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In an ideal world I would run 1 rep REALLY fast and fade but the reality is I can run X fast and recover well so I get 3 good but no spectacular reps. In a strange way it bodes well for a mile attempt as well.
MtR - wheels, I don’t like all the low HRs that go with the descents, but the ascents will apparently do my cycling good.
I’ve been doing longer slower reps in the lido since the Swash to give my ribs an easier time, but its apparent that my swimming is slowing down so I need to mix it up a bit and get back to the 100s as that’s where the improvements are.
I ran 76M in May and only have 33M (not bad off 3 runs though) to my name in the first ½ of June !
You need to come in more often and keep up to speed :¬)
Following on from Marders epic tale of booking tickets, it occurs to me that Seb Coe’s finest minds have yet again managed to come up with the worst possible arrangement.
Having told us all that the ballot was better than first-come-first-served (and he was right, it’s just everything else was wrong!), he’s now abandoned this right at the time when the punters are even more desperate for tickets, there’s still 1m who want them, and not very many left. It will be chaos. What would have been so wrong with getting people to apply in advance, stating the max price they’d go for, a preferred price, and a total amount that they would be prepared to pay. When that’s been gathered, a computer whirrs into action, working out how best to allocate them so most people get something. Where tickets are left over, emails could be automatically sent to people saying “tough shit, you didn’t get any tickets at your max bid of £50, but there are some at £200. Would you like to buy these”?So, the process could take two-three days, but it’s all driven by logic in a computer, not by the incompetence of the organizers!
Anyway, what do I know.I'm ok with the running speed, but not so sure about the swimming speed.
In other news, I see the resident postie is going to be going back to his true love, banking. Good move by the sounds of it but less pleasing to read his other news.You probably don't know about it yet as it's only on page 7 of the Daily Mail
I see I've just hit 2000 miles for the year. Last year I did 2000 about a month earlier. Looks like I'm getting a bit slack these days. At least I'm a bit more consistent this year with Jan->May mileage being 407 179 435 406 425 and averaging 6:40-6:50 pace each month. Most of my mileage is run at 7:10+ so the odd session and race here and there helps bring the average down.
Dids - Agree it seem a bit bizzarre changing the process. Seb reckons the system will handle the demand but good luck. It would be nice for available ticket numbers to be released and the price bands but that would take away part of the fun I guess.
Thanks all - hopefully over the worst now but still not running - almost no pain whilst walking now though which after a few days where every step was agony is quite pleasant!
Injury not a flare up of the achilles - triggered something in my glute walking down an escalator and running on it the next day caused me to massively irritate a ligament connecting to my sacrum - and then create a whole load of deep muscles knots in my glute which are only just easing up. Kudos for remembering though Selbs!
Said a lot about the ticketing shambles rather than scandal - just poorly organised and badly thought out - not helped by the general state of world sport such that the Olympics are incredibly commercialised. I got incredibly lucky and picked up a single ticket to I think a morning session of the athletics at the lowest price bracket. TBH - whilst home olympics are lovely the idea of splurging a lot never really appealed - would rather go to a foreign World Champs with some real athletics fans and combine it with a holiday.
Glad to see everyone still cycling so well - and occasionally running.
Marders - are u tapering for something - thats when we usually see a lot of you on here!
or could just be that you are getting slack yup. i'm not yet over 1,000 for the year, but will race past soon.
Gobi - you would still take me on the swim by 3-5 minutes. i am truly carp. well a non swimming carp. My breastroke is as fast as my freestyle.
calf a bit sore after 2 days of doubles so mile reps may have to go out the window tom morning. will try, but if it feels bad, back to easy running for a while longer.
HH - sounds painful, glad it's easing off now. hopefully see u in the Dam then when u get the beers in.
Selbs - breaststroke is better anyway as you can keep your head out of the water and your eyes don't sting.
Marders - so your average pace each month is c. MP + 90s and you do most of your running at c. MP + 120s which I would guess is a lot slower than most people on here (relatively). Did you run that slow when you did less miles or did you slow down when you started doing 100m + weeks? For someone running 2.50 for the marathon that would be 8m/m average pace and most runs being done at 8.30m/m pace which means that you need a hell of a lot of time to get decent mileage in. My average pace is normally about 7.20m/m and most runs done in 7.30m/m to 8.15m/m. Do I need to slow down even more to get faster?
So, I've consciously dropped my pace for easy runs, and even more so for recovery runs. The pace range is more like 8:30 - 5:30. Now to run that slowly (8:30mm) I have to drop the effort level back to 60-65%.
Right now I'm not running loads as I recharge my batteries, but when I start running more, I'll be following this routine to make sure that I can run the fast stuff faster.
MtR - no such thing as a recovery run now you're a multi-sporter, just ask Gordo. Havning said that I do nothing other than recovery paced running !
LJ - a big part of the slow down is due to the higher mileage. When I first started out I was only running 20-30 miles and they were all done pretty fast ie sub 6-6:30. 2008/2009 I piled on the miles but was still running sub 7s and it wasn't until I went to Kenya that I got over my "I have to run quicker than 7 min miles" obsession. 11 min miles helped with the desensitisation! Now I just run how I feel on my easy commutes and it works out about 7:10-7:30 most of the time and somewhere around the 60-65% of max HR range. So if doing less miles then I don't think it's required to slow down as much relatively, as you are getting more recovery essentially.
Selbs - no taper from me, just been busy with work/run/life. Need to decide if I go to NZ at the end of the year. It's been 5 years but I can't be arsed but getting pressure from la familia and we have loads of stuff in storage that we should really ditch. I'll have to schedule it so I can run in some decent races there obviously.
Marders - don't do it yet if you're not ready - seriously. you'll be back over here within a year if you aren't really ready to settle back there. i've seen ti with quite a few mates (including those with kids!). I guess Christurch is out at the moment as well - although you'd pick up a cheap place!
I've entered the Lydiard half marathon in September back there to do as a long training run on the mornig of one of the games i'm going to when i'm back - looks a nice race (but hilly!)
Marders and MtR - thanks for the responses, I figured you could probably get away with slightly faster overall running if you're not doing such high mileage and I think I will focus on trying to keep doing hard / easy days and varying the pace with a good volume of nice easy miles.
Interesting stats on Marders training pace against MP. I'm sure my average is too high but when you don't enjoy running @ 8m/m it's hard to run slowly. I did read somewhere once that 4hr+ runners need to train much nearer to thier MP than sub3 runners do.
13mi today @ 07.24m/m : P&D advise running my medium long/long runs between 7.05 and 7.44 so I'm within their guidelines. Bet I can't bring myself to do any at 7.44 though.
HH - hope you start seeing some progress soon. But you are young and will quickly get back to full strength with a patient recovery.
Second 18 miler of the week today. Was OK but had to bail out of yesterday's club hill session. Combination of tender calf and lack of full fitness. Will get there eventually.
My last post was (mainly) running-related, so I feel I'm allowed a cycling one this time.
I'm not here for the next two Wednesdays, so last night was the last chance to have a go at the club 10M TT before Austria. Put on the race wheels etc., then it started raining. Was very tempted to bin it but thought HTFU - did an hour steady then went to the start. No-one else there, not surprisingly, and I was very wet by then! So did it on my own and very pleased with 24:41 (PB by 30s and SB by 40s). On the flat out-and-back section I averaged about 26mph for 6M (on a pretty ropey road surface with one 180 degree turn), but the first couple of miles ruin your average speed with a couple of dead turns.
Would be nice to have a go in good conditions and with some other people around (didn't push myself as hard as 2 weeks ago), but never mind. Good to have a proper go on the new wheels - they feel really fast once up to speed, although a bit more work to accelerate (not a problem in the IM!).
DanA - 2nd 18M of the week - as you do by a Weds !!! You must be getting better !
Padams - nice one, winner of a race of one too ! Maybe thats where I'm going wrong.
10 very wet miles bagged early doors. 2 runs in 4 days, and it makes 4 runs in June !
I have the National 50 on Sunday so last night managed to get a ride on a 25 mile course that covers a big chunk ofd the 50 route. 59.05 a PB by nearly 3 minutes and riding within myself a little so hopeful of better times to come.
This morning I have been running and done some weights
A surprise 3km result on this end last night. I went along to guest in a local low key league meet without any expectations (or backing off training - including my lunchtime run) and would have happy to come out with anything in the low 9's (I ran 9:13 in the same fixture last year). A couple of us were interested in aiming for 9mins and we roped in a clubmate to pace us for the first few laps. He did a great job, through the km in 3:00 (I was a second or two behind) and lasted 3.5 laps before peeling away.
It was windy heading into the back straight, but I was feeling strangely determined and just got on with the job. Last 3 laps were in 3:29 which put me somewhere around 8:54-5 (watch is broken so I was left doing plenty of maths on the fly). That's only 1-2s away from my PB and almost 3s/lap faster than last year, so very pleased. Ran home 7 miles as my reward to make it 15 for the day. Motivation returns!
Nice one BEJ- you certainly seem to be fairly fit right now of relatively little training for yourself.
DanA- Yep, just annoying niggly injuries - nothing as bad as your calf. Really sorry to read about your news the other day. Best wishes.
Padams- Solid cycling - can't imagine it's pleasant cycling in the pouring rain.
Selbs- If I'm not runningly properly soon it might be you getting them in!
4 minutes pain-free running for me last night! Was properly running this time and no pain although there was a noticeable tightening of the muscles. 70 minutes on the exercise bike to keep some semblance of fitness.
Well run, BEJ.
Dry toast is sitting comfortably, so hopefully back on full rations and easy running tomorrow. I guess this week is my planned cut-back week, just a week earlier than planned (and a little more drastic - I rested on Monday and did an hour on Tuesday!).