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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Jools - your training is mind-boggling but the important thing is that you seem to love it. That's really all that's important, isn't it?
Bus - new profile pic? You sporting a new look or something?!
I’ve got an entry for Marathon Eryri on October 24th Bus. Really hoping I can keep up this level of training & it goes ahead because my training has been ideally suited to that event. My course PB of 3:28 should be in real danger. I might even be able to get a GFA time 😀
Absolutely Wool. I’m currently enjoying my running more than I have in years. I had become obsessed with getting a sub3 marathon after unexpectedly doing 3:02 in the Spring of 2016 after a short build up. I entered Abo for the first time that year, trained well & was in great shape. I had a cracking pair of XC races the weekend before. My attempt was scuppered by picking up a chest infection which was just clearing up: on the morning of the race I coughed up my final bit of phlegm! A week later I PBd my home Parkrun in the morning then PBd a 5M fell race in the afternoon. Spring 2017 I failed to focus my efforts & fell short again. By Spring 2018 I was in superb shape having set PBs over 5M, 10M, HM & 20M but the heat at VLM destroyed me. 2019 was the wind at Brighton & various life stresses getting on top of me. It’s been a catalogue of broken dreams so it was time for a change. IIRC my plans for 2020 were to race less & return to the hills. Job done 😎
Obvs as my GSR of 2018 shows you can be scuppered by weather or what have you if you go all in for one race! Best to pick 3-4 key ones.
Wool - I'm just no fan of virtual runs and such like. But i can see why they get people interested and keep them involved. Especially those who rely on the social and group running.
They should stick to simple "post xx distance between xx date and yy date though. Gets too silly otherwise.
Jools - if you did Eryri in a couple of months you'd smash it, so the trick will be a bit of periodisation and maintaining the current form - good luck!
SG, have you thought of mixing things up a little at the moment with some off-road while you have the chance to experiment? There are some great routes from your place.
Did that annoying thing of stopping the watch at ten then noticing it was still running. 8secs so not much odds.
By time i get out its lunchtime and can be warm, so hills are enough as they are without off-road. However this furlough might be months so plenty of time!
My route today was pretty close to the reverse to yesterday's one.
Meaning, it must be the first time, that I can remember at least (!), that I've run down that Wooburn Park hill since last racing there.
I instantly rememebered that "when is this gonna start going downwards" as the first bit it flat for however long, and then it's a right old down, and with limited vision round bends.
And it really was a zoom of faith at the end of that race, as you'd whip up quite a bit of speed, and be hoping the marshals had stopped some clown racing up there in some big car
Gonna do a few little training course things which will fill the odd day or 2 here, but at least that'll get me back into the get up early and get the run done early mentality I've obviously done for years at work, but are now totally out of the habit of!
ps Bus, there shouldn't be any pressure on pace outside of quality runs, but I know what you mean. You (the collective, not you individually!) get "used to" certain paces on the road, which probably makes you slightly overreach at times.
Jools - I thought I'd posted this earlier, but nice to see your continuing with the flatter routes
Off out myself in a mo and may do something a bit shorter tonight
That's interesting, as I always found there was no prospect of overtaking anyone for half a mile down there, as they were going ferociously like you were yourself!
I do enjoy the memory of one "county champion" thinking he'd just turn up to win, and some absolute machine throbbing something like 32-33mins off on that course
And a local pal, a youngster at time telling me how he would "come 1st or 2nd, depending on how (his mate) ran".
Then rocking in about 8th
That taught him a lesson in racing, that any assumptions are dangerous, and you never know what paces people are capable of around you.
Certainly a humbling sport.
I've not really had those sort of upsets, but I remember when I first tried doubles. Just 4miles morning and evening, for 4 days in a row, about 2006. It shattered me to such an extent that even with 2 days rest I was battered, and only beat a mate I normally beat by 2mins by 5 seconds! The next weekend we did another 5miler and the usual margin was back.
That or the infamous 3rd home in a 30 field parkrun - the only instance in literally 60 consecutive weeks where my time wouldn't have won comfortably
Jools - sounds hilly, one day I'll geta gadget and see how much of a climb my local hill is.
10m here today.
I thought that about the hill too - my little legs were going furiously, but Sam's even littler legs were going even more furiously
Anyway, 9 more hilly miles tonight. Pretty slow, but my legs are feeling pretty mashed after 4 weeks of nothing but longish hilly runs! The old sciatica was playing up a bit too.
Bit of Social Distance rage tonight too! Most people were fine and a cheery hello, wave and thanks goes I long way. I also gave way and/or took the long route round on plenty of occasions, but toward the end coming up a long hill that is a bit narrow (where I used to never see anyone!) I stopped once, a couple moved off the path and then I came up behind a guy walking alone. I shouted a cheery hello. Nothing. I shouted a loud, but still cheery good evening and he turned round, gave me a dirty look then carried on, walking past a fairly obvious place he could easily have stepped to one side, maintaining his position toward the middle of the path. "Don't bother then" was as witty a retort I could manage at the point I passed him, but what a plum!
NowI don't expect people to give way just because I'm running, but in that scenario I would either have had to stop and walk slowly behind him for about ten minutes, or reverse, overtake all the people who'd had cheerfully gone by, and add 2 miles and 300 feet of climbing to my run, whereas all he had to do was stop for maybe 2 seconds, step into a hand gap in the bushes and smile as I went past! I ask ya!
No dwarves involved though....
Shouting at the occasional fool amongst 100s of decent people is what keeps you feeling alive 👍💃
I had the same issue when I ran the midsummer Munro HM too. My quads really just can’t take the mashing on the descents.
Maybe when I retire to the hills I’ll get better but by then I’ll have (even older) age against me!!
Which hills would you retire to?
Any Adidas experts on here?
I used to love the Adizero Adios 2, but they were discontinued, and then seemingly replaced with Bostons, and something else, with neither the equivalent.
I moved over to Brooks Hyperions which are probably the lightest out there of racers and they're decent for B races and training, but just noticed there's now
Adios 5 and also Adios RC
https://www.adidas.co.uk/adizero-adios-5-shoes/EH3127.html
Presumably the Adios 5 is the upgrade to the old Adios 2? Not sure what RC is...
While I'd probably still stick with the 4% for the big races while they still have miles on the clock, a solid pair of traditional racers to support them would be good.
But I think it's all going towards the plates in competitors from here on in. But you'd probably be brave to wear a non Nike plate shoe until hearing they're similar from other users.
SG I’m an Adidas fan. Just got some Boston 8s to replace my Boston 6s which I love despite being ever so slightly small. I also have a pair of Tempo 9s & some Adios (3s?)
So we were on the course together on 2018 Jools. I did very little training and then ran a very poorly executed race to finish in 3:30:0x. I was so broken I couldn’t even muster an effort to go sub 3:30. Probably something to do with going to halfway in ~90 mins 🤦♂️. I realised I was in trouble as early as 6 miles. Probably a great event but I ruined it with my own dreadful approach!
Bus - good plan. I reckon we all get to reset things at V50 though. That’s at least what I’m planning.
Keep the dream alive Wool, but even on your colossal sal you're 10 years away
Talking about colossal sals, the big boy Phil was out and about in the distance on my run today. We easily clocked each other from about 200metres away across a few roads.
My latest 10 had a 4.5or so mile warm up to Wycombe's ground, and then developed my little set of short fartleky bursts on a Friday. Not particularly aiming for track type rep pace, but aiming for a solid pace, with jog recoveries, or at least 60sec jog to 30sec walks.
So 7x2mins off 90sec.
Oddly the first 6 all dead on at 0.34m covered and 5.53 pace, and the 7th upping the ante a little for 0.35m for 5.43 average pace.
All annoying into wind.
Not going to compare to smooth unimpeded track fare off stop recoveries of course, but did what it was meant to do today.
Wool - sod the family, let's get a place in the Lakes together and retire early
Jools - that must have been painful!!!
10m more here today.
Dreadful run tonight - would have been better off not bothering! Cold, wet, fatigued legs with lots hurting and a touch of sciatica just to round things off nicely! Unsurprisingly resulted in the shortest run of done since lockdown (5.6M) and the slowest pace since the trails were a swamp!
Hey ho - it'll pass, just need some rest to recover!
Another swift 10 SG & a regulation 10 from TR.
I reversed yesterday's route to see if it was quicker/easier on the legs. It's a 2.26M loop with over 300' of climb which I ran 3 times. This way was widdershins which makes for shorter, steeper climbs, so the descents are longer & more forgiving. Average pace was 7s quicker for identical HR, climbing pace was 10s/mile slower but I climbed for only 48% rather than 51% of the time. There is also a grassy stretch on the descent this way round which would've been good yesterday but I didn't fancy it in today's rainy conditions. Especially as the Boston 6s I'm wearing have now done 1170M! Be interesting to see if 2 lighter days result in a faster 5K time for tomorrow's Freedom Parkrun.
We could have our version of Brokeback Mountain with BusWool Lake.
Or maybe not!
Bus - these crippling hilly ones you do might be your favourite, but they always seem to lead you to the pains
Do smooth road runs take that off a bit, or is it just something that comes and goes, and will always be that way?
1170miles Jools! Whoa. I tend to wear until about 700 these days, and I'm pushing my luck with these Hyperions that are battered and have about 560 on them.
Keep telling myself I'll finally commit to a new racer soon, but the local running shop geezer was gonna get back to me..is my excuse!
Also, is ordering non essential stuff on line ok right now? Probably ok?
You are probably right about the hills, though speedwork tends to set off the sciatica as well, so more about just recognising when it's time to stop for a bit (something I am historically not so good at!).
Jools - very impressive distance and climbing continues despite being "lighter" days! (how are you not yet just needing to lie down???), but I'm definitely with SG on the miles you've squeezed out of those Bostons!!!
Look after yourself Bus. No need to get injured in this period, a bit of time on the bike might not be a bad thing? Actually, that’d be good advice to myself, I’m taking a running rest day each week and my mileage is fairly modest (~50) but I’ve not had a cutback week since I returned from injury in early Feb.
17 here, 71 off my 6 running days this week.
I’ve had 4 days ‘off’ in the last 9 weeks averaging 71M/wk but took a bit of time to get going properly this year with a dozen days off in the first 6.7 weeks & only averaged 7.5M per day or 53M/wk.
The last 2 days route choice came about after a suggestion from one of my clubmates (ultra-runner & XC stalwart) about doing our own version of the Quarantine Backyard Ultra: https://personalpeak.ca/quarantinebackyard/. He suggested doing 2 laps of just over 2M apiece with min 300' of elevation every hour so I looked for the simplest road loop from mine & made this: https://www.strava.com/routes/25548160 I did it this way Thursday & then anticlockwise yesterday.
Today we had a house parkrun handicap. My friend (& landlady) set off first whilst I did a K wu with her 2 grown-up sons. I left them at the start & they then set off about a minute apart whilst I did another 2K wu before attempting to chase them down. They were faster than anticipated & whilst I was quicker than I have been recently I was still about a K behind them when they finished - all within a couple of minutes of each other. I did another 2.3K cooldown for a 6.5M day. My Lockdown Parkrun time was 20:45 & a great morning was had by all.