P&D Spring Marathon 2022

I'm in......

Brighton (breezy) mara April 10th
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Comments

  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    10m run home last night

    9m back in this morning (frosty lanes) inc 12x3min.
  • Well done on the new thread TR and setting the running ball rolling.  

    I looked at Brighton (they must surely get it right next year!) but the date didn’t work so might look at an airfield lapper.  3x 1mile for me today, the good news, there’s plenty of scope for improvement.

    Good luck this weekend SQ.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Macca - you sound a bit off normal pace, im similar..........Brighton is accurately measured, someone put on of the turnaround cones in the wrong place, cant see that happening again, biggest issue is the potential of windy weather ruining it again.........theres another Dorney in April, plus the likes of Stratford, MK etc

    10m home tonight
  • HA77HA77 ✭✭✭
    Hi TR, Macca.

    Good to see the new thread up and going. With the 2022 London marathon falling outside the GFA window for the 2023 race, I'm thinking I need to do a spring marathon so I can get a place for 2023.

    I'm thinking the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford. It's close to the inlaws, which will make logistics easier. I know AWC has done it once or twice and I think he said it was a good race. The other option is to go back to Oz and run the Gold Coast marathon in July. 

    We'll see, just got to plug along with training for the mo and get fitness back. 
  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    edited November 2021
    Good morning TR, Macca & HA77.

    I am in too, will defo run at least one Spring marathon, and the current UK favourites are Taunton (home of my 2007 HM PB) on April 3rd (if it happens) or Manchester and an overseas choice could be Prague in May, mainly as I've never visited the city and would like too.  Think I've a carried over entry for a trail marathon in South Wales in late June too. 

    I joined this thread last in 2017, and ran 4 marathon PB's that year, not expecting lightning to strike twice, but the advice and support was great and sure keeps you on your toes.
  • Hi TR, Macca, HA. 

    HA - Jooligan has also done the Shakespeare. I have supported my wife there in the half. Great town centre start. I know some people found the Greenway section challenging. Flat, but perhaps a slightly loose surface in places. Suspect a majority vote would be Gold Coast!

    Macca - 3 x 1M sounds suspiciously taper-like to me. Have you a race in store?

    I am considering either no spring marathon, or perhaps Shakespeare. Something logistically easy anyway.

    But first, Broadway Marathon this Sunday! Did a little pre-race session on Tuesday - 10 min tempo on rolling hills, then 4 x 2 min fast uphill. 
  • MYOXMYOX ✭✭✭
    Hello all. I've signed up to Manchester in the spring. It'll be my first road marathon, although I've done a trail marathon and a long fell race (>20miles) before. Aiming for sub 3, so we'll see how it goes. 

    I've never trained particularly consistently (tend to run around 20 miles a week - 720 miles this year), so I plan to up the volume a fair bit, and add in a regular long run. I've no illusions, I know it's a tough goal, but I'm an optimist. :)

    7.5 rolling miles today. 

  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited November 2021
    All aboard !

    SQ - theres another Shepperdine in April. I have a rolled over North Dorset place i could use as Brighton back up, in case Brighton is super windy again.....hope you go well Sunday.

    Myox - plenty of room for improvement then with some more structured training and more volume.
  • Welcome, Myox. Long fell race can't have been easy!

    Enjoyable 5.5M recovery with Spoons yesterday. Mentioning this to try to tempt him back in!
  • Myox - Sounds a plan.  It  is a tough but doable goal, and afterwards glowingly rewarding.  I sub 3'd (after not for 10 years) at Manchester, its a good choice of marathon. 
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    Everyone happy to accept an marathon newbie?

    Signed up to Manchester. Adapted a plan from Hal Higdon, basically to allow for some flexibility over Christmas.

    I am aiming for sub four (50+ female). HM PB last year was 1.47.24. Any advice, don't does, challenges happily accepted.
  • SQ - well spotted, yes Wendover Woods 50 tomorrow, I think it will be a case of getting round. Good luck with Broadwater.

    Welcome Myox and TT.  There’s quite a bit of experience on here so ask away as you go.

    An interesting range of possible spring mara’ Brighton, Taunton, Gold Coast, Prague, Shaky, Manx’s, ….might have to rethink Bedford autodrome although late March works well for me as spring/summer is starting to fill up.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    TT - plenty of us 50+ folks on here.  You've got 6 months to get yourself in shape, so build up consistently, at this stage probably worth doing a bit less   than you could do maximally week on week for a while too. Consistent running week on week is the aim. 

    I looked at Shakespeare, it says its not classed as a road mara due to all the Greenway running and you need to check with any race organisers that you wish to use the qualifying time for, as to whether they'll count the performance or not.
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    Thank you for the welcome TR. Consistent running is my aim at the moment so glad that is the right thing to be doing. 

    Focusing on four or five runs a week, some slow, some fast, some up hills!

    Gold Coast sounds great, might need to convince the OH. 
  • In for Manchester, if I can get my broken body to hold it together for a few months. TT, I would love to join you in that...I ran 3:57 at Yorkshire in 2019 but my performance has degraded so much since then I've not even managed a sub-2 half this year. Let's hope I can start to pull myself back up.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Hopefully you'll be back strongly soon cal

    16m yday to bring up 65m for the week,,8m out easy, 8m back ~ mp +10%, which was tough due to the wind on the way back.

    Turbo intervals today.
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    10km race today, after 11 miles on Friday and 5 miles yesterday. Set myself the target of 10km at 8.34-8.44, managed a very comfortable 8.29.

    Delighted that six weeks of running has resulted in me enjoying a race and feeling great at the end.

    Cal it would be great to meet you in Manchester! 
  • Welcome aboard, TT. Well done at the 10k. 

    Fingers crossed for a more consistent few months, Cal.

    Very solid run, TR. Have you revised MP paces now your MP  is much quicker?!

    Looking forward to a debrief from Macca.


    Broadway Trail Marathon report:

    Back in January, I entered this on the assumption London would probably be cancelled. Having promptly forgotten, I panic-trained a few hills in the last three weeks. 

    I last ran this race, put in by the brilliant Cotswold Running, back in 2014. It was a ‘get yourself fit’ marathon in advance of a spring 2015 first sub-3. 

    It is well organised, and blessedly light on the logistics. 0815 suited be perfectly for a start time. Broadway itself is essentially the Chelsea of the Cotswolds. Ridiculously wealthy and stunning buildings everywhere. Broadway FC, the race HQ, less so. I’m afraid I lack the football knowledge to make a suitable comparison. Made even more Dr Marten’s league (this reference could easily be twenty years out of date for all I know) by the roof caving in last week 😆. 

    A very punchy first 1.5M with 900ft of climbing to Broadway Tower. Tussled with third/fourth whilst deliberately trying not to over exert myself. Third at the top with top two zooming off. 

    Short descent before then the second major climb to Snowshill. Another stunning Cotswold village - and the route was really doing it for me. Genuinely beautiful whether on road through a village or, far more often, on trail with autumn colours, views from the escapement and complete solitude. 

    Reached half way at Sudeley Castle in Winchcome before the third and final major climb. This was road, but on some kind of private estate. Absolutely incredible views, but leg/sapping with another 850ft to the heavens. 

    I love a road sub 3, but trail running in good conditions really is the dogs proverbials. This was so much fun, albeit rapidly draining.

    The race description then had it as along the escarpment, a descent and then ‘gently undulating’ to the finish. Well F me if that was gently undulating 😆. Post race I learnt the term ‘ridge and farrow’ / absolutely evil for a running race! Will do nothing for Strava elevation but ridiculously hard to get into a rhythm. 

    The course was in great condition to be fair, at least until the final two miles through some woods. A relatively flat 10:30 mile was testament to some very sticky mud and at least ten gates. 

    By mile 21 or so we had rejoined the half marathoners which started an hour after us. This was good in terms of the stress of staying on course (although the route marking was incredible, in spite of me having a brief mare around a field before getting back on it), but had to deploy a friendly yet booming hello to ensure I got to various styles first. 

    Running on fumes by mile 23, knowing it would be near 27M total. Absolutely delighted to see the family at the end - and quite unexpectedly. So 26.7M, 3000ft and 8:30 average pace. 

    Delighted to take third and receive a lovely engraved brandy glass. A sociable pot of early grey in the sun then made for a pretty much perfect morning 😃 

  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    edited November 2021
    Loved that SQ, very well raced and congratulations on the podium place and prize.  I fully agree with you, I love a fast sub 3 city marathon, but there is that something else about trail running!  

    14m on Saturday for me, 8m steady, 6m @ mp as last proper longish session before the Gran Canaria marathon on the 21 Nov. 
  • HA77HA77 ✭✭✭
    Welcome back OO and welcome TT and Myox

    Nice podium SQ. Sound a tough but great race, really well done.

    Cheers for the heads up about the Shakespeare Marathon qualifying TR. It's a bit unclear on the website so I sent an email. We'll see what they come back with.

    Had 3 hours to kill while my daughter had panto rehearsals so went out for my first 20 miler in a long time. Had to hold back the first part as I knew I'd struggle at the end. Ended up averaging a bit over 7:30s /mile, which is pretty good for me at the moment. 54 miles for the week is probably my biggest week in years. 
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Good for you TT

    HA - nice one on the 20, good to see you getting back to it. Did you ask london or Shakespeare?

    SQ - great report, sounds a toughie, well done on the podium place.........those long runs are done by feel, but maybe i do need to start thinking 6:3Xs for next year.

    10m home tonight.
  • Well done SQ and congrats on the 3rd place!

    5 miles today. Still slow, but I should make it around Alton Towers half on Sunday (I am just going to get around as I'm in no condition to race. I'd have bailed had it not been for the fact I love rollercoasters and want to run around a theme park).
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    SQ great race report and well done.

    OO how much of your long run is at MP? Do you accelerate during the run so it becomes at prog run? Sorry if these are obvious questions!

    Cal enjoy Sunday, I hope they let you jump the queues afterwards.

    Out this morning for a bit of a recovery run, about six miles. TR interesting you do turbo intervals, I try to do one session a week on the bike/turbo. 
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    edited November 2021
    Good news Cal......loife is a rollercoaster you've just got to roide it.....

    TT - i used to do summer/autumn 1/2 IM and turbo'd a few times a week, i was really fit then, used to run well off it to at shorter races and then just put some miles in for london mara Jan thru March, ive been trying to do a weekly session, would like to do 2, but rarely happens. I always do intervals as just spinning away is tedious and very low HR.

    Double 07s today.
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    TR there is obviously something in cycling as Adam Yates has shown this weekend! I do RPM, it pushes me more than me sitting on the turbo peddling. I too would like to fit in two. Swimming.is my next aim, but it comes lower on the list than everything else. 

    5*800m repeats at 5km pace, with a very long WU and WD.
  • Thank you, OO. Definitely a different ball game. Nice MP from you – not long to go.

    HA – let us know what Shakespeare say. Words from the bard himself! Nice going on the long run – especially so during family stuff.

    You’ll enjoy Alton Towers, Cal!

    Some tasty intervals, TT. For a moment, I thought TR was breaking from the traditional three minute reps!

     

    Tired, but not too sore. Tried a little run yesterday and felt ok. Will jog down to coaching this afternoon. But week as a whole will be very light as won’t fit in anything over the weekend.

    Think that will be my racing credits for the year used up. Fairly well spent, I think!


  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    TT - what is rpm, is than a spin class ? If so, that'll do nicely.

    SQ - you've had a decent yr, ran quite a few marathons and ticked off a couple of sub3s in the process.

    Body has been creaking lately so i did wonder about doing the reps today,  but felt ok (so didnt dissapoint SQ) so did 9m inc 12x3mins.
  • SQ - great report and race.  You can throw time and pace out the window on these things but to finish third says it all, and a glass to boot.  It sounds a great course.

    Cal - good to see you running again, wise to just take the half as a trip to a theme park, do you get the chance for some rides afterwards ?

    OO - I look out the window right now and think how great a marathon somewhere like the canaries would be ! Like SQ, I think I’ve used all my passes.

    HA - that’s a solid LR and a good place to be this far out.

    TR - logging the consistent numbers, I’ll join you on the creakiness.

    TT - the P&D schedules have MP runs of 8,10,12 and 14, as part of longer runs 18-20 miles.  I tend to do them in the middle giving a decent warm up and warm down.  

    Wendover Woods 50 for me last Saturday.
    Aim was just to get round but that goes out the window on the start line.  5x10 mile laps around the woods sitting on an escarpment in the Chilterns so 2,000ft per lap.  This course has everything,  hands on knees climbs, long flowing descents that can trash quads and leaf kicking trails through woods.  I kicked a stone hiding in the leaves on lap 1 which elicited liberal use of the f word, my fault for not picking my feet up.  Having run it the previous 4 years I can soon tell if it’s my day or not and by end of lap 2 it was clear it wasn’t going to be one of my quicker runs.  Strangely the effort felt consistent and I felt like I was moving steadily even on the climbs but my increasing lap times told a different story.  That said, I think only 3 or 4 people passed me once the race settled down so I think I gave it the best with what I had on the day, a long season catching up with me.  The last lap by head torch in the dark provided another beautiful perspective but I was glad to finish in 10hrs 24 for 23rd place.
  • TT - My long runs are mostly slow affairs, say MP+75-90 secs though 5-6 weeks I will usually do my 20m run, 1st half MP+60, 2nd half MP+15 or MP.  The last 6m of my 13m on Sunday was MP, I usually prefer the last 6m of this run as a MP-15 seconds run but heeded the wise words of TR, as I had a recent marathon still in my legs. 

    Macca - Another mega run in a nonchalant style, seemed a very enjoyable measured run.   Well done.  I know what you mean with the passes.  I got the Gran Canaria pass whilst peak sympathy for missing VLM as suffering with Covid and from my death-bed swiftly booked it, before the winds changed. 

    Looks like Manchester will be my Spring marathon, staying with my wife's brothers family (also runners) so with the goodwill/ brownie points from this should be able to get the Madrid or Krakow marathon over the line too! Fingers crossed!
  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    You're a tough nut Macca, another great day. I thought of you at Wendover, must have been one of the drier years ? Was Stu Leaney there? He's a nice guy, he used to post on sub3 and ive spent a bit of time with him at a few races.

    4m and 7m today. So second double of the week, havnt done that for a few years, we'll see if it helps get the body moving a bit more freely.
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