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DT - more quality sessions! Good news that they've given the green light to travel for your race. Fingers crossed the weather plays ball on the day. I've forgotten what it's like in the lead up to big races, checking various weather forecasts about 400 times a day.
About 30 miles running for me last week inc a repeat of the previous weeks hilly moorland run on Sunday. Plus for the first time in ages a few miles on the bike.
I've decided against the 10k over Easter weekend but hoping to get an entry to a 5k towards the end of April which will be a right old shock to the system.
Tommy, yes I am finding the situation almost a bit surreal in that next week will be marathon week and carb loading and all that business. I've just looked at the Dorney forecast and next week generally around the middle and southern half of the country it seems pretty settled after Monday both before and after Easter weekend. Though from experience at this stage that can change pretty fast.
Starting to build up some decent miles and consistency there. After Dorney, I need to start looking at other races to make the most of current fitness.
Mr V, nice session. It was only December I ran sub 40 in a training run for first time. Yesterday could very easily have been sub 38. Looking back I did the exact session on same route at very end of January. HR was the same as yesterday however average pace was 6.24 versus 6.07 yesterday. Wonder how that would translate into gains at half mara based on my 80.39 mid December?!
Weigh in this morning at 10,3, that's now a stone lighter than my last mara in April 2019 and half a stone lighter than my last race in December, which in turn was the lightest I have ever raced at.
Off out over lunchtime for a reduced 9m MLR. Taper should really start to take effect after yesterdays session as the biggest thing left is 8m at mp. The on Sunday took little out of me so not expecting Friday to do much.
I've been accumulating weight these past couple of months averaging 20 ish miles per week - starting to look healthy, rather than any Mace style ballooning.
I was on course for a reasonable week last week of 35 running miles but my covid vaccination on Saturday morning had me wiped out by tea-time and in bed with a fever and aches for a couple of days, so I missed my long run. The vaccination response was weird - it was exactly like the illness I experienced in December - only much shorter and less intense.
I was using the Pegasus Zoom Turbo 2s to train in over the past couple of years on the same principle that they were lighter and used the ZoomX foam, but were cheaper than the Vaporfly. They are no longer available and I am honestly lost without them. I've been running in other old pairs of shoes and they just feel crap and my legs feel battered after the most meagre of runs. I've tried a couple of other new shoes and found them quite lacking and had to send them back wondering what on earth they were thinking (Nike Invincible - huge clumpy heels, no feel for the ground; Brooks Hyperion Elite 2 - crippling and seams that chafed).
I've got my vaccine at 8:30 on Saturday which is about an hour before I would start my 16 so I'm planning to go long on Friday and try and squeeze an 8 in before the vaccine and hope I am okay on Sunday for the remaining 4 for the week.
Where is The Balloon - any progress?
My ex- had her injection a couple of hours after me and she was fine.
Apart from that I quite enjoyed the experience - there was a delightful 'Land Girls/Miss Marple' feel about the volunteers administering the injections at the place I went to - retired GPs and nurses brought in from the nicer bits of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. They were all so plummy, no-nonsense and upbeat. The lady that did me asked what I had planned for the rest of the day and I said I was off for a long walk; without missing a beat she said 'rather that than murdering your wife!'. Must have been the lockdown hair making me look like a man on the edge.
MrV - They'll be my next port of call once the returns from the others have been processed. I'm wondering if the money I'm saving on commuting means I can just afford to run in Next% all the time ...
Cheers
I've still got a an unused vaporfly 4% in the box upstairs, which I regretted the outlay on at the time as they then released next %, however, I have found using them for my long runs a great way to stave off that battered feel.
Confirmation this morning that my mara is definitely on.
Not sure what shoes he was wearing, they weren't Nike's, they looked like fairly 'standard' trainers but guess they may be another manufacturers Next% equivalent.
The women's race was pretty good too. Not sure about the pacemaker dragging the girl who finished 3rd all the way round.
Yes enjoyed women's race as well. Why did pacemaker keep going?
Re the shoes were they not blacked out Vaporflys?
I am curious as to why the elites seem to be favouring next % over alphafly.
https://www.on-running.com/en-gb/athletes/chris-thompson
Sure On Running are delighted.
No idea why the pacer kept going, I think he was supposed to drop out at 30k.
Just wondering if either of you went as far as 10k in your first race wearing them?
Cheers
I vaguely remember the bottom of my feet being uncomfortable because of the plates first time I ran in them so I'll go out for a 6*800m tomorrow evening as a light session - hopefully enough to get me used to the shoes and give me an idea of what pace I am capable of but not so much so I am still feeling it by Sunday.
4,4,8,4,16,8 vaccine, 0 - for 44 miles total (target was 48) - so my sequence of 65 days consecutive running ended as I spent the day in bed feeling really ropey - on the mend today though.
Skinny good mileage over the past weeks and the thought of a race must bring a smile to your face
What the plan this week DT.
Treated last week as a recovery week with 34mls, out tonight for some miles with my wife.
Hope everyone is ok
49m for me last week. 8m at mp Friday in full kit came out 6.29mm for 151 bpm.
Nothing major, Kevin. 5m recovery done this morning. 3 x 1m at mp tomorrow then 5 easy Wednesday and 2-3m FRiday.
Current forecast looks bang on for Saturday.
Decent week again, Skinny and not a bad thing that streak has ended. Didn't realise your race was this sunday. Race reports will be back with some force early next week then!!
34 miles is still a decent total, Kevin. Agreed, looking forward to seeing some race reports coming through!
Skinny - hope you're feeling better. Probably best the run streak has come to an end before it became a 'thing' (like my clubmate who wanted to run 5k every day for a week..he's now on day 3500 or something and worried that if he misses a day he'll never get going again). Still a good weekly total to help get you to base camp. Good luck with your session tomorrow evening.
Around 30 miles again for me last week. Yesterday's run was fairly eventful; my mate decided on Saturday that he was going to run a marathon and go for a PB (sub 3:30) the next day...off no specific training and a longest long run of 16 miles a few weeks before. I agreed to pace him for the second half to try and drag him along in the most difficult part. When I met him at his halfway point he was looking remarkably fresh and the first couple of miles flashed by. We then had a long drag up a disused railway line for the next five miles and he started finding things pretty hard going. However, when we turned round at about 20 miles, to come back down the cycle track, he got a bit of a second wind and whilst he was definitely hurting we were on target to come in at around 3:28/29. Until, we got to 24.8 miles, where he pulled over to one side, crouched down and was sick (a few times). I tried to encourage him to get going again but there was nothing I could do/say, he was done. A mighty fine effort off very little training and I'm convinced he'd easily break 3:30 in a real race on a flatter route, it is a bit gutting for him though!
PPS My 5k PB is 18:33 or 5:57 pace.
Are you a heel striker or a forefoot prancer ? I found cornering difficult when not on my toes and the heel touched down more.
However in the Alphas there is no way you can run effectively heel striking so I will run forefoot striking for as long as I can - hence my preference for my first rave to be 5k and not 10k.
But in my normal varying the strike runs I have been in my toes uphill (easy), heels downhill and mix it up on the flat depending how my calves are feeling.
Legs wise it felt relatively easy - I think there is no doubt that whilst these shoes may be legal (ie they comply with the rules) they give something back from the foot strike that you simply don’t get from all pairs of trainers prior to now.
In fact that last 800m that was the fastest I could easily have run the extra 0.12 to make it up to a 5k session (but that wasn’t the point).
unstable mainly to get you on the mid/forefoot. One of the findings of studies on the shoes was that they reduced the demands on the calves - so maybe trust yourself to manage it all forefoot ?