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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Was at Battersea again last night for the Sri Chinmoy 5k; perfect conditions this time as cool with no real wind of note and the rain had stopped. Was the same format as the previous week with 4 waves of about 40; elite, then under 50 women only, then under 50 men, then the oldies. The format is perfect for me as I start in the last wave, but that justifies me being right on the start line and having the satisfaction of passing lots from waves 2 and 3 as I go round (don't think I caught any elites from Wave 1 though
The previous week was a lot warmer and I messed up the 4th k a bit with a 4 min time, so was determined to run the rest just as hard, but properly focus when I hit the 3k marker. Off to a decent start about 4th in my wave, (the leader of it being a ridiculously fast guy I know who ran 16'35 as a 54 year old!). Was quickly catching some from the earlier waves, though never felt crowded, and through a k in 3'39 felt about right. The next few crept up bit by bit to 3'44, 3'48, 3'52 (despite the extra care on this one, though still 8 secs better than last week). Into the final k I knew I should beat the previous weeks 18'57 so gave it 100% to knock out a 3'33 and come home in 18'36. Fastest 5k for a long time, but was in Next % 2 shoes on a super fast course and in perfect conditions.
The standard just as amazing as ever; only 63rd of 141 with my time, 6 15'xx finishers and about 2/3rds of the field sub 20. a V60 ran a 17'29 which is scarcely credible. Good night out overall, as went with a clubmate so stopped for beers on the way home and even caught up with Simon briefly while he was prepping for his track race.
So - I like this Vets meeting, as I can watch the 5k while i'm warming up . A guy from our club won in 15.15, and the fastest woman was also HHH, in 16.29.
So the 1500 was another front run job - 67 first lap, 2.17 at 800 which wasn't too bad, but lost some time in that vital 300 to the bell, which I went through in 3.11. Tried to speed up on the last lap, but ended up with 4.21 on my watch. Was pretty breezy and disappointed no to be sub 4.20. Although I was quite happy that my leg was OK - I could feel the stiffness in the quad, but I didn't have to stop at least.
Decent 4 x 400 leg too, felt good.
Pete you struck gold with that format and all in experience by the sound of it. Definitely sounds more conducive to a good time than the Battersea Park formats I had recently - though I don't want to exhaust the excuse locker just midway through the year
But it's just essential to have similar pace people - as otherwise you're going past people, and thinking that's enough without quite pushing on.
Simon, you in vets races is almost a cheat mode. Although I suppose you don't get many casuals in a track race, in these times?
Off to a Dashers sesh tonight. Wouldn't usually do speed stuff 2 days after races, but it won't be all in, and it's 2.5 days I suppose.
Plus it's good to keep in with a few pals and be borderline social for the first time in 18months etc.
Some odd format round a 380m grass loop, of a couple of 2x3mins (90sec), 2x4mins (2mins), 2x3mins (90secs), then a final 2mins glory run.
I'll set off similar to what I did for the 5x5mins last week and see how that pans out.
Our top 2 current boys will be there to keep me humble this week, and luckily for everyone It looks likely to be fairly cool for the time of year, and potentially overcast/bit rainy, so that'll ensure this brother's vest stays on
Not ideal clashing with the England game, so i might be sitting in my car in a carpark in Windsor watching the second half on my phone (presuming it works!). Or using half time to try and get back for the last 20-25mins, we will see
I've barely watched England, all the woke nonsense pre kick off has put me off.
Did a bit of faster running today, 9 miles all in with 5k easy then 3 x 2k with 1k easy in between. Cut it a mile short by walking home as my calf was a bit sore. Progressed from a stiff opening 7:56 to 7:15 for the last one. HR was a bit high though.
SG - Not really cheat mode -remember I'm at the top of the 35-49 group, I was 2nd in the 800 at Sandy and 2nd in both in the 8 & 3 at Hillingdon. Not getting it all my own way
Dasher session was decent. Had our two sharpest guys there. 15.46 5k guy and another guy who could be similar, but hard to tell as he's not put anything like that in since teen days.
Decided I'd not try and be a hero and push my luck with them, so had a strange no-man's land position miles off them (relatively speaking on a 380m grass track!) and miles ahead of the next.
It all opens up by a couple of laps in though and it's all a free for all.
Our 15.46 guy had worked a bit hard on Sunday so dropped out midway and our fast woman joined for rep 2, and I managed not to get lapped, and to extend my margin over her, so all good really
Was just off to get back decently for the 2nd half of the England game when one of our guys came over asking for jump leads...battery dead.
DOH...
Luckily more practical types than me were just about still about, but I helped push the car and make sure he was ok, before finally leaving and getting the last 25mins...
Next week is awkward as well. 5pm kick off, so I can get say 20mins into the 2nd half before I need to get over there...might be best to set off the second the first half has ended, and then watch the last 20 or so pre session and hope it doesn't go to extra time!
ps is it me, or do races seem to take forever to get to PO10 these days?
I'm sure a weekend race was always on there by Monday. Now you tend to get to midday Wed and it's still not up, even when it's chip timed and however small a race it is.
I do appear to have done at least one race every year since 2010 so I better find one this year.
So e.g. for 10,000m on the track the A target is 29:00.00 and B is 31:40.00
Pick a regular year, so e.g. 2018,
https://www.thepowerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=10000&agegroup=ALL&sex=M&year=2018
and we had 9 faster than A, most at Parliament Hill and the night of the PBs. Saw that Alex Yee there, Olympic medalist? Also had 100 exactly faster than B.
Alex Yee has a great chance if he can stay in touching distance off the bike, he's probably 30 seconds quicker than anyone else.
Looks nice having the sub 5 on the record, and also having a second distance for the year on there!
Need to pad that out with a few more distances before 2021 is up.
8.5miler this morn. Standard choice of route, puffing up the grassy bank midway, and usual mile or so recovering from it. But 7.19 all in showing a lot of it is fairly standard fare.
Wot he said...
Classic 5k pyramid. 200m-400m-600m-800m-1k and down, off 90secs.
Back to monitoring splits after a few weeks of the Dasher "efforts" that are impossible to quantify on times due to the grassy loops.
Didn't smash it, but ran as it felt, and ended up as
35-77-1.59-2.46-3.33-2.44,2.00,74,34
Usual gentle ease off in paces as the distances get higher as you'd expect, with perhaps a bit too much on the 1k, but bar the very marginal 600m difference, and we're talking the difference of 50/100s of a second, all quicker on the way "down" which is what you always want.
Need to get a little more pace in the legs on these, but always satisfying to get the solo morning track stuff done.
8 x 800 off 80 for us, was going ok at about 2.29's until had to have the dreaded poo stop, so 7 minute break in the middle. Including getting to the bogs!
Loop round Windsor on the bike for me this morning, as I was on the TT bike it was over so quickly that I did a 5k run off the bike to top it up a bit.
400-800-1200-1600-2000.
10k of effort, probably averaging out at 10k sort of pace, but clearly the shorter ones would be quicker and 2km probably dipping into threshold sort of level
Considering a Jubilee River up and down tomorrow, following the Maidenhead to Windsor Thames Path a couple of weeks back.
It's quite samey in fairness! Very similar footing and views the whole way - well, to the end of the Slough bit, I'd used 6.5miles getting there, so thought I best not cross the road and do the last Windsor bit or it'd turn into a very longun.
Nice to try different things, but by the time I got going, 1hr 30+ run, and 2x20 odd min drives, it was well past 1 by the time I was back.
I went to the Lakes for a few days camping from Saturday to Wednesday, not expecting much after a hamstring meltdown the Tuesday before. It wasn't too bad as it happens - weather was really good, I managed some cracking walks and even got a couple of proper fell runs! So much so, that this week has seen a total of 40M of running (the most since March!) and almost 7000ft of climbing, plus another 22M and 6,000ft of walking (or not quite one day's activity for Jools or Reg
Not out of the woods yet, as its a bit sore after a 12 miler today, but only to be expected after this week and I'm confident it'll ease off enough to run again by Tuesday.
I had to put in a few extra miles over the weekend: the mileage target I have for 2021 is 2021 miles which isn't too hard and I'm about 60 miles ahead of schedule but I ran 171 miles in February and I'm stubborn and don't want to run less in other months. In theory, that is quite easy so 4 weeks of 40 miles and then 2 or 3 days extra to add the extra 10. June looked fine but I realised I did a long one on Monday, May 31st and that was showing in my 40 miles weeks but didn't count for June.
I seem to get a lot of emails and placed adverts for virtual races. I noticed that in the last few weeks I have had about half a dozen inviting me to be part of a record-breaking attempt for the most runners to race a virtual race. They all seem to follow the same sort of spiel:
Seems like a way of selling a £10 t-shirt and medal for £40 to me.
Bus - sounds a good trip ad well done on the weight loss.
Decent weekend - 8 x 800 over on the nice grass of Wrest Pk Saturday am. Averaged 2.26 I reckon, better than on the track Thursday. Nice to see Kimpton for the first time in ages, seemingly ambling around his 2.20's - don't know how he does it.
Ran over to Stadium MK with my rucksack Sunday morning, about 10 hilly miles to watch Rob and Pete who were doing it to get in the Chester masters qualification. They did 2.36 and 2.40 respectively. Decent pint and breakfast after
Weird weather, really warm and humid leaving LB, much breezier and cooler in MK, then nice again anywhere out of the wind.
Glad to hear that the Lakes went well Bus.
Seems to work PMJ though not going to get any of our ££ that way.
Quiet week for me though I have been out every day & managed 38M in all + a 2K swim but no biking.
Biggest run of 9M yesterday & (Not)parkrun Saturday in 21:08.
Track session at lunch of 3x3'/4x2' off a minute into 5x1' off 45s. Increased the pace throughout the 3' & 2' reps & went faster still for the 1' reps although the perfect progression went awry by the 3rd.
Here's my report of the SWT.
Orange juice and muesli is an interesting combo.
There was me thinking ooh is the scenic 7 that the murder mile lot put on, in the little park I got a little lost in on a cool down in 2019 a bit hilly and far and you're booting out 18 hour wanderlust jobs!
I suspect your days of super-long runs in the hills are just beginning