Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Joe - let us know how Katie does please.
Don’t talk calories to me please Wardi - I’m busy putting on my winter weight!
My legs usually feel awful the day after The physio has had a go at them TR - hope yours behave better.
Hammy was sore to the touch after ydays pummeling, but just a bit tight when running so i kept it slow just in case.
Taper time. I have now trained for 3 marathons this year, hopefully I'll get to finish this one.
CD - Likewise. I’ll look out for you. What will you be wearing? Hope to be at multiple points on the course.
TR/Wardi - nice running, get the legs wrapped up and enjoy the taper.
As CD mentioned, ran the Chicago 5km this morning. Thunderstorms cleared to leave us with quite muggy conditions. Managed a 17:57 which is way off where I’ve been previously so slightly disappointed. I guess that’s what happens when you train for long distance triathlon, something is going to have to give. Good enough for 21st of over 5,500, but we know American fields are usually as strong..
Looking forward to supporting Katie (and Dave!) tomorrow. She’s trained so hard and should be good for a 3:05 or so if things go to plan.
Been lurking for many years on this thread with the occasional post - apologies for the self-indulgent reappearance. Celebrated(?) my 40th this year and decided a proper effort at another sub-3 was needed after a succession of ‘near misses’ and ‘no chances’ in recent years.
Last two two weekends have yielded a ‘comfortable’ shuffle round 20 and an unexpected 1:24 for Ealing Half, so feel like I can legitimately target sub-3. Work and travel commitments mean I’ll be on a low mileage 45-55mpw attempt in Valencia.
As ever, good and inspiring to read about the conventional hard marathon training miles being put in (TR, SJ, Wardi and many others!) and of course the less conventional (CW - good luck for Chester).
Speaking of less-conventional - for true ultra running insanity I’d highly recommend following Pete Kostelnick on Instagram/Strava - not content with breaking the long-standing San Franscisco to New York record a couple of years ago he’s now on day 68 on his run from Alaska to Florida! Always stops me grumbling about a long run when I see his daily mileage ;-)
Another 20 planned for me today - enjoy the Sunday running one and all.
Wardi - nice park run effort. Maybe the water on the route enough to account for slightly slower time, no point in taking any risks at this stage. Defo cotton wool time for you.
CD/Joe - nice park run tourism! Hope it freshened the legs suitably.
SD 179 - looking good for Valencia with that recent half time. Don't take any of my ramblings as inspiration... Definitely listen to others though. Keep posting.
16 bagged today in 1.55 with sunny but chilly conditions (gloves, hat, under teeshirt tech top).
Picked pace up throughout and finished with 6:36, 6:41, 6:35, 6:36. Felt reasonably comfortable. Don't think for a minute thats MP tho.
SD 179 - i agree with SJ, looking like sub3 shape for Valencia.
SJ - good run there, esp the pace at the end. We gave made it to the taper.
Its a better day here, but a bit breezy still, which might be noticable for Al.
I celebrated reaching the taper by having my first rest day for a while.
Thanks TR and SJ - nice, swift finishing miles!
For the runners, a brief report: I knew from recent training that even 2hr42 would be pushing it, probably. Today I found myself in a group doing just that pace into the slight breeze on the outward leg, so I stuck with them, though my HR was a touch high at ~148 bpm, and it didn't feel as easy as it should. Half way was about 1:21:10. From about 16M, I was struggling; my HR fell if anything, but my leg muscles were on the edge of trouble. I didn't blow up -- the Grade Adjusted Pace splits on Strava go out a bit, but stay consistent -- but I was losing time with each mile, and had people go past me late on, which is rare. In the last mile I encountered a guy with an MV45 label on his back having a worse time than me, which gave me the incentive to give it everything when I dearly wanted it to be over. Scores on the doors: 2:44:38 gun (chip TBC), 50th overall, 10th MV45. (Last year here was 2:38:53 and 2nd MV45.) I think my England vest is likely to stay in the drawer now at least until I'm an MV50!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1889584577
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3071124789
https://ale.niftyentries.com/Results/MBNA-Chester-Marathon-2018/195/1
Hope CD is having/had a good one...
Sorry to hear you had a tough race CW after an obscene run of consistent times. Sub 2:45 is an incredible time. As a statistician I would say a 10-sgima value is such an outlier it can be ignored!
Just watched Chicago marathon and Mo looked very in control and ran a great race. I stalked CD's result and suspect he may be a little disappointed. Joe, I hope Katie ran well.
Wardi belated birthday wishes! Hope the final week before race goes well.
Jooligan. TR, SJ - hope you are coping ok with the taper for Abo. I ran 16 today so now only have one more double digit run planned and that will be next Sunday when I run 10 miles. Legs felt a bit fresher this week so think I am on the cusp to go sub 3. Though I have a dodgy achilles which has been giving me grief for months which I hope settles down over next couple of easy weeks.
SD - well done in Ealing and good to hear we have another one for Valencia.
CW - the best you can be on the day, so well done. Maybe your long holiday run was still in your legs, i guess youll find out in April.
CD - i saw your time on the tracker and it looked like someone gave you a piano to carry in the last stretch. Sounds like you managed it well though. Races like Chicago are forvyhe experience rather than race time surely, due to the travel. Still a very good M50 time though.
Tick Tock - agreed, i will just do one more double digit next weekend. Hope the achilles comes good, my hammy is sore from the pummelling at the physio. Hopefully the taper puts the three of us in sub3 shape and we can drag each other round.
CD - Congratulations, a pretty good return from a short campaign. You've knocked me off 11th fastest old codger for a 2018 marathon by 1 second.
SD - Valencia a fast course for a sub 3 marathon, worth I would say a minute compared to London. Flat straight roads, good support, lots of fast runners and good temperatures.
Bit of a ragged training week, 38m with my left knee still giving me gyp.
Good run that SD
I did 20M in 2:38:54 today along the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal so pretty flat but uneven running surface. First 5M was in 43 minutes, next 5 in 41 then turned & did the next 10 in 75 with a very slight negative split. No water/gels just a 16g packet of Fangtastics Wiggle sent me ages ago with a new tyre which I started eating from 10M in. Very happy with that as I'd done 13.1M yesterday including a 5K tempo parkrun & over 2,500ft of Brecon Beacon fells which had left my quads pretty battered which made the last 5 miles particularly tough. Would have liked to up the pace a bit more in the final stretch but a cobbled bridge, a steep zig-zag descent & having to scale a couple of fences in the final miles broke my rhythm.
Sorry you didn’t get what you wanted Charlie and Dave.
Take care of yourself in the taper TR.
A good weekend’s training there Jooligan.
Wardi - it’s not fair, I’d need 20 miles plus to account for that lot!
LMH - i only have a short BAC session planned for Tues and then 13 or 14 Saturday, the rest is all easy.
CW - You should be pleased with that run, you gave it all you could. I am sure it will be back to the boringly predictable 2:38/2:39 in London next year!
CD - Well done - 2:49 off a truncated campaign is a good result. I do love Chicago - did they hand you a beer at the finish again this year?
SD179 - Welcome and as others have said, you're looking good for Valencia.
Jooligan - more decent miles in the bank. Looking good for Abo.
TR - enjoy the taper.
Quietish week for me since I'm tapering for the HM next weekend. Only run worth mentioning is an interval session on Thursday - 3x1.2K off 2mins and 3x1K off 1min 40. Averaged 3:29 per km (5:37/mi). This HM campaign has certainly given me extra leg speed. Final long-ish run of 12M today.
TR - Menally willing you across marathon finoshing line at Abo, you deserve it with all the effort you've put in this year!
Wardi - Good running at parkrun, deploy the cotton wool...
SJ - Continuing the great training, consistant consistancy
CW - Not always your day (read below!), a solid run non the less!
CD - I've got simliar feelings from today, a great effort still though
Bournemouth was a mixed bag today, on the up side the weather was lovely (given how terrible it was on Saturday), the run wasn't my best, but overall it was satisfying. I parked up super early (to avoid the road closures and it's only 30mins from my house) and had time to watch the half marathon start at 8am(!). Met up with RyanS before the start and discussed race plans warming up infront of the start. Off at the gun I felt pretty good and the first few miles were in and around 2:30 pace. my heart rate was good but my legs just didn't feel comfortable enough for the initial stages of a marathon. I stuck with it with Ryan and 4 others hoping my legs would settle in with a few more miles. There were 4 others already off and way in front,so it was already a case of modulating the pace/effort and hoping that things went my way wrt to 2019 masters qualification.
Our group stayed together well (despite a couple of pedestrians almost taking us all out around 7-8M!) until just after halfway, when I lost contact going down the hill into the area around Bournemouth pier. Thus followed c.6-7 miles of solo running where I was seriously considering if I was going to be able to get to the end. Aerobically I was fine, but my legs were just resisting going faster, nasty feeling I hadn't tapered well enough this time round.... By this point I was in 8-9th place and not sure how many V35s were ahead. Coming down the prom towards Sandbanks I got a good lift off the spectators, which included plenty of beach hut residents, ultra runners Jez & Gemma Bragg, the BAC crew and Marigold who gave me a bit of stick about not being shit just before the turn around for the final 3 miles back to finish. With the nice weather there were lots of people out on the prom so the support was really great.
Coming back up to the finish I could see I was gradually reeling the next runner. Got past and then locked on to the next two (the reminants of the original group). I finally managed to shut out the discomfort in my les and push my HR up to more like MP levels. The final mile or two was a combination of dodging prom tourists and slowing watching 6th & 5th place get closer. In the last mile I got past 6th, but 5th was a Southampton AC runner with track sprinting pedigree, so as I draw near with less than 1/2 mile to go, he picked up and stretched the gap out of my reach.
I crossed the line in 2:36:44 in 6th place, which I think (after checking the results) has bagged me a 2019 v35 Masters slot. So overall happy, the masters qualification was much harder than I expected. my marathon training was probably at least a month short and I think I need to manage a one week taper a little better in the future (more easy, less fast).
Interesting wrt the 1st place result though. 1st across the line did a major course diversion (due to mis-marshaling apparently), resulting in missing the 2nd mjor hill on the course. Ran the right distance, but very different to 2nd. Both were well clear of the field (ran 2:25/2:26) in the end. The winner was a Dorset local, so I'd expect him to have a reasonable idea of the course (I'd have known very quickly I was going the wrong way, it was very wrong!), but the result has stood. It wasn't his fault, he was second at the time of going wrong and ended up meeting up with the next runner going the wrong way along the course! But I think the perrogative should be with the runners to know the course, shouldn't it?
LMH - The Strava 'Fly-by' playback of 1st & 2nd at Bournemouth makes for entertaining viewing! https://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#1889811823?c=gcn8t0jm&z=F&t=1RkSiG&a=bz2kcKhwo3DUyqJw (select 'Richard' & 'Iain' near the top of the list of runners)
My legs are very achey but not too bad this morning, helped by sitting in a friend's hot tub drinking red wine last night I think
UDS - well done for finishing Warsaw given the minor implosion and stomach problems. Sounds like you peaked 5 weeks early - I would find that a tough run when in 2:30ish shape.
TR - well done on getting the last 20 done. Just need to be careful now!
SJ - very nice long run. If those were the last 4M that can't be too far off MP?
CW - that's still a pretty decent run, only 5 mins off your best. I know that seems like a lot to you, but you could easily explain a minute or two to the course/conditions.
CD - very nice to get a 2:4x, even if it's a bit slower than your usual high standard.
Al - sounds like you toughed that out very well considering. I noticed the winner didn't have a HM split so wondered if something weird had happened.
Lots of other solid training runs by various people (Jooligan, SD179, ES etc).
A couple of decent runs for me over the weekend. Parkrun on Saturday pushing mini-P - new PB of 17:11. We're on a different course now which means not having to lap people, but it does mean an extra very small hill (hardly worth mentioning but with the buggy even small hills lose me a bit of time) and a 600m section on bumpy grass (again, would be fine without the buggy). Last mile was the quickest (5:24) as I was closing on the 3 guys ahead, caught and passed two of them but my clubmate held me off by a few seconds.
Then 13M yesterday which is my longest run since my DNF at the Lakeland 50 in July. I was bored so decided to do the first 11M with each mile faster than the previous, then 2M cooldown. As usual, I started a bit fast which made it tough (2nd mile was 6:43), but managed it with 6:08 for the 10th mile and 5:53 for the 11th. Weirdly my quads were a bit painful which is very unusual for me.
I'm probably going to do a local 10M in 3 weeks, hence the slightly longer run.
Good training there Jooligan.
Great performance Al -- maybe I should lend you my vest for next year's masters' competition, I'm pretty sure I won't need mine ;-) (I will be at York though.) And actually I feel it's the event's responsibility to ensure runners go the right way, though I often have the course downloaded to my watch just in case of dodgy marshalling. There was a paper by Bosquet on tapering which concluded 2 weeks was optimum BTW.
Padams -- that's an insane parkrun pace with a buggy!
And thanks all! Jools: it's true my wife has had a stinking cold, but I think I dodged it. Conditions were perfect by the way, cold and dry with just a slight headwind out/tailwind back breeze. The Chester course isn't pancake flat, but it's pretty good -- I got the same time as in VLM there last year. I think the tail end of my training was good, but by then it was a bit late; I missed doing any faster stuff for 2-3 weeks because of preparing for and then recovering from that ultra, but it was a great adventure so I wouldn't want to have missed it.
Padams - remind me never to do a parkrun when you're there with junior.
Disappointing TV coverage (or lack of) for Chicago. Considering the BBC are massive Mo-Farah-fanboys, you'd have thought they'd have at least stuck it on the red button, especially after missing missing any Berlin coverage when a WR was strongly predicted. Had to watch the NBC coverage and jesus christ it was sh!t. Cutting away for 10 minute chunks at crucial times to interview corporate drones, interview wheelchair races, or cut to the "cheer zone" for spectator updates. Awful, awful, awful.
Best part of 50 miles over the course of the long weekend for me. 16 on Friday, 21 on Saturday, then paced a sub 1:30 at the local half on Sunday which felt pretty easy considering. Will just keep on training through Abo with no taper, similar to last year I suspect. Hard to say if I'm in good shape, but seem to handle the mileage easily enough.
CW - maybe you needed more recovery before you got back to marathon prep, although i remember you doing a 2:5X recently.
Padams - you havnt got a motor in that buggy?
6m easy today, final BAC session tomorrow.