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Shades Marathon Training
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New watch arrived. I was tempted to go out for a quick jog with it but my groin's been niggly and I don't think it liked the Vinyasa class I did this morning, so I decided to abide by my planned rest day.
6 miles after work,always crazy how slow easy pace feels after a fast race.
We are no longer using those plastic throw away water cups !!
Customer Feedback has led us to cease using any more plastic single use cups. In 2019, our Races will still have a great stock of water, squash, cola, sweets and savouries but we will quench your thirst in one of two methods;
a) You will refill your own liquid carrier/camelbak/bottle from our supplies at the Aid Station.
b) You will remain at the Aid Station and drink from one of our new compostable paper cups and dispose of it in the allocated bags.
Our new paper cups are compostable but are still classed as litter until they are disposed of correctly. If correctly disposed of, they will fully compost and cease to exist within three months !!
mamafox - I love seeing the deer too, we have a lot around here too, but this is the only place I've ever seen fawns. I once heard this galloping noise on a track towards me and was as surprised as you that it was the hooves of a deer, as they're so quiet in every other way.
So good to hear you had an enjoyable run yesterday, ignore that Garmin message!
Cal - enjoy your new Garmin today.Keith - welcome back to Devon, that was a long journey.
Well quite a lot of the GFA applicants must be shocked and unhappy at not getting into London. I wonder how many of the extra entries this year were due to this being the first time no GFA entries could be deferred, I guess that could easily be 500 runners. We'll have to wait and see how many GFA applicants there actually were, if they announce that. In the past I know a lot of runners would apply for a GFA place and then defer to the following year and not always due to injury but deliberately especially if they were moving up an age group. Of course now they've tightened up on obtaining the GFA time when you're in that age group too.
I don't suppose 2:40 for the men is that unexpected but 4:15 is quite a lot for the women. I think the obvious reaction should be to tighten the women's times by 5 minutes next year and maybe 3 minutes for the men? What are the margins for the other majors that operate the same system? Do they tighten their times the following year?
Rest day for me today
Can you let me know about the email from Davey re the water please? See my post above
From what I read Chicago moved theirs 5 mins last year,I think,and the others have stayed static.
Big G-I doubt its come from GFA as they said that will be 3000 of each sex,more likely from the ballot spaces.
Just checked last night and weds time was my first 80% wava,last 5k was 79.98% but I've had a birthday since.
Ian - congrats on 80% WAVA, that is really very, very good.
Interesting about the other majors, wonder what London will do next year.
Trouble with a Camelbak although you can run on and not stop you are carrying extra weight and that awful warm sloshing water/drink would just put me right off. When I did the 40 mile cupless ultra there was a runner about my pace and every drink station he got further ahead of me as he had a camelbak and I was stopping to fill cup and drink. Eventually I lost sight of him, but at 30ish miles I caught up with him and finished 30 minutes ahead of him.
Glad the new Garmin is working well. The HRM will be very accurate at rest just not when you're moving. MHR calculators are only accurate for about 60% of folk too.
When I had a vest I popped some ice in before I ran and it seemed to keep it cooler longer.
With london I expect it to be 5 mins under next year as everyone will be knowing just under isn't good enough now.Had this exact convo with OH last night where I just said well I'll carry on finding european ones I like and just do them instead,nicer weather anyway.
I think one positive thing arguably is that the ladies times have got a bit tougher. I think it's good for the sport as presumably more ladies have reached that higher standard/age grading, due to the qualifying times reducing so much (i.e., presumably there's more competition for the fixed number of places, so the times have had to drop).
Big G - yes, we're all getting older and in theory if we all keep running long enough we should get a GFA even if we have to wait until we're in our 70's or 80's
I don't think women's marathon times have improved it's just that more women are running marathons now and often will make up nearly half the field. Weren't some of the women's times softened in the last change, my age group remained unchanged.
The only runners I really feel sorry for are those that are the very oldest, imagine if you're in your late 70's or even in your 80's and run a GFA time only to lose out.
Good luck at the relays tonight.
What makes me smile is that if I say to a non-runner that I need to knock in the region of 40secs/mile off to qualify, many would just shrug as if to say ‘that’s easy, isn’t it?!’.
I'd still love to do it one day and I'll really give it a go,but now we have a bit more spare money now the kids have graduated we're using it to treat ourselves more and my treat is racing.
https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/how-to-enter/good-age-entry/
It should work out well,20 mile then HM then 3 weeks until berlin.
I walked the 1.5 miles back home at a brisk pace as a form of cool down, and now getting ready for tomorrow’s marathon.
Good luck for the racers tomorrow.
Big G - well done, that's a good result and only very slightly slower than last year, I expect last year was cooler too as we had rain I think.
Might be a warmish one for us today, I see 'feels like' is forecast to be 26/27 degrees for the latter stages, but hopefully we'll be well shaded for a good deal of the route.
Good luck to all racing this weekend.
East Grinstead parkrun today - a train journey into Sussex (which wasn't bad) and then about a mile walk. This one is definitely a cross country course and I wore trail shoes and was glad I did. Apparently it's a mud bath in winter so I was pleased to get this one done now.
It was never going to be a fast time as it's on a mixture of lumpy, longish grass and rooty dirt path, with one steep hill you go up twice, a few other undulations and a lot of twists and turns. I finished in 27:25 which I'm happy enough with as I estimated around 28 minutes for this one. That was good enough for 5th lady but I was only third VW50. I checked the other ladies above me and first and third ladies were VW55s. You had to go back to 9th to find a 30-something and 10th for a 20-something - clearly the iron vets rule this one!
Only a little grumble from the achilles after my second time up the big hill, which is good as I thought it would be a lot grumpier given I wore my trails (4mm drop). Groin niggles a little after I stopped, which has happened after the last few runs. Might need to see my physio if it doesn't fall in line - it's not an big issue now but I don't want it becoming one.
On the return leg of the second lap, the leader got overtaken and he looked in a bad way. He took his top off and started walking. When I saw him again a while later, he was sat on a viaduct, being sick and looking even worse. I offered him water and also some mint cake, but he refused both - and he promptly threw up again, and said he’d cramped badly. I really wasn’t sure what to do - it didn’t feel right leaving him there but he told me to go on and he said word had been sent to the marshals that he was in trouble. In reality there was nothing I could do as I had no warm clothes for him, phone or anything with me. When I got to the finish an ambulance had been called for him, but I wasn’t too sure how they were going to get to him as he wasn’t really near a road. Nightmare.
I was talking to him before the race and in hindsight I wonder if he’d put too much pressure on himself (he’s an experienced runner though). He said that he had a point to prove at his running club as he’d been accused of cheating last weekend at a local race, which he hadn’t, and he was livid about it (basically him and everyone else in front of him went wrong on a course that wasn’t taped properly, and a couple of people then started questioning some of his other results!! Sounds like a nasty club! The race organisers haven’t accused him of purposefully cheating and know where the issue occurred). He turned up today to show them what he could do, but it obviously went wrong, presumably because of the heat.
Anyway, I got to half way feeling okay - got there in around 1:52ish and at this point was confident of a comfortable sub-4. But I got to the 20-mile turnaround point in about 2:56 and just felt that the 6 miles back up the hill in 1:04 wasn’t going to happen today. I ran a mile, and then ran/walked the remaining 5 miles, finishing in 4:28. Possibly sounds like a cop out but if I’d ran all the way up I’d possibly have got 4:10 or something, but then I was worried about how that may impact me tomorrow. So I just tried to take fluids on, and that really was the best I could do in the circumstances, in light of the fact I’m hopefully doing day 2 tomorrow.
At the finish, unlike last year when I did this and went on to have a crap second day, I had a decent meal straight away. I had cheese sarnies with me and also chicken legs, so I tucked into those and tried to rehydrate with electrolytes too. Even with all that I was still 2lbs lighter when I got home so I need to keep fuelling/drinking for the rest of the day.
Also, the shoulder was pretty bad for the last few miles. I was noticing in my shadow that I wasn’t swinging the arm properly even when walking. I hope it’s going to be okay tomorrow. No expectations about time tomorrow - the main aim is just to get it done if at all possible. Also, the vest rubbed in certain places so hopefully I can keep that under control tomorrow too. I may have to wear a shirt instead of a vest.
So, an eventful day. Not the time I was expecting but it’s another one ticked off in what I found quite hard conditions.