Moraghan Training - Stevie G

Ric, are you really counting your strides per minute? That's getting a bit too anorak son.

Positives and negatives by the sound of that race at Staines though Ric. yes you might come top 5, but you might not have anyone round your pace to move you on.

SG, well not all of my strides. Just count off each time one foot hits the ground for 30 seconds and calculate.

I had a chat with a guy at the Gosport 10k one year and he reckoned leg speed was the most important factor. I suppose he might have had some idea, he'd won the English National once!

Staines. Top 5 possible. However, its definitely me against the clock. Other people are there but I do no more than I'm prepared to do. 

Or should I say, I'm only prepared to take so much pain and ship so much damage in a race. I have no intention of putting myself in hospital or worse.

If I want a better result, I'll train better. Others do it by hurting themselves more.

I don't tend to race other runners or use them. I don't mind helping them though. I helped one fellow at the Bramley 10 one year. It was blowing a gale and he was doing the associated 20 miler. It would have been easy to tuck in behind him for shelter but after a few seconds considered it to be a cheap shot so called out "my go" and took over. 

The way I look at it. If you can win a race without even going to threshold level, then I would say not much glory in that.

Coming 5th in a race out of a few hundreds is valid. Its still a race you didn't win. 

Ric, basic local knowledge is that if you're planning a pot hunt, you check the Datchet championship first

Because if it's on there they suddenly had the little minibus with 5 or 6 of them turning up en masse.

almost forgot to mention I just did a nice 6x1k at 10k pace job up the track. Bit windy, but that's standard up there, and no doubt upcoming races will have a lil bit of that too.

Did get a bit of a rage on in the middle of the session as 2 chumps rocked up wearing about 5 layers each, and decided that the fast lane was the best place to do their 9/10min miling.

I monstered past in lane 3(!) on one rep, and barked something along the lines of "NOT IN THE FAST LANE FELLAS GRRR".

Next time I passed them I noticed they were wearing headfones. Wouldn't have heard jack.

Luckily I just finished the session, when a troupe of footballing tarts turned up and decided to just all stand in Lanes 1 and 2 and have a chat.

Some of these people are utter (add insult of choice here)

Wool, I managed to split the Bradfields on that course in 1998. I think it was Mike that escaped over the final 1km. 

I'll never forget what happened at just after 8km. Mike had got a couple of yards on me  and then we hit the rather gentle slope of a bridge. However it was enough to almost stop Mike in his tracks. By the time we hit the apex, I must have pinched 25 yards.

No matter, once back on the flat he went past and never came back.

Second again, just outside 34 minutes, again.

Took delivery of the new indoor bike today and I'm still reeling in a kind of shock at the way the van driver just picked up the packet and carried it indoors. Just the flywheel alone weighs 18kg.  

Stevie G . wrote (see)

If you're Kent based, I wonder if we've crossed paths at races unknowingly before...albiet it with me a distance behind

I checked po10 and you are RJ are 0-0 head to head. I was going to issue the Staines warning but Wool got in.

Ric, I got the Staines details today too. Its very tempting, but usually clashes with the Marlow 5  andthere are very few chances to do a fast 5.

2x xctoday in some serious mud! Felt Ok, though legs still alittle mashed!

SG-those lane hoggers,very annoying. Wonder if they paid for the privillege though

Its only going to getworse when the track moves to Marlow mind...

Wool, Yes, that will be Chris Dettmar. I've chatted to him on a number of occasions.

I think only RJ on the thread would be able to chase him down since it'll take 32 min something to do so.

In any case, Chris is a V40, which was handy for me as I'm a V50 so ended up as 1st vet in the race, if that makes any sense. The organisers had seen it all before so had no trouble sorting out the prizes.

Bus, I get the chance to do three flat 5 milers during the summer as part of a league my club does. Total cost £3. Not like Pednor!

When's the Marlow 5 boys?

Nice sess SG, I love K reps sessions at 10k pace.

I counted my cadence, the other day I've been hitting around 86-88 steps per min, I hear the magic number is 90. But then I also read a report saying that was rubbish and quoted Galen Rupp as having different from this (check out his recent 3:50 INDOOR mile!!).

12.7 tonight, so 2nd long run done. 7 miles tomorrow AM, then Thurs off. But will end up as nealry 60 hours without a run. Give me time to gain some energy back from Sundays blockbuster.

Good luck with session over the coming days gents. I'll be super tired when I return on Friday, 3 days away with the kids on a residential!

The supposed magic number for each foot hitting the ground is 90. So both feet 180.

But; in a race, for me that's too slow. Training easy the cadence is around 160/170.

Stride length is the problem. I find if I attempt to adopt a track running style, then very quickly I grind into a strained slow motion. 

The top runners have a similar range of cadence. What makes them really fast is they can combine it with a 6 foot plus stride length.

A video of me running my fastest ever 5000m shows that I was on 200 strides per minute, 5 foot stride. 

A lot of racing efficiency is choosing which set of gears to use.

Stevie, 19 on Sunday, 8on Monday, then 12 on Tuesday?! Are you going all Luvsa on us?!  Be careful there.

Marlow 5 is the Sunday after the Bank Hol in May.

It's the week with the most options race wise of the whole year, so a right old conundrum.

You have about 5 or 6 races on the Bank Hol Mon, such as Shinfield 10k (the first 10k I did under this thread's tutelage), Pednor 5, a low key Henley race (odd distance, low standard, me in 2nd years back ), and 2 or 3 others.

Then you have the ultra fast/flat Silverstone 10k on the Wednesday, then you have Marlow 5/Staines 10k on the Sunday.

Problem for me, is that since I last did the Marlow 5, I've discovered the Victory 5 in Portsmouth, which is faster, with higher standard. But it's also 5miles away rather than 80miles! Also the race of the most banter afterwards, and I'll often know 100 or so people, rather then the ....1/2 at max if I'm very lucky at Victory.

Other slight problem it's as it stands onthe same day as a Man U game...which unless they get to the FA cup final, and so the game isn't in Manchester anymore, but is in London, would mean racing, then burning up there! Did similar 2 years ago, and it's a bit mad!!

Continuning the footy watching theme, 2x3mile recoveries today. First one at 7am, as off to see Reading v Chelsea tonight, so no prospect of evening running

Wool wrote (see)

Lets see how many of the faster Dashers come through VLM unscathed.

All the main big hitters doing VLM I presume? Minibus job?

Full size bus. Some talk of trying to feature in the team results.....

Marlow 5 is the 12th, Staines 10k 19th and hence no clash this year.

SG - were you hitting the km reps hard, or leaving a little in the tank for Chichester?

Re track etiquette, at RRR the rule is, if you're running at your own fast pace, you use Lane 1, irrespective of how fast that is.  On Wednesday track sessions, when the track gets very busy indeed (often 100+), that means I virtually never go round any of my laps entirely in lane 1.  Occasionally, I find myself out in lane 5 or 6.  I think that's fair - we're all trying to get the most out of our sessions, and I don't see why others should have to check behind themselves all the time to see who's coming through.  Ultimately, I'm the one who can see where everyone is, so I should be the one to go round.  It wouldn't work any other way with those numbers.

It is also a handy excuse for inconsistency in my splits.

However, standing and chatting in the fast lane is just stupid.

By the way RIc, rule 2 of pot hunting is don't discuss potential pot hunts on the internet.

Dachs, 10k pace job.

100 + round a track! I'm spoilt pretty much having it to myself. And makes your paces for reps even more crazy, as you're actually faster than the quoted paces, being in different lanes!

You're bang on about pot hunts. You certainly don't bandy the talk about, as that's a sure fire way of a gang of goons turning up to gazump you. Don't forget that the people who regularly post on this thread probably make up about 2% of those who read it

I've a possible pot hunt later on in the year. But it's so obscure, so random, miles from home, that you lot won't find me out

Having said that, for those same reasons it might not actually be worth doing

apologies for the delayed response but thanks for the advice on the bike Ric. Doesn't look like i'll be able to use it for anything other than commuting then. We don't have showers at work so I don't fancy a 3 mile speed/blast cycle to work in the morning and it's uphill all the way home!

It's nice reading all the running getting laid down here as only a couple of months ago, things read like an injury forum on here. Long may it continue.

Interesting sessionf or me last night. First time I've attempted MP since last September and couldn't find it at all! Session was 10mins @ MP, 2x (5x400), 10mins @ MP. I've been so used to either running at 5k, 10k, threshold or easy that MP is a bit of a middle no mans land at the moment!

I may have overestimated with the 100+.  I'll do a quick headcount tonight to double check.  But it's definitely a lot.

Is your pot hunt going to involve cross-dressing to win one of those women-only events?