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Joe - box hill sounds good, I did the Ballbuster there one time, awful weather absolutely pissed down (funnily enough).
TT - big 2 days there. Steady as she goes
Wardi - that's our sort of South coast race day weather, nice and warm isnt much of a consolation.
Was minus stupid temps out on the commute dog walking trail this morning, proper Narnia like. I had icicles in my beard again. Ran up and down a gentle 0.25m slope plenty of times to bring up 10m.
BM weather looks brutal!!
TR - nice with the hills. I've actually done slight less in the first 2 days than last week (mainly because of no pm 4m run after the 17). I'm being sensible - I even kept it all relaxed yesterday
TT - Yes it is on the hillier side (700 ft or so i think) but generally takes in the flatter parts of Cork. The GFA deadline hasn't been announced yet but was end of September last year. Which is annoying as there aren't actually that many decent events May-September. Edinburgh would have been good but it's around the same time as a wedding, my wedding anniversary and our daughter's birthday. Makes it a tough sell! Interesting pattern of surges in that run. Looks like a fun way to mix up a longer run.
Wardi - Yikes. Would not fancy that wind for brass monkey. A buggy each sounds fun but no way my wife will be entertaining that idea with a second. Agree re the weather, you really don't know what you're going to get. I think there's scope for someone to create a specific GFA qualifier in September on maybe a lapped course starting reasonably early in case it's hot. Then again, most people are probably organised enough to qualify in the spring.
TR - The ballbuster was legendary. Quite a few colleagues from work used to race it. Looks like it has bitten the dust now though which is a shame. On a recce run in November we found ourselves in the middle of an ultra being run around Box Hill. I asked one of the guys how long the race was and he said he was doing the 100 mile route which I later found out had over 22k feet of elevation. No thanks!
13ish cold miles today with a run to the barbers and then 12 miles inc 3k & 2k sections at HMP. The 3k was a comfortable 3:45/km avg but the 2k came in at 3:55s. The wind and a hill beat me up a bit and my HR went pretty high. Felt like a death march back home after that but was still cruising at 4:25s. I find when i've run quick reps my legs are charged and wanna go and what feels like a slow jog is actually closer to tempo, but that's a good thing of course. Overall happy. 12 miles at close to sub 3 pace.
TT.. thanks for the tips on weights, lifting etc. I'll search out some instructionaI videos/pics. I do have some ankle weights too so will dig those out.
TR.. this clearly isn't the weather for men with facial hair! Nice work on the hill repeats.
11.5m today, very cold but a glorious sunny day. Did a couple of laps around the racecourse where my double layers almost felt too warm.
Joe - when i did Ballbuster, transition was wet through, roads street and very slippery with leaves........I do long runs with effort sections in the middle sometimes and have to run an easy 5m home after the effort section, sometimes up and over a bit hill, always a horrible run home.
Weights and bike commute this morning, 10m home tonight.
Wardi - Sounds a lovely run and a good distance. Hopefully no niggles too? Certainly dodged a bullet with the BM.
TR - Icicles in your beard! Hardcore. Nice 10m today, meat and drink of a good marathon training cycle.
TT - Sounds a really good surge run of 17m? Hmmm - what is a surge run exactly?
LS21 - Hope your over the lurgy and back at it?
Lovely 10m in the sun yesterday afternoon, only doing an online training course so delated that to evening time. Equally nice 5m on the beach this afternoon, followed up with a bumpy club run of 9.5m, including up the local heartbreak hill, 500m @ 28%! Seems there at least 4 of us from the running group I was in doing Manchester in April.
Wardi - I've never tried the ankle weights. Mrs TT has some but not sure how useful they are.
TR - good commuting in the cold.
OO - 28% ??? Blimey! Nice training though.
A surge run is basically structured fartlek where you pick up the pace for bits, but keep going at your regular run pace on the in between bits, rather than jogging as you normally would on a workout between efforts. At the moment I'm sticking to my easy pace between the quicker bits (cMP + 1:15-1:45), but as I get fitter the in-between-bit will get faster. Further down the line the surges get quicker too. Usually 5km effort for 1-2min surges, 10km for up to 5min surges, and around cMP when it gets into the 10-15min range*).
* though before my pb I had one of these runs with 2 x 10mins and 1 x 15mins which were all run at about HM pace, which was a strong run and kind of the benchmark I'm aiming for.
11m yesterday lunchtime with 6 x {1/4m @ 5km-10km effort, 3/4m brisk} - averaged 5:40/6:58. 4m in the evening as easy out, brisk back. Opted for shorts for the lunchtime run which was a mistake as struggled to get my legs turning over in the cold.
Hopefully an easy double today but my timings are somewhat skewed as a result of waiting in for the treadmill to be delivered (also need to find the time to assemble it).
TR - 5m is quite the cool down. I had to run down some busy roads yesterday with no pavements so had to pick and choose my stretches for 3km and 2km. Ideally I think I would have done the 2km a bit later and saved myself such a long cool down but in hindsight it was probably better for my legs.
OO - I had to reread your post a few times just to make sure you really said 28%! You won't see anything like that in Manchester. Some solid miles banked!
TT - Quite possible. I have some days thinking i'll be the right side of 1:20 and other days on the wrong side. Generally i've been aiming to train around 3:55/km so that with a ~4-6% shoe benefit and taper I'd dip under 1:20. I like the sound of the surges, presumably the easy run distance/time between them is random ie when you feel like surging you do it?
Going well this week TT
Joe - once the London dates get announced more races may pop up, they added a September marathon at Goodwood last yr in order to beat the date. Dorney lake in early Oct may make the cut yet.
Trying to stick to singles at the mo, but 5 and 5 today in order to be able to run in tomorrow and bike home later.
TT.. it has to be 0 degrees or lower to get me in running tights! Despite my Raynauds struggles it doesn't seem to affect my lower limbs.
Good luck with the treadie delivery, I wanted mine upstairs back in the day so at 95kg I had to draft in extra labour.
OO.. that 28% hill sounds brutal! I get a few mild niggles but not enough to stop me running. I'll see if my current S&C stuff makes a difference. The Brass forecast has improved slightly but still looks very windy to half way.
5.4 + 4.3 sunny miles today plus a few exercises.
TR - yesterday ended up being a bit of a bust as only managed a very easy 6m (busy day), but yeah, ok so far. Looking at, hopefully, similar volume to last week by the time today and tomorrow are done, but with a little more effort, so going in the right direction. Any improvements on the niggles front from the (mainly) singles plus s&c?
rjr - not necessarily. I tend to structure them to some degree as it means that there will be some surges where I start off more fatigued than others, whereas with allowing more recovery time I wouldn't get to stimulate that scenario of trying to pick up the pace on tired legs. Doing them completely randomly also has benefits obviously. I think I just do better with a little bit of structure in there. I've got 4 very specific ones I'll be looking to do further down the line, which are all structured.
TT - good to have an easier day though. The usual hammy, bum cake and groin stuff is feeling good. I'm able to lift heavyish and it's going well, although im reinflating dormant muscle and gaining weight.........the medial knee damage is improving, biggest problem is front of the knee wear and tear aches, at times its very stiff and achey.......if it's arthritis weights should help, if its runners knee then weights should help........I taped it up last night as if its runners knee, can't hurt.......
Folks were reporting -8 and -10 at their homes today, was real cold and icy out on my commute dog trail accross he fields, so who knows what the temps were out there. Managed to dodge as much ice as possible and get 7ish of the 10 done on the trail. Pushed on for the last few.............bike commute and weights just now.
TT.. the odd low volume day won't do any harm. Good to hear you are making a bit of consistent progress.
A single 5.5m run today, a bit cloudier but temps were up to the heady heights of 3-4 degrees. More fly tipping to report - this time it looks like it's come from a 1960's kitchen - old lino & a kitchen appliance I didn't recognise.
Joe - 28% - I hope not, there's that tiny rise in Altrincham and thats it.
TR - Nicely done, especially with the very cold temperatues & ice dodging, a lot around yesterday.
Wardi - That is balmy! PR today?
Nice 10m in the sun yesterday in the afternoon once most of the ice has melted, and 10m this morn, including 5m @ 6.22mm, which I was really pleased with as haven't had a pacy run for a good while. Choose to run in the old VF as getting no pace whatsoever from the Nike Invincibles, great to run in some shoes with a bit of zip. Off shortly with my son and some of his pals to see Plymouth my "local" team (who they will be supporting) vs Cardiff City, my main team. Hoping for a 7-7 draw!
Been reading along but not posting as my running is still 💩💩 due to injury, loss of fitness & persistent post-run muscular/joint aches.
Pretty sure it was Charlie Spedding who used to incorporate regular surges of 1-4 minutes in his long runs.
Good to see RJR posting again. Was wondering what had happened to you just the other week. Good luck getting to the start line injury free. You’ve certainly got decent speed. Village Bakery is a great HM: quality field & fast course so you should go well.
When’s the track 50K SJ? Hopefully the weather is onside as it’d be miserable in wet &/or windy conditions.
Sorry to hear your glute is still problematic Wardi. At least you’re getting decent mileage in again.
OO - nice one on the speedy miles. Makes me chuckle that your local team is Plymouth, how far away is that ? Quite a distance?
Jools - sorry to hear your still struggling. I feel for you.
Cold and windy 20m today, first 20 of the year. Means I hit the 70m maximum for the week. None of the intended quality in there though due to all the ice.
OO - nice 5m in the 10. The surge runs are a great way to 'hurry up' a long run.
Wardi - flytipping always saddens me. I just don't get it.
Jools - sorry to read that you're still struggling. Hopefully you can find a way through it! ~
Good memory!!! Spedding done a couple of surge runs when training for LA in '84. He was knocking along with some of the guys being coached by Bill Squires, which is where the surge runs come from.
Moved my planned second run yesterday out to tomorrow as we were busy assembling the treadmill yesterday and I didn't fancy trying to run in the dark on ice. I was out earlier in the day, though too slippery for any kind of session so it ended up as 11m - 5 easy, 6 brisk.
Today was a very easy 12m which was plenty fast enough as I was a bit stiff because our dufus of a dog got carried away on our walk today and clobbered his 30+ kg into my side, at full speed!
TR.. for doubles I usually run 8.30-10am mornings and set off 3-4pm afternoons. The light is coming back here so light until 4.45pm. Kudos due for the windy 20m.
Jooligan.. injuries in later life do take longer to get previous form back, best of luck with the recovery. I'm a minute slower at Parkrun than late '22.
5.5m + 4m today, exercises on top. I'm considering a 5-6m run to the 7m point on the Brass Monkey tomorrow ( and back!). The forecast has improved to mostly dry and 15-16mph SW winds for the runners. They should be wind assisted on the return in theory.
Wardi - thats a short break at 5 to 6 hours. Not sure what the science would say about that short break vs doing both runs as a single.
Turbo for me today.
Good day for my clubmates. The 2.26 guy from Valencia ran 69.27 today, the young lad who had to drop out of Valencia was 1 second behind him. First time sub 70 for them both. 3rd counter ran 71 mins but I think we were pipped to the team prize by Leeds City. The first 3 back ended up in a sprint finish, winner 66.58
They were very fortunate with a weather window this morning, it is now blowing a hooley and chucking it down.
Another week banked at this end without too much drama. I decided that I would run indoors whilst the ice hung around annoyingly. I ran easy until track yesterday which I didn;t get out to until the afternoon due to errand in the morning. Session was 1k, 2 x 800m, 3 x 600m, 4 x 400m and 5 x 200m all off 60 secs jog. Fortunately I had the track to myself and the wind wasn't too bad. Reps started off with the 1k in 3:42, 800s 2:55, 2:53, 600s 2:08, :07, 07, 400s 1:23, :24, :23, 24, 200s 39s, 40, 38, 38, 38. The idea was to start out at 10k pace and work down to 5k pace. I don't think there is much correlation between these two paces anymore. The speed is sort of still there but I don't think there is another gear.
Ran my hilly 20 mile route today in blustery conditions but dry. Left the run as late as I dared with the track still in my legs. Quite tired in the last 5 miles but managed to raise the pace a little to finish strong into the ever strengthening wind. 53 miles for the week.
SJ - good going on the track and 20m combo weekend, good paces.......it's been tough so far this winter. There were storms in November when i did Hayling 10m and Gosport, it got cold just before my HM in December, and it's either been pissing down, a named storm or icey since.........as ever less than ideal prep for a warm spring day in the city centre..........I have to suck it up as i train in my commute and got rid of my own car a few years ago (I have access to the SPOs and my lads when they arnt using them though).
I end up going out layered up and then, as soon as I pick up the pace even a little get too hot and end up tucking buffs, hat, and gloves into wherever they'll fit.
TR - I use my car so infrequently I could almost do away with mine too.
Wardi - nice results from your clubmates! Sounds like they're in good shape! Good on you for getting out there and supporting them.
The dog collision left me feeling very painful yesterday so I just jogged enough to bring up 80m for the week (plus a longer dog walk earlier in the day). No weights for a couple of days unfortunately, but I'd probably pop something. Will gauge today's run based on how I feel when I start.
TT - Excellent mileage, considering the best efforts of your hound! Great to see consistent big mileage weeks.
SJ - I had a metamorphisis at the footie as though a lifelong Cardiff fan, I was cheering the Plymouth goals (as I normally do when I see them play other teams). Just a far better run club, who play good football, score loads of goals with players that care. Yes, a great time to be a Saints fan - going to be tight for that second automatic promotion spot. Your marathon training is hitting all the buttons, well done.
TR - Well done for ticking off the first of many 20m and the 70m week. Yes, a very tough couple of months with the weather, when you have no choice but to run in it.
Wardi - Gosh, those times are sharp. January is the "needs must" month, just get through in one piece.
An easy 16m into the wind/ storm to bring up a 69m run week. Hopefully a similar week this week. A rest day today, though keen on active rest so went swimming (for the first time in yonks) this morning. .
OO - another good week, good idea on the swim. I was proper fit when i was swimming as well as bike and run. I think the forced breathing patterns are good for fitness.
Morning s and c, evening 5m easy. Hopefully something half decent in the morning (with no ice to dodge).
TT - 30 kgs is some size of dog! No surprise it caused some damage. Sensible to drop the weights.
Wardi - Thought the conditions at BM must have been favourable because the times were fantastic. Shame it's so hard to get in now because it's definitely a quick course and lots of people to push you around as a decent club runner.
Jools - sorry to hear that you're struggling but you seem to be going about things the right way. Parkruns have been great for me getting back into things but I am fortunate that times are going the right way. I'm sure it will come and you'll be back to being a mountain goat!
SJ - Consistent reps on the track. Initially thought the paces were a little on the slow side (for you anyway) but off 60 sec jog I think that's pretty tough going. Nice one. And on the 20 miler as well. The idea of doing a 20 miler again let alone a marathon is filling me with a bit of fear.
OO - Good win for Plymouth (not so good for you). Made my first trip there last year as I completed the 92 last season. Thought they had a really nice setup. Nice work on the swim. Jealous of anyone who can and is willing to use swimming for recovery. I don't think it'll ever be for me.
Not a good week running wise for me. I was winding down for Box Hill but had a cold lingering (the sore throat had started last Sunday). On Friday it hit hard and laid me out for the weekend so no Box Hill and a week off training. These things used to bother me but now I just see it as a bonus i've been forced to rest my legs. Besides all I really missed out on, aside from possible bragging rights with a decent time, was beating my legs up on a tough course and a little bit of extra fitness. Down in London for work tomorrow so i'll try to get an hour in on the south bank tomorrow morning to kick things off again. Not a whole lot more I can do for Wrexham now but will try to get in a couple of longer runs and HMP pace sessions.
TT.. you did well to salvage an 80m week after the dog bruising! Hope the discomfort eases away soonest.
SJ.. interesting doubling a weekend brisk session with a long run the day after; are your legs usually ok for both? Nicely done anyway.
TR.. good luck with the run tomorrow 13 degrees forecast here in the afternoon though very windy. BTW I had a Madras with egg pilau rice last night, a very tasty combo!
5.2m late afternoon. Our town bridge is shut again, I think it must be the wind causing the levels to rise as we've not had much rain lately.
Wardi - wind is howling here.
Very wet 10m this morning, but it was mild and the wind was ok, so 3m easy then 7m steady (Av 7.03), good to be doing something that will build fitness. Legs were ruined from ydays S and C, probably good that sore muscles hurt more than an achey knee.......bike commute home this evening into a gale (and more rain).
TR - Bit of a shock the warmer temperatures. A good 7m stretch at a decent lick, and all banked. Well done.
Easy 11m double for me today in yet another storm, thankfully wind not rain here.
RJR.. bad luck catching the bug before a race. Still, as you say a chance to recover and press on in better health.
OO.. I remember going to an evening cup replay at Exeter many years ago to watch the Toon. I went by train and didn't get home until about 9am the next morning! Good effort getting out twice in the wind.
Wind and rain is never much fun on a bike, I'd rather be running. Good work on the soggy 10m.