Bus, I need mother hens in my life! I have them at work, now I have a running mother hen! Keeps me on the straight and narrow!
I'm so lucky to 'just' have work to juggle. If I had a significant other it becomes very complicated, and with kids...! Nightmare. As you say, it's not the time on your feet it's the bit after. Yesterday after my long run I literally did nothing!
Some good runs chaps considering the conditions. There is something about getting up and at 'em in these conditions. I had a good quality hills & tempo session on Saturday morning - decided to use the local park which has a suitable hill but had totally overlooked it'd be busy with sledgers. Still, got the session in so happy with that. Yesterday managed an 18 miler on the roads in a complete blizzard with a couple of clubmates. Pace went out the window but managed 8.30 average to top off a 68 mile week. Not bad considering.
RE: Beer. This is my weak point. I don't drink during the week but Friday & Saturday is where I reward my week's training with a decent beer bought online. We're not talking Carling pish but a good quality beer from either our Belgian or American friends or one of the many new fantastic breweries in the UK such as Kernel, Marble, Camden, Beavertown etc.
another 10m snow and hilly trot dispatched today. Ave pace 7.30. Bored of this now! although same course/distance as yesterday and exactly the same time to the second for both runs. That gentlemen is consistancy.
Johnas, glad to hear your a connoisseur of good beers. Or larger that has actually been 'largered'. Brooklyn beer is one of my faves at the moment.
Nike has added the extra 4 miles to my run so OCD twitching can relax now. Off for 8 miles in a bit, only made OK by the fact I have a new pair of Lunarglides to wear. They don't feel anything like my old pair which had done 600 miles.
Today was a bit of a chore, couple of 1.5mile walks, and a 5mile lunch run.
Tomorrow's run at least should be easier on the mind. 16mins 10k effort, 4mins recovery, 4x2mins at 3k effort, with 2.30 recoveries.
Once that 10k effort is done, it should be quite a nice session
Running fine at the mo, in good form, but just have a slight feel that something isn't spot on in a different bit of the hip/glute. Can run hard fine, but just feels slightly off. Didn't feel it in the Tadley race, but then you don't really in races, there's other stuff to think about!
Bus, you're rapping skills are almost as good as that chap in my vid the other day
Dean, not surprised you're bored of the snow...2x10m in 2 days running must test anyone's staying power!
ps Bus, you runnable Wed have a 10miler that would be lovely if you could share any part of!
hoping the roads near work are better than where i live so i can get a tempo in tomorrow, failing that i will take to the treadmill again.
For the beer conversation i just found out that Rolling Rock has started selling in the UK again. THE beer of my teenage years. I appreciate to you belgium beer lovers Rolling rock is watery pish but i loved it and intend to hunt some down. For balance i also like Hoegaarden, Erdinger weissbeer, Kroenenbourg Blanc and Peroni red label which have a bit more "flavour".
Just sipping on a McEwans Champion at the moment. 7.3% of pure flavour (but 1 bottle is plenty!)
SG - Wednesday might be a goer.What did you have in mind? I was intending to work at home and had planned to do my LSR Wednesday, but it depends partly on how I get to work and back tomorrow! The plan to do a LSR on wednesday is so I can get another 15+ LSR midweek next week and still have a good 10 days clear before Wokingham.
10 miles @ 8:30 average pace. Mostly in soft snow on the golf course apart from a 400m stretch of road where I went through the gears all the way down into the low 5's at which point I ran out of road.
I suppose the test of whether or not all this battling the elements has had any added value is to guess one's condition now, compared to before the white stuff arrived.
If nursing a collection of unsual aches and pains, I'd say unlikely.
Probably better to have stuck with the beer.
Talking of drink, has anyone seen the new Lucozade Sport advert?
Shows a collection of athletes ( a description that stretches credibility) on treadmills running to exhaustion. They're doing maybe 12 minute miling and a clock on the wall shows the last one still upright has lasted 91 minutes!
FM! my old man could do better than that and he's been dead two years.
Yes, I'm aware that the guys in the advert could certainly go faster, my dig is at the advert makers who seem that what they are showing is representitive of runners.
Should have swopped the guys for ones with a BMI of 35 plus. That would have been reality as regards their product.
what shoes are you wearing to be able to hit low 5s on the road Ric, but still grip on the snow?
My walsh XCs are fine for all surfaces, but you probably wouldn't want to spend too much time on roads in them day to day. Probably doesn't help the joints!
Us runners really earn our corn this time of year. Bit of patience, and it'll soon be back to little vests and occasionally glorious (for us, not passers by) shirt off fare
Not a speck of snow on that particular road SG. It leads uphill to a school at the top so was covered in salt. Gives you a clue how I hit such a speed, I was on the way down.
Mind you, I felt like I could run through a brick wall the way I was going. All the bike work is having the desired effect.
Forgot. The shoes. Fellcross, the one's I wore at the Metros TVXC.
I also hate that Luzcozade advert, loads of marketing rubbish. They make it look like they've smashed a mara out on a treadmill. Gang of hero wannabes.
Unlike me the real deal hitting out a steady 9 @ 7:43 average!
Well, you all did better than me today/tonight. Snow here has turned to mush or ice so rather than my scheduled recovery run, opted to stay warm and dry instead on the sofa.
Southern XC Champs this Saturday at Parliament Hill has been cancelled. Too dangerous apparently. Time to see if I can grab a last minute place on the Canterbury 10 instead to see where I'm sitting fitness wise.
I heard about the Southern XC, course is rutted and snowy. It's a sad state when XC races are being cancelled for weather conditions. The whole ethos of XC is battling the course/conditions. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a runner who agree with it being cancelled.
Sessions are looking a write off this week, the track is an ice rink, the roads are covered in sleet. We have a road hill session tomorrow, it's not what I'm after but will have to do. Weather will be back to normal next week so I can hit some rep sessions and see where I am.
Not sure I agree with you there SS, it must be very bad to cancel it as its always fairly cut up when we run there anyway. The park normally gets destroyed and takes a year for it to recover. If it Rutted and frozen it might be more of a safety issue for the youngsters though. You can't exactly let the seniors run and send the juniors home. I'm sure there are afew seniors who are fine with not having to run 15k there. Frozen. & rutted ground is asking for big trouble. Think 9miles over a frozen ploughed field, not much fun? I personally hope the midlands is cancelled but only because I'm unsure whether my Achilles is 100%.
10 today, snowy xc style as always, 7:34 pace. Tougher than yesterday, we had another 2 inches of snow so its 6inches plus every where now. No thawing here. Running through the powder starting to become very difficult.
Anybody read running with the Kenyans? Just finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I must be quite a soft core runner, as I can see why XC races are cancelled! Seb's the only one Ive seen throughout this forum and facebook who agrees with me, with seemingly every other runner giving it the full "but it's XC, and we're super hardy runners" line
A lot of our XC races, as we've touched upon are on mutli terrain. It wouldn't take much for path or rock hard trail to be lethal in ice!!
Yep, in full agreement with you SG myself on the XC conditions. I would have posted last night but was having issues with losing almost the entire contents of an 8GB memory card. Ok now.
XC is fine while the ground is total mud. And if the ground is predictable, then a covering of snow adds to the fun. But frozen ruts are 'no go' and frozen ruts half covered in snow are worse.
Yesterday I was caught out by hard lumps hidden underneath the lastest snow. I didn't twist anything but the surprise got me swearing as I considered the implications had I done so.
I have tempered my view on the BFR XC cancellation. Had a great run on Sunday in the snow, but kicking a buried log made me wince a bit. Had there been some feeling in my feet I'm sure it would have been worse. Luckily it was pre-iced at point of use
Ric - I'm sure our protagonist will agree there is little difference between dodgy ground hidden by snow and big pot holes and bad ground hidden by mini-lakes a la Sandhurst XC!
My wife moved a house viewing for me to run BFR XC. Even though it was cancelled I won't get that again for years.
One for you Imeldas out there; I've signed up for a couple of sprint duathlons to get the speed back in. Are lightweight racing shoes worth it, especially for MT courses (Feb/Mar/Apr), or are these the domain of tarmac & summer racing? For 5km etc is the fact I wear huge stability shoes a worry when moving to racing shoes? I haven't had much of a problem with the spikes, but then XC running is slightly more stochastic than a flat tarmac course.
Having heard the feedback from my coach, large parts of the Parliament Hill course were underwater last week and have left it extremely rutted and frozen. As Ric says, a bit of mud or snow is fine but rutted ground is just plain dangerous. I'm happy to give it a wide berth!
Seb, yes, I've read Running with the Kenyans. I kind of enjoyed it, though I don't think I finished it with any massive insights. It struck me that the improvements he made (something like 38 down to 35 minutes for 10K) could probably have been made by just undergoing a normal training regime with decent mileage at home, but I suppose it wouldn't have made much of a book. The biggest eye-opener was that he'd managed to win a 10K in 38 minutes in the first place.
Still running to and from work in the ice. Three cheers for trail shoes. Think I've scoped out a beautifully clear long stretch of pavement for a session tonight, but we'll see...
My one and only win was a 10k in 38:52, at Dorney lake on a VERY windy day Dachs!
I agree re the frozen rutted ground - had a couple of incidents with that sort of thing myself of late! Took a nice tumble this morning on a very icy lane - 3 slips in a row with one going straight onto my hip - I was like a baby giraffe! wish those bloody Orocs would arrive!
IC - how much do you need stability in a shoe? Lightweight racers do make a difference, but you would need to build up to thme. The Asics DS racer does offer some stability support, so is a good compromise. As for MT course, it depends on how much grip is needed. You can get very light trail shoes (eg NB MT101) but most racers don't have a lot of grip (though hagios are ok.)
Which Duathlons you entered in ICITH? Take it your not biking much right now?
In respect to the Orocs Bus, I looked at buying some but the studs just dont seem like they protrude out of the rubber lugs enough to give decent ice grip, so I've gone for some Yaktrak Pros instead, a clip on set of metal coils that give good ice/snow grip apparently. They should turn up soon and I'll give some feedback.
Good job on the tempo Dean, Think 1% incline is standard to make a treadmill as similar to a road setting as possible.
Indeed Ric it is starting to become a balancing act between safe and unsafe training, the usual off road run is starting to become very Icy, 1 slip and you can twist or break something, my ankles are holding up ok but I've sprained a wrist catching myself after running across a ploughed field covered in snow, one step the snow is 3" deep the next step your down a rut 10" deep and over you go. 8.5miles today XC/Trail @7:12pace, dont know how Im getting faster each day in worsening conditions, bit random. No quality in the forseeable future. too sketchy.
Moved on to the book 'Born to Run' now, enjoying running literature right now.
Got a really tough knot in my left calf which could have contributed to the achilles problems. had it for a month or two and really struggling to work it out with the foam roller, it really hurts rolling over it and almost clicks as I go over it, ouch!
Dachs, my pal won a 10k in 39.43 once. It was the same day myself and Bus did some ridiculously gruelling hilly 2 lap 10k locally! Back in 2009.
Really busy work day for me today so was pleased to still get my session in. Carved a mile off the warm up for time sake, and was 16mins at 10k effort, and what I thought was 3x2mins 3k effort, off 2.30 recoveries.
On snow and ice round a field, paces actually were more MP and HMP respectively, but was working hard!
Checking the schedule it should have been 4x2min, my mistake...but in fairness I'm sure 2mins less of smashing round a park isn't a big deal.
The 4mile evening run felt like a stroll in comparison!
Bus...might be a change of plan for tomorrow..i#'ll mail you.
Comments
Bus, I need mother hens in my life! I have them at work, now I have a running mother hen! Keeps me on the straight and narrow!
I'm so lucky to 'just' have work to juggle. If I had a significant other it becomes very complicated, and with kids...! Nightmare. As you say, it's not the time on your feet it's the bit after. Yesterday after my long run I literally did nothing!
Some good runs chaps considering the conditions. There is something about getting up and at 'em in these conditions. I had a good quality hills & tempo session on Saturday morning - decided to use the local park which has a suitable hill but had totally overlooked it'd be busy with sledgers. Still, got the session in so happy with that. Yesterday managed an 18 miler on the roads in a complete blizzard with a couple of clubmates. Pace went out the window but managed 8.30 average to top off a 68 mile week. Not bad considering.
RE: Beer. This is my weak point. I don't drink during the week but Friday & Saturday is where I reward my week's training with a decent beer bought online. We're not talking Carling pish but a good quality beer from either our Belgian or American friends or one of the many new fantastic breweries in the UK such as Kernel, Marble, Camden, Beavertown etc.
Johnas, your post started great, then seemed to fade away into some corporate marketing spiel
To the tune of Doe a Deer in the voice of Homer Simpson:
Dough, the stuff that buys the beer
Ray, the guy that sells the beer
Me, the guy that drinks the beer
Far, the distance to my beer
So, I'll have another beer
Lah, la la, la, la la beer
Tea? No thanks, I'm drinking beer
and that takes me back to...
Doh!! Empty glass.....!
Sorry SG. The day job kicking in.
another 10m snow and hilly trot dispatched today. Ave pace 7.30. Bored of this now! although same course/distance as yesterday and exactly the same time to the second for both runs. That gentlemen is consistancy.
2 x xc for me today. 7.5 this morning and 5.5 tonight. The snow was so bright I didn't even need my headtorch.
Johnas, glad to hear your a connoisseur of good beers. Or larger that has actually been 'largered'. Brooklyn beer is one of my faves at the moment.
Nike has added the extra 4 miles to my run so OCD twitching can relax now. Off for 8 miles in a bit, only made OK by the fact I have a new pair of Lunarglides to wear. They don't feel anything like my old pair which had done 600 miles.
Today was a bit of a chore, couple of 1.5mile walks, and a 5mile lunch run.
Tomorrow's run at least should be easier on the mind. 16mins 10k effort, 4mins recovery, 4x2mins at 3k effort, with 2.30 recoveries.
Once that 10k effort is done, it should be quite a nice session
Running fine at the mo, in good form, but just have a slight feel that something isn't spot on in a different bit of the hip/glute. Can run hard fine, but just feels slightly off. Didn't feel it in the Tadley race, but then you don't really in races, there's other stuff to think about!
Bus, you're rapping skills are almost as good as that chap in my vid the other day
Dean, not surprised you're bored of the snow...2x10m in 2 days running must test anyone's staying power!
ps Bus, you runnable Wed have a 10miler that would be lovely if you could share any part of!
hoping the roads near work are better than where i live so i can get a tempo in tomorrow, failing that i will take to the treadmill again.
For the beer conversation i just found out that Rolling Rock has started selling in the UK again. THE beer of my teenage years. I appreciate to you belgium beer lovers Rolling rock is watery pish but i loved it and intend to hunt some down. For balance i also like Hoegaarden, Erdinger weissbeer, Kroenenbourg Blanc and Peroni red label which have a bit more "flavour".
Just sipping on a McEwans Champion at the moment. 7.3% of pure flavour (but 1 bottle is plenty!)
SG - Wednesday might be a goer.What did you have in mind? I was intending to work at home and had planned to do my LSR Wednesday, but it depends partly on how I get to work and back tomorrow! The plan to do a LSR on wednesday is so I can get another 15+ LSR midweek next week and still have a good 10 days clear before Wokingham.
nice one Bus! will drop you a pm with details...
10 miles @ 8:30 average pace. Mostly in soft snow on the golf course apart from a 400m stretch of road where I went through the gears all the way down into the low 5's at which point I ran out of road.
I suppose the test of whether or not all this battling the elements has had any added value is to guess one's condition now, compared to before the white stuff arrived.
If nursing a collection of unsual aches and pains, I'd say unlikely.
Probably better to have stuck with the beer.
Talking of drink, has anyone seen the new Lucozade Sport advert?
Shows a collection of athletes ( a description that stretches credibility) on treadmills running to exhaustion. They're doing maybe 12 minute miling and a clock on the wall shows the last one still upright has lasted 91 minutes!
FM! my old man could do better than that and he's been dead two years.
Yes, I'm aware that the guys in the advert could certainly go faster, my dig is at the advert makers who seem that what they are showing is representitive of runners.
Should have swopped the guys for ones with a BMI of 35 plus. That would have been reality as regards their product.
🙂
what shoes are you wearing to be able to hit low 5s on the road Ric, but still grip on the snow?
My walsh XCs are fine for all surfaces, but you probably wouldn't want to spend too much time on roads in them day to day. Probably doesn't help the joints!
Us runners really earn our corn this time of year. Bit of patience, and it'll soon be back to little vests and occasionally glorious (for us, not passers by) shirt off fare
Not a speck of snow on that particular road SG. It leads uphill to a school at the top so was covered in salt. Gives you a clue how I hit such a speed, I was on the way down.
Mind you, I felt like I could run through a brick wall the way I was going. All the bike work is having the desired effect.
Forgot. The shoes. Fellcross, the one's I wore at the Metros TVXC.
🙂
I also hate that Luzcozade advert, loads of marketing rubbish. They make it look like they've smashed a mara out on a treadmill. Gang of hero wannabes.
Unlike me the real deal hitting out a steady 9 @ 7:43 average!
Southern XC Champs this Saturday at Parliament Hill has been cancelled. Too dangerous apparently. Time to see if I can grab a last minute place on the Canterbury 10 instead to see where I'm sitting fitness wise.
I heard about the Southern XC, course is rutted and snowy. It's a sad state when XC races are being cancelled for weather conditions. The whole ethos of XC is battling the course/conditions. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a runner who agree with it being cancelled.
Sessions are looking a write off this week, the track is an ice rink, the roads are covered in sleet. We have a road hill session tomorrow, it's not what I'm after but will have to do. Weather will be back to normal next week so I can hit some rep sessions and see where I am.
10 today, snowy xc style as always, 7:34 pace. Tougher than yesterday, we had another 2 inches of snow so its 6inches plus every where now. No thawing here. Running through the powder starting to become very difficult.
Anybody read running with the Kenyans? Just finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I must be quite a soft core runner, as I can see why XC races are cancelled! Seb's the only one Ive seen throughout this forum and facebook who agrees with me, with seemingly every other runner giving it the full "but it's XC, and we're super hardy runners" line
A lot of our XC races, as we've touched upon are on mutli terrain. It wouldn't take much for path or rock hard trail to be lethal in ice!!
Yep, in full agreement with you SG myself on the XC conditions. I would have posted last night but was having issues with losing almost the entire contents of an 8GB memory card. Ok now.
XC is fine while the ground is total mud. And if the ground is predictable, then a covering of snow adds to the fun. But frozen ruts are 'no go' and frozen ruts half covered in snow are worse.
Yesterday I was caught out by hard lumps hidden underneath the lastest snow. I didn't twist anything but the surprise got me swearing as I considered the implications had I done so.
🙂
I have tempered my view on the BFR XC cancellation. Had a great run on Sunday in the snow, but kicking a buried log made me wince a bit. Had there been some feeling in my feet I'm sure it would have been worse. Luckily it was pre-iced at point of use
Ric - I'm sure our protagonist will agree there is little difference between dodgy ground hidden by snow and big pot holes and bad ground hidden by mini-lakes a la Sandhurst XC!
My wife moved a house viewing for me to run BFR XC. Even though it was cancelled I won't get that again for years.
One for you Imeldas out there; I've signed up for a couple of sprint duathlons to get the speed back in. Are lightweight racing shoes worth it, especially for MT courses (Feb/Mar/Apr), or are these the domain of tarmac & summer racing? For 5km etc is the fact I wear huge stability shoes a worry when moving to racing shoes? I haven't had much of a problem with the spikes, but then XC running is slightly more stochastic than a flat tarmac course.
Having heard the feedback from my coach, large parts of the Parliament Hill course were underwater last week and have left it extremely rutted and frozen. As Ric says, a bit of mud or snow is fine but rutted ground is just plain dangerous. I'm happy to give it a wide berth!
Seb, yes, I've read Running with the Kenyans. I kind of enjoyed it, though I don't think I finished it with any massive insights. It struck me that the improvements he made (something like 38 down to 35 minutes for 10K) could probably have been made by just undergoing a normal training regime with decent mileage at home, but I suppose it wouldn't have made much of a book. The biggest eye-opener was that he'd managed to win a 10K in 38 minutes in the first place.
Still running to and from work in the ice. Three cheers for trail shoes. Think I've scoped out a beautifully clear long stretch of pavement for a session tonight, but we'll see...
My one and only win was a 10k in 38:52, at Dorney lake on a VERY windy day Dachs!
I agree re the frozen rutted ground - had a couple of incidents with that sort of thing myself of late! Took a nice tumble this morning on a very icy lane - 3 slips in a row with one going straight onto my hip - I was like a baby giraffe! wish those bloody Orocs would arrive!
IC - how much do you need stability in a shoe? Lightweight racers do make a difference, but you would need to build up to thme. The Asics DS racer does offer some stability support, so is a good compromise. As for MT course, it depends on how much grip is needed. You can get very light trail shoes (eg NB MT101) but most racers don't have a lot of grip (though hagios are ok.)
the paths near me are still very icy so im going to attempt a tempo on the treadmill today as im bored of running slow in the snow.
tempo on the treadmill done. 2miles w/up/down with 4 miles @ 5.45 pace with the last 800m in 2.24 (or 4.50 mile pace)
set the treadmill to 1% incline to make it harder and a bit more like outdoors.
obviously it not the same as tempos outside but it felt good to get some leg turnover in instead of trotting out LSRs in the snow
Under the current conditions I can detect a level of frustration kicking in.
Accept that it is nigh on impossible (for anyone) to achieve anything of value at the moment.
Not worth the risk. The winners out of this frozen mess will be anyone who hasn't buggered themselves up.
🙂
Which Duathlons you entered in ICITH? Take it your not biking much right now?
In respect to the Orocs Bus, I looked at buying some but the studs just dont seem like they protrude out of the rubber lugs enough to give decent ice grip, so I've gone for some Yaktrak Pros instead, a clip on set of metal coils that give good ice/snow grip apparently. They should turn up soon and I'll give some feedback.
Good job on the tempo Dean, Think 1% incline is standard to make a treadmill as similar to a road setting as possible.
Indeed Ric it is starting to become a balancing act between safe and unsafe training, the usual off road run is starting to become very Icy, 1 slip and you can twist or break something, my ankles are holding up ok but I've sprained a wrist catching myself after running across a ploughed field covered in snow, one step the snow is 3" deep the next step your down a rut 10" deep and over you go. 8.5miles today XC/Trail @7:12pace, dont know how Im getting faster each day in worsening conditions, bit random. No quality in the forseeable future. too sketchy.
Moved on to the book 'Born to Run' now, enjoying running literature right now.
Got a really tough knot in my left calf which could have contributed to the achilles problems. had it for a month or two and really struggling to work it out with the foam roller, it really hurts rolling over it and almost clicks as I go over it, ouch!
good mental workout on that thing too Deano!
Dachs, my pal won a 10k in 39.43 once. It was the same day myself and Bus did some ridiculously gruelling hilly 2 lap 10k locally! Back in 2009.
Really busy work day for me today so was pleased to still get my session in. Carved a mile off the warm up for time sake, and was 16mins at 10k effort, and what I thought was 3x2mins 3k effort, off 2.30 recoveries.
On snow and ice round a field, paces actually were more MP and HMP respectively, but was working hard!
Checking the schedule it should have been 4x2min, my mistake...but in fairness I'm sure 2mins less of smashing round a park isn't a big deal.
The 4mile evening run felt like a stroll in comparison!
Bus...might be a change of plan for tomorrow..i#'ll mail you.