Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    I've learnt not to offer Joe's race predictions any credence, I believe my own predictions of his races to be far more accurate. Agree on the taper thing. My taper has been spectacular and mostly involved putting on weight by eating chocolate, need to replace one high with another and I don't like drugs.

    Might be a bit of fun to put some predictions in for Wokey. If I toe the line I will no doubt again suffer the curse of Bus.
  • I mean predictions of each other to be clear :)
  • Jooligan said:

    I also had a total rest day yesterday not even my usual swim or gym session. Not been out yet today & not getting twitchy either. I've averaged 69 Mpw for the last 16 weeks so no harm in having a much lighter week & having a proper bash at Wokingham. 
    Who are you and how have you hacked into Jooligan's account?
    Normal service is resumed 30 minutes in the pool then straight up the track for an hour. First session with the club in a very long time. 2x 6x2min off 90s, 5 min between sets. Paced it well averaged 6:02 for the 1st set & 5:52 for the 2nd set. 8.3M in 60 minutes all told.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    8 today for a cut down medium long of the week.
    First half, with the up, i was thinking this is a lot of sweating, second half felt better.

    Nice one Jools.
  • News form Wokingham Half - you can track your runner by phone and send them a message on the course.  I mean - WTabsoluteF!!!

    Easy 5M over a small, but very wet, windy and misty fell. Not quite as lost as yesterday where I ran two spiral loops of a very confusing wood before finding my way out. I only realised when I saw the same dead fox twice!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    So no headfones allowed but encouraging people to piss about on their phones instead.😘😘😘💩
  • I think the messages come up on displays around the course last time I saw that kind of thing The Bus. I quite like the idea of sending generic insults to generic names, but I imagine they might scan them before broadcasting.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019

    For some reason it reminds me of a local pal and occasional thread poster, racing me at the South Bucks 10k years ago.

    He loved to bark mantras out, and (more irritatingly) scream at me for split updates :)

    I Remember him shouting "what are we gonna write on the internet about this later" (if we didn't up the pace :)  )


    If i'd had the breath, I'd have said, relax son, there'll still be a massive race report either way!

  • Spill the beans - who SG?

    MF - I think I have hit the age when I just hate the new world. I was forced into an Apple store in Regents Street the other week. I have never felt more like the outsider In a Philip K Dick inspired dystopian nightmare than on that day!
  • That's bollocks isn't it Bus. Although it could be fun texting people 'Strava Wanker' on the way round.

    Good session Jules. I've got a cold...thought sleep was supposed to help it? Why do you always feel worse than when you went to bed? Dehydration?

  • Bus - I saw that, absolutely ridiculous. I had a further look and it is in fact getting messages through your headphones as you run - friends can also choose songs to add on to your playlist as you run. Are headphones even allowed?

    Had a little mini session with morning, run to work with 2 @ HMP (8.5 miles total). Surprised to see the miles come out at 5:41 and 5:43. Effort might have been a touch hard but HR was at the right level. Interesting. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Thought headfones?! Pretty sure Wokingham specifically ban them. Genius!! :D

    Joe, it's almost like 100mile weeks have got you in reasonable shape ;)
    While i'm not sure you're holding 5.42 for a half marathon, you're certainly not 6min miling it!  I wouldn't be surprised to see you getting something starting with a 75, with just the month ago you talking about not hitting 6 min miling for 5k making me less sure. I wonder if that was flat out though, and you strike me as someone who can perform in the big games :)

    Bus - Stevie Fell. A legend :)


    I've had what feels like a stressy warmth for about 10 days now - i swear it gets worse by year around longer races!  It felt a bit like this for a few weeks leading to the GSR. Got all my sessions off, but then the day itself melted down a bit - as we remember.

    Over analysing whether the buckets of sweat on easy runs is a sign of being under the weather or just normal. And whether waking up is the usual level of "never quite fresh", or more knackered than usual. Probably a bit of taper madness going on as well. 2x 4 today, and then 1x5with strides to be decided whether Fri or Sat.

    Nervous, but will start sensibly on Sunday, and if it needs to reign in a bit, the body will say! Hopefully it's not the impossibly warm for February conditions I've seen bandied about :o
  • 8 to 10 degrees and little wind SG. Might be sunny though, so could feel warm.

    Messages through headphones evne though UKA races don't allow headphones?

    Fast miles there Joe. Sub 1:18 I reckon. Or sub 1:17 if you switch to a technical flat cap :-)
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    8-10 sounds moderate, I thought i'd heard silly figures like 15 up to 19!!
    Hope you're right.




  • Remember the highest temps are always later in the day..
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Good point chief! 
    If you can't rely on a Feb half being cool, something is wrong! Some years have been blooming freezing!
    Would not look forward to how GSR felt, gagging for the finish line from before midway :open_mouth:

    It's funny looking back to those Wycombe halfs in the early to mid 2000s. Always hot, sometimes scorching hot. Massive hill, undulating the rest. Madness!
  • SG - I've always been a diesel, and it seems like HM is where things start to swing my way. Going to find an uncomfortably comfortable pace and stick to that. Prepared for the last few miles to get slightly messy. Sounds like taper madness. Have a word re; the weather! Looks perfect, if anything a touch chilly. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Probably right Joe!
    Just very easy to let the mind wander to some worries, even though last year was the big comeback at the distance and went nigh on perfectly. The GSR probably didn't help things, as that was my last "long" race. 2018s end of year races were a bit average, but the 2019 XC went well, so a better recent experience.

    The half, and I guess anything longer are generally a pace that feels "comfortably hard", although it can move from cruising to tough in a blink at times. But then can go back good again!
    I dare say I'll find someone to settle behind...who knows whether that's at 1hr 17 or 1.27 pace though ;)

  • I’m cursing at the weather, with the prospect of missing out on lovely conditions. Last time I ran a half in half decent form it was 25mph winds at Wokingham. Seeing a physio tomorrow to see if I can run without doing damage. Don’t suppose I’ll be able to achieve much after three weeks of pretty much no running.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Probs not worth too much of a risk Reggie!

    Always another race...if you're sensible!

  • I’m not sensible 
  • LOL Reg. Weather does look good for it - there will be some fast times. Make no doubt - if I was doing the national and not going indoors on Sunday the weather would have been crappy.

    SG - Were those Wycombe halfs in the summer? if so, no sympathy for anyone who gets caught out. 10k max for me between May and September.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Yep Simon, all mid July jobs. It felt rude not to do, starting 1/2mile from my door! I did downgrade to the 10k when it started.
    Bizarrely, bar one stop to do a lace up (excuse to stop!) one year, the early years I never had difficulties (i say this, but always ended up with a nice lie down!), but I dare say the fitness didn't allow to push too hard. 2015 obviously was the disaster.

    Woke up today with race day stress. Did entertain for a minute a "i could not go" job, but saw that off.

    Am nervous though, as today was a 5miler with strides.
    It's cold, but again 1mile in started sweating loads, and I ended up looking like I'd been for a swim. Can it be humid and cold? Or is this edge of being ill type fare?

    I did just about get a stride or 2 under the pace i'd hope to average in a half! However, that's always the case in the last run pre racing isn't it - plays havoc. Legs felt relatively loose though.
  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    SG, I'd have reservations about you doing a HM with symptoms like those.

    http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/tc/tc1002/overtraining.htm
    (5th line, 2nd paragraph)

    Underlying problems aside (possible) there's the issue of how much fluid you would lose doing the event, especially if warm. From the sound of things you're dropping about 2ltrs/hour.

    If you toe the line. I'd make contingency plans to drop out. It's only a race. Not worth a trip to A&E.


    🙂

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Cheers Ric. I am certainly having thoughts along those lines myself.

    After the Wycombe 2015 incident, and even the GSR last year, I'm super cautious now. Today's run pace wise felt pretty comfy - but it shouldn't be drawing so much fluid loss. It's been like that a week or 2.

    There is a chance it's focusing too much on one race - as I often felt a bit stressy and warm in the GSR buildup - but paces continued to come out right.
    But then all races for the rest of 2018 felt a bit off.

    I read down to the symptoms, a few seem right. Waking up a bit tired is certainly the norm. Easy paces have been a little down on recent years - but maybe as I've consciously reduced them.
    Alternating from cold hands to suddenly having to pull sleeves up doesn't feel great either.
    Slightly feeling nauseous before a run, slightly less appetite, and putting lunchtime runs off later probably add up too. 

    Anyone else's thoughts?
    It doesn't feel "Ill" like I deffo did before Maidenhead 10 that I bailed on, but I'm  struggling to fancy racing a half - especially one that's packed with local faces that it'd feel a struggle to "accept" easing down.. Would probably prefer to just rest this one out, then turn up, try and put an effort in, and either hold on, drop out, or put some sort of 1hr 28 in.
  • Tricky one SG - I always think you know if you are properly off colour or just feeling a bit of race stress
  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭

    Afternoon MFers.

    Since I will be running Wokingham Half this weekend and likely bumping into thread people who proceed to wonder where I've been, I thought I'd better make an appearance.  Far too much going on for a readback, so sorry about that.  I'm sure you're all awesome.

    SG, if it was overtraining, would it suddenly appear at once?  I suspect the change in temperature might make you sweat a bit, and if that's all there is and you're not actually feeling ill, I would carry on with it.  But then I'm me.

    Reg, sorry to hear you've had injury woes.

    As for my absence, this winter has been a struggle.  I have been relatively shit for the entirety of my cross-country season, and not for any obvious reason.  Normally I would have one or two good races, but this time absolutely nothing.  The nadir was 12th in the county champs (previous worst 9th, and normally 6th or 7th), but it's all been fairly unimpressive.  Consequently, my motivation has significantly suffered, and, whilst I have been running about the same amount as usual, I have been doing so with little enthusiasm.

    This could of course simply be ageing - but bearing in mind I had a 5K PB in August, it would be a bit sudden for that.

    The silver lining for cross country has been the success we have had as a club in the Hampshire League.  Our strongest men's team ever has meant that we rapidly climbed the table to finish 3rd behind only Aldershot and Southampton (and ahead of the likes of Bournemouth, Reading AC and Basingstoke).  Our previous best ever final placing was 6th, and even that was unusually high, so this was a massive result.  Our top man has well and truly moved into a different stratosphere over the last couple of months, winning the final Hants League fixture and then running an astonishing 49:43 for 10 miles at the weekend.  Our vet men also retained the league title, and I managed to win the individual vet title, principally by default due to my main competitors not running enough races to qualify (they beat me when they did run).

    Anyway, given that XC has been an unkind mistress to me personally this year, I have been looking forward to sacking XC off and getting back on the road, and I turned down the inter counties for that reason.  At least I will have a better idea where I am at the moment once I get Wokingham done.  It won't be great, but I am more targeting the Reading Half this year, so we will see how much improving I still have to do. A fair bit, I fear.



    Oh yes, and car parking for my various races this winter was largely without incident.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Ta chaps. I like to give it the best chance once I've entered a race. I was weighing up Maidenhead 10 until the day before, and that was properly well into coldiness!

    This is a bit more doubt, but if I'm being honest it'd be silly. It's a sort of cold sweat, that required almost windscreen wipers, and that's at 7.15 pace, in mid Feb!
    I can only imagine the world of pain for Sunday!

    So all i can do is apologise at not turning up for what i'd hyped as a major thread meet up!! Sod's law

    I have to be honest and say I've been dreading Wokey for a couple of weeks, whereas last year I was looking forward to it.
    I look forward to getting back into some lower key short stuff.


    Welcome back Dachs! The thread has missed you.
    From the level you reached I can well imagine anything less feels a right blow. Can't imagine it's age affecting you just yet though. Maybe just needs a tweak in something very minor


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    ...on a more positive note...chucked a fiver into the work raffle.

    Won a year's worth of tea and £50 of pasta :D
  • I think there's been a Wokingham angle to a lot of your posts over the past fortnight Stevie - so much so I was under the impression the race should have been last Sunday. It's obviously been at the back of your mind. It could be you've got a bit of premature adrenalisation mixed in with apprehension and that's pushed everything out of kilter and interfered with your sleep ? Then there's the feeling I have that the temperature has gone up about 10 degrees relatively quickly which really does take some time to get adjusted too if you are not prepared to let paces slip.

    Maybe get a couple of good nights of sleep ? Avoid all stimulants (like a years worth of tea :) ) then see how you are on the day ? 
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