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Shades Marathon Training
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Shades, yeah I'm not sure about Dorney either in terms of the laps. I'll see what I think when I get there.
Regarding tapering, it's interesting as I think in the past I've eased off too much as well. If I'm not careful, I start to feel quite lethargic, especially with the carb loading!
Well, I went and did my reps. It was a bit earlier in the day than planned but I'm now going out this evening, so got it done earlier. I programmed the watch for 8x0.25m reps, with 0.13m recovery (basically 400m reps with 200m recovery) and the 400m efforts were up and down a flat piece of road. I was aiming for between 90 and 100secs and the efforts were: 99secs, 85, 86, 85, 85, 85, 88, 85. So a bit quick and I was hanging on at the end of the last two, but pretty consistent I suppose, apart from the first one where I was just checking what the 400m actually felt like! If I was doing 10 or 12 reps, I'd have got a bit slower I think. Anyway, I'm pleased with that. With the warmup and cool down it was just over 5 miles, so just over 10 miles for the day.
12 miles today,felt good again,pretty easy and good pace and effort level.I checked my last 4 long runs and they come out about 40ft of climb per mile so not far off,just need a hill or 2 more.
Ian - well the 2nd week you put 30 miles, that's now a low mileage figure for you so I thought it was OK. It seems to be that those that recover most quickly from races need less of a taper and you recover very quickly. But by all means experiment with what feels right for you.
I think adequate sleep, no skipped meals, good hydration and preferably no alcohol are more important the week before than a drastic reduction in mileage
I don't taper well, my last 2 marathon PB's were done when I'd run a marathon the week before and one of those had been a PB too.
You're doing those undulating routes now without even noticing the odd hill.
Big G - there really is no hope for you at all now.......
A few years ago, when I was running a lot of events, someone at our club asked me what did I do about tapering. I replied 'I don't run on Saturdays.'
I've been out for a couple of slow run/walks this week. Still keeping to the 4min run, 1 min walk formula as I just want to build up base fitness again. No running yesterday though - the rain at the athletics was replicated outside our door! Sunny and warm again today
It was odd watching the world athletics in that rain, especially as it was dry and sunny here
Ian - I'm hoping those hilly runs will help stop any future cramping of your legs in the latter stages of the marathon that you've suffered before.
I might just remind you about DD
John - I've bought many shoes on line without trying them first, can you send them back for a smaller size? It's always a bit more risky if it's an unknown brand to you as the sizing varies a lot between brands. Some of the Puma models get great reviews and I'd like to try them myself.
A very gentle 3-miles this morning. Legs were a bit tight after the 400s yesterday, but felt better after the run this morning. I've got Forest Flyer race tonight, and there will be a lot of Trotters there as it's a Club Champs race.
Gloucester email:
After the race Sunday we wanted to contact you to personally apologise and address some of the feedback we received.
Before we go onto address the issues and explain some of the reasons, from Andrea and myself who are both runners we are truly sorry and very upset with some of the issues you faced. By way of apology we would like to give you a huge discount for next years race so that we can show you we have listened to all your comments and because its just the two of us we take everything really personally.
The main issues...
1 Toilets – we had 26 at the start and 6 on course but we need better signage around the event village
2. Bag Drop – Better signage needed
3. Start Line & Pens – Was last minute and not visable. This will be set up the day before by Events Crew and be very prominent
4. Mile Markers – We completely forgot the Half Marathon markers so after mile 4 they were only on the full. Some of these even went walkabouts. Signs now ordered for the Half
5. Water – This is a big one. We clearly underestimated the requirements at stations 1 & 2 where the full & half both required water. There is no excuse for this other than choosing to use cups rather than bottles to please the residents with the litter situation we had last year with bottles. Next year we will go back to bottles that are quicker and easier to hand out and are easier to calculate how many we need.
6. Pacers – Our Pacers did an amazing job and were all spot on time but because of the poor start and late pen design you guys struggled to locate you pacer.
7. Timings – This is a tough one as things sometimes go wrong luckily we had back up timing and were able to get the data eventually. I’m fairly certain this will be spot on next year.
This was the second year for the GCM and we still expect to have some teething problems especially as we also chose to add a half distance this year, which in hindsight was a probably too big a task to take on for a small event company without drafting in help.
We run and manage and the event on our own with the help of a few friends and volunteers and our charity partner Young Gloucestershire. We have decided to hold the half in 2018 and make this run smoothly before reintroducing the full in 2019.
With 10 days left in the lead up to the event our Traffic Management company Link Highways pulled out and we were advised by the local council to postpone the event.
We know that so many people were looking forward to the event and that many of you have booked and paid for accommodation etc so we spent this last week trying find a replacement Traffic Management company.
Luckily Hooke Highways stepped up with only a week to go and hopefully you’ll agree that to the best part they did a great job. However the time spent sourcing a company at a late stage and filling them in on the TM plan was time we needed on other important tasks.
This has made us realise we need to a bigger team to make an event of this size run smoothly and we want to take the issues from 2017 and show you that we care very much about our customers and want you to come back in 2018 and have a fantastic race. We have enlisted the help of Event Crew who look after Ironman UK to set up our start, finish and event village for 2018.
We hope this at least gives you an understanding of our situation, we don't want to make excuses & we genuinely want to make amends and show you all what we can do next year. We love our City and really want this event to be a success and hope we get your support.
Did my early morning yoga class yesterday - no run - and 6 miles easy today. I was planning on using the playground but there was a man cleaning it with a leaf blower-type thing so I just did my heel drops and got out of there. I actually felt quite tired so it didn't take much to dissuade me.
Shades - Yes, it is a drastic taper. I used the plan I used for my last ultra but added mileage, but didn't adjust the taper mileage too
Ian - Those hilly routes will have you running strong in the final 10k of the marathon!
Rest day today, half a day at work then travelling to hotel, which is close to the finish.
Cal - apart from the water IMHO (from what I've heard)I don't think they had any other serious issues. Although their traffic management company pulled out I have seen no complaints regarding that which could have been a serious safety issue. This was only the 2nd year for Gloucester and last year it was only a marathon, a half marathon attracts more novices they have little race experience and of course a huge increase in the number of runners.
Steve - good luck for tomorrow's race
Signing off now, off to IOM later today and need to pack and the dreaded drive to an airport in August
There were some strange complaints from some runners. I wonder if people were annoyed about the water situation, and then just found other things to complain about. For example, signage for the start area and baggage was fine - it was pretty obvious where those areas were, to me, so not sure why people were complaining about that. Toilets are always an issue - even London, they could always do with more!
Best of luck with the travel and IOM marathon!
Steve-Good luck with your race also,sounds like you've had a great training cycle.
Easy 5 miles today just to keep the legs going,I actually feel like I could do a marathon now as my fitness feels really good,but I haven't got to 20 since my ultra but done lots of 16 and 18 and total mileage is lot higher than usual.
Good luck to Shadies racing or running long this weekend
He does marathons around three different lakes, and I've done two of the lakes. Caldecotte is roughly 3.5-mile laps, and I'd say there is about 200m of offroad per lap (some grass and a gravel path) - the rest is on good paths. Willen Lake is about 3-mile laps and from memory there is no offroad - it's all on cycle paths, but one in particular is narrow so you may have to go on the grass if there are other path users.
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I did a trail race called Forset Flyer this evening. It's 4.8 miles long, and goes through Haldon Forest, and it really is a cracking route. The first 3-miles are undulating, mile 3-4 is steep down hill, which of course means that 4-4.8 is steep back up hill. I was really pleased with how I ran it and finished in 37:17 on my watch. Last time I did it in 2015 I finished in 37:13, but that wasn't after a marathon and a 400m rep session. Quite happy with that really.
Ian - i've done a lot of Enigma's. It's a low key race and you'll need to bring your own stuff along. There's about 200m stretch on grass, the rest is on pavement so you're fine. It's 7 and abit laps and you share that with other park users so just to be aware of that.
Shades - please add me to: MCM Marathon Washington DC - 22. October
Evie is doing so well and recovering really well. B has offered to watch her tomorrow morning so i can run the dogs. I can't wait!
Emmy I'm at the IOM not the IOW. One day I will go back to the IOW to do their marathon but not this yesr.
Awful as predicted drive to the airport nearly 3 hours for 80 miles but l had allowed plenty time. After that sll went smoothly had a good flight. Got a brand new Fiesta as my hire car, it is nice drivivg a new car. B & B is lovely, big room and big bathroom only ten minutes drive to race venue. Will pick up my race number this morning then spend tge rest of the day visiting my favourite places on the island.
Ian, it may have changed since Emmy was doing lots of Enigma marathons, but the ones I've been to all had bottled water and nibbles (crisps, nuts etc) each lap. But if you want your own gels, you'll need to take those. Also, they have a gazebo where you can leave a bag if you don't want to carry too much with you. Some people leave a massive cool box full of stuff!
I did a parkrun this morning with 1.5 miles either side of it, all at an easy pace. I can't say I overly enjoyed the run, but I got it done.
We were talking about tapering the other day. Looking back, I did that Enigma marathon on the Saturday, did a recovery run on the Sunday, took Monday off but then ran every day between Tuesday (that 5K race I did) and the following Monday, which included Sunday's Gloucester Marathon. I hadn't planned to do that, and when I looked back I was surprised I had ran each day before a marathon, but it's just what I felt like doing. I know I had planned to take the Friday off but I felt twitchy that evening, so went out for a simple 12x45sec speed session on the Friday to turn the legs over.
I think that's one thing I would say about tapering - don't be too afraid to do a bit of speed work if you want. If you reduce the mileage, a speed session on the Weds/Thurs won't do any harm I wouldn't have thought (obviously warm up to avoid injury). I don't mean go eyeballs out, but just to get the legs turning over and the heart race up, to leave you feeling invigorated more than anything. Just my opinion, and I suppose we all react differently to these things.
Did my usual parkrun today. Yesterday was nice and fresh. Tomorrow also promises to be nice and fresh. Of course, today was warm and muggy. Typical. Nothing too spectacular from me. I pushed but did not go all out. 27:35 (by my watch) which meant I'd averaged HM pace. I did spend 6 or 7 seconds at the start waiting for people to move, though. Tooting Common is not a PB course any more for this reason (unless you start at the front).
Big G-Well done on the race,not my cup of tea at all though.
Shades-Enjoy your day.
Last minute decision to go to parkrun today,decided to run at projected pace for tomorrow and came in at 22.47,felt pretty good so happy with that.I decided to have a sprint the last 200 mtrs and overtook about 8 people which is always nice.
Unexpectedly, I won my age category today. So that's something at least.
Beautiful day today, so out at 6:30am for a 15 mile run. Felt very sluggish and heavy legged to start with, which I blame on only getting 5 hours sleep. (Watching the athletics last night left me a bit too wired to go to bed at my usual time so it was nearly 12 when I put the lights out. Still woke up at 5).
Kept within easy pace parameters though I had a slightly faster mile at 7 (10:22) and then two slower miles at 10 and 11 (both just over 11 minute miles) though those included the flight of steps and the rooty woods. At mile 12 I actually felt my legs wake up and then did mile 13 at 10:16 (a second over MP). 14 was back to easy pace but it was a bit uphill and I fumbled my water bottle and had to pick it up.
I decided to gun the last mile to see what was left in the tank after two and a half hours and ran it in 9:27. It felt faster to me but my paces have been off all summer and I still think that's reasonable for the 15th mile.
Had a nice hot bath after, with Epsom salts, a protein shake (rhubarb and custard flavour, Shades...always treat myself to my favourite flavour after a good run) and a copy of P&D for inspiration. Was thinking of going to Yin later, but not sure if I can be arsed. It's a different instructor and he doesn't do as much of the stretching as I like.