Shades Marathon Training

Big_G

Thanks TR. Hoping to get back to full fitness over the coming months, so let’s see what the autumn holds. Sorry to hear about your races not going to plan due to illness. 

Shades, I’ve got Plym Trail and the RED events as trail for 100MC purposes.

Cal, well done yesterday and good luck today  

Robert, yes, in hindsight, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in 2010. I ploughed through an injury to try and get some kind of training done and I completed it, but it wasn’t pretty!  Training was all wrong, I went off too quick in the race, and I walked a lot finishing in 5:15. 

For the list, my official time yesterday 3:48:03. The full results for everyone aren’t out yet (I can only search by name), but I’m intrigued how many relay runners there were. I just checked and the official site says there were about 12000 relay runners (2400 teams) in 2019 so you can imagine the change over points were pretty busy yesterday!  Don’t know how many were in the event yesterday though as yet, but presuming 100s of teams.  It wasn’t a problem at all, it’s just I’ve never been in an event where there were so many teams. 

SHADES

Robert - that's a decent week's mileage after your marathon.

There is a vegetarian option for the hog roast, no idea what it consists of though.🐷


Big G - that's interesting, why would 100MC call them trail.  

That's a lot of relay runners at Belfast, must take some organisation for so many teams.   The marathon used to be about 2,000 to 4,000 runners but might be more this time as the race is getting more popular especially since it moved to Sunday.

How are the legs today, knee OK?


5 mile recovery run, legs are fine, a bit tired.   My calves were quite sore last night, don't know why, but were fine when I got up.   Nice overcast morning, with a little light rain and pleasantly mild.   Saw my Pilates instructor out running, normally she runs with a bloke but she was alone today.   I had a nightmare that she would question me why I no longer go to Pilates but she didn't stop, phew.    But on my way back I could hear someone running behind me and catching me up and it was her.   I quickly said that I hadn't been to Pilates as trying to avoid Covid while I have races and she told me that she no longer takes that class, so all my guilt removed.      I did wonder why the class numbers had dropped.

I might go to the gym later, upper body only of course.

Big_G

Shades, 100MC have this that explains it, but it seems odd (to me) that a track marathon counts as trail. 

“A Road Marathon must be run on a sealed surface. This means it must be tar, asphalt or concrete i.e. a paved or metalled road, however in accordance with IAAF rules up to 2.6KM of the course may be on other surfaces.  A UK road marathon must hold a valid Certificate of Course Measurement Accuracy issued by the Association of UK Course Measurers, meaning the course has been accurately measured by a qualified measurer. Note, although valid for ten years from measurement certificates must be renewed annually by the race director. races where this is not done will be deemed to be trail races. If a race is run over the same course as another race that has been measured, the race director must apply for a certificate for their event.     For road marathons overseas the event must hold a measurement certificate issued by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), or a body recognised and licenced by IAAF to carry out such measurements..,

A Trail Marathon is an event which is not predominantly run on a sealed surface or which does not hold a certificate of course measurement accuracy. A trail marathon may be measured by a race organiser and must be at least 26 miles/42km.

Track Marathons are classed as Trail Marathons”. 

Knee seems to have held up, although right foot is a bit sore again. 

SHADES

Big G - so it's the absence of a certificate of measurement that is the key classification issue.    RED are intending to get their course measured and Strawberry Fields too, so they'll move to road classification then.

Tartan track has always been an oddity but there are few marathons on the track so I guess not really important.   I've never done a track marathon only ultras so never had the dilemma about how to record it.

Good news on the knee.   The foot tendon pain seems to come on after a long run/race, doesn't it.   Hope that settles down quickly.

Enjoy the Giant's Causeway, amazing to see, so strange.

SHADES

Big_G

Shades, thanks for the highlighting my race in red. I know you don’t consider the 400 to be a milestone really but I think you should highlight yours, too  Yes, it seems to be after a longer run that it flares up a bit, although I don’t really think it caused me a massive issue yesterday, in fairness. 

SHADES

Big G - my 400th should have been August 2020 on my birthday, but it didn't happen.   So I'm just grateful that it's done now, hence I didn't want a fuss about it.   

Now 500th might be an different matter.    I might make a bit of fuss then.


I have booked in for the gym although an early lunch a bit of TV and a snooze was tempting.

Robert OHara

Shades good news you can now pass your old instructor and not feel guilty.  Well done for getting out this morning.

Big G the relay runners would be confusing, had it in Manchester and MK but didn’t see too many.  Great news you’ve escaped without too many niggles means you can enjoy the rest of your trip, hope it’s sinking in what an amazing journey you’ve had to get to the 100.

watching the london 10k, a club runner Ellis Cross won the race is 28.41.  Mo must be upset that he didn’t scoop the 2k prize money 😆 wonder how much he got to appear? 

Rest day today, cleaning the kitchen and uni study.  Busy 6 weeks coming up with study but should be able to maintain some running. 

SHADES

Robert - that's a great run by Ellis Cross, a very good day for him.

Was that Farah's final race or is he still going for appearance fees at races?  I expect we'll see him more on TV now, wherever 'celebraties' can earn a few quid.

Good luck with the studies.

Ian5

Shades-I read he was looking at doing the Worlds this year,if no one rings his doorbell that is.
Big G-Which part of that do the enigma events fail on? as I believe they aren't good enough for GFA?
Shades/Big G-Seems as you have both had big milestones,it's a good chance to ask what has been your favourite and worst events?

SHADES

Ian - do you mean the World Athletic Championships? He's not fast enough now and I don't think he'd want to be there and be beaten easily.
I'd have liked to see him run the marathon at the Commonwealth Games, as our fastest marathon runner ever would be a fitting send off.   Especially as the Games are in the UK this year.

Big G will know about Enigma events.   I think they have/had one route that has a measurement certificate, results did appear on RunBritain, don't know if they do now.

Re events, favourite for me was my first run at Dingle Ultra, 50 miles.   Worst, I may have to study the list.  😉. I'll let you know.

Ian5

Shades-Yes it was the world championships,think this is the article I read
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-10641315/amp/Mo-Farah-line-shock-return-50-50-appear-summers-World-Championships.html
But his plans may be revisited after today.

Big_G

Ian, I think for me I’ve enjoyed the foreign marathons the most. You know I like Barcelona, and I’ve fond memories of Bruges, Marrakech and Sofia, but possibly because the weekend as a whole was so good at those, as OH was with me too (neither Marrakech nor Sofia may be described as epic courses, but I’ve very good memories of what were great cities). I also did an LDWA marathon with a few club mates, which was very good. Took us 6:59 (it was a tough course!) but it was just a good laugh.  Cheap as chips and a pasty at the finish, plus the legendary LDWA aid stations as well. Loch Ness has to be up there I think. A fairly tough course, but a good race, although I think I am partial to a point-to-point course. City to Sea, another point-to-point course, I felt like I’d achieved something when I finished that, which was very, very tough in the rain, with the mud and steps. 

Worst, I did one near Exeter, which was laps. It was mixed terrain and I just hated it, and couldn’t get into my rhythm out on the course. I nearly DNFd it, and not because of any injury, but the only reason I kept going was because I had Bruges planned for my 50th. Shades, I think you quite like it, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed Great Welsh, but it was terrible weather when I did it - I can’t see me going back though. And Dartmoor Vale one year was just horrendous with the weather as well - hideous, and I was questioning my sanity one year!  Personally, I wouldn’t rush back to Rotterdam, unless I happen to be there when I’m there on holiday with OH (IE, I wouldn’t plan to do it as a stand-alone event unless we were already there, as I didn’t think it was anything special really). I did Yeovil the weekend after DD, and that was just terrible (not the race, but just how I felt!). 

But the one that put the 100 in my mind was London 2017. That was my 8th marathon and I really enjoyed it, as I had a load of friends cheering me on, and then I had this thought that 100 was something I wanted to attempt. I did a local one the weekend after London, and that was it....the seed had been planted. 

There are just so many others I want to do. So many options, not enough money. If I could, I’d jet off pretty much every other weekend, I’m sure. 

As for Enigma, they’re trail for 100MC purposes. He did get a measurement certificate when someone asked for one for a GFA attempt but as far as I know it’s lapsed - I’ve done all his different courses and all are all trail on my list. Again, I really can’t see me going back to any of those. Maybe if I fancy a quad I would, but having said that there are options closer to home now if I ever felt the need to do that (seems unlikely at the moment!). 

Had a great few hours at Giant’s Causeway this afternoon. Glad we made the trip to it. We are staying at a place about 3 miles from there, but we are just in a town as OH is getting stuff from a supermarket before we head to the site. 

Cal Jones

Shades, well done...got a dayglo shirt myself today (orange). Sounds like a good race.

Big G, that must be amazing to see. I've only ever seen photos.

Rob...er, today is Monday. Actually I was sent a number for MK, despite telling them I wasn't coming and also attempting to transfer my entry to another person. Eh.

Anyway, 10K was far enough today. Won't lie, it felt pretty hard. Given I'd done a pretty hard parkrun Saturday then the Mile yesterday, I guess I was asking a lot of my old bod.
As with the Mile, the race village was in Green Park and the start was on the Mall. I saw a couple of clubmates (who were in an earlier wave to me...I was in the third one) and also one of the ladies I met yesterday, so that was nice. There were a lot more people around, though - the 10K is a lot more popular than the mile, it seems.
Anyway, organisation was good and we started exactly when we were supposed to. I was somewhere between 1 and 2KM when I saw Mo and Eilish whizz past on the other side of the road...Mo was in third place then. Bit of a shocker that he wasn't able to get past Cross - I bet that was the latter's best day ever!
Eilish was mile ahead of the second woman...shame she didn't quite get the British record but she did get the Scottish one and I'm sure she'll keep trying until she does. She has very long legs...bet her stride is three times what mine is.
The course is almost the same as the Winter 10K, aside from starting on the Mall and finishing at Buckingham Palace. (The Winter 10K has a couple of out and backs which I guess make up the distance). There was a bit of entertainment around the course (the usual drum groups, a choir, a DJ and so forth) though I admit I rather missed the penguins and polar bears.
A couple of miles in I was feeling my left hip a bit (TFL, I think) which is probably from striding out during the mile. Other than that, legs weren't bad but I was finding it quite hard going. It was simply a lack of speed endurance (I just need to dump the 7lbs I've put on since Christmas and do some actual speed work).
I came in at 55:39 so not awesome but not terrible by current standards. Winter 10K in Feb was 55:27 and it was warmer today, so pretty similar all things considered.
I did push quite hard so I was happy to get to the finish, but overall I enjoyed the race and would do it again (provided I could find another discounted entry...it's expensive otherwise!) But big, roads closed race with a medal and nice T-shirt for ten quid is a bargain.
Next race is the first Wimbledon Trail Series race (5 miles) followed a day later by another mile race, this time on a track. Didn't plan that well, did I?

SHADES

Ian - I can't see Farah going for the World's.   As you say that speculation may have changed now having been beaten by a runner that was refused an elite entry and had to pay his own entry fee.  I did see Farah is down for a race in Manchester, another fat appearance fee I expect.

Big G - it's really hard to choose best/ worst.   So much depends on fitness, how easy the run feels etc.

I quite like Great Welsh in good weather but certainly not on my favourites list.

I never cared for Dartmoor Vale but I did enjoy the year we had that tsunami of rain, it was a dull marathon and that brought some level of excitement that year.

Ian5

Shades-Still need to pick a worst 😁
We were looking at having a few days away in Prague in September,the day before we were going to go is the Prague 10k,so looking at changing our dates and doing that there,it's meant to be super fast, think the course record is 26:48 or similar.

SHADES

Cal - xpost.

Well done, lovely report and a good race time too.



Ian - I will look at my list tomorrow, don't have a copy on my phone.   Still difficult to choose worst.   I did at one time have a top 10 and also the 10 worst.

Negative LFT today from you?

SHADES

Ian - Prague marathon is one for your list too, highly recommended.

Rcouture

Cal - Great running and report. Have ‘registered my interest’ for the 2023 race whatever that means. 

Big G - Interesting you didn’t enjoy Rotterdam as seems quite popular. Is it just a bit characterless?

Rest day today. Was meant to be 12 mile taper long run but was super busy with the girls and want to play it cautious with the knee this late in the game anyway. Insane week at work coming up too which is good timing with the taper. 

Big_G

Rcouture, it is very popular for people going for a fast time, which I can fully understand.  But yes, there wasn’t much to look at it, in my opinion. There is the main bridge, but a decent chunk of it was out around a park area. Also, and I don’t know if this has changed, but the bag drop was a shambles.  Plus, as the bag drop was at the back of the all the starting pens, I had to fight my through however many thousand runners to get to my pen towards the start. If I compare it to Seville, which is a fast course, Seville was much better for all that type of stuff. But the city was good, and felt a lot different to Amsterdam. They have water taxis, which are really fast on the water, and a good way to get around. 

Cal, that sounds like you had a great race. Very well done  

SHADES

Cal/Rcouture - I watched the 10k last night, just happened to catch it on TV.   It does look a really good course.
If anyone wants to watch how to run a race, Ellis Cross is one of the finest examples I've seen, calm, didn't waste any stress/energy by assessing the other runners, just ran his own race.    The commentators kept saying how well/strong Farah was looking, but to me he didn't quite have his usual bounce and a couple of times when the camera got a close up I thought he was in a bit of pain, maybe he was carrying a niggle/injury.

5 miles this morning, nice morning again.   Legs fine, not quite up to a leg session in the gym today so did some decent hills today to give my glutes a bit of work to do.

Right off to study my race list to see it I can select a 'worst' race

SHADES

Big G - when I did Berlin there was an similar issue with the bag storage.   Depending on your race number, if you needed a certain area of the baggage store, which we did, you had to cross through all the runners heading to the start.   Put your bag in and then try and fight your way back through the runners again.  Truly awful race organisation, I expect they've sorted that issue now.

SHADES

Ian - have perused my list and worst marathon for me is Luton, closely followed by Orpington Marafun.

There were 2 marathons that I didn't finish as they were so awful, Exeter and Richmond Park, both terrible courses, Richmond also had shambolic marshalling.   Had I finished those two they might have been a contender for Luton.

Big_G

Organisation does have a big impact doesn’t it?  I suppose that is the advantage of some of the smaller events - turn up your car, or roll out of the hotel, and the start line is there. 

I’ve done these foreign ones (but I have a large list of other ones I’d like to do). 

Palma de Mallorca, Leiden, Munich, Malta, Barca, Bruges, San Sebastien, Rotterdam, Berlin, Sofia, Marrakech and Seville. I know Belfast is UK, but I’m counting it as although no passport needed, it feels like I’m ‘abroad’.  

Went out for around 5 miles this morning, about 50/50 off-road/road. Stunning here. OH is just making French toast for breakfast

SHADES

Big G - lovely photos.  I can't wait to get back to Ireland again, although so far only city races planned for this year.

You're right, good race organisation is so important.

I can't compete with your number of foreign marathons unless I add my Irish races in, many of which I've done several times, I've also included IOM which I've done 20 times and I included Jersey, CI too.

Ian5

Shades-I had a feeling Luton would be up there as I've noticed you comment on it in the past.
I think performance and how the general day is makes such a big difference perception  of worst and best as it can override a lot of issues.
Prague marathon is on my list,it's this weekend actually.
I went for a short 4 miles yesterday,still not feeling amazing so didn't want to push far.

Cal Jones

Shades, Farah was coming back from a foot fracture...it may well have been aching a bit. Or it was just the effort that hurt... 
And Irish marathons totally count as foreign. If it's a different currency, then it counts.

Legs achey last night so woke up a lot. Had a bit of a walk and then gym today.

SHADES

Cal - Farah's stress fracture was last summer so wouldn't be causing grief now.   Maybe something else perhaps.   He didn't look happy either during the race.  I see some of the press have slaughtered him today.

I still have a biggish list of Irish races that I haven't yet done.   Hoping next year to do one or two of them.

Not surprised your legs are a bit tired today.

Rcouture

Shades - What’s the IOM marathon like that you’ve done it so often out of curiosity?

Big G - Lovely pics. I’ve not had French toast for years, may have to suggest that one of the girls requested some… 😬

Ian - When are you flying out to Barcelona? 

Just under 6 miles this eve. Bad sleep, work craziness and start of taper tantrum meant it didn’t feel great. Phantom niggles everywhere. 

SHADES

Rcouture - IOM marathon is small friendly event, usually less than 100 runners. There's also a half marathon which has a lot more runners.   It's a 2 lap course, not flat but with only one noticeable hill (that you run twice, 4 miles and 17 miles).   There's a lot of downhill in the 2nd half of each lap so easy to make up any time on the inclines.   I have done a PB there.  Climb is 762ft according to my Garmin.  Usually 2nd Sunday in August, but temperatures are usually cooler than mainland.  Free buffet to runners after the race.  If you stay for the week there's a 'No Rest for the Wicked' race series, 6 races
Should be more entries this year as it's the British Masters Championships

Microsoft Word - Website Info Dec 2021.doc (isleofmanmarathon.com)

Hope you can get some sleep, tapering is not much fun.


Rest day for me today.