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Looking forward to Hamsterjam reports.
Nice parkrunning, Padams. I bet you impressed a fair few people finishing 2nd with a babyjogger.
Yes, looks like Pug and Joe, and Joes g/f Katie well and truely nailed it.
Cheers TR and good to see its all coming back together.
A good weekend there Joolska.
Recovery continuing not at pace, 8m and a few 4m slow runs over the weekend. Now time to think about aims for Valencia.
Padams: it must take some precision increasing your pace every mile over 15M, impressive. Do you use your watch to do that, or rely on superhuman judgement?! And wow, that's a faster parkrun than my most recent effort without a buggy.
Well done on the XC, Jools.
I plodded shortish commutes on Friday and did a couple of short runs over the weekend, but the marathon was still in my legs a week on. Was going to run today but then remembered I had to cycle for a blood donation, so maybe I'll have fresher legs tomorrow or the day after...
It's probably pointless and unnecessarily complicated, but gives me something to think about.
Jools - good effort at Cardiff. (And Jooligan, I assume you were running too.)
CW - I suspect TR would say that you'd have been even quicker without your T-2 run. I guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but it wouldn't have been by much, if any at all - it's not like you were at sub 2:35 pace to 20 miles and faded badly. All intuition would say it shouldn't work, and it hasn't for many in the past, but it seems to work for you. Don't change!
Nice going at Cardiff Jools.
Not much to report here. Running seems to be a lot of effort for not a lot of return. If I was hypochondriac I'd suspect a thyroid problem, but probably just laziness.
CW - I hear you on your record WAVA, I'm just saying I think you can go faster still. Your WAVA will probably go up further still as you age.
CD/CW - Evidence ? yes, T-2 compared to T-0 time. Here's how I view it. The T-2 was untapered, no carb load, no race day fuel, no pre race week mental investment and with no magic from wearing a number/being in a race. So without these 2:54 was a superb run. How much do all of those variables equate to ? who knows ? 1min, 5min, 10min, 20min, 30min ? as soon as it goes over 15min, then T-2 looks a better run than T-0. Even if T-2 had all of the variables included it would still be a really fast training run, without them it is a wonderfully fast marathon compared to T-0. Although I do accept that CW probably hit the stop button at exactly 26.2M during T-2.
I still think that T-0 is despite T-2, not because of it. I have no idea how much the variables would equate to, but it would be a significant amount of time. I dont expect you to change a system that is producing good results, I just think you could go faster still. Depends upon the variables.
CD - if you really think you might have Thyroid issues get checked out. The SPO has been dragged down by them for the last few years and has had to have some pretty extreme treatments.
Sounds as though things are going in the right direction for you Joolska.
Good to see you TR.
CD - I have an underactive thyroid, not fun when un or under treated so worth a trip to the docs/blood test if you really think you may have issues - I'm guessing your thinking hypo rather than hyper? I take it your iron levels are ok?
Keep remembering that it's recovery you're after OuchOuch, no point in pushing it at the minute.
I'm recovering from my holiday, enjoyed a surprisingly mild run yesterday morning though I think I'm going to feel the temperature difference more this morning. Surprisingly I was running faster in the heat/humidity. Need to decide where to settle with the miles over the next couple of months before starting building for London - where does the time go?
Just sitting at the airport now waiting to fly home. Had a brilliant weekend with 20+ clapham chasers racings as well as a few very old school friends including one doing his first ever marathon.
Pleased with how sensible I was in the early miles, enjoying the crowds and messing around a bit to ensure I didn't get too carried away. Went through halfway in bang on 1.30 which felt pretty comfy.
Slowly started to build towards 'marathon pace' in the 2nd half, with the last 10km being a pretty hard effort. Ended up with mile 24/25 being the quickest of the day so I'm pleased with that. Finished with a 2.53, so a 1.23 second half.
However, was much more concerned with how the better half was getting on. Loitered in the finishing area, having no idea what she was on for. Thankfully I didn't have to wait long, as she crossed the line with a 3.10 - just the 48 minute PB. To put her progress into perspective, she averaged 22.35 per 5km on Sunday. Back in May, her 5km PB was 22.50... Ridiculous.
4 and a half weeks until Valencia now. Legs feel absolutely fine, so hoping to be back in full training by the end of the week and will give it a real crack there.
Joe - Big congratultions to Katie - I checked her times, pacing to die for. Your run wasn't too shabby either.
International news - Munich organisers have been in touch asking for my 'confection size' - looks like I am getting a tee-shirt. Also have pre-registered for the Marathon du Mont Blanc for next July. Find out on 9th Nov if lucky.
http://www.roesner-backstube.de/sortiment/cremetorten/prinzregententorte.html
I'm sure I had a decent portion of it after the Berlin Marathon back in 2005
Joe.. many congrats on a sensible run and enjoyable 2nd half, good to see you keeping your powder dry for Valencia. Great stuff from Katie too, is she running Valencia or on pom pom duty?
Fine buggy pushing Padams!
Good work at the XC Jools (nice 17 miler noted on Saturday too!) & Jooligan.
4.2m+7.3m double today, legs feel ok now if a tiny bit sluggish.
In other news I received a new Garmin FR230 through the post this week. My formerly trusty 310XT had started discharging itself at random and no amount of resets would cure it so I ran out of patience and bought an up to date model. Lovely piece of kit, very quick to latch onto satellites (sometimes indoors!) and tried out the indoor capability on the treadmill last night. Also like the feature that illuminates the face of the watch if you tilt it towards you. Can't beat a new toy!
An early doors good for the soul 7 mile run this morning with 3 at sub3 pace in the sunshine, with a whiff of smoke in the air, which some locals attribute to the fires in Portugal!
Having said that, it's now 10d since Chester and this morning was the first time I was really convinced my legs were over it -- just a brisk steady 6M en route to work.
Wow. Loads to catch up on!
OO - congrats on the pb! And v50 victory! Top stuff!
Wardi - nice training run.
CW - excellently executed race.
Padams - nice buggy parkrunning!
Joe - as per Wardi, nice training run. Congrats to your other half. That's impressive progress.
Things a bit up and down here. I've had another IBS flare-up. That's the 3rd or 4th in as many weeks, and this was triggered* by a solid long run (nothing spectacular - 18 @ 6:22) last Thursday. Struggled around some easy runs Friday and by Saturday morning I'd flared so took the weekend off. Legs were still thrashed by Monday (still not fully recovered now), as the flare ups are stopping me absorbing what I need from my food. I'm back in anaemia range too.
I'm still doing Valencia, but opted to step back from marathon specific stuff to focus on getting healthy, rather than chasing my tail - it was either write off Valencia or keep spiralling through all of this and risk ruining the next few campaigns, so I'm ok with my decision.
I'm currently cutting out wheat and coffee to see where that takes me - some symptoms indicate they could be the main culprits, so hopefully it won't take too long to sort out.
* the run wasn't the actual cause, but just highlighted that my body is a bit weak at the moment and took far more out of me than a run of that pace should.
TT - I'm wheat intolerant and it was obvious after about three days of cutting it out so you should know soon though the usual advice would be to eliminate just one thing at a time or you won't know which was the culprit. You could try Spatone for easier iron absorption.
Wardi - she is indeed running. The way I see it, she's got a free pass now. Have a crack at a slightly quicker time and see what happens. I'm not sure how to approach it, I don't think I'll get myself into PB shape in the next few weeks, so I need to work out what I'd class as a good run. Jealous of the new toy.
TT - sounds like a good decision to me, sorry to hear you're still having issues. Hopefully bump into you out in Valencia.
Recovered really well from the weekends effort, back into running as normal and legs feeling pretty good. 8 miles @ 6.55 at lunch today.
Any recipe recommendations/tips for eating out/tips generally?
I stopped the coffee as well as I think that is exacerbating my reactions to other foods.
Joe - what's your pb? How many have you done?
As for me, well, I'd been suffering badly with a cold... and it turned for the worse as I was flying out on the Thursday morning... went for a 5 mile jog Friday morning (the first of the week) and felt awful... head busting, snotting everywhere... legs were dead and I could barely manage 7.00 m/m which is ridiculous. However, that wasn't the worst... the Friday night, started getting terrible stomach cramps for some reason... I woke up around 5am Saturday morning feeling like death... as in flu type death... legged to the bathroom... my @rse decided to explode... and I promptly collasped in a heap on the floor on a tiled bathroom... and flaked out.
I woke up I think about 15 minutes later shivering and in a pool of sweat... feeling like I was going to die. Seriously, that's the worst I've felt in years and years since having proper flu. Climbed back into bed shaking and sweating... and about 11:30am... I got up and went out with the missus wrapped up.
At that point I'd decided to not eat much at all as stomach wasn't right and felt like cack... and I'd basically written the marathon off... decided that it was dangerous to even run the way I was feeling and tbh, I'd normally just get on with it, but even for me, this was bad. Basically had a chicken wrap think it was all day and a few glasses of coke.
Anyway, woke up Sunday morning... at 7am... and thought of all the sponsorship money raised... and guilt really did get the best of me. Spoke to the "old man" and he said don't run... what did I do? I ran and thought fck it...
My god, that first 5km... kind of ran in a daze really... kinda just carried along with the pitter patter of feet following the crowd... I seriously just didn't even start running until 7km... felt so weak... no energy... emptying my nose and head at every opportunity along the canal path... and for the first time I ran with a 20 Euro notes in my shorts for when and it was WHEN i dropped out... but I didn't.. and have to admit... the ONLY reason I didn't was thinking of the sponsorship and failing... and that as some people know isn't really me as sometimes I can be a right selfish bugger...
So, I ploughed on passing 1/2 way and feel like death BUT physically easy... I know that sounds like a contridiction, but I was hardly breathing really... just didn't have any energy to push so was going through motions... to ensure I could finish...
Carried on and went through 25km easy enough... however started needing a wee really badly.... astounding asd I'd hardly drank anything for 24 hours and lost most fluids in the toiler the day before lol. Then ended up focusing... thinking hold on, I could be on for a GFA time here as at that point I was on for around 3:11 I think when I was trying to caliculate in my mushed brain.
So, picked up a little from 25km, tagged onto two other runners thinking if I can get to 30km... then it's just damage limitation to the end and a sub 3.15... however... had to stop at th end of 21 mile for a wee... and the legs then when I went to run again literally just said NO CHANCE... just couldn't seem to get going again... at all and knew I'd had it then... with a chronic slow last 10-11km... blew all chances of that GFA...
However, in the grand scheme of things and what I've had over the last two weeks, I'm genuinly shocked I could even run a marathon... and finish... and survive hahaha...
As usual with Amsterdam always massivly long compared to any GPS I use... so these are based on my splits and I stopped my watch at 26.22 mile.
Mile 1 = 7.36,
Mile 2 = 7.18 (14.54)
Mile 3 = 7.17 (22.11)
Mile 4 = 7.21 (29.32)
Mile 5 = 7.14 (36.46) through 5 mile @7.21 pace
Mile 6 = 7.18 (44.04)
Mile 7 = 7.18 (51.22)
Mile 8 = 7.17 (58.39)
Mile 9 = 7.11 (1:05:50)
Mile 10 = 7.26 (1:13:16) through 10 mile @7.19 pace
Mile 11 = 7.21 (1:20:37)
Mile 12 = 7.25 (1.28:02)
Mile 13 = 7.30 (1:35:32)
Mile 14 = 7.22 (1.42:54)
Mile 15 = 7.24 (1:50:18) through 15 mile @7.21 pace
Mile 16 = 7.26 (1:57:44)
Mile 17 = 7.17 (2:05:01)
Mile 18 = 7.15 (2:12:16)
Mile 19 = 7.24 (2:19:40)
Mile 20 = 7.31 (2:27:11) through 20 mile @7.21 pace
Mile 21 = 8.15 (2:35:26) wee stop near end of mile 21
Mile 22 = 9.03 (2:44:29)
Mile 23 = 8.32 (2:53:01)
Mile 24 = 9.09 (3:02:10)
Mile 25 = 8.48 (3:10:58) through 25 mile @7.38 pace
Mile 26 = 9.30 (3:20:28)
Mile 0.22 = 2.00 (3:22:28)@7.43 pace
The official time was 03:25:43 7:51 pace... it doesn't really matter as they're both crap anyway. So in conclusion... astounded and made up I didn't let anyone down and finished in a half decent time... obviously I wanted much faster than this coming out but the last 10 days have scuppered any chance of sub3. However, on the flip side, no running in 7 years... started back on May 20th and was 16st 4lbs... can't complain really and can't expect the world so quickly... but you all know me, want it now lol.
However... time to nuckle down and get plenty of training and weight loss for Disney Marathon in January... that's the first real biggy of the comeback now, as this one was spoilt.
Here's two pictures of the finish showing a broken man!
If anyone does want to sponsor anything, as I'll be closing it down this coming Sunday, please feel free using linky below.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-dodd8
Pug - you are mad. I'm glad you didn't do yourself any long term harm.
Pug -- wow, glad you didn't do yourself a mischief. I sometimes feel guilty about not taking the opportunity of raising money when doing London say, and having that pressure to finish if ill or injured is one of my excuses.
Pug - thanks very much. Sounds like you had a pretty eventful weekend. Echo the others thoughts, just glad you didn't hurt yourself and got through relatively unscathed. I thought the race itself was excellent, really enjoyed it, and would definitely do it again.
CW - thanks! anything else on the cards this year?
The legs are feeling pretty good already, so I'm going to head down to the club tempo session this evening and see what I can muster.
JoeB - is your better half going to enter London on the Champs start now she has a sub-3:15? If she keeps up that rate of improvement she'll be flying by then!
Been busy this week with work and other things, but squeezed in a few 1200m reps on Tuesday lunchtime, 6M with mini-Padams yesterday and 6M at lunchtime today (21 mins out, 19 mins back).
A rest day today following a 13m day yesterday, a day of meetings, driving rain and to take my 7 year old to a Halloween school disco. O and yes entered my second marathon for 2018 in 2 days, Berlin where I should get in as a fast for age assuming I've not cocked up the form.
Pug - I understand why you done it, but if you were as ill as you said then you're very lucky not to have caused yourself a problem. Take it easy any recover fully.
Joe - out Friday morning, back on Monday. I suppose your options are to either pick a target and run to pace, or just go out and see what happens. I'm not sure how I'll approach it yet. I guess it all depends how I feel and how much training I've managed to do by then, but I'm inclined to just go all in and see where I am either way.
Pug.. a mixture of the brave and foolish! As TT said be sure to recover properly, marathons take enough out of you when you're fit & healthy
Charlie.. if you want to do the Brass Monkey half again entries open 05:45-6.00am this Saturday. It will almost certainly be full in just over an hour.
I've run every day this week and legs feel ok so will do a MLR this weekend and a long run the week after.