Moraghan Training - Stevie G

Went for a run this morning and saw that there's a 5m race this morning about half a mile from where i live! Did it last year but haven't seen anything saying it was being ran this year! Looked at their website and there you are, 2nd place!

Anyway good luck at Shinfield!

Hehe...that was some pot hunting gold last year Mee Meep! Although only 2nd obviously!

 Today went ok. pb of 36:43, (20sec pb). Temperature was spot on, little bit windy early on but the 9th k was off road on pebbly paths, through the most exposed windy field ever! That k alone cost me 20-30seconds I reckon.

Did a couple of things I've never done before today, did my splits off the proper garmin rather than just a stopwatch, and did a proper warm up!! I'm admitting here that in 96 races I've only ever done a proper warm upnow once..ie longer than a token couple of hundred metres jog !

Therefore, 22min 2.5mile warm up. Time and space reduced the strides to 5x 20m rather than 5 x75...which I'll try and put right next race out tho. The warm up definitely took that horrible shock of the first mile away though! Even stopped me sprinting off stupidly fast like I used to.

Damm garmin  battery went after 8k, but splits as I recorded them and distance as below

(Obviously 1k is 0.62m so some are slightly out)

Split       Distance

3.36      0.64

3.35     0.60

3.41     0.63

3.37    0.62

3.35   0.60

4.03   0.65    (caught the split a little late and clearly slightly longer than 1k too)

3.32  0.62

3.42  0.62

There was a slight uphill in one of the slower k, but levelled itself out on the next k.

some maths shows that the last 2 k were run in 7:18, which is mostly down to the 9th k being a really unexpected pebbly offroad 1k, in a very very windy field!! Finished the 10th k strong, so as above can only imagine I lost a good 20-30secs in the 9th k.

The guy I pipped to the post has done a mid 35 not too long ago, so all in happy with the 36:43 i suppose!

At the finish felt pretty ok, not in any real fatigue. Passed 5k just over 18mins which is quite promising for the 5k series coming up.

 Will have to look to add a completely road 10k sometime not too far off. but I'll go off your advice as to when it suits the schedule as I've got a stack of races as it is...although they're only 5ks mostly.

Well done on the PB - it's forward progress and as you say the conditions can affect things, so looking at relative performances of other runners can help.  If you fancy it look for a 10k in around 6 weeks time and we'll fit it in. 

Looks like you paced it very well - did you feel as though any aspect of your fitness help you back (legs, breathing etc)?

The warm up definitely meant I started at the right pace. That and knowing the quality up the field meant too fast a start could be curtains.

A very slight feeling of almost like a crampy kind of feel in the foot/lower leg for the first hald, but didn't really impare me at all. Think I'm just being picky..as there is a lot of time to think about things! Was working hard  but not so hard that it was pushing it. In fact absolutely no muscular tiredness might show that, although to be honest I've only ever got the DOMS after tough hilly off road races, or when I did a session of 2 x (10x100m) sprints once!

Overall got on the tail of the guy who does mid 35s, and let him do the work but on turning a corner at 8k to find rubbish pebbly paths and suddenly masses of wind, I knew that would affect things timewise.

However, Marlow 5 on sunday, 29:38 to beat. Got every chance as I went through 5m quicker than that today, and Marlow is actually all road!

Add in factors like my whole club are doing it, a load from my work, and loads of local rivals and all the elements are to hand!

Will check out some 10k options

results are out....seems I'd hyped myself up by 1 second....36:44 official result

13th out of 637. Didn't realise there were that many there!

tue, 4mile easy lunch...evening popped along to my club to do some admin for upcoming 5k series then burned off...hoping noone would ask why i don't do their poor sessions these days! Got away with it

wed (today) 4m easy 6m easy.

all quiet before sunday!

Tomorrow, will be the 4m easy and 6m easy, but i'll also go along to my club's social, which will be another 4miler, but will pretty much be at about 9-10min mile pace...so is even under recovery pace...so shouldn't be a problem to add!

Also I can casually drop in mto my clubmates that it's my 3rd run of the day...that always sounds impressive!

No problem to add but seems a little pointless - if I were you I'd stick with just the 2 runs, even if it means losing your usual 4 miler.

Hope you're feeling nice and fresh.

just did the 4 and the 6 in the end.

Stuck my head in at the club to do some admin, signing people up for the 5k series.

The social runs always did my head in anyway, running at about 10mins a mile pace, and people at the back still complaining that we weren't "keeping in a group" grrr.

Fresh enough. Resting tomorrow will ensure it!

missed the 8x100m strides...my fault...but did creep under 7min miling every so often until i went back to the correct pace, so whilst not ideal, something better than just easy.

Will make sure ongoing it's to the letter!

All steam ahead for Marlow 5...if i can not get a cold from sitting behind apregnant lady at work who has a fan blowing ice cold air my way all day!

Ok, make sure you do a few on saturday as scheduled.

You should go and tell that lady not to be so inconsiderate - you have a race to run, she's just pregnant!

lol. I played it the indirect woman style way...sitting here in thick top, hugging myself shivering. think she's got it now...the fan is off! Yes!!

 definitely to the 4m with strides tomorrow

saturday sesh done properly...so roll on tomorrow now.

Should definitely break my course pb there...that's 30:59 set in 2006!

Keeping the pbs rocking...4th pb in the 4 road races I've done this year now. Not bad for only 5 weeks into your training!

Conditions spot on, not much wind, pretty flat course.

 28:54 chip time (28:55 official!), beats the 29:38 previous 5miler by a good 44seconds.

23rd out of 1657 so happy with that as the top 20 was a who's who of the local top runners, and Hayley Yelling (now Higham) semi retired British elite runner "Only" came 10th.

My splits are as follows...I had an auto 1mile set but I tended to hit the lap button when I passed the mile marker. This was fine for the first 3 to 4 miles, but on one mile the auto kicked in before I got to the marker, so I had a split of 10secs for 147 yards. Therefore, I can only approximate that the 10seconds was split between the last 2 mile splits. Therefore:

 5:29, 5:43, 5:57, 5:54 (potentially add 5sec), 5:40 (potentially add 5sec).

Should be promising for the 5k series as passed 3miles in 17:09, so 5k would be say 17:25-20ish? I can test that in 10 days at my first 5k, but the pb of 17:23 should be in danger of going.

 Overall delighted with the sub 29. Did lose to the guy I'd pipped at the Shinfield 10k on Monday, but beat a guy who beat me at the Maidenhead 10miler in April...but it's always nip and tuck.

 Looking forward to the next 2 week schedule if  you get the chance?  Can send you the up to date spreadsheet tomorrow completed with all sessions and splits since the last update if that helps.

Have the 5k on the 18th May and another one on June 1st, but both category 2 races, so I'm up for hitting the training hard for the next couple of months. I

Well done mate, excellent racing.  Was the first mile slightly downhill or did you get over-excited?!!

I think with current fitness you're in PB shape for the 5k already. 

I was waiting until this race was over before sending the schedule.  You should have it later this afternoon with updated training paces (if necessary). 

Cheers guv.

Higher quality field  meant I started a little too fast, but if anything a very slight rise out of the starting park.

 Had a couple of guys to use as pace markers, so raced it reasonably smart, which I seem to be doing a bit better now.

A 5k pb will be nice as that'll mean the pbs at all 5 main distances are achieved already for the year.

5 attempts at it coming up May to July!

Well done, Stevie.

You'd have been about a mile ahead of me .

You've only been "smart training" for about a month, so I bet you'll see great gains in the coming months.

Ta Kaysdee, let's hope so.

How did you find the race today? It's a nice little town race, not just miles of rural lanes like a lot of shorter distance races!