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DT, that's a cracking marathon pb and a great way to run it ( not sure about the long johns though, i think i'd rather forgo the performance enhancement !! ) Looks like you have a good few minutes to spare too
I've had a few pathetic attempts to get back some consistency which have resulted in me being anything but consistent. I'm actually run/walking at the moment with my most recent attempt ( started last week after 8 weeks off ) an intended interval session of 1M walk - 2M jog - 1M cool down ended up being 1M walk - 1M shuffle - 1M walk - 0.5M shuffle - 0.5M cool down.
Today i'm up to 5mins walk/10mins jog for 70mins which gets me 6+M total and 4M of jogging
In other news, i found out about a month ago that i'm going to be a GRANDAD !!!! in October. To be honest, i think i'm still in shock on that one
Hi Mace, good to hear from you and congrats on that news. You sound proper old now!!
Thanks, mara went to plan and beyond really.
You just need to persevere and get over that hard work period of running. It'll soon feel easy if you stick at it for a while more.
Tommy, that sounds like strenuous work! 25 laps of a track doesn't inspire me hugely, plus you'll know at all times how far ahead others up top are as they lap you.
Easy 14m on sunday then a 5m and spin yesterday. Off out for a session lunchtime. Sundays half with an 11.30 start looks like it could get pretty warm!
DT - yeah, that does put me off somewhat. I did a track 5,000m once and I was lapped twice by the front runner and that was a bit demoralising. Looking at results from previous years for the 10,000m, there front groups are running 31-32 mins, so I'd likely be lapped several times. I could go in the 'B' race I suppose but then I'd probably be at the very front when really I'd want to be dragged round to a quick time.
Just looking at my calendar and I've got 3 fell races booked in for June and hopefully a decent go at a parkrun somewhere. Fingers crossed this is a sign of a return to some sort of normality.
Haven't read back so don't even know what you've all been up to but congratulations mace - with great age comes the badges of great age - grandad mace - next time you do the VLM ;-) you'll have to have that on front of your vest.
I'd always thought that me and Mrs Skinny would have a few years of time just the two of us before grandkids arrive but the youngest has been at home doing her degree in the last year and one of the twins are making noises about having kids soon so that may never happen. We had the twins after we'd been married for just 5 months so perhaps a bit like It's A Wonderful Life some things are just never meant to happen and life moves you along as it wishes.
Anyway having not run for a month, last run 25th April, I decided I needed to do something to kick start my return to action so entered a 5 mile race last night.
The first mile and a half are largely downhill with miles 2 to 3.5 all uphill until a lumpy last mile and a half.
A first downhill mile of 6:08 and I knew I was in for a world of pain when I got to the hill. Pretty miserable experience and finished in 33:07 - slowest ever 5 mile race.
But running is a pretty honest sport - you get out what you put in. In my case I'd put nothing in for a month so it was to be expected.
Obviously any marathon ideas are now out of the window and might try a new 5k series through the summer, 4 races which start on 9th June then monthly after that. Can't imagine I'll be up to speed until the July one now but that would be okay.
Cheers everyone, Skinny.
PS @literatin - are we getting close to another thread baby?
Tommy, yes, life generally is beginning to feel much more normal this time around. I hope to grab something from the gp surgery a few days ago and actual patients were allowed to sit in the waiting room!
Skinny, good to hear from you. Shame life took control and brave move getting straight back in with a race. Marathon season is 20 odd weeks away. It'll take you 4 weeks to get going again so no reason to write it off if you can commit to the training in that remaining period?
Lit does have news, I saw on FB, though she might be too busy to tell us.
I had a 10k race last Thursday evening, running around an airfield in 20 plus MPH winds and driving rain. It was miserable and I was unable to do any real damage to my 10k but somehow held on for a 12s pb and 37.22 and according to PO10 a further improved wava.
I have a half marathon sunday and that too looks set to be impacted by weather, this time clear blue skies and 20c as it's an 11.30 start.
Well done - I'll update the TTT some point next week hopefully.
Good luck!
Fortunately found myself chasing down 4th place from about 7m so was engaged in a race when the going got tough at 10m. Couldn't quite catch him and he pulled away in last k.
I came in 5th in 78.18 on my watch for 5.54mm pace and only mile 13 (6.00) wasn't sun 6 pace. The last k (all markers were in k) went on and on. I went through 20k about 15m over distance on my watch and knew if that stayed around there sub 78 was on. I then ended up running 13.26m. There was a lot of moaning by folk post race about it.
I ran unofficial pbs at 5k (18.13) 5m (29.30), 10k (sub 37) and 10m (low 59s) during the race.
No official results up yet but I usually gain a couple seconds on them. Hoping to have grabbed first v40. I knew the 4th place guy and the winner were seniors.
I have a £70 bottle of champers a friend bought couple of months back as I helped them out with a load off free legal advice. I said I'll open it when I post a sub 80 half.....
Mr v, yes a bit surreal really as in my last 3 half's I've taken 5.20 off my time in 15 months. It all felt pretty stress free. I was expecting an edge of your seat scrape time but it was all a bit straightforward and I knew at 5m the effort/pace was sustainable and it was in bag.
I just need to get fit these other races in now.
'I came in 5th in 78.18 on my watch'
'Skinny, lit had a little boy last week.'
In two consecutive posts you have managed to point out two things I would have loved to have done (sub 1:20 HM and have a son) but have not managed and never will now.
I shall crawl into a corner and lick my wounds.
[I did manage to run just over 5 miles this lunchtime but it is very hot]
Skinny - I feel your HM pain. I fear my sub 80 ambitions will forever stand 1 second short. Good to see you logging some miles again, hopefully circumstances allow you to get back at it regularly in the near future.
In terms of my running my regular 40 miles a week goal has very much gone out of the window recently. In fact I've only reached that target in 1 of my last 5 training weeks. Partly due to other commitments but also a general lack of motivation.
I might enter one of the upcoming local 5k series races and see if getting a time on the board helps.
Mr v, yes it's all bizarre I know, this amount of time in at 45. The thing is several things changed at once. It's also worth noting things started going up before my injury in that in January and February I'd ran big 10k and half pbs.
Perhaps it's just the coach taking a bit of time to work out what my sweet spot was then when it was found, balanced in with the aerobic base I've established in 10 years, and with a proportionately large weight loss, it was a perfect storm scenario.
I've also improved my pacing hugely. If you look at Sunday my fastest splits were miles 7 and 8 at 5.48 and slowest was 13 at 6.01. Everything else was a second or two eitherside of 5.55. So no real shipping of time latterly. I've also been able to resolve my finish line roaring nonsense so can attack the end of a race based on what's left in the tank.
4m Monday morning at recovery pre travelling up here. Lots of walking today and hoping to grab a short run tomorrow afternoon.
Enjoy your week - you've got cracking weather for it after so much miserable stuff.
Skinny - opposite side of the coin here, 3 sons and no daughters so Mrs mace is absolutely delighted that we have a granddaughter on the way ..... as am I because she often says how nice it would be to have a girl .... dodged a bullet there, phew !!!
I’ve said before, but you seem a natural runner to me and if you remained injury free and hit the miles consistently I’m sure you’d be easily sub 1:20
DT’s 5:55/M over 13 miles is totally unfathomable to me now. Not been running since last week as I’ve been replacing a flat roof for my Dad over the bank holiday weekend which certainly made me realise how the body ( muscle particularly ) deteriorates as you get into your 50’s.
So no surprise that I’m plodding out 10 min miles now and 4 of those in a 70 min walk / jog feels enough. I do feel a lot better for it though and can feel the post-lockdown-return-to-work-next-size-up-trousers are starting to feel a bit looser with the exercise, manual work and more sensible diet 🤣
DT - superb! What an incredible improvement over the last 18 months or so, it's great to see your hard work and dedication to training paying off. Looks like all your other PB's are in for some serious realignment too.
Mr V - hopefully getting back to races again will help with the motivation, I've also found running with other people has given me more motivation to get out and get a few miles in.
Pete - good to hear from you, hope you're ok and getting the Km's in.
I managed about 30 miles again last week including a very hilly 10 mile out and back route with my club on the Tuesday. Thursday was the next of the Soar sessions which involved a pyramid of 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and then back down with 200m walk recoveries. Tough going in the middle section but felt pretty good all in all. I've just entered a 5K for 3 weeks time so a couple more weeks of 5K specific sessions and then have a go at a road race for the first time in over a year.
Bit of an easier week this week as I've got a few days off work and using it to catch up with a few people including Bob who's on holiday down here. Meeting up with him this afternoon for a few Coast Path miles and a recovery pint.
Congratulations Skinny on the impending grandpa-dom. Hope all runs smoothly and you train like a demon over the next few months just to elicit 'you? a grandfather !?' sort of exclamations.
I think I'd be happy with that for a 5 mile race when I do return.
Good luck with the easy week and the 5k prep Tommy. Hope Bob is keeping well.
I've not reported to thread as I've had a rough few weeks - ill child with conjunctivitis then his eye wouldn't reopen. Much to-ing and fro-ing to the eye hospital and a week off work ensued, with no running. Then a relative on the ex's side died and she had to disappear to take care of the funeral and estate so I've been combining solo parenting and work for the past three weeks to the detriment of running.
Decided last week to sneak out for a half hour run and came back with a sore Achilles which the next day was seriously painful. Had a week off then tried a test run with the same result, so going to need to lengthen my time out.
Mace, I was just mulling over how much the lack of gym work over the past year or so has left me feeling pretty feeble through the core and has no doubt caused extra loading on the achilles. Back to the gym then next week, with plenty of leg days.
Updated for DT running what is probably now a piss easy time for him to improve on of 37:22 in a 10k whilst also improving his WAVA.
Then massacring his HM time with a superb 78:18 which probably improves his WAVA too but not on Po10 yet so I ignored that.
Oh and Skinny got a year older. Yay me!
Congratulations Mace - and get training to confound expectations too.
Skinny, as Mace says, you've always struck me as someone who is capable of very good times off far less work than me. I wouldn't write it off just now. Thanks for the update. It gives me a sense of gratification having spent years watching muddy, lit, lou, Bob et al all have periods where they just turned up at races and run better and better whilst I stayed still. It's almost bizarre that the catalyst for this was my decision to follow that run very little programme.
Oh and I should note, I am a bit disappointed I didn't go 1.17. Whilst 1 18 is a time I thought impossible, as of Sunday, proper runners run 1.17 or faster in my head!
Po10 has now updated and its improved my wava by about 2.5% do heading nicely to 80%. Oh and my official time was 78.16, though I'm happy to let the 2s go for now....
Tommy, I've done that session before but taken it up to a 1200m peak then down. That 1k, 1200m , 1k is tough. Hope Bob is well?
Mace, I have to say being the father to one of each, both my wife and I will firmly agree that a female child is insanely more work than a male!
Mr v, I note you are 34. I'd just started tentatively running then. By that I mean I'd turned up at a 10k race. Your pedigree is proven. You could have 5 years off and still have more than adequate time to be sub 3, sub 80, whatever you wanted.
Busy couple of days, ullswater yesterday then Keswick today. Got back at 5pm and our accommodation host was chatting this morning and said he was a running with a local club (greyfriars?) And that they've had an informal parkrun going on for last 15 months as there's a village loop from most people's front doors that comes in at just over 3m so many do that Saturday morning. The route was straightforward so did a double lap tonight. It was basically uphill or downhill, but enjoyable enough to bridge the gap until I'm home Friday.
Muddy - bit of a gutter about your achillies, hope it clears up soon. Me and a group of friends have tentatively agreed to run the Hull HM next year (the one organised by run for all), I know you've done a good few races there, do you know if it's a PB course?
Was great to catch up with Bob yesterday, he took me on a hilly 6 miler on the coast path inc some very steep climbs and over some very nice beaches and then a pint at the village pub to recover.
In my efforts to race myself back to fitness I'm doing a 5k on Wednesday which is the first of a series of 4 ending in September. I'll be lucky to break 20 mins this week (although I expect to) but it's a good route so hoping to be sub 19 by the September outing.
I would imagine your 5k in a couple of weeks time will be a much sharper effort Tommy and hopefully will reflect the specific training block you've dedicated to it.
Tommy, that sounds nice, re the meet up with Bob.
Skinny, good luck in the 5k, as you say it'll be a decent month on month gauge of progress and a target time to beat each time.
I managed runs on Wednesday and Thursday in the lakes on a 6m loop I found, with Thursdays being run at a decent tempo effort. Got back Friday evening then did a 5m run Saturday.
Yesterday was the cotswold hilly 100. Its organised by Stratford AC and is 10 legs of about 10m each but all but leg 1 are horribly hilly, and leg 1's lack of hills is offset by a 7am start (unless you like that time of day!). I was on leg 9 of our men's team (we also had a mixed team). My leg was 9.75m and I felt I could go sub 60. With a 3.50pm Start though it was warm and sunny and the first half is tough with much of the climbing of the leg in first 4m then mile 5 is about 400ft of downhill so almost too aggressively downhill to be useful.
Due to the nature of the event this was a complete solitary TT and with the team not in top 3 and no specific personal pb such as a 10m to chase I found it hard to suffer second half.
I think I got my pacing wrong and by mile 3 I was blowing and drenched in sweat. I possibly detrimentally affected the last few miles which were gently downhill. Miles were 6.00, 6.12, 7.14, 6.40, 5.26, 6.06, 5.58, 6.15, 6.12 and 6.17, coming in at 60.43 for 6.13mm.
I think I was our clubs 2nd fastest on day with our fastest being the flattish leg 1 and I was 2nd or 3rd on my leg looking on strava. Disappointed to not be sub 60, but coming off last weeks half then a holiday and on a warmish, sunny day, I'll take it.
That's 3 races in succession so time now to pull that back and get a good block of training in now before my improbable lanzarote holiday end of July. Next up is a 20m race on Bedford Autodrome, though I may well sneak a parkrun between now and then if they get going.
I got asked at the end of last week by my new club if I fancied turning out for a 1500m in a local league race, I was bit hesitant given my lack of racing and not wanting to be totally embarrassed by being lapped and finishing last. However, a bit of stalking of previous results suggested that if I could manage 5:15 I'd be about mid-pack, 5:15 seemed manageable so decided to give it a go.
I was a bag of nerves before I got there; first race in 15 months, first race for new club, a track race with all their rules and the likelihood of being schooled by a load of teenagers. However, once I got to the track and got my number and started warming up, it soon felt pretty normal. Did a mile or so warm up on the road and then a few more strides on the back straight whilst waiting for the 100m events to conclude. Officious track dude called us all over and there was too many of us to run it as one race so the U17 and U20 whippets were put into another race, thankfully!
Bit of a chat with a fella who's aiming to break 6 minutes, so hopefully I won't be last. We then get called to the start line, bit of messing around as the bloke next to me has 0.5mm of his trainer touching the line so he has to edge back a bit, next thing somebody false starts(?!) and so we have to line up again. Finally get going and the first lap and three quarters are a bit of a blur, what I do remember is being up with the lead pack for 200m or so and then being booted out the back door and being completely isolated as the 3 others in the race were quite someway behind me. With 800m to go and I was gaining on a bloke in purple, I reeled him in and made a move to go past him just as we get to the bell. He had a glance over and just put his foot down and buggered off up the track. Felt like I was massively slowing on the last lap and started to fear being overtaken by the 3 behind. Over the line and not paying attention to the clock, stopped my watch and delighted to see 5:02. Pretty chuffed with that off no specific middle distance training and probably some wild pacing. Reckon I could knock a good chunk off that if I get the chance to have another go.
DT - sound like a pretty tough race and looks like you fared very well against the others on your leg. Did your club get any prizes?
Tommy, very good return to racing. Are you completely finished with HP now? Out of interest would you have beaten any of the younger guys had you all been in one race?
Nope, no prizes for us, which knowing that at stage 9 made it all the harder to suffer! I did bump into McF however whilst waiting to start my leg. I think her club had about 45 teams!!
Just been out for a 4m recovery. Spin later.
Results for yesterday aren't out but I watched the younger lads race and the front 3-4 were having a right old tear up and I think the winning time in that race was somewhat quicker than our race; however there was a few stragglers in that race so I may have been ok.
Shame about not being in for the prizes but sounds like a good club event in any case.