Auviour Paris: So long and thanks for the cobbles

Morning!

Out in the forest at first light this morning!  Loved it - HR even steadier and took 30 seconds less than 2 days ago.  Think my cold is waning whoop whoop whoop

My last outing for club and as a FV35 tomorrow will see me regressing 5 years and running the senior women's race as we don't have a FV team apparently and Vets can run as Seniors but Seniors can't run as Vets - logic!!!!!!  Still - if it doesn't kill me...

Am obviously missing something - what's jantastic - really must check out the podcast thingy at some point!

 

 

 

MCS - hopefully that's you I've rivalled 

SB - read about it at marathontalk.com  Basically it's about being consistent with running.  In January you say how many runs a week you will do and try to maintain that target; Feb is the same with the addition of target long run distances, and March includes a target race time.  It's just a bit of fun and extra motivation.  Sign up quick!

Today I ran 15m MLR.  My pace range for MLR is 10:48 to 9:54, and HR range 141 to 160bpm. My heart rate peaked at 157bpm (avg. 140bpm) and the splits were:

10:34/10:46/10:44/11:00/10:53 (included a pit-stop in mile 4  )

10:26/10:09/10:12/10:09/10:00

9:53/9:53/9:56/9:51/9:38 

Pretty pleased with that.  I got held up by a group of leisure cyclists, and a group of horse riders (grrr - they should be banned from the bridle path).  That's 42m banked this week.  Next week's MLR is 16m with the last 10m at MP - which scares the bejeebers out of me .

Rest day tomorrow 

Hi all apologies for the silence, the ten hour shifts and hilarious interactive flowcharts have taken their toll.

Ten - you are on fire. 

Oscarr - I have the Aqua Sphere [in fact I have 2 of them in the forlorn hope that I can persuade others to get involved, so far this has happened twice and no races ensued].

Was the £24 for the belt alone [a humped-back bridge shape in orange foam on a black luggage strap that clips at the front]?  The reason I ask is that I also bought / needed two side pieces that I had to buy separately.  These are essentially smallish rectangles that the belt threads through. 

Having the side panels gives a surroundaround and much more stable/even effect.

I paid £21 for the lot at Ocean Leisure.  

But shock horror you can't count AquaJogging MILES can you?  If so my 2010 total would look so very different - I was doing 1, 2, and yes 3 hour sessions every week and no dawdling.  Surely not.  I'm barely counting the AlterG, well not as anything near full value.

mcs - granite.

SB - be nice to yourself.  I was just thinking that my practice of using races as training runs is not assisting my rankings but all the more surprising come April eh?

This week I did 6.63 miles on the AlterG on Monday with the middle 4 @ 8 mins, stretch session, and had a massage.  Tuesday was Macmilln drills in the kitchen as described, an hour on the bike, and a 2 hour Pilates / stretch session.  Wednesday saw me back on the bike for a HIT session, Thursday was 7 miles on the AG with 5 @ 8:27, 1 @ 8:00, another stretch session with a bit of Pilates and some leg lowering.

On Friday I didn't do anything fun, today I've been back on the AlterG for 5 miles easy @ 10 with strides, plus a killer amazing Tui Na treatment that will surely get me to the start line at Tadworth 10 tomorrow. 

mcs I meant to say I'm looking to bring some fab hills that rae 4 miles away a bit closer to my house, otherwise we only have pebbles nearby.

I continue to be impressed by the level of endeavour exhibited here by Oscarr and Mike in particular, although we're all shaping up nicely. 

 

 

Thanks Reiki - yes, the Aqua Sphere one is as you describe but the Kiefer is more of a wrap around so i think i will try that one as it seems to address the need for side panels that you experienced.

Berkshire County XC Champs, Maidenhead.

No idea how they score these things but apparently our Senior Mens team finished 4th and Mens Vets (V40+) 3rd. I somehow scored for both teams and get a Championship Bronze medal.

Distance was 6 miles; my time 44:13; pace 7:20 min/mile; AGR 73.80% and the circus moves to Oxford tomorrow.......

nice running Mike well done.......long run in the am for me.........

Great running mike - I think our senior men team came 2nd

Nice one Mike. 

Great running Mike

I had a reasonable 10 mile LSR yesterday morning, longest I have run since last April. It was hard going but was pleased to have done the distance. Unfortunately, since yesterday afternoon I have developed a very painful neck and shoulder and pins and needles in my left arm and foot! Not sure what I have done

Well that went better than planned!  Despite my cold I actually felt pretty comfortable today.  Came in 1st club counter despite running as a senior instead of vet (as predicted we didn't have a team otherwise) and we got 3rd Ladies Team (out of the 3 teams that turned up but we'll gloss over that point ).

The most amazing part is how easy it felt - the course was slightly different to what was programmed and Ben thinks it was about 1k shorter so based on that I did about 6.5k (4miles) in 32.06.  Not bad me thinks for someone who has been doing no more than jogging for the last couple of months.  This HR stuff - witchcraft - flippin' marvellous!  Well happy with that!

My lungs feel slightly raw now and my throat was sore when I finished but overall I think mcs was right and the fresh air did me good!  Probably be right as rain 2moro!

Now then - time to get down to this ultra lark! next stop - ½ mara last weekend of Feb!

Hope you ease off by tomorrow MWW - wonder if you did my classic and tensed up your shoulders (drawing them towards your shoulders) that can sometimes get a bit pins and needley if you tense enough to slow down your circulation in the tensed muscles.  Warm bath????

How did you get on today oscarr - were you running?

 

well done Sleepy, that's a great pace for xc.  Yes, i ran today but just an 8 mile slow training run.  Next race is my final xc next sunday at Tadley.

On friday i did a 5 mile recovery run followed by a run through for the first time of Sam Murphy's Runners Strength Circuit.  This is a series of 9 exercises aimed at improving, and i quote "core stability, running strength and explosiveness".  There are some old favourites like plank, bridge, lunges etc but some different ones as well.  She advises starting with one circuit then build up to 3 circuits and do this one to three times a week.  It didn't feel too stressing while i was doing it but i have been feeling parts of my glutes that i never thought existed ever since so it must have done some good.  I intend to use this (plus a couple of my own thrown in) over the next few weeks and see how it goes.  The info was posted by Steve the bacon man on his Asics 26.2 thread a week or two ago and i printed it off.

Oxford Mail XC League - Rd 3, Horspath, Oxford   Summary; Mud & hills, mud & hills - enough to make grown men weep.   A short blast across a sodden rugby pitch, along a footpath and 200 grown men and boys suddenly looked very silly trying to cross a metre wide ditch full of stinking water. I made a clean jump by moving right next to the bridge on my left but it was not pretty! ...   Splish splashed through flooded vehicle tracks and noticed we were climbing sharply. Ground to a halt about halfway up and decided to be an ultra runner for a few moments and walk!   Got going again and followed Colin although at a distance........until the laws of physics converted a 300ft climb into an equal and opposite descent. No holding back on this one and I noticed that I was quite a lot faster than the other guys around going downhill so determined not to let Colin (team mate) get so far ahead on the 2nd climb back up the 300 footer.   In fact he was further ahead at the top but then sat in behind three others which allowed me to close the gap. At the turning point for the mad final descent I was just behind in a chain about 4 back. Quickly got up to him and bombed past. To his credit he followed close behind as we absolutely flew on the edge of control off the hill. Looking at my stats afterwards we were running at 5:23m/mile pace straight downhill - completely bonkers, but what a buzz.   At the bottom turned yet another slippery corner and found ourselves directed through what I can only describe as 400+ meters of evil black, mud. Got past a couple of other guys through the ankle deep mud and onto the rugby pitches for the final run in. XC ethics made sure I grabbed two more places for the team, but not Rick another team mate who I followed into the funnel.   So the highlight: 155 metres (29 m/mile) climb/climb rate and 5.95 miles of the toughest XC course I think I have ever run.

sounds as though you had a blast Mike, well done

Wow that sounds even more exciting than the Tadworth 10 Mike! 

I had the opposite experience yesterday, found the downhills too steep so was passing everyone  uphill, losing ground going down, taking them again on the next up. 

Tad is a 2 lap course on Epsom Downs, through woods, only about 25% totally off road but conditions were challenging and people were being so precious about the mud initially that the first two miles were fraught with bottlenecks.

Hence I did manage a negative split, which was my target, any maybe I should be happy with a course PB, indeed I was 3 mins better than in 2011 when conditions were easier and I was racing it. 

93:38.

Legs fine this morrning, only had 5 hours slep though.  Bleeping Zipvit! 

I'm stoned.... Was given codine and diazepam last night for sciatica... With that and the gas....

This training cycle is turning out to be a bit poo. I'm scared that I'm going to be like this and my motivation is gonna drop off.

Oh well I'll watch some daytime TV and wait for my follow up appointment at GP.

Fantastic race report Mike.......can feel that mud, had some myself yesterday as I did a 6.66 miler up hills and then fell in mud right up to the shin on one leg great fun but very cold! Took me 66 mins how weird is that!!!
Bo hope you recover soon. Had a trapped sciatica in 2011 and it blew me out for three months. Couldn't walk for about three weeks. I gave up on the pain killers due to the side effects.  Got back to running very slowly and since then have always tried to ensure I do my back and core exercises. All the best for a speedy recovery.

Oscarr spotted those exercises from Sam Murphy my self need to print them out myself. My OH has a pilates video which she has just started doing so should join her doing them too for the back.

Bo - stick with it pal - injuries like this WILL get better then you can slowly build back up again - remember, there are lots of races and lots of years to do them in.

MWW - do you think it might have been to do with how you slept?  Well done on starting to increase the mileage.

SB - great to see you enjoying the race so much!  Good luck with the Ultra training - especially the back-to-back long runs 

Mike - great race description.  If you're doing nothing next April, you can follow me around Brighton as my reporter.  Hmm... on second thought's... that might be a bit too horrific for a public forum 

Bo - that Diazepam is fast-working stuff.  Though I could do without the reminder about why I had to take it last year 

Reikki - don't eat Zipvit gels for supper!

First mcs, and now Oscarr making me feel guilty about (lack of) core work 

This mornings run was 9m with the middle 5m at threshold pace. My target for the tempo was 8:16 (15k pace.... my HM pace is 8:46), and my heart rate range target was 158-174bpm. My splits were:

10:21/10:24/8:18/8:18/8:16/8:17/8:24/10:01/9:54

I'm particularly pleased that I hit pace in the middle, because that mile includes a pretty steep hill. I was caught napping a bit in the final tempo mile and left myself too much to do going up a long steady incline, but I'm not unhappy with the effort. My heart rate range peaked at 167bpm going up the hill (I slowed to 9:30 pace and made it up on the descent).

Comparing against my previous LT session (10 days ago), my heart rate was consistently 5bpm less throughout the threshold miles  (this is the kind of stat that Sleepy should like now, being a recent HRM convert).

Nice stats there G well done.

Yay Ten!! Just to add to the general consensus on core work - I'm going to a new yoga class 2moro and a Bosu class on Wednesday!  Best you take the hint or face the guilt

Boo for Bo - heal quick matey - take it easy - oscarr is right.  Individual races aren't as important as the rest of your running career!

mcs - need to watch out for the foot eating mud!

reiki - interesting - I had a crap night last night too - think my cold may be making a comeback - was way too warm so think my temperature may be back up.  Can't believe that xc is not the cure-all that I want it to be .

Rest day for me today though so hopefully it'll calm down again!