Moraghan Training - Stevie G

RicF wrote (see)

I don't take liberties, but in my house no-one ever tells or expects me to do anything ever. I mean, I even raced at Sutton Park the day my dad passed away.

Just kidding. About being told what to do. My mother told me to go to Sutton Park because she'd got wind of the run being part of a relay, and was of the opinion that as a team man, my dad wouldn't expect me to bale out on his account. 

I raced the 12 stage relays the day my daughter was born, 'cause everyone else was in hospital and drugged up to their eyeballs so didn't miss me. I reckon my Mum would tell me the same, and my Dad apologise for changing plans; he is a stickler for being on time and keeping to plan.

Philip_M_Jones wrote (see)

10 at lunchtime in 74, Sunday runs with SG maybe on the cards in a few weeks.

Unless that smashed the life out of you, sounds like you're plenty ready to re-join, as that's around the sunday pace.

Will be good timing too, as after a spate of 90mins (12miles), it shifted back up to a 100min, 13.5 job last time out....company helps for 14-16s!

Bit of a tough tempo today...

20 mins 'out' at MP (6.35 avg) covered 3.02 miles.

20 mins 'back' with the aim of going beyond the start point. 6.05 avg, covered 3.26 miles. 6.05 being faster than current HM PB pace and sub 80 pace.

Nearly knocked it on the head at 2 miles, I felt like my legs had gone, but turns out it was my head that nearly went! Good session in the end! Maybe I'm coming to terms with tempo running finally!

sounds hard Stevie, good work for sticking it out successfully.

May well be better for the mind then the similar distance variant I do with the 40mins alternating between the 2 paces in 5min chunks.

One things for sure for your session, if you're not feeling good in the first 20mins, the second 20 will be a world of pain!

It got better as it went on, the initial shock of MP took a while to settle, on the turnaround I felt quite strong. Do you do 40 mins literally swapping between MP and HM every five mins? That's sounds like murder. Might give it a go! Ha ha.

yep, continuous. It's a toughie...but once you complete it on par, you are definitely in pb shape.

I'd say it's probably in my top 4 toughest sessions, along with

• 5x4laps 10k pace, 1 lap steady (continuously run)
• 14miles, with 8miles easy to steady, 3miles MP, 3miles HMP
• a session i can't 100% remember but it had 2x2miles at tempo in.

If you give the 40min one a go, make sure you've had a few weeks of 6.5miles at MP first to acllimatise, even with a 7mile version thrown in.

ps I'm sure there's a 45min variant too....

the best way i find to get through the session is to break it into 8 or 9 sections, and then you can think "there's only 4 HMP sections", a mere 20mins.

Sounds a good one, but yeah, I need to become stronger running at MP for 6 to 8 miles first. Maybe in a month or two I'll give it a go. What MP do you go off? Hypothetical pace? My hypothetical MP is 6:31 (2:50 mara) but really I'd be looking at a 3 hour-ish marathon, say 6:50 ish per mile. There is a big difference in comfort levels between to the two of these! 6:31 is quite testing while 6:50 feels like a quick version of easy pace.

That 14 mile session sounds awful. Another thing I'm shocking at... winding up a long run. Can't do it.

A pal said i was still listed as my old club inthe Victory 5 results...which he's wrong on, bit as I checked,  just noticed the fiends have added a whopping 1 sec to sunday's time! the bums!

27:56 then folks....27.56...

Stevie, just use your HMP +20secs

As anyone knows, I don't wear the trousers in my house - just the shorts! All has to come down to careful negotiation and bartering, but most of  the time I get my own way

You've gotta love those chips SG! Good job it wasn't 27:59...

Good hard session that Stevie! Nice when you persevere and your head goes "oh well, no point in whingeing anymore I guess" and lets you get on with it!

You know there's a risk of  losing 1/2secs from your watch, but when it's on a chip, and they post the results on a notice after the race, you don't expect them to still add a sec on.

never mind! After the Wokingham debacle of 2010, let's end this one cheap!

Next!!

Stevie G . wrote (see)

Unless that smashed the life out of you, sounds like you're plenty ready to re-join, as that's around the sunday pace.

Will be good timing too, as after a spate of 90mins (12miles), it shifted back up to a 100min, 13.5 job last time out....company helps for 14-16s!

This Sunday is Russia and next one South Bucks 10k which is a race nobody says they are planning to do but everybody seems to turn up at the start line anyway so early October is a plan.

Sounds good Phil.

I was put off the South Bucks after last year's heat wave to be honest. I expect I have a sub 35 in my locker, but the memory of coming out 36:24 when I'd done 35:52 the year before is still there!

Also non power of 10...not that that's the be all and end all...but if you're aiming for a pb it might as well get on there...

my first XC training session today.....6*3mins at 5.30 pace with 60 sec recovery on soft reasonably flat grass and a bit squelchy in places.  Needless to say running on the XC is going to take getting used to, but im sure after a few weeks it will feel normal.  Im already missing the road

this weekend i have the midlands 6 stage relay so might be the last road until December.

Some good training going on by everyone, a particular shout out to Andy - over 100m and going strong too!  Looking good for your marathon.

Seb - i think im on 4th but it could change

Stevie - good tempo work. They are tough, but there's always a good feeling of satisfaction afterwards.  I'm looking forward to getting stuck back into tempo stuff after the marathon, because it's there that I think the gains are going to come from.  Should see you improve nicely over half marathon etc in particular.

Bus - I sympathise totally.  There is no way on earth I'd be allowed to race on my kids' birthdays.  The fact that Wokingham is so close to my wife's birthday next year may mean that I won't race that either.  So, it's understandable.  You're still a pussy, but it's understandable

Short tempo-ish session last night, just to remind myself what running at pace feels like.  7 with 2 w/u, 2 at MP followed by 2 at tempo, 1 w/d.  MP was 6:41 and 6:23, and tempo was 5:42 and 5:40.

One of the interesting things that occurred to me (well, interesting to me anyway) was that, although 6:25-6:30 pace feels faster than it used to, 5:40 pace seemed easier to hit.  I suddenly realised that I'm running my marathon pace wrong - last night illustrated why, as when I went from MP to tempo pace, I naturally increased my cadence substantially, to the same kind of level that I run at in races between 5k and half marathon.  I hadn't noticed that I was essentially running MP at such low cadence, and it can't be the most efficient way to do it. The cadence should still be high even for a marathon. Having not practised running lower speeds at higher cadence, it's probably too late to do anything about it for Berlin, but that's certainly something I have to sort out for next time.

EDIT: the above must be some kind of record for the most frequent use of 'cadence' in one paragraph.  Sorry - if I get my hands on a new word, I like to squeeze the last drops out of it.

cadence....you're getting too technical now old bean! 5.40 being easy to hit isn't a bad place though....5.35 felt fine in a racing type way over 5miles on sunday, but one mile at that in training wouldn't be a doss!

8miles done for me...few little feels in the hip and glute on opposing sides, but pretty much signing out until Friday now with a trip to Manc today,so hopefully it all eases out. Happy running in the meantime folks!

Dachs, there are a lot of articles (both popular and scientific, see e.g. http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Stride_right_and_improve_your_run.htm) out there which suggest your cadence should be high and constant so basically you run fast by striding longer but keep the cadence the same. Top runners have a high cadence. Jack Daniels is a big cadence guy, he says get to 180 and you are good.

Never random Andy, it's all calculated.

And "working hard" isn't any kind of feeling to go off. How hard is hard? MP? HMP? Tempo? 10k? 5k? etc