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Poacher. I'm not sure re time but I'm hoping to a) finish and b) be in a position to push for a good placing on the run. Top 20 would be a very good day out on a course like that which is only really populated by hardcore nutters. The main aim though has been to get into shape to get to the start line and build bike strength ready for a serious sub10 attempt at Outlaw next year. Tick.
Love the description of the steeplechase Speedy - presumably if Jools had been doing that one she could just have run under the hurdles!
Sounds a great bike ride G-Dawg. Ranmore Common is only about 3 miles from where I live so I do plenty of runs up there. I can testify that Leith Hill can be a toughie.
40 bike miles for me today going to and from work; it takes the same time as when I go in on the train, is far less stressful, saves me money, I get loads of fresh air and I can justify eating plenty as well - what's not to like about it?!
SJ - Hah. What's the temp in the lake like now? Sea here is warming up, i.e. not freezing but just cold.
Jools - We all have off days, I for one have had too many to recall and you will get where you want to be. I am certain of that. Mind you, one of your off days would be an on day for me.
Apologies for a flying visit. A late night meant that I didn't get out till 5:03 this morning for 12 miles (6 @ 8:31 & 6 @ 8:01).
I feel a bit troll like but Lorenzo has been crossing my bridges on the fetchpoint game.
MSE-enjoy the cake and biscuits
Gerard- driver being angry after hitting a pedestrian? I think id have called the police and see how they like a careless driving charge ! As for me just post mara blues combined with a sore knee and excessive biscuit and cake scoffing
Speedy- nice comeback
Slokey-goodluck Sunday
Lorenzo-nice commuting
Gul- good early(ish) 12
MsE & Leslie cake & bun diet sounds like mine (with beer & wine in there also ) - time to get a grip, I think , although post VLM weeks not too bad - weeks of
17, 41, 52, 33, 50, 52 have kept too much weight gain at bay, though prob couple of lbs more than I'd like.
Kicked off this week with 11 y'day inc long tempo segments, 7 easy/steady today.
Gul, you lazy bones!
Leslie - Sorry to hear about the knee woes. I can relate to that! I didn't see what happened with the car/pedestrian incident but if I had been the driver I would have been concerned about the pedestrian's welfare. I think he may have stepped off the pavement without looking but even still, no need for that type of behaviour.
SJ - Sea temp here at the mo is ranging between 13.5/15c. There is a hard-core group of open water swimmers here who swim all year round, AKA "The Polar Bears" and they have reported similar stories recently with regard to the warmth of the water! I am a wuss and tend to wait for 16c min before I go for a proper dip. 3:30 am start?!!! Hopefully you get some warm weather in the next 12 days or so!
Birch - Good start to the week. Have you got any races lined up soon?
I had to drop my boy off at cubs this evening and so, what else is a guy dressed in short shorts and a singlet meant to do? Hah so much for my day of rest. I did a beautiful but hard trail coastal cliffpath 40 min run and it was lovely. The knee held up which was a concern before & I have been avoiding that sort of thing lately. Wind was force 6 which was a challenge in parts but some lovely scenery and a nice change for a run.
Apparently I have an elite number for this Friday's Notts 10. Oh dear. I will be lucky to get round 10 miles any faster than marathon pace at the mo!
Open water swimming sounds grim Gerard. Except in the absolute height of summer. Which is basically 2 days of the year, guaranteed to be days when I'm at work.
Speedy - Have you raced a 10 before? I've only ever done one. What's the course like? Yeah the Polar B's are nutters but I'm sure people think that when they see me out running in the winter months. I do like the sea but only really go in when the air temp is very warm and we do get a few weeks here like that. Forecast is 23c on Thursday and for some reason that feels like 35c in Spain.
Water temps of 13/14 are OK, depending on the distance you plan to swim, and the speed/ heart rate you plan to adopt. 10 degrees or below is definitely a challenge.
The Bristol lake temps took a nose dive last week following heavy rain and having a gale force wind to stir it up. Big waves on a little lake.
The Cotswold lake 32 was last reported at 17.3, which is good, as I'm racing in there on Sunday. I think I get a 50 mile bike and 13.1 mile run to follow.
Gerard, it was the Blaydon race, famous a one in the North East. Great conditions and I ran well, finishing as 3rd V50 in a quality field. Time was 33.20, 5:50 per mile on the 5.7 mile coures.
Sorry, another flying visit. Would you believe there was a queue at the barber's at 5:55 this morning? In the end I gave up and came home late without a haircut, but 5 recovery miles in the bag. Must read back soon, but have just spotted OO's podium finish at Blaydon - excellent racing!
Yes I passed Jo at 2 miles Minni, she finished close behind- the ladies field was stacked.
I think it was about the same distance as last year. I ran 10 seconds slower than last year but pretty please. First mile was 5:42
What a shame I didn't see you. Ir was a great night!
Summer series 5k last night. The start is a couple of miles form home and the traffic has been bad recently so jogged out to the start and felt flat. Bit of a chat and then lined up at the start a few rows back and then an out of place "on your marks, get set, go" instead of "3, 2, two and a half, 1, go!" and we are off.
These are social events to a great degree and so lots of enthusiastic youngsters way too far forward in the early stages. The start was fairly wide across a football pitch but narrowed fairly soon on a path with a few bins thrown in as obstacles and I wished I had been a bit further forward as I was almost tripped a few times. Settled down and I must have been back in about 50th place but gradually made up a places to sit in about 20th after half a mile. The course is supposed to be a big lap of the field to stretch the runners out before it sets off round smaller paths but it looked odd and soon it became apparent that the leader had missed a turn and was taking us all in the wrong direction. A few following shouted out and all eventually turned but it meant that at the mile marker the group I was in was leading and the real leaders were following.
Bit of an odd race from then on as pace was hard to judge. You had a steady people passing and it was hard to tell if they were passing you as they had run further or if you were slowing.
Had to produce a bit of a sprint finish as first lady (girl actually) was coming up fast on the inside rail.
I was hoping for a moral boosting 5k but the extra distance meant it was slower than the last outings. Thankfully the pace was faster so recovery continues but I still feel really flat: no bounce in the legs at all.
Well done to OO and Minni (the comeback is on!)
Good luck for Friday Speedy.
And same to you Blisters for your little jaunt around the Cotswolds on Sunday. What are your expectations for the race? Are you in tip-top shape?
Not had a course deviation like that PMJ. I'd find it mighty frustrating.
Dragged myself to the track at lunchtime to test the legs and see if I had a decent parkrun time in them. My running feels really flat right now and the only positive thing to say about my running mojo is that it could be a limbo dancing world record holder.
Gave myself a tough session of 800, 1 mile, 1 mile, 800 with 200m walking recoveries. Splits were 2.50 - 5.59 - 6.07 - 3.00
Faded bad in the latter half but the wind really picked up so I guess I toughed it out for some half decent stats (for me). 6 miles total trip at 7.55 avg.
Might as well have a go at my first sub-20 5k on Saturday I suppose.
20 miles planned for the bike tonight. Might get my lad to lead us out and I'll benefit from an hour of drafting.
GD
OO - That's a great pace for your Blaydon race and nice podium place too.
PMJ - Sounded like a bizarre 5k.
G-Dawg - Nice speed work. Unless that 5k is very hilly I'd say you will smash the 20 min mark.
Minni - Good to see you making progress.
Blisters - Good luck for Sunday.
Lorenzo - I watched some of the Comrades clip you posted and it's fab. The 1st female was a very impressive winner with her run/walk strategy and pit stops. She still managed to run out winner by more than 20 mins. I see she won the two Oceans this year too. I got as far as the 7:30 cut off and there were a few guys who missed out on a silver medal by a matter of seconds. That must hurt. I am about to watch some more now.
PMJ - moving in the right direction if not as quickly as you'd like.
GD - nice work with those reps. All the best with the sub 20 attempt.
9.7 miles inc. 25 mins of drills this morning.
Well, it had to be done - I switched my Garmin to kilometers last night. I haven't got a feel for things yet or know the paces and that is actually quiet pleasant that I don't have the measurements to pressure myself.
I really have got slow over the last 2 years of inconsistency and I'm trying to put it right. 4x 1km last night at a reasonable level of effort which came out as 7:15m/m which is pretty slow. I know where I am and can only get faster from here on in. The first target for me would be the local 10km on Aug 29 (entry fee R25 or about £1:30) - anything better than 45 min would be reasonable improvement.
Good to see you Speedy making your comeback
I couldn't change to KM on my Garmin but I guess if the road signs where you are BI are in KM it makes sense. I did actually enjoy the KM markers at the Paris Marathon in 2013. It felt like I was making quicker progress and helped mentally in the final 10k.
20 very windy miles on the bike last night. Averaged over 18mph which wasn't bad considering the wind and tiredness from the lunchtime interval session. Strava stats showed a lot of PRs, so I must be getting quicker.
GD
I flip between miles and km on my Garmin. My current pace seems to be about 4 minutes per km which is 6:24 per mile and it is much easier to keep a 3 up on the average pace than get the exact digits for miles.
I'm already seeing upsides and downsides to km versus miles. E.g. upside is that the display is already metric so easy to know what portion of an interval to go and faster increment of the distance units in km. Downside is that if I work for e.g. 10s per distance unit improvement then it is easier to achieve in miles than kms
7.97 miles at 7:25 pace in a vest top in the sun. Happy days are here again ...
I mix my units all the time. My laps are km on my Garmin and my average pace is imperial. I like to see both but I think the km splits are more meaningful. 5k lunch yesterday, it was windy out and 9 miles in the heat today. 24c or thereabouts and was glad to be able to finish my run on the beach and put my feet in the sea for a bit. It's a low tide so the water actually feels warm-ish.