Sub 3h15

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  • GerardMGerardM ✭✭✭

    10 miles done and dusted, average pace was 7:36. Happy with that as the 1st half was windy along the prom. Lovely sunny day though. Enjoy the w/end folks.

  • OO54OO54 ✭✭✭

    Very windy here too, so happy with 18:27 parkrun and a 5th place. Junior took a day off for revision (running scared more like image)

    Anyone else racing this weekend. I'm in the famous Blaydon Race next Tuesday

     

  • BirchBirch ✭✭✭

    Hi all - just mundane running here all week, but getting a few miles in - 18 today - surprisingly cold wind first thing (07:15), but lovely sunshine.  48 so far this week, with tomorrow to go.  

  • MsEMsE ✭✭✭
    The ankle is much better thanks, Gerard although I've been managing a niggly Achilles since VLM. I'm missing some races to give it time to settle down but enjoying base building again. You are running well. Have you any races on the horizon?



    OO - great parkrunning.



    Birch - some decent miles being put in there. I'm around 44 for the week I think.



    15 hilly trail miles @ 8:18/mi today.
  • GerardMGerardM ✭✭✭

    OO - That's a great time! Yeah Junior was wise to stay away today! image

    Birch - 48 already, nice!

    MsE - Good news re the ankle, not so good re the Achilles, although v.sensible not to race and you're getting in some nice enjoyable miles by the sound of things. That's cool!  I am seeing some progress,thank you! The only one I have coming soon is a 6k (weird distance) which is in Dublin. I'm over there in July and I ran it last year. It's a charity event with over a 1,000 runners last year. There are some very speedy runners who turn up and I think the winner won in 19:0x last year. 1st lady did 19:5x! I managed 22:34 last year and if I can get some speed into the legs in the next month or so I'd like to try and beat that time. I'm just back from a yoga session and feel fresh as a daisy now.image

     

  • Good parkrunning OO - some nice distances done by MsE and Birch as well.

    I managed 18 miles this morning ……. on the bike. I could still feel the effects of last weekend's exertions in my legs on the gentle commuting run yesterday so I'll be taking it easy for the next week or two.

  • No running. But for anyone interested...

    Bike ride: with a large assemblage of Group 1. We went to the Forest, and clocked 54 miles. Including tasty hills: some long and sapping, some sharp and testing. Now and again, some of the down variety. As others spotted, there was a breeze, which meant that you didn't want to get dropped out of the group. We did manage a social coffee stop about 10 miles from home, but when we set off again I let a vehicle pass and didn't make it into the group. Despite charging along at a wind assisted 28 mph on the flat they were getting away!  Eventually one guy got spat out and I caught him so we at least had a twosome to charge home.

    The more of the hard stuff I do, the easier the other stuff will become. But it's not running.

  • GerardMGerardM ✭✭✭

    Lorenzo - Very sensible! Re the Comrades - I recently read an article about Sage Canady. If you haven't heard of him he is a very successful American elite ultra runner. He did the comrades this year (his 1st time) and finished in 6:0x. He was aiming for a top 3 finish. I was astounded to hear he did the Boston marathon in April and ran it aiming for a US Olympic trials qualifier 2:18, his pb is 2:16 I think. He finished 16th in Boston in 2:19:12. How on earth he thought was going to try run a great comrades after that effort I have no idea. He has since said that the Comrades taught him a big lesson. Bruce Fordyce, the Comrades King usually ran a build up Spring marathon but never ever raced them. He was gifted but a very smart racer and it was no coincidence that he won it 9 times. I think anyone who runs the Comrades must read Lore of Running and Bruce's training diary is in there. Not to say that you or I are gonna win the damn thing  image but there's a lot of knowledge in there from a true great ultra runner. Even more remarkably he ran 5:37:01 for the UP course in both 1985 and 1987! Can't figure that one out. Anyway, no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to share all this with you. Have a nice w/end.  image

  • GM - there are loads of great running tales around Comrades and TBH I hadn't really appreciated them all until I got out there. 

    I must have seen Bruce Fordyce on a half a dozen occasions as he's still very much part of the whole thing. He was at a do on the Thursday, on the bus tour on the Friday, at the Expo, starting the Durban parkrun etc etc. I also had a chat with Bernard Gomersall the morning after the race - he's a Yorkshireman who won the 1965 race; a really nice blow.

    I wouldn't recommend watching all 12 hours of it(!) but here's the link to the SABC coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKFH34HMaY 

    Around 9:27 into the footage you'll start to see the 9 hour bus come in - I'm somewhere near the back of it in a magenta and pink Dorking vest and wearing a white cap. It really does encapsulate the atmosphere in the stadium at the end - still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end watching it and I'm on the tenth showing already!

  • GerardMGerardM ✭✭✭

    Lorenzo - Yes I read about Gomersall before, so cool you met him and saw the Comrades King too. Thanks for the link. I'll defo check it out. Ha-ha, 10th showing, that's cool. Durban was the 1st place I ever went to in SA but back then I was more interested in surfing and bird watching than I was running.image That only came 13 years later! I bet you will be back there again to do it all over again?

  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭
    Oof! Still not fully fit as could only muster 11.06 for 3k when I was sub 11 all of last season... but probably still an improvement on last week as conditions weren't great so it's all going in the right direction. Nice to see Speedy, who had a busy day.
  • SlokeyJoeSlokeyJoe ✭✭✭
    Lorenzo, Mr Gomersall sounds like a VERY friendly chap from your description. (Unless that is a typo).



    Excellent parkrunning OO



    Quality racing as always Jools



    Keep digging away Blisters.



    Easy run for me yesterday and a bike/run/swim combo today.
  • GerardMGerardM ✭✭✭

    SJ - image

    Jools - Well run and sub 6mm at this stage is good. Hope you have a few beers/ wine to wind down now.

    Speedy - ???

  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    Loving Gul's musical taste...sort of
    Not sure about BB's decision to run an ultra while injured. 
    Also, running into a headwind with an eye condition is potentially tricky.

    +1 for Cardiff Uni - did postgrad there and since it was journalism, a few lunchtimes in the Woody were deemed essential professional development

    Some good training going on - who is racing next?

    Back from SA today, so a word on my fellow comrades...

    Bike It's run was astonishing. The cutoffs along the way and at the end for anyone not hitting 12hr time are brutally enforced and runners can be physically dragged off the course. So to fall behind 11hr & 11.30hr pacers would break many people. To come back with sub-10mm milling & run up the dreaded Polly Shortts is mind boggling.  Could be v fast next year if the running gods allow a good build up

    Lorenzo - textbook running, no panic, got the right medal, excellent performance, really well done. Next year?....you know you want to...

  • SlokeyJoeSlokeyJoe ✭✭✭
    I think that the time is right for some Comrades medal photos!



    My big boy race is coming up in 2 weeks Poacher. Taper is on.
  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    And you, SJ, are well'ard. Success beckons!

  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    My Comrades story: after going sub9 for a Bill Rowan medal last year, I was dead set on the same again. Intentions were good, with 5 maras between Sept & Dec, plus in Dec the start of truly vile weekly hill sessions with Tony A.  A freak accident on ice on NYE ended all that and the past 5 months have been a tad frustrating. In Jan I could barely walk straight.  In Jan, Feb & Mar I was working in some very hot places but couldn’t cash in with warm-weather training.  The cruciate would not heal and things reached a nadir with just 31m run in Mar. The trip was built round a holiday for overworked MrsP and if it had been easy to cancel/extricate, I would certainly have done so.

    Things looked up a bit in Apr, at least the cruciate was mending although the other problems remained, and I ran the first 16m of VLM before a walk/run to the line. 3 weeks later I decided to try to cover half the Comrades distance as a confidence booster so did Orpington Parkrun followed an hour later by Marafun, running about 13m then walking a lot of the rest. Sadly, the ‘good’ leg now joined in with tendonitis and much swelling.

    I still believed I could finish Comrades so long as the injuries stayed under control. The build up in Durban was excellent, and included a carbo-loading lunch by the beach to show MrsP & the Bike It family just how much Bike It, Lorenzo & I could eat when properly motivated.

    Stamina was obviously lacking so the race day plan was to get as much of the climbing as possible out of the way before it got hot, then walk the hills and run the descents and rare flat sections.  There was an early alarm with a sudden stabbing pain in the bad knee after just 30 metres – fortunately this went away and remains a mystery. It was warm and very humid, I was dripping by 0545 and took the first walk break at 0600.  But the pace was good. I probably went off too fast and had the first warning of both nausea & cramp after about 30k. 

  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    Inevitably the steam ran out which meant a lot of power-walking over the last 50k.  image Ironically, despite months of very painful injuries, the decider turned out to be cramp in both calves which was OK for walking but became serious as soon as I ran. Towards the end it was a case of toughing it out and after climbing Polly Shortts I thought that with just 7m to go, and on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, I had got away with it.

    But with 4k left, the right calf suddenly seized up, I didn’t want to cause a pile-up so lurched out of the stream of runners and ended up on my back in a gutter, staring up at the sky and wondering how to retrieve the situation. Fortunately a motorbike paramedic was on standby at the street corner, and this big fella did his stuff then physically lifted me out of the gutter. The rest was a slow death march but it was good to savour the achievement, stop to talk to spectators, take a few pics etc.  I’d started with a sub11 pace band but  the earlier efforts meant that sub10 was easily in the bag and the stadium finish in 9.46 was just a pleasure.

    After collecting bronze & back-to-back medals I found a group of GB runners and more or less fell over. Lorenzo kindly found water and my kit bag but I had not left a lot out there and was in a fair bit of pain. Some medics passed by and I seriously considered asking to be stretchered away. It’s the first time I have ever thrown up after a race, which can’t have been pleasant to witness, but needs must.  the sensible option was to get back to Durban as quick as poss to meet MrsP and start to recover.

    Overall:
    1 Comrades is hard but it isn’t the longest or hardest ultra, with a bit of bloody mindedness it’s very doable despite setbacks.  Should have been home in 9.20 if not for the stupid cramp.  Sub9 out of the question on such limited training
    2 the whole experience is just great – this is what running is all about. I just love it! Who is up for 2016? (Not broached this with MrsP yet. Hmm.)

     

     

  • SlokeyJoeSlokeyJoe ✭✭✭
    Brilliant stuff Poacher. You are one of what must surely be very few people who are stubborn enough to toe the line and grind out a result after such a compromised build up.

    Legend.
  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    /members/images/76130/Gallery/20150531_163039.jpg

     Self + Lorenzo, with shiny medals.  But quite low blood sugar. 

     

  • VTrunnerVTrunner ✭✭✭

    Poacher, legend indeed! Wow, got goosebumps just reading it. I'm too conservative to even dream of committing to such a race if my build up was virtually nonexistent. I bet the feeling of accomplishment was (and remains) incredible. Congrats!

    PMJ, thanks for the link. Ultimately found a really good text article w/much more info than was in the video (which I found on youtube...but perhaps I saw only an abbreviated version as it was only about 5 minutes long). Seems pretty fishy though. Who could dream up the book w/a pill compartment carved out from it, asking a PT guy to ship testosterone cream needed for an ailing heart, etc, etc. Not good.

    SJ, is the big boy race a full ironman?

    15 and change today to round out 66 for the week. GM, weather here has alternated from scorching to cool. This past week was cool weather...really fine days for running.

  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭

    And finally...99.9% of people might not understand, but...

    /members/images/76130/Gallery/20150531_202003.jpg

     

  • SlokeyJoeSlokeyJoe ✭✭✭
    Yes VTr, with an unusually lumpy course. Hoping the swim doesn't get cut short due to the unseasonably low lake temperatures at the moment. My swim event today was cancelled due to the strong winds!
  • SlokeyJoeSlokeyJoe ✭✭✭
    X post

    Great medals Poacher. Surely worth framing.
  • BadbarkBadbark ✭✭✭

    Sorry I've only had a quick drunk'n read back of the last page. Excellent report Poacher and I'm one of the 0.1% who got it right away! Well done Sir.

    I finished the Mourne Way Marathon today in 4:06:53 for 15th place out of 142. About half of the race wasn't running at all but a hike in the muddy mountains.image It was a great experience but I've learnt today that mountain running really isn't my thing.

     I've just uploaded this to YouTube -

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcMWnoC0mkZHd9bomw309IKecGt8Zhde-

    The sound quality isn't great in a lot of them due to the head wind and 6 and 7 are the wrong way round but YouTube doesn't make it easy to change them. I'll fix it tomorrow when I sober up. image

  • Gul DarrGul Darr ✭✭✭

    Bike It - get well soon.
    VTr - good running as usual.
    GM - good pacing.
    OO - another great parkrun.
    Birch - good week of running.
    Lorenzo - I think you've earned the right to take it easy for a while!
    Blisters - nice work.
    Jools - nice racing and still improving.
    Poacher - brilliant report. You should have been a journalist. Seriously, how you managed to complete Comrades is beyond me. Legend.
    Badbark - another awesome achievement.
    Cardiff was good. Girls enjoyed the concert while me and Mrs GD had a wander around Cardiff. We spent yesterday walking around the bay, which was very nice. End of cut-back week today.

  • MsEMsE ✭✭✭

    You are a total  legend, Poacher, and just a little bit bonkers. Huge congrats on the double.

    Great racing with fabulous footage, Madbark. Your daughter is a sweetie. Do the family come to all your races?

    I feel a bit sad about the predicament poor old Mo is in missing the meet at Birmingham to sort things out back at the Nike Oregon Project. Friends back in California, including ones friendly with the Gouchers, aren't surprised about the allegations at all image

  • BirchBirch ✭✭✭

    Absolutely brilliant, Poacher - loved your report & pics !

    more badness fron Madbark image   - well done !  

  • Local mixed surface 10k today (and the course is officially measure with a Garmin so records, PBs and anything else is off) and the only reason I did it was it was on our club champs and I need to get a few solid runs in to get me up the table.

    Yesterday I moved #1 daughter about 5 miles across Birmingham. Her new flat is on the 4th floor so a fair few stairs involved. It took 9 car loads to move her (luckily she bakes well so had no problems collecting helpers so it wasn't 9 trips for me) and this morning I woke up with a major pain in the ankle and it wouldn't bear weight. Did the usual tests (if the body part is there it is good, if it is mouldy it is bad, if the pain gets less after a few prods it is good)  and decided the race may still be on. By the time I had parked and picked up a number I had been standing and walking for about an hour and it was taking weight so that was good. A mile warm up / tester showed that flat paths were fine and ruts were bad: good omens for a mixed 10k.

    A quick head-count and there were two of our club runners normally way faster than me so the tactic was to go for 3rd. Gun goes and we are off. The first two miles are deceptive as they are on roads and then onto paved farm tracks, so good running surfaces. I decided not to hold back and push along as position becomes important and these got done in low 6 minute pace. The first narrow section and a big bridge then cut in, and the last bit of road up to halfway. Turn right and two stiles and a rough field stretch the field. Get going again on a reasonable path and hold a couple of runners behind me. Nip down a footpath with tape and marshals and then get ambushed by a youngster on a cycle going the other way at full speed. Try and divert a collision but it wasn't to be so so arse over tit and I end up on the floor.  The kid looked fairly scared so I decided not to rip into the fucking twat and picked myslef up and carried on running. The two runners immediately behind checked I was fine and carried on. The next half mile or so was OKish but the adrenaline soon wore off and it was plan B from there home so a couple of 7:15 miles. The good thing was that the field was so stretched that I was only passed by one runner in those 2 miles and held 3rd for my club by about 50 metres.

    Overall not a bad day. I set out with the aim of a high place club finish and did so. The first few miles were at a good pace and felt easy and that is the first time it has happened for a few months. Hard to tell how much of the latter bits were due to the fall and how much due to general unfitness but with a 5k on Tuesday I'd prefer fats over endurance at the moment.

  • Ouch PMJ - really annoying when something like that happens.

    I nearly had a similar(ish) incident this morning as I was driving the lead car (with younger Lorenzito in the back seat providing the live link back to Race HQ) for our club 10 mile race.

    I was staying nicely ahead of the lead runner when a van decided to come towards me past a car parked on his side of the road. I was hoping to get through the space (as I had right of way) but needed to put the brakes on and nearly had the lead runner go into the back of me. Fortunately everything was OK but it makes you realise how easily things could go wrong.

    Managed to get out for a quick 30 mins spin on the bike at about midday - perfect cycling conditions. image

    Great report from Poacher - says it all really. For those of you still in any doubt as to what running for nearly 10 hours on the back of very little training and recovering from various injuries feels like, here's the great man savouring the moment!

    /members/images/226395/Gallery/Comrades_1_0.jpeg

     

     

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