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Good stuff Blisters and DO2.
Stinking hangover which, if I wasn't on the bench would be easily resolved. Good do in York but drank far too much. Sound like some good training going on too. Hoping to be running again by Thursday. We'll see.
Race report from Spain
Did the Salou half marathon
Hills, heat, sand, wind and a lack of training but what the hell.
Time 1.17.00 and 10th place
No course research at all just drove to the race and decided on a what the hell approach. Went off in the second group as the leaders including the lead lady went off doing sub 3.16 km pace and I was back in about 20th place. After about 3kms I realised I was running a little easy so decided to push on 5kms came up in around 18 mins during the first climb. I was now moving through the field and could see a group of about 5 runners and the lead lady another 100 metres in front. Caught the group just before the 10km mark and went through in 36.06. Apart from being a little slow this felt fine as I had worked hard into the wind on hills alone to catch people. Pushed on up another hill with a breather for company, this was a pain as his pace was all over the shop but he stayed with me for about 2kms sometimes infront and sometimes behind. 16kms and I was clear but only about 10 seconds ahead of the lads I had caught at 10km. Worked up another series of hills and pushed off the top. I was toast, I turned for the run in over the last 3kms and 3 of the guys had caught me. TBH I was hanging on, dug in and stayed on the back. Slowly they pulled away from me but at 20kms I caught the lead lady who by now was lucky if she was running 4 min kms and pushed back past 1 of the 3 and on to the finish. All in all a good days work off very little training of late.
Happy indeed, oh Rach ran 1.25.04 and was 3rd lady 45th overall getting a big trophy and 100euros NICE!!!!. Interestingly not many fun runners in a small field with a lot of runners under 90 mins and the top 400 or so were sub 1.45.
First report in from the Stebbing 10?
Warmed up with Dull, warmed down with Stet and had a very lonely yet enjoyable tempo run in the middle. It's not a quick course - more undulating / hilly than flat / undulating and very exposed to a fairly strong wind, which was evident for the first half of the race. Went out very slowly, equiped with HR monitor - under 80% HR for the first 5M, then picked up to 5:20's for the second half, though couldn't maintain that pace up the hills. Finished 3rd in 56:24, 2 mins behind 2nd and 3 behind the winner - a guy I'd expect to beat over 10km. 4th place was in the 58's - he was about 10 - 20m behind for the first half (just out of drafting range, but I wouldn't let him close the gap!) but dropped a couple of minutes when I picked up the pace.
I still don't feel 100% fit, and have decided to drop my Italy HM tergat to about 71:30 - with sub 72:30 a 'worst case' unless weather conditions are horrible.
Coro / Padams - hot off the press & ready for Luton:
3 technical t-shirts in the Kenya colour scheme. Best part was, I clearly asked 'them' to put the design on the front, but they did so on the back, resulting in them only charging half of what I thought was a pretty good original price!
Gobi - very good run, sounds like a tough'ish course. You’re becoming quite a HM expert. Well done to Rach, 100 Euros buys quite a bit of tapas.
Coro - yes, a week today. Travel on the Saturday, return Sunday evening. If there's a group running at an even 5:20 pace from the off, I will go with them - it's far enough away from my 10km pace that it won't exactly kill me, even if I do have to slow a little.
Let's hope for a victory pic in this style:
Gobi - congrats to you & Rach. The HM I'm running down to 20th place (100euros each for 11th to 20th) - perhaps I'll be back in the money this time next week...
will be running out again at Gosport I think. Just a good way to keep myself sharpish during my rest period. Base starts again on December the 1st
Nice one JEJ, looks good. I'm looking forward to it now, although slightly nervous about letting the team down! Solid run in the 10M as well.
As for the Met League, I think I just lost out to your clubmate by a few seconds. I was quite pleased to see that I finished only 21 secs behind B Powell who won Billericay in about 31:30 IIRC. The course was really tough - 3 laps, with one evil hill and a couple of easier ones on each lap. Not suited to my build and style of running I don't think, but good training. Ronnie O'Sullivan was running (it was hosted by his club), and he was only about 1:30 behind me over 5M!
No running today, but did 55M on the bike, and felt much stronger than last week.
JEJ - good to see you've entered the FH10 by the way, I'll see you there (only marshalling though!).
Also forgot to say good running by Do2 and Blisters - based on my bike ride today it wouldn't have been great conditions for running, and the course sounded tough.
Padams - I believe that was clubmate's first XC race since 1996, where he finished within a minute of winner Paul Tergat over 12km. The event, the world XC champs. The guy has only been running 3 times per week (maybe up to 4 now) since restarting his running in mid summer, but would have been a good scalp nonetheless - it's 3-2 to me in races at the moment, but he's won 3 of the last 2 - strangely both 10km races despite his super-low mileage; he ran 32:00 to my 32:04 at the end of September.
Bert is very fit at the moment, but ain't exactly built for the country - he seems to be more of a pure road runner - a strange kind who can exceed his track speed on the road. I think he'll run a quick marathon in the next couple of years - he faded in this year's FLM to 2:38ish from a 73 flat split, but he's probably got a ~2:26 in him if he gets it right - plus he's only 20 or 21yrs.
I'm thinking a Coro, Padams, JEJ order would allow me to have a very pleasant jog! Seriously though, I'd then know how fast I need to run to achieve the big tergat, so would have something to keep me going even if I am completely alone. Padams seems to be a natural time trailer / front runner whilst Coro would probably benefit from some company at the start.
JEJ - LOL.
Puts me onto the UK rankings over 10 miles for the first time. Not a disaster.
Dull
Gobi,
TR doesnt win. I simply said you'd hate being on the bench. Nothing wrong with racing when you're fit.
I'll be at Gosport to cheer you on.
Well done on Stebbing guys. Watched the Rembrance Day service, then a very enjoyable 16 miles for me at around 7 - 7.30 pace.
Doubles start tomorrow; alarm is set for something with a 5 in it. Ouch.
Well done all racers this weekend. Enjoyed the reports from Gobi and Blisters, take care of your calf DoT.
Did 10 today and 6 yesterday, both hard work but some are good and some are bad runs and that's just how it goes sometimes. 50 for the week in total.
CG - Hello, how goes it?! Are you fully recovered from Berlin and your injury? (I am assuming there is a positive answer there if you refer to 3.15) The Hard Training thread became a little depressing - so much injury and woe on there. Pretty much the opposite on here. There are a few familiar faces around though.
I do intend to follow Mike's plan again (tweaked and fiddled with to suit me) You too? Mileage wise, I would hope to get to around 60-65 realistically. Any more than this is likely to be too much at present. Whether this is enough to get me 3.15 at FLM 08 we shall see. I suspect not and that is fine by me. I would rather shoot a solid time next year and a Championship Place for '09 be a safe bet than risk injury chasing something unrealistic for the sake of an extra years training in my legs. You never know though at this stage I guess.
Where do you reside forum-wise these days? Have you any races planned to test where you are at?
Congrats to the racers this weekend, always good to hear about podium and top 10 finishes, someday soon I hope to report some of these too (actually, my first 10k I came 3rd and my half last weekend I came 11th so good enough for now). Would be great to win a cash prize too, maybe I need to go look for some of these races to boost the bank balance.
Did a reasonably hard 21 this morning in a tad under 7 min pace. Had to divert from my planned run when I got to Westminster and the streets were all blocked off due to the Rememberance Day bizzo so headed up the river and ended up at Battersea Park. Going there was pretty cruisy pace averaging 7.11 and I picked it up on the way back to average 6.41. I'll call it practice for negative splits but really I can't stop myself when I know there is more in the tank. So that's agrand total of 2 runs this week to total 34.5 miles, I really need to do more but at least there's plenty of time before FLM.
Can't wait to hear back from our 3 Kenyans too, next weekend is it? So who gets the long 8.74 leg?
Off to bed to rest the legs and get a good night's sleep.
Morning all!
Had a quick read back and will doubtless leave someone out of this round-up by mistake. It looks like I missed:
two birthdays
a very good performance from Gobi in Barcelona (and Rach earning dinner money!)
two good results in Cheddar (Blisters and DO2)
and a couple of solid 10 milers (JEJ and Dull)
as well as Gatorade's impressive first foray into fell running. Since reading Feet in the Clouds I've had a little yen for it myself, but there aren't many fells in Bristol or the surrounding area so training would be a bit of a b*gg*r.
I also see that JEJ has turned his hand to graphic design.
Pleasant weekend in Glasgow talking gibberish to my 6 month old nephew and catching up with my sister. Squeezed in an hour on Sunday morning to clock a grand total of 32 miles for my first week back after Amsterdam/GSR. 5 mind-numbingly dull loops of the local park, but as there are a couple of short hills in each loop it was a good workout and the calf coped well. Massage tonight should keep it on the straight and narrow.
Well done to the weekend racers and long runners.
Good to meet you JEJ and Dull. Great running from you both.
Well done on the podium JEJ.
Stebbing was tough for me, hilly and exposed to the relentless wind at most points. Messed with my head! I had a bad patch between miles 3 and 5 with my tergat pace of 6.15 mmi drifting off badly. By the last two miles I got determination back and finaly layed to rest my end of race fade . Splits tell it all..........
6.02, 6.15, 6.34, 6.43, 6.23, 6.07, 6.18, 6.18, 6.01, 5.55.
Managed a pb! 1.03.15 so happy with that but can't help feeling I had a bad 10 miler!
Got home in time to get some food before going straight back out to a gig the band I'm in were playing for some plyometric training! Feeling it today though!
Blisters, well done on the goats cheese and race.Well done D02 also.
JEJ, well done on not racing again and another jog to a podium place. Oh and for demonstrating some excellent design skills per the tergat 222 technical t-shirt. It really is a beautiful piece.
Gobi, well done to you and the missus.
Padams, not many people can say they kicked Ronnie O’Sullivans arse so easily. Nice one.
First XC / trail / fell race for me yesterday for 2 years, most enjoyable.
Nippers have a day off today - and so have I, So I'm going to the zoo in a mo. The bigs cats shouldn't be lazy in the sun today !
Surprised myself with last weeks total of 46 miles - getting back to, no run longer than 8 miles either.
Yesterdays 12 already means that I should be back over 50 again this week.
Fishcake - did you do ok?
Enjoy the zoo TR, good solid mileage there.
6.15,6.19,6.45,6.37,6.34,6.34,6.19,6.32,6.21,6.18
Out in 32.30
Back in 32.04
Annoyingly lost a place in the last mile. Couldn't run the bloke down, as I started cramping with 1500m to go. Decided fighting it out wasn't worth the risk of seizing up completely as can happen sometimes.
4th V50 54 secs outside my PB
Not a distance I enjoy running at all.
Dull
Good running over the weekend, I'm envious of the times being achieved. Been lurking and posting occasionally and have always been most impressed by the standards achieved.
Can I seek some advice from the gurus on here please.................Ran first marathon 2 years ago in 3:25 which was inside the target 3:30 I had set myself. Used the Fitz and Douglas 'Advanced Marathoning' 55 miles per week schedule and found that suited me. Since then I have run another 9 marathons and one (short) ultra, reducing my PB to 3:03 this year in Berlin. This brings the elusive sub 3 into focus and means I should try and achieve it (something I didn't even consider as possible when I started running 3 years ago). Have stuck with the AM schedules, adding mileage where possible but haven't managed to run more than 66 miles as a max in any week, whilst doing something like 2200 miles per year for the last 3 years.
I know there are many possible answers but what would the experts recommend as a main focus (more miles, more speedwork, combination of both etc) as the way forward. Doing FLM and Chicago next year so these would probably be my best sub 3 opportunities (esp Chicago). I want to get up to the 70 mile week schedules next Spring/Summer but work/life balances etc.........
If anyone has views and the time I would be interested to hear what advice and pearls of wisdom the experts have. I'm not going to challenge any of you in a race but I would like to keep taking my running forward, especially over the longer distances. Thanks everyone.
Paul A - what are your 10km and HM times?
Thanks for the compliments on my design skills.
Dull - I think one of your 50+ year old 'dodger mates ran a sub 60!
DFC - Can't help it if only 2 people who can run faster than a mid 56 turn up to knock me off the podium. Hopefully you'll enjoy next week's report more - I plan to be splitting around 33 for 10km, 54 for 10M and trying to hang on for another 5km. Just hope that I'm 100% healthy on the start line - I'm still sucking throat lozenges as I type - feels like the tonsilitis has left it in a bit of a mess.
Morning all - good racing this weekend. Sounds like some tough courses and conditions - especially for Gatorade....
I ticked over for a 70-mile week and hoping for about the same this week.
I'm considering Gosport too - could be quite a sub-3 get together.
Paul A - there are probably better advisors on here bur for what it's worth it sounds like you've been achieving pretty steady improvement with your current plan and so I wouldn't change things too much now that you only have a few minutes to go. What I would recommend is working out the area you need to focus on by looking at your times over different distances. IE are your 5k, 10k and HM times quick enough for a sub-3? If not, then a little more speedwork is probably in order, if they are then you're probably better ramping up the miles wherever possible.