Sub 3

Ouch, Wardi! I'm with RS on using the Inov8 fell shoes with sticky, grippy studs in the ice -- they're magic. Oh, apart from the time I did skid over on a dome of wet glassy ice and cracked my finger... and being a bit stingy, I try to avoid wearing them unless I really need to, as I don't want to wear out the studs unnecessarily on tarmac.

You're on good form, LJ & ZaTTu. Hope the cold clears soon Padams.

I jogged home after the works Christmas lunch and felt leaden, but if anything it helped get the digestion going in my over-full belly...

"I have (once) cycled home drunk. " -- I once thought I was being terribly sensible by walking my bike home from a college dinner (hey, this is Cambridge) when I'd had a few too many ports... but then tripped on a pedal, landed heavily on the machine, and ripped my suit trousers and a bit of my leg. Whereas I never did injure myself through tipsy cycling (and boy did it feel gloriously fast). Older and occasionally wiser now, obviously. Well, mostly.

Ow, that sounds really painful, Wardi.  I hope you recover quickly.

Don't run if the man flu is still affecting you badly, Tim.  You do risk prolonging the illness overall and possibly getting a chest infection to compound your difficulties.

12M for me this morning including Ashton Court parkrun.  Bumped into Njord and Caz at the start and finish; I think they both enjoyed the hill...  Time was a bit slower than I would have wanted (just over 21 mins) but I suppose it's been a busy week (and a stint of ceilidh dancing barefoot seems to have left my calves a bit tight).

Wardi - hope it's not too bad, at least the ice should be gone for a few days now.

Zattu - big mileage for you, sounds like you're running well. I will hopefully be low to mid eighties for this week.target for marathon next year is VLM and I want to see if I can get down to sub 6 min mile pace. Lots of work to do!

Jools - good miles around your parkrun and still a decent time.

TB - hope the lurgy is better.

Parkrun for me this morning, had to wait in for the plumber so didn't do as much warm up as I'd have liked but run was decent at 17.02, will hopefully improve on that next week.

Dachs - envious of the Parkrun in your front garden, nice winter target though to take the record...

LJ - that was a quick 10M the other day, do you do runs like that often? seems pretty speedy! Never had a go at a 'Coro 10' might have to give it a shot soon. Sounds like you're putting in some great miles lately. Nice Park Run today as well I'm possibly targeting the c.6min/M VLM time this year, but I know I'm a bit off that right now, reckon I'm in approx 2:40 shape, so will need to find another 10sec/M... Going to work on my lactate threshold for a month or two and then see where I am at the Wokingham Half (10th Feb). Then I'll decide what marathon target pace is going to be.

RS - congratulations on the uncle-ship, good to hear your on the mend and hope you have a good XC run

PP - Sounds like you're in great shape going into the spring

AW - Well done for winning the Asics comp

LD - Comiserations on losing the Strava CR, might be worth finding another one that doesn't require a life and death game of chicken at each set of lights to break!

Wardi - that's a nasty sounding fall, hope it recovers quickly. unlucky considering how much good running you have been doing lately. Coincidentally I took a big tumble on a run the other day after crossing the road too quickly and slipping on wet grass on the verge. Went down hard on my right hip, my automatic reaction was to get straight up and start running again, the adrenalin suppressed the pain until I got back to the office (also the streets were full of kids going to school and I didn't want to look like too much of a numpty!) Got a massive bruise on my hip and graze their and on my knee. Thankfully my gloves sacrificed themselves for the good of my palms, otherwise I would have lost skin there too... Hip was very sore of a few days and I kept rolling on to in bed which slowed down the graze recovery time a bit, but thankfully no deep damage done so I could run though it.

CW - which Inov-8's do you use for icy/slippery runs? I'm getting a pair of X-talon 212s for Christmas, planning to christen them at the Hampshire XC Champs in early Jan

Jools - nice medium run/Park Run combo this morning

Since Wednesday it's been 7.5M/6.5M/11.5M (inc 5x2km) for me. Friday's long intervals were on the gym treadmill due to the nasty weather out. Managed to average around 3:30/km 5:38/M for the 2k reps which I was pretty happy with, as they were tough but not stupidly hard, might try and repeat the session again next week outdoors and see how much harder it is....

Wardi - how are you now ? lucky escape from Al_P too

Jools - 12M on a Saturday is nice.

LJ - hope the plumber let himself out.

circumstances changed preventing an outdoors pedal and I had to be finished early so it was 2hrs on the turbot again, tough after y'days 90min. I felt decidely carp in the middle too and clocked if there was a bucket handy, never barfed and never bailed but felt pretty carp afterwards, had a bit of the lurgy though and all the cold early mornings havnt helped I guess.

still only got 5 for a 6 a side U13 indoor cricket match tomorrow evening so they had all best raise their game by 20%.

Al_P: nice training. Yes the XTalon212s are precisely my favourites in the ice. I also have some 190s -- thinner sole, bit lighter, saved for races -- and some ?Mudclaw312GTX which are good for family walks, and I've run in those on ice too (not quite as grippy as the XTalons as they have a denser stud pattern, but harder-wearing).

Wardi - bugger sorry to hear that

Al P - you're in good form at the moment clearly

LJ - good park run time that

Jools - thats a good morning effort

Decided to skip the xc today as my left leg just doesn't feel right for any kind of racing or hard effort. Ran yesterday and while it was ok it felt all a bit "forced". Woke up today with a fair old amount of stiffness in the glute/top of the hamstring so I decided there wasn't much point in forcing myself round a muddy xc route sub par and then get even more annoyed by no doubt adding more recovery time on - so defo the right decision. Back in the pool and an easy run with club planned for tuesday or midweek. It's boring being injured though zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The mud on the xc route at Ally Pally was carnage. Didn't see AW after but I'm sure he'll concur that the hill was utter carnage, lol

Funny you should say that LD. Just after the first mile I had to actually pay attention to what I was doing for a minute or so.

Ouch Wardi!!! I hope you're feeling a bit better now?

Ceilidh dancing barefoot Jools? Alcohol related perchance?

Nice target LJ. If you're already doing 10m+ like that the other day then it bodes well. I couldn't get anywhere near a straight 10m @ eventual target pace yet.

Al_P - funnily enough I was doing reps yesterday too. I've got a long-standing aversion to treadmills/machines in general since I was injured, so took the hit on the paces outside in the wind instead as I've had enough of 'exercise on the spot' to last me a lifetime. Nice reps.

Loads of bugs going around TR. Sounds like a 'good to get it done' session.

I had my first session since Berlin last night. The plan was 2 sets of { 1m, 3/4m, 1m } @ 5m effort - 3mins between reps, 6mins between sets. I realised during it that I was short on time, so ended up combining the second 3/4m with the 3mins as one longer rep, so it became: 1m (3), 3/4m (3), 1m (6), 1m (3), 1.29m.

I'd have been more than happy to have bagged a 5:36 average (making current 10k sub-35), as my first one, especially with the wind, so I was pretty pleased to average 5:25m/m for a total of just over 5m @ 5m pace. A better starting point than I can remember

TR - Well done for hanging on through the bike session, you would have felt even worst if you'd bailed part way!

CW - Really looking forward to using the X-Talons in the New Forest, a couple of my club mates use them for on road as well as off road, and they seem to hold up pretty well. I'm going to reserve them off road use as much as possible though. I tried the Mudclaw 300s in the shop at the same time as the X-Talons, but they felt just too aggressive on the soles and chunky for my liking, more suitable for proper fell running I imagine. Thought about the 190s instead of the 212s but I seem to have a sweet spot in heel/toe hight difference of about 4-6mm, so the 190s are a bit on the low side for me. (3mm diff I think)

RS - Shame to hear you're still side lined some what, keep up the swimming, it got me through similar injury patches last year. Am I right in recalled that you were going to try some aqua running from an earlier post (not sure it was you, there been so many posts lately!)? If not I can recommend trying it, supplement your planned run with the equivalent time/intensity with a float belt, it feels weird (and looks weird too) but it's a brilliant alternative for keeping up fitness when on the bench IMO.

TT - I'm rubbish at fast stuff early AM, which was the only option on Friday, so that plus the threat of high wind and a deluge pushed me into the gym. I don't like speed work on treadmills (perennial fear of putting a foot wrong and shooting off the back!), but I think I do very well off it fitness wise. I've done work travel trips to a few places where indoor running is the only option and I always seem to come back a bit faster. Part of that is probably related to the fact that when away I have more time/freedom for running though   I also sweat TR-turbo-in-garage style, which gets annoying as it's hard to wipe from your eyes mid rep! Very nice rep work, you sound quick as ever 

Jools - my bro is a semi regular at Ashton Court (although about 4-5 mins slower than you).  He assures me that the hill is worth a couple of mins 

Didn't pull up any trees in a disappointing parkrun today at Richmond, but I did meet Chrissie Wellington.  Which was nice.

xc in the MET league today for me, as RS78 says it was carnage! It was really heavy under foot pretty much the whole way round the course, getting progressively worse with each lap! The hill that we had to repeat 3 times was the real big struggle for me! Found it really tough going today, not used to that kind of running at all.

Haven't a clue as to placing, but can't imagine it was great!

AW - well done again mate, that was tough out there. The bloke who won it took the piss the speed he was going in those conditions

Al P - yeah I might try and do some at the pool down here in London but I have a feeling the pool is a shallowish depth the whole way along the 25m. I've actually spoken to my old boss at the gym I used to work at and for a small fee I can use the gym up the road while I'm back. So will probably try and swim in the mornings down the road at the public pool and do other x training at the gym in the afternoons. That'll tied me over nicely in the mean time.

Charlie.. thanks for the X Talon tip, might investigate.

TT.. nice session there & very encouraging.

AW..  that xc sounds hard, well toughed out.

Jools.. good effort in the Parkrun, no flat ones nearby?  Nice 12m banked too.

Thanks for the good wishes.  Yesterday afternoon I felt like I was wandering around with a knife stuck in my side, very painful.  I cancelled a gig I was going to and decided to get the two buses home.  The first one which normally operates every 15 mins was 45 minutes late!  It was also cold, breezy & drizzling.  Finally got into York and my bus home from there was 15 minutes late - ever get the feeling it's just not your day?  Set off at 17:30 and got home at 20:00!  Couldn't bend down far enough to feed the cat!  Anyway, a mix of ibuprofen, lying on an  ice pack and a session with my ultrasound device did ease the discomfort somewhat.  Still a bit sore but mobility much improved today.

Went along to watch the York Parkrun today, very honoured to meet his esteemed excellency Lord Didsbury.  Good run from the old fella, I reckon he was about 6th when he went past at 2k but without giving too much away he managed to drag himself into a podium spot by the finish.  He did seem to enjoy the relentless flatness that is the York course!

 

Wardi: I think the Little Stoke parkrun which has started recently (probably about 5/6M away) is pretty flat, but I'm now quite fond of the Ashton Court hill: on the way up it's a lung-busting strengthening exercise; on the way down it's brilliant for leg turnover.

I managed to exercise a certain amount of restraint and leave a party at midnight last night so that I could be up bright-eyed and bushy tailed to go for my 17M run and then go to an afternoon do in London.

good to see that you didnt properly hurt yourself Wardi

Al_P - i have some super stylish Blisters stylie headbands for the turbo.

long run of 8M bagged , ha ha. Just about to leave for an U12 away game, I was running by 7:15, I'm not prepared to run at 6:15 on a Sunday at the mo in order to bag 16.

Oh god, my head hurts from a night of booze on the Toon. Will be having a rare day off running today.
Enjoyed York immensely, and good to meet Wardi.
Think I'm going to try to get my 5k time down over the next couple of months. Ran well for 17.47, but convinced I must be able to get close to 17 mins. (Think my pb is 17.17).
It's my new goal in life.

I was running by 8.30, which is sparrowfart for me at the weekend.  17 @ 7.51s (treated myself to a flatish route) done and dusted.

Nice run Jools - sparrowfart? Am i missing something? Or are we just inserting random words in our posts these days?

Sorry for the absence from thread - wasn't Johnny one-posting..... we lost our internet connection at home for a week (dodgy connection) and I can't access this site at work so it was no dice.

PP - you seem to be flying along. What's your mara pb these days? Sounds like we do a very similar midweek mara pace session - I'm also trying to build it up from 10 to around 14 over the coming months. 

Zattu - sorry, never replied to your post from ages back. Sounds like 2.30 is a bit of a barrier at the moment - presume that's the target for Spring mara? I'll be joining you at Wokingham, though no idea yet whether it'll be a pb attempt or a mara pace run.

Njord (also from wayyyyy back) - sorry to hear about Njordette and that very annoying sounding guy. Glad things have improved since then. See you on the VLM start-line and in the Red Lion after....

Welcome CaroT.... and to whoever it was that was talking about trying to break the 80min HM barrier..... that one held me up for two years..... ran between 80 and 81 about 6 times before finally breaking through. The last one was 80.00 too - that hurt like a paper cut on the eye-ball I can tell thee.

Decent week's training for me, but holding back a touch at the moment with January peak avoidance very much in mind.

Ravenwee

Oh yeah - and Wardi, hope the knife in the side continues to improve....sounds horrendous.

Magpieburp

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sparrowfart

1. Really effing early. 2. An ineffectual or insubstantial person. Alternately, someone who is physcially slight or tiny.

-- not only did your (commendable) run qualify for meaning 1. Jools, the last alternative meaning seems to fit too!

Just back from an inter-club cross country, which went fine. The XTalon190s were jolly good, as there was a fair bit of bog where I needed some traction, but also some hard-packed paths and a little bit of tarmac. Had a bit of a dust-up with a clubmate who is quicker than me, but was (oddly) wearing spike shoes without any spikes in, and after surging back past me the first 2 or 3 times I overtook him he finally seemed to lose heart in his slippery predicament, so I finished ahead today. (He did the mile recently in 4:40.) Came 5th out of... dunno, few hundred I guess.