'Mature' runners.

JJ my best 10k this year was 48.46 in March before I tore my hamstring, and it was the Exbury 10k.This wasn't a particularly fast course, as it included a long stretch of shingle along Calshott Beach, and several hills. That, and Sundays race, are the only two I have run so far this year.

Hope the doodle is doing well, JJ.

Took Charly to the dog club last night, let Nemo go swimming with John instead, it was much too hot for him. Charly did well for his first little workout, I'm walking him by my side with a treat in my hand, when I stop he has to sit before he gets the treat. He cottoned on to it pretty quickly and is sitting without a command as soon as I stop. Good beginning. I also put him into a kennel to get him used to it, at first he whined a bit but soon stopped. When I went to check on him he was sleeping! I took him out to watch when the older dogs started attack work, he was very interested in what they were doing. Bodes well for future training - of course it will be a long while before he gets to that. He must be 15 months old before taking his first obedience test, so that's next year at this time. 

Morning all,

MP run for me today.  7 miles with the last 2 miles a bit quicker.

IW, Charly sounds so sweet.

TE, you will get well under 2 hours in a 1/2 with a 10k time of 51 in the heat!  I my 10k pb is 54:10 from last year and I managed 2:00:59 this year at PWood.

JJ, it depends whereabouts you are in the country   It's just reminded me of the first time I went out hacking near where we lived in Purley.  It was an area of heath with a few copses and I kept noticing lots of men walking about alone.  Not walking dogs, just walking alone and wearing inappropriate clothing in some cases (suits and shiny shoes!).  They weren't walking as if they were exercising and they were all shapes, sizes and ages.  When I mentioned it back at the stables they laughed at me and told me it was a well known place for gentlemen, ahem, to meet up!

Red - (MP = morning plod?) 7 miles and no gunk?

TE - what sort of age-gradings do you get?

BIW - Charly sounds like a natural! Is he a German Shepherd like the other two?

JJ - £41 sounds very reasonable as a vet's bill. Whether it's very reasonable as the cost of a walk in the country, I wouldn't know.

Swimming on Monday and out with the running club last night for 6.66 miles of varied terrain and in varied weather. The varied terrain included a climb to a triangulation point so steep and rocky that even the really tough runners dropped to a walk. Also included some very squelchy ground underfoot (nearly lost a shoe twice) and several boggy streams to leap across. Views around the whole 360 degrees from the triangulation point were fantastic (I have been up there before, once or twice, but that was walking). The varied weather included a heavy shower followed by a rainbow! And strong cold winds around the triangulation point.

Columba, LOL at 'morning plod' which is a much better description than the real meaning which is 'marathon pace'.  Quite gunky today but it didn't hinder me.  That sounds like a tough route you did with the club.  They're certainly stretching you which is great.

Actually 'twas 8 miles when I checked my Garmin.

Columba - no. Nemo is a German Shepherd, but Oz was a White Swiss Shepherd and so is Charly, our 4th one of the breed. First one was Snowy, a short-coated male, then came my sweet female Shani and then Oz, both of them were long-coat - they are the two in my avatar pic. Charly is short-coat. Soon as I get my photos sorted out I'll post one of him.  The breed standard says long or short white coat, underlying skin grey not pink. Erect forward facing ears, brown or black almond shaped eyes, black nose and lips, black pads, dark-coloured nails. Charly meets all of those.

People never fail to amuse me -  a local man asked me in all seriousness if Nemo is Charly's father! Duh.....if he were, then no way would Charly be snow white!

I'm not up and running yet but slowly on the mend without the help of the doctors. I did'nt take up the offer of an appointment on friday, then had a re-think on monday morning and rang back. I could'nt get an appointment then until next Tuesday  !! so i kicked it into touch.

I've now asked for a copy of the patients charter.

You would'nt adam and eve it, i got a phone call from the doctors surgery 10 minutes after my previous post asking me to attend the surgery,  as a Doctor was available to  see me straight away.

So i did and saw a very nice and apologetic lady doc. who diagnosed that i have hayfever and gave me some Cetitrizine Hydrochloride tablets. So things could be looking up.

Redhead, am i right in thinking you have suffered similar ? 

Red, sounds good your 7 miler with no probs. Your half marathon time was excellent, so I hope to go under 2 hours.

Columba, do you mean my WAVA's by age gradings? My Exbury 10k was 72.25 and the Everton 10k 68.13. My best ever was 81.65 for my 37 mins in the Totton 10k in 1994, and 81.02 for my PB of 35.52 for the Southampton Victoria Park in 1989.

Ran a 5.5 mile recovery run this morning.

OT, you should change your Dr. or register with a different Practice. Our posts crossed, glad you were seen at last, and had nothing serious.

Amazing isn't it OT? If I was a private patient. I could have had my op before Christmas instead of having to wait until June. I have to say though, I cannot complain about my treatment, it has been first class.

Doodle is fine today.

Redhead
At least you were safe enough.

TE
A 48 minute 10k ought to give you nearer 1:50 for a 1/2m on a reasonable course. That would be almost exactly a minute a mile slower than your 10k pace. You need to build in a couple of hard 10 mile training runs.

Your earlier age gradings were very good. The best target as you get older is to keep the same age grading even though you get slower.
JJ

JJ, yes, that is my aim, now that I appear to be over my injury problems. I want to get in to the mid 70's in my future races. I have a 10 miler in the forest Sunday morning with some of the club members, so that will be a good start. Tomorrow is another hill session. The core sessions are really proving beneficial, as I feel much stronger whilst running. When I was with Team Solent, back in the eighties, we did circuit training once a week, as well as track sessions, and I think that is why I was very competitive then.

I have now entered the Hardly Half Marathon, which is organised by my Club. This is 3 weeks after the New Forest Half. The NF race should stand me in good stead for the Hardley Half. Both races are over tough courses, but I have run them both many times, so know what to expect.

TE - age gradings in the 80s are awesome. My highest age gradings have been in the upper 60s. If I could get into the 70s in my forthcoming half mara, I should be very pleased indeed.

More women seem to give up running (or anyway, racing) at a younger age than do men. But I can't make out how if at all this would affect their relative age gradings. The women that continue to race may be the quicker ones, in which case it may be relatively harder for an older woman to get a high grading than for an older man.

Red - lol at my mp mistake. You often say you "went out for a plod", so that was what sprang to mind.

Columba, I'm not an expert on age gradings, but assume that gradings for women are based on different formulae than mens'. It shouldn't, therefore, be harder for an older woman to get a higher grading than an older man. Ratings are based on age so, in theory, assuming the same level of fitness, WAVAs should remain fairly constant, irrespective of age. JJ might be able to explain the process better than I.

Tonight is 3 sets of 3 continuous hills in the forest.

1800m swim last night.

Afternoon all,

Sorry, been busy, busy, busy!  Ran 5 yesterday across the fields for a change.  Just 3 on the treddy today @ 9 min miling as I only had 30 mins spare this morning before I had to dash out.

OT, yep, both Mike and I are familiar with the delights of Cetirizine dihydrochloride.    For Mike it makes his symptoms less severe.  For me, well the jury's out at the moment.  When I first started using it I got terrible headaches and the quack reckons my leg cramps are from that rather than the asthma stuff.  Hope it solves your problem.

IW you're amazing!

Tomorrow will be 4.5 miles of hills and then on Sunday I may be a tad hungover (charity fund-raising event) so it's a good job I've only got to do 8 miles 

Have a lovely weekend everyone 

We had a very good turn out last night for the hill session. This was 3 sets of continuous hills, which totalled 0.98 miles each set. We had short recoveries between sets and then core exercises. We went straight to the next set from the core, without recovery. We were plagued by midges which seem to be prolific this year.

Did 5 miles steady this afternoon on roads in torrential rain. Typically, when I was nearly home, the rain stopped. Tomorrow will be a rest day, and Sunday a 10 mile forest run with some Club runners. This will be my first Sunday run with the Club, and I have told that sometimes they go further than planned, and sometimes less.

Columba
The age grading tables don't just rely on the fastest performances at each age. Statisticians are employed to make sure that anomolies like a fluke fast run are smoothed out.

70%+ is generally considered a high standard so it's a good target.

IW
1800m?
All too much.
JJ

Who, me? 1800m is only recovery swimming, I usually average between 3000m and 4000m when fit.

Tonight was the last night from our summer swim training, so as normal, there was a distinct lack of training, instead we held a relay swim and run race between the juniors and the adults, with the proviso that if the juniors managed to lap the seniors more than 3 times in 15 minutes they won. Result was 14 laps for the seniors, 17 for the juniors. Then there was an impromptu game of water polo with those of us wanting to swim threading through the polo players. Evening rounded off afterwards with lots of  different cakes.