Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I often get people say "I don't know how you do it" with the training.
    But the truth is monk-esque super clean dull living, the habit, the "fear" of not being as fit as before, mixed in with wanting to be reasonably competitive in racing.

    What I don't know how people do it, is in regards to late nights and social stuff!

    Last night was a freezing cold Wycombe game, 30mins extra time, meaning a midnight to bed job. With a 6am wakeup, that's a fair bit less sleep than usual. I dare say for a lot of you you're thinking "that's double my sleep"....well..I'm amazed you manage :)

    So erm,  5 & 4 is today's fare.

    Tomorrow I dare say maybe hill reps might be an idea.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    7miler today then, with 4 parts, and 2 separate hill locations :)
    Kept it fresh!


    First set, 6x0.15miles up a nice little slope, low 6 sort of mixer.

    Second set 6x0.10miles up the bridge climb near work, aiming for sharper burns. Mid 5s pace.

    Only slight issue with doing reps to distance on the watch is often you've eased down a little before the rep stops, but it felt good to get a real pant on for first time in a yonker!

  • Yes yes the recovery isn’t always spot on. And yes, 12-6 is my usual sleep ;)

    nothing today, training tomorrow after a 24-26 min Parkrun with the kid. Long run Sunday as long as I feel ok after the Herne Hill 130yr dinner Saturday night. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The other thing I tend to find with these on distance hill reps, is if you're not careful you can for some reason start creeping forward each time, meaning the reps end up being a bit different.

    Small issue I suppose, but if the "Hill" is only a certain length you want to make sure you don't lose any of it :)
  • This time next week and SC will be hanging around waiting for me to finish LFoM! Anyone else putting in an appearance?
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • Ale - planing to come down to spectate on my lunch at work as I know a couple of others running as well. Will look out for you!
  • Looks like a bit of a forum fest then :smile: Shame I can't get there - would be good to do a "proper" 5k!

    SG - your strava activities confused the hell out of me today! All become clear no :smile:

    Shitty/busy week at work this week and only speed session of the week on Wednesday just turned into a slog - no energy and no speed. Oddly then, just like last week, my second run of the day today, in very soft conditions , came out well - must be all that pent up frustration of the week coming out!!! 
  • And Simon - 12-6 sleep? Blimey - I'd be knackered on that, I'm 10-6 most nights (thought to be fair that hasn't been working well lately!)
  • Yes Bus, never happy about my lack of sleep. Just can’t seem to go to bed earlier!

    so Linford wood parkrun then Willen lake for an 8.5 mile tempo. Why do we do this to ourselves?
  • This morning went well- Parkrun went well, the kid did 24.16, just outside PB, but running well. <div>
    </div><div>Then went over to Willen lake and I did the horrible tempo. Went ok though, two big laps around both lakes, then the smaller 2 mile loop to make 8.38 miles in total. Did it in 47.21, which using my rudimentary maths comes out at 5.39’s. Happy with that and bodes ok for the southern masters next week. </div><div>
    </div><div>Now just go to try to get to a London on our cretinous train ‘service’. </div>
  • RW hates me. Makes me change user, now I’m a div!
  • And you are fat, SC2! The camera never lies. I'll buy you a pint on Friday to cheer you up.

    SG (or anyone else): did the second running of the Alexandra parkrun this morning. Will be one of the quickest in the country. Definitely one to do next time you are in the Manchester area. We have some quick ones around here: this will be the fastest I believe. Today's first finisher (OK, winner) was nearly half a minute faster than he usually runs elsewhere. I would put it on a par with Dulwich. The guy today was slower at Walsall, although that was a couple of years ago so may be quicker. 
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Full distance job do you reckon Aley? The disto readings at that Walsall one look a bit on the cheeky side. I remember a guy did Walsall 12 seconds quicker as a solo time trial than he did the Mid Cheshire 5k against superstar runners last year!

    But this is why it's "Parkrun" on po10 not 5k I suppose. It gives them license to mess with routes, not be certified etc as it's "not a race" etc, and someone will say "If you're not happy, have your entry fee back " :D


    Only done 1 United game this season, a 4-0 win v Chelsea. With the vertigo thing hijacking things, I'm almost tempted to leave it as that to have a 100% record ;)

    Wycombe is where it's at this year, top of league 1 for goodness sake, with a healthy gap over 2nd and 3rd!

  • I was curious about Walsall and took my recent parkrun there into MapMy Run and corrected the GPS plots to follow the map paths, rather than the corner cutting around the pond and the clock tower (3 lots of 2x obviously short traces) and it came out the correct distance 🤷‍♂️

    I'll have another go at parkrun at Hull before the year is out. Hull is flat and faster (2 laps no sharp turns) if it's a still day. Fingers crossed should be similar sorts of times.

    Bit of a cold this week forced a rest day on me and some slight top of foot pain had me cut down on mileage. Both signs that I needed a cut back week.. heeded! Hard muddy hilly race tomorrow around 6 miles. Tends to feel like you've done six miles before halfway due to copious amounts of clay and slop en route.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019
    That's the way muddy.. Get anywhere near mid 16s again and it's proven (unless you do it at the 3mile dodgy gadesbridge one i did once!)
    Otherwise a 30sec pb at 5k is pretty stratospheric improvement.

    Which is what a guy at our club is after. He's pushing 50 and gone from 1.37 to 1.28 this year.
    He's after sub 1.20 next year! Thoughts?!
  • I understand Alexandra has been wheeled. I got 4.98k but there are lots of trees where I know I lost a signal, plus the two turns are round a cone which Garmins etc are never happy with. I know the park well and am fairly confident that it is accurate.
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • On the 30s thing improvement Stevie a few mitigating factors:

    16.54 on a course with 2x as much elevation as Walsall, on a warm August evening, with 10 miles the day before and 4 or 5 miles in my legs before the race, off two nights of no sleep, carrying that bloody UTI. I had already equalled 16.54 within the Speedway 10k earlier in the year. Whereas Walsall was cool, I was relatively rested, not ill and I was chasing for 2nd until about the last half mile and put in a fair amount more effort than I did for the pb (163bpm av. vs 166 bpm). Obviously that doesn’t explain all the other fast times there, but I knew there was some straightforward improvements to come over that 16.54 at some point.

    As for sub 1.20 for a half, over 50 - I know a local v50 who has struggled at the half in the past but has been consistently rocking out 80+ mile weeks, and is running Silverstone tomorrow. He ran low 17s at Walsall same day as me and I reckon he’ll run around 1.16-1.17 level for the half tomorrow.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    Sounds like at worst you should have something in the middle then Muddy, which isn't a bad place to be.

    The V50 thing alone isn't the bit that stands out, there's some quality runners out there who smash that, and just on this thread there's at least 4-5 who can or definitely should be comfortably beating that when they get there.

    It's the being so far off the target that I find interesting - it'd take the same improvement as this year, when most of us realise progress quickly reduces!

  • muddyfunstermuddyfunster ✭✭✭
    edited November 2019
    I think consistency is a big factor in improving year on year so if he can manage that and not go bonkers on the training and take enough rest, rather than chasing somewhat arbitrary time goals in any given period. I’ve had a few spells of injury primarily from pushing too hard to get somewhere and  because of that progress has stuttered over time. I have a very relaxed attitude to time goals now and all going well.

    A chap I know ran Walsall on the Saturday in 16.40, then the following Wednesday ran the same certified 5k where I ran 16.54. He did 16.46 on the certified course. I don’t think there’s that much in it - and I know he was trying in both of those races as I was on his heels for a fair bit of them !

    I think these courses that have a reputation for being fast also bring it out of you. It’s like a big 6 pointer footy match ! I know if I race my local parkrun I’m facing a dreadful uphill half mile slog at the end where I feel time slipping away from me. I just don’t have the appetite to give it all out at that one.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019
    Yep. Probs a similar effect to my local one. People say it's right on the doorstep but because of that ive run every step a thousand times!

    12.5 today for a 65m week. About 7.30 pace but from the straggly haired cold sweat mess after probably a bit harder an effort than id like for that. Probs not quite the 3.5 days recovery the garmin reckons though!

    However its another come back plan improvement. Longer run and mileage up another chunk.

  • You're getting back to it nicely now SG!

    Hope you enjoyed your club evening, SC. An 8mi tempo at 5:40s will need some rehydration!


    Gloucester 10k for me today. Long old journey and expensive weekend to not have the race you envisaged.
    38:39, which is 18s off my PB from the start of October, but I had hoped of a 37:xx after the 5km PB last weekend. Long story short is that the legs just weren't there as I got to 5km in 19:25, hoping to pick it up on the downward return, and I seemed to have lost 30s in mile 5 due to a jogging out a stitch. Speed endurance is something that I need to work on for 10km, and so hopefully some more tempo sessions will crop up in the training plan for spring.
    On the plus side, it was my first race in a county vest (even if for the non-scoring B team) which was awesome, and ~20s isn't the world away from my previous best.
  • Still a good time Matt, and it must have been nice running in a county vest too!

    Good to see you back on the big mile weeks too SG. It was actually surprisingly humid today - a weird combination of being both sweaty and cold at times!

    14 miles of mud and hills for me this morning to make 50 for the week. Fairly slow, but comfortable enough. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    Noo, not the humidity, my newest foe!  Though that might explain why I had the red pee when I got back! A few waters later and back fine again...

    Nice 50 banked.

    They're trying to ramp the presh to do xc next weekend, as it's the Bradenham one, a horrific hilly job, but I think that'd be an absolute mental first race back. Only came 9th in the team there last year, when probably more in the racing flow!

    Just because I'm 5miles away from it doesn't make me any keener!

  • PeteMPeteM ✭✭✭
    Excellent racing Matt H; almost exactly 6 min miles over an undulating 10k and only 20s off a pb shows you're in very decent shape.

    Superb pr last week Muddy; that time for someone well into v45 territory is brilliant; hate to think what WAVA it is but must be in Mr S Coombes' territory :)  BTW good to see your usual setting of the top class training standards Simon. 

    Looks like SG and Bus are training well and throwing in some mega long runs again (well by my standards at least!). Will be good to see you both racing again soon. 

    Aley I know Alec Park well; grew up on the border of Whalley Range and Chorlton and the park was right next to my first school. They used to do a monthly 5k race there pre parkrun days and apparently that was a super fast course too, but very believable given the wide tarmac paths. 

    My first proper race today since Maidenhead Half almost 3 months ago and went to Hatfield in Hertfordshire for their reputedly super-fast 5 miler (I think the Wycombe posse on here have all done it before but I hadn't). Not done a 5 miler this year except the off road Forest 5 which was a crap injury ravaged run in the summer. My parkrun and xc had been a bit more promising lately so hoped to at least manage a 31'xx today. Fairly long drive to the race but easy enough on a Sunday morning and parking all well organised, you'll be pleased to hear SG ;)

    The race attracts a strong field of around 650 and that was pretty obvious from the start; including 3 girls who all set off on the front line but quickly proved that was exactly the right place for them in the race! I just ran to feel really and knocked out k's at about 3'50 level except for a fast 3'37 for the 2nd which was a tad downhill and with a modest tailwind. Bit slippy in places and not all road (some paths which had a lot of leaves on so not good for the VF's). 

    About 5k in I started my inadvertent heel clipping game with another runner; twice he got me from behind and almost stopped me in my tracks, but when he got passed me shortly after I did the same back. Nice bloke though and all very apologetic as he jokingly called out 2-1 now after my offence, but all 3 purely accidental. Once that part was out of the way, and though 5k almost exactly in 19 mins, just concentrated on not giving too much away in the final 3k. Mission accomplished with various k's times in the 3'50-4'00 mix and even overtook a couple in the sprint for home to cross in 30'49 for 50th (much better than 51st as now on the first page of the results ;)). 

    Overall very pleased with the outing. Standard was terrific up top; winner a low 24; the 3 girls mentioned at the start oft his report all about 27'xx  and all top 10 overall I think. A v50 also did 27'xx and I was only 7th v50 so nowhere near prizes. Guess it lives up to its reputation as a super fast course and nice to get a respectable 5 miler in the locker for 2019. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Sounds like the standard has gone up since the Wycombe 3 (and we also took local lad Gaz along for a 4) did it in 2006. I think it's now a county champ race which would explain the quality surge!

    As per our fb chat, amazing what a month or 2 can do! From the verge of retirement, to curling out decent races without even a mention of said problem!


    Solid turnout Matt, especially if a stitch had you in issues? Has that happened before? Presumably not a "number 2 related" one, as you're probably a pre race bush squeezer, so maybe is that an electrolyte lack or something, or is that just cramp?

  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited November 2019
    Nice long runs chaps

    Matt - well done on the county vest. Not far off a pb on a down day bodes well.

    Good to see you getting back to it better pete.

    Im aiming sub 80 as a M50 next year, although i have been there before (but not since 2014 and that was before i was injured for a while).

    16m for me yday. I need to get some training in after all the Abo and Gosport tapering and recovery.
  • Good work Pete - 7th v50 with such a quick time shows a very good quality field!

    2006 SG - you made me feel REALLY old then! It was 2016!!! Only 3 years ago, but I doubt I could get within 25 secs a mile of that time now!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Whoops.
    In fairness i probs wouldn't get within 25secs of your time either😜
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