Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Shades Marathon Training
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
Big G - there's always a few marshals there, cattle grid and the narrow road beforehand is on a tight corner.
Pat C from Dawlish Coasters usually marshals and was often posted at Pixies Holt, she and I used to laugh at that as she's only little.
I'm going to catch up a bit on the Giro now.
I have a couple of RW mags for you that I'll bring tonight
The PF hasn't been great this week and have stayed rested. Hopefully I'm running pain free next year and can grab a place on the waitlist if I recover well from NDW50.
We missed you this evening, we had a good carvery meal so are well fuelled for tomorrow.
I'm picking Ian up at 7:30 tomorrow morning and we'll be heading for those hills.
Lovely cuppa tea after parkrun and the views are awesome! I may be looking at a bit of tourism as should be getting myself a car on Tuesday (fingers crossed).
I saw Ian, Jelly and Shades at my marshal point (5.9 miles) and again on my drive home at various points on the course before 13 miles. All looked good and strong, although it did feel a bit warm out there and on the way home at around 11am, the car was showing 22degs.
Torbay airshow today so I'll be out in the garden with my feet up enjoying that, but really I'd rather be out on the course.
Good to hear the three of them are looking good, like yourself prefer to be on the course, I got a local race in Sept, self nav so am considering recceing part of that today. Cant waste a day like this sitting on the sofa
Good luck with DD, folks. Rather you than me.
7 mile run this afternoon, did take a wrong turn on my recce so will have to do it again soon. Will be the final 10k loop of the marathon so wont want to be going wrong then.
Just seen the results for DD looking forward to hearing your reports!
I just didn't have the energy today even though it was too warm for a lot of runners, I was OK with the weather. But at half marathon point I was a few minutes behind schedule and when I got to 17 miles I knew I wouldn't make marathon cut off. A couple of runners had dropped out at that point and asked me to stay with them to be collected by the bus but I decided to carry on to 20 miles and then drop out, which I did. I've never seen the sweep bus full before and they had to take us back to HQ and then return to collect more. We could see as we passed the runners that a load of them weren't going to make the marathon cut off.
But I enjoyed my run, the views were outstanding today.
Lovely race, more training needed to get my marathon time down next year to have another go.
Rob-Thats the danger with self nav especially at the end of races.
Big G-Cheers for the shout outs.
Shades-Great to meet you and thanks for the lifts.
As for me,ok DD is a stunning race,amazing views,brilliantly marshalled and organised by the trotters,as smooth a race as you'd want.
Original plan was 4.45- 5hrs but was wary with the forecast heat.Got to halfway in 1:53,I remember Big G saying feel fresh here but I absolutely didn't.The hills just wrecked my legs,I knew about the famous walking hill at 10k but everything before it was just up or down.
Went through Ashburton and turned back towards the moor with the hill of doom at 15 mins,this was also a big walking hill and seemed to go on for miles,after this I really struggled to get going again,and I knew it was going to be a long day as it was getting hotter.
From this point on it turned into a run/walk with the walk sections getting longer as it went on.Got to 26.2 at 4.47 so the 2nd half took me 2:54 and I was slowly drastically,completely lost track of when I'd taken gels etc and head was all over the place.Thought about stopping there but didn't want to not finish so cracked on,albeit even slower by now,the run parts were minimal.Last 10k took me 1:31 and was very painful.Finished in 6:28:01 so nowhere near the plan but that's what can happen at these distances.Looking at the results 212 started and 160 finished so 25% drop out rate which must be one of the highest ever.
All in all I'd do it again,just with much much more long hill training,short hill reps are useless as the hills go on for ages and the downhill are so steep they trash your quads,forgot how many times I seen a 20% gradient sign.
Ian, a tough race for you too, but well done for getting it done. I don't know if you clocked Skins at the end of the race (he's the guy who was doing the announcements as runners run in to finish). He's done the race a few times and I remember him once saying to me "The Dartmoor Discovery - you discover the Moors but you also discover something about yourself too". So in that context, well done again for finishing even though it didn't go to plan and in what were tough conditions - as you say, the drop out shows that. I know you're probably disappointed with your time, but you got it done - that's the main thing. For what it's worth, a chap from my club was about 45-mins slower on today's 32-mile course, compared with his time last year on the 34-mile route - you and him have similar marathon times, but you finished ahead of him today. I hope you do come down to do the race again.
I heard your club mate talking about that while we were waiting for he shower and another trotter gave him his medal.
Well done Jelly! Really pleased for you! What time did you go through marathon point?
Well done again on your DD debut. Good luck if you're able to manage a recovery run this morning, if not maybe a walk before the DOMS really starts to hurt.
Jelly - fabulous result for you, when I was in the bus and we passed you all around you runners were walking and you were running strongly and looking a lot happier than the other runners too.
It was lovely to meet Oscar too yesterday, he is gorgeous.
It's fairly normal to have a restless night after running an event like that, it's annoying as you want to sleep but you should be fine and have a good sleep tonight.
Fuelling is one of the hardest things in distance running to get right, we're all still trying to perfect that.
Big G - I agree tough on clubmate about finishing and not getting a medal, but so kind of another Trotter give him his medal, I believe he was only going to run DD once so that's why the medal was important to him.
There were a couple of other Trotters that DNF'd too, there was a girl I don't know sitting at the 20 mile drink station when I got there and then when we were on the bus we passed ST and it looked like she was having a tough day and wouldn't make the marathon cut off. Also Wurzel didn't make the marathon cut off, he was disappointed, first time that's happened to him.
I'm OK about my run yesterday, it just wasn't there, I have to be able to run at PB pace to make the cut offs but I just made the best of it and enjoyed what I could. I had some good company on the way round and when we all got on the bus we had a really good laugh. There was one guy on there who was a real comic and had never done DD before and every time the bus came to another hill he was quipping about the course, he was funny. We dropped him off at the pub in Postbridge where his wife was waiting for him, I said "see you next year", he said "like f*** you will".
There were a lot of DD virgins yesterday, Chair said 100 entered and I think for some of them they really underestimated the course.
I've done a 5 mile recovery run this morning, even though I'd only run 20 miles yesterday I have soreness in my quads and down the outside of my quads, from the downhills and my glutes and hip flexors from the uphills. Unable to get my HR above a low level too which means my heart and lungs also had a good workout yesterday. Anyway I spent the time running today formulating a plan for next year's DD.
Good to hear ST wasn't too upset, these things happen. She's a good runner and will do it next time.
Apologies if two show up similar to this!
Shades, not good about that potential cheater
What time do you reckon is a time on a normal marathon that would lead to getting to marathon point with a bit of leeway at DD? It's really hard to say isn't it, with weather, etc etc. I think probably 4:45ish would give some leeway, but when Ryan and I spoke about it yesterday he said 4:30 but that seemed a bit too quick to me.
Jelly, well done again. Great you stayed for food etc afterwards - when I did it last year, I felt quite queasy so just had to get home, but if I do it again I'd like to stay a bit longer, although wouldn't stay late into the night. One of our young male Trotters got a finish time (MC) - he looked absolutely knackered at 6-miles when I saw him and I did wonder if he'd finish, so good on him. KoB has done so well this year with her weight loss etc - she looks like a different person in some ways. Did she say her recent Half Ironman was still in her legs, or was it just the heat that did for her?
--
Something I meant to add yesterday was that the lead bike (fellow Trotter) came over the cattlegrid yesterday where I was and said to me "Right, I need to get up this hill quickly so the runner doesn't catch me"....at which point his chain promptly fell off.
Jelly Congratulations alot of hard work gone in from you to make it,well done on getting in under the 6.30 time. Hope you got any plans for later in the year, you want to eliminate those running blues where you can after achieving something special.
Ian, top work getting it finished yesterday and for getting 1st place for the forum this year
Big G sod being lead bike up and down those hills!!! Shame if someone is found to have cheated, anyone that does is only cheating themselves
Thats a big dropout rate, glad I didnt come otherwise I'd have added to that stat for sure. Just realised yesterday was a cut off point for withdrawing from my next race so looks like I'll get to the startline, will try to increased the mileage, the good news is the race albeit 32.8 miles its flat and 8hr cut off. Considering another recce of the route I tried yesterday.
I was intending to run today but my achilles has been pretty bad and I have some discomfort in my right hip and knee. I think the 6 miler I did on Friday was a mile too far, but I figured it would be fine as I did 10 miles a week after Liverpool last week! I'm a bit nervous as I have the 5 mile trail on Wednesday and the trail half next weekend (not that I'm doing the latter at my normal half pace - I'll be taking it easier).
I'm starting to wonder if yoga is still right for me. I feel less motivated to do it than I used to be and I know some of the poses don't agree with me, but then some I think are helpful. It's a bit of a dilemma. It's expensive, too, but if I didn't do it I would go days without talking to another human!
Ryan apologised for the tiny holdup in the traffic on that bridge, but I said it was OK, not his fault. Luckily the woman in the car coming toward us then stopped and moved out to let us pass.
Blimey, that's a tough job doing lead vehicle on a bicycle. That must have been really funny.
I think you're right re marathon time. In 2017 I had done a 4:44 marathon prior to DD, this year the best I did was 4:51:55 so that's nearly 8 minutes. In 2017 at DD I got to marathon point in 5:09:54 and I had to run hard for that and conditions were good. A runner with a 4:30 marathon should get to that cut off point in DD in about 5 hours or just under.
I just compared my mile splits to my pace chart and I failed miserably on every mile! Although it was a little warmer than usual for the first few miles we had a lovely gentle headwind to Ashburton and with the low humidity it was perfect conditions. Warmer in Ashburton as usual and when we went up the very long hill I was expecting it to be humid there but funnily was the coolest conditions of all, because of the heavy tree cover I think the temperature was probably only 13 or 14 degrees. It was only when we came out into the open again that the sun was beating down, I don't think it was the temperature that had such an effect on the runners, it was about 22 degrees, it was the high sun index and that is much more powerful at higher altitudes.
I've just been looking at the new Hoka shoe which has been designed especially for fast road running particularly on downhills, although I know a shoe wouldn't sort your balance issues.
Sorry to hear you've got pain in the achilles, hip and knee.
Maybe you can switch to an easier or different yoga class(es), so you still get the benefit from the basic stretches but nothing too extreme. It's in our nature to want to push ourselves and get better/achieve more in classes but if it's counter productive to your main interest, running, then decisions need to be made.
I cancelled all my classes for the last 2 weeks, my races were on the Saturday so didn't want classes too close to that plus I was away. I'm waiting to see if my DOMS gets any worse before booking again.
Nice train journey back,managed to get through plenty of the free food and drink in 1st class.
Just need to decide whether to go for solway coast on July 21 or concentrate on autumn marathons now.