Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Ric, I suppose that race is one of the few legitimate times ranking on chip over finishing position is sensible.

    I remember arguing the toss with a pal years back, as my old club for some reason gave points out on chip time over finishing position.
    I don't think anyone I asked agreed with him. You can't be beating someone over the line, yet losing out, it's mad.

    I know power of 10 now ranks on chip rather than their old policy of guntime, but I think the only time I've seen results on chip was the Silverstone half.

    I was pretty glad, as I turned up 5mins late that day, and had to sift through 5,000+ runners! Was quite an interesting experience, running past massive groups dressed as snakes and suchlike.

    Shame I didn't have a GPS in those days, as I'm certain the distance covered would have been a long way over 13.1miles having to pass tonnes of people on those wide tracks

     

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    SG, I wish they had chip timing for sure. The problem wasn't just the 'waves' which are allocated on a 'first come first served' basis, it was also the issue of runners not running the whole way.

    Apparently there was the option of bailing out halfway as long as a marshall was informed. There was also the possibility that the parts of the course which were 'out and back' could be truncated with a 'stop and rest-a-while', then rejoin.

    Who's to know who ran an honest race?

    Biggest laugh was the V50 who was supposed to be ahead of me. Seems he was in my wave. I never saw him, I guess he must have taken a mile out of me in the first second.

    By scrolling through the start list and the allocated waves, I can see the guys who I was racing. Only one from my wave was ahead of me and that was the guy I mentioned. It also proved to my satisfaction that I went from fourth to first in my wave when I pulled that stroke at the stile. Took them another two miles to catch meimage. Only one escaped, by about half a minute.

    🙂

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    I Would have paid bottom dollar to see you telling the results guy that line about the mile in the first second.

    As I'm a bit of a racing myth at the moment, I have to delve back into the archives for similar tales of fury.

    Best one was probably having to argue to a race organiser that the chubby red faced bastad suggesting he'd won some bootleg 4.7miler I'd actually won, couldn't have done, as I'd "broken the tape", never seen him, never been behind him, and although the time on his watch was quicker than my time, that was because he'd done the even sillier 2.85mile distance shorter race.

    All became clear when he realised he hadn't done the parts of the course we quoted to him (including some stupid "leap over a fence in the middle of a field" part)

    grrrr

  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭

    Quality rage there Ric. You tell 'em.

    I was so hungry after my easy run this evening that I ate one of my kid's Cheese Strings. Never again. Tasteless rubber shite. I should have known better.

  • CC82CC82 ✭✭✭
    Morning. It's bloody cold out there...



    Had to get out early this morning as I'm on Dad duties all day. 3x 10mins @ threshold pace off 90s. It was really icy on our road so thought I'd be safest to run down to the village and do laps there rather than the usual back and forth on the old railway line which gets pretty slippy. Village was fine - everyone must have crap insulation and are warming up the streets rather than their houses...



    Pace dropped a little on each rep but rep 1 was downhill, 2 was flat, 3 was uphill so understandable. 6:20 pace / 6:23 pace / 6:25 pace. All in for 8.36 miles @ 7:39 average. Slowed down by about a million right angle turns too. And I almost wiped out a lady stepping out of her front door - half a second later and it would have been a high speed collision.



    Got it done though - decent workout in less than ideal conditions.



    I now have 'snack duty' at toddlers to look forward to... Awesome.
  • DeanR7DeanR7 ✭✭✭

    we are predicted snow tonight so will do my mile rep session on the treadmill instead of the track.  no point fighting the weather when trying to hit consistant reps.  plus will be toasty warm inside too.image

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    CC- well done for getting out there, as it's probably the coldest morning I've ever run on, and the north/scotland is very usually a notch colder!

    I was trussed up in 2 layers and gloves which is very rare, but even rare on a qualityish session didn't for one second feel too hot once motoring.

    Pre illness i was going well, doing 6 or 7mile MP sessions ending at hard paces, but today, as a first dip back into non easy running laid out a 4x1mile MP off 60secs session.

    Was a little worried as I've developed a couple of localised hamstring tightnesses, unlike the general overall area of last year. 

    However, once I got going it was fairly fine, mid to slightly lower part of the zone.

    Always feels a little bit of a shock to the system even when it's a light session, but happy with that in the freezing cold, out rampaging on the streets and with the post illness sudden tightness.

    Horrible time of year to run isn't it. Roll on the shirt off magic of the summer.

  • I will not be taking my shirt off in summer. Not actually too horrendously cold here though I was glad of my two pairs of gloves running into work this morning. In the style of Dachs (but slower) I did a tempo run wearing a commuter backpack.

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    You are all wusses!

    My run this morning was superb! Despite my toe still being sore too! What could be better that solid underfoot conditions under bright blue skies through the rolling Chiltern Hills?

    What made it even better though, was that for the first time in an absolute age I had the "flow" and felt strong. One of those runs when you can't put a foot wrong, and the technical single track in the owods was superb. My fastest XC for a very long time - 8.2 hilly miles @ 7;38 pace. Same run last week in the mud was over 9mM pace!  One of those runs you need occasionally to remind you why you do it!

    Only trouble now is I can't get my shoe off - I soaked my left foot in the stream at Hughenden to reduce the toe swelling (don't mock - it worked!) and now the laces are frozen solid image

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    A Trojan effort there Bus.

    I've a stream a few yards from my house where I tend to wash off the larger amounts of mud. Going in fully dressed certainly cools the legs down and probably has beneficial effects.

    Probably should have done that yesterday. Quads are still recovering from the race. I know enough now not to try running when the muscles feel like that, just adds to the damage. Didn't stop me washing my kit in stream mind.

    It was freezing!

    🙂

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    Thanks.

    Wish I had a stream close by - best way to wash legs and shoes, and far more preferable to my outside tap that the Mrs makes me use!

  • Rant of the day: head-torches. It was dark this morning but not dark enough to stop the 20 or so runners I saw running along normally. One idiot had a head-torch on and it was aimed ahead and not down at the ground in front of him so as I approached the fuckwit it was shining in my eyes. Fair enough, if it is middle of the night and you are away from street lights, use one. But if all it does is blind other runners then expect a swift blow next time I see you.

  • DeanR7DeanR7 ✭✭✭

    great work Bus

    reps on the treadmill achieved.  5*1m 5.08 pace.  now to sit smugly back and watch the snow come down image

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    i can only remember one run where a head torch would have been handy.

    A less than sensible descent down the woods behind the Rye in near pitch darkness.

  • Bus - not the famous stream I had to jump through 8 times at the Beds/Bucks champs was it? Hope toe better.

    Training going to be very 'panty' tonight with the cold, although it's supposed to be about 2 degrees, so I might end up with t-shirt and gloves by the end of it. I just don't seem to be able to get all my air in with another top on (although i'm sure that's bollocks!)

    Funnily enough it seemed colder from Euston to work at 8am rather than my house to the station in LB at 6.45am, suppose the sun hasn't come up so it's still getting colder?

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    That's the one Simon - apart from the main flow, it was covered in thin ice this morning! Perfect for my needs!

    Nicely done Dean! Get those chestnuts roasting....

    Philip - similar experience last week running along a road to work with a cyclist blinding me with a superbright flashing light - the flashing ones are the worst and I told him what I thought as he went past! I use a very bright headtorch and bike light, but like to think I'm courteous enough to dip or dim so as not to blind drivers or pedestrians.

  • I use very bright lights too (country lanes; no streetlights), but not flashing ones for that reason. And I have actually decided headtorches are really inconsiderate as if you are on a slightly raised pavement next to a country road you can't help but dazzle car drivers even if you've got it pointed downwards. I've started using knuckle lights instead which are held lower and just point at the ground - that way I can see where I'm going and people can see me, but I'm not shining a torch in anyone's eyes.

    Though if any drivers don't dip their headlights for me I do point my torch in their face. Bastards.

  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭
    PhilipMJones wrote (see)

    But if all it does is blind other runners then expect a swift blow next time I see you.


    That's very generous, but I thought you were wanting to punish them, not reward them image

    Great to see Bus running pain free, even if he has to splash through a freezing stream in order to do so.  Fingers crossed it's in good time for a real bash at Wokingham.

    Very nice treadie reps Dean.

    Big HM session for me this lunchtime.  2m warm up, then 12m in 1:09:12, so 5:46 pace.  Started faster than intended, but somehow kept it going.  Now to try to avoid too many big sessions before Wokingham so as not to overcook it.

     

  • Any of you southern boys ever done the Serpentine 5k last Friday in the month?

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Dachs, a session like that will have some guys on the thread or lurking choking on their lunch time sandwiches.

    Lucky for me, I am unmoved by such feats for the simple reason I have run further at a faster pace.

    Ok, just the once.

    But I did itimage

    Phil, I found the super bright head torch had one good use. That's blinding dogs that see fit to attack me on unlit playing fields. I hear them coming. I face the threat. And when dazzled, image. Normally I'm kind to dogs.

    Just had an email from Sunday's race. They wondered if I thought the V50 ahead of me had a flyer? what! a 27 minute parkrunner? oooh, just slightly. Actually its more likely the guy gave up halfway but still crossed the line to get a medal. 

    🙂

  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭
    robT wrote (see)

    Any of you southern boys ever done the Serpentine 5k last Friday in the month?

    Yep, did it a couple of years ago.  Good, low-key lunchtime race.  Decent numbers sub 17, although a bit thinner in the low/sub 16 zone.  It's flat, but I found there were a few too many twisty bits to be a really fast course.  If I go to London for a 5K, I'm doing the Battersea Park ones from now on, although they're just summer.

    PMJ does it a fair bit.

  • As Dachs says, I do the Last Friday of the Month from time to time. The majority of the runs are probably not worth targeting as the park in the winter is not the best underfoot. The summer races are well attended and I get a well populated field at my pace (aim for sub 18) but probably missing the depth at the real sharp end others may be after.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Ric, don't worry, i've long since stopped worrying about comparing to fellow threadites, or that Dachs has done almost a half marathon 1sec quicker per mile than my actual pb.

    The mission is to be able to race fully niggle free again, something so hugely taken for granted not so long ago!

    Echo what Dachs says about the Serpentine 5k. Decent course, which may have changed since I last did it, but a bit fiddly, both in having to enter beforehand, and it being a Friday at midday. Unless you work in London it's probably not worth the botheration.
    The day I did it, I snuck a top 10 with 17.46 in 2009 (!). Could easily have been 15th or lower though, as that involved a last few hundred metre burn stealing loads of places.

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    Bloody hell Dachs!!! That's impressive stuff indeed! Not entirely niggle free as far as the adductor issue is concerned, but as close as it's been for 18 months, so I'll settle for that.

    Lit - the other good thing about knuckle lights is they must be pretty handy in a fist fight image

  • DeanR7DeanR7 ✭✭✭

    fast fast training dachs.  save some for race dayimage

  • Wow, couldn't have imagined there was so much pent up frustration related to lights! I have no issues with lights, just so you know image.

    When I got up this morning all I wanted to do was go on a long XC run to take advantage of the crisp air and solid ground. Instead I went to the lookout and did 90 mins of MTB. Met the Wife for lunch in Marlow and then went to my Mum's for a cup of tea. Tough day.

    Good efforts on the runs everyone, Dachs/Dean pull your finger out though.

    On my drive over to the Lookout I went through part of the Wokingham HM course. I had to stop for a parade of dozy women kitted out in all the latest gear. Presumably they were doing a reconnaissance of the course. Is it really worth it, what are you going to learn; the road is made of road stuff and you are less likely to die on race day, when you don't have impatient mountain bike riders driving towards you at 70mph!

  • Ric - Loved the race report



    Jesus Christ Dachs superb run really, great strength. I will be back racing relatively soon Dachs but my focus is to reach the race healthy rather than focus on time as such. That'll come with staying injury clear and I want a summer of racing not frustration.



    Dean - nice reps, what recoveries you coming off at the mo?



    3 x 1m for me off 90s tonight on road, nearly took to the gym but braved the "cold" and got it done ASAP after work. Feel better for it
    Pain is weakness leaving the body
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    Andrew - can't understand the need to recce a road course! They have marshals telling you where to go and everything these days image

    Not that I'm condoning you mowing them down of course image

  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭

    ps - it bloody better snow tonight instead of heavy rain! On the basis of this morning's forecast of snow overnight, I've swapped my double from today to tomorrow to avoid having to cycle to work in snow/ice, so I'll be very annoyed with the BBC if we get the rain they are now saying - grrrr!

  • I was surprised by how quickly Dachs took up the offer of a quick blow: the wife and kids are obviously part of a complex web of deception.

    Andrew: I actually like to run the course before or do the same course year after year. I find it helps a lot.

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