Southern - I applied last Sunday and at the end it said it would take a few days - good job I printed out the ref number because I didn't get a confirmatory e-mail and still haven't, but on going back to the site and entering the ref number, amongst other things, I can see it has all gone through, so I have printed it out to take with me just in case any questions are asked... so your ESTA... do you need it to get into Yorkshire
I did a 21 miler today and the damned "foot slip" I had towards the end of Comrades came back again in the last 3; this time the cause was more obvious; hamstring was not extending 100% so I started to "force it" into behaving properly, not sure that was a good idea, kept up the sub 5 hour pace all the way though. Don't really feel any kick back from it a few hours after completing the run. Bloody hams, I am going to roast them and make them into soup.
I did a distance change for the Soweto Marathon on November 5th. From Full Marathon to Half marathon. Even then I might be too optimistic to assume I can get over my issues enough to run it. I was too busy last week to do anything but 8km which is not good as it is the strength exercise that may solve this issue and not running.
Good to see others going well or better than previously.
Just back today from my bit of a holiday in Germany, all went well at the Berlin marathon. My goal there was to test out a pacing plan rather than aim for any specific time but the plan worked really well & I finished in just under 3:10 without any stress at all amazingly which surprised me a bit.
For anyone interested, take a look at https://feelrace.com/ Basically you start slow and speed up as you go, don't worry about most of the field overtaking you in the first 10k or so, you can guess what happens from ~30k onwards
3/4 marathon now next weekend & then running the Dublin marathon with a friend. Must start thinking about flights and accommodation as well I guess, probably will aim for Umhlanga again.
Best of luck to everyone aiming for qualifiers this month!
Bike it - recall you've had problems for some time. Hope it can resolve it for your half.
The problem with injuries is not doing enough corrective exercises when we need to. Whenever I have a problem I'm great at sorting it for a few days then everything falls by the wayside. If only I could find a miracle cure to make me do whatever was necessary every day....
jkissane - great result in Berlin. I don't really do speeding up.... Having said that - my last mile at comrades this year - albeit not a full mile-was my fastest
good of luck to everyone else running this weekend. Roll on Monday!!
Snail - you have summarised my approach to addressing issues perfectly too. I am currently really enthusiastic about the video below. However I haven't done the exercises today and I am still suffering from that ham gip. I really must do them now - the "knee stacking" one is amazing; oh how wonderfully it stretches the parts that have been neglected for so long - right I am doing it now!
jkissane: I went for "take the first half easy, then speed up" for my marathon qualifying for Comrades last year and it was definitely the way to do things. Did the same thing at Boston (Lincs) and it was fun overtaking lots of people in the last miles. Hoping to do the same again in a fortnight.
Southern Snail/lowrez: agreed. It's hard to keep doing the exercises when all is going well. Thanks for that video, lowrez - the second and third options give a good stretch (pigeon pose generally makes the knee of my backwards-pointing leg hurt from the pressure on the ground, which limits its usefulness).
Just a quick heads up on good flight offers with Air France. If, for example, you can leave Heathrow at 6:30am on Wednesday before Comrades, back the next Tuesday, you can get a flight to Jo'burg for £358 on their current special. This is the flight timing I've seen many of you using for flights previously. I'm sure there are other good combination dates if you go on their site and look around. They usually do similar offers out of Birmingham.
Manchester options are currently hitting £700 for the dates I want Terry - so pleased I purchased at £485 a couple of weeks ago.
Good luck in Chicago Matt.. and Dannirr, Yorkshire Southern Snail, Chester Mc Hilly and caashford; I'm doing the Cheshire Half for my taper, did someone mention Tapir!
Yay. Yorkshire marathon completed. 4h43. Very happy with that. Qualification achieved and apparently I can get faster!! Negative split (just) but basically even to the end.
Yay - qualifiers are flooding in - well done SS and McH - I set out to do a 2:30 half this morning and was surprised when I started clocking sub 10 minute miles. I eased off a bit but the engines insisted and I stormed it in 2:10. Also took up the free post race massage and was advised that my recurring ham problems are result of dead glutes leaving all the work for my hams to do. So I am repeatedly over stretching my hams... need to literally kick my ass into action. It doesn't help driving a desk for a living and repeatedly going to events like today's and jumping straight in the car and driving home without stretching things out first; something I have done all too often in recent years.
Southern Snail, McHilly, well done both on your qualifications.
lowrez, well done on that HM. Ah, the old "inactive glutes" problem. Definitely need to get those firing up. Thanks again for that video of stretches - the last one is particularly useful as can actually be carried out while sitting in a chair, so more practical to do at work.
I didn't have time for a long run yesterday for various reasons, so I went and ran a speed session instead: 6x 800m repeats with 40m jog recoveries - basically a Yasso 800s starter session - and I ran the 800s at 3:30-3:35 each, which was unexpected - on grass as well. So hopefully I will have adequate speed to go under 4 hrs on 21st at Betteshanger.
Well done Southern Snail and McHilly - it sounds like you are both happy with your races which is great. Good that you go the qualification out of the way.
Lowrez - I hope you are going to capitalize on that speed and when you run Detroit. By the way I lived in Knutsford for a time which is close to Arley Hall.
The Comrades dreams have already started. According to my dream, Comrades is now a 2 day stage race. Of course I overslept on day 2 and had a disastrous journey to Drummond for the start of day 2 and when I finally arrived there there was only 3 hours before the final cutoff. I woke up at this point and went for a run.....
Comments
Southern - I applied last Sunday and at the end it said it would take a few days - good job I printed out the ref number because I didn't get a confirmatory e-mail and still haven't, but on going back to the site and entering the ref number, amongst other things, I can see it has all gone through, so I have printed it out to take with me just in case any questions are asked... so your ESTA... do you need it to get into Yorkshire
I did a 21 miler today and the damned "foot slip" I had towards the end of Comrades came back again in the last 3; this time the cause was more obvious; hamstring was not extending 100% so I started to "force it" into behaving properly, not sure that was a good idea, kept up the sub 5 hour pace all the way though. Don't really feel any kick back from it a few hours after completing the run. Bloody hams, I am going to roast them and make them into soup.
hope the hamstring holds up
Good to see others going well or better than previously.
For anyone interested, take a look at https://feelrace.com/ Basically you start slow and speed up as you go, don't worry about most of the field overtaking you in the first 10k or so, you can guess what happens from ~30k onwards
3/4 marathon now next weekend & then running the Dublin marathon with a friend. Must start thinking about flights and accommodation as well I guess, probably will aim for Umhlanga again.
Best of luck to everyone aiming for qualifiers this month!
The problem with injuries is not doing enough corrective exercises when we need to. Whenever I have a problem I'm great at sorting it for a few days then everything falls by the wayside. If only I could find a miracle cure to make me do whatever was necessary every day....
jkissane - great result in Berlin. I don't really do speeding up.... Having said that - my last mile at comrades this year - albeit not a full mile-was my fastest
good of luck to everyone else running this weekend. Roll on Monday!!
Snail - you have summarised my approach to addressing issues perfectly too. I am currently really enthusiastic about the video below. However I haven't done the exercises today and I am still suffering from that ham gip. I really must do them now - the "knee stacking" one is amazing; oh how wonderfully it stretches the parts that have been neglected for so long - right I am doing it now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d80z3hBSh0Southern Snail/lowrez: agreed. It's hard to keep doing the exercises when all is going well. Thanks for that video, lowrez - the second and third options give a good stretch (pigeon pose generally makes the knee of my backwards-pointing leg hurt from the pressure on the ground, which limits its usefulness).
Bike It: good luck!
Manchester options are currently hitting £700 for the dates I want Terry - so pleased I purchased at £485 a couple of weeks ago.
Good luck in Chicago Matt.. and Dannirr, Yorkshire Southern Snail, Chester Mc Hilly and caashford; I'm doing the Cheshire Half for my taper, did someone mention Tapir!
Hope everyone else got on ok
Well done McHilly
Yay - qualifiers are flooding in - well done SS and McH - I set out to do a 2:30 half this morning and was surprised when I started clocking sub 10 minute miles. I eased off a bit but the engines insisted and I stormed it in 2:10. Also took up the free post race massage and was advised that my recurring ham problems are result of dead glutes leaving all the work for my hams to do. So I am repeatedly over stretching my hams... need to literally kick my ass into action. It doesn't help driving a desk for a living and repeatedly going to events like today's and jumping straight in the car and driving home without stretching things out first; something I have done all too often in recent years.
lowrez, well done on that HM. Ah, the old "inactive glutes" problem. Definitely need to get those firing up. Thanks again for that video of stretches - the last one is particularly useful as can actually be carried out while sitting in a chair, so more practical to do at work.
I didn't have time for a long run yesterday for various reasons, so I went and ran a speed session instead: 6x 800m repeats with 40m jog recoveries - basically a Yasso 800s starter session - and I ran the 800s at 3:30-3:35 each, which was unexpected - on grass as well. So hopefully I will have adequate speed to go under 4 hrs on 21st at Betteshanger.
Lowrez - I hope you are going to capitalize on that speed and when you run Detroit. By the way I lived in Knutsford for a time which is close to Arley Hall.
The Comrades dreams have already started. According to my dream, Comrades is now a 2 day stage race. Of course I overslept on day 2 and had a disastrous journey to Drummond for the start of day 2 and when I finally arrived there there was only 3 hours before the final cutoff. I woke up at this point and went for a run.....
Slow Duck, who I`ve seen during many races & always with a smile, helped me out so much during my 1st Comrades - the up run in 2015. #TopBloke
My blog http://abloggerstalebymrk.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/
Loving that picture Mr Duck! Well done
Hello Mr K