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Shades Marathon Training
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IOM always used to be a difficult journey from down here, but OK now as I can fly from Bristol. Nice and easy for you, the race have a bus that picks up in Douglas to take you to the race and back.
I'm not doing the IOM next year, unless extra funds magically appear, will only be the 2nd time I've missed the marathon in 20 years. Would be nice for you to run a marathon on your birthday, especially if did a PB/GFA time too.
Nice morning, a little light drizzle but pleasant to run in. 6 miles done.
I got home fine yesterday. We flew with KLM (never done that before) and there was a sarnie and a drink included, no "hidden extras" and everyone was friendly. What a contrast to RyanAir
Before we boarded there was an announcement saying that if anyone wanted to give up their seat, they'd pay €250 cash or a €350 KLM voucher, plus they'd be guaranteed a seat on the plane the next day at no cost. A couple of us did very briefly consider it, but as one of my mates was back at work today and I drove him to Bristol it wasn't really possible. Interesting though, as presumably people turned up at the airport hoping to get a flight, were willing to pay quite a high amount for it, so to facilitate that KLM were seeing if anyone would give up their seats. If I'd been on my own I may have more seriously considered it as I'd easily have got a night in a hotel somewhere, and I'd have been able to amend my airport parking.
I'd heard Schiphol was huge, Frankfurt is big too, when we landed we taxied miles on the runway to get to our place to disembark.
I've been tempted a few times when airlines have offered cash to give up your seat, at Exeter once they held the flight until someone finally took the offer. I couldn't accept it as I wouldn't have got to my race in time. It's not that someone has turned up and is willing to pay extra to take the flight, the airlines deliberately over book and rely on some passengers not turning up. Travelodge do it too. And of course races do, they rely on a certain % of DNS's.
How did the Trotters get on at Lanzarote, did Chair improve on his GFA time?
I've seen a pic of the race t-shirts, as it was a 100MC's 1000th marathon. I think you'd either love or hate the shirts, I thought they were awful!
Good tough Pilates class. Trotter PB was there as usual plus the girl who's doing her races for the 401 charity, I saw her at the Cornish.
Incidentally no reply to my email to the Cornish marathon after 4 weeks, I tried to really kind when I asked if there could be an entry without the hoodie but I expect they were offended, I also asked about the date change too.
Shades, I asked PB to do a pic of the step dog as a present to OH and this is what he did. I love it, and I think she will too.
That's a fabulous painting, PB is so talented. A really special present too, I'm sure OH will love it and will be perfect for your new home...when you find it!
Cal - sorry to hear you've had a setback in your recovery and really annoying about the hip playing up. Hopefully when you're back into your usual mileage that will ease off.
Big G-That's a great present,just hope you don't leave this page of the thread open.
12 miles today,couldn't really be bothered going but enjoyed it when I got out and moving.
Weird question,but what do you guys use to keep your shoes smelling ok,the last few weeks I've had to run through dirty puddles and rain etc and noticed my shoes starting to smell quite a bit,so think that's the reason as they were fine before that,but can't get rid of it.
When you get home with wet/muddy shoes you could try taking the insoles and hand wash the insoles in warm soapy water. Rinse the shoes in cold water and leave to dry naturally. I don't know if any of the sprays work, such as Fabreeze. I have seen hints such as storing trainers with tumble dryer sheets in them.
When I ran past a window today I seen a reflection and thought I looked like a terrible runner,I was all hunched and shuffling along,can't be very economical.
Regarding the painting, I provided the artist about 6 photos but what he produced isn't a direct copy of any of the pics I provided, which I quite like too.
I'm an awful runner too. I actually have good arm drive and cadence but I have barely any leg lift. But we can't all be Mo, can we?
So good news and bad news today. Good news is my hip felt a lot better this morning. It's not completely better - that will take a lot more work - but it isn't as horrible as yesterday. I got a good, steady 6 miler in (all on road as it was dark even when I finished at 7.30am), averaging 9:47. Last three miles were 9:40, so made pace was good and consistent.
Bad news is my achilles is starting to grumble again. It's very mild but it's there so I'm going to have to keep up with the calf work. I didn't do anything while I was ill - didn't have the energy even for rehab.
And in other news, I'm in for Yorkshire, so Big G I'd appreciate your tips for this one. I consulted my friend and co-consipiritor Colin on which Autumn race to do (I mentioned Frankfurt and Amsterdam since both could tie in with an amusement park or fair visit) but he'd rather do rollercoasters during the summer and he pointed out that Yorkshire was on his birthday and Hull Fair is on just down the road, so that's what we're doing.
I don't think any of us glance at our reflection in a window and think what great form we have, same with most race photos.
Big G - that makes sense that PB does his paintings using photos, not easy to get a dog to sit while being sketched.
Cal - low leg lift is not a fault, in fact it's an economical and efficient way to run for distance running, perfect for marathons and ultras.
Great that you've sorted out your autumn marathon for next year. Promising too that your hip is improving but not so good re the achilles.
Rest day for me today, well except for circuits which was really good but I found it quite hard, a really good workout.
Cal, good news about Yorkshire. I still haven't decided what I'm doing yet on that race weekend, but it's a possibility for me too.
In terms of tips, I think if I do it again I'd stay closer to the rail station if I could (i.e., easily walkable). The race starts out of town, and there are busses that take the runners to the start area from the station, and then drop you off there after the race. I was staying about 30-mins walk away from the station, which is usually fine, but it was bad weather this year so that was a bit of a pain, after the queue to get back on the bus also. Or you can take public buses to/from the start area, or if you're driving there is a car park system (I don't know how this worked as I wasn't driving).
One good thing about the start/finish being at the Uni is that there was plenty of space to stay dry indoors before the race. The loos were outside and the race start was a bit of a walk from the bag drop though, so definitely leave in plenty of time to get into the start pen, and take a bin liner in case of rain. There are also toilets adjacent to the start area, which I hadn't realised but came in handy.
There are two parkruns. The one I did was a bus ride out to the start, but what I think is probably the main one is around/near the race course, but that one gets cancelled if there's horse racing on that weekend. I booked an AirBNB about 1.5 miles form the race course thinking I'd run there and back on the Saturday, but that plan was scuppered. The other one was good though and had quite a large turn out, with quite a few doing the marathon too. Tom Williams from parkrun/MarathnTalk was there, although I didn't see him - I only know he was there as he was featured on the Yorkshire Marathon TV programme. Him and his Dad did the marathon and his South African Dad just about managed to qualify for Comrades, with seconds to spare!
I'm really not what I'd consider a train buff at all, but I'd highly recommend visiting the National Railway Museum, which is free to enter. It's huge and definitely worth a visit. Also Betty's Tea Rooms is a pretty iconic building/establishment in York, but the queues can be large to get in. Worth it though, if you like afternoon tea
If you like fish and chips before a race, there is a decent fish and chips slightly out the centre, called The Fisherman's Wife. It's easily walkable from the centre, and was a local place (I was by far the youngest in there, but everyone was friendly). If you prefer to be more central for the food, there's another one in the centre called Drake's Fish and Chips, but I personally preferred The Fisherman's Wife.
As for the course itself, it's definitely a PB course, and the first bit is around the town centre and then it goes off around roads out of town, before heading back to the Uni. I wouldn't worry too much about the final hill in terms of trying to bank much time as such. I'd definitely just go off at the pace I wanted and maybe try and get there with a minute in hand if the hill is a concern. I certainly wouldn't go off trying to bank 5 or 10mins or something because of that hill, as a) that probably wouldn't work for me and I'd have an awful race and b) it's also not really necessary as the hill really isn't that bad. Certainly if you encountered it on a training run I'm sure you'd whizz up it - the main thing about it is that it does come at the wrong time as it's within the last mile of the race, but it's nothing to worry about in my view. If you're on for a PB at the bottom of it, I'm sure it won't get in the way of that, and just know that when you're at the top it's downhill to the finish.
If you have any other questions or anything, just let me know.
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As for me, I'm driving up to Reading today for the event tomorrow. I've no time goal and I *may* go over the marathon distance. It just depends on the weather and how I'm feeling, and if it's super-muddy I'll just do the marathon I expect, which I'm fine with. I remember the first (and only) time I did this event I got to the marathon point, had a bite to eat, and then just decided on a whim to carry on. I'll just see how I feel tomorrow though, as I'm still really tired. I've been drinking plenty and trying to get some rest but I'm not quite with it at the moment. I'm planning on trying to avoid the worst of the traffic, get there early and just relax late afternoon.
I was just about to post the marathon list and realised you had a marathon tomorrow. These midweek marathons always seem to come as a surprise. Hope you have a good race.
I think the hill's only a concern if I'm on target with no seconds to spare. Chester's hill is in the 24th mile so it's pretty similar. I was only around 10 seconds over pace on that mile.
Good luck tomorrow!
Out for 4 miles yesterday decided to run it at hm pace and see how the legs were. No issues at all so out today for easy 6 miles.
Big G-Good luck for tomorrow.
Shades-Frankfurt flights and hotel are booked,just the race to enter now.
steven - not easy to do HM pace in training, you must be feeling good.
Ian - That's great news about Frankfurt, I'm dead jealous, I'll be going back in 2020 though. There's no rush for the race entry but I think there's an early bird price up to the end of December. This year they were taking entries up to a couple of weeks before the race, I expect due to the wide roads they have the capacity to take more runners.
7 miles this morning, strong and bitterly cold wind.
Have a good run, hope you've got a warm hat, that will help. Were you staying at Reading T/L again?
Big G - well that T/L is convenient, hope you managed to get some decent food this time, better midweek I guess as you're in commuter area.
Hope it's warmed up a bit for your race, wind is still bitter here.
Big G glad you had a good trip to Amsterdam, FRA and AMS are both massive airports, them and CDG (Paris) are the main hubs for Europe longhaul flights. When I worked for Qantas they used to use yield management and oversell flights by about 5-10% (never in 1st class) and didn't get I wrong too often as there were loads of options to get people back to the UK with little disruption.
Shades, Manchester is a great race if you're into flat courses, reasonable support and looking for a PB. But would again be expensive to travel and stay.
Ian well done on getting Frankfurt sorted, I'm hoping I can convince the oh for a few days away in Poland, i'll hold her to ransom and say if not then I'll enter CW50 in September instead.
Cal well done on getting your Autumn marathon sorted, great news about the hip, home the achilles calms down.
Another easy 4.3 miles yesterday, pretty much niggle free and feel the hip is getting stronger. The foot is a bit tight after use but am constantly doing hill raises by my desk trying to get it used to the weight again.
Cal-Seems strange booking races 10 months ahead,but that's most of my races planned in now for the year.
Rob-Hope the leg is good to go soon,obvious but take it easy when you start again.
Very cold wind here today,had to wear my gloves today,managed 8 miles before it went dark,got to do my long run tomorrow as I'm working all weekend,ready for a crazy week in work.
Still, I had a couple of goals. A comfortable sub-4 was the main one, and then if I felt okay, maybe carry on to 33 or 36ish miles. When I did this event earlier in the year I went through marathon point in 4:45 and ended up with 33-miles, so a 6hr PB would have been very nice.
Unfortunately though, the cold really got to me. My legs just stiffened right up, and I had some pain in my left hip and also knee. I was happy with my shoe choice as there was some mud, but conversely some of it was compacted stones which were quite hard to run on in hard trail shoes. I wasn’t really sure what to do as I’ve got an event coming up on Sunday, so I briefly considered dropping out to save the hip/knee to try and be okay for Sunday. But deep down I wouldn’t have been happy with that as it was fine to walk, so I carried on but it really was a lot of walking, unfortunately. I stopped with a lap to go to put a jacket on - it was bitterly cold, as much of the course is in the shade. Car said 6deg when I got in after the event, but my car was parked in the open with no shade. Under the trees on the course I’m sure it was colder than that.
Anyway, got it done in 4:56, for just the marathon. I didn’t go around again as I just wanted to get in the car to warm up.
I’ve never done this before but I’ve hidden the Strava activity as I can’t be doing with the comments. I’ll do a write up for the press officer as usual though.
Shame it didn’t go to plan, but just one of those days I suppose. On to the next one on Sunday, and then I’m looking forward to a break over Xmas and New Year.
Shades, Danny (the guy who has done 100s of marathons) was there. He sadly took a fall and there was blood on his head, and I think he broke his glasses. He got patched up by the medic and went out again so fingers crossed he’ll get another marathon under his belt.
What's the CW50?
Ian - you'll get used to planning races a long time ahead. I find it keeps me motivated, I have all my marathons and ultras planned for next year and have booked all accommodation and entered most that I can so early. Most of my shorter races I've entered too.
Big G - tough day for you today. I'm sure the waiting around at the start made it very hard for you all to warm up those muscles on such a cold day. 6 degrees here too, but in the wind today was a 'feels like' of 2 degrees, maybe colder with you.
Shame you have had to hide the data on Strava, that's the downside of some social media.
I hope Danny is ok, he's tough but I'd heard from a friend that he wasn't running so well lately. He's 77 now and has done over 700 marathons.
It is due to warm up for our race on Sunday thankfully.
I've got 3 more RW mags for you.
Shades-I've enjoyed planning them but usually just have a rough idea.Up until April is set in stone,just can't find a half on 13th Jan to have an idea for GC,after April depends on how Manchester goes,June is DD,then get ready for Chester and Frankfurt through the summer.