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Dan: Horrible news. I went through similar a few years ago when my dad was diagnosed with a terminal condition. I spent a lot of time with him in the 9 months between then and his passing and it was time well-spent. My thoughts are with you. I'm down in Bristol a fair bit nowadays (1-2 weekends a month) visiting my mum. If you ever want to hook up for a beer or a run, just let me know.
Dids: My sciatica seems to have finally cleared. In the end the only way I managed it was by backing right off the running to 2-3 times a week.
This morning I was due to ride for 2 hours then run. But I was hungover after a fair few beers last night and it was very windy. As I lay in bed, I took a fancy to a longish run instead. So 14 miles of off-road running round north London. Very, very enjoyable.
Went for a nice run along the beach at Weston-S-M this evening. Felt much better than yesterday.
Will be at St Albans half next weekend - in a work, rather than a running capacity. Anyone who's running, don't get upset if you get flyers thrust into your hand as you cross the line...or at least wait until you're out of sight before throwing them in the bin!!
Here you go Jools:
Monty
TR - good luck with those ribs
CW - nice podium finish, that sounds like a very decent pace for a hilly run
Clearly - well done, that's an impressive day at the office
coro - thanks for the fascinating link. The overall performance is amazing but to throw in a 14.07 5k in the middle, well that's just rubbing it in... Maybe I will see 1.59 in my lifetime.
76 miles for me this week. Very happy with the way it's gone, including a 10k PB and 16.51 solo parkrun (that 5k PB of 17.25 is definitely overdue). Especially pleased with the weekend, Sat am 8 miles incl parkrun, Sat pm 6 miles easy, Sun am 5 miles easy, Sun pm 14 miles alternating 7.40 and 6.00 miles.
It's been 3 weeks now since I started doing doubles (4 or 5 a week so far), picking up my average pace, and doing some of the faster/harder sessions that I never got round to previously. Don't want to tempt fate but happy with the way my legs and body are reacting to it so far.
On the non-running front, the busiest few weeks I can remember have just come to an end and I've spent most of the weekend on the sofa watching the darts - bliss.
Clearly - That is some track meet you did. Did you sweep up as well? I thought I was doing a lot when I once did the 1500 and 5000...
TR - Weren't you doing a IM swim soon or did that pass?
Weymouth triathlon for me this morning. Weather wasn't great and started raining before the race. Was a bit of a catalogue of mishaps and bit of bad luck today. Checked my bike before I left hotel and had a sodding puncture. Had to that fix that quickly and didn't have time to put tub tape on to secure tyre (use tubular tyres for racing and they are £45 each and once punctured that's it) so hoping that the pressure would be enough to keep it on.
Racked bike and at briefing was told bike course had been altered as there were some trees down on the original course which meant bike was shortened to 51m. Must have been a bit windy in the night.
Swim was horrendous with the waves knocking me back to shore and never got into any rythymn getting thrown about so many times. I couldn't even see the lead canoe amongst all the chop. Had to stop at one point to burp some seawater up. Came out in 2nd place in my wave about 20s down then had to walk gingerly on the cobbles up to transition (man they hurt). Really hated that swim.
Faffed in transition putting arm warmers on and started to put socks on then said sod it as it was going to take a while to put on wet feet. Got out on bike and it was very windy and pretty difficult to hold the bike at times. 1st part of the race was so demoralising as I was on my own and at this point just lost my motivation and probably a bit of speed. Started taking a few from the wave 15mins before and at 23m hit some rough road and heard a smack from my front wheel and it started to wobble and knew my spoke had gone. I opened the brakes to see if it would help but it didn't so had to get off bike and rip spoke from the wheel, as it was flailing about. Wheel was quite wobbly now and thought about jacking it in but there was nobody about to give me a lift back. Tried opening brakes some more but didn't have a tool with me so got back on. I still had 30m to do with a wobbly wheel and being slowed by my brakes but I wanted to catch a guy in my wave who just went past. Stayed with him for a while but the wheel was playing up for the rest of the ride and lost a lot of time and another guy passed just before T2.
Got back to transition and realised I'd only had 500ml of drink which was due to having other things to think about so knew this was going to affect me on the run. Run was 4 laps of some country park and housing estate in Weymouth, pretty uninspiring. Started run and had an almighty pee stop that I had been needing for last 25m of bike. 70secs must be some sort of record. Ticked a couple of laps off and on the 2nd caught the 2 guys who had taken me on the bike. Got some stitch on the run which I think is the electrolyte drink not agreeing with my gut as got the same thing at a race last year. Also hammy cramped on last lap and reeled it in slightly so it didn't spasm.
Finished in 4.14.55 on my watch and they had 4.15.01 even though I pressed after crossing line and on the starting hooter. Results showed 7th overall and won M40 age group, got a nice glass trophy thing and a bike computer. Defi know I can go much faster when things don't conspire against me like today and would have been in with a shout for 2nd or 3rd place o/all.
Wardi - impressive bike pace there
JH1 - what a day ! Dont like the sound of that swim or the bike issues. Well played for toughing it out, and a V40 winner too ! Lets hope you get better luck in Sept.
IM swim yday and my local 10K today both got sacked due to my damaged ribs. Cant do much except ride my bike at the mo (or jog), but thats probably a good thing long term !
JH1: Great race report; bet it was good to get off that bike and brilliant result considering.
15mi for me last night after work. Longest run since VLM; HR looked OK but calves were fairly tight afterward which could be something to do with all the hilly holidy running.
Nice 5 race CW.
Shame about the ribs TR hope they come right soon.
Another poor 10km race to add to the list for me although I managed 3rd since only 2 faster chaps turned up. And paced it better managing the 3rd lap the fastest. 36:23 still no where near where I want to be. Oh well.
At Heathrow now off to Abu Dhabi for a week of r&r. Time to start serious training when I get back me
Thinks!
Well done, JH1. With the bike issues, poor conditions (and world's longest pee stop) there's a fair bit to come off that time, I'm sure. Congrats on the V40 prize.
Tmap
Soooo cute!
DanA - shocking news, best wishes. I might pop down to the park to see the end of the half mara on Sunday, so will say hello if I see you.
JH1 - great effort, I can sympathise with the bike issues! Sounds even more annoying than mine was though.
selbs - sounds like you learnt some lessons from the previous race, even if you still haven't nailed one yet.
102M on the bike yesterday - an hour on my own (av 21mph), 2:15 with some clubmates all into the wind (av 15mph), 2 hours coming back with one of them (av 19mph, easy with the wind!), then about 30 mins on my own again (av 21mph). So basically hard start and finish (harder than IM effort) with a long easy bit in the middle.
Last big week of training before starting to taper (although next week won't be too much lighter).
Clearly - I've only managed to get down one target race this year (Loch Ness on the 2nd October) which is pretty pathetic, but I've had so much work to do in the mean time that my running has had to take a back-seat. Sigh! I think there's not much chance of going sub 3 this year unless something magical occurs, but I'm hoping I can at least get a low 3 hour score if I train properly. How is your own training going? Do you have any of your own races planned?
DanA - Sorry to hear about the news. My thoughts are with you.
Quick delurk to echo all the sentiments of the last few days and say that thoughts are with you Dan.
Bit of laziness yesterday. 68 miles bagged on the bike taking in a large chunk of the New Forest middle distance course (and getting inadvertantly mixed up with the Boskman tri) followed by a 3 mile drive to watch the Poole 10k. Didn't feel like running off the bike and lesson learned that improved bike fitness will help my run split more than run fitness will!
DanA - horrible news, best wishes to you and the rest of your family.
JH1 and Padams - nice tris recently, especially if you can fix the bike issues in your next races.
Messi - be careful, I hear you're not very popular in Manchester (well bits of it) at the moment...
DanA: Really sorry to hear about your mum. Best wishes to you and yours.
Looks like there was a smattering of good racing over the weekend, including a fine report of a tough day out from JH1 and some complaining about some bumps from Charlie, more stair-climbing required methinks...
As Dull mentioned I did Grovelands parkrun (18:00 for the record, and about exactly where I expected I was fitness wise) and then a very pleasant couple of hours around the taps of North London. Thanks again for the company, and congratulations on a fine poker face throughout!
Dan - nothing I can add, thoughts with you and the family. Take care.
Crikey Clearly - that's some day, fair play to you. Just a 10k and a 4x400m short of a rather specific Decathlon.
Welcome back Mr.B - running "most days" on holiday is pretty dedicated, especially if it means sacrificing a lie-in each time.
Fine tri effort JH1, despite adverse conditions and luck. Enjpoyed the report too, nice one.
selbs - you're pretty hard on yourself! McMillan equates 36:23 to around 81 and 2:51, that's not bad form for now, surely? Enjoy the break, stay away from politics
.
We had a bit of a club outing to the Stranraer HM this weekend. Small low-key race (<200), nicely organised though, felt like there must have been a marshall (or peeler) for every 2nd runner. Undulating, and inevitably pretty lonely running, and untapered, so I can take 87:22 on the chin and move on. I'd paced it pretty steadily, and throughout I imagined that first lady, always around 50-100m ahead, was eventually going to come back to me. She didn't, until I began to push in the last mile, and she had about 10m still on me as we stepped on the track for the final 100+m, and in hindsight I probably looked a bit of a tool finishing full beans to beat her by a second, while the PA announcer and a couple of hundred spectators were giving her a decent reception for winning
.
Hail Hail
Well done the racers and trainers this weekend. I particulalrly note ptb - good to meet one of your heroes at long last eh
. He is, I will give you, in the form of his life though.
Nothing much to report at this end. A "still on the comeback" type week of 86M. Couple of races to sharpen things up on the horizon though.
CD - lots of good training there (biking especially) on that holiday.
TR - sorry to read about the ribs
Selbs - have a good break, still a good 10k time.
Wardi - nice biking
FR - you seem to be cranking along nicely at the moment
JH1 - nice tri report there
PtB - good "stealing thunder" effort there, lol
Not much to report here. Been out of sorts and run down with a mini version of the fatigue thing I get after last weekends track/20m efforts. There were no heavy nights out involved this time so was probably just unlucky and had a bug in the system despite feeling fine. Easing back has been more precautinary as I know the signs now but just done some very light joggs since last weekend and skipped Beckenham 10k which RJ won yesterday.
Fitness is good after some good training recently so easing back isn't a big concern at the mo even if I'll probably have to skip St Albans half at the weekend which its a little frustrating. Turning my attention to focussing on Milton Keynes half mid July.
Actually fitting in a bit of seaside running. With a strong wind behind I almost feel like I'm getting some fitness back.
Padams - awesome training volume. Looking forward to seeing the results.
I doubt whether even Tmap will dispute how scandalous and unfair the ballot was now.
Will love to know how 250,000 became a million. There is simply no way around it. Either incompetence or attempted deceipt.
Given that there is still a year to go, they should refund all money, fire some sacrificial lambs and run the ballot again - along communist lines preferably!
He was a quiet chap I didn't know that well but always polite and he knew how to run at 101%.
Feeling a little old and fragile today.
And it looks like they did the ballots in less optimal way than my suggested method, by doing separate ballots for each price point.
On the upside it looks like there are still athletics tickets available for the morning sessions, just no £20 tickets left. Another suspicion validated - there was no way they'd sold 80,000 tickets for each session of heats - not popular with sponsors or bigwigs either.
So it looks like those of us who got nothing my get a chance to get something after all - doubtless this will get messed up as well - probably because I'll almost certainly be in Glastonbury when they announce it.
MTR - That will take the preverbial if there are athletics tickets for morning sessions. They will then probably charge £50+ for a pretty uneventful few hours. I am so angry
but not as angry as Lord D.