Halstead marathon

191012141527

Comments

  • Hi all

    Angela - Sorry I thought I had already replied to your post. I'll be volunteering although I'm contemplating jogging to the train station. So a bit of both really.

    How is everyone? I did 7 miles in the snow yesterday morning which took a fair bit out of me so I rested today in preparation for a bit of speedwork tomorrow and after that it is all systems go for the Half Marathon Sunday

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭
    Hi all, good to see training is going well for everyone. Hope those racing the Colchester Half have a good race.



    Only 60 days until Halstead. First track session tonight of the campaign. Did 9 miles in total with 6 x 800m all between 3:07 and 3:13. Pretty happy. Felt great to run faster. This is my favourite stage of the training.



    Feel like the months of endurance training is paying dividends and ready to get faster now.
  • Hi Oirish, look forward to meeting u in real life on Saturday then- do u look like a leprechaun? This return to the cold weather is making me angry! And have been hectic at work so after bailing on Sundays run, today was my first run did 5 miles with some half marathon paced sections.

    4 miles tomorrow, then the taper continues.



    DS2, haven't heard from you in a while. 60 days! Exciting! I'm at that stage where speed is feeling easier so I'm starting to over estimate how fast I can race... It's a familiar feeling that usually results in my starting the race too fast, but I am older now, and hopefully wiser image
  • Angela - If I put any kind of hat on I do have a Gnomish quality about me!

    This weather is unbelieveable when I ran Tuesday it was through a snow blizzard on hilly fields and 12 hours later it was all gone. I'm looking forward to running in reasonable conditions today

  • Hi everyone, 

    this weeks been o.k in the sense ive done some good running.

    tuesday- 4 miles easy as per schedule

    yesterday- Club session, which consisted of hill speed work, very tough as we,ve got a marathon runner who's training for sub 3 so he's super quick at the moment. trying to keep up with his pace was fun image.

    still managed a quality session and was totally exhausted when on the cool down. 7ish miles (GPS lost signal weirdly) with the first and last 2 warm-up/cool down.

    sounds like you two are rearing to go on sunday. good luck if i dont post from now until then.

    wish i could come watch and cheer you both on! whats the target?? 1:30 image

  • Jason. 1:30? If I am not in the pub for midday opening I'll be very disappointed

  • So I had the standard terrible last run before race, legs just felt heavy and slow so gave up at 2.5 miles...
  • I hink it is a vital component of all training plans for your last pre race run to be a shambles. The worse the better in my book. 

    A few things to keep you chipper

    1) Better before rather than during your race

    2) Your tapering so haven't missed much

    3) You were probably a little tense because you wanted it to go so well rather than just doing and see how it goes as you would normally

    4) You'll rest, put it to bed and be determined and noncomplacent sunday when you gallop around Colchester like the thoroughbred you are (note I avoided the word mare image)

    In summary IT'S ALL GOOOOD

  • @Oirish, if you're not in the pub for midday, something went very wrong! isnt the race start at 9?

    Thanks for encouragement, I of course know that the terrible run was inevitable image

    So I'm in charge of Numbers tomorrow... I feel particularly qualified, as I know how to count!

    Do you know your role??

  • No not yet. I'm glad I'm not doing the numbers, there are more than 20 runners and I want to keep my socks on

  • Great to meet you today oirish! The best timekeeper in all the land!

    Now for carbo loading image
  • Assistant timekeeper image Good luck tomorrow if I don't see you there

  • Hey Angela 

    How did you get on? I looked out for you before and after but couldn't see you.

    My chip time was 1:38:15 so pleased with that

  • Yay, well done- I havet found official chip time yet but my watch was 1:56:07- well pleased with that! Pb by about 3 minutes image will do a report later- in the pub now image
  • Surprised u couldn't see me I was wearing bright pink arm warmers -NYC marathon stash!
  • Chip time 1:56:06.6 thrilled image
  • So today was the Colchester half marathon, I knew I was in shape for a pb and as a result nerves and excitement meant I was wide awake at 4am. I managed to doze for another couple of hours and was up again at 630. I must say, having the race in your home town is ideal- didn't need to leave home until 40 mins before the race start and still had plenty of time to go to the toilet before racing.

    Breakfast: oats so simple porridge, cup of tea, glass of beeple (beetroot and apple) juice and 500ml SiS go electrolyte. A lot of liquid, but had perhaps kept the bedroom a bit war m overnight, so needed to rehydrate.



    I didn't do a warm up for this race, so I struggled in the first mile, even though it was mainly down hill. My aim was 8:50-8:56 for the first five miles, 8:45 for the next 5, and then speed up for the las t 3. The reason being the course was supposed to be flat after mile 5. I reality, the effects of the tough climb up north hill early in mile 3 lasted well into the race, and I think we saw our last significant energy sapping hill around mile 7. Whilst for the most part I remained below 8:56, I struggled to speed up to 8:45, as these were the miles I was taking on water and gels and it w windy in the country part of the course. I did draft to protect me from the wind, but I found I was overtaking throughout the race so couldn't find a drafting runner for long.



    Pacing was as follows:

    Mile 1: 8:58

    Mile 2: 8:42

    Mile 3: 9:00

    Mile 4: 8:58

    Mile 5: 8:54

    Mile 6: 9:04

    Mile 7: 8:48

    Mile 8: 8:51

    Mile 9: 8:51

    Mile 10: 8:54

    Mile 11: 8:51

    Mile 12: 8:47

    Mile 13: 8:34

    0.1: 7:03 avg pace.



    Chip time: 1:56:06.6



    Pb by 3 minutes. I'm really pleased with this record. On the whole I felt properly trained and fuelled. What has held me back is probably a tiring week at work, the wind. There was a psychological issue at miles 6 and 7 where I wasn't expecting any hills, yet there were, and again at mile 9. In addition, I didn't realise that even without stopping to walk, taking on fluid and gels still slowed me. All in all a great first race of the year, and very happy with a well executed race plan.

    Negative? The giant blood blister...
  • Well done Angela! how are you feeling this morning? After a few pints yesterday I am good from the neck down but a touch fragile. image

     

  • Achy! I don't understand this DOMS concept... Always seems to be instant onset muscle soreness for me... Are u coming to the park run meetin tomorrow evening? We can exchange race stories there image
  • Yes I'll see you there. I see your chip time was 0.4 of a second quicker than your watch time, that kind of inaccuracy is why I am the Assistant timekeeper

  • Oirish well done on that blistering time image sounds like A very good day.



    Angela also a very well done to you, especially for beating the P.B



    Wish I could add to the latest running stories, but I got totally wasted from my stag night image haven't run since Wednesday but making sure I'm back on it 2moro.



    Well done everyone again!
  • 4 miles last night no problem image felt like forever since i last went out.

    got club session tonight so looking forward to that.

    hope everyones good image

  • Good for you- I was planning 8 in London tonight, but a colleague came over from our TeL Aviv office and she an her bf had broken up, so i thought my time would be better spent commiserating with her over a few glasses of wine, meanwhile thinking how am I gonna save myself from embarrassment this Saturday in the Orion 15 when one of my clients competes in it who is double my height and therefore probably double my speed.



    Alas, the troubles of a runner...
  • Jason - Glad to hear you are back in the fold, I often think the occasional break doesn't do any harm, keeps you fresh and sharp and you get more out of your runs.

    Well this week has been about breaking myself in gently after the weekend so Tuesday night was 2 x 4.12m @ 8:41 with a lounge around inbetween so that got everything ticking over again nicely and then a 7 mile speed session yesterday which wasn't quite full tilt as I was with my good lady so it was really only the last  of the 6x 400m sprints that I really went all out but was a pretty good workout none the less.

    9 miles MLR today and another 18 Saturday with a recovery run of some description Sunday and that'll be another week done

  • Afternoon all, been lurking around for a while but was struggling to find time to post.

    However once Angela and I began hijacking Steve Loves Bacons Asics 26.2 thread I figured it was high time I popped over and introduced myslef.

    Halstead is going to be my second marathon, and having finished Liverpool last October in 4:00:13 I'll put my neck on the line and admit that I'm hoping to be sniffing around the 3:45 - 3:50 mark this time.

    I appreciate that I've set myself a pretty ambitious target but I've been following a "proper" training plan this time around that has incorporated a degree of speedwork (intervals, hill repeats etc) and the improvement so far this year have been startling.

    I've got the Brentwood Half Marathon this Sunday which may act as a bit of a reality check, I'm aiming for 01:45 (my pb from Pleshy in September is 1:51:13) and my confidence in hitting this has been growing and growing over the last couple of weeks but it's beggining to look like I may be sabotaged by the weather! image

  • Welcome Kandinsky.  I'm also image about the weather.  Do you at least live close enough to the start that you could get there if its too dangerous to drive?  We're looking at an all day forecast of heavy snow, which makes me think we should not risk the drive to Epping forest, in case of the problems we may face drivning back.  am grumpy now, as I was really looking forward to a muddy cross country race - I've never done one before image

  • I used to live just a couple of hundred yards away from the start line.

    I'm in Chelmsford now so just s short punt down the A12 which is usually gritted!

  • Sitting at home looking out the window at the snow and thinking its not worth the risk of getting on the road to get to my trail race.... Hmmm
  • morning all!!

    weather hey?

    glad to see another adition to the thread Kandinsky image

    Angela if its a trail race doesnt that mean off road?? sounds like fun in this weather though! 

Sign In or Register to comment.