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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Whey hey!
🙂
RicF, is that you or a young Steve Cram with a Nimbus 2000?
Its me, with I think a Weihrauch HW35.
🙂
Home from the National XC, what a massive day, 6 hours driving, silly amounts of snow and even more mud.
Race went well, I hit my target of top 400, by coming 354th and seemingly mixing it with some decent road guys. The race was the toughest I've run in and still been able to run well. The mud was shin deep and everybody was caked, and I do mean caked. Hopefully some pictures will emerge in the coming days, almost a seen tot be believed in some parts of the course. Calves got super tight on lap 2 and thought the game was up but they eased enough to finish. Running on your toes through mud for 7.6miles is a calf killer! Can't even stretch them easily now.
Warm up was 2 miles but you couldn't do much more than tie toe around, my feet were already freezing as the fields were complete slop and wet mush. After the race the temperature hit you again, and I didn't stop shivering for quite a while. But all in all a good experience and a pleasing result.
Was great to meet Seb who enthusiastically popped up at the end, I had no idea who you were for 30 seconds so sorry if I seemed a bit dozy. Would have been even better if we could have warmed down together but it was one of those "start the car, lets go" kind of days. What a great run by the way mate. You beat one of my team mates who was 150th (1:52 - 800m man). The other guy I mentioned came 100th (he was Cheshire champ). But I bet you have a bucket load of scalps from today.
Yep, Seb, you beat PubPhil,, who was the guy I "race time checked"in my last post. A mixture of your apparent massive XC bias and the conditions being a good leveller!
(i know an amazing runner who was disappointed with 39th!!)
Stevie, sounds a great experience, albeit it one I think you're mad for undertaking, 6hour round trip from where you are?!? But you'e at least up north though! You should certainly be able to rival your mad year of pbs of 2011 though. Trafford 10k is it next?
Have seen the start line and as always looks mental. Long distance for xc too isn't it, is it 7.5 or 8miles or something? Bet that's worth about 10+ on nice flat roads.
The other photos I've seen look like an amazing setting, dusky lighting, snowy mud on the ground, and like some massive car boot sale vibe in the car park!
When is it decided where next year's is? I think it was Seb who said it's Midlands on the rotation, but anyone know exactly where?
And is the South one always at Parliament Hill, or do they have loads of venues in each venue? Has to be a massive venue to take 1,000 in a race!
Presume it wasn't laps?
Parliament Hill is the spiritual home of the nationals down south but it does not have to be there and moves round a few venues. Best I did was at Newark as there was tons of covered space to change in and dry off afterwards. All the ones I have done are laps, generally 3 laps. There are a lot of races from U13 upwards so there is often a small lap and a large lap and races get built up to hit the "standard" distances.
It is getting smaller though: my aim was top 1000 and now that seems to be the field.
good run with Phil in very cold conditions. Thought i'd seen the watch hitting low 7s at one point, but i must have hallucinated it, as average forr the 12 came out 7.37, so a sociable one which was good, and comfortably under the 7.45 limit of easy paced runs.
I get to do a park run this saturday.....so will spend the week deciding which one.
Bus/Phil, if you fancy a little trip out to a certified/good standard/pb potential course we'll arrange something.
Yesterday must give you both some real confidence for the rest of the year. Like SG said, with Trafford 10k coming up, its probably an ideal time for you now Stevie. No pressure.
What's your plans now Seb now the xc has finished?
I raced at the Flower scar fell race yesterday and it seems I keep making a right meal of getting round the correct route.
At this point I was in 4th so I pretty much stopped and said that I hadn't a clue where we were supposed to go so somebody else took it on. About 1/2 mile later there was a good 10 of us plodding on when the shout came we'd ballsed it up. We looked across to the right to see a long line of runners all heading off another way.
Some packed it in there and then and the rest of us tried to dart across the tussocks to get back on track. Twice I went down in bogs covered up to my knees in clay/mud/shite. The bloke behind told me to wrap it up as a bad job and treat it as a training run. Haha.
I went through the next checkpoint in 22nd place
Good recovery from 22nd to 4th there mattl. do you reckon 3rd was possible if you hadn't gone wayward?
This Friday I am popping up to Cambridge to interview the best engineers in the country for a summer intern-ship, then having dinner at High Table at Magdalene, my old college, popping on up to King's Lynn to see my parents and running King's Lynn parkrun (always one word, no capitals) on Saturday.
I had a brief chat with him at the end and he said when he got to the summit and out of site he was hoping to get out of view by the time we reached the top. (The route headed towards some woods) a bit like RicF mentioned before about putting a kick in when out of view.
Some great off-road racing there guys - all three very impressive results! Looking forward to Seb's report. One hell of a day out that Stevie!
Good recovery that Matt ay Flower Scar. Some good photos here:
http://www.woodentops.org.uk/index.php?topic=home&subtopic=morephotos
What's with the one glove look though Matt
Michael Jackson's birthday or something?
Matt, smash that field up! Looks a bit of a hardcore race, Bus would probably froth at the mouth to get involved.
Phil bad timing, Bus, fancy a parkrun (happy now Phil? Applying corporate branding to a supposed non corporate event!) somewhere?
Only ever run in one National XC.
A memento from that day. Number signed by the winner.
13 miles for me this morning.
Conditions so cold I could feel it through all my layers, and this wasn't even High Wycombe.
After one section direct into the wind I stopped and considered the benefits if any. I carried on.
Average pace came out at 7:08's in spite of that.
Matt, putting the boot in while out of sight hasn't always worked for me. On one Coombe Gibbet to Overton race I noticed at the 12 mile point another runner maybe 100 yards back.
As soon as I got out of sight down some twisty section of path, I really cranked it up. It must have been a full 10 minutes later when I turned around to admire my handiwork only to see the guy about 10 yards behind me. Bugger!
So with one mile to go 4th place became 5th.
🙂
The Nationals as I've known them have been at Parliament hill, which is a pretty demanding course. All championship courses are thought and usually around 12-13K. Yesterdays was 7.5 miles. 3 long laps, and by then the course is turned up nicely after having every other age group run over it. Onwards to Trafford 10K now.
No long run today, had wanted to do 90 mins but I'm very stiff and sore so won't make the same mistake I made after Leeds. Feels strange not doing anything long for a week. Might go out and do an easy 3-4 later.
Matt, what a recovery from 22nd back to 4th! What were conditions like? That's what puts me off the fells. Conditions like yesterday, but the added 'fun' of not knowing where to go! ... no thanks!
Little report... Epic weekend by all accounts! only got back about an hour ago having stayed in a travelodge near yorkshire national park last night.
So my ankle injury had been recovering fairly well this week after 49miles last week and I thought Id have Thurday off running, a little jog on Friday and race Saturday. However after working on a roof for a few hours Thursday the ankle flared up again and I was dubious of a good race performance and I was always going to run whatever the ailment.
I was supposed to drive all the way to Sunderland and back on my own (400mile round trip) as the team car was full, but several dropped out at the last minute so got a lift which was of great help. On the way upto Sunderland my father rang me from the event to say 1" of snow had fallen overnight and it was snowing heavily. This was news to us as there was no snow forecast and no snow for the first 100miles of the trip, this would benefit me as I fare better the tougher the conditions.
So we got to the race well fuelled, hydrated and Ibuprofen'd up after multiple rest stops en-route and the general club tent area was in rather poor condition, very slushy with abit of mud underneath, little walk of the course and it looked reasonable, not too muddy, some road crossings but nothing too difficult. Warm Up was difficult as Stevie See said, you feet just froze, I only did just over a mile with a fast 400m or so tagged on the end, changed socks and into spikes, ran to the start and only had to wait one minute before we were off.
There was about a minute of running before the first turn where everyone would start to bunch up and as planned a fast start worked very well to get out of the masses, the first 800 going by at 5:20pace, I backed off at this point so as the fast start had done its job and didnt want to generate too much lactic acid, going through 1 mile in 5:35 . Then we hit Mud, lots of it! I dont know what the women had done to the course after my walk of some of the course, but I knew It was going to be tough form then on, the course had some rolling hills in it of a medium variety which spiced things up, and I was soon running with several people I knew, that I had never beaten before and it felt easy, I just knew to conserve the energy for the following laps... Mile 2 was 6:14
Then the quagmire of mud started to develop, by the 2nd lap it became evident this was going to be an epic race, about 4" mud in most places. We were already covered from head to toe in mud, even over my face. Some of the course was off camber and I nearly fell several times on the slushy snow by trying to find better ground. I was battling with my clubmate and we were to-ing and fro-ing but dragging each other along in the process. working well up the hills we were holding our postion well and I hear the cries of specators shouting to various athletes 170th, 180th etc so I knew we were running very well. Miles 3, 4 & 5 were 6:18 (170ft climbing), 6:35 & 6:16
Onto the last lap with spectators jingling bells and hollering the mud got to over 6" deep in places, someone I floated over it well, sometimes I sank! I was trailing right on my clubmates tail still and we started to put more effort in, digging deep and began overtaking tiring runners, pulling away from the guys I knew I'd never beaten before. We both were saving energy for a push to the finish (mile 6, 6:35 and mile 7 6;29) but I couldnt quite catch him as we pushed up a little slope to the finish line.
As I crossed the line my legs seized badly, they were destroyed. calfs seized, shinsplit type aching, ankle stiff and aching, head to toe mud with freezing blocks instead of feet. EPIC. The best bit being
Can't parkrun (TM, 2008, other runs in the park are available) next Saturday I'm afraid SG - Mrs is away, so I'm on the full childcare duties unfortunately.
All those hard off-road hills last week, soft be, the slow drive back and all on top of Wokingham, have done nothing for my back, which is very sore at the moment. That, combined with the freezing conditions outside, mean I'm really looking forward to my long run later
164th place (aim sub 300!) and a great long race of 7.61 miles (6:16avg.) in gruelling condition.
I went 100yards from the finish to look for Stevie See finishing, which he did in due course spinting to the line with unmistakable hair and club vest! I collared him soon after, maybe too soon! to say Hi and chat about the tough race.. good to meet you Stevie and great running accomplishing your goal! then I hobbled off to get warm and do a warmdown of 1.2 miles which helped alot.
Back to travelodge 30miles away, nice shower and good pub meal in Richmond, not the London Richmond! and a well deserved beer or two. A great weekend, certainly scalped many a decent runner, to nearly cap off a very successful XC season... 1 race to go, the Inter-counties XC in two weeks.
Good run Matt! love the fell running antics, navigation on the go is impossible! I've got 3 to 5 fell races planned this year with the first in 5 weeks or so.
It also looks like I've made a bad attempt at fake tanning one leg. Took me nearly half an hour to get all the mud off.
The conditions were cold so underfoot it was solid in places. Left over bits of snow here and there but pretty decent apart from that.
Seb, you actually make xc seem an enjoyable experience reading your report.
6:16 ave, nice going, think mine was circa 6:45 ish. But as I mentioned my GPS had died, it obviously didn't fancy it! Was nice to meet you, and I'll take the unmistakable hair as a compliment!
We'll have a proper chat when it's not 1 degree and we're covered in half of Herrington Park! Looking forward to seeing how you mix it up in the intercounties. I wish I had warmed down, as I'm sore today, but I just couldn't move once I stopped yesterday.
In a sick kind of way, I wish the XC season wasn't over. I've missed pretty much all of it. Ah well, next year... top 250 in the Nationals is the target. It will be in the midlands next year, but I hear Alton Towers have already said they won;t do it again. Where else has it been?
Bus, this passed me by first time but... Abingdon!! Yes lad, I can live my marathon life through your eyes now!
The past races are all on
http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=17
This has to be the business to be in:
http://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/qD
maxi Fuel 10k, £18 a pop, 131 entrants = £2,358
No quality at all, winner 35 minutes, only 4 sub 40.
haha the winner is me and DT2's pal...I'm sure he'll be delighted to be referred to as having "No quality"
Good report Seb - sorry to have interrupted it witha cross post! One of those races that you and Stevie will be able to tell your grand kids about (or bore future forumites with when you're both winning vets prizes
)
You can aways come and join me at abingdon Stevie - you've got more marathon training in the bag than I have at the moment
Just back from a 14.3 road run. Struggled to keep it to 7.30 pace! Legs very tired after 8 days of hilly running on the trot, with 55M and 5000 feet this week.
The race: 35 minutes at Chicester would have got you 74th, 40 minutes 221st. I am sure that a win by 2:54 didn't help him at all.
of course it won't look too special when compared to one of the highest quality field 10ks in the country
It's interesting with this chap...we first met at the dreadful corporate Hotel Olympia race in about 09. Great facilities by one company, terrible race/marshalling by another. He beat me by about a second or 2 (me 37.03) Then I next saw him pop up a fair bit later with 2x 34.59 (!) and I thought, that's him gone, out of my league...but now i currently hold the advantage, but he has a very tasty 2:40 marathon to his name! Will be interesting to see how his next half comes out shortly.
And needless to say if you can do 35.00 on the dot as a solo time trial, that'sonly gonna get better with a race.
ps Seb, sorry pal, haven't given your XC the credit it deserves...cracking pal. Normally i haven't a clue how to quantify offroad stuff, but the guy I mentioned earlier that you beat is a real contender, so if you're smashing him you're well away.
Need to put something down on the road though, or all my critics from the last couple of years will find a new target, ie you
Matt superb recovery. Looks like you are unique to this thread that you smash out quality both on and off the road.
Seb outstanding, surely it's time to switch your training to put some fire under your road PBs. What a Xc season!
Stevie see - whoah! What a result. You beat a club mate who has a 34.30 & 76. I think you're in for a good yr off the back of this big training. Fully deserved result yesterday. Top man
Cheers Deano!
Saw a City of Stoke geezer floating about and thought, "I best beat him cos Dean will have the low-down on him and if he's slower than me I'm gonna hate myself for not pushing it." A nice little feather to the cap.
I plodded out a 3.5 mile recovery earlier then 30 mins rolling, stretching and the like. Feel a bit more loose now. It all starts again tomorrow for a 4mile AM run.
That's an impressive scalp!
Just catching up after a week in Cornwall, so apologies if I miss anything...
Great stuff by both Seb and SS in the nationals. It's always difficult to tell where you stand after a cross country race (says the man who's run one XC race since the early 90s), but it looks like both of you are bang in form and are going to do some serious rewriting of PBs very soon.
Mattl, moving from 22nd to 4th must be a great deal of fun. Well done on pulling back from what could have been a race killing error. Again, looking forward to seeing what you can do on the road.
Bus, I shall see you at Abingdon. At least with this one you can swap numbers officially if you have second thoughts, but hopefully you won't. I see Ben Fish is on the list. Wonder what the course record is?
Only managed three runs while down in Cornwall, an 8, 6 and 10, all easy. The plan beforehand was to go up to the abandoned Davidstow airfield and do reps like last time I was there, and maybe also do some hill reps up a couple of the tors on Bodmin Moor (Rough Tor and Brown Willy, the latter only so I could claim on this thread that I'd spent a couple of hours going up and down Brown Willy). However, with a hip still a little on the sore side, and with high winds throughout the week, particularly in those very exposed places, I thought better of it. Made up for it with a 16 at 6:55 pace back in Reading though.
Dachs, you running a spring marathon or just Abo in the autumn?
Race Jase who pops in from time to time did 105 miles last week (102 the week before) and ended with 22 miles including 12 @ 5:35 pace. Nice guy, pity he is a Bradford City fan, not a nice way for a dream to end.
bus, we need to sort out a few long runs towards the end of summer in preparation for marathons. Yesterday was a good chat with SG but route was boring as hell. I was thinking of maybe running the Chiltern marathon as a long slow run: http://www.chilternmarathon.org.uk/