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P&D Spring Marathon 2018
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Impressive doubling up, SteveMac. Looking good for the ultra. When is it?
MP in training can feel ridiculous hard, Hazel. I know I have barely hit it and certainly not during any long runs.
Impressed with your bouncebackability post 118M week, Jooligan. The slow week day miles seem to be working wonders.
John I don’t know whether I’ll be in PB shape. Definitely a bit of weight to lose. A lot will depend on smaller things – can I get in a group (somehow failed to for sections last year), is the wind right etc. It will be marginal. But going to go out and have a good day regardless. The A goal for the early part of this year has already been achieved. Seems like you’re in good nick. Keep it up!
Nice reps from AWC and Westy. Business end of the plan.
Quads ridiculously stiff on this morning’s easy MLR along the canal. I guess that’s what zero hill training will do for a very hilly race. 7:50s for 10M, 20s a mile slower than last week, but the race was obviously affecting things. Will attempt some tempo tomorrow, but have a feeling it will be effort not pace based – again. Hope to maybe even run some MP at the weekend.
The clock change is a pain in some ways but I agree Jools and ramjet that evening runs with daylight are much nicer.
Hope your 14 miler went / goes well westy after the session yesterday.
Nice session AWC.
Will be out for a 6 miler later with my group. Need to do some plan tweaking for this week as there is no way I'm doing 4 x 1200m tomorrow with the current weather forecast of strong winds with gusts of up to 60 miles/hour.
Hazel, I echo the others - don’t let one poor MP run knock your confidence. 14@MP is a very tough session, and all those factors you list will have been a big factor in you not running as well as you’d hoped.
Good to hear your legs are still feeling good after the mileage Jools.
Nice reps Westy and AWC.
Well done making sure your recovery run really is a recovery Steve.
Bit breezy along the canal this morning too SQ, that’s got to be worth a few seconds!?
Easy eight for me this morning. Was on autopilot and nearly forgot to turn around early, I’m so used to running 10 or 12 miles along that route! Definitely experiencing taper legs currently, lots of funny little niggles which I guess were previously hidden by the general fatigue, but feeling decent overall. Final BAC session tomorrow, 10 mins @ MP then 8 x 2@5K, to keep the legs sharp.
Some great running going on, well done Spoons on the new 5km PB, you'll be overtaking me in the next 6 months, then I'll have someone to chase! Everyone getting their last long runs in or prepping for them this weekend; exciting times.
I was absolutely wiped out after getting back from South America and took a few easy days. Went to the inagural Clapham Common parkrun on Saturday and ran 18:51 (4th) but that felt pretty hard. Last couple of days felt much better and motivation is coming back.
Realised that my longest run since November is 14 miles; so those who think I might be sandbagging for London can use that fact to see where I'm currently at; it's all been about the cycling lately. Sticking to my just under sub-3 plan; I've even found someone to pace for 3 hours so that should be fun.
Had a decent run this lunchtime, 10km tempo (38:xx) and carried on to make 7.5 miles total. Wanted to squeeze some sort of quality in as I'm off skiing tomorrow morning until Monday and not sure I'm going to be able to run much. Have rented a bike though so do plan to do some riding early doors before hitting the slopes..
Glad to see Jools has picked up the slack left by Spoons' taper, astounding mileage!
What everyone else said re the MP run Hazel.
It will be those downhill bits that destroyed your quads SQ, nice racing though.
Jet setting Joe, nice tempo run, I am sure Scott can give you some tips for running on a skiing holiday as he permanentlu seems to be skiiing.
Well my good news is that I have finally found a break from the cloud of injury illness and I've put some running together. I've managed 30 mpw for the last month so it's not big mileage but I've put a little bit of quality in there too. Starting to get some flow back and I have a 10 mile race this Friday so hopefully I can at least put a half decent run in and build fmor there.
I plan to keep it lowish mileage 40 miles max but do more quality, hopefully race a few 10ks this spring.
Solid pr & Tempo 10K JB - not bad for a cyclist
10M sub 8 is good going in my book SQ.
Usual double 8.6M commute for me. Worked a bit hard for a shade over 8s into the wind on the way home. Better HR this morning but had to pick the pace up for the last 5K to make sure I arrived on time after a pit stop in a handy Sainsbury's. Probably why this afternoon's commute was harder than usual.
Big double day for me. 15 miles this morning and 4 miles recovery tonight.
I was feeling a bit more up for the MLR, despite the persistent rain, and hit my target of averaging 7:40. Recovery tonight averaged 9:00!
Hazel... as others said... I've seen many of your posts and thought how well you're nailing your training and that you'll achieve what you want. Don't let one or two bad runs spoil that.
Jooligan... I suppose you put in that 118 massive week just so you can keep doing 80-90 mile weeks and claim to be tapering!
Tom.. you're well back on it.
Joe... funny how weeks go by, and you think you're training well, then realise that it's been ages since you did a long run, or reps, or S&C or whatever. Need to get something long in the coming weekends!
Spoons... proper taper madness just around the corner.
Reg... obviously a shame to miss VLM but sounds like you're coming back nicely.
Ramjet... great day for a Tuesday!
MLRs have been a bit thin on the ground when I look back (Joe!). So I extended tonight's club egg hunt run by adding a few miles at the end. Stopped at ten because I'd done enough with a little S&C at lunch and swam 500m early evening (I never swim!) whilst my five-year-old learned to swim. And I mean literally learned to swim. I've taken her plenty of times, but paid for a set of 4 individual lessons and today was lesson 1... unbelievable what a difference. She went from able to desperately doggy paddle 5 feet with me, to 30 minutes later confidently doing half a width... a few times.... and jumping in from the side without wanting me to catch her. That was £17 well spent!
Charged it up and was a bit worried that it very quickly fell back to 92% - after a few hours just acting as a watch. However, I've had it switched on gps since about 11am this morning except perhaps an hour... even tracked my swim. And so it's been properly working for over 11 hours and it's gone down to 39%. so I think it looks like I'll get up to maybe 17-18hrs. The blurb for new models says to expect 'up to 20 hours' in GPS mode. Whatever, I'd say that it will be perfectly acceptable for a second hand watch.
I shall be giving good ebay feedback.
Always jetting off somewhere Joe! Solid parkrun and tempo given you’ve been concentrating on the bike.
Glad to hear you’re making progress Reg.
Big day Ramjet, I always find getting out for the recovery after an MLR tough.
Great your daughter picked up the swimming so quickly NE. One-to-one lessons do make a big difference, I made huge progress with just a few lessons last year. Glad the watch is all ok. That initial large drop could have been due to the initial setup if you were pairing it with your phone etc. If the battery hasn’t been used for a while, it may also be calibrating still. The “up to 20 hours” is always a bit optimistic, so 17-18 hours is probably about right even if new.
Final BAC session this morning, 10 mins @ MP then 8x2 @ 5k pace. Taper madness continues and my ankles felt very stiff yesterday for no apparent reason. Not sure if I just sat weirdly at my desk or something. The left ankle was still feeling a bit stiff this morning, but thankfully felt fine while running so I cracked on. My legs felt good during the 10 minutes at MP, they’re definitely feeling less fatigued than usual. Effort felt a bit higher than I’d have liked, but then it often does at this point. I was a bit nervous about the 8x2 as I have done very little speedwork lately, I’ve been bad at even doing any strides. However, I was pleased to averaged 5:30/mi for the reps, all +/- 6 seconds of that. Felt good to get the legs moving fast.
All easy or recovery runs now, although I'll be throwing in some strides to keep the legs from going stale. Just the final “dress rehearsal” session left next week. Not sure whether to stick to the traditional 2@MP from Pfitzinger for that. The NAZ Elite plan I’ve loosely been following has 2x3@MP, but that sounds a bit much…
Rammers - I thought that...I have a spiderman lycra all in one i could wear... Still have mucus everywhere, it just wont seem to go!
Joe - Seriously! Longest run is 14 miles and sub 3 still.
Jools 2x 9mile runs before and after work sounds crazy - what do you do about change of clothes etc?
Re running the marathons. Its all about not giving up for me, regardless of how ill or little training ive done. My biggest acheivements have not been pb's but where i completed them under hard conditions.
NE: glad the fenix is working well. My new one is also working like a dream and I've just sold my old fenix 2 this week for about £15 less than I bought it for last year - they do hold their value really well. Good job on the MLR - they are one of the big difference to other plas I've looked at and I think the training effect is extremely beneficial.
Reg: glad to see you back and sorry about London. Good that you are running properly and hopefully the injuries are behind you.
Spoons - nice final session, its important to finish on a high although all the sessions you’ve nailed would be more than enough of a confidence booster. I’d stick to 2@MP but you’ve handled the NAZ sessions without issue so if it works for the pros...
Ramjet - big day and nice pacing. 9m/m wouldn’t concern me, I’ve been as slow as 10m/m for recoveries! I’ve got that tomorrow so will be able to see if I’m right.
NE - great news about your 5 yr old, mine is doing well if he can swim 3m without complaining about water in his goggles. He has to be able to swim 25m next year at the school swim carnival, no idea if he’s going to be able to do that!
Reg - good to see you back in it, shame you won’t make VLM but plenty of other races on the horizon.
Joe - am sure you’ll have a bit of a 3 hour train going on. The question is: fancy dress or not?
6x1200m today, similar pace (5:55) to when I did it back in Sep before I went sub 3 but the recoveries were much easier, even managed sub 8m/m pace for half of them. Still don’t like the speed sessions though, give me a LR any day.
Thanks John, not sure "Fun" is the right word but i know what you mean.
I think Joe should do fancy dress again... The fastest Darth Vader / stormtrooper WR or something like that!
Afternoon all.
Enjoy the taper madness all those getting close. Time for the body to manifest all those niggles. Very impressive non-track speed reps, Spoons. Great work too from JohnOz. The Magness and Marcus coaching podcast talked about recoveries recently – and if you think about it, they are a big measure of improvement but also a determinant of speed in the actual reps.
Joe I am amazed Clapham Common has only just got a parkrun. Not sandbagging? We’ll see. Very solid 10k.
Great that you’re back on it, Reg. Long may that continue.
Well done with the rainy MLR, Ramjet. I feel the 9m/m recoveries!
Brilliant about your daughter swimming NE, I need to get mine some lessons. Her confidence has significantly decreased over the last year.
Tough session today. Total 16.1M at 7:08m/m, including a ‘Descender’ of 24 mins, 18, 12, 6, 4, 3, 2, 2. With 3 min jogs between all except the last couple which were 2 mins. Hoped to start with MP and progress from there. Whilst my quads weren’t quite as stiff as yesterday, the legs were still heavily fatigued from the weekend’s racing. The paces ranged from 6:36 to 6:18 and simply couldn’t get my HR above MP effort levels. I’ll put it down to fatigue and reaching ‘peak week’. Not the vO2 stimulus I’d hoped for at the end (by pace or HR), but a good enough MP fartlek session – and great practice for running on beaten up legs. I think the bike crash is still limiting my knee for top speeds, not that this matters come marathon race day. May have to do any vO2 work on hills in the future to at least get the desired HR.
NE: I was thinking 80 this wk, 80 next, 60 in the last full week then 25-30 over the 6 days pre-VLM. That will mean 80mpw average since Jan 1st excluding marathon week. Good news on the Fenix & swimming.
Great sessions from Spoons, SQ & John; MLRs from Rammers & AWC.
Just a gym S&C session this morning & then TM this afternoon though it'll be much shorter than planned with the race on Friday.
Afternoon all.
Are you doing fancy dress again Joe? Fastest marathon dressed as a bag of sand......Nice 10k tempo the other day. Enjoy the skiing.
Great to hear that you have been getting some consistent training in Reg. Shame about London but plenty more races to focus on. Good luck on Friday.
Good luck on Friday to you too Jools. Any other races planned for the weekend? Silly question I know..
Excellent sessions Spoons, SQ and John. I never do intervals and don't have the bottle to try running 'fast' during the taper.....I always imagine I will hurt myself, undo all the hard work and for what gain? Might do a few strides to freshen up the legs but nothing more.
Nice MLRs Ramjet and AWC.
The three runs I have done this week have all been rain soaked, windy and generally unpleasant. My legs are feeling all niggly and heavy and 11 miles this morning felt like 17. It must be taper time! On the plus side I only have one more working day before the two week Easter break to negotiate. I have a feeling that next week (race week) is going to be very tough mentally.....and I can't drink beer! I have decided to try to avoid alcohol and caffeine in the week leading up to the race. Will this help my performance in any way? Thoughts please...
Very organised Jools. There was me imagining you stinking at work.
I thought the following pic was your work colleagues
So, fuckit, I am upping the alcohol.
Great to hear you are feeling better and getting some constant miles done Reg. Good luck for your race on Friday. Can you defer London?
Nice commuting Jools.
Well done on the double ramjet.
NE good to hear your daughter is learning to swim - I loved having swimming lessons at that age. Have fun fiddling with the new watch.
Nice session spoons.
I like your attitude towards Pbs and achievements in marathons FBT but be careful with running ill.
Nice MLR AWC
Nice sessions by JohnOz and SQ.
+1 to what westy said regarding alcohol and caffeine Tom. Though if you do resist the beer the first one post marathon will taste all the better.
Westy, sorry to hear that.
My running week started fairly gently with a fairly slow but as always hilly 6 mile outing with my group on Tuesday evening and 4 miles this lunchtime at recovery pace with 6 x 100m strides. I was so fast on the first one my cap fell off. I would like to think that at least. Actually it was quite windy. I was going up and down the same bit of farm track for the strides so I left it where it was until I had finished the strides.
Intervalls postponed to tomorrow as it should be a lot less windy. Will mean doing an MLR on Friday, rest day on Saturday and then a 20-22 miler on Sunday. I will take each as it comes though. Good thing I've not got anything particular planned over Easter. I'll let everyone else go and stand in a traffic jam.
Westy: Sounds like beer won't cut it - you might need to move to spirits. Hope things improve soon.
Tom: I only drink coffee at weekends when racing - probably accounts for some of my racing pit stops. Usually have a small Guinness night before the marathon too. I think having a week off work pre-race is ideal - cuts out all the other stress from life allowing you to get plenty of sleep.
Wed TM session done today. Did the planned session in km rather than Miles so 4/3/2/1@6:45. HR was about 150 so perfect MP session 2K wu, cd & 3x1K recoveries all at 8s meant a 10.5M session @7:19 avg. All felt remarkably good & I could easily have gone again so hopefully won't have too much impact on Friday's performance.
Tom - the old adage "nothing new" probably applies in the lead up to race day. If you've been getting larruped every night probably best to carry on.
Westy - that's crap, all of it.
Reg - glad to hear you are back in the game.
Jools - impressive average mileage. In a far flung corner of the interweb I see you and Spoons are a few pages ahead of me.
That sounds like a tough session SQ, speedy reps from John and Spoons too. Decent MLRs from AWC and Ram sounds like a result with the Fenix NE.
Hope the mucus goes FBT and enjoy the skiing Joe.
No double digit runs this midweek has left me a bit of energy to chase some CRs. I picked up a fairly obscure one. It felt a bit devious taking it easy then blasting for 0.4miles but I guess its not cheating, not like illegally changing the condition of a ball
Probably being dense but not getting the pages reference??
I wouldn't look to change targets just on that one run Hazel
Decent couple of days training Westy. Maybe you can drink Tom's beer for him
Very consistent 1200m reps AWC and MLR run too
Get on the foam roller SQ, that will ease the quads! Big session today
Enjoy the skiing Joe, where about's is it going. Actually turned down going skiing this week, will be back in the alps for tour de france in the summer though
Fantastic news that you're starting to put some runs together reg
I'm not surprised that evening 4 was at 9min miling Ramjet, I would have struggled to even get out for that one
Great final BAC session spoons!
Pulled out of the session last night, knee flared up again so going to take a few days off
Scott - saw that on Strava, sorry to hear.
John - almost forgot, you asked about the Paris profile a page or so back. Its not as flat/downhill as London but not hilly. Theres a gentle "rise" in the first half and a short climb around 20 or 21m but nothing to worry about. I like the starting waves, it felt much less busy than London and the randoms on the course added interest, delivery drivers unloading, bicycles, roller bladers, people walking across the course, just a different way of doing things.