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P&D Autumn Marathon 2017
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After seeing an NHS physio the injury is improving through plenty of glue work. Also the cause seems to be my adductor magnus is really shortened and putting pressure on the tendon at the knee so been rolling and massaging every day. Had got back into running until a drunken injury last weekend stopped that. Involved me and my mate acting out dirty dancing, me being lifted up and then proceeding to fall and now have a painful and swollen ankle...idiot! Hoping nothing too serious done and a few weeks rest and I can get back to it
Nice session John. I’m not racing until December now, had my fill in Sept/Oct!
Glad your injury is improving Scott and you seem to have gotten to the cause. Your Dirty Dancing story made me laugh, I did a similar thing with a friend of mine once. We’d done the move before successfully but I lost my footing and dropped her. She bashed her head on a table and for a moment I was genuinely worried I might have killed her but thankfully she was ok!
Up to the track this morning for 6x(200m, 200m, 400m). Hard work as it’s been a while since I’ve done any short reps like that. Averaged 37s/76s, right around my Daniels repetition pace, so happy with that.
Cracking session Spoons.
Yeah Mona Fartlek is a beast JohnO, I've seen an extended version too with 3x45s slotted in but yet to inflict that on anyone. Probably leading the club track session Tue tho
Have fun tomorrow JB & SQ.
Thx Macca but Snowdonia was Saturday so I'd had a 6k plod before the Monday Tri training.
PR was fastest for months but on a 3.2M course so came in at 19:35 for 5th.
XC was brutal: 3 laps, really slippery, sucky mud & lumpy. There was also a few hundred metres of stony roadway which was crap in spikes. I suffered finishing the 10K course a good minute or 2 down. Shoe actually came off about a mile in!
Great work as ever Jooligan. Did you put the shoe back on or just carry on with it in your hand - I always love it when I see that, makes me chuckle.
Thames Meander half for me on Saturday. I've been lacking any motivation to want to go and run hard recently, so I turned up to the start line pretty relaxed but not really that 'pumped up'. A parkrun takes place at the same venue so I arrived early so I could volunteer beforehand, leaving me 30 minutes to get ready for the race.
Heavy overnight rain had left the towpath pretty boggy, so conditions were quite slippery underfoot. I knew that the standard wouldn't be too high, so I might find myself somewhere near the front. Sure enough, after the over-eagerness of some in the first couple of miles, the lead-group was whittled down to four, with me setting the pace and ticking off miles all within 3-4 seconds of each other just based on feel.
We got to halfway (it was a straight out and back along the river), and I could see the guy in 4th was really hurting, and soon enough we were down to 3. I think I made a mistake by sitting at the front the whole time, but this wasn't a situation I usually find myself in. With about 3 miles to go, one of the guys made a break and I just didn't have the mental strength to go with him, which was disappointing.
Then with 1.5 miles to go, the other guy also went, however, he only got 10 metres or so on me. Then, with half a mile left I actually reeled him back in and went past him, only for him to kick again and beat me by a few seconds. I ended up in 3rd, finishing in 1:21. Looking back now, I definitely had more in the tank in the closing stages, but oddly didn't have the desire to push harder - not had that before.
It was nice to get a podium finish, but underwhelming considering I went through halfway at London this year in the same time - it was also a good 5 minutes off my PB. I've got to accept I'm not quite as fit as I was back in April and readjust targets for Valencia in 2 weeks accordingly.
Scott - Good luck, especially avoiding injury at the office Xmas disco.
Nice looking session Spoons.
Great PR Jools - so soon after a tough marathon.
2 week taper starts today, 6m this morning with 4*800m around 5.35 mm pace.
Hopefully run for a 2.47 at Valencia in 2 weeks which would be a new PB.
Nice racing Jools, since Strava changed their feed to upload time I get this glut of Jools weekend madness coming through in one go!
Nice to see you getting back to it Scott, things must have been bad if they had to glue you back together
I've done a couple of runs, one Friday 9 miles and then 10.5 miles yesterday with a few hills in. Pushed it a little but I'm still pretty damaged from that stupid marathon. This one is going to take the full 3 weeks to leave my system. Heart rate is high for pace, probably carrying a few extra pounds and I'm still coughing stuff up at the end. Apart from that I am in top form. The motivation is starting to return a little though.
Cheers, Macca. I reckon going sub 3 at Snowdonia would be a hell of a challenge.
Nice speed work John, always good to mix things up between plans.
Cracking injury story, Scott. Hope the glute work pays off. Seems to be a recurring theme on here.
Haha spoons, are you retiring from our hill rep contest with a 100% record?! Great speed at the track. You certainly weren’t doing 76s laps in June.
Not sure about your ‘lacking motivation to run hard’, Joe. Cracking effort fitting in the volunteering before racing, and a very good run in itself. Don’t underestimate how much the terrain, conditions and lack of numbers around you will affect the overall time.
Great couple of longer runs there, Reg. I definitely reckon three weeks is required to recovery from an all out marathon – although I am sure eating and drinking loads (me – not casting any aspersions) doesn’t help.
It was cold but a nice morning at the Guy Fawkes 5 – a bit too windy for really fast times, but I was keen to give it a crack. Opted for a different vest to the worn I wore for the marathon two weeks ago – that was feeling a little, er, snug. Ran in 8th place the whole way, neck and neck with a V50 who I am always close to, before he outsprinted me at the end. 29:32, so an 8 second PB – bonus!
This morning saw a cracking day break with frost everywhere. It was -2C whilst driving in then +2C by the canal. No wind at all – I love mornings like that. 10 easy miles. Calves a little sore from racing in flats yesterday, but not feeling fatigued.
I have Brighton and London (GFA) lined up for April next year - just waiting for the spring marathon training forum to start so everyone can berate me for my crap training style!
Everyone here just seems to keep running longer and faster GULP
Club session last night which was 5x1km intervals (Garmin says they were 0.6mi rather than 0.62mi intervals so a yards short) with a hill in the middle of it! Splits were 3:43/3:36/3:33/3:34/3:39 so feels like I could have a go at a sub-20 parkrun later this month and finally crack that hoodoo!
AWC - Agree with SQ, sub 20 is on the cards.
SQ - Nice PB, shame about getting outsprinted by an old bloke.
Not run for over a week now, got a sore throat and start of a cold last Wednesday, was feeling almost over it on the weekend, then it moved to my sinuses on Monday. Was hoping to get out today but I don't think it's a good idea, judging from how I feel at the moment.
To add insult to injury I've been made redundant at work. Pretty disappointing but I've not been very happy here the last 2 years so I'm hoping this is just the shove I needed to move on to something better. I'm going to get my physio registration back and should be easy enough to pick up some work should it take a bit longer to find more engineering work. I'm also considering going back to physio full time and trying to set up some sort of running clinic. We'll see how it pans out.
Quiet on here. When is you marathon, Joe? Guess it could be time for a new forum after that.
6 x 2 min hill reps today for 10 miles total. Calves still a bit battered from Sunday, but feeling good. Incredible weather again. Frosty but very little wind and still light at the time I am getting out.
Nice PB SQ. I can sympathise that all that marathon training leaves top end speed sorely lacking.
Good luck with the sub 20 AWC, based on those reps you should smash it.
I'm trying out random speed sessions at the moment whilst I'm not following any plan. After 10x2 min/1 min off and a mona fartlek last week, did 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 mins yesterday and tomorrow is 4x60s hills/5k LT/4x60s hills/5k LT. Any suggestions for other favourite sessions welcome!
XC sounds tough Jooligan, nice work.
I agree with the others Joe, give yourself a break! Sounds like a solid time in the conditions, and congrats on the podium.
Good to see you getting back in to things Reg.
Congrats again on the PB SQ. I’m definitely up for more hill reps at some point, but still need time to recover from the last ones!
Impressed you were back at them today.
Nice intervals AWC, I agree with SQ hopefully that sub-20 is yours for the taking.
Sorry to hear about your illness and redundancy HA. As you say though, perhaps a blessing in disguise. Going self-employed is one of the best things I’ve ever done career wise. While you do lose some of the security of a regularly paying job, the freedom and flexibility is great. Hope it works out whatever you opt to do.
Nice variety of sessions there JohnOz, top work.
My calves are still feeling battered after Saturday’s track session. I think six miles in my relatively low-drop Takumi Sens were a bit of a shock to them, as I’ve been racing in the plush Vaporflys. A few yoga sessions have helped, and they are slowly returning to normal.
As SQ mentioned a lovely still, if very chilly, morning here in Worcester, which was perfect for my tempo session. I did 12, 10, 8 mins at LT with 4 min recovery, averaging 6:15/mi for the efforts. Not quite as fast as I’d like given my LT should be around 6:02/mi, but not as bad as I feared it might be given it feels like my fitness has evaporated since my week off. I often see LT being described as “comfortably hard”, this felt more uncomfortably hard, but hopefully it’s onwards and upwards from here.
We still waiting for Joe's Valencia marathon?
AWC - Agree with the others, sub 20 is yours.
SQ - Nice PB!
Joe - Still a great run!
Spoons - Feel the same about fitness evaporating!! My recovery run was REALLY slow after 2 weeks off with HR a lot higher than it should have been!!
Easy 4 miles yesterday after 2 weeks off. Felt OK, but HR was much higher than it should be for the pace I ran. Also realised I'm 1/2 stone heavier now than during Manchester training....that's all the food I ate during ultra training then!!
HA - as I've said elsewhere, so sorry to hear, but i hope it gives you the impetus you need to start doing something better.
Nice tempo session Spoons, it's always hard to jump in after a week off, that pace is still very good, especially if that's just a starting point!
It looks like I'm holding everyone up! Valencia is next Sunday (the 19th), so there's only a few more days to wait..
I've just been focusing on recovery since Saturday. I had Sunday completely off (which is unlike me), before doing some easy recovery runs Monday/Tuesday. Today, I stepped it up slightly, with 10 miles @ 7mm, with the HR at the lower end of my general aerobic zone - was very enjoyable.
Keeping it easy for the rest of the week with no sessions, to allow my legs to freshen up and also get back into a more positive frame of mind.
Does anyone else feel in a bit of limbo at the moment. It's a long way off til spring marathon season but I want to crack on. I am thinking of doing 2 twenty ish mile runs a week when I can to build a solid base for January. It would be nice to feel comfortable with 2h30 running and recover very quickly so I can hit the key sessions in February and March time. I will monitor it and see if it's doable without getting injured.
Sounds a good plan Phil.
Sorry to hear you're soon to be out of a job HA - have you been there long? As others have said a running physio shouldn't ever be short of work.
Great result JB. Remember this was never a target race just a good tempo run. Good to hear even you rest occasionally.
Did the Mona Fartlek+ as the track session last night. I added in 3x45s as I read about someone's coach having extended it like that. I was still sore from XC so only gave it about 85-90% but it was still tough. Other than that I'm trying to slow down my running this week in an effort to feel fresher for the weekend's racing.
Noticed the great pace for your latest long run Phil. Great stuff. Sounds like a reasonable plan, provided you're not trying to fit too many sessions between the long runs. The other thing I find is I get a bit bored with too many long steady runs. You don't want to do too many and feel tired and unmotivated by the time Jan comes around. I think I'd prefer to feel fresh and hungry at the start of the proper training block. Just something you could think about but I'm sure you'll be fine.
Got out for an easy 10km today. Sinuses didn't feel great, but no worse than sitting at my desk. Helped clear out the pipes too.
Sub 3 marathon training run, then feeling a bit subdued for a half race Joe ? I'm not an expert but ...
Macca's report. I'll just bookend that with a !!!! Enjoyed/winced. Contemplated how battered my legs would be after 25 miles these days, let alone 100.
Too much dirty dancing going on for my tastes.
Congratulations on the 5 mile pb SQ. My opinion on the suppressed heart rate stuff: when you're fatigued and doing too much the top end effort becomes unreachable. I've experienced it trying to pick it up for races to get something out of the mara campaign. Lower mileage, easier running, regular strides will bring some bounce back, reduce the fatigue and allow you to feel your way into the harder short efforts. It's probably not what you want to hear, but it's very familiar to me and you're not long off the back of the marathon campaign and marathon itself.
I had an overloaded week last week - around half of the 40 odd miles at marathon effort and above, culminating in a 10k race conducted around threshold that came in at 35.35 and gained me 2nd place which was less important than the place at the all you can eat post race cake buffet. Slight bit of hammy twang easing its way out after all that effort, so an easy week is now going in ahead of an early December half and mud fest trail race the week before that. I really like racing in this weather, so not quite sharing Phil's feeling of a lull.
Sympathies to HA on the redundancy (and the bug) but looks like you have a couple of irons in the fire. If you ask me, a vocation around running related stuff sounds like a great dream to chase.
Jooligan - well done, I don't know how you managed the extra 3x45s, I'm always stuffed after the standard one. I did read that you pace is supposed to speed up as the intervals shorten so I definitely go out too hard.
Nice LT run spoons, that's still a rapid pace and even compared to 6 months ago it must be good to know you've more to come.
Great result and time Joe given the conditions. Sounds like with a bit of recovery/taper you won't be far off PB shape surely...
Just phil
My hills/5k LT/hills/5k LT session today was far longer than I planned. Ended up over 13 miles with 19:54 and 19:56 for the 5ks, which I'm happy with considering it added up to over an hour of actual hard running. I don't seem to be bringing down my LT paces though so will try some shorter stuff next week.
Muddy: great second place in a training run. Like you I enjoy racing in this weather and it feels great to be doing lots of short stuff and speedwork. My legs are definitley benefiting from not being so fatigued all the time
John: That's a tough old hill/LT session but I wouldn't read too much into LT pace on a run like that with hills to contend with as well as holding LT for sub-20mins at a time. I find a week to 10 days time after a session like that my legs really begin to feel the benefit.
I had my second RunCamp strength and conditioning track session this morning. It was various iterations of squats/lunges/pressups/single leg hops/400m tempo/4x100m strides - 5 sets of this! I found the hardest bit was the 400m tempo coming off the back of all those strength exercises.
I'm going to do a MLR tomorrw evening as I have no running this weekend with a stag do in Dublin coming up. Then back on it for a Kenyan Hills session at club on Monday evening. I really look forward to hill sessions more than any other because you just feel like you are gaining so much fitness and its great for stride length as well.
Joe - Good luck for Valencia.
Muddy, impressive 10k that, especially if it's not eye balls out.
Lots of nice sessions elsewhere too.
I did my first session in what feels like over a year. 5 x 1km intervals and they came out at 3:25 average. I think that's ok. They were hard efforts but not flat out and I finished with a 3:22 on the slight uphill one and I could have done more but my calf was getting a little tight.
Feels like the marathon has just about left my legs now. Just need to start rebuilding the fitness lost in the last few weeks.
Good LT, spoons. For me LT feels uncomfortably hard - and fairly often unmanageably hard! For anyone interested, spoons mentioned a recent study looking at the impact of running surfaces. This http://running.competitor.com/2016/07/injury-prevention/how-running-surface-and-speed-influence-injury-risk_153528 looks a little old, but has the same message. Interesting about softer surfaces requiring stiffer legs.
Good luck for Sunday, Joe.
2 x 20M is certainly unorthodox, Phil, but why not give it a go. Are you doing much cycling at the moment? There are perhaps some valid concerns regarding mental burnout this far out, but if you're enjoying them, why not.
Pleased the run camp is going well, AWC. Enjoying it?
Thanks for the advice, Muddy, and well done on the 10k. I think you are right and now is the perfect time for it. You inspired me to do strides this morning! This followed 12 easy miles on the canal yesterday sandwiched between school and parents' evening. Felt good and averaged just below 7:30s for very low effort. Certainly beginning to recover.
Cracking session John, you seem to have bounced back from the marathon very well and motivation levels are obviously high after a great performance.
Have fun on the stag AWC - is it going to be a heavy weekend?
Reg - nice session Reg. I don't think you'll have lost much fitness, and you need the recovery for sure. What you thinking for next season, London and then a summer IM?
Just to clarify guys, Valencia is next Sunday (19th) and not this weekend. I'm glad because I definitely need a few easy days to get to the start fresh.
Did 6 miles fairly easy this morning with a few strides. Not a great deal of running this weekend (being sensible for a change), I'll do 14 on Sunday as a last slightly longer effort.
Got around to writing a blog about winning my tiny tea-tray;
https://spragginsblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/thames-meander-half-marathon-04-11-2017/
SQ: RunCamp is going well - the strength work is hard but its helping me push harder than I do on my own at home. I was really sore for a few days after the first week but this week I feel fine today and I can definitely see myself keeping at it during marathon training. In terms of post marathon fitness I definitely feel fitter this time round - feels like I'm running better than I have done before. Normally feel drained and leggy after a marathon so its nice to be feeling good at this stage.
Joe: Dublin will definitely be messy. There will be beer at the airport at 7.30am, then we're golfing at 11 with beer provided and then its into town for a curry and onto pubs/clubs etc later. I'm really not much of a drinker anymore so I'll probably be smashed by the first tee
Reg: nice intervals - I did the same session on Monday night and it felt good. Sounds like you are recovering well if yo are knocking out those reps and they are not flat out.