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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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seeing a few of the runners i know who were there yesterday (mostly girlies!), and the quality of the real top end...ie people who beat Ben in 11th, it might be interesting to do the race where qualification is decided next year.
I know you've all told me what race qualifies for what, and the significance, but i think I need an idiots version laid out.
something like the dates for the below...and presumably the qualification is gained from the bucks xc?
Stevie, phew! I thought i'd found the Trafford results, and they showed you doing a 39:4x, which would have been a disaster!
Clearly I am Mr Spackman and had instead dug out 2011's results!!!
Therefore, 1) that shows the progression you've made in 2 years, and 2) as I certainly know windy courses affect things!
Hopefully you don't have 3 10ks in a row that are affected, and sounds like you're bang on to monster things next time out!
When is next time out?
Is Trafford 10k a good fast course weather pending then? Fast as Leeds and Great Manchester 10k?
Course profile wise, it's quicker than Great Manchester, and similar to Leeds. But those races have other factors that mean most runners go quicker on them. GMR has the event size and city centre excitment. Leeds is on a par course wise but the great field and elite feel to things get the most from you. It is a VERY quick course though, just a shame they hold it on the same weekend as the inter-counties. I always have a shocker at Trafford so it's nice to not be saying "Yeah it's a quick course but not for me!"
Next for me is a road 5K at Christleton. Might sneak a 3K track race in at the end of April post Portugal.
I'm not running the masters Xc as its in Sunderland and too near wilmslow hm. I was the 5th v40 yesterday. To put my 192nd position into some light I ave paced 6.01 in those conditions. Some very good competition was out there.
Matt - smart decision.
SG - the southerns and the nationals are entered by putting a cheque in the post. Anyone can enter. Competition is still fierce though. The inter counties are selection only, normally through the county champs. You can run in the county champs of where you live or where you were born.
It looks to be similar kind of standard to Eastleigh and Chichester, top 100 under 36ish, but perhaps with more sub 30? couple of thousand field?
Leeds i think i saw was about 8,000, is Great Manchester that level or more? Must be the biggest field 10ks around?
Back from a little recovery run. Unlucky not dipping below 36 Stevie! wind was tough down here this morning too!
So I went to the Intercounties race not feeling quite at my best, It had been a hard week at work refitting and tiling a bathroom, in a house where everyone had a cold or illness, they told me they were all Ill on Wednesday and I just hoped to get to Saturday without catching anything, Sadly by Friday I had the sniffles!
Felt reasonable yesterday so just went through the usual warm up routine, spoke to Dean breifly and caught up with afew other people I knew.
They kept us waiting on the start line for quite afew minutes as usual when they are getting the TV timing right, So off we went, I was somewhere in the middle of the pen, and got an ok start, it turned out to be a reasonably fast start but as the quality of the feild was high and lots of similarly able runners we got fairly congested as soon as the course narrowed. Clocking 5:35 for the first mile, Dean couldnt have been far away but I never saw him!
Feeling ok at this point everyone relaxed the pace and I followed suit, when the first uphill section came the legs just felt abit heavy but breathing was fine. On we plodded into lap 2 of 4! Its all abit of a blur, just trying to keep going, runners coming past slowly but continuously I felt bad and the gentle hills and boggy patches just numbed the legs. The pace seemed ok considering the course, clocking 6:02 & 5:59 for miles 2&3, Into lap 3 I started to struggle a little, pace dropping to 6:18 for both miles 4&5, I was waiting for Dean or my club mate to come past, but they didn't, Onto the start of the last lap and as we were climbing a slope I heard someone shout go on Dean! As I crested the top I turned to have a glance and saw Dean was the runner behind me! about 15 yeard behind, luckily this spurred me on and I knew the course was going to be short so started to push on not wanting to be outsprinted by the master of such tactics! By now I was passing afew runners, but everyone sped up and we all battled it round the last mile and a half, I gained quite afew places and dug deep in a sprint to the line, taking more postitions. mile 6 in 6:06 and last .57 of a mile in 6:04 pace.
I was shattered! I looked round to see Dean finishing not far behind and then we just wandered round for a bit. i was in a daze, bumping into PC2 briefly for a little chat, then I wandered off to get warm.
Result was 186th/290 comparred to 244th last year, so good improvement but could have run abit faster and certainly felt much better. Was hoping for 160-170th
6.57 miles, avg 6:00min/mile
What I did notice is alot of runners were quite close in the mid pack, 1 min faster would have been 50 positions higher! So a fine line between a good or bad run!
Drove home without eating or drinking and by the time I got home I felt weak and Ill, Got into bed for afew hours until the girlfriend produced a steak dinner and a big drink and started to feel better, Ok this morning but could be coming down with a little cold or something.
SG the Bucks XC county champs will probably be the 4th or the 11th January next year, keep you eye out on your county athletics association website for an entry form if there is one.
Cracker Seb, beating the Dean who has had a good race himself!
Surely you must be able to put this form into the road soon?
Having read your report I remembered why I don't like the sounds of this, both the distance AND the laps!
I wonder if anyone there has the indignity of being lapped?
The effort both you and Dean put in must have been huge, as you both report the same feelings after of being drained and borderline ill!
wouldn't let me quote either you Dean or Seb, but thanks , got it now.
Had a look at the Bucks Xc, and it seems the top 4 qualify automatically, and the other places are filled at "management discretion".
You must have mullered that last mile whilst i was conserving energy thinking i had 2m still to go. as I out kicked about 10 in the finish sprint and never saw you.
SG - on the tv it showed 4 getting lapped, one even applauded them past
No one should get lapped as the average quality of the field is just too good. although the last 3 runners that were way off the back probably did!
Even if I cant transfer this form onto the road in its entirety I will still knock my current PB's down significantly. planning more fell & afew adventure races this year and only a handful of road & track, still to what your good at eh. My clubmate who Im neck and neck with at XC was taking it easy yesterday as is aiming at very low 70 mins at Reading half next weekend!
Im hoping the inter counties is at a different venue next year, bored of Cofton park!
Never trust the watch vs apparent course distance Dean! I knew it was 4 laps so used that as a guide!
Had a right old look through the results, Bucks came 4th in the 9 to score bit.
Looks like 6th of our guys were hot, 63,76,106,124,145,161 10k pbs for the last 4 in the 31.55 to 32.41 area.
7th in 179th doesn't seem to have much more than a 35.17 10k on the road but must be a XC machine.
8th and 9th, came 241 and 251, and came 10th and 15th in the Bucks XC! Therefore, maybe there is a chance of sneaking into the last 2 places if others in the top 15 didn't want to go!
is the venue usually in Birmingham then? or does it get passed around the country like the nationals?
Seb looking at your splits we must have been very close to each other the whole race. Although my final was .57m was 5.28 pace ( verses your 6.06 pace) so you made great time on me during the 5th and 6th mile.
Your transition to Xc is excellent, you are a class act and I happily concede to you on the grass. I'm happy i was only 6 secs behind you
Excellent stuff Seb - as usual, excellingwhen it gets tough! I must admit, I'm in awe of both you and Dean being able to achieve 6mM pace in those sort of atrocious underfoot conditions!
Are you doing the English or British fell champs this year Seb? You should!
Stevie See - as everyone else has said, that's worth a PB in those conditions - I know exactly how you feel though, as both of my last two road PB attempts have been affected by the weather (though that didn't stop some on this forum at Wokingham eh
)
A lot of it is old boys network: who you know and not how fast. Stephen Herring did come 15th in the Bucks XC and make no mistake, he is a good runner, but not top 9 in Bucks.
Bucks AA sya top 4 + 5 chosen by team manager which is really far too many wildcards: maybe save 1 or 2 so if someone runs badly or is away etc when it should be top 9 at champs. Would also help you if you ran the Chiltern League so they see your face.
http://www.bucksaa.org.uk/icevents.html
Anyone know how to change county in po10? I am Berks and SG Surrey for Datchet and Sandhurst.
The mud last few days has been really bad: places seem to have a thin layer of slippery stuff on top of a harder under layer so nothing seems to grip.
not sure if Im going to do any of the champs Fell races Bus, just a bunch of lower key ones. its such a bumfight for entry to the main races, as im not on top of the entry forms/dates and Im not even allowed in the long races due to lack of experiance, so thats what Im working on this year.
Seb looking at your splits we must have been very close to each other the whole race. Although my final was .57m was 5.28 pace ( verses your 6.06 pace) so you made great time on me during the 5th and 6th mile. Your transition to Xc is excellent, you are a class act and I happily concede to you on the grass. I'm happy i was only 6 secs behind you
Cheers Dean, you went well and you should make the staffs team for future years if you want to.
Ah I see my mistake now, I forgot to stop my watch at the end if you remember me showing you my watch and you mentioned that was 20 secs slower than your time so how was that possible!. Last final .57 was shown as 3:29.1 on garmin (6:05 pace) but was infact 3:04! (5:23 pace!) so I did have a good final surge!
Trafford seems quite similar to Eastleigh. There was a slight lack at the sharp end this year for some reason. Leeds is the best UK runners, as in November there is nothing else happening and a lot of guys are coming out of autumn marathon training fitter. The field at the GMR is not as good if you take out the 5 international runners.
Great run Seb, you've done well in tough conditions again. After the national I'd have found it hard to see myself through another, it's been a long old season! Nice way to cap it off showing a big improvement from last year. What now?
The Cheshire was a bit pap this year, only Matt Barnes of any note. Lots of guys chose not to run, Big Stu didn't go (good choice 32:38 today), and another club mate pulled out with injury. Apart from that its all V45 vets, but guys who are getting slower.
Dean, I spotted a good run for your team mate Seb today! Quick!
Hmm, wonder if Surrey is an easier way in
Move to Wales! I looked at the Po10 results for the inter-counties and the last 15 or so are not great, 37-39 min 10K runners, most from Wales. How did they get a regional/county vest? Surely they can't be in the top 6? If they are I'm moving!
Funny you say that Dachs, as in the 9 to score stats, it was Lancashire, Berkshire, Sussex, with Bucks 4th.
So basically apart from those 3, in theory anyteam is easy than Bucks!
Seb - With a couple of AM races, you could get into the long ones no probs - might just need to eamil the RO.
Good session tonight, after a duff long run yesterday legs seemed OK.
2k warm up, then 6x800m, with 400m jog rec, then (for variety!) 4x200m, with 200m jog (600m between sets) the 600m warm down. pretty windy at the track (asusual, though a different direction!) and pleased with the consistency. Came out as:
2:47, 2:45, 2:46, 2:46, 2:45, 2:45, 36, 36, 35, 35
never done 200s before!
Not so sure the 200s were a good idea for my back though! We'll see...
Rather tidily, the whole session made exactly 100km for the week.
quite hard to do 200s after a full 6x800! Bet they felt a little stiff
next time you might break the tradition of the 800/ 1/2miles and just do the 200s.
At least double the reps though, and probably a third of the recoveries
that makes more sense seb. Tidy finish from yourself. I couldnt see how i made that much time up on you particularly as i didnt really start the sprint until the top of the down hill run in which was only 80m or so. This makes more sense.
SG - dont read too much into the 9 to score places. for example the only reason staffs didnt show on this was because one our team DNF. Or other teams might have had someone pull out at the last minute.
I have no idea to be honest Deano, trying to make sense of the whole thing. One thing I don't like the idea of with the set up, is that you seem to be hanging around for hours waiting for the other races to take place first, and by the time you get on you get a right old mashed up course!
That's x-country: no set course, no set distance, course changes as the race goes on and 1000 pairs of spikes churn it up lap after lap, but it is close up and personal, head to head racing and fun.
True Phil.
Just seen an old rival's wife pop up on facebook suggesting her chap did a 26sec pb at the 5k leg of a duathlon.
That'd be amazing.
Unfortunately at least 1/2 a km short.