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Sub 3h15
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Perhaps the eat out to help out scheme may well have the opposite effect.
Came out at 8 miles averaging 7.26. Really surprised at that as it felt like a sluggish 8.00 pace.
Injury niggles all good, just mojo suffering a tad but I can work on that.
I had my first go at my standard steady tempo today. Was thinking maybe 6 45 pace would be a good outcome. I was doing these in the months before injury around 6.30 ish pace, albeit around a flat racecourse. As I'm not at the office I'm on the streets for these for now.
I was very surprised though with a 6.39 first mile being pretty low effort so kicked on with a 6.31, 6.32 and 6.27 for smack on 160bpm and average pace of 6.32. Obviiusly that's only 4m and the real test will be when it's 7 or 8m, but that'll take about 6 weeks to get to so fitness will hopefully rise with it.
Just a 4 mile recovery run this morning. Amazing how after just one week off you can feel the soreness in the quads from coming back to regular running.
Takes so long to get fit and then such a short time to lose it.
Excellent progress DT. Especially after all the eating out you've been doing lately 🤣
I was on the track today and another tough session yesterday. I've entered a 3k track race on the 27th so trying to up the speed up a bit.
DT-More continued improvement,how long do you think until you are back in pre-injury form?
Not much at the start of the week,15 in total up to now,hoping the new changes don't affect races,got a virtual London spot just in case as a back up.
OO - havnt run a track race since i was 16. What sort of time would you tun a 3000 in ?
Ian - i think its more about giving police the power to break up gatherings, where as previously they had to have 30+ people ? I would expect (and hope) that the closed off races with a covid plan will be cleared for take off. Im starting to taper anyway.
Edit. The Run Cheshire folks putting on the Wrexham elite mara (amongst other races) have updated to say that races with a covid safe plan will go ahead.
Ian, Pre injury I was running yesterdays tempo for 10m at that pace for or around that HR. I am not sure i'll be doing 10m tempos with no obvious race but I also have similar stats from 7-8m tempos. I think 6 weeks of continued training as I am will get me there, particularly if I get the weight back down, which is also a work in progress. I wasn't expecting to get back in shape this soon and had the end of the year as a target to be tempoing at pre injury paces.
TR- This steady tempo is what I consider my mara pace tempo and is what I was doing weekly pre injury. I aim for 160bpm as my previous mara stats have my average HR as mid 160s, so if I do 10m and my hr is 160 average then that would seem about right given i'm 16m short.
Got up and did spin before work, easy 4m trot over lunch pending.
DT - that sounds like you're doing well then. I think regular 10s at mp is a good idea and isnt long enough to really smoke you. Ive done 3 x 13.1 in recent months as P and D mp runs. But to be fair i just run those runs as 13.1 as fast as i can on the day, as im not sure vould run further than that distance at mp. We'll find out soonish.
I dont necessarily need to be in better shape than that to run a good mara pb, but if I'm in that shape in 6 weeks I'll be starting a potential mara cycle in what was in March the shape of my life.
Sadly I am struggling to really see a race going ahead that I can properly target as another month of kids at school, uni starting and colder weather, it'll be madness!
It's 50 quid to enter but at some point I need to take a punt just to give me something to pursue.
Rest day today, Surrey Hills trails tomorrow.
Defo, perfect session for marathon runners. As TR points out, you're getting a good chuck of high end aerobic volume without really putting yourself in a hold for the coming days.
This is a reasonably interesting read about the elite London course-
https://www.strava.com/athletes/12102780/posts/11727131?fbclid=IwAR1imH49Ov__3BmzdkwZBPNFs32i2beJVfniA0J5BO0tc0dr1SH3NdADN7E
Some of the merch looks good, though. I'm sure New Balance are over the moon that the virtual event has sold out and they can shift the pre-printed 2020 logo stuff. My social feed ads are full of it.
A race report
I was pleased to get to back racing after 6 months of cancelled events. The event was a 50k ultra organised my We Run Wild NI. As the name suggests, they like to put on wild events that are usually over hills and trails. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions they arranged a Magical Mystery Tour race which was all on tarmac. The mystery was that we didn’t know the start/finish or route but only that it was 50k in road shoes.
The night before the race they announced the finish location, which was also the pick-up point for a bus. The race was restricted to 30 people and we met up early on Sunday morning to register and board the bus. We had a seat each and were given a road book which detailed the route.
It was all great craic as we drove to the start trying to learn all the directions in the book. The start was in Lisburn and the first half of the race was along the Lagan towpath which I’ve never run. I was able to visualise the second half of the race as I had run it before.
So just before 9 am we were all dropped off and the race began. I spent the few miles chatting to a friend while 3 guys disappeared into the distance. We were running 8:30’s which was too slow for me, so I said my goodbyes and picked up the pace. I had pencilled in sub 4 hours so was planning a pace around 7:30 to 7:40. However, I soon realised I needed to run faster to close the distance on the leaders.
I wanted them to be insight as I had little idea where I was going. Thankfully, after a nippy mile I was about 10 seconds behind the 3rd place guy. As I reeled him in, he began speeding up. I was running about 7:15 pace and hadn’t gotten any closer to him but I could now see the leaders about 30 seconds ahead.
He began pulling away as I relaxed with them all insight. Even so I ran a few sub 7 miles to keep up. I was grateful following them as we went through many junctions, where I would have stood still trying to understand the road book directions without them.
One of the leading 3 started pulling away after 14 miles and I closed the gap to the others. We were now in Belfast and running over familiar territory. At mile 16 we noticed the leader going the wrong way ahead but it was short cut. By the time he got back on course he was about 3 minutes ahead with 1 of these due to the short cut.
We had reached the Big Fish in Belfast and I now knew the rest of the course. Average pace was 7:19 but time to go to work. I picked it up trying to catch the leader and slowly pulled away from the other two. After 19 miles I had a quick chat with the leader while passing him.
I looked back about 20 miles in and could still see two people a stone throw behind. There was a gradual climb out of Belfast onto the Comber greenway. I was feeling strong and comfortable running at about 7:10 pace. I went through marathon distance in around 3:11 reaching Comber.
I had no idea how far I was ahead but was feeling confident as I had another gear in reserve. Between Comber and Ards is a carriageway, where I took my first look back in over an hour. I saw a figure a few minutes back so knew I couldn’t relax. My pace was staying constant but the effort and HR were increasing.
Entering the last mile I took a final look back and no-one was insight. I maintained my effort to the end finishing in about 3:46. I was well chuffed with my performance, having targeted sub 4 and finished with a bit left in the tank. Sadly, it was only me and one organiser at the finish and there was no medal or prize. We all did get a cool t-shirt though.
5 minutes after I finished no one else was in sight. The person I’d seen on the carriageway must not have been in the race. The second place guy finished with a sprint to just break sub 4. Third place was 4:14 and was my mate, who I’d left running at 8:30 pace early on. It’s an ultra-marathon not a sprint after all!
It was great fun and I’m happy to be in decent shape again. That’s my 94th marathon or ultra completed in my quest to 100!
What's up next?
Session yesterday 6 x 4 min off 90s jog went OK then spin this morning.
Finally had agreement this week off lufthansa to refund my berlin flights so £211. Therefore decided to get on the nike app first thing and bag myself some alphafly.
Yes I remember the day well, I was 30m South in Chepstow smashing my 10k pb. My klimatt app on strava says it was 4c and 2mph wind and dry so perfect really.
Easy half today. Was meant to go out at 8.30 to beat the warmer weather and do most of junior rugby however we all had a week needed sleep in so ended up not going out until midday. Still, same pace and hr as last Sunday when it wasn't as warm.
Another good session DT, nice.
Out in the Surrey Hills on Saturday with the lads. Plenty of up and down and we got lost on the trails too. Really enjoying these sessions. They are more lumpy and they are a good strength workout with all runs being well over 1000ft of elevation gain. Nice coffee van on the car park at the end as well.
A 4 mile recovery yesterday and my legs feel pretty good today but will rest as it's a warm one.
Pretty much had a month off, so easing back in with shorter slow runs this week. 5 miles yesterday. Then today my quads felt like I'd run a marathon the day before!!! Weird. Did 6 miles and they were even slower than Monday's 5. Still, no rush, is there?
I'm sure you'll benefit in the long run.
I blasted a 5k effort this morning in 19:15, what a glorious morning.
That's a cracking 5k OO. You're right, it was a lovely morning for it.
Initially with a low mojo, I did'nt fancy running today but the puppy woke us early and running guilt got the better of me. Plus, I need to get the miles as we're away this weekend and I can't run.
Did 10 miles, half trail/half road. Lovely morning for it and seemed to feel better as it went on. Ended up averaging 7.27 pace with a neg split which was a nice surprise.
GD - worth making the effort then; nice session.
Legs still feeling a bit sore this morning for some reason, but did 6 miles averaging 7:32/m. Nearly killed me, so I've lost quite a bit of fitness I think!