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Shades Marathon Training
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Hope you're OK, might have affected you a bit more as you'd still be recovering from your marathon.
Yeah, it could well be I’m a bit low anyway after my event. I am okay, just a bit achey and also stiff. Possibly it may be a mix of the marathon and the vaccine, plus OH has a cold which I’m surprised I’ve not picked up, so it could be a mixture. We did have plans today but OH is off next week so we’ll just shift them to next week, although she has her vaccine on Monday.
Some good memories there for me. Shepperdine was a nice surprise after nowhere near enough long runs in the build up. Plym Trail in May was a great confidence booster in the run up to DD. Thursday’s run also a highlight, and the weekend away in the van was great at New Forest. Worcester was terrible though - I was hoping for far better, but it just wasn’t my day! Tracking Ian and RCouture at their larger events was good too, and quizzing Keith about his G2E experience. Nice to see Robert on the list, but sorry for Cal, MF and others who weren’t able to make it this year.
Yes, strange to see the total UK case numbers ramping up so quickly but meanwhile cases down here are coming down. I guess that's because our case numbers were way higher than most of the rest of the country but Omicron still hasn't hit us numbers wise. Of course number of tests has increased dramatically too, did see 1.6 million for one day this week.
Hope OH's cold clears before Monday, not sure if you can have the booster if you have any symptoms?
Re the list, I too think fondly of Shepperdine, mainly because it was the first race that was back to normal racing, even the staggered start was done in such a way that didn't seem very different from a usual start. And there was that air of excitement that we could race again, especially from the Welsh runners that nipped over the border for the race.
Well done to everyone who made the marathon list - some fantastic performances on there. I must say it does feel strange not to have run a marathon for two years...I really hope I can get some kind of form back by April. Based off today, maybe I'm not a lost cause.
Easy 6 yesterday (in the dark again) and then off to Brooklands parkrun today. My plans to do South Oxhey (near Watford) were scuppered by a tube strike, so Brooklands, which is all train, was the next best option. It's on the site of the old airport and race track and the route from the station takes you past the famous Brooklands banked curve, what's left of it. Hard to imagine cars driving at that angle.
They were using the B course, which is flatter and drier than the A course, but very wiggly (it uses the bike track for part of it) and the section through the woods is rather lumpy (as in, it's rather derelict hard path that has split apart and been overgrown). Even so I managed my fastest run of the year by quite a good margin: 26:21. Still a good way off where I was but I'm moving in the right direction now...previous best this year was 26:48.
I felt decent, although I should probably be dead according to my HRM.
The most pleasing thing was my splits, as I got faster: 8:29/8:25/8:20 and then 7:31 pace for the last bit (though I was still overtaken by a spry looking VW60).
I do actually have a 5K race on Wednesday evening - it'd be nice to get closer to 25 if I can, though running in the dark always messes with my head a bit.
I haven't run today either, my neck is a little sore today and I don't think a run in the cold east wind would help it. Going to work on my 2022 budget which is quite a task and takes a few hours.
Talk of HR in races I got this out from Shepperdine (5 mile splits).
1. 7:39min/mile, 149bpm (76%Max)
Again, this tells a story. Up to half way I was doing okay, but the next few miles I tried to hang on to a faster runner, and then you can see what happened
When you're running another flat marathon you can now try and hold off at least until you're well past the 20 mile mark.
Budget is finished except for the difficult bit, how much on races/travel/hotels and running shoes, going to leave that for another day.
We went out in the van yesterday and had a nice day out. A couple of nice walks, one around Haldon forrest, and one along the Exe estuary. I saw a Trotter out running there - I think he is about 40 and he did something like 2:42 at London so behind YT he is basically our quickest runner. He runs along there a lot, I believe.
Went into Cotswolds as I was in desperate need of a new winter coat and also new walking boots, as my current pair of Salomons have had a lot of use and are beginning to fall apart. Over the last few weeks I had tried Mountain Warehouse, Trespass and Millets but had no joy with the coat. It is very strange as their Medium coats dwarfed me, and the Small coats were fine in the length but just a bit too tight around the arms and shoulders (the Smalls fitted better than the Mediums overall). I do not know what is happening with sizing as I am clearly not a Small (6ft2, fairly broad). I have friends who are about 5ft5 and the Small jacket would have swamped them. I got a Medium Jack Wolfskin jacket from Cotswolds and a pair of Merrell boots. The 15% Motorhome club discount cam in handy there!
Shades will know the place and it is called Darts Farm, and they also have a very good food hall place, so we picked up some nice nibbles for a late lunch, as well as some decent cheese for Xmas (if it lasts until Xmas....).
Big G - there's still stuff we can't buy on the internet, not unless we want to spend a lot of time reordering and returning stuff, much better to go for a shop for those purchases. Discount very useful. I think Cotswold do discount to running clubs that have registered, similar to Sportsshoes. Might be useful for the Trotters.
I know Darts Farm very well as I used to work in the offices above the shop. When we had IT problems, fairly often, the boss would send us down to the café and we were allowed to put that on his tab. 😋 The shop is certainly worth a visit, the selection of food is amazing even more so at Christmas, great for present shopping too.
8 miles this morning, chilly in the wind but not too bad. My neck is still a little sore, again when I need to check junctions/cross roads etc but it's OK while I'm running. Reluctantly I'm going to cancel Pilates and Stretch this week, gym too, to give it a chance to heal. At least I can run OK. Maybe I can sneak a gym session in on Xmas Eve if neck is better then.
I did another Zwift ride last night and felt good and went out for a 7-mile run this morning so whatever combination of things it was that wiped me out on Saturday seems to have passed. The couple of days rest from running seems to have sorted out my calf too, which was hurting a bit after Friday's recovery run. Although blustery today, I enjoyed the run out.
Trying to work out if I will get to 2021 miles this year. I am currently on 1922 miles of running so it may be a bit tight as if we take the 26 off for NYE it still leaves 73 over the remaining 10 days. Definitely possible, but I am not chasing it particularly anyway.
Network Rail are replacing a bridge that I run over on my regular 7 and 10 milers, with work taking place between January and March, and the road closed. The bridge is on the main, seafront road between Paignton and Torquay so I will need to divert my runs a bit, but in the main will still be able to do most of the same routes.
I have a feeling that Cotswold own or are connected to Runners Need, so that might mean that discount in Runners Need shops too, don't know. That would be useful for Trotters as nearest running shop in this area if runners want to try on shoes etc.
Glad you're feeling back to normal now and the tiredness has gone, and the calf niggle has disappeared.
I'm not OCD about numbers but I just looked at my stats and I'm on 1946.73, if I do my planned mileage for the rest of the year that would take me to 2020.73....so even I might be tempted to round up the figures and make up the distance to 2021.
I hope Network Rail wrote to you
That reminds me that the new bit of cycle path at Teigngrace should be finished this week, I'll check it out later in the week, the earlier traffic will lessen by then. It's only a short section but will be much appreciated.
Cal - I know that feeling of no marathons for a while, hopefully you get one under your belt in 2022, perhaps a 50km off road ultra or trail marathon where you can run and not worry about the time.
Big G well done on getting the booster in earlier, defo worth not feeling rubbish over xmas. Think recovery and ensuring you're fit for 2022 is more important that 2021 miles but be nice to hit the target.
I too had my booster early, went with Elle and asked if I could get mine as well, bit of a dead arm yesterday and felt rubbish when I went for a slow 5miler but felt okay this morning.
Chloe is currently unwell without a lft, one of her friends has failed to drop one round, she has ordered a pcr but unsure when she'll get the results and she's due to come home on Thursday. It's a bit of a mess really, Elle may go upto Lincoln and stay with Chloe at Christmas if she does have covid and just rely on antibodies.
Great to see so many low key events happening and that they have been able to adapt to the new normal. There's been plenty of uncertainty around events.
Some of my highlights:
Shades - running 4 different marathons in 3 weeks and only having 3 mins between all four times is pretty consistent work!
Rcouture - runs a marathon with the training tapered off and smashed his PB, shows once over his issues will do even better next year! Big G impressed with overcoming Covid and being sensible building back up again.
Ian - training paid off with a DD PB and some solid times at the end of the year
Keith- G2E report almost got a few of us signed up for next years event
For me making the start line at CW50 was an epic achievement, it nearly didn't happen. Then covering the distance well within the cut off I was immensely proud. 2 weeks later managed to chip 2 mins off my road marathon effort from 2020,hope to dent further with a bank of training in April 2022.
1053 miles for the year, imagine will finish around 1100, but lower than I'd expected but had a bad start to the year and poor November. Still better than the 865 from last year.
Robert - well that's not so bad having another's month grace before any decisions being made re your employment.
Re mileage I will only get to 2020.73 if I do the mileage on my training plan, miss a run and that's it. But I don't care, it's not about numbers.
Good you managed to get a walk in booster, I see lots of folk being able to bring forward their booster which is all good news.
Hope Chloe is alright and it's just a cold. If not at least she's doing the right thing and you have plans in place should it be Covid.
Re the list/racing year for us. You've done really well over the last couple of years, coming back from that awful fall/surgery and the long rehab you had after that. So CW50 was a great achievement, you should be very proud of yourself.
8 miles this morning, dry and chilly but OK. Went out early which meant doing my whole run in the dark, which was OK except the road home was being used as a diversion and there was lots of traffic. I ran around several housing estates today, mostly tacky Xmas decorations. But I did laugh, passing a house in complete darkness and I thought their Labrador was sitting on the lawn very quietly, on closer inspection it was a plastic deer...our streetlighting is very poor
Neck definitely a lot better today, nearly rebooked Pilates but didn't.
Anyway, it was very slow. Groin had a nasty twinge at the halfway point and almost stopped, but it eased off so I finished the run. Had a good old session with the Theragun when I got back, followed by stretching. There are a lot of tight, sore bits. Hoping nothing will snap when I do my 5K tomorrow.
Been awol as work has been crazy as it usually is at year end. No running still anyway and I’ve decided there won’t be until new year even if I’m not really feeling the ITB anymore. I figure I might as well be comprehensive. Mileage is at 1865 for the year which Im happy with as my second real year of running and up nicely on 1575 last year. Keeping up with the strength work religiously but I can’t be bothered at all with the exercise bike so fitness wise I suspect I’ll be starting from scratch. I don’t mind so much as bizarrely I do love a long stretch of slow base training. I’m hopeful that a good jan and feb of MAF can get me back to where I was. Work commute and travel now being on hold for the foreseeable should help time-wise too.
Cal - I don't fall over uneven surfaces just flat ones
Rcouture - decent progression with the mileage, would have clocked 2000 without the ITB issues. Good time for work to be crazy when you're not running too much.
6 miles for me this morning, wanted to do a few more miles but procrastinated a fair bit this morning so ran out of time. Chloe has Covid, I think Elle is going to collect her and bring her back so we can care/ look after her and she'll isolate in her room. It increases the risk for me but one of those things, I'm seeing my mum tonight and not due to see my Dad until much closer to New Years and make a decision then. Also going for the christmas shop either tonight or tomorrow so we can semi isolate ourselves as much as possible.
Fairly busy time of year for me with Trotters stuff - trying to get the year’s Club Champs sorted so glassware etc can be engraved, and sorting out the races for next year. In the last 2 or 3 weeks some more local races confirmed so we’ve gone for the usual format of 20 races (5 categories of 4 races) next year and I sent that out to all members earlier today so they can start planning their races. Currently waiting on the John Scott Trophy results and then I can finalise this year’s competition.
Didn’t sleep very well again and although I’d been in my running stuff since I got up, I didn’t get out but opted for an hour on zwift instead.
Rcouture - our foxes are not so used to people and keep their distance.
I hope you'll be ready to start your next period of base training very soon and I agree, it's most enjoyable, no pressure just pure training at its best.
Despite your injury that's impressive mileage for your 2nd year, all miles in the bank. You'll soon be back to full fitness again.
Robert - hope Chloe won't be too poorly. You've dodged the Covid bullet once, now you'll have to try and do it again. Good idea to get all the food in and limit socialising.
I'm doing my food shop early tomorrow morning.
Big G - I do hope that this latest variant doesn't affect forthcoming races, by making race organisers nervous about committing to 2022 dates or even cancelling them.
RED have put up their provisional dates for 2022 on their website.