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P&D Spring Marathon 2021
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Cracking elevation from 14M Cal.
I’m just back from 14M myself which felt reasonably hilly but only came to 409m.
Macca - sounds nasty. Ive seen similar quite a while back. Shame. I'll lend you my doggy, its a pain sometimes as im on early duty on weekdays too, before i can run. Hopefullly we'll be in action soon after Dorney even if Dorney gets cancelled.
Well done Cal. You wont have many hills to pick from though?
Jools - well done on the 14m, i feel your frustrations.
Steve - you do put an impressive spread of paces in over the year. Got to be good for you.
11m run home tonight, will be an ice skate back in tomorrow.
Anyway, 6 miles this morning - there were little bits of ice around, like it had hailed or something, but the pavements weren't bad aside from a couple of spots. Not much climbing on this route - around 61 meters. Can't do a big hill workout too often though - I don't think the hamstring would approve. However, it should get pretty strong.
6m easy early, icy so only did the minimum commute distance. Not too many wheel spins.
Got out this afternoon for an unexpectedly buggy free recovery run. Had time to play with, so explored a rolling route around the racecourse. 9.2M at 8:30 pace. Really nice to see something different, take it very easy and just chill.
SQ, sounds like a nice relaxing run.
Cal - what about length, do some of those go on for a while?
Thought my fingers were hurty during my bike commute this morning, it was -6 when i got to work.
10m run home this evening , few frothies to refuel and then a longish run tomorrow.
Still zero here but no frost so I did a relaxed eight miles including a few inclines - nothing too taxing though. I'm going to go for a proper hill run tomorrow. My team needs a boost - we're some way behind the first two teams and my teammates don't seem to be quite the hill enthusiast that I've become.
The ice melted quiclkly today, so i risked the lanes. After a few mp+10% runs recently i did the P and D mp run scheduled for last weekend, 17m inc 9, chose 9 as it'd be an hours effort. 9m av 6.40. Still dont feel back to 100% yet, and i did 13m at that pace in August/sept a few times, but onwards and upwards.
I only joined Strava last spring as my club had a virtual mob match with another club and they wanted the runs recorded on it. I use the desktop version - my Garmin is linked to it automatically so it's pretty easy. I've found it a goldmine for finding new routes...the segments turn into a bit of an obsession as well.
I'd run 27 of last weeks 60 miles from friday evening to late yday morning, so i stuck with the intended turbo rather than an easy run. Its going to warm up a bit tomorrow so i can put the ice skates away.
I did a variation on my tried and tested route - up to Streatham, through Norwood and along to Dulwich, up the hill to Sydenham then up Hell Hill. Then I circled back for a crack at Rock Hill (a little further along) which is shorter but very steep (around 18%).
From there I went into Crystal Palace park. It was so misty I couldn't even see the transmitter when I was in the park, and that thing is over 700ft high.
I didn't do much hill climbing in the park, but ran down, around the lake and then out again to tackle the horrible hills of Anerley. I've done Fox Hill (the one with the 20% sign at the bottom) several times but decided to tackle its neighbours as well. They're all steep, as you'd expect. I finished there with Cypress Road which I actually think is the worst of the lot. Fox starts easy, gets really steep in the middle but levels out again, but Cypress is a pretty constant gradient all the way up. It's around 15% for most of it with a slightly steeper bit near the top - really gruelling.
I did a couple of big climbs on the way back to Streatham, too (Biggin Hill...no not that one... and Gibson's Hill) before bombing back home.
I had enough in the legs to do a little segment sprint on a flat bit in Streatham before heading back home via Tooting Common.
I did 17 miles in all - I was shooting for 16 but realised I'd go over as I was too far out when I hit 15 miles - so that's more than last week, with around 500m of climb added in.
Hamstring wasn't too bad but I had a little niggle from the top of my left foot on a couple of the downhills. Not sure if that's a tendon thing or a tight shoe thing but I'll keep an eye on it. It has happened before - I suspect tight peroneals.
Anyway, overall slow run but with frost, hills and having to stop briefly when a little dog decided to take an interest, I'm fine with that.
More good training TR. That’s a sizeable chunk of MP in your LR. Look forward to seeing you on Strava soon 😉
Pleased to finish the week strong: 79M & over 8,500 ft.
-6 is cold, TR. Even more so on a bike. However, I can remember driving down to Chichester when I met you for the 10k. It measured -10C at one point on the journey! Amazing really they got the race to go ahead so safely. 9M at 6:40s is good going.
Loads more hills, Cal.
Impressive week, Jools. Even more so that it is a 20% cut back 😆
A second consecutive 50+M week. Foundations slowly being laid.
Friday was the second session of the week. The plan called for 8 x 600. Track is unfortunately out (which seems a bit harsh for solo users, but I guess allowing one means allowing many, etc...), so it was easier to do 6 x 800 on a path near home. Sure the running gods will forgive. About 6 m/m, with quite lengthy recoveries - about 3 min jogs to get back to the beginning of the loop.
Recovery yesterday at 8:50 pace, then buggy ‘long’ this morning. 12M at 7:30 average for a steady effort.
Whilst the sharp stuff is proving slow to return, the pace/effort for a long buggy run is definitely a good marker.
Jools - nicely done too. Good week. 79m is nice. Im down a bit as im running 6 days, but niggles are improving so I'll stick with it.
SQ - another nice mix, sprightly buggy pace too. I remember parking up that day and it was -5. But as it was a still day, by the time we raced and then warmed down together it felt ok. In contrast to the year before when there was a bitter northerly wind.....this years version would be a in few weeks time, last yrs was the last normal race i did.
And without wanting to sound negative, I suspect that 35:53 might be my peak of all time!
Easy buggy recovery 3M. Felt increasingly hard during the second half. Slowly realised it had a slow puncture.
Jools - Big total for a cut back week!
SQ - Nicely coming back into fitness.
TR - Nice chunk of that LR at MP!!
Saturday I did 22 miles to test out a sample of maurten I had for xmas, with a view to using at my now cancelled ultra and future marathons. Run was 2m easy, 4m MP (6:54/50/52/37), 10m easy, 4m MP (6:56/53/54/40) and another 2m easy. Suspect the MP sections may have been too fast, defo the last 2 miles of each section, but felt good throughout the run. Followed up with 14 miles on Sunday for a 69 mile week.
12 miles today with 2*3m (6:33/32/31) and (6:39/35/33) with a 1 mile recovery. Messed up programming my watch too!! Instead of 1 mile, I had set it to 1 metre, so wondered after my first 3m section why it wanted me to run fast so soon after finishing!!
Still not sure if I'll do a virtual event, say 50k, or just go out and run something anyway around marathon distance.
Easy 8 miler again, similar route to the one I did last week. Some inclines but nothing steep. It was a lot warmer and I felt quite hot in my rain jacket, but it'll be cooler again tomorrow.
Struggling a bit to fit everything in at the moment, despite a lack of commute. Planned session (non-buggy) got swapped for with buggy. 10M at 7:23 average including 12 x 20 single arm strides. Obviously using just one arm isn’t going to help with perfect form, but it’ll have to do.
Cal - it was a lot warmer today.
SQ - thats a sharp buggy run.
12m tonight, no ice, no rain, amazing.
Cal - cracking long & hilly run, sensible to bank it with some easy runs.
Jools - amazing elevation over the week, a great sign you were ticking over on your long run with little perceived effort.
SQ - I’ve got an image of our long runs being simultaneous and you disappearing
over the horizon with your buggy🤣 Base is definitely there, the speed will come back, Agree with TR, your 10k PB is there to be bettered (not too shabby as it is mind).
Steve - great 22m back up with a 14miler. I can imagine doing something similar on my watch 🤣
Quieter end to the week for me, no word on the motor biker other than air-lifted in a serious condition. My usual Sat am 5k was the highlight, just squeezing under 18mins for a 17:59, all on the watch GPS I should add but I’ll take that. I’m now into meocycle 2 and today’s offering was 5@LT, suitably hard but thereabouts where it should be. I noticed a virtual 50k on the weekend where my plan says 24m so I’ll do that just to make it a bit more interesting. Spartathlon place for September also confirmed, so fingers crossed, more so for the bigger picture but nice to have a long term target.
That’s some strong running Steve & the fact you got quicker on both 4M MP efforts shows you paced the session well. Excellent dozen today too. Wasn’t purposely a cut-back week btw. I think SQ was comparing it to my December mileage?
Talking of excellent runs that’s some going with the buggy SQ. 💪💪 I know what you mean about struggling to find time for everything in spite of working from home. Though I did go in yesterday.
9.5 yesterday & 10.6 today both involved over 1400’ of climbing. My new regular running route is a helluva lot hillier than the canal lunch runs & my commutes 😂
Macca - Good news on Sparta, and a superb 5k TT!! Is that the Centurion 50k?
Jools - Nice double day!
SQ - Nice bugging running.
Easy 6 miles today, rest of week is easy running now.
Jools, that's a lot of climbing to pack into 10 miles.
Enjoy your easy week, Steve.
Cheeky 12 mile run exploring some of the other hills on the Norbury side of Streatham Common. Cool, drizzly weather but didn't mind that at all. I took the hills at "just get up it" pace and was quite cautious on the downs, but fortunately I didn't get a recurrence of the foot pain I had on Sunday.
On the way back I couldn't resist having a burn up Hill Path and actually bettered my time up there, which moved me from 10th to 9th in the overall female standings (Strava segments).
I did another burn along an alleyway I often use and got a 5th place Strava trophy on that, running at below 8min/mi, which isn't bad considering I'd done quite a lot of climbing up until that point. Good to know there was plenty of juice in the legs at the end of the run - my stamina and recovery seem to be improving.
I've already achieved the Strava climbing challenge badge for the month - I often don't manage to get this badge, let alone after two weeks. Another 320m logged.
Tasty double there jools for a 20m day.
Steve - very wise, you are in good shape.
Cal - well done cal, good strength work.
Did a rare workout today, as things are improving a bit. 9m inc 3x10mins (av 6.50, 6.31 and 6.24 for overall av of 6.35), pretty disappointing given i did 9m av 6.40 Saturday on similar route. Rep 1 was pretty hilly though. I did 5m LT av 6.08 in June so was expecting today to be a lot quicker. However the point of the session is to work hard and the long mp runs are still the key indicators (as macca says, a few of those and the see where i am).
Impressed with that sub 18, Macca. You combine short and long ridiculously well. The only way I would have been disappearing over the horizon on our virtual simultaneous long runs would be disappearing home about 10 miles before you 😆
‘Just getting up it’ pace is my kind of hill, Cal. Genuinely it is my race strategy!
Great to hear of the workout, TR. Very solid paces there.
8 easy buggy miles at 8m/m. Sounding a bit broken record on that front. Positively warm. Might crack ok it the short shorts if I ever get round to this week’s session.