Moraghan Training - Stevie G

Yep, a few times coach man has asked me to find a race a short time away to do.

Generally it's become a bit of a job of find what the fast courses are, and have a stab then.

Although the long term goal is getting as fast as you can, you do need those interim races that aren't all about the time.

Wycombe 10k is one like that, the time isn't especially relevant, as the mile long hill sees you off target instantly. But it's a great local hub event, on my doorstep, and has all sorts of meanings for me. Am so glad there's a 10k version these days, as like we;'ve said often, trying to fit a tough half in, potentially in blazing heat, isn't ideal!

Stevie G . wrote (see)

Bus, bet that 3m HMP spell was a bind, and the 1m a delight! Dachs, don't worry son, we're not lingustic fascists on here!

10miler done and dusted, got to rush into work now!

 

The 3M was a bind, especially as the last  mile of it was slightly uphill and involved dodging cars at a couple of junctions! Bit of retching involved at the end whihc is why I turned a straight tempo into more of an interval session! The mile should have been relatively pleasant, but the wind did for that 

Dachs - didn't think that was a spelling mistake, just that you were struggling combining your role of angel with running . Must admit, the predictive text on my tablet throws up some very interesting words - need to be really careful sometimes! (and don't believe SG about the linguistic fascism - I've seen what he says about people who mix up there and their )

Ric - that's a pretty good pace for an 11 miler, especially for an off the hoof session.

Was going to run into work tomorrow, but can't face another trudge through the muddy quagmire and back, with torrential rain forecast so will most probably try and get out at lunchtime instead.  Luckily this is not a big mileage week! 

It'll also mean I don't have to get up so early, which will be very nice after a couple of very long days and not much sleep last night (never sleep well first night in a hotel).

7.5 miles again today, getting there. Listened to marathon talk and it was an old friend of mine from the 3:15 thread and they came up with hurting versus suffering. At short distances you hurt, at long distances you suffer. Seems a fair difference to me, maybe SG just can't suffer.

i'm not sure I'm capable of hurting in a race either to be fair Phil!

SG - weather forecast looks ok for Sunday, not too windy and the course is more shletered than the GSR, Victory 5, Gosport etc courses as its inland a bit. Besides, you can only control the controllables anyway.

Ah good TR, sounds promising. This 10k pb, if I can't count beating it within the GSR, is starting to drag on!

I think so Dachs - proof will be on Saturday when I actually come to click on the enter button! It's long enough since my last one for the pain to have dulled, and far enough from Abingdon to not really think about the commitment!

Fingers crossed for the breeze to die down for you on Sunday....

glad everyones getting some training in, monster january mileage from Stevie S!

good luck for the weekend guys, wind must calm down by then!

Johnas - XC season not over yet, 3 races still to go, 1 League race, then the culmination of the season, the nationals XC and the Inter counties XC.

I've had a look at the inter-counties XC declared entries by each county and although only 9 of the 15 named run, UG, Frankie F, Dean and myself are all on the list so should be interesting to see how we fair if selected.

My Achilles isnt 100% yet at all so just been doing some maintenance mileage here and there, seemed ok tonight so put a few fast sections into a road run which I've not done for a while. a 6min/mile and a couple of 5:20-5:30 miles so speed still there.

Abingdon for a first marathon...hmmm

Fairly low key, but a fast course and with plenty of good runners at the sort of time you might be looking for Seb....

Seb - I thought about Abingdon for my first marathon, but decided that I wanted to start off with one where I could just enjoy the experience, and would have plenty of runners to pull me round, so settled on a big city one instead.  That way, I thought that, if I hated the distance and never wanted to do it again, at least I would have experienced that kind of unique atmosphere.  Then enter Abingdon for a second one as a stab at a fast time.

Kind of depends what you want to get out of it though.  If you want a low-key start, Abingdon could be perfect.

Anyway, I'm entered...

I think big Trev from Handy Cross won Abingdon one year, I seem to recall first place got disqualified for something relating to his entry! That must be gutting!

Must be amazing to win a marathon, all that time with that stressy feeling of leading. That feeling is adrenaline soaked over 5k in some bootleg race, let alone over 26.2big ones!

rest day today, nice little break, because yesterday's run was over by 8.30am!

I won a half marathon once where I dumped the rest of the field inside 400m. A stress free run until I realised I was tying up and being hunted down. A last mile involving some tactical surges (every time I went out of sight, I put the boot in for a few yards) let me get away with it. 

That's the thing with the longer races. If you escape at level effort then its unlikely you will get caught. Unless of course you slow right down.

Sometimes even slowing down doesn't matter. 

On one edition of the Harrow marathon I had got myself into fourth place when; at around half way, a sore ankle started to get on my nerves. So I stopped and had a stretch while waiting for the next runner to appear. But when there was no sign, I carried on jogging down the course for the reason I lived at the 17 mile point.

I ran along easy the whole way there and still I wasn't caught. Must have had quite a lead on 5th for that to happen.

Worst example of getting caught I reckoned happened at the Luton Marathon one year. Its a three lap course and two guys raced each other all the way until one of them jacked it in after two laps. The remaining runner had the horrible experience of being nailed in the final mile by a runner who was at one point over a mile behind. Ouch!

That's gotta hurt! Luton is bad enough on that final lap!

Stevie G . wrote (see)

I think big Trev from Handy Cross won Abingdon one year, I seem to recall first place got disqualified for something relating to his entry! That must be gutting!

Must be amazing to win a marathon, all that time with that stressy feeling of leading. That feeling is adrenaline soaked over 5k in some bootleg race, let alone over 26.2big ones!

rest day today, nice little break, because yesterday's run was over by 8.30am!

he did, that was the year I did Abingdon. The 'winner' was DQ'd as he was running on a mate's number and had turned up at the last minute. he had won it before though.

If you're a front runner type, you have to be a clown to not make sure the admin is correct. Especially as a marathon isn't going to be a warm up event for something unless he was some mad Ultra runner.

Ric, always good to hear a tale or 2. One of my 3 bootleg race wins was a 5k somewhere in Berkshire where a 10k was also on.

Before the race, I heard the local press interviewing the previous year's winner, some teen. Apparently it was a given he'd win, and in a course record!

400metres in, round the field the race started on, I heard his chump of a dad shout "got it in the bag son", even though we were level and he'd have no idea who I was.

Long story short, me first, him 4th or 5th (i forget!) miles behind!

And a little reminder to  the lad to never presume anything, especially as you have no idea who is in the field!

Reminds me of one of the young lads in Phil's club at the Wooburn 10k once. "I'll come 2nd depending on how Will runs" he told me....ie 2nd at worst.

Result? 7th or so.

SG, arrogance is the one attribute that doesn't lend itself to competitive running. I see it with kids when schools first start holding XC races or anything beyond a sprint.

When my lad first went to his secondary school, he and his friend (trained distance  club runners) both knew about the 'road run'. It's 2km of footpaths with a big hill to get over in the middle.

He told me that on the start line the big mouthy kids; especially one, were telling anyone within earshot how they were going to be handing out a beating to the rest.

My lad said nothing.

Whereas 'motormouth' assumed he was going to beat everyone else. My lad and his mate knew otherwise.

Well they were 1st & 2nd by some distance. It didn't go down well. 

 Ah that was another, infamous win!

I see that twitter abuse guy at races, and he's always very squirmy. I'm always really polite though, which must make him even more awkward

To explain what kind of chap this guy is, a running pal told me that after coming quite high in race that this chap had won, he came over and said "you're in with the big boys"

you have to laugh

And Ric, you're bang on, certainly isn't a sport to blag in. I remember coming 13th out of about 60 in a random 4miler once. I thought i'd get higher in so small a field, but you simply never know who'll be there.That's why I take no shame in winning the occasional race.