Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Nice turnout SG. My wife has always moaned about the tyre pressure, like she has some kind of sixth sense from the passenger seat that they needed air. Just bought a new (to me) car and I made sure it had a tyre pressure monitoring system just to shut her up  :D
  • WoolWool ✭✭✭
    fat cats and their fuel cards, what a life that must be!

    well done SG, I'm surprised that there wasn't more mention of the wind in your write-up, I thought it was pretty breezy out there yesterday.

    Good luck with the build-back SQ. Nice miles Bus, your reward will come from all of this. 

    I saw TR's result elsewhere. It obviously was windy down at Goodwood. Unlucky man, really unlucky......

    Still snottified here nearly 2 weeks in. Doing the kind of running where it's all a little bit more effort than it should be. Grrrr.....

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Wool - it was an odd one - i thought it was really windy, definitely windier than Dorney - which I'd used as an alibi there :)
    But it was fast enough for one geezer to do 13:50 (!), and many did pbs.

    However, I suspect that is st least partially counter balanced against road 5k, whilst not being an obscure format by any means, such as the 1mile road race (hence goons like me having  a run of being top ranked in the country for a vet slot for a couple of months if banking a strong one early Jan), but also way under parkrun, 10k and HM etc.
  • PeteMPeteM ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020
    Nice race SG and a good improvement on Dorney showing you're heading the right way. Def thought it was quite windy myself yesterday when running. Bus; going well by the sounds of it with 200+ hilly miles in 4 weeks. 

    SQ and Wool, sorry to here your travails but hopefully both over the worst now and good to hear from Scott too; what are you up to running wise?

    Had a mixed day myself yesterday. Ran my club 10k again and very pleased with 38'36 in the  conditions. Then fell really heavily in the c/d just a few hundred metres from home and have damaged my left hand as well as lots of cuts and grazes to my other hand and left knee. Had to go to A&E, but they reckon my hand is just badly bruised and very swollen as a result. Will be out for a while and can't cycle either and the pain levels are still very high. Had promised my wife I'd do another of these Thames walks she currently so enjoys after the TT, so did 2 hours of that in huge discomfort which was really dumb of me and made matters worse.

    Such a stupid cock up caused it too; had my VF laces very tight for the TT as they have a history of coming undone and by the end they were hurting my ankle, so loosened them after and forgot to retie them properly before the c/d. Then tripped over the lace and went down like a ninepin. My hands took the brunt of my fall, but whole bodyweight landing on top of my left hand has caused the damage. Hardly slept all night and the 'joy' of continued crown treatment at the dentists this morning to follow.

    Events yesterday did focus my mind that when running our times really don't matter in the bigger scheme of things. We do our best and that's all it can, and should, be. Just being out there is a privilege as SQ rightly said the other day (and I agree with you SQ about how annoying the doom-mongers are who glory in 'I told you so's to all runners when they get injured). Health is way more important than pb's or even good age grade percentages etc. I would gladly have swapped a rubbish time yesterday to avoid what happened after.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Bad one Pete, utterly annihilating that satisfaction of while not a race exactly, pretty much one the way you can match performance so well.

    I'm sure most of us can agree that race times are just the cherry on the top. It's like a scale - and just the enjoying running without aches, pains and in good health is the absolute key to it all.
    As we're finding now, even just racing itself is something that shouldn't be taken for granted!

    If you're able to race and racing well - then you really do have to treasure those times.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Good pace there SG, how was the wind?

    Pete - nice 10k, shame re the fall and damage, hope you mend quick.

    As wool alluded to, Goodwoid running festival for me yday. My hoped for sub 255 was off the cards due to the 40mph winds, so i sacked it off and had a few beers friday.
    Saturday i decided id show up hover at just under 3hr pace and then stop at the end of whichever of the 11 laps i fell behind 3hrs. But i was still on it with 3 to go, so thought i may as well finish and suck up a 3.01 or 3.02 which would be solid considering the weather. Was still borderline sub3 with a lap to go and a couple of slowings in the last mile due to hammy cramp (from all the leaning into the wind?) Saw the sub3 disappear, although my watch was still on 2.59 so i lsunched a last gasp effort for a 3:00:00......if only i had known. Solid enough anyway, fancy my sub 2:55 chances on a better day.
    Decent event, but bit to much on corse traffic late on with all the fun runners. Im going to Dorney on Nov 22nd which is only a full and half......i know Dorney can get windy too, but itd have to go some to top yday.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    TR - read up a couple of posts brother ;)

    Glad you stuck with it, imagine if you'd not even bothered!
    Now is the time to get the turnouts in I think - the time for having to hit certain times is in the future I think - not that any of us can look too far ahead of course - but fingers crossed there is a proper 2021 campaign to be had.

    But for now, racking up a few of these unique race setups has to be measured against the nothingness of lock down - and it's superb to have something.
    Otherwise we'd have to take up another sport and pretend it was part of the plan all along :o
  • WoolWool ✭✭✭
    TR - given that you've got multiple deep sub3s under your belt, I've no doubt that 3:00:00 will be something you'll actually savour in times to come! For now though, congrats on even completing another fast marathon. Your ability to grit your teeth and actually speed up at the end of a mara is something that most of us can only admire if not emulate!

    Ouch Pete. I hope that you recover quickly. You have a great knack of being able to retain fitness through little down periods so hopefully you'll repeat this once again and be back fast / quick / soon.

    SG not interested in times? Come on!! I bet you're agonizing over 17:36 vs 17:38, I gotta believe it!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I'm trying to expand on Pete's bigger picture motive here, don't ruin it ;)

    (I can say now that the 17:36 went up ;) )
    Quite bizarre to have so many people having 2-3sec chip/gun differences in a race with 12 people!
    But it was a strange case of starting at one place, then being a metre or three off the actual chip!

    Checked Newbury out, it's one of those places I just think "Berkshire - that'll be close", and was surprised to see it's still an hour's job!
    Bedford even sillier at 90mins.

    Back to back over a weekend, so was always one or the other, but I think Newbury would be the one.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020
    SG - noted now, i didnt read that much about the wind in the race report.

    Wool - probably although i now wish id have had a bit more in the buffer, but i turned up expecting to drop out. But yet doesnt refect my current fitness. Although i would have scraped under without the hammy twinges in the last mile, i lost 20 or 30sec in last mile at Abo and yr mate got away when the same happened. Yday i could feel the hammys from early on, probably due to leaning into the wind.  Id have defo gone a chunk quicker on an autumn day in london town next week. Life (and a few more sub3s) in the old dog yet........bizarrely strange run as a marathon is all about holding a steady pace and effort, yday was nothing like that, i slowed a bit yday as the wind and laps took their toll.
  • That's a cracking time TR - in every way. Just take the bragging rights for pacing it exactly to 3 hours rather than messing around with the 2:59:59 nonsense :smiley:

    Blimey Pete - that's sound highly unpleasant. Hope you have a speedy recovery!  I'd be happy with a 38:36 10k!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Run through, one of the few companies who are putting races on right now seem to have called off their Battersea Park one on Wednesday evening. Council decision.

    Hopefully it isn't the same decision for their mid/late October one. 
    Maybe midweek evenings are deemed more of a risk than early morning weekend? Best watch that one closely.
  • WoolWool ✭✭✭
    I used to live in Newbury, it's a long way from our manor / anywhere really!

    Shame about the Battersea race hey? Fingers crossed nothing mad happens ahead of this weekend as there are a lot of fast folks aiming at that mara at Dorney on Sunday. 230+ runners predicting sub3 from a field of 600. No spectators allowed but given that Dorney is fully open again now I don't see how they'll stop me getting in via one of the various entrances and so I plan to head down and do some cajoling. Ross looking to give himself a shot at 2:45....
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    That Ross did about 57 dead for a 10miler in training didn't he, so he's had an outrageous step up in his level, so I imagine he has every chance of smashing that surely?

    Good to hear Dorney is properly back open again - not that I'll be anywhere near there for the foreseeable for work.
    I imagine i'll just crack out a few more 5k races where possible in October, so training is most likely to be a couple of sessions a week, rather than a tempo and a session.

    MK's format is definitely the way to go though, but then perhaps I've only got that "set off miles after everyone else as I didn't get going early enough" Dorney one as comparison.
    I'll be interested to try one of these middle ground ones where it's every 10seconds or whatever events.
    I suppose it's a toss up. If you're in a small group released every 5mins and you fall off the back, you're in total no man's land. Whereas if it's a rolling event, you'll at least pass people regularly.
  • WoolWool ✭✭✭
    the event Pete and I did was 4 folks at 5-10s intervals, the jostling of the opening km was missing but after that it really wasn't that different to any other race I've done at Battersea.

    2:45 is 6:18 /mile. There's no doubt that Ross can do that but it's still a decent step up from a 2:55 PB and all the difficult maras that he had before he changed his training approach and his diet. Tough maras leave scar tissue in a very different way!!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Yep, so much can go wrong as the distance increases.

    That BP set up sounds decent enough - let's hope there is an opportunity to get involved in it!
  • We might have a 5k at Wimbledon track coming up (road though) - 17/10 - not sure if it's a mob match or general public. Will keep you posted, might do it.

    Good race report SG - The start is the start of the MK Parkrun the other way round. It's not a bad course really, pretty flat (the MK 5K that is). Good idea to pull put though. Shame about Dachs having to run in leggings too!

    Pete - ouch. Hope you recover OK mate - I agree with the sentiments.

    TR - Good effort at Goodwood, know how windy it can be there. My mate Pete was 2nd in 2.34, he did 2.29 in Seville so that was a really good run. He was wearing his bright yellow vest as he's raiding money for the cancer charity that helped his mum. He's doing 4 more marathons in 4 weeks, think the Bedford Aerodrome is one of them.

    Luton tonight, slogging around the rugby pitches - we're not renewing there, so probably one of the last times.

  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    I think races are still at risk ftom local authority cancellation if areas spike, even if they are covid approved.

    Simon - your mate did well, im happy to vlaim at least 5 mins. It was windier than the 10k when you ran.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2020
    Run through replied saying BP is currently still going ahead, and they hope to get more info, but things could change! Probably all they can say at this stage!

    Didn't know whether i'd do 1 sesh or 2 this week after the weekend race. But as the next sesh on the plan was the shortest, sharpest one - 6x300 at 800 pace, I thought it'd be a perfect one to do.

    2min recoveries, and 52-53 for the reps.
    It's one of those sessions that make you realise why you're not a middle distance runner.
    However, those paces are probably about right 3 days after a race, and walked off pretty fresh. Could probably go slightly quicker, but it wasn't ruining to any level. Maybe doing 12 would be - but then you wouldn't want to be doing many more reps at 800 effort!
  • Wool, I was also thinking of running out to Dorney and watching form public footpaths but it seems to clash with the London marathon. Dorney starts 09:00 so I suppose I could start my run at 8, run out for an hour, see the first waves by, run back and be home by 10:30.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Genuinely thought you were being funny for a second there P-Dog :D
    Then realised there's an elite race. Though I thought the "thrill" of the watch was all the norms, costumes, stories and struggles, not watching souped up superstars cruising out sub 5s :)
  • SG, on Sunday there are two races I'd like to watch:

    1) watch a number of friends run round Dorney a few times and cheer them on
    2) watch the elites on TV running a marathon in close to 2 hours

    Both good for their own reasons.

    I don't enjoy watching ill-prepared people "running" a marathon in 6 hours plus wearing fancy dress. If people want to spend a lot of money and humiliate themselves for hours in London then buy a Fulham strip and stand outside Craven Cottage. 
  • True PMJ - When I watch, i'm usually in the pub by 1pm. Mainly as i'm desperate for a pint by then.

    8 x 800 on Tuesday, once around the rugby pitches and up and down the dreaded slope. Pretty steady to start with, 2.42, but got them down to 2.33 by the end. Annoying pit stop made the 6th rep rubbish.

    Not decided what i'm doing tonight. All a bit meh..

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I'm usually out when the elite race is on, so I just dip in and watch some of the "stories".
    Always fun when they stop someone at London Bridge (is it?), with still about 12-16 miles to go, but I suppose it's the costume / story gang where stopping for 2mins makes no odds to anything.

    Ah Simon, bringing back memories of the dreaded "during" reps pitstop!
    Touch wood, haven't had one of those for a long time. Always before though!
    The "right" level of effort sometimes feels like it's going to explode, but wears off in the recovery!


    9.5 today. After all those 10s in furlough, it's like I'm purposely trying not to hit 10s now.
    Went out for 8-9 max, but happy it ended a little further.

    Deep in the 7.30s pace wise, but a middle 3 miles slowed it, climb up to some woods, further climb in the woods, and then a very slow descent through some fields and bits and pieces.

    A rare stop within a run to wait for some mutt on the lead up to the woods to stop sprinting at and jumping at me. While his old (aren't they always) owner wandered in from a fair distance away :)
  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    SG, on Sunday there are two races I'd like to watch:

    1) watch a number of friends run round Dorney a few times and cheer them on
    2) watch the elites on TV running a marathon in close to 2 hours

    Both good for their own reasons.

    I don't enjoy watching ill-prepared people "running" a marathon in 6 hours plus wearing fancy dress. If people want to spend a lot of money and humiliate themselves for hours in London then buy a Fulham strip and stand outside Craven Cottage. 
    I read this paragraph out loud to an associate and was taken aback at the level of mirth it caused.
    This is truly a great joke. Proof.

    🙂

  • Some classic pre-race journey madness from SG. Made me smile. A good result and it sounds like you paced your effort well.

    Oh Pete, that doesn’t sounds good. Hope the inflammation comes down soon and you can get on the bike at least. 

    TR I’d agree with Wool’s philosophy of savouring a 3:00:00 in the context of having run a few sub 3s. As you know, I have done exactly the same, and it’s actually quite a good talking point. In fact, you should claim you were a pacer and then blag your way into some massive race.

    Haven’t yet reached the point of five pain free days of usual activities, so not had the chance to do the HUGE session of 3 x 1 minute. But have been cracking on with the WattBike sessions. Turns out working to power can be really motivating. I guess you could get sucked into it too much and forget the beauty of just enjoying a bit of exercise flow, but good fun for now. I have two different bikes I can use. One look out of huge open windows, over the River Severn and towards the Malvern Hills. One looks at a one way road and a small accountancy firm. Guess which results in sessions that drag more?

  • Quite SQ - Could have done with a bit of indoors action this morning, got soaked on the little 4 miler.

    Last night - was going to do a pyramid, but put the Adios on, not wore them for a bit and they felt great. So only went up to 3 mins then thought i'd try for the track record of 63 secs over the road. Flew round, but it's not recorded properly. Estimated 400m time 58 secs, actual time 68! (complete bollocks).

    Typical, knew I should have recorded it separately..

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Haven't got any indoor Watt meters myself despite the hundreds of hours knocked out on an indoor machine, but I'm getting an idea of how much power I can output due to the meter on the road bike.

    Currently I average 3 watts per KG bodyweight. This is ok for a near sixty year old but about half the relative power put out by a professional.

    🙂

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    At least you have an outlet SQ - and if this had to happen, at least it's happening when racing is basically limited to grabbing an odd format turn out where possible.

    Simon - fair play for having a crack. With the mixture of track stuff often coming out a bit dodge on the GPS, and if it's a well attended track meaning super fast times, tracks really are tough work to set a seg!

    What wasn't a tough seg is one I lost today. I think it was one of those I'd casually collected near the end of a big haul, as some geezer has taken 7secs off it, and he's only put like a 1.18 400m in to do so!

    6&4 today, left Wed as enough for track after a Sunday race.


    I see Wokingham Half has been moved to mid September.
    Changes the dynamic completely, as it'd mean you have to work through the summer for it, so not sure about that.
    But obvs depends what the state of the world is by then!
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited October 2020
    SG - stubbungton 10k cancelled, chichester 10k cancelled. Worthing 1/2 and Fleet will be next. They are all 2000 runners........laps of lakes and airfields for a while yet. Next Sept amd Oct is already rammed. 2 wks before vlm is a strange time to put wokingham, they should have made it 4 and they'd still get the usual pre vlm crowd.
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