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P&D Spring Marathon 2018
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NE bad luck with the fall. It’s happened to me a couple of times and has been very sudden as you say. I am always shocked at the force with which you can hit the ground, so god knows what a proper bike crash is like. A full Foster was some incorrect terminology from me. It describes when someone begins to slow down and stagger and eventually have to crawl their way over a finish line. I actually meant ‘doing a Thatcher’ (from Marathon Talk), where each split is slower than the last.
2M very easy shakeout this morning - in the pouring rain. Hopefully it’ll clear before tonight.
Don't fancy that 28% gradient in the middle of a race Hazel
Good to hear the legs are coming back Steve
Glad the back was nothing in the end Spoons. The pace will come back just got to stay consistent and give the legs time
Mega training as always Joe
Decent time on a hilly course SQ. Good luck for tonight!
Glad nothing too serious from the fall NE, I've gone over once or twice and had a lot of saves as well
30 mins easy this morning, following day off yesterday.
Great you’re doing NY, Steve. I’ve got a place for Snowdonia in late October but at toying with a flat fat marathon as well or instead. After the heat of London, it’d be good to realise some of the training. Possibly Chester or Abingdon (waiting list).
Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo race last night. Brilliantly organised by Cheltenham Harriers (not my club). Low key, entry on the evening, very cheap. No t shirt, medal, gift etc. But you do get brilliant views, brutal climbs, technical descents and a broad range of speeds. For me a perfect race. Had no expectations other than to enjoy it. Pleased the morning’s rain had disappeared and it ended up being quite warm. 5.5M with lots of steep climbing. I moved into fifth at about half way and then really pushed on from there - it felt good to be genuinely racing for a position. Managed to hold off those behind me, largely by pushing hard on the flats and downhills, and managing only one little walk on the steepest section. Fun to have a beer straight after and delighted to wine a bottle of wine (8%?!) and for my wife to come 6th and win the team prize, scooping two further bottles.
NE - hope you're ok after your fall. I actually stacked it for the first time ever running the other day, in a park with a large number of people in. Very embarrassing.
Hard swim session yesterday morning and a hard bike in Richmond park earlier. I've got a half ironman in Chester on Sunday, so I'm (sort of) resting up for that now. It's my only build up race on the road to ironman UK, and I've done it for the last 2 years, so it'll be interesting to see the comparisons.
Good haul from you and the wife at the race SQ, good work!
Sunday will give you a great indicator of how training has gone Joe
Got back to a full session last night 10min tempo, 5 x 300m, 3 x 300m, 2 x 300m with increasing recoveries between the 300m and 500m jog between sets. Tempo was around 5:20 pace and 300's averaged 49. Legs were absolutely battered after
Got a question though when recording rep times do people look at the 'time' or 'moving time' on garmin connect. I generally use time but the moving time is the figure which comes up on the watch but what is correct?
Bit quiet on here! Lazing around in my hotel in Chester ahead of tomorrow half ironman.
The big news of the weekend is Katie’s back in business. Slowly building up and decided to have a fitness test at parkrun this morning. 19:21 - 2nd fastest ever 5km (19:08 PB), off the back of only a couple of sessions. Shows if you keep cross training you can retain most of the fitness. So pleased for her.
Fish and chips in Brighton sounds lovely Joe. Good reward for the cycling. Saw those 800s on Strava and it took me a while to undrop my jaw. Good luck for Chester tomorrow. Great news for Katie. Hope things keep going in the right direction for her.
Nice 10k SQ. I love watching the kids races at events. Well done at the Cloud Cuckoo too. Enjoy that wine if it isn't already gone.
NE I try not to fall over too often - I think my best effort was during an off-road HM - I had carefully negotiated all the rocks and roots on the ups and downs and thought I could relax on a short smooth flat bit and enjoy the sights. Promptly face-planted over the one small chunk of rock in the path. The nearest runner was a bit shocked by the swearing (probably in English). Ah and a slip in several inches of fresh snow (maybe ice below it), on a training outing last winter leaving my lying giggling in it - was nice and soft at least.
Scott the 28% are at the end of the race - might be crawling across the line there. Nice session. Can't help on the Garmin sorry (I use a TomTom).
Was out hiking on Thursday (bank holiday again) with around 3000ft of ascent and descent - quads are still protesting about the latter and were not amused yesterday on a 6 miler so kept that gentle though with a couple of minor surges (not really strides) to liven things up a bit. If the legs are still tired tomorrow then I will do the race more as a bit of fun tomorrow.
Hike sounds great, Hazel. You can’t be short of options in Switzerland.
Hi Reg. how is training going? Have seen some great strava efforts. Any build up races?
Track yesterday, adapted from this week’s MT. 4 x 300 (56-59s) with 100 walk, 1600 5k effort (5:49 so not too far off 5:45), 4 x 300 same pace as before. Good little bit out.
Some parkbuggyrun tourism at Gloucester City today. Could definitely have come first sans buggy. Great flat course, albeit loops.
Might do do a long run tomorrow, just because I fancy one. WeTher looks good early doors. Good luck to anyone else racing
And anyone else racing. I’ll catch up on the rest shortly.
Woke up on Wednesday morning with a sore ankle. No idea what I did to it but it was really sore just below the ankle bone. So didn’t run for a few days. Did 15 miles tonight and totally bonked at 13 miles. Not been the best week running - hopefully just a hangover week after Kiev.
Joe: I usually use time when recording but just made me think as I realised the other day that the time that comes up when you hit lap is the moving time. Great to hear Katie is back in business and hasn't lost much fitness
Looks like Joe had a stormer yesterday, look forward to the report
Strong session that SQ
Just use it as a recovery week AWC, hopefully the ankle was just because you slept on it oddly
So after Thursdays session had Fri off, easy 30 on Saturday and a solo session yesterday. 3 sets of 4 mins (90), 2mins (60). Rep paces were 5:32, 5:02/ 5:19, 5:14/ 5:25, 5:08
Look forward to hearing a report from Joe.
Hope all ok, AWC. You’ve got loads of amazing training banked so it sounds like you are being very sensible.
20M easy effort very early yesterday morning. No real reason other than I really enjoy a long run in this weather. Left at 4:45am when it was about 12-15C so a lot cooler than even a couple of hours later. Averaged 7:18s without ever exerting myself. Really enjoyed it.
on the subject of falls I’ve managed to do something to my knee and hip landing awkwardly trying to prevent a tumble. Took a few days off but the pain came back on wednesdays club run.
Going to get my physio to have a look at it on Thursday so SDW 100 is looking very doubtful although postponing for until next year will hopefully give me a chance to train more consistently for it.
looking forwards to Joes report as it sounds like he’s had a blinding race.
Did literally nothing til Thursday when I had a good run on Dartmoor. Out & back twice along a 3K service road to Avon Dam. Did the first one steady then stopped for a drink before pushing hard the second time. No pain but could feel the leg tiring so left it at that. Very humid so I jumped in the river after to cool off & remove the sweat.
Saturday I did Killerton parkrun - missed the start by about 45s so had to work my way through the field (327 strong) - not easy on narrow trails & I was also wearing the wrong shoes. Finished 37th with my slowest time of the year (& even worse officially). Jumped back in the car to get to Hereford for the 2nd Midland League track meet. Did the 1500, 3,000 & 4x400. Nothing spectacular but valuable team points. Legs felt good on the 1500 but were definitely tired thereafter - right calf is very stiff today as I was in spikes & had another day of rest yesterday (apart from mowing the jungle)
Great long run SQ - I love going out when there is no structure on the go and just doing what I feel like.
Nice of you to run with the better half, Steve.
Jooligan - good to hear you've had a couple of days off before getting back into the standard routine!
Thanks for all the messages on social media guys, as some of you have seen, Chester went pretty well.
Confidence was actually pretty low in the build up, as I'd had another massive week of training and I felt completely exhausted. Allowed myself a couple of easier days, with a 4km lido swim on Friday and just parkrun mentioned above on Saturday. Despite not expecting much, I was pretty pumped for the race as it'd be a good marker for where I'm at with Bolton now just 6 weeks away.
Swim - I'll give myself a 'happy enough' rating for this. Just over a minute quicker (32:30 - 1900m) than last year but still about 4 minutes off the other guys at the front. However, I got out of the water feeling much fresher than I had in previous tri swims. A rolling start instead of a mass one meant the swim was a lot less congested and much more pleasant.
Bike - I was most excited for this, as I knew I'd made some big steps forward with my riding, and this would be a good indicator of progress. I went out pretty hard for the first 10 miles before settling into a nice rhythm, picking others off one at a time. Getting onto the 2nd and last lap, I had an idea that I'd made my way closer to the front as there wasn't many other riders around. Missed the aid station so had to go the last 20 miles without any water - not ideal. 54 miles - 2:15 (24mph). 6th fastest bike split, 8 minutes faster than last year. Get in!
Run - At that point I didn't know my position, but the 3 lap run is just over 2 miles out and then 2 miles back, so you can see everyone coming the other way until you reach the turnaround. I counted 5 coming back, so I was in 6th but quickly moved into 5th. 6:10mm seemed to be the pace I initially settled into, so I just went with that as it felt about right. I was taking splits and closing on those in front on the second lap, going past both 3rd and 2nd just before the start of the final lap.
1st was miles up the road, so after getting to the final turnaround point and seeing that I'd already built a decent lead to those behind, I eased off slightly to make sure I got home in one piece. It was still hurting though! I ended up running 1:19 but the run was only 12.6 miles so that would've been around a 1:23 half marathon. Pretty knackered at the end.
There was further drama to come as it was announced that the winner had been disqualified for 'nudity in transition'. I was brought up on the stage as the winner (it was rather embarrassing and I felt like a fraud as the other guy was quite clearly much better than me). However, that decision was then overturned (quite rightfully IMO) and I collect my (still rather large) 2nd place trophy.
I'm thrilled with the result, 4:10 for a half-ironman is quite a handy time and it bodes well for Bolton. Probably my most significant result in endurance stuff so far (probably alongside Valencia), so I allowed myself a few beers last night. Eyes firmly focused back on the main event now though.
Nice long run SQ and another crazy weekend from Jooligan. Good to hear that you are getting some rest between the weekends though!
I am also going a bit Tri in the summer. On Saturday I did a steady 2 hour cycle followed by a 7 mile run including a progressive parkrun. It went pretty well. Yesterday was just a 13 mile easy run in the heat with tired legs.
Fingers crossed for you Millsy though after Dorchester I'd definitely not advise taking the risk of starting SDW100 anything less than 100% injury-free.
I was only slightly faster than your 8M pace by the end of Dorchester Steve - bet you were feeling a lot more comfortable though.
Sounds like a good weekend of training Ramjet. How did you find the parkrun off the bike? Was that straight off it or did you get to loosen off first?
Jooligan - an impressive number of events. It could only be topped by you having done more than one of the 4 x 4 legs? Hope the calf is ok. Do you fancy the track meet at Worcester this Thursday evening?
Good pacing, SteveMac. I always really enjoy it when helping someone else round.
Hope you recovery ok for the weekend, Millsy. Although it sounds like you are quite relaxed about it.
10k recovery this morning and then hope to get out for a sneaky half hour further recovery this afternoon.
Yes slowly getting back into it now, have the Southampton Open 800m on Wednesday as part of the session so will be interesting to see how that goes
Solid long run SQ, certainly wouldn't have wanted to do that any later in the day, was boiling
Fingers crossed the physio can work some magic Millsy
Jools: all I can say is ouch! Would not fancy the triple 1500m, 3000m and 400m. No wonder the calf was stiff
Joe: brilliant to see the training is paying off, that bike leg in particular is stonking. Any prizes for second?
Decent weekend of training Ramjet
No running today, although have just done a leg gym session
Millsy: hope the physio can sort things out before the SDW100.
SQ: good job on the long run
Woke up this morning all snotty and really tired so that’s why my run yesterday felt awful. Ankle feels fine too. A few days rest and I should be fine to get back at it.
Hope you enjoyed your trip to Kiev AWC and the ankle is fine now.
Bad luck on the knee/hip Millsy. I hope your visit to the physio will help on Thursday. Good luck for that.
Nice support for your GF SteveMac.
Nice track work Jools. Hope you are feeling better after your rest day.
Fantastic result in Chester Joe - enjoy that trophy. Also looking forward to a nice long blog entry..
Good bike run combo ramjet.
10 mile hill race for me yesterday with 790 metres of ascent according to the race blurb. Felt a bit tired still after Thursday's hiking and in particular didn't sleep / eat enough on Saturday. Marched up the steep bits as planned but couldnt find my standard brisk pace on the flatter and downhill bits and even had a minor wobbly legs crisis at around 6 miles after an hour or so. A gel helped to fix that - good thing I had one with me. Chip time 1:48 and a mid-field result in my age group.
Lovely route with a mix of tarmac and paths, some along a river with some impressive water falls. Four others from my Tuesday group turned up so some good chat and a post-race beer.
They Midsummer Cheltenham meets sound good, Jooligan. I think I am free for the 3000m on the 11th and hopefully the 5000m on the 25th. God – they make a track 10,000m sound so daunting.
Hope the 800m goes well Scott.
That’s a lot of ascent, Hazel. Nice work. And some great rehydration after by the sounds of it.
Tough but fun track session with spoons this morning. Having started off with the likes of 100m repeats, today’s offering, chosen by spoons, was 8 x 800 with 400 recoveries, followed by 3 x 200 with 200 recoveries. I was happy enough with the paces given Sunday’s 20M, and wasn’t too far off my 5k pace for the 800s (2:48 - 2:55, with 2:52 being the modal time) and gave the 200s all I had - not much! (38-39s). Quite a long session in the end, and it was definitely good to have someone else pushing me on. Ended up giving myself 17 minutes to warm down a mile back to work, shower, don a suit and get into a meeting not dripping in sweat. Quite pleased with the superman like skills on this one.
Hazel - good going in the hill race. Post race beer sounds good to me. I'm heading over your way this week. Flying to Zurich for work this evening and I'm there until Monday morning.
SQ - sounds like a cracking track session, great work. Very impressive transition skills; you'd be good at triathlon.
Bit behind! Lots of good training going on.
Massive congrats Joe on the 2nd place, superb especially after a few hard training sessions too. Bodes very well for Bolton. Great news about Katie too, impressive she’s managed to maintain the fitness despite a longish break from running.
Hope you’re ok after that fall NE.
Good to see you getting back in to things Scott.
I just need to get over myself Hazel and crack on, lol. I’m trying to not worry so much about times (after all, I rarely hit target paces during marathon training!) and trust the process. Easier said than done, but getting there. You’re a glutton for punishment with all those hills! Nice work.
Get well soon AWC.
Busy weekend as ever Jooligan.
Amazing changing skills SQ, very impressive!
As SQ says, tough session this morning. I was between 2:47 and 2:56 for the 800s, averaging 2:52. Quite a way off the recommended McMillan paces, but factoring in the grass track and a bit of a breeze not terrible I suppose. Certainly much faster than I was doing 800s on the same grass track this time last year, so that’s something at least. Having SQ to work with was a massive help especially on the last few reps.
I was pleased with the 200s afterwards though, 36-37s with the legs still feeling strong despite the 800s in them. Although it doesn't escape me that's not far off what I want to be running 1609m at in seven weeks time!
Shame about the snottiness AWC, hopefully it clears quickly
Judging by how hilly most of your races are Hazel, it must be weird when you run a flat one!
More speedy rep work from SQ and Spoons
Not a bad haul then Joe, with the amount of training you put in you certainly can't say you don't deserve it!
30 minutes easy with 5 x strides in preparation for tomorrow