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P&D Spring Marathon 2019
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Give it time, George, and you’ll soon be squeezing those 15 milers in at 5am.
TR – yes, the legs felt good yesterday thank you. Although predictably after yesterday MLR and gym in the afternoon (with squats, deadlifts and clean & jerks) they are now battered again.
Interesting about the strides feeling hard, Ramjet. I often find this but, like you, feel much better for them the next day. 7:10s being easy is good work.
Sounds like you’re on the up, HA. Great to hear.
7M recovery this morning. After yesterday’s 15M on the canal included quite a lot of trail and mixed surface, I decided to break all my own rules and wear road shoes for the recovery. Chose old ones so I could flick between pavements and grass as I saw fit – just gave me a few more options. Average 8:40s as usual.
HA - good to hear you're back out there, sounds like things are going to be good, fingers crossed.
Did a session in Battersea Park this morning that went surprisingly well. Been feeling a bit crap the last couple of days and this continued during my warm up, and I convinced myself I'd just try but then probably bomb out and jog around.
Got going and felt the best I have done in a long time. 3 x 1 lap (1.75 miles) 'tempo pace', which I ran progressively - 6mm, 5:55mm, 5:52mm. The first time in yonks where sub 6mm felt sustainable and actually I was in control for the whole session with half an eye on cross country Saturday. 13 miles total @ 6:50mm.
Already hit 50 miles with the week with a bike session and swim in there to boot, so it's probably going to end up being quite a big one. Happy days.
Its all been happening here.
I never really understood the long run should be 25% of total weekly mileage. that means everyone doing a 20 miler needs to be doing 60 miles per week, which most marathoners don't do (except people on here).
Regarding turbos, I think the naturally aspirated engines sound better than turbos, especially with a tubi exhaust.
SQ, I hated combining squats with running , used to kill the legs!
Back to the running thing, might try a MLR today ...
Sorry to read about the tumble Muddy, a few entries on Strava suggests you are recovering.
Sorry you've pulled out of Manchester Westy.
Decent weeks milege Chicksta.
Decent parkrun race Jools backed up with the 22 next day.
Sorry Watford was cancelled HPR, if it's any consolation, it's quite undulating. Great MP session in lieu of.
Very tidy 10k LR sandwich TR - good luck this Sun at Worthing.
Great 10k SQ and well done on the PB, enjoyed the report although I was hoping you were going to fist pump an inanimate object......a for sale sign maybe ?
Excellent MP Ram, especially in the conditions, I postponed mine to this week.
Looks like the speed is there or thereabouts Steve with that LT finish.
Some strong sessions there Spoons and great overall mileage.
FBT hope the niggles settle down.
Millsy, fantastic result at the Arc. When I saw people spending the night on the A30 I did think thats nothing compared to what the people on the Arc are about to go through. It's one I'd love to do but the weather is just too unpredictable this time of year.
Good luck with finding a mara AWC. FWIW, when I looked into standing desks, advice seemed to be mix it up between sitting and standing, standing all day can bring its own set of problems.
Joe, bummer on the turbo, as HA says though, those run commutes are great. Good to read this morning's tempo went well.
HA good news on the knee, hopefully the caution will pay off.
George - well done on the 5x1k, that was almost exactly the same pace as my 6x800m yesterday.
With the snow last week I went a bit off plan and over indulged on snowy trails (105 mile week) throw in a rare night out, 1/2 a Superbowl and I was hanging by Monday and Tuesday. Back on plan this week (with a bit of jiggling) and feel so much better for it. As said above my first VO2 session was yesterday, 6x800m, the pacing was a bit shocking (I've not done a session like this for a year) but the overall pace was pleasing. I found a park bench marking 800m around an ornamental lake. On the 2nd lap I found another bench and couldn't remember which was the marker, doh. I might have to cough up for the track, especially as it's only another 400m away from the lake.
Hope the cold clears up soon AWC.
Woky 1/2 is next up but as I’m feeling race hungry I might PR this weekend.
Good to see Macca in for Wokingham, who else is in?
I was a last minute call up at running club as a run leader last night as we were short. Thought the 9:30 group would be just about manageable. Had to keep calling people back as they sped off and I couldn’t keep up. Legs felt better by the end though.
Glad to hear the legs are slowly improving.
Didnt factor in spoons also doing a second run - should’ve known better really..
HA - good news, hope the healing continues
Decent length mlr again SQ
Good pace there Joe, new turbo sounds good, is that interactive and can ride virtual routes ? Does it vary the load too?
Macca - nice training.
I did 43m sunday to Tuesday, but have wound it back since as i have Worthing sunday, but id still be high on that list regardless - not if it starts on a Monday though !
Great session, Joe. Sub 6m/m in non-track training is always good. Where is the cross country?
I’ve not heard of the 25% long run theory before, FBT. Can’t see how it would work for a majority of marathoners who might get up to, say, 40M/w.
Jooligan I do wonder about the cost/benefit of doing the weights and slower running in the short term. But I think it is probably a good thing in the long run – injury prevention, bone density etc. And also it is a window of opportunity whilst leading the session in the gym – and I quite enjoy briefly harking big to my somewhat larger more muscly days! Hope you can keep the pace with the latest round of school 5ks. Will you be doing the Pitville Park XC in a week and a bit’s time?
Interesting that you’ve not done any v02 for a year, Macca, but have been running so well recently – especially with LT and MP. Your description of a tall pole made me laugh. Sounds a scary chap.
Easy does it, AWC. Hope the cold clears soon. Clearly the extra exertion of the standing desk is getting too much.
Lower HR for same pace (and conditions) is undoubted progress, Steve. Nice one.
Best of luck for Worthing, TR. Hope the wind dies down.
13M MLR at 7:45s this morning. Thursday and Friday are tighter on time for me as I have to factor in childcare transport. So up at 5 and running by 5:04. Did have to take a quick toilet break but fortunately not many around at that time. You’ll be pleased to know I wore some horrifically garish new compression socks. Good for high-viz, but insufficient compression. Going to have a moan to the company now. Definitely in the thick of marathon training now. Very mild, but otherwise pretty filthy weather. Very windy and wet. Definitely character building.
Quick question: the remaining long runs with MP sections seem to tally with half marathon races I have booked in. I will definitely run Woky all out and tag on some easy miles to the end. Forest of Dean a few weeks later – shall I do similar, or is it more critical to get in actual MP?
Joe / Spoons - made me laugh..... nice bit of competition there though!
Watch out everyone Macca is Race hungry
TR - Im in Worthing - whats happening this sunday?
AWC - Hope whatever you've got clears up soon.
Macca - Nice work on the VO2 session and big mileage. I think I'd struggle to cough up for a track session as the one near work is free, and I'm probably one of the biggest tight arse on the planet.
FBT - were you taught maths my a football pundit. You know, "he was literally giving 1000%", "it's 90% psychological, the other half is physical". Hope the PF is behaving.
Nice MLR SQ and good early week mileage TR.
Jools - Good luck taking on the kids.
Got out for a long run this morning. Was pretty wet and windy out there. 48mph winds apparently. There was a long gradual hill straight into the wind that I did twice which was a real grind and felt like it really took it out of my legs but I was moving quite well for some of the tailwind sections. A bit over 20 miles, averaging about 6:50/mile which I was pretty happy with. It's funny how a decent long run makes me feel like I've salvaged something from what would've otherwise been a bad week.
I felt my knee a couple of times on some of the hills but I'm now convinced it wasn't ever an ITB issue, just something in the same area, maybe a hamstring tendon issue. Felt fine for the last 10 miles and not sore now so fingers crossed it'll be ok.
HA - good news there, hopefully thats you back to. Ropey day for 20m, so well done.
FBT - worthing 1/2 , 9am sunday.
A mere 4m with strides today, with a eind beating. Was wasting a bit of mental energy wondering how fast i could run sunday, and what it would convert to, how windy would it be, but then i reminded myself its just another build up run, and its more about the effort. I did 1.25 on a rough day at solent 1/2 prior to abingdon, and 1.25 at worthing last yr on a windy day.
Good thinking re the MP and halves, HA. Trying to be a bit more 'intuitive' this campaign, so will see how things feel post Wokingham. The FoD isn't a slow course, but probably a couple of minutes from PB, so will need to be careful when analysing pace decisions as MP/HMP could get very closely blurred and I'd end up achieving neither, whilst still getting tired. Great work on the long run. As you say, that immediately puts you back in a good place. Sounds like it was never an ITB issue, but saw this and thought of you: https://strengthrunning.com/2011/02/the-itb-rehab-routine-video-demonstration/ The previous version really helped me a couple of years ago, far more than the stretching that was largely espoused online.
I know what you mean HA, some of their episodes are really interesting, others pretty irrelevant to me, but in fairness they are billed as a coaching podcast! You need to get your book proposal in for “Advanced Bucket Filling” sharpish
Bad news about the neighbour Joe, but good to have an excuse to buy a new trainer! Are you tempted by the Climb? I love the idea of the bike moving up and down as you go over hills in Zwift. Cracking session, was there any recovery between the laps? Great work either way.
Good work on the MLRs Jools, Ramjet and Steve.
Nice VO2 session Macca, as SQ says interesting how much faster you’ve got without any such work lately.
Get well soon AWC.
Sorry to spoil your leaderboard dreams Joe, though with biking and swimming added in you’re well ahead of me. Incidentally, I see quite a lot of unfamiliar names in that list, if any are lurkers or just people who have a very different usernames to their real name, do ID yourselves! And TR if you want to join the fun: https://www.strava.com/clubs/176424
SQ like HA I’d be wary of racing two HMs so close together, particularly the impact it might have on the other training around them. And for me personally, if I was following a pure P&D plan where those runs are the only MP work, I’d want to do at least a few MP runs as I like to dial in and get a feel for the pace. But as HA says in terms of actual training benefit, probably a toss-up.
Glad the knee seems ok HA, another example of where being cautious pays dividends. Great pace for that long run in crappy conditions.
Hope the weather is kind to you on Sunday TR!
Breezy yesterday which turned my easy canal run in to a bit of a steeplechase at times, with lots of branches and a fallen tree blocking the path at times. A massive old tree had fallen at Pitchcroft too on my afternoon run, although luckily that one had fallen away from the path. Does make you think about the dangers of running past all these trees in windy weather, but I suppose being hit by a car is vastly more likely.
Even windier this morning, and wet to boot, for my MLR. Felt a bit flat and tired to begin with, not helped by the wind, but felt better as I went on. Average only a few seconds slower than my last MLR, so happy with that given the wind and that the route I took had twice the elevation as last time (still only 400 feet, but it’s all relative
)
No one told me about the Worthing half!!!!!
Just checked and its £45 ... £45.......... Bit rich for me! That's errr £3.44 per mile (got the calculator out this time). About 55p a minute!
Best of luck TR and Woky guys!
Nice steeplechase, spoons! Certainly wild this morning. I reckon you'd be able to react quickly enough to dodge a falling tree. Although it might mean some canal swimming. Thanks for your thoughts on the halves and MP. You're right the occasional Sunday runs are the only MP in the plan, so important to get a feel for it. Staverton 10 worked brilliantly in that regard. I really enjoyed it and imagine racing somewhere many times prettier (FoD) could be even more enjoyable when not entirely balls out.
SQ - how an earth can you be out in 4 minutes? I'm pretty 'routine' with my bathrooms habits and I always go first thing, so not sure how this would be possible? Cross country is down in Lloyd Park, Croydon. Up for running some extra miles with you post Wokey.
HA - nice long one mate, I know what you mean about feeling much better about a training week if you've logged one. Hope things keep trending upwards.
Spoons - Not sure about the climb, not really bothered about my bike pointing upwards in the air, just the effort that counts for me. Rest was 2 mins between laps, but the best thing about it was I felt that I didn't really need that long so cut it to 90 after the first one. Nice work on the steeplechasing.
Already logged some big miles this week, on top of 2 bike sessions and 2 swims - 4 x 10 mins strength work on the bike this morning. Going to get a sweat on at cross country, but won't be worried if I feel pretty crap, not exactly going in fresh.
Spoons - well done on the mlr. Thanks for the invite but i track my training via a casio sundial (all routes once measured on map my run), although i had to glue the strap the other day so maybe its days are numbered.
Joe - sounds good, much better than when i used to turbo a lot, staring at the garage door.
FBT - had an early bird entry, was nearer £30 i think.
An unexpected window of opportunity arose this afternoon. So headed out 30 mins post lunch for some strides. Means I don’t need to worry about tagging on any miles to parkrun tomorrow.
But for most/all people, MP is in a bit of a grey area for heart rate... so increasing the pace should be physiologically good. IMO psychologically good too. Only downside, as I said... for some people, they might not recover quickly enough to do good stuff on Tuesday/Wednesday.
Disappointing end to my week for me. I got in an unusually good 24m between Tue-Thursday and was primed for a 9-miler with 6@LT after work... which I critically wanted to get in as I've done very little speed work and have Newport Half in 3 weeks. But someone fed me some duff info at work and instead of leaving bang on 5pm. I wasn't able to leave the office until near 8.30pm. Grrr. I'm hoping to do a LR this weekend (which is needed for my higher priority Newport marathon)... so won't get in an LT until next week (unless something prevents me from doing an LR... which knowing me is quite possible!). Annoying!
Aberbeeg parkrun then Gwent League XC for me. I was 3rd at parkrun running a solo effort stuck in no-man's land between 2 sub 18 guys duking it out at the front & 4th who finished outside 20 minutes & whose footsteps I'd lost after 1K. I had no real hunger for XC so ran much more controlled for the first 2 laps which enabled me to finish strongly gaining a few places in the process. 2 minutes quicker than last year but 1 place down!
Kept my MLR easy yesterday to allow for XC today so that was 11 miles @ 8:00s.
As expected I didn't have any top end at XC today but put in a solid near-LT effort and did plenty of overtaking so enjoyed it.
21 tomorrow
HA - pleased to read no reaction to the long run, good finish to the week.
Joe/Spoons - good battling at the top of the table. Spoons, I ran my “go to” flat course yesterday, just over 500ft of climb and I wouldn’t describe it as hilly here😀
Jools - fairy quiet weekend, Xc sounds like a good controlled effort.
Ram - all the best with the 21m, sounds like another decent xc effort.
NE - work threw my Fri plans out the window too, 18m lunchtime morphed into 8m at 10pm.
Interesting thoughts on MP runs. I agree on the positive psychological boosts (when they go well) but maybe I put too much store in them for training benefit? Talking of which I had postponed the 18 w 12 to this weekend. With a sore throat and the wind forecast I wasn’t feeling totally up for it but as said, I’ve always thought they were the key sessions so even if I just kept the effort honest it had to be done. I extended it to 14m @mp as I had already done the 12. The pace felt manageable if an effort from the off but the wind disappeared, only to reappear at the turn! I think I got lucky with a calm window of wind and sheltered course so it wasn’t a huge factor. All told, the mp average was 6:30 so more than happy with that. Still difficult to imagine another 12 at that pace.