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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Funny old session yesterday - 2 x 400m as a sort of warm up (74's) then a 2k time trial to give the superstar some practise for her 3,000m at Watford next week. Wasn't looking forward to this bit, but got through it with a 6.22, she did 6.20. Nice to see Kimpton back at the track after so long too.
Then we just had the remaining 8 x 400 to do, averaged 69 for the first 5, then 68,67,66 for the last three. So happy with that.
Steady 5m this morning. The kid's 100th parkrun tomorrow at Bedford on his 12th birthday. Might do a bit extra after. Will be the unofficial 20mins pacer again.
Strange session but always good to mix it up, SC. Assumed they were mile splits at first 😆. Amazing to be on 100 parkruns at that age. You are clearly an inspiration.
Ah, I see, Jools. I wrongly assumed you meant the parkrun adjacent to the track. Lovely sounding evening route from you.
Strong reps for the road, SG. You’d certainly have a few more seconds on the track.
Despite only 36 hours recovery from yesterday’s intervals (with a 5M jog in the mix this morn as well which probably helped), the grass track was just too tempting after an afternoon of coaching relays and baton exchange. One mile warm up, three miles rough MP (6:42, 37, 38) then home. Really enjoying these little Friday tempos before the weekend.
Yes the session was tailored around the fast girl yesterday. Coach will tweak it now and again for someone and we all have to do the session.
Just easy running for me this week. 50 miles but nothing of note. Over 20 hours all in though with 250 miles of cycling and a couple of swims. 10 mile TT on Thursday was the most meaningful action, came second and equalled my PB of 21:15 on a very windy evening so should be able to take that to sub 21 soon with some good conditions. Should be another fairly big week this week and then into three week taper for Ironman France.
Once that's done I can attend to the important business of the 5k PB
Put a 13 in today for my first 60+ mile week in May, after a couple of race weekends.
Club local 5k race on Tuesday and then best get on with sorting how my summer schedule will look asap after that.
Lap of the grass, out of the grounds (about half mile), down, and then a right hand turn on what would be the "long" lap in reverse, and then a right hand turn into the "short" lap section.
Totally avoiding the old start road with the long downhill, presumably because that's the bit that has a little bit of traffic on. I remember a few starts where they had to get everyone over to let cars past.
Then instead of the killer short hill at the end, you go into the grounds where you drive in a bit lower down, along that path then small climb back up to the grass for presumably about half a lap to the finish.
It must be about a 40 feet net downhill job now, but not po10 so doesn't matter as such.
I'm just looking forward to it not being a 2 lapper, albeit different laps, as it was never great coming within about 300metres of the finish less than half way in.
So about 1/3rd of the course on school grounds now, rather than about 50metres of it being in there.
Presumably they've decided Hawthorne Lane has increased in traffic a little, and just safer taking that out of the mixer.
Breakthrough weekend for the lad - 19.48 at Bedford parkrun on his 12th birthday, on his 100th Parkrun. Paced by me and my mate. Good fun. Did 30 sprint 30 jog for 30 mins after back to the grandparents.
12.5 mile slog on my annoying NB Propel V3's yesterday, just had some new V2's delivered for £66 from Amazon. Might buy another pair. The v3's are too soft and are dead after only 2 months.
9 miles this morning as no school run.
You are allowed a 1m drop per km: I'm surprised more events don't take advantage of such.
Easy 16 miler for me this morning, 3k open water swim at lunch and then two hours on the gravel bike late afternoon. Got caught in the rain so second hour was a bit grim.
Got an 800m tonight at MK in the Eastern masters, but thought i'd still do a session anyway. There were lots of showers around and I would have had to get the bus to Luton, so I thought i'd stay local for a change.
Did that 8 min tempo, 3 mins rest, 10 x 400 off 60, 3 mins rest, then the 8 min tempo back. Felt ok, had to wear the clown shoes..3rd excuse on the trot was the 800m today and didn't want to kill my legs
Had a turnout last night, club champs 5k at Burnham Beeches.
Always a lotto who turns out, but a few were missing due to covid/other long runs/being away, or just not necessarily bothering
The local summer series always had 6 courses back since 2006 when I first started turning out for Marlow, my first club, but in recent years they added an unnecessary 7th at Cookham, pretty much an offroader.
As a Marlow runner it was always a 5 race series, as you marshalled your own course typically.
Recently Wargrave, which is the 1st event, had to change location entirely, apparently due to residents moaning at the use of a huge field to park cars.
Burnham changed their course last year, so that instead of 3miles out on roads with 1 long loop and 1 short loop, it's now about 2 on the roads and 1 within the school grounds, and 1 loop in the opposite direction.
Due to that change I was looking forward to it. First time doing a club championship season since the Marlow days, and this was my 6th event, with 8 needed to register.
Initially I was slightly concerned at what I thought was a 40 feet negative drop, i.e. a downhill course, but it dawned on me yesterday that it can't be, as the start and finish is on the same flattish field! I think the strava elevations come out slightly askew on this one.
Nice close venue, after a dreadful day of heavy rain. It looked destined to be a miserable night, and at best a get it done, and get out of there job.
I suddenly realised that Nexts may not be the best decision either, with 1/4mile on grass either end, some rutted paths late on, and even the course itself may be soaked.
Therefore, took 3 pairs of shoes and thought I'd play it by ear. All runners I spoke with said they were a no go
On arrival, after the usual hairy drive along a rutted, pot holed slippy path, and slightly dodgy sharp turn downwards into a field, the weather was actually looking ok. Just in the nick of time!
Got the adios on, but the grass on the lower field looked short, and even the carpark field felt decent. So, sod it, get the Nexts on. Most is on road etc.
They looked to be the competitive types from first glance, but you never do know on your first go at a series.
Maidenhead AC always look to have a keen set of runners.
Startline is a grassy field then, about 400m, before inclining slightly out of the grounds.
I'm next to the Dominator, aka Mad Dom, he of the keenest starts you'll ever see.
Therefore I know to get out sharpish.
I've gone out pretty sharpish! I checked my watch a couple of hundred metres in and it's telling me 5.00 pace.
I'm leading! And actually looking over my shoulder beckoning Foster past
We're told to keep the yellow cones on the left, but there's also a couple of other cones a bit wider. Unclear whether to go round them or not, so we sort of go through the middle. Minor detail really. I go wide of one to not test the grip of the Nexts' on a sharp turn!
Leading, and taking a fall would not be a good look
Out of the field, and i'm still leading, but as we're starting to get out of the grounds I'm level, and as we take a left and downhill, I'm suddenly down to 4th, behind the obvious leading pack of 3.
No km markers which have me slightly perturbed, and a 5.28 first mile. Not that mental in fairness, and I've done similar in 5milers recently.
The clearly fit and fast lady is slightly ahead, as we do the downhill stretch. The reverse of the old course that was such a bast late on.
Long stretch gradually flattening with a sharp right turn, and this is how the race shapes up.
Top 3 clear, lady, then me. Can't hear too much closeness behind, but I dare say they're only as far behind as I am off top 3.
Long stretch in one direction, turn right, and back a corresponding road back.
5.43 second mile, and now it's basically counting down the time until we're back in the school grounds.
I thought the lady was slightly getting away at one point, but in the last mile with a slight incline she's come back a bit.
It's another of my classic races where I've got someone just ahead, but I'm more concerned that nothing from behind goes past
Half a mile to go and into the school grounds. Rutted awkward path that I almost take a misstep on. Can feel she's dropping a little, and then we have to climb a little to the left, on an even more puddly rutfest route.
Into the field and she makes a slightly wide choice of route, and I'm in.
Monster through, and no catching me now.
Haven't really been keeping any idea on overall time, but I know I'll be in the 17xx for sure as it's felt relatively tasty.
Round one last bend, making sure not to stack it, and through on the line, for a 5.48 last mile and bits.
17:21 on my watch for 4th.
Usual awaiting official results / where exact finish line was for exact seconds.
Not PO10, and always the slight risk that these are slightly wrong distance, but I'm sure it won't be much odds really.
Am happy it's a "legal" course after all, and no doubt the rutted bits don't help overall, so it all events out.
Happy with that one for a first "proper" 5k of the season after a bunch of B turnout parkruns.
About time you got back on it, you're still a relative youngun!
ps 17.20 confirmed in the end. Feels a nicer number than 17.21!
Slowest KM was 5.12 and fastest (last one at 4.47)
Hurt today
I am down in Gosport, passed through Yateley on the way down, saw a sign to Chichester and then went for a run and happened upon the start of the Gosport Golden Mile. So a bit of an accidental tour of running race spots.
Felt dreadful running this morning so couldn’t threaten the Golden Mile leaderboard but maybe next time I’ll have a solo bash at it 😄
SC that is cracking from your son. Very impressed. Like the sound of that tempo sandwich session. Will try it on the grass track at some point.
Enjoyed that report, SG. Good time given the nature of the course.
Good effort getting back to it, Scott.
Monday was a nice surprise: went for a few half arsed strides around the football pitches close to home, only to be greeted by a freshly painted grass track. Nice summer addition that I’m sure will see some action soon.
Wednesday night saw the next race in the club road race series: Stroud Beer Race. Stroud AC put on some cracking races and I might target their Autumn half.
This was a hilly road race around Minchinhampton Common. A stunning evening with views all around from this high vantage point. 3 laps for a total of 7.2M and anywhere from 600-800 ft ascent depending on which Strava upload you look at.
Positioned myself near the front, which felt about right, with one very fast looking runner haring off. He had a massive gap very quickly, and ran 37 mins. Impressive really when considering the elevation.
Downhill fast half of the lap before a steep uphill third quarter than a drag back to the start. Then repeat twice more!
Settled in somewhere in the top ten, sharing the work with a chap I swiftly worked out was second in the recent Dymock half. I quite enjoy laps, and the families out supporting obviously got a bit more for their time.
Had to work very hard to hold off the First Lady, eventually finishing seventh (fifth V35 😆) in 45:31 for an average pace of 6:20 or so.
Idyllic pub garden afterwards to share a couple of halves kindly donated by the local brewery sponsoring the event. Lovely evening 😊.
VERY slow buggy recovery running since, with limited sleep seemingly correlating with limited running speed.
I saw something about it one of your FB posts and I clearly misread it, as I assumed it was a 1mile Beer race, as in gulp load of beer down and stagger a race out
Not quite then!
Sounds like we shared a similar end of race, just about beating the leading lady!
8x0.25m off 60secs sesh for me today then.
74,76,77,80,79,79,79,77 probs mid 77 average.
First rep a bit keen, probably because I've found the first rep has been the slowest in recent sessions, so slightly over compensated!
0.25m probably rounds up 1 second further than 400m, and clearly road slower than track.
Finished rep 8 with a little squat on my haunches, so that probably says the effort all in was about right. A little pug dog emerged next to me to say hello afterwards
We probably need a couple more regular posters too. Usual shout out for any casuals/lurkers, get involved, tell us what you're up to?
Exchanged a couple of mails with Matt Head the other day on his bday, still a young guy in his 20s. Think he's slightly lost the mojo for a bit, but hopefully he makes a decent return.
Anyway, 13 for me today. Had a vague plan of finding my way up to the peak elevation of Hazlemere through some woods with a fairly gentle gradient, into Hazlemere/Penn then down one of the hills back.
Decent ish, including a weird footpath that had a button to unlock a gate (!) very posh, and taking a straight on, instead of a left, that led me to doing 16 instead of 13 a couple of months back!
So all fine, until getting lost in some random field that was actually marked as a footpath and doing 3 or 4 small circles, but didn't seem to have a particularly obvious route.
Was also put off by the horses in the other end
100metres down the road was the Chiltern Path and luckily had run the reverse the other week, so knew I was on track from there.
Slowish today though, just about sub 8s . Makes sense I suppose!
Cotswold 113, it's a middle distance so 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a half marathon. I've done this race or at least the late summer version of it about 4 times before with a best placing of 6th back in 2017. It's a fairly popular race and usually attracts a few decent guys. Preparation wasn't ideal as I agreed to spend Wed-Sat on my sister's boat so wasn't able to do much training and sat around far too much. What made it worse is we sailed to the Isle of Wight but had to tie up off-shore on a buoy so I was trapped to a degree! Still, defo first world problems!
Other issue was the weather forecast, with such nice weather on the bank holidays forecast was not good for Sunday with heavy rain promised all day. With a 6am race start and a one hour drive this is not the most user friendly race so it was up at 3:30 to the sound of rain and the prospect of getting cold and wet of 4 and a half hours. I wasn't exactly pumped for this one.
Once I arrived to the race car park, the sight of hundreds of other folk, most of whom would be out in the elements much longer than me, gave a sense of perspective. I was pretty much last to leave transition having cut it fine getting there and ended up in a later wave and starting about 6:30. The rain was still falling but not as badly as it had earlier.
So into the swim and at least the rain is not an issue here, went pretty smoothly but I didn't feel fast, I was still mostly passing people though and I exited a fairly straight forward swim in just under 34 minutes, 4 minutes slower than my best here but about typical for me. I am pretty quick through transition but there's a queue of people walking their bikes out onto the road and I have to persuade myself not to squeeze past them.
Rain is still falling but this is a fairly straight forward and flat course with few technical sections. Due to the rolling start this is basically a time trial as there's nobody at my pace around so it's just a case of trying to keep the speed up. Legs feel ok and I am ticking along at 25mph and trying to stay as aero as possible. After about an hour the rain has stopped and road is drying out somewhat. The standing water means the useable road is not as wide as normal but thankfully it also means there are very few cars about as the tourists are staying away. With about 30 minutes to go a bike comes past me suggesting we do a pace line, i'e' take turns on the front but with a legal gap of 10 metres. There's still a benefit even at this distance. To be honest it was only after the race when we chatted I was sure this is what he said but after about 10 minutes it became academic as I needed to relieve myself so for the first time I successfully managed to do it whilst riding, I had to stop pedaling though so let him go.
Due to the Jubilee road closures the course was actually 58 miles and I finished in 2:20 or 25mph average and that was the 3rd fastest, although the fastest was by the aforementioned guy who only did the bike/run as he was in a relay team. Transition 2 was a disaster though as my hands were so numb I struggled with my helmet clasp and I had also decided to wear socks on the run but had chosen the hardest pair of socks to put on so I lost over a minute here.
Eventually got going and started the run easy as my hamstring tendinopathy was playing up. This was very much a training race so I wasn't interested in killing myself with the Ironman in 3 weeks time. Through the first 5k in 20:04 and followed that up with 19:41, 19:47, 19:45 and then a bit quicker for the finish with a final mile around 5:48 pace. That was good for a 1:21 run but it was only about 12.8 miles on my watch. Ignoring relay teams it was the second fastest run and I finished 3rd overall. Pretty pleased with that as I had plenty left in the tank had I really wanted to push it on that run and I've never held the pace like that in a middle distance triathlon before.
Enjoyed the (hopefully) pee on the go explanation too. Probably less fun if it's a high paced number 2 on the go for anyone in your slipstream.
SG - Solid 5K, love those half road, bit of trail ones, great if it's classic summer weather. Good to see Scotty running again too.
SQ - Yes it's a good session, it's handy that the 8 min tempo takes me to the road triangle that does the 400m reps. Shame it's mainly uphill back! Yep the kid is going ok.
So - Eastern masters 800m last Weds went well - know a few of the boys and 3 of us went off pretty swiftly, took the bell at about 66/67. Down the back straight I felt ok and there were 2 of us by then. Hit the front at about 220-230 to go, and managed to stay strong to take the win in 2.10. Happy with the time and the 2nd lap in 63/64 ish.
Thurs - Traipsed around a duck racing festival, which led to some poor training. 3 k jog with the kid and a few rubbish hills.
Friday - 9 mile to Wing and back, half with the boy, who left me up the hill, I still felt knackered!
Then up to Wigan for my mates 50th. Bit pissed like.
Saturday - train back to MK and bus to Bedford for the National League. Did say I would jog round if needed, didn't know we wouldn't have any 3,000m runners. So I did it with a hangover, in the warm sun and wind..started off on 10.00 pace, thought I might as well catch a couple and ended up with 9.41. Took the mind off the headache at least.
Sunday - Over to Stevenage for the Eastern Young Athletes. The kid took some more off his 1500 with a 5.32. I thought I'd see the sights, so ran 10 miles around the outside. The last bit I was able to revel in the finish to my highest profile road win - The Stevenage half. Wouldn't win that in 74.xx these days!
Looks like Reg had a good day out at the tri. I see the sub-7 and sub-8 attempts were smashed with 6:44 and 7:31. It is interesting how it compares to the sub-2 marathon project where it took a lot to go from 2:01:39 to sub-2 and Kristian Blummenfelt went from the world best of 7:21:12 to 6:44:25.
Before that I'd pretty much settled for out and backs, or very obvious round loops.
Sunday was a big field, 2 sketchy looking paths, that I rejected both, back out the field for 50m, back in via a gate and a "watch dem 'orses" type sign, and seemingly no obvious actual path.
I assume the actual route was past said horses, down one of said sketchy paths
Simon - good mux of boozing and running.
PMJ - the courses possibly helped the sub 7 and 8 attempts more than the sub2. Straight libe swim, banked cct bike, as well as pace makers in the run.
I was a bit under the weather again, ran an ok 10k n 38dead at Bognor but had to ease off a bit in the last 2m as i was a bit woozy and had tight chest. Defo think i had a touch of CV when i dropped out at Brighton mara. Had a couple of light weeks and am hopefully on the mend agsin now. 2022 has been a bit of a crap running year so far. But am.hoping the 2nd 1/2 is better.
Hope you get a clear run of illness TR. I have been feeling a bit rough myself since the race. I was definitely depleted of minerals and stuff and my calves were cramping on the bike and afterwards both were twitching quite markedly.
Just an easy run this morning but it wasn't pretty and HR was about 8-10 beats higher than normal so things not quite right.
If 6:30 is possible then that really means a 2:30 marathon leaving 4 hours for the swim, bike and two transitions and most of that has to come off the bike section which means, I guess, a huge peleton like affair with the "target" buried deep in the middle of that.