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LMH - not forecast to be too bad here, juat saying it'll be runnable for you as you will have less than us. I expect enough wind to spoil a race, rather than enough to ruin it. Its really howling here at the mo, but is going to drop down.
Another in what seems to be an increasingly occasional series of posts from me. I do read up on what's been going on but don't really have much to add. I did like CW's account of the Boundary run and sad to read EE's news - all the best there. Sorry about LMH's continued stressful time with FiL.
padams - "ridiculously windy in exposed areas" is what happens after a stop at the barbers.
Last week's long run was Friday morning at one of the local tracks, an old dirt one open to the public. 85 laps, at a good steady pace with a couple of changes in direction to get some right turns in. GPS measured it half a mile long, which is pretty poor for a lapped run in a completely open area. Still, a good workout. Then turned up the following morning to trot round parkrun on very tired legs in 19:36 but got the win because nobody better turned up, much to the disgust of my clubmate who went all the way to Perth, did the local parkrun, was 2 minutes clear after two miles but took a wrong turn and finally made it back in 25 minutes...
This week hasn't been so good though - I've been a bit under the weather and generally run down, so it's been a cut-back week. I should probably take a day off tomorrow to get some proper rest before picking up again next week.
Mileage over 75 normally breaks me after a couple of weeks - Most of my campaigns have been 60-70mpw for 12 weeks or so
Good running to all racers tomorrow - hope the weather treats you well.
A 7 mile off road run for me this morning and Im toyin with 15 or 16 wirth 10 at around MP tomorrow. Hopefully enough time to recover for next sundays charge.
CD: great work on the 85 laps - I've always found GPS measures long on track stuff & I know others have too so it's not unusual.
Edit: Study here showing GPS overestimates curvilinear loop but underestimates a shuttle run https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0093693
It does sound as though you needed to keep it easy Wardi, it's only a week since your marathon.
A long run with company for you today then sj? Wish i could join you.
Mennania - I used to be the same at about 35 miles a week but things have changed.
I hope the weather is kind to today's racers and that they get what they want from them.
Less windy here but cold and wet instead. I have a friend staying so running window is not as open as usual but we are also forecast a better day tomorrow so I'm hoping to fit in a MLR today and be good to go for a LSR tomorrow.
TR - My 9 year as an uncontrollable, never a truer word said!! Hoping his older brother and sister who also fancy a week in Paris, help take the sting out of him and a few days in Disneyland serves as a bribe!
Hope those racing or in races today, did the business, and hope everyone's lsr's went well. Amazing to think all of us on here, think running 20m+ week in week out is not in anyways unusual.
Hopefully the last day when the weather is such an influence - until the inevitable Spring marathon day scorchio that is. For my LSR this morning, heavy & light rain, hail, got very cold and then partly baked when the wind dropped and the sun, yes the sun, came out. Good news another 21.5m banked in 2hrs 40, 77 for the week and my best 3 week mileage total ever! Hoping to run under 2.50 in Paris/ 2.49.59 would tick the box.
Menn - hope your run goes well.
OO - hope you Paris plans come together - in tbe race and with your nippers.
I met Goldrush today and did 4m, 1/2 mara, 3m, and then had a beer and a catch up with Goldrush, great times.
I had a crap race though. 1.25.4X, couldnt really get going and my quads ached the whole way. I had had a real easy 4 or 5 days too. I was thinking id be more 1.22ish after 1.24 at a windy worthing. Not sure what that does for my brighton hopes, but im not wasting any more time trying to run 1/2s as fast as i can in marathon build up, its too tricky to get right, so I'll do them as mp runs in future.
Loos like al p, and tick tock ran well, so it was just me who was rubbish.
Me too sj and no idea why I didn't but such is life. Glad you got a good one in.
TR - sorry it didn’t go to plan, but you never can predict what might happen during marathon training and it wasn’t great conditions today.
CD - crazy stuff with that lapped run.
LMH - hope things pick up soon, looks like the weather is turning so I’m sure things will be on the up.
Reading half for me today. Tapered a bit, still ran 65 miles Monday-Sat so not entirely fresh. Went out hard (probably too hard), going through 10km in 35:10 (unofficial), which is a 30 second PB.
Running into a wind and some hills second half checked my pace, but knew I was on for a decent clocking if I kept things moving.
Running strong in the last 2 miles, passing a few guys on the home stretch. Pushed all the way to the line, ended up with 1:15:42, which is a PB of just over a minute - pretty chuffed with that, probably wasn’t the fastest day or course.
Cant see any reason not to give London a pop now, the high mileage seems to be working. Look forward to seeing some of you there!
TR - it was just for the hell of it really. Years ago I used to do all my long runs on the same route, nowadays I prefer to keep them all different - out and back, hills, road, off road, multi laps, whatever. Just for variety. The hardest laps mentally are the first 10 - it seems to take forever to get to double figures, after that they start to tick off more quickly. Don't worry about your HM, small fluctuations happen and it wasn't an A race anyway. All part of the build up.
And we're not on the upslopes of our running careers either, unlike JoeB - nice PB with a bit more to come it seems.
Congratulations on the PB run Joe
TR & LMH - Not the best of days for me either - too windy coupled with longest week since sep 2016 means I bailed on PMP run after 3 miles of efforts as I was going backwards and didnt have the reserves in the tank to combat it. Managed to put 2miles in at HMP as a reminder for next sunday though. 16 to take me into danger zone of 70 miles for the week.
LMH - would be interested to hear how you have conditioned yourself for the mileage you are covering.
TR - As SJ says, see it as a positive as a fast MLR. Marathon day and a half marathon race today whilst in an intensive training phase are miles apart. Good to hear that GoldRush is still 'doing a bit'. Is he Spring marathoning?
SJ - Enjoy the Guinness, sounds well deserved.
LMH - You watch over the next week or so, things will start clicking into place.
LMH - did you do an on the day entry today too then ?
Well done Joe, you have come on in leaps and bounds this winter. Looking good for vlm.
Memn - hope your 1/2 goes better then, difficult to smash out mp in training.
CD - understood, good idea, monotony for variety. Id lose count, i always lost count swimming.
OO - goldrush mentioned you, he is doing Boston (the uk variant).
I helped a lady runner along today, got her to shelter behind me into the wind etc and kept together from 6ish til the end. Turns out was ahead of her by 3.5mins at worthing and 90sec at chich 10k, i should have been 3min up the road today, my legs should recover quickly due to underperforming anyway...however as SJ and OO say, 13 at 6.30s is a good work out and 6.45 should feel a lot easier in 4 weeks.
Off for a beer with SJ.
Awesome PB Joe. I'm sure the weather can't have been ideal for that.
I struggled at Notts 20. I knew miles 7 - 17 would be into a headwind so rather than my original plan of 10 slow, 10 at MP I opted for 5 slow, 5 @ MP, 5 slow, 5 @ MP. I didn't check the course profile though. Massive downhill in the first easy 5, massive uphill in the 1st MP 5 (part of which was offroad, rocky, slippery and muddy. I also had to stop to join a queue of runners edging around a flood. I only managed 7s for this 5. By the time I got to 15 miles I had been running into the wind for at least an hour and although I increased the pace, it was on the muddy, puddly river path and still into the wind, so it wasn't all that fast. When we finally turned around and after I caught my breath back, I did manage to pick it up until we hit the river path again, this time with the masses coming towards me as they headed out to the last turn around point. The puddles were deep, freezing cold and essentially unavoidable. By the time I dragged myself over the finish line my feet were numb yet simultaneously felt like they weighed 2 stone each. 7.01s for that bit. I might have managed to get back to 7s if the course had actually been 20 miles, but despite an out and back around a cone where there was plenty of scope to extend, it was only around 19.8 miles. 80.4 for the week.
No TR, just a MLR.
I hope you're right OuchOuch - I keep waiting for it to happen............
Mennania - I had running rehab with a physio with an MSc in Biomechanics plus months of strengthening work to stop me running off my hamstrings and get my glutes firing and engaged and I only run easy - any kind of speed work seems to break me but I can bimble big miles which is what has brought me results in the past few years.
TR - sorry you didn't get what you want but as you well know it's not your A-race and you've been piling the training in. Wind is always a bugger too, so faster than marathon pace is still a good workout.
CD - gps never measures accurately on tracks anyway, so half a mile over 85 laps sounds about right to me. Crazy stuff either way though!! Well done on the parkrun win.
OO - great training!
sj - well done on the well executed 20, another great week, and making it to taper.
Joe - good to see you again yesterday, and great running. Congrats on the pb!
CC2 - sounds like a tough day out!
After last week's 72 this week went: 0, 8 easy, 0, 0, (8 jog/6 steady), 8 easy-steady, Reading HM with 4m either side for a 51m week - lurgy pressie from one of the kids was responsible for the zeros, and I still felt rough on Friday.
I figured sub-80 wouldn't be a horrendous result given the extra weight (16lbs) and it being just my 2nd week back after the all-clear on the knee (and my first road race in over a year!!), but felt I was maybe a little ahead of that so decided to go out a little harder to find out where I was. I hit 7m @ 5:50 pace, but faded over the last 6.11m as I struggled with every uphill or bit of headwind (carrying an extra 16lbs at the moment doesn't help) - averaging 6:03 pace for that section to come in at 77:50. All in all a fun day out! A clubmate who has been on a huge upward turn smashed out a 66 to take 10th place - different level!!
LMH - that stress is bound to be impacting your running to some extent, although I expect the running is keeping you sane so try to just enjoy it and don't worry too much about paces, mileage etc.
CD - you're getting towards Marigold levels of insanity with all those laps!
SJ - excellent run at Trimpell, bodes well for the marathon.
TR - don't worry about the HM times, they're good training runs and trust the miles you've put in.
JoeB - that's a big PB at your level, and I'm sure there's more to come with more of a run focus (if you decide to go for it). Would be tick a sub-75 off surely?!
CC2 - sounds like one to ignore the times and focus on the process/effort levels.
TT - that's a great result given you've only got back into it recently. It shows how the fitness sticks for a while (good news for others who have to take some time off).
I decided to do the local HM yesterday - entered on Saturday once I saw the forecast was looking reasonable (just a bit windy). To be honest, I was doing it mainly because the prize money is decent and the field was likely to not be particularly strong!
I've never done it before and whilst I knew a few miles were on a "greenway" i.e. offroad, I had assumed that it would be fine for flats. Turns out that the greenway was pretty muddy (although not too slippery at least) and the first and last miles (out and back) were also offroad and very slippery. So by no means a fast course.
We started pretty slowly, not helped by some slightly ropey marshalling meaning we weren't entirely sure where to go. After a few miles two of us were slightly clear of the rest and I was fairly confident none of the others would get back to us (I knew most of them from other races and I felt fairly comfortable). Not knowing the course, I sat behind the other guy until at least halfway, but it was a tailwind so probably didn't make a huge difference - miles were in the 5:40s except for the first slow mile on the slippery bit.
After the turn we hit the headwind as expected and after about half a mile I took the lead, partly as I felt guilty for sitting in for so long. But with a bit of a push I opened up a gap and gradually increased that for the rest of the race, eventually winning by about 1.5mins (£150 cash for first place!). I felt reasonably strong and was holding 5:45s into the wind, and ended up with 75:2x, so not especially fast but the combination of mud and wind must have been worth a couple of minutes at least.
One other reason for lost time was with 0.5M to go I came to a very narrow bridge in a park (offroad) and an old couple got on it just before me. I ran up behind them, stopped and politely said "excuse me", and the lady (must have been in her 80s) turned around and started swearing at me! I didn't respond, and luckily they kept moving forwards at least, so after about 10s I was free to go again. I guess some people don't like their Sunday morning routine being disturbed!
Classy PB Joe and good to hear there were no wardrobe maalfunctions this time.
I had a similar day at the office to you TR - never really got going and posted a rather average 1:26 at Brentwood. My position would suggest that quite a few people were 90 seconds or so down on what they expected, but I can't put my finger on whether it was the hills or wind that accounted for it. On the plus side it felt comfortable and never really extended myself so I'm just counting it as a solid tempo session (6:38s).
In the past few years I've smashed tune-up races then felt sub-par when it comes to A-race day, so I'm telling myself that this new, sensible me will reap rewards at Brighton. However, I now feel slightly caught between two stools - I always knew sub-3 at Brighton was a stretch target given the time I'd had away from running in the past few years and my HM times would seem to agree with this (1:25 in Feb; 1:26 yesterday), but part of me wants to just go for it anyway to salvage something from this campaign. But I can't bear another bonk and 3:18+ time...
EE - we're moving house on Thursday, so they will put a miniscule dent into the money needed for that and all the work on the new house!
A 1:26 HM in tough conditions is fine for a sub-3. With a taper, and if the weather's good for the marathon,1:29:30 at HW should feel comfortable.
Wardi sorry Barcelona didn't go as well as you would have wished but great to get GFA time again.
Well done on PB Joe and Al. Nice win and cash Padams. And good come back race TT. Sorry you didn't have a great races EE or TR.
I was at Fleet yesterday. I looked out for TR and Al but didn't see either. I went into the race untapered and hoping for 81 or 82 and ended up with 81:43 so fairly pleased with result. I did think it was pretty breezy in places and the probably slowed me down a bit.
Few more weeks of decent training then I can start planning what beers to have down The Red Lion.
And there's me wondering if it's less weight that's causing me some of my issues with the wind TippTop................LOL Amazing what you can just pull out of the bag.
Far better to save it for the day EE. You'll have the benefit of the taper too. Keep the faith. With an on target but reasonably sensible first half there'd be no reason to lose so much time in the second even if it wasn't quite there on the day.
A good result then TickTock. Hope to see you before the start as I won't make the Red Lion.
A lot less wind for my run this morning and it felt like less of a grind than yesterday but was still slow. I'm just going to keep trying to churn the miles out and hope it comes good. I've had a tweaky back for over two weeks now which I think might be affecting my hip and stride and not helping things. Physio on Wednesday so hopefully she can sort it out and maybe that will make the magic happen?
TT - good to see you out there mate, and glad the comeback continues. That'll probably be the last time I'm finishing ahead of you in a race I'm sure...
Padams - congrats on the win, great stuff. I think a sub 75 (and hopefully more) is definitely there with a proper run focus - need to decide what the future holds, I figure I've still got plenty of time to focus on running though.
EE - sorry to hear it didn't go entirely to plan. Still, like you said, a decent session and your logic re; having a good marathon sounds strong enough to me!
Nice racing at Fleet TickTock, and good to see you at Richmond the other week.
LMH - keep putting in the yards and I'm sure it'll come good. Physio might help as well.
Legs feeling pretty good this morning, 8 miles into work were rather enjoyable.
TR -- hope you were just a bit sluggish from all that training and Brighton will be ace. Similarly for you EE.
JoeB -- yay, congrats on the HM PB.
CC2 -- a worthy day out I hope, but not one for hitting target paces!
Decent HM there TT (deliberate ambiguity on those initials ;-)
Padams -- wow, congrats on the win. Ace pot-hunting.
I did yet another training marathon, this one supposedly a reps/tempo speed session followed by steady, a combination I've sometimes done as comfortable sub-3s. But my legs didn't feel fresh despite Sat off and an easy Fri, the "speed" was pathetic and I was super-ploddy for the rest, 3hr23 overall. But time for a block of 4 * 100 mile weeks now, if I can stand it. So another 10M today already.