Sunday 18th March 2007

Rundown - if you're within 8 mins of Ramaala and 3 mins of Abyu then that might tell you you're in great shape!

Sodahead - pleased you enjoyed your comeback race.

Stickless - well done on your relay

TmR - how fast do you think you would have run on a normal day?

Imski - sounds like a good XC afternoon

V-rap - good confidence builder

East Hull 20...

As I said earlier the plan was to run 64 / 60. Huh!
I wore the HRM to get a bit of feedback as well.

Mile 1 - 6:23 (157 HR) Nice n easy
Mile 2 - 6:21 (171)
Mile 3 - 6:26 (172)
Mile 4 - 6:31 (173) - A bit windy this but feeling strong
Mile 5 - 6:25 (171) - all this is sub marathon effort so good
Mile 6 - 6:26 (171) - almost like I can run even pace and effort:-)
Mile 7 - 6:35 (171)
Mile 8 - 6:28 (173)
Mile 9 - 6:19 (174)
Mile 10 - 6:24 (177) - halfway on 64:30. Bang on target.

Now for this 6m/m last 10...

Mile 11 - 7:06 (178) I believe Wardi mentioned a little breeze:-)
Mile 12 - 6:42 (178)
Mile 13 - 6:25 (178)
Mile 14 - 6:45 (176) During this mile my hamstring cramped and I had to stop twice to stretch it out. I cursed the heavens in the desolate wastelands of the Holderness plain and wondered why a 4th East Hull 20 out of 20 was going to be miserable
Mile 15 - 6:28 (176) - Playing for pride now and not to try and be overtaken by anyone
Mile 16 - 6:24 (177) - my calf that has been causing me grief all week now is hurting bad. And the hamstring is still cramping

Question for any HR bods - would the pain in my calf and hamstring affect HR. Otherwise at that pace and HR we're looking at a 2:50 marathon at best in 5 weeks...

Mile 17 - 6:34 (178)
Mile 18 - 7:09!! (179)
Mile 19 - 7:01 (176)
Mile 20 - 6:42 (176)

+ 27 secs add on at end.

so a 64 / 67 positive split. My HR looked good but I was not running to that - I was pushing as hard as I could on the 2nd 10 and could only manage 67 mins (yes there was a bit of wind but that was disgusting).

Reasons? My legs felt not good after 14 miles
I had to can 2 runs this week down to a real weak feeling - almost wanted to sit down on the pavement.
Not been able to pass anything solid for 2 weeks - IBS?

Feel like yesterday's man at the moment.

Oh yes, just dipped under 2:12.

Not 2:04

I've just discovered I did my longest run week for several years this week... 60 miles... I blame all that sunshine... but maybe I need to start a plan and do this training a little less ad hoc?

...and Shiraz has just told me that her mileage this week was 1.65 compared with 52 miles this same week last year - proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bench sucks!

Rundown, exactly my feelings about Silverstone today - nothing learnt and no time to retest. I've looked up the leading women's times compared with their best from last year and 4 mins down seems to be average, at your sort of pace, so looks like you could have got your 71mins. As for me, BR, I wouldn't have been particlarly happy with 1:41, but bettter than 1:45. (and playing host at my aunt's 100th birthday party was more tiring than I would have like the day before a key race)

and BR, like Rundown and I have said, I don't think you can read anything into a race in as difficult weather as today, especially with your hamstring and calf problem as well. As for the HR to pace ratio, I think that is only valid in perfect weather - temperature and wind, and on a flat course. And I wondered what the effect of pain would be, when I had toothache last week.

BR - The cramps may be lack of salts etc... if you are not passing solids only liqiud (sorry to put it like that) but I find that when Im having issues like that I tend to cramp up more than I would normally.

Just a thought that may help (but am no expert)

Like my run yesterday, may not be the best, but try and take some positives out of it, IE it was 20m in the bag, forget it and move on.

Rundown - great effort.

Sodahead - your race was a great effort too, well done.

Take care

Guys, it's a well known fact that PAIN is part of the FLIGHT-FRIGHT-FIGHT stimulus. Therefore dumping a whole load of adrenaline into the system... increasing HR and BP. Voila! (It's a bit more technical than that but essentially yes, pain does increase HR).

nrg - I still wake up with back pain every day - in fact, I wake up at 4am a lot of the time in a lot of pain, and have to get up and walk around for it to stretch out. Despite that, once I get up and start moving around, it doesn't usually affect me the rest of the day. It doesn't have any impact on my running the way it used to (and I've done ALL my running for years in the Teva Protons). Yep, I still keep in touch with Pants, and stayover at his place once every couple of months.

How's things with you? Are you still doing the PoSE sessions? You'd had back pain previously yourself hadn't you?

What: Bedgrudging rest today.
Why: (not so usual) Work committments
Last hard: Yesterday
Last rest: Today

It was a double shift for me today, so it meant either a crack o' dawn run (which is not typically me, however I did try this morning to get up) or go out running now, but I think it's too late in this part of scotland anyway.

I hate rest days when there is no true physical reason, and today was one of them - if the change of work schedule wasn't so spontaneous I'd have gone out after work, earlier in the evening. :( Ho hum, normal service resumes with gusto tomorrow.