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P&D Autumn Marathon 2018
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Great reports AWC and John. Surely you've got to get some better weather for a marathon at some point.
Great 10k SQ. Good luck at Peppa Pig World.
Great session Joe. Really suggests you're in top form.
Great to have you back Muddy.
Speedy stuff Scott. Very impressive.
Started the new job this week. They're a bit less flexible with work hours than the last place so might try getting out early in the morning and see how that goes. Managed to get in about 8 miles this morning. Felt terrible.
I'm supposed to be running a club relay at Runnymede on Saturday afternoon but with the football result last night I'm not sure how the team will be looking.
Top work at the Gold Coast Marathon John, in what sound like tough conditions! Great you got to see Yuki a few times.
Great report AWC, sounds like training through for it will be great prep for the 100 miler, even if it did make this one tough.
Turning to to race in this heat is an achievement in itself Jooligan! Nice short sharp session too.
Good to hear from you Muddy. Sounds like a decent 10K given the conditions and the day before. Good luck for the half.
Those marathon pace long runs are tough Hazel, well done getting it done in the heat.
Speedy race and sessions as ever Scott!
Top session Joe. Always nice to finish a session like that knowing you had more in the tank. I totally agree about big sessions being great mental prep in addition to the physical training. I think they definitely helped me be mentally prepared for the final miles of Manchester.
Great work at Frampton SQ given the heat. Nice of your family to take you to your favourite place for your birthday
Hope you’re ok Steve, as you say I’m sure it’s nothing but better safe than sorry. Dread to think what they’d say about me, I made the physio laugh on Friday when I told him I was running less mileage than usual and only hitting about 70 miles a week lol.
Good luck for the relay HA, if it happens!? Worcester have managed to organise the carnival parade for 3pm on Saturday, they’re since moved it to 2:30, not sure how that helps matters.
My back is still quite uncomfortable, but it seems to be slowly moving from sharper pain to more general aches and tightness, so I’m hopeful it’s heading in the right direction. It continues to feel great straight after a run, so maybe I just need to run more!?
As SQ says, 8x400m yesterday, averaging 78s which I’m happy with on the grass track. I was planning to do the local parkrun Saturday, but the aforementioned carnival means that is cancelled. Thankfully SQ alerted me, otherwise I might have rocked up anyway. Currently debating whether to do the other Worcester one, or one further afield…
Another casual 4k from Joe - just 10x my weekly swim!
Scary AWC. Pleased it has all worked out ok for you.
Long run this morning. Abandoned the commute as needed the car at school. Did a run I have wanted to for quite a while - linking the two canals. Absolutely brilliant and, after the first 4M, entirely traffic free and good surfaces. Even though it was 19 - 22C, the temperature felt nice. It was so quiet, I even went full Baywatch and stripped off the vest. 20M at 7:30s all at a nice and easy effort. Legs definitely tired at the end from three hard runs in four days. Despite not increasing the effort, I found my HR drifted up from mile 14 to the end. Is this the HR drift you hear mentioned? Or the heat? Not a concern at all, just intrigued.
spoons dare you off road for a parkrun?! Otherwise cheltenham/Gloucester/Evesham could be good options.
Hope the job is going well HA. Mornings are a while to adjust to but they truly are the best. Quiet, cool the absolute best. Unless you train through the worst winter in recent years then race a scorching London that is.
Hopefully they ease up abit with the work hours HA after youve been there a while
Pretty sure the country will shut down on Saturday whilst the football is on. I can't wait!!!!
The vest is pretty much always off for me at the moment SQ, it's just too hot to run so 'tops off'
Last night was a session of 5mins, 5 x 2mins, 5mins, 5 x 1min. I absolutely died, felt horrendous! Just an easy 30 today before a rest day tomorrow. Need some serious self massage on the shin/inner calf area as was very tight on run today, have felt it for a while but was particularly achey today
Scott - Nice 1500 at Watford, close to your PB. A couple of nice sessions as well.
Joe - ouch to 14 x 800. The swimming must be nice in the warm weather.
AWC - Oregon circuits sound good, I like the idea of combining S&C and running. Good luck for the double reccee run this weekend.
Muddy - Hi - don't think we've "met" before.
SQ - great placing in your 10k. Shame if the grass track is no longer available.
Jools - nice session.
HA - I'm trying to switch to morning runs due to the heat on some days - not finding it that easy but I do like not having the pressure of needing to go out in the evening to do a run.
Spoons enjoy your pr tourism.
Westy - nice to see you. Well done on your Wilmslow result.
Week 2 is going well for me - got the 8 with 4 LT done yesterday evening. Hard work in the humidity but got through the run ok with no fading. Will try to get out earlyish again tomorrow.
Great session Scott.
Relay is off for me. The club initially had 7 teams but now they only have enough runners for 1 team.
Good luck with the rece AWC. Sounds like a good plan.
Hope the back pain clears soon Spoon. Glad it didn't stop you doing your session.
Well done getting the LT session done Hazel. I did something similar today. 15km with 6ish tempo. Not particularly fast but the loop I used for the tempo section was somewhat hilly and pretty rough underfoot. Still not feeling great when running. Just like the pop is gone.
Work has been good and morning runs are going ok. Earliest I can start at work is 7:30 so I've been driving to work early and running then having a quick shower. I think if I ran at home it'd take me much longer to get ready and eat breakfast with the kids around. Anyway the plan is to do a tempo or fartlek on Monday, a track session on Wed (Basingstoke track near work is free), then try to do something a bit longer on Friday. Other days will just be easy. Might consider trying to do some doubles too, maybe the occasional double session Wednesday too. Just got to try to be consistent and get more sleep.
One more weekend of back to back long runs and then its 3 weeks tapering.
I would not have fancied a half this weekend Westy so a 1.22 all things considered is good going
Some big miles logged over the weekend AWC
Good to hear the plan is going well Hazel
Looks like you've got a good plan in place HA, hope it goes well
For me rest day Friday, session of 5 x 3mins, 5 x (45s, 30s) on Saturday and a little over 7 miles late last night. Rest today and then just an easy 30 tomorrow before hitting Watford on Wednesday
HR drift due to heat I’d have thought SQ. I’ve noticed mine drifting more noticeably in this weather. Great run, I will definitely be copying that route at some point.
Good to hear from you Westy.
Well done getting the first LT run done Hazel.
Hope the “pop” returns soon HA. I know what you mean, I’ve felt a bit like that since London.
Great back-to-back AWC, sounds like great preparation for the real thing. Frustrating about locals switching signs around etc, idiots!
Good luck at Watford Scott.
I had a bit of an underwhelming weekend. I plumped for Evesham parkrun as it is flat, and it’s very nice there along the river. Unfortunately my legs felt heavy and flat from the start though, and the field where you start and pass through twice more was quite rough meaning it was quite awkward to run over at speed, especially given my lack of experience. I tried to keep up with the three other guys at the front but fell off after about 1k. Finished in 19:11, I certainly wasn’t expecting a PB but I had hoped to be closer to 18:00 really.
My long run was also a bit of a struggle, legs again felt quite flat. I was tempted to cut it at 10, but battled on and in the end just missed out about a mile of the planned route for 14 miles. I’m hoping I can at least partly blame it on the weather, as even early on it was pretty warm on both days, and I’ve never been great in the heat. I think I also must have been pretty tired, as I fell asleep at 8:30 last night, and pretty much slept through until 6:30!
Looking on the positive side, my back is gradually easing off - still not perfect but slowly getting there I think.
Don't worry re; the weekend Spoons. Conditions at the moment are far from ideal for running, the heat really saps the energy out of you, especially as we're not used to it like those from warmer climes. Glad to hear the back is improving.
AWC - glad to hear that the recce went well.
I'm in race week and the nerves are building already. I've basically been training for one event for the last 7 months, so I really don't want all the hard work to go to waste. Really looking forward to it though, don't see any reason why it can't go well, just need to execute the plan.
Good to see you're getting back to the regular runs HA.
Well done on persevering with P&D Hazel. Rather you than me in this heat.
Big w/e again JB. Relax this week, sleep plenty & replenish those glycogen stores. Trust in the process & bulletproof your tyres. What's your number btw?
Heat has a massive effect on pace Spoons. Check out the Daniel's Vdot calculator Advanced Features. I did a 19:24 5,000m on the track at Nuneaton on Saturday. Race start was at 16:05 & the sun was blazing. Guessing the temperature at 30 C makes my time equivalent to my 18:37 in cooler conditions 2 months ago according to the calculator!!
Earlier I'd run a lumpy parkrun in 20:05, an 800m, a 2KSC & a 1500m. It was 23 C by the time we'd finished parkrun!
Followed that lot up with a 50th birthday booze-up in Bristol then headed over to the Brecons for a fell race starting at midday. Very hungover & roasting I managed 17th of 83 finishers. It's short & sharp: 6K with 2,000ft of climb!
Quite like the idea of a 10 day cycle, but I guess you need flexibility in your week to fit in a long run. Although less of a concern for a half so sounds very sensible. Are you doing a P&L half schedule? I loved it last winter/spring. More interesting than the marathon plans.
Hazel, grass track still available. But I have broken up (legitimate skiving teacher moans allowed), and live 30 mins or so from work. Nice LT. I haven’t been brave enough to face one yet. Just love easy running too much.
Good plan, HA. Driving early and missing the traffic works brilliant for me. Looks forward to seeing the results come for you with a bit of consistency.
Great back to back AWC. Hope the signage works out ok for you.
Hard luck on the PB, spoons, but your consistency will reap dividends in the end. Good to know you and others experience the HR drift in the heat as well.
Hope race week goes well, Joe. Stay chilled and pull be fine.
Hell of a weekend, Jooligan. And happy birthday to you or someone else? You’ll certainly be troubling the scorers as a V50.
All easy running for me since Thursday’s long run. Lots f booze, bbqs and late nights. Great fun and much needed. Too old for this lark though. Oh, and survived Peppa Pig world. The massive soft play is outstanding cross training and heat adaptation.
11.5M with a bit of track in the middle. 5 x 800 (2:48 first three, 2:52 last two), 3 x 100 (17,16,16). Very tired legs on the run home after. Trying to get my head round Joe’s 20 x 800.
Not my 50th btw. I don't reach that milestone til next August.
Nice back to back weekend AWC. Steps are a pain. Always walk any I encounter as I don't have the strength to run them.
Good luck for Watford tomorrow Scott. I like reading and working out your sessions on Strava, its a bit like algebra.
Good to hear the back is getting better spoons. Well done for perservering on your long run, might help with acclimatization to the heat.
Joe, can we track you at the weekend?
Busy weekend Jooligan. Great fell racing considering the hangover and the heat.
SQ - enjoy your holidays and your easy running. Nice track session.
Week 3 started yesterday with a postponed recovery run. Went hiking on Sunday and got stuck in a traffic jam on the way home so got home too late to go out again as I had planned. Legs were a bit tired on the recovery run but I kept the pace down and could have kept going for hours.
Had an encounter with an angry buzzard which tried to attack me 3 times. Will avoid that path for a few weeks.
Well done on Week 2 Hazel. You have made me wonder how come I'm on the P&D thread as non plan follower. I have read the book so I suppose that counts for something ?
RSR: Don't underestimate the effect of the heat on fatigue. You bashed out a really fast long run just recently; it's been the hottest week of the year. It's really not conducive to fast running at the moment.
Well done on Wilmslow Westy, it was boiling that day. Although I was down to do it, the logistics were against me with travelling and childcare. I was secretly relieved. Almost as relieved as when it was cancelled back in March.
HA - Sounds like lots of hard work in your week ! Hope you don't fall into the overcompensation trap though.
Good luck at Watford Scott, I am impressed with your detailed recall of training splits...and your pace of course !
Glad you're excited about things Joe, sounds like you have got the training right.
Well done on the double long runs AWC.
I felt like I'd had a fairly active weekend until I saw Jooligan's write up
Good session SQ and good long run last week. If your heart rate drifts up it usually means more blood needs to be supplied to the periphery to aid in cooling you down or more lactate processing - either way the heart beats faster to support both those activities.
I managed around 48 miles last week. Recovery from the 10k took precedence so just jogged out most of the miles and felt my legs come back to me a bit towards the end of the week. Marshalled parkrun Saturday morning and got baked and bitten standing by a pond (I shouldn't moan as I love it) and had a little recovery trot round some trails afterwards ahead of my trail half on Sunday.
Saturday evening turned into a late one with a bit of drink involved but I didn't feel too shabby in the morning. Upon parking at the Forestry Commission Visitors Centre I noticed the chap next to me had some comfy looking NB shoes on and enquired if he was wearing road shoes. He said he'd had a recce the week before and all the trails were baked hard so he had gone for the comfy trail shoes. As I don't have any comfy trail shoes, I slipped on my light-ish Saucony Kinvara trail variants and had a quick jog around in them but the low drop and hard impact immediately started pinging my achilles, so I went back to the car for the road shoes and headed for the start line hoping for the best. I bumped into clubmates and a few running acquaintances along the way, so not much of a warm up considering the marathon style mileage I was hoping to knock out. Anyway it was already very hot with a 10.30 start so that was probably for the best. Off we went, with some relief on my part as the sun was bearing down on the exposed start line and there was shade lying in wait tantalisingly down the hill.
Clearly there are a few handy runners at the front of the race and I'm glad I'm not getting myself into a race. My plan is to stick to marathon effort but to give myself some leeway to get up to threshold effort on the tougher climbs. I've done this race several times before and it has a super fast start with the first 3 miles snaking downhill with the odd rise here and there. The only events here are comical and involve me stopping to tie my shoelaces on three occasions. Must learn to double knot. All the stop starting sends me back through the field unfortunately.
The first real climb of the course hits you hard and continues to sock it to you all the way through to 6 miles or so where it becomes so steep you just have to walk. I stick to the mostly mara effort plan and gain a handful of places back and the field thins out. 2nd lady up ahead seems to maintain her lead but I have something in reserve for the uphill sections and creep closer as she overtakes another chap. We all draw level as we stop to take on water at the 7 mile water station where, given the heat, I ask for a double. The station volunteers remark that everyone seems to be stopping to have a chat with them today.
Off we go again in the order we arrive and gone are the rutted trails, replaced by a gravelly track for a couple of miles which allows me to settle my effort and continue the chase after 2nd lady again. However the chap overtaken near the water station steams past both of us at a clearly unsustainable effort and at the end of the track another hill climb awaits and I am able to ease past them both and reach the 11 mile water station well ahead just as another chap is leaving. He trudges uphill looking absolutely spent so I order another double then set off in pursuit. I am wary of trying to make up the ground too rapidly as we now face the return to the start. What was an exhilarating twisting turning downhill becomes a seemingly never-ending uphill where each turn of a corner presents another section of climb. Within half a mile or so I am in front of the tired chap (who turns out I know vaguely via work circuit Strava segments) and have a decent gap. With no one else in sight I don't have to push myself too hard through this tough section and can glide through to the finish.
All in all a pretty strong workout with the average effort just tipping above marathon effort though the road shoes on hard rutted trails left my feet and ankles feeling bruised and battered. As a bonus I was 6th place (in 1.29.42) and picked up a bottle of cider and a £10 voucher for 1st v45. A huge salted caramel ice cream in the cafe afterwards went down a treat
Hazel - watch out for those buzzards! Do you get a lot of wildlife where you are?
SQ - glad you had a decent weekend and survived peppa pig world. Got to be harder than a marathon, that. As for the 20x800, it's all relative I guess. I'm not running them as hard as I could for 5/6. The first 10-12 are actually fine, it just starts to get tiring towards the end and you have to concentrate quite hard on maintaining pace.
5 days to go. Short & sharp bike session this morning to keep me honest.
If people want to track, the app 'Ironman tracker' is your best bet, it's actually really good and should update throughout the day. Failing that, there'll be a link to the tracker on ironman.com on race day - just chuck in 'Spraggins' to either and I should pop up. Likely that I'll need to be 3rd or better in my AG to punch a ticket to the big dance - will be a tough ask.
Epic weekend even by your standards Jooligan. Don’t know how you do it!?
Glad you enjoyed Peppa Pig world SQ, nice session too.
Hope the ankle is ok Steve.
Sounds a bit scary Hazel! The worst I have to deal with is obstinate swans who sit blocking the path.
Great report muddy, congrats on the prizes.
Best of luck for the weekend Joe. You’ve put in an amazing block of training, time to collect your reward!
Thanks for the reassurance about performance in the heat. Not sure it’s solely due to that, but it certainly didn’t help. For what it’s worth, RunBritain gave my parkrun a difficulty score of 4, which is the highest I’ve ever had (mainly because I avoid hilly races at all costs!). Those ratings are always skewed at parkruns, but it has at least improved my handicap
Easy 10 along the canal this morning, final track session tomorrow. I did my usual "Yoga for Runners" session yesterday - my back is continuing to slowly improve but I am very stiff and tight at the moment. Need to make sure I stay disciplined and keep the yoga sessions up!
I wouldn't worry too much about a couple of disappointing runs Spoons, especially considering the heat
It's an 800m this time round Joe, can't wait to see how you get on at the weekend
Even for you Jooligan that sounds like a very busy weekend. Nice mix of races in there!
Strong set of 800's SQ, glad to hear you survived PP world
Any idea whats wrong with the ankle Steve? Might be worth getting a physio to take a look
Muddy: the splits I take from garmin after sessions, could never remember during. Strong running from yourself, sounds like you paced it well and some nice prizes to boot
30 minutes with strides just now, all ready for tomorrow night. Only problem being my race/warm up will clash with the football. Should get to watch the vast majority of it before the warm up hopefully as they have a small tv in the clubhouse
Savage DOMs kicked in yesterday afternoon & got worse today: struggling to walk but managed a creaky 10K on the local trail parkrun.
4 is pretty high Spoons - Evesham usually averages around 2.7 as it's quite often pretty muddy. You & the guy right behind you were probably responsible for it being so high given you both ran 19:xx but have 17:xx PBs & came in 4th & 5th
Not long now Joe. I'm expecting some tears on the weekend. Even though you never know what will happen on the day you must be able to take a huge amount of confidence from how well you've trained.
Sounds like a great race Muddy, great report too.
Good luck tomorrow Scott and good luck catching the football too.
Hazel - I've been attacked by Aussie magpies heaps of times but a buzzard is much more impressive.
Got out for a 4.5 mile tempo yesterday over the same rough, hilly loop. Still nothing special but not too bad. Just an easy 8 miles today. Track session tomorrow morning if I get up in time.
Hope the ankle recovers soon, Steve
Hazel, there is a running club called Malvern Buzzards near me. Hope it wasn’t one of them.
Excellent reasoning on the HR drift, muddy. Thank you. Well done on the race, I definitely fancy that one in the future. I don’t think it matters whether you are following P&D at the moment or not. To have followed it in the past, or even just read the book, informs some underlying principles of training however you shape it in reality.
Pleased the back is easing off, spoons. Hope the build to be mile race goes well.
How was the track race, Scott?
Excellent analysis of the runbritain grading scores, not sure I fully understand it might look at it a bit more frequently.
Nice tempo, HA. Hope this morning’s track has gone well and the logistics work out ok.
Off to France this Saturday (will be interesting being there for the World Cup final regardless of who they are playing), so fitted in the long run this morning. Couldn’t quite decide on hilly, road, trail. In the end plumped for flatish road which turned out well as the first mile was slow and hard work. Eased into things to average 7:36 over 20M from there all at easy effort. Felt far less tired at the end than last week. Enjoyed the cooler weather of 12-17C.
It has been quite good doing these the day after track for a few weeks - running on fatigued legs when long run pace doesn’t really matter. It means later in the plan I can space things more appropriately and then think about MP miles in a long run, whilst knowing I’ve already got a good few 20Ms under my belt.
Well done John on a great marathon.
Great racing from AWC, SQ, Westy and Muddy.
Glad your chest pain was nothing serious Steve.
Planning to track you Joe. Looks like the weather will be a bit different to Tenby!
I've been carrying on with triathlon training and the odd race. Also did Wilmslow Half about 10 days ago. Foolishly set off at course record pace which I managed for about 10K and then suffered in the heat and finished with 1:27:30. I'll have another go at it next year in some nice cool March weather!
Did a nice brick session on Saturday - 43 miles on the bike, quick breather and then 6 mile run. The legs felt surprisingly good on the run so feeling quite confident about the 70.3 in seven weeks.
First run session outside a race since London marathon this morning! 13 miles with 3 x 2 miles at tempo. Seemed to be too fatigued to get my HR up to the required level but tempo pace of 6:30 was OKish.