Sunday 17th March 2013

Morning!

Happy birthday Wabo, and happy St. Patrick's Day to the rest of you (and where's Paddy by the way?). Am I right, Wabo, this is a significant one in running terms?!

Lyrics: You know it doesn't make much sense
There ought to be a law against

You have all sung the chorus at some time!

What: a decent walk, and then drive to East Mids to see mum...weather permitting
Why: heavy snow at the moment!

Morning

Happy birthday Wab

What: Kassel testlauf
Why: it has a useful pacing group so good for a test half before the real thing!
Last hard: sleeping last night
Lyrics: nope

Happy St Patrick's day

Morning.

Yesterday's lyrics - Flesh and Bone by The Killers.

Happy Birthday Wabo and St Paddy's day those that celebrate.

Great to hear that you had such a good run Stickless.

Hope you have a confidence giving run today emzap.

Run well those racing today.

What:            Ashby 20
Why:             I need to know if I can get back to it or not
Last hard:      getting better has been hard
Last rest:       15/3

Lyrics - no.

Morning

Yes to the lyrics!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all Celtic friends!

Best of luck to LMH and Emzap, neither race sounds particularly easy.

What: Heptonstall Fell Race (15 mile, 1000 metre ascent)

Why: Got some fell shoes, joined a fell club, why not?

Last hard: 10/3 (Cambridge Half)

Last rest: much of the week since.

With the day that's in it I decided to pop in, say hello and catch up a small bit. Its gas actually, other that a few eejits getting pi55ed up and causing trouble St Patrick's day is probably low key enough in this lovely place we calll home. The parades are good for the kids and of course I will go in and see little miss Paddy walking up the Street in her Guides uniform. After that its home for sausages and dinner later with a glass on wine. It's mrs Paddy's birthday tomorrow so i must perform my duties. Its a bank holiday tomorrow (as St Pats is on the weekend) too so it'll be good to be off.

First thing I see is that LMH is running the Ashby 20 today. One of my favourite races when I lived in those parts. Huge luck LMH.

Emzap is doing something called "Kassel testlauf" I must do some research.

Ale - mind the Snow. How's th body - I must research progress there too.

I will read back to catch up on others.

I've been AWOl as i've been getting my body back together. It seems like for the first time in six or so months its working again. Generally I have been training with runing taking a serious enforced backbench role. That broken young cow has caused seriousn trouble around here. Throw in a full three weeks with no training whatsoever due to something called "manflu" and things got v bad!! 

However, with serious work by pain man, a programme of Gym work and patience seems to have got me back in some sort of action.

You'll see that the title URM simply doesnt fit any more as i am obviously stopable. the T is for triathlon. Yeah the dark side, which has been calling for a while has entered the room - it's the only way that I can stop myself running big miles and destroying myself again.

The current state is that the swimming is great, the biking coming on and the running is reborn.

I will run a few traces alright and see how things progress, but the target for the year is a few Tri's. First target Race is 6 July. (the body state tells me I wont be ready until then. Anyway its great to be training!!

Good luck all. May the Raod rise to meet you. May you be in Heaven before the devil knows your dead.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh

3 mile run

4k swim

Strenght

Morning Paddy! Great to see you!

LMH: I just hope that Ashby doesn't take too much out of you.

Emzap: enjoy! And practice talking in German on the way round!

7D: I think it is you that has the toughest race!

Wabo happy birthday!

Paddy - great to see you!  Enjoy triing.

7D - that will be something different from last week then!  Enjoy.

Me? nothing.  Planned that way, give legs the chance to pull themselves together before stairs tomorrow.

Go well racers all, and the rest as well, of course.

Happy Birthday Wabo!  Welcome back Paddy.

Some tough races on the go today, good luck to all, looking forward to the reports later.

12 miles easy for me this morning.  Left the house at 7:05am in a blizzard so the first miles were hard and it was too early to really get going.  Turned after 6 miles in about 48:30 and took another mile to properly get going.  It was great coming home with the wind at my back and my last 5 miles took just less than 37:30.  

Along with my 10 yesterday, I think this might be my first ever time doing double figures on consecutive days, and my legs are certainly feeling it.

Big day at work today, the kids are having a parade and we welcome all the 'old Victorians' back to watch.  I'll maybe try and get a picture or two to post later - the students are quite impressive in their ceremonial uniforms.

Happy running to all!

Hello again

7D that race sounds tough!

So, the testlauf...interesting shall we say.  After not much sleep, and waking up with a similar feeling to having a golf ball in my throat I managed to find the start (challenge 1 complete!).So the start had no toilets, which was a bit of a pain, but I did manage to find the 2 hour pacing group and started with them.  We had a police escort with flashing lights the whole way round.  As it was a test run, the roads hadn't been closed and I think that without the police, the route would have been tricky.

Was way too hot to start (clearly practising for the real thing where it'll be more like 24C ,not 2C!), and km 1-5 were really hard going.  Settled in after that, took my 1st gel at km 8 when the blizzard started.  The group was going just above the 2 hour pace, so was feeling confident once the gel had kicked in.  Had to stop to tie my shoe and ended up at the back of the group, the back cyclist said "only 100 m to the water stop" it appeared 1 and a bit km later!  It was nice to have a proper drink (I had water with me, but only a bit) but was a bit surprised when the water they gave us was fizzy!  Anyway, km 11-15 were basically uphill!  Took my 2nd gel at 15km and managed to keep a really good pace till 17km where they realised we were going faster than 2 hour pace so we slowed down.

Finished in exactly 2 hours, so the perfect confidence boost.  Although Cape Town will be hilly, it shouldn't be snowing heavily and I should be feeling healthier and more rested going into it.

As for the route, it was incredibly boring and through industrial estates.  It at least made my decision for weather the sign up for the real thing!

Ale my ability to speak German was great at the start.  However, someone spoke to me after about 10km and I couldn't make head or tail of what he said...happened again at 18km...

Paddy great to see you again, stick around

Happy running

Hi All

Wabo: Happy B'day

Paddy: Welcome to the dark side

Stickless: Nice run

Emzap: Lost me there, what were you doing?

What: 3.5 hours on the bike in the driven sand
Why: Jogle
Last Hard: Friday I guess
Last Rest: 1st March

Lyrics: No

Hey : )

Only recently started running again after a looong gap. The Ashby is going past my house and is hugely inspiring, even in the snow.

Planning to do Race for Life as a gentle-in in July - any training tips gratefully received!

What: not a lot
Why: 1. it's P***ing down. 2. Olecranon bursitis 3. CBA
Lat hard: Thursday
Last rest: Wednesday
Lyrics: no

Hope the Ashby 20 is going/has gone well LM.H
emzap - strange concept this testlauf but well done

well done getting out the door this morning donaldo

7D Heptonstall? sounds vaguely familiar from pennine days

hiya
Ale - well done on a mission accomplished!
Stickless - doffs cap on the double digit outing!
Wabo - (if you're still sober), well done on the speedy 20miler and hope you're having a great birthday
Paddy good to see you, best of luck with theTris.
7D, LmH - let us know how you got on..
emz - nicely done, ditto DD in the saddle

me - a so so Fleet Half. I normally run my best times here mid training for VLM, so wasn't too confident of a hugely fast time with a lack of long runs in the legs. even so , went off aiming for 7.15s and see how that would pan out: finished in 1.35.24 (watch) so should be just under 1h35 with the chip. Splits 7.04/6.58/7.02/7.23/7.02/7.12/7.19/7.20/7.33/7.30/7.15/7.19/7.01/.58, so a bit too quick to start, took a breather up to 10 miles, but felt quite strong on the closing miles. Reasonably pleased with that. 
last hard - getting dry in the finish area
last rest - friday

enjoy whats left of the weekend!

Well done Dustin and emzap, good running.  

Hi and welcome jellibean!

Here is my school on parade this morning - a bit damp but very impressive none-the-less

Welcome Jellibean and if you were out supporting us in that weather - thank you very much. Top tip - little, often and slower than you think. The daily training thread is a good place to hang around for tips, support and motivation.

Great to see you Paddy and glad you're back at it - what distances are you doing this year? Going for the full?

7d - sounds like you have the toughest race to me.

emzap - perfect pacing run. You'll also have some more training before Cape Town and a nice taper.

Dustin - sounds like a good place to be not off the back of marathon training.

Hope the big day at school goes as well as the run donaldo.

Me too Alehouse.

DD - hope you bring the sun back with you!

OH - hope it soon clears up.

So - Ashby 20. Well my peak flow is still only around 70% of my best but that's currently hampered by the pulled muscles in my back, RHR is coming down and coughing is much less. Last day of antibiotics and steroids today too. Didn't quite manage to achieve what I set out to do - which was to run Ashby at around PMP plus 30 seconds (rather than faster than MP which is what happened last year). First 10 miles I ran with a friend, keeping an eye on my HRM and trying to rein myself in - of course legs are fresh, it's just that the lungs can't keep up. Really wasn't expecting the heavy rain and snow that we had for most of the race and was glad that I'd worn a long sleeve HH under my club vest (as a psychological trick to stop myself from 'racing'). Lost my friend just after 10 miles when his hip flexors started giving him gyp and the HRM shortly thereafter when it started chafing (have the new Garmin soft strap and it seems worse than the old one, think I'll have to swap back). Then it was a question of trying not to pick the pace up to much as I was getting cold and bored and couldn't find anyone to chat with. Was almost entirely catching and overtaking people between 10 and 16.5 miles where a ill placed sip of water brought on a coughing fit that required my inhaler to control it. Pretty frustrated with this and all the people streaming past (despite the fact that I wasn't racing!) and only lost around 30 seconds or so I should think. Was able to resume running straight away though had to be a little more careful about controlling my breathing and not starting to cough again. Consciously didn't raise my pace for the finish (which would have been quite difficult anyway - as the announcer said 'it's like the trenches out there - as the last 300m or so are on grass) and managed to avoid a post race asthma attack. Quite please to come in at 2.51.42 with legs that would have bimbled forever at that pace (ok, so it may not feel like that at 23 miles at VLM). Took ages to warm up but we're all home and fed and I'm about to head for a soak in the bath. Will see how I feel tomorrow but am ready to take a rest day if I'm not feeling great. In fact I guess it would probably be sensible to take a rest day anyway wouldn't it? We'll see  Off to the Indian for dinner tonight and will fill the gap watching the cycling. It's what Sundays should be like!

Well done LMH on Ashby 20

7D great running well done

Dustin - Good Fleet Half

Happy Birthday Wabo

Great to see you posting and Training Paddy

Happy St Patricks day

What - 2 runs as planned 18m (with 14-17m at MP) then 4.25m easy on the treadmill
Why - Mara Trg and Injury prevention (as too many of the big long runs cause issues with my back - so someone advised that I break it up and go long and then add a bit on later in the day.... Its seems to be working so far as have done 2 over 20m runs and 2 lots of combined runs over 20m as well, plus lots of 16/17 m runs.
Last Hard - trying to hit mp during todays run
Last Rest - Thurs

Take care

Owch. Back from Heptonstall. Will keep it brief, only to say that it was the hardest thing I've ever done in any discipline, be it physical, mental, emotional, personal, whatever. Really glad that I did it though I found it tough going after 9 miles (set out at a nice steady pace, treated the day as a training run more-or-less) and the final two climbs and descents have shredded my legs to bits. Injury free but I'm taking a week off after that. Anyway, it took me a few seconds over three hours and I finished solidly mid-pack. Perhaps fells, at least the longer/steeper races aren't for me to be honest though I do enjoy the camraderie aspect of it. Most the chaps who ran did the 32 mile Haworth Hobble last week, I'm just a comparitive amateur.

Good effort LMH, you've had it tough as of late but I'm sure you'll cane VLM. I always have coughing fits if I mess up my water intake - it just won't go in unless I'm walking!

Dustin - good that you had something for the final few miles, well done.

well toughed out LmH,sounds well executed!
7D top marks for getting it done. I must admit the older I get the more I think I prefer that sort of race, the challenge in the getting round rather than chasing the time..
welcome JB

Well done 7D, LMH, Dustin.
Great pic don
OH last year I did the test run for the Cambourne 10 km too, it's an odd concept, but a good way to see how you're going at the distance.
DD so it was a test run.  They hold them to see if the course is suitable for the race, with a fewer number of people than are actually planning on doing the actual race.  YOu can't "race" it, as you have to stay within 1 of 3 pacing groups, but like I say, it's good to find out if you are actually ok over the distance, with the added motivation of being in a group.  The front of my 2 hour group probably finished in 1:58, and the back in 2:01 or something.

Just back from the German version of a Paddy's day parade.  It was hilarious. A Carribean inspired bagpipe band playing mostly Scottish music with a back beat from the regae style drums.  Fantastic!  Off to the English Pub soon for the once yearly pint of Guiness.  Think I can actually stomach it today!  The Irish pub is too full after the parade to try and get in there!

Sounds like a well deserved week off 7d!

Thanks Dustin. Was quite surprised to realise that despite the coughing fit I managed an almost even paced two halves of the race. Not an easy one to run even paced mile on mile due to the terrain but to have paced the whole thing evenly is good. Despite not racing - and being loads slower than last year I was 19th out of 95 in my age group.

Still not coughing