Yeah SC, went twice this week, and the intriguing newbie is away next week, so suddenly going both days next week feels unnecessary Will probably do Tuesday which is some sort of mix of laps of a grass track with 1mins 2mins etc, standard fare.
Going the carbon plate route or something SC? Time to get a couple of pairs of Adios 5 in as cover?
Thought I'd change the route of the Longun by driving 4miles or so out, then aiming to run down the Thames path towards Maidenhead/Dorney and back.
Made a couple of dodgy presumptions of the way to the Thames from Cookham, firstly going down some trail that lead to a climb that would have eventually lead to Cliveden, aborted that after going up some steps and dodgy muddy up (and back). The graph on my run shows this as a particularly out of place climb compared to the almost totally flat rest of run!
Then thinking, cannot go wrong this time, with the swim on my right, and a path! But it finished at a dead end with no way forward. A footpath left, that then also stopped at a dead end, and erm, further into Cookham town centre and actually seeing "The Thamess Path" sign this time....
Then settled into a decent 3miles or so out and back. Standard flat stuff on a stuffy day. One bit splits into two close paths. To try and keep distanced from the chap one side, I leapt across the seemingly flat grassy middle section, only for there to be a silly hidden dip, meaning I did a quite bizarre fall, roll and up in one go. Thumbs up to the geezer, and off.
Couple of watch stops to either wait for people, or at one time checking this map in a field to confirm I was actually where I thought I was (!).
All in 13 at 7.19 pace for a 57mile week. Slightly less than par this week, with the 2 club sessions.
Jools - pretty much, though the LSR is usually 2 hours or so. Oddly I had a very painful adductor at the end of my walk yesterday and it felt a bit sore this morning, so that was concerning me more than the hamstring for today's run! Started very slow and fast and it was OK after I warmed up, so with that out of the way, target A was to aim for 8 miles to make 30 for the week, but prepared to back off if any issues. B target was to get to double figures. In the end, managed the 10 for my longest run and longest week since mid-March!!!! All felt OK, though still a bit of discomfort in the last mile and I can feel it a bit as I sit here - we'll see what its like tomorrow! Hamstring aside, I actually felt OK an wasn't as wiped out after I was expecting, especially as it was a total sweat fest!
I imagine Reg will have no energy left to write the suitably epic report yesterday' exploits deserve
Good to see Bus making some progress and nice that SG is back at club sessions.
Your Devon and Welsh exploits sound awesome, Jools, as ever. Work filter blocking photos. I will let my imagination run wild 😆.
Nice work in the track racing, SC. Enjoy the flow!
Nice tour there, Reg. Three wonderful spots. Look forward to an epic report - just a little bit of ascent yesterday ⛰.
Reckon you’ve definitely got a sub 20 10M TT in you, Joe.
First post in a while after a fun yet busy half term. A couple of days away on the south coast, with a lovely run to Pagham Harbour, before a turnout at the Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo race on Wednesday evening.
This is a a brutal 5.5M trail affair, set in on the stunning Cotswold escarpment, looking out towards the Malvern Hills and the Welsh border. A stunner of an evening, albeit over 20C even with a 7.30pm kick off - well past my bed time!
The climbs are tough, with some technical descents to give no respite. We were set off in four waves of 50, with each wave 15s apart. I was in the second (randomly selected) wave, so had plenty of runners to pick off in the opening couple of miles.
It felt hard work trying to overtake in the opening uphill mile, although I suspected many had gone off too hard. Caught a few on the first long and most technical ascent, before having to resort to a bit of a walk run up the steepest of climbs. Genuinely questioning my sanity at this point, feeling sick and wanting to stop. Why do we do it!
Slowly worked by way into the top ten, although I couldn’t quite be sure with the different waves. The final hill takes you to the trig point, the highest in the Cotswolds, before a final kilometre back to the finish. I just crested the peak in front of the leading lady, and then had a tussle with a chap who managed to pull away from.
After a spot of recovery, jogged a mile warm down along the course to cheer everyone on. I’m sure to others it feels like I am taking the piss, but most smile or grimace in return to my shouts 😆.
A lovely beer and chat for what is probably the most sociable I have been in 16 months. And then surprised to have found I came six, with bottles of wine given to the first six! Trail running, especially when paths are in good condition, really is the best.
Padded the race day out to make a 60M week. And just entered the Cheltenham Festival (half marathon) this coming Sunday - inspired by good reviews of the RunThrough team. Looks quite hilly with four laps around the racecourse.
Jools - There was hardly any communication, we had an email a few months back saying they'd extended the date to withdraw and then two days before the race a short email popped up with a few details I had no issued though and found a nice space in the Waterhead carpark.
To sum it up before a proper report; no chip timing, no bike mount line, no masks, no food stops, no bike check, no ID check, no bike marshals and no flat bits. Perfect.
Joe - Sub 20 is a great goal. From my casual observations you have the power, it's getting the aero stuff down. I was putting out more power than guys going low 20 minutes but they had all the gear and may of them rocking the preying mantis!
Jools/SC - The Adios 6 will remain Carbon free unlike the Adizero Pro (the chunky marathon one) and Adios Pro (basically an Adios with a Carbon plate). Its got a mixture of two types of Lightstrike...Lightstrike and Lightstrike Pro. Vids on Youtube.
Great race report SQ - Nothing beats a beer at the end of a good trail race. Like the end of the Wendover 5, that a few here will have done - the finish in a pub car park and a free half pint.
Friday night went out with my mate to the Blisworth 5 - near Northampton. Couldn't get a place, which I was actually pleased about as I was dead after Weds and Thursday! Unperturbed I did a tempo of the course 30 mins before the start - did 29.02..bloody horrible.
Couple of little jogs over the weekend - in the office today as off to Uxbridge tonight for a 8 and 3000m double at the Southern masters. Nice weather there finally after three years of cold, showers and a monsoon last time.
It's definitely a unique experience racing the X. Glad you enjoyed the ambience. Chips & finish lines are kind of irrelevant: it's not as if you'll be quibbling over a few seconds is it? I had the extended deadline email too Reg but was just asking as a few other first timers seemed a bit perturbed by the lack of communication & even a regular messaged me asking if I'd heard anything as it was even more underground this year. Planning on completing the South Wales Traverse a week on Saturday: 75M in under 24 hrs though I'm hoping to go under 20. Need a couple of easier weeks as Sunday-Sunday was 123M & over 20,000ft of climbing
I'd love a 29:xx 5M time Simon - PB is 30:29 from the only year I raced a proper 5M road race. I'd done a certified accurate 5M trail race a few times with a massive hill which meant my Po10 PB was 32:xx Did 2 at the end of 2017. Set a PB at the 1st then knocked 13s off that 7 weeks later.
Casual Simon - your tempo beats my 5M pb by 1 sec (which was actually in a ten miler and also my 10k PB!)
Jools - that's a great challenge! How much ascent is there on the SWT?
Reg - amazed you've got the energy for even that teaser report! Cracking effort - anyone of the three elements of that Tri would be impressive in its own right!
Depends SQ, normally no, but the Great South has timing mats at 5k, 10k, 15k and 10M all officially measured I believe. OK, the 5M was extrapolated from the 10k to be fair In which case, Simon's casual tempo is officially 2 seconds faster than my "official" 5M
That's gonna be grand day out Jools! Judging by your recent exploits though, you're in damn good from for it!
6.2M for me tonight and all reasonably OK given 10 yesterday. Bit sore now and will take a rest day tomorrow - trying to do no more than two days back to back currently.
May well have been different in 2012 when we did the GSR Bus, and you were going great guns that day, but I think in 2018 I recall the 10k mat was oddly out of place, and threw me for a bit. I'd have to check with Matt H if he's aboot.
I read SC's comment about being "horrible" as more to do with conditions/route/how it felt, rather than the time itself, as it was a self declared tempo
Humid last couple of days, not so much today, just hot.
4miler this morn, then club sesh tonight.
Think it's 4x1min, 4x2min, 4x1min. Something silly like 30secs recovery in between the 1mins, but 2min in between sets. I suspect it's round a grass 400ish metre track, but it's something different.
Weighing up getting a pair of the Nike Next, as my 4%s are clattered, despite less than 100miles, bounce has gone a bit. 2 years old I suppose. I'd still use them for certain turn outs, sessions and eventually easy to get a good 500miles out of them though.
There's Next 2 and Next original both the same price these days, and with a 15% sportshoes discount, I'm thinking |£240 has now become £178, which is "almost" a bargain
Can't remember who has done a review of 4% v Nexts but if anyone's about who has used both, any lurkers/anyone, please give me your thoughts before I dip in.
Ah Bus, seems a bit more legit 😃. I know what you mean - I’ve definitely run faster 10M in halves, and probably a 5k in a 10k. Although I guess you get favourable (or otherwise) winds, elevation etc. Anyway, good back-to-can days for you 👍.
SG - I agree that at £178, they seem a bit more reasonable. Although my goodness, that shoes how things have changed in recent years.
Back to the grass track today. Slightly windy, but had at least recently been mowed. All set for sports day tomorrow!
With Sunday’s race, I fancied something varied, but not brutal. Settled on 10 minutes tempo into 6 x 400 hard off 200 jogs.
10 minutes at 6:20 pace. As tempo always does, felt pretty hard. Possibly a bit too punch for half marathon pace this weekend, especially given the rolling nature of the course.
400s were a bit of a surprise - couldn’t seem to break 1:30 with several a second over or bang on. Nonetheless, the effort was there. Lovely to run in the sun in on an empty track in view of the cathedral 😃. Mind you, knackered since.
All in 8.5M at 7:00 pace. Will keep it pretty easy now through to Sunday.
Tempos are one of those necessary evils. It's remarkable that faster paces in races feel more comfy than soo tempos do. And people doubt the race day magic thing
You certainly know you're going great guns when you hoover up the pbs (albeit not really ones you count) at different distances within a longer run, and just know you have to turn up at a reasonable course to get a proper pb.
I remember the days of hitting 17.15 or 17.20 for 5k within 10ks :L
Off to a grass club sesh myself soon then. Will try and remember the ides of last Tuesday, and not gun the first one like an idiot this time. Will probably start a distance or so away from the fastest there, to avoid any silly "win the first rep" and have a miserable next 15mins experience
SG - Saucony Endorphin Pro ver2 has just been released, so ver 1 are going cheaper than that 178. They are reviewed as being as quick as Next% but not as leg saving over a marathon, so would be a good choice for you.
Bus - i never had any 2nd jab side effects and I'd had CV too, so was considered susceptible to side effects.
I did a sub 29 5m a few years back (28.4X), was a nice summers evening race with a free burger and beer after. I thought that was a solid time as id already swam that day, and ran a few miles before (and after) the 5m. Usual lack of short distance race prep too.
Probably would feel a bit too "brave" to go for another fairly high priced variant TR, until they up their market share v the dreaded Nike empire. If it £50-80 difference, but not still at say £165-70, whether that's the original, or the version 2 with discount.
Next v Alpha at least seems to be a more straight forward choice, with Alpha's being the longer distance shoe.
Club session last night. Only one similar paced pal turned up out of the fast guys. Good for him I was there really to keep him honest. Bet he'd have eased off midway otherwise. Was happy to sit on his shoulder / level, for the 4x1min, 4x2min, 4x1min jobs. Skimpy recoveries at 30secs and 60secs, but 2mins in between sets.
The grass track is apparently only 380metres but for some reason it feels longer than a normal track. Maybe as it's in a huge field, and also has a slight slope! Dribbled sweat and no times as such, but decent efforts, without smashing myself.
SG - those shoes do have good market share at shorter distance. But the favourite still seems to be the Next %, lots of folks seem to prefer it over the alphafly for the mara now too......nice to see you do some time reps, run them and move on with no pace concern......i did my weekly 14x3min yday (skimpy 3min jog for me too), the average pace for the 49min usually comes in at approx mp, no idea what it all means but Ive a Goodwood marathon in a few weeks so its aimed at that.
SG - Good session and yes, I knew the tempo was horrible right from the start. Warm and a t-shirt on too.
Bus - time to go for another 5m race then Glad you are feeling better
Shoes wise - might get some Adios Pro for half/10m reps..will see.
Southern masters Monday night - 800m went off very quick, I went through bell third in 62/63, managed to get into 3rd, but the winner was way ahead. Think it was another 2.07 ish for 2nd place
3000m, a TVH guy went out ahead from the start, I stuck to 75's and got up behind him with 2 laps to go. Bit he was always toying with me and moved away in the last 200 to win - but he is 35 though . My time was 9.18.
Still impressively quick at both distances Simon (especially for an old geezer 😅)
Not sure I'm going to be trying get those PBs down to where I'd have wanted them unless the next generation of Nikes can take at least 5 mins off my probable 5M time now
7.5M last night and the hamstring was fine, but by was I sluggish! Probably a combination of covid jab 2 and the humidity. I'd felt really tired and spacey in the morning, but wasn't really able to say that was the jab or a hangover 7M tonight, with less climbing, but a better pace, although the hamstring is now a wee bit uncomfortable, probably not helped by a long day of Teams meetings today (and tomorrow). Might need to re-jig this weeks plan, as I was going to try a 3rd day in a row tomorrow. I'll see how it recovers overnight, but I've got another day packed with sitting in front of a pc tomorrow! I'd stand up, but I need two screens for most of the meetings!
Been on day 1 of a 3 day training course myself. Thankfully not on camera, so quite a relaxed fella telling us a tonneload of IT terminology and theory. Exam next week, so hopefully can squeeze through that.
Morning 8 was one heck of a humid fest. Did my route with the short but steep grassy bank climb, and was pleased to see 2 old dears approaching the stile at the top, so I stopped behind glad I could use them as an excuse. They got out the way, said no excuse to stop, so I had to carry on
Always get to the stile thinking the work is done, but the very short climb over a ploughed field, and then flat and down takes ages to get over the climb!
However, all in, and onto the course in time!
Will do some sort of freestyled sesh on the park next door tomorrow. Best not mess with the track as I need to be on it and ready to to on the course at 9am
Went for 12x1min hard off 1min today, on the grass park nearby.
As prevo touched on, these aren't "exact" with pace, as when the garmin says 0.18m for the 1min I guess it's a range of 0.175 to 0.184m?
Anyway, I squeezed one up to 0.20 which registered 5.00 pace late on, most of the rest were 0.19m (5.16) and the rest were 0.18m (5.33), so solid enough for the purpose.
All of the reps slightly different too. One of the early ones was a bit of a dodgy camber angle on a bank, but the rest were mostly flat!
Slight bit of in between reddy/browny sort of pee after. Mix of runner's hematuria / standard dehydration. Mix of a sleepy week, going a it overboard pitstopping pre sesh, and then efforts in a very humid session.
However, luckily as this course I'm on isn't a camera job, I can sit on mute and refuel all day
Difficult to know where to start but this is a
race I wanted to tick off the bucket list, with limited people willing to take
it on, I always felt it was one with a limited shelf life so was determined not
to miss out. As it happens next year will be the last iteration. The distance
is roughly Ironman full with 2.4m swim, 112m bike and 27 mile run. Bike comes
up a little short at 109 miles and the run a little long at 27 miles or a bit
more if like me you add some on but we'll get to that later! The challenge
comes from the elevation obviously with 3,700m on the bike and 1,700m on the
run.
I approached this as a fun challenge and so there
was no training plan and no stress, just do what I fancy and take my time and
enjoy it. We had a motorhome trip reorganised from last year which was due to
finish two days before the race so I decided to extend the hire period to cover
the race. Thankfully for the holiday and the race, weather improved
considerably in the week leading up to the event. Lake went from 10c to 15.5c
by race day which felt positively balmy!
As alluded to already it's a very low key race and
therein lies it's charm to go along with the real attraction, the scenery and
elevation challenge. In the SG spirit we should start by discussing the
parking, it went surprisingly smoothly considering I was driving a 7.4 metre
long motorhome! The transition was in a car park by the lake so we found a spot
reserved for coaches and this became our campsite, registration and race venue
all-in-one.
Pre-race day was a walk around the Ambleside shops, lunch with the best
pie and mash I've ever had and then a few hours in the pub, dinner came a bit
late as my chef/wife got a bit merry in the pub whilst I fiddled with my bike
and applied stickers etc. I was starting to feel quite poorly prepared as a
result and I'd completely forgotten to prepare any real food for the race!
Bed came about 11pm, with a 04:30 race start, that
offered about 4 hours sleep. After my usual faffing about I found myself in a
panic to get to the start in time but just made it. Perhaps it was the early
start but we were pretty much off and swimming before I'd had a chance to
really think about anything. There was no real washing machine action, the swim
was pretty easy but I did head off especially gently, having done very little
swimming I was concerned about swimming this far so after lap 1, (1.2 miles) I
decided to just draft someone else and take it easy. The rest was just a cruise
and whilst I could have probably swum a couple of minutes quicker had I pulled
out and swum solo, I thought I'd save the energy.
Transition was interesting, after a fairly slow
change I headed out of the transition exit and deliberately turned the wrong
way to a chorus of objections from the spectators and marshals, little did they
know I was just riding the 10 yards to the public toilet for a bit of alone
time. It wasn't ideal as sitting there in a wet trisuit meant when I finally
got going I was cold, wet and covered in goosebumps. Thankfully it's only a
mile or so before you hit the first climb of the day, the aptly named
'Struggle' and by the time I hit the top I find myself warmed up and I've
passed about four people, who presumably hadn't spent 5 minutes on the throne.
I've done the Struggle before and the descent down
the Kirkstone Pass towards Ullswater is one of my favourites, it's not even 6am
and the roads are dead apart from triathletes so I use the whole of the road to
take the racing line through the twisting road, the main danger being errant
sheep. I use the brakes a little as my hands are still cold but I am screaming
past the other riders and register 28th out of 22,394 on the Strava segment. The
next 90 minutes is relatively flat with only one major climb before you hit
three climbs in fairly quick succession, Newlands, Honister and Whinlatter.
There’s some amazing scenery on the first two with Newlands being the one to
reveal the days heat being open and offering what little wind there was as
assistance.
I’d had a few mechanical dramas in the lead up
to the race and took my bike to a local bike shop to get the tubeless tyre
plugged, he’d left the fix proud of the tyre and despite me trimming this back
I had weird noises all the way , I had stopped a few times already to inspect
the tyre finding nothing to explain the noise and also had a couple of pees. When
it came to descending Honister, I wasn’t ready to stop again so I attempted the
peeing on the bike, I had a little personal space after the climb so worth a
try. I got myself to the brink but stage fright struck and I still haven’t
managed this feat. So that was another stop that would cumulatively add about
20 minutes to the total ride time.
There’s a bit of a lull after this trio of
climbs before you hit the main event of Hardknott at about 80-90 miles and it
was just before this that I had another look at the bike and upon inspecting
the brakes, the rear brake pad was rubbing quite heavily on the wheel,
basically I’d had the brakes lightly applied the whole time! I think the bike
guy had either not put the wheel back in straight or I had not had it straight when
the caliper was set so I centred the caliper and all was fine. I think it was the
prospect of the 33% gradients that finally persuaded me to solve the problem. I’d
actually been looking forward to the finale and was disappointed that right in
the middle of the best and hardest climb they’d put a water stop, I mean who
wants to stop there! The previous one had been on the descent of Honister which
was just as bad as it meant going from 40mph to a standstill to collect water
that was dribbling out of a large water dispenser thing. Anyway I digress,
after the final two big climbs it’s the run for home and there’s one more climb
that is unnamed and not that hard but for some mental reason becomes more
difficult as it’s not expected I suppose. I get back to transition and I am
behind schedule. Swim had been ok if a bit slow but I have wasted a good 30 minutes
so far with toilet stops and various faffing about. In transition 2 I continue
to waste time, I even pop into the campervan to use the loo and have a drink 😊 all of which was unnecessary and the main
issue is that I never prepared any real food beyond sugar which is no longer
doing its job.
Comments
Will probably do Tuesday which is some sort of mix of laps of a grass track with 1mins 2mins etc, standard fare.
Going the carbon plate route or something SC?
Time to get a couple of pairs of Adios 5 in as cover?
Made a couple of dodgy presumptions of the way to the Thames from Cookham, firstly going down some trail that lead to a climb that would have eventually lead to Cliveden, aborted that after going up some steps and dodgy muddy up (and back). The graph on my run shows this as a particularly out of place climb compared to the almost totally flat rest of run!
Then thinking, cannot go wrong this time, with the swim on my right, and a path! But it finished at a dead end with no way forward. A footpath left, that then also stopped at a dead end, and erm, further into Cookham town centre and actually seeing "The Thamess Path" sign this time....
Then settled into a decent 3miles or so out and back. Standard flat stuff on a stuffy day.
One bit splits into two close paths. To try and keep distanced from the chap one side, I leapt across the seemingly flat grassy middle section, only for there to be a silly hidden dip, meaning I did a quite bizarre fall, roll and up in one go. Thumbs up to the geezer, and off.
Couple of watch stops to either wait for people, or at one time checking this map in a field to confirm I was actually where I thought I was (!).
All in 13 at 7.19 pace for a 57mile week. Slightly less than par this week, with the 2 club sessions.
Jools - pretty much, though the LSR is usually 2 hours or so. Oddly I had a very painful adductor at the end of my walk yesterday and it felt a bit sore this morning, so that was concerning me more than the hamstring for today's run! Started very slow and fast and it was OK after I warmed up, so with that out of the way, target A was to aim for 8 miles to make 30 for the week, but prepared to back off if any issues. B target was to get to double figures. In the end, managed the 10 for my longest run and longest week since mid-March!!!! All felt OK, though still a bit of discomfort in the last mile and I can feel it a bit as I sit here - we'll see what its like tomorrow! Hamstring aside, I actually felt OK an wasn't as wiped out after I was expecting, especially as it was a total sweat fest!
I imagine Reg will have no energy left to write the suitably epic report yesterday' exploits deserve
We will get you racing in 2021
Good to see Bus making some progress and nice that SG is back at club sessions.
Your Devon and Welsh exploits sound awesome, Jools, as ever. Work filter blocking photos. I will let my imagination run wild 😆.
Nice work in the track racing, SC. Enjoy the flow!
Nice tour there, Reg. Three wonderful spots. Look forward to an epic report - just a little bit of ascent yesterday ⛰.
Reckon you’ve definitely got a sub 20 10M TT in you, Joe.
First post in a while after a fun yet busy half term. A couple of days away on the south coast, with a lovely run to Pagham Harbour, before a turnout at the Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo race on Wednesday evening.
This is a a brutal 5.5M trail affair, set in on the stunning Cotswold escarpment, looking out towards the Malvern Hills and the Welsh border. A stunner of an evening, albeit over 20C even with a 7.30pm kick off - well past my bed time!
The climbs are tough, with some technical descents to give no respite. We were set off in four waves of 50, with each wave 15s apart. I was in the second (randomly selected) wave, so had plenty of runners to pick off in the opening couple of miles.
It felt hard work trying to overtake in the opening uphill mile, although I suspected many had gone off too hard. Caught a few on the first long and most technical ascent, before having to resort to a bit of a walk run up the steepest of climbs. Genuinely questioning my sanity at this point, feeling sick and wanting to stop. Why do we do it!
Slowly worked by way into the top ten, although I couldn’t quite be sure with the different waves. The final hill takes you to the trig point, the highest in the Cotswolds, before a final kilometre back to the finish. I just crested the peak in front of the leading lady, and then had a tussle with a chap who managed to pull away from.
After a spot of recovery, jogged a mile warm down along the course to cheer everyone on. I’m sure to others it feels like I am taking the piss, but most smile or grimace in return to my shouts 😆.
A lovely beer and chat for what is probably the most sociable I have been in 16 months. And then surprised to have found I came six, with bottles of wine given to the first six! Trail running, especially when paths are in good condition, really is the best.
Padded the race day out to make a 60M week. And just entered the Cheltenham Festival (half marathon) this coming Sunday - inspired by good reviews of the RunThrough team. Looks quite hilly with four laps around the racecourse.
To sum it up before a proper report; no chip timing, no bike mount line, no masks, no food stops, no bike check, no ID check, no bike marshals and no flat bits. Perfect.
Joe - Sub 20 is a great goal. From my casual observations you have the power, it's getting the aero stuff down. I was putting out more power than guys going low 20 minutes but they had all the gear and may of them rocking the preying mantis!
Edit: Oh and no obvious finish line
Great race report SQ - Nothing beats a beer at the end of a good trail race. Like the end of the Wendover 5, that a few here will have done - the finish in a pub car park and a free half pint.
Friday night went out with my mate to the Blisworth 5 - near Northampton. Couldn't get a place, which I was actually pleased about as I was dead after Weds and Thursday! Unperturbed I did a tempo of the course 30 mins before the start - did 29.02..bloody horrible.
Couple of little jogs over the weekend - in the office today as off to Uxbridge tonight for a 8 and 3000m double at the Southern masters. Nice weather there finally after three years of cold, showers and a monsoon last time.
I had the extended deadline email too Reg but was just asking as a few other first timers seemed a bit perturbed by the lack of communication & even a regular messaged me asking if I'd heard anything as it was even more underground this year.
Planning on completing the South Wales Traverse a week on Saturday: 75M in under 24 hrs though I'm hoping to go under 20. Need a couple of easier weeks as Sunday-Sunday was 123M & over 20,000ft of climbing
Did 2 at the end of 2017. Set a PB at the 1st then knocked 13s off that 7 weeks later.
Jools - that's a great challenge! How much ascent is there on the SWT?
Reg - amazed you've got the energy for even that teaser report! Cracking effort - anyone of the three elements of that Tri would be impressive in its own right!
Not sure I could cope with such low key organisation for such an enormous undertaking, Reg. Epic work either way!
Were the 5Ms Guy Fawkes and Linda Franks? Seem about the right gap.
Good info about the adidas, SC. The Pro are the shoe I’d like for an Autumn marathon.
About 17,000’ Bus.
That's gonna be grand day out Jools! Judging by your recent exploits though, you're in damn good from for it!
6.2M for me tonight and all reasonably OK given 10 yesterday. Bit sore now and will take a rest day tomorrow - trying to do no more than two days back to back currently.
I read SC's comment about being "horrible" as more to do with conditions/route/how it felt, rather than the time itself, as it was a self declared tempo
Humid last couple of days, not so much today, just hot.
4miler this morn, then club sesh tonight.
Think it's 4x1min, 4x2min, 4x1min. Something silly like 30secs recovery in between the 1mins, but 2min in between sets.
I suspect it's round a grass 400ish metre track, but it's something different.
Weighing up getting a pair of the Nike Next, as my 4%s are clattered, despite less than 100miles, bounce has gone a bit. 2 years old I suppose. I'd still use them for certain turn outs, sessions and eventually easy to get a good 500miles out of them though.
There's Next 2 and Next original both the same price these days, and with a 15% sportshoes discount, I'm thinking |£240 has now become £178, which is "almost" a bargain
Can't remember who has done a review of 4% v Nexts but if anyone's about who has used both, any lurkers/anyone, please give me your thoughts before I dip in.
Ah Bus, seems a bit more legit 😃. I know what you mean - I’ve definitely run faster 10M in halves, and probably a 5k in a 10k. Although I guess you get favourable (or otherwise) winds, elevation etc. Anyway, good back-to-can days for you 👍.
SG - I agree that at £178, they seem a bit more reasonable. Although my goodness, that shoes how things have changed in recent years.
Back to the grass track today. Slightly windy, but had at least recently been mowed. All set for sports day tomorrow!
With Sunday’s race, I fancied something varied, but not brutal. Settled on 10 minutes tempo into 6 x 400 hard off 200 jogs.
10 minutes at 6:20 pace. As tempo always does, felt pretty hard. Possibly a bit too punch for half marathon pace this weekend, especially given the rolling nature of the course.
400s were a bit of a surprise - couldn’t seem to break 1:30 with several a second over or bang on. Nonetheless, the effort was there. Lovely to run in the sun in on an empty track in view of the cathedral 😃. Mind you, knackered since.
All in 8.5M at 7:00 pace. Will keep it pretty easy now through to Sunday.
You certainly know you're going great guns when you hoover up the pbs (albeit not really ones you count) at different distances within a longer run, and just know you have to turn up at a reasonable course to get a proper pb.
I remember the days of hitting 17.15 or 17.20 for 5k within 10ks :L
Off to a grass club sesh myself soon then. Will try and remember the ides of last Tuesday, and not gun the first one like an idiot this time.
Will probably start a distance or so away from the fastest there, to avoid any silly "win the first rep" and have a miserable next 15mins experience
And that 10k timing mat at GSR in 2012 was definitely 4 secs long :-:smiley:
Nice night for it SG.
Heading out on the bike in a bit - don't want to push my luck with 3 days running in a row just yet!
Also, had my second vaccination today. No ill effects as yet. I do feel ever so slightly spacey but that could easily be psychosomatic!
Bus - i never had any 2nd jab side effects and I'd had CV too, so was considered susceptible to side effects.
I did a sub 29 5m a few years back (28.4X), was a nice summers evening race with a free burger and beer after. I thought that was a solid time as id already swam that day, and ran a few miles before (and after) the 5m. Usual lack of short distance race prep too.
Next v Alpha at least seems to be a more straight forward choice, with Alpha's being the longer distance shoe.
Club session last night. Only one similar paced pal turned up out of the fast guys. Good for him I was there really to keep him honest. Bet he'd have eased off midway otherwise.
Was happy to sit on his shoulder / level, for the 4x1min, 4x2min, 4x1min jobs. Skimpy recoveries at 30secs and 60secs, but 2mins in between sets.
The grass track is apparently only 380metres but for some reason it feels longer than a normal track. Maybe as it's in a huge field, and also has a slight slope!
Dribbled sweat and no times as such, but decent efforts, without smashing myself.
Morning 4 was needless to say a sleepy one!
SG - Good session and yes, I knew the tempo was horrible right from the start. Warm and a t-shirt on too.
Bus - time to go for another 5m race then Glad you are feeling better
Shoes wise - might get some Adios Pro for half/10m reps..will see.
Southern masters Monday night - 800m went off very quick, I went through bell third in 62/63, managed to get into 3rd, but the winner was way ahead. Think it was another 2.07 ish for 2nd place
3000m, a TVH guy went out ahead from the start, I stuck to 75's and got up behind him with 2 laps to go. Bit he was always toying with me and moved away in the last 200 to win - but he is 35 though . My time was 9.18.
Not sure I'm going to be trying get those PBs down to where I'd have wanted them unless the next generation of Nikes can take at least 5 mins off my probable 5M time now
7.5M last night and the hamstring was fine, but by was I sluggish! Probably a combination of covid jab 2 and the humidity. I'd felt really tired and spacey in the morning, but wasn't really able to say that was the jab or a hangover 7M tonight, with less climbing, but a better pace, although the hamstring is now a wee bit uncomfortable, probably not helped by a long day of Teams meetings today (and tomorrow). Might need to re-jig this weeks plan, as I was going to try a 3rd day in a row tomorrow. I'll see how it recovers overnight, but I've got another day packed with sitting in front of a pc tomorrow! I'd stand up, but I need two screens for most of the meetings!
No, I can't see why it might have felt sluggish Bus
Thankfully not on camera, so quite a relaxed fella telling us a tonneload of IT terminology and theory. Exam next week, so hopefully can squeeze through that.
Morning 8 was one heck of a humid fest. Did my route with the short but steep grassy bank climb, and was pleased to see 2 old dears approaching the stile at the top, so I stopped behind glad I could use them as an excuse. They got out the way, said no excuse to stop, so I had to carry on
Always get to the stile thinking the work is done, but the very short climb over a ploughed field, and then flat and down takes ages to get over the climb!
However, all in, and onto the course in time!
Will do some sort of freestyled sesh on the park next door tomorrow. Best not mess with the track as I need to be on it and ready to to on the course at 9am
The new fast girl in my club has a 9.30 pb, done over a decade ago as a teen. But still, that's not messing about.
As prevo touched on, these aren't "exact" with pace, as when the garmin says 0.18m for the 1min I guess it's a range of 0.175 to 0.184m?
Anyway, I squeezed one up to 0.20 which registered 5.00 pace late on, most of the rest were 0.19m (5.16) and the rest were 0.18m (5.33), so solid enough for the purpose.
All of the reps slightly different too. One of the early ones was a bit of a dodgy camber angle on a bank, but the rest were mostly flat!
Slight bit of in between reddy/browny sort of pee after. Mix of runner's hematuria / standard dehydration. Mix of a sleepy week, going a it overboard pitstopping pre sesh, and then efforts in a very humid session.
However, luckily as this course I'm on isn't a camera job, I can sit on mute and refuel all day
Race report!
Preamble and Swim (1:10)
Difficult to know where to start but this is a race I wanted to tick off the bucket list, with limited people willing to take it on, I always felt it was one with a limited shelf life so was determined not to miss out. As it happens next year will be the last iteration. The distance is roughly Ironman full with 2.4m swim, 112m bike and 27 mile run. Bike comes up a little short at 109 miles and the run a little long at 27 miles or a bit more if like me you add some on but we'll get to that later! The challenge comes from the elevation obviously with 3,700m on the bike and 1,700m on the run.
I approached this as a fun challenge and so there was no training plan and no stress, just do what I fancy and take my time and enjoy it. We had a motorhome trip reorganised from last year which was due to finish two days before the race so I decided to extend the hire period to cover the race. Thankfully for the holiday and the race, weather improved considerably in the week leading up to the event. Lake went from 10c to 15.5c by race day which felt positively balmy!
As alluded to already it's a very low key race and therein lies it's charm to go along with the real attraction, the scenery and elevation challenge. In the SG spirit we should start by discussing the parking, it went surprisingly smoothly considering I was driving a 7.4 metre long motorhome! The transition was in a car park by the lake so we found a spot reserved for coaches and this became our campsite, registration and race venue all-in-one.
Bed came about 11pm, with a 04:30 race start, that offered about 4 hours sleep. After my usual faffing about I found myself in a panic to get to the start in time but just made it. Perhaps it was the early start but we were pretty much off and swimming before I'd had a chance to really think about anything. There was no real washing machine action, the swim was pretty easy but I did head off especially gently, having done very little swimming I was concerned about swimming this far so after lap 1, (1.2 miles) I decided to just draft someone else and take it easy. The rest was just a cruise and whilst I could have probably swum a couple of minutes quicker had I pulled out and swum solo, I thought I'd save the energy.
Bike (7:48)
Transition was interesting, after a fairly slow change I headed out of the transition exit and deliberately turned the wrong way to a chorus of objections from the spectators and marshals, little did they know I was just riding the 10 yards to the public toilet for a bit of alone time. It wasn't ideal as sitting there in a wet trisuit meant when I finally got going I was cold, wet and covered in goosebumps. Thankfully it's only a mile or so before you hit the first climb of the day, the aptly named 'Struggle' and by the time I hit the top I find myself warmed up and I've passed about four people, who presumably hadn't spent 5 minutes on the throne.
I've done the Struggle before and the descent down the Kirkstone Pass towards Ullswater is one of my favourites, it's not even 6am and the roads are dead apart from triathletes so I use the whole of the road to take the racing line through the twisting road, the main danger being errant sheep. I use the brakes a little as my hands are still cold but I am screaming past the other riders and register 28th out of 22,394 on the Strava segment. The next 90 minutes is relatively flat with only one major climb before you hit three climbs in fairly quick succession, Newlands, Honister and Whinlatter. There’s some amazing scenery on the first two with Newlands being the one to reveal the days heat being open and offering what little wind there was as assistance.
I’d had a few mechanical dramas in the lead up to the race and took my bike to a local bike shop to get the tubeless tyre plugged, he’d left the fix proud of the tyre and despite me trimming this back I had weird noises all the way , I had stopped a few times already to inspect the tyre finding nothing to explain the noise and also had a couple of pees. When it came to descending Honister, I wasn’t ready to stop again so I attempted the peeing on the bike, I had a little personal space after the climb so worth a try. I got myself to the brink but stage fright struck and I still haven’t managed this feat. So that was another stop that would cumulatively add about 20 minutes to the total ride time.
There’s a bit of a lull after this trio of climbs before you hit the main event of Hardknott at about 80-90 miles and it was just before this that I had another look at the bike and upon inspecting the brakes, the rear brake pad was rubbing quite heavily on the wheel, basically I’d had the brakes lightly applied the whole time! I think the bike guy had either not put the wheel back in straight or I had not had it straight when the caliper was set so I centred the caliper and all was fine. I think it was the prospect of the 33% gradients that finally persuaded me to solve the problem. I’d actually been looking forward to the finale and was disappointed that right in the middle of the best and hardest climb they’d put a water stop, I mean who wants to stop there! The previous one had been on the descent of Honister which was just as bad as it meant going from 40mph to a standstill to collect water that was dribbling out of a large water dispenser thing. Anyway I digress, after the final two big climbs it’s the run for home and there’s one more climb that is unnamed and not that hard but for some mental reason becomes more difficult as it’s not expected I suppose. I get back to transition and I am behind schedule. Swim had been ok if a bit slow but I have wasted a good 30 minutes so far with toilet stops and various faffing about. In transition 2 I continue to waste time, I even pop into the campervan to use the loo and have a drink 😊 all of which was unnecessary and the main issue is that I never prepared any real food beyond sugar which is no longer doing its job.