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Grant & Stone Wycombe Half-Marathon
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runloz - that's only 12 years of running at that rate - no probs! Looking at your event reviews it seems you're looking at quality rather than quantity anyway!
SG - it'd be interesting to add up the total race mileage. Reckon I'd pip it on that basis given all your 5ks and in mileage terms each marathon counts as 8.5 5ks! Mind you, looking at it like that makes me feel better about the cost!
Rain still not stopped, so better just get out anyway!
Jonesy you are a race monster this year.
Busboy, I reckon you would lose out on the cost stakes
Bear in mind that in a normal summer I'd get 5 5ks for £5, and the cross countries are £2 each (changing to free when i join my new first claim club), I work it out as below
21 out of my 24 5ks have been £1
24 of my xcs have been £2
so £69 for 45 races! How amazing is that for value
24 x handicaps free
12 x parkruns free
36 races a year = free (plus of course a bit of volunteering)
Of course they are just a bit of a side show and not the main event, but they are part of the building plan.
Last summer I did 18:29 for 5k on the track, my first race on the track this summer was 17:52, so 37 seconds better or 3 seconds a lap!
What you don't see is that I did 18:26, 18:20 and 18:11 for parkruns and 18:03 and 18:05 for the summer 5k series. Every run was a learning process so when it came to the A race, my body knew the plan and just had to go a bit harder than these B races.
For me the Wycombe half will be a B race: I will take it seriously but it isn't an A race as the hill is too much of a handicap to overcome and set a PB. My PB is 1:12:15 and I reckon the hill is worth about a minute so can't hope to beat that so will go round as a learning exercise. It would be nice to do the 2nd half faster than the first half: when I did 1:22 it was 36.5 minutes for the fist 6 mile and 38.5 for the last 6. That is 20 seconds a mile slower: 6:22 cf 6:04: suicidal start!
Presume the pb is the 1hr 22 you mention lower down...not 1hr 12!! And obviously presuming the 1hr 22 is your latter day pb, as you must have been 1hr 15 or something when younger?
Wycombe 10k is a nice comeback race for me...Won't be a pb unless i have a monumental day...sitting on 35.50 as a pb, when the much famed good performance at Wokingham suggested something like 35.03.
But at the end of the day beating 38.10 on this course 2 years ago will be enough to gte me back into the swing.
Cheapskates! I'm surprised you both haven't headed oop north for some fell races just for the VFM - aye, £3 entry plus tea and cakes and as much mud as you can eat for the price!
I think I'll be counting this one as a C race! No chance of getting anywhere near my course best time at the mo, but my goal is just to get the 10th one under my belt without too embarassing a time!
i met one of my old teachers at a wedding a couple of years ago, and he reckoned he got his half down to 1hr 11...i think he actually said that was at wycombe, but I just can't believe that, as even the elites we've had win at Wycombe have been 1hr 09 or so, so i can't believe he did 1hr 11 there!
I expect it was one of those, older i get better i was type stories, that everyone was faster in the old days. 1000 people under 1hr 20 at Wycombe in 1967 ..those type of stories
was annoying actually, as the teacher was a little merry...but did take my email down to give me some tips...but never bothered!
luckily Moraghan took the mantel and it's been no looking back.
Yeah I'm happy with 1 half a month and 1 marathon a year at the moment.
More importantly the boss is happy with it
Don't worry, you'll wear her down
Working it out though, my average only works out at 11 races per year anyway (just accelerated a bit over the last 5 years!)
No number yet LRR
WOW - this thread went off!!
My race totals are;
3 x 10k races
1 x 5mile race
and a 10 mile coming up this sunday
and my first HM coming up weekend after.
Being i've only been running consistently since April 2011 I don't think that's too bad.
Current 10k PB recorded last night 45.57
Hey, nothing wrong with going off on a tangent!
Sounds like a pretty fair build up to Wycombe there Trippr. Well done on last night, and good luck for Sunday (which 10M is it?)
getting back on thread, here's a bit in the local rag:
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/sport/9126791.Big_turn_out_expected_for_Wycombe_Half_Marathon/
It's the New Forest 10.
Diet will be normal, for a half there is no need to carbo load or anything else similar and a familiar diet is much better for you than a change just before a race.
Early weather forecast seem to indicate coolish with wind and maybe showers, certainly not a blistering hot one so that is good news.
I managed a 12.6 mile run yesterday in the heat and felt pretty good so I'm pretty well set.
Will probably manage 2 or 3 runs this week totalling about 20 miles.
Easy week this week, with a couple of days off after racing yesterday has left me a bit sore.
Probably a short tempo on Wednesday, 5M xc Thursday and some short intervals on Saturday maybe 25M total for the week including the race.
I got back from Paris at the weekend & with all the walking around I seem to have done something to my legs. I think I'm out of the half, the best I can try for is the 10k.
I need to do a run either tomorrow or Wednesday to assess how bad things are.
do the 10k K8 greene. It's a different feeling doing the 10k at Wycombe compared to other 10ks! You almost can feel the relief you're not doing the full race.
I think the only downside, is that when you finish and see the expressions on the half runners and you've recovered from the 10k, you kinda wish you did the full half too. But halfs are a lot harder to fit into the schedule than 10ks!
I am sure I can pull out my normal pained finish expression that will piut anyone off runing a half ever again.
it's almost like a different race altogether when you compare the likes of Wokingham v Wycombe/Marlow.
It's pretty tough to pace the latter 2 evenly, and when you don't pace evenly doubt starts to creep in and you can ease off, without being able to do anything about it.
ps nice gurning!
hahaha - great photo! Looking forward to this race now. It came round quick. I was hoping to run a couple of 13.1 mile runs before it but only managed the one.
I went for a 5k last night, pretty easy pace after the 10m Sunday.
WIll rest today and have interval training session with the club Wednesday, rest Thursday.
Was thinking of getting in a 8/9 miler Friday (is that a bad idea?)
and a short 3/4 miler with a few large hills in but take it pretty easy.
How's that sound? Should I make any changes?
The answer to this depends on what you are planning to do and what sort of runner you are. For most people, doing what you suggest above would be too much: you are not going to get any benefit from the extra miles and come race day they will slow you down
If you are in marathon training and doing this race untapered, then the above looks reasonable.
If I recall right, you raced the New Forest 10 mile on Sunday and it is supposed to be a day a mile to recover from a race so part of that one will already be in your legs.
So, if you are doing this as part of a bigger goal then the plan is right. If you are targeting it, you need to back off a lot.
Definitely a bad idea I reckon Trippr!
Even if you are training for something longer down the line, I would suggest you'd be better off not doing 8/9 Friday, but putting the energy into a better quality 13.1 on Sunday, which will pay more dividends in the (quite literal!) long run...
If you really feel you need to do this distance before Wycombe, why not tomorrow, with a rest day on Thursday, and some short but sppedy work Friday and Saturday to keep the legs turning over?