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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Great run in the 10k there SW, I am going with brevity on the name. Looks much more inline with the 5k now and you've got those big improvements to come in the HM and Mara, exciting times.
Standard double Pete, Marlow like Henley probably suffers from having both ,much more intolerant residents and a river getting in the way of making good routes. Oh and hills. Sounds like they just shouldn't have bothered.
Dean, I reckon it's much easier to do a Parkrun tempo when you're an established runner and you're doing really well. It's a bit like driving a Ferrari on the motorway, it's much easier to just cruise on the inside lane, you know you've got the best car so you don't have to prove it.
Bus, nice long run, I follow Alex Dowsett on Strava and I saw his TOB activity for London, averaging 28 mph.
That leads me on to my own little race on Saturday, club relays at Dorney. It's a sprint triathlon relay where all three team members do the swim (400m) then the bike (15km) and then a 5km run. So you get short breaks in between as your two mates do their bit. Did this two years ago and we came 4th with a mechanical and I thought we were in with a chance of winning as we had a slightly stronger team this time.
I was third to go with the strongest swimmer off first and in theory the quickest runner last. Swim start was a farce as several guys start with 5 seconds to go, the starter thinks about trying to stop it but in his wisdom doesn't try to pull back a mass of swimmers!
Our first guy is out of the water in 4th place (tells us he waited for the gun) and myself and our middle chap make up another place to leave us in third on to the bike. By the time I start the bike we're somehow in 10th place despite having two fairly good bike legs. This is because several teams have only done 2 laps, well about 6 teams! So actually we're now in virtual first place. I have a pretty good bike leg, setting the fastest bike split by about 40 seconds averaging 26.5 mph which is pretty good around Dorney as there's a few dodgy corners and the wind to contend with.
We're now a couple of minutes clear of second place and well clear of the teams that missed a lap of the bike, with probably our strongest bit of the race. First guy doesn't know we're clear in first though and come in from his run leg looking like death and posting a storming 17:02 for the 3 miles having buried himself :-), yes SG it was short :-) middle guy does 18:50 and I set off with about a 5 minute lead, I still go quite hard for the first mile (5:36) before my calves start to really tighten and I slow the last two miles to finish in 17:11, we're about 8 minutes clear now and the finish line isn't ready for us, there's people just ambling around so I slow down, also in anticipation of my team mates joining me to cross the line, they're not bothered though, stood there with their hands in their pockets.
We then remind the officials to give us the medals, they present us with the trophy and I put the chip into the bucket because the chip lady isn't ready yet, shambles! We have a few photos on the finish line and all this whilst everyone else is still racing. The only disappointment is that they didn't call out our team name "Thames Valley Trisexuals" oh and that the race wasn't a bit closer.
Good work Reg - and good 10K from SW too!
Quietish weekend - over at Wrest Pk fpr one of the last sessions before Malaga, 8 x 600 on the grass, felt pretty good and averaged about 1.46's I think, so that's hearteneing. Steady 10 miler yesterday. Got 10 x 400 tonight, half slow, half fast. So the battered schedule says they are supposed to be 67's for the 'slow' and 62's for the 'fast'.
Luckily - no recovery set..I'll set me own
Good work Reg. Your bike times are always impressive. Do you ever wonder what might have been if you had focussed solely on the bike? To be fair though, could say the same about the running! No idea how fast swimming is!
I was going to do a double bike today, but chose paying good money to fall asleep to 70's prog rock band Camel in Aylesbury tonight instead, so drove in :-)
Was gonna do a double run today, but Johnas clocked my morning 6 on strava, and stressed recovery until the race is a much better bet.
This is where it's good to have a coach, as by habit I'd have no doubt run twice more before tomorrow's race, thinking it's a B race. However, come 7pm tomorrow, I dare say I'll be pleased I didn't.
Will "race" it, as opposed to looking for any specific time. It can often be windy down there for one thing, but I think this is the better version of the course than the Golden mile/5k one (no grass).
Last time out a south coast legend won in very low 16s, a chap who has won about 900 races (!).
After that though it looked fairly up for grabs, with the rest of the top 5/6 in low to upper 17s.
Will see whether being the last race makes people want to have one last hurrah, or whether it eases down like a lot of series do.
Prog Rock Bus. Brave man. Very subjective subject but Prog is up there with Country & Western for me. Not in a good way
Ran a 20 yesterday with some laps of Dorney thrown in with some much faster runners. I was pretty wiped out as a result and today I can barely walk. I don’t think that Ric is going to think that was an effective session, I know I don’t!
SC - that's the fella! Won most of the south races, but as he's started rolling through the 40s it's harder to see off the incredible competition, so he adds parkruns in now, where he's probably quite invincible for the foreseeable!
Wool - A 20miler at any sort of effort beyond easy has to place a big strain. But I bet you don't always realise it straight away.
I did that club 20 with Chris last year, something like 15 in the 7-7.20mixer, and then ramping down into the 630s and down to 6 at the end.
Idiotically did the timetrial on the Tuesday (remember, the "modest" time one..), and then was ruined for the rest of that week.
One to file in the "never again" locker
Wool, yep I'm doing Abo. I will tentatively say sub 3 is the target, as long as Cheltenham Half goes well! Any course tips for Abo?
Rule of thumb for me is 48 hours after the 'test', I need to be back in the condition I was before it.
If 72 hours later, I still haven't recovered. Then that session at that moment in time is deemed inappropriate.
As for long runs. I did that last one ensuring I was fully hydrated the whole way, along with protein eaten while doing it.
I don't consider stopping en-route as tantamount to ruining the session.
🙂
SW, the one thing about Abo is that there is absolutely nothing to worry about with the course. It’s not 100% flat and it incorporates a couple of laps which have a short traily section but there’s nothing to slow you down. Last year the water stations had a mix of cups / sponges / bottles. It’s no VLM for water but there was just enough for me. Plenty to run with around the sub 3 mark without any crowding. Top event in my view.
The car park is nice and close to the start, an eternity from the finish despite the s/f being in exactly the same place ? (credit Bus).
Simon -totally agree re C&W, and most forms of folk, but I love a bit of quality prog :-)
Certainly Camel did the genre proud, and it was nice to be one of the younger members of the audience! Ears are ringing this morning - something I've not had for many years!
Nice long run Wool. That last mile at Abo was pretty horrible as I saw my Champ time evaporating. At the time I was not that bothered but now I am wondering if I will ever get back to marathon type fitness!
Ric, others - This seems to be a very good resource on when, how and why with magnesium https://www.peakendurancesport.com/nutrition-for-endurance-athletes/magnesium-matters-athletes/
StevieG - No, it was another lad from the Overdone It thread ..
I am feeling knackered after 21 miles surrounding a half on Sunday, and hungry like a Wool
The half was ok, nice and flat (started from an airfield), but probably too close to the start of the marathon taper being scheduled right after my peak mileage and hardest sessions. While I felt like I could chug along for some distance further than a half, my body was not allowing any gear changes and effort wasn't (capable of being) ramped up to the usual level. So I used it for marathon race practice and took on water frequently and focused on moving with a decent range of motion as I was feeling tight even from the start.
Final chip time was 1.19.01 and it would've been comfy-ish sub 6 pace, except the last 3 miles were directly into a decent headwind and added on around 10s per mile.
The finish area was teeming with wasps bizarrely so post race snack and drinks were a fraught affair. What else happened ? Oh there were some dull car park issues too: a blockage on the single entry/exit road meant that everyone was held back for a good hour or so after 12 pm. I took advantage of the on site massage tent while I waited and paid a young lady a tenner to elbow me in the thigh rather painfully. Anyone else have an opinion on the usefulness of an immediate massage post race ?
Feel a little bit knackered myself, maybe ever so slightly coldy/run down, but hopefully after a nice long drive out of this stuffy office it'll be fine! Only a 5k - a distance I always feel that the margin between good and poor is about 1 minute!
For more info about dog training add . and com with the site which is written below.
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Bit harsh
Hope the ears ok now Bus! Decent run by the looks then Muddy, given the headwind etc. The missus is a qualified Sports masseuse, so I'd have to say they are extremely beneficial
Last session before Malaga last night, the 10 x 400's became 8 and a bit slower than the insane 62/67 fast slow I was supposed to do. Anyway it was over the field on the 440yd track, gave myself 90 secs recovery. Came in about 67/68 for the steadier and 63-64 for the faster. Just some strides tomorrow, then it's all done.
StevieWh - I'm with a small club so we don't really do many of the midlands club events. We can generally get teams out for the intercounties cross country event but don't play in the leagues. Knowle and Dorridge have some decent runners around your level and above, based on my recent outings at Solihull and Kenilworth halves, so you'll likely find some good training partners.
Gosport 5k Tue 11th Sep.
I'd had a great little trip down to Gosport for the Golden mile/5k combo in June, and aimed to get to one of this series for a return. The first 4 events all clashed with stuff, so it was this one or bust.
It did mean stretching the 5k season out from early May for 4 months to early Sep, but it had to be done!
Half day off, and a very generous leaving time of 3pm for a 7pm race meant no worries whatsoever, and a 5pm arrival.
Hoped for no wind (optimistically on the coast!), opened the door on arrival, and it almost blew off the hinges! Heck.
The race staff were there nicely early, and didn't seem too surprised at some gimp collecting 2hours before the race. I liked that they were using heavy stones to keep everything strapped down!
Way too early to even think about a warm up, I went for a wander down the course. Different course to the June event, starting in a nearby carpark instead of at the end of the Golden mile course. Midway, a better version of a 2 lap bit as well, this time all on smooth paths, versus the grassy alternative.
Strange to therefore see two km markers about 10metres apart.
Not that this particularly needs a photo to show it, but here we are!!
Carried on round to the right of the photo, and it's about a 1.5km to the finish after the original turn off into this loop.
Took in the views of the coast. As of obviously when you're racing you take in nothing views wise!
My crap phone doesn't do this one any justice
Noticed some of the benches down the front had flowers left on them. On closer inspection these were for September passing aways, with relatives marking the occasion. Read a few of the inscriptions, and quite sad, talking about couples who used to sit there loving the coast and views etc after 50 years together.
Thought to myself a bit of wind (well, quite a bit of wind) is no reason to at all feel hard done by, when you can take a trip to the coast and have a race in full health etc.
That's all getting too deep, so here's a lovely Gosport Museum, cannon
those benches clearly threw him right off....
Into the kit, two mile warm up including an attempt at "race pace" for 2 1/2mins or so. As this was into the strongest wind, I think I managed about 6.20 pace here (!)
A million "last" nips into Das Toileten, and we were off to the start. Round the corner to make up about 400metres on the Gosport mile/5k course startlines.
Recognised this James Baker chap who has won about 900 races and everything in the South coast area over the years, so it's automatically a race for 2nd.
Quite a few fast young types hanging about, but you can never tell at races.
Recognise the kid who beat me at the Gosport mile, but whom I beat at the 5k. Not sure he has logged under 17.30, so I suspect I should be beating him.
Either way, I politely lineup just behind him, to watch how things go. Did feel a little warm headed/borderline run down earlier, but for a 5k will be fine.
We're off. The kid, and some older guy monster off, and I put a surge on, and I'm 3rd out of the carpark.
I'm skipping onto curbs trying to be relaxed, but I have clocked this is low 5s pace, a little mental.
Baker comes past, and a couple of others are suddenly ahead. I'm in 6th half a mile in, but it's early knockings. This will change, I'd bet my runners world internet fame on it.
Only have to wait until 1km for it to change, as some kid in white has dropped out. I spend the next hundred metres or so wondering why you would drop out of a 5k that early, even with a ridiculous start you'd settle surely? That and slight concern that the 1km split is a ludicrous 3.32 when it's obviously been a sharp start. I do clock that was a 0.65m reading though, not 0.62m, but then wonder if I took a less than minimal route!
On we go, Lap 1 of the little loop underway. Fairly still down the path, then turns into wind, then a lot of wind, and then a little wind. The 2km marker is up, with a surprising 3.24, for a 0.61m.Knew that first one was a bit long.
On hitting the straight on the bit to the 2nd loop, I had company behind. Discouraged him from trying to take advantage of my lanky windbreak shape, and as we went down the path again, we were joined with midpackers to add a little bit of a challenge.
3rd km is up in 3.34. Today is definitely a racing job rather than a time one. I'll be pleased with a 17:xx today.
Some marshal barked at them to stay left, so I scooted past them right, and matey (ginger chap, wearing headfones!) went left. He was a Gosport home runner, so was getting all the support of the marshals on home turf.
He got ahead of me, and I was facing losing to someone with headfones for possibly one of the only times I could remember.
Still.. long way to go.
3.5km or so is up, and I can now see the kid who'd started insanely again.
I'm just behind ginger headfones, and am weighing things up.
I creep past him, and in my head i'm thinking how this is a gamechanging move.
The young lad is coming back to me massively, despite the fact I don't think i'm upping the pace, as this is in the full extent of the wind on this stretch.
It's one of those passes where you know for certain you won't see them again. I then realise that of course I'm in 3rd now, a guarantee of a prize, rather than the limbo of messing around for any top 3 based on others being older/younger.
Just need to see that 4km marker to be sure I'll see this out in 3rd.
I'd seen where 4km was earlier, on a sign next to a bollard. A few bollards came and went before the actual 4km came up. 3.31km logged.
Heaviest bit of wind here, but with 2nd in the distance to follow, and 1km being fairly short, it was in the bag, barring some insane efforts behind.
Passed some fella sat on a bench a little too "trip risk" closely for my liking, then that glorious spell for the 3rd time at Gosport this "summer" knowing I was coming in for a placing.
Over the line, and despite stopping it early, official result of 17.36 for 3rd.
That'll do today.
Surprised in the results to see Ginger headfones at 22 seconds behind, and young lad at 33secs behind.
Those are some massive deficits from pretty much being level at 3.8km or so. And without a serious step up from me.
Knew the young lad was ridiculously overcooking it, as he was miles clear early doors, we're talking about 200metres or so after 1.5km!
A few chats and pics with some Gosport pals met at previous events there, obviously a cool down, and then the presentation.
Another £20 off Alton sports voucher, which is slightly awkward to use as it has to be off full price trainers, and you can't combine it with other vouchers, but grateful none the less!
Gosport road runners hoovered up the prizes on their own patch, and Baker had long buggered off, not even bothering to pick up his prize.
Left at about 8.20, back home by 10ish. Not bad.
Completes a good little summer of trips, Gosport x2, Wales, Burnley, 3x Battersea Park, as well as some local races too.
4mile slow today, and hopefully fluid and rest gets this slight run down bit out the system before a no doubt hard sesh tomorrow
Full steam ahead to the Great South run now.
I forget you "short report" types haven't encountered the post limits
£125 new now (! i remember the days it was £80 new!), so £125 - the highest value one, £30, is still a tenner more than I'd find them online!
My potential race and report combo has been sadly compromised.
Strange how a really good last weekends training, has diminished into next to nothing.
Problem seems nerve related in my lower back. Jogging slowly is fine. Running faster finds a dull ache in the butt that doesn't even hurt that much, just that the signals upset the co-ordination, and I need all of that.
I discovered all of this when I went for my first run since the 20 miler. Just like that - it was there.
It'll get better. It's almost nothing anyway.
🙂
Hope so Ric.
For one thing, are they relying on you to do this 20miler so soon now?
Surely they don't have someone handy who will go that far, and do some a huge distance? Or are you the potential fill in?
"Kerb" and "headphones" though please - one must maintain standards, what?!
Ric - sounds a similar story with my back. One day everything is fine and dandy and the next it seems to have a party all of its own. Bought some magnesium citrate tablets yesterday. Bit early to tell if they are doing anything (though I did seem full of beans yesterday for a double bike commute!) but they are big buggers to swallow 3 of!
Also, why is it that when you have a few days off running, the first run back always feels like you've raced a marathon? Nice evening for it mind.
I can vouch for the winds down there, and tells you something when 5k times are 30s down because of it!
Ric, hope the back/butt twinges subside. Was it the relays this weekend?
Bus, completely agree. First run since Friday before last, and my legs feel like the first time I asked them to run... And that was for a 6.7mi at just sub 9min/mi pace! Clearly the pizza and wine didn't do me much good.
Will see how they are in the morning, but thinking of a small session tomorrow, something like 5 x 4mins (2mins) at HM (7min/mi from Indian Queens as my basis), just for turnover and a return to regular sessions.
All the best for Malaga, Dean and SC!