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P&D Spring Marathon 2021
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A wise move Steve. I need to go a bit slower given the hills I’m battling daily.
Still a solid effort TR: all MP or faster & progressive too.
Great climbing Cal. A great sign you felt strong enough to push hard & bagged some bling in the process.
Was warm & sunny by the time I got out for today’s hilly 10.9M. I was squeezing it in to lunchtime so pushed on towards the end & picked up 6th place on a 0.85M Strava 4.4% climb. Another 1500’ done: should manage another Everest month at this rate.
I decided to go out for a recovery run today rather than walk - it was raining but not too hard. But by god it was wet - puddles everywhere. I stuck to roads for most of it but then I decided to use one of the common paths to my road and found it flooded. I already had wet feet at that point so I splashed through one flooded bit but then the next bit was up to my knees so I turned back. Almost came to grief on a kerb that was hidden under the muddy water, but managed to stay upright, thankfully. Anyway, it was 5 miles at a very ploddy 12 minute+ pace. Couple of things I learned about going that slowly - aside from miles ticking by very slowly indeed, I can get hungry and cold. Normally I don't get hungry on runs, but I do on walks.
Anyway, hoping legs feel decent tomorrow as I need to do some speed work.
Jools - oh i misread that, still solid miles though. 20m in a double day would be good. I remember a few double mlr days where i did 2 x 12m commutes on a wednesday.
Cal - nice one cal. I like your current training more than beating yourself up over virtual races.
10m run commute home tonight, quads were a bit achey after yday, so didnt make it the intended 12 or 13.
My 19yr old had enough anti bodies to donate plasma and he gave donation no 2 today. Decent citizen ship from a youngster, although he cant go anywhere else at the moment.
Not too icy here today, so 8m done this morning.
Tommorrows long run is going to be a drenching!
Tidy progression, Cal.
Fantastic your son managed to give plasma, TR. Well done to him. Enjoy the rain tomorrow. Skin is waterproof.
First non buggy in a week. Bypass job, so scenery lacking, but got the job done. 4 x 1k, 2 x 800 off 2:30 jog. All in 8.2M at 7:07 average
Distances approximate, but reps were 3:58, 52, 59, 49 then 3:06, 03. As you can tell, this was a more or less straight line job, then turn and do the second rep in reverse. Slight incline and wind creating such swing.
Good luck tomorrow TR.
I’m waiting for the afternoon before running tomorrow. Rain should’ve blown through by then & legs’ll have had a chance to recover from this evening’s 8.9M effort. Another hilly one: just shy of 1500’. Mixed pace as I tried to go off road & ended up sliding around in bogs & clambering over felled trees for a 3 miles before finding the tarmac again. Freezing cold by then. Massive cl8mb then hammered a 1.5M undulating stretch which contained a 1.2M segment & got 2nd despite faffing with my headtorch every few strides as it kept dropping & blinding me! Really don’t get on with the things - glasses don’t help as they reflect glare back & get fogged up.
Jools that does sound like an adventure (slash nightmare). I'm definitely not a fan of mud or clambering.
Jools - more good work. Can you wear a cap or hat under the headtorch, it can help anchor it, esp a cap (i wear a hat of some type all year so am used to it).
Copped the soaking (although sods law, it stopped in the last mile or so). 8m easy, 10m approx mp +10%, although i was cold after the easy miles so probably got a bit too much of a shove on and the 10m averaged 6.59 even on the hilly loop. Good fitness builder though.
Sunday was turbo, but the 6 running days gave me 65m for the week.
Cal - some impressive sessions this week, especially liked the searching out of hills.
SQ - well done on the speedwork, I have the same issue trying to find somewhere where out and back reps are the same.
TR - hope you didn’t get too drenched today. Just enough rain here to wash the snow away. Well done to your lad for stepping up.
Steve - yes the 50k is the Centurion event. Fingers crossed my marathon falls on the weekend of their other event and I’ll probably enter the 600m in 2 months as well.
A bit of rejiging this week meant a 15m MLR today. With lying snow I thought I’d go XC with my 5k effort. As it turned out, apart from a few mini lakes the paths and roads were fine but the grass was a complete mud slush fest. The 5k effort barely touched MP+15% but the effort was there. Now to plot tomorrow’s 20 whilst avoiding lakes.
I was tempted to run today, but decided to stick with the planned turbo intervals as things are going in the right direction at the mo.
Well done Macca - the mud and puddles will definitely slow you down.
I took myself off to Wimbledon today for my hills...started on the park side with Arthur Road and Home Park Road (plus a little slog up the obscure Dairy Walk, a 13% footpath which is lined with flowers in the summer and very pretty. A few flowers still there today).
Then I headed down to Worple Road which runs from Wimbledon to Raynes Park. Parallel to this, up by the common, is the Ridgway, and there are a number of roads that link the two, so like a nutter, I decided to run up and down all of them. I used to work up the top of one of them during the early noughties and I often run one of them when going to the common (which is currently too muddy to interest me at the moment) but I didn't realise the rest of them were all equally steep and nasty.
I did nine ascents here and it was tough - hit the 13 mile point during the last one.
The way back was mostly flat but I was so bushed it felt like a real slog. I logged 18 miles in the end which is the most I've done since before Dorney, taking me to 51 miles for the week (same as last week).
Body was a bit niggly but got me through.
I was a bit disappointed not to hit 400m of climb - it certainly felt like more than that, but the Streatham Hills seem to give me more bang for my buck so I'll stick with them I think.
Fair play keeping those +10% miles in your LRs TR.
Mixed blessing, those hills Macca. Can’t go anywhere from home without doing almost 100’ a mile.
Been playing WSW this week too so 95% of my 74 miles have been very local. 11,000’ climbed this week as a result!
Jools - all those hills (and mud) will be making you nice and strong.
Slight curve to it, TR. but pretty good for tempo and intervals. Cracking long run.
80%+ WAVA is very, very strong, Macca.
Impressive hilly running, Cal.
A long time since I did May Hill Massacre, Jools, but yes - I can imagine! Hell of a climb!
Solid week 7 of 12 of the 5k plan: 55.8M, culminating with as 12.2M buggy this morn at 7:23 average. Genuinely amazing running weather. 6C, low wind and actual sun. More vit D than I’ve had in a long time.
Great climbing there - I think there was only 1200 or so in my run but it felt a lot more.
SQ, it was nice weather today eh? Next week doesn't look so promising, alas. Good running though - nice pace with the buggy.
TR - Solid 3*10 mins.
Jools - Crazy elevation.
Macca - Nice running as always.
Cal - Tough hills there.
Planned cut back, so easy 18m and 11m weekend runs for 58 miles for the week.
Figured it was a pun on the Bob Graham Cal Have you looked at Fetcheveryone? I'm sure you'd love the games.
An easy day yesterday: I was in work for the day so it was back to the lunchtime Canal 5M with my colleague. Legs felt like lead & they never freed up. I was puffing away too in spite of going 20-30 secs a mile slower than our usual pace for that route. Figured I needed a break so binned the idea of an evening run.
Definitely worth it as I got out for 10.9M & 1500' at lunch today. Same average pace as yesterday though I was working harder. Picked up a load of Strava bling for my efforts. Confident I can shave more time off those segments though
Jools, I probably would but I'm on enough stuff already I think. Well done on your Strava bling.
Easy run today, nice and slow but added some inclines in (some of my clubmates are calling them hills but the steepest is 6% at its steepest point, which is just a slope to me after those 12-18% monsters I've been doing recently). Did turn into 9 miles though, which is quite long for a Tuesday run. Right hip felt a little tight so I think I need to do some stretching.
Jools - 11,000 ft in a week is getting towards mountain ultra gold standard training (so I read - never got near that myself). Agreed the games on Fetch are a little bit of fun / extra motivation especially if running similar routes day after day.
Steve - my head hurts reading that run, well done for sticking at it.
SQ - I’m still impressed with the buggy pace, if only there was a dedicated buggy race !
TR - you’re right about being fortunate to get out whatever the weather. I reckon I’ve not run on 2 days since start of lockdown 1.
A pleasing 20m on Sunday here with the 2nd half at circa mp+10% I tend to plod my LRs so it was a nice change to have to work a bit.
Moose woyld be proud of you Stevie
Jools - sounds like the mini break did you good.
Cal - good one, is your body adjusting to more hills ?
Macca - good going to back up 15 with 20. I like that mp +10% pace, makes you concentrate but dosent leave you smoked afterwards.
10m run commute home yday, 8m back in this morning. After last wks 3x10min today was 12min, 5x2min, 12min. Pretty windy in places to add to the hilly bits, but similar paces to last week. But ive realised i need to ignore the paces due to the route and conditions (one of the 2 min was 7.08 pace as it was all uphill). Banked and move on. Body is improving and moaned less than last week. 3x15min next week.
TR, good stuff - it was gusty here when I ran but not too bad, really.
I guess I'm getting used to hills more but I don't seem to be getting any faster yet...I'll let you know in due course.
Yeah I heard Bob Graham training is 10,000’ a week for c.3 months.
How’s your team doing Cal? You must be top climber 😀
Speaking of which, I had intended a hilly MLR today but legs were feeling pretty heavy. I got up a couple of hills in Streatham (one moderate, one quite big) before crossing the common to the bottom of a hill called Gibsons Hill which has 50m climb. The bottom isn't steep but it then gets a lot steeper before evening out again. It just seems to keep going. I'd planned five our six ascents of this but I was really struggling so I canned it after the third one and decided to check out a road loop near there - it's a horseshoe shaped road at the top of the common that's on a bit of a slope so I thought it might make a good circuit. I ran three laps of it (each lap is 0.6 miles) getting a bit faster with each one and that seemed to perk me up a bit. (There wasn't a Strava segment for it so I made one and now have the female CR, heh heh).
It was mostly downhill from there so my sluggish 11+ pace became a more normal 10+ and I had enough energy for a burn up another hill on the way back (which I PR'd). Last mile was just under 10 so I'm happy with that turnaround.
11 miles total with a shade under 300m climb so not bad considering I wasn't feeling it.
I've had a bit of a dodgy time with my stomach this past week - I think it's reflux or something similar as I've had an uncomfortable feeling in my throat after eating some meals, although not all. Not sure what's brought it on - might be the fact I've drunk a few bottles of wine this month (all gifts) and I'm usually not much of a drinker at all - I can usually count the amount of times I drink in a year on one hand. So I'm going to knock that on the head and then look at my diet as well. If that doesn't sort it I'll have to visit the doc, but I'm trying not to do that given they're all overworked with the pandemic.
Jools - it did cross my mind to use the sundial instead of the gadget.
Wet and windy 10m home tonight. Can see Dorney being deferred a month or 2, so have settled around 10m as a midweek max for now.
Took a break from my hilly loop today by heading South today. Got an absolute soaking on my 19K. Still climbed almost 900’