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P&D Autumn Marathon 2018
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Two huge sessions there, John. The ‘serious’ running club our way love that session and you get lots doing the second 5k during parkrun. Definitely one I’m keen to try.
Great long run and big week, chicksta. Things seem to be going really well for you. Any target drift?
Great long run also Hazel. That maths sounds tough - especially on the fly. Presumably you work these paces out in advance? That said, I quite enjoy seeing a mile split and trying to work out the new average lap pace.
Well executed Severn Bridge half, muddy. The conditions certainly were filthy at that time. I can see why people fear a half two weeks pre A race, but I honestly don’t think it would still be in my legs at that point: so go for it. Mile a day recovery as a rule of thumb?
Solid long run yesterday morning. 24M at 7:30m/m. Flagging a bit by the end, but that was in part to my biggest ever week (just) at 83M, the early start and the mental side after adding on a small loop past my house. A 5:15am start meant I missed the rain and had some really nice running conditions.
Significantly tougher, however, was the kids 1k ‘fun’ run I did with my daughter and wife, before she did a 10k hill race. Windy, pouring with rain and very cold, I think my daughter ran 50m and went on my shoulders the rest. To be fair, she didn’t complain - but definitely an error to do it. We certainly weren’t the only ones in the cafe immediately after and not watching the actual race.
SQ: What a fantastic dad and daughter pic. Soooo cute. I bet your daughter hates the pic though. Poor little mite. Seriously impressive mileage, parkrun and a great long run too. Looking good for Abo
AWC: You're probably still in recovery mode but a 19:41 windy parkrun is not to be sniffed at.
Hazel: You worked harder on your last run than I did. I just plodded mine. Kudos for putting in the work. I'll be eating your dust on the 16th
Muddy: Well done on your HM at MP, especially on a tough course. I personally wouldn't race a half 2 weeks out. I think I'd draw the line at 3-4 weeks but I'm old and a bit fragile. I'd be too scared to leave my best on the road. But if you recover well and think you can get away with it, go for it.
Scott: What's next for you? Whatever it is must be a great feeling to have so much speed in the legs.
As for target drift the answer is yes
Unfortunately, I got made redundant on Thursday, which really sucks, as it was completely out of the blue. I've taken it pretty badly, as I really enjoyed my job and had some great friends there, and so I've been sulking for a few days, but now turning my thoughts on to what could be next; I'm considering a complete career change.
On a much lighter note, we had a wedding on Saturday, at which Katie was a bridesmaid. Not wanting to miss my long ride, it was agreed I'd cycle to the venue and Katie would meet me there with all my stuff. Unfortunately, after getting out of the shower with 30 minutes until the ceremony, I realised I'd forgotten my trousers, and only had my super short running shorts with me.
A few frantic phone calls later, and reception had managed to find a fairly large, grubby pair of trousers in lost property. That'll have to do! I tried to make sure most photos were waist and above.. On the bright side, I was able to throw some shapes on the dance floor without any fear of ruining/ripping my trousers. It was a miracle I didn't get injured.
That wedding story made me laugh out loud
That's really shit Joe, a bit of sulking is certainly in order. Hope things work out ok. I hope you got a decent payout and gardening leave until November for 2 months as a full time athlete.
Muddy - I feel like you should recover ok from racing a half 2 weeks out. I wouldn't usually plan it but thinking back to my recent halves, I feel almost normal again in training about 5 days later so I imagine racing in 2 weeks would be fine for me.
I feel like my training is a bit derailed at the moment. Had my daughter's christening on Sunday so heaps of family and friends around over the weekend, also my dad is over from Oz for 3 weeks so will be prioritising time with him. Not too worried though if I don't prepare properly for an Autumn race. In that vein I slept in this morning so didn't have time for the planned tempo and did a short fartlek around the park near work, worked out to approx 2 min on, 1 min float, x8 so a decent session and similar to a Mona fartlek.
That was a good half considering the course and conditions muddy. I have my last tune up race two weeks pre mara this weekend and opted for a 10km rather than a half when faced with the same question on signing up a few weeks ago and I'm now almost regretting it.
Great mileage SQ and nice the weather rewarded you for getting up so early for your long run. Adding those little bits on to a run to bring up the mileage is something I also find hard - I usually try to add the extra bits at the beginning when setting out on a route which might be a bit short and risk walking a stretch to get home (actually a good cool-down). Your daughter needs your cap but I like her stripy boots!
I do my on the fly pacing by what my watch is telling me I am currently running which isnt the best method I guess.
Good parkrun AWC the combination of ultras and short and fast you can do is impressive.
Will be interesting to see who does what in Berlin Chicksta. I think you will be closer to 3:30 than 3:45. My A goal is to get a PB (i.e. sub 3:34) and if I go sub 3:30 I'd be delighted.
Nice family get togethers HA. Well done on getting a run in despite sleeping in.
Rest day for me yesterday and I feel well recovered from Sunday's long run. Will go out with my group later for the first time in several weeks (often been too hot) as I could do with some running and other chat.
Hazel: Yep, very excited about yesterday's number e-mail too
I'm 34655
Come and join us on the DTT
Massive numbers this time around ... I think (although I may be wrong) that I had a 4 digit number starting with an F (female) when I did Berlin 10 years ago. Perhaps numbers have to be gender neutral nowadays ... And you could enter without a ballot back then. Times have changed.
Nice recovery run, Hazel. Sometimes we forget to enjoy some easier stuff.
Unintentional progression run for me today. Legs were a bit sleepy first thing but then I settled into a nice rhythm and ticked off 11.5 pleasant miles. Lovely cool morning for it. Supposed to rain tomorrow so I'll do my 600s on the treadmill.
Joe - That's a real pain with the redundancy. I hope you can get something else soon (or that the career change takes off!).
Thanks for the half thoughts all - I think I'll race the half as things stand. Generally I'm looking at around 7-10 days recovery running for a raced half, but my recovery from Severn Bridge Half felt pretty good (borne out by morning HRV measurements too) so I think I'll chance it. Normally this sort of thing would be a no-no for me, but I haven't had a really long build up of marathon training and had a couple of rested periods in June/July so (somewhat unbelievably) I'm still feeling fresh at around 3 weeks out
Nicely raced Muddy. I’ve successfully raced a marathon, 7 min PB, one week after a half PB btw.
Good Parkrun AWC. Not done Lee-on-Solent, where did you finish with that time?
Quality sessions JohnOz, and more solid training from SQ, Hazel & Chicksta. You ladies deserve to be excited about Berlin now, especially after such a great training block.
I managed 19:31 for 7th at Newbury parkrun Saturday. It’s a lovely single lap, lightly undulating trail course around Greenham Common. I was pretty happy with that as I’d only had 3.5hrs kip! I cycled 7M to get there, then had a 2K wu. Ran another lap afterwards to make it 7.5M for the day. Further festival fun put a stop to any further running til today. Did my usual hilly trail 10K before breakfast then smashed 8 hill reps on the bike after lunch: 28M & over 1200m of climb. Much harder than the 6 I did yesterday but I was rested then. Managed to get out this evening too for 2 more hill reps but on foot this time - Great training for Snowdonia Marathon as it’s a 1.75M road climb & descent. Average gradient is 5% but it’s pretty variable on the ground.
Well done Hazel. Yes Snowdonia is a killer as the 2nd half is basically uphill with a killer climb from mile 22-24.
Racking the miles up SQ and at a decent pace too
Lee on Solent definitely isn't a quick one on a windy day AWC. Not a fan of the turn around the cone at each end either
Chicksta - think the first race will be a league XC on 14th October unless we do a parkrun before then
Sorry to hear about the redundancy Joe, hopefully it will give you the chance to pursue something different
Family always takes priority HA, plus you're still managing to get some runs done
Can't believe Kipruto ran the majority of the steeple chase last night with only 1 spike on, probably the event I'd 100% want them
Is that festival season done for you now Jools?
Good to get some speedier reps in the legs Hazel
After a week off I was back to it with 30mins steady on Wednesday before a horrible session last night, 5mins (2mins), 2 x 4mins (90s), 3 x 3mins (90s), 6 x 30s (45s). Paces were:
4:49
4:59/5:03
4.56/ 5:05/ 5
4.32, 4.23, 4.12, 4.23, 3.59, 4.32
Rest day today!
Blimey, Scott - that's one hell of a complicated session! Ouch and well done!
Great park run Jools and very little sleep. Not sure I would have managed to drag my sorry ass out of bed if I'd been in your place. Snowdonia sounds hard core.
Well done for nailing those 600s outside, Hazel. I was cheating again and did them on the treadmill.
3k warm-up (11, 11.5 and 12 kph), then each 600 at 15 kph and 200m jog recoveries at 10kph and a cool-down 1 and a bit k at 11 kph. The first rep felt horrid but I guess I hadn't warmed up properly then as the others felt a lot better. Even did the final 200m of the last rep at 16kph but that's as fast as my legs would turn. Any quicker and I'd have hit the deck
I hope my makeshift P&D schedule with almost no tempo running, speed work or tune-up races will get me through OK. Seems like the past 10 weeks have been more or less all aerobic running at the plod spectrum of my pace range (apart from a few MP miles). On the plus side I don't feel worn out or at the brink of injury so that's a plus.
Impressive parkrun in ultra legs, AWC. Nice one.
Getting close Berlin twins. Intrigued to see the outcome of the match up!
Shit news, Joe. Looks like you’ll embrace the life of a pro athlete for a while. What else could be in store work wise?
Good to see Jooligan getting the Snowdonia altitude in.
Back on it Scott. Paces a bit slow
Solid week of running so far although the 80M weeks have seen huger levels skyrocket. Mostly easy and recovery around Wednesday’s Big Session: 3.7M WU and WD. 20 mins at MP, 3 jog, 5 x 3 mins hard with 90s jog, 20 mins MP. The tempo sandwiches are tough but excellent sessions. I find I just focus on one stage at a time and then am astonished at the total mileage. This came out at 17M at 7M/m, with the MP at 6:25, and the ‘fast’ at 5:48-6:00. God knows how I ran a half marathon at that! Good session in the bank. Tellingly, despite feeling ok, yesterday’s opening recovery mile was at 9:27m/m. Slower ever flat mile I think!
You'll be fine without any proper speedwork chicksta, read about plenty of people on these forums who have ran good marathon's off purely aerobic running
I must try harder next time SQ
Doesn't matter how slow the recovery runs are, as long as you're hitting the paces in the sessions.
Good sessions there Scott, Chicksta & SQ.
Paces came out as 5.24/5.16, 5.08/5.25, 5.31, 5.27, 5.27/5.06, 5.07/5.32
It's the longer tempo stuff where I tend to struggle so pretty pleased with today's/Thursday's session.
Belated Happy Birthday Jools, enjoy the cider later
Back to the sessions Scott, nice work.
Swift 600s Chicksta. I've mostly stuck to the up to 55 mile plan and have the feeling I've done enough speedwork but not enough long runs.
Great tempo sandwich SQ. Not surprised you are feeling hungry after runs like that.
Just a 6 mile recovery with some strides for me yesterday evening to break in a new pair of shoes then a gentle jog home in familiar ones (another 2 and a bit miles). 10k race tomorrow - should be good weather and course conditions for a PB attempt. Hopefully not too congested. Last pre-Berlin long run is postponed until Monday. One day late won't make a difference.
SQ - nice monster session, looking well on track for a PB even at this stage.
Scott - hill reps sound tough, I laughed when you said they were winter training. Reminds me of a tweet I saw that yesterday was the first day of Christmas.
Hazel and chicksta - tapering nicely, hope that final LRs go well.
Jools - happy birthday, you must fancy treating yourself to a weekend of non stop racing!?
Got in a few quality sessions this week. Started the week with 6x800m, coming in around 2:57s, then an MLR with 5k tempo done to marathon effort and finally a 10k club race yesterday, where I did the first half at 5k pace and then unsurprisingly crawled home in the second half for 39:24. Finished off with a progressive 19M today, and pretty happy with the week despite the overall miles being on the low side.
Also been busy this weekend following UTMB - crazy weather meant elites were dropping out like flies but fascinating to watch the high quality live coverage. Some runners have been going for over 40 hours and still haven’t finished! Think I will apply for one of the races next year, probably CCC which is “only” 100k.
Haha yeah seems funny saying 'winter training' considering its only September and the weather is still nice. But now track season is over, the focus shifts somewhat.
Not sure anyone else has mentioned it but the DL 5000m final, WOW!
Solid weeks training John, what's the next target for you?
Long run of 9 miles this morning, 6:45 pace. Struggled a bit but got it done, incredibly humid out
Happy birthday Jooligan.
That is a good session, Scott. Good to see some more tempo sandwiches in action.
Hell of a week, John. You do like non-training training! UTMB is epic isn’t it, just qualifying is so tough. Would love to do some of the trails - significantly slower mind you.
Having not gone hard in a parkrun for months, yesterday saw my second effort in a fortnight. Way off last week’s 18:10 with a 18:48 showing. Plenty of excuses - another big week of training, heavier shoes, longish warm up. Still - good mental training to push HMP on tired legs.
A very lively toddler saw me awake from 4:15 this morning. Out by 5ish for 20M. Nice conditions at about 15-16C and a bit of wind. Couldn’t quite decide on hilly and slow or flat with some MP. Opted for the faster (less time) option to get me home more quickly. A repeat of a fortnight ago: 9M WU at 7:45s, 10M MP then a mile warm down. Really pleased, and quite surprised given another 80M training week, to see MP HR emerge at a 6:22 average pace. Slightly variable paces with a slight rise every 2.5M loop and a little bit of wind, but within 6:15-6:29.
That will be the last block with MP in a long run, but I will sandwich some miles around Cheltenham Half.
Back to reality tomorrow. About time you are all rightly saying!
I watched some to the DL athletics Scott - did you also see the men's steeplechase where the winner lost his shoe early on? If I remember correctly without checking it it was in Zurich. And a great race by Laura Muir also (Brussels?) Humidity is a killer. The new shoes: New Balance 1500 V4. Second pair of those so I could risk taking them out of the box and racing in them today.
Another big week from you SQ. Have a good start tomorrow.
Well done on your last LR chicksta. 24 degrees is a bit warm. I giggle at some of the paces done on this thread - no way for me! I'm not looking forward to those 3 x 1600 either.
Jools: Hello from Simon Dimmer from FoD - I was standing next to him before the start. I understood he has recently left the club but he was wearing the club vest - I was curious to know if he knew you.
Absolutely excellent PB Hazel. Huge chunk off! Bodes very well.
Low carb choc cake cooked by my wife, for her mum. Mmm mmmmm. That, preceded by salmon and white wine, a nice way to round off the holidays. Have pro,used myself no alcohol on a school night until Abingdon. Looking to this thread for inspiration!