Moraghan Training - Stevie G

Thanks Seb - one of the advantages of working at home occasionally! 

Will have to take a look at that thread again then!

Some very good sessions from you three tonight. I quite like the idea of doing reps based on time rather than distance, but have never actually done it!  Take it easy with that cold though Stevie - a tough sesion like that could just send you over the edge. Sometimes better to fight another day.... 

Had some good ones for what VC meant, but not so many for CV SG!

Interesting that your legs are still a bit sore Dean.

I think a lot of us discovered that after our XC races. I was quite impressed how many went out and ran long the next day. For me it was possible but I could sense fatigue in places that other off road runs hadn't reached before, so indoor spinning on the bike instead. Such is the after effects of 45 minutes of relative violence on mud.

Chiltern League XC this Saturday for me.

Seb, 8secs faster than 10k pace?   No chance. That'd be faster than theory 5k pace. And the coach man doesn't tend to give sessions of further in reps than the pace distance, certainly not at 5k and over.

Your session sounds typically super fast. Track and someone running with you probably helps. I can only imagine doing that on some pavement alone somewhere and having a right hard time of it!

Dean, I forget exactly where you're based, but presumed it was quite "north-ish". Do you make long trips to the Birmingham league? Or is the league quite far reaching in locations?

I know a lot of you are machines, but the one time I did reps 2 days after a race I found I couldn't get very close to the target paces, and was quite fatigued. These days it's generally a couple of easy runs the day after, and rest day 2 days after.

If it's a half or a particularly hilly cross country, can take a couple more days than that to lose all DOMS.

Ric, bin that off son, and come to Tadley instead.

ps Matt, I'm not sure about much on your background, years mileage, age, injury record etc, but as the face of thread caution, it sounds a bit mad to be planning 2 track sessions, a tempo and a long  run in a week. That's 3 quality sessions, and if you're either not used to the long run, or you're talking 14-16miles, that in effect is a medium quality run itself.

Surely 1 track, and 1 tempo is enough for the vast majority of runners. I'm not aware of anyone on here who regularly does more than that these days. Perhaps a couple of chaps throw a park run in every month or 2.

Matt, periodisation is something you need to be a bit of a master to work out. I'm certainly not that, as clearly I follow the training plan from the chap in the thread title. One example of how it'd pan out, is that in base period/buildup, I'd do plenty of 6-7miles at MP tempos. As the racing period comes close though, those would be ditched, and more specific to target distance work would come to the fore.

Matt - I agree with SG.  When I suggested tempo stuff to you, I meant that it would be in place of one of your speed sessions.  Doing all three in a week is a bit hardcore. 

SG - birmingham league is about 90mins drive away but they are all generally run in the birmingham area. Although im sure brum locals would be horified to hear me call lemington  and tipton as part of birmingham.  The quality in the race is very high, take Seb, 3rd in his county champs yet 50th in the birm league so its worth the travel.  There is also a north staffs xc league where the races are very local to balance it all out, 1 race i can just about see from my garden.

Matt - my training has always been based on tuesday (long reps) & thursday (short reps) plus tempo on saturday. A long run on sunday and the rest is easy mileage. I struggle with the tempo and for many months i wasnt doing them at the right pace (too slow)

rgds going out for a long run after the xc race at the weekend - i knew it was daft but wanted to get into my normal training routine and get a LSR in before helsby in 2 weeks, its not something i would normally do.  I will only be doing an 8m'er LSR this weekend.

my plan for helsby hm is to go off at target pace for wilmslow (in march) and see how long i hold it for. This way i will know what i need to tinker with in training to hit my wilmslow target.  It might mean a bit of a blow up at helsby but im hoping even when the fade comes i can keep it honest and still come home in a respectable time.

some nice tracks sessions last night people. SS - I'm amazed at how you manage to knock out those sessions whilst full of sickness! You seem to have been on the sick side for weeks now but still logging some decent mileage and sessions.

Nice session for me last night too as the fog set in - by the end of the session, I couldn't see the other end of the 100m straight ahead of me! 10 mins @ threshold + 6x 600m (2:02, 2:03, 2:03, 2:03, 2:03, 2:03) off 2 min recoveries + 10 mins @ threshold.

Matt - like Dean, I do 3 quality sessions a week: Tues (track), Thurs (tempo) & Sat (hills and/or tempo) and the Tues & Thurs sessions are double days where I run in the morning too. I don't see doing 3 sessions a week as draining if your other sessions allow recovery and can't see adding a Saturday tempo (i.e. progression run) or hills (i.e. Kenyan Hills) session as a problem.

As SG mentions, what I do in these 3 sessions depends what i'm training for and where I am in the 'cycle', but you can guarantee I'll always have these 3 sessions in every week.

You mention a coach at your club. Is this not something he can help you with? Have you approached him to help you develop a weekly programme?

SG, I gave your suggestion about doing Tadley instead of the Chiltern League some thought and then remembered this.

 How times change.

And here I am considering doing neither if there's the possibility of rain.

Dean, 90mins away! I could get up there in less than that!

I like a high quality field for the road, but for xc I prefer a better chance of a higher finish really. To come 137th or something would demoralise me I think!

Matt, we're obviously in 2 camps here, but what I would say is go carefully. They always say don't add volume and quantity at the same time. That seems sounds advice!

At the end of the day, all that matters is getting faster year in year out, and staying injury free. If what you do fits those 2 aims, you're fine.

Ric, can't make that out! Do you have a zoom facility!  Forget the sat league. At your distinguished position you want a good fun thread trip out methinks!

SG, hopefully this is a better version. I found one way to zoom in, is to simply to copy and paste the image to a 'Word' document, and zoom that.

I've tested this out to ensure you can read what looks like a work of fiction.

sg- we take a team mini bus down so is quite slow.  probably only an hour or just over if i was was driving myself.  an advantage of races of that calibre is you are not just focussed on the same familiar local faces so dont have to worry about head to heads (for those that worry about such things)

I would echo SG Matt, but soem do seem to thrive on three quality sessions. Just feel your way into I guess!

Good session Johnas.

Feeling a bit cheesed off myself! Lunchtime interval session of 6 x 0.5M at 5k (ish) pace, but pulled up after rep 4 in pain. Seems to be Fibularis Tendonitis as far as I can self diagnose (!), which could well have resulted from a previous turned ankle that has been bugging me for quite a while, but at a low level and I thought was almost gone. Quite painful to walk or put weight on it.  Seems doing just under 40M in 4 days, including a hard race, and a long hily run then some speedwork may have proved to be a mistake! (when will I learn!). To eb fair though, everything felt fine wwhen I set off today and I was  even happy to skip todays session for a rest. Will ice it tonight and see how it goes. hopefully it'll be one of those that eases off as quickly as it came...

PS - that was some week Ric! I especially like the 12M in about an hour without pushing it!

cripes Bus, speedwork the day after a 15miler?!

That's rarely a good idea. Let alone after that race Sunday!

The Bus wrote (see)

PS - that was some week Ric! I especially like the 12M in about an hour without pushing it!

just slightly impossible..unless you're an elite I'd say!

The Bus wrote (see)

PS - that was some week Ric! I especially like the 12M in about an hour without pushing it!

Hang on a mo Bus or is that I'm not 'Mo' (Farah) Bus.

Ah ha! a mis read there. Monday reads 3mls am, which I assume means the pm run was a 9 miler. (I'm inclined now to suspect the 9 was closer to an eight)

I've over 20 years of this stuff on the shelf. Its like reading about someone else.

Hope that foot sorts itself out quick. Hopefully its just something unglueing itself having got itself stuck because of the last race.

Sometimes it takes a faster paced run to unhook things.

there you go Bus, straight from Ric....go and do an even faster session tomorrow to correct things