Mark would have still been right at the sharp end. Like most things - just a judgement call on what I thought was best going on how I felt.
Oh and it was only one normal sized glass of beer the night before
Echo the comments regarding Dachs too..two great races that were affected by very warm weather.
Noticed a comment from a certain Mr Moraghan on my facebook too. Good to see he remembers me from a couple of chats at Bedford years ago!
Dean, how can you have such big legs with such scrawny arms, clearly a good combination!
Simon it looks like you photobombed into that pic
think the photo truly captures what i i think of finishing 2nd. race is still going on and i look proper pissed off
reg i think they have altered the image to make me look less butch.
midland road relays tomorrow at sutton park. told the coach i havent run a step since sunday and been on the lash since.....so he put me on 3rd leg of our A team. Nuts...going to have to put a concentrated effort in now.
And the winning geezer looks to have thighs the same size as his biceps!
It will add fuel to the fire and resolve.
Reminds me when Neil Adams was a bolt on gold medal hope at judo, was taken out by a novice move. The embarrassment of it all. He plotted revenge there alright.
Next time they met, that opponent was dealt with in a dramatic fashion.
Not sure if he got up after that one.
🙂
A bit like the Olympics - only greyer.
Was going out on the bike today, but last night got a run request from AW. Just as well since the rain came down.
Anyway, a really good run. Did nine miles.
🙂
4 years? Is it that long? There's Europeans too?Either way, Dean will no doubt be in the mix for what ever age category he keeps training hard for. What price being in the 80s one
So week session 3 for me then.
The 6 sets of 2mins (600m), 1min (300), 30secs (150)
(sets based against week mileage, so 6 this time, rather than the 7 I did about 3-4 weeks back. Could arguably drop to 5, but 6 seemed right)
Thought last week's on the track for 7am was excessive this week, so got there a couple of hours later, and did my warm up.
THEN noticed some geezer on the track obviously laying out stuff for an organised session. Mental note to get there for 7am if I need track for future Saturdays.
No idea who for, as I'm sure our local track club train at some park miles away, but sodded it off to come back to the roads.
Instantly makes it harder, but found a decent "ish" loop half by accident - ie I was rampaging one rep out, and the road I needed to cross was busy, so turned round an estate instead.
5.24 seemed to be the average on the 2min sections
while the others could be between very low 5 and 5.30, depending on which bit of the loop they ended on.
So not ideal on the road, but probably better than trying to do the 2mile threshold ones on the road!
Charging about on roads not wanting to slow down is inherently risky. I used to run with guys who did that. On a couple of occasions I saw them miss a bad accident by inches.
Ok for them, but when they made a call to 'go'; which led to me being missed myself by fractions. It meant their safety in numbers mentality had morphed into diminished responsibilities.
And they thought it was funny.
Disappointing situation.
🙂
Don't worry, the one bit that even remotely looked risky, encountering a junction of a Tesco direct as something was coming, called for a 2second stop on the watch, tiptoe across the junction, then carry on.
Not great for that rep's momentum, but good for not risking it!
Good session sg. How comw you didn't stay on the track and use Lane 1. If that geezer was laying cones or whatever out across all lanes I would have told him to try and struggle by with 6 lanes leaving me 1&2.
did the midlands 6 stage relays today. Despite my protestations about being unfit and full of crisps and Spanish lager I was put in the A team, leg 3. Our 17yr old storms out and comes back in 2nd. He is going to be some talent I reckon that was a low/mid 14m 5k performance at 17 years old! Next leg comes back in 5th. I get us into 4th early on but then the lack of any mileage told. Up the hill I'm ok, but across the top I lose 3 positions. I try and respond and I hold each time for a short while then they just drifted away. I keep them in sight hoping to keep them close enough for the other team members to catch. Downhill bit was fine and then the sprint finish up the hill past the tents was decent if not tasty. Put us in 7th. Next 2 legs lost a position. Then we pass onto our fastest member and he glides around the course catching the runner in front despite having over a minute on him. So a 7th finish overall and safely into the nationals. Hopefully the coach saw enough to pick someone else!
Dean -I was never on there in fairness, the warmup was on lanes nearby.
The situation is very awkward though - the track is being taken over, it's very hard to get hold of anyone to renew or confirm anything, so if it's free, I'm golden, I crack on. But if it's a clearly organised session, I'm best keeping out for now, as technically I shouldn't be there.
Good performance in the relays there. Our guy Rob, who at his best was national level, probably in and around what your fastest guys are putting down, and really knows his stuff, warned our gang off bothering with this relay.
He reckoned we'd be severely shown up even in the regionals, unlike the 12 stage, where we can qualify from the southerns, and not come in the bottom 10-20% of the nationals. So when Rob says that, we listened, and stayed right out of it
And that any interference in the process is illegal.
🙂
A few weeks back though, they'd blocked off the road leading to the track in both directions.
Idiots were still driving through though having moved cones.
Seems to have been a sprintathlon at the track yesterday. At least by 2pm. Presume that was an all day job and definitely not someone a solo trainer could just wheel into the middle of
A long time ago around my way, an international distance runner revealed that sometimes to use his local track, him and his coach had to climb the fence when it was closed and do the sessions in the dark.
One night they were caught by the track manager who lived on the site. A short discussion explaining the situation resulted in the manager opening the gates and putting on the flood lights whenever they needed to use the track outside usual opening hours.
I guess that's the difference. Are you there to play about, or to work?
🙂
Back to actual running stuff then...
12 today in heavy rain. It's surprising how few Sunday mornings get the rain, in what can be a pretty rainy country!
7.20 pace, which is a bit down to the rain, but obviously also down to now sticking a Saturday session in beforehand.
50mile week, which still feels low, but for a short experiment it's interesting to try.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before about training loads. It's not just the volume/intensity of an average week which matters, it's also the contrast within as well. That's one thing.
The other thing was about moving up a level.
The assumption is that it's a gradual process. It is in one way, but only over a long time frame. The actual process of moving up a level requires a sudden shock to the system. The trick is knowing how much shock and for how long.
The example I saw involved steady mixed stuff for months on end at a volume, a slight easing off, then three weeks worth of what appeared to be way over the top training.
However. After that, it was mentioned that 50% of this training would keep the runner at the new level.
Makes sense in a way.
I've just had a couple of days running back to back, which went well.
🙂
Morning All -
Relays for me also this weekend - annoyingly the southerns have been on a bloody Sunday for years now. Hate racing on a Sunday..always have done, I've always been a race Saturday, long run Sunday traditionalist. It was down at the Crumbling (Crystal) Palace for two loops coming to about 5.8k in total. Saw nearly half the people in Malaga there too. Nice chat with Dachs when I caught him up during the warm up
Running in leg 1 for our VET40 team rather than the seniors, which was nice. the loop is flat along the bottom, up a dragging hill on the right hand side, slat along the top, into an annoying little car park loop, then back on the downhill and flat past the track entrance to start the 2nd lap. Didn't feel great when I woke up - been to a beer festival and only had two pints (honest), but nearly canned it. Had a bit of a sniffle too, so was a bit worried about how it would go. So went off steady, and the main drag on the 1st loop wasn't too bad, felt relatively strong. The Andy Leach came past me, going to be beaten by a 50 yr old again (3rd time this summer??). But the car park dog leg was annoying, but relatively OK when I came back past the track. Dachs then came past me, so I knew he would be strong, so I would try and keep him in eye shot! The rest of the loop was pretty tough, but pleased to get back on the track and round to the finish in 19.20. Would have liked to be nearer 19.00, but not too bad all in all.
We ended up with bronze team medals again, nice to rescue a very average weekend, after the weather, feeling a bit crappy and Bmth getting stuffed 4-0 (quiet ML84!). Mark Symes (V45 1500 gold man) was running well for AFD again, he did about 19.09 - told him to keep going, he's in the zone! Had a good laugh with him and his AFD mates on the train back towards Victoria.
I'm sure I'll keep a threshold session going forward either way.
You hate racing on Sunday's Simon? Aren't 90% of races on Sundays?
Good turn out though, especially after your recent holiday/sorry champs
So the track mob already back in action at the relays, good to see. Every year, about this time, I consider getting involved in a running club. I do fancy doing a few running only events as part of a team. I watched Kevin Mayer's decathlon world record on Youtube yesterday, reminded me that a decathlon is still on my to-do list.
Like SG I got a 12 miler in, also in the 7:2x region, unlike SG though I had the good sense to have a hangover so by the time I got outside it was nice and sunny. Just ran it easy as I'll do something a bit harder at the Windsor half next weekend. 27 miles last week then and it looks like I am over the worst of the achilles trouble. Never got out on the bike though and spotted Joe, occasional poster here, did 5 hours on a turbo inside! Absolute mental case.
LOL @ Reg - not quite the 10% but close. Thinking about it - the majority of track and xc are Saturdays, plus the vets track stuff and Watfords are midweek, so I don't race that much on a Sunday. Sunday races are very common these days - I don't think it was always the case - or the Saturday/Sunday split was a bit more even.
Sunday races are those you pay money for usually - the #ukrunchat mob leisure runners. Not that I'd class you as that SG, or any other decent runners who run on a Sunday
Didn't Dachet fancy putting a team in for the relays?
Relays were judged too big time by our big man. Not sure the appetite is huge at our place at the mo. We're gonna struggle xc wise this year as people proritise other stuff. We have the fastest woman in the league for example but most likely she won't do one as she's marathon obsessed
Our best runner just doesn't run for 6-8weeks over summer, another excellent xc v40 already said he can't make any events. Me with the gsr build up not being in for october xcs etc. All adds up.
Having the first event in the first week of October is idiotic too. Right in the middle of autumn road race fare
Great work at the Euro's Dean, Simon, Dachs; enjoyed the write ups. Good running at the relays also. My club (Clapham Chasers) were there, but as Reg mentioned, I was sat in my spare room on a stationary trainer for 5 hours.
Agree with Reg that this is slightly mental, but I've got the Ironman world champs in Hawaii coming up and with the weather like it was on Sunday, there's no way I'm taking a risk and crashing off at this late stage. Got to get the training in somehow!
Keep the entertainment coming. Nothing better than a race report with SG featuring any number of mishaps.
Was gonna add how mental your session was. And it is.
But then my session tomorrow is about 27laps continuous round a track so i can't talk!