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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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So it depends on the motivation to get down there.
In fairness, there's no guarantee they'll do another one. Think they did one late last year, and then an April & May one.
The format at least seems to be 30 in an all in race. I don't think i'd be driving 90mins to a distanced race. An hour or just over is about enough for that sort of fare.
The race is called PB5k with the clue in the title, although obviously not for an old timer like me with no chance of Pb's any more. The race was split into 2 with the faster half all expecting sub 18. Race 1 made a good viewing before my race and the quality, especially at the front end, was superb. Lots running around 15 and a couple 14'xx. My race was obvs a lot lower standard, but we still got to appreciate the set up and super fast flat course. Ran 18'53 which I was pleased with as was beginning to think sub 19 days were gone. Results for the 2 races were amalgamated and overall came 210th out of just over 300. That alone shows the quality of the field. Wasn't that hard to get to as only about 15 mins from the M23 junction at Crawley. About an hour all in for me from Berks/Surrey border.
Hope they put another one on as would like to give it a go again.
Nice to see most on here going well. Reg a very impressive sprint tri there; awesome on the bike as usual. Great 5k by SG and you should be very pleased to knock about 20 secs off the previous one given the level you are already at. Bus hope you improve soon; really feel for you. Jools crazy as ever!
Have bought some new Next % 2's (not in time for my race though!). Will try and add a review of these tomorrow.
Pete - nice one, good to see you still racing. Defo still an improvement from the dicky calf.......i bought a pair of those too, going to use them for marathons later in the year, instead of my usual lightweight trainers.
The more of us posting regularly (rather than just me), and the more racing the betterings.
Some maniac at my club did a 42miler today. One of these 6 hour limit races where you can do as much or as little as you like, put on by a co called Running Miles, on a stretch up and down the Jubilee River.
I ran a small bit of one with a Dasher pal a year or so back when she did a marathon.
But 42miles, or 8 up and backs is just something else of a Thursday mornijng.
He's still talking about joining the gang for a 23miler on Sunday too!
http://parkrun.me/s5bva
I've been saying all along that it was doomed and they were playing politics but it really has gotten to the extreme now.
It was clear all along that parkrun couldn't happen before May 17th and June 21st, just 5 weeks later, is the "go ahead and screw it all" date and parkrun decided to go for June 5th for a relaunch.
I blame Tom Williams: far too politically minded. parkrun has been built from the base upwards using a softly, softly approach so all new events get set up behind closed doors and there has been no lobbying. Little Stoke was the first time a spanner got thrown in the works and they seemed to deal with that OK eventually by backing off and being the bigger man.
This time, while the approach hasn't been an explicit "you are a bad land owner if you don't agree" that message is very implicit.
Flowed quite nicely, although you can't go off the average paces as well as you can go off the track - for the reasons we mentioned last time - ie 0.17m is 5.53 pace, but 0.18m is 5.33 - and it all depends on how the watch has rounded it - rather than being 20secs per mile pace difference!
But for what it's worth, 1 at 0.17m (5.53), 1 at 0.20m (5.00), and the rest nicely split 0.18m, (5.33) and 0.19m (5.16), so a good romp around.
7miles this morn, for 46.5m so far this week, will stick somewhere in the 3-4mile in at lunch - maybe the woods route, which is always a pleasing end to the working week's runs, and then SAT OFF, and standard longun Sunday.
Picking a date before the June 21 potential "free for all" date was utterly bizarre. As was claiming they "could" have gone live in May.
Anyone who has raced recently knows everything is distanced/wave based/highly monitored/registered etc.
Anyone who knows anything about parkrun knows the same elements simply wouldn't work.
There's no chip timing, there's no individual event register, it's all volunteer based - which puts a lot of strain on them organising staggered starts etc
You'd have to get a log of people turning up, probably have to ditch the timing element / handling chips etc, and stagger people - which without any registration is difficult. Add in multi lap courses and it's even more awkward.
Then you have the very "direct" form of announcements/emails parkrun have been undertaking.
They'll probably go live a few weeks after June 21, as long as they haven't caused too much ill feeling with some of the wavering land owners.
I enjoyed the photos of your race, SG. A another good chunk off your time. Genuine question - was your number pinned on wonky? Don’t think I could handle that!
Great to read of a hit out Pete. Nice one!
Great racing, Reg. You certainly know how to really get the most from yourself on race day. I bet the swimmers had the fear of god put into them with you powering round on the TT bike.
A buggy 10 on Saturday and a hilly 8 on Sunday led to a first 60M week since the marathon. The hill was certainly a shock to the system, but it felt incredible to be up there and to run with a friend. Perfect running therapy for us both!
Met a friend for a grass track session on Tuesday . His first faster running since January 2020 😆.
Very similar session to last week, with an extra 400 tagged on the end for at least a hint of progression. Rain, hail and beautiful views of the cathedral. What more could you ask for?
4 x 200 in 40s (all 200 jogs)
2 x 400 in 83s
4 x 200 in 41s
1 x 400 in 87s
So good to see a progression from last week on the middle 400s.
Just ticking over otherwise, with work busy and half an eye on pacing at Peterborough this Sunday. Temperatures look ideal, wind not so! I’ve said to my friend, however, that having me clocking the wind the entire time will really help. I don’t know if that is practically true, but it wouldn’t certainly make a massive mental difference were I in his shoes.
So tested the Dragonfly's last night, did a few 400's. Definitely be ok for the 5000 anyway, totally different to any spike I have tried. Bit apprehensive about saturday - wondering if they will be ok in the race...also as I have ended up in a 8.50 paced race!
Parkrun? Well the government have got involved and there's on about a tenth left that have refused access now. Not got much time for councils tbh...been blocking road races for years. F**k em.
I know some people like to put the number on the vest before they actually put it on, but surely that has more risk of ripping it off as you put it on
But as I like to take a pic for fb and the records of the vest with the number on, I probably need to up my number putting on game. I actually wondered about whether if it's on too loosely, whether it acts like a parachute and slows you down
SC, not a fan of councils and their workers eh?
Seems a bit harsh to lay blame at Tom Williams' door PMJ. Looks pretty clear to me once they had decided to seek permissions it became a laborious task and he has done very well to get it the high profile support (Lord Coe, MP's etc) needed to get the land-owners to pull their fingers out. Maybe the real planned start date was always 26th June, so after the official end date for restrictions, and they left themselves a 3 week window for the very reason that transpired; to get the "approvers" into action. If so that looks a shrewd move to me.
On a separate note tested the Next % 2 OG's on Wednesday and first view was disappointing. Due to a cock-up in my order via Sports Shoes I ended up with 2 pairs, and the pair I tried were coming away at the sole on one shoe after just one 20 min trial run on flat tarmac. I returned this pair due to that and to be honest they didn't feel that great either; certainly not the buzz when I first tried the first Vaporfly 4%'s back in late 2018.
I also note that Nike currently have a 30% off members code (its free to sign up as a member) on their website which includes VF's and Alpha's, but not the new Next % 2's. Using this code pushes the ordinary Next % down to about £170 and the Alpha's to about £180, so both less than I paid for the Next 2 OG's. The 30% off code (SUMMER21) may be of interest to some of you, but only lasts a few days so be quick if interested.
Good work on the sub 19 by the way Pete - ditto SG's comments about sticking around
There's something about size 12 that sees it sell out very quickly. It's either an "unusual" size and there's less stock, which I can't believe as the 11.5 always seems plentiful, or it's the opposite - tonnes of size 12 wearers about.
Anyway the Next not available in 12s, but the Alpha is.
Getting £80 or so off sounds great, but then you're still booting £180 clams into a pair.
Sportsshoes have the Next2 in this groovy colour
https://www.sportsshoes.com/product/nik18914/nike-zoomx-vaporfly-next%-2-racing-shoes-~-su21/#sku-nik18914
I'm sure there was a discount code to get about 30% off of either them or wiggle, linked to signing up to a newsletter or something...
Pete any recollection of such stuff?
Mine are only about 85miles in, but are about 2 years old now. Not sure they're as bouncy as they once were, but couldn't be100%!
One off discount code, but worth it!
The Next with 30% off through Nike and the Next 2 with 15% off through this code and sports shoes come out pretty similar.
Had visions of exploring the Gomm Valley - a bit of nature they're due to smash with tonnes of houses at some point, but binned that idea as I didn't fancy the uphill offroad exploration job once i'd got goin.
63mile week.
Fantasy footy season culminates today - leading my work league - hoping to win it for only the 2nd time in 18 years with a small lead in the bank.
Big 90mins from 4pm
Some of our club planned a little social in London, with ideas of running 23miles from their neck of the woods there.
One quality runner who'd been out for 2 years but has now come back into terrific form had stated 7.30 pace for 23miles.
Checked it today, he'd done 26.2, sub 7.
Not surprised!
Was about to post similar myself but also saw
China ultramarathon: Severe weather kills 21 runners
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57216601
Clearly, Ron Hill's death will be the bigger headline but those poor 21 people dying should be so. Don't know what the organisers were doing: it is fair enough to allow people out in running clothes in areas where you can get a car in pretty quickly and evacuate but as soon as it becomes properly off-road with a significant delay to get help in then you need to ensure that participants carry basic survival kit with them. I know I hate it when I do an LDWA vent and have to carry waterproofs, survival blanket and a whistle in pace where I regularly run in shorts and vest but there is a reason for doing so.
The ultra one is just dreadful on top.
Both situations and the covid thing show you have to grab the chance to do what you want to do while you can!
Big day out on the fells yesterday started with a 7M & 2,100’ fell race. First time I’ve raced properly since CoViD shut them all down. Only 30 allowed in a wave & waves staggered by 2hrs to allow the 1st race to finish & competitors to disperse before the 2nd race began congregating at the start. Results from both waves were then amalgamated afterwards. I set off very slowly down the short descent but then picked people off on the massive climb. Held position along the ridge into a headwind then dropped off the other side. After half a mile descending gradually along a muddy trail we had the option of taking the (significantly longer) path to the next CP or taking the direct line which dropped 500’ in less than quarter of a mile. I opted for the latter & picked up a couple more places in the process 😁 Unfortunately I took the wrong line back to the summit & ended up below the traversing path so had to scramble up a 40% incline to regain it which meant the youngster who’d been breathing down my neck before the drop off had got ahead. I pushed him hard til he struck off right whilst I carried straight back up through the heather to the good ridge path. Must have been the right choice as I got to the final 2 CPs ahead of him but as I started the last 1.5M downhill I heard his footsteps pounding away behind me. Managed to hold him off all the way to the bottom & we went into the final field neck & neck. The sting in the tail of this race is the 150m/80’ climb to the finish line up a lumpy grass field. I held him off to take the glory.
RiP Ron Hill. My run yesterday was in a pair of ronhill Lycra shorts & my favourite club vest is also by his firm. His autobiography is phenomenal, especially Part 1, which I was fortunate enough to pick up for £1.50 in a charity shop. Part 2 was significantly more expensive as I had to resort to the internet. My streak now stands at 193 days but could (& probably should) break at any point. Reading of his decline in Part 2, I felt his obsessive streaking even when injured or after brutal racing was a contributory factor to his mainly disappointing (by his standards) later race results.
That Chinese ultra seems like a right cock-up.
SG - Always care about the workers
PeteM - There is an uptake on Parkrun permissions I get on Twitter, apparently there's only 2% flatly refusing.
Gutted about Ron Hill - presume it was on the BBC News yesterday, this morning's sports news had nothing about him, just some horse racing trainer i'd never heard of. The media seem to think we're obsessed with horse racing. Wore all RH this morning on my run.
3000m Saturday night at MK. Not got the time for a long report. So warming up the Dragonfly felt loads better than Thursday night, really snappy and comfy. In the race with Rob my mate from LBAC, he's a V40 but very handy. Got predicted times at every lap, which is helpful - as usual the first lap is a 70, predicted time 8.50 0dd, but settle in and the predicted times are around 9.04, which is OK. Last race was a 9.24, but this feels loads better.
You usually know with 4 laps to go if you are going to be able to keep the pace the same, everyone is pretty well spaced so there's not much actual racing as such - managing to keep it together. Hit the bell at about 7.50 and mange to keep it going to get over the line in 9.03.9. Rob is exactly 10 secs quicker.
Very happy, only 10 secs slower than my PB from 7 years ago and a couple slower than Torun. I have been training better, but the spikes are a game changer, no one will go back to basic spikes now. They will be fine over 5k, they really help to keep your legs fresher during the race.