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Congrats to Poacher - I'm sure you once told me that size didn't matter!
Great performance from Christine last night - looking forward to the thread smackdown being as close. Have the photo finish officials been warned?
Finally for out for a run this morning - only 4 and a bit miles at 7:40 ish pace but I was sweating buckets when I got back. I'm hoping that it was the heat rather than general lack of fitness otherwise it's not looking good for the autumn.
JD3 - sounds like things are looking up.
5:50, 5:54, 5:58, 6:04. Decided to take it easy for the rest of the week and then have a blast at sub 19 at the 100th King's Lynn parkrun on Saturday.
DS2 - good to hear from you again.
PMJ - it must be our age - just plodding for me during high mileage.
GM - a number of factors really. Living in the sticks means that there's a real lack of local races in the first place. Secondly, other commitments mean that they're nearly always on inconvenient days at inconvenient times. Also, I try to keep the impact on my family to a minimum. And then there's always cost to consider!
AR - 37:50 10k in the middle of a dreadmill session!!!
Lorenzo - I'm sure the heat must have a big impact.
Bad interval session this morning. 4 x 1M off 400m recoveries - each one slower than the last
Gul - Ah ok, I didn't realise you lived in the sticks but then my geographic knowledge of the UK is sketchy to say the least. Hey those reps are not bad, an average of 5:57.5mm pace is good work. What sort of pace were you aiming for? I do forget sometimes how fortunate I am, living in a small Island has it's advantages as a runner. Races are not expensive and not inconvenient to get to, no matter where they are. Are you planning on racing a 10k before your half? What's your 10k PB?
One more rest day for the knee today and then will do a tester 5k jog tomorrow. What do y'all reckon if it feels ok should I attempt a long run this w/end or should I wait another week. I am just conscious missing long run and the weeks are flying by.
SG/Lit - Is your race today? And what distance is it??
Gerard, it's tomorrow and it's some weird random distance between 5 and 6 miles. Closer to 6, I think, Speedy? Also, someone from my club recommended trail shoes, but surely not since it's been dry recently? Mine are 50g heavier than my other shoes and frankly I need all the help I can get so would rather have the lighter ones.
Gerard you're lucky. I too live in a very rural location and my nearest parkrun is a 100 mile round trip! I have a fair few fell races more locally, which is why I try and do those.
Nice work to the Minni, Jools, Speedy and Poacher for your PBs and placings.
Yes Minni - make those hills your friend. You will run slower but your work rate will be the same as a flat run. Strength though is more vital to Comrades than speed. For a Bill Rowan medal you 'only' need to average 10m/m.
I'm picking up a caravan tonight and herby undertake the caravaners pledge:
I hereby promise to drive 20mph below the speed limit on all sections of road on which no-one can overtake and then speed up when vehicles behind would otherwise have overtaking opportunity.
Bike it - are we talking mental or physical strength, or both?
Minni - I was meaning physical strength as this gives resiliance to the damage that gets accummulated on hills over such a distance. It gives a better resilance to the fatigue so that you can keep going at the pace you want for longer.
Lit - Sounds like it's going to be a challenging race in terms of distance, terrain and competition. Can you possibly do a reccy on the course to see if you really need trail shoes? I hate wearing clunky shoes.
Minni - Where in the name of Jeeze do you live then, I suppose the Fell races mean somewhere North? 100 miles to your nearest parkrun?? Gosh that is hard to believe. Are you really serious about the Comrades for 2015?
Gul - still some good reps. Some easy miles and then hope you smash your parkrun time
Opted for a second day of treadmill due to the 5000m heats being on. Uneventful MLR 14m. Tried to hang on for 400m during Mo's heat at their race pace but I was kidding myself.
Half tempted to enter Burnham Beeches HM this weekend, however out all day Saturday with a 2.00am return may not be ideal preparation. It's an undulating course, but gives a chance for a course pb as it was one of the first HMs I did last year
Gerard, not really as it's bloody miles away and I don't drive. My main competitor has done it before, I believe.
AR: Burnham Beeches is such a lovely course - well worth a day out!
After Saturday's glories I was struck by some sort of lurgy on Sunday and felt queasy all morning. Dragged myself out mid-afternoon only to have to bail at 11M into 21M as the queasiness returned. Got home and then spent the next 2-3 hours alternating sweating in a proverbial fashion with shivering uncontrollably. I don't remember much of the athletics I watched! Slept for the best part of 12 hours and felt a bit better yesterday, but funnily enough opted to take my rest day then. Feel ok now, so fingers crossed I can train again. But I'll be staying close to home just in case things go awry...
Lit - Ah ok, that's a bit trickier then. Can you bring both and do a quick reccy beforehand and then decide or ask your main competitor? That's SG right??
AR - Your TM sessions sound like fun! Mo is looking good.
Jools - Hope whatever it is that got hold of you passes quickly.
Well Gerard if you imagine where people generally call the North and I'm about 300 miles north of that!
Jools
take care of yourself.
Bike it - I was keen to test out that run on Sunday. The big hill (grade 5 - 1.5 miles long) is 6 miles from my house but I can then do a loops of about 4 miles to incorporate it numerous times. The road between home and there is hilly too. Would that help with the strength? (generally all my runs are hilly but I'm now looking out bigger hills that I would normally avoid).
Gerard - I will bring both, but also I did ask her (above)!
Lit - Good luck for tomorrow and I hope you run as well as you possibly can and same goes to SG. I look forward to both of your race reports!
I am desperate to get out but will wait another day.
Minni - That is far out! Hah, I live on a Island that is 45m2! Your plan to seek out hills has got me thinking I must start doing some hills too when I can.
Minni - in preparing for Comrades I run hills as often as possible and also incorporated bigger hills into my training runs. My regular 20 mile route is undulating but I suspect flatter than when you say undulating. I chose to run 4-6 decent incline in my longer runs of 70-100m ascent over a mile or so. Also I did hill reps of 6-10 x2 minutes up a hill that is raises about 30m in 0.3mile horizontal.
Additionally 2 big skills I learnt for Comrades were pace control to effort and ascending/descening.
In flat road marathon we generally aim for consistant pacing. That is not possible for Comrades obviously. If you are aiming for a Bill Rowan which you are capable of then you will be typically running 8:40 to 10:00 pace on the regular parts of the course and as fast as 7:00 on some downhills and even 12:00 on some of the harder uphills. Also I would recomend walk break as well. By chosing to run on mixed terrain course, you get good experience of pacing to effort.
I do actually think there is skill to ascending and decending. Ascending involves more power from the hamstring and glute than normal (this is the same as strength) and higher arms. Descending a shallow gradient takes confidence to let yourself go and low arms. Descending a steep gradient takes resistive braking from the quads - here excercises like lunges and box jump help.
I'm sure you already recognise that gradual progression on hill work is important to avoid injury. Probably when you first start it you would slow down a bit but I think long term the strength benifits outweigh the short term slow down - I was able to set a mara PB by almost 10 minute after my first Comrades.
I'm a big fan of hills and try and make sure some of my medium long and long runs incorporate proper hills (i.e. ones that slow you down a fair bit!). I'm sure that the trail races I've been doing recently have made me stronger and helped me be in PB shape. But I'm still cr*p at descents...
lurk. Just to prove I'm alive.
That surely needs some emoticon (
) as the year I did it it was horrendously humid and the woods that seem to offer shade do not help, all they do is shepherd the humidity. lap 1 was easy, lap 2 a horror show. Others tell similar tales for other years. From their website:
The 2012 Half Marathon took place on one of the hottest days days the year, making the course much tougher than usual. Sunday looks to be a clear day after a wet Saturday = humidity.
How's it going Blisters?
good luck to Lit and Speedy for tomorrow! Podium photos are expected...
Minni, how does the hill grading system work?
I'm now determined (again) to build some strength in my flaky legs before stepping up the mileage again. I did the "Insanity Fit Test" DVD on Sunday night and was quite pleased with surviving a hard workout but I'm suffering now - shoulders, pecs and quads are all DOMSified. I'll be lugging weights round the garden like BikeIt before you know it.
Trail shoes???? It's a Road Race League! I hear they may have changed the course (again - it's only been the same 2 of the 5 times I've run it I think), but unless they've re-routed it through a bog I won't be wearing trail shoes.
I'm not sure I'll be much competition. I tried to run on the treadmill tonight and managed 2 and a half minutes before having to give up. I will run as Redhill need the points, but I'm not sure I'll be competetive. I'm packing the ibuprofen.
and the sandbagging begins
I've done BB on a humid day and it did get the better of me, but it's still pretty!
10M easy tonight was a vast improvement on 11M queasy on Sunday
Blisters, I am up in your neck of the woods next week. Talking of hills, I've entered the Winchcombe 10k Hill climb, which I know from cycling days is a bit of a steep climb. Fancy it?
Following Badbarks impressive marathon pb, I've also ensured I run more hills and hill reps than normal to strengthen myself and prevent injury. I am mid way through the Hudson / Fitzgerald 5k - marathon book he recommended and am finding it really interesting useful. Definately up there with Daniels and P&D as a training guide.
Looking forward to the Lit V Speedy smack down. Is there a weblink to see it live?
Well, that's what I thought when he said to wear trail shoes, which was why I wanted a sensible second opinion. I hope they have re-routed it through a bog though, as my lightest road shoes are a horrific neon yellow colour.
Hope you're feeling better tomorrow - if it's any consolation I'm also on the ibuprofen as I still have a pain in the arse from chronically tight glutes.
Keir, you would not catch me entering a race with the words 'hill climb' actually in the name.
Keir - hows that ankle ?
I spend most of my long run time running loops up and down the biggish hill near me, and run up and over it on my run commutes. The downhills are good for leg strengthening too. I dont think that I run enough flat long runs anymore though esp before VLM, the constant pounding of a flat 20 is very different to a hilly 20.
I did the IoW 1/2 on this coming weekend last year, I agree with PMJ that it was a bit warm and a bit hilly too, I'm going back again Sunday. I'm wondering if racing on hills is good for my legs as well as training on them, I did a 10M race on the South Downs Way a week ago and it was a bit tough.
No longer a treadmill virgin!
AR - having convinced myself that anyone who takes to a treadmill just doesn't have the mental strength/commitment to get out there in all weathers it took your exploits to get me thinking. You must have really got inside my brain, so much so that I recently found myself looking at different treadmills in my local shopping mall.
Not wanting to lose too much form on our recent two week break to the west coast of America for once I took my running gear on holiday. I had noticed that some of the hotels had gyms and as a lot of the time we would be in the desert with temperatures predicted to be 40+ degs C outside running would be challenging.
So I lost my virginity in a hotel in the middle of the Mojave or was it the Nevada desert.
Had no idea how to work it so just ended up in manual and set the timer for an hour to see how I got on - incline set to 1 deg as per forum advice.
The hour passed by remarkably quickly, but when I tried to extend the time the machine just sulked - frustrating but have to say it was quite addictive. Next chance was in the gym overlooking the pool of The Tropicana Hotel on the Vegas strip.
This time I got up to speed a bit quicker and 8 miles knocked off in another hour session - so much easier to do speed work on the treadmill, progressively increased speed to finish at 6 min/m. (10 mph)
Maybe there is something in this treadmill running after all.
At this rate it will be a limp-off rather than a smack down!
I really thought it was better today. I didn't feel it all during the day at work and the swelling has gone down, but as soon as I started running it hurt again. But I ran on it on Saturday when it was hurting, and didn't really notice it during the race. Probably because my lungs were on fire. Sadly that race was only 5 minutes long though. 35 mins plus will be rather a different matter,and my lungs probably won't hurt more than my leg to distract me.
Blimey TR. 2 running races within 2 weeks! With VLM and Abingdon isn't that your quota for the year already used up? How'd you get on at the 10m?
Thanks for asking. The ankle was swollen on Sunday but got better with the rest as the day went on. I left it until Monday afternoon to do an easy 8 (well, 7.20m/m) and although it felt a bit tender at the start, was fine after a couple of miles. This morning was a progressive 10m (starting at 6.50m/m dropping 5sec per mile every mile) which I wasn't sure whether I would even attempt, but after the warm up was fine and I made it through to the end of 8miles before I mentally lost it (I do find the progressive runs hard). The ankle is bruised and tender when I touch it, but ok to run on, so in short, 98% better.