SD - nice running; not such good typing! Speedy - double fixture weekend. All the best for tomorrow. You must love the mud. And of course all the best again to the Abo crew and Lorenzo toughing it out at Greensand. I'm not really fussed about how your pronounce Scone, as long as it comes with jam and clotted cream I'm a happy bunny 11 slow miles for me this morning to make a total of 38 for the week.
I'll be the tired one at Abo wearing 798 in white vest with a red stripe. Might oversleep and be late. Daughter ill and 24-hour cryathon has been ongoing
Birch - yes, that's the one. There were a couple of decent mud patches. My legs were fine, but my breathing wasn't quite keeping up with me and then the stitch scuppered me!
Best of luck to all those racing tomorrow. Give it some. I am expecting some great results for the thread as the weather is looking pretty good and, well, you're all great.
Poacher - this is your time.
Minni you know I love a bit of a squeeze before the start of a target race btw thanks for my hug last week. It calmed the nerves a little.
TAR - you are not quite as funny than the Edinburgh festival, but a little more quirky.
Went out this morning - my weekly outing whilst awaiting op - what a glorious morning. Took my favourite trail - just the sound of the stream running alongside, birds singing in the trees, dappled with the sunlight. Did the 6 mile loop (will record 5 as had one or two walk/contemplation breaks), and my knee will hurt later, but good to remind myself of the joy of simply putting one foot in front of the other on such a golden autumn day.
Proper XC this morning - mud, more mud, some knee deep marshes, more mud... Started too far back (quite by accident - we had no idea in which direction we'd be running from the start line) and it took me ages to catch up to girls I'd normally be well ahead of. Also the Uni had turned out in force. I picked my way through the field as best I could, but the paths were mostly quite narrow and lined with spikey bushes and nettles. In the last half mile there were two Uni girls in my sights, but 5 men inbetween them and me. I managed to get passed all of the blokes eventually, but ran out of course to chase down the two girls. 9th place, which is a bit rubbish for this league, but at least I didn't get a stitch this time.
Photo from one of the few dry bits. It was a tad foggy...
3:10:3x for me today at Abo. Good cool weather so pretty ideal conditions. Nice and evenly paced running with all but a few miles in the range 7:20 to 7:00 per mile.
That's a PB by more than 9 minutes. Very happy with that.
3.13xx for me today at Dartmoor marathon. Brutal 2 lap course incorporating half and 10k. 2 serious hills at 5 and 6 repeated at 18 and 19 just when you don't need it! 1800 feet gain and 1700 loss to trash your quads and Hams. 5th of 200 and rather nice glass trophy for 2nd vet. Winning time was 2.48 and only 4 or 5 mins between 2nd and me in 5th. Chatted to winner at end and he reckons take off 10 mins for flat course. Hills were tough but rest of course challenging and undulating. After half finished a bit lonely. No one passed me in 2nd half and I reeled in 4 or 5 on the hills at 18/19. Really chuffed with time and position. When I got hold of the garmin profile last Sunday it was obvious that anything near 3 was off the table. GFA achieved in first marathon on a tough course. Upwards and onwards.
Fantastic result Bike it. Great to get a pb. I guess sleep deprevation didn't affect you then.
Impressive run DM. Great to get GFA at any marathon, but especially one over the Dartmoor mountains.
Good dirty work Speedy.
I did my A target duathlon today at Chilham. However after a long, downward spiriling CNBA hit me in August through to now, I was just out to 'enjoy' the day. 10k very boggy, slippery, hilly and muddy XC run, finished 13th on that. Pulled in a few good runners / weak cyclists over the hilly 25m TT and held of a good runner over the final 5k run who I managed to catch right at the end of the bike ride and beat out of transition. Certainly was a lactate fest. Very pleased with 8th overall and club champion to boot.
Now pleased to be back focusing just on running. Got an event in London, 6 months today.
MsE - I don't think that the Hanson plan properly prepares you for the endurance required to run a marathon. The 'advanced' runner had a big endurance history behind her before tackling this programme. That said, I do like the weekly marathon paced run in the plan to tune in the pace. I also think if you suffer from lots of injures, the regular but shorter runs might well work for you. After all, getting to the startline is half the battle and so what if you lose 1 - 2 minutes ofver the final 10k?
Good run the bike it, agree we need more gruesome details.
Dylan man great GFA on a tough course and we need pictures of the trophy. Of course GFA is only going to get you into VLM 2014 so you need a plan in between now and then.
Now pleased to be back focusing just on running. Got an event in London, 6 months today.
Got a plan in mind yet? I started the base building on the Monday after Abingdon (same day as Cabbage Patch 10 every year) so I did 30, 40 and 50 mile weeks and then started to get the LSR up to 20 from 15.
Equally impressive from the Beast of Dartmoor (aka Dylan Man) - very commendable performance (rounded off with a trophy) on what sounds like a tough circuit.
No surprise to see Keir having another good day at the office.
Greensand Marathon today proved be every bit as tough as the pre-race instructions indicated - an out and back course involving 3 local climbs (Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Winterfold Hill) each way and the Garmin clocked a total of 3,200m ascent and (funnily enough) the same level of decent.
Fortunately the rain held off for most of the race and after a rousing pre-race rendition of Jerusalem we set off. Plenty of mud around as all bar a couple of short sections it was all on trails and by ways churned up by mountain bikers. Having skipped daintily around the first few puddles, I decided not to bother on the rest which made things more interesting.
There was probably more uphill on the way out than the way back, but by the time I got to the 20 mile mark having just gone over Leith Hill again, I could feel the lactic acid in my legs so while the last quarter of the race was mostly a lovely downhill stretch (which I've done a number of times on training runs), I'm not sure I really enjoyed it and was just counting off the miles to the end.
Collapsed in a heap at the finish line in just under 3:55 so the mission of sub-4 was accomplished. Not sure of the exact finishing position, but I think it was top 20 which I'm pleased with.
Just about back in the world of the living now, but I suspect I'll ache for a few days yet. Have already had a moan at younger Lorenzito for cunningly making the stairs in our house larger while I was out.
Nice work from Bike It, DM on a really tough sounding course, Keir with all that funny cycling nonsense, Speedy's XC and Lorenzo on another toughy
2.59.38 and a PB for me at Abo . Had hoped for maybe 4 mins under that but I'll take it. Very good conditions and racking course. Aren't marathons hard going after 20 odd miles though ??
Will give a slightly more thorough report next week.
Think I need to focus on HMs and 10k early part of next year. My mara PB still remains a bit of a poor "outlier" in WAVA terms and maybe I'm more fast twicth than I though I was !
DM getting a GFA time on that course is a great result to have behind you. . VLM 2014? My 1st was also hilly, and I think you will have several minutes gain on a flat route.
I played my novice runner card for one last time today. Since last weeks marathon, I had a week of stretching, physio etc. Ignoring all advice (prat) I ran 0.4m on Friday. Some intensive foam rollering on the adductors on Saturday and I managed 2.6 miles on a gammy leg - that's 10% of a marathon don't you know and I did have an Abingdon place still open.
Woke up today, healthwise feeling good (regained most lost weight now). Right leg sore but mummified in KT tape. Got to Abingdon and set off at 6:51 pace to see how many miles I could chalk up, and how many pills I could pop.
Bad news to have a real heavy breather running 6:51's as well (and I mean real heavy - the watching crowds looked on in amazement). This was anoying but took my mind off injuries and the disappointment of last weekend - a running metranome.
Hit mid way bang on 1hr:30 , and stepped up the pace a little. Running metranome came too. By 20 I started to believe this could be on. I needed 6:55's to get sub 3. A couple more decent miles went by, and I was soon at 23m. Then bang, last weeks marathon revisited my legs. The last 3m were arduous (breathing fine, legs jelly and hurting). The metronome went off whilst I clung on. Unofficial time is 2:59:30.
I'm absolutely delighted - I knew I had a sub 3 in my legs, and I knew it was a longshot today. My physio is going to be delighted as well as I'm sure cash will be going his way.
Glad I didn't have DM's hill to face - any course other than Abingdon would probably have scuppered me.
Thats my 1st season of running done with now. Time to fix myself, and get some easy miles in between now and Christmas. No more novice desicion making from now on - honest.
Caught up with Poacher afterwards. Great to put a name to a smiling face ......
Wow, what a good marathon day it has been for the thread: congratulations to Fraser, BikeIt, Dylan Man and Lorenzo. Also a very good duathlon from Keir. You've all been far too parsimonious with your race reports, though: revel in your achievements!
Gwent League XC for me in Brigend. 19th (2nd scorer for club) on a muddy but overall pretty runable course. Pleased with how I moved through the field on tired legs from yesterday's LSR.
Brilliant running by the threadsters Lorenzo, Bike It Fraser and Dylan Man. A 3,04 backed up by a sub 3 a week later is superb effort AR - you should be justifiably bloody chuffed with yourself.
DM sorry forgot you had the very tough Dartmoor marathon,brilliant time and yes you will take a big chunk off that time on a better course.Welcome to the coffin dodgers(GFA)
keir well done champ! another great result 8th too hope you enjoyed the day.
Lorenzo well done on -4 another great result on a v tough course.
FW another great marathon result 2.59 xx time, really pleased for you....how much of a pb?
AR mad as a hatter, but a fantastic result well done. Your fizz will love you!
Speedy, Jools well done too for your xc efforts today.
10k club race for me 38.20 on a course with a few ups and downs,lovelly day for a run...
Incredible stuff from AR - 2 marathons in consecutive weeks is mad enough, but to pull out all the stops and do sub-3 off a negative split is staggering. I take my hat off to you!!
FW - corking run from you as well. Surely you can't be too disappointed with that!
Missed your report Lorenzo - epic ascent (over half the height of Kilimanjaro). Hopefully it was up/down/up/down/up/down and there was no oxygen kit to carry! It sounds brutal.
AR - definitely up, down, up, down, up, down ...... up, down. I'm never 100% convinced by the Garmin's altitude measurement but I like the idea of having gone the equivalent of halfway up Kilimanjaro! Some extra oxygen would have come in very handy.
Comments
I got into BM too. Sounds like I might see a few faces there
18:41 at the park run today. I'm going slowly backwards
Speedy - was that at Derby? My son was running there - said it was muddy.
How were the legs after last week?
SD - nice running; not such good typing!
Speedy - double fixture weekend. All the best for tomorrow. You must love the mud. And of course all the best again to the Abo crew and Lorenzo toughing it out at Greensand.
I'm not really fussed about how your pronounce Scone, as long as it comes with jam and clotted cream I'm a happy bunny
11 slow miles for me this morning to make a total of 38 for the week.
I'll be the tired one at Abo wearing 798 in white vest with a red stripe. Might oversleep and be late. Daughter ill and 24-hour cryathon has been ongoing
Hope to see a few of you
Birch - yes, that's the one. There were a couple of decent mud patches. My legs were fine, but my breathing wasn't quite keeping up with me and then the stitch scuppered me!
Bike-It - sounds like ideal preparation
Best of luck to all those racing tomorrow. Give it some. I am expecting some great results for the thread as the weather is looking pretty good and, well, you're all great.
Poacher - this is your time.
Minni you know I love a bit of a squeeze before the start of a target race btw thanks for my hug last week. It calmed the nerves a little.
TAR - you are not quite as funny than the Edinburgh festival, but a little more quirky.
Belated well done to Moof,KR for their half's and anyone i may have missed.
Speedy you toughed the Munich mara out and got a great time under those circumstance,great work and good luck on the xc racers.
All the luck in the world to the Abingdon racers.
DM if you have trained for -3 get to halfway around 1h30 and see how you feel then up the pace if ok you will know by 18m if its on, good luck.
Poacher you know you want to...AVIT..
good to here from Keir,TAR,RJ,Blisters too....
Don't be sh*t!!!!
Rase Jase you're making me blush. And if you were nervous it didn't show. As cool as a cucumber I'd say.
Went out this morning - my weekly outing whilst awaiting op - what a glorious morning. Took my favourite trail - just the sound of the stream running alongside, birds singing in the trees, dappled with the sunlight.
Did the 6 mile loop (will record 5 as had one or two walk/contemplation breaks), and my knee will hurt later, but good to remind myself of the joy of simply putting one foot in front of the other on such a golden autumn day.
Proper XC this morning - mud, more mud, some knee deep marshes, more mud... Started too far back (quite by accident - we had no idea in which direction we'd be running from the start line) and it took me ages to catch up to girls I'd normally be well ahead of. Also the Uni had turned out in force. I picked my way through the field as best I could, but the paths were mostly quite narrow and lined with spikey bushes and nettles. In the last half mile there were two Uni girls in my sights, but 5 men inbetween them and me. I managed to get passed all of the blokes eventually, but ran out of course to chase down the two girls. 9th place, which is a bit rubbish for this league, but at least I didn't get a stitch this time.
Photo from one of the few dry bits. It was a tad foggy...
Minni have you been misbehaving again?
17 miles this morning, 41 for the week. Absolutely gorgeous day here in the North East.
3:10:3x for me today at Abo. Good cool weather so pretty ideal conditions. Nice and evenly paced running with all but a few miles in the range 7:20 to 7:00 per mile.
That's a PB by more than 9 minutes. Very happy with that.
Good to have a natter with Poacher afterwards
Bike it- awesome time mate. Well done.
Fantastic results Bike It and Dylan Man! But Bike It, that won't do as a report. We need more
Fantastic result Bike it. Great to get a pb. I guess sleep deprevation didn't affect you then.
Impressive run DM. Great to get GFA at any marathon, but especially one over the Dartmoor mountains.
Good dirty work Speedy.
I did my A target duathlon today at Chilham. However after a long, downward spiriling CNBA hit me in August through to now, I was just out to 'enjoy' the day. 10k very boggy, slippery, hilly and muddy XC run, finished 13th on that. Pulled in a few good runners / weak cyclists over the hilly 25m TT and held of a good runner over the final 5k run who I managed to catch right at the end of the bike ride and beat out of transition. Certainly was a lactate fest. Very pleased with 8th overall and club champion to boot.
Now pleased to be back focusing just on running. Got an event in London, 6 months today.
Eagerly awaiting some more Abo reports.
Also...
Blisters - I reckon this is worth a read when considering carbo load.
MsE - I don't think that the Hanson plan properly prepares you for the endurance required to run a marathon. The 'advanced' runner had a big endurance history behind her before tackling this programme. That said, I do like the weekly marathon paced run in the plan to tune in the pace. I also think if you suffer from lots of injures, the regular but shorter runs might well work for you. After all, getting to the startline is half the battle and so what if you lose 1 - 2 minutes ofver the final 10k?
Good run the bike it, agree we need more gruesome details.
Dylan man great GFA on a tough course and we need pictures of the trophy. Of course GFA is only going to get you into VLM 2014 so you need a plan in between now and then.
Got a plan in mind yet? I started the base building on the Monday after Abingdon (same day as Cabbage Patch 10 every year) so I did 30, 40 and 50 mile weeks and then started to get the LSR up to 20 from 15.
Congrats to Bike It - splendid performance sir!!
Equally impressive from the Beast of Dartmoor (aka Dylan Man) - very commendable performance (rounded off with a trophy) on what sounds like a tough circuit.
No surprise to see Keir having another good day at the office.
Greensand Marathon today proved be every bit as tough as the pre-race instructions indicated - an out and back course involving 3 local climbs (Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Winterfold Hill) each way and the Garmin clocked a total of 3,200m ascent and (funnily enough) the same level of decent.
Fortunately the rain held off for most of the race and after a rousing pre-race rendition of Jerusalem we set off. Plenty of mud around as all bar a couple of short sections it was all on trails and by ways churned up by mountain bikers. Having skipped daintily around the first few puddles, I decided not to bother on the rest which made things more interesting.
There was probably more uphill on the way out than the way back, but by the time I got to the 20 mile mark having just gone over Leith Hill again, I could feel the lactic acid in my legs so while the last quarter of the race was mostly a lovely downhill stretch (which I've done a number of times on training runs), I'm not sure I really enjoyed it and was just counting off the miles to the end.
Collapsed in a heap at the finish line in just under 3:55 so the mission of sub-4 was accomplished. Not sure of the exact finishing position, but I think it was top 20 which I'm pleased with.
Just about back in the world of the living now, but I suspect I'll ache for a few days yet. Have already had a moan at younger Lorenzito for cunningly making the stairs in our house larger while I was out.
Looking forward to more Abo reports.
Nice work from Bike It, DM on a really tough sounding course, Keir with all that funny cycling nonsense, Speedy's XC and Lorenzo on another toughy
2.59.38 and a PB for me at Abo . Had hoped for maybe 4 mins under that but I'll take it. Very good conditions and racking course. Aren't marathons hard going after 20 odd miles though ??
Will give a slightly more thorough report next week.
Think I need to focus on HMs and 10k early part of next year. My mara PB still remains a bit of a poor "outlier" in WAVA terms and maybe I'm more fast twicth than I though I was !
Well done Bike-it & DM & FW
DM getting a GFA time on that course is a great result to have behind you. . VLM 2014? My 1st was also hilly, and I think you will have several minutes gain on a flat route.
I played my novice runner card for one last time today. Since last weeks marathon, I had a week of stretching, physio etc. Ignoring all advice (prat) I ran 0.4m on Friday. Some intensive foam rollering on the adductors on Saturday and I managed 2.6 miles on a gammy leg - that's 10% of a marathon don't you know and I did have an Abingdon place still open.
Woke up today, healthwise feeling good (regained most lost weight now). Right leg sore but mummified in KT tape. Got to Abingdon and set off at 6:51 pace to see how many miles I could chalk up, and how many pills I could pop.
Bad news to have a real heavy breather running 6:51's as well (and I mean real heavy - the watching crowds looked on in amazement). This was anoying but took my mind off injuries and the disappointment of last weekend - a running metranome.
Hit mid way bang on 1hr:30 , and stepped up the pace a little. Running metranome came too. By 20 I started to believe this could be on. I needed 6:55's to get sub 3. A couple more decent miles went by, and I was soon at 23m. Then bang, last weeks marathon revisited my legs. The last 3m were arduous (breathing fine, legs jelly and hurting). The metronome went off whilst I clung on. Unofficial time is 2:59:30.
I'm absolutely delighted - I knew I had a sub 3 in my legs, and I knew it was a longshot today. My physio is going to be delighted as well as I'm sure cash will be going his way.
Glad I didn't have DM's hill to face - any course other than Abingdon would probably have scuppered me.
Thats my 1st season of running done with now. Time to fix myself, and get some easy miles in between now and Christmas. No more novice desicion making from now on - honest.
Caught up with Poacher afterwards. Great to put a name to a smiling face ......
Edited: saw FW's post
Wow, what a good marathon day it has been for the thread: congratulations to Fraser, BikeIt, Dylan Man and Lorenzo. Also a very good duathlon from Keir. You've all been far too parsimonious with your race reports, though: revel in your achievements!
Gwent League XC for me in Brigend. 19th (2nd scorer for club) on a muddy but overall pretty runable course. Pleased with how I moved through the field on tired legs from yesterday's LSR.
Brilliant running by the threadsters Lorenzo, Bike It Fraser and Dylan Man. A 3,04 backed up by a sub 3 a week later is superb effort AR - you should be justifiably bloody chuffed with yourself.
Congratulations DM on a cracking run on what sounds like a tough course. Breaking 3.15 GFA on your first outing is a great effort.
Tough course for you too Lorenzo. Sub 4 goal achieved, and when you're a sub 3.15 runner, shows how hilly it must have been.
Sub 3.15 for bike it as well! Excellent stuff. Did comrades make this an easier run mentally? Or just as tough.
Well done Fraser on your sub 3. Is that a course PB or better still a PB?
You too AR, that's a remarkable effort considering you've only just run one off of a few weeks of sickness. 2.59.** sounds great doesn't it.
Nice muddy duathlon from keir and a top double xc effort from speedy too.
......eh, 12 miles for me this morning, 8.25 pace.
Cross-post with AR who had a stormer today. Big congratulations!
Bike it yes a fantastic result and a huge pb...
DM sorry forgot you had the very tough Dartmoor marathon,brilliant time and yes you will take a big chunk off that time on a better course.Welcome to the coffin dodgers(GFA)
keir well done champ! another great result 8th too hope you enjoyed the day.
Lorenzo well done on -4 another great result on a v tough course.
FW another great marathon result 2.59 xx time, really pleased for you....how much of a pb?
AR mad as a hatter, but a fantastic result well done. Your fizz will love you!
Speedy, Jools well done too for your xc efforts today.
10k club race for me 38.20 on a course with a few ups and downs,lovelly day for a run...
Incredible stuff from AR - 2 marathons in consecutive weeks is mad enough, but to pull out all the stops and do sub-3 off a negative split is staggering. I take my hat off to you!!
FW - corking run from you as well. Surely you can't be too disappointed with that!
Missed your report Lorenzo - epic ascent (over half the height of Kilimanjaro). Hopefully it was up/down/up/down/up/down and there was no oxygen kit to carry! It sounds brutal.
AR - definitely up, down, up, down, up, down ...... up, down. I'm never 100% convinced by the Garmin's altitude measurement but I like the idea of having gone the equivalent of halfway up Kilimanjaro! Some extra oxygen would have come in very handy.