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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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3.31, 3.29, 3.26, 3.28, 3.27. Felt a good flow without especially trying to monster it.
I'd love to be able to do one 4 minute rep...
I think I'm going to have to scrub all of July at this rate.
Solid reps SG.
longest run for a while this morning but only 9.5 easy. TT last night, my best power for a 10 miler but despite being 30 watts more than the previous week and in warmer weather, I was slower! Stupid sport.
I've been having a bit of a problem with pace over the last few weeks: I am definitely getting back to the sort of condition I should be and it is hard to judge what is easy and what is not. I think I have gotten used to things feeling hard for the wrong reason and now the legs seem to be turning over nicely I seem to be going too fast on my easy runs. I'm sure it will pass but I go out for an easy one, come home and see it is a fast one and feel tired the next day when I want to do a hard session.
I'll probably have a run round Church Mead parkrun tomorrow. Aims are
I have a friend who wants a London marathon sub-3 finish time: can you do one of those
Love that the idea of 5x1km reps for a 5k session is one you imply is being skimpy on the reps
In fairness the plan I use has some of the sessions having 2x400m and 2x200m after, but having done the 12 point plan recently, I just saw the club had done this as their track sesh recently, so fancied it.
Phil - always the peril on that track in summer - I think general sort of rule is you're fine any day pre 8.20 or so, autumn/winter most days most times. Just avoid the obvious evenings clubs have it booked.
When they actually had some sort of proper management there, they published a list on a website so you can double check when not to show up.
At least you arrived to find it ruled out. Worst case is getting started and someone shifting you.
Did you not use the little loop next door? That's always my go to if the worst happens and quite decent.
Top 50 for you surely?
And I think it's time for you to put a race in full in, and re-set your paces off that.
Inevitable you'd find yourself slightly unsure after semi retiring, but it's time to come back - seize the moment!
Checked fb and they've moved the Scenic 7 to late August!
I did say to the organiser, hang on wasn't this next Wednesday, and apparently it was pencilled in there, but they've only just set the actual date.
So that would have been an arse if I'd booked the Tue race and got a hotel
Will probs stick to the local series 5k on the Tue and have a leisurely run offroad somewhere on the Wed.
Am close to pressing the button on entering the Murder mile though. I did wonder if the pandemic kicking in breaking my 3 year sequence was the time to leave it alone, having just narrowly failed to hit their "good time" benchmark of sub 10 in 2019 (10.02!), but the year is going well, it's a good trip when combined with a parkrun, and they say they have a camera crew lined up! Everyone knows SG loves some footage!
Also it ticks the "Welsh race" box. I did plan for a Rose Inn 4, as wanted to bang off that 10 year plus pb, but even though there were 4 dates (I think), they just haven't worked date wise.
There is an Oxfordshire based 4mile series, but it all depends which of them count as a "4M road" for the old po10. Some of them are NAD or MT, which are useless for the box I want to tick!
Got my fastest Strava segment for ages: 4:59 pace on the downhill part of the lap!
Party tonight in MK, feel like I want it to be my last slovenly day before testing the ankle out.
Can't get too pissed as we are at Cambridge tomorrow as the kid is doing a 1500m. That with a hangover and the weather could be a nightmare!
The final Rose Inn is August 9th so the Tuesday after Murder Mile.
That’s a helluva lumpy parkrun course PMJ, just checked it out on your Strava.
Long time to be out Simon. Rotten luck. I went over 10 days ago whilst cruising round my local parkrun course. Caught a root checking my watch. Fortunately I rolled rather than the ankle.
It's that odd sort of time of year where races tend to be shorter, temperatures are higher, and motivation to do longer runs is lesser.
Thought i'd explore a different route up behind Wycombe's ground, and had a cursory glance at the map which told me I needed a right hand turn at a certain time.
Upon going into the field, straight through, I had a left, straight on and right, but the right seemed too early for where I was expecting to emerge.
Long story short, it wasn't, that was my turn, so instead I had a long sortie well past the ground and round, and emerged on a the Piddington to West Wycombe road a number of miles later
Luckily the actual main climb of 200+ feet felt fairly subtle, and the rest felt down or flat, so not as bleak as it could have been in the heat!
61mile week.
Dare say I'll turn out Tuesday for a bday race
From a runner's viewpoint, I find that parkrun is drifting more and more away from my ideal. I enjoy turning up on a Saturday morning, meeting old and new friends and having a bash at a semi-decent timed 5k. In the early days, Wycombe Rye had about a dozen volunteers per event and now the roster has 26 spaces to fill. There are two tail walkers (why two?), three timers (I can understand having two in case something goes wrong but three looks to be overkill) and then there is "event day course check" which confuses me: if you have marshalls out surely they check the course.
The official line is "we have shifted from a position of wanting only minimal volunteering requirements to maximising volunteering opportunities."
I'm open to all views but do find it odd when there is an announcement at the start that it wont happen next week unless we get another N volunteers.
Ankle felt ok yesterday, did about 12 mins today, felt OK, not amazing, probably 2/10 pain in the achilles area. Will just try and build up again slowly. Bruising gone, still a bit of swelling.
Was good yesterday helping out at the East Anglian YDL - spiked for 4 long jump competitions and 'pulled through' for two discus competitions
"It's not very near Saturday yet, but a volunteer role call, please. It takes on average, 18 volunteers to run the whole event and with an average of 140 runners of which 50 are tourists which leaves volunteering to 1 in 5 weeks."
This is nonsense: the run is a few small laps of the park (~1k) then out and back along the Thames so you need one marshall at the turn but the laps in the park can be watched over by the finish team: the park is clear of runners in the first 10 or so minutes other than the walkers ahead of the tail walker.
But then in fairness, did Marlow need a parkrun anyway?
It's not a great route either, a couple of laps of an incline round the Steve Redgrave statue, cutting across back markers, a few small but momentum breaking bridges, then an out and back with dead turnaround on the Thames Path.
I know Higginson is a better central location, but I wonder if Gossmore might have been a better location. You could use a bit of that Thames Path if really needed, but could do a few laps of the Gossmore park, and then out and round using the Marlow 5 course a little too if needed.
Maybe they looked at it, and didn't want to heap parking etc that way.
6 & 4 today.
Lunchtime was close to peak heat for the day, was alright. But then that was around 7.35 sort of average.
Will give tomorrow a go. Only 5k, and nothing much on it. It's a nice course to split up in stages in your head too.
Jools -how are you feeling ?
With 12 wks until London, i upped the long run to 20m this weekend, and also did a pretty warm afternoon turbo in the garage yday. Should give some fitness adaptations. Got an evening 10k this week, hopefully ill go a bit better than recent efforts based on last weekends 1.22. It's seafront based so hopefully there wont be an evening sea breeze kick up.
Agree with you PMJ about parkrun over-egging the volunteer requirements these days. Options to volunteer great but enforcing roles pointlessly just makes it harder to fill rosters - particularly post-pandemic as participant numbers are also down added to which there are still getting new ones starting up all over. Encouraging folk that take more than an hour is also not helpful as it means each volunteer's commitment goes from roughly an hour to 90-120 minutes.
Happy birthday racing SG.
parkrun also have new policies with respect to car parking and cafe facilities and I know local groups who want to start (or restart in the case of Tring) and can't as they can't meet the criteria.
I forgot to mention that. I looked at Saturday's course which is basically a 2 lapper and thought "Ok, the first lap is going to be clear and I may catch the tail walker towards the end of the second lap" but no! I was hardly into the second lap before I was into the back markers and having to pass people. I am fully behind people getting out and exercising but a lot of these were out walking two or three abreast and blocking the path. Again, I understand that I have no priority but I'd expect a degree of awareness.
Happy birthday SG
2.5 miles this morning this time with my newest trainers, much better than yesterday, few aches but no 'wince' moments. Felt better 2nd half, pushed it to 6.30 mm and was fine.
May jog round the Doug Anderson 5k Wednesday week. Beds Champs and I might eek out the V50 prize.
SC - grass root sports needs volounteers. Do they still use tape measures etc or have the gone more modern?
so, will read back tomorrow, but in the meantime, happy birthday SG and well done this evening!
I had originally pencilled in 2 days off work here for a potential Rose Inn 4miler / Scenic hilly 7mile race combo in south wales, but as time rolled on I realised it'd be way more sensible to do the local event put on by my old club where I'd know loads of people. Plus the second half of the race tour had been re-arranged for late August! Throw in sudden sky high temperatures and the obvious and sensible decision was reached!
I've had some interesting birthday races before. Infamously the 2015 Wycombe half disaster, but also a 2009 (I think) failure to even find an Oxfordshire 5miler start line - meaning a solo 5mile jog round a council estate instead (!) and last year's insane storm/rivers on road Battersea Park 5k drive.
Looking back there were a couple of decent turnouts, a 36:48 10k in 2012 on the Wycombe course that has a 200 feet hill early on, plus the last time I did a 4miler, a 28:20 in the now defunct Tiffield Thunderbolt.
So Marlow 5k it was then. My 3rd race, and the 5th event in the local summer 5k series. Actually held at Hurley, it is usually thought of as one of the fastest couple of courses.
That is, when it's not a 30 degree day, and still 28 at race time
With that in mind it was a keep cautious sort of vibe. I'd just done a 1.5mile woods walk in the day and a lot of lounging around.
20min or so drive to the venue, ludicrously managing a wrong turn, but essentially easy. Loads of parking down the river.
Having done a number of temp sessions round the middle road loop here, I was looking forward to only doing the main loop once this time, albeit repeating the first straight.
On arrival I quickly saw a couple of local faces, and was slightly perturbed to see the Runners Retreat member i'd only beaten late doors at Burnham in May, in cooler conditions.
No one wants a tight race in this heat I thought...although ended up not getting one
I think what said it all about the heat was the fact they had a drinks station on the course, and were saying things like "if you need to drop out don't worry", "it's not a day for pbs".
All slightly surreal for a flat 5k!
Lined up, and I'm on the slightly less good line, on the thicker grass, but not to worry.
Big Dom goes off like a maniac as usual, I go off at that "feels steady but is obviously faster than you'll maintain" sort of lick, and after about 400m it's settled, with me in 6th.
Half a mile on grass, rough stoney sort of trail stuff, and then we're into the meat of the course, with a turn right, for the Shepherds (maybe Road?) loop.
This is a nice smooth section and most of the reason why this can be a very fast course.
First km is up 3.20, which makes me wonder how mad Dom's first quarter mile was
The 2 guests from Burnham 5k, who work at Runners Retreat have really gone off hard, with her leading, not even working off her male mate! She's actually lead for a mile, with our Dave Lee behind which is a heck of an effort.
I'm feeling it's one of those races I'll not lose any more positions from here, but you never know.
With the 2 who'd beaten me at Wycombe ahead, the male guest beat me at Burnham, a fast Burnham jogger, and the lady going insanely well, it'd be a mission to make anything up today.
Half mile down the smooth road, bar a few speed bumps, then a couple of hundred metres to the left, then another sweep left for the Shepherds Road bit. If it's slightly up it's one to get the ruler out, and nice and smooth.
Some unfortunate resident in a big car has chosen a nice time to come down the road, but no worries at single file at my end of the field!!
Second km 3.30 and 3rd km is 3.34. No idea how accurate these kms are, but probably ok.
Back down the original half mile road part and I've actually passed the Burnham guy who is clearly not at his top level. Having done a 17.03 or suchlike at Wargrave the first race of the series.
Davenport, who was with Lee, 15secs or so ahead of me at Wycombe is in range too, but while I'm not pushing that hard, it's not the day to start pushing on too hard I think.
Burnham puts a decent effort in and comes back past, and I'm looking forward to seeing out the rest of the race.
The 4th km comes up with about 2.42miles on the clock so I'm thinking this could be short here, but not to worry, the 5k is simply longer and it's a full 5k today without any doubt.
Round a bend onto grass, through a tight gap in a fence with trees and stuff in the way, and round another bend. To the gate, through it, a couple of looks over my shoulder, and who's this? Looks like Big Dom not that far behind.
Can't have this I think, and put an extra gear in.