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Glad you're back running again BTW Minni. I also saw Ant was up in the NE - if you see him, pls tell him to get himself back on here again.
Great shots Poacher - it was cold enough in Surrey first thing this morning and then up in Oxford where younger Lorenzito was competing; I dread to think how it felt up in the Peaks.
Belated congrats Madbark - looks like it was a fun race.
Sharp pace there Gul - what are your Spring plans?
12 and a bit miles up on Box Hill for me this morning, managing to get rather disoriented (snap G-Dawg!) and having to retrace my steps on a number of occasions. Chilly but clear so made for enjoyable conditions.
Will be out for a similar distance tomorrow morning with a bunch from the club so should hit around 45 for the week.
Minni - great to hear from you. And tell us about Mont Blanc marathon!
GD - nice accidental 14.
Lorenzo - I had been looking at the Peddars Way Ultra (although that's definitely winter rather than spring!) but can't make that date now. Enjoy your run today .
Late up again to so no long run this week
No snow down here, but it was sleeting at the start of my run this morning and then turned to a rather cold rain. Very wet underfoot as well so not the easiest conditions to run in. Just over an hour's worth of running to bring me up to 40 for the week.
Lorenzo - They fit like a glove. Very lucky as I bought them online and you never know what you're gonna get without trying new shoes but they are amazing.
Gul your stats give me a nosebleed.
Out in trail shoes tonight and sliding all over the place, serious snow up here. Birch is it white-out time on your side of the Pennines? I bet it's fun driving the Snake at the moment.
35m this week, not great quality but TOTF is good. Portsmouth mara next weekend. Gonna be even uglier than usual.
Minni there's a Winter Wonder Run mara on the TM on NYE....
#SpeakToMyAgent #PosterBoy
There is a parkrun in Keswick on Xmas day which I hope to do- but sadly this weekends was cancelled due to ice so not sure if it will happen. Me and Mrs OO jogged it anyway.
I ran 11 around Derwentwater this morning- it was bloody freezing. Then 8 more in the snow at Tynemouth this evening to scrape 50 for the week.
Love the Santa loop BB- another great run
good work wi' spikes, Gerard
eyup, Minni
OO - fine double - 19 in a day is some going over two outings . . .
apologies to any omissions - just in from a convivial evening
GM - I thought you had written 8 slow miles @ 60mph!!! Good session to break in the spikes.
GD - you obviously had the same thought! And great picture for an advertising poster!
Poacher - are you sure it's not the Peak District giving you nosebleeds? Good luck in Portsmouth; glad to hear you're not slacking off.
PMJ - you need to get out earlier
OO - well done braving the ice and freezing weather.
Birch - hope you had a good evening.
Normal service has been resumed - out at 4:37 this morning for 13 miles. 1 w/u, 6 @ 8:03 and 6 @ 7:43.
I'm thinking of doing the National Cross Country at Parliament Hill London 24th Feb. Just wondering if any of you fancy, or have experience of the course?
How was the temp at 5am Gul?
https://www.strava.com/activities/257911652
Always hard to get tactics right. Too fast at the start and you are knackered, too slow and you are way down and making up places is hard.
Poacher - I love the spikes, very comfy and I do like the fact they are so light. See Pic below.
OO - PH is the biggie of XC, I thought you hated XC? I'm hopeless at it but doing it for the experience more than anything this coming year.
Gul - Glad normal service has resumed. Was it icy underfoot at that time?
PMJ - Nice parkrun. I like those kinda runs where you start off steady and then body and mind permitting, you pick it up along the way. Feels good.
Birch - 7 more than me last week. I'll do well to scrape 25 this week. Was the Ale flowing? Hope so.
Freemers - Were you brave enough?
I managed a 10k hilly bimble in the filthy weather. Still gale force winds this afternoon, about 55mph with driving hail and rain. Was lovely so it was.
My weekend was tough, we moved offices this week and that meant all hands on deck helping out, so I spent 10 hours on saturday under desks doing cabling (not my usual giig at all!) - that left me feeling a bit stiff and unprepared for sundays race. I'd been ill the last week and hadnt run for 12 days, but figured pacing a nice sedate tempo would be ok.
Sunday I got up nice and early and found myself at the start line for the "Gold Coast 50 Running Festival" to pace the 30km event. After a little negotiation I agreed to take the 3 hour balloons (which were pitifully deflated and had leaked most of their helium overnight so were a bit pathetic really - thankfully all pacers had hi-vis vests to help us stand out too).
It was a humid 25C for the 5:30 start, but at 6:00/km pace that wasnt going to be problem and I started off with a group of about 12 people alongside as we ran down past the inviting looking surf of Gold Coasts Broadbeach (you'll see it in April if you watch the Commonwealth games marathon). At the 5km point the beach comes to an abrupt stop with a headland and the course heads up a narrow and steep set up steps! - I told my crew that I'd be trying to maintain pace, but they should all take the steps their own way and gradually catch me over the next couple of km's. I bound up the steps passing a few others and then relaxed as I plummeted down the steep hill the other side back down to the next beach level. Sure enough after 500m-1km most of the gang had caught me back up and spirits remained high.
Temperatures continued to rise with the sun and I made a point of encouraging everyone to take on plenty of drinks when we passed the drink stations. I knew it was going to get hot and brutal on the way back and we'd all be suffering.
One of the advantages of running on the Gold Coast in summer is the number of beach goers who are wandering around. There is some truly stunning... *views* to keep one occupied!...
Anyway - by halfway (15km exactly on the watch and 1:28:30) my posse had reduced to a core group of 6, still chatting away comfortably and all looking to be in control. We were 90 seconds ahead of schedule so I advised people to take full advantage of the water stop, take in gels and get a GOOD drink before we continued back the way we'd come.
At 20km one of the guys asked me if I thought I'd have a bigger group finishing with me this year compared to last year (I'd already mentioned that last year I paced 3hrs and finished with just 1 person with me). I looked around and the group of 6 had dropped to 4 - but they all looked pretty solid. I was confident that this year I'd have a group with me across the line.
5 minutes later, I looked around again and we'd lost people. There were now just 2 of us. We had 10km to go (including the hill and steps) - and it was getting hot. By now the temperature must've been the wrong side of 30C and humidity was easily up around 70%.
Along one of the streets a kind resident was stood at the end of his driveway with a garden hose and was very kindly spraying anyone who ran past - it provided a lovely cooling effect, but was far too shortlived. By this stage I knew I'd done some serious running and my legs were starting to fade. It was going to be a tough finish - but thankfully we had about a minute to spare according my watch so the pace could drift a little and we'd still make the target time.
With 5km to go we had the short but steep climb up the headland followed by the steps down the other side. I stumbled down the steps holding the handrail and being well aware that my legs were shot to pieces. Good job there was only 5km left!
At the bottom of the steps the guy I'd been alongside started to push forward and I encouraged him to go for it whilst I hung back just a little to get closer to target time and help and strugglers from faster times who were now fading (we were starting to pass people who'd wilted in the heat).
With 3km to couple of the 6 I'd had alongside earlier caught me up and I told them to pass me to push to the finish. I was still picking up a couple of stragglers from faster groups - but it seems most of them were sufficiently spent that even my gentle tempo was too much.
The past couple of km was a real battle, but the watch told me I still had nearly a minute in the bank. I was going to be ok and I had one poor soul who was desperately clinging to my shoulders getting herself around the course.
I turned the final corner with the watch saying I had 100m to go and enough time to do it in.... but then to my horror I saw that the course was going to be long. (Wouldnt be a huge surprise - but on an out and back where the turn around measures exact I was caught out!). A bit of pacer-pride bit me and I knew I was going to have to do some work. I put the hammer down and sprinted the last 400m, gritting my teeth and levaing the poor woman who I'd been encouraging just a few minutes before in the dust.. (oops)
I crossed the line and collapsed a sweaty and salty mess.
Net time: 2:59:58.2
Tough gig. (PLEASE remind me next year when I'm asked once again that this is NOT an easy scenic run!)
DadAgain - great report. Sounds like a tough race to pace with steps, undulations and the heat.
OO - I'll definitely be at Parliament Hill as younger Lorenzito will be running, but whether I do is another matter. On one hand I don't enjoy XC enough to really WANT to do it, but another part of me says that it'll be a great experience competing in the Nationals and just enjoying it. PMJ is dead right about the hill at the start - it's brutal!
Nice clean spikes GM - presume that they're not like that any more!
Rather more running on my commute than I was anticipating today. Just over 5 miles to sandwich the train journey with the main mistake being that I forgot to wear a hat and it was icy cold rain pretty much all the way - not pleasant. Managed a good pace to get back to Waterloo this evening only to find that they weren't letting people onto the platform because of an earlier problem but no-one was giving out any kind of communication as to how long it would last. After 15 minutes of standing around getting cold (as I was in my shorts), I decided to run to Victoria and catch a different train back that then meant I had a 3 mile run home at the other end as well.
So just over 11.5 miles in total today - trying to work out whether it's going to be any better tomorrow.
Freemers - did you go out in the snow yesterday? Virtually no snow here again and what little we did have had gone 30 mins later.
GM - those spikes look lethal. No ice yesterday, but had to be careful this morning on odd patches.
DadAgain - that was close! Great report and well done. I can't imagine running in those kinds of temperatures. Why was it called the Gold Coast 50?
Lorenzo - well done taking advantage of the delay! Maybe you'll have to run even further today.
Up a bit later than planned today, but still managed 10 miles with 3 x 2M efforts. Had to be careful in places due to ice and after some good progression the last set was disappointing (6:47/6:40, 6:35/6:32, 6:44/6:44).
Some of the guys doing 50km we’re doing it tough - including one group of guys who did the whole thing in full body Santa suits which must have been horrendous! <respect>
Great report dad again- and very funny. P{acing is a tough job- we all have our horror stories...
Thanks PMJ appreciate the info. I do remember someone commenting at Night of the 10Ks that the big hill was the XC course. I'll try to take your advice- probably start mid pack and enjoy the hill. I'm OK on hill actually.
You are right Gerard I do hate XC but will be fun to take part- my club will pay entries and 6-10 of us will go down. Main thing is that I get a weekend with my daughter in London. Oh and then there's the potential smackdown with Lorenzo Snr.
I'm so glad I banked those miles in on Sunday. Took a rest yesterday but today is sheet ice on many pavements. I'll probably settle for a few miles on the beach instead of something longer I feel I need. I only need 82 miles to reach 2400 this year, which now looks straight forward.
Sadly I wasn't brave enough to run in the snow yesyerday - the roads were really slippy and no sign of any gritting meant it would have been pretty treacherous. Well that's my excuse anyway!
GD - Fantastic picture
DadAgain - loved your report but boy you cut the timing might fine!
OO - smackdown eh? You'll be way ahead of me! Can I concede already?
OO - I still need another 93 to reach 2400, but hoping to get close to 2500. Not counting Christmas Day & Boxing Day, I think that would be 12 a day plus one extra which is probably asking a bit too much!
Lorenzo - weren't you secretly hoping you'd have to do extra again?
13 this morning - 3 @ 8:14 and 10 @ 7:42.
Gul that does seem ambitious. I'm doing Keswick parkrun on Christmas day & will no doubt be out boxing day too but lots of shorter runs I expect.
Would be great to see you there anyway Lorenzo- who knows we may sneak a pint
GD is it camera angle or are your arms really that long
?
6 on the beach was great last night....
My arms are weird and laughing so much as my mate had just let off that big confetti cannon and was making all sorts of whooping noises. My arms are lowering after I had just had my hands in the air as I passed victoriously through the confetti.
He's already planning something for the same 12 mile water station again in March.
5 miles with 3 others last night. We hit the streets as the track was frozen over. A nice social chat in cold conditions.
CNBA tonight, so wine it is!
G-Dawg - Slacker! Haha, enjoy your vino!
Freemers - Sounds like a sensible decision.
OO - Of course, your daughter is in Greenwich hey? Sounds like it could be fun. There is a great video (about 30 mins or so long) of last year's race on you tube. My mate did it and finished 49th. He was coming back from injury and probably would have been in the top 20 had he been fit but crikey it looks tough but it didn't look too muddy last year. You're heading for a great annual total and nice beach running!
Gul - Nice 13 and also very impressive mileage for the year so far.
Lorenzo - I've only managed to use the spikes once so far and cleaned them afterwards so they still look brand new. Interesting commuting running going on. I bet your lad will do well in the XC.
Bits and bobs for me the past couple of days. 4 hilly miles for me yesterday @ 6:45mm and then another 3.2 hilly miles on lunch today @ 8:33mm. The wind dropped for a a bit yesterday but is back with a vengeance again today and it is blowing a gale out there now. It's becoming a real bore but I will not be stopped!
GD - hope you enjoyed the wine.
GM - been a bit breezy here as well, but not too bad.
12 miles this morning with 7 x 0.5M averaging 3:09.