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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Nicely done Bus.
The boy is ill and Mrs Cortina is on duty at the mile25 elite drinks station, so an 8mi progression run completed with local laps.
Not particularly stressful as start at 10mm and remove 15s each mile.
Thanks Iron.
Looks like all 3 of the boys have done us proud in London today
Classic Bus report, with a bit more knob involved!
Well done, back in the pot hunting game. There is something beautiful at just being able to pick any old Iron and go and race it without necessarily fitting any schedule/training plan, just simply you fancy a race.
One day I'd like to be a small town race don again as well. I wonder if they still do this really bootleg sh!Thouse event the Striders included as a club event the year after I left. Had a 15k/10k and 5k version. Might have to do the 5k
14 again today. In the last half mile I did think, "shall I do a little more", but quickly told myself no, behave. That's a rare feeling, as normally I'm very happy to stop. Must be down to the once a year "I wonder what a marathon would be like" thoughts, that are quickly dropped by tomorrow.
Cheers. I just look at a race like today's as a good way of combining a hard speed session with a sociable morning out rather than a target of any kind. The result is fairly irrelevant (as long as I beat Knob Man and Mr Cravat of course
). It's more fun than than a dull hard tempo!
Where are those marathon reports then guys? Anyone would think you had done a long, hard run or something
Knowing Dachs, he'll do it tomorrow at midday or something
Superb time Dachs!!! Very well done. The puking will be over before tomorrow, but that time stands for ever
Awesome, Dachs, well done.
2:48:38 for me. I'll do my report on work time too. I feel good, albeit a little stiff. We'll see how the cycle to work goes tomorrow.
Well done on the pot hunting Bus.
Well done Dachs and AG! Phil? Look forward to the reports!
Well done on the races guys. Almost forgotten what it's all about myself. Haven't run a yard in over three weeks.
🙂
Likewise Bus. Looks like the miles in the lakes payed dividends. I've had my arsenal kicked the last couple of times I've turned up hoping to do a bit of a pot hunt. The young whippets seem to turn out in force!
How come no running Ric, injured?
I went to do some mile reps on the yesterday. Had planned on 6 x 1 mile off 1 min. I managed the first in 5.08 then although I was on target for something similar on rep 2 I had nothing in my legs so canned it at 1200m. Then the self doubt starts and I wondered if I was just being a big shithouse.
I jogged a couple of miles then realised that I prob have no right being able to run 5.08s off 1 min anyway. My PB is 5.13s. Haha.
Went back early this morning after having had a look at Macmillan training and they suggested 3 min rec so decided on 2.30. ended up doing 1600s.
First 4 reps were all 5.11 with the last 2 being 5.09. Really had to dig deep and hurt myself, especially on the last 2. Pleased with that.
Matt - doh!!
Andrew - that's also a bloody fantastic time! Glad to see all the hills on the bike last week did no harm then - nice one!
Ric?
Good pot hunting bus.
Great run Dachs. I reckon sub-6 pace comes out as 2:37:19 for the full 42,195 metres so you have now run a marathon at sub-6 pace and in my book, that is a solid run. Only fly in the ointment is I see you finished 180th overall and 179th male. I remember the year DT2 did 2:35 he beat all the non-elite females.
Nice run and good even splits form AG. It is a big step form just sub 3 last year to sub 2:50 this year and a brave decision to back yourself all the way. Next thing has to be a sniff at sub 2:45 and a champs start.
There will be a full report on the sub 3:15 thread if you want a long write up. The short write up is I'm joining SG in the "why would you want to do that?" brigade. You invest a lot into a marathon and when it works out well it is great, and when it doesn't you are often left with regrets or misery. For me, it was a good day out. An honest assessment before the race was that I was not in sub-3 shape (6:52 per mile) but a decent 3.0x was achievable (7.0x per mile). When I got going, the pace was just inside 7 and the start is downhill so I wasn't too worried about being a bit fast at that stage. The course flattened out at about 4 miles and the blue sub-3 pacer (philpub) passed me. I let him slowly drift ahead but my Garmin was still saying sub-3 pace. The green pacer (choisty) passed me just before Tower Bridge and I went through half way in 1:29:52, still easy and still sub-3. Reality started to cut in and by 15/16 miles I was off sub-3 pace but stil ahea dof sub-3 schedule but that faded by about mile 19/20.
From then on, it was just damage limitation: keep on moving forward but definitely foot off the gas, so backed off to 7:30ish pace and brought it home from there. Mental calculations said 3:05 was maybe possible but there is no great reward for 3:05 and I did not push as hard as I could and made sure I was seen by my family in the grandstand seats and then pushed for the line to ensure I beat last year's 3:07.
Last marathon raced, over £5,500 raised for charity: job done.
Still at time that plenty of quality runners in the prime of their youth would be proud of Philip, and a very decent sum raised for BEAT, so well done.
I bet you race one as a V60
Well done Phil. An 'enjoyable' result for the last one and a fantastic amount raised for charity.
Dachs & AG great work too. I did look up a few faces (as SG would say) to see how they'd done. The splits are pretty impressive.
I am with PMJ - Mrs has a club place for London next year and all I can think of is the upcoming year of misery and suffering as she builds herself up to it and we put everything else on hold. However to be fair it is her turn for sporting priority in our house.
Certainly hope so - but no, gold is "third" standard really. It goes bronze, silver, gold, platinum, world.
Without checking PBs etc. I'd guess that Dachs would be platinum and Dean would be World (being a World bronze medallist and all...).
I haven't seen anyone get platinum for anything yet at our club. A V60 was at the 3,000m with me last week and missed platinum by 5 seconds for his age but that's about as close as anyone's got I think. Hardly anyone under 40 ever gets gold standard either, so would be great to do that. And who knows, as I'm only 34, I might manage to get to platinum before I'm 40...
As for the marathoners - great stuff! Superb times all round - well done Dachs, Reg and Philip. It was a bloody good watch on the telly too. Big performances from my fellow Scotsmen especially. Callum Hawkins completely smashed it. He's only going to get better.
Rightio, full race report coming up.
Didn’t really know what to expect today. Since October, I’ve been majoring on cross country, and it’s difficult to tell what shape you’re in from that, particularly if like me you’re relatively poor at XC even when you’re in form. My two road races since October have involved one where everyone’s times were affected by wind, and one which I did more as a training run, so those didn’t help much. Thoughts had ranged across most of the full 2:3x range, but by the time the weekend came round I had settled on 2:35 as the main target, but knowing I would be happy with under 2:37 to make sure the average was sub 6s. Anything over 2:40 (PB = 2:40:22) would have been greeted by a considerable amount of sulking. Sub 2:35 is 5:54 pace, so decided to hit halfway in 1:17:00 – 1:17:20 to allow for a slight fade.
Slightly regretted having organised my youngest’s birthday party for the day before, meant I was on my feet a whole lot more than I would’ve wanted, particularly as I was running all the games, but you live and learn.
Come the day, the phantom ankle soreness from the day before had disappeared, as had the phantom glute soreness and, more importantly, the definitely not phantom hip issue.
Cold weather meant everyone cramming into the Champs tent rather than reclining on the grass outside, and I was struck by how the combinations of hoods/hats, gaunt, haunted faces and facial hair reminded me of a group of rescued hostages waiting to be airlifted to safety.
0-5K: 18:12 - At the start, the plan was to run with my clubmate to about halfway, and then see where we were. However, it soon became apparent that we were starting too far back, particularly when Johnas pointed out that we were standing too far back. This heavily constrained the first two miles, and resulted in a pretty conservative opening among the congestion of 6:08 and 6:00. I knew there would be time to get back on track so didn’t panic. Mile three was where gaps started opening up, and we started to shoot through them. My clubmate was shooting through them so quickly that I decided to let him go, but even so, I dropped a thoroughly unreasonable 5:26. Yikes!
5-10K: 18:20 – Coming through Greenwich now I’m moving forward through the fast starters group by group, and making sure the two or three fancy dressers off the other starts get put behind me quickly, including a 6 foot 3 Princess Elsa from Frozen. Don’t remember any fancy dress costumes being anywhere near this far up two years ago, this must be some new phenomenon. Feel comfortable and smooth and controlled, but the mile pace is still a bit up and down. 10K in 36:32.
10-15K: 18:26 – It was at this point that I really started settling into the pace properly and just churning out the miles. I was heartened by the fact that, by this point 2 years ago I already knew it wasn’t my day, whereas today I still felt very in control of my own destiny. Through the group of my climates marshalling at Rotherhithe, and into a bit of a headwind, hence the slight drop in pace, but plenty of groups to find shelter in. Still moving up the field.
15-20K: 18:17 – Through 10 miles in 59, exactly on target. Still feeling good, I pull up onto the shoulder of an Oxford runner and thoroughly nice chap who’s been well ahead in the cross country season, but I’ve generally edged out on the track. Chat for a bit until I realise that it’s probably best to just concentrate. Slightly alarmed to hear he’s about to turn 50. Feel inadequate. Overcompensate by dropping a 5:43 mile coming up to Tower Bridge. Actually enjoy the support across the bridge this year, whereas last time out I just found it oppressive.
20-25K: 18:11 - Between 20 and 30K is probably my strongest section of the race. The 5K splits maybe don’t reflect that, but 25-30K particularly is where there are a lot of twists and turns, sudden headwinds and whatnot. Going through the half marathon mark in 1:17:14, so right in the intended zone whilst still feeling good boosts the confidence, and I proceed to drop my fastest 5k of the race.
25-30K: 18:24 – I really don’t like Docklands. You have absolutely no idea where you are, suddenly the O2 appears on your right when you expect it to be on your left. Am I running north, south, east, west, or some entirely new point of the compass invented purely to disorientate me? No idea. Oh shit, a small uphill. Was that here last time? Not a clue. Still running well though, and still on target.
30-35K: 18:40 – this is when the fatigue started to come into it. I’m still weaving through Docklands when to my mind I should already be on the homeward stretch. Drinking and taking gels is interfering with my breathing, and more 6 minute miles are appearing than I would like. 2:35 is looking more difficult, but grit my teeth and tell myself to just get as far as I can get at something approaching the right pace.
35-40K: 19:03 – This 5km section is where the A target slipped away. The mental calculations about how slow I could go and still run 2:37 were starting to appear. Actually, most of the slowdown came towards the end of this section, as I was still running pretty well going through my club’s main marshalling point at the Tower. Two years ago I was already shuffling here.
40-42.2K: 8:54 (20:20 pace) – I always have a meltdown at the end of a marathon. In my debut it was 22 miles. In my PB race at Abingdon it was at 23 miles. Last time I ran London, it was already happening at 18. This time, I managed to stave off the proper collapse until 24.5 miles. I’d managed to get past a fast starting clubmate at around 40K, but by 25 miles I was interspersing running fast with jogging, and he came past again. When I moved my head my eyesight went funny. Concentrated on holding it together until the end. About 5 people came past in a sprint finish, but that’s just par for the course these days. Stumbled across the line in 2:36:27 – a new PB by almost four minutes.
This is where I should be telling you how, delighted with my new PB and with a spring in my step, I headed off to the pub to bask in friends’ tales of glories and disasters. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Dizzy, with pins and needles in my face, and with vision all over the shop, my two clubmates prop me up, and convince me to go into the medical tent. There, I am seated, warmed up and watched by very attentive medical people, until my half hour time is allotted and I feel well enough to move. My clubmates kindly stay with me. From there we walk to the pub, but once again I start to feel rotten, and sit back on the steps outside, hood up, looking like a ‘homeless man’ according to a sympathetic clubmate.
Eventually I head off to where the club coach will be going from, and when I get there, knowing I need to eat something, I spy an ice-cream van. A-ha! I know I can get that down! A rich creamy foodstuff inside an empty unsettled stomach. Nothing can go wrong! However, history will show otherwise. The result is in an unedifying, vomit strewn journey home, where I am cared for by yet another angelic clubmate. A chap next to me thankfully sleeps throughout. Or at least pretends to do so.
As we arrive back, and I am about to totter to my car, a clubmate suggests I should go to A&E and get an IV. I can well imagine that the consequences of ending up on an IV will be that my wife forbids me from running any more marathons for many years, so I assure him that all is well and that I am indeed OK to drive home. As soon as the conversation ends I disappear behind a bush and throw up heartily. This is good timing, because the immediate post vomit window of calm allows me a chance to drive the 2 miles home. There I retire to my bedroom and gradually recover.
So, to sum up, I am happy with the PB and the performance, know I gave it all I could, and am at ease with the fact that the marathon isn’t really my event and that my marathon times will never quite live up to my shorter distances. You’ve got to be better at something, haven’t you? However, the post-marathon nausea is more of a concern, and I’m not in a hurry to run another one if it’s going to cause this kind of illness. I will be back at some point, but now I’ve put the sub 2:40 ghost well to rest, I can’t see it being in the next 2 years.
Incidentally, all is fine now, and, seeing as how I have the day off, I treated myself to a fry-up in a cafe for breakfast once the kids were in school, and the glow of satisfaction with the result finally came.
Hope you all enjoyed the SG style 3 post report.
And not event a mention of the half hairy ninja!
Great run mate. Feels good to get that sub 2.40 monkey off your back doesn't it. Sorry I wasn't around with the colas at the end this year, but glad someone else stood in for me. Maybe you're just allergic to The Red Lion?
Oh, and hello everyone. Hope you're all running well
Dachs - make no mistake, 2:36:27 is a bloody fantastic time! You should be proud, pleased and knackered in equal measure! It is a PROPER marathoner's time without any shadow of a doubt.
Your post marathon experience sounds uncomfortably familiar to me by the way, albeit you worked harder for yours
By the way, I met a club mate of yourse yesterday - he finished 2nd. On seeing his RRR vest I asked if he knew you. He said yes, and seemed very pleased to have just pipped you at Reading on chip time. That was until I told him you did it as a training run as part of a long one
Cross post Johnas - I see it takes a forumite to run a 2:36 marathon to bring you out of hiding
Don't be a stranger!
I just noticed the attention to detail on Johnas' avatar. The forearm sleeve thingies (what are they called?). Brilliant.
Awesome run Dachs
8x 400m this morning for me in the gale force winds. Aiming for 75s per rep but came out 77-79 (with 1 80s!). I'm blaming the wind. Binned the idea of a double as the weather has deteriorated badly up here! Snow and gales in late April.
Great run Dachs, Phil and Andrew. The reports make great reading.
Not run for three weeks due to another post race injury. That makes five out of five over the past year.
Wears you down this sort of thing. Get sorted, get conditioned, get fit, get fit enough for a race, race and finish injured.
I think I've had enough!
🙂
Hello everyone. Sorry to hear you are injured, Ric. Nice to see Johnas yesterday in disguise as a deckchair though! And well done to Dachs, Andrew and PMJ. I did London too and although I did not get a Dachs-style spectacular PB (
) I also did quite a bit less vomiting, so swings and roundabouts. I was never expecting to run my best marathon this year after a winter of low iron and a lingering foot injury, so I hadn't done enough training, but I thought I'd probably manage a sub 3 anyway and that is what I did (2:58). I must have passed you, Phil, as I was still with other Phil at 4 miles, but I didn't see you.
great reports and times by all yesterday (plus Bus's pot hunt!) congrats
but dachs you can get a
excellent stuff. proper fast time.
just read a report up here from a local lady described as elite marathon runner who completed it in 2.59. i thought literatin would beat her! and you did!
welcome back ric
Good work Lit
(I read that as a lingerie foot injury at first
)
Hey Ric - do you have a spare Staines 10k number then? (sorry, bit mercenary
)
You'll be back!
Nice work marathon cru.
Dachs - can't beat a 3 piece report, oh my days! And you can expect another 3 piecer from me when I do my parkrUn...eta November 2016..
It's a bit worrying when someone like you who is in mint condition, and doesn't seem to get more than a day or 2 a year of even the faintest niggle/cold can end in such a state. But it obviously shouldn't be forgotten there aren't many more physically demanding settings than not only doing a marathon, but smashing one at that pace.
If I ever dreamed of doing one, It'd be very much in what Jonas often does, or what AG did at MK, a cruise round job . With possibly, some added waves to the crowd, and "I could do it faster if I fancied..probably" disclaimers to anyone who'd listen.
I suppose, you did walk away 30mins after fairly comfortably, and I can relate to how it feels to be utterly ruined on a finish line, in difficultings, but then still walk off! Hopefully your next race isn't 9months + on though.
Ric, you'll be back, just gotta soak up the bad, get into rehab mode and go again. But you know all that better than anyone. You've probably had spells not racing longer than me... 1 race in the whole of 2007, and no races in 9 months etc...you'll be back, I'd bet Phil/Lit's stalking fame on it. (I bet between them, within hours of getting home, they'd already stalked out times of at least 50 people between them
)
AG, I can't even remember if you've done a report, but someone told me your time, and it's a goodun son. Could this be a watershed? Putting down a proper time, after proper training, after all the chicanery, boobery, grandstanding and bravado?
I like it.
aside from that, usual Monday 6&4, seemingly, as it was, is and ever more shalt be.
Only interesting thing on the horizon is training a bunch of women (and one lovely boy) at work.
Starts on Wed, and a decent mix, one has done a marathon (5.10 last time out), but most run regularly, and/or do spin/gym/bootcamp type stuff.
Looking to relive the Marlow training days, rather than the Moraghan days with them! They aint gonna be doing the sessions me/Lit/Skinny were doing obviously... but I'm looking at a rough plan of
Intros.... make sure they know to STOP if they feel any pain, let me know/take a break if anything too taxing etc...
Any thoughts from people, pitfalls, other suggestions?
Trying to make it fun as well as intense. But then I am an intense bastad, so it might be a mission