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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Hope you enjoyed the 20 SG, I didn't realise you were going to take it so cruisy, I'd have saved the nutrition advice.
I was actually more concerned at having to stop for a pee than running out of fuel
20 is a significant increase from 15, so was a little delve into the unknown as well, albeit not one I worried too much about, as long as I didn't get carried away early doors and risk a death march!
Jools, sub 7 would have been nice in hindsight, but just wanted to make sure I didn't overdo those first miles when you're off with 10milers. Probably only would have taken moving the 3x7.30 ish miles 6.59s and probably there.
TT - thought I was one of the last in the country to get it!
I hope you get it even more mild than me, as even my surely mild case took a good few weeks to build back the right direction again.
That's an arse of a trip from here, grrr.
TT- Oh balls another little setback. Hopefully it won't be too bad.
TR - Nicest was the Youngs normal/'Ordinary' in Croydon. Had the only session bitter on offer amongst the pale ale trendy stuff in Tooting, the Bass and a non alcoholic Bitburger back in LB. More drink in the offing after Battersea friday and then Bournemouth up at Wolves on Saturday.
6 x 1 mile at Luton last night, off 90 secs. First one was off pace as usual, 5.18 - then down to about 5.11, 5.09 and 5.03 for the last one. Happy with that and glad to be chasing Mr Kimpton around again, nice rare appearance.
Enjoyed the 20 report, SG. There is something very enjoyable about a non-all out race day experience.
Great photo Jools. Look forward to joining you in Manchester – hope we actually see each other this time! What are your travel plans? Purely anecdotal from me, but to help iron scores (having briefly been classed as anaemic) I made up chicken or pork liver pate once a week – and avoided caffeine whilst eating. My non-meat eating wife was not terribly impressed with the cooking smells.
Excellent beer debrief, SC! 5:03 finishing mile in a session is going some.
A rough time for you, TT. Hope you are well again soon.
Having gone 18, 20, 22 over the last three weeks, I had a shorter long run on Tuesday of 16.5M. But for the first time in quite a few marathon cycles, I included a long continuous block of marathon effort – 12M. Taking two mile splits (helpful round the racecourse): 13:25, 23, 17, 19, 29, 26. So around 6:38 – 45 pace. Really surprised and pleased by this for a non-stop effort. I guess a key difference was doing it after only a 3M warm up rather than in the latter half of a long run, but a good outcome nonetheless. I seem to like the rhythm of chugging along at this sort of intensity.
Hour recovery yesterday along the canal before a mammoth drive down to the south coast and back to see my 101 year old grandmother is sadly now ailing.
Good mile reps SC, how would you say your form is at the moment, you seem to be going well, you think the healthy eating has made a big difference?
Hits just keep on coming TT, hopefully this is nothing more than a period of cold like stuff. Might even pair nicely with the need to rest your sore bits.
I have no idea what all the blood tests mean, Jools, my wife is always telling me about her levels and I really should have educated myself better!
Nice training run SG, I'd echo the sub 7 comments, I would have thought sub 3 pace would have been the best way to test the water over a longer but not full distance, maybe next time as you ease your way to your first marathon at glacial pace!
My latest niggle has been hanging around but has receded to more of an, occasional feeling tight after feeling. I am not generally too aware of it during a run. This has been helped, possibly by an enforced reduction in volume, due to a trip to Ireland for a long weekend. A combination of trips and a bit of drinking made it hard to get the runs in but I did manage a 9, 13 & 10 over the four days. That brought up 60 for last week so down from the 85 but there was also a niggle in there. First run commute in a very long time today 7.6 miles with a bag full of laptop, clothes, shoes, towel, etc made it feel a bit like running in mud the whole way! I think I will leave a lot of it in the office tonight, the return trip might have to be longer to avoid running on a couple of dodgy roads in the dark.
Feeling fit, so will do the usual going out in 3.12's tomorrow at Battersea and I feel like I should be able to keep that pace to get close to 16.00. Feeling fitter than last April when I did 16.02, but there was definite (pardon the pun) bounce from racing in the new Takumi Sen's. Anyway, we'll see, going to be milder and a bit more breezy than late too.
Feel the pain about a heavy commuting bag. If we go up to 2 days a week I'm definitely going for Tues/weds so I can leave my laptop at work and run in lighter on Weds.
SQ - No problem
Although very hard to compare a chatting gubbings for 18miles type run with a more focused one. Because that chatting helped the miles tick by nicely.
On another note, I'm on for 2nd in the men's club champs that should finish that way - 2nd to an absolute local legend, and most likely 5th in the WAVA one (4th at the moment, but a V50 just needs to complete the last 2 events to push me down one). (Trophies for top 5 in each)
There's 2 official events left, but I probably don't feel ready for the Wokey HM which is a mere 10 days away, and don't fancy the Windsor park club only last event.
There is an any marathon extra event though, all year....
For giggles, I thought I'd just run past the chairman what time I'd need at a marathon pre end March to bump myself up 1 place...expecting he might say 3.12 or something.
2.45 he reckons
That'd be the most ludicrously hard gained race ever to win the 4th placed Age grading trophy over 5th placed wouldn't it!!
I was forgetting that for a marathon, you get way less of an age boost as a young 40+, than you do against 5k and short stuff..
SC - Chichester. Good luck for Battersea (under the lights?).
That’s the thing with P&D, Reg. you do just some of the runs and your weekly mileage is still way up!
Took deliver of the Ride 15s. Not expecting much at sub £50, but they were an absolute delight. So much lighter and freer than the Shift 2s. Found myself sub 8m/m for recovery effort. Seriously considering buying another pair whilst they are on offer.
8M then 6 x short and steep 15s hills. Will just do a pissy little 3 or 4M tomorrow before XC on Saturday. Kind of like going into XC untapered.
Talking of 20s, I extended the route home tonight from the morning’s 7.6 to 12.4 to make a round 20 for the day. I don’t think that’s in P&D!
If it's pain and damage it fits in well
For a HM i like a 3x2m at HMP a couple of weeks out, so wondered about that, but then thought more 3x10mins.
When I got to the track feeling a bit sluggish, half awake, windy track etc, I stumbled randomly onto a bit of a progressive pace, lap cut downs job.
So in laps reps of 5,5,3,3,1.5,1.5,1. which felt a good quantity, being 20 laps, so close to 5miles, when the original 3x10mins would have been less.
Probs around 6.10-6.13 sort of mixer for the 5s, sub 6 for the 3s, 2.06-2.08 for the 600s (1.25/1.25), then a 1.20 400m not particularly feeling like gunning it.
Hadn't done any strides and the track was pretty windy one one part, but there's something motivational about distances reducing isn't there, and naturally it ramps up.
So served a nice little progressive, in a strange week of recovering from the even reasonably run 20miler. Didn't feel the foot at all which was even better.
35.75m for the week so far, will tidy that up to about 39 later then see that over 50 on Sunday for a bit of a cut back week.
I then decided to do a track session and my go-to session is 6x800m with a full lap jog recovery: times were nothing to shout home about but if I am to go faster over 5k then I need to do some speed work at a faster pace and the reps were technically faster (just) than the parkrun so it is a mark to improve on.
SG - whilst it was a bit further than normal that 20 was standard long run pace for you, so you'd be fine within a couple of days. Enables you to crack on.
SQ - the Rides are a nice shoe, I like them. Good that you chose Manch, what about yr mate?
Reg - nice one on the 20m commute day, I've done a few of those in the past. I bike the odd commute in order to transport kit, so i can then run with minimal to carry.
After a decent progressive 20m last week and decent 10m tempo Weds, I thought i was finally getting moving......now I'm CV positive.
Still felt like a couple of days off this week and mainly easy stuff was necessary though, bar yesterday's sesh.
CV for you now, drat!! Hopefully a much milder case then previously.
Running isn't half a sport for highs and lows is it!
Same route as a 13 5 weeks ago that came out at 7.40, so 30secs a mile for 2miles further is certain a decent sign about being back in and around it.
Last 8miles pretty much came out 7.00ish, couple of miles 7 or 8 seconds under, last mile a bit over, but rest just sub 7.
The outbound route is a bit deceptive, climbing more than you give it credit for to 6miles, then a bit down again, but the last 8 is therefore mostly down. Only a couple of miles of significant downs, one of 40feet and one of 70 feet down, but the rest is mere 20 feet downs, and a couple of 15/20 ups too.
But the numbers are coming along nicely.
Ignoring the Bramley 20, 7.22 was the quickest post covid run, and 7.11 today. Nice.
Good work SQ, for some reason it felt odd hearing you doing XC, but no real reason as it's still only Feb isn't it.
2pm Saturday is probably a "classic" start time for "proper" XC leagues, but for me it's just the worst time possible really, unless it's summer. Clashes with footy stuff, and has you hanging about the whole day waiting for it, making food more awkward than usual.
Huge run after too. Do you tighten up on those? I probably always tighten a bit over a 10miler, irrespective of pace.
On light feels, hopefully my odd foot feel has gone mostly now. Was probably some sort of hamstring/calf type referred feels. Hoped it wasn't major, as ran a 20miler through it ok!
Ps, Phil - pleasing to hear you talk about performance stuff again. Maybe 2023 is the year for you to get a race turnout in again.
Good stuff SQ, you're getting nice and fit.
Most important thing is my wife only had a heavy cold this time (thanks to the jabs), she was so ill when we had this in Nov 20.
My RHR is low so would probably be ok to run a bit when the cough goes, feels like the chest issue i had in Sept, maybe that was CV too. But as SG and SQ point out, this takes a bit of time and building back up from, not ideal with 6 wks til the B of the bang.
But it took over a month post covid to get there, building the long runs up, then seeing a 7.40 13miler, 7.28 15, 7.22/7.23 etc...
When targeting twice a year for a spell of big races under Moz, you could very easily find one of those periods was wrecked by a niggle/illness.
I guess that's even more the case for a marathon, as you're basically putting half a year into 1 race.
That's a triple blow of monumental proportions and would definitely blow our playoff aims.
Jools - haematocrit is fine at that level, and can vary depending on hydration levels. Your ferritin is definitely on the lower side. The problem with those ranges is they include outliers at the edge of the bell curve for people who are healthy with those readings. There are optimal ranges which are more useful, but never/rarely used by GP' unfortunately. I take a daily high dose iron supplement (lifelong anaemia issues, probably due to a year of regular transfusions when I was a kid) which keeps my levels somewhat normal most of the time. If you're going to supplement avoid ferrous sulphate (old GP told me I 'might as well lick the rust off of railways sidings', lol). I use a high-strength ferrous fumarate with lactoferrin (improves binding (TIBC)).
SC - good to see you continuing the speedy reps! I hope Battersea went well.
SQ - nice consistent pacing there on the MP stuff.
SG - only one way to know on the sub-3 marathon front
Reg - nice daily double there. It might not be in P&D, but P was a Lydiard follower (can see it in his schedules) so you can be sure he done similar at times himself.
PMJ - nice parkrun marker.
TR - you really are due some luck. Maybe you should pick up a last minute (ish) marathon entry at some stage when you've got a good block of uninterrupted training behind you.
So my experience of covid was almost 36 hours of vomiting - I was even struggling to keep down liquids which was not pleasant, along with a lot of the other regular symptoms, but a lot milder than I saw my wife experience the first time she had it. I also had, in complete contrast to my OH, bouts of insomnia (which was particularly frustrating whilst she was sleeping 13 hours a day).
I got out for 4m easy on Saturday, and a moderate 6m yesterday, which felt ok, and helped shift things along a bit, and actually feel almost normal today (I can nearly enjoy the taste of coffee again!!)
The one effect I've particularly noticed, which I'd not heard of, is what I could only refer to as a softening of the tendons and ligaments (similar to what you read about pregnant women experiencing). On Saturday's run I was very aware of it, though it was less yesterday. The biggest problem is that my achilles, which was 100% fine last Monday, is something I'm aware of in the background now, but fingers crossed that mild awareness dissipates over the next few days.
Bummer about the lurgy TR.
Good going on the XC and mileage SQ, I am not adding to P&D, I've been off the plan for a good couple of weeks now with niggles etc so the 20 commute double was merely a long run replacement, having missed the weekend one.
Things haven't gone that smoothly for me since that commute run though. I went out for a lunch ride the day after with the intention of doing a recovery run that evening. Unfortunately near the end of the ride I was turning into a junction and lost the front wheel on some slimy, wet mud, probably a combination of a farmer's mud and the strangely damp and slimy conditions. Took a good tumble, cutting my arm, hip, shin and also impacting my shoulder. A lovely lady stopped to ask if I was ok and offer me a lift home, quite attractive too but I wasn't far from home so I just thanked her and reluctantly declined
That was the end of the planned recovery run that evening and when I did get out the next day, upon my return, I realised I had torn something on my inner thigh. I suspect it's an adductor tear, it hurts when I raise my knee.
As a result my planned 22 mile long run on Sunday became a bike ride but at least it's giving my bruised hip a bit of time to settle. Some improvement in the adductor today but I it'll be a ride or elliptical at the gym for the next few days I suspect. Fingers crossed it heals quickly.
I am not sure if I did it in that commute run or in the bike crash, hopefully the latter as that's less repeatable. Hopefully.
My comment was meant to say that if I want to run a fast parkrun then if the fastest work I do is running a parkrun (on say 40 Saturdays a week) then I may progress but the improvement will be slow. If I go down the track and run some laps at a pace faster than my intended parkrun pace it will help. I also agree that long tempos help: maybe it is easiest to think about "speed endurance" so the shorter resp help with the speed and longer reps (or tempos) help with the endurance.
SG, I am still unsure about racing: since 2012 my parkrun times have gotten slower each and every year and my WAVA rating has also fallen, though not so uniformly, but I was at 79.72% and fell as low as 72.77% in 2020. Last year I got back up to 73.57% (21:15) and if I can repeat that time this year, or better it, I can halt that slide, but 21 minutes for 5k is not racing. I'm just a slow old guy who is not as slow as the other slow old guys.
I read an interesting article by Eilish McColgan on the marathon: early physiological tests say she was suited to it and she is yet to run her first one.
https://www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and-insights/news/eilish-is-running-into-2023-with-new-goals
Reggie - another nasty one on the bike, hope that eases off.
SG - Good session and long run
SQ - Good XC and monster long run! You must be really fit at the moment
PMJ - Glad you liked Moors Valley
TT- Hope you feel better soon
Battersea 5k. Went down with the missus and kid, as there were a few Bedford runners doing it also and it has Half term.
Found everyone, got warmed up and we were the second race - the slowest men. t went
Race 1 - 3rd fastest men
Race 2 - slowest men (my race)
Race 3 - Elite Women
Race 4 - Elite Men
Race 5 - 2nd fastest men
So set off, few jokes on start line about being the shit race etc..
Through 1st K in 3.07, faster than usual as expected, felt ok, keeping the same pace up through 2k, 3.08, so knew I had a few seconds in spare for sub 16, although the dreaded creeping achy quads were coming on, knew I didn't feel as good as I did for the 16.02 last year.
Anyway - battled on and through 3k with 3.12 for the K- so lost a bit of time but still sub 16.
Starting to feel it a bit now and it's harder, realise it's going to be how close I can get to 16. Turn left at the end to go round the top end of the 'D' and come back towards the track end of the park. As expected, 3.19 for K no.4 and it's tough and now spot on 16.00 pace. So we come round towards the track and back up the middle towards the bandstand and finish.
Legs burning up the final 200m and get a bit close to the spectators, looking like my head has gone, but really my legs aren't working properly LOL.
Over the line for 16.06 on my watch, 16.08 in official timing. Happy enough I suppose and top of the V50 road 5k rankings for a while at least (although someone has pulled out a 16.04parkrun from nowhere..) I was 39th out of 45, slowest time was 16.45.
Nice evening out, had to go straight back, so couldn't take advantage of the free pizza and beer funded by Adidas in the Cafe! Typical!
Saturday - Good day out in theWest Midlands watching Bmth win at Wolves
11.5 yesterday, classic route.
Positive morning for me, adductor felt a bit better so I chanced a run and got an easy 8 miles done without any issues.
Weird about the ligament softening, TT. Hope you are 100% again soon.
Hope you can have as brief a flirtation with covid as I recently did, TR.
SG - surprisingly I started cramping a little in the second half of the XC race. Other than that, just fatigued for the long run but nothing crazy. Although I always struggle to bend low enough to untie my shoe laces after a long run. This was at the tighter end of usual! One more XC league fixture - on 5/3. Hope might coincide with Jools for the first time this season.
Crash doesn’t nice fun, Reg. Good you could get out this morn at least.
Great racing and nice report, SC. Can’t believe you are in the slow race.
After 37M across Saturday-Sunday, including a XC race and a very hilly long run, the body was groaning yesterday. For some reason a really sore upper back and neck. Probably more likely from playing with a carrying kids, but then exacerbated by the running.
Managed an amazing family walk up through Queen’s Wood before 5 slow miles recovery on the flat. 9:40 pace all that was on offer 😆.
Will keep things easy for a marked down week before Bourton 10k on Sunday.