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P&D Autumn Marathon 2017
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Good parkrunning Jooligan. Should have dropped in at Cannon Hill where I was marshalling. Bit too central I guess, with Walsall being just off the M6.
Steve - Good luck with it, I'll be about offering a bit of support.
Well done NE but was your mate also drinking the red wine ? Sounds like you got ambushed !
Well done Reg, and Joe on the parkrun.
I had a touch of the AWCs, with some "will I, won't I" about my half, with a headachey and hot feeling Friday and Saturday that held me back from the usual training. In the end I made a last minute decision to drive up on the morning of the race and give it a go, which I regretted to a certain extent as I felt rotten through the latter half of the race, even at marathon effort. Finished 4th in 1.21 and pretty much jogged home for the last 4 miles as 5th was nowhere in sight. Good cakes in the town square afterwards made me feel a bit better.
Joe/Katie... Two-nil to the UK!
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. My mate was the consummate professional... staying in a different house in London. Maybe he did get my host to ply me with drink! I had a couple of pils then probably more than half a bottle of wine. I actually felt fine within a few minutes of getting up... and once I'd drunk a gallon of water... but I guess it must have had SOME effect.
I'm feeling much better now - seems like just a 24hr vomiting bug. Had the day off work yesterday to rest up but feel good today so will try a short run tonight.
NE: alcohol has a big effect on my performance so there's no doubt the impact it would have had on your time.
Muddy: glad you made it to the start line - 4th in 1:21 is very impressive when you are feeling like that!
NE - Alcohol will have some effect on performance, I guess you may have been slightly dehydrated if nothing else despite the water consumed in the morning. I normally struggle with a recovery run after drinking, let alone a MP effort over HM distance!! Sorry that was a typo, my biggest week at 40ish miles since August, but no one is going to be impressed with my mileage, I'll be way down on the Strava P&D leaderboard!
Foggy 5 miles this morning. Vo2 max session tomorrow, first since Manchester training!
Impressive long runs Tom, Spoons, SQ and John.
great racing and amazing finish times for reg and HA77 and a double race weekend for Jools (if you count parkrun as a race)
Sounds just like bad luck AWC, hopefully you will be fine for the A race.
NE, sounds like the alcohol played its part. I can just about get away with a 5k if feeling below par.
May have to put the GWR book back on my Christmas list now that JCG and JB are featured!
Macca, I think my mate will be targeting the win at the Autumn 100. He feels he could have done better than 2nd at the NDW without a large detour. I suppose the target time will be somewhere around 14hrs depending on conditions. My pacing leg will be around 4hrs for the final 25 miles.
Not much running from me. Got my fastest splits for the group 5x1k on Friday. Definitely helped that I wasn't the fastest runner there. Much easier to have someone to chase. Then Spent most of the weekend drinking as had an early 40th birthday party (mainly with running club and parkrun people) as am away at a friends wedding on my actual birthday this weekend. Will try and sneak a hard effort at Bushy parkrun en-route .
Sorry you missed your race AWC, hope you feel better soon.
Great racing HA, nice prizes!
Don’t underestimate how much the booze will have slowed you NE, great time given the circumstances.
Solid long run Tom. I enjoyed Berlin - disappointing from Bekele and Kipsang but great battle at the end and Kipchoge is just a pleasure to watch run!
Welcome back Joe, nice work on the Italian parkrun. Your photos of the various lakes you visited looked lovely.
Well done on the big long run and week JCG.
Great work on the parkrun and tri Jooligan.
Speedy HM given you weren’t feeling great Muddy, nice one.
Nice intervals and drinking Millsy.
I was really feeling the back-to-back intervals and long run yesterday, my recovery runs were the slowest they’ve been for a while. Thankfully they felt better today and back to more normal paces for an easy 10 along the canal, bumping in to SQ as has become the norm lately! The weather was incredibly humid (99% on forecast), and the air actually felt thick and heavy. It was similar humidity in Berlin on Sunday, which reinforced to me quite how impressive Kipchoge’s time was.
AWC - bad luck again, hope are feeling better.
JCG - awesome mileage, you've really ramped well, you must be feeling confident for Abingdon.
I had a Tom-seque start at 4:30am this mornings with a few short VO2 max reps. Got faster for each one but not quite hitting the speed from previous sessions. Maybe the weekend's hot and tough LR is still in the legs.
Enjoyed the racing at the end of Berlin, Kipchoge really showed his mental strength to let the gap appear and reel him back in in the final km. Look out for a guest appearance on the MT podium this week...
Muddy - Thats a great time considering you weren't feeling great and weren't really up for it, then jogged in the last few miles with no pressure. Who knows what you could've run if there was someone to race. Thank for the thoughts on Hokas too. I was looking at the Tracers, thinking they probably most resemble what I already run in but was thinking that maybe I should go for the full on squishy Hoka experience.
Steve - I'm thinking I'll just get a pair for the road. I really like the couple of pairs of Inov-8s I've got for offroad.
AWC - glad you're feeling better
Nice intervals Millsy and John.
Spoon - I'm not surprised you're feeling the back to back intervals and long runs. Great consistency as always.
Anyway, just put up the race report on my blog if anyone is interested. I might add some photos later if I can be bothered but my wife was too busy cheering to take any of me running. Probably a good thing considering my formidable gurn.
Windsor HM Race Report
Well my my illness is well gone - 10 miles tonight with 4x1,200 reps at 4:41 (6:17/mi). Feeling good again!
Joe - welcome back, some great rides and a parkrun there. I wonder if you'll beat Reg to publishing an IM report
Glad to hear you feel better AWC, sorry you felt rough Muddy, hopefully you can get some training benefit from the half, still a quality sub par performance.
HA - a workmate ran Windsor at the w/e. He felt there was a lot of climbing and it was quite hot. In fact he helped someone who collapsed and saw a few others being wheeled off by St Johns. Maybe less than ideal conditions/course. The link doesn't seem to work for me btw.
Spoons - I think you've earnt some slow recovery runs.
John - not listened to MT for a while, intrigued I'll have to listen out.
Millsy - good luck to your mate, should be exciting to be involved in. I struggle to comprehend that sort of pace on a trail over 100 miles.
Two and a half weeks into P&D and I can already feel the benefit of consistent training (touch wood). Hopefully the gap between last ultra and the next (3.5 weeks away) will allow me toe the line in reasonable shape.
Impressive 'jog' Muddy!
Glad to hear the illnesses have cleared off.
Legs feel OK but didn't think I'd benefit from 5x1M@5K pace which was the club track session so went out for a very slow 5M RR tonight with the ultrarunners.
www.sub230blog.wordpress.com
Here's the proper link again:
https://sub230blog.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/windsor-half-marathon-24-sept-2017/
lunchtime 13mlr for me today, might have to be a long lunch.
Philip I enjoyed the fact that you had to really think about slowing down to run 16M at 6:45s. It’s all relative!
Excellent work on the tri, Reg. You’ve have trained so consistently for it, it is great to see that rewarded with a stellar time. And a solid brick session the following day.
Great track session (and nice to see you were doing it with an Elite), and another cracking progressive long run.
Sorry about the illness, AWC. Hope you’re back on form soon.
Great racing and podium/prizes, HA. Your strava activity showed just how hilly it is, so that really is an impressive time.
Joe your Italy trip looked amazing on strava. Although not sure you know how not to exercise – I like your style.
Great weekend effort there, Jooligan.
A crazy weekend on moving (part 1, more this weekend) so limited forum opportunity. I managed to round off last week with a 14M MLR on Sunday to bring up another 70M week, even including my first day off since Singapore in July. Then had a second day off on Monday (arriving like buses…). Moving is certainly physically hard work, so I’ll not beat myself up too much.
This morning was my final ‘tempo sandwich’ sessions. 20 mins MP effort HR (6:25), 4 x 3 mins hard (5:52ish), 20 mins MP effort (6:25). Pleasingly, the left calf and hammy were all fine. I struggled a little mentally early on, as this was the first cut back session – the rest have built and got bigger. Guess, I didn’t quite psyche myself up. But very happy with the times, a strong workout. Feeling like a verging on illness, so will keep the rest of the week very easy until pacing the Cheltenham Half.
SQ - Good training/tempo run there, hope the move goes well and the illness stays away.
First Vo2 max session since March....yuk!! 5:30am start for 9 miles with 6*600m. Struggled with this and couldn't hit target pace (aiming for 2:12). Reps were 2:14/2:16/2:23/2:17/2:13/2:18.
I did a double run day on Monday with the evening session including 5 at 5.31/mile which I found tougher than I would have hoped, yesterday a double bike day and today 17 at 6.35/mile which again felt tough even fairly early on. I didn't look at my speed til 20 mins in and tried to run steady and then tried to maintain it for the remainder. Some fatigue from the last 2 days I recon.
HA - was a great break, did plenty of activity and some huge walks. Blog is coming along, just keep getting distracted, nearly finished. Not sure why I keep putting it off! Never run in Hokas but always wanted to try.
Muddy - decent effort in the half, 4th when not feeling too good is a great result.
Macca - as mentioned to HA i'm slowly getting there with the report!
SQ - nothing wrong with a day off, looks like you're putting in the hours at the moment so no harm in a bit of rest! What time you pacing at the weekend? I think he's a member of our club, I spotted him there last night but there are normally at lot of us running - around 70 last night!
As SQ mentioned actually dived into a track session with the club last night. First proper workout post IM. 3 x (1200, 800, 400) getting quicker the shorter the distance.
Baptism of fire, was blowing by the end of the first 1200. We have 5 pace groups and I'm usually hanging to the back of group 1 by the skin of my teeth. Prefer to be there than in group 2 where you're running off the front and there is no one to push you harder. Was absolutely done in by the end, but nice to be back into some proper training. We've got some decent runners, one of the girls is hoping to win the royal parks half in a few weeks. Safe to say she was well ahead of me.
Had a nice recovery run this morning, got our work annual awards do tonight so more drinking and eating on the cards. Amsterdam should be fun.
Phil - That's a fast long run. Great stuff
Steve - Good work on getting the intervals done.
SQ - Another great session. Your training has been consistently impressive. Bodes well. Looking at that climb from the weekend, strava seems to add extra on. While my watch measured 840ft, which I would guess is about right, when it got to strava it became 1050ft, so about 25% more. Still a reasonable climb for the race though.
Relatively light double session day yesterday, lunchtime 11 miles with 3.5 at MP, then 12 miles with 1,3,5,7,5,3,1 min efforts with 30s steady recovery on the track. Could feel Sunday's race in the legs but didn't push very hard and felt good at the end of the day. Just an easy plod today.
Well done on the early start JohnOz, tasty looking MP/LT session today on Strava too. Alternating pace sessions are definitely on trend in this thread
Great race report HA. I liked how it covered the mental battle as motivation inevitably waxes and wanes during a longer race. Look forward to seeing how you do at Abbo.
Glad you’ve cleared the illness AWC, nice session.
Good to head you’re feeling the benefits of training Macca, it’s always nice when you feel the improvements start to kick in.
Sensible decision to take it easy Jooligan.
Another top session SQ, a few days off at this point won’t hurt after all the solid training you’ve put in, and the last thing you want to do at this stage is overdo it with the added stress and work of the move.
The first speed session is always tough SteveMac, it’s all training in the bank though.
Busy start to the week Philip, and super speedy long run! Not surprised you’re feeling some fatigue!
Straight back in to it Joe! Well done hanging on.
Winding things down for me, no more doubles until after Oxford now! Suffering with a mild case of taper madness as my beats/mi has been creeping up. However this often happens during a recovery week so trying to ignore it as I know I’m the fittest I’ve ever been and that isn’t going to just disappear. Hoping for good weather on Saturday so I can have a good crack at parkrun.
Oh, and Steve Magness did an analysis of Kipchoge's training for Berlin, if anyone's interested: http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2017/09/an-analysis-of-eliud-kipchoges-training-before-his-berlin-marathon-victory.html
Morning all.
Quality sessions noted from John, SQ, Steve and Joe amongst others. Superb work!
Very impressive Muddy to be able to run/jog that time when under the weather!
Pleased to hear you have shaken off the illness AWC.
Glad you are getting right back at it Macca and can feel progress being made.
Don't panic Spoons-you are in amazing shape and that's not going to just disappear so just relax and get ready for Oxford. You are going to smash that sub 80!
Great report of a quality performance HA and, as it wasn't on the quickest of courses, your time bodes very well for Abo and a crack at the 2:30 and another spot on the podium.
Speaking of reports.......Joe,Reg???
I have been reducing the mileage and intensity a bit this week (9 miles with some strides on Tuesday, 12 miles at 6:20s yesterday and just a 6 mile jog this morning) as a kind of mini taper for Cardiff HM on Sunday but I'm not sure I should be bothering as I've got a bit of a cold so not feeling great and the weather forecast is typically Welsh-very wet and possible gale force winds-so unlikely to be conducive to anything fast. Frustrating as I want to race it but maybe it would be more sensible to run it at MP if conditions are as bad as they are predicting and I don't feel any better.
Last MLR for me this morning - feeling a bit tired but just becuase I've run the last 3 days since my illness so probably just a bit or weariness. Recovery run tomorrow and then final 22 miler on Saturday morning and then its taper time for Abingdon!
Oxford Half 8th October
RunSpoonRun - P&L 100 mi HM plan - Target Time 79:59Munich 8th Oct
OuchOuch 2.49-2.52
Chester 8th Oct
Northender Mash up of 12/55 3:30
Birmingham 15th October
SteveMac - P&D/DIY - Sub 3:05 (although any PB will be good!)
Amsterdam 15th October
Joe Bloggs-BR - DIY - Target Time 2:39
Melbourne 15th October
JohnOz - P&D 12/70 plan - Target time 2:59
Abingdon 22nd October
Reg Wand - DIY Plan Target time 2:43
HA77 - DIY Plan Target Time 2:30
Tom-P&D/DIY 12/70 plan-Target time TBA
AWC – P&D 12/55 – Target Time 3:20
Sorequads - DIY BAC sessions - Dream target 2:52
Coops - P&D gently gently version - Target time TBA
Autumn 100 21st October
Maccatheknacca
Eryri/Snowdonia 28th October
Jooligan - DIY (P&D guided) Target Time sub 3:30 (aspirational sub 3:15)
Frankfurt 29th October
PJFrizzle - P&D up to 70mpw - TT 2:59:59 (A) 3:05 (B)
Valencia 19th November
Joe Bloggs-BR - DIY - Target Time 2:39
OuchOuch 2.49-2.52HA77 - great read and looking forward to seeing you give 2:30 a hard go. You seem to have mixed kms and miles in your report though, you know it makes sense to drop the imperial measures
AWC - if you think 4:30 is early, I'll be out at 4 tomorrow
Joe - good to see you back into it. You should still have a really strong run in Amsterdam, isn't it nice and flat? Then you can smash it in Valencia and go all out!
Spoons - the strava leaderboard just doesn't look right this week with you "only" being second in your taper week
Well done on the track session, Joe. Good going so soon after IM. I miss doing track sessions with a big group, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me at the moment. I'll definitely return to them one day. I'm pacing 90 minutes for the half on Sunday. Really looking forward to it, although just carrying a stick with a sign on it sounds a bit village, and I wonder how it will affect my form. I will make it into a lon run (22M ish) somehow or other.
Impressive to get tge double day in so soon post half, HA. When is the double MP day planned?
Hopefully the large numbers running Cardiff will shield you from the weather, Tom. Best of luck - I'd like to do it one day.
Good luck with the 22M AWC.
5M easy recovery on grass today. Feeling pretty stiff and tired after yesterday's sandwich and also some weights in the afternoon.
Well, I have been having a read but need to catch up properly. Well done to HA on a fantastic HM and pot hunt though.
So the report....
Having sworn I’d never do an Ironman again unless I felt I could get close to my potential, I had entered Italy feeling like that’s exactly what I could now do. I spent the winter focusing on cycling and improving my swimming and lost four months of running to two foot injuries. Other than that it was just a case of managing niggles so my preparation was fairly consistent. My minimum target was to go under 10 hours but I felt that 9:30 was possible.
The Swim
I enter the water and I am surprisingly relaxed and as I expected I am swimming past people and there’s nobody to draft off. The first loop of 2.4km goes really quickly and as I exit the water I glance at my watch to see I am ahead of schedule, we head back into the water, the first 100 metres or so is more of a run as the water is so shallow, a few minutes of swimming later and someone is severely off course swimming right across me, despite being 400 metres I’m still able to stop dead stand up as this clown swims at a right angle to the course and then I carry on.
On to the bike and the first bump I hit my bottle falls off but thankfully someone picks it up and hands it to me as I stop, I fumble to put my foot back in the pedal and ride on tightening the bottle mount straps as I go. The first 20 miles or so are pretty congested and it’s difficult to stay out of the drafting zone.I take it pretty easy until we hit the hill at the far point of the first loop. As my speed drops and effort increases I notice the heat for the first time, this is the hottest day so far but I’d rather this than the cold and wet. As I descend the hill I decide to stick with the slightly higher effort prompted by the hill climb. The roads back are long, straight and slightly featureless and my average speed increases back up towards 23 mph. The course is an out and back and as I return to the town for the first time, I take care to avoid the bumps that ejected my bottle and enjoy the crowds contrasting the otherwise quiet route. As I head back out on the second loop I spend large periods alone, I notice someone I’ve passed has latched on to my wheel and I offer some advice which he takes and drops back. As I reach the hill for the second time the course turns back towards the town and the long drags are now offering a stiffer breeze with nothing to break the wind and my speed begins to drop. I’d set myself a target of around 4:50 for the bike course but we’d been advised that the course was actually 3 miles long. I go through the full distance mark (112 miles) and my Garmin reads around 4:58, 8 minutes slower than expected but I have gained a few minutes on the swim. There’s still another 7 minutes left though and I roll into transition with a 5:05:21 bike split. With the long bike and epic transition sub 10 hours is still on and I need about a 3:40 marathon or better to do it.
I go through transition via another quick pee stop costing me another minute or so. Some can do it on the bike but I’ve not mastered this skill and it’s not one you really want to practice! As I hit the run I see my wife and children for the first and only time and I feel pretty good. It’s warm though, I pass a temperature reading and it’s 27 degrees. The first mile is up in 6:43 and it feels comfortable but I know there’s a long way to go and I am bound to slow down. I take two waters and tip one on my head and drink the other along with a couple of sponges which I stuff in my trisuit. Second mile is 6:56 and then each mile is progressively slower from there. First 10k loop completed in 7:30 pace but it’s getting tougher. The course is four loops of just over 10k each and whilst the first one takes care of itself the second starts to bite a bit, I try to keep cool and they offer some ice at the aid stations, I stuff this down my trisuit and take on more water and a gel. After 13 gels on the bike I feel a bit full and a mile down the road some of the gel reappears in my mouth, watered down but still distinctly gel taste, I swallow thinking that I need the energy inside me and it probably tastes better this way!