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Shades Marathon Training
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On a less impressive note, ran Harrow (a three and a bit lap tarmac course with a couple of gradients that I wouldn't call hills but still took a little out of you). Tunde, the guy I met on the tram to South Norwood a few weeks back, came along too - he also came to Bexley last week. Nice fellow - 60 something, used to do a lot of marathons but now concentrates on shorter races and cross country. Still faster than me.
I got into a bit of a battle with a veteran called Linda (the marshalls were calling out to her by name) - we were pretty even but I was doing better on the inclines and I got her on the last lap while I was going up the "hill". I had a nice chat with her after and she said she was trying to keep up with me. She was a V55 though, so I really should finished in front of her. I finished in 25:02 which is decent for a non-flat course and I was 4th lady, although the 2nd lady was V50 so no age group win. Happy enough with it though.
Sounds like your ready for it, do you have a time in mind?
Cal - well done, another good run today. I know it's still a bit early but does the weather look good for York?
My throat is still a bit sore and RHR slightly raised this morning after a lazy day yesterday. Felt rotten just after lunch, my appetite is still good though, had a kip on the sofa and felt better after that. I've been gargling with salt water which is awful but is supposed to be effective.
I've prepared all my kit etc for tomorrow's race and will make a decision on whether to run in the morning, see how my RHR is and how I feel. Forecast is rain for the race, I'm getting a bit fed up of having wet feet as I've had for the last few races.
Good luck to all racing tomorrow, Big G in balmy Sofia and the rest of us in cooler conditions.
Shades-Hope you feel oktomorrow and it goes well.
Another easy 8 tonight,felt really strong and comfortable,starting to wonder about target for frankfurt,shades how would you compare both courses? Berlin looks flatter but was busy so would the less people compensate for the hillier route?
One from parkrun.
To put Eliud Kipchoge's sub 2 hour marathon into perspective:
And this from Strava. Interesting to see the spikes near time boundaries (3, 3:30, 4).
Shades, I hope you feel a bit better this morning. Fingers crossed you can make the race.
Cal, tough one. You must be really tempted to give it a go? If you do, have you thought about how you may pace it?
Ian, good to read you’re getting your strength back.
As for me, I didn’t sleep great last night. No real reason, but just felt restless. I’m about 20min walk from the race start, which starts at 9:30. Will probably leave around 8:30 which should give me enough time to drop my bag off etc. I’m a bit concerned about the route as if it’s the road we came in on from the airport, there’s not a lot of shade. Yesterday it felt pretty hot from 11am, and sun cream is definitely required. Forecast shows 13deg at 10am rising to 23deg at 2pm and zero chance of rain. Very different to Berlin and Loch Ness!
Great pictures, you look fresh and the other lady looks knackered, she's probably thinking 'who is this parkrun tourist?'.
Ian - I've just looked back at my Frankfurt stats and I've got the total climb as 28 metres, so that's 92 feet, so that's not going to slow you down.
Big G - that was a great interview that Kipchoge did. I love that he threw the gauntlet down and said he now expects other runners to now run sub 2.
Just as when Bannister did the 4 minute mile, others followed very quickly.
Have a good run today and relish in that warmth, remember how cold it was on that hillside at the start of Loch Ness.
I didn't have a great night's sleep either, RHR is 8 above normal today so I've decided to stay home, however my throat feels and looks a bit better, must keep up with gargling with the salt water 🤮. It's pouring with rain here, maybe if it had been a mild balmy day I might have gone but I think the rest is the sensible thing to do.
I don't suppose you remember which side the drinks stations are on do you? They say the first 2 are both sides then just 1 so wondering are they mixed whereas berlin were nearly all on the right.
But you can ask at the Expo about the drink stations at the info desk with a map of the route, they are very precise in their organisation. Strict too I believe, they even quote the rule number saying numbers must not be on a number belt (such as triathletes use) but must be on shirt.
There are relay runners in the early part of the race and they can be slightly irritating overtaking marathon runners.
I'm tracking Big G
Big G, I will probably follow the pacer and see how that feels.
10 miles for me today. Felt great for the first few miles and a little more like work later on, but a decent run, really. Not too many aches and pains. Left hammy tendon has been a bit grouchy but nothing I'm concerned about. Achilles is still relatively quiet.
Quite fancy a bit of warm weather running again now but think Big G may not be enjoying it so much around now, hope its going ok for him and Shades.
nice and easy paced trail run for me this morning followed by some harder paced indoor cycling, then spent a bit of time planning out a rough idea of where I want to be running wise over the next few months, I think training for MK is going to be a lot more sociable than my Barnstaple training as should be a lot of club members training for it and other marathons (London) around that time.
Got to the start in plenty of time and set off at most gone 9:30. Bearing in mind I haven’t ran a single step since Loch Ness I wasn’t sure how I’d feel but after a mile I felt pretty good. After 10k (when the hip went at Loch Ness) I was genuinely thinking I was on for a decent time - at this point everything was feeling good and I was running quite within myself. I was also in a brand new set of shoes, thinking that would give the hip the best chance.
However....at 9-miles the hip went, and there was a fair amount of walking until half way. As this is a two lapper it was playing on my mind whether or not I should pull out, but as I knew I wasn’t in any pain walking, I carried on. I feared a long slog from there though.
Although the hip didn’t completely clear, oddly I was able to run more than I was walking and then I knew a sub-4 was on the cards which kept me motivated. At half way I was honestly thinking it was going to be a longer day out than it ended up being.
From around 16 miles I walked when I needed to, which seemed to make it easier to run, and I ended up crossing the line in 3:56:01 on my watch. As I say, genuinely pleased with that as I was fearing the worst at half way.
I’ve absolutely loved Sofia. It’s a great city. The marathon is well organised, and very affordable, but I’m not sure I’d rush back. The route around the main centre was nice, but as feared the bit out towards the airport and back was a bit boring/grim. It was closed roads and it was very strange seeing 6 lanes of roads virtually empty (there was a mile of each lap where we were running in the wide hard shoulder next to busy traffic). This long stretch there was no support either.
I felt sorry for the half runners who started 10mims after us. I reckon runners up to around sub-1:30 had to weave around a lot of people.
But it’s another one done. As I say, I loved Sofia and if someone wants a cheap, fast, Autumn marathon at a lovely city this is a good option (I don’t think it’s normally this warm). But if you’re mainly looking for a scenic marathon, then this isn’t the best.
One positive is for spectators - it’s very, very easy for them to see runners 4 or 5 times in a very relaxed way.
Anyway, Cal, here’s how *not* to pace a sub-4
Big G I think the rest this week did you good, glad you managed to recover a bit during your run and get sub 4 even if not the result you were looking for, another one in the bag for you anyway.
HONK - I suppose as MK is local to you it's a popular choice for your fellow club members that don't get a place at London. Will be good that you have others to train with especially through the winter.
Big G - well done, considering you haven't run all week that's a good result. I looked at the website and it does look like a good option for an autumn marathon, many races are not able to find 26.2 miles of lovely scenery for the whole distance, that's just how it is.
If you're able to walk and then run a bit that niggle doesn't sound too serious. Maybe get a diagnosis even if only a Dr Google one when you get home and start some rehab.
When I had my groin injury it would come on after a few miles and thanks to the advice of my guru therapist friend in the USA he gave me a programme of run/walk and some stretches and I made a full recovery without any real loss of fitness.
Honk-Winter training is a challenge but good if you can get it done.
Cal-Take it easy this week,absolutely nothing to gain fitness wise so relax.
But new women's world record 2:14:04 by Brigid Kosgei, she's been tipped lately to have the ability to break the world record. Amazing time and even splits too.
Big G - phenomenal that you can pull off a sub-4 with walking breaks! Is the hip thing muscular or something else? I know when I had my TFL problem, there was nothing really wrong with it but I couldn't run at all, and nothing shifted it until I got the cortisone shot. Might be worth looking into.
Cal, it really does feel like it’s something I can stretch out. Walking around is generally fine, although if it’s like last week it may be a bit painful for a couple of days after the marathon. I’m really hoping it’s nothing too serious. I was good at doing hip flexor stretches last week so need to keep those going I think.
I think he should have run the World Championships marathon and given us a good chance of a medal, instead he only wants to line his own pockets. Wonder if he's still getting UKA funding too.
Big G - yes, would be good to know exactly what that niggle is and be able to deal with it accordingly.
You don't want to miss Davey's double do you? 😜
My RHR is coming down again, not completely back to normal but within range so went for a run, 6 miles. Nice and mild, bit breezy, managed to miss the rain too.
I’m hoping everything’s on time today - committee meeting tonight and due to land at Gatwick at 1pm, so all being well I’ll be in the car for 2 and in the way home.
It’s been a great stay. OH and I have both said we’d have benefitted from an extra day or two, but we were restricted a bit by OH’s work shifts. On Saturday we went to the foothills of the mountain and took a gondola half way up. If we’d been here longer we’d have climbed to the top (2hrs), but we didn’t fancy that the day before the marathon. Strange to think that in a few months it’ll be full of skiers.
Bulgaria are playing England tonight and there was certainly a different atmosphere last night in town, with lots of fans around. The cab driver on the way to the airport said there was lots of fighting in the main street, between different groups of England fans.
Glad you were able to get a run done, Shades.
You do seem to have your committee meetings coinciding with your travelling home, makes for a longer and more tiring day.
Bulgaria have a bad reputation re football don't they? And I don't mean the players/team.
Cal - you're right, he hasn't coped well with the switch to the marathon from 5k/10k. Unfortunately I suspect a lot is ego, he says he misses the crowds cheering him on as they did on the track. His request for Sir Mo on his race numbers says a lot about the man.
Just had a quick look at Bolton marathon. Not for me next year, you have to collect your number the day before and that means I can't break the long drive up which would be my preference. Parking in town multi storey car parks, which we just have to sort ourselves. Final decision made when I looked at the entry, they're using Active so that means trying to persuade them to let me enter by other means as I can't use Active. I'll let them have their first year of the marathon and then look again for the following year.
Great run from Kosgei but that's another dodgy one,her agent Rosa has already had sumgong,kiprop and jeptoo banned amongst others,doesn't mean she is but a 4 min PB at those levels is incredible.
Unfortunately with the amount of cheating these days it's hard to see great performances without thinking.
Shades-Bolton isn't for me either,it clashes with Chester half,and there isn't enough there to tempt me to switch.
Big G-Hope today goes better than the flight out.
I'm sure Galen Rupp has been subjected to strongly worded interviews too.
I do hope Kosgei hasn't been cheating, Paula Radcliffe tipped her to break her record and wasn't surprised when she did so. I might watch the race on YouTube if it's on there, she had pacemakers running at 2:10 pace.
Re Bolton, I'm not always that keen to do a marathon in its first year as there can often be teething problems. Usually by the 2nd year the problems have been resolved.
It's a shame they weren't able to have the race in September as hoped. It now clashes with Windermere and Worcester.
Gym this morning, felt tough because the aircon wasn't working and I like the aircon.
Anyone who ran with Salazar should be expecting tough questions.
Bad news re GC and it's off in January,very annoying as 6 of us where going,I was hooing they may have put a half or 10k on but nothing.