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Cracking weekly mileage 👏
Seems my strength suffered a sudden drop OO & hence my speed. I’m particularly badly affected by hills these days whereas I used to be very strong uphill. Lung capacity was tested by the Doc in February & was lower than expected for a man my size so probably lost some from CV. I would’ve expected it to be higher than average after 20 years of endurance training.
Rather you than me running a marathon in those temps. At least you have recently had some hot weather training.
Good idea on the rest day. I’ve taken a few recently - was close to having one today in fact. It was a combination of wrecked legs & foul weather but managed to get myself out the door soon after 2 in the end. The rain had abated & I managed to get over halfway before copping a soaking by which point I didn’t care. 20K done which almost brought up 50M for the week.
OO.. re. London 2018. If I remember correctly both CharlieW and Al P did a sauna session or two earlier in the week before once they realised it was going to be a warm weekend. True dedication!
Gale conditions here from 8am, just starting to calm down. As bins and branches were being blown around I opted for 5.3m on the treadie as the safer option.
TR - that was a belting long run on Saturday. Fingers crossed for some kind weather over the next couple of weekends and you should get some great results - well done!
wardi - good work on the parkrun! Sounds like a great day!!
OO - ah sorry, didn't realise you were Welsh! I lived in Cardiff for a short while (on Fidlas Road, near the railway arches where the Fiat garage is in Llanishen). So I used to run in/around Roath Park a lot! I went out with a girl from Rumney actually (for 10 years+) I really like it down there, it's a good city and great people. Funny you and TT both mention the national vest. Hilly who used to post on here many a moon ago is Welsh, but happily runs in an England Masters vest and tries to qualify every year. Each to their own I guess. Taper well as well - very jealous of your trip, just for the weather you're going to have!! Sod the race!
TT - yes, the just 'feeling fit' thing is important isn't it? I hope you can fathom your way through the fibro stuff and your back/hammy issues. Fingers crossed! Nice COVID recovery skills as well with the Jager!!
Jooligan - interesting re the Covid thing and not something I'd considered. I certainly haven't tested positive for it this year, but I'm not sure I've actually tested much either. Never really had any symptoms, or so much as even a sniffle really. So I don't think my issue is that, but who knows? My running certainly doesn't 'feel' any different either. I don't feel like I'm particularly struggling or whatever - it's just the pace is down. I always have a 'oh, I thought it was quicker than that' moment after pretty much every effort/hard run!! I'm ok though - chipping away at it and doing the right things. Well done at the XC by the way (and again today) - sounded hard work!
The weather here has been beyond dreadful. 30mph wind today (with gusts of 50+) and absolutely banging it down. That was all day too, it never stopped once. So I opted for the gym tonight and the treddy. Didn't really know what to do so I did 15k in 3 blocks of 5k progressively. Started at 11.8kph and then upped it 0.1kph every minute until I reached 5k. I then started the whole again back at 11.8, then did it again a third time. Not entirely sure what the purpose of it was but having to do something every minute seems to help re boredom - and I was clipping along quite nicely for the faster bits. So a decent workout I guess.
Got Brampton to Carlisle on Sunday and the weather once again looks awful. Heavy rain and a strong south westerly wind. It's a point to point race (obviously given the name of the race) - the entire route is directly INTO the wind for the whole way. Magic that. Time for it to change I guess, so I'll just see.
Wardi - windy here too today
LS - main thing is you got a run in. Forecast looks crap here too on Sunday. We have 40+ mph winds forecast, the beach will be on the prom again. Sorts the decision as to wether to try for a quick time or not, absolutely no chance of it.
Wet and windy bike commute this morning, windy but dry 10m run home. S and C just now.
You really have very little luck on weather/race combos, do you?!
Jooligan - was that testing with a peak flow meter? If so the problem with those is as with any other test where 'normal' is very general. Mine tends to come in a little under normal at my best, but it at least gives me a baseline reading to refer to for when I've got issues. Good week. Sub-20 will come.
Wardi - continued good training from you. It's great to see you getting back to it.
LS21 - good way to break up the tedium of the treadie! And yes, I think, at least in my case, when you've had periods where you've lost your fitness, you just want that feeling back, irrespective of the end race time (though I daresay when I start to feel fit again my mind will no doubt turn to race times again! Lol).
Bit of a meh day yesterday, but got myself out at the end of it for 8m starting easy and finishing a little brisker. Didn't feel horrendous, but didn't feel great either, but at least I'm moving again.
Last week ended up as 41m with 2 weights sessions so beating both of those totals is the target for this week.
Got the double in early this week, so i can run once a day for the rest of the week now. So 10 as 2 easy, 8 stdy and a slow 4m tonight, minimal 4m as i felt a bit ropey.
TT.. Best of luck in making some progress & back into racing again.
LS21.. hope that wind speed & direction improves for you! I remember the East Hull 20 being very windy most years.
4.2m + 7.5m today, the latter run with the club. The river here is very high so the town bridge is once again closed to traffic but open to pedestrians.
Seems a few of us are racing this weekend, which is great. Wardi are you running the 10m?
It makes sense that a CV effect would be raised HR.
Good doubles yesterday TR & Wardi.
4m easy yesterday, the same today and try and spot some ghost injuries.
Meanwhile good luck with the rest of the taper, safe journey and don't go stubbing your toe on any protruding objects.
10.7m today, pretty windy up here but dry.
Wardi - hope the water drops a bit. The water was cold for my 50 metre paddle through flood water in the commute lanes today. I hope it drops before any freezing up happens, or I won't be able to get through. But it's still shin deep at the mo.
10m inc 10x3min this morning, combination of quicker running and a firmer less cushioned shoe seemed to meet with knee approval. Legs were sore from Monday's s and c by the end of the reps.
We have a named stormed tomorrow, so might have to run both ways if its too windy to pedal in the morning.
HR wise I've looked back, and up until I got that run of flu/pneumonia/chest infection my 4 week RHR average was 40-42bpm consistently. After that it got back to high-40s before covid struck, when it went up to upper mid-50s. It had started to slowly come down towards low-50s before the latest bout. Fingers crossed a clear period with some consistent training will realign things back to low-40s in time.
Wardi - hopefully the race goes ahead and good luck if you decide to race it!
OO - enjoy the weather, and good luck for the weekend!
Keeping it low key and controlled here. Tuesday was a very easy 9m am, before 4m+ pm consisting of 2 run/walk with my wife and dog, and another 2m+ very easy solo.
Just a 5m jog yesterday, and 4m this morning as 2 jog, 2 brisk. Will do something else relaxed later.
This morning bike commute was like riding up stream in the pissing rain. Easy 5m run home, hammies and glutes are feeling if from Monday's s and c.
TT.. I had a run with the Mrs this morning. She had 6 months out with PF (with a heel pad tear). She's gone from 5k to 4m and now 5.5m so making steady progress.
The river levels here dropped about 2ft overnight so the bridge did reopen today. Forecast is dry tomorrow so the levels will hopefully have chance to drop further.
I did manage to get into Sunday's race thanks to the organiser. I'm tempted to pace it rather than race it as a precaution, I'll see how I feel on the day. Forecast is a bit wet but as the finish line is about 100m from my house I can reach the dry indoors pretty quickly.
OO - hope you go well
10m this morning as 5m easy, 5m steady. Easy few miles tomorrow, then HM Sunday. Time to ease off and get healthy after that.
Forecast for here on Sunday is showers & 14mph winds so not too bad. After stacking a few miles in earlier in the week I decided on a brief taper leading up to Sunday. Another 5m today, sunny with light winds so a pleasant run.
Currently at Bristol Airport->Gran Canaria->Expo and finally my hotel @ 7.30 pm tonight. In the end, am travelling solo as my son injured his arm, face, shoulder whilst on a pub crawl on Wednesday by bike (who would have thought that would have ended badly and a visit to Minor Injuries Unit). He is OK, just a bit sore.
The carb load is ongoing and for tomorrow looking for 2.55, ideally 1.26 and a slightly slower second half as fatigue and the heat nibbles. It's a flat course, I ran 2.52 in 2021 and now armed with SIS Beta gels so hopefully in with a good shout. There's around 1100 running so should be some company/ groups.
Good luck tomorrow too TR, LS21, Wardi. DBS and don't get too wet.
TR.. best of luck with the wind blast tomorrow. The weather has been bonkers lately. Wet one day, dry the next; windy one day then calm the next. We could do with a 2 month drought!
LS21.. the wind doesn't now look too bad for your race tomorrow, enjoy the race.
Forecast for Sunday here is now light showers/sunny periods & 11mph winds which will do. Ran a few miles up the country section of the course earlier and there are lots of big puddles. Today has been dry so they might recede by the morning.
Enjoy yourself OO
Minimal 3m here this morning. No idea what sort of time is or isn't possible tomorrow in gales, so will make it up on the day.
Wardi - great news with Mrs W's progress! We're trying to come up with an approach for my wife that will work around both long covid and shift patterns. I'm hopeful for her. Hopefully yours went well too?
OO - ouch re: Jr! My Dad broke his nose in a similar fashion when I was a kid. Age is no barrier to doing daft things! Lol. Hopefully the heat was bearable!
I went to see the chiropractor for the first time in months on Friday, so took that as a rest day. I've always ended up out of alignment when I've been properly poorly, but this time was ridiculous. Out for an easy 6 yesterday, and will do 6.5+ later to bring up 50m for the week (all very lowkey). No gym sessions though as don't want to lift until tomorrow (like to let things settle post-chiro).
I have spent some time hoisting stuff around and at full extension on ladders fixing guttering (next job on my list - and one I've been putting off), so that's a form of cross training, right?
Hope TR and wardi did ok!
TT - good to see you getting back to it. Hopefully now you're re-aligned you'll be good to go as well.
Bit of a full on week for me. Limited myself to runs of about an hour or so each day as I wanted to have a proper pop today. That said I was in Glasgow on Thursday night to see The Prodigy. That was as bonkers as you would expect. Absolutely mental, cos I obviously didn't stand at the back tapping my foot! I was right in the middle of the carnage and it was mega! Took my daughter too - her first ever gig! A nice, low-key calm affair!! Haha! Was a late night though - drove up, watched the gig and then back home. So I didn't get home til 1:50am Fri morning. So not ideal prep for a race but it was so worth it - I loved it!
Anyway, today at Brampton. We got really lucky with the weather. It was so much better than forecast. Was a tad breezy in places but the rain held off, so we were lucky (it's been absolutely dreadful at home all day). I was pleased with my run - 65'10, so 4 minutes quicker than Derwentwater 2 weeks ago. Gave me a 74.72% wava too which is comparable to London (74.75%) - and way better than anything else I've done this year, so I'll take that! Onwards and upwards etc.
Not sure what the plan is now for the next month. Prob tick over on 50ish a week for a bit and then start the Mara prep Xmas week. But feeling like I can run low 3's at London now (maybe sub-3'05) so we'll see.
Great run LS & even better gigging/fathering. Your daughter's lucky to have The Prodigy as her first gig. I was meant to see them this summer at BoomTown but they had to pull out last minute due to injury.
Been benched since Tuesday & no real sign of progress. Physio appointment tomorrow so hopefully get some kind of diagnosis though it's a phone call initially so who knows.
Sorry to hear that Jooligan, you were on the up. Hopefully, a good diagnosis and not too much time on the bench.
Official results say 2.59 which is annoying, but still a sub 3. But not as annoyed as the next runner in who ran 3.00.01, or the pacer who more or less was in full sprint mode for the last mile and ran 3.00.05. Ouch.
OO - great job, well done on managing the last 8m. Another sub3 on the CV.
LS - good to see you going better, stick with it the running rollercoaster will go up again.
Ouch Jools, what have you hurt?
Expected a windy day with a seafront HM, was worse than windy in reality, ridiculous. But i thought it'd help me not chase a quick time and not go too hard, ran it progressively and ended up with 1.27.0X. Av HR was 144, if expect to see 150 for a HM and around 138 when it normally do 10m mp. So somewhere between hmp and mp? Who knows, impossible to quantify........2 weeks ago Hayling 10m was ruined by winds and the affects of the storm, next race is in 2 weeks time.....knee was better than at Hayling, but i was sliding about on mud and shingle there.
Jooligan.. sorry to hear you're crocked, best of luck with the physio visit.
TR.. that's a very decent time given the gale conditions, well toughed out. Was it a loop course or point to point? Fingers crossed the weather gods are with you in 2 weeks time.
OO.. chapeau, that's a very fine marathon on a warm day to keep your streak going, how many is that now? I'm sure the cool dip was enjoyable, followed by a refreshing beer or two?
I wonder how they got the results out of kilter like that.
TT.. encouraging that your RHR is coming down, 50m for the week is good progress. Sounds like the chiro did a good job! Re. gutters.. our house is like a big bungalow where they had an impulse to build an upstairs into the attic/roof. As a result the gutters are only about 10ft high.
The local 10m went ok, no rain and the winds did drop to 10/11mph. I hadn't run a double digit race since Feb so didn't want to overcook it. Settled into a pace of 8.00-8.10mm which felt like a reasonable effort, the only glitch was an 8.30 at 7m due to a drag up a hill. 1.22.09 was 3 mins slower than last year but I was pleased enough given the two bad injuries I've had this year. With a w/u and a few miles added on I totted up 15m for the day, 58.5m for the week. A couple of beers and some Indian grub tonight.
848 finishers on the day, my clubmates took advantage of their 'home' fixture and finished 2nd, 3rd & 5th to take the team prize.
That's a really good run TR, a confidence builder Hope you go for Goodwood and there is - hold your breath - decent weather.
Nice one too Wardi, must have felt good crossing the finish line after your injury. Wow, some running club very impressive.
Glad your on the mend TT, with the stats going the right way.
I think the numbers discrepancy was I pressed my watch at 26.3 miles but we had 400 metres to go so we finished at a good spot. So 2.59 it is, haven't got one on those. Also didn't realise I won a trophy and prize for the masters win, so haven't got those either. Downside, my right foot feels very very sore so time to have a few weeks off then back at it with gusto for the London-Newport double in April.
OO - good one on the trophy, so are you saying you stopped your watch before the finish line?
Finished at a good spot?
LS - well done at Brampton, and great with the gig - pics looked like it was a good one! Long drive up and back which makes your Brampton time even better!
My first gig was Foo Fighters as they done their first ever European tour. As they were pretty unknown (mainstream wise) it was a small venue (2,000). Seeing them play Reading Festival almost 20 years later as verifiable rock gods was quite surreal. 2nd gig was Pearl Jam who I'd love to see again (missed them the last time they came to the UK).
Jooligan - that sucks. What happened?
TR - that's a very positive run! Well done! Great news with your knee too! HR is a funny old thing as I'm not going much quicker than a jog for the HR you averaged yesterday.
Wardi - well done on the race. Definite positives from that run for you!
And lucky you on the gutters! Thankfully I'd already finished the second storey ones - these are the ones around the conservatory/side extension. The cowboys that built it didn't connect the downpipes to drainage - one of them stops about 2ft above the ground, and the other goes straight into the earth on an enclosed section which fills up in wet weather and comes above the dpc.
Yesterday's 7m saw an unexpected drop in HR/effort. Ended up with 7:50 for 145 avgHR. Pre-covid I'd hit 7:42 for 149, so more than comparable. I suspect that drop will bounce back the other way for a few days now, as that usually happens post-lurgy, but a good sign that I'm coming out the other side.
Yes TR, it looks like I inadvertently pressed too early, as when I pressed at the finish line, it all looked odd. Looking at Strava seems the race length was 26.45 hence the extra 90 seconds running so it finished in front of the lighthouse landmark. Yes TT I will, the knee has been sore for a few weeks too so can do with some rest and recovery.
Black Friday buy: On the beach sunning myself in Maspalomas and just bought a pair of Adidas Adizero Pro 3 (Startfitness £134) as the VF gave another blister on my heel.