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RW Forum Six – Sub 3.30
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Ha. Michael McIntyre is awesome. My two love his anecdotes about his kids, probably because they know he could easily be talking about them!
Yes it does look like La Toc is the new name for Sandals St Lucia and I'm afraid it does indeed date back to my era. I'm sure they have modernised since then so don't worry.
Hi Angela....I bet that was strange having your hands and forearms worked on rather than your legs!! 25 mph is so scary, im not sure I could go that fast. When we move house im hoping to do some more cycling as its more near the countryside and countrylanes.
I like your plan for the weekend..its similar to mine, take in the gorgeous scenery and have a nice run in the sun. Im not sure if I will get back on here until after my holiday (as im not sure what my internet connection will be like) so just incase I dont, good luck this weekend and have a fantasic time.
I do sometimes test my resting HR and BP when im at work and havent done it for a while so might check it this afternoon, although the legs are in full working order again....phew!
Good luck to anyone else racing this weekend too
Hi all,
I haven't checked in for a while - I was away in Scotland for a few days and things have been a bit manic since I got back.
I didn't do any running while I was away but I managed to get a couple of runs in last weekend. I did our local park run for the first time on Saturday - I tried to go at my usual 5k pace but found it surprisingly hard going and finished in a moderate time of 22:24, in sixth place overall. Sunday was a bit better, I did 12 miles at 8 min/mile pace, which was actually the longest run I've done since the marathon. I also went out this lunchtime and did some intervals - 10 x 400m averaging 6:35/mile. Again it was hard work, my legs were fine but my lungs were struggling.
On Sunday I'm doing the Southend HM. On current form I don't expect to get close to my PB (1:32:42) but if I can get near 1:35 I'll be happy enough, although it's a flat course so you never know.
Right, now to catch up and see what you've all been up to.
Ello ello,
Well, my negotiation tactics didn't work, I shall just have to pray that in this economy they're going to struggle to sell the more luxury rooms and will offer us discounted upgrades along the line. Seems strange that its sooo much extra for features like a balcony, or a view of the ocean... when you've seen it once, why pay for it the rest of the trip
Here's hoping the fact we're on honeymoon gives us extra freebies too.
Sarah, I can't believe how warm its going to be this weekend, I was fully expecting a trail race in the lake district to be a dreary grey one, but alas, I might get to actually see the views... We're staying with family who shock horror, don't have internet!!! can you believe such a think could exist, so I will have to rely on iPhone if I am to post on here. Good luck for your race and have a great holiday.
Andy, you should come up to Colchester to do our parkrun- I'll be run director on 22nd and 29th if you fancy joining? Good luck in Saaaaf end!
Good luck tomorrow Angela, looks like it will be lovely, wish I was up there. I've had a light week really, just keeping up my club nights and it is paying dividends in speed, I managed 23.00 today for parkrun, big improvement though a way off my best. tomorrow is the Mersey Tunnel 10k, it finishes on the prom opposite Liverpool so it will be great in the sunshine. One year they had a gang of cheerleaders at the water station, and for the ladies they get the firemen to come out with their hoses.
And good luck to the others racing this weekend. Hope you all are having a fantastic time.
I've been taking it easy this week before starting another 16 week training plan for Berlin. I've managed only 2 runs,10 miles in total, at slow pace, legs are feeling tired and heavy. Hopefully tomorrow's run will feel easier.
Well done on ur parkrun mr p and good luck tomorrow!
Man this is a long drive- been on the road since 1030 and still 90 mins to go eeek!
Lovely scenery though Angela
Mind you I wouldn't be surprised if it was peeing down when you get there
Lol it was beautiful and sunny- on our way to the race now... Another hour north- we're Soo far from home!!!
Frickin awesome race, amazing views - well worth the ridiculous drive. Place I'm staying has no Internet so race report follows in a few days but 22km including 2 ascents of latrigg in 2h38!!! Wow feel so close to nature here
Well done, lovely day. I've only ever driven up to Latrigg I wouldn't like to run up it! Goodness knows how they run up Skiddaw and suchlike.
my race went well, 47:53 I think and very comfortable. It starts in Liverpool and meanders thorough an industrial area before descending onto one of the two Mersey Tunnels (the Wallasey one) and then climbing out again on the Wirral side in New Brighton, a couple more twists and turns then its two straight fast flat kilometres to the finish. It was really sunny but not so could hat it would affect you, but I did see two people needing assistance. Water station was a shambles, but overall very good.
another 10k next week, so I may well go for it properly there.
Hi all,
Here's a brief race report for the Southend HM on Sunday.
As I mentioned before I didn't have any great expectations of beating my PB of 1:32:42 but was hoping to get close to 1:35. I started off OK, doing the first four miles at 7 min/mile pace but at that point I realised that it didn't have it in my legs to carry on at that pace for the whole race so I eased up slightly, and knocked out the next few miles at a steady 7:25-7:30 pace, so was on course for about 1:35. From about 10 miles I found it harder though and slowed up a bit more, and ended up finishing in 1:36:27. I was slightly disappointed with that time, although on the day I don't think I had it in me to go much faster. I think the fact that I hadn't run more than 12 miles since VLM certainly affected my stamina. The slightly frustrating thing is that all my scheduled races for the rest of the year are 10K's or shorter and I doubt I'll have a chance to do another HM for a while.
Angela - I'm glad you had a good time on Sunday, I look forward to the race report. It would certainly be nice to come up there for one of the park runs but realistically it would be a bit difficult as my Saturdays are normally pretty busy. But if we are going to be in the area any time I will certainly try to get along.
Mr P - sounds like you had a couple of decent runs last weekend. I'm glad you had a good holiday as well.
Dotty - a belated well done for your performance in the Edinburgh marathon. I guess it's not surprising that much of the course is outside the city given how hilly it is but it's a shame that it doesn't actually finish in the city - running down Princes Street for the final stretch would be a good way to finish.
Sarah - Hope you had a good race at the weekend and you have a good holiday.
Malcs - I hope you had a good time in Scotland, it sounds like we just missed you in Edinburgh - you got there just as we were leaving. We actually went up on the train to Glasgow as it works out cheaper than flying as we don't have to pay for our 4 year old on the train or fork out for car parking. Did you spend much time in Glasgow or did you go elsewhere before heading on to Edinburgh?
Angela - sounds like you had a fantastic race last week. Do you have anything between now and TR24? Only 6 weeks to go!
Sorry to hear that your negotiations failed but at least you gave it a try.
Mr P - nice racing. 47mins as a warm up is pretty damn good. Best of luck for the next one at the weekend.
Dotty - Sarah is still on holiday I believe. What's your next race? Any luck with sorting the hip problems out?
Andy - you get races like that, I wouldn't be too disappointed. Marathons can take alot out of you. I certainly find that I need a month to 6 weeks before I can really start motoring again.
Scotland was great thanks. We stayed with my mum who lives in Gourock. We rarely go to Glasgow when we're up. The trip to Edinburgh was a birthday special
Got to see the pandas and they were awake and doing things for once!
How about you - go anywhere exciting? I've never considered the train before. We always fly Easyjet which with four of us + parking costs a fortune.
Hiya Malcs,
I have typed up a report on my bloger app on the way to work this morning, but still have to get all the relevant stats....
Many posts to follow - should make a good diversion from the morning's work
Main thing is that i would thoroughly recommend this race- most fun I've had running EVER!
before TR24 I'm planning on Mersea Island round the island race- 10 miles from home, so should be easy to get to- I think its 12.2 miles race. Then Possibly Felstead 10k, and certainly a parkrun or 2.
Hows about you?
When we got to race hq, the morning was really heating up, and there were numerous warnings about these not being pb conditions, and that we should ignore the king of the mountain challenge, which is cudos awarded to the person who had the fastest run up lattrig fell, this was followed by demon descent, which is the same challenge but on the way down.
I'd done a fair bit of hill running in previous months, with the Halstead and Essex marathon and my week in the Pyrenees, so I thought I'd be ok running it all, even for 22km.
The race started with a couple of laps around the field. Even then, the ups and downs were beginning to sap energy. I found a lady who seemed to be going a similar pace to me and decided to stick with her, we were doing around 9mm, however once we got out of the sun and onto the trail proper, she started pushing it to more like 8:30mm so I let her go. Lots of people overtook me in the early stages. I would see them later. In this heat, what I was focussing on was the first water stop, which would be at 5km. The route was fairly flat until just before when an ascent brought most people to walking. I continued running at first, but my breathing and my heart rate told me to be sensible and walk it. It was a bit long for a proper attack. At the top of this mini ascent you were rewarded with water, and then the course began to slope downwards. The path started to get quite rocky, and this is where I really appreciated my trail shoes, they protected me, and I could go flying down the hill at quite a pace. I overtook lots of people here who were doing the classic braking their stride downhill.
At the end of this descent, there was a bridge to cross, a small ascent, and then the timing mats for king of the hill. On the first time around I was still running here, on the 2nd lap I didn't bother. It was a really long ascent of latrigg fell and by the time we were out in the open, everybody was walking. Some stunning views though. Got my phone out to take a pic of derwent water.
After what seemed like forever, and contemplating why I was doing the 2 lap version of this race, there was another water station and timing mats for the descent. This descent was quite scary because at this stage the elite 11km runners started to pass me, and they were going really fast and the path was very narrow. Added to which there were a few runners ahead of me blocking my path and how fast I wanted to go down hill.
. 2:38:04
Eventually I reached the bottom to begin the second lap. Was quite thirsty now, and I stopped at a high 5 station to take on a few cups of the yellow drink they were serving, then it was back to the forest trail. I had urges to walk here, my legs were getting tired, but I managed to find a lady who seemed to be going a sensible pace, I kept here about 5meters ahead of me. In doing so, I managed to pass quite a few people who had passed me in this sort of area in the first lap. I kept going and was really appreciating my endurance base at this stage. Not only was I still running, but I was already passing people at the second lap, who had gone off too fast. I kept going until that first ascent, and I stopped at the water station for quite a bit gulping down water-'was very thirsty by now.
On the second ascent of latrigg I caught up with a couple of ladies dressed as Minni mouse taking pictures of themselves-they were doing the 11km race. I offered to photograph the two of then together and managed to loose myself about 2 minutes as they were swapping cameras around, and I was pressing the wrong button! Turned out they were raising money for a charity who sends terminally ill children to Disney land. One had lost her son last year and the day after the race would have been his birthday. Wow, what an inspirational mother!
That breather had given me a second wind, I marched up the mountain, and then went flying almost all the way downhill. I was starting to feel the impact in my legs. On the final bit of the descent. My garmin was reading bellow 7mm! Very close to the end now, and on the home stretch, I saw David with the camera just as I got back to the field. There were about 200m to go and I thought I was pushing as hard as I could, I wasn't going to catch the ladies ahead so I held back, but then a man started running beside me and shouting lots of encouragement, and somewhere I found a sprint finish
Stats:
291st overall
64th woman
115th in the 0-34 age group
King of the mountain:
Lap 1: 15:17
Lap 2: 19:44 (shouldn't have stopped to take pictures)
Average: 17:30
Demon descent:
Lap 1: 19:27
Lap 2: 17:45
Average: 18:36
Mile 1: 9:29
Mile 2: 9:16
Mile 3: 9:13
Mile 4: 11:25
Mile 5: 15:20
Mile 6: 8:54
Mile 7: 10:40
Mile 8: 9:55
Mile 9: 9:48
Mile 10: 11:49
Mile 11: 13:04
Mile 12: 19:53
Mile 13: 8:55
Mile 14: 8:29
Last 0.28 miles in 2:26 which is 8:50 pace.
All in all, I didn't push this race that hard, though it was a real challenge with the terrain - I think it was a perfect start to my Autumn marathon campaign. I definitely feel possitive for a fast marathon on a flat course after the strength I would have got in my legs from that
Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to do it next year as it will be rather soon after my honeymoon...
angela- Great race report!!
Hi Clive = thanks. On reading it again, I forgot to mention why the cappucino was silly... well, that mixed with the 500ml of sis energy drink I downed before the race start repeated on me a little during the first few miles of the race...
Excellent! really inspiring read Angela. I feel a bit jealous of the weather too. "A few cups of the yellow drink..."
club night tonight, it was a few fast flat efforts, quite windy, there was only a few of usso it was quite hard work. We go out along the river bank for couple of miles, then we tourned up a lane that we used to use to get to the river when we were kids, it seemed to go on forever then but I can confirm it is fact a mere 800 metres now!
We ran through the estate where we used to live, then onto the Greenway and back to the start, a very good run at a good pace.
Hi mr p, funny how distances change on us when we age- when I go back to the village I grew up in i remember the village shop being such a distance that I had to ride my bike to it- I had to really really want those penny sweets and ice poles, whereas now it must be max 4 mins to run there from where we lived!
Indeed - both distance and time seem to warp with age. I reckon Einstein missed age as the 5th dimension
Sorry I'm a bit late to comment - your race sounded great. Excelllent report. Like Mr P my eyebrows were raised reading about the "yellow liquid". I assume it wasn't....?
I've had my first proper week back training. Managed 3 runs midweek including some 800m intervals (absolute killer). Parkrun today and hopefully a longish run tomorrow.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Oh no Malcs it was Angela that drank several cups of yellow liquid...
We came back via Alton Towers- another thing that warps with age is your fear on these rides!! I was so scared on oblivion I couldn't even scream! Yet when was little my hands were In the air!
yellow liquid wasn't supposed to cause alarm, just didn't know what it was called- a lucozade sport lookalike
well done getting the runs in Malcs.
im getting rather excited about TR24
Hi, nice to get back home and catch up with the world of running and what you have all been up to. Ive had a fantastic week, but its been busy and the internet access was poor in most places we went to so even if I had the time to come on here I dont think I would have been able to. Thanks everyone for keeping the thread going.
Reading through all the posts, looks like most of us have been on holiday up north in the last month (or Greece)
.
Sorry to hear that you didnt have a good HM Andy, although 1;36 is still a very glood time when you havent been training for that distance so you should be happy and proud of your time. Congratulations on 6th place at your park run, which is a fantastic position) and your speedy intervals. The long run the week before your HM and the intervals may have had an effect on your HM time. I didnt do much the week before I did Isle of Skye last Sunday, and wasnt much quicker.
Really looking forward to hearing about Skye
Hi Angela sounds like your road trip was as long as mine. We were on the road for 10 hours on friday when we drove up to skye, only stopping off for 3 short toilet and food breaks (and to quickly see a castle). The weather was gorgeous wasnt it....the sceneray up in scotland and at the lakes is amazing without the sun....with it words just cant describe how gorgeous those places are.
Fantastic race report. Your race sounded so tough...if you did it again would you go for the one laps or two? Was very nice of you to stop and take pictures of those runners raising money for such a wonderful cause.
I did quite fancy doing the race until I read your race report....im not sure if I could hack it...im awful at running down steep hills. I guess if you go to enjoy the day and take in the scenery though...I could be persuaded
I love alton towers...havent been for about 2 years now...so over due. I went there for my english hen party and had a wonderful time. Love oblivion, think air is the only one im not keen on as im always worried that the arms that hold you in will release mid ride! Have they finished that new ride yet?
Hi Mr P congratulations on your park run and your 10k. Were the cheerleaders out (and more importantly the firemen)? Is your next 10k tomorrow? If so good luck
Dotty I dont know how you do it, I really needed a little break before I started marathon training again in July...your a machine! I hope your legs are feeling better this week? When do you start training for Berlin?
Loving the panda Malcs
How did you get on in the Park run today?
Sorry about having to do the post in seperate bits...it keeps on freezing!
So skye...Had an amazing holiday and saw some fantastic scenery but im also glad to be back home and be able to go on a run!
We drove up to skye on friday, we set of at 7:30 am and arrived at about 18:00. We stopped off a couple of times to stretch our legs, eat and use the bathrooms but apart from that it was a solid driving. On arriving in skye we walked to the lesiure centre in Portree to collect our numbers and then we walked to the local pub for food and drinks. I decided to have one alcoholic drink...something which I havent been doinglately but I had decided to enjoy this race rather than race it.
Chris was doing skye half with me today which was nice. After breakfast we both walked down to the start. I did offer to run round with him but he declined saying that I would end up talking him to death.
5 minutes before the start of the race, men with bagpipes walk you from the leisure centre to the start of the race which makes the start so special. Then we were off.
I had planned to aim to run at about 7:15 min/ml pace overall but was aware that the first 4 miles and mile 7-10 was pretty tough so I was aiming to hold back on these alitte and push forward on the easier sections.
The first 4 miles is undulating but more up hill than downhill. I found the first 5 miles quite tough. My legs felt uncomfortable and I started to think that maybe I should drop back and run with chris. However I saw a knavesmire runner at about 4 miles who spoke some words of encouragment and spurred me on. Mile 4/5-7 is mainly down hill, however it was in to a head strong wind. Just after mile 5 my legs had loosened off and I was starting to pick up the pace...think it helped with the slightly downhill section and the gentleman who was out with his hose pipe spraying water into our path. It was such a hot sunny day so this was a welcomed relief
After mile 5 I started to close in on two women in front which was encouraging. I passed them at mile 7 just before I started the long uphill ascent. This uphill section starts as a steady incline which gradully gets steeper until it peaks at mile 10-11. I managed to pass alot of people on this long section including a friend from back home who runs for clowne and two more women. Passing these people made me feel better due to the confidence that it gave me, knowing that I wasnt struggling like the people I was passing.
Once I reached the top of this hill I knew it was all down hill to the finish in portree, so I had planned to pick up the pace once I had reached it....unfortuantley this wasnt as easy as planned due to the head strong wind again which we were now running in to. I had been looking forward to this part all the way round and now it was ruined. On a plus side, I still managed to pass several male runners and two more women on this section before reaching the finish line. My parents were at 12.5 miles cheering me on which gave me the energy to pick up the pace for the last .5 miles.
I ended up finishing in 1:33:20 (predicted time from a few months ago 1:33, which I thought I had no chance of getting the night before the race) and I was 4th lady, winning a £20 voucher
Chris came in at 2:14 which I was delighted with as he hadnt ran for two weeks before the race due to a sore knee and he only managed to get up to 10 miles in training. He enjoyed the race, which was even better so hopefully he is on the right path to catching the running bug!
The scenery in skye was amazing. Even though the race is tough I would do it again just for the scenery, its one of the most beautiful places ive ever been.
After skye, we travelled to harris and then lewis, in the outer hebrides and saw the most amazing of beaches...you wouldnt think we were in scotland. We then travelled to Ullopool, Loch Ness and then Souths queens ferry before driving home.
We was told on yesterday whilst driving home that we may be moving next friday so since arriving home ive been packing and trying to sort things out for our possible move...its crazy!