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
In what I thought was a stroke of luck, the tyre punctured in a car park directly opposite a garage this morning.
A connection perhaps?
🙂
Great tempo Simon
the indoor track was closed this weekend so couldn't get on to do my session so did a 10*45 sec hills had to do it on the road as pavement was too icy...followed by a 20 min tempo. Pace was 5.20 ave but was treadmill so a bit easier than on the road. Nethertheless, rather hard work and was a touch knackered after.
An hour in the gym followed by 10K on the TM after work for me yesterday.
Rather than a boring recovery run I did 2K wu at 8s then 2 lots of 2K as 400m MP/400m LT/400m 5K/400m LT/400m MP with 2K at 7:30s between & as cd. MP=6:50, LT=6:25, 5K=6 Really enjoyed it as a session & got off feeling like I could easily have done at least another set of efforts.
Saturday = parkrun. A carful of us took a drive up to Stafford for the relatively new Isabel Trail. We'd faffed so much in the rendezvous & en route that there wasn't time for a warm-up so had to make do with about 600m including a couple of half-arsed attempts at strides. The route is out & back along an almost totally flat tarmac cycle path. I went out hard but was still in about 12th from the start. Reeled a few in within the first half mile then ran neck & neck with another guy for the next 800m but knew he wasn't going to be able to stay with the pace as he was breathing far too hard. After about a mile he dropped back & I continued to make gains on the next group of 3. Coming up to the turn though one of the group slowed & so I slotted in behind him rather than risk a collision on the tight turn round the cone only to discover he was headed straight on as he just happened to be out for his morning run
Reg you joker.
Our chairman issued a pic of a bit of tomorrow's course saying that there's meant to be a path through there somewhere. Instead it was a frozen heavy iced up heavy snowed mass amongst brambly bushes. Would not have been fun, and would make those ludicrous gates at the last one seem easy to navigate.
Jools, even better, racing some guy who...isn't racing! Was he going pretty fast then, or you just thought you were gaining on someone
Our league is MT, not XC as such, bar the Reading one. If our courses were just grass with soft snow over, the course would be comfy.
It's the mix of ice on rock hard trail that is the main problem. Then adding in the carparks and the roads near it that all add up. That and asking marshals to hang about for hours before and during.
Over the years since 2006, I can remember Tadley having to be re-routed once, so that the frozen water jumps had time to thaw (they then realised the course worked much better that way round anyway, with no bottlenecks), and one in about 2006-2008 where it was almost lethal, heavy iced up puddles, that you could easily crack an ankle on if not careful.
A few weeks ago I had vaguely thought about Chichester 10k tomorrow. Even though the course has changed from the one I did twice somewhere between 2012-14.
So glad I didn't enter, as driving 70miles to skid around on a course would not be great.
The other thing was a psoas muscle issue. A few twinges in a leg caused by something in my lower back clued me in on that one.
It's apparently the only muscle connected from one's back to your legs. A week of stretching and strengthening has pretty well sorted it.
🙂
Nice parkrunning Jooligan. Bloody other runners though eh?!
SG - I did the pretty much the same distance as you today (15.2M) mine took me half hour longer though
It got me thinking about the difference with miles off road though- lots of hills, plenty of ice and deep, frozen snow makes for slow progress (not that I'd have been as quick as you on the road mind!). On a relative benign road route I'd have expected to cover around 19 miles in the same time, but I wonder if I could actually do a 19 miler at the moment relatively comfortably?
Sodding injury there Reg. Hopefully it's another un-sticking job.
Running surfaces? What's best? Depends on what your idea of heaven is I suppose.
Comparisons.
Here's an example from the Bus.
And here's one which is more to SG's liking.
🙂
22M of snowy, icy, hilly forest fire trails today. Nothing speedy about it but good time on feet. Absolutely stunning morning for running. Legs feel a bit more battered than usual due to racing parkrun (& doing the cd) in flats yesterday then running in roc-lites today which have zero cushioning. Good job it's run-free Monday tomorrow
Hope the psoas is good now Ric.
Good long runnin' Jooligan, Bus and SG!
Newquay 10k this morning, after a cut-down week - it wasn't what I intended, as I had planned either a session in the week or moving my long run, but I have been feeling run down and congested this week (get the excuses in early, SG-style
The only flat and fast 10k down here, it only has 75m of elevation in two hills, it's ever popular! Not really sure how it would pan out, as I was feeling snuffly prior, with my nose running like a tap during the warm up. Thankfully the sun was out and it warmed a few degrees before the race was underway.
First mile is down from Newquay sports centre, and flat under the viaduct and past the boating lake, so naturally is fast, coming in at 6:10. The second mile sees us along part of the A392 and up a lane towards Crantock, this is the first hill of about 40m and is gritty underfoot and suprisingly steep in parts, this mile is naturally slower at 6:46. The next mile is a shallow upward gradient, past some farms and a little solar panel installment, and forms part of a loop of the course. To be honest, I shouldn't have let the pace slip quite so much on this mile, with a 6:41. The fourth mile continues on the lanes, past a caravan park, but now we're headed on a slight down gradient and comes through as 6:23. We now go back down the climb of the second mile and back into Newquay on the A392, but by this point my legs are starting to feel a bit deadened, so despite the nice downhill section I only manage 6:27. It's a case now of trying to pick it back up if possible, as a teammate comes alongside and then just ahead of me - back past the boating lake and under the viaduct this mile is largely flat but starts to kick up at the end, giving a 6:48. We now head up the hill from which we came down at the start, but also another 200 or so metres up as little sting in the tail. I manage to come past my teammate on the hill, and try to put an effort in for the finish.
By my watch, I cross the line in 40:38 - closer to 40 than I expected I would manage! A better result than Storm Force the other week, but shows I've some work to do with sessions in order to bring the times down.
In hindsight, I probably could have worked harder in the last two miles, but I couldn't bring myself to dig deep. Perhaps because there's not much to gain by going to the well during the rebuild?
Bad news Reg. Hopefully just a light case of your body asking what's all this mileage then! Take it easy though, the Wokingham big meet up is a mere 3 weeks away! (and from here it'll whizz away I'm certain!) Let's hope any snow/freezing cold stuff has gone by that weekend!
Matt you cheekster, excuses after is my way, being "modest" before hand...get it right
Fair playing for fancying racing today!
Decent marker in the sand. I know for sure you have some big potential in there. I still remember that sub 29 5miler!
First time I can remember that I've worn 3 layers for a Sunday run.
I expect the occasional short snow lunchtime run I might have chucked a hoodie on over 2 layers, but it felt super cold today.
Bus - today's 15 actually had more offroad then I ever put in.
Luckily wasn't quite as bad as the prospect of doing tonnes of laps of the 2 local parks though.
XC shoes on job though, and up the trail way to Holtspur, through to Beaconsfield and a little beyond and back.
Was going to have a lap round whatever the Holtspur park is called, but it was all locked up, and climbing the fence seemed unnecessary as was following the random footpath!
Just before this bit, which was just over half way I remember feeling utterly frozen, quite strangely so far into the run, and even more strangely it went back to nice body temp quite soon after.
Back down the trail route, past some geezer photographing the scene, then looked at this long dip and hard ploughed field, and thought, I'll have a lap of this.
That was the hardest mile of the run, especially the climb back up. I think you and me had a bit of a run on this one years back Bus, followed by a bit of a fence leap!!
Could feel the glute working hard on one bit!
Then back to Kingsmead park, 3 laps of that in the end, which ironically, for me thinking parks were the "safest" running area, had the dodgiest icy paths bit, and home about 50metres past 15.
7.15 surprisingly the average. Decent lick with some of the snow and offroad bits.
Going all right, 63.5mile week, with a 5mile tempo, 10.5 and 15miler in there. No second session, but hey, something has to give in this weather!
Although not sure how many hotties are about 7-9am on Sunday morns!
Probably shunning anything remotely sociable and being more concerned racing the fast lads in training are the rookie mistakes on that score too.
3 week taper for a half marathon? Or was there a different target?
For me, it was mostly like this: 13 miles across the Chilterns, firm snow underfoot.
Impressive LSR Jools!
Good work Matt - solid 10k
SG - I stand corrected, and that's an impressive pace over mixed terrain.
I think I'll be ok at 8am or so on a sunday 😇
Philip - Christmas Common looking very Christmassy??
Yes, it was, but it was a bit further south where I got the quintessential Christmas card shot.
Bloody wet this morning, glad I'm not out till lunchtime.
The time I had my epic 19miler, getting ridiculously lost on a 13miler, I actually had a phone, but found running speed so slow, it didn't help even though I had a map app up!
Will never forget that feeling of emerging back where I'd been 40mins earlier!
Often enough I might need at least one of these items. The other day I was out when a young women stopped me and asked if I had a sticking plaster? She was bleeding after being bitten by her own dog
Well, funny you should ask
Not often one has a chance to appear to be clever. However, my missus mentioned that most women carry such things in a handbag, so nothing special.
And no. I wasn't carrying a handbag.
Weather seems a bit crap for a first run in a week so I'll leave it until tomorrow.
🙂
Matt - sounds like a good outing in Newquay, nice work.
Hope the injury clears up sharpish Reg - no need to rush back too quickly, you're in good shape.
We went down to the Kent coast for the weekend, to lock ourselves in a beach house, drink and watch the rugby. Took in Maidstone parkrun en route - funny little course, very narrow towpath with some mud and puddles, and one rather large bridge which you have to zig-zag to the top of before coming back on yourself.
Fancied a 'tempo' effort rather than full gas. Some Vegan runner sprung off the front which left me in 2nd, closely followed by a guy in a hoody. Christ. Although to be fair, he was probably thinking the same about my flatcap.
We got to halfway, with 6mm feeling more comfortable than it has in quite a while, which was encouraging. I fancied my chances with his breathing sounding pretty laboured. That was until we hit the last mile and he decided to start trying, and dropped a 5:30 mile which saw him put 30 seconds into me! 18:26 was decent enough for the effort level and course.
Sunday morning just an 8 feeling pretty hungover. 3 hour bike ride when I got home to make up for it. Then stayed up late to watch the Superbowl which made this mornings run commute slightly sluggish.