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Our young guy did 2:30:51 to take another 4 minutes off his PB & the Welsh Women’s record was broken by Clara Evans running 2:25.
Jooligan - Naughty naughty, but I'd done the same.
Valencia has really take the crown of the fast runners marathon, some incredible times. Think I read somewhere 18% of the 15000 or so field sub 3.
Wardi - it was -4 feels like -6 here on Saturday - I couldn't feel my toes until about 4m in! That's a great set of results from your crew at Valencia, though dnf-ing at 23m had to suck. Strength in depth has really rocketed there all around. Joshua Cheptegei, the 5km/10km WR holder, made his debut to 'dip his toes' and stumbled across the line in 2:08:59....... which placed him 37th!! There are definitely some good drugs out there!
Jooligan - good result from your clubmate too. Sorry to hear of your woes. That sounds similar to where I was when my sciatica issues were at their worst. Fingers crossed you can get it sorted. FWIW I didn't really stop running (though I probably should have).
OO - that's an incredible stat! 2700 sub-3. It's like Abingdon on steroids!
Just a dog walk and weights for me yesterday as I resisted the temptation to add an extra run in. Finished with 2 sets of 8 x 68kg on standard deadlifts after a lot of heavy lifting beforehand, so lifting more than my own weight is not a bad start. Need to buy more weights though as that's pretty much everything we had and I want to get back to heavier lifting to get in the kind of shape I was in for London '16 when I was lifting 4 or 5 times a week.
Jooligan: take it easy and let your body recover!
A 6 mile run for me on Sunday felt pretty ok, so I'll increase by a mile every week or two. An hour in the gym on Saturday.
TR - Your right, its clearly working. My thoughts for next year are to run more tempos and half marathon races, to address slowly declining pace. When is Dorney HM?
TR - fantastic run, well done! Really good to get a bit of a return on your investment too! Bodes really well for the Spring though, so good work!
TT - a great week from you too! Interesting re the comments about the weather/your lad. It can be quite demoralising at times up here. I don't think it really got above zero at all all last week. And I live a handful of miles from the wettest place in England. BUT - I always try and use the weather as an advantage. I think decent level Marathon runners are hard people - both in body and mind. I just think going out regardless of the weather toughens me up mentally, so I (try to convince myself) it's a positive come race day! Probably absolute nonsense, but it helps me get out of the door! That said - when I did Abingdon last year I decided to try a last minute portaloo visit. I was just in my vest and shorts at this point, and it was raining quite heavily. It wasn't cold, just raining. Someone asked me if I wanted a black bag and I declined - I was fine, I was about to get drenched anyway. There were one or two light-hearted comments about me being northern etc, and then one bloke said how much he hated the rain. Said he doesn't even go out if it's raining!! I almost couldn't believe it! I'd hardly ever run at all if I adopted that mindset! So I just tolerate/embrace the weather as best I can, but it does get me down a bit at times.
wardi - good week from you too, and some great results at Valencia. Interesting re the quicker runners then attracting another crop of quicker runners. We've had the opposite at my club. North/West Cumbria is a really strange place for road running. There's a big fell scene, but I don't think there's a single club up here that I feel 'ticks the box' if you run on the roads. Maybe Border, but they're in Carlisle. It tells you something when 3 of the best runners in the county (born and bred and still living here) all run for Salford. Feel like I'm wasting my time half the time at my place - nobody will ever go anywhere. At London there was me and the fella who got the club place, even at Brampton there were only 3 others (all new members this past year). A strange insular mindset - don't even consider trying to get a team for the road relays/nationals etc. Anyway, nevermind.
jooligan - hope you get sorted re the piriformis/sciatica thing. Something I feel I'm constantly managing as well.
OO - how's the recovery going? Niggles on the mend?
Yesterday's run was interesting (well, highly dull actually). My daughter had a drama workshop in Carlisle. Had to be there at 12:30, finished at 5:00. It's an hour either way for me, so no real point in coming home. I'd planned to run in the afternoon but it was mega icy - really treacherous. However, I found a short section that worked. In the park there was a gritted path about 550 metres long, with a short flower bed type loop either end. There and back measured about 0.85 miles. So I ran up and down that 16 times! It ticked a box....
Jools - good news.
LS - that's a bit rubbish on the club front, and on the cold front, but that makes your volume even more impressive.
I'm with you on the weather front. I love a good storm, but then being Irish, much like being up north, you don't get much choice on the crap weather front - I'm from an area that was known as 'the sunny south east' and I think it was only called that as it might rain one day less than the rest of the country!! I agree though that it can be a bit wearing. I hate running in the dark. Throw in cold and wet with dark and I'm likely to throw a strop about it all.
Nice little shot in the arm earlier. 80mins steady came out as 6:41m/m. 10mins easy either side made it 14.67m so the distance is slowly getting back up towards where it needs to be. One of those runs where you just feel fluid and strong, and are really enjoyable.
OO - Dorney is mid Jan, bit further than Farnborough and a lot less competive, but Farnborough is a ball ache to get to and needs logistics with 2000 runners. Dorney could be windy though........
LS - we don't get the cold you get but cop weather at times on the coast. Similar to you I just have to get wet if its raining as my running is mostly commuting and I havnt had my own car for 3 years.
Double bike commute today, had two light weeks and plan a few easy days before I get rolling again.
Too wet for the bike yesterday & today so I’m going to seed swiftly. Lurgy is still in evidence anyway so resting is probably best.
Jools.. good to see your running distance increasing.
TR.. I thought Valencia was very similar to Berlin in that the roads on the course are quite wide so you don't tend to feel congested at any point. London has a few pinch points (Cutty Sark, Isle of Dogs) so to increase the number of finishers (35,000 to 47,000 from circa 2005 to this year) staggered starts were introduced in 2018. Not ideal but it works up to a point.
TT.. good work on the weights, nice confidence boosting run today too.
After snow last night this turned to rain overnight so temps were up to a toasty 3 degrees today. No ice to worry about so 5m done in the rain.
Wardi - defo sounds too busy for me, esp with plenty of other options.
Back on the S and C (and bike commute) this morning, 5m home tonight, hammies pretty tight after Sunday, probably the shock of hmp for the first time in ages.
12.7m this morning, chucking it down first thing but avoided most of the wet stuff. The sun appeared for the last few miles.
Jooligan - when I started lifting properly in '15/'16 I went with a bunch of guys from work who were very into it and took loads of tips from them. I'm sure it saved me from several injuries over the years. Hopefully you're feeling better today.
Wardi - temps are up here too, but it's strangely cold feeling still as it's so damp. Nice work with the MLR.
Just an easy 6/4 double yesterday - taking no chances after the longer steady section on Monday and heavy lifting on Sunday.
Mrs TT seems to have come down with flu, or similar, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can avoid that!
TT - good stuff from you too. You really seem to be moving in the right direction now (in terms of both distance and pace), so fingers crossed. Booking a few races in sounds good. I tend to 'race' a fair bit in my Mara build up (not actually race racing, but hard training run racing). I just find it easier/it works better for me re the longer runs with some quality in there. Doing say a half after an 8 mile 'warm up' works ok for me. As long as you're ok with the compromised finishing time/position, which I am. On that - I've done Haweswater Half 5 times previously, always after a 6 mile+ warm up. It's a lumpy route with a few long drags, but nothing terrible. And every single time, if you double my Haweswater time that's what I get at London (+/-30 seconds) - it's always bang on! So I'll be doing that again this year. If I run 1'40 I'm in trouble!!
TR - you know what you're doing but just take it easy for a week or so. Good time to hit the s+c and turbo really. Then go again in the new year for the Mara prep.
Not much to report here really. An easy 7 Monday morn, and then I went out with the club last night for a hill session. A few before gave me 10 there, and then another 10 this morning with a mate. It had warmed up a tad for 24 hours from Monday afternoon to yesterday afternoon, but it was back to -5 this morn! I couldn't get my fingers to work at all when I got back. Couldn't get back in the shop for ages cos I couldn't get the key in the door, and then when I did I couldn't turn it. Then couldn't undo my laces, pull my socks off etc. My hands just wouldn't work. Prob need to get some ski gloves or something, cos they're still not great even now.
Nice work doing 2 x 10 milers on consecutive days, hope your hands have thawed out now.
TT. good luck with the bug avoidance, that's still a decent double yesterday and good work with the weights.
Cold but sunny & blue sky all day. Ran over to the racecourse this morning which is always very pretty in these conditions. 7.4m done & best I've felt in a run for ages. Another 4.3m in the fading light to make up a double.
He only started running to help deal with his brother's suicide about 3 years ago. His last 2 marathons have seen 100-120mpw in the build up; wrapped around a wife, job, toddler and baby!
LS - I've tried all sorts of glove combinations, inners help, but the best thing ive found is to suck your fingers up inside and wear them like mittens..........I'm not doing the usual easy base miles over December and January, I've had hammy and sciatica trouble the last two New Years. So I'm tagetting quicker stuff, heavy weight and January and February 1/2 and 10k races over the next 2 months.
Wardi - I bet he is as popular as a fart in a lift at times with his wife then.
5 and 5 today. Weather warning for tomorrow.
Wardi - What a great photo and its something I never really ponder, but every runner in those photos has such a story on how they are where they are. A solid number of runners at 2.26, must have been like a phalanx of runners crossing the line at the key pinch times.
LS21 - -5C, now that's proper cold. Well done, you've been attaining really good volume, consistency and pace in your runs, the magic ingredients.
TR - Thanks for the Dorney date, that sounds a good strategy, I like it.
The niggles are slowly less niggley and being the fair-weather runner I am, found a glimpse of sunshine yesterday for a lovely 6m cliff trail run from Widemouth Bay to Bude, amazing folded geology, massive views, massive cliffs, crashing waves. Hopefully back up to 40m this week and find some HM races for Jan-March, maybe 1 in the sun!
7 and 4 today. We had a yellow warning of rain today, they weren't wrong.
OO.. good to hear the niggles are diminishing and the miles are buildingup again. That run in the sun must have been good for the soul, plenty of sun here too yesterday.
LS21.. are you suggesting Maryport isn't dead posh?
8.4m today, raining early on as forecast so dug the rain jacket out. Apart from a few drops in the first half mile it turned out to be a dry, windy run under gloomy skies. Chucking it down this afternoon so chose the right half of the day.
5.5 miles yesterday morning plus a strength session later on. I hope to make it to the gym later today...
Jools - I bet you don't miss juggling all of that.
10 (5 easy, 5 steady) and 5 today. Getting back to it. Christmas meal with a few frothies later, so good to have no long run pressure tomorrow.
Jools.. there's an old saying.. if you want something doing ask a busy person! I guess that's how most of us have fitted the miles in over the years. Best of luck with your continued recovery.
15.3m today, decided to get it done as we had light winds and 7/8 degrees. Tomorrow looks very wet & windy and Sunday wet again. The locals are worried about the river levels again, they might have to close the bridge again if much more rain falls.
TR - nice double double! Getting back to it nicely. Hope the Xmas meal was good too, and you enjoyed the isotonic refreshments.
OO - that cliff-top run sounded idyllic! What a place to run. Glad the niggles are slowly disappearing!
wardi - a couple of cracking days from you, especially yesterday's 15 miler. Great stuff!!
joolska - good to see you back logging a few miles!
Hope TT is ok and has avoided the dreaded lurgy!
Still ticking along here. I know I seem to talk about the weather a lot, but goodness me it's grim at the mo. Weather warnings for both rain and wind all weekend. In the past 7 days there have been 9 weather warnings here! I couldn't really face it on Thu morn so I defaulted to the treddy. Did a few mile reps. I tapped into my VDOT rating with Daniels and did them at tempo effort (6'30s). So 5 of those with 400m recovery, bit of a warm up/cool down etc and I got just over 8 miles done in the hour. Was a good session actually. I was working quite hard tbh.
Fri morn was equally dreadful, so I hit the gym/treddy again for an easy 7 miles at 8'30 pace. Then met a mate last night for another 7 - 6 of which was a sort of time trial for him. He's coming back from a major knee op, and is making great progress. We ran on the Keswick to Threlkeld path (which is where Keswick parkrun is held). The full path is 3 miles in one direction, so there and back gave us the 6. Came in at 7'12s avg, with the last 2 both under 7. So a decent leg stretch for me too. Enjoyed it actually, despite the absolute soaking we both got!
Then battled the rain and wind again this morning for another 8 round the village. So a decent week thus far. Hoping to do 15ish tomorrow if I can, which will put me north of 70. So building nicely, feeling quite fit etc if not particularly fast!
LS - good week that, mile reps is a decent session. Feeling fit is a good place to be.
Only had a few frothies but couldn't run today as i had a nose bleed first thing, happens occasionally (too much sneezing?) and I'll need to wait until tomorrow, but i might get away with some weights later today, if i try to run it'll start it off again.
LS21.. pretty grim here today too. There are times when I hop on the treadie if it's either too icy or I simply can't take another weather beating! Good to see you getting some decent miles in either way.
9m this morning. It was raining heavily first thing but I did get out in a not quite as grim window of opportunity to get it done. Blustery showers was as bad as it got.
Our club handicap has been postponed tomorrow, the Riverbank venue is predictably flooded. Not a surprise as the local country lanes have water right across the road in many places.