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P&D Autumn Marathon 2017
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NE - Solid MP run to kick off marathon training, looks like you're in great shape already.
Strong runs from spoons, Jolligan and SQ as well.
I ended up curled up coughing and with a fever pretty much all weekend. It's made it's way all round the family so it was inevitable. Gutted to be a DNS though for the city2surf, first time I've missed it in 7 years. Still held faint hopes of making it on Sat night but clearly wasn't going to happen. Hopefully can shake this off and be back running by midweek
Nice relaying HA - that pub food will go nicely with your argos voucher.
Spoons - absolutely nailed it at parkrun! an 18 second PB is massive, congratulations mate.
SQ - great racing last week and some big sessions in the last few days - very impressive.
Reg - saw the result on strava, very impressive. where are the middle distance champs next year?
John - so sorry to hear that, hope you feel better soon.
Stupidly busy weekend for me so not a huge amount of exercise. Crammed in my long, hilly bike ride friday morning (5 miles/80 miles) as was flying to Prague for a stag early Saturday. Managed a few early miles before heading to the airport, before consuming more beer and food than I have in a long, long time.
Flew back Sunday morning, got out on my bike for a bit, and then went to the athletics last night - good fun, enjoyed the relays. Knackered now, motivation levels for this mornings hill reps weren't at an all time high..
Nice mixing of life and training Joe, how's your motivation compared to Outlaw? The middle distance champs are apparently in Ibiza next October, so a long way off.
That's annoying John, GWS.
Joe - still haven't had the chance to read your blog yet, sorry. Will get to it though. Glad to see the mojo returning.
JCG - I find the dreadmill brutal. I usually end up cutting the session short purely through boredom.
Steve - feels like this taper of yours is going on forever. Have you raced yet?
HA77 - well done on the relays, and for knocking out these double sessions. They must be working wonders for your speed and endurance.
Nice racing AWC, SQ, Jooligan (enjoy China), spoons and Reg. Solid training sessions NE and SQ. Get well soon John.
MrsB was away on a hen this weekend so I was flying solo on the parental unit duties. Made it a struggle to get training in but didn't mind as was having so much fun. Still managed 80 miles for the week and feel like I might finally be starting to turn a corner as the spring in my step seems to be returning on the steady runs. Really enjoyed the world champs this last week too, it's been good for the motivation.
Great racing Reg. Great run but especially so considering your run of injuries. You mean StevieG's name isn't Stephen? We had a bit of a chat at the start then did a warm down together.
Good work squeezing training in around the stag Joe.
John - That's a real bummer about missing the city to surf. Hope you recover soon.
Good parkrunning Spoons and Jools and nice long runs NE and SQ.
No running over the weekend for me, apart from Junior Parkrun with the kids, but still managed my second 60 mile week on the trot, which is pretty good going for me. Back into it today.
Spoons & Jooligan - Great Parkruns!
Reg - Fantastic racing!!
Alan - Yes, taper was long, but I raced (if you call it that!) this weekend just gone.
Quick update from me.....went well! Finished 11th in 12 hours 22 minutes, really happy with that. Report to follow.
Macca, really enjoyed your race report, I know of a couple of other people who went off track. Very impressive to do it in a pair of old road shoes. Make sure you pack the right stuff for the A100.
John, a shame that you were ill, hope you get better soon.
Joe, hope you enjoyed the stag do. I'm on one later this week and don't plan on doing any running.
Alan, that's a decent weekly mileage. Building up nicely.
Jools / Spoons, a couple of good parkrun performances
Steve , well done on the ultra, looking forward to the report.
Reg, 6th place and first in AG, awesome result. Does that mean you will now be able to get some GB kit?
HA77, great win in the relay
NE, give it a couple of weeks and the speed should hopefully start to return.
I'll put up a full report at lunchtime (hopefully) but in short I finished 9th in 4:07 in my 50k, the quality of runner was very high this year.
Well done Steve, look forwardcto the report.
Well done Millsy. How do you judge 50k pace? MP+10%?
looking at my current form and previous results I thought if I have an incredible day I could be in with a chance of a 3:59:59 and a podium place. One of these things was within my control but the other one was dependent on who else turned up on the day. I'd heard in the week that there was already 1 quality runner doing it (he came second in a coastal race earlier in the year. The winner was a friend of mine who is a 2:40 marathoner and also 2nd at the 100 miler last week)
Feeling good I placed myself on the front line and had a look around, the first person I noticed was Holly Rush (international standard trail runner) and another guy who I've seen on the circuit who is a 2:4x something marathoner so immediately things were not looking good for one target so I decided to concentrate on the time and see where it got me. As a last resort I wanted to finish inside the top 10. So far I've always been inside in my 5 previous 50ks
The gun went and about 12 people (me included) shot off like a rocket.
The plan was to average 7.43 pace overall but would have to cater for the hills and tougher off road sections. I'd factored on looking at 7 min miles for the flat hard bits and then 8-8:30 on the mores difficult stuff. I was in about 6th place after the first mile and saw it beep with 6:43!!! Far too fast. I was hoping the pace would settle down in a bit. Mile 2, 7:03!! Mile 3 6:43 and I'd dropped back to 11th. I would barely get past half way if I kept on like that so I slowed down a bit and ran the next few mile at my own pace, in the hope that a few of the top 10 would fade. After 5 miles of flat, the next 10 were more off road and undulating. I spent most of this making my way through the top 20 of the marathon runners (the 50 does a 5 mile loop before joining the marathon course where they set off 30 mins after)
By 15 mile I had not managed to catch sight of another 50k runner and had started running with the 3rd placed marathoner (Jim Murray, for any MT listeners. A really nice chap who has done some amazing events). At half way I was still under target but knew that the next few miles would be tough as we made our way up onto the downs though long grass and a couple of fields. Jim dropped back a bit at this point and I was on my own for the next 6 miles. It was tough to keep the pace up running solo, the terrain didn't help nor the over ambitious first few miles.
At about 21 miles I overtook 10th place who had slowed quite a bit and then a couple of miles later I moved into 9th place. Again running solo, I came to the last big hill, out of a valley and up to the racecourse. I knew my pace was dropping but it was at this point that my average went slower than the plan.
Sub 4 was looking less likely but at my current pace I knew no-one in my race was catching me and I may still catch a few in the last 5 miles which were all on the road. At this point Jim (still 3rd in the Marathon) came past me and flew off into the distance, his comrades experience clearly showing.
As my watch crept up to 27miles I had to abandon the 4hr aim. Just grinding out 8:30 min miles felt like a tempo effort. I could just see 1 runner about 500 m ahead so tried to just focus on catching him. Unfortunately he managed to kick on and I never quite managed to close the gap. The last mile of the race goes right through the middle of the city and past the cathedral so it was a real effort to dodge at the tourists. Managed to get clouted by a massive rucksack as I tried to squeeze through a small gap and a surly looking child decide to walk right in front of my path, even though he saw me coming. I almost knocked him flying but managed to stop just in time. The last half mile was made a lot easier as the lead bike (who'd got the leaders back) came back and cleared a path for me. I mustered a decent sprint finish to clock 4:07 and 9th place (7th male) in the end it wasn't even a course PB but felt I had to give the sub 4 a good go even if it didn't pay off. I didn't really see the point in a sensibly pace 4:05 attempt.
looking at the results a 3:59 would only have got me in the top 6 anyway.
1st was 3:20 and 2nd and 3rd came in at 3:31 which was great running.
The finish area was great as nearly everyone in the club / parkrun group were running one of the distances so it was great to see loads of people doing running well and many had done their longest distance races ever.
A very easy running week for me now.
Alan, re the pacing, it depends of the course a bit but on effort I'd say a little easier than MP, but harder than a steady run.
Great effort Millsy. You can't control who turns up and it certainly sounds like the quality of the field was a lot higher this year. Always worth giving it a go, even if you don't quite get what you want - you'll always be wondering what might have been otherwise. I would've knocked the small child over - life lessons and all that.
Nice 8 miler for me at lunch. Feeling a bit sluggish post stag.
Straight back in to things NE! Nice work.
Great log run and MP session SQ.
Well done on the 6th place and GB quali Reg.
Get better soon JohnOz.
Still way more than most people would do on an empty week Joe, good job fitting it in.
Solid weekly mileage AlanB.
Congrats on the ultras SteveMac and Millsy.
The Vaporflys have finally arrived after what felt like a never-ending delivery saga. I’m never ordering from anywhere that uses Hermes to deliver ever again! Anyway, they look pretty cool although not used to such a big chunky outsole - they make the Supernova Glides look minimal.
Weight wise they are pretty impressive, 225g per shoe (size 10) on my scales so 25g lighter than the Adios (size 10.5) despite being much more built up, and nearly 100g lighter than the Supernovas. Although it must be said they are much heavier than the advertised 184g (that’s for size 9, but one size can’t make 40g difference surely!?)
I’ve had a wander around the house in them and they definitely feel a bit odd compared to normal shoes. Not as weird as some reviews have described them, just a bit unstable around the heel. I’ll take them out later this afternoon for a quick recovery run and will report back…
Cracking ultra-racing from SteveM & Millsy. Nice report too.
Awesome run off the back of that warm-up Reg for a smashing finish. Prizes too?
Sorry to hear your racing was curtailed by a virus JohnOz. Hopefully it'll go as suddenly as it arrived.
That's an impressive training stint you're stringing together at the moment SQ. Looks likely you'll be smashing Snowdonia this year. May see you at the start but guess you'll be long gone by the time I limp in.
Cracking first run NE, the audacity of it made me chuckle, but kudos for completing it.
Can't remember what you MP is AlanB but surprised to hear you say that you're only now 'turning a corner' as I recall your weekly training updates showing an increasing mileage at a faster pace & with less beats/mile to boot which struck me as enviably quick progress!
Really enjoyed the World champs. Shame the British team missed out by such tiny margins on medalling in so many events. Gutted for Mo too but I did wonder if he shouldn't have tried a different tack for once ran a bit harder throughout & then gone earlier with a K to go for instance. The relays were fantastic though it was a real shame to see Bolt pull up like that. Didn't the Jamaican women's 4x400 team also DNF? Had to watch that in Chinese so the coverage wasn't great & the commentary was completely beyond me.
Finally got out for a run this evening: 4.4M in 35 mins but it felt like a tempo+ effort due to the heat/humidity, slight hills & possibly also the lingering jet lag.
1243 beats per mile contrasts unfavourably with 1047 for Saturday's parkrun or 1186 for Thursday's 7.9M trail run & 1150 for my 7M canalside run but not so badly with my local hilly trail 10K at over 1320. How do you find hills affect your BPMile AlanB?
Good to hear the shoe update Spoons, I will try my best not to ridicule them, 40g
Well done Millsy/Steve, I'll read the report(s) later.
Recovery run at lunch, legs feel reasonable.
Anyways, by way of catch up, SQ -well done on the 10k. The chap from your tri club was on our local news, really sad. Hopefully some comfort in that he went doing something he loved.
Spoons - well done on the PR PB - you need to go back and do it in the vapourflys now for scientific research.
John - sorry you fell ill for the race, iirc you had a good long run recently so hopefully back on it soon.
Millsy - fantastic run, and so soon after the Dorset invader. Agree on the going for a target sometimes even if not reaching it.
Steve - great result at SVP - look forward to the report.
HA - well done on the relays and good to read of more positive progress Alan.
Reg - well done on the tri, great placing. I had a sprint tri invitation arrive by email about the time I was reading, must be a sign.
Welcome back from hols NE and Bon voyage Jools.
Joe - I don't know how you squeeze everything in ! Really appreciate the offer of a pacer, very kind of you. I could probably do with some gentle encouragement in the middle of the night when walking is the soft option but being a dullard at the best of times, I hate to think what my company would be like at that time.
Not one step of running from me these last 10 days, aside chasing kids around the beach, mine of course, not anyone else's. I've a local 12 hr enduro in 2 weeks and then the last 100 in oct (A100) where hopefully I'll get a slightly bigger buckle for completing all 4.
Back to my trusty Adios this morning for a tempo session. This one was very different to what I'm used to - 4 mins "fast", 4 mins "steady", then 5 x (2 mins "fast", 4 mins "steady") where "fast" is supposed to be 5-15 seconds faster than LT and "steady" is up to 10 seconds slower than LT. I averaged 6:14/mi for the fast pace and 6:41/mi for the steady pace. Technically my LT should be around 6:15 but given I've been around 6:30 for standard tempo runs those paces seem about right.
I found it tough switching the paces - I felt ok at the faster pace but backed off a bit too much at times on the "steady" sections. My fastest reps were the last ones (6:08/mi and 6:36/mi) so I think I probably should have pushed a bit more early on. Having not done a session like this before though it was hard to gauge what paces I should aim for. Still, 38 minutes at an average of 6:31/mi is a decent workout and towards the end I was getting more used to the shifting paces. Looking forward to giving it another crack.
As a point to point race, logistics are difficult, luckily my GF drove me to the start, so didn't need to worry about train times etc for getting back to my car, she would then see me at the 6 checkpoints along the route, which worked well as it meant I didn't need to carry everything that I might need, only the items I'd need until the next checkpoint. I was down as a faster starter, so start was at 8:30 (7:00 for early starters) and there is a 14 hour cut off (15.5 for early start). Got to registration early to pick up race number and for the briefing.
It's only a small event and out of 114 sign ups, 22 were DNS and then only about 25 of the rest were in the faster start. We set off at 8:30 and I was on my way! I didn't really have a time in mind, but I did have a couple of aims. Firstly to finish before the cut off (14 hours) and as an "A" goal a sub 12 hour time. I'd set my Garmin to navigate, and was only looking at the map rather than keeping track of splits.
I got to the first checkpoint at 12 miles in after 1 hour 51 mins, and was feeling good, that was after I had found the checkpoint as the point in the GPX file was out and I thought I had passed it to start with!! I'd taken on food at miles 5 and 10, so only had a bit of food here and topped up my water bottle ready to move on! Checkpoint 2 arrived after 23 miles and 3 hours 49 mins, again feeling good. By this point I had been running with 3 other guys (Baz, Andrew and Michael) for about 20 miles and we were all ticking along at roughly the same pace, so was good to have some company.
Around mile 28 things started to feel tough, I text my GF to ask for a Lucozade at the next checkpoint that was still 5 miles away, but I continuted on with the other 3 guys. However I was wondering at this point if I would have to drop out at just over half way. By the time I'd got into checkpoint 3 however, I was feeling better and had covered 33 miles in 5 hours 49 minutes, so was on track for a sub 12 hour finish at this point.
Leaving checkpoint 3 and onto checkpoint 4 with the 4 of us keeping each other company and making a pact that we would get each other to the finish line. We reached checkpoint 4 at 44 miles after 8 hours 5 minutes. However by this point I was finding it difficult to eat, and would only eat a few snacks at the checkpoints, couple of jaffa cakes and a few pieces of fruit to keep me going.
We left checkpoint 4 and continued on, I passed my longest ever run after 45 miles but then started to struggle again around 48 miles, however passed 50 miles and got into checkpoint 5 after 9 hours 39 minutes and it was feeling a bit better. I told my GF I only had a half marathon to go
Got to the final checkpoint at 58 miles after 11 hours 24 minutes with Michael with things feeling tough, but we knew we would finish. We had picked off some of the earlier starters so leaving the last checkpoint we were running with other people. Shout out to Mark who was running strong at this point. It was starting to get dark on the trail with a couple of miles to go, but feeling tired and not bothering to put my head torch on I used my phone instead to guide us the final distance off the trail and onto the road.
Having visited the checkpoints in the car a couple of weeks prior, I knew there wasn't far to go now, so I carried on with Mark once on the road and picked up the pace, well it felt like it
Was overwhelmed to have finished and even forgot to stop my Garmin for a good 10 minutes!! Collected my medal and t-shirt, had a few photos, then sat on the grass until I got cramp! At this point I was feeling quite emotional and may have shed a tear, but I won’t admit that here
Glad to hear you've been having a complete rest Macca - you've certainly earned it. Agree with you: Spoons get back to Pitchcroft pr ASAP to try out the Vaporflys. They should be worth a 17:46 if they live up to their 2% claim. If you leave it too long any improvement could just be due to training benefits. Sounds like a tough session & similar to the one HA did the other week. JohnOz mentioned he'd read somewhere the pace variation accustoms the body to rid itself of lactate more efficiently I think?
Jooligan - great effort getting out running over there, humidity must be unbearable. You haven't raced in the last 3 days, you must be getting twitchy feet?
Plenty of swimming and biking for me, but about to go out for a post work trot. Legs are absolutely cooked mind, will take it nice and steady.
Great racing Reg. a few of my friends were also shocked at the lack of age categories. In every other regard the race organisers seem so keen and friendly.
Impressive around a stag, Joe. I remember getting some odd looks when nipping out for a run on a friend's. And when I announced my keenness for a team parkrun on my stag do, well...
HA I'm always impressed with how you fit the mileage with no weekend long runs. Working a great for you.
Excellent running in the ultra, Millsy. Especially given the early sun marathon pace.
I agree with Jooligan, get those bad boys down to parkrun, Spoons!
Great work SteveMac. Very impressive.
Easy running since the weekend before taking advantage of school holidays today and nipping out for a planned 20M. Tried a new canal route, but that section was pretty tough going under foot and full of nettles. Ended up with 21 at 7:3x average so all good training for easy effort. In my effort to minimise gel use I had a banana and several dried apricots. The banana was a surprisingly comfy carry whilst eating, although got some odd looks from a couple of cars. Also waved to a gardener on quiet country road. Realised it was a scarecrow. Twerp.
As for the hills v flat runs, it's a good question. I've not really focussed on it before, i don't tend to look at runs individually as there are so many variables in each run i.e. weather/tiredness/tight or sore muscles/time of day etc that affect the results. Having a look back though it looks like they are higher but not by much. 10 - 20 bts/mile maybe. Tbh though, i think we have very different opinions on the term 'hilly', my hilly runs are in the hundreds of feet whereas yours tend to be in the thousands.
Great reports Steve and Millsy.
In the longer races it's surprising how many ups and downs you have along the way. One thing I've found that works is to go onto savoury food if I'm losing my appetite.
Ive done a couple of runs this week but the legs are still feeling fatigued. Going to Dublin on a stag do tomorrow so no running planned for 4 days so plenty of recovery.
Good of luck to anyone racing at the weekend.
Spoon - Interesting initial thoughts on the shoes. Will be good to see how they go in a race. At the other end of the spectrum my £13 Decathlon cheapies have done 35 miles now and I really like them. We'll just have to see how long they last. Like Jools says your session sounds like a lactic clearance session John was talking about. I've always enjoyed fartlek runs and they've now become a real of a staple of mine.
SQ - You're putting together a few good weeks and some solid long runs at the moment. Looking good.
Alan - Sounds like it's coming together for you.
Joe - Sounds like you're back into it now. I did laugh at your comment about real men crying. You softy.
Did my big double day yesterday. 10 miles with 8x 400m, 200m float at lunch time, then an Hour of Power session (1min MP, 30s HMP x40) in the evening. Didn't quite hit MP/HMP consistently, was more just either side of MP. And, with the standard headwind up the hill on the racecourse, paces were a bit variable. Still managed a touch under 10.5 miles for the hour, which is 300m further than when I did it last, just before London, so pretty happy with that. I find the real test of how I'm doing is how I feel on the w/d jog home. A couple of weeks ago I was light headed, couldn't hold my form, couldn't go faster than 8m/m and had to walk the last few 100m. This time I felt quite good and could comfortably jog along at about 7:15m/m.
Get yourself to Dublin parkrun Millsy.
Top day's training HA.
Too right JB: not even a parkrun in sight
SQ - having that happen to one of your club mates, in competition, must be a big downer for you all. It also make you think of our own mortality. Hope you all deal with it as best as. At least you seem to be running really well.
Macca and Millsy and steve... great reports... fabulous efforts. Nice to read about others' pain!
Reg... gb qualification... brilliant.
JCG... watch of for those treadmills. They could be hypnotic - you could be falling under their power. AWC... nice racing/LTing in your 5 miler.
John... sorry about the fever
Muddy - enjoy your 'retirement'.
Jooligan... have fun
There were more people I was going to comment on, but can't read through it all again... sorry!
Millsy - I'll have to remember the savoury option for the next time then, although did have a few sausage rolls and pork pies in the first half.
HA - Yeah it felt tough, but I knew that I had run further before, so there was no reason (as I wasn't injured) that I couldn't carry on. Just need to trick the head into believing everything is good! That Hour of Power session sounds tough, well done with that!!
Another 2m recovery for me. In other news my missing Parkrun time was fixed, but while my Garmin read 18:33, the time I was given was 18:56, so got my sub 19, but not as big a PB as I thought. Will have to have another go when the legs are fresher!
Awful morning this morning. Cycled to the pool to find it closed for the day. Opted to get an hour or so extra on the bike instead. Got about as far away from work as I could before puncturing. Didn't have my flat kit as I wasn't planning a ride of any distance. Found the problem this time - little thorn stuck in the tyre. Only option was to call a cab and sling the bike in the back. To cap it all off I'd left my lunch at home.
At a wedding this weekend so front loading my training before Saturday lunchtime. 6 hour hilly bike tomorrow morning and a long run early Saturday.