Moraghan Training - Stevie G

I guess a monster first mile in a marathon isn't something you can get away with unlike in a half marathon and down

Stevie, F OFF, enjoy!  I only have a Th OFF.

So tomorrow, unless the chance pops up to do it earlier, I'll probably have that interesting feeling of finishing work at 5, yet knowing I have a big session to do straight away!

The Bus wrote (see)

Hello Blue Legs - where've you been???

At uni haha, I don't really run obsessively anymore.  I don't think I have the self control/patience not to injure myself  just run for enjoyment and do a bit of weight lifting and football too.  Maybe one day Ill come back to running and rue all the running I didnt do when I was young, like you lot used to haha


Can't be bothered trawling the thread, but has anyone made any big break throughs?  Any marathons been ran etc?  Also annoyed I couldn't gloat to SG about our title win haha

I had my 10 mile race yesterday, it did not go to plan. I went into it with a very optimistic aim knowing that I'd either get a brilliant result or a poor one.

In summary, the first mile was spot on target, then I got caught up running with a guy I recognised for the second mile which was down hill - much too fast. Suddenly I was 20 seconds ahead of the already optimistic target at 2 miles and never recovered. Just before 3 miles I was seriously considering binning it altogether. The last 6 miles were pretty steady paced, and I rolled in in 59.32 for 12th position.

Lots of lessons to be learnt from this which need to be put into practice pretty sharpish but I am taking some positives, even on a very rough day I still got in under the hour, and last years position was 23rd (on a different course but its work linked so the entrants are pretty much the same give or take. I'll be back.

First days off since the middle of May with the first decent cold I've had for two years. If I manage the problem correctly it'll only set me back about six weeks.

Not a disaster PC2, but I thought everyone knew that the first mile is the freebie in terms of smashing off at longer distance

Ric, I'm sure you'll be back to 73 consecutive days of 10miler soon, chin up.

Wokingham entry opened today. Just in case anyone wants to unnecessarily enter a race 5months early!

8 miles done. Painful sports massage, ice bath (ouch!) and now a days rest!

Back from holiday, so much for taking it easy and letting the hip recover, walked about 40-45miles in and around Venice over 3 days, no running and not sure when to try again, hip still abit odd and twinging sometimes whilst at work, decided to try some exercise though as I've had 4 full days off, so cycled 36miles (2hrs) this afternoon and it felt ok until afterwards when it ached abit. Using the foam roller twice a day now im back and if it doesnt clear up soon i'm off to the physio.

Doesn't sound too bad a run to me PC2,  Like you said in under the hour is what couts! what was the optimistic target?! Never feels fun after setting off too fast, I know that much!

Unlucky with the cold Ric, at least it's only once every two years!

Good luck at Belin Dachs!! Have a good one!

Seb, do you do any hip strengthening already? Is a worrying area to go wrong, from my own experience, as you suddenly start thinking how the heck do I rehab this area!

ps Seeman, get your name on the CP list, looks like about 1750 entries in and I think limit is 2500

Seb - That little gem was a closely kept piece of info, and is now back in the box . My pb is 57.12 and I was looking for an improvement...     As long as I learn from the many things that didnt work out I'll be all the better for it.

you were after a sub 55 weren't you Crispy baby, admit it

Another in a spell of good quality sessions today

3.5m wu, then 3x2mile (with mile 1 @HMP, mile 2 @Tempo) off 2mins recovery.

A while ago I'd have thought, that looks blimming hard, but today came out splendidly

5.47,5.48
5.55,5.49
5.51,5.50

Mile 1 of rep 1&3 slightly fast, but the important thing was it didn't stop mile 2 being bang on.

Good hard session, that showed me once momentum is reached I've got the staying power.

Things are coming together nicely, I think I just need to slightly reduce the food the night before a hard or long run, as that's been a couple of times I've finished a 10miler and had to swiftly get to Das Toileten! A million times better than milk days though!

Good session SG. All coming together for the CP with a bit of luck.

PC2 - as you say, lessons to be learnt but sub hour still a result given the circumstances.

Seb - listen to your body. Nothing worse than trying to come back from injury too soon and making it worse. I think in reality though, we can nearly always judge whether to train through an injury or not as long as we are totally honest with ourselves!

Double yesterday - 7.6M xc am, then 5.5M pm. The pm run was most enjoyable. One of the few times recently where everything felt like it was working well and running at a quickish pace (for off-road) felt comfortable. Very easy, short interval session for me tonight ahead of rest tomorrow and race Sunday.

How light and easy Bus? Because Friday night intervals of any description sound too close to a race!

Unless they are the equivalent of strides, something like 6x75m, that's a staple day before job within an easy run.

Something delightful about leaving work on a Friday only having a 4mile easy run, couple of miles through the woods, rather than a stonker of a session!

1.5M warm up with my son at 9:30 pace, then just 3X0.5M in 2:50, 2:47, 2:48, then 1M warm down at 10 min mile pace - it was that or run the Rye parkrun tomorrow, so definitely the easy option . Besides, I'll have had 3 days of complete rest this week, so should be OK - time will tell!

Tough session that SG, those 3 x 2 miles are always hard, but hitting mile 2 at a quicker pace is tough. That's tough at HMP off 2 mins. That and the 5min MP/HM session are really going to pay dividends.

Bus, 3 days complete rest? Is this an easy week before another wave of training or a taper? If the later you might be racing more than me!!

Reading several marathon type books, all have schedules with at least 2 effort sessions and a long run. I'm doing 70 miles and 'only' doing 1 session and a long run. I'm slightly worried now. It was saying I won't get fitter without faster running... isn't the point of the base phase to run lots of slow miles and build strength?

I suppose it's all about not getting ahead of myself. Doing 70 miles this week I couldn't manage anything more than 1 tempo or an interval session. Although it seems sensible to think about phasing 2 sessions in as I get closer to the November as my 'base' phase is lasting to the middle of December. I'm rambling, sorry!

Stevie, we're all learning as we go to some extent, but one of the massive keys is never increasing both mileage and quality.

Therefore, you've done right only increasing the mileage. If you wanted to keep that level of mileage, you'd want to bed it in for a while, and then add the second hard session.

If you really wanted a true base phase, you'd keep your mileage high, intensity low in training and not racing, and stay like that for a couple of months. Can you not race for that long?

Not 100% sure about XC racing fitting in. On the one hand, it's less smashing than the road, but I guess on the downside, if you're doing that on a sunday, the long run gets binned, which is a key part of the base build up.

Also you'd need to bin off the usual taper before, then recovery after, as the whole point is keeping the mileage up.

Of course the flip side to that is not to increase the miles but intoduce a second hard session - depends on whether the goal is speed or endurance I guess.  As far as XC is concerned, surely the way to treat that is to not get too hung up on it as a race goal, but as your second quality session for the week? Do the long run on a Tuesday if the XC is on a Sunday - it can be done, just look at Philip's pre VLM regime!

3 days off this week is a combination of factors Stevie. Bit of post race recovery, bit of pre-race tapering, bit of trying not to push hard with a bit of a cold (for once) plus a slight breather before a bit of a push for the Marlow Half, It's been a pretty relentless year of  high mileage (relatively - for me) so far and common sense tells me it won't last if I don't take a break. Usually injury or illness force a break, but this year has been kind so far, so a couple of days now and a whole week after Marlow are the plan to try and avoid a bit of crash and burn.....