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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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need to read back to catch up but did see the parkrun rankings. the only one i do is 382nd. but i never have raced it only tempo it.
i had a scare last thursday. a supposed cut back session 16*200 in 30/31s off 90. left calf felt stiff all day but after a warm up it felt better. first rep and im hobbling. serious sharp pain in my left achilles. i hobble to the coach and a quick chat decided i couldnt carry on. i thought the euros was over at that point. i couldnt put any weight on it. phoned my physio at 10pm and he juggled stuff around and saw me the next day (he is a GB international so understands getting close to a champs) basically he said i had a almighty lucky escape. another rep and my achilles probably would have gone. what this was is a calf tightness which caused the tension in the achilles. basically my bodies way of saying stop. like a warning light on the dashboard of your car! his treatment hurt like hell but the left leg feels alright ish now. he told me to take 48hrs off and then see how it feels. it felt ok so i decided a simple 6m jog on monday with accelerations to test and that was ok. Tuesday was the BMC mile, my last race before the euros.
however on the morning my other leg was showing the same symptoms. F*******K! im troubled, do i race and risk it? and potentialy be out? but i need a race, i have only raced twice this summer..and i will be under baked. I take on loads of advice but decide to go for a 2m jog to test it. no pain but still v v tight. i decide to travel to birmingham anyway and make a call then. warmup for the race and the tightness has gone down a bit. in normal circumstances i wouldnt think twice to race. with 50mins before my race i make the call to race and decide to treat each lap as it comes and step off if i feel anything. Not great preperation!
take the startline in the A race. it was windy as hell so was always going to be a tactical race not a PB day. gun goes and i get a good position behind the pacer. not sure of splits but im feeling ok and then it was 3.27/28 at the bell. i had eased off in the wind on the 3rd lap too much and many had flown past. i decide to go at the bell. lift the pace to 200m to get myself in position. 200 to 100m to go i fly past about 3 or 4. hit the last straight and i go all in. my calf is ok so i have to find out what i have. i overtake another 3 or so and cross the line in 5th in 4.25 a 58 last lap in wind. Its also puts me 1st on uk v40 rankings and would have put me 4th on the all time list (had i not already been in 4th) so all in all i was very happy. mostly with the pick up on the last lap. im going to need that in denmark.
next day i go and see my physio and he works on my right calf and lower back. thankfully no pain since but i see him again tomorrow for a final last check before i fly out to denmark on wednesday.
all this has meant im going to the champs not in full power. im about 5 secs behind where i need to be. but hopefully i can muster something on the day.
Only you can go from being on the verge of being out for 6 months to pulling that out of the bag! - 58 last lap? Jesus. More importantly it means there's nothing seriously wrong...just old men's type stuff..
Get the cotton wool on..
SG always loves to big up Woodley. It is flattish and reasonably quick, but it has a lot of sharp turns, a serious lapping issue and has a portion on grass. I've always rated Basingstoke as faster, and that's 295th. Maybe they've changed the course. Southwick is 203rd, and my one run there last year was exactly the same as the best of my 8 or so at Woodley. Bottom line is, I can't run much within 30 seconds of my road 5k time at Woodley, so it most certainly isn't some kind of wonder course.
What a rollercoaster Dean's post was. Goes to show you don't need capital letters to spin a gripping yarn. That is most certainly a mind-blowing last lap, worthy of some kind of championship final. Keep yourself in contention at the bell, and it's hard to imagine too many other V40s living with it. All about getting yourself in a good position at the bell, just don't lose concentration.
Matt, running in the middle of the night purely to keep a streak going is the kind of behaviour that will make non-runners avoid you in the street.
5000 target race on Saturday, so a light session only last night. 6 x 600s, with 400 at target 5K pace then trying to kick off it for the last 200m. Average 1:46s, so a kick for me isn't really a kick by anyone else's standard (essentially 32/33 for 200), but from tiny acorns etc.
Woodley is fast until i turn up one week and stick a 1745 in
In fairness, a quick look on the Woodley parkrun page looks a real windy job. Must be tempting just to take the quickest line and cut the fiddle out.
Dean, good news, and sounds a quick return to business. We've all turned up at races and sessions with some niggle, but not normally something that sounds so borderline, and not then to go and put some ferocious stuff in!
Matt- that's some odd ball behaviour. Fits in well on here
Sale Sizzlers are just an awkward day of the week. Not sure i can deal with a 3hour drive/hanging about most of the day, do a 5k stay over, and mess about taking either 2 half days, or make the next day a knackering one!
Am planning a good deal of United trips this season, so hopefully some sort of light race fits in somewhere along the line.
Woodley is fast but as Dachs says it is a bit tight in a couple of the corners and there are a couple of narrow bits as you go from one side to the other. I sometimes think the surging needed to lap runners can sometime help pick the pace up again.
Lunch run for me, nothing special but the pace and HR were pretty much the same as before my Fleet 10k PB for the same route. I am hoping for a bumper autumn laden with PBs to make up for the first half of the year. Looks like my marathon isn't going on to PO10.
Matt - you are bonkers!
Dean - wow, that was a close escape, and what a turnaround!
I ran last night - only 5k, but despite some minor soreness during, afterwards and today the leg has felt better than for weeks! Not counting chickens just yet, but neither am I writing myself off :-)
Bus, get the hilly, off road commute back in to give it a real test. ;-)
The lapping of runners doesn't have me surging. I usually end up easing off a touch if anything.
Geniusly having a fairly narrow road about half a mile in.
The inevitable happened, those of us at the front of the 10k stormed into the back of the half runners, and you literally had to nip round people, settle, zoom ahead through a gap, and so on for about 3miles until the course took a separate turn.
Never done a race before where i couldn't see the guy ahead of me, and had no idea how close the one behind was!
Great result Dean.
I wonder if the tight muscles are the result of the level of humidity we've all been having lately.
Just convince yourself that you are going to Denmark on the upward slope of a peak. Last lap 58 seconds would indicate you're not quite as under baked as you think.
Surge race for me was the Bramley 10/20 mile race. The 20 mile starts alongside (separated by a rope) the 10 but with the front line about 50 yards ahead as I remember it, with a sharp left hand turn soon after.
Murmurs from the other 10 mile starters of which I was one, was about how to negotiate the masses. I suggested a really fast reacting start and sprint which should get us all ahead of the majority of the massed ranks of the other side.
Worked a treat.
Have to admit SG. The organisers of your event must have had that 10k as a pretty low priority. A mere after thought by the sounds of things.
Good luck in Ireland Bus.
🙂
Last session tonight and was a shocker on paper. 3*400 off 30 secs (65s target) 5min rec then 2*400 off a minute (60 sec target) then 10 min rec followed by 1*400 as fast as you can!. I was worried it would break me bearing in mind recent injuries woes and how tight my legs are feeling. So I agreed to go slower. Protect what I have.
So: it was (68,68,68,64,65,60) in the end. And that's it now. Just some light running and rest to clear tight legs for a week and fingers crossed I hold together. I'm creaking so cotton wool time!
I'm not even sure i could produce what i'm technically capable of flat out these days as years of running training have taken that "football style" top pace bit off!
Anyway, looks like you're not in too bad a place.
Ric - exactly that by the way, they'd had a "fun run" under the half the previous year, and hadn't realised a "proper" 10k would need a bit more thought. No clock at the finish line and thus no official time i remember being a real gutter (a pb!, of course!)
It's been a recovery style week, my own fault with the wall incident, so thought i best get some sort of track sesh in, just to test i am back up to full capacity.
So just a 6x300 off 2mins job.
I think i recall i tend to do this in the start too fast 49, ease to 51, with maybe a 52 usually, albeit it off too little recovery at 90secs (allowed 2-3mins)
Today was similar style, but starting 51x2, 52x3(some high, but i always go off starting secs) and a 53 to finish.
Slightly rusty, but a windy last 100metres certainly didn't help.
That mile hill race is 2 weeks today, so may well be the big 200th and next race out. Would probably be the sort of "special" race that such a landmark deserves.
Randomly, facebook reminded me that my 150th race was 4years ago today, at Wycombe.
6 weeks of kids being off school now, so probably wouldn't be a bad time to start some tempos up again, as they are the longest track sessions, meaning no need to either get there super early, or risk not getting to the desk on time.
6-8 week block of that sort of stuff, and might have a crack at some cooler weather Sep/Oct stuff
Tidy session though Deano - will be in touch on f/b etc next week. I know Dominic is going too when I spoke to him at Watford, enjoy Ireland Bus - leg sound a bit better.
My session was 6 x 1k with 2 mins recovery, first 4 were all 3.01 - then we dropped to 80 secs recovery and started at the 200m giving us 3 times against the wind - leading to 3.04 for the 5th rep and then 2.58 for the last rep back on 2 mins recovery. 6 x 200 strides after, only 38's as the guts and calf cramp took over!!
Cheers chaps.
Tough session that Simon - no wonder the guts were protesting!
SG - you doing any hill specific work for that Murder mile? Looks an odd beast!
Physio today, and he says he wants to change the approach to find out why the rehab hasn't worked as he'd hoped! So, very painful massage today (ouch, ouch, ouch!), then only two easy rehab exercises per day for the next two weeks. The good news (I think!) is he wants to test the problem, by setting me back running as normal - just in time for Ireland! After the next appointment, if there is no progress, then it's scan time he said.
Right, easy flat run at lunch or fearsome hill session tonight then?!
1 in 8 though, which doesn't "sound" too steep, but i reckon there;s a couple of slight levelling out parts that hide the more severe bits.
They do a video so i'll enjoy watching me waddling up later on!
The physio now wants to reign in the exercises and just let you run as you fancy again? Interesting
I missed this one mile race somewhere along the way, do you just run up or is it up and back down?
Just over 9 miles this morning at 7:2x. Typical morning run, starts slow and then I start to loosen up a bit. I went off road for the first few miles and spent most my time sidestepping nettles and ducking under branches. It's not a great time to be off road with everything really overgrown.
That's 31 miles so far this week and with 15 planned on Sunday it will be my biggest week this year. The only other biggish week was down to the marathon,
Bus - Blame Powerade. I've got to go and get my next lot of Torq powder from the Post Office, so I had to go for the luminous blue stuff yesterday..must be all the E numbers
Good news that the physio is getting you running again, all the best physios seem to keep their subjects running at the same time, unless it's a stress fracture or something.
Happens all the time.
I'm sure you will do the sensible thing as regards long term recovery.
🙂
Except for one I had once that said "for someone like you, just run through it", with the seemingly "fix anythng" click to the back the go to solution.
Clearly the other key thing with physios is that the likes of us can really test them in one way. Whereas your average person just wants to get rid of an ache, and does nothing active to complicate it, we'll be expecting to go pushing boundaries as soon as possible.
Reg, apparently, you jog down the hill, amidst severe thoughts of "what have i gots myself into here", and then struggle your way back up. Free beer after, which to me is as useful as a free bike.
ps i note that even my "fairly low mileage generally, but even lower as it's stacked to the back end of the week" is higher than yours this week!
(35miles Mon to Fri, 6 tomorrow to come, then something up to 13 Sunday)
To be fair, I think he is just experimenting to find out what works and doesn't work. We tried limited running and rehab for two weeks. No improvement, but no worse. Then ramped up the rehab and no running for two weeks and it was worse. Now we're on to easy rehab, and run to feel. two weeks of that then further diagnosis....
Talking of Powerade, I saw an advert for "Lucozade Energy, now with half the sugar this morning - what's the point in that then???
Hit the hill hard SG. I can't wait for the report on this one when your quads start buckling about 2/3 up the hill. ;-) some really hilly roads around my way so theres always been some battles on strava over the segments. I find my lungs tend to start feeling about 3 stone in weight on the long hard efforts.
Very decent reps there SC. Must get yourself a 5k or two in post Denmark.
Dean, I reckon your body is saving it all for race day. The calm before the storm. I was set a session on 800s 2 days before the northern relays and they should've been cruising around 2.35. They never felt a cruise but then went to have a really good run. My coach wasn't bothered as he said that it'll be my legs saving themselves for the race.
Plenty of miles in Ireland then Bus! Ric knows! :-D
Managed the 10 x 1200 session on Thursday and it wasn't as bad a first feared. Target was 79/80 per lap and if I remember right the first 4 were all 4 min dead and then ended up dipping under with a 3.55/6 to finish. Couple of shuffles today and 62 miles for the week so far with a 2hour 20 long run tomorrow with some surges towards the end.
In other words, the body no longer recognises that there is a problem. It thinks what you have is how it should be. It's chronic.
My guess is that only an operation will sort it out.
Either that or re-injure the original site. It happens with bone fractures which don't heal first time.
🙂
Cracking session on Thursday Matt, and still giggling about your exploits this morning!
So, 5 miles run last night. The one sore spot aside, my legs felt really fresh and the one (and only) hill I did was my 3rd fastest time out of hundreds of attempts without really pushing. Shows the benefit of some time off I guess!
Bike today, and went for hills rather than distance (30M 2300ft). The roads are in a shocking state after the storms, with wet mud and gravel everywhere, including the usually fast descent to Chinnor - needless to say I didn't make up much time on the downhills so the average speed was pretty low.
http://fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=5071
Sounds promising Bus and nice work on the bike. It's great to have that to take up the slack caused by limited running.
Nice session Matt and top long run on Strava.
SG what's this about jogging down the hill, can't you hammer it down?
long bike for me yesterday, didn't take much food as I was on a group ride where the pace would be slower. Trouble is I hammered the hills and waited up and the towed everyone back. With 70 miles done I decided to add a loop in but at about 85 miles I started feeling giddy. My legs went to jelly and I started seeing ✨ I realised that I had completely bonked due to lack of food, having been out for over 5 hours!
I pulled over to have a sit down as I had no money or food. That was until the blackberry bush caught my eye and I ended up eating a handful of those. It seemed to help a little, the stars went and I pootled back fantasising about food.
Got home and stuffed my face with anything I could find.
long run this morning was less eventful. 15 miles & 7:10. Started at recovery effort for 5 miles than ran easy for 5 and chucked in a couple of mp miles before finishing with 3 easy. Felt good.
A dozen miles this morning at 9:18 pace and really starting to get into and enjoy these slower paced runs over harder terrain. My usual Sunday run would be a bit longer and mainly of quiet roads at somewhere around 7:30 pace. Recently I have moved off road and onto paths and moved away from the river and up into the wooded valleys, so today was basically running two valleys west (so uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill) and then a transition about a mile south and then reverse the outward leg on a parallel and a reverse transition to get back to the start. I suspect some of the slowness is due to stiles and gates but the aim is to run and enjoy running so I don't bother to pause and restart the Garmin.
parkrun yesterday in 20:04 and starting to feel that sub-20 is coming back to me. 6:20 first mile left me in about 25th overall behind a big bunch. 6:49 for the second mile which has a tricky field and a set of steps and then I seemed to get a second wind and a 6:19 third mile saw me pick off the bunch one-by-one and end up 15th overall. I usually do the first miles in about 6:10/6:40 so just need the confidence to start a bit quicker again.
I know where you're coming from re the longer runs in the woods/hills, that's when I enjoy my running the most. Nice PR.
Thats a decent long run after blowing up on the bike the day before Reg. Are you doing an autumn marathon?
Bus, what's the price of a pint outside of Dublin over in Ireland?
Managed to get a decent long run in yesterday. Plan was 6.45-7 pace for 2 hours 20 but throw 10 x 45 seconds at 10k pace in over the last few miles.
Dropped my van in for a service at 7.30am and planned on picking it up straight after.
First 10 miles with my jacket on but the rain had cleared and I was absolutely soaked underneath as my tee shirt didn't wick the sweat so called back at the garage to drop it off.
Got about 1/2 mile from the garage and it pissed it down. Took in the local parkrun and ran around in about 20 mins pace before heading off home for the last few miles with the surges. Realised when I got home that my van was at the garage and the misses was out. I was that soaked I decided to have a quick shower and put some fresh running gear on and plod the 2.5 mile for my van.
21 miles at 6.40 pace then 2.5 about 7.50s.
96 miles for the week but ill get a bollocking if I sneak another 4 in as I've a session to do tomorrow.
Told my long run next sat will be 3 hours so I've managed to persuade him that ill do the 3 peaks in about 3.30. Happy days. :-)