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P & D Spring marathon 2023
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Cal - oooh plenty of roughage. You need to eat the right stuff to fuel distance running though cal.
Biked 50 miles yesterday rather than running.
Cycled to work & back today. Meant to go for a run this evening but the heat & humidity put me off.
Very easy 5 miler today after a rest (well, walk and gym) day yesterday. Even stopped to stroke a cat and then pat a dog. Warm.
Likewise Jools, but running and cycling up Cleeve Hill.....in this heat 😂.
80 for the week finishing on 20 (again, in this heat) is great work TR, I can't imagine a turbo session in this weather 😓.
Steve nice paces on the fartlek session, I guess that's like a 800m / 400m session, I struggle to think of time instead of distance, blame P&D.
That's 3 x 100 mile weeks in the bag with a sprinkling of speedwork so I'm feeling ready for the taper (3 weeks). I layered up (hat, unbreathable rain jacket + 2 Ts and 2 bases) for 15 on Sat, was meant to be 20 but I was really done in and had to keep looping back to the house for drinks. Did the 20 on Sun and still had to loop back for drinks, all good heat training I guess. Ironically, the California mountains had record snow last winter and with it melting, part of the course is flooded requiring a detour by car. Luckily, the first 80-90 miles of the course is pretty much guaranteed 40c+ (maybe a little cooler overnight).
Today's effort was an 11 mile run with a few faster bits for flavour. I would've gone for 12 but colon kicked off again, so had to take a more direct route back. I did snag a couple of Strava crowns, though, it was a pretty good run aside from trying to hold in a poonami. Seems to be worse in this weather, probably because I'm eating a lot of raw veg due to it being too hot to cook. Will need to find an alternative next week as I don't want this happening during the ultra.
Cal - defo need to get off the veg. Can't you cook up some batches of some dishes and refrigerate or freeze them? You're going to need to cook sometimes?
This weather’s come at just the right time for you Macca & you’ve done some excellent heat stress prep to top it off. Nevertheless keep a watchful eye on your effort levels OTD.
Did my regular lunchtime 5K the last 2 days. Legs felt a bit fresher yesterday and ended up running progressively finishing with sub 7 pace. I then biked back the scenic route - back over Cleeve Hill thus making 7 flat miles into 40 with a fuck off climb.
Unsurprisingly legs were a little stiff for today’s 5K. Hardly any breeze either so the track was like an oven at 1:30. Ran easy apart from 4x100 strides in the final mile. Couldn’t get the legs moving at all. They were a bit livelier on the bike back after.
We joined another XC league last Winter which also has a Summer series which kicked off tonight. I decided I’d run it, albeit with low expectations given my lifeless legs & the oppressive heat.
Billed as 2.5 x 2 mile laps of flat fields.
I started a few rows back & set out steadily. After a few hundred metres I’d got into a decent rhythm & began picking people off. I was 3rd for the club but maintaining the gap to 2nd. I was surprised when the half lap was over 2.5K.
I went through 5K in 21:10 which is my quickest since February - the week before my most recent Covid bout. My concern about the accuracy of the course description wasn’t assuaged when 1.5 laps came in at over 6K. Although I realised it was going to be long the effort & heat were making it hard to do the mental maths to work out quite how much over 5 miles it was going to be. When I saw 9K come up on the watch with a fair way to the finish my head went & when 3 rivals I’d passed early on come back past one by one I just let them. I’d slowed from 7:05 pace for the previous K to 7:27 but I was overheating badly too to be fair. Final time was 41:30 for 5.93 miles so 7:00 average pace.
Good effort in the heat, Jools - hard to judge if you don't know the course. The 5K time is promising though.
TR - Running podcasts, I only listen to IRP, The Morning Shakeout and Coffee Club. Did use to listen to Marathon Talk, but not so much any more. Another big week for you.
Cal - Some more good mileage.
Did 8 miles Tuesday, 7 on Wednesday and today was 10 miles with 10*3 mins at LT off 1 minute easy. Reps were 6:33/33/32/35/29/25/25/25/19/11. Felt good to finish stronger, as felt sluggish the first few reps.
Legs surprisingly ok at lunch when I trotted out 7K down along the canal for a change. More bonus bike miles after work: just 25.8 today & considerably flatter.
Spent the afternoon at Chester Zoo. Walked a lot.
Steve - nice, I love some 3min reps. When do you start ultra training?......inside jogging and run it 3 days are 2 more podcasts.
Cal - happy birthday.
With 2 wks to go til GW today should be a long run with some sort of long effort. Went to theatre last night and less than optimal evening eating, plus a few frothies. So wasnt really up for it, but decided to go for the 20min, 5 x 4min, 20min plus extras with approx mp and quicker than mp for the 4mons. After an early pit stop for tummy issues in the warm up I ended up with 3m easy, 3m (av 6.41), 5 x 4min (av 6.25), 3m (av 6.35), ~1.7m for 15m. Then a delay whilst I waited to watch the Flying Scotsman come to town, then 3m more home.
Decent mp efforts, probably a bit slowing on the 4 mins, but a decent session. I can feel a bit of fitness building as the body gets moving more (I've upped the s and c a bit more now I'm moving better, and am on heavier squats and deadlifts), I'm probably going to target the 1/2 at GW and then do Brighyon Pheonix 10k 10 days later and try to post 2 half decent times, without damaging myself by running a mara, but will mull it over for a few more days.
Cal - Happy birthday.
Saturday was 17 mile long run, did 14 miles easy then Parkrun at around MP, came out to 22:03 (so around 3:06 marathon time), so not too bad as I did have my pack on, another 2 miles walking home afterward. Easy 4 miles with some S&C after on Sunday. 46 miles for the week.
I didn't run Sunday (went to Flamingoland theme park instead...between that and Chester Zoo I logged a fair bit of time on feet, so I guess that helps the ultra eh?) and Monday I was travelling back to London, so I didn't get to run again until Tuesday. I couldn't run first thing as there was a downpour with thunder (OK with rain but I'd rather not be struck by lightning), but I did a slow 4 miles once it cleared, which was very sticky and unpleasant. Today was brighter and fresher so I did 6. I may do one more short run before Saturday's ultra, which looks to be hot (ugh). Groin is niggling, too, but I'll make it work.
Today I did an 11 miler, just an easy pace.
Best of luck Saturday Cal.
7M today from the NEC: scorchio!
Jools - Seems to be going OK now. Like to switch it up when I'm not doing a P&D block. I work real close to the NEC!
Nice racing (last week) Jools, I had similar with an unfamiliar course, tough to keep it going to the end when you don't know when the end is.
Steve - I think P&D is a decent grounding for ultras, not specific obviously but people could do far worse than follow the general idea of their plan.
Mileage has dropped off here and I'm wondering how I ever fitted it all in. Sauna training has picked up the slack though which in itself feels like a proper session. Strangely, I feel training and prep couldn't have gone much better realistically but still feel I'm in the "corridor of uncertainty ", this time next begins the journey to the airport.
Hope you survived the heat Cal
Macca - you've prepared well, and hit the heat adaptations well.
I had Hayling Billy trail 5m race weds evening, ended up 15sec slower than last year but i wore my Pegs (As against lighter shoes last yr), so that probably explains the time loss. The surface is very stony and gravelly and my feet were sore last yr afterwards.
15m easy today, was real hot today. I've swapped next week to the 1/2 and Sept to the full mara, that race has been added for GFA chasers so hopefully will have a bigger field.
After this the walks got a bit longer than the jogs but I was hanging in there and finished in 7:43:44. So yeah, slower than anticipated but also very happy to have my first ultra under my belt.
I'm quite sore, a little sunburnt, chafed either side of my bum hole (ouch), but otherwise not bad. Didn't need a poop stop (got up at 4am to make sure I had cleared as much as I could, then took Imodium anyway) and didn't faint afterwards, so a win.
Got home, had a bath, a light meal (not much appetite) and two glasses of pink wine. Early night for sure.
The corridor of uncertainty, love it Macca. I suppose Badwater is such a unique race with the heat, but you've such a strong ultra pedigree to call upon and now umpteen sauna sessions in St Albans, what could possibly go wrong. Have a good last week. Excited for you.
Some strong sessions Steve, good on you.
First 70m week here for a good while, all easy pace, in prep for 3 marathons from Oct-Nov, so suppose enjoying the relative downtime.
Cal - Great ultra debut!
Macca - Your prep has been superb!
TR - Yes, I plan to max out around 24 miles on the long runs. Hanson's part will be runs at marathon pace less 15 seconds a mile, maxing out at 2*3m at that pace, those will replace the reps at HM pace.
I did 17 miles on Saturday and 4 miles on Sunday for a 50 mile week.
OO, well done on the week. Which marathons are you doing? (Still not sure what to do yet though it may be Chelmsford. It's a relatively cheap journey compared to going up north or abroad).
Steve, Hansons with 24 mile long runs?!