The Middle Ground

kaysdee (Kelly) wrote (see)

PRF - I think it depends where you live too. You have so many races in your area. Up here, especially for HM's, you probably have to travel

I agree.  Even though its a 5:30 start the BM is doable in a day from here.  We have 7 members in it this year.

Talking of which, I still haven't heard about my refund.....  Anyone else had any news?

Sorry tried to follow my earlier schedule post and lost it and then got distracted.

Just to say well done to:

Ratzer and Wardi on their sub 20s
Minni on her great half time
Kelly for getting back into the swing of it
PRF for going running and then not letting me beat him in a race despite saying he would run over 70mins!
Stevie and Philpub and YP for aweomse CPing

Commiserations currently to:

Hilly and BR  for calf issues
Alehouse for skin infection following operation

I have missed everyone else sorry

Just to say very pleased with 70:51 at CP right at the top end of my expectations I hate my new job and I have been to the dentist today and it seems my toothache is from clenching and grinding my teeth. Likely cause is stress Don't know what to do, running still just about holding together. Not much joy elsewhere in work and Magpie's work so thank feck for that eh

Sorry to hear about the work situation Curly. The last thing you want is for the running to be hard to fit in, and almost become a stress itself.

How do you see, or want it to pan out?

Can certainly be a hard mixture to get right between the 2 camps of 1) pay/conditons/satisfaction versus 2) quality of and time for running

I'd currently say I'm 1) decent, 2) very good.

There is the opportunity to take option 1 into good, but I'm certain it'd take 2 into just "good" territory, which at this point in time I'm not sure is worth

The problem is two fold really Stevie - this job is good money, but rubbish. I'd take something for less closer to home (the commute is long too - sometimes 2 hours each way, always 1:30)...but my field is very small. Jobs in my area dont come up often and the company is prestigous.

I think I want out of 9-5 altogether and have wanted it a while. Since I am child free I dont have the option many women have of doing the child rearing thing so I will need to find a way to make something that I enjoy pay.

The main question is how long can I hold out before I find that? I'm not sure right now

You make having a kid to look after sound some kind of easy option. Now, that'd affect the training big time

Some good solution will pop up, I'm sure.

90-120mins commute is just plain huge. That must take you to the very outskirts of London if not beyond? Or is a lot of that time waiting for connections?

Its 12-15 mins on the bike, 35-45 mins on a train, 35 mins walk plus the waiting either side! I tried the other way and it was the same but that was 15-20 mins cycle plus 75 mins on the tube

That would be alright if the job was good, but its not.

That definitely looks a mission just to get into work.

The right job/situation will come up though I'm sure. Things often right themselves, some would call it fate.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

That definitely looks a mission just to get into work.

The right job/situation will come up though I'm sure. Things often right themselves, some would call it fate.

I prefer to make my own stuff happen...trying to (exploring options you could say), but no joy yet. Need to hold out but urgh. Anyway enough moaning. To bed for me

Curly - excellent 10m there!  You must be over the moon with that time.  I changed my job recently too and its taking a bit of getting used to.  I love the job but its demanding and already I've fallen into the trap of skipped lunches, early starts and late finishes.  I also have my own business, which someone else manages for me, and a family.   I'm finding it a bit of a struggle to fit in as much running as I want at the moment but trying to chill knowing that in another month I'll have no choice but to ramp up the mileage and fit it in.

If only I could win the lottery.....

Jobs and running.  Mine don't mix.  Take this week, three days in London and High Wycombe, far away from home and both still involving a fair sized commute.  I could have run at a push, but luckily I felt good about having a few days' rest.  I could have been in Russia, and would I run there?  Well yes, if there was a treadmill free in the hotel.

What I do like about my job is that when I'm not travelling, I have the opportunity to work from home.  Then I can run doubles without guilt or concern.  Even in the office, like today, I can take a lunchtime break for a few miles and there's a shower available.  (Lucky I brought my running coat.)  And I can get home in time for any evening sessions.

But the job isn't the only constraint.  Dad's Taxi is needed most evenings, and at least one day of the weekend.

Right now my running satisfaction score is probably a 6.  Illness disrupted it a lot recently - got bloods back and no bad news, but suspected lingering virus so I have to go back for more beneedling in a couple of weeks.  Racing has been fun though, if not quite the quality I would expect without the interruptions.

Shame about your job, Curly.  Doesn't sound like yours is too much fun either, YP. But you both had fantastic results on the weekend!

Well, I'm "SM" (and unattached) at the moment ... but I'm on the BM entry list and have an email to confirm.

Meanwhile ... 10.6M for me today at 70% maxHR.

Look away now if you don't want to read a self-centred post and a further test of my patience!

Last night leg really flared up so I wasn't surprised this morning when prostate people wouldn't do the tests. Back to see sister at GPs. Was more swollen than Tuesday but less than last night. Stitches seemed clean but she took a swab for testing. Doubled the antibiotics. Temperature noal: if it had been high she was going to send me to hospital to go on a drip: hope I've not got that to look forward to!!
Thanks for your kind thoughts: I will be thinking of you all outtraining as I lie on my bed with my leg elevated, stuffing myself with painkillers chased down by anti-biotics, for the next few days!

No Sam Smith's or any other brew for a while. I'm tempted to change my forum name!

Alehouse - good grief ... hope you're up about about soon.

Alehouse.. a lad I know had an accident at work which damaged his foot & lower leg.  Keeping the wound clean was a nightmare, he got re-infected twice despite best efforts!  He's ok now so keep your chin up!  

Good news Dr Dan, looking forward to the MG thread day out.  There's about half a dozen of the sub 3 thread attending as well. 

Curly.. I do sympathise - I would never consider a job with more than a 45-50 minute commute.  The fact that you don't seem happy there just makes it worse!  Hope you can find something closer and more enjoyable!  Congrats on the 10 mile race BTW.

10.5m done this morning, a bit of blue sky for a change!  Definitely felt a bit fresher though.  If the weatherman is right the gloves will be back on from tomorrow! 

Dan - Hurrah!  (Phew!) 

alehouse - Don't change your username, there's always ale at the end of the tunnel!  All the best with recovery.

I had a kind of long, progressive tempo effort last night (14.3M incl. 9.9M tempo).  It was a Thursday after all!  Haven't used my 3.3 mile Isle of Dogs loop for a while so thought I'd do 3 laps targeting progressively higher HR.  Pace/HR for each lap came out as:
6:27/m, 152/75%max
6:12/m, 161/79%max
6:05/m, 169/83%max

Interpretation: My actual marathon race HR in the past has been 168, but leading up to the race, "MP" HR in training tends to be a few beats less.  So really I'd like to see the paces of the last two laps being closer to or quicker than 6:00/m.  It is only October though!  I think this'll be a good session to repeat periodically to see how I'm getting on.

Alehouse – Sorry to hear your current woes continue. Hope things improve soon.

Dan – Good news that you are finally in. Looking forward to a good thread meet up and hopefully a fast time!

Curly – Sounds a real pain for you. I’m very lucky I guess with a 30 minute commute.

Phil – Good session that, will be a handy one for monitoring marathon fitness over time.

10 miles last night for me with a 4 mile tempo section in pretty awful conditions. The legs felt pretty whacked in the warm up and I considered dropping the session but it turned out ok once I got going. The aim was for something between MP and HMP so was happy enough with 6.27 average for an effort level that felt reasonably comfortable. Will be interesting to see what I can do at the 4 mile club handicap on Monday. Managed 5.50 pace last time but I guess I’m a little way from that at the moment.

First cross country of the season tomorrow and snow is forecast

Don’t apologise for putting your woes up on here if it helps Alehouse, hope things improve sharply, you deserve a turn of luck

Nice mileage Wardi.

Good news Dr Dan

Phil my OCD would have made me run the extra 0.1mile!
Still a good benchmark test, I have a couple of similar benchmark routes I use for my 10 mile tempos, one flat out and back and one hilly 4 x 2.5mile loop. Like you I will sprinkle them into my Marathon plan. I find with the regular 10 milers that if you run them weekly you see improvements for 4 sessions and then it plateaus out. However, if you are just dropping them in amongst other tempo sessions you probably wont see the plateau. Anyway, I don’t think it will be long before you are seeing 6:0x/m and 5:5x/m for the last two laps.

Mr V – it reads like you are back in amongst the miles and getting in some good sessions now, good to see. Have you, or are you, still moving clubs to TBH?

Looks like I wont be racing my cross country tomorrow. Got a nasty sore throat, its painful swallowing but I don’t feel all that ill  considering, a little run down is it. Going to take it easy now, hopefully get this shifted over the weekend so I can run next week in the lead up to next weekends half. Mrs YD and Junior had it last week so I thought I had dodged the bullet, I will be extremely annoyed if it makes me miss the half

Mr V - Good session considering it nearly didn't happen.  Was a tad windy for me last night as well.  Snow??

YD - Yeah, I'd probably look to do this every 3/4 weeks or so.  Up to new year I'll do some shorter tempo efforts and some hill sessions in between, then maybe try to get Thursdays looking a bit more marathon-like as of January.  Shame about the XC, let's hope the throat isn't another lingerer!

Feck!! My race calendar is erroneous.  The Box Hill duathlon is two weeks Sunday, not three.  D'oh! So that scuppers being involved in the next Surrey League XC (which is now the day before, not the week before) and means I can only get in one more long bike ride, unless I want to practise a super-aggressive taper.  The race will last (hopefully) around 3 hours so I should be treating it like a marathon really.  Er... oops!