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P&D Spring Marathon 2020
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If im within 10 sec / mile of PB pace that will usually do for the first go. It always feels harder than it should. Ypu seem in great form at the moment so could see some good numbers.
Listening to the Centurion facebook Q&A this morning they sound relatively positive that their September / October races could go ahead with a few adjustments. Will have to wait and see but I feel that my current training could see me through a flattish trail ultra without any issues. So no need to panic about anything for a while.
Hamo - i knew youd be out there, so i was out there too (yday). Im with the others do it to effort, the watch tracks the pace.....you'll smash it, you always do. You are the mail man !
Macca , millsy - so your comments on a chance of a centurion race going ahead, alerted me, but they are all 50 or 100m !
7m easy, im with Hamo on the effort tomorrow, although im still hiding in the quiet lanes and last week my 3 x 20.min only averaged approx mp due to the hilly bits, do maybe an mp effort will result in more like the p and d 10%, who knows? I'll have a few beers later in order to prepare myself optimally.
7m easy today
Cal - must he nice to have your own segment, gives you extra motivation to keep it as long as possible. Hope you’ve managed to get rid of both the dodgy achilles and mice.
Jools - 1500 miles already is impressive. Good luck with the Centurion challenge, will give that a miss as I just don’t have the legs for it. May sign up for the virtual Lakeland 100 though and do the same as last week.
SQ - good attitude to recovery and taking each session as it comes along, sounds like you’re enjoying it this way. I don’t have any plan at the moment and only decide the day before if and what to do.
Macca - Well done on your win - nice!
John - now that's a trophy!
hamo - yeah, Disney is expensive but it is always a great experience. I was going to hit Tokyo Disneyland when I did the marathon, but obviously that didn't happen. I did visit Tokyo Disneysea (the other park there) when I last went in 2009 and it was amazing but unfortunately, also rammed due to being a public holiday. I remember waiting 4 hours for Journey to the Centre of the Earth (fantastic ride...) - ended up playing charades in the queue.
Anyway, I decided to take yesterday off as well (I did walk 3.7 miles and also did a bit of conditioning, so it wasn't a total rest day). Achilles felt better on yesterday's walk than on the walk the day before so I decided I'd run today. I wanted to get my weekly 5K in so did 3 miles warm-up (being colder, and having had two days off, I figured I needed a bit more) then did my 5K around the "Cal Jones Special" route and then three miles to cool-down, though I did a couple of segment sprints in the last mile.
The 5K was decent - 24:47 which I'm happy with considering I was running into a bit of a headwind on the longest of the three roads. I was working hard on this but I did keep a little bit back as I have the virtual Masters relay (and also another virtual club run, though I'll use the same run to enter both since they're both 5K) next week.
I didn't feel my achilles on the 5K segment but I did a bit in the cool-down, though it was back to quiet grumbling. Grumbling I can take - when it starts screaming I back off.
On the plus side, the posterior tib is behaving - I think the pain I had there was more of a trauma from some steep downs last Sunday than an overuse injury, so it has resolved, more or less.
I'll try a long run tomorrow and see how that goes.
Oh, and no mouse sounds since I caught those two, so fingers crossed there aren't more.
Csl -well done it was a blustery day for efforts.
I was with Hamo and did the 8mp (within 17m), same undulating, flat then hilly route as last wks 3x20min. Av came in at 6.35 which is solid in a blustery day on a lumpy route. Low 2.5X pace, will try to get on the flat for the next one.
Decent week with 4m LT, 2 x mlr and 17 inc 8mp. Onwards and upwards.
17 miles for me today so, as I wanted to avoid stressing my achilles with too many hills, I opted for the Wandle trail. I ran the two miles to Earslfield and jumped on it there, then followed it along, through Morden Hall Park and then the next section. The first time I ran this I remember going through a nature reserve, but I didn't find that part the last few times I've done it so I thought I might have misremembered it. But no, today it was right there in front of me on the other side of the road. The only thing I can think was that there's been some works on that road and the entrance was blocked off, which is no longer the case. Glad I found it again as that stretch is really nice.
Saw two herons and a Little Egret (had to look that one up on the RSPB bird identifier) plus what may have been a reed bunting (ditto).
From there I continued along until I got to the part where I went wrong last time (went left at a road instead of crossing the road to the next section) and this time made it to Beddington Park, which is a lovely park and will be a great location for the parkrun, whenever it's allowed to start.
I then returned along the pebbly trail (saw a fox here) towards Mitcham Common, on a path that runs by Mitcham Golf Course (saw a bunny) and then onto the common itself.
Mitcham Common has a few roads running through it so it is divided into sections and I took a different route back through it and got slightly lost so had to stop briefly to look at a map. Turns out I was in a different part of the common to the part I thought I was in so once I got back to the bit I'd run before I was OK.
Then it was back past Figges Marsh (not a marsh, just a triangle of greenspace in Mitcham) to Tooting, up the Church Road hill and across Tooting Common and home.
I ran at easy pace but at the steady end rather than the recovery end, and I pushed on a bit for the last four miles which were all sub-10. Averaged 10:17 overall.
Achilles was a little grumbly but in a low key way so I'm not worried by it. I've been dealing with it long enough that I know when to back off, so the extra rest days seem to have helped.
42 miles for the week, so a bit of a cut-back, but not bad considering I only ran four days.
8m easy here. 2hr walk with the spo first dented my running mojo, but i was ok once i got going.
You’ve got to be happy with that 5K Cal. Nicely done backing up with 17M today.
Might have to have another crack at a 50M this Autumn then Millsy.
Quality prize John 🤣 Can’t believe the average pace for your 100M week!
10M on the flat but in strong winds yesterday. 7K easy + strides to warm-up followed by 5K not-Parkrun in 19:54 then a steady 4.2K warm down.
Just 8M today. I’d got out late & didn’t want to be out too long. Did 2x 4M hilly loop. Ran the first easy & the 2nd as a hard effort.
I was lucky the wind held of yesterday, Jools - it was very pleasant. Grey and a bit breezy today though.
Monday is usually a rest day but I woke up early so I decided I'd go for a run as my legs weren't really sore. A couple of steps in and I quickly realise it would have to be a recovery run because they felt like lead weights. So very slow - over 11 min miles. I can't say it was massively enjoyable due to the weather but it's done now.
Cal, good luck with the achillies. Mine often has the odd flare-up but seems to come and go without reason.
The wildhorse arrived yesterday, sadly 5 mins after I got back from my run. They definitely divided opinion.
There is a Virtual comrades thing going on next week and I`ll have a go at the 50% distance (28 miles) and do it on the Saturday not the Sunday
I`m still doubtful if the Centurion events will go ahead but feel like with my current training I could step straight in and complete without any major issues.
78 miles in the bank last week. Will cut down slightly in advance of Saturdays 28 on the road.
Hope the achilles is ok Cal. Great wildlife spotting.
Great session SQ. That loop looked great on Strava.
Superb 5K Joe. Amazed you’ve only gone sub-17 twice though!
Hope the funeral went ok AWC and allows you to all move on.
Well done on the 1st place half Macca.
Great work with the fund-raising Jools. Tragic.
Great trophy John
Well done on another marathon too.
Quality running from everyone else.
No AlphaFlys for me. Not much point at the moment and my Next% are still pretty fresh. I read somewhere they’re quite heavy, something like 300g, which is interesting. I suppose the benefits of all the foam outweigh (literally) the disadvantages of being heavier.
Moved up to five runs of five miles last week. Hamstrings continue to ease, and pleasingly the HR is definintely trending down. It’s still far higher than I’d like, but it’s a start. At this rate I might be ready for London. In 2021...
I think I'll now stick at five runs a week for a little while, and look to maybe extend the distance on a few, or try some slightly faster running. Will see how I feel.
Steve...You'd smash a 10k, and i think you'll go well below sub 3.10 with the way you've been training lately.
Jools...Cheers for the confidence, but i think 5.30's would be a bit too sharp at the minute. Nice easy running, and class sub 20 parkrun in bad weather too.
Millsy...Its good to hear that some race organisers are feeling confident of running their events this year. A local one to me released a statement over the weekend saying the same about their planned event for October. So fingers crossed we'll get some events on. Best of luck with the 28 miler on Saturday.
TR...Class preparation for your long run, proper order
John...and Cal, yea Disney is wild expensive, but well worth for it the kids, holiday of a lifetime of them, and something to look forward to/get them through all this upheaval at the minute. Lovely prize, congrats, not everyone can say they have won gold flip flops. Nice easy week to recover. 22 miles at MP and a half marathon pb in 'race week' isn't exactly a typical taper, fair play to him
Cal...That is a good 5k, well done, esp if you held back on it a bit. Nice long run with a bit of wildlife spotting thrown in, sounds lovely. Hope the Achilles continues to 'behave'.
Spoons...Nice to see you still on it and things trending in the right direction. I agree, interesting about the weight in the Alpha Flys, i have seen a few reviews saying they are not as revolutionary as first thought, and there is not much difference between them and the nxt%'s, but who knows? Horses for courses and all that i suppose.
Saturday was a 6 mile recovery run on the treadmill for me, how exciting
85 miles for the week which is a decent total. Double 5 recovery runs today.
Nico one john, your mate had a tough week.
Spoons - continued progress, nice.
Hamo - well done, strong running. It was a tough weekend for mp work. Its always windy on mp day !
14m here today.
Morning everyone.
Cross post with TR – well done on the 14M so close to your long run.
Session one of this week. I have tried to progress 4.8k of work each week. So: 12 x 400 in week one, 8 x 600 last week and then 6 x 800 this week (all distances very approximate) – whilst keeping the rest between reps the same 90s.
I suspect today's 800s might have been a little short, but close enough for the training effect. An early start and out the door in a couple of minutes at 0510, so the opening rep was predictably slow – 2:50. Sped up in rep two, but added in some dog evasion, 2.50. Then consistent 2:45s, all off 90s static recoveries. Beautiful sunrise again at Grangefield park – meandering, only mildly undulating, nicely firm crushed gravel path. Added a few fartlek style strides in the warm down for 7.3M at 6:53 average pace.
SQ...Nice intervals, they can be a tough session alright. 100% correct, playing on the rocks and swans is way more important, whats another 2 mile anyway? Best of luck with the 'rust buster' (i like that
10 miles with 5 at LT pace this morning for me. I wasn't feeling overly confident about the LT miles during the 3 mile warm up as my legs felt dead and heavy after Sunday, but as sometimes happens once i started they felt grand running at pace. The 5 miles came out at 5.18, 5.13, 5.16, 5.14 and 5.13, so an average of 5.14/15 min miles. It was hard work, but comfortably uncomfortable as they say, and i never felt in trouble and held the pace consistently, so very pleased with it as as session. In all honesty, the 2 mile cool down miles were the worst of the 10, i just wanted home by that point
Spoons, great to see you getting back to consistent training.
TR, another strong MLR
SQ, hopefully I can replicate your 800s session later both in pace and consistency.
I will be following an undulating tarmac road route on Saturday. The majority of the hills in the first half but unfortunately no 13 mile downhill finish. I think my quads will thank me on Sunday.
Millsy - Great week.
Hamo - Class long run and LT run.
TR - Superb week, and long run.
Cal - Nice long run and 5k.
Spoons - Nicely back into it.
SQ - Nice intervals.
Jools - Nice sub 20 parkrun.
17 miles on Saturday, 7 miles on Sunday ran as 2 easy, 3 faster and 2 easy for a 52 mile week. 10 easy today. All training at the moment based on HR.
Well done on the LT Hamo, im with you on not liking the miles afterwards. Im doing last weeks 4m LT again tomorrow, hopefully ill benefit from having done it last week.
Millsy - hope the long run goes well, it seems a long time ago that we were smacking it at Stubbington.
Steve - how long an easy phase are you doing?
AWC - those events sound hopeful, well done on the LT, a bit of a shock no doubt after all your longer runs.
7m easy here.
Steve...Nice easy running, but still getting decent mileage in too, fair play.
AWC...The first LT of a block can be a shock to the system alright, but you done it and that's the main thing.
TR...Hopeful good news about that race, fingers crossed more can follow suit. Will you enter it? Nice easy running, enjoy the LT today, i agree, the 4 last week will hopefully prepare you.
My 14 mile MLR today was awful if i'm honest, forgot how hard they can be the day after a LT session...dead legs and feeling tired from the moment i left my front door, which resulted in a mental and physical struggle the whole way (just one of those days you don't really wanna do it for the get go). But its done, and we move on. Very grateful for tomorrows planned recovery runs now
AWC, those LT runs are horrible. It's the one thing that put me off P&D for so long. I think I'll be good to go as and when I do resume marathon training (Chicago looks doubtful so I've held off starting an actual plan - my mileage is quite high anyway but I'm currently enjoying just doing what I feel like at the moment, and I think the weekly fast 5Ks will make it easier to do the LT sessions once I get going).
spoons, glad the hams are feeling a bit better.
Millsy - good luck with your Sunday run.
TR - good running and mileage there.
Steve - nice 17. Your mileage sounds similar to mine at the moment (although as you know I ignore my HR).
12 miles today - another mapping run. I wanted to check out Wandsworth Park which is down by the Thames, so I went via Earlsfield and King George Park which is next to the Wandle. Three things I learned on this run: 1) Wandsworth Town traffic is busy even before 7am (well, it is the South Circular) so crossing roads wasn't easy. I did a bit of an out and back in the direction of Putney on the way back just to get across the main road without having to stop (I don't stop for traffic if I can help it - I just keep running down the road until there's a gap). So I don't think I'll be trying this again on a weekday.
2) Found another tiny stretch of the Wandle that has a path by it alongside King George Park. Hadn't noticed it before as it's behind some flats. Not significant, but it is another piece of the puzzle.
3) I subconciously slow down when I'm not sure where I am. Turned the wrong way in Earlsfield somewhere and ended up doing a bit loop to get back to where I needed to be. Cadence was the same but stride got very short around this part - 11 min/miles. I guess because I'm looking around and not in the zone, as it were.
AWC - Yeah that first LT session, well all of them
TR - I'm trying to build a massive base, so for as long as possible really. Ideally at least 3 months I think, but my plan has me gradually building up some runs to include MP sessions later on.
Hamo - Nice MLR.
5 miles and kettlebells today.
Cal - nice on on the mlr.
Steve - a change of stimulus is where the gains are.
AWC - good for you.
I did the 4m LT run again and improved nicely on last wks av 6.11, a bit of recent hard work must be doing me good. Last week i was hanging on a bit in last mile or so, so today pushed on with around mile and half left (after the undualtions had finished) and ended up with an av 6.04, although it was defo a bit progressive with a ~5.50 last mile. Anyway, its all about a ittle bit of effort. Onwards.
TR, agreed about Stubbington. That`s the last time I actually raced properly flat out. 6 sub 6 miles on the bounce sounds frightening now. I wasn`t much faster for my 800m reps last night.
AWC, yes I was listening to the Centurion Facebook. i`m not setting my heart on the races happening but will be a good focus in the meantime if London is cancelled.
I have 102 more miles to fit in before next Saturday when I have a week off (work & running). Wll then re-plan the second half of the year
Another fun MLR Cal. The route planning & long runs must keep you occupied most of the day.
Cracking 800s there SQ. I definitely need 2-4 strides to unlock my hips.
Well done on the pacing duties John & banking another marathon training run. Nothing you can do about your mate's overly keen final week of training.
Not following a plan myself - just found out Snowdonia Marathon (end of Oct) have postponed to October 2021. Bit of a blow if I'm honest as with all my recent hill work & the almost daily MLRs I reckon I'm in the best shape I've been for tackling it. I'm not surprised really as it's in Wales which is being much more cautious about easing the lockdown & although 'only' 2,500 runners it attracts at least as many again to support which is a massive influx of people from all over in to a very small community.
13.3 very hilly miles Monday at a very slow pace. Only 8M yesterday although I had intended to go out again later but other things got in the way. No harm in having an easier day. Best HR-pace run I've had since my comeback. Was intending to do a longish MLR today but in the end I opted to throw in an extra loop round the hilly Mallard's Pike parkrun course which added another 5M in total so 20M. I ran the parkrun as a tough effort which made the final, uphill, 5M even tougher.