Sub 3

StevieWh

LMH - Its a new two lap course this year which they are claiming is flat and fast. It's a Warwickshire Road Race League race so the quality will be high with plenty of people to run with up front. I have never ran it though so can't tell you what the old course was like

Wardi

LS21.. great to see you notching up a decent weekly total again, bet that feels good.  Thanks for the Endure info, very useful.  As it happens I have a posh USB rechargeable Petzl head torch which lasts for hours so should be fine.  It's not forecast to drop below 15/16 on Saturday night but I will take a couple of fleeces and a sleeping bag.  I also plan to take 3 pairs of shoes and fresh kit for each run so fail to prepare, prepare to fail etc.  I'm in a team of 2 blokes & 6 girls so should be a hoot.  BTW were those 26 beers all for different people?

When I ran Berlin the 2nd time (2005 I think) at the finish I waited my turn at a long row of massage beds which were mostly manned by muscular hairy arsed blokes.  I was eventually shown round the corner to a bed crewed by two delightful frauleins, one for each leg.  Almost nicer than the post race beer.   

Flat coke (the proper sugary variety) helps keep low blood sugar at bay (which I have suffered from).  You start feeling hot, get red vision then faint/throw up so not pleasant.

Another 5m+7m today, legs feel fine.

Little M.iss Happy

Thanks Stevie - I might see if my husband will consider going.

Nice conditions for running overnight Wardi.

TR

Menn - if you dont go down the coach route, you know how to get the best out of yourself anyway. Although i think a coach will take you a bit further due to the accountability and doing the set sessions as theres bound to be some new stimulus.

LS21 - good for you, hope the progress continues. 6 soft drinks ?

Wardi - trust you to be on a team with a load of fillies.

LS21

TR - one of our group was tee-total so was on the Alko-frei beer (which is actually very nice in Germany, with loads to choose from). The other proper beers were consumed by me, Lord Didsbury, njord and Ms njord. It was a cracking afternoon!

wardi - given your team-mates for the weekend you might want to pack a couple of extra smoking jackets too. And a litre bottle of Hi Karate. 

Jooligan

Far from it LMH but I'm still plugging away 5, 8+3.3 ,6.6, 7.6+6.4 so far this week.
I'm racing Cotswold Way Relay on Saturday kicking off at 1pm - gonna be ugly & very sweaty. 

Little M.iss Happy

It's going to be a hot one Jooligan! Take care of yourself if you're still not firing on all cylinders. Do you know what the problem is?

Wardi

Cripes Jooligan that 1pm start isn't ideal, any chance of cooler air at higher elevations?

TR.. in fairness I didn't pick the teams but there are more girls than blokes in my club so not entirely surprising.

LS21.. good point re the smoking jacket though I'm more of an Old Spice man meself.

Padams

Not been on for a while, mainly as I was playing golf in Scotland (Arran, Kintyre and Islay) for a few days. Lovely place, would definitely like to go back some time without the golf and enjoy some walking/running etc. And considering I hadn't played golf for 2 years I played OK (in the 90s for all 4 rounds).

Squeezed in one run on Islay on a huge deserted beach, and a run from Penrith (I stopped there overnight on the drive up). The drive back was a bit of a mission - left at 2:30pm and got home at midnight having done 528M.

Good to hear people seem to be going well and love hearing about some of the more unusual events you're all planning, all good inspiration! I'm still considering our club's 12 hour race at the end of August but worried about the lack of miles. If I can get a few long runs done over the next few weeks I might give it a go.

CharlieW

Mennania -- after being a low-volume guy for years, I joined the high-mileage bandwagon many at my club had joined after seeing people get great results. It's pretty tedious trudging the extra miles, but I did get a bit faster, so it seems to work. My only quality session is my Sun long run, which often has some speed "hidden" in it, everything else is low quality. I tend to do a block of 100+M weeks, finishing 2 weeks out from the race -- more than enough for me I think. I seem to have gone sharply downhill in the last couple of campaigns though, where my weekday plodding just got so ridiculously slow that maybe it wasn't helping any more. That _might_ be down to a slight ankle problem. I should say in general though that I haven't had a proper injury for years now -- so having little speed work may be the answer there.

LS21 -- lovely to hear things are going well. And epic bar bill!

Padams

Forgot to mention earlier, I came home to find a cheque for £100 from the half marathon I won, so that was a nice surprise.

Talking of unusual events, did anyone else see Paul Tierney's Strava entry for the Wainwrights? A solid 326M run. with just under 90,000ft of elevation...

Jooligan

Not yet LMH. Seeing a doc in a fortnight so will get him to do some blood tests - hormones, iron any other suggestions?

Menn The bloke to talk to for North Wales Road Running is Paul Brooks who is associated with Wrexham running club in some capacity apparently. My workmate's going to forward me his email & I'll PM you when I've got it - probably be Monday.

Little M.iss Happy

B12, Vit D, Thyroid function, and ESR would probably be worth checking Jooligan.

Sounds like you've been having a good time all round Padams - though I wouldn't have fancied that drive home.

TR

LS21 - sounds like it was a good booze up.

Wardi - funny that you belong to a club with more ladies than men. How about some Denim (for men).

Padams - sounds a nice break, apart from the drive home.

5m easy with an eye on Sundays 10k, but  then my youngest was asked to play vs Sussex Sunday, and the logistics wont allow the 10k and the game. So I'll be out for a long run tomorrow now.

Little M.iss Happy

Sorry to hear you have to skip your race TR.

TR

LMH - brighton and yeovil were the focus, this had minimal mental investment so i can shrug it off easily. Still have New Forest trail 10m the following Sunday. Id have run further this week if id have known, but a few easy days will have done no harm.

OuchOuch

Great to hear your back running LS21, won't be too long before the next £100+ bar bill.
Good luck to Wardi and the team for the Endure and to DanA who is running the Mont Blanc half marathon today as warm-up for a 112K Verbier race next week; he gets about that lad.  A year since I ran the Mont Blanc marathon, that went by quickly. 

Mennania

Impressed how some of you get back up and at it so quick after an a race. Im cooked after a mara fo a good 4-5 weeks

Cheers @Jooligan - Im probably going to join Wrexham soon as I am clubless at the moment.

Cheers for the synopisis @CharlieW - Im still on the fence.

CC2 - Speedy Goth

I've been reading but not had much to contribute of late. Just been ticking over, with the odd track race thrown in for the club. Until last night. I did a bonkers 10 x 2.62-mile event, each lap starting on the half hour. Off-road, not massively technical but difficult after 9.30pm (especially as my head torch turns out to be utter shite, good job I had the chest torch for back up, but even then I couldn't see much). I won the ladies solo marathon and also bagged 4 fastest laps, beating all of the relay runners. Just a low key local event, so the prize was a trophy for 1st lady, a pack of Nakd bars for 1st over 40 and 4 more packs of Nakd bars for the fastest lap wins. Bonkers event, but it got me 5 hours on my feet for 'only' 26.2 miles and lots of practice for stopping at aid stations then having to get going again!

TR

Hope dan goes well then

Nice one speedy, racked up a few prizes!

20m for me today, running in the heat was a bit of a shock, last few miles were a bit tough.

TR

Has no one been running today?

I didnt realise how warm it had got by the end of my 20 yday, i didnt get out til just after 9, so it was nearly midday by finish time, and it felt a bit tough by the end. So seeing as i had cricket early today i decided a rare rest day was probably a better idea than an easy run.

Mennania

I managed 13 at 6.48. I might just have a base rebuilt by the end of next week.

Padams

CC2 - that sounds like fun! Well done on all the prizes.

TR - shame about the race but good that mini-TR is getting some good matches.

Managed some running over the weekend, all very warm as TR said. Saturday was a couple of miles with the dog, then about 8M with mini-P inc. a parkrun in 17:51. I had a proper sweat on by the time I got home!

Yesterday I couldn't get out until 3pm, so it was pretty warm again but did 11.5M at around 6:50s, all off-road.

Just over 4M this morning with the dog, got a very busy week at work (end of Q2) so wanted to get something done before it all kicks off.

OuchOuch

CC2 - Sounds like a very different and successful marathon, well done.
Padams/ Menn - Some decent training that, good paces for the MLRs.  Padams - The amazing Tiernay guy is on British Ultra Podcast. 
TR - Another 20 miles banked.
No heawave here, in fact lit a fire on Saturday! 16.5m D&D 1st half in 62, 2nd in 57.47. Pretty happy with that.   Racing a half in 5 weeks to retain my V50 title in that race, so that is given me a bit of focus. 

CharlieW

CC2 -- well done! No idea how my legs would respond to that kind of event -- think they might seize up between laps...

I did the Ramsey 10K yesterday, by which time the serious heat was gone (still quite warm though), but it was rather windy. Somehow I seemed to spend a large proportion of it running alone into the wind, which I know should be impossible for a circular course. I ended up with 37:09, only seconds different from Hatfield Broad Oak a few weeks back, though with the wind and a lot of gravel and grass on this one, it was probably a somewhat better performance.

Simon Coombes 2

Just reading up again, making me shudder some of the distances and miles mentioned! My 13 miles to Luton yesterday to watch a 5 mile race was torture towards the end.

Menn - A few inclines in Berlin? I must have missed those I do remember one slight one with a park on my left just before halfway, an up then down like a very flat see-saw. And all those lovely blocks giving lots of shade !Frankfurt seems to be getting more popular as I don't think there's a ballot unlike Berlin.

LS - Nice tab. We did the Hofbrauhaus that night mainly after 2015. Then some clever clogs decided to book a trip up the tower (revolving) the next morning. I lasted 20 mins up there.

Mennania

Yep @Simon Coombes 2,  I overtook wheelchair racers twice as they struggled against gravity - then they rattled right past me half a mile later. nothing to worry about too much. My strava run shows the GAP 20 secs faster than actual pace at KM 11, 23, 41&42. I must admit i cant remember it at KM 11 but remember having to push the pace at halfway and people I had been running with since halfway dropped off at 41 & 42 whilst i was working just holding pace.

Mennania

That said Berlin is as flat as you could expect a 26 mile road race to be. I really enjoyed the run and the city

Wardi

Charlie.. that's not a bad run on mixed terrain & windy conditions.

CC2.. an odd event indeed but nicely done on the prize haul.

OO.. nice longish run there speeding up for the 2nd half.

Padams.. a good weekend of exercise in the bag, good to hear you got a decent prize for the race after all.

Endure 24 was a great experience, the course was quite tough/undulating but very pretty on the park woods & trails.  Road shoes with soles of a reasonable thickness were fine.  My first 5m was at 17.30pm Saturday so around 28 degrees & humid.  Next run around 22:30pm, still humid but with a welcome breeze.  Running through Bramham Park woods with a headtorch was a fabulous experience - you could see the dust kicked up by the runners in the beam, plus a singing Elvis at 2miles!  The last mile was mostly exposed and to see the moving line of torches on their way to the finish/next changeover was a memorable experience.  Managed to grab 3.5 hrs sleep, next run 04.55am by which time it's well into daylight.  I was given the last 'glory' leg at 11.30am and welcomed home by my team mates, couldn't collect my medal for a while due to a huge swarm of bees.   A tough but enjoyable event, great social occasion for clubs too.  I did pause to think that setting my alarm in the tent for 03:45am to go for a run seemed like a very strange thing to do.  Indeed what other occasion would persuade me to do this?  I will probably go back next year.

4m today, the legs feel a bit heavy but otherwise fine.  

TR

Menn - nice

Padams - agreed, it got very warm saturday, i didnt realise until i went back out 3pm to go watch some of my two's game how hot it was, i got pretty hot in the last 2m of my 20 and even took my cap off to try to let dome heat out.

OO - you normally get the best of the weather too.

CW - good, hope you are picking up a bit again.

Simon - id have been impressed if you had done a 13m wu and then the 5m.

Wardi - sounds like good fun, but glad im unattached harriers. 

Back on mlr mondaybagain with 14m tonight, but legs didnt like getting gping again after a zero yday.