Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Ah, results are out and pleased not to be rounded up, so 17:37 it is. 36th place.

    Only 139 there which I suppose isn't surprising with mad conditions to get there.

    Good to see they've got Pete in there properly too. 18.45 for 55th, but more importantly a V50 1st place :)

    I think you can contact them to get a prize sent for that?
     
    That's a kudos situation at this race as you get some pretty fast people there.
    Take these when they come, as there was a 49 year old who did 16.31  :p

    I have to wait for another race to get a new placing in a V40 category, as this series for some reason class a vet as a 50 year old!
  • Great report SG, glad you run way faster than you type! Day off work and the last entry goes in at 3:26pm!
  • Stevie G said:


    I have to wait for another race to get a new placing in a V40 category, as this series for some reason class a vet as a 50 year old!
    PowerOf10 gives you a V40 result, so you are 5th V40 (needed to beat 16:32 for first) and now stand at 266th on the V40 ranking for 2021! The top V40 for 2021 is a stupid 14:29! In the same race, another V40 ran 14:31. Imagine running 14:31 as a V40 and coming second in your age group!

    Not too far off the 14:10 all-time V40 UK record. 

    There is nothing easy about the V40 age group. Yes, you get to race people who are 49 (though often it is now 40-44) but those 39 years olds come up and they are not shabby at all.
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Good result SG- I'll have to see who the 49 year old is. Mick Hill V45 did 14.40 at Antrim.

    Edit - Simon Egan. Yeah seems to have stepped it up over the 5k recently. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Some very fast people out there for sure, deep into vet years.

    People keep reminding me of that, but for starters the "pot hunt" talk is half in jest, and I understand more than anyone I'm not getting anywhere near it in any vaguely competitive races :D 
    Very much talking about the cock n biscuits level fare, the sort of stuff I'd come top 10 in the open anyway etc.

    Feels a weird year to say the least. All the usual benchmarks of types of training and races aimed for are totally off. 
    For instance you'd normally train long over the winter, do a half, then drop down to either a 10miler, or a 5m/10k, then drop down again to the 5ks, putting the speed on top of the mileage fitness.
    Instead it's been a case of sort of press on doing a kind of maintenance mileage with sessions, and just grab the 5k racing opportunities as an easier way in.

    8miles today, midday sun over in Marlow.
    Sort of felt hard enough, without it actually being that hard, if that makes sense. 
    Some slow offroad bits swerving for people/kid's groups out on the river and little bridges etc. But 7.26 all in.

    Bit tired this week, I suppose not surprisingly with the race and late nights Sun & Mon, and weird week off where I'm up late, and sleeping til 9, but getting out 12 is a bit all over the place in fairness.
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Good work SG - that's much faster than any 5k I did as a V40!

    The trick with V40 rankings is to actually race a 20M race (everyone else is doing them at marathon pace!). Gave me UK 28th in 2011 :smiley:
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Sorry - good work Pete as well! Cracking time and proves warm ups are overrated, even for us old guys!!!
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    The Bus said:
    Good work SG - that's much faster than any 5k I did as a V40!

    The trick with V40 rankings is to actually race a 20M race (everyone else is doing them at marathon pace!). Gave me UK 28th in 2011 :smiley:
    ....Or do track racing. Definitely avoid 10k-Marathon if possible as the old buggers have got lots of stamina!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    It's not about the distance, it's about the level of race.

    If you go and do the Eastleigh 10k, chances are you're not coming 1st vet :D 
    Go and do some local level MT 10K and chances are you'll come fairly high up.

    7miler today, and a haircut.
    I'm not sure what age the latter became something to mention, but with lockdown/non working in an office, i let it go. Well, as much as you can let it go over a certain age :)
    11weeks this time, and nicely "tidy".
    Also a change from younger years when it was a "cool" haircut or something.

    Now it's just "do it short" 
    :)
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    I was watching Clarkson's Farm and the young farmer kid was wisely getting every possible hairstyle whilst he still had a full head of hair. Hairstyles are definitely a thing of the past for me and I just do it myself now, doesn't seem to look any worse  :D 

    Inspired by Pete, I cycled over the Windsor Great Park today, never been through there before weirdly, apart from one group ride and the half marathon.

  • PeteMPeteM ✭✭✭
    Reg; good to see you made it to WGP on the bike but (based on Strava) you only seem to have scratched the surface of it. Best loop by far for cycling is this one (around 8 miles or 13k). Does have a road section of about a mile between the two gates but that's quite a nice bit too alongside the park itself. You could also omit this bit and set off back from Ascot gate. If you try it, make sure you do it this way round as the speed bumps on the steep part will be annoying if you go the other way. I often do a couple of circuits which with the short bits from home to Blacknest gate and back make it nearly 40k for me.

    https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1622409?units=km
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Joe’s latest bike trip is truly an epic!

    More brambles and nettles for me later…
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    Thanks Pete, that will be useful, although the real reason for my brief foray was that I needed to get back to get the girls to school so took what I thought would be the quickest way back out again. Will need to leave the house at 5am to do it all!
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    oh, and I have also been cutting my own hair since lockdown and, like Reg, can’t see any difference (at least not the bits I can see!)
  • SCoombes2 said:
    ....Or do track racing. 
    My best on po10 is 18th for a track 10,000m and then 22 for a 20 miler so good advice from both Bus and SC.

    The Bus said:

    More brambles and nettles for me later…
    Got my share already. No justice, I was trying to be nice to a man towing a portable toilet up Winchbottom and stood with my back to the hedge so he could squeeze past and only after I was in did I realise backed into a stack of nettles. Arms still tingling 9 hours later!

    If only we knew some big wig in highways!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I'm sure I remember Stevie See getting a medal in a county championship race, and also Gaz locally in Wycombe.
    Where there were 2-3 people in the race, or in the category at least.

    I know that's probably quite frequent for say FV60 or MV70 etc, but it's a little bit flimsy
    (Unless I do it, then it's magnificent ;) )
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    SCoombes2 said:
    ....Or do track racing. 
    My best on po10 is 18th for a track 10,000m and then 22 for a 20 miler so good advice from both Bus and SC.

    The Bus said:

    More brambles and nettles for me later…
    Got my share already. No justice, I was trying to be nice to a man towing a portable toilet up Winchbottom and stood with my back to the hedge so he could squeeze past and only after I was in did I realise backed into a stack of nettles. Arms still tingling 9 hours later!

    If only we knew some big wig in highways!
    For one moment, I thought the guy was literally pulling it along by hand. Didn't think I'd forgotten a road that narrow :D 
  • Stevie G said:


    People keep reminding me of that, but for starters the "pot hunt" talk is half in jest.
    So it is also half serious. No problem with that: part of the fun with running at a decent level is picking up a win from time to time and none of us will get the really big wins (Olympics, world champs, bona fide world records) so it is a matter of juggling to find the biggest win you can get. 

    The nicest thing is when you get an unexpected win. Some days you can appear at a race with a plan to go out hard and get a good time and part way in you start to look around and it starts to dawn that it may well be your day. 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    I think the perfect balance is some races where you're after a time - where ideally you want to be smothered with quality around you, and position is zero importance, and others that are lowly standard where you can be a big dog.

    I've had spells of heavily leaning on either approach, but now there's a bit more flex to do either.
    Would like to get in a couple more 12 stage/vets relays with the Dashers gang too.

    I've been with them 4 years now, and we've only managed 2x12 stage (with 1 national reached), and 1x masters, due to covid, snow and not getting a team together.

    I also like the idea of doing races in totally different bits of the country, where you're totally anon to everyone, and they are to you, so you race as it comes, rather than on any pre-existing thoughts of rivals etc.

    Always think it'd work well around a footy trip, but only panned out perfectly once.
    Podium 5k in Burnley on a Monday morning, Salford game 3pm, United game 8pm.

    Think it must have been a couple of stayovers round it too.
  • Stevie G said:
    I also like the idea of doing races in totally different bits of the country, where you're totally anon to everyone, and they are to you, so you race as it comes, rather than on any pre-existing thoughts of rivals etc.

    Yes, I love that. I've been lucky and work has taken me to large parts of the globe and I always have running kit with me and it is great fun to roll up at the start of a race and have no idea what the outcome will be. 

    Some of it has fitted in around regular plans, so I used to be out on Long Island 3 or 4 times a year and the Long Island Road Runners Club has mid-week 5k races in the summer so I'd generally coincide with a race a year and get an entry in the results as Philip Jones England UK.

    Some of it was just lucky coincidence, so I finished work on Friday in New York and had to be in Seattle Monday morning, 2,900 miles and 3 hours west and could pick anywhere en-route for a weekend race. That time I ended up doing a 10k in Chicago and won my age group. Got a $100 voucher for a Chicago restaurant that I couldn't use but I have friends in the city who did. 
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Plenty of time for the old man trophies SG (and I can't tell you how old it makes me feel knowing you are a proper vet now!!!). My favourite was the now extinct Princes Risborough 10k in 2013 where I picked up the V45 prize just a couple of weeks after my b'day, without even knowing there was such a thing!  It was a baking hot day, as often the case for the this race, and Greggs/Olympic legend Cooray won by a country mile!

    I did have to stop and think about the portaloo thing - for a moment I just thought it was a VERY prepared walker!

    And luckily for me (or unluckily possibly) ROW is oddly elsewhere!

    Oddly, I've never raced outside of the UK. Weren't you the US parkrun no.1 for a time Philip?

    Some random bimblings from my son's rugby training ground tonight, with the planned route gone awry by having to loop back to the car park when I realised I'd forgotten to have anything to drink! Normally I'd have cracked on, but given how humid it was I thought better of it! Still, 7.4 hilly miles covered so another useful base fitness/fat-burning/brain switch-off achieved!
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Good stuff. I was lucky enough to win the Stevenage half one year - that was my biggest win and I think it was in the 74's. Not going to win a semi big race in that time these days.

    It's good to go for the smaller races now and again - but then it's the bigger races against faster runners where you tend to get the PB's etc..

    Only did about 4 miles yesterday, trying to get my legs ready for the 5k at MK tomorrow - which I feel isn't going to be nice. I'm off at 17.05, so the warmest part of the day. They are going for 78's - which is low 16's, which wold be great - but I feel it will be slower.

    Got a 9.2 mile relay leg Sunday morning. Going to be a busy one.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Sounds a demanding combo there Simon.

    I know some were caught out by the Dorney Lake races starting ludicrously at 1pm and 2pm this Sunday.

    I didn't have much desire to do the Wycombe 10k. If it wasn't in Wycombe I wouldn't have even looked at it for 10secs.
    But I wondered where the route was, so did some of it today.

    It has a 100+ feet climb over about 0.2miles which is a nice sapper 1/3rd in, but then has a slight increase further into the woods.
    I no doubt got the route wrong after this, but it's all offroad, untidy trail paths, and I can imagine at "race" pace in the heat/humidity it'd be a killer.
    (Bearing in mind i was doing this "easy" pace run at peak midday temperature and that was red hot, even carrying a water bottle, and having drunk one just before too)

    Thought i'd keep to a loose couple of miles out then back, and thought I couldn't go wrong when taking a bridal path, yet at one point it came up to some workmen, and they seemed insistent I take a right hand turn.

    Took the turn and the only footpath that way would have taken me right the other direction into the unknown.

    Therefore, I scaled a bank that vaguely looked like a path, ignoring what looked like 100s of plastic pucks broken up (presumably some toff clay pigeon shooting remnants?), and ended up in what I thought was pure no man's land amongst stingers/bushes etc.
    Had to retrace my steps and take a different trail back the right direction and eventually got where I needed to go.

    Tour of the footpaths near to Wycombe's ground, then eventually emerged on road and put an actual normal pace mile in to just about cover 7.5miles in 1hour dead, for 8min miling average.

    Looked on the map later, and no idea what the workmens' problem was, as that bridal path was a legit route and would have taken me where I needed eventually.
    More annoyingly, the "No man's land" bit was seemingly fairly close to an actual legit trail too, but definitely not easy to see at the time.

    I'll stick to roads #1212 times I've said that!


    Back in the car and that was the hardest bit, the heat was unbelievable, made the run feel comfortable in comparison.
    Peak Wycombe for traffic too. Over about a 1.5mile stretch, there was a guy in a van making a decently stacked road one way, a car transporter jamming up a massively busy road, numerous white van geezers making visibility and pace very slow further up, and another road closed.
    Ho hum!


  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    When I win a race I just think to myself, well nobody decent turned up but that was nice. My favourite win was the Hart triathlon as the prize was decent, albeit ultimately useless (1 year health club membership worth £500) which I sold to a club member for £150 which I then donated to the club coffers. I only did this to get some recognition about how generous I was but nobody ever said anything 😂
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    I remember Dai from Marlow Striders legendarily winning the Wokingham half, the spring of the year I first ran with them, having gone there as a "training run", and was wearing leggings and a warm top!

    "Only" just sub1hr 13 or something, the slowest winning time by far in the last 15 years or so, but what a claim to fame, winning that one.
    He was around 43/44 or so by then, but was a proper sharp runner at peak, probably more 1hr 06/07 sort of guy.

    Super humble too, as he won a European Masters 10k in Poland and just described it as "running abroad in an England top" :) 

    I'll personally always remember him telling me my 30miles a week of training maximum at that time, meant that I "hadn't even started training yet" :o 
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    ps very heroic of you there Reg, I'll say it if no-one else will!

  • SorequadsSorequads ✭✭✭

    Good effort at the 10k, Pete. And great stuff with a V50 W off that kind of warm up! 

    Pleased you got a race in on your big birthday, SG, in spite of the travelling. A good point about rarely racing (or running more generally) in the rain in a country renowned for lousy weather. 

    Wow, PMJ, that is some great work-based running there. I did blag Singapore parkrun whilst coaching on a school rugby tour, so can’t complain. Apparently the Singapore marathon was on at something silly like 4am on the day we were leaving on a 9am flight. Did consider it, but decided that was a step too far even by my obsessed standards 😆


    A fun few days back in Sussex, again lucking out with the weather. Highlights included 9M including 3 x 10 mins threshold (6:30 - 6:50ish) off two minutes jog, a ten mile explore along the wonderful Saltern’s Way trail, then a Mario Fraioli fartlek special around the marina today: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 minutes off equal recoveries, paces 5k-10k-tempo. 

    So nice to run somewhere different, especially with lots of stunning trails and traffic free routes. 

    Rearranged 5M race coming up on Wednesday. Think I might have raced this distance six or seven times and have never been over 30 minutes. With the predicted heat, it is going to take an almighty effort to maintain the record!

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    A foreign race seems a thrill, but I've always wondered if it sorts of messes up what would otherwise be best used as a holiday :)

    3 years in a row, in the work glory days we had a fully paid trip to Amsterdam, with a 5 a side tournament in Utrecht!
    Sounds ridiculous but actually happened and was superb.

    The only issue was getting up at about 4am, and basically playing at about 10am having done all that travel in between.
    Funnily enough we were all less than fresh in game 1!!

    I even went the year I had 2 weeks off for chicken pox just before, and in hindsight, probably shouldn't have gone to say the least! I remember feeling ruined about 30secs into a game.
    Still scored 2 though, so goodness knows what the standard was :D  

    Good luck on the race SQ.
    If that's your current threshold rep pace, you need to find a little pace to make 5miles sub 6 then :)
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Possibly trying to point you away from a nasty incident with a brush cutter SG?

    I'm just glad to hear that at least some effort is being made to get rid or the humongous growth this year (although they might be better off focusing on clearing rights of way used by cyclists, horse and pedestrians than for the odd bride to be in a matrimonial party passing though perhaps :wink:)

    Rather hot hilly off-roader (for a change!) tonight. Marginally better pace, but really just pleased I can do four runs in a row without having to take a week out currently!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The Bus said:
    Plenty of time for the old man trophies SG (and I can't tell you how old it makes me feel knowing you are a proper vet now!!!).
    This bit made me chuckle by the way.

    I've had the same recently seeing some of one of my old footy team turn 30, when they were all 16s to my 25/26!

    Still, can't knock still turning out in sport into middle age. Many, many people have long finished a long time before.
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