Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The Bus said:
    The one that hits right on the ten mile mark can hurt if you are trying to get to ten in a good time mind (especially if at that exact moment you start to retch and get Richard Whitehead come storming past on his blades being cheered on by the crowd who are clearly thinking you must be an absolute loser and you find yourself thinking very unfair and uncalled for thoughts about how those blades must make you faster and why were you cursed with having real legs? - ahem!!!!).
    Just :D

    I've seen the big man there twice.

    Once disappearing into the sunset, and once at the side of the road, discombobulated in a hedge.

    Those blades have such a wide range he's a right old menace on that narrow start line!

    Did we ever mention that hi-vis guy who started on the front line every year?

    Or the time they bungled the splits, and added on what they should have been taking off?

    ;)
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Hi-viz guy? No, don't believe you've ever mentioned him or those splits :p

    And yes - parking space would likely be lost as I suspect the road would be closed (unless I get there REALLY early!
  • Matthew HeadMatthew Head ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019
    Crikey, leave the thread for 5 minutes and there's heaps to catch up on.

    Tidy tempo SG, battling the wind will help for race day. Great fartlek SW, very promising. Good to see the speedwork coming back in Bus!


    After the 800m reps at the weekend, and the long run, I was feeling a little run down on Monday and unsure whether or not to go ahead with the race. Yesterday's run felt okay, and less of a raspy throat, and today was better again, so thought I'd go for it.

    Having looked at previous results, I'd be kidding myself to enter into Heat 1, with times all sub-11. My coach said that I'd have a much better experience sticking with the pack in Heat 2, and pushing late, than getting dropped in Heat 1. Unsure of results, but I think Heat 1 was won in around 9mins.
    There were 29 of us in Heat 2, but that included anyone racing sub-5min/km. I wasn't sure about the front end, as I didn't really recognise anyone that I could group with. So just had to wing it.
    Head out at the gun, feeling smooth, and around 10th place - keep telling myself not to chase, just stay where I am. Through 400m in 84s, and I think that's fine. I'm up into 6th place by 1km which is 3:33. Keep holding this rhythm and I'm at 4th by 2km, which is a 3:35. Two of the three are just ahead, and 1st must be 200m away. I take 3rd with 800m to go, and then 2nd with 400m to go. Not sure about the timing, but I think I put in a ~70s last lap, to close with a 3:16 km, finishing 2nd in the heat with a time of ~10:25! 

    Massively beat my expectations, originally thinking ~11mins, and actually really enjoyed it. I probably could have picked up the pace sooner, but I wanted to be cautious due to my lack of experience! Time to find some more track races...

    No parking problems either - I got the train to (and currently from), as there was a station right next to the track!
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Disappointed not to hear about parking issues, but a cracking result and well run to make up for that Matt :)
  • SBD.SBD. ✭✭✭
    Stevie G said:
    Also, having done 1 half marathon in over 4 years (!), for some reason I'm looking at a few,

    Reading offer a "VIP package", which looks steep at £70, but when you actually drill down, it's not actually too bad.

    Take the normal affiliated entry, which is now £38

    That leaves £32, which covers

    • Parking  (£11 in the official carparks - and I'd never leave the car on the route like Reggie does :D )
    • Massage after
    • Use of a box close to the start
    • Refreshments/ area to loiter after
    • T Shirt gubbins
    • Free race pic
    Probably not a bad deal actually.

    VIP package - you're going soft Stevie!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    SBD. said:q
    Stevie G said:
    Also, having done 1 half marathon in over 4 years (!), for some reason I'm looking at a few,

    Reading offer a "VIP package", which looks steep at £70, but when you actually drill down, it's not actually too bad.

    Take the normal affiliated entry, which is now £38

    That leaves £32, which covers

    • Parking  (£11 in the official carparks - and I'd never leave the car on the route like Reggie does :D )
    • Massage after
    • Use of a box close to the start
    • Refreshments/ area to loiter after
    • T Shirt gubbins
    • Free race pic
    Probably not a bad deal actually.

    VIP package - you're going soft Stevie!
    Yeah in fairness, I'm way too tightwad to be laundering a 70 clam outlay out anyway!


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Ps just seen there is now a little "f" for posting to Facebook from.

    Seems strange to see an upgrade as this forum seems to have been fairly neglected for years.
  • Well done Matthew, always good to be in front of yourself, if you see what I mean...

    So I mentioned earlier I’d booked into a proper 5k ... but the logistics of being fresh for it were tricky with the marathon campaign and weekend plans. Well weekend plans went out the window on Monday evening as the girlfriend abruptly knocked it all on the head. Cue two nights of really shitty broken hearted sleep. In marathon terms however the week started off well with a cross train/run double then11+ miles and a weights session the day before the race.

    Jogged to the race HQ and picked up my number, feeling shattered but enjoyed banter with the lady handing out the numbers. Plenty more fish in the sea etc. Then the luxury of the race being local and in the evening - almost half an hour to warmup. None of this bleary eyed crack of dawn motorway/get lost/parking scramble to the start nonsense. Just bleary eyed fuck my life nonsense today.

    The much needed warmup gets me 3.5m up on the clock as I try to figure out the route around the park. One small lap, three big ones. Slight slope through the park but nothing especially rhythm breaking in terms of sharp gradients. 

    I can see there’s a pretty full roster of the city’s top runners assembling at the start. Race numbers are in predicted time order so I’m wearing 28 with a 17.15 prediction...it’s going to be a fast field alright. Into the start pen and we’re off. The time order has not been respected in the pen and it’s a frustratingly slow start for me in the congestion as I see runners at my level make a clean getaway. After about 800m I find space and can start to work through to catch up with them. Small lap and a first km is completed. Pass a lad that took 5 minutes out of me at last week’s cross country 5 miler, then two more from that race in the second and third km, now chasing a guy that beat me by 20 seconds last Saturday at parkrun. Blimey 5ks are hard work, but I’m surprised to find my legs are still in the game. I’m closing slowly on him until the final 800m where he gets away, perked up by the sight of the finish, whereas I can barely scrape myself over the line with no kick to speak of. 16.54 official time (so a pb!),1st v45, and 17th overall.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Nice one muds. Saw the strava bit come through but also the commentary so wasn't sure!

    Nice to remove any doubt of disto from the last race and bank that pb for certain and now you can concentrate on the main marathon focus.
  • Simon Coombes 2Simon Coombes 2 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    Nice one Muddy - get any decent prize - or was it just a small ish race? Shame about the G/F knocking it on the head, they're all mad as balloons mate, mainly how they suddenly just change. The missus is the only girl I've been out with for over a year (now married 13 years)...suppose she must be the mad one?

    SG - Might do a half this winter, but definitely not Reading - didn't think the course was up to much, especially how they made it out to be really flat, whereas there's that bastard hill on 8/9 miles. Fair enough, the last 3 miles are decent. Cardiff was loads better I thought all round.

    MH - Great PB - I've just had a look on Power of 10, definitely need to be in the first race next time. that's Watford levels in your race, seems popular..is that 'Par' for the course? (I'm here all week ;) )

  • Cheers, Stevie, Simon bit more to come with freshness too. Maybe will do another one in the marathon taper.  It was a smallish race Simon, with 150 limit, so a smallish prize will be in the post as they couldn't work out the prizes on the night. Maybe I can cheer myself up buying some balloons with it :D
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Cracking result that muddy - nice one 😁
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    No-one else notice this little "f" fb thing then?
    Why would anyone want to link a post to fb!


    10miles today, 3miles warmup, 7miles steady.

    Originally planned it 2.5-7.5, but the route has a hill out, so I thought it'd be a pointless world of pain to start the steady on a 0.5m climb!
    You get a nice 80ft hill in around the first mile on the steady, and a slight downhill bias over the other 6, but that's ok.

    Very consistent 6.32-6.35 for 6 of the 7, and then a slight ramp to 6.27 last mile.

    Decent and gets the mileage to 53.5 so far.
    Will do a short pootle later, and probs a 14 Sunday and we're in peak mileage territory.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Good to see you looking fwd to a 10 or 1/2 SG. There are some decent choices around for 1/2s. Maybe target 2 with a few weeks between them  so you dont feel as much race day pressure.

    Im building for Abingdon now, and joined some of you with a longer tempo yday. 2m easy, then 10 av 6.38 which will hopefully be around mp come Abingdon.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019
    Nice one TR. I always get a strange sort of lift when I see your name as most recent poster - I think it's because I associate you with the south coast, and I associate the south coast with fast races and good memories! (even GSR last year I enjoyed the spectacle of the event, if not how it panned out!)

    I'm going through one of my "anti-social - locked into racing well" spells at the moment, where I'm trying to weigh up not packing the club side in for the rest of the year (perfect timing when being bandied around as as ajoint men's captain I know :D )

    However, in the past, this sort of tunnel vision has led to the better results, even post 2015 - I remember Marlow and Hatfield 5m coming out well, Wokingham 2018 as well etc
    Just need as you correctly point out, not overly fixate on one race.
    If possible - the perfect ticket would be to have good spells building to racing well in the spring and autumn, while in the summer months - although still trying to nail a couple of good short distance times, have the good fun of relays, trips and stack of short races in quick succession like the last couple of years,
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019
    SG - good that you associate south coast with fast racing, as there are plenty of winday race days to be had down here, so you have probably been lucky weather wise. I copped a windy IoW 1/2 last sunday (plus trails and plenty of hills).

    Targetting a couple of 1/2s would spread the focus. Re the race day pressure, its mostly all self imposed, i felt a bit of self imposed sub3 pressure before Brighton (and the wind certainly ruined that day). But its worth remembering that, the only person that ultimately really cares about my or your race result, is me or you, although folks on here do take pleasure in seeng others go well. Which is what the forums are about esp for non clubbers like me.

    23 sweaty miles for me this morning.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I think when you're really going well you "know" you'll race well rather than hope. Plus you don't let weather and the excuse locker kick in as much. To a point any way.

    Those victory 5s always suffered a windy run in back to the mount batten centre that was a real dig in.

    Same with gsr in 2012. I remember being on course to beat my cp time from the prevo weekend but ended up 18secs behind. That's a fair swing over two miles.

    Similarly wokey half pb that was a pretty wet and.windy one.

    I can even remember being disappointed the wind "limited" me to a 3550ish southend 10k once 😄😄.

    I think moz said it well. And looking back he was such a guru on everything he said!
    " the only pressure is to race your balls off". And only analyse it after the event!

    Ps the co who do some of the gosport races organise the 
    Victory 5 now. I asked them about a move to the old route and they don't know. An odd arrangement where the club sort that. But nice work are who organise the rest?

    Seems the new venue works better for parking. I can believe that with a real stressy park there in about 2013 before it became stock report material!!


    Ps good work on the 23.
    Sat off for me.


    Feeling decent after upping miles but have one of those slight muscle aches. Like when you sleep funny.
    Vaguely chesty to the top right.fine when i move. An a arse to stand up from at times and can feel at certain angles lookingnone way. Odd. Dare say like everything its a slight tight muscle in the chain somewhere!
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019
    I agree with the expecting to do well rather than hope, it makes a big difference.

    No idea on Victory 5, my aims are Abo and then Gosport if i bounce back ok.

    Its easy to lose 1 min/mile on a windy day down here. Sometimes you dont realise how bad its got until you finish too. Brighton mara this year was very much like that.
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Quiet on here today?
    Nice 23 TR - impressively long in this warm spell!
    Wycombe parkrun for me yesterday and happy enough with 19:21 after weeks of no speed work, especially as my legs are still feeling heavy from Scotland. All of which meant today's LSR was very big on the "S"! 14.8 shuffled miles making my biggest week (57M) since Feb 2016!!!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    After feeling it yesterday, I still woke up with this hard to explain sort of tight ache.

    Only way to describe it is it's like when you lie on your neck and have that feel, but elsewhere,  seemingly in between top right chest, inner bit, shoulder type bit.


    Still managed a 14, with just a 40sec stop at 2 1/2miles or so where it temporarily felt like an intense stitch in that region - but surprisingly allowed me to run the rest fine, and actually in fastest pace on a longun for ages 7.08, with last 4 the quickest 4 miles.

    Bizarre. Getting up is the trickiest thing, and at times looking one direction and feeling it ache across another.

    Isn't like the rib breathing thing from years back, or even like the time I put my back out post Wokingham for a week.

    Closest thing I can remember is about 4-5 years ago, feeling utterly tight across the whole body and trying to play in a work footy game. I could literally barely move - which surprisingly no one questioned why the "running man" wasn't running. That day it was much worse - arms, hands everything ached!


    Hope it's a slight muscular thing that disappears soon!

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Sounds like a weird muscle strain SG. Anything to set it off?
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Not that I'm aware of. Highest mileage for a while of course, but only a MP and Steady long run for quality, so not even some "Violent" pace running :D

    Occasionally have felt a little tight bit upper chest, so maybe just a more prominent version of that.

    Hopefully a lovely sleep and ibuprofen, single run, then same again and we're back on track!

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    You might have just slept in an odd way without realising it and strained a muscle - I do that sort of thing every now and again!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The power of a long sleep and a few pills. Could barely feel anything. Result!

    That did mean i ran in the mid day sun through. Fairly tough especially late on.

    But 8.5 done.

    I'll double check the forecast later (i do this now...welcome to middle age?) but it looks hot tomorrow and reasonable wed..
    If that is the case i may well delay the continuous threshold job til Wed.
  • Hope everyone had a good weekend - just a quick one before work, did Poole Parkrun, properly for a change and came in 3rd with 16.16. Was hoping for a little quicker, but the endurance again just coast me a little in the last 1.5k. The first two were two BAC guys, Jack C was first and they both did about 15.40..I knew I they would do about that so I was trying to stay the requisite distance behind, but they slipped away in the last k.

    Sunday, one of those post hard race long runs in the sun from my folks house in Poole up to Moors Valley where the kid was doing his junior PR. One of those runs, had to stop in Spoons for a dump, very warm too, pretty knackered when I got there, about 11.5 miles or so.

  • Afternoon all - quiet on here over the bank holiday weekend. Interesting to see the new Wokingham route, although like others have said, don't think it'll make much difference to times. Not sure if I'll be there this year or not.

    Sounds like good going in the hot weather Simon - always nice to have a couple of rabbits up the road as well. 

    Not posted much recently, things not going too well, in and out of the doctors trying to get to the bottom of why I've been feeling so crap the last few months. No conclusive results yet, but the last few days things seem to be picking up and motivation is slowly coming back, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

    Anyway, had a little adventure at the weekend which I thought worthy of sharing. Scheduled a weekend away for the better half's birthday - to Bruges. Plan was to take in a parkrun before getting the ferry from Dover across to Dunkirk.

    She's been monstering the training and wanted a crack at a fairly longstanding PB (18:50), so Deal parkrun looked just the ticket - flat, fast course on the coast. We turned up with plenty of time for a decent warm-up (8:20am), to find that it had been called off, due to travellers camped out on the course!

    Cue a crisis management meeting, with the nearby Pegwell Bay ruled out on the grounds that it's despicably short (about 2.95 miles) and she wouldn't be able to live with such a time next to her name. Very honourable. 

    Google maps told us that Margate could be reached with an 8:55 arrival, so it was me in the driving seat, engaging my inner Lewis Hamilton and swearing at any tractor or large vehicle that dared to get in our way. 

    We turned up at the start at 8:50, me having bought us a valuable 5 minutes, and I parked while she started a warm up, despite claiming that her 'head had completely gone'. Probably fair, but told her to give it a nudge anyway. 

    I barely had time for a 4 minute jog before we were under starters orders. Idea was for me to be pacing her, which is just about still achievable, but maybe not for much longer. 

    We headed out along the coast, which annoyingly, was anything but flat, with it being more of a cliff-top run, than a flat prom. Absolute maniac pace saw a 5:40 first mile, before the undulations halted any further forward progress. Then we were directed over some grassy fields, at which point I'm thinking 'Christ, no chance of a decent time here'. 

    She kept her head admirably, as I 'gently encouraged' as much effort out of her as I could. Frustratingly, as well as being lumpy, the course is well known to be long! 3.2 miles most read it as, and the volunteer team even told us at the end it's always been long - no idea why they don't change it!

    Anyway, stopped the clock at 19:11, which happened to be a 1 second course record for Katie, which had stood for over 3 years. Got us going through 5km in around 18:40, so just need to find a flat track and a legit course and she'll deffo go sub 18:30.

    Had a cracking time in Bruges. Lots of beer, ribs, waffles and chocolate. Also managed to schedule in a 100 mile bike ride that saw us go from Belgium to the Netherlands to France and back, which was brilliant fun.

    I'll be at the Maidenhead half this weekend, but again just playing the role of bag carrier/support crew. Let me know if anyone is there to look out for.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019
    Simon - i rolled in time to save you from your usual thread killing - but the Joe man had saved you!
    Disgustingly casual low 16 there!

    Joe -welcome back - and envious of Bruges after a day trip gone disastrously wrong a few years ago - long story short - coach broke down at Folkestone - just after we'd been abused by the whole coach for being "late back" to the non specified meet back up time :D

    I still remember that sinking feeling of wandering back to the coach, and seeing a whole bunch gesticulating at us!
    "You've made us miss our slot"

    And then the sort of relief, but actually massive disaster that the fan breaking down had ruined the whole thing!

    How did you know that parkrun was short? Done it before?
    I bet sh!ttones around the country are, I often see people reporting 3.04m and suchlike for their parkruns on strava!

    Guy from my club has these couple of ludicrously out of sync 16.30s on his profile. The clue is that the other parkrun he has a similar time from has "SHORT" written next to it :D 
    That and never getting within a million miles of it ever since.



    Popped on to ask people if they have any idea about wind readings..

    Last week at Dorney Lake I found it pretty windy one direction, and looking up some tracker it was 8mph
    Looking at the Beaufort (?) scale that still classifies as "gentle breeze"

    Didn't feel gentle!

    Is there some cleverer science I'm missing where it may have been 8 officially, but was actually more because of some other factor?!

    Looks to be 5mph so will probably head down there and smash another 6m job out. Was not going to risk that today...
    a "mere" 17 tomorrow, but would have been early to mid 20s for sure this morn.
    Is down to 13 later in the week, but can't mess the latter week sesh up.

  • StevieWhStevieWh ✭✭✭
    SG - The main wind reading is the 'constant' wind speed and there will be gusts at a higher speed then that which you will notice! Also the weather equipment tends to be quite sheltered so can report lower.

    Joe - Looked an epic trip and hopefully you get some answers soon, Bruges is definitely on the list for me.

    Simon - Great parkrun time!

    Easy week for me with Kenilworth Half on sunday. Did 20m on Saturday with what was supposed to be 3 x 4m at 6.35-6.20 pace. Didn't hit any of those paces and the last section I couldn't even get below 7mm. Was out by 6.30am though which is not normal for me so that may have effected it. Anyway 20m at 7.30s is a decent effort in the bag.
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    You also need to take into account atmospheric pressure - sometimes you are just trying to move through more air! As drag is proportional to the square of speed (both yours and the wind speed) a 10mph tempo into an 8mph wind will feel a LOT more difficult than a 7 mph easy run into a 6mph wind....

    Very nice parkrun Simon!

    How can a half plus a 20 mielr be an easy week SW :-)

    Good work for the OH in the parkrun Joe. Glad you are starting to feel a better and more motivated. That 100M rampaging through northern Europe sounds epic!  

    Bruges is a lovely city. the straffe hendrik trippel is particularly nice too!

    Nice sweaty one to look forward to now!

  • StevieWhStevieWh ✭✭✭
    The week starts on Monday Bus!  ;) yes 8 days probably isn't ideal between a 20m and a half but that's marathon training!

    12 x 2mins tonight as a race week tune up. Kept it relaxed and all around 6-6.05 pace 
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