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Mr V/Mace - good to see you both getting back in to the swing of things.
Muddy - back to Hull! Be interesting to see you how you get on and fingers crossed for no injury in the build up this time.
DT - one of those days I suspect, you've nailed every session since Christmas pretty much so I wouldn't worry about it. Good luck at parkrun tomorrow. 18:15 for you I reckon with a bit of finish straight roaring for good measure.
So, it was the second summer league race on Wednesday night, which I was undecided whether to run it at all, if run it easy, run it flat out etc, with half an eye on Saturday's inter-county fell champs coming up. In the end I decided on running at MP which would provide a decent workout but not utterly destroy myself.
This race is a bit mental, effectively a 10k out and back along a fairly narrow cycle path, with the start of 500 odd people crammed under a railway bridge. First mile came out at about 6:45 pace which was a bit sharp, so eased off a bit and settled in to a more reasonable 7 min/mile pace. It took quite a lot of effort to not go chasing after people I'd usually be quite someway ahead of but I restrained. As things settled down I was running alongside a couple of club mates, a bit of chat and they were hoping to run this sort of pace for the race, so I agreed to pace them.
Miles 2 and 3 ticked by fairly uneventfully, apart from having to be aware that runners were coming the other way at low 5 min/mile pace so had to make sure we didn't have a head on collision. Round the cone at half way and our group had grown to about 4 or 5 people, although we had to contend with a fairly strong headwind on the way back so wasn't sure how many people would stick with it.
Back along the cycle track, regularly picking off runners who were slowing and in a somewhat strange scenario for a summer league race where I'm feeling very comfortable and everyone around me is working at their limit. Our little group starts to fragment at about 5 miles with a couple pushing on and a couple dropping off the back but I stick solidly to just under 7 min/mile pace with one of our clubs ladies just behind me working really hard to stay with me. Into the final mile of the race which includes a road bridge which seems to knock a few people around us, some gentle encouragement to my club mate and we're into the home straight and overtake another before crossing the line in 42:XX for the ~10k.
Club mates are grateful with their unofficial 10K PB's and highest finishing places and I feel like I have had a good run and pleased to have helped out.
Easy 5 miles last night, then a rest day today ahead of the fell champs tomorrow. Looking forward to it even though there's a strong possibility I could be last! Something like 1000ft of climbing over 5 and a bit miles with some steep descents; lovely.
My 4M run this morning was very enjoyable as i experienced for the first time in a while what it's like to recover at the top of a hill rather than 'die' and then suffer for the remainder of the run.
Mace - Who said anything about sub 3 !? Judging from this morning’s long run of 14m which ended with the ignominy of a long walk home with a totally seized up calf, I’m not making any predictions.
Mace, you'll be flying again in no time......provided you keep going with it.
Muddy, hope the calf has eased off.
Parkrun was poor yesterday. I went out with intent but felt sick very quickly. much like midweek but far sooner. Came in 18.52 so not an utter disaster but 32 seconds slower than I had hoped.
Today was getting back to long running. I went out at 10 and it didn't feel too bad, however by 11 it was very warm. I didn't have a drink with me so last 5 miles were challenging. Legs felt good though. 15 miles to give me 41 for week.
My name is Nathan,
In my master thesis I'm questioning impact of brand attributes on consumer purchase decision of sport shoes. To defend the hypothesis that brand attributes have an impact, I need to do a survey.
I would like with to put a link of my survey on this forum because I really need help and this forum seems to be full of passionate and understanding people.
Cheers!
Viscous!
Headed up to the Peak District on Saturday morning with my fell loving club mate, who was also the Notts teams captains and met up with our team mates. Found out that it was 4 people in a team with the first three over the line to count, the other three members of my team are much faster than me so it took the pressure off a little bit. Got my fetching green Notts County vest (fortunately there was a medium men's vest available so didn't have to run around in a dress) and then tried to stay in the shade as much as possible as the sun was out and it was red hot!
The ladies race started at midday with an international mountain runner leading them out. We were due to start at 1:15, but only half of the ladies field had finished by this point so we were delayed by 15 (turned out to be 20) minutes. Had a quick chat with one of the Nottinghamshire ladies and all she could talk about was how brutal it was and there was no water station on the course and she'd had to beg a spectator for a sip of his water. Lovely.
Shortly afterwards we were sent on our way, along a rough track before turning on to a field and then climbing up and up and up and up and up to the top of the hill. This was a mixture of running and walking. Once on the top it was fairly flat and generally runnable and I'm usually quite good on similar types of terrain on races I've done before but I just didn't seem to have anything in my legs and was struggling to get in to any sort of rhythm. I was also aware that it was baking hot and I was already thirsty. Thankfully the boggy bits were fairly dry and didn't cause many issues.
We climbed over and style and then began the first descent which was firstly on a tiny rocky path down a cliff edge and then on to a track which was very runnable but steep and absolutely trashed my quads. I gained a few places coming down but was all to aware that once at the bottom, we would have to turn round and begin the long climb back up (it was essentially and out and back course). The long climb back up was essentially a bit of jogging and a lot of running, I had company though and the views out across the reservoir and peaks were great. It was absolutely baking hot and my mouth was dry.
Back over the style and on to the peat bog, I started to feel much better and was actually running quite well and began to close down a few people up ahead catching them just as we got to the top of the final descent. Tried to muster some bravery and not tiptoe down the slope and over took a couple of people but by this point my quads were completely shredded and I didn't really trust them to hold me up. Onto the track and in to the finish, quickly followed by a sit down in the shade and guzzling a few cups of water.
Ended up finishing in 125th place out of 138. Which isn't great but given the standard of the competition I was just glad not to be last. Took me about 75 mins to cover the 6.5 miles, which is probably my slowest ever but given there was 1800ft of elevation gain I'm not too bothered about the time. Delighted to have got a county vest but doing that race was a hard way to earn it!
Made a quick getaway from the race to catch a train to London, nipped up to the track at Parliament Hill to watch the last 3 races at the Night of the 10000m PB's; it's an ace event, I thoroughly recommend going to watch if you can. I then spent Sunday morning watching the Hackney half marathon, which looks like a well organised and extremely popular race. From what I saw the course looked pretty flat but quite a few tight turns so not sure how quick a race it would be.
As you know I don't do race reports any more so here is a Physio Visit report instead.
I had my 3D gait analysis today which was at the Manchester Institute for Health & Performance with a Physio called Chris Bramah. This was a serious step up in terms of physio to what I'm used to - when I asked him who was the most famous runner he had worked with he said Mo Farah!! But the most famous runner he has actually done the 3D gait analysis on was Eilish McColgan who he works with regularly as she is based in Manchester. Anyhow today he was stuck with working with a near 50 year old unknown who had hardly run for nearly 15 months.
So for the gait analysis I basically stripped down to my shorts and trainers and they covered my body in sticky nodules that showed up on infra red cameras they had set up along about a 50m bit of track beside a football pitch (all indoors). Must have taken about half an hour for them to do that then make sure everything was getting picked up on the screen.
Then I had to run round in a loop at about 8 minute miles and every loop run down the track and over some load bearing bits that would measure my impact. If I ran slower or faster than 8 mins they told me faster or slower. Then I repeated at 6:50mm which wasn't as hard as it should have been considering how little running I had done but I think maybe I had a bit of race day adrenaline.
After that his assistant compared all my readings against normal/expected for both of my legs, hips, ankles etc but Chris had noticed something he wanted to look at. So he got me to run around again in same direction (anti clockwise) and tell me if I could feel any more pain on the corners which I could (more impact on left foot I thought). Then clockwise and compare - didn't hurt as much. I should add that the pain that stops me from running is preceeded by a bearable ache and it is this pain that I am talking about here.
Anyhow then he did lots of strength tests and poked and prodded and manipulated my feet. Him pushing on the sinus tarsi still hurt a lot.
Then the report arrived and he delivered his diagnosis and was able to illustrate it by referring back to what the 3D gait analysis showed.
So that's the diagnosis but what about the way of solving the issue (finding a cure) going forward.
He then went into some of the results of my strength tests because he explained that as well as my ankle/foot roll my knee and hip on that side also rolled in too much.
This all stems apparently from weak glutes (funny how many running injuries go back to the glutes!). So glutes should be able to deliver 1.8 newtons (or summat) and mine are embarrassingly pathetic at only 0.9.
I need to sort out my glutes to enable me to run differently which will result in my foot not rolling so much and hopefully the irritation will reduce.
Then I spent an extremely painful 30 mins as he showed me all the glute exercises he wanted me to do - ouch. He only wants me to do them every other day as if I do them right he doesn't expect me to be able to sit comfortably on the toilet on the days in between!
Then he said he also wants me to slightly change my running style with my foot on the ground less so he had me run on a treadmill - apparently I run slightly better on a treadmill than I do on the ground.
Anyhow it was a really great experience and if it works and lets me run 20 miles a week again and have glutes of steel then well worth the £350 - any follow up appointments should be covered by BUPA too so I now have Mo's physio in my corner as well as Mo's hair style!
Can already feel my glutes aching away sitting on the train!
Cheers, Skinny.
That sounds like a very thorough and highly worthwhile physio appointment, Skinny!
He sounds like he knows what he's talking about and I'm sure the glute exercises will do the trick.
That is some interesting stuff, Skinny. I guess you have to consider that if this level of assessment can't solve it, there isnt much further to go, so hopefully he is bang on. i cant help thinking you could have incorporated some hr data in there!
I went running earlier and wore my tempo shoes. I noted that just like my last pair the seam on the inner left foot has torn where the ball of my big toe sits. Having not seen your post I spent some time considering whether my left foot turns in too much to keep making this happen.
hopefully this will all work out for you finally.
My run was lacklustre. Should have been 6 at long tempo so 6.35 ish and effort at 165 average hr. I knew I didn't have time to do the 6 so settled at 5.5 which came out 6.44 for 162. So running below the effort planned but I didn't feel I had another gear to move into. It was pretty hot and sunny and this drained me a fair bit so I won't let this seemingly bad training patch upset me much.
Tommy: you nutter. DT: hang on, you've only just run a marathon 4 weeks ago. I have only just done my first post-marathon session and will frankly be astonished if I'm not shit at running for at least another month. I don't think it's quite the moment to be fretting about 'bad training patches' just yet and surely feeling like you're working as hard as you can when you're not at a heart rate that you associate with that effort level is a sign of not being fully recovered yet?
Things I didn't like about it.
You can't spell anonymously and you can spell attribute but you then lazily misspelt it in the next paragraph - I'm already failing you on your Masters Thesis and I haven't got to the survey yet.
Then I honestly could not tell the difference between the three questions in a row about importance.
Then to complete the survey I had to lie and say I was Self Employed because there wasn't an Employed option.
I presume you live in Croatia
I ran a 5 mile race last night (hosted by lit's former club). My legs were still a bit shredded from the weekend so I wasn't convinced things would go well but thought I'd see how it went. My right quad cramped up at about 2.5 miles so I had a bit of a walk and a stretch and then carried on. Finished in 31:48 which is someway off my PB but about 3 seconds quicker than on the same course last year even though it included the impromptu break.
I'm tired and over-raced. Having a week off I think.
I'e ticked along but very much struggled in what appears to be a constant heatwave. 15 today gave me 46 for week so back where I want to be but all a bit laboured.
Welsh castles relay next weekend. I'm running leg 18 which is the one that runs closest to my parents, finishing about 5 miles away. For to some road works I've just been told the leg has been reduced by 1.5 miles do now about 7.3 so I guess I'll race it more like a 10k.
skinny, how have the glute exercises worked out?
I'm here.
I've pretty much had 10 days off, which coincided with a trip to Croatia which was nice. I did manage a couple of short easy runs, some swimming and some cycling so not a complete break but definitely feel refreshed. Which is just as well as I'm doing the 'wind assisted' mile race at club tonight, last year I ran 5:13, hoping to get under 5:10 this time round. Hopefully Bob will be coming down to the race too, fingers crossed I don't need to dip for the line...
DT - decent mileage and consistent training despite the heat. Everyone seems to be struggling with it at the moment.
I had a fortnight off letting my calf and other bits get back to 'normal'. I have a physio appointment on Weds. to look at root causes. The calf is now sufficiently ok that I have managed a couple of runs at the weekend. They were the usual, 'damn I've forgotten how to run' experiences, topped off with some sticky heat.
The downtime wasn't too unbearable as I had a ENT infection and didn't even feel like cross training much, let along running. Back to it this week in so far as I can stay within the 4/10 pain threshold thing.
Dream mile went pretty well last night, finished in 05:11 which is a 3 second improvement on last year. Started off pretty well but panicked a bit when after a couple of hundred metres I was still pretty close to the leaders, who were aiming for 4:40ish, so eased back a bit and was running alongside my club mate who'd beaten me by a second last year. At about halfway I was feeling good and a couple of people ahead were coming back to me, so I upped the effort and went past them. However, this proved to be a mistake as with about 400m to go, my legs began to tie up and they went past me, as did a couple of others. I feared a complete detonation but managed to dig in a bit and hold off a couple of other rampaging club-mates, although if the race had been 10m more metres I don't think I would have been able to hold on.
Good fun event and pleased to beat my previous time, would like to think I can knock a few more seconds off with better race execution i.e. not burying myself in the middle of the race. Would love to go sub 5 but that seems like a long way off and would require me to do some focussed training for that distance which I just don't think fits in with my other plans.
And Bob?
have you converted to mileage, Pete or did you just use that as it was a nice round number? Well done either way.
muddy, I noted you had gone off the radar on Strava. Hopefully it' plain sailing to Hull now.
Been ticking over. did spin yesterday at lunch then 5k recovery late evening. Today was 5 miles easy before work. Then an unanticipated opportunity to get an hour in straight after work came up. I was keen to test my fitness in sensible conditions so went for my staple 160bpm effort run, albeit due to time constraints I was limited to 4 miles, with a 1 mile wu and cd. Ended up progressive with 6.35, 6.30, 6.28 and 6.19 for an average of 6.28. Average hr was only 157 though. 3 weeks ago same run was 6.36 for 163 so that's what hot weather does. The 6.19 last mile only had an average hr of 164 so plenty of room to race capacity from there.
Cheers both. I would agree that middle distance racing requires practice to get right and also learning how to hurt. It was noticeable that 4 of the first 6 were from the athletics club we have close links with and they do middle distance specific training and plenty of track racing.
Bob couldn't make it unfortunately. Hopefully I'll see him at next weeks summer league race.
I'm working in Edinburgh at the moment, headed out for a great run around Salisbury Crags yesterday evening with awesome views of the city.
That's a lot of running in a short space of time DT - good the marathon effort worked out well with the cooler weather.
An easy 8m for me last night, still left me feeling very wooden and the right calf tightened. Physio this lunchtime.