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P&D Autumn Marathon 2017
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Still a while away from running I think, ankle is feeling better but not there yet. Mostly been doing stuff at the gym but need to get back on the bike. My weight has really shot up to 11stone 12lbs, admittedly I imagine I've gained a far bit of muscle but I was 10stone 7lb roughly when I ran Londo so quite a difference
I guess with the amount of sitting at desks most of us do glutes are always going to be an issue, certainly can't say I neglect them now. Horrendously achey glutes today after gym work this week
Sorry to hear of the redundancy HA but also seems a blessing in disguise and hopefully something good comes of it
I would agree with others Philip about possible overtraining before the proper training kicks in. Definitely no need to do 2 x 20miles a week at this stage
Double race Saturday - well parkrun & XC. I went back to Hereford for only the 2nd time & 1st time since they moved over 2 and a half years ago. 2+ laps of the racecourse on a hard trail with some surface mud & puddles. Parked a couple of miles away & jogged over to the start. Legs felt rubbish & I wasn't optimistic of bettering my 20:30 PB let alone breaking 20 again which was the goal. Got to the briefing on the stroke of 9 having slightly miscalculated how far away I was. Fortunately the usual parkrun punctuality was in effect & at 5 past we trooped over the grass to the start 200m away. There was the usual frenetic start with youngsters sprinting away only to fade within 800m. After 600m the course climbs slightly for a K before dropping back gradually all the way to the start. As usual the race environment woke my legs up enough to make the target achievable & by the second lap I'd worked my way up to 4th but I sensed that the guy on my shoulder was going to break at some point & sure enough he pulled away from me on the climb 2nd time around. I was starting to find it hard work & had to dig in to keep the gap from getting too big. This helped keep the pace up & I made it to the finish in 19:54 & 5th place.
I then jogged back & headed over to Brecon for XC. It had rained heavily overnight & once again there was an abundance of mud. Fortunately there were also some good runnable sections & I'd laced the spikes up really tight this time so they stayed on. After a slow start I worked my way through the field gradually picking people off right til the end when as usual a couple of people had saved enough to sprint back past me coming into the finish.
I was 180th of 400 or so. Reasonably happy with the performance even if it was a couple of minutes slower than I have been on this course.
12M steady plod down & up my hill today brings up 65M for the week. Consistency being key: 10 weeks averaging around 60mpw since getting back from China so should be some further improvements round the corner.
I had an impromptu xc race today which I only decided to do while drinking a bit too much wine last night.
I felt Friday nights session of 7 Miles at 5.40 pace and the wine in the warm up and decided to aim for hard tempo rather than flat out. This lasted about 1 mile when I kept overtaking people and the competitive juices got going. I closed up a bit on the lead group but had let it get too big, but ran quite strong and finished 6th although only 2 seconds off 4th.
Jooligan - Sounds like you had a really good run out at parkrun, congrats on dipping under that 20 minute mark. Nicely backed up with the cross country as well, another solid weekend banked.
Philip - impressive performance, especially off the back of a few glasses of vino. What league is that in?
Had a fairly decent running weekend. We had a day trip to the coast, so stopped off at a new parkrun (Reigate Priory) on the way. Turns out it was an off-road course, more cross country like than anything else. Ended up running 18:50, which felt comfortable, was solo after the first 500m and ended up winning by over a minute (the weather must've put everyone else off!) Then had a nice, steady 14 miles @ 6.50mm on the Sunday.
Also got my birthday present from Katie - an entry to the CTS Dorset race down at Lulworth Cove in 3 weeks - the 'half' marathon (which is actually 16 miles). Anyone else done any of the races there before?
Nice impromptu race Phil. I struggle to hold back in races too. I imagine you were racing to the end too, with only 2 sec separating 3 of you.
Nice birthday present Joe. I'll have to get Katie to give my wife a call for some pointers. 40th coming up in a month. Just saw you run from yesterday on Strava, looks like you're ticking along nicely. With your great endurance you could really pull out something special in Valencia. I know it can be hard to predict given how much you've been racing this year but a PB wouldn't surprise me if conditions are right.
I'm expected to be in the office but as I've not got any work to do and I'm on my 30 day consultation period before my redundancy I came in this morning, checked my emails, looked for any new jobs then got out for a 22 miler around Richmond Park, Hampton Court and Bushy Park. Great morning for it and felt great. Purposely didn't look at my pace the whole way round and was pleasantly surprised to see I was ticking along at a decent click, running the last 10 km at around 6:20/mile.
Nice racing Jools & Just Phil.
I kind of agree on the 2 x 20 milers a week, seems excessive, possibly if you're doing comfortably over 100 miles a week it would fit into a conventional plan. I'd consider one 20 miler and 1 double day that give you 16-20 miles. That's what I am planning anyway.
Good work on the early long run HA, when chatting with my boss I made it quite clear that I had very little intention of working my notice when it comes around however I like the idea of heading into work and just doing 3 hour lunches with massive amounts of training and spending the rest of the time using work facilities to perform my job search.
I noticed your absence from the TVXC yesterday, I did go and it was a lot slower than last year. I'd been out drinking two nights running so I wasn't in the mood for a fast start. Took it easy for the first half and then started working through the field finishing 6th or 4th if you ignore the two guest runners that didn't score. At 5:54 a mile average, I was 10 seconds a mile slower than last year. I am hoping this is mostly the wind, vodka and marathon recovery.
The league is the 3 counties xc league and the race was only 3 miles from my house. It's not got too much depth but the front end is decent enough. My club also run in the Birmingham league which is obviously a much higher standard but all the raced are a long way from me and would take up most of the day. I've got another xc in 2 weeks then the county champs early January.
It seems most think the 2 x long runs is excessive so may reconsider and bow to conventional wisdom.
AWC, race day certainly enables me to run harder for less perceived effort than training. I guess that’s adrenaline (and perhaps tapering). Pleased the run camp is going well. Hopefully it will set you up well for the new year.
Good parkrun, Jooligan. The effort you make to get to a large variety is very impressive. I always enjoy a bit of tourism. Good consistency over the last 10 weeks Seems you’re back into the swing of things.
Excellent XC, Phil. Especially post wine! Also nice xc from Reg. I guess that’s the beauty of xc where times are irrelevant, booze can play a pleasingly large part of your weekend.
Scott and Joe, I also find it tough sitting at a desk. I have had a small shelf installed so I can work on the laptop whilst standing. Has made a real difference. Enjoy the CTS, Joe. They always look great.
An excellent morning at work, HA! Bet it was lovely running around the parks in these conditions.
A very chilled out weekend of running for me. After lots of wine and curry on Friday night, just enjoyed taking it very easy with the buggy at parkrun (28ish minutes). Back now on the winter course – four tarmac laps of the lake. Then 4 easy, muddy miles in local fields on Sunday afternoon. This morning was amongst my favourite running conditions – hovering around freezing, no wind. Headed out on the canal for 14M at easy effort – pace naturally sped up from 8:20 to 7:10 whilst the sun was rising, despite there being quite a few muddles to avoid and further slippy mud. Saw spoons on his long run. A few hills later in the week and hopefully will be able to make my debut at Worcester parkrun in a couple of weeks – keen for something competitive again.
Another super Saturday Jools - well done.
Phil - might swap the caff gel for wine, the effect it seems to be having with you.
SQ - Rest day and tapering here, so jealour of your 14m run this morning SQ.
Now looking forward to meeting Joe over the weekend and watch the young whippersnapper run off into the distance in the Valencian sun next Sunday, I am guessing around the half way point.
Nice JB. I've done Reigate Priory - en route for Brighton Marathon in 2014 so took it a lot steadier. Remember it was a pretty undulating off-road course though so very respectable time. I see Katie was 1stF too & on 99 not out. Not done any CTS events myself but a couple of clubmates did Gower HM this w/e & last year a few did the Dorset Marathon - it was brutal but spectacular apparently. Nice recovery run for you
Enjoy that silver lining there HA.
Great start to the week SQ - the sunrise was glorious on my commute.
I am looking forward to seeing how you and Joe get on this weekend OO, we can then turn out attention to the Spring campaign as it's getting a bit quiet on here now.
I had a day off yesterday so did 12 miles at lunch with 6 @ MP (6:16), felt pretty comfortable and makes me realise how much I prefer running outside of summer.
Reg: glad you are feeling recovered - not a bad 12 miler either at this stage!
I had a Kenyan hills session at club training last night. It was a pretty tough session but I'm finding myself working towards the front of the group now after the marathon which is a good sign. I can definitely feel the benefit of the hills and speed sessions I've been doing since the marathon. I've pencilled in 25th Nov for a crack at parkrun and I've entered the Victory 5 mile race in Portsmouth on 3rd December.
Phil - Thats pretty sharp.
Good to read you seem to have a solution Scott, bad luck on the drunken injury though, there but for the grace of God.....
Looking forward to hearing about Valencia.
Good to read about the various sessions going on, yours jumps off the page PM, great stuff.
Ticking along here in search of hills but struggling to find much, even running up the same hill repeatedly. I'm off to S Wales at the weekend so hopefully if its not too messy I'll find something on the way there or back.
I had a few weeks' break after Chester. Did a 4k cross country relay (course actually 3.6km) - the Welsh cross country relays held in my town made them pretty convenient. I was a bit disappointed with my time at the time - but in fact at 7.02 pace was pretty good on slightly muddy grass.
Actually planning to do a night fell race on Thursday... but my next real target is a park run PB on Dec 2nd... been doing some nice intervals this last 10 days and hope to put some real focus on this.
And as this is a marathon thread, my main news is that I've entered the inaugural Newport marathon next April. Looks like a flat one, for those who like them that way!
Lots of great training going on even during what for many of us is an “in-between” period. JohnOz your mixed hills & LT session stands out, great session!
Welcome back Muddy, Macca and NE, and congrats on the 10K Muddy.
Great report as ever Joe, and good luck for Sunday (and OuchOuch too!)
Top work at parkrun and XC Jooligan.
Great long run HA.
Phil I agree with Reg, 2x20 miles in a week is excessive. I did a few 100+ weeks before Brighton with a 15/5 double day (with a very slow recovery 5 as the second run) and then a 20+ long run, but gradually built up to it and certainly didn’t do it every week. I appreciate your resistance to it, but I think a steady build of easy milage would really benefit you ahead of a more marathon specific training block. Great mile repeats by the way.
I'm still plugging away although it feels like my aerobic fitness has evaporated since my week off and running a 10K PB three weeks on Sunday doesn't seem very likely. My HR is still a lot higher for a given pace that is was. The legs feel good but having had such a good training block over Aug/Sept it’s a bit of a dent to my confidence. Logically I know it’ll come back - it always has - but it’s still a bit dispiriting.
Despite this I still had a reasonable session at the track on Saturday - 12x400m averaging 78.8s, so slower than last week but with half the recovery so overall not bad. Then today I did a change-of-pace tempo run (4 mins hard, 4 mins steady, then 5x(2 mins hard, 4 mins steady), and was pleasantly surprised by the speed I could maintain during the faster sections (6:04/mi avg), not far off what I managed in September when I felt a lot fitter. I think this shows the track sessions are working.
The steady sections were a bit slower than I'd have liked (6:42/mi), although I managed 6:28/mi for the last one which shows I perhaps could have pushed a bit more on those sections. Overall though a slight confidence booster and hopefully as I build the mileage back up the aerobic fitness will return.
Thanks Reg, and yeah, I think she knows me far too well. Solid performance at the XC, especially as it was vodka fuelled.
OO - I highly doubt that. I might see if I can bring a bungee cord and attach it to the back of your vest.
Rapid session Philip, nice one.
NE - don't worry too much about reading back, you'll be here forever! Good to see you're getting back into the swing of things, Newport will be a good target.
Spoons - It'll always take a week or so to get back into it properly after a break, but the underlying fitness will be there. Keep the faith, sounds like you're still laying down some great sessions.
4 days until Valencia (where has that come from?), so I had a little massage yesterday which has left me rather sore. Wanted to make sure during this taper that I keep up the speed but with some relatively shorter runs, so I did a few faster miles this morning with some at around MP heart rate - legs felt sluggish but pace was good.
Taking everything into account, I think goals will be (current PB 2:42:24);
A - 2:44
B - 2:46
C - 2:49:30 (my second fastest marathon to date)
We'll see what happens! Forecast is 19 degrees and sunny.
Well done too to Reg on his cross country experience, seems very swift to me over mud.
RSR - If it helps any, those down weeks really help your body strengthen and improve your resilience to injury (not that you seem especially to suffer in that department). The first days back always feel a bit off but I don't think it's aerobic loss; it feels to me like I am not running so smoothly, so it's more inefficiency that anything. And it comes back really quickly.
HA - Good you could get out for the long run - every cloud etc. Hypothetically speaking, if I were to "work" a notice period I think I'd want to time it for that really grinding middle section of a mara campaign post honeymoon period, pre-taper.
Incredible mile reps Phil. Are you running in the Warwickshire xc in Jan ? Our club (small) will get a team out for that and the course is on my doorstep.
Good luck to Joe and OuchOuch in Valencia. At the opposite end of the spectrum I think I'll give a parkrun a good go this weekend.
Where in S Wales Macca? The Brecon Beacons are on my doorstep but there are plenty of other hills around.
Should have saved Newport for the new thread NE. Was tempted by it myself but only a week after VLM.
Respectable targets there JB though I won't be surprised if you exceed your expectations provided you've given yourself enough recovery over the last 10 days or so. Should be just ahead of OO though so watch out for his grappling irons
Spoon - I think we're all the same in feeling that we've suddenly lost all fitness after a week off post race, when quite obviously we haven't. I tend to put on a bit of weight in a post marathon binge, so the extra 5 kg can't help. I find it only takes one good run (like Monday) to feel like I'm back into things, probably showing it's mostly in my head. I think Muddy is right too about efficiency and getting used to dialing into those training paces.
Joe - Looking forward to seeing how you get on on Sunday. Good luck.
Good luck also OuchOuch.
Great intervals Phil and nice MP run Reg.
"Worked from home" yesterday and didn't get a chance to get out for a run after my wife surprised me by letting me know she was out with her mates in the evening. Not to worry, probably good to have a rest after the solid long run on Monday. Made the most of work again today, doing a 14 mile MLR. Added some extra hills in Richmond park, nothing Kenyan style like AWC though.
AWC - Is Kenyan hills a tempo / fartlek type session? I was never really sure. I used to regularly do a session where I'd pick an undulating course and run hard up any hill and steady on flats and downhill. I really should do it again as I really enjoyed it.
HA: Monday was a 3x10min tempo session with 3min jogged recoveries where you maintain a threshold effort up and down the hills, so you are running pretty hard down the hill. Looking at my HR data I was doing slightly more than threshold uphill and less than threshold downhill. It feels like a great session as you are improving threshold and strength at the same time. I enjoy Monday night club training as we do some type of hill session every 3 weeks and I find these sessions the most difficult to do on my own.
(a) 2:47:30
(b) 2.48.55 - 1 sec inside PB
(c) 2.49.59
7m d&d today - a few fast 800 metres thrown in. Race haircut done, legs shaved (I confess), toenails clipped, race split strategy worked out - basically 3.53-3.55 km for the first 20k, and try and keep insider 4 mkm in the second half, and last minute marginal gains being sussed out. Looking forward to a marathon in a city I've never visited - the city of El Cid - and meeting Joe and a few other guys from the sub3 forum for some post-marathon celebrating.
In other news: joined a running club for the first time in 10 years - lucky lucky Newquay Road Runners and got a place on the 2017 Marathon de Mont Blanc.
OO - good to see you are lining them up. Probably not a PB