Overdone it?

Skinny Fetish Fan · June 2019

Wonder how he ran it? Just plodding along at the back until he started getting lapped or tried to stay in touch with someone else for as long as he could and get the odd little lift every time he got lapped.

Tommy2D · June 2019

Well that was really hard work. 4 miles with about 800ft of climbing doesn't sound too bad but the ferocious heat made the climbs really tough and the final descent was a quad thrasher, I was begging for mercy by the end (as was everybody). Good fun though and maintain my position in the club champs. The numbers were swelled by a contingent from Keswick AC who are on a stag doo for one of their members who's also a GB mountain runner. Despite them claiming to be very hungover, most of them were extremely fast and broke the course record. Handy.

kevin70 · July 2019

Tommy well done on the climb, hope you are recovering.

Did 12mls on Saturday, bit of a sweat fest. Out tonight for 9mls

muddyfunster · July 2019

Bruising run Tommy. Well done.

I did an undulating local 10k on Sunday in bob on 36 mins, targeting it as a threshold effort training run. I came 3rd and picked up £20 as a prize. It was a decent workout but I didn't do a long run last week. Probably will do it tomorrow night now.

DT19 · July 2019

Sounds like a tough one, Tommy.

Nice work on the 10k podium, Muddy.

Saturday was not a good day for running long, Kevin!

I did 15 sunday morning and it went very well. Best I've felt on a long run since April. Hoping I am beginning to get my running legs back now. Bit of a session over lunchtime for which I am hoping the cloud cover rolls in for.

DT19 · July 2019

Yesterdays lunch session was 3 x (2km at 10kp (90s) 1k at 5kp) with 3 mins between sets. I felt a little apprehensive much of the morning as to whether this would go well or not. Plan was to start at slower end of pace range and progress each set.

The 2k parts went 6.18mm, 6.10mm and 6.08mm with the 3 x 1k reps all coming in at 5.55mm.

I was proper hands to knees puffing by the end but pleased with how it went. I was thinking that Magor 10k would come a bit too soon for a pb attempt, however I am wondering now if it might be on. I have a local 10k next Wednesday night as a sighter on an undulating course.

Easy 4m this morning and circuits tonight.

School sports day this morning and I only managed a disappointing 6th of 10. I had been managing expectations all week explaining I am no sprinter, none the less, big target was placed on my back. I got a poor start and in a 9s race there is little scope to turn it around. I have to go through it all again in 2 weeks for my daughters!

muddyfunster · July 2019

Our sports day doesn’t allow parents due to some competitive altercations in years gone by.

I’d be pleased to hit those paces any time with temperatures where they are DT, let alone inside that frankly crazy session. With 20m from the prior two days in your legs, the paces should come out faster in a tapered for race.

DT19 · July 2019

Yes, particularly with a sprinkling of race day magic and my vaporflys.

I wish our school had the same rule as it diminishes my enjoyment of sports day.

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

David - Yes, fair enough, that sounds like sensible easy paces, certainly wouldn't be pinning your rut on overdoing those - hopefully you bounce back soon.

Lit - Sounds good, and yes, agree that ramping the mileage back up first is the way to go.

Tommy - You ought to post the pic from our Messenger group in the aftermath of Saturday's fell race!

Great to be able to cruise round at threshold and still pick up prizes, Muddy - most of the rest of us can only dream of picking up prizes more than once in a blue moon even eyeballs out!

Some fearsome running going on from you, DT - agree with Muddy that the session this midweek sounds like another crazy Caracas brute, but an excellent result from it, and should stand you in good stead if you're surviving them ok. Is it just one major session a week at the moment? If so, then guess you can really hit that one session hard. Unlucky with the parents' race!

Meanwhile, I ran a couple of light sharpeners of 5 x 400m in the ferocious heat of Saturday PM, and 5 x 40 sec hill sprints on Sunday ahead of last night's target 5k race - report upcoming.

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

Embankment 5k

So, after some years' without one, finally a properly targeted race that I'd planned a build up to and tapered from. Flat tarmac course, relatively light winds, though there's always a bit of a blow at some point along the river, strong field, and apart from three U-turns at approximately 1k, 2.5k and 4k, there's no corners to speak of just the sweeping meander of the Trent. No excuses on offer there.

Target was to beat the 18:15 I recorded at Kings Lynn parkrun back in May 2015 when I was running at my best. As Skinny rightly pointed out, that was going to be tough on the heels of a disappointing 18:53 in my last parkrun, and was concerned that fatigue a couple of weeks ago meant that the final planned progression of sessions to 5 x 1k had to be canned to recover in time to sharpen up again during the taper. Did I have the volume at the required intensity to survive what for me as a shorter distance sort, is always the torture of the 3rd mile? If not, there was a minor consolation prize in mind of beating 18:32 which would be my best 5k since 2015, and indeed my second best ever.

I certainly felt fresh, niggle free, with a smooth feeling warm up though. The start was a little chaotic with a final trip to the loos seeing me shuffling on to the start line a little further back than I'd have liked and with literally seconds to spare as the race actually went off early, despite previous indications that they'd wait for the toilet queue to be seen out! (Apparently at least one unfortunate chap emerged to see the field disappearing up the road!)

Some sharp elbows and weaving in and out of human traffic over the first few hundred metres wasn't ideal, but spied a couple of likely fellow travellers at the pace I wanted, including again, the club skipper and tried to find a bit of a rhythm. First check of the watch suggested something over 6:00 pace, but this was heavily under the cover of trees, so wasn't overly concerned at that point, even though the target was to bank a 5:50 first mile and then cling on as best I could from there.

After the first U turn though, and around the KM mark I checked the watch again as I pulled alongside the skipper who knew what I was targeting and as I baulked at a reading only just sub-6, he urged me I needed to get a wriggle on...I know I replied, and off up the road I headed. Another regular on the local scene who I'd hoped to get a tow off, and who I'd never beaten head-to-head was next up to try to tail, but the adrenaline was flowing now, and as a few optimistic starters began to fade, found myself making my way past him as well as some further weaving around them.

Was now on the back of another group, and having spent a lot of nervous energy over that first 5 minutes or so, thought it best to nestle myself in amongst them and try to switch off for a while. So much so in fact that I missed picking up the time of the first mile but recalled seeing 5:54 the last time I'd looked. Later turned out that it was actually 5:51, so almost bang on target, but that was a very aggressive pulling back from 5:59 pace at around the km mark.

First check of the watch in Mile 2 and we're flowing along at sub-5:40 pace so far for this mile which was feeling tough, but still nestled in this group, certainly not ruinous. The briefly blissful state of grace of this group is soon disrupted however by an unlikely character I've been beaten by before, later labelled as 'checked shorts dude', whose knee length beige checks and clashing red cycling top seemed to disrupt those around me as they bristled at his strong move past us as much as it had me the first time he burned me off in similar (probably identical) garb last year!

And so we begin to splinter soon after the 2k mark, and just as we approach the next U turn, heading back up the banking and across the grass which I'm fearing is going to do a rhythm runner like me no favours at all. Still at around 5:54 pace for this mile at this point, but a couple of our group are off after checked shorts dude at a pace I can't match as my rhythm is sure enough disturbed at the turn.

First lady is well off up the road (former pro-triathlete Lucy Gossage on her way to 17:10), but I do briefly have the target of second lady, and a former second claim clubmate of mine to reel in as I get back into my running. 5:59 for Mile 2, so only slipping slightly off target pace overall, but with Katie unable to come with me, I find myself agonisingly isolated and at least 30m down on the next group when I least need it as the pain of the 3rd mile begins to bite. Bollox.

I pass the Start/Finish line and the Suspension Bridge both of which offer strong support, and briefly lift me, but the quit fairies are circling their prey like vultures round an injured buffalo. FFS, keep going. Dare I glance at the watch, no f*ck it, just keep running hard...except I can't resist a glance of course, and it's terrible news, with the heavy tree cover again probably contributing, but reading almost 6:20 pace for this mile. B*stard!

But wait, there's finally a pitter-patter of steps behind me, oh thank goodness, I'm about to get some company, and it's a clubmate offering some encouragement as he arrives - hurrah! Except he's gone again before I can gasp I'm coming with you - unsurprising as it later transpires he's running it the exact opposite to me with a casual 6:07 first mile before ramping it up for basically 12 minutes for the final 2.11m! He's not known as the Express for no reason.

The vulturous quit fairies are no longer circling, but pecking away at the dying beast who now realises that any prospect of a PB is now firmly out the back door. The first of two initial misreadings of distance covered almost finishes me off, thinking I was 0.2m further up the road than I was each time. However, somehow average pace for the mile is falling again and the final U turn is almost upon me. A Beeston runner from our earlier group pulls alongside as I round that final turn also offering some encouragement at which I think (hope) I reciprocate some sort of gasped response. I can't quite go right with him, but I do manage to rouse myself to trail in his wake. Less than 1k to go, but it feels like such a long way.

I've given up looking at the watch now, and am just trying to cling on to Beeston boy, though I do hear the watch bleep its signal for mile 3, signalling a half-hearted effort to wring out what's left. On another day, and with a PB on the line, I think I could have overhauled him, but this has become a day for survival rather than heroics, so settle for following in just a second behind him...with 18:28 on the watch.

Later revised to 18:29 with that final mile ultimately being 6:10, and sub-5:00 for the bits, so consolation prize achieved, but very disappointed in a fairly stacked field to find myself on my own for so much of Mile 3 which seemed to go on forever as much as it probably reads above!

Unsure what to do from here, as really ought to just concentrate on the track for the rest of the summer, but that 5k PB is bugging me - I know I can better 18:15, but shoring up speed endurance for the 3rd mile of a 5k isn't going to contribute as much to my track season as much as starting to bash out a bunch of 600s, 400s and 300s at 3k, Mile and 800 pace respectively.

Hmmm...

Skinny Fetish Fan · July 2019

Still a great time Bob.

DT some potential good news for you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-48858691/changing-places-we-need-bigger-disabled-toilets

DT19 · July 2019

Yes that is good news, Skinny. A bit more space and I can get on the floor and do some stretches whilst in there.

Bob, well done on the sub 18.32, 2nd fastest 5k time ever is not to be sniffed at.

In terms of the training, at present I am only doing one full session a week and only running circa 40m a week. My other session each week has been an easy progressive moving from bottom end easy to 7mm for the last mile, over 6-8 miles so not really a session, just opening the legs up. Though tomorrow I have 10 x 2 mins at 10kp off 90s as a sharpener.

7 easy tonight, looking warm at 6pm when I'm likely to get out.

Skinny Fetish Fan · July 2019

Did someone say school sports' day? (hope that apostrophe is in the right place.....)

muddyfunster · July 2019

Now that's what I call race day magic Skinny

Congratulations Bob, getting within touching distance of where you once were shows real guts. I hope this is a basis for some great middle distance performances. Do you think you'll do the British Masters event this year ?

It was too sweltering for my 30 mins of threshold yesterday lunch, so bimbled around the reservoir and swallowed a few flies. Maybe today (when it could be even warmer

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

Skinny - Cheeky bit of satire there on the loos front. And I remember that Bananaman costume pic from back in the early days of the thread! Good stuff.

DT - Yes, that puts into perspective the fact that you're able smash that one proper session of the week. Hope the sharpeners go well today...should be a doddle compared to Tuesday.

Muddy - Yes, planning to run a 1500m / 800m double on the Saturday and Sunday at the Masters Champs. Potentially looking at an 800 in Sheffield next week, but will see how a 3k/Mile/800 pace session comes out tomorrow before deciding for sure.

Looks like you probably swerved the threshold session yesterday again, did you? Probably not a bad move, it was very warm and humid. I was trying to pace a clubmate round the final 10k of our GP series with the aim of beating his 44:44 PB set a few weeks ago, but although he stuck at it manfully, he was complaining of the heat from about halfway and the oncoming breeze down the HP wind tunnel on the final mile down the Lake combined with the 10 seconds or so it took us to get over the line at the start, means he probably missed out by a few seconds as he just couldn't raise it on the run in. I enjoyed it though, making that the brisk(et) meat in a long run sandwich with a few miles tagged on either side. Couple of beers and a giggle at the presentations afterwards.

Speaking of which, 'checked shorts dude' was part of a 3 man team which picked up 3rd prize in the series...and here he is just as his move broke up the nice little group we had going along the river, and as we prepared to take the 180 up the banking and across the grass, with one of me following on close behind.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6027274/uploads/editor/j0/187o3dc4sg8t.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6027274/uploads/editor/a4/r84ce8rhrpob.jpg

muddyfunster · July 2019

Bob - Cool - I may be away for the BMC event (Aug 10th/11th?) but if not I'll drop by for a spectate. I suppose I could even try the 5000m if entries are still permitted.

Yes, I swerved that session again. I've got a head cold doing anything yesterday was a struggle. It's not a big deal - I can incorporate at least 18 mins of threshold in my long run on Sunday if need be. Probably more easy running today as the temperature is peaking.

DT19 · July 2019

Bob, crazy that he would give himself that slight disadvantage in terms of those shorts. They can't be helpful.

Muddy, I can't recall your schedule in terms of when you are free or not midweek, but are you doing Droitwich? It's sort of on your way home and I think £6 to enter.

Looks set to be a hot one for my lunchtime session.

muddyfunster · July 2019

I have the Muddy-youngster on Wednesdays usually, but may need to be in the office on 10th, so it could be a possibility as a turn up after work job.

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

Muddy - Yep, 10th & 11th August - would be good to see you down there, and the M45 5000m is mid-afternoon Sunday shortly after the M45 800. Closing date for entries 28th July, so plenty of time to make your mind up yet - a few relevant links below. Crap time of year for a head cold...never a good time of course, but bloody hate them in the summer.

http://bmaf.org.uk/fixtures/
https://bmaf.opentrack.run/comp/611/
http://bmaf.org.uk/library/fixtures/2019/BMAFOutdoorTrackTimetable.pdf

DT - Indeed! Obviously a half decent runner, so all a bit of a mystery. Perhaps he'll use his prize money to invest a few quid in some proper shorts...

kevin70 · July 2019

Bob great report and time, pb next time

DT hope session is not a sweat fest

7mls easy Wednesday and went to the club last night, first time in a while, dropped back a group 3x1mls and avg 7.04 pace, happy with that and hope I can get back to doing some sessions. 12mls tomorrow, have a great weekend all

Tommy2D · July 2019

Bob - have you got a photo of the lad who eased out a low 18 minute 5k and a 38 minute 10k in trousers and a black polo shirt?

P.S - I'd forgotten about that photo of me in a state of complete knackeration after Saturdays gruel fest!

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

Tommy - this fella on the far right?

That's me in the background shortly after moving past my old second claim clubmate, and initially attempting, but soon failing to close the gap to the group in front including tracky bottoms / polo shirt dude.

Kevin - Good stuff, nice session.

Big-Bad-Bob · July 2019

No word from McF recently - how's things if you're out there...are you still doing the half tomorrow?

Back to the track for me, and a first donning of the spikes for the year this afternoon. First real focus on a genuine middle distance pace session since I can't remember when too with the softly, softly, catchee monkey approach I've been taking to try to ensure this comeback attempt sticks.

Lengthy warm up including drills, strides and 1k @ LT'ish, before getting stuck into planned cutdown session with sets of 2 x 600 @ 3k (2:07), 4 x 400 progressing from Mile to Target Mile pace (79 to 76), and 4 x 200 progressing from 800 to Target 800 pace (35 to 33). Long recoveries being the first session, and trying to build repeatable speed more than sustainable at this stage. Nagging breeze up the exposed back straight, but everything came in at or slightly ahead of target.

2 x 600m - 2:07/2:05 off 90s (5:37/m pace)
- 3 mins
4 x 400m - 79/77/76/76 off 3 mins (5:11 pace)
- 4 mins
4 x 200m - 34/34/34/33 off 2 mins (4:33 pace)

Hard work, but well under control throughout, and quite enjoyable in that middle distance, self-flagellation kind of way - great to get the spikes back on too.

DT19 · July 2019

That guy looks like he is out for a jog and a race has happened to be going on at the same time!

I saw on strava that McF did pick up her elephant medal yesterday.

Nice session there. I am in a mini taper now following Fridays sharpener session of 10 x 2 mins. These came out faster than 10k pace at 6.01mm average rep pace. It was pretty hot as well. An easy 5 yesterday and some easy miles with strides today then a rest tomorrow. Conditions Wednesday evening look reasonable, overcast, no real breeze and possible shower. As it's a new course it'll all be a bit of a surprise, albeit there is no where flat around there so it'll be undulating at best. Hoping to go sub 39 on this one.

Skinny Fetish Fan · July 2019

Hi Lit if you are out there.

I'm somewhere near your neck of the woods on Tuesday night and Wednesday as playing in the Scottish Open Pro Am on Wednesday (exciting). I'm staying in Haddington on Tuesday night - the Firth seems to be in the way of meeting up.

Weather forecast looks a bit iffy for Wednesday morning - I'm guessing light rain in North Berwick is not like light rain in Carlisle.

literatin · July 2019

Yes indeed, you could probably see my house if you headed up to the nearby coast, but there'd be a large body of water in the way of you actually getting there. The east coast tends to be a bit drier than the west, but unfortunately the forecast seems to be for pissing rain rather than the 'light' version.

Skinny Fetish Fan · July 2019

I had considered going up to St Andrews and doing the Chariots of Fire run along the beach. Then I realised it was 2 hours drive (4 hour round trip) from Haddington to St Andrews

If I go to the coast I'll take a photo of you. You'll be very, very tiny.

Pissing rain - that's shit - everyone who's playing has been encouraged to wear tartan trousers coz it's in aid of the Doddie Weir charity (and he wears tartan suits) so I've bought a pair and now I'm going to wear waterproofs over them by the sound of it!

DT19 · July 2019

Doddie Weir was our guest speaker at our rugby club sportmans lunch in 2016, so not long before his diagnosis. He was very entertaining. He had a complete tartan outfit on that day.

Skinny Fetish Fan · July 2019

Hi Lit <waves> - certainly hard to pick you out on this photo!

literatin · July 2019

I'm waving from just the other side of the Isle of May.

Howdy, Stranger!

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