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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Wouldn't have thought it was glycogen depletion to be honest Ric - I eat lots of rice and pasta, and well, generally just lots! My diet hasn't really changed for years to any great extent, and in fact I've put on a few pounds recently. I think the current fatigue is simply a ramp up in in climbing, for two weeks, then coming back and expecting to return to normal, including some speedwork. As SG says, I think the legs are just reminding me they are just as old as the rest of me
Anyhow, whilst by no means fresh, they grudgingly accepted my run to work this morning which at least was back down to something resembling a reasonable pace! Probably not ideal timing for a double day, but work has conspired against me and needs must.
There are times when I think a camera on the bike would be a good idea too, but never quite get around to sorting it, and I don't really want one on my helmet!
The camera has been on order since I saw a cyclist be the victim of a hit and run. He memorised the car number plate. I'd have had no chance.
Bus, tried putting it on the lid. No good. So it's ended up on the end of the mountain bikes handlebars. The road bike may need some additional engineering.
The diet thing was a surprise to me once I'd weighed it all out. Struck me as a real task to get enough complex carbs down without taking in so many Kcals that I'd end up like an elephant.
To do the job 100% would mean a diet that tasted largely of card board.
To be fair, it's a lot easier for me to attend to training details like diet. There isn't really much else I have to do anymore - that and sleep.
🙂
But we all do that for various reasons. I post because when I think I've discovered bits and pieces about training which the standard text misses. I feel I ought to mention it. Information others might find useful as I have done.
That's my motivation. Altruism.
🙂
I have to eat cardboard at work all day basically, I'm always eating. I like those 'Corn cake' things 'Fiorentini organic corn cakes' and Ryvita. Do have other stuff to give me a bit more energy when I need to.
5 x 1600 last night, two laps with the usual 100m of slope in each lap. It was hard work as the long side was wind in your face, so they came out 5.38's few over 5.40 then the last one 5.36. Hard work, didn't feel that fast.
Miserable wet long commute run this morning.
Sat/Suns hill double left my legs surprisingly shattered, so I knew a tempo was out yesterday.
I thought it was just about worth doing today, and with a Sunday race needed to get it in.
Aimed for 30mins/5miles, potentially increasing it later if I felt the need.
Instead, it felt a right old struggle from the off, 1.31/1.33 combo to start, with a mix of tired legs and heavier than usual wind making it feel like treacle!
Normally I find you can still get tempo stuff off with wind, but the legs element on top and it wasn't happening.
Threw a 90sec break in after 12 laps, and then put an 8 lap in to finish.
Probably averaged 1.32 when aiming for 2seconds quicker (and usually finishing 3 seconds quicker).
Not to worry, sometimes you have to both edit sessions, and deal with what you have on the day.
Going forward I'll need to plan stuff better though, as those hill sprints had a much stronger effect on my legs than I was expecting!
SG - Good session in the annoying atlantic weather! Wind is a real pain.
I put my lack of colds to the fizzy VitC & Zinc tablet I have every morning, plus an apple a day helps to sort out the stomach (the 'broom' of the gut apparently). Very lucky with injuries too, possibly from not running as a kid?
Who knows eh. Perhaps we do have only 20 years decent running in our legs? I joined HHH in March 2000, so Ive got about 18 months before I really start falling to bits
Will stick a 3mile recovery in shortly, and try and do something double figures tomorrow early am, before resting the rest of Thur and all of Friday, That will allow a pure 48hours rest before a light one Sat, and should get things fresh again.
31 years later I amused myself this morning with a 14 miler, nice and easy for just over 2 hours (relative term) and not stopping once. Felt good. And currently, no niggles.
Ok considering I'm nearly 58.
Oh, and the doctor wants to put me on statins.
🙂
Just kidding, hope all is well with the medication.
And you have an incredible swing from doing virtually nothing to very quickly being back into fairly hardcore mileage and streaks!
7.02 average surprisingly!
I did a string of 8 of this length runs before the Wokingham half in Feb, and they got me a fairly decent time without huge amounts of tempo stuff.
A nice little confidence booster in this strangely disconcerting last few week period - maybe not finished quite yet!
Although I certainly am going to embrace a pretty much 48 hour rest period now!
This is in lieu of a double run day as legs, whilst recovering, are still not quite right.
Not good news about the statins Ric - Dr clearly thinks you're not doing enough exercise then
Double bike day for me too Bus; nice weather for November wasn't it?
Hope your ankle improves fast PMJ.
SG, I base what I'm going to do on what I've been able to do and recover from. It's a bit of a balancing act at the lower ends of training volume since doing just a few more miles can at times nearly double the averages.
At the start of the week I set off to do a run which had a limit of about 8 miles but within a few yards I realised I clearly hadn't recovered from the previous run. So I stopped and just cycled that day.
So I lost a few miles, but the next day I was fine.
🙂
Not sure I agree totally about the weather today Pete - it was raining for most of the ride this morning and colder than I was expecting tonight and I didn't have long gloves
In Slough it started off nippy, as in a 2 layer on top job, which is very rare for me.
Yet by the end the sun was coming out,
These people who say there are no climate changes would do well to explain this last year. Snow in mid March, and October and now November warmer than they should be.
In fairness I do seem to feel the warm more these days (it's meant to be the cold I think
)
Whether or not the seemingly rapid changes we have seen in the past few decades are a result of anthropogenic influence used to be more debatable, but I think the evidence over the last ten years or so is increasingly clear. Even if you to take out the natural variability in weather as well as longer term climatic difference, the changes we are seeing, and specifically the global extremes, all seem to be a good match with predictions made by climate change models since the mid 1990s and are more rapid and violent than anything seen in the historical record.
The biggest issue for me though (from a selfish perspective of course) is whether or not this will be a linear, albeit steep, change, which we are possibly resilient enough to deal with in a global perspective (though simply managing Brexit makes me wonder!!!) in the timescale of my children's children or whether some of the more extreme climate change predictions, based on events hinted at in the geological record might happen. These are where sudden (within a single generation) major climatic changes take place that are almost impossible for us to meaningfully adapt to occur.
Still, on the plus side, it's good that, thanks to warmer drier weather in the summer, the UK is now producing better wine than the French, particularly if in six months we can only drink our own
Something to think about.
I neglected to mention yesterday. Thanks Pete. Your mention about statins has cleared any doubts about them.
If evidence that they don't hinder running performance is required, You are proof of that.
Maybe you should publicise this fact as an example.
🙂
Road near work had all manner of police / traffic trawling by. Driving by expecting to see some bumped car, instead saw the obviously fatal result of a bike and lorry meeting. It was the way the police were just wandering around taking photos that you knew it was curtains. Dreadful, and I hope the family find some peace in time! Apparently happened at 6.45am, and I drove past 8.30, so that's a shocker too, that far on and still there, real.
SG - That's awful, I used to try and not think about it on my bike commute. Luckily it was on some fairly quiet roads so a bit safer. Still a bit hairy in the winter though. Enjoy the 48 hours rest!
Starting to get back into some 'proper' training now. Did a 5m tempo on Sunday at 6.35s which is actually closer to MP then tempo but a good pace to ease back into. 16 x 2mins on Tuesday working down from 6.10s to 5.40 pace and then a 5m tempo section in the middle of a 12m run planned for this Sunday. This will be at true tempo pace so 6.18-6.25.
Good luck to anyone racing XC this weekend!
Yes SWh - Surrey league is at my favourite course - Wimbledon Common (Hercules Wimbledon course). Nice flat and downhill to start with a rise about 2/3 of the way through the lap (2 laps). Should be pretty dry still too.
Nice pic Ric!
Good luck with the XC.
🙂
Hope Philip is getting on ok with the ankle.
The statins thing is a sobering thought. Nothing much wrong with me (touch wood) at 48 (apart from forgetfulness) but a decade down the line who knows what will happen. As the ghost of Christmas Future Ric, care to comment on how the passing of time has affected your running and anything you've tried to mitigate against it ?
I'm having a fairly flat week - struggling to get out of 3rd gear with respect to effort but still enjoying the running. The flat feeling is most likely due to a 10k race last Sunday. I was way off the leader but just about hung on for 2nd in 35.37. I was pushed all the way by 3rd and 4th so it probably was a bit harder than I would have liked. No warm up to speak of didn't help either.
I'm now off to stock up on gloves with my prize money - for some reason they seem to disappear on me, I must lose three pairs every winter.
Have fun at the cross country folks. My club doesn't bother (and Saturday afternoons tricky for me) so I am down for a couple of trail races over the next couple of weeks. I like to do them around marathon effort and enjoy the surroundings.
48 Muddy. I guess I put you in the "40s" like I did with Bus, and then get surprised when it gets deeper into them.
You're going pretty darn well as it is, let alone for 48. Half an eye on the V50s and ripping the cat up for a year?
ps our series is a Sunday, it's a more sociable smaller club league (perhaps 15 clubs), then the Saturday leagues.
Not to knock the front end though, some 31/32 10k types in there.
Ric - to be pedantic, that is not the historical record, but the geological one.
The big difference is the quality and means of interpretation of the data. All climate evidence in the geological record is inferred by proxy, whereas for the historical period, where records have been kept, the climate is a matter of direct observation (my MSc was about reconstructing climate during the last few wiggly lines in the graph - the Quaternary - which is, not coincidentally, the time in which we started to appear as a species).
The worrying thing about the current apparent climate change is not the temperature extreme itself, especially by comparison to the Cretaceous for example) but the speed at which it is and could change compared to ours and other current life on Earth's ability to adapt. As you say, the planet itself won't care!
Anyway - double run today. Legs still heavy, but nothing too dramatic.
Muddy, maybe to keep a weather eye on the fact that just about every training program/schedule is based on those in their teens and 20's.
Those ideas were fixed in the era when runners packed it in when barely 30 years of age. The principles therefore pay lip service to rest and recovery. So looking after yourself more as against testing oneself to the limits often is probably the wise course of action as you age.
On other level. Once I couldn't believe I'd never be able to just run sub six minute miling. Why not? it was a speed I could do off almost nothing. So what changed?
Age? injury?
Actually, it was the body simply turning down the wick. It takes ages for me to warm up (30 minutes) When I start running it takes ages for my HR to react and get going, whereas once it hit max in seconds, regardless of warm up.
An estimated level pace start in a race is now too fast for me due to the previous problem. I go into an oxygen debt while my HR plays catch up. And finally, my maximum HR is now around 170bpm whether I like it or not.
Note the key issue is HR. To race well it needs to be able to motor high and get there fast. How else is oxygen to be shifted as required if it doesn't?
Does this change occur gradually? Hopefully yes. However, in my case I woke up to discover I'd dropped a level over night.
Mind you, due to accepting I'm not 20 years old. I can train for hours without problems, so long as I temper the tough stuff. No good fighting it - go with the flow.
And, on the global warming front.
Yes Bus, correct. But you get the idea.
Personally speaking I was stunned when I first set eyes on that illustration.
🙂