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The fastest course local to be is definitely Long Eaton, which is ranked at 86th on the link with an elevation of 73 feet. This puts it below two other local courses (Colwick and Beeston) but they are considerably slower than LE, mainly due to the terrain and also at Beeston there is a 180 degree switchback to negotiate. Long Eaton is two laps of a figure of 8 course on smooth tarmac paths which makes it so much quicker.
I've ran a few of the courses which feature with the most elevation gain including Mount Edgcombe which has 483 feet making it the second hilliest and that was tough going. I'll hopefully be able to give Lanhydrock a go later this summer and I'll be able to see how the two compare. Having had to grind out over 1000ft of climbing in less than two miles on Saturday I'm sure this will feel easy in comparison.
Very flat but only about 20 yards of tarmac and another 20 of grass, the rest is gravel. There's some building work going on there at the moment too which explains a lot of pb's there on Saturday - Connect shows the course is now just 4790mtrs !!
35M last week over 5 runs including an 8M and a 12M ..... new highs for 2017 !!
Tommy nice double up racing there.
Bit of an odd question but does anyone have any solutions for not getting covered in sticky gels doing long runs on a hot day? I'm finding they kind of melt and I'm using them without water so I'm basically ending up a sticky mess which is really quite unpleasant.
Apparently the data was taken from some kind of uk footpaths database, which is already established as very wrong. I have heard that there are now facebook parkrun groups repeating the exercise using runners gps data.
Good going, Mace, you'll soon be back at 80 mile weeks!
10 miles easy yesterday lunchtime. Wilted quite a bit in the second half in the heat.
Weight is now back down to 11,2, however, according to various devices available to me my bodyfat is reduced. My fitbit scales show about 2% less than over spring and the bodytrax device at the gym says I am carrying 2kg less fat mass. My own press-up challenge is progressing nicely, hit 80 this morning.
I use jellybabies Mr V. When I used gels I encountered the same issue and the best solution I came up with was using my hair to at least wipe it off my hands!
I would avoid getting sticky by not bothering to take any gels with me.
Good work Mace, I trust it's all feeling easier too.
Mr V, I rehearsed with gels twice, poorly. Sure there is knack to it, but I never found it. At least in the races there is water around to wash your hands. Otherwise in training it's a tradeoff between sticky hands and sticky t-shirt.
I managed a brisk 5k, a 5 mile fartlek and around 7.5 miles of easy so far this week. Looking forward to some gym work at lunchtime and then a recovery jog this evening. Long-ish run with a bit of marathon effort planned for tomorrow night, so easy does it today.
Lit had to google that but looks very nice. I can imagine there's some very pleasant running to be done. Do you take gels in an actual marathon though? I wouldn't bother on long runs but feel I should practice for the race having never done one before.
Am I alone in being able to eat the gels without getting sticky hands? Maybe because I don't run as fas tas the rest of you over a marathon.
Mr V - I'm up at a wedding just south of Middlesbrough in a few weeks, I was going to head to Stewart parkrun but could be tempted by Albert if you think it's a decent course?
Club track champs tonight - hopefully all my bones stay on one piece. Only doing the Mile though so hopefully no dipping for the line required.
Interesting break down there Tommy! And like mentioned, not quite a guide on "fast" nature of the course, but still very interesting.
Fulham Palace is one that many down my way rate as some sort of super fast course.
407th on this list! And looks like a dodgy 3 lapper with a climb on each!
Similar scenario for Black Park though a lot higher up, seems to be a lot of small ups and downs (I got it on a boggy day years ago too)
Meanwhile Dulwich (pb course) doesn't figure too high up the "No elevation" list either
At least South Oxhey (302) 3 lapper with a steep hill, and Gadesbridge (374) look as severe as they felt at the time!
Lanhydrock must make you feel like an absolute don...for half the run!
I've just checked my Strava and that has Mount Edgcombe as 621 feet of elevation gain and not the 435 that site reckons. It must depend what base map they are using to calculate the elevations. Still useful as a rough guide.
Mr V - Cheers, might head to Albert parkrun then.
Didn't end up running in the mile last night, wasn't feeling 100% and with thunder run this weekend I thought better of it.
I didn't know what thunder run was, so googled it. It said something about a 24 hour ultra marathon
yes there are a team from my parkrun going, all comfortably sub 40 10k runners, with the aim of winning it.
Planning a tempo run tonight after work, probably a bit faster than mp. Hopefully it will remain cloudy and miserable.
Surprisingly good run last night. Went out a bit undecided between mp or long tempo. First mile came in at 6.40 which was long tempo pace but not really long tempo effort so I pushed on a bit so ended up with 5 miles at 6.35 average for 163 hr which is bottom of long tempo hr range. As good a training run statistically as I can recall which suggests that there is little wrong with my fitness following Droitwich last week.
In other news, following initial disappointment missing out on the vaporfly 4% which sold out in about 45 minutes yesterday morning, I stumbled across a pair on sweatshop last night. I've never spent £200 on any item of clothing so they better be good!!
38 mile week off 5 runs including an 8.5 and a 14 @ 8:45/M ( 129 av HR so nice and easy ) yesterday
Getting there :-)
Following Thursday's tempo I decided to parkrun Saturday. 19.05 for my 4th fastest and 6 seconds off pb. So I think Droitwich 10k was definitely a blip.
20 this morning at 7.55 pace. Was nice and easy until Sun came out around 11 miles in. Been a decent weeks training.
Just as I was running down my street a delivery man was at my door with my magic daps.
I'm looking forward to hearing all about thunder run off Tommy. I heard that the rain started early doors from about 3rd lap and it turned into a swamp.
DT - You seem to be going well, Droitwich excluded. Be interested to hear your opinion of the vaporfly. I'm expecting something special for 200 quid!
21 for me this morning at 7.35 pace. Was feeling it a bit in the last couple of miles but it brought up 66 for the week so no surprises there. Biggest week mileage wise for me for a long time, possibly ever.
Great long runs and mileage Mr V and DT. But what the heck are magic daps? Did I miss something?
Mace - great to see. Any plans for a race any time soon?
Mr V - seems like you're coping well with marathon training, how long till race day?
DT - Another 20 and still fairly early in the training plan. Nice parkrun.
Muddy - tidy LSR.
So...Thunder Run 2017. As I mentioned last week, the men's team (of 5) from our club had come 3rd last year with a total of 31 laps. The team this year (which only featured 1 member of last years team) was aiming for 32 laps and to improve on last years 3rd place.
Arrived at Catton Park in Staffordshire on Saturday morning in bright sunshine, although things were a bit damp from the heavy rain the previous night. Our star man lead us off and started off with a 39 minute 10k lap, which was a decent start but his feedback about how tricky the course was and how it would deteriorate over time were concerning.
I was fifth on our rota and as such I got to start my first lap just as the rain had started. Excellent. The course was entirely cross country and plenty of hills and narrow tracks through woods etc and very very twisty which meant getting into a decent stride impossible. First lap came out at 44 minutes but I had to put in a decent effort to get 44 minutes. By the end of our first rotation we were in 9th place in the men's small team category.
From then on, the rain never relented until mid morning on Sunday. The ground conditions deteriorated so it was just a total mudbath. It was brutal. Here's a summary of my laps:
Lap 2 - 47 minutes. Wrong shoes. conditions so much worse than first lap. Team moved up to third place.
Lap 3 - 48 minutes. Had put on fell shoes and they were handling the mud very well. My mate ame over to pace me for this lap, however, he'd paced another guy the lap before and was struggling to stick with me so I had to drop him after 4k. He's just ran a sub 18 5k so he's no slouch but not so good the hills. Team moved up to second place. Team in 3rd.
Lap 4 - 56 minutes. Rain at its heaviest. Couldn't see where I was going. Getting windier. People falling all over the place. Nearly vomit after I finish the lap. Team in second.
Lap 5- 52 minutes. It's light, which makes things a bit easier. Still raining. Not very much fun. Team in second but being caught by team in third.
Lap 6 56 minutes. Stopped raining, wahoo! However, mud very sticky and my legs are shot. Feel completely spent. Have a little lie down at the finish and consume. Team in third. Just need our star man to finish the lap to secure the spot.
12:15 on Sunday, our team finish in 3rd. 11minutes behind second and a full lap behind the winners. Think we were 30 minutes ahead of 4th.
14:00 - award ceremony in bright sunshine drinking a delicious pint of lager.
Totally different experience to the last 24 hour team race I did where it was dry all the time, we had a fire pit to sit round etc. Which I really enjoyed despite doing 70k. This was just totally savage. Getting piss wet through and covered in mud time and time again and the git of a course just made it bloody hard.
How did your parkrun team get on at Thunder Run, DT?
Skinny, next time you do a table update can I have the hardest ever earned team prize point to grace the TTT? Last year the 3rd placed team all get a pair of adidas trainers, can you guess what we won this year...
Magic daps- Vaporfly 4%. Mr v, I am expecting a world of magic. I will do 5 at mp Wednesday lunchtime to get a feel for them.
Good long running, Muddy. I managed 43 for the week so my highest in some time.
Tommy, I was 'watching' it unfold on strava over the weekend and could see the times dropping dramatically. The guys I know came 4th with 29 laps. One of their runners picked up an injury at lap 3 and looking at times, it appears that was their best man as his later laps dropped with the weather but disproportionately compared to others. It sounds like anything but fun to me. I am assuming that the weather wasn't a surprise and you were well equipped?
DT - the weather forecast was for a bit of rain but nothing like what we experienced. I was prepared in that I had plenty of changes of clothes and waterproofs etc but I only ever ran in either a vest or a t shirt as it wasn't actually that cold when running.
Guess your guys were Wu Tang Ran then? They were ahead of us until the middle of the night and then started to drop away noticeably. We had wondered what had happened to them.
Something I forgot to mention is that at one point in the middle of the night a guy went off course and ended up falling down a cattle grid and broke his leg, poor bloke. He was back on site on the Sunday morning in a cast.