Moraghan Training - Stevie G

 nice race!

Predictions? How about quicker than at Wargrave last year but lower down the field...that'd be weird!

No, this year I'll be doing a proper 2.5 to 3 mile warm up before the races along with a gentle 4miler at lunchtimes. Last year I took half days, including a nap (!), and my warm up pretty much consisted of a token 100metre pootle and a few pit stops!

No wonder the first mile or so felt so darn hard.

sunday morn...return to the 14mile epic runs.

Done at 7am in 1hr 50...which is spot on in the easy pace zone.  First 2 miles were through some undulating woods and there was another climb later on..just to make it a little bit more taxing

Monday, 4m easy lunch, 6mile including 5x75m strides. Spread these out through the run, a couple done when I saw someone I knew in the distance!

 5k tomorrow evening, first one of the series is always the best attended, so we'll see what I'm up to.

Did 17:37 there last year which was a fair old break through at the time, so will be interesting.

It's all road, but a little undulating, first half a little downwards, second half a little up. Think there's a slight downhill last couple of hundred metres to whip up a good finish.

How did you do time wise SG? It was good to put a face to the name, (you thought i was a woman!). If you are doing Burnham in two weeks it would be good to have a chat.

Not a great time for me, 19:13, glad thats our 5k done now, had all of a 400m warm up after car park duty. All good though.

Well Mr M you got it pretty much on the button!

Did 17:22/23 pending the exact results...if it's 1722 that'll be a 1 second pb...but if not (and we know they normally come out slower than we hope for), it'll still be a 14second improvement on last year at this 5k.

 Tiptoed through the 4m at lunch at the slow end of easy pace, but made sure I got the 2.5m warm up in and some strides before hand...bit dry lipped but probably adrenaline/nerves etc.

 Splits

3:14, 3:23, 3:29, 3:47, 3:30  are the rounded figures and that comes out as 17:23...but I'm still hoping for 17:22

Came 4th in the race out of 250ish...the front 3 were a good 15-20sec ahead, so was never racing them, and the runners behind were a good 10-20 behind me...so couldn't use anyone to push things.

This was no pb course and ks 4 and 5 were slowed by a bit of a hill on each, but as usual I shot out of the blocks! Was working hard but felt good.

Was quite pleased to beat by a good margin someone I've run against in my last 4 road races now ! Honours are even really as he beat me over 5miles, but I've beaten him over 10k and now 5k! He's done a 35:30 10k not too long ago, so on a flat course on the right day who knows.Same for 5ks really...a flat one on road (ie none of this series) I'd like to think I'd be sniffing low low 17s.

ps Mee Meep...as per my above waffle!

Good to meet a fellow forumite, even if it was brief. As per usual my clubmates wanted a piece of me, so we'll chat at Burnham for sure. I think that one is faster than Wargrave as the hills are shorter and sharper, and there always seem a good stack of downs!

Treat yourself to a good warm up for the next one...I'm finally realising the benefits!

That's a decent result well done - especially as you were racing on your own.  Did you get anything for 4th place?

What's the story on the upcoming schedule?  Including tonight you have 7 5k's and one half marathon between now and the 20th July.  Not only that you've already had two races this month already.

As far as I'm concerned that is a fairly good way of guaranteeing a plateau.  I can see you hammering each race coming away with a couple of seconds improvement each time.  We need some time to get some solid training in so we arrive at the races fully trained and ready to race hard.  You can only go deep into the well so many times. 

To get your best results you need to rationalise this, it's not a smart approach.

Local 5k series to be honest, so decent standard, but no awards as such.

Agree on the schedule, it's just my club have a championship which involves the 5  5ks including tonights, and there need to be a number of road races, so I've gone for the short options of 5ks at Chiltern Chase and Sam.

Wycombe also has a 10k on the same time as the half...so can always be reduced.

I think this will be my last year doing the championship which will then free my whole year up to periodise better.

Therefore, how about I train hard in between these races, and then after the Wycombe race, I'll allocate a good 2-3months just to the training?

If your objective is to race all of the races as best you can that's fine - but it's most likely at the expense of getting the best time possible over that period.  As long as you understand that and still want to do that series we can plan accordingly.

The 5 races of the 5k series (one chalked off) are pretty much ones I have to notch off, as I want one last year of winning all 5 trophies at my club! However, I appreciate that this is a smaller success in the scheme of things, compared to getting faster.

Therefore, from July onwards I'll be 100% up for getting the best results  via hard training and specially picked races to work to.

The Chiltern Chase is more a multi terrain number, so is a bit different to these 5 5ks, and the Sam 5k I won last year...so alterior motive on that one

However, the Sam 5k and Wycombe half can be negotiable...in that I don't have to do the Sam 5k (unlike the other 6) and Wycombe can be downgraded to a 10k if that's better?

Let's drop the Sam 5k then as it's 3 days before one of the 5k's in the series.  It's a small victory for me, but I'll take what I can get!

Wycombe race is entriely up to you, but suspect the 10k would be a better reflection of your recent training.

Fair enough, I'll drop the Sam race, for one thing hopefully the Chiltern Chase will be my pot hunt this year

Will get through the next few week's of training and the 5ks and judge Wycombe in due course...if we return to the viciously sweltering summers when I last ran the half, it would make sense to do the 10k!

it's a course that has a 1mile hill on both races, so either way isn't a pb job! But is about 200metres from my door!

time from yesterday confirmed as 17:22 a pb by 1second! And out of 299 in the end.

29seconds off 3rd...and 16seconds ahead of 5th. 3 people broke 17, when last whole series only a couple broke 17 in total!

Anyway...that's pbs at the 5 distances 5k, 5m, 10k, 10m and 1/2m all wrapped up by May.

Of course that's not enough though...so on we go...

Moraghan, Stevie.

 Been reading this thread a bit. Quite an interesting one really. Just curious as to why SG shouldn't be doing all the 5ks etc. I understand he can't expect optimal performance using this approach but in term's of preparing for races later is this still a bad thing?

 I ask because I am looking at races a fair few mid-week races in prep for a race later in the year, but just look to absorb them in my general training cycles?

Stevie, I saw you at Marlow 5, was going to come say hi, but looked like you were off to do something in the buses.... I based in Maidenhead, if you ever fancy a light jog.

Blimey I'm starting to get recognised, first by Mee Meep now you

You should have said hello... I'd have held off on my "key race preparation"!

I don't suppose you do 14miler runs at 7am on sundays do you!

 27:41 for 5miles, that's very nice. I'm over a min slower at the moment, but hopefully on the up...

I'm a little tied by my club's schedule at the moment but after the summer I will start focusing more on target races, and key training leading upto them.

I'm undertaking a monumental change in approach, but we're only 6 weeks into the training and in the 4 road races I've done in that period I've set 4pbs at the 4 distances I've run.

A decent part of that is because I was on a natural imrpovement anyway, so with a few more months of this quality schedule should be getting faster soon. Once the summer schedule is over I'm prepared as Moraghan advises to completely focus on training hard for 2-3months without racing. 

SG I think you will get massive improvements, I have been using a much more structured training approach for the last 8months now and my improvement (particularly over marathon, which is my focus) has been massive. A half-hour improvements, and that was a little dissapointing. I was slightly over optiminstic with my predicted time, meaning I suffered majorly...

 I will be doing long runs most weekends (at about 7min/mile pace) but am currently in process of starting work down in bristol which wil disrupt my routine. Once I'm settled into my routine, I'll be more than "happy" to join for a few runs.  

In the meantime I will continue to enjoy reading/stalking your progress.

Off that 5miler pb, you must be knocking on the door of 2:45 at least?

Here's hoping to the improvement. The half at Wokingham in Feb gave confidence that all the lower distances would drop next time out which has happened. Have definitely changed from thinking a mid 37min 10k was good, to thinking 36:44 for 10k can and will go down.

Have an obscene amount of desire at the moment, so the motivation is there.

Ironically am sitting here knackered today... probably because it's a .rest day...normally get a lunchtime run in which revitalises my day!

Stalk away, and feel free to add anything along the way. I'm always keen to listen to anyone who has experience of running good times.

I clocked 2h46 in Barcelona (March) but paced it very badly, I was aiming for 2h38, but in reality, I was in 2h42 shape I think, so a 1h18 half left me in a world of hurt for the second (all good fun).  My preparation was good, but I did one race which really took its toll on me in the lead up to Barcelona (check power of 10 for details, it wasn't nice), so I think next time I will have another good improvement on this.

 That's one thing I noticed when I first started on a "schedule" motivation was sky-high, it wil inevitably go down, I am now in training for my second "big race" on a schedule and do not feel as motivated as before. But am still loving the running and training which is good. I am still scared on the "tough" sessions but always come home (covered in sweat) thinking I loved it. I think this is the most important thing.

 I am particularly interested in your training because your mileage is fairly similiar to what I have been doing, although this second block will see me increase my mileage a bit.

 We raced in the Henley 10k one year, if you remember?