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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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I realise my main epic ability is to write a very long post, and still not reference everyone in!
So apologies, Phil, how'd the mile reps go? Well, we're not upto lunchtime yet, as I've lost all idea on time.
And Iron, nice bricking! I always feel out of my element trying to comment on your cycling feats, as I can't actually cycle, never learnt. However, I can agree a nice haircut sounds like good work, and you get to F OFF now
Dachs, there aren't shorter shorts. Unless he starts wearing those knickers like elite ladies.*
*please don't do that, PP.
Abused PP on facebook for being so quick - the old bugger! Great time though. Managed to get some nice seafront runs on Sunday and Monday to clear my head, easy 10 x 1 mins over the back rugby pitch at Bedford track Tuesday night.
Nice 7 miler to Dunstable Downs yesterday, a few reps tonight at Regents pk - but nothing too hard as a breezy long leg awaits at Sutton Pk on saturday. Im not dreading it as such - just not looking forward to how shite I will feel towards the end of the leg. Ugh.
Will have a look through the posts later..
Reps got canned today. My car has been off the road for a week with an oil leak that eventually involved removing the whole engine and gear box, splitting the gearbox from the engine, replacing the core plug and then putting it all back. The plug cost just £2.35 + VAT, then about £70 + VAT for new fluids and £700 plus VAT for labour.
All that meant I got into work at 10am instead of before 7am so thought I would spend the rest of the day at my desk. Reps will have to happen on Sunday morning: 6 minute pace and 400m jog recovery.
PMJ - Ouch!
Simon - long leg eh? Awww, we won't be able to compare times.
And I guarantee I won't be wearing the skimpiest skimpies on Saturday.
I know a guy who went through the first lap of an 800 in 51... followed by a second lap of 79...
nice outfit!
And JD, if that's what it takes to become an elite, maybe we should all have a go at overdoing first halves of races.
Must be a pretty fine line between starting at the pace to maximise at, and blowing a gasket though. I daresay I tend to run a bit within myself, whereas the better runners can push the max line more.
I think that may be over doing it a bit though! If you come from an XC background as a youngster I think you get used to pushing hard early on in races! Fine line as you say though.
this is where a lot of us on here are completely out of our depth, basically coming in from an older age, and starting on the road.
In my case, I'd done 3 half marathons before I'd realised there was a whole stack of lower distances out there. None of them were flat either, meaning the idea of a fast start wasn't too big a problem back then!
there's one of those at every workplace AG.
The more irritating ones, are the ones who ask for tips about running and niggles, but you know they're not listening to the answer.
Please tell me that was in front of an audience Jonny...
I did plenty of 800s and 1500s as a teenager. I was shit at them then, and I'm shit at them now. In answer to what I could run a mile in SG, I'm guessing high 4:3x at absolute best. Not built for that kind of distance.
SG, no, last night were ultra-generous 2 lap recoveries, so far from a peaking session- the point of the session being to get accustomed to the pace, then increase the length of reps up to 3 x 2m (following that McMillan approach that was circulated a while back). I will be doing other more VO2 max-type sessions that have the short recoveries.
What I'd give for a 79s 400m!
Cheers SG. Much like SG I am sat in a towel typing this. Spent the afternoon MTBing with colleagues in Wales and now in a hotel in Cardiff looking forward to re-hydrating.
Sounds like an expensive day PMJ. In a similar but cheaper vein I am now liable to replace two inner tubes. That's 3 in total this week.
Some high quality sessions going on out there. Dachs - even with a two lap rec, that is outstanding work! And yes, bloody Reading runners getting everywhere - grrr!
Bad luck with the tank Philip. What are you doing with those tubes Iron?!
I just don't get those pants that some ladies run in. Not complaining, but can't see why they would....
Back at work today - boo hoo! Resting the running legs, so cycled in. Looking forward to a nice ride home in the sunshine tonight. Bit of a weird day, as it was 3 deg when I set off this morning and is now about 18!
Track session tonight: 12 x 400
6 @5K (30s rec) 79, 81, 81, 81, 81, 80
4 @3K (45s rec) 77, 78, 78, 78
1 @1500 (1min rec) 75
1 FAST 69
Until the last 2 I felt really easy and in control so very pleasing given 400s on Tuesday and 12 miles progression last night. Oh and 4.25 miles this morning.
Advice needed, I've a 5 mile race on Wednesday. I usually have Friday off but wondering if it's best to wait till Monday so it's nearer the race so I'll be fresher?
Stevie see - i would tempted to have both days off. One to recover from this week , the other to have fresh legs for the race. great session there, love the last lap was just targeted as FAST.
dachs, strong session. Looks good that you are hitting target pace so early.
it was 10*200 target pace 29/30s off 200 jog rec.
they came out 28, 29, 28, 29, 28, 29, 29, 29, 28, 28. Felt comfortable for the first five but became harder. Not flat out but happy at this pace this early in april.
Niffty 200s Dean. A couple of 28s and I'd be out the backdoor. Like you say, promising stuff for early April. Are you racing Christleton?
I have a 20 x 200 session next week, for the first time I feel slightly optimistic!
SS yep, I'm in for christleton? Are you in? I bet rob will do it too? Matt?
First rule of doing 200s, is don't do them straight after Dean does his, as they look pony in comparison
Anyhoo, 8x200 for me, off 90secs, 1500 pace aim, but on the pavement rather than the track. I'm off work, so have the perfect stretch round the corner, rather than a 20-30min round trip to the track. (which seems unnecessary when the total reps time comes out around 4 1/2mins!)
Did 33.10 average this time (yes I'm dealing in 100ths of a second, versus 33.25 last time I did it! (which was better than the 35s the time before).
Fastest 31.61, slowest 34.24.
There must be a tiny gradient one way, as the odd numbered reps all came out generally a second quicker than the even. Except in the case of the fastest and slowest, which funnily enough were next to each other!
Will probably try on the track one time for this session for a comparison. But happy enough with that. The average is 4.26 pace after all!
Meaning Deans must be sub 4, cripes. I'd expand on SS's comment, and wonder if I could even do one much under 28. I think I recall our star club runner doing a 27 as a flat out effort at that summer track fun evening we had years back...
ps forgot, this session also has a couple of 150m progressive reps after the warmup, but I don't really report those timings.
Stevie, good set of 400s there. Short recoveries and progression. Looks an enjoyable type of session.
Would definitely have the Monday off, 2 days before a race is like a rule for me, and 50-50 on the Friday. Would probably just move your normal Monday fare there so you don't trim mileage out unnecessarily. As presuming this isn't particularly an A race?
Dean - good speed, I can see you're just built for it, my efforts would be 31 probably doing the same session. 1500's must feel so much easier if you can cruise along the 200's.
Nothing today, even walked to the station and in London. Heel was really sore this morning after 10 x 1 min in regents pk last night and the run home.
Looks like the 12 stage curse has hit again - we are on 11 as we speak...going up anyway as the missus is on team managing duties, was going first leg, so wether I hand onto anyone remains to be seen
Last time I did 200s I came away injured and those were only 36s !!! Can't imagine how you can do a string of sub 30s and survive Dean
Very nice 400s there Stevie! I'd have the Monday off personally, and the Friday or at least a very easy session.
Hope the heel, well, heals, quick Simon!
Was supposed to do an easy rep session at lunch, but forgot my GPS, MP3 player and my lunch! A week off work and I've forgotten what to do! Will try to squeeze one in tonight instead, but there's nowhere flat near my house....
Looking at the race details for Hillingdon on Sunday, it seems that a large proportion of the route is on pavements rather than roads, and it also involves 10 road crossings, where they say traffic has priority over runners! This may just be a disclaimer of course, and I'll reserve judgement until the event itself, but looks like I may have been sold a pup!
Life is about lessons Bus. My main one being post my 200s a while after Dean's
Surely those roads have to be held back, you can't have a serious race where you're waiting for traffic, that'd be mad.
Having said that, memory from doing the Hillingdon 5 miler twice in the early 2000s, was that some of the roads are so busy, you had a window of about 30secs where you could stop the traffic to even begin the race!
I'll never forget one puce faced short man screaming at people to "get out of the road", then 10secs later screaming "get in the road".
Ha ha, will tip you off next time I do 200s SG. But I have to get them down to 27s if I'm to hit my targets This summer. If it makes you feel better i was only 3rd in our group. A couple of youngsters pushed them out faster.
sg your 200s looked good to me, don't forget I'm chasing 800/1500 times whereas you probably won't go under 3000. So I have to push them harder.
Simon, we abandoned the 12 stage due to only having 10. Good luck if you go.
I remember being asked to stop at a toucan crossing and wait for the lights by a marshal in Abingdon during the Abingdon Marathon back in 2006 "on the advice of the police". You can imagine my response!
Bet those youngsters couldn't match you on anything longer than 1500m Dean....never mind as far up as a half!
Ta Dean, and appreciate the generous comments, but it was pretty obvious from your early times on this thread you were a pace machine on reps. Even in an ideal set up, track, still day, competition, I'm sure 31s would probably be my limit. I hit one 31 this time, and one 30 last time I think, and I had to really want those!
Do you do much on the weights side of things by the way? Not sure that's ever been asked. Moraghan always looked fairly pumped to me when he used to post his 800/1500 pics.
Bus, the idea of stopping mid marathon must have got your legs weeping! Trying to get going again!
ps we don't want Dean to come over all EOG chanting "do the men's distance" at the kids who choose 10k over halfs
In other things, I mentioned the Norfolk relay opportunity the other week. That's now off. Funnily enough, the idea of a relay 150miles or so away, including huge legs, many of which were through the night only got 7 or so vague possibles, including mine. We needed 19 plus support, so no chance.
Chatting to one of our chaps, he said we do the Green Belt Relay, and said I can weasel into that. I agreed that he could send me the blurb, but next thing I know he's written the teams out and allocated me 2 legs.
a 13.5miler on the Saturday with difficulty rating 10/10, and a 10miler the next day.
Includes and overnight stay in Essex somewhere, and basically most of the day wheeling around in mini buses!
I'm not quite feeling it at the moment, and it's in 5 weeks!
It'll be character building SG!
Decided another rest day would be more beneficial pre race than forcing myself out tonight, but will need to loosen the legs tomorrow, so, question: given 3 days rest, would a parkrun be a really bad idea tomorrow instead of an easy 4 with a few 400m reps?
course it would! You don't rampage a parkrun the day before a half!
If you really want a little run, I've a 14 to do, so feel free to come down this way and join me for 4/5 of mine?
Was meant to be 6&4 Saturday, and 14 Sunday, but with possibly my last hoon up to Manchester this Sunday, and a 10am start as it is, 14 would be bonkers, so will probably reduce sat's 6&4 into an 8
(although I have done that before!)
Bus - my usual fair the day before any race day is 30 mins with 6-8 x 80m strides at the end at race pace and then about 5 mins at race pace towards the end of my race day warm up. that's usually enough to get the legs loosened off and in the right mind set i find. Good luck for Sunday!
nice reps Deano AND SG. After all, it's all relative. Me and SG being the lanky streaks of pish that we are are never gonna monster short reps like Dean does.
Those mile reps looked tasty to me Dachs. A nice place to be at the start of your training period but im sure you know that bearing in mind you know what works for you as far as periodisation goes.
Heres hoping the heel sorts its self out Simon. Youve been knocking out some great sessions.
haha AG. Being recently new to my workplace, i too have an office know it all who wont stop talking. She's harmless enough but sometimes you do wish she'd just put a sock in it.
SS - lovely session mate. great strong finish. i'd be tempted to just play it by ear on how you feel. Follow Dean's advice if you feel it necessary or if feeling good, follow your head.
Finally the last big mileage week for me. I did the last of the Steve Way big BAC sessions - a good one for that last 10k of the marathon and teaching the legs to run when tired:
30mins MP (5.58 av), 4 x 5mins @ threshold/10k pace (5.33, 5.29, 5.31, 5.24 av) 30 mins MP (5.57 av). MP sections obv faster than 6.05 target but i shouldnt think it'll hurt
Plan is for one last 'fast' long run this weekend. 30km: 10k easy, 10k MP, 5k easy, 5k threshold.
then 2 week taper where focus moves to shorter faster reps with a mileage reduction. Gotta get sharp now!