Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    SG - Decent reps there - you do need to keep the pace up with those disgustingly long recoveries ;)

    SQ - What race is it? The Wrexham one?
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    Certainly do. I was averaging 2 secs slower with the more usual 1mins.
    A guy locally seems to do his off about 36secs which I don't get, unless he's trying to do rep & recovery per each 2mins?

    There's an even sillier session soon, 5x400 at 800 pace (!) Not sure it's even possible, but you get up to 3mins I think :)
  • Stevie G said:
     glorious long down to finish :)

    Have done this the other way round, up a steep hill early doors, but it's much more enjoyable this normal way round.
    I looked at our route and I wouldn't say either way has a glorious long down. Down Treadaway Hill (map says it is Swains Lane but that is wrong) is just steep down. You want a short, sharp uphill and then a long gentle downhill. Try up  going up Clappins Lane and then down via Pink And Lily
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    Top knockings for obscure references that no-one outside of the very local area could hope to know (I had to look up Clappins Lane (!) and see it was miles away  :cold_sweat:

    6&4 today. Woods in the second one.

    Shortest of all the track sessions tomorrow, plan sesh #8, the 6x300m off 2-3mins - normally do 2.30. 
    Full beans job - 800m zone.

    Had a scroll through RB fixtures, and looks like stuff is opening up at a decent rate.
    The Sri Chimnoy Battersea Park races look a close to full schedule from mid June - 5x5k and 2x10k, over the summer.

    The 3x1mile relay seems to have disappeared, which is a shame, but maybe they judge that as more of a risk for some reason, despite there not actually being a physical "handover" as such. 
    Don't see why they can't either 1) stagger it like they will do the earlier June ones, or hold it post June 21st when presumably it can go back to all in races?
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    As luck would have it, I knew Clappins Lane, having cycled up there a few weeks back, my Garmin wouldn't upload the route to I'd memorised the key turnings!

    Easy run this morning and a lunch swim, lovely day, wish I was single for the evening so I could get out on the bike tonight.
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    What's all this talk about Clappins Lane then? A good alternative to Coombe Lane for getting up to Lacey Green, and a nice quick downhill, but pretty mediocre apart from that :smile:

    More biking and walks for me. Tried a 4M run on Tuesday, which was actually fine with nowt more than a mild discomfort - until sat at the desk afterwards, when it became painful again! I've been trying to mix in some stretches, a bit of loaded stuff - including the running squats thing Jools.  Not managed to get to a physio yet - too much other stuff going on given my roles as breadwinner, cook, cleaner, taxi-driver, bottle washer and general dogs-body at the mo!!!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    A few things going on then Bus :) Keeps you busy.
    Hopefully that tight hamstring can bore off, so you can at least entertain yourself with getting to one of these little distanced races. Found a race in either May/June tyhat'd be just up your street, but I'll save the details for elsewhere/elsewhen as you don't wanna be hearing about that right now.


    6 for me this morn.
    The quite unusual session of 6x300m, off 2mins 30! Can actually take 3mins if needs be!

    A very strange session, as it's one of the few where I can feel it's my leg power that is the reducing factor, not the breathing!
    Also strange as it doesn't particularly feel old school / younger days footy flat out sprint type stuff, but you can feel the legs just about holding on late on, although the back straight wind didn't exactly help :)

    No roundings, as it's all on how quick your hand / eye co-ordination is to take the splits, so
    1x51xx, 4x52xx, and 1 that snuck into the 54xx narrowly.

    Quite a lightish romp this one, but it's meant to be 800 intensity, so you're not going to be booting miles out at that.
    Was glad it wasn't a longer session, as with a few key roads closed, and loads of road works, I just about scraped home for 9 anyway!
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    Clappins lane is an obvious route for me to head back south of the M40 via West Wycombe so I've been that way a few times, although Radnage is my preferred choice. Got my gravel bike this week so that should open up more options with the ability to head onto tracks too.

    Sounds like some progress there Bus. Only one short run so far this week so I might end up running three days on the trot, well the last one will probably be the trot.

    Having started back swimming, it's amazing how it steals the opportunity to fit a run in from my week.


  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    Progress of sorts Reg, though the pain later on confirms running is still not an option other than very short and flat. 

    I  much prefer my gravel bike for general rides as the riding position is more relaxed and the fatter tyres help with rough roads. I do occasionally add a bit of gravel track or bridleway, but the limiting factor for this is largely tyre pressure, as what is good for road rolling is not so great for bumpy hard pack! Of course mud and anything technically would probably need a decent off road tyre too. 

    Out on the bike later as off work today 😎
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Bus - Really think sitting is the killer. I need to buy a fancy chair for the office.

    Good reps SG. We did a great session last night at Luton, 5 sets of 400,300,200 - 2 mins between sets and 60 between reps. Good crowd down there too. I think the 400's were 71,69,67,67,66, 300's around 48's and the 200's 33's with a 30 to finish.

    Feel like going in the right direction now. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    You've certainly got some power to be putting in those paces.

    I remember a Dasher a year or 2 optimistically encouraging people to the 1mile event the club put on, and saying you can beat people at that distance that you wouldn't beat elsewhere.

    The usual situation is that the people you lose to, you lose to across the board! Unless you're some green kid who can get by smashing an experienced runner on the very short reps.
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Yes that's probably a fair comment. Its the brilliant marathon runners that are those that are sometimes lacking in a bit of pace...
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Usual lazy Saturday today. Just watching some games. Wycombe pretty much sealed a swift relegation to the 3rd tier, but lasted until what will only be confirmed in the 45th out of 4 games, so much better than most thought.

    Good luck to the Berkeley marathon (singular) runners tomorrow ;)
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    See Sam Amend just broke the women's British 100M record?  Impressive stuff (cue all the "oh, ultras are for those who can't run quick comments then :wink:). 

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I always thought it was odds on she could make a top ultra runner, as she was already posting marathons in the top 10-12 or so of the rankings and has that skill of not losing loads when distance is added.

    I can't relate to something like a 100miler, as 8.44 (i think?) a mile on the track clearly sounds very comfy, but then you just can't imagine carrying on for hour after hour round a track at it. I also remember how shell like I felt after 30miles in 24hours split in mere 5milers.

    Some Ukrainian geezer went one better and took the world record too.
    Presumably for a distance like 100miles it's all in, as the previous one was on a treadmill. As opposed to treadmill/track/road all counting differently?

    No idea, it's interesting hearing about it on a podcast I listen to, albeit distances and events I don't ever envisage doing myself.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Something more normal from me then., usual 13miler.

    Fairly dull route, but I was comfy with that. Only "Interesting" bit was sortie up a diagonal hill through a crop field out of West Wycombe road, and along the bank, and back.

    Tightened up a little for the last 3miles, but all in at 7.19 for a 62mile week.
    Will get the stretching up a bit, as have gone a fair while with only minimal stuff, but probably 2 short sharp track sessions tightened things up a little.
  • JooliganJooligan ✭✭✭
    edited April 2021
    Shepperdine Marathon race/TT report.
    Arrived at 8:30 thinking that was plenty early enough for a 9:18 start but as I made my way to the ample parking I realised I’d be queuing for numbers & toilets for most of that 😆
    Fortunately the full & half had separate queues for registration so I just had enough time for a few hip looseners & my lunge matrix. Toilet took a bit longer but I was well wrapped up & used the time to pin my number on before arriving at the front just as things were getting a little more urgent 😂
    Back to the car to drop off the extra layers, pick up my bottle of Maurten 320 & complete the dynamic stretches. Crossed paths with SQ who was en route to the start so we wished each other well.
    Jogged the 3/4 of a mile to the start & was set off almost immediately. It was a TT format with approximately 10s between runners. This meant it was a solo run from the off. I started straight into the wind for 1/2 a mile which was 3:38 but then turned slightly which provided some shelter. The pace increased to hover around 7 & I went through 5M in 35:10. This was consistent with my A goal but with the worst of the wind likely to be in the final third I was happy to stay at that for now & suck up the damage later.
    After 5.5M we started the first (of 3) 5.1M loops. The wind was fine until at 9.2M in we turned into a wall of it. It was strong enough that my feet didn’t know how they were going to land so each stride was painful! I resolved not to fight it & accept the inevitable damage. Through 10M in 70:26 but with another 0.6M of headwind I lost a few more seconds. I knew it wouldn’t last though & once we turned the side wind was mitigating the damage being wrought by the relentless sun. The pace picked back up to 7s & all was fine til the return of the wind at 14.3M. I instantly slowed but remained calm knowing that in under a mile and a half I’d be out of it again. 15M in 1:46:06.
    Round 3 & I could feel the effort increasing just to maintain pace but tried to stay relaxed. I was lapped by about half a dozen chaps - though the guy in 4th came back to me within half a mile as his calf went. Turning into the wind for the final time was horrendous: it felt stronger than ever but once again I was determined not to fight it. 20M in 2:22:02. I finished my bottle of Maurten & took my only gel to see me through the final 10K. Unfortunately the return leg was also into the wind on & off so I started to slow significantly. My legs were fatiguing too & then at 22M I felt sick which forced me into a brief walk. This was disastrous though as the remaining 4M became a stop start walk/shuffle though I did manage to pick it up slightly in the final mile to finish in a disappointing 3:24:44 😒
    Great to see folks afterwards but very strange not knowing how anyone has done. 
    Burger washed down with a Proper Job in the sun once I got home 😎
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    That sounds a miserable world of pain there Jools! Well battled out. I cannot imagine a long race in this distanced format, let alone on a wind tunnel event.

    I expect the experienced marathoners are thinking, nope that's your standard marathon :)

    I can get a real feeling of the struggle from your precision of where the wind kicked in :D 
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Don't be disappointed Jools - that's a bloody solid time for a solo TT with the wind we had today! It was bad enough on a short bike ride, so must have been a nightmare in a marathon!  That Proper Job was well-earned. Hopefully it wasn't lonely :smiley:

    Decent long run SG - standard :wink:

    Bike early doors today as I had to take my son to a rugby match rather inconveniently straddling most of the middle of the day! The wind hit me on the flat section from Maidenhead back to Cookham and I was actually relieved when some bloke overtook me and I could tuck in behind him for a breather - amazing that my struggle to hit 17mph suddenly became an easy 23mph :smiley:   The pleasantness was short-lived when some muppet in a white van decide he had to get past shooting between me and handy-bloke and two cyclist coming the other way, nearly wiping all four of us out, only to get stuck in a queue about half a mile on!  Didn't quite mange to tell him my thoughts, as I had to turn off over Winter HIll.

    In other news, I actually managed a 3rd run today to hit double figures for the week! Not counting my chickens yet, but fingers crossed for a corner turned..

    Total for the week then 135M:  21M walk, 102M bike, 12M run

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Yep, just to ditto Bus, it was enough of a hassle dealing with wind up on a ridge of a field for half a mile or so today, let alone in racing mode for long stretches of a 26.2miler :)

    Couple more weeks of that Bus, and you can join me for a turnout somewhere. Just to get something on the grid :)

  • JooliganJooligan ✭✭✭
    Decent biking Bus.
    It was the cyclists rather than the motorists who were in danger of taking us out today. Not sure what possesses groups of 5 or 6 to go full tilt round a closed loop the opposite way to an obvious running race!
    Having pored over the results, Strava & Po10 (over a St Peter’s Organic Pale Ale) it appears I was far from alone in suffering ignominiously. Couple of club mates who’ve trained for 2:35 both came up 20 minutes short & the MV50 winner ran 2:50 when he’s done 2:42 the last couple of years. Another chap ran 3:05 in his personalised 2:59 Clown Shoes 😂  
    Hadn’t really considered the sun’s heat, which seemed to feature quite a bit in the Strava excuses, but I do appear to be mildly sunburnt 😆
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Wind AND sun is a sod's law combo for sure.

    Hopefully things are all on track for stuff continuing to open up. I see more races being scheduled in week by week.

    I ran past a massive carboot sale and wondered how that would work, as the nature of those is people getting amongst it, and rummaging through tat, getting their grizzled fivers and loose coins out. :D 
  • JooliganJooligan ✭✭✭
    Correction the MV50 winner ran 2:55 (not 2:50 as I wrote) so 2M slower which is about how far out I was.
  • Odd thing:

    Reading twitter I see

    Police searching for runner who assaulted pedestrian in High Wycombe

    so I follow the link and it goes to a runnersworld link

    https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a36228295/runner-assaulted-pedestrian-high-wycombe/

    and the more details onthat takes you to

    https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2021/april/19-04-2021/e-fit-image-released-in-connection-with-gbh-incident--high-wycombe

    which says "brown laced up boots"

    Since when do runners wear boots? Sounds more like your regular no good doer up to mischief and running away. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I notice you didn't query the colour.

    I dare say many runners have ended up with brown footwear for different reasons  :* 


    I always thought being a runner sounded like the perfect alibi in some ways. Firstly turning up in areas that might be a bit weird for others to pop up in, and obviously less suspicion when seen running away than someone in full normal clothing!
  • SorequadsSorequads ✭✭✭

    SC that is so good that you are getting bigger numbers for your rapid track sessions.

    Good effort on another 100k week, SG. Enjoyed the bit of facebook banter!

    Great to see you, Jools. Interesting analysis of the results as well.

    Sounds very positive, Bus. As for the van driver – you need to summon your inner Reg.


  • SorequadsSorequads ✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    Long and self-indulgent report below. Do skip to the bottom for a TL;DR, or get a coffee!

    Shepperdine Marathon race report

    Having built back from last Autumn’s stress fracture, I initially entered the half. However, after getting in a few longer buggy runs, I decided to roll the dace and transfer up to the marathon. So a much shorter than usual build, with only three 20M+ runs. The target was clear: renew membership to the sub-3 club.

    Taper week went well with some easy running, healthy eating and a spot of visualisation. Standard lack of sleep the night before the race, but nothing unusual on that front. I woke up feeling excited to be racing again, and looking forward to seeing a few clubmates, as well as Jools. The weather was bright sun, 7 – 15C, and a 14mph wind from the NE (more of which later).

    Parking dramas were avoided, and I seemed to time it nicely to just miss the build up of toilet queues. Managed to find 15 minutes or so to walk away from the concrete jungle of the car park, power station and surrounding businesses, and find a quiet nature path out towards the estuary. A good time to focus on my breathing, take it all in and think about what lay ahead. Genuinely excited.

    Great to see Jools as I headed towards the start line. He had his club vest and number on, but about three long layers beneath as well as gloves. Surely he wasn’t going to race like this?! Lovely to catch up with him and wish each other well.

    We had received our individual start times, with a 10s gap between each runner. I arrived towards the start a few minutes early, expecting to soak up the atmosphere and check things out. But when I got there, the initial marshal said it was fine to start whenever you wanted. I probably should have taken a moment to compose myself, check shoe laces, final pee etc, but I blundered on to the final marshal. There was no timing mat, rather a barcode scanner gun. He did this, and then said: ‘go on, clock is ticking’! I started my watch what must have been a few seconds after the scanner and cracked on, hoping this wouldn’t come back to haunt me.

    It looked like a large tailwind for the initial 5M five out, then obviously varied for the 3 x 5M loops, before a headwind on the return. Knowing this, I settled into what felt a sensible effort, seeing a 6:30 – 6:40 on the watch. Interestingly, there were no mile markers until the return leg – 21M onwards.

    The scenery was lovely. Very peaceful and quiet country lanes, barely a bump in the road to contend with. I overtook a few of the extra early starters – those who had indicated they might be 5h+. I found myself being overtaken every now and again as a sub-2:45 runner came past, having actually set off at the allotted time. Whilst it is usually dispiriting to be overtaken in a race, though this wasn’t the case as it kind of made sense. Nice to share a few chats along the way as well. Race day magic is weird – no way it could run 6:30s and chat in training! This said, I think I ran 95% entirely solo, albeit with faster or slower runners usually in sight.

    Took my first ever Maurten gel at mile 5. Obviously, this was a bit of a risk, especially as numerous people had said how important it is to try them first. Enjoyed the jelly-like consistency, and being able to control the speed of consumption. The four gels I took went down well, with no obvious distress from the two caffeine (100mg) ones.  I try to do a little systems check every five miles – thinking through each body part to see what might be hurting, aching, feeling good etc. If nothing else, it offers a little target to aim for and a distraction for half a mile or so.

    It was at about 9M, so towards the end of the first loop, that the headwind suddenly struck. You turned a corner (where a clubmate was giving great support) and boom – smacked in the face with wind. This led to a tough mile and a half until turning to start the next loop. At least it seemed as though only a third of each lap had a tough wind to it. I quite enjoyed the laps, looking forward to passing the same farm each time, knowing what was around the corner, and dodgy footing etc.

    I went through half way on my watch in 1:27 and change. Going well! From mile 17M I could hear a runner I had earlier passed, who had said he was deliberately running a negative split, coming up from behind. His breathing was laboured, but I did all I could to work with him and encourage him, sharing turns into the wind for a couple of miles. At 52, breaking sub 3 was his lifetime goal. Given we were averaging 6:40s on my watch, I thought this should, just, be in the bag for him. Although I thought it a little strange this his mile splits seemed to occur a long time after mine.

    With the wind for the final section of the final loop, it was a tough ask to then go into the 5M headwind on the return leg. This was also the first official mile marker – 21. OMFG my watch was half a mile ahead of itself! The maths I had been doing about the final 10k in 45 minutes etc, was suddenly out the window. This was going to be tight!

    I tried really hard to just focus on one mile at a time from here. My GPS was saying about 6:55 for each mile, but manually lapping it with the markers showed about 10s slower. So this represented a suitable speed decline given the wind and heat. I started overtaking a few at this point. Mostly those walking, having jacked it in. One guy even had his Alphas in his hands. But also a couple who had slowed but were managing still to run.

    It was going to be so close for the sub three. At 25M, we turned for the final time, and fortunately got a break from the wind. Hot enough to be actively seeking shade at this point, and also overtaking the slower half runners, a little bit of weaving was required. My breathing was laboured and it was getting bloody hard.

    At 26M, my left knee suddenly seemed to stop working and it became very hard to left the leg properly. A sub 7m/m limp required to the end! Into the grounds of the power station, around a roundabout and a final straight to the finish gantry. A glance down revealed I have twenty seconds for roughly the final 60m. Bloody hell this was agony! Pulled some big gurns and some guttural groans and powered through, stopping my watch on 2:59:57. Christ I hoped I hadn’t ballsed this up!

    Cracking t shirt and unique ceramic medal. I am usually pretty anti medal, but this seems like a good one. Perhaps it is more special given the circumstances, but definitely a keeper.

    A lovely afternoon in the park and pub with the kids, before getting the provisional results through that evening. 2:59:55 – thank god!

    A really satisfying day. Lovely to race, see other people and just put it all out there. On strava, it looks as though I went out too hard and banked loads of time early on. Kind of true – but I actually think it was a fairly even spread of effort given the tough headwind on the return. Almost everyone I know seemed to find it a very tough day, with, sadly, most falling off their targets. So to get the sub-three in these circumstances, with added watch dramas, feels quite special. Ten minutes off a PB, but it is all about your current stage of life and fitness. Tired and sore today, but feeling really positive. Love running!


  • SQ, what more can you hope for: you set out to bag sub-3 and you come home with 5 seconds to spare! Solo marathons will always be hard: I've done a few "thin at the front" myself and they are way harder than London when you can sit back and enjoy the ride for 20 miles. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Top stuff SQ, great to read a long(ish) race report, that I haven't written :)

    And you get to live our your username! Something I'll never get to do unless I fancy battering a DJ (allegedly), or taking 100s of glory pot shots from miles out and then falling over and costing my team a title down the local park.

    Saw your time and thought that was either exceptionally timed, or a super stressy finish. Seems like it was both :)

    Like I said to Jools, I can't imagine a windfest solo race of that length. And even less so when it wasn't that long ago you were grateful to be boobing 9min miling for half a mile post injury. Got to celebrate these moments.

    Got to enjoy those medals too. Get yourself a folder for race numbers too. Both are great to look back on :)


  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Chapeau SQ! A quality result and off the back of decidedly less than perfect preparation! The lack of mile markers for the first 20M seems a bit of an oversight by the RO and you did massively well to keep it just the right side of 3 given what your GPS was telling you!  Cracking report too (though shame the parking was so straightforward :smile:)
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