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I was pissed off yday, but i have a recovery path now. I've run very little on last 10 days and if the drugs kick in quickly (I'll have had 4 of the 8 doses by tomorrow morning), I'm hoping to be able to get moving at the weekend. It'll take me a while to get the old body moving for a week or too and get healthy, then i can have 4 or 5 weeks of build, ready for the old faithful 11 laps of goodwood early December.
SJ.. good to see you're out running again. TR could be right about the bouncy shoes! Might take in a Parkrun myself on Saturday.
TT.. great session last night, certainly a good speed workout as well as a strength builder.
Jools.. I fear the London course would grind to a halt at times around 4-5 hour pace with 50,000 runners. I know they have to keep the race publicity up for the sponsors but increasing the numbers in an already crowded race seems the wrong way to go about it.
Another 5 5m today, breezy with a couple of showers to dodge.
In other news we had a burst water main 30 yards from our house last night. No problem for us but a 4ft wide stream was pouring down the hill on the main street. I had to paddle a bit when I went to collect a couple of pizzas. The torrent has stopped today but we still have one way traffic and temporary traffic lights as there is still a big hole in the ground. Just what we need when there is a water shortage!
Re super shoes. Yes, in short I believe they saved my legs far more than anything I've worn before. I did have some doms on Monday but nothing too bad.
Did they enable me to run faster? On reflection, probably. I don't think they made me x number of seconds per km faster but I was able to be more efficient for the entire race which in turn probably yielded a slightly better time.
Wardi - Nice shower avoiding. Good the excess water isn't affecting you.
sj - I think that hits the nail on the head. It's the improved efficiency of the shoes and the saving of the thrashing of legs that makes the difference. I find I struggle to get a rhythm in the Alphafly' compared to the Vaporfly', which is a pain, but I spent a wedge of money on them so they're getting used irrespective for a while longer until I move them over to training shoes.
TR - good attitude.
The squat jumps yesterday seemed to massively impact my legs as I had very heavy, tired legs under me today, but ground out an 18. First xc race at the weekend should be interesting given how my legs feel right now.
TT - What a speedy session and extras - nice one. Good 18m today. Yes, yesterday's caffeine needy headache was not nice, OK though today.
Wardi - Good to see the recovery going well. Yes it's a very attractive course and a trip (long trip) down memory lane as lived in Richmond for 10 years so know some parts of the course very well, especially the section by Hampton Court which you woukd have run with the Kingston 16.
SJ - Glad the shoes helped, it would have put you on an equal footing with many of the other runners.
Now in London after a 'pleasant 5 hour drive interspersed with some business meetings. After umming and arring brought my Vaporflys over my 4% to run in, they've blistered my heel in the 4 marathons I've run in them so this is their last chance. Off to the British Museum tomorrow ( I am so provincial) them some very moderate afternoon boozing then early to bed as have to get to race at 7 - 7.20 am to pick up my number.
Tomorrow is day 5 out of 8 for antibiotics, hoping to get going again, very minimal running since 15m two saturdays ago, so will creak a bit for a week or 2.
7 this morning. Legs are still sore and tired but I'm feeling a little bit stronger so training is going in the right direction.
6m easy, on the mend as minimal coughing episodes afterwards, but a way to go yet. Gently does it for a week or 2. Bit of a shock as only done a few runs at the start of the last taper week in the last 2 wks.
TT.. good luck at the XC, hope your legs freshen up before tomorrow.
OO.. a 5 hour trip sounds charming! Our estimated Chester drive of 2 hours took 3 hours due to the heavy rain last Friday. Enjoy the run around your old stomping ground, weather looks spot on!
Had to go to the Uni Parkrun today as horse racing is on at the usual venue. 5 x 1k laps of a cycle circuit, lovely morning for it. Kept the handbrake on and ran a controlled 23 mins, 7.15, 7.15, 7.08. The winner whizzed round in 15.34, he lapped me after 2 circuits! 2m w/d, no doubles for the time being.
Wardi - speedy from the winner and good handbrake on run from you.
I never got to do xc. Youngest has the same bug we all had last week and my wife was booked in for some work-related-volunteering. Managed to fit in a dress rehearsal for next weekend (wore the Alphafly' as still trying to get used to them) as: 3m moderate (7:26), 5m tempo (28:44), 3m moderate (7:33). Legs were still tired, but aerobically this was comfy which is a big positive. 95m for the week.
We did manage to get Jr a lift to the xc where he made the scoring team, beating people that were ahead of him at the start of the year, so he's making good progress.
A good morning. Came in 4th in a time tbc of 2.48.51. Slightly unusual day with a 4.30 am wake up and 8 am start! Cold then cool and sunny so conditions were good. Ran with another guy exchanging 3rd and 4th until 15m then he ran off. Last 3 or so miles a bit ropey, as caught up with the half marathoners, the route a bit trail marathony and became quite busy when adding in walkers/ bikers etc so lost a time of time. But really happy with the time, didnt really go full beans and my 3rd 2.4* time of 2022 and 18th consecutive sub 3 road marathon. Sensible boozing yesterday, 2.5 pints of Beavertowns Gamma Ray, thought it was 3.4 ABV infact 5.4 ABV!
TT.. shame you couldn't make the XC but that's another fine mileage week in the bag.
Decent progress from your lad too, always good to see the youngsters improving. I was reading about two 11 year old twin sisters who both broke 20 mins at Parkrun recently.
Another steady 5m today to finish a quiet post marathon week.
TT - shame re the lurgy. There's loads about, had a few local folks tell me theyve just had CV agsin too, so its on the rise again.
OO - great run, another m55 sub 2.50......us oldies need to take our reading glasses to the pub, to tell the grazing beers from the proper beers. Didnt do you any harm though.
Easy 45min turbo here, getting back on it was always the plan after london.
Wardi - I bet there's some fun rivalry between those two!
TR - thankfully I've yet to catch covid, but yeah it seems to be on the rise around here too. I'm planning on actually getting the flu jab as well as the booster this year.
TR - Good your back on the turbo. You should bounce back quickly. Your right on the glasses, I should have worn them.
Wardi - Cheers, I did. Y'day had to run past the pub on the river I went to on Saturday as it was on the course, the White Cross on Richmond riverside if your ever in the area.
Thanks, further observations before I put the marathon to bed:-
- very scenic, chilly start but rewarded with mists rolling off the river Thames and then a wonderful cool and sunny morning.
- more proper trail than what I would have thought
- marathon runners really are a wonderful bunch, plenty of thumbs-up and shouts of looking good/ well done as we ran past each-other as the course come back on itself a few times.
- A twisty course and tricky to navigate so the guy who was 3 minutes behind me at 15 miles and never went past, placed 3rd and 5 minutes ahead of me at the finish! Another chap I know ran 28 miles on his first marathon - ouch!
- SIS Beta Fuel gels worked really well, I had 2 of these and 1 SIS caff gel
- I did a proper carbo load on Friday and Saturday, probably consumed 3,000 calories on Saturday, mainly carbs.
- Gamma Ray is a pretty good pint, I've a weakness for American style IPAs.!
After a 12 hour round trip, now, thinking of something closer to home and running the Cornish marathon on 6th November (whats wrong with us!). So will recover this week and some gentle running next.
Cornish marathon looks fun - I'd be tempted if I hadn't already signed up for a fell race Saturday afternoon
Glad you're on the recovery road TR.
Cracking tempo sandwich that TT. I managed a (slightly) faster mile after 13 miles Saturday but it was greatly assisted by gravity. Don't think it helped yesterday's 20 miler. A decent progression til the last few miles when my GPS signal went wonky so the watch was reporting all sorts of weird & wonderful lap paces. This coincided with my legs starting to tighten. In the end the final 5M were about 10s/mile slower than the previous 5M. Averaged 7:44 for the 20 though so it's officially taper time now.
The plot thickens with the Richmond marathon. The guy who clearly won and presented with the trophy is coming up 2nd on the results page, with the "winner" the chap I was running with from mile 6 to 17, who could have got lost (he said he did the last time he ran it) and cut around 1.5 miles from the route, (there was a cutback where that could easily have happened). So I could be 3rd! Results show a 2.48.37, so 14 seconds better than I thought.
Jools - good to see you make the taper, hope it works some race day magic for you
Jooligan.. that's a decent long run on a big weekend, good confidence booster before the Abo countdown.
Still steadily building the miles up again post marathon, 4m yesterday & 7.5m with the club tonight.
TT - Another big week and good that you are feeling so good at the faster paces. Good progress from Jnr too.
SJ - i used the recent extra weekend time to finish off the bathroom, flooring goes down on Thursday.
My body is creaking from getting going again, lungs are improving, hopefully ill be back to normalish in a week or 2. There was a proper crunchy frost this morning, first one of the season.
SJ - A lot also to be said for a more leisurely return to running. Good luck with the XC on Saturday, that will be a bit spicy I'd imagine.
TR - Good to see you back out there and at it. Your right, last year the winner got a week in the Cayman Islands, this year some glory.
No response from the runs organisers over Sundays result and not on Po10 yet. I did email them to suggest what I suspect happened i.e #1 & #3, got lost and run short. I do feel for the organisers as like many smaller races they had timing mats at the start and finish, and then reliant on runners running the correct course and fezzing-up when they made a mistake. It seems the guy who I ran most of the race with, before he run off, would have had to find his inner Kipchoge as it suggests from the time he left me, he would have had to run the last 10k in < 30 minutes based on the results!
Looking forward to a gentle 3 or 4 miler tomorrow as legs seem to be ok emerging from the race. My groin is a touch tight as are my calves and I have a strange hamstring type fluttering, but nothing unexpected.
I'm not ill btw (it was my daughter who was/is), but your GWS seems to have jinxed me; lol.
Jooligan - enjoy the taper. Abingdon, right?
TR - good to see the lurgy disappearing.
sj - nice sensibility. Well done!
I'm nursing a niggle that seems to have been exacerbated by the Alphafly - I turned my ankle slightly in the dark Saturday evening but it worsened considerably after wearing the Alphafly for Sunday's tempo. Looking back, everytime I've worn them I've struggled for a few days afterwards so the only conclusion is that they and I don't see eye to eye.
A 5m jog Monday, and 6m easy yesterday, were surrounded by lots of icing and compression, which has helped significantly, and brought out some beautiful bruising. Today's 6m easy was much less painful so I'm going to go to track this evening and see how that goes and work from there.
It does mean I'll be doing the GSR in a pair of beat-up Vaporfly, and am selling the Alphafly (UK 8.5 - if anybody is looking for a pair drop me a message on here).
I would certainly prefer to trust an older/worn shoe in a race in your circumstances. Good luck at the GSR, have you got a mini taper planned?
OO/TR.. I was reading a GB marathon discussion on FB today, Brighton seems to have rapidly fallen from favour lately - course problems and not paying out the winning runners, poor show really. Manchester had a few glitches in the early days but has an excellent reputation now, I don't think runners mind if the organisers learn from mistakes. Let's see if the London start improves next April!
SJ.. the XC will be a decent thrash to return to competitive running for you, hope it goes well.👍
9m today, including a pleasant couple of laps around the racecourse. Turned a bit showery this afternoon so got the best half of the day.
TR. our bedroom/ensuite is now finished - carpet, electrics, the lot; apart from a new bed! Delayed due to a van breakdown but due soon
TT - supershoes can be unstable.
Wardi - good one on the diy being done. The Brighton events company are apparently struggling, owe the winners their money and suppliers etc........they say they are confident 2023 will go ahead. The need to attract lots of runners is probably why they agreed to post numbers and bring back the bag drop. Hope 2023 goes ahead as I've lost enough marathon entry fees lately. It's at the mercy of the weather so lots of quick runners go elsewhere i guess. They had about 8000 in april but are up against London and manch in April, although Brighton is early so some folks will double up.......my Abo number arrived today too.
TR - none of the news around Brighton surprises me I'm afraid to say - years ago they offered me a free place but told me I wouldn't be eligible for prize money as I'm not British. When I asked why I was eligible for a free place but not prize money, as you were supposed to be British for that too, I got the impression that if I finished in a prize money place it wouldn't be rolled down.
TR - Will you be able to get rid of the number?
Looks like London have recognised its error in the wave starts for 2022 and aims to put this right for 2023 - so hopefully the return of the FGFA start. I've had my email to say I've passed the first of the validity for London, so just checking time buffers now, as I have 30+ minutes should be OK. Looking forward to it haven't run London since 2019.
Seems to be one thing after another with Brighton, hope it doesn't go under and they can make it work with smaller numbers as a lot of competition in April and as I understand it people are not signing up-to races in the numbers they did pre-Covid.
5m easy run today, no obvious twinges so repeat again tomorrow, pretty foggy here early doors.
OO - dont think i can off load it......shame as i had a deferred place from 2019, they asked if i wanted a part refund early this year, I asked for a place for this year, but they wouldn't as they weren't sure thete would be a 2022 race, so told them to donate the money (to club funds? Charity?).......when i got the recent anti biotics i asked if i could defer my 2022 place to 2023 (as I'd previously not taken a refund), they said no, as the rules says no deferall........bit harsh !
OO.. a 30 min buffer is a safe bet, I thought I was doing well with 16 mins😏.
TT. good luck soothing your ankle niggle, not what you want close to a big race.
Glorious day up here, had to dig out the sunnies again for a 5m run. I reckon my legs are about 90% recovered now.