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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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I'm not sure if the rules for all races in Ireland are the same (as a 17 year old here Jr can race up to 25km), but unfortunately all the distances offered as part of the Viking Marathon (even the 1/4 Marathon option!!) are 18+ for insurance purposes.
That's a big improvement on the HR front; fingers crossed it carries on like that.
SG - likewise it sounds like you're going in the right direction. Being restrained seems to be working quite nicely for you.
SQ - I'm about to start a weights program too. Deadlifts and squats will also be in there. Ideally I'll actually be lifting 6 days a week. Great year from you. There is a known bug with Garmins with the optical HR where it does indeed pick up cadence instead of HR.
10m moderate NYD. Yesterday off as I was still coughing up gunk. 4m moderate this morning, with another run later. Will look to get into a groove and knuckle down now.
I dare say most of us have been in that awkward race scenario of having the first lady close, and hearing all the cheers for her whilst ignoring yourself. But racing a kid, no-one is thinking "that adult is going well"
6 days a week weights is impressive.
I do well to dig my pansy little weights out 6 times a year.
Takes as long getting them out / putting them back as using them usually.
A few curls, a few looks in the mirror frustrated I'm not yet hench and then over with for another while.
And feeling it in my pigeon arms for days and days later.
Last week had 2miles of effort, half miles 623 624 pace and 1mile at 6.29 all split with generous walk recovery .
4mile tempo after a 2.5m warm up in 6.27 average today
Mile splits all within 2 secs of each other so nicely consistent and not trying to push too hard.
Not particularly ideal conditions and done at lunchtime after way too long procrastinating but the numbers show the progression pure and simple .
As a comparison I did my last 6mile tempo in wet and wind at 620 ish and had done a few good condition ones 610-15 sort of lick.
So 20 secs a mile or so off the easy runs and 15 or so secs off this tempo would be nice, but we're moving the right direction.
Plan called for 10 with 5 @ LT today but I don't trust my hamstring to do that so it was more like 10 with 9k @ something below MP effort. The 9k/5.6 miles came out at 6:08 pace. I did a similar but shorter run last year where it came out at 5:50 for the same effort so I definitely have a lot of work to do to get back to last year's form. I do still have this lingering cough from the lurgy, it is very much background tickle that barely elicits more than the odd throat clearance now but still, I hope that's part of the reason. Also carrying probably 2-3 kgs more and I've done no cycling/swimming worth talking about recently.
Last week could be summed up with wet and wild parkruns, decent training, terrible football watching decisions.
Before London 2016 I was doing a session in the gym with work colleagues every lunchtime and significantly less running than normal, and I felt strong as an ox throughout. Plus I like lifting heavy and I built a home gym to help my wife in her recovery with long covid, so I've pretty much got everything I need there, so it'd be daft to not make use of it.
Nice improvement on the tempo.
Reg - snap on the cough (and weight). Sounds like a well controlled tempo.
4 + 7 yesterday. I've ended up with a sinus/ear infection, so back on antibiotics - everybody at home seems to have caught different bugs, so between that, and not being able to shift the cough, I'm a delight to be around at the moment! Lol.
Xmas - ran a couple of times with Ollie and his Bedford running buddies, did a session at Luton on the Thursday, 8 x 800. Last Saturday did Weymouth parkrun (very wet and windy) 2nd behind a youngster..Bournemouth PR on NYD.
Year review?
Races - 66. Obviously track bumps it up
Best race - Probably the 16.02 at Battersea, Masters relay leg was pretty good, as was Masters xc in Dublin
Best outing - Dublin for the XC international.
Worst race/moment - Spraining my ankle just before my 50th after a Parkrun. Gutted.
All posters are ace! No favourite but hopefully hear from PeteM more and Bus.
Wishes for this year - stay illness free and a better track season! Don't think i'm going to Torun for the World indoors, just won't be fit enough.
Obviously for Joe to get his life back too.
Simon - thats a lot of races, great going, especially at the level you run at.
SQ - excellent evening long run, havnt done any long weekday evening mlrs myself for a while, I'm trying to get the longer runs done early and then do a few miles home again later. But can only get 12ish done early as i have walkies before runnies.......great to hear your daughter is going well. As she gets older the time juggling will begin clashing with school, same as swimming. But at the mo the sky's the limit.
TT - as SQ says 6 gym sessions is a lot on top of running, my comment about you being an all or nothing dude applies again. Make sure you rotate exercises etc
9 miles yesterday on my last day off work was pretty darn windy and overcast. Drove to an estate somewhere, then ran a circular sort of route (ish) out to Marlow and back. Slow bit over a bridge over a dual carriage way and then slightly traily 3/4mile after, so 7.33 felt a good result.
6 so far today, 4 later.
TT -there certainly are some talents out there. Us hard working ex footy players have a job to compete
County xc (Beds/Bucks) at Amptill on Saturday, so not too much tonight. Shame it's not Hughenden again - might have tempted SG out for a run
I can find a run where I have done a mile along the Thames path near Longridge and it says I climbed 72 metres! The algorithm samples between the pancake flat flood plains to the north and the 70-metre high "cliff" to the south of the river crest.
SG do you often drive a short way to start runs? It obviously adds time but most open up more options nicely.
Very nice progression on the 1500 reps, SC.
Double recovery yesterday of 4 & 4. 10M along the canal this afternoon including 8 x strides. 7:50 pace. Means XC champs on Saturday will most definitely be untapered, but so be it. Too hard to fit in a proper run on both Sat and Sun at the moment.
There is, however, a sensible cap. I helped out on New Year's Eve and there were 249 finishers and 28 volunteers. I just got an email today as they were 6 short of the 28 they need: "requires you to arrive a little earlier (8:00am) and spend a possible few extra minutes afterwards (we are nearly always done by 10:20am)". My involvement was to marshall but the first runner knew where he was going and after that everyone just follows the person in front. I'll pace at Balck Park on Saturday and they have zero marshalls.
While standing at my post, just before the start, a runner passed and said "I see the Nazis have got you working for them." I asked him to explain his comment and he said he liked parkrun but not parkrun and I know what he means.
The next day I ran at Reading parkrun. I listened to the first-timers briefing: useful facts if you are running at an unknown location and clearly at 9am on a wet and cold Jan 1st it was all visitors. Afterwards one of the runners then gave a loud appraisal of the quality of said briefing to nobody in particular but clearly upset that he had not been asked where he was from nor if he was on a "significant milestone". Again, I enjoy a bit of parkrun tourism but you visit as a guest. If you want a round of applause for doing your 100th parkrun then do 100 at the same place and you will be known and recognised. If you are doing your 100th event at your 100th location then you are on your own.
But it's pretty bad form getting lippy with a volunteer of a free event.
I don't get the doing lots of parkrun achievement thing.
Si does more real races in a year than you can do Parkruns
14 yesterday and a recovery day today, so just under 6 miles this morning and a lunch bike ride, first time I have been out for ages and I had a massive grin for the first few miles, I missed cycling.
Despite the above 28 marshals seems crazy and I fully agree some parkrun RD's are super zealous about it all and others much more relaxed. I do my volunteering at Savill Junior in WGP, a relic from when my daughter ran there many years ago, but convenient for me as it is a Sunday. They have a RD who always over cooks the number of volunteers he needs. I usually get to marshall about 50 metres from the finish and with no further turns. Totally pointless but gets me the credit and if they want a marshall there then who am I to argue!
I'll just never get the insistence that you "have" to go every single week, irrespective of anything. Injury, illness, race the next day (race the SAME day, I've seen before too
When I first joined my club I was amazed to see people would punt a parkrun out, race on the Sunday, do the track on the (really badly placed) Monday track session, and then do the Tuesday session too.
And not like they were newbies who have one pace whether it's them on their own, or in a race.
Saw a local guy who is infamous for destroying himself had recently done some 300s in 56/57 the other day (and treated himself to doms for 2 days!!), so fancied that distance.
10x300 off 60secs felt a reasonable way in.
Usual slight doubt where the actual 300m line is
That's "ok", I suppose, first time back, legs comfy, breathing the limiter, but that's probably always like that for me in fairness. I don't think I could run hard enough to destroy my legs these days!
The tempos and easy pace are a bit off right now, so it makes sense the reps are too at the top end, but it's all a progression, and this'll be a 60+ mile week, with 4mile tempo and reps. Plus a 9 & 10 as singles.
Decent move upwards from a 54.5mile week, with 2x1/2mile and 1mile as the only quality.
SQ - 11.5 hours a week is quite a chunk. If you were to run that much averaging ~7:30 a mile you've got a 90m+ week. Nicely done with the 17.5m
SC - 66 races! Nice 1500s.
SG - it's coming back nicely. Keep being restrained.
It turns out I had/have a full blown sinus and ear infection. No bugs for ages and two come along, one right after the other. On antibiotics, which are starting to have an effect. I've not run since Tuesday, and definitely won't today. Ideally I'll get a few jogs in over the weekend, but my main aim now is to be clear of this by Monday (hopefully) to be able to put in a good 15 weeks to London.
It's particularly frustrating as 4-6 weeks ago I was in better shape at that time of year than I usually am, but have slid right back now. Still, at least the prolonged enforced rest seems to have settled my sciatica and hamstring issues.
I frequently drive a few miles from home to start a run which gives me that next ring of places so if I run from home I can get about 5 miles away on a circular route but if I drive 5 miles then I can end up 10 miles away.
parkrun tourism is an odd thing. I obviously run at different parkruns but I would not describe myself as a tourist. I won't get up at 5:30 and drive to run a lap of Wycombe Rye (as was the desire of 2 elderly ladies I chatted to on NYE) but if I am staying away on a Friday night I will try and find a close parkrun on Saturday. I see parkrun tourism was mentioned in this AW article on carbon footprint of runners:
https://athleticsweekly.com/blog/running-away-from-net-zero-1039962913/
It will be interesting to see what happens to parkrun in the coming years. It had a big bubble a few years ago and was close to 200k runners the first Saturday of 2020. We are all seasoned runners and know the pros and cons. It is easy to start parkrun and assume it is good but a 3 mile run will burn 300 calories so is not much use for weight loss and then you need to either "punt the same one out every week" or start to tour which takes time and money.
The data on 2 Jan 2023 shows 4,881,721 people have taken part but 4,255,699 have less than 25 events and the vast majority with more than 25 events have done so at less than 30 locations so the real active core are simply repeat offenders. My 336 runs at 35 events puts me in a slightly less populated box but I'd align myself with repeat offenders more than an out and out tourist.
I am in the orange bit with less than 25. I've only done about 4 or 5 different ones. I only ever did one away from home and that was when I was in Liverpool for my 40th birthday and finished first up there. It's probably only when you do dozens of them that you need to spice it up by going to lots of different ones.
Sounds like you are seeing the positive side of your setbacks TT, at least it's not something caused by running that's holding you back.
Good early year work going on from you and SQ, TT, SG, Simon and others. You've inspired me with the bike. Will get out on mine this lunchtime I think.
In working times, or for most Sunday runs I'll go from the door.
But if I've a day off and need a single - I'll often drive to Marlow (5miles), or like the other day Bourne End (3.5m?) and exactly that - opens up more options and keeps it fresh.
Can be pretty dull if you're doing the same 4/6 milers repeatedly.
Track this morning, will be followed up with a 4 shortly, up through some steep woods, and then out on the road, for a real lift midway when at peak elevation, and then down and back. Nice run to end the week's runs pre rest day.
Had to check on my number - 22 apparently, so could swiftly move into a more select 292,000
Only two people who have done 500 events have done them at 500 different locations then?
That must take some planning. I don't know how many you can do in say a local hour radius.
Maybe it'd take 2-3 years to exhaust them? New ones get added, and if you're near London, you probably have a tonneload there. But you would then start needing to face 60, 70, 80 min trips to them, and once you're 8-9 years in suddenly be facing marathon trips?
Probably all part of the fun!
Dulwich is certainly a fast course, can't remember quite how high it is in the pecking order, but probably top 10, 100% top 15.
It was a strange day - all time 5k pb, but I came away slightly disappointed as lost to a pal for the first time ever
I didn't have a GPS, but I remember booting an absolutely insane first half mile, dropping off a fair gear, but then still rescuing it sub 17 comfortably (16.53).
It's pretty clear, having hit 16.56 a few years ago, that 5k is probably the one distance I didn't maximise.
A 34:30 10k should definitely give rise to a 16.45 at least i'd say.
Not to worry - happy to still be racing decently into 40s etc.
12.2m at lunch today at 7:20, if I run early morning it's in the 8 minutes a mile region and lunch time is often 30 seconds odd faster.
Incidentally, the guy I ran with when i did my 15.52 PB at Poole PR, Dan Mulhern, was the guy who won Poole when Melissa Courtney set her WR. About a minute faster now! He was only 17 when he ran with me.
I’m one in a thousand apparently (well 1,174) with 486 parkruns at 169 venues. Spent 5 years mainly doing my local one with the occasional tourist visit when I happened to be away on a Saturday then became single & had a 33 week run of different venues. That got me close to the 100 so I kept up a high % of new venues til I’d crossed that threshold. Slowed a bit since then about half my runs are at 5 venues. Not sure where I’m going tomorrow but won’t be far.
Definitely improving: managed a hilly 11 miler last night so 43M in 4 days. Having a day off today though, other than the cycle commute.
Good reps there SG & decent MLR Reg.