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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Haha SG, I did think it might sound a little like a beer mile. Definitely not the case! I enjoy your tales of getting lost on long runs, and PMJ’s responses even more 😊.
Great tri racing, Reg. I thought of you and others I know when I saw the rain pouring. What were paths like for the run? Seem to remember you not being very lucky with this during a previous version. Still, impressive time even given the distance. You seem to be in good shape for the forthcoming long distance.
Excellent social combined with running SC. Living the dream.
You’ve not had much luck this calendar year, TR. Hope a concentration on some shorter stuff might help you.
Currently having some sleeping issues with our youngest, with our ‘blackout’ blinds simply not doing the job. So plenty of 0445 wake up calls. I don’t mind, to be honest, and it is quite pleasant to pop him in the buggy so he and the rest of the house can get some sleep. A useful time to do a recovery run without impacting the day, but my god have they been slow: 10m/m!
Friday 200s on the grass track near home, before a couple of longer runs over the weekend. 11M on the canal at around 7:55 pace, before 9M up, along and down the Cotswold escarpment on Sunday. 1000ft of climbing in one hit. Really enjoyed it and good training for the forthcoming Bourton Hilly Half.
Back to the school grass track today: 5 x 800 (2:58s), 4 x 400 (1:25s) off 60s recoveries, then 2 x 100 with a walk in between. Good session and definite progress from the initial track sessions after Easter.
As with last Wednesday’s race, my insulin pump came off. I choose to attach it to my upper outer arm and I guess during the 100m sprints or an all out race effort I tense my (tiny) triceps a little too much for its liking. A pain, in both senses of the word, but sure I can find a solution.
Reading along & enjoyed it all, bar Bus' hammy woes.
Chapeau to Reg for his casual podium spot at Cotswold 113 at a restrained pace
Decent turnout from SG too.
Week away in Devon & Cornwall.
Most notable run was a midweek 20 miler along the SWCP from Hartland Quay to Westward Ho! Over 4,000' of elevation & an absolute scorcher of a day so not fast. Stunning bit of coastline.
Just 5.7 miles of N.Devon left now
This was a walk from Hartland on the Friday. Lundy on the horizon.
Did 15 miles of Camel trail & country lanes round Bodmin Sunday for a 57M week.
Just 5M lunch runs the last 2 days. Final Hereford 5K race tomorrow evening.
Well done on taking one for the family with the littlun/sleep scenario. One of the many scenarios that must make it much harder with kids etc. It can be hard enough just getting out as it is sometimes.
Jools - you live the dream at times, lovely view.
Which Rose Inn 4(s) are the 2 of you in for?
I still can't quite force myself to commit to one. The July double header with the Scenic 7 clashes with the local Marlow 5k, which might be more birthday type fare, with loads of clubmates local pals around. And the June one, is well, 6 days away. I'm probably thinking more a drive up and back on the day if I did make a late call on that one.
Anyway, had another turnout last night, race 13 of the year, so best get it up.
Slight suggestions of that one being slightly short, although always hard to tell in that series, meant I wanted to get a guaranteed certified po10 friendly 5k in asap, and BP is a great course.
Last year I peaked at 17.32 for 5k, not really hitting the heights, in what was a weird year of primarily distanced events. I had 3 turnouts at BP, 17.32, 17.37 and 17.43, all solid, but it's clear I'm at a higher plane this year, and feel I'm in and around 2018 form, which was my best year since the pbs a decade or so back. Better 5m and 10m, not "too" far off at HM, and some strong 10ks, albeit didn't race any in 2018. However, that year I did do a 16.56 and 17.00 5k.
Battersea Park 5ks for Sri Chinmoy have always been Monday evenings for as long as I've done them, but this year are all Tuesdays. And slightly oddly set as every week in June, nothing in July, and then 1 single one in August. So I was keen to make sure I banked one asap.
Getting to BP is always mission number 1. Last trip there was on my bday, mid July, for one of the the worst drives ever. Stormy heavy rain, with lanes of dual carriageways basically swimming pools, and no go zones. Slightly scary drive that was, arriving with about 15 mins to the start.
Yet oddly, the race was run in decent conditions and course was pristine!!
Pete was there that day and unfortunate to arrive even later!
Anyway, this year I'd worked a bit later on Monday evening, to get going last night asap at 5pm. Google suggested a 1hr 15 or so drive, which meant there's not huge room for delays, to still pick the number up, warm up, not be rushed etc.
Usual weird sensations on the drive, first half goes decently, then the last 8miles or so takes about 35mins, peaking at 10mins for the last mile! They've chucked in some 20 mile per hour zones right outside BP which must be new.
Arrived at 6.20ish then, parked easily, into the gear and quick jog to go and fetch the number.
Feels quite a good atmosphere. Loads of fit and fast women about, so much so that I wonder if it's some sort of local championship type fare. In reality it's probably just race 1 of the first proper series here in a few years.
Couple of miles warm up nicely banked, and pitstops etc all sorted. Although I did wonder what one weird guy was doing loitering near a bush in non running gear. Got out of the situation quickly as his demeanour screamed "dogger"
As always, I hit the start grid last min, and it's utterly rammed. With no chip timing, you can't afford to start too far back. I usually start wide right, on the start line, and have to do a mad storm across wise. Instead, I go wide left, starting slightly dodgily half blocked by a bin, but still ok.
Standard on the front line looks fast though.
And so it proves, I'm off decently, ducking under a couple of branches and making quips about being "too lanky" for this course, and I'm already what feels like "miles" back, and plenty are storming by.
No idea of the position yet, but I must be a good 40 back within the first 400m.
Relax a little and re-assure myself that I'm actually going really well, so forget them.
Course starts about 0.15m from where the finish line is, so you do 2 full laps, and then that bit.
A sweeping left past the finish line takes you on the route towards the Band Stand, and a while after that it's that key 1km marker.
I'm pleased to clock 3.19, as although last Tuesday's race didn't have km markers so I have no comparison, I know I seemingly couldn't break 3.30 for a first km last summer.
There seem to be loads in and around me this far in.
Two very notable characters are around. One guy who keeps looking round every few seconds. I eventually worked out that he must be pacing someone, as he kept making comments to what seemed like no-one in particular, and didn't seem to be operating too hard for the pace we were putting in. I'm still not certain who he was pacing though!
Another was a lady in stripes, who I can honestly say in almost 300 races, I've never seen or heard anything like it.
Her physical style is best described as Paula Radcliffe on acid. Not just head bobbling, but aggressively heading imaginary footballs repeatedly.
That's odd enough, but she's shrieking CONSTANTLY. Ohhh, ahhhh, oooooo, ewwwww, ahhhhhh, alternating between sounding in pure pleasure and then pure agony.
While she's clearly gone out way too hard for her level, it's slowly dawning on me that she's going to be pretty close to me , and I'm stuck with this absolute mad noise for the whole race
Honestly it's so weird, and you can tell people are wondering what on earth. The voice in my head is screaming "SHUT THE HELL UP", but it's not worth the awks or the energy to shout that
2nd km is a decent 3.25, and then we're past the finish for the "last lap" as some guy shouts out as we go past
3rd km is 3.29, so it's slowing but I know I'm in a decent place overall, though I'm certainly not trying to do any maths.
Screamer woman is still around, as is pacing boy, but it's a case of keep going hard as possible.
It's certainly harder conditions than Burnham last week, warm and sticky, versus strangely ideal ones after a day of heavy rain last week.
Round past the Band stand, turn left, and round past the footy pitches, and I've actually missed the 4km marker, but I can feel i've slightly dropped a gear. However, I know the next split will be a mile one rather than km.
I'm ahead of screamer, put a decent 50-100m in now, but if anything, her mad screams are getting louder from a distance, SAKE!
Into the last km, and I almost hallucinate the 2km marker as being 4km, but luckily it's not.
Mile split comes up as 5.45, which is hard to make any sense of at all, in a 5k race where the first 3 spltis were km
Round the last turn, and the glorious finish line.
Storm over, and I suspect the time will round at 17:16
Glad to get a decent one in after last summer's lack of top gear. Hopefully there's a bit more to come off that later in the summer, maybe pushing towards the golden sub 17?
Had a chat with the screamer after to see if she was "alright"
Just doesn't like 5ks apparently! Well, none of us "like" them when in a race, but we're not as vocal, sheash!
I was obviously working hard, as I'd remembered her as being in a striped black and white Fulham vest.
In the post race reality, it was blue and white stripes, and vertical not horizontal!!
However, the noise levels weren't to be mistaken
Knackering 4miler at 8 pace today, and on we go
67th (!) out of 217.
I knew the standard felt high, but that's madness.
I can’t do July’s Rose Inn as it’s my 10K race that evening: places still available btw. Think I’ll do next week’s though.
Final Hereford 5K tonight.
Felt rubbish all day: tired, tickly throat & runny nose; so wasn’t expecting much.
Windy & sticky evening too.
Numbers were down this evening. Went out reasonably hard but not as insanely fast as last month. Half mile splits were 3:03/3:03/3:03 & through halfway in 19:27. Could I hold on for an 18:XX? Next split is always slowest with being uneven ground, tight turn into the wind & slight gradient: 3:09. I can hear heavy breathing behind so I push hard: 3:07 & now it’s just a K to go. 3:05 for the final half-mile & over the line in 19:02. Fastest time as an MV50 😎
Figure my chip’s broken (1 bib for all 3 races) but then discover I’d picked up the wrong one at 6am this morning. I’d pinned my Shakespeare Marathon number on instead 😆 Fortunately they’ve agreed to add me in manually.
Ran Wave 2 afterwards as a progressive tempo starting 100m behind the tail runner.
Nice racing SG, getting back close to peak SG, hopefully we'll see that coming down to 17:0x and then perhaps threaten that PB.
Nice session SQ, the paths were not too bad, slippery in places and congested as usual, probably the equivalent of a slightly crappy parkrun. I was running 6:0x pace on the open road bits but only 6:30 ish on the country park bits.
I mentioned my HR was about 8-10 beats up on an easy run at the beginning of the week and I was right something wasn't right. Had a stomach bug or something and been in bed a lot and on the throne almost as much. Feeling a bit better today but still far from right. Hoping to get out on the bike later but no guarantees.
That number is so high up, it's almost on your chin
Glad they sorted it though, reasonable race organisers are like that though.
V50 best time is notable too. Sounds like a less than ideal build up feelings wise too. Although I must admit, feeling warm, a bit stressy and wondering about borderline throatiness is probably my standard build up
I think I might actually think more about the August Rose Inn now.
Ta Reg, it's nice to comfortably see off last year's 5k peak very early doors this summer. Hopefully a bit more to come. It's felt like a great year so far, enjoyable, and satisfying time wise, and hopefully a notch up can be gained.
A reasonable plan is probably get 1 or 2 more of the sociable/giggles local 5k summer series stuff in, and get a couple more proper po10 5ks in.
There's a couple of tour events planned too, and a Dashers mile in there too, so should be good fun.
I wonder if I might need track instead of my from the door stuff to hit the higher paces. Not sure to be honest.
I was doing track last year for no better than 1732 last year and have hit 1716 without it, so maybe not?
Reg - the beauty of the HR tracking that is. You can "feel" something is wrong, but that's proper proof.
Covid makes the news, but we're all now remembering there's plenty of other bugs, cold and viruses dotting about. Hopefully bores off soon.
Good news is: I now figure on the results.
That 17.16 gives me sighting of the magical 80% barrier with 79.39%
I either need to squeeze down 8 seconds to 17.08 before mid July.
Or alternatively take 1 second off for 17.15 after mid July.
Certainly seems easier to hit higher WAVA at the shorter distances from the below times this year.
5m 28.30 78.09
10k 35.46 77.49
10m 58.57 76.99
HM 1.17.54 77.07
It'd take a 1.15.37 to match the 17.16 5k wava, which is ahead of my actual pb by 4 seconds.
Probably doable for a 5k, but wouldn't have been wise any further I suppose.
I'm not convinced a 17.16 5k is way better than the other results for longer distances, I suspect it's simply a case that elite runners peak younger the lower the distance, so the measurement is skewed on that.
However, I'll take it
Good race Jools - race cock ups happen to us all. Hope you and Reggie are back to 100% soon.
Coach is off this week, so did a 20 x 400 session near mine and the slightly slopey field - in an out and back fashion. Grass is short, but definitely think it's good training as the small tarmac bit felt so much easier!
Double day yesterday, no London trip though thankfully, soaked in a thunderstorm in the evening though. Probably do the old 30 x 200 later.
Southern Athletics league at Battersea Sunday (1500) and then the trek to Hillingdon in the Southern masters Monday (800, 3,000 and possibly relay)
SG - nice one on the 5k, you are getting into good shape. The benefits of regular racing ? I think my shorter race SAGA scores are the highest, i dont even target them either, just use them as training.....probably somerhing to be learned from that.
Healrh is improving, ive a trail 5m and lumpy 10k in the next vouple of weeks which will give me a chance to give it some welly and see how i go.
I've always thought those race comparison calculators are optimistic from long to short, and they're probably tied in with wava to some extent.
I mean how can a 17.16 5k be the equivalent in any way of a 1.15.37 half for goodness sake.
What would my 16.53 be then? 1.14 or so?
Maybe it's just out for me. Doubt it though.
However, you nailed it with your assessment, when you're going well, and doing loads of races it just seems to flow.
Fingers crossed your comeback starts a similar period for you.
I've the master spreadsheet, saved on 2 laptops, then 2 folders crammed with past race numbers.
It's all very anorak, but along with fb photos of the race pics, is superb for motivation and memories.
Just added a bunch of pics from Tuesday's 5k.
Annoyingly the finish line one has the guy 1 sec in front, the guy 2 secs behind, some guy who has dropped out metres from the line to the far side, but they've somehow managed to miss me out, what must be a metre out of shot. Seems weird they didn't have the camera at the angle to cover all runners coming in. Although with 67 runners storming in between 14.59 and 17.16, many in clusters, dare say it's not that easy.
The trouble with keeping these things in a folder for me is you're stuck doing it forever. Still ill here, I have a 100 mile closed roads gran fondo cycling 'race' on Sunday that's starting to look doubtful. You can qualify to represent GB (age-group obviously) if you do well, don't think I would bother with that but it would be nice to be eligible.
I remember the disappointment when my mate who used to love keeping all his stuff in a similar fashion just threw his folder away. I knew from that moment he was probably finished as a running keeno, and unfortunately so it proved. Shame as he had a decent potential to climb into. Never mind.
By decent luck, having raced Tuesday, and feeling quite tired after actually having a full day in the office for once, I was pleased to see 6x300m, the shortest of all the sessions was the one today on the plan.
You can take 2-3mins recovery, so it's a work very hard job during.
i went with 2.30, and on the road as always, first one across grass.
53,54,52,54,54,52 sort of fare.
All nicely sub 4.50 pace so decent mile training, as I'll do one of those soon and hope to bank another sub 5.
Work have started doing some sort of mileage challenge for the co. Hit xxx miles and the co donates xxx etc.
There is meant to be voucher prizes for the top 3 individuals too.
I did ask the obvious question of whether this is on miles or minutes!!
Obviously if it's on miles it's game over, a cyclist could batter any runner's total with a casual weekend doddle.
They say it's on minutes, but I can't see anywhere that records those, just the miles...oh well, i'm sure they can sort it!!
My 30 x 200's yesterday with the 10,20,30 recoveries went ok, some other LBAC were over there too doing some speedwork, so that was nice.
Something a bit different tonight, fancied watching the Marston 5k, over between the M1 and Bedford, so i'm getting dropped off in Woburn and running/reccieing my leg of the Greensand ridge relay for next week. The race is just a couple of miles from the end of the leg. Plus a bar and Barbie at the race too. About 10 in total. With a rucksack, but that will be ok.
Medals wise, i'll definitely keep the London and Berlin marathon ones, plus the two Euro bronzes from Denmark and the England Gold from Derry.
Now Derry Girls has finished I can stop annoying the missus by saying 'My guest house was over there!' all the time
Probably nice feeling when done though.
I've seen all of the Derry Girls episodes but think I view it in a two screens sort of doing something else at the same time way, so hadn't even heard that expression!
As an example, if you take
Wayde van Niekerk, world 400m record holder, 43.03, 6 foot and 154 pounds
Eliud Kipchoge, world marathon record holder, 2:01:39, 5 for 6 and 115 pounds
They are very different people but if they enter their world records into a calculator and ask for predictions what can the calculator do other than say they can equal the world record across all distances?
I’m guessing SC’s referring to the guest house he stayed in when racing for his Gold bling, which was presumably visible in each episode. Never even heard of the show, let alone seen it, so I could be making it up.
Still suffering today & I’ve added a cough to the malaise