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Good solid week’s work that Al_P. 15, 18, 15 for three consecutive days is good mileage.
After that series of events on the house, I am impressed you got anything done TT. But such a solid LT run is good commitment.
You’re going really well CW. 80mpw + cycling is impressive volume.
Wardi – I feel for you. It all sounds really tough up there. Its glorious blue sky in Manchester… we don’t often get to say that!
I’ve decided to do a few of the key sessions in the Pfitzinger schedule, but not really “do” the schedule itself. It is too much running for me and I think I would struggle to make it work time wise.
Easy 7m commute to work this morning. Starting to feel more normal again. Easy day tomo, race Saturday… its in the park less than a mile from my house. So plenty of opportunity to see people I know.
Wow, 30+ mile run commutes being contemplated by Coro. Plus Al_P has already completed a couple! Impressive! Interestingly my run commute would be around 35 miles although goodness knows how I'd find a route that avoided the A1(M)
.
So after starting targetted strength work this week under the guidance of the physio, the good news is that the groin feels a lot better. The DOMS was terrible for the first couple of days though, worse than post-marathon. I guess that shows that I was inherently weak in the whole glute/core area which may well have contributed to the injury. I'm hoping the physio will release me for some light jogging next week (I see him tomorrow), then I will be able to visualize the light at the end of the tunnel.
Wardi - looks a right nightmare having to deal with consistent bad weather like that. I remember the Brass Monkey half being cancelled a couple of years back about 10 minutes before I was due to set off for it from dahn sarf.
Still trying to work out new routes from the new house, so last night's MLR turned into a LR (about 20 miles), after a 23 on Sunday. Going to hold back for a couple of weeks until I get out to La Santa. Will be spectating instead at a local race on Sunday as various family members attempt their first 10k. Expectations aren't too high
Dachs - Congrats on the County vest. Are you up for the Southern or National? (Have we ever XC'd together??)
TT - I reckon you'll be a happy man when all the house business is sorted! Yeah, we've got a pretty good record in the Southern champs. 7th last year, a few top tens and I think our best might have been 5th. I'll be kept out of the 6-to-score assuming we have most of our best runners out but ought to be somewhere in the 12-to-score. I think I'm looking forward to it in a strange way!
A reasonably solid training week for me so far. After a row/jog on Monday, I've done 46 miles in 3 days including the classic Winter track session of 20 x 400, average 76 on Tuesday and this evening a repeat of last week's tempo run on the track with an extra mile added, 5 miles @ 5:37. Flippin' cold wind. Ugh! I'll probably get out on the new bike tomorrow to test my new tyres, then it's another Surrey League XC on Saturday.
Good news on the ankle CJ. 40 degrees though? Blimey!
Al_P - did I send you the Squires stuff before? Those basically. Let me know if I haven't and I'll send them on.
Tough days Wardi
Fingers crossed things start to get better soon on both the reconnection of the town and the weather. It's cold down here, but not a fraction on what you've got by the sounds of it.
Dan - luckily my move last July was only about 1m (radially) and this one is smack bang between the two, so no real chance of me turning a MLR into a LR (even with my hopeless sense of direction
).
PP - you can sing it. After the cooking and washing utilities get connected next Monday the rest of it will be at a much more sedate pace. That's a pretty solid track record you guys have. I'm looking forward to it too; mainly because I'm telling myself it can only help my fitness........
I seem to be finally back in the groove, though my legs were feeling a bit shot this morning. A 5/10 double yesterday, with the 10 including 1/2m fast (5:01m/m) and 1m @ a touch quicker than current 5km pace (5:31m/m) means that after this morning's jog I'm currently on 60 for the week, so definite progress.
I've got 2 xc races this weekend, so it'll be a pretty high quality week, albeit lacking a long run (hoping to do 15+ later which will be my longest run this week).
That's awful Wardi, a lot of brave work going on to right it by the sound of it.
Nice long runs Dan.
PP -- while I've had some consecutive mileage days at an easy pace, you've done the same with hard sessions involved... very nice.
Great going TT, amazed you can reach decent paces at all if you're really a stone over race weight!
Yet another easy plod to work for me today, including a bit off-road taking advantage of the mud being part-frozen, to total 82M for the week. But all change next week when I'll train lightly and hopefully get some quality in, ready for the Folksworth 15. Could be some snow/hill training though as my work trip Mon-Weds is to Austria...
Decent race in the circumstances Wardi, seems like the weather won't let you have any respite up there! Shocking stuff about the bridge, seems like it's done that to a number of communities. On the plus side, maybe a good chance to start triathlons.
Good threshold run bains, will be good to hopefully see you back in full flow at some point.
Starting to assemble some decent mileage there Al, good stuff. Yes, I'll be at Wokingham, hoping to follow PP's shorts to a PB.
Good to see you starting to get back to it TT, hopefully the house doesn't throw too many more curve balls your way.
CJeff, can't even imagine what 40 degrees feels like right now.
Nice mileage Dan.
PP, looks like some nice sessions there. I'm on the list for the Southerns. I wasn't hugely bothered about running it initially, but it'll be good practice for the inter counties, and 15K of mud will certainly build strength, so I expect I'll be there. Never run at Parliament Hill before. We've avoided one another over XC so far, so it could be an interesting one, if we can find one another in the apparently demented start.
More XC tomorrow, fortunately in Reading, so no need to travel far. Running has felt an awful lot easier this week than it has in recent months, so hopefully that's a good sign. A 10m 'marathon pace' run in 58:19 on Tuesday is the pick of the week. Won't start proper marathon training until 12 weeks out from VLM, as I've peaked too early off 18 week programmes.
Given that VMLM might not be an "A" race for me with this injury, I might have a go at one of these
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/10/running-the-virgin-money-london-marathon-2016-find-out-how-you-could-be-a-world-400947
I imagine that like many here I was XC-league-ing yesterday, but with the forecast for today not looking good and the XC location being right I turned it into a long run - 6.5 miles steady there, nice XC on a road-shoe-friendly course, 8.5 back for a nice round 20 in all.
Good work Dachs, CD, Jools, TT.
I had a surprise today. I wore my HRM strap for the first time in ages, and Garmin have introduced new stats, including "ground contact time balance" -- in which I score rather poorly, my right foot staying on the ground signficantly longer than the left. (E.g. 170 ms on the left, 190 ms on the right.) My right is the one that gets nasty blisters, and came out heavier in a medical study, so maybe the left one is "lazy" and needs to pull its finger out. So's to speak.
My session was the reps/tempo "staircase" I do now and then round the park: 2x0.48M avg 5:40/M, 2x0.96M avg 6:02/M, 2x1.92M avg 6:20/M, 1x3.84M avg 6:28/M, all off 0.5M. The longer ones at least were noticeably quicker than a month back. Then 10x Castle Hill, and a bit of trudging round (more than I intended) while waiting to see my daughter who I knew would be walking into town to catch a bus: total 24.2M @ 7:23/M.
Off to Austria for a couple of nights for work at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so I will probably be off air. Packing the XTalons in case of snow, and some layers and a hat: neither hotel has a gym, and it'll be -12 degC outside early doors. Brrrr.
Al_P - Good to see you posting. I was at Stubby today but didn't see you around!
Bainspj - Are you targeting anything specific with the Pfitz schedule?
CW - Could the left/right imbalance be caused by a functional leg length discrepancy created by a muscle/skeletal problems?(titled pelvis etc)
111 for me this week @ 7:11/mile. I entered the Stubby 10k a while ago but had planned to give it a miss after entering Seville as I was into the high mileage but decided to go and give it a bash anyway. Did 7m before and got around in a very pleasing 35:28 with another 5m afterwards. Legs were properly battered and HR didn't even get to HM effort so hopefully a sign that things are moving along nicely.
CD - great running, likewise RS - 111 miles seems huge.
CW - sounds like a very good set of reps and to keep trudging afterwards would suggest that your legs are in great shape.
45 miles in my first week back from ankle issues, so fine for the time being. Melbourne 37C today and 39C tomorrow, wouldn't mind a blast of that Austrian air, CW.
Managed a 10k on the way to work at 7.25 pace with two miles at 7 pace in the middle, but it was already so hot that the middle 2 miles felt like lactate threshold.
Ryan.. that's a decent 10k after a monster week!
Very impressed with that long staircase medley Charlie. Good self discipline to keep running around afterwards!
Nicely done getting those long runs in the bank Jools & CD.
A joined together long run of sorts for me yesterday. 3m gentle warm up, Brass Monkey half marathon @ 7:10-715 pace (1:34) then 4m warm down to tot up 20m in bits & pieces.
Around 0-1 degree at York but with a gritted course & no wind conditions were pretty good. Nice to have a natter with LS21 post race where we compared race times and flood stories.
Nicely done Wardi.
CW - I'm just guessing saying at least a stone, but as far as paces go you have to remember there's so little between my paces that a stone can be the difference in making marathon pace 5km pace. Nice reps/long run combo!!
That's a nice MP run Dachs. Will be good to see what you do in 14 weeks time.
Big mileage and nice on the 10k RS.
I had a slight jump in volume last week, going from the last 4 weeks being 38, 30, 32, 46, to 93 this week. Longest run was only 12m, but included a tempo, 2 xc races and the quick 1/2m & 1m in Thursdays run, as well as a solid 10m (65mins), so not too shabby all things considered. I also started blogging again if any of you want any more detail - here.
PP – good heavy winter track session. 400s really is a classic. Good pace too.
Good week TT. Impressive volume of quality work there.
That’s an impressive 10m at MP this early in the year Dachs
Jools – good progress. 5s per rep is a pretty sizeable chunk. Good long run too.
CW – impressive quality thrown in to that long run.
RS – In all honesty, its turning in to a bit of a year where I just race whatever comes up. I was initially looking to target a serious half in March (Cardiff entered). The Pfitz schedule isn’t really happening - I’m just using it as a reference for some key sessions. I need to play it more cautious than I would if I committed to the schedule and run a bit more “to feel” still. (I am still feeling a few long term niggles but nothing serious). Great running by the way… 111m is a mighty long way.
Saturday was the fourth Manchester League race of the year. 36th position, which was probably a bit below where I wanted to be (and behind a few of the usual rivals but ahead of some others). I was happy however, especially considering how much I was struggling 4-5 days ago. In hindsight, I think I slightly went “through the motions” rather than really getting stuck in. We did however, win the team race again and now sit one point behind Sale Harriers going in to the final fixture of the year.
Yesterday was a wonderful “long” run, off road and in the snow – 13.5m @ 7:05’s but considering the snow we had, it was much harder work than that should suggest. Legs are feeling it today.
Decent miles Jools, CD and TR
Charlie, I can only imagine how delighted you must have been when you discovered a new stat to worry about. How reliable can a statistic like that possibly be though, if it's coming off a GPS/HRM? Glad to see you starting to emerge from the plods - I( think in that situation, I'd be trying to do more short sharp stuff rather than big long runs, but we all respond differently to stuff I suppose, and it seems to work for you. Hope you enjoy Austria.
Ryan, that's a fine 10K in the middle of a long run.
Decent comeback week CJeff
Sounds a pleasant run Wardi, good to see they can still find 13.1 miles of dry land up there.
TT, no XC for god knows how many years before this season and then a weekend double header? - hope the strength that builds will stand you in good stead.
bains, still sounds a decent position in what must be a good standard league.
Hampshire League for me as well yesterday. Hoped for a top 20 finish, but found the course tough and ended up 22nd - mind you, I did manage to win a sprint finish, which is a highly unusual event for me, think it's because my son was watching. Also, someone had given me a shout to "use my track speed", and rather than laugh at that concept, I decided to give it a try. There was the slightly disorientating experience of being just behind someone I am certain was Marigold after a mile or so, clearly cruising around on the comeback trail, but then he just hared off into the distance.
TT - Yes I did get the Squires training info from you, may well revisit it a little later on in the campaign. The focus as the moment is elevating my general fitness levels. Well run in two XC races at the weekend, I would have had jelly legs for the second if I tried that
Great to read your blog about getting back into it again.
PP - Highly solid 400's track session
Long run roll-call - Jools, CD, DanA, CW (of course, with speed, hills, the works!) and Wardi (with a decent HM thrown in)
RyanS - Nicely run at Stubbington, that had been my plan (5M/Race/5-7M) and I should have been there but couldn't make it on the morning due to our 4 month old daughter being up all night coughing (not been well for the best part of 4 weeks
), so we were off to the out of hours GP instead.
Bains - Good work in your XC, great sounding winter 'long run' too.
Dachs - That was a tasty 10@MP last week, you're be out of sight within a mile at Wokingham I reckon! Well run at the XC too.
Did a second MLR with 70 mins Sub-LT of week last Friday, bit fresher than Tuesday's attempt so came in about the same pace (6:43/M) but 5bpm lower HR. 15.4M in total. As previously mentioned family medical matters meant no racing for me on Sunday. I did however manage to get out later (once things were sorted out) for 12M of easy to steady (6:46/M) with the last mile hard (5:48/M). Ticked off 91M for the week.
Much the same this week with similar MLR inc 70mins steady on Tuesday & Friday and the rest easy. I've also got Vo2Max & Lactate Threshold testing on Thursday afternoon, never had it done so it'll be interesting to see what results I get.
hope the little one is ok Al_P.
Just to put CW into complete meltdown, I see some clever people are claiming to have a device to measure power while running: https://www.stryd.com/. It would take an awful lot to convince me of the usefulness of the information even if it's accurate, but hey, it's another number to gawk at.
Had a look at that CD, but I'm none the wiser as to what the hell it's telling me. I just like to stick to the key stats: time, distance and vertical oscillation.
its all about the vertical oscillation!! .
hi! have been lurking after a pretty poor 9 months on many fronts (including being injured largely for about 4-5 months of it), but enjoyed the run around Florence most of the way with Jimbob till he broke all the tow rope (anchor) with a mile or 2 to go and I dropped back to hobble in. 2 weeks into doing a bit of proper training as I try to get back to decent fitness in time for London now, but a snowboard trip late Feb could always put that plan up in the air!
Will try to post a bit more regularly again. Looks like lots of folks (far too many to do justice to mention) still going great guns. Sorry to hear about the flooding woes up north in particular.
CD - I heard about that gizmo. My reactions were: 1) It won't be very accurate, and 2) Even if it is, what's the point. I'm sure lots of people will buy it though.
Al_P - hope the little one is OK. That's a large proportion of her life to not be well for!
Some very good training and racing (and training races) going on. I did another XC on Saturday, hoping to have a good run. The first mile on nice grass felt easy in 5:25, in the lead group, then we hit the mud and I went backwards as usual. Ended up with my worst ever placing in that league (18th). I think I'm just not built for mud - weighing about 20%-30% more than people around me probably doesn't help (e.g. my clubmate who is a similar pace to me is about 5 inches shorter, but 20kg lighter).
There was an opportunity for another XC yesterday but decided I need to start doing some long runs instead, so ran to the race, ran a bit while spectating, and ran back, for about 17M in total mainly off-road or on snow (or both).
Good going to place high at hants xc there dachs.
Good to see selbs
Ryan, al - I was on the m27 just after 8am, it was 2 degrees and rainy and I thought ratber you two than me at stubby. Hope the little one recovers quickly.
Padams - interesting as to whether a particular size/weight is best suited to XC. I thought that the American (Heath) who beat Mo Farah last week was much better suited as he was like a tank compared to the lightweights around him. Same reason Andy Vernon is so strong on XC. Maybe you need to put on some extra weight
Rare XC outing for me at the Surrey League; first time I've ever worn spikes. Ran pretty well I think (top 30). Standard must have been quite good; our club's second scorer ran sub 2h30 in NY and was only 14th.
Then missed my Sunday run to watch my sister's first ever race. Under an hour for 10k which was handy enough for a beginner.
Dan - who do you run for? I was 28th on Saturday at Mitcham. Was OK apart from them pesky hills. And mud
. Run for Herne Hill.
Edit - SLH...I spoke to you lot at the end - I was trying and failing to hang onto you on the last lap...
Good luck with the comeback selbs, at least you now know you're capable of coming into decent form after a long time out, so fingers crossed it's the same this time.
Hope the little one is fine Al, still managed to crank out very decent mileage.
Padams - at least with XC you can finish it knowing it will have built some strength for later in the year.
Dan - excellent XCing. It's not so much size as core strength that plays a role when it comes to XC I reckon. All that accelerating out of obstacles, changing direction and pulling your feet out of the mud needs quite a lot of power. This is why I'm trying to really do a lot of core work this year, so I can be a bit more competitive on this surface, as I have a very weak core. A lot of people seem to come out of other sports like football or triathlon (or in one case I know, weightlifting) that need a bit more core power and do disproportionately well at XC. Being well built can be an indicator of that kind of strength I guess. Of course, if you're so paper light that you can just float over the mud like a ghost, that's even better.
81 miles last week, aiming to get over 90 this week.