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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Reg - Last Adidas ones I had were the Glide Boost, which I think turned into the Solar boost or something. On my 4th pair of Hoka Hupana now - as much cushioning and loads lighter. I'm with you about the runs in Majorca - mine was just about 3 miles across a park between the runway and the sea. Everyone seemed to be finding it hard to run.
Those Hoka's are good value though. I thought they just did those Spice Girl trainers for triathletes.
Reg - i have a pair of peg 35s, you can get some Sauncony Ride Iso from sportshoes for £60 at the mo, i like them better.
Rare reps for me squeezed into a tight lunchtime today. Wanted to do 1/3 miles off 60secs and scrape under 2 mins each, but silly watch reps wouldn't do that so selected 0.35M and worked off the pace on the watch and did the maths later! I kept the number of reps down, both as I was tight on time but also as legs are quote fatigued. Guess which one was slightly uphill and into the wind (mile pace in brackets)
2:05 (5:57), 2:06 (5:59), 2:00 (5:44), 2:08 (6:06), 2:05 (5:57), 2:00 (5:43)
Happy enough with that - probably the first time my legs have gone under 6 min mile pace for a while!!!
Track tempos! There is no rep unless you count it as one
Safety, ease of knowing you can just concentrate on the session instead of watching out for dogs, idiots, vehicles etc.
Bus - good to see you back doing sessions - we need you back on board for a thread trip.
How about trying to get to that 5miler we did a couple of years ago that I actually forget the name, beginning with H, as a target?
Vehicles, hills, dogs etc describes my run routes at times.
Well done Bus, obviously managinig the niggles well.
Great to read of good runs at Maidenhead Pete, Muddy and Wool. And of course, a great result for Katie, Joe! I've read some reports of it being a bit warmer than expected for the race?
Tidy short 400s Simon, and also your racing! Shame to be pipped in both races, especially by 1s in the 3000m. Glad to hear you're heading back towards where you want to be.
SG, not sure how you have the mental resolve to do 6mi tempo on the track. In fact, all your track work boggles my mind! Please, if you ever do a marathon, do it on the track for us?
Some big miles there TR, I'm sure they'll see you in good stead for a sub-3 at Abingdon.
Nicely done on the reps session Bus! A bit of a speed injection now and again will do you good. This might be teaching grandma how to suck eggs, but I've really noticed the difference with regularly doing strides and how well my legs take up speedwork. I'd never really done them before, but was clearly missing out.
Skipped the race on Sunday, due to feeling completely knackered post-conference and the in-laws having a new puppy that cried all night when we were there for the weekend. Cue leaving for home at a reasonable time on Sunday, kipping most of the day and running in the evening feeling much better than I did first thing in the morning. A bit disappointed with myself to drop the race, but couldn't peel myself out of bed! Thought I'd scuppered myself for scoring in the Cornish GP, but turns out my scheduled race at the end of the month is all I need - if I had raced on Sunday, it would have just replaced my lowest-scoring event.
Small, relatively unassuming session planned for today - 6 x 90s off 2m30s jog. Coach prescribed 3km-5km pace, and given my pace for 3km was 5:30s, whilst feeling there was more there, I thought it would be good if I could cut into that a bit. Headed out hard, as it was pretty breezy out, to make sure I hit the pace - the route I was going out and back along was lumpy, but I think the reps ended up slightly net downhill. First 4 were sub 5:20/mi pace and closed the session with the final two at sub-5:10/mi pace, for a 5:14/mi average. Way faster than I anticipated, and that was prescribed, but pleased I managed to hold onto it. Not sure what the 'real' pace is, given there was either a strong headwind or crosswind, and the slight net downhill. In any case, a good turnover for the legs!
TR - like a lot of things - there are no rules, only options
I could imagine for a marathon dominated schedule, you could happily do well without ever going near a track.
Other runners would swear by going to the track every single week all year. I suppose there is also an angle that I pay £90 a year for the track, so making sure I get a bit more money's worth helps too
MH - probably better to bin a race then risk either a DNF or an underwhelming one.
Good turnover indeed. That's another reason the track is essential at times for the fastest stuff. It may be "controlled" and all that sort of chat - but you're still physically moving that fast, which you may well not do anywhere else, whether it be safety, or all the other gub we discussed
I swear these days we get about 2 months a year that are cool, and non humid.
I had my vest off about 2miles into my 10 today! Bucketing sweat!
I would say roll on the XC, as those are never warm or humid, but I've zero desire for those right now...and I'm trying to evade any mention of them, even though ludicrously i'm potentially in line to be a joint cap...
"Come on lads all in"
Are you going?
Erm….
ps MH, I do sometimes let my mind wander to mad events, be it my own ludicrous concoction, or stuff like the Berkley Marathons...
but a marathon on the track is a different level of madness!!
Just for 6miles you have to play a little bit of a mental game of "just" doing 4miles and "seeing" how it goes, with you and your brain both knowing you're doing the full 6
I often have to convince myself to make up the distance on the easy runs, let alone harder ones!
Every run in the week is a challenge of some sort...
Be it that Monday morning run, or the 4mile double day filler, or the tempo, or the medium long the day after the tempo - where you feel you've "done" the real work the day before.
To the track stuff, to the long run!
Availability of a track is a real thing - and from seeing the Datchet set up i'm blessed to have one I can pretty much have a solo go on.
Although obviously not many want to be on it at 730am in the morning!!!
SG - said it before, but....you should spend some time ovwr dressing for running so you get better adaptedto warmer days, probably fitness boosts to be had too. Reckon ive worn a vest 3 times this year, and it must have been hot - but i dont have to race in one, fo don't. In some of my recent warm long runs ending midday ive even treated myself to taking my cap off in the last mile. Abingdon will hopefully be loads cooler......kind of the inveres of training all winter in the cold and then copping a warm vlm day and melting.
Probably a good tip, along the lines of only get in the gear for the race itself.
But to be honest I'd struggle with that as I simply like that airy freedom
When we get back to cold and wet weather, where we wonder if we were really ever moaning about hot and humid weather, I'll be into skins and sometimes 2 layers etc... but then race in a vest whatever the weather - so I suppose I do get that effect you mention - i'd just struggle this time of year - it's the "reward" for the 6months of usual poor weather.
I do consider heat and humidity different scenarios though. The former I handle decently, the latter I find tough. Probably why in my last 2 10 mile races, despite producing near identical results, the one in heat felt a solid effort without pushing, whereas the one in humidity (and warm for being October) felt a struggle midway on.
Heat seems pretty decent to acclimatise to, whereas humidity just feels a different beast, feeling your hands sweating in next to no time and bucketing the sweat, like a glaze has taken over you.
What do you prefer for marathons?
Train in the summer, race In the potentially cooler autumn, or
train in the winter, and risk a potential hot and or humid race?
I'm not sure I'd want to be booting out 20milers in the summer, or the winter to be honest!
Rapid session there Matt. I know what you mean about strides. Mot of the time when I'm not doing any 'proper' speedwork I'll try and throw in a few fartleks or strides to keep thing going, but I do think it needs a bit of structure to get proper benefits and definitely so for lactate management. And you definitely made the right decision to bin the race by the sound of it.
SG - Hatfield 5. 24th November.....possibility, though I'd only do it if I felt there was a decent chance of a sub 30, which is a long way off at the moment!!! Still thinking of South Bucks 10k as an option though.
Bus -yes that's the one. It does clash with an xc, but I'll play it by ear. Good 10 weeks or so away for now.
Maybe a loosener is required, I know we all have expectations, benchmarks we want to hit etc, but there's always the risk of not turning out for a long while otherwise.
You've been a bit quiet hoovering up the V50 pots compared to the lower vet cats, so need to put that right
ps after tickling Ric a fair while back about his use of "tuna bagels", I can only imagine what my word count would be for "humidity", especially this last year!
Probably higher on the scale than "monstered"
I am doing Shardeloes 10k next week, which has the advantage of being local and off-road, (as well as not actually being 10k) so no pressure to beat a particular time.
On facebook's timehop, I've seen a few of my 2016 parkrun estravaganzas pop up recently - now that was a time of uncertainty, forcing turnouts at the lowest level of parkruns.
6&4 today, former done nice and leisurely about 7.28 pace or so.
Moz used to give me the Thur as a rest day, but I prefer Saturday now - and it works, as long as the Thur runs are a bit stripped back, and the Tue and Fri sessions aren't too colossal.
This'll be a third week in a row around 70 miles, so will look to use his cut back idea next week.
Session tomorrow - i'll check the old plans. I did note some early base sessions like 16x400 at 10k pace, hills, progressive mile type things. Things with a decent mileage, and just a hint of pace, while not looking to ramp up too much.
Hatfield 5 miler. http://hatfield5mile.co.uk/
Up for it? Presuming none of us have an insatiable desire for some Sandhurst action?
Mind you, I felt at least 80 during my lunch run! Legs like lead and my left hip had a sharp pain on the first downhill, whihc luckily subsided fairly quickly. That's what happens when you try to run fast the day before :-). I suspect an f-off rather than a hilly double is the way forward.....
Looking back at the 2010 first training under Moz, firstly there was a 3 week structure phase, just bedding in the mileage, doubles and what day what run would work to - as until then I'd totally done my own thing.
The base phase was 10 weeks. I guess that's why a lot of people don't really do base periods, as that's quite a long period to tie up.
In the 10 weeks, there were 8 MP/continuous Threshold runs, with the other 2 weeks being "fartlek"
All of 6.5 - 7 miles, some of the MP/con-Th runs ending at threshold rep pace.
The other session of the week in summary was 3x steady, 3x hills, and because I had a 10k race at the end of the block a session each of 16x400, 12x600 and 8x1k at 10k pace.
There was a light "basic speed" sesh on 6 of the Saturdays to support. 3x 150m (50m accelerate, 50m hard, 50m ease down), 3x"max patch" (can't even remember!), and 3x100m "fast relaxed"
Generally 3 weeks max mileage, then a cut back.
So, to relate that to where I am today, we're as follows
*Pre week - 62miles- 6m steady, 15mins diagonals
*Week1 - 71.5miles - 6m MP/Threshold, 7miles steady
*Week 2 - 70miles - 6m MP/Threshold, 7miles steady
*Week 3 - estimate -68-70m, 6m MP/Threshold , 8x300m hills tomorrow.
That would lead 5 weeks to Cabbage Patch 10miler, so the plan has to be
*Increase that MP/Threshold to 6.5-7m, and/or end harder/for longer. But potentially throwing a fartlek in to kiss the faster paces for shorter spells in a continuous run mixed with easy sections.
*Incorporate the equivalent of that "Basic speed" bit in, maybe through strides in an easy run a week
*Get 2-3 sessions in working 10mile race pace / faster paces in. Perhaps dipping into some of Johnas's sessions from last year, fused with some of the Moz sessions.
It may well be that any "peak" actually comes somewhere in the November-Feb mixer, but this block should put me in good stead.
Hopefully the three points above take care of the key aspects of booting big mileage, working the threshold zone, but still making sure there's not only enough speed in there, but linking it to the race distance in question.
What do people think?
Therefore, this morn's hill sesh was slightly harder than planned, and became 8x0.3miles with jog back.... when I finished and saw 4.8, I presumed it was km, but then wondered why less than 5k took almost 40mins
Also wondered why a rep was taking around 2mins for 300m - up a decent but not too steep hill (60 odd feet?)
With 2.5m there and back, it was a it of a tasty 10miler total in the end.
Reps tended to average at 6.36 pace, with the "GAP" strava rading equating that to 5.43 pace, so for a "steady" job rather than smashing it, that feels spot on.
I see our top lady did something like 1hr and 12 seconds for a 10mile in house job race a few days after a half marathon, so may have a pacer for CP
Good reps there Bus, hoping the twinge isn't anything, likewise on the reps MH, looking good.
Reg - Yes the Hupana are probably the least built up ones there are, pretty normal. Addnature is a good website too, worth a look.
https://www.addnature.co.uk/running.html
SG - Decent session too.
Luton track last night, inverted Pyramid with 80 secs recovery - 1,200,1,000,800,600,400,400,600, 800,1,000,1,200..
If I remember rightly they were
3.48,3.05,2.28,1.43,68,67,1.43,2.26,3.06,3.42. Well happy with that, as been trying to stick to this low sugar eating, so was a bit worried of getting low on fuel at the end.
First bike to work and back for a long time yesterday. Kind of ironic given I've now missed summer!
parkrun today squeezed in before having to film my son at rugby in Reading as part of his GCSE PE.
Happy enough with 19:15. Local face and now v55, Steve Roberts left me standing with a WAVA busting 18:38, and given he was only a few seconds in front after mile 2, he must have ran a blisteringly quick last mile.
Annual street party this afternoon so my intended 17 tomorrow may be messy;
17miler?! Sounds long unless you're planning a cheeky marathon build 😄
Simon what sugar have you cut out?
80secs sounds pretty tough for the higher bands of that pyramid.
Do you do any tempos by the way? Not sure i remember you really quoting them?
Posted a few posts ago - I'm hoping to do the Langdale Horsehoe Fell Race in early October (the one I DNS'd in the car-park in the middle of a major storm having driven 300 miles to get there last year!). I'd anticipate the race will take me around 3.5 hours, so longer than a marathon timewise, if nowhere near it in miles......
A lot of jibber jabber since. Largely from me in fairness.
Sooner you than me! If I'm driving a long way i prefer shorter races!
Chickens home to roost for me at Black parkrun. Was going ok till at 2.5k calf gave up; big jolt of sudden pain and no option but to stop and walk all the way to the finish (would be the one occasion in ages was on a 1 lapper and it happened at the furthest point). So off running for a good while again now and so many calf issues Physio advice this afto was to give up any running at speed and so any racing. She has treated me for years and says the left calf is just too weak now to stand it. Not good. Plenty to think about.
Good to see Phil there pacing and nice to have a few well meaning pr regulars encouraging me to get running again, thinking I couldn't handle the mammoth distance.