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P&D Spring Marathon 2021
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Today is definitely a gym day (it almost always is anyway) - legs were very stiff yesterday, even to the point I had to make myself go out for a 2 mile walk in the afternoon to loosen them up a bit (and yes, I did stretch).
Welcome back HazelnutCH - it certainly has been a while.
Well done SQ - I'd struggle to trouble 5:59 at the moment so 5:39 seems pretty good. Couple of clubmates had decent runs there.
Great to see the return of so many threadsters & some new blood too. It's been a little empty on here at times over the past 16 months. Covid must be receding!
I had a quiet week with just 46M. Friday was 5M, Saturday 7M & Sunday 11M. Got soaked on all of them though Friday's was all sweat
No quality at all & my body was grizzling from the off yesterday. I had done several hours of unaccustomed garden clearance Saturday pre-run.
Time to start getting a bit more marathon specific but not just yet as it's my final Monday track session before the welcome summer break.
Well done on the 15 Hazel. Im trying to keep a turbo a week going (id like to do 2 ideally), if another lockdown occurs then I'll be used to it.
NE - sounds like you're doing ok now. 4 bottles is no problem, you'll soon burn that off......beer is an essential food group for me.
Jools - you've put in some pre mara strength work lately for sure. Youll just need a bit of speed work now !
Mlr monday is back, 14m run home.
SQ - I can't imagine 1 mile with a buggy, let alone 15, that said there were a couple of buggys at a 10km I did recently and one was attempting a nappy change on the start line 😆
Northender - starting point is an average of 35 miles a week this year, mainly easy miles with a few races thrown in more recently.
Cal - I really enjoy reading your London adventures. I live in a rural area with fewer roads but still worry about getting lost, it is so easy to stick to the same routes, I must try and mix it up more.
I finished last week off with a 13 mile MLR Sunday afternoon and started this with 8 miles GA this morning.
Kate - well done, keep at it.
9m inc 4m temp this morning so a quick turnaround,. Did the first 4m of my commute 6m tenp route, the first 2m was slow as expected due to the hills, the next 2m i expected to get some time back on the flat but it was into the wind, so the av pave was slow, but i tried hard, so we move on.
AWC - mostly carbs, I'd say. I've done a few evening races but nothing longer than a 10K - I have to be careful what I eat before as it takes me an eternity to digest anything and I am prone to reflux. I generally stick to carbs.
Had my usual two days off post-Sunday (this is only since coming back from injury - I'll be back to one day off soon, but I felt pretty beaten up after my Wimbledon misadventures). Elliptical and lower body rehab on Monday, then 20 mins on the cycle ergometer plus upper body yesterday (elliptical was busy). If I keep using the hand cycle thing I'm going to have shoulders like a kayaker.
Today was a near repeat of my run last Wednesday, including Pollard's Hill, which I was ready for this time. Managed to get up it without walking this time, though not sure I'd call what I was doing a run, exactly. I just kept telling myself "short quick steps" and I made it.
I changed it up a little after that - I took the longer path through Norbury Hall Park (I didn't realise I'd taken the short cut last week as it was my first time through) and then a different path through Norbury Park, up to Streatham Common (another hill) then decided on the fly to go up my old frenemy, Hill Path, which is a real bastard. I took it slowly.
Unlike last week, I did throw in some fartlek-ish surges here and there and picked up a couple of Strava trophies on the quieter segments (most of which I'd created myself - I am a prolific segment creator). Annoyingly I'm just 1 second off a crown on Pollard's Hill so I will have to go back and get that once I'm a little fitter.
Anyway, this will be a slightly lower volume week, with my Wimbledon Trail race next Wednesday evening. I'll likely do a shorter run on Sunday - 10 or 12 miles but no more than that.
Kate P – belated welcome. Sounds like you have a decent base, hope you enjoy following the plan and good luck for London.
Hazel – welcome back, I thought your runs on Strava were consistent, didn’t realise you had RED since Mar 20. Good luck for Lucerne.
SQ – well done on the mile. Such a specific distance I imagine (only done it once in about the same time). That single day Everesting is mind blowing.
NE – keep plugging away, consistent consistency and all that. Good luck for Newport.
Almost feels like we need a list but that might jinx things.
Jools – take it easy on the gardening – I have to remind myself sometimes that a circa 50m week is still a decent week for most folks.
Cal – I’m always impressed with your ability to ID things, I see lots of birds and dogs, seldom have a clue what they are.
TR – you’ve slipped back onto the bonnet seamlessly after the half, bodes well for Brighton, as you say, keep logging the sessions and move onto the next one.
AWC – the 6pm start threw me the first time. All I can recommend is doing as little as you can during the day. It does give you the opportunity to eat better over the hours before than if you were asleep for a 6am start eg.
Wendover Woods 100 for me last Friday/Saturday.
I dnf’d this 2 years ago so the desire to just finish was strong. A very small field, around 50 runners set off 8am Fri for 10 x loops of Wendover Woods with 2,000ft elevation/descent per lap. With 2 aid stations (every 5m) and a drop bag every 10m logistics were simple. The first lap was so humid (even at 8am) that when I got my phone out I couldn’t operate the touchscreen as my fingers, shirt, shorts and the phone itself were covered in sweat. I found out I was in 11th which seemed about the right pace/place to be. Apart from 5 steep climbs per loop, hands on knees jobs, most of the course was very runnable aside from a wooded section where the recent rain had left ankle deep mud. My nemesis, wet feet, would come into play later in the race. I seemed to make progress up the placings purely from people dropping out. I don’t really remember passing anyone, in fact, for long stretches I hardly saw any other runners. I did see two squirrels and a deer though. Towards the last few laps my pace dropped from around 2.30 hrs per lap to 3.15 hrs on the final lap, in part because my quads were saying no more descents and partly because I had been a bit keen on the initial climbs and was now running on fumes despite eating very well. So mashed feet, some unusual chaffing where the sun don’t shine, sore quads ! and a general feeling of having been run over by a bus but it was worth it to put the dnf ghost to bed (mixed metaphor?). 25hrs 55mins for 5th place with 18 finishers
Hazel - defo take the easy runs easy. Hill reps dont have to be mountainous esp if the are quicker ones
Macca - cracking effort again, youre a tough nut. Youve backed up some amazing ultra this spring and summer, thsts the 3rd 100m ? What do you have later in year?
8m yday morning, 10m home tonight. Brighyon 10k never happened, last few weeks have been far too hectic.
My eldest and his gf have tested positive for CV, its rife again round here esp in the youngsters. Avoiding isolating again is going to be tough, esp as spo has a family wedding next weekend.
AWC - hope you go well next week.
I need to get the spo to ditch the wedding in order to try to reain isolation free, due to go to Wales 3 wks time.
10m in this morning, very sore quads, hopefully just from s and c tues pm. Few frothies later then a long run tomorrow.
Solid start to the plan, NE. Keep it up.
😆 Kate at the nappy change. I guess I risk things by not even taking a nappy with me. No doubt I have cursed it now! Good work on the MLR.
The short hills and strides are a good feature in P&D I think, Hazel. I need to include a few more!
You are a tough son of a gun, Macca. Great going!
Sorry to hear that, TR. Yes, definitely rife amongst teenagers here too. We had two restaurant/pub booking cancelled due to staff isolating/cases.
Massive good luck to Macca and AWC today. Hope it is going well!
A fun few days back in Sussex, again lucking out with the weather. Highlights included 9M including 3 x 10 mins threshold (6:30 - 6:50ish) off two minutes jog, a ten mile explore along the wonderful Saltern’s Way trail, then a Mario Fraioli fartlek special around the marina today: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 minutes off equal recoveries, paces 5k-10k-tempo.
So nice to run somewhere different, especially with lots of stunning trails and traffic free routes.
Rearranged 5M race coming up on Wednesday. Think I might have raced this distance six or seven times and have never been over 30 minutes. With the predicted heat, it is going to take an almighty effort to maintain the record!
AWC...I daresay it's because I go a fair bit slower than everyone else here...
Hazelnut...I was a primary PE teacher for give years but haven't worked since the end of 2015. I'm a landlord so I get income from that but not much. Last year was shocking as I had three months with no tenant and had to reduce rent to get someone in, then had to buy a new fridge, boiler and pay for umpteen repairs so I was living off savings. Not ideal when I already lost flights to Tokyo and Chicago. It was a bad year, financially. Very bad.
Well done everyone on your runs - hope you all manage to stay away from Covid.
XT day yesterday (45 mins elliptical plus some rehabby stuff). Wanted to run but woke up too late to get out before the traffic and heat (needed it to be quiet for my 5K tempo).
Went out early doors today instead but it did not go well. My Garmin refused to pick up a signal so I started anyway as it's supposed to be able to find one on the move (it has done in the past, no problem). Did a slow 2 mile jog to warm up but decided to stop and restart my watch to ensure I had proper GPS. Then did my run. Came in over 28 minutes so slower than last week and it felt like I was working harder - not surprising though as it was warmer and muggy.
When I got back and uploaded my runs, the 2 miler had no map at all - GPS had failed, and while the 5K had GPS the route was all over the place. I only had three segments and one was a crown where it thought I'd run at 5 minute mile pace. Given my best mile was 7:20, it was obviously way out so I flagged it on Strava (a crown is only worth having if you actually earn it, IMHO...and I'd never be able to beat my PB on that segment so I'd rather not have it).
So not ideal. Not sure if I ran 5K or not, but eh, it is what it is. I'm blaming updates - got one yesterday and another after I got back so perhaps that was the problem. I'm going to have a short walk later to check it's working again.
Cal - i wondered wether you worked as you seem to have lots of time available. My garmin has updated recently and now proposes a training session everyday (which i ignore), not sure what it thinks im training for.
5.5m, 10m ~mp, 4.5m. Hilly run out and back but the 10m is mainly flat. Didnt set off until 10 so copped a bit of a heat beating (around 27 or 28 here this afternoon), and my quads were still a bit sore, but with a "one mile more approach" from about 4m i got the 10 done. Tailed off a bit in last couple of miles to end up with 6.41 av, which is a smidge slower than last time out, but good prep for an oct morning in london. Hilly 4.5m home was awful, and felt a bit ropey for a couple of hours, probably from the combination of the effort and heat. A few cold frothies later wont touch the sides.
TR - sorry I've never worked out what an spo is.. Tough for your family with the infections and the risk of more. Hope you had a good frothies fuelled long run today. (beer = liquid bread to some Germans so all good stuff).
Certainly be careful not to catch anything this next week AWC. I guess it is the first time you are doing LL100?
Nice holiday running SQ. Good luck for your race on Wednesday especially in the heat.
Certainly a tough year financially indeed Cal. A five minute mile would be nice indeed. Good honesty on the segment crown.
38 miles for the week so far with a 16m planned for tomorrow. Warm and humid so will try to get out fairly early - will be even more humid then but I don't want to get caught in the strong sun again like last week. Need to think of a route yet - some of my standard river based ones are likely inaccessible at the moment.
With my race on Wednesday (god help me, it's going to be hot then too) I decided to stick to 12 miles and did my Clapham Common > Battersea Park > river > Wandle > Tooting route, though with a couple of small variations. I took a more scenic route through Battersea Park rather than the main carriageway I usually use, and was rewarded by seeing a lovely big heron. He wasn't in the least bit scared of me and I was within touching distance of him as I ran past.
The river is always nice and flowers smelled particularly good today. One section had loads of poppies just growing out of cracks and walls.
Once I came off at the Wandle, I managed to find the correct route through Wandsworth to the next bit in King George's Park, including a small stretch of Wandle hidden behind some shops.
I didn't push the pace on this one so averaged around 10:40ish, but even so HR was higher again due to the weather. Lost a couple of pounds, too, so made sure to have SiS hydration tab as soon as I got in (I had one before going out, too)
Good luck anyone running or racing today - stay safe and hydrated.
Cal - blimey cal that was early, well done. You didnt have a 2am breakfast?
Went walking with the spo this morning, wasnt going to run in the midday heat again, so stuck with the Sunday turbo, but that was still a warm one.
It was still pretty scorchio at run home time today so i did 10m rather than the monday mlr.
Well done Hazel...not sure I could stomach marzipan on a run. Gels are as much as I can cope with (and maybe melon...I had some during a trail race two years ago and was fine, though I was going pretty slowly in that one).
XT day yesterday as usual, but run today. Since I was awake before 4 I was out a couple of minutes before 5. Sad to see a dead fox in the road near my house...looked like a young one. I've reported it to the council as it'll get ripe pretty quickly in this weather.
Ran up to Clapham Common via some back streets, across there, down some other roads I wanted to explore then on to Wandsworth Common and back via Tooting Common. Saw herons on Clapham Common and Tooting Common. Back home and showered by 6.30am.
Not really looking forward to my race tomorrow, it's going to be roasting hot and it's not that easy to get to (it starts by Wimbledon windmill which is a couple of miles from the nearest station)...hoping someone will give me a lift, especially on the way home.
I also have to see the cardiologist tomorrow. I really don't think there's anything wrong but since I have the appointment, I might as well get checked out. Not sure they'd approve of me doing a race in hot conditions but I'm just going to get around, I think.
Hazel - the LT and mp runs can loom a bit, its important to try to remember that on any given random day it can be hard to hit ideal paces and its the effort that counts and there will be a training benefit if the effort is right, but its hard to do. Well done for getting stuck in.
As i did mp saturday, i wasnt sure a hard tempo or LT would be wise in this mornings commute, so i did 4 easy and then 6m at a slower tempo pace (aimed for ~7mm, achieved just a smidge over).
We've had a storm tonight so hoping it makes the next couple of days a bit cooler, fingers crossed.
Hazel - marzipan sticks sound interesting, bet you can't get them over here, I suppose you could cut a block up.
TR - the bike and run commute combination is good, sadly my office is 35 miles away but unlikely I'll be going there much anymore, my 2/3 days a week is more likely to become 0/1 but we're not being encouraged back yet.
Cal - I hope both the cardiologist and race go well tomorrow.