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GM - yes, I do run on my own virtually all the time - can't think why! Good pace for your lunchtime run. Might even try one myself today!
Jools - good recovery week.
Andy - good pacing on your club run - sounds like fun. All the best with the taper and then onto Comrades!
Leslie - nice recovery run.
Miss GD the younger's birthday today, so no run early doors. But she wanted to be at school early ready for a GCSE exam. So I took the opportunity to do a few laps of the block by the office before starting work. Only time for about 2 miles, so might nip out for another 3 at lunchtime. It's hot out there!
5 laps of the block d&d with tempo efforts on the "long" sides of the last three. Roughly 3 miles @ 7:27 m/m (no time to wait for the GPS to pick up a signal with just a 30 min lunchbreak!) It's about 21C out there and no showers at the office
Jools - That sounds like a nice plan. As you say, it will be interesting to see the outcome with a change of focus.
Gul - I realise that you run super early most mornings but do you have any buddy's you can run with on the w/end's or are you happy doing your own thing? I like solo runs but I also enjoy company especially on the longer ones. Eww, I could not run in 21c and not have a shower afterwards and then get changed into work clothes, no ways! I hope you were able to cool off afterwards.
4 miles barefoot along the waters edge on the beach today, similar weather here except for slightly warmer, 23c and muggy too. 1 slow mile and then 3 around 7mm pace with a pal who opted to run in his shoes.
Jools - Yes, the nail varnish definitely has a dual purpose. In fact the worse the bruising, the darker I go. I have just one bruised nail at the moment as Gul rightly spotted so went for a brighter red. Good luck with chasing shorter course PBs. I will probably have to focus on short stuff when I start building back and will do the same. I think I'll do a Couch to 5K thing then a 10K, and then keep honing speed until I feel my cadence is back where it used to be before building up to a 10 mile/HM focus. It will be interesting to see what speeds I can eke out from my older body.
Andy - sounds like a great effort on your 21 miler. Talk to us about your current choice of shoes and thoughts on nutrition. I am a vegetarian sometimes pescatarian and am often scrabbling for the perfect balance. I'm well aware I don't get the right amount of protein in and think this needs addressing to help recovery and not hinder performance. I know BB went vegan a while ago and found it a challenge. Would be interested to know what everyone else does here and what tips any vegan/veggies have.
Leslie - sadly I have to wear the boot for another month until I can say goodbye to it. But is is nice to be able to air the leg and foot from time to time. In fact, I did this last night and showed MsEtte2 who said "it looks like Moana's ankle."
Glad to hear your legs are feeling better, Leslie. Not long to go now!
Gul - Wishing Miss GD a happy birthday! What a shame to have her first GCSE on her special day. And perhaps have some handy wipes to hand next time?
Taking MsEsq to his first physio appointment today with it being three weeks since his shoulder surgery. Onwards and upwards we go in our household!
Interesting point about kerbs and pavements. I prefer to run on the road and tend to do so when out on my own. If the road is better than the pavement during a race, I use the road unless a marshal tells me and also if it appears sensible to do so: if the road is empty I am on the road, if it is for immediate safety I will obey.
Gerard nice paddling along the beach, warm here too was 15c at 5am yesterday and around 20 later on. Cooler this morn at 8c though but nice and dry and sun rising.
MSE that's the sort of butch ankles you need.
7 mile with some strides today 8:32 av.
MsE - good pics and they show that patience and fortitude are among a runner's most important qualities. Pretty un-manky nails too by marathon running standards.
OO for the first time in 5 yrs I will be able to smack you down at the Coastal. These lightweight aero titanium zimmers allow EOGs to glide through the field.
No running here but about to set out for 50 or so on the bike
Slokey - I took your advice, mortgaged the house, sold the family into slavery, flogged a kidney and 6 pints of blood on EBay- that's what it took to afford Rapha shorts
Who has a big race coming up?
(... burrows around and produces this!)
PMJ - the choice between pavement and road is usually down to the state of repair, especially if it's on the dark side. A further factor this morning was the location of large puddles.
Leslie - enjoy the strides?
MsE - Great inscription there!
Waking up to the sound of torrential rain isn't great (unless you're have a lie-in!) However it had eased up by the time I was out this morning, so didn't get too wet. 10 miles @ 8:18 m/m.
MsE - I was going to post the name of that book too, I also have it, although I am not veggie. I was given it as a present. It's very good! And I do recall you saying something about him when you lived in the U.S. The half is June 11. Yes, my office is about 150m from the promenade and beach. I'm very lazy though and should probably do a bit more stretching. The wonky feeling was probably down to having done 11 & 12 milers within 4 days of each other. My body is getting used to running for longer than say 20 or 40 mins again. I'm not certain I will make the start line though as I have a few niggles and if I can't do the sessions in the next few weeks then I won't bother. I also don't want to compromise the start of my marathon training if I am not fully fit to race but we'll see how it goes. I will put it to test tomorrow eve with a 15 miler which will consist of.. 8 progressive miles (4 uphill on a trail) 5 at HMP and then 2 w/d. No idea what HMP will be but I'd hope for around 6:4x at the mo.
Gul - A friend of mine does his MLR's early morning too. I just can't get going then, especially in winter. Another nice double digit run.
PMJ - A lot of the pavements here are quite narrow and I much prefer running on the flat road, although it can be tricky as there are far too many cars over here. I'm lucky that I don't have to run on the road at all but I do chose to sometimes.
I like the sound of a barefoot beach run GM, could have done with that last night.
Club session last nice was away from the track and on the local common instead.
Coach marked out distances of 200,175,150,125 and 100 metres. We had to start from the 200, run fast and strong and concentrate on form then jog back to the start and go again. 4 reps at each distance.
It was warm and muggy last night and we got a good sweat going. With running there and back I banked over 7 miles. Could feel the race from Sunday in my legs but apart from tight hammies, injury niggles of the past few months are much better. Just goes to show what a solid 2 weeks off and easy comeback can do.
Lots more strengthening exercises here and I'll do a 'test run' tomorrow
Leslie H - I think 2s out was more down to dumb luck than cheating! I don't think anyone could be that accurate over that course, though in the main the majority of the results were in the +/- 5 minutes range
MsE - shoes have never been a major, serious, worry, but it is one of my most frequent things to worry about in race build-up. I did all my training for London in Kinvara 7's, and then bought some Kinvara 8's a month before with the intent that these would be my race shoe. Two weeks to go, I convinced myself that the 8's were causing achilles niggles, so bought another pace of 7's, then spent two weeks fretting over which to wear; took both to London and pretty much tossed a coin on the Sunday morning (8's). No doubt I shall do the same for Comrades. It's the main reason why I've never bought some X-country spikes - I couldn't face all the decisions about choice of spike length before the race!
Nutrition - for marathons I'm sorted; 1 gel every 5 miles. For all the longer races I've done, these have been largely self supported so I've carried my own food (bananas, flapjacks) in a backpack. For Comrades I don't want to carry a backpack, but neither do I want to eat gels every 5 miles as this would be too much for the gut. So I'm trying to work out a mixture of flapjacks, grazing at the water stations and a couple of gels for emergency use.
Poacher - yes, that's the one. It's a nice little surprise for people at mile 11 on the half marathon! Many thanks for the comments re Inchanga and Polly S, I may not fully believe you, but its what I wanted to hear!
Bike It - snap, I lost 3 in a single 6m race once; which takes me right back to choice of shoes!! :-)
Andy - never got round to running Buxton HM, wondering how it compares for lumpiness with others locally e.g. Ashbourne or Macc?
As for Comrades, it's far too long for most people to stomach endless sweet stuff. You will be offered boiled potatoes dipped in salt, which are OK, although oranges dipped in salt are less good. Flat coke is also widely available - better than it sounds. Many locals set up a braai (barbecue) by the road but it would be a brave runner who accepted burgers or sausages. Main thing of course is to enjoy the craic.
Birch - are you a Wednesday fan? If so, fingers crossed.
86m on the bike today. Getting there slowly.
Bike It - hope the test run is positive.
Poacher - even more impressive book signing. Are you referring to the obvious big story, or is there a story behind the book signing?
Birch - unlucky. My wife's family are from South Yorkshire and mine from West Yorkshire. Good job we're not football fans!
11 mile MLR this morning with 7 @ MP which came out as a progressive run. So 3M w/u, then 7M @ avg. of 7:15m/m (7:32 to 7:07), and 1M w/d.
Gul coming back strong now , my strides were hard work but nice to get moving a bit faster after a few days slow plodding. 3x 5am starts the days after are not the way to recover from a half !
14m at 7:44 average
9m easy/steady then 4 progression 7:30, 7:21, 6:59, 6:28, 1 easy to finish, normal service is resumed well mostly .
tempted by a fast 5k 1 week before mara but must resist so booked a 10m for late june and another half for july.
My gels have arrived so need to try some on the last long run this week.
Coming of nightshift 4 days before and running a 21miler as soon as I got up on the wed was not ideal prep and with very little cutback (75m week) I was struggling to recover in time for the race.
Plan was first mile in 6:30 and 2nd in 6:20 then see if it's possible to hold this pace.
The start was delayed 17 mins due to people collecting their numbers and being late and all I could think about was needing a P if we were any longer ! We were also having all 4 seasons every 15 mins with rain , hot sun , cold wind which felt like it would turn to hail soon .
I was about 4 rows behind the front runners - 2 kenyans and clear winners by a mile (66 min men ) Looking round 3rd was a v45 who runs 70 mins-that's the podium taken care off lol .
We were off and after I got out of the start funnel it seemed now about 300 people were now in front of me ,how was this possible in 20metres ??? the start did appear slow and the first mile I was passing people in droves using the footpath where needed .First 2 miles were round the town with lots of turns and 6:22 and then 6:25 suggested 6:20 was too hot for me so I eased of or so I thought.
Not long into Mile 3 garmin was reporting 6:05 ,my legs had freed of at last and it was time to ease up for a 6:17 , a tall guy with a very long stride seemed to be pacing well and as a bonus was an excellent windbreak so I followed him as best I could .
The race crosses over the border into the rep of Ireland as its a cross community race and we were soon into a few small hills which slowed us to 6:30 uphill making the time back up on the way back down with some 6:15 milling but staying with tall man was proving increasingly difficult and a small but widening gap was forming as we came back into town.
Nice bit of crowd support as we came back into Northern Ireland again and a club runner in front stops in middle of road walks to the grass verge and lies down ,must have went off too fast then at mile 9 come across another clutching his side ,painful stitch I guess .
A small race between myself and another club runner was going on with each taking and then losing the lead for a 1/2 mile at a time neither could make anything off it !
A few more little hills then flat most of the way back and at mile 12 I tried to lift it a bit and 2 runners in front were passed with a surge and in the distance another guy was struggling so I soon caught him too .
Back over a hump backed bridge which seemed very steep and a sharp turn left on the down side which I took very wide and nearly into a parked car ,people were closing in on me now as we got onto the track for 1/2 lap to finish.
I picked it up going into the last turn, my legs really didn't want too. but then 2 guys went passed me like I was stopped ,full after burners on now but I could only catch their heels into the finish despite 5m/mile milling, they were shifting !
Over the finish and I was feeling unwell for a few secs after that sprint and was a bit shakey but soon recovered for a 1 mile cooldown. A quick stalk and one of the guys who passed ran a 1:19 half in march so was taking it easy at 1:23 ! The rain had stayed of and it was a very nice day for a fast run.The race was hard work from the start due to tired legs and I'm sure with a taper there is more to come .
Birch - So close, must have been hugely exciting and disappointing at the same time.
Poacher - That's cool! 86 miles in the saddle.
Gul - Very nice run there.
Leslie - Nice run and I enjoyed reading about your cross border run. A great time off tired legs.
1-2 8:22 avg pace
3-4 8:11 "
5-6 7:51 "
7-8 7:38 "
9-13 6:34 "
Excellent report, Leslie, and again , fine performance after a big week . . . .
Poacher - 86 is a lot of miles . . . . .
recovered from the footy with a 15 miler in my daughter's company . . . .
book signings- nice one from Dr Ron
Ron signed this before the 1995 London Marathon - saying "please don't break my UK Vets record of 2:15:46 --- well, I only just missed it (by a mere 38 mins ! )
Andy - I used to live in SA and know lots of friends and family who have done it. I hope you can relax a bit and enjoy it. It's not something I have ever wanted to do but it's steeped in tradition as far as road ultras go and I love watching the race. Have you read The Lore of running?
GM - great running.
Birch - good to get a 15 miler in. Another great book signing - sounds like your had Ron worried!
I can't compete with all these signings. The best I can do is an early Ultravox single signed by John Foxx - not in the slightest bit running related!
8 slow miles to give the legs a bit of recovery this morning.
Went for a 5 miler in the rain last night. Got to the end of the road and my breathing wasn't quite right. Then realised I hadn't taken my inhaler, D'oh! Having exercise induced asthma isn't great when breathing is a big part of the exercise! Anyway, couldn't be ar$ed to go back and get it, so ploughed on and it eased a little. Enjoyed the rain but could feel Sunday's 10k and Tuesdays speed session in the legs. Averaged 6.54 pace and enjoyed running in the wet weather.
Have a good weekend of running, Gang!
Your work set up sounds beautiful, Gerard. Not sure the hilly warm up miles before the HMP miles is the best way to set yourself up to find a true pace but also a good idea to test run the course itself. So I think you can feel very pleased with that effort as it seemed to feel very comfortable for you. I can't decide whether it is best to train easy and race hard or train hard and race easy. Does this change with experience and time perhaps?
GD - so pleased to hear your niggles are a thing of the past. Importantly it sounds as if you have the measure of them now so can head them off at the first sign of them making a return. Glad you controlled the asthma on your run. I am asthmatic but don't tend to carry an inhaler with me as I find running clears the airways. Consciously controlling the breathing has been one of the best things for my asthma as a runner. I am still playing with what breathing pattern works best as I am convinced that when you get it right, you will feel like your are flying. You know those runs where you just flow? Yeah, well, those ones.
BI - what strengthening exercises are you doing?
Andy - I love the Kinvaras! My go to shoe has always been the 4s so I have bought all the ones I can find online at a discount. I am down to my last few pairs now so was worrying a bit as I didn't like the 5s or 6s. I tried the 7s and found them not too dissimilar to the 4s so have a pair of those ready for my return. Are the 8s an improvement in any way?
Poacher - I think I would rather have your book than mine. RB is an all time hero of mine. The way his generation just got up and fit in training around their lives and he went on to become a medic is inspirational. 86 miles (assume it was not 1 hour 26 mins) on the bike is impressive, not least for the volume of miles but also for sitting on the tiny rock hard saddle for that long.... (ouch).
Leslie - good work on getting those miles in in spite of the night shifts AS WELL AS great HM time. I did chuckle when you mentioned clocking the podium takers at the start. What gels are you trying out? Do you use caffeinated ones?
Birch - OK that book signing has to be the most impressive one with that inscription from the great Ron Hill.
More pilates and glutes strengthening now. First physio appointment yesterday where I was prescribed lots of glutes work. Luckily, this is what I have been doing, along with core and upper body work (ha ha! What I call my vanity spots!) given pilates is all I can do. I have another three weeks on crutches until I can weight bear at 100%. In the meantime, the right leg continues to shrivel (although at a slower rate since I have started to weight bear on that side now). See?
Birch a cracking time from you and Ron did ok as well !
Gul It could be worth a fortune in a few years .
Gdawg keep taking the drugs they are very important as you know.
MSE I got some high5 orange non caffeine ones as that's what I've used before but I haven't taken a gel in maybe 2 years , I haven't even had a breakfast before 99% of my runs this schedule including the mara paced ones which is totally different from all my other schedules over the few years I've been running but I will need every help I can get for the big one. I think the caffeine ones might be a bit sickening for me .
I knew who would win before race day same guys as last year and same 2 guys in most races over here during the summer , they are professional athletes and miles ahead of everybody local and winning everything.They will however have some competition in my mara from other kenyans ! The guy in 3rd wins if they don't show up which is still impressive if you are 45+ and running a regular 70 min half !
Not long now till you are back on both feet. Night Shifts are very tough at times but the time off makes up for it to some degree and that's when most of my hard sessions are done, I notice a huge difference in speed between dayshift and nightshift.
6 easy (8:12)