Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
At the finish I bumped into the guy who finished 2nd at Edinburgh yesterday. Local lad, he followed that with a 32 min 10k today. Oh, and he ran Brighton and VLM last month too.
Seems a bit mad racing a 10k the day after a marathon!
Well done CD.
TR - hard to tell, I've only run 45 miles in them but so far wear doesn't seem excessive.
Menn - you can only play with the cards you're dealt on the day, and it looks like you played your hand pretty well, all things considered.
Menn - you should be very positive about that, sounds like you held it together well. I've experienced the wind along that coast, although sounds like it was in the other direction for you (we had headwind out, tailwind back, which sounds better but the out section is longer!).
CD - very nice run at Vitality. 4th in your AG at a top race like that is great going.
Managed to do a decent bit of training over the weekend. 5M on Saturday with the dog, about 16.5M on Sunday, then 4M yesterday with the dog and mini-P. All of the runs were mainly off-road and quite undulating, which is particularly tough when pushing the buggy!
CD - good old Ollie Garrod, always doing mad stuff! When he told me he was doing that on the Sunday, I was in no way surprised. He just seems to be able to bounce back so quickly. Great run from yourself, don't worry about those seconds, would've been in the bag without the congestion.
TGO - congrats on the sub 3, sounds like hard work, those last few miles in the wind.
Had a really fun weekend in Edinburgh. Given recent illness and form, decided racing wouldn't be a good idea. Gave it a moderate effort at parkrun on Saturday (18:08), before opting to run with the proper runner of the household the following day.
She ran 1:26 for 16th, not long back from injury with a little negative split. Plenty more to come for sure, and the time will come (sooner rather than later!), where I won't be able to pace her anymore..
Hoping I'm on the road to recovery, but any hopes of a good performance at Challenge Roth are out the window - will reset and focus on Frankfurt and/or Valencia.
Mennania -- that's a great result in the wind!
TGO -- congrats on the sub 3!
CD -- very nice result in London.
So I got my VF4%s, ran in them once unmodified, hacked bits off, did the same run again just a touch quicker, and then raced in them. They were OK, but no miracle occurred -- I only managed 37:04 in my undulating, somewhat breezy 10K, which is probably in line with my lower fitness this year in VLM and somewhat heavier weight. (I've thrice done sub-35 on that course, but not done it since 2016 when I was on particularly good form -- and younger!) So a bit meh really.
I probably ought to do a careful back-to-back experiment between the VF4s and my (also modified) Hyperspeeds, which are lighter but without the magic. I did take advantage of the bank hol to write up my adventures in shoe surgery, if anyone's interested:
http://www.wartnaby.org/running/shoe_hacks/index.html
mad as ever CW!!! but it is amazing how many of those shoes were about at london and yesterday at the Vitality 10,000.
Awesome run in tough conditions Men, esp after the hiccups in your build up. Much more to come then.
TR - taper time - looking forward to seeing you get a bit of luck with the weather, and smash out a good marathon - just hope it doesn't get too hot now! I'm sure you are comfortably sub 3 fit from all the training done over past year.
Also great work TGO getting under 3 hours when it's windy, sounds a very controlled run.
Like CD i was at the Vitality 10k today (after doing the Vitality 1m the day before "family run" with my 6 yeard old - happy he managed to run whole way for 9:12). and like CW i was sporting the fancy Nike 4% shoes. I've also done about 40 miles in them so far, want to save for Berlin and London next year at least!
Wasn't expecting much (35:59 would have been fantastic, but thought probably 36:xx) as i've done nothing specific for it and had the usual binge post london, and haven't really run a race faster than expectations - or even too expectations since london marathon 2016. But had a good day. Also found it very busy/crammed at the start, even after getting there 40 minutes before and standing near the front, but also like CD resulted in negative split 17:40 then 17:24 for 35:04. Just 10 secs off my pb. really had a hard go in last km as knew something like a 3:13/14 woudl get me under 35:00, but just couldn't do it, didn't have a 14 second final 100 metres in me, but pretty much best i could do on the day.
so onwards now with Snowdonia Trail half in 1.5 months, and Berlin in Sep where now have some hope to get back into the sub 250, maybe even 245s again.
JB - sorry you've not been well, hopefully bounce back quickly now, and nice running by the other half on comeback trail.
CW - Looking forward to the controlled test of track 400s or something - would you do it to pace and measure your HR?
Selbs - Nice to be so close to a sub 35 - isnt a 35 min 10k one of the sub 2,45 benchmarks?? I know its a long extrapolation but its still a decent springboard.
Busyslooking for another full to get my v50 on the board. Nice - cannes is catching my eye at the mo, but might try and sneak a Brit one in imbetween
Joe - hope you get back to full power soon. You were kicking it pretty hard pre VLM. Well fone to Katie she is defo approaching sub3 shape, when is her next mara?
Good going selbs, nice to see you back in good shape.
CW - your modifications obviously let the genie out. Those shoes only have a certain life span magic wise.
Menn - good to see you looking at more maras.
5m easy peasy pace for me today.
Please take it easy if you still aren't 100% Joe.
Nice-Cannes does look nice Mennania - can't convince my husband unfortunately.
Nice running selbs.
Maybe a new career in shoe design beckons Charlie?
Did the P and D 9 inc 3x1m today. More or less all done now.
LMH - My missus is all onboard but Im not ready to book another coastal marathon just yet
Am looking at maybe doing the valencia half also
Knees are a bit creaky TR and I could feel my right calf a little last night which was a bit worrying but I had a sprightly enough run this morning though as usual I can't get near MP never mind HMP even for one mile.
All, thank you for the congrats – here’s my race report for Liverpool Rock & Roll 2019.
This race was a replacement for Brighton…having been on good form with a 1:20 half in Feb, because of a subsequent hip injury I did very little running in March. I had just recovered across April when with 3 weeks to go to Liverpool, I picked up an awful shoulder problem that saw me in pain for several days, and only just eased off about 9 days out. Then I had a cold that saw my lungs filled up…even today I am still hacking up stuff from that! So going into the race, I was feeling a bit beaten up. And old. I am a V40 now. So I guess my body is giving me par for the course?!
The forecast for the day was rain and strong winds so that really wasn’t helping my head either. I was mostly worried about having to huddle freezing and wet under a shop door until the start so was pleasantly surprised to find you could spend the whole pre-race indoors in the exhibition centre, and roads weren’t closed till 9am so I could be dropped off practically in front. Cranked up Ian Brown’s F.E.A.R. as my final pre-race music, then handed over my bag at 9:40 to do a warm up jog and casually slotted in the first coral with 10 minutes to go. So from a start POV, Liverpool was super easy.
The rain had cleared by start but the wind at the end was definitely going to be a factor. I knew the tougher climbs were in the first half and I still had the dregs of a cold to manage, so set off at a measured pace, and the upwards themselves were long but shallow – no steep taxing climbs on the course.
But from early on, my Garmin and the mile markers were having a viscous argument. At one point they were over ½ mile out, the markers saying I was on a 2:50 pace. But my Garmin had me finish at 26.1 so it does in the end look like the early markers were placed wrongly – if they were even there, as several were missing. The timing mats were worse. The official clock says I went through 10km at 34 min! It made judging pacing really tough, the only thing I could count on was my HRM so I stuck to my strategy of not going over 148bpm for the first half.
I passed (what I think was) half way, feeling comfortable (if phlegmy) at 1:27. The streets and suburbs are at least sheltered, so wind didn’t yet play much of a role. From about 10 miles, I am pretty certain no one overtook me that I didn’t claw back by the end. There was a bit of crowd support here and there, and the singers at the band stands every few miles were also a helpful morale boost. But the second half was overall pretty dead, having let the city behind for loops around the empty green expanses of Sefton Park. Still, I kept picking off people but still holding a 150 HR till mile 20, which (if it was correctly placed) I passed at 2:15 and really felt like I had enough to blast the last 10km, as I’d practised in my training runs. @TR – it cost me at least 3 min, so I felt some of your Brighton pain. What made it worse was there were two guys holding on behind me, using me as their wind break but not ever taking the front. I nearly said something but wasn’t sure it would come out less than movie-R15!! Then…I suddenly got a little break when the course turned away from the sea for a short bit. So I dropped the last of my bombs. I left those two behind and was doing some fast arithmetic, seeing the finish line and estimating what was 800m, 400m to go. (Again, no helpful course markers!). Back into the head wind for the last bit, but I’d done just enough to hold on for 2:59:42 and at least got two thank yous from those coat-tail riders and was feeling too diplomatic to tell them what I really thought!
I have looked at the times of those who finished around me and pretty much everyone did the last 10km in 47-48 min, so I take great encouragement that I did it in under 45. It’s not a marathon PB time, but given my cold, the hills, and the wind, definitely a PB effort.
I did my race in Vapourflys 4%. I can’t be sure they made me much faster, though not unreasonable to think they also saved my sub-3 day. But I can definitely say for recovery, my legs felt way better on Monday, than any other marathon before so for that alone they were worth the investment.
Only question now is, did I do enough for VLM next year? Any ideas if my 5 min under, will be enough above these new rolling cutoffs?
Menn -- I was thinking of displaying only HR on my watch, and then seeing what pace I get with each type of shoe, in a number of repeats. But that has the complication of waiting for HR to climb back to a steady state at each trial. So maybe you're right that it's better to try and run a fixed pace, and see what average HR is. (And for me, a sub-35 10K would easily be a sub-2:40 marathon, but then I tend to focus on marathon.)
TGO -- great work in Liverpool, that sounds tough in the wind!
TGO it def sounds like the best you could have done on the day, paced it just right! Congratulations.
Checked out my 4% shoes this morning, and actually even though only done 1 marathon, the 10km race, and maybe 3 or 4 other miles, so definitely <40 miles, they are actually starting to show signs of wear and tear i think where i must initially land (albeit not where i should i guess, on the outside back side of the shoe around heel). it does look like fragile stuff that will tear away relatively quickly for me! hopefully it lasts at least another 3 marathons, might hide them away just for those but that makes it too expensive a shoe for future to me unless it produces miracles!
That doesn't sound good selbs - it's not as though you're a heavyweight!
LMH - good news on the sprightly miles.
Menn - mostly short runs to go, just 12 or 13 saturday and a couple of mp miles weds, so taper is in full swing now.
Selbs - see how they wear then, but might end up just being a marathon shoe as they only have so many magic miles in them. Charlie needs to do his tests with a new pair (cw - surely theres enough good reviews to not need home speed experiments, isnt it more about how fast they are rather than weight anyway, i think youll ruin the magic if you cut a fresh pair.).
TGO - nice report, and sounds like you dealt with the conditions pretty well (better than most).
Stevie G - I think CW is only removing the parts of the shoe that he wouldn't use anyway, so shouldn't affect the lifespan. Makes sense, although I would never do it myself as I'd be likely to screw it up and just destroy the whole shoe! I'm also a bit more of a midfoot/heel striker than CW I think.
10M on Tuesday inc. track session, then 2 short runs yesterday, so I'm already over 20M for the week, which is more than usual for me. I doubt I'll get the chance to run today though.
Mennania - superb running also in less than perfect conditions. Glad to read you are well happy with the result. Cracking run.
Some speedy 10k times too from selbs and CD. Great runs.
Enjoying reading about the 4% shoes experiences and experimentation from CW (saw the photos on Strava). Not in the same league but I've noticed my trusty asics gt1000 v7 wearing down a little quicker than the previous v6. Over 1000 miles in the v6 and a quarter of that on the v7.
I'm wondering if aforementioned shoe wear is to blame for my legs feeling awful this past week. Managed mileage back up to 50mpw last few weeks but this week just feel flat. Took yesterday off after a couple of easy runs to start the week. Don't feel ill especially but tired generally.
Keeping a close watch on the Yeovil two! Hope the taper is going well TR and LMH.
SJ - i wear my shoes more on the outside of the right shoes heel, i think its worse when i jog more easy miles. So i think id wear the VFs too quickly. But will see how the flynits wear, im happier to write off £90 than £210.
There are a lot of runners in VFs especially lots of folks who i would assume have sponsorship deals, so i do wonder what their sponsor's think.
5m easy peasy today. Someone was trying to tell me that there is some bad weather (wind etc) coming at the end of next week, but its way too early for weather watching.
A good sign that my shoes need changing is when I start getting random niggles sj - do you have a couple of pairs on the go at once and alternate them?
Any races planned Padams?
Menn - I am glad as the race settles in, your more pleased with your performance at Edinburgh. Also its good to still have an element of dissatisfaction as a spur for the next one.
Great report and well run TGO, especially given your recent illness. Great mental strength to keep it going and record a sub 3 time. With a 1.20 half and this, 2.55 or better on the cards soon.
SJ - Good to see your back at it.
Hope the taper is going well for you two TR/ LMH - What struck me post London and reading peoples experiences was the priority to get to the start line feeling fresh, so no overdoing it. Less is more.
Padams - Snap, 10m Wednesday for me too, this one, hilly running with my mate training for Snowdonia Trail Marathon. Not short of a few hills here.