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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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All his kit is eye-wateringly pricey.
Good 5K last week SC & decent 20M from SG.
Half-term last week which was spent down in Devon but bookended by racing in S.Wales. Managed my fastest parkrun post-sciatica at Aberfields en route to XC at Margam Pk, Port Talbot. It was 25” slower than when I visited 3 months ago en route to Pembrey Pk, Llanelli for the first XC of the season so still a long way off. Completely contrasting course & conditions for the XC.
Pembrey: sandy soil, flat apart from a few sharp little rises
Margam: ankle deep in sticky mud for the flat & descending half of it & hard packed gravel for the ascent which was long & steep: 700’ over 5.9M. I was 5th scorer but never felt like I was racing rather just surviving a hard effort.
Needed the Sunday off afterwards.
Got a couple of 18 milers in during the week mostly on traffic free routes. The second was going to be 20M with a faster second half however by 13 I was aware that I was almost cooked. Battled on til 17.5 then walked 1.5 before jogging the last bit.
Up to Bristol after & a Saturday night on the cider severely compromised Sunday’s return to fell racing. Lovely weather for it but the ground was horrendously wet & slippery. Everyone was 2-3 minutes slower than last year but I was 4:30 slower.
Small world isn't it! The daughter is knocking on the door for England stuff already, and I think she's around 17.30 for 5k at 14/15. If she keeps keen and develops could be a real talent.
Hopefully i'll be long outta dodge in a new club to avoid her
Fancied a short in and out sesh today.
3x1mile "hard" felt right.
Just on pavements/roads/pavements type fare, so not your smooth track, or even a designated 1mile to do up and down, but pretty much out from the door on bits of my tempo loops.
5.51, 5.48, 5.48 felt plenty.
You're simply not going to match track type stuff, but the effort was nice without overdoing it.
Did get offered a Wokey place, but I need to fancy a HM and right now I'm probably fancying a 5k turnout soon to see what's cooking.
Quite fancy a massag gun at home, Reg, but not keen on the outlay. You don’t find it that effective though? My work filter is blocking the picture 😂.
Well done on the re-speedy parkrun, Jools. Great to see you back out for some beautiful looking fell races. And two 18M in a week is going some, perhaps not surprised it was a little bit of a struggle. Enjoyed your post mid-night strava logging 😂.
Half term last week. In some ways it gives more time, but also more conscious of disappearing from the family too much. Sneaked in a 70M week for the first time since maybe September though, front-loading the week to give a mini taper before XC on Saturday. 2h15 long on Wednesday for just shy of 18M. No efforts in there, but good to see a 7:37 average. Unsurprisingly, pretty fatigued from this so a minimal 5M and 4M the next two days.
Gloucester League Pittville Park XC - quick race report:
My home fixture and always a well supported affair. A first race effort since the injury in early November. For logistics (and free mileage), jogged there with a mat. 4M warm up including drills and strides perhaps stretching things, but it did free up the car for the family to pop along later to support.
First mile in 6:19 and feeling good. A gradual decline in paces from there with a 6:42 and then ultimately averaging 6:51s. Really felt it from about 2.5M in as this was a first continuous very hard effort over 40 minutes.
Three times the stream crossing, with excellent support either side. Almost Alpe d’Huez like! Could hear my family shouting at this point, but couldn’t really take my eyes off the terrain to spot them. Did though come in for a high five with the little ones later on each lap. They had brought along various percussion instruments and definitely won noisiest crew 😂. (The kids and I had marshalled parkrun earlier that day so I was surprised they were keen for further outdoor action - but they seemed quite inspired 😊.)
Working hard now and had to push - a good rust buster in many senses. Ended up 77/173 in the senior race and 16th MV40. 42 minutes on the nose for the 10k. 223ft ascent, but it feels harder than that. A couple of minutes down on last year, but a better relative placing. Still beat the debacle of two years ago though following a once in a decade hangover. 3M jog home to give 13M for the afternoon.
This point last year, I backed up with a 24M hilly run the following morning. Not quite at that point yet…
Recovery Sunday and Monday, before heading into a split tempo session this morning. 12 mins, 10, 8 off 2 minute jog. 6:33, 32, 23 paces with a filthy wind for quite a section. 6:30 average for the ons which I suspect would correlate well to HMP so a good session for 5am.
Bourton 10k coming up this week. Will keep a lid on expectations and worry about banking a first sub 40 as a V40 before getting carried away.
Jools = Brave introducing the cider into the mix! Nothing better though, running & drinking
SG - Good training, who is 'the daughter' yours?
Reg - Was always going to be expensive that stuff. Can't see myself wearing a tri suit thing like Ingebritsen, imagine turning up to a Watford in it!
As for me..
Friday - Battersea 5K. Went down with the missus & kid so missed the free beer and pizza after
Didn't have the watch on auto lap, but I clocked 3.00 for the first K, felt slightly better than expected towards the track and up through the middle again past the bandstand and hit 3k at about 9.26. Got a bit excited, but my quads were just starting to moan a bit. After 4K started to get left by the guys I was running with and it started to get quite hard. Managed to hold it together for a 16.03, (16.01 chip). Happy enough with that, especially the 3k split, something to work on.
Sat - Bedford parkrun, pacing for the kid. Tried to stick to 6MM to break his 18.55 PB - He flagged a bit up the last hill but did 18.47. Then I went to Wrest Pk to train - did a tough 6 x 1k on the windy grass.
Sunday - Met up with some of the LBAC guys for a Sunday run in MK, 11.5 miles.
Monday - 5 miles before a trip to RAF Duxford. Love it there.
Yesterday - 8x800 at Luton, 2.34/2.30/2.30/2.28/2.30/2.27/2.28/2.28 off 80 /90 secs
Today = commute to work and 6.5 miles this morning.
Quiet rest of week as National XC on Saturday, then an 800 & 1500 at Lee Valley on Sunday (Inter area indoors)
Not doing a 24m the next day sounds pretty sensible to me!
SC, good racing.
I haven't managed to keep a daughter utterly secret for the 14 years of the thread 🤣
Jools mentioned a Dasher and his daughter were top 2 at a parkrun he did. She's highly ranked at U15 in 3k,maybe 3rd in the country. High in other events too.
SG - Very good for that age! Is the dad any good? I instantly get miffed if there is a brilliant kid (faster than Ollie) with the usual scenario - average dad and mum doesn't even run
I'm going to hell aren't I...
The dad does 80mile weeks and boots 1hr 18-19 halfs out, so pretty good.
He basically had a 2023 time wise that I had in 2022 when going very well, just slightly slower
He does marathons as his obsession though.
Doesn't work, so will just boot a casual 18miler on a Monday mid morning!
Did 8 x 400 round the park this morning, nicely resurfaced too. Felt good as kept them 78's and not blowing too hard at the end of each rep.
Had a tonne of time off work to wazz away pre end March, so thought it was a good opportunity to get a 5k off in Hyde Park at the LFOTM event
SC and Aley have often done this one in the past.
A great race for those who work in central London. Takes a bit more effort otherwise for a 12.30 central London start.
I tend to drive to South Harrow (dad's from there) and take the Piccadilly line in.
Plan was to get going at 10, get there for 1030, then have ages messing at the other end.
Obviously ended up as a 1015 start, arrival and parking/ticket bought just after 11.
Around 40min tube trip, which with a slight delay around Acton I was nervously re-reading the notes about how the start is a 10min walk from Hyde Park corner station
Had woken up a bit tired and hot, and was trying not to fall asleep on the tube, but you can always suck a 5k up.
Off the tube at 12.05, and a little jog got me over there and ready by about 12.10.
Not an ideal amount of time left, but some sort of 1mile jog and a couple of unleashings and albeit half asleep still it was time to go.
Lined up line 1 on the right side of the grid and ready to go.
The big man Pete and SC had both told me the first km is technically the slowest, and 3.35 might not be a problem.
When I started, i was slightly disturbed to see the pace refused to show quicker than 5.55/6, so I was slightly nervous.
But then the first km came out 3.30, which was confusing
Second km not much of a drop, at 3.33 and it felt like I was in a reasonable but not overdoing it pace.
Of course, 3 and 4km are where you have to hold it in, and these dropped a chunk to 3.37 & 3.36.
However, pulled it together a bit as you always tend to 5th km, for a 3.30 to finish for nice symmetry with km 1!
Wait until the evening for certainty, then confirmed 17:47
Glad to bank a 5km this early in the year, as last year it took until August to do one, quite ridiculously. Missing the whole summer series locally and no BP races.
And it matches the quickest of my 3 last summer.
Those 3 were all very hot or humid, whereas this one was nice temp albeit slightly windy and arguably slightly slower course, so swings and roundabouts.
But we're off and running. It's easy to forget the intensity of a 5k race, and you can very easily drop off a little instead of pushing.
Hopefully can better this a few times later in the year.
It's raised the qualification for 11th spot in our 12 stage team by 6 seconds too, as times since Sep 1 were factored in
Set off at 7:30 in horizontal Northern sleet, and the day didn't get much better. Hamstrings have been playing up this week so decided just to run, rather than race. Despite being careful leapt in the air at 3.6k; obviously pulled something. Crawled to the finish. Originally was supposed to be my first race as an M70, and expecting a similar age grading to yourself.
Now to see one of my consultant friends, hopefully.
Didn't leave enough time to properly assess who was about pre race and it was only in the write up I remembered this was a reasonably regular one of yours.
Hope you're back on track soon.
The challenge was beat the chairman on all 4 metrics, of total pace, longest run, av pace and elevation, and I had about a 40feet deficit on him.
He'd done some insane 3.4mile 980 feet climb on Monday, but had racked up 2k feet in a mere 23 miles!
So I took it as an opportunity to do something hillier than usual.
Racking up some little gains elevation where poss, and 3 times up 250-300 feet hills, one of them 12miles in.
Still came in just sub 8 pace, for 14.01 (just in case the unpredictable chairman put a 14 in!), at 7.59 to round up a 58.5mile week with a race and a session in.
Obviously the chairman then didn't even bother running today, meaning I could have got away with a run with 41 feet
But it felt a strangely mentally and physically unlocked run and something different, so all good.
Off work most of this week, 3 days pleasure, 1 day not, so will probably look at singles at least 2 of the days.
SQ - Nice report and turn out in the XC. I do enjoy it when my little ones are there and I get a sneaky high five in. Good pace for a long run there too. I find the massage gun to be pretty good, albeit it's not a replacement for a proper massage but a good added extra. I use it a lot.
Nice turn out at LFOTM SG.
Bit of a recovery week for me as I got the lurgy, fairly low key cold symptoms but felt a bit tired. Hence down to 5 gym sessions and scaled back the effort and dropped the high intensity stuff. Running wise was 31 miles. Quick bit of supporting at the Wokingham half with the family yesterday then back home to change and headed out to do my own 13.1 miler. I actually just ran to Wokingham and back along the course, taking advantage of the closed roads. I joined the course about the 9 mile mark, more or less at the back of the field so the 4 miles back to Wokingham I was getting quite a few 'well done', 'keep going' and a number of confused looks
Aley - Didn't think you were coming down..
SG - Glad you had a good time Friday, I do enjoy the LFOTM. Was really good that time when Aley and PeteM were down and we went for a pint or 4. Biggest thread social there has been LOL
For me - obviously National XC was cancelled, so no excuses for yesterday and Lee Valley, Inter area challenge.
1500 up first, front ran it, 68 first 400 and then I think it was 2.17 for 800, 3.09 at the 'real' bell, so just dipped under 4.20 with a 4.19. Happy enough with that.
800 was more fun - settled in 3rd, think it was 68 after 2 laps and then started thinking about overtaking 3rd. Remembering not to overtake on the bends I waited until the back straight to go past and try to make the 5m gap up on first. Sadly just failed by 0.2 of a second. 2.12 in the end.
did a leg of the relay, but we lost overall to Midland masters by a few points. Nice bit of training tho. Ran down to Euston again, 9.5 miles with a heavy ish bag.
Making use of a bit of lie in action with a few days off work.
Monday - 10miles, bit windy
Today, 7m Moz tempo, at 6.11 average.
Pleased with that one - as long as any tempo i've done in many a year, and the quickest for a good year or more I'm sure.
Slightly different route but same sort of area.
Just able to get up at 8am and get out at 11.
But then you're into the territory of have you got enough fuel on board, versus the more relaxed time before it.
Anyway, 6.17 first mile, then 6.08 showed I was onto something.
And even lightish in places wind didn't throw me off, so glad to get a strong 7 in without even aiming at a hard finish like some of the previous 6.15 or so higher tempos.
So that seems a good sign.
With wu and cd, a single 10, so double digits singles 3 days in a row. Wycombe game tonight, then lie in tomorrow and aim for a single double digit tomorrow too.
Well done SG and Aley at LFOTM!
7M tempo must be as long as they come, SG. Impressive work.
Shame the national was cancelled, SC. Because of flooding? Well done in the shorter stuff.
Good call taking advantage of the closed roads, Reg.
Bourton 10k:
I wasn’t quite sure how to play this. The XC a week before had been my first continuous race effort since the hamstring injury and was very challenging from about two- or three-miles in. Removed any midweek long run in order to freshen up a little, but then fell into a bit of a hole on Thursday night, massively overeating and really struggling with blood sugar levels as a result for the following 36 hours. Concluded I would perhaps run it as part of a long run, maybe tempo-ing it.
Sunday morning and the weather was glorious. Genuinely beautiful driving through the Cotswolds to the idyllic Bourton-on-the-Water. Cool temperatures and low wind, and I started to feel a bit perkier. Wanted to play it safe and bank a first sub-40 as a V40. As this is way off a PB, I assumed it wouldn’t be that tough – a bit naïve!
3M warm up and into the start line. As it turned out, fairly successfully judging my starting spot. Obviously aiming for just below 4:00 kms, although it wasn’t a surprise to see 3:50 for the first was the mass charge from the gun. Two loops of the village and there were good packs to work with. Turns out it is a common target… 3:55, 3:56, 3:59 up to KM4. This was a bit hard then expected!
Frustrating I missed manual lapping on 5k, but enjoyed seeing the absolute speedsters coming back towards us. The 180 turnaround is at about 5.4km or so. A bit windy along here, but still a few to work with. 8:03 for the double km was a bit of a concern but then 3:41 for KM7 and who knows what is happening! Feeling strong now and passing other runners. Racing to a progressive effort is a fun way of doing things – although it is a fine line. 3:55, 3:53, 3:53. Gave it everything for the final few hundred meters with strava clocking the closing 0.08M segment at 4:53/mile pace LOL. Nicely surprised to just dip under 39 with 38:59 the official chip time.
Interesting how perspective is everything. Went out too hard last year, blew up and was massively disappointed with 39:2x. Similarish time this year and delighted! 100/642 finishers and 20th MV40. A good standard of race on a stellar route. Really recommend it if anyone wants a rapid 10k.
A few busy weekends coming up and so long runs might be limited, but had nothing to get back for until later on. So jog back to the car, pick up FlipBelt, headphones, phone etc and headed out for an extended cool down. Necked most of a free NOCCO drink. Absolutely disgusting, but the shockingly high 150mg caffeine content seemed to get me through (blood sugar level elevated so didn’t have any gels/carbs etc until could take insulin once all finished). 9M at 8m/m pace. Lots of friendly chats early on then some quiet solo miles. 18 and a bit for the day and most boxes ticked with that one 😊
Oddly I woke up and starting eating breakfast went slightly blurry, very short lived, but probably a blood sugar thing. Just unusual to be morning like that. Made me think how hard it must be to properly have a condition to manage that sort of thing!
It's funny, I'd done many a 6.15 and slightly higher tempo, so it's nice to see it 6.11.
Clearly this is the Moz tempo zone, rather than the 10mile race pace.
Or I blooming hope it is, when I next do a 10miler
But chances are if I can do 7miles at that pace I'll do quicker for 10 in a race. There's only one guy ever I've met who can hit race pace, or quicker outside a race!
(He did his usual last week. Parkrun raced, 8miles quicker than HM current fitness Sunday (Just !!), then topped it up with tough reps on the Tue. Result? Slower at his target HM then he's capable of, funnily enough!!
That's a long tempo SG.
Nice double race SC, took me a while to remember you were running indoors and make sense of the lap count!
Easy 8 yesterday.
Dizziness - perhaps an electrolyte imbalance of some sort? I always remember 7M tempo being the hardest session in the P&D plans. Don't I ever got to even HMP for continuous 7 in training.
Reg - there has been a definite change in paces in the last year or so, but I will keep your optimism in mind
Tired recovery 5 on Monday. Flooding in Worcester limiting routes so it was several laps of some nearby playing fields. In not too bad condition really.
Thought about a MLR yesterday. In the first mile or two, changed from 90 minutes, to 75 to settling for an hour. Still knackered! 8:34 pace, albeit for a very low HR.
Good call sacking it off early yesterday as I felt rather chipper at 5am this morning (crash and burn coming later?). 5 x 6 minutes (90s), starting at HMP and trying to progress. On the assumption HMP is 6:30s at the moment, didn't really stick to this, or the progressive aspect, but very pleased with 6:10, 18, 11, 15, 19. So more in the 10M to 10k pace range mixer. Had a mate join for reps one and three. Hadn't realised he had done a tough session only 10 hours previously. God knows how he churned out some of that pace so soon after. 8.7M at 7:00 average.
SG - Good tempo. They really are the hardest parts of training. Reg - yes last of the Lee Valley meets, just Torun to go and the 3000
8 x 800 last night again, felt harder after last week., presume due to Sunday 2.40 to start with, rest 2.33 to 2.30
6.5 this morning around Islington
I'm referring back to Moz training zones, and he'd call MP 15-20 so secs slower than HM zone.
So 6.11 for 7 hopefully shows i'm in and around 5.55-6 for a HM again.
I try not to call the zone "MP" as it gets people thinking you're claiming you could do a marathon at it and also 6-7 at "actual" marathon race pace would be much slower, possibly 30-40secs a mile slower and way more comfy, so under credits the effort of the run.
So I call it a tempo now - as in a continuous run, and Moz as it's his style of training..so "Moz tempo"
But the important thing to take is i'd done a tonne of them last few months, typically 6.15 best creeping to a few seconds slower.
So a 6.11 for the longest one at 7 has to be a positive.
But there's not a chance in hell I've done 7miles HMP feeling good like that solo in training!
It's most likely a case that I've not squeezed the 5k quick enough yet, which you'd expect with 1 race in 5months!
Will do some more races and enjoy that rather than worrying too much about zones now - we've spent a decade doing al that
Session was going to be 3 x (800,600,400), but at the end of the 2nd set I had to do a 200 to the bog rather than the 400. So the coach kindly made the last set a 800/600/800!
Times were generally 2.32/1.48/68, happy with the last set as the 800's were 2.27 & 2.23.
Wet 5m this morning.
Nice weekend of not racing, going up to Burnley tomorrow staying with my mate Pete, Burnley - Bournemouth on Sunday morning. He's recently of these parts and still basking in his 2.26 in Seville! Probably do 10m or so up there - be good to get out and run somewhere different.
After a Thursday day off due to funeral attending duties, back at it yesterday.
Morning 4miles, then evening track of
3x3mins (90secs), 3x90secs(60secs) 5mins gap, 10min tempo, 5min gap, 4x45secs (60secs).
The coach was obviously keen to get things done on a cold wet night, so the first rep almost surprised our gang of 3 at the front, so rep 1 was caining through the field for 150metres.
The 2 guys I ran with just went sub 1hr 20 at Wokingham last week, which is obviously decent, but there's circumstances around it that tell me both have more in them.
One is a 25 year old who tells me he's "not a runner" and just does stuff because of his gf being properly into it (50+miler) and the other guy is a machine at the moment. He did 15 the day before Wokey, and 13 on hills the day after! He'd done an 8miler Friday morning too.
Pretty much ran the session as a 3, the older guy pacing us nicely for sub 6 for sure on the 10mins.
Younger lad storming off on the 45sec reps. Me seeing off others on those at a decent lick.
Interesting session, a couple of big recoveries, but 10mins in a group on a track for one bit feels weird. Sort of comfy at first to slow down to that, but that feeling quickly goes and you're glad it's done. I was in lane 2 for that one too, having been tight in lane 1 for the earlier ones.
Hope the trip up north goes well, SC.
Enjoying the indoor world champs. Kerr impressive.
The plan has reached the stage now of one mid distance workout midweek and a long run session at the weekend. And thank god; I’m much happier with just two tough sessions a week. Probably lacking in MLRs though - haven’t done double digits outside of the weekly long run in months.
After Wednesday’s 5 x 6 minutes, had a bit of a random 6M and 7M double on Thursday. Didn’t really plan to, but had some time for the second one and 3M got a bit longer with various loops. Minimal 3M with strides early on Friday morning - top ten grimmest running conditions.
First 20M since Abo yesterday. Left home at 7:30 in pouring rain, but it stopped fairly soon. Wore 550M deep Endorphin Pro 2. Doubt there is any magic left, but still good enough to help the £/M ratio. 3 x 20 minutes up tempo - a more relaxed version of marathon pace as it was a step up in total distance. 7:05 for the first block, ten minutes easy, 6:59, ten minutes easy and timed it almost perfectly for parkrun to be the final block. 6:41s and enjoyed the free ride, in spite of having to stop twice for laces - hands almost too cold to manage a successful tie the second time. 4M easy to get home. 20.5M at 7:20 average - a good morning.
6/3 recovery double today for a touch over 70M for the week.
Might be trialling a new weight loss method in the next few days; my son has thrown up maybe fifteen times today. Impressively, out of them went into my open mouth 🤮.
It's a bit more fluid now and just a vague sense of feel.
I had that string of 6milers at best at 6.15 for a while, sometimes with a hard last half mile or so. This one didn't have the harder finish so was pleased to see it.
Slightly different route, slightly different time of day, can all add up I suppose.
Technically, off that 17.47, 5.43 pace, that'd make HMP something like 6.11 and the Moz MP zone thus 6.26-6.30.
I know historically that HMP is a tough pace to hit solo, so I've never done more than 2x3m or more likely 3x2m in training and at the peak of it too.
So there's no chance I've done a 7miler solo on Wycombe pavements at my race HMP at that comfortable level- unless I've become a training machine overnight
So I'm hoping a mixture of that 5k having scope to get quicker, and probably being more endurance based sort of makes it make sense.
Having said all this, that 6.11 on the online calculator is "threshold" for a 17.43 5k, so works on that level.
Difficult with zones and paces sometimes as it can be about how you feel.
Today was 13, with a gruesome couple of miles offroad that was a bit shattering and delved into a woody bit without a proper trail. So hopping back into muddy fields and down a sheer grassy bank, then trudging up a tractor mashed muddy climb.
Miserable stuff, 20mins for 2miles
Rest of it probably would have been about 7.40 sort of lick, dare say it would have eased out a decent bit quicker without that reducer 4-6miles in, which took the average to 8.04