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The Middle Ground
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Nice sessions DT. I am avoiding speedwork as it tends to trigger my foot issues.
70+ on the bike last week, including a hard 20+ km group ride on Sat which we sandwiched between an open water coached swim session and a 5k run. Monday morning was 8.3 miles at MP which felt pretty good.
Just went with the work run club, 2x (4x2min on 60secs) longer break after the first 4. Absolutely destroyed me, number 7 was agony and I flaked out on the 8th and cruised it home.
Afternoon all.
I've not been around here much recently as running has, to be honest, been a bit shit the past coupe of weeks!
Holiday followed by cricket at the weekend and then stupidly injuring my hip/groin has meant not much running going on at all. Luckily I am at base training stage of the year (opposite to everyone else I know, but with cricket in the mix I have decided to dial down my running over the summer anyway) but frustrating anyway!
JGav... yep, indeed! It's marking season for me. :-(
Talking of which.... marked all day at home today so didn't manage anything... not even my usual commit. However, I did get out for a swim with the club last night - usually can't make it due to dad's taxi duties ...but it's half term. :-)
So tell mevthis Dr Dan, how badly do students with atrocious hand writing suffer with exam paper marking?
Yes, just enjoy the mix Andrew.
spin and pump combo last night followed by 5k at recovery this morning. Then 10 miles tonight with 6 at my steady 160 bpm efgort. came out 6.39 for 161 but was really tough going in what was ridiculous humidity. Still sweating now.
Swam this morning, hip is playing up after runs, just going to monitor and keep the distances down for the moment.
DT ... bad handwriting is a pain for the msrker but in the end it's the content. Very very occasionally it's so bad you can't mark it at all... but we have systems for this involving transcription services.
Dr Dan, are you going to start a mara schedule soon? I've always wondered how it worked as I have terrible handwriting and of course that worsens in exam conditions. in uni I was advised for exams to only wrote single sided and underline every piece of caselaw or key point.
15.5 today to give 46 for week. I couldn' get put until 10 by 10 miles it was warming up nicely. last 3 were tough work.
Welsh castles next Sunday. I'm leg 18 which has just been reduced to 7.3 miles which is disappointing as it' a 3.5 hour round trip and just over 10k barely seems worth it. still it' a good time up for wilsmlow half 2 weeks later, which I don' see much good coming out of based on how I feel.
on a plus I did 174 miles in may. Last year it was 95 so hopefully I'll have a better summer this year from that.
Well done JGav - I have no idea how that compares to your previous times, but it sounds like it was a tough, hilly course and hot conditions!
DT - still training nicely I see. I don't really recall you having had a rest in many months (could be wrong?), but your comment "I don't see much good coming out of based on how I feel" suggests that you could maybe benefit from a couple of quieter weeks before the Wilmslow Half?
I've hardly run in 2 weeks, partly through injury and fatigue and partly through being very busy with holiday, work, other. I am looking to settle back into my usual weekly routine this week, starting on Wednesday evening. I am comfortable that a couple of weeks should not cause me to lose much fitness, but I don't want this period of inactivity to drag on much longer!
Nice one JGav!! Riding after a hard swim is very disorientating!
Looking forward to my race on Sunday. This is ITU Leeds number 3 ... the route changed between 1 and 2, so hard to compare my times. First year I was worried about 1500m swimming OW, so practiced a lot... however, last year and this I have not been so diligent. Last year my swim was 2 min slower, so prob going to be similar this time. The bike and run routes changed between 1 and 2, so hard to compare … but 3 is the same as last year, so I have a target at least. Should be stronger on the bike this time after TdY training but we shall see!
Nice mileage DT! Yes, I will start mara training as soon as I'm recovered from the ITU on Sunday. Plan is to follow last year's Chester regime, seeing as I managed a 7 min PB. So basically 5 days per week bike commuting, flat-out parkrun Sat, long Sun, no carbs in-between those two runs (and pretty low carb in general), and a "as long as possible" MP run mid week.
36 miles on the bike yesterday … looks like nothing today as trying to make my marking deadlines.
Good luck for Leeds @Dr.Dan supposed to be a great race. Shame Ali has pulled out of the race.
Go get back into some consistency @AndrewD you'll love it when you put some back to back days in again.
More running @DT19 no rest for you eh!
Dr Dan, some good training. good luck at Leeds.
Andrew, as jgav says, you just need to get a couple of little runs in. one thing I'm really hanging my hat on is consistency. I'm doing lots of easy short runs at the minute just to keep my mileage at 40-50. I think there' more to be had going that than having a few weeks out and coming back and trainer harder.
in terms of a rest, this is only my 4th weeks training having had mara taper and recovery.
today I got up and did 5 miles at recovery effort which came out 7.55 on a hilly route then tonight an opportunity arose to run straight after work. I was keen to get a tempo in before the heat returned just to confirm whether my recent indifference was heat related or not. Anyway, despite the sun coming out and having run this morning I did 4 miles at 6.28 as a steady effort with splits of 6.36, 6.30, 6.28 and 6.19. Probably one of the best paces I've posted at that effort level which is reassuring.
Welsh castles Sunday. Annoyingly the leg I'm on was already one of the shortest at 8.85 miles. This week due to on going gas works they'e had to knock off another 1.5 miles so I'm running more closely to 10k effort now.
Went out with my work runclub. 10x1minute where I was covering approx 300m. Felt good stretching the legs, upping the leg speed and trying to relax into the pace. Felt great to start but the fatigue really does start to catch up with you. Reps 9 and 10 were hard but I maintained my pace through the whole set.
Nice sesh JGav.
Hard bike commute yesterday, followed by 6.6 mile run ... hard commute home. Worked it on the way in today too and then did 4 x 200m in the pool as the last swim. This time I spotted Ali Brownlee in the pool! One last bike commute home in the next hour ... off work tomorrow as collecting my lad from Uni, so that's it until race time.
Not great JGav - both Wednesday night and yesterday I did short easy paced runs and had to stop after about 2 miles due to pain and stiffness on the outside of my knee (the exact same spot and pain that caused me to have 3 months off injured a few years ago). The strange thing is the pain eases immediately on stopping, and within a minute I am ok to start running again, but within a mile or two the pain comes back. All very strange.
So I managed 3.5 on Wednesday and 4 yesterday, with stops.
Andrew, You may nbeed to get a physio session booked in? Could be IT band.
That sounds like a full days training Dr Dan and some celeb spotting also.
Jgav, that's some pretty sharp reps. I love how they always catch up with you once you get a couple of k of volume in.
13.1 last at almost effortless level on the edge of recovery/entry aerobic based on hr, came out 7.58 pace. Easy 5 over lunch today in advance of sundays race.
Andrew ... sounds like ITB.
Nice run JGav ... same about the hay fever.
Leeds ITU was an experience. Forgot my chip, so an emergency 07:30 call home was required and my son came across town in a taxi, got as close as possible on the closed roads, and then ran down to the swim start. Alas I had already started by the time he arrived but I got the chip from him between the lake and transition. No official swim time as a result but at least I got a bike, run, T2 and over all time, so can work out a swim+T1 combo. The swim was also reduced to 750m due to mist on the lake - that was a real shame. But safety first I guess. I was in the last male wave and it then reverted to 1500m for the first women's wave only 5 min after we set off. Swim didn't go well - I'd spent too long stressing over the missing chip and wasn't mentally prepared. Even forgot to start my watch. However, the bike went well - 18.1 mph on a hilly route on a standard road bike (don't own a TT bike) ... that was 6:39 faster than last year and all down to training for last month's TdY sportive. As predicted, the run was not so good ... 2:48 down on last year when I had trained for London and had much more stamina... main issue yesterday was that my lower back was wrecked from the bike stage.
Now it's onto full time marathon training!
nice long run jgav. Yes hayfever is a pest!!
Dr dan, that scenario is one of my worst sport based nightmares. Not surprised it affected the swim. Looks like your biking has clearly improved. Hopefully you can get the running moving forward pretty quickly.
Race went well, here is my report I have just posted on 3.15 thread-
Welsh castles for me yesterday. My race had a 13.50 start and of course it was a warm day (will there ever be ideal racing conditions again??). I had to drive 2 hours to get there, however fortunately my leg was starting from a leisure centre so I actually had some facilities, which is a rare thing in this event.
As soon as I arrived I bumped into a friend of a friend who had gone sub 3 in Manchester for first time. I then saw a guy I recognised who was 2 years above me in school. I sort of knew he ran and was probably a bit better than me, never the less a decent target. My main target was a top 10 finish for first time in this event. Got a 2 mile warm up in then positioned myself in second row.
A group of 5 or 6 went flying off and I debated going with them but with the heat as well, it would have been crazy. After about 400m I was in about 14th place and wasn't feeling great. Not much later a little dog came sprinting passed me and another guy and joined up at with a runner just ahead and stayed with him. I just assumed he was slightly quirky and had brought his dog with him!
Anyway things settled down and I picked a few places back off and the field thinned out. Mile 1 came in at 6.02, which was a little worrying as it was a 7.2 mile race and it was hot. It was slightly downhill though so I let it go. I bashed on but was largely in no mans land now. There were 2 guys and a dog about 100m ahead but that gap seemed insurmountable. There was no one else in sight.
Mile 2 came in at 6.14 followed by a 6.06 mile 3. Suddenly the gap to the guys ahead was closing and this gave me a boost. By mile 4 I had passed 1 and was just behind dog man (6.11). I was basically running at 10k pb pace. Miles 5 and 6 were tough as they were completely open and exposed to the sun and largely climbing. I passed dogman during mile 5 and at the same time some marshalls and he started shouting at them to get rid of the dog. I explained that I thought it was his! Apparently not!
As I passed dogman it seemed the dog preferred my pace and just came with me. Now I had become dogman!!! Mile 5 was 6.39. Now I had this bloody dog racing with me. The nature of the castles relay is that teams follow it along the route and pull over at various points. It was these points whilst I was dogman that were conducive to stopping. Everyone I ran passed were all cheering the man with his dog!!! I went to great efforts to explain it wasn't and that I was concerned it was now 6 miles from home.
Ahead of me from about the start of mile 5 were 2 other runners. I was conscious I was on or around 10th place. One runner was about 100m ahead and the other 150m. The first runner was going backwards and I caught him by 5.5 miles. I thought the dog might stick with him, but no, he stuck with me! Ahead was the guy I went to school with and the gap was closing. Mile 6 was 6.28. The gap seemed too big and I felt like I needed there to be 2 miles left. But I plugged away and picked up my pace. By 6.5 miles I was on his shoulder and then went passed him quite easily. I put a good 10 m between us and then came a massive downhill to the finish area, which arguably gave him a chance, more so than if it had remained flat. I thought I had left him for dust and put in some effort on the downhill with mile 7 coming in at 5.54, just at the bottom of the hill I eased up for some reason and out of nowhere he sprinted passed me. By the time I could respond the finish line was upon us and he beat me by 3 seconds. Pace for that last 0.2 was 5.24mm.
I felt quite happy with my performance with an average pace of 6.13mm. I went through 10k in 38.45 which is my 2nd fastest time on a hot sunny day. More pleasingly I finished in 7th place and ran 30 seconds per mile faster than a very similar leg in 2017. I was only 1 minute off third place so some slight improvements and I could do well in this next year. I was also positionally the third best placed from my club over the 20 legs.
I am not sure what happened to the dog, the marshals got it off the course just before the finish line but someone said it ran away. I hope it is microchipped and someone has the sense to take it to be scanned.
I have the potential of a 5 mile race Wednesday night. My pb for that is 31.10 so slower than yesterdays average pace. I will see how I feel tomorrow morning but it would be good to chalk off a pb for the year.
Well done Dogman, I mean DT! Great report too.
Dan - sounds like a nightmare with the chip situation.
I haven't run since Friday, when I managed 3x1 mile with short walking intervals with no pain. Think this may be the way forward for a couple of weeks to get some miles in without causing further injury (hopefully).
Nice running Dogman @DT19