Mon 13th Sept - Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

Lyrics - Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

One of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists

Nice race, and long run, Hazel

2 already Emz? Must be about 2 years since I started posting on these threads then, think it was around the time he was born.

Hope it recovers soon Wabo

I'm just home from work so I'll see how I feel in the morning before I decide about today's run

Comments

  • Thought I'd do a bit of a race report before I went to bed.

    Washingbay Green Run half marathon on Saturday. Organised by a garlic football club in Tyrone, it had been repeatedly cancelled since March 2020, and we only were told a fortnight ago it was happening. Then a few days before, they moved the start time from 10:30 to 08:30 to allow the volunteers to attend the All Ireland final in Dublin (Tyrone vs Mayo). The alarm went off at 05:30 and I had a moment trying to decide if I really could be bothered doing this today or not, as I hadn't slept well, but I got myself out of bed. The entire route was on quiet, country roads, with very little traffic about. Dry, slightly cool standing about at the start but didn't take long to warm up. 

    I'd been fairly tired and lacking motivation since my last half 2 weeks ago, so I really didn't know how this one would go. I had vague ideas last week of maybe getting sub 90 if it went well, but on the day I thought 1:32-1:35 more likely. Set off about 7 minute miles, and felt fairly good initially. Only about 300 doing the half (we ran with the 10k race until 7k, then split off), so it was never crowded, and wasn't long until everyone was about 20m in front /behind everyone else.

    I knew I wouldn't be able to pick the pace up much, but decided I'd give myself until half way to decide what I'd do. A short, steep hill about 5 miles in probably was just enough to make me decide to take it easy. At half way I decided that I clearly wasn't getting a pb, and that my best option was simply to slow down and finish comfortably, making sure I would be able to train well this week. I'd sat fairly close to 7min/mile until half way, then dropped to 7:30. Though it was easier pace, I started to struggle a bit more, and found it tough. My quads were a bit sore, and I realised that I still wasn't fully recovered from my last half. It was a bit of a slog for the last few miles, dropped to 8min/mile for miles 11 and 12 that had a sight, gradual incline, then picked it up slightly for mile 13.

    1:36:40 - second fastest half I've done, so it was still a good result. Probably the biggest benefit was some practice suffering a bit, and just gritting the teeth and getting it done, when I'd rather have stopped. 2 others from the club were there too, and I met another GP I knew at the end, so had a wee chat before driving an hour home.

    Noticed afterwards that my right achilles (that had been annoying me slightly for 3 weeks) was completely fine. Very little stiffness later on, and the legs felt surprisingly good today on my recovery run. With hindsight, I think I made the right decision to ease off at half way - running around 1:32 wouldn't have achieved anything much other than tiring me out and probably decreasing the training I can do this week.

    My main aim currently is sub 90 in Manchester, and I think I'll manage it. I probably could have done it in Larne 2 weeks ago, but I was worried that I'd have blown up a bit late on if I started at 6:50 pace, so I started a bit conservatively, then had too much to make up late on - looking back afterwards I could have taken 4 seconds of per mile fairly comfortably I think, but I was still very happy with my time. It reassures me I don't need to do too much over the next few weeks, just much the same as I was doing in August, and I should be all set hopefully.

    Rambled on more than I thought I would there, hope its interesting to someone
  • Morning!

    Lyrics: not today

    Yesterday's were Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles

    I enjoyed the report, Chamolk! I would have thought sub 90 is certainly possible in Manchester!

    What: unsure as yet, but a run of some description

    Why: usually run with M76 on a Monday but he is away. 

    And it is wet. 
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • Lyrics nope..but also enjoyed the report chamolk. Loved the garlic! football club!
    Finally installed in Keswick...arrived mid morning but entry to cottage 5pm sonsprnt a bit of time at Keswick mountain festival...running and bike racing and a huge event...went to see friend of His who was exhibiting her artwork...mostly Scottish scenes and bothies and v beautiful work.
    Then went for a stroll and blackberry picking up Latrigg meeting many of the slower 3 peak racers...Latrigg catbells and Walla crag we believe. Would be tempted sometime.
    Arrived at house 5pm unloaded car up to 2nd floor flat to find only loo completely blocked. Spent next 3 hours on phone to letting agency being ignored from various numbers despite being told the problem had been reported twice on Friday...eventually found someone helpful who authorized calling emergency plumber so by 8pm all was sorted...at great expense! V stressful.
    Thomas arriving later today so just sorting logistics but probably a quiet day.
    Emz...how is he 2!! Happy birthday!
  • Skiddaw and Derwent water from Latrigg. The cottage is an accident...taken on Kerera.
  • Morning

    Have a good sleep chamolk.  Thanks for the report - enjoyed that!  Not sure about the garlic football club though... (good auto-correct). :D  Solid result in particular considering you weren't really motivated for it and good on the run analysis and adjustment.   

    That looks nice Els.  Very annoying about the loo - will you at

    M76 run without M76 Ale?  Can't believe I didn't get yesterday's lyrics, sang that so many times in the school choir (ok, some 30 years ago!)

    I was right on how old Lucas is then emzap.  Well done on your 12k!

    Are you in Cornwall now Wabo?

    What: recovery - around 4 miles probably
    Why: Monday and tough day yesterday, legs feel ok at the mo though.
    Last hard: yesterday
    Last rest: 30.03.20

    Lyrics: no

  • Panorama from Lattrigg yesterday

    Less good view (thick mist) from an unknown (to us) 2000' near Kirkby Lonsdale on Saturday.

    Picking up Thomas from Penrith some time this afternoon.
    Don't know today's lyrics.
  • I'll have to put that one down to sleepiness - it autocorrected to garlic and I thought I'd fixed it at the time, oops
  • Hiya
    Chamolk - sensible racing and good report, sub 90 nailed on I'd have thought
    Emz - Lucas is two? "they grow up so fast" - blink and you miss it...
    Ale - Nice mileage 
    OH/Els - glad you got the bathroom sorted, great photos as always
    Hazel - good running and racing

    Looks like I omitted yesterdays post : 16 trail miles with some local pals. All easy paced (9.20s)
    Today - 6 miles 
    Why - recovery
    last rest - 14/08
    last hard - Saturdays hills & Sundays trails
    lyric - don't think so
  • Afternoon!

    I think we all enjoyed the auto-correct, Chamolk
    My brother's wife is called Muriel...which corrects to Murder. Some would say appropriately. 

    What: just under half an hour, including pushing one km

    Why: see what hard felt like. And it wasn't very quick. Back to tracksters and two tops today: cool once it had stopped raining. 
    Hopefully do a M76 type "long" run tomorrow, Hazel!
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • Race report from me:

    Roggenberglauf - 9th round of the Jura Top Tour / 10 races (3 cancelled in 2021): 10.2k, 500 metres of ascent, approx 100m descent.

    I last ran this race in 2019 with a PB of 57:11. This year sawa PW of 1:00:22. I haven't been training too much on hills recently and with Lucerne marathon 7 weeks away am getting towards peak (flat) marathon mileage so didn't have the freshest pair of legs. I'm not overly disappointed therefore.

    The race used to be on a Friday evening in the past – getting there a bit of an issue due to the inevitable jams on the motorway. Sailing straight through on Sunday morning was a relief. Conditions were ok – coolish but due to warm up quite a lot and pretty humid. Dry underfoot so went for standard road shoes and hoped that these would give enough grip on the gravelly descent towards the end.

    I exchanged a bit of chat pre-start with some others including someone I previously only knew from strava – nice to meet the real face, I was actually chatting so much that I didn't keep an eye on the time and was slightly surprised when the hooter went off. Not a big issue though as a mid-pack starter with chip timing.

    The first 600m is a flat reasonably wide road – always tempting to blast this (most do). I felt I held back for once but still covered it at around 10k flat PB pace – oops. Under the railway line and into the ascent and I quickly calmed down and got into a left foot – right foot rhythm. Up intially through a residential area on tarmac, then onto decent forest roads throught the woods. The climb is around 5.7k of continuous up. Was a bit of a slog but I was pleased to be able to hold my position with a couple of exceptions. I would have preferred Mr Pants-Quite-Loudly to have passed me but he was content to sit a couple of metres behind and I couldn't run away from him. Fortunately I dropped him at the drinks station at 4.5k. After that I regularly swapped positions with Mr Mahogany-Suntan. I mistook a few metres of flat to be the top of the hill already but fortunately it was only a few hundred metres further on. Down the next 2k, not excessively steep but with a gravelley / stony surface with a couple of tight corners so a bit cautious. I think I was overtaken only once by Mr-Very-Long-Legs. He was doing one stride to two of mine. Out of the woods into the meadows for the remaining approx 2k – some of it on uneven pastureland – by my shoes it seems I avoided all the mines left by the cows at least. The distance was given as 10.2k and I was leading a small group of men approaching the 10k marker – I thought okay – just a couple of hundred metres and they aren't getting past me so I put my foot down a bit. Turns out the 10k marker was more than a bit early as I ran out of steam and had to let Mr-Very-Long-Legs past just before the uphill finish.

    Over the finish line and pleased to grab a drink as I had left out the drinks station on route.

    I was glad to see two people I know reasonably well finish in good style – they had run the Jungfrau marathon the day before in pretty decent times. A 1800m ascent marathon and another hilly race one day later – ouch!

    As I had planned to do another mileage boosting run later I decided to take the bus down to the valley again rather than walk / run to save my quads.

  • Hm, looks like yesterday's post didn't get posted. Nevermind. I'm not going to write it again ;) 

    Lovely race reports, Hazel and chamolk. Chamolk's garlic football club and the nicknames of Hazel's co-runners made me chuckle. 

    Nice pics, Els. Sorry your cottage caused you a bit of grief. 

    Emzap: wow, can't believe Lucas is two! 

    So, another 5 miles done yesterday and 6 today. 
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