The Middle Ground

YD great report and who does that fartypants think he is?!!   I thought the quality of the field was exceptional.  I think on the results I finished about halfway down (or more) and I usually finish every race in the top third at the very least.

Kelly spot on. Hopefully it'll pay off somewhere down the line for both of us.  I ditched my 14 at 10 yesterday!

Nice report (and race) YD

Speedwork in the morning is a necessity. The only other way of fitting it into the week would be to sacrifice a club run, which I don't really want to do (speedwork sessions in the mornign are hard, but so much easier mentally than a 7 mile plod round the pavements of Manchester!) I have noticed that I hit faster paces if I do train in the afternoon, and so try to not get too downheartened if I'm not running as fast as I should.

That said, following this morning's run I've still got a lot of work to do (starting with losing over a stone). I'm still hoping for Duck's consistent and uninterrupted training, and if I can lose the weight alongside it I should be flying by the time the fast Greater Manchester 10ks approach in the spring.

Stevie – Haha the joys of cross country eh  . The 5 miler was a 10 second PB for me (official time now 29.52) . Though I’ve only run 5 miles once before and had a bit of an off day that time.  

Minni – This shorter distance stuff will be doing you good. Nice to record a PB as well, even if it had to be one!

Kelly – Congrats on the PB. No doubt you’ll be cracking out that pace for halfs again before you know it.

Phil – Nice team result there and well battled through with the cold.

YD –You had a stormer and I enjoyed the report. That must be your best ever pound for pound performance?

I'm looking forward to cracking on with the miles again this week. Though a bout of insomnia in the last couple of days means total sleep since Friday is about 4 hours . Goal for tonight’s session is to avoid falling asleep as in run!

Mr V – yes, its my best PB in relation to all the others, highest WAVA etc.
Could be interpretation, but I use the term pound for pound to compare the performance to current fitness levels. Saturday was a good run but others have surpassed it based on where I was at the time IMO.
The Thirsk 10 in 2011, Abbey Dash 2011 and my 17:32 Hull parkrun back in April (PB at the time) spring to mind as races where I dragged everything out of myself on the day.
Good luck keeping awake!

Minni – agreed it was a really strong field, I would have thought that if I put in a similar performance down my way in a similar scale race I would be looking at top 15 maybe top 10, where I was 27th on Sat and there were loads of runners close by just behind. There seemed to be lots of younger runners about, plenty under 23s and University running club types, that helped with the quality I think. Good to see.

I understand the rationale CB, still impressive you get it done! Good luck with the consistent consistency, dropping the pounds will help.

Great racing there YD nice to see you back on form after a bout of illnesses! don't forget to update the wava table too

I'm back on the training horse with gusto this week, one session, one race and a long run alongside lots of easy running. Feeling pretty sharp at the moment so definitely ready to take the mileage up a small notch and see how that goes down.

We are going to be looking at intense sessions but with one eye on scrapping them if they become too tough so tomorrow is 4 x 1200m @ 5k pace with 120secs recovery between each rep. Should be interesting. Although I hd my paces revised after gosport I have been hitting them in training over the last few months and was expecting a revision, so nothing too terrifying...

Afternoon everyone. Very busy atm so not really much time to post now or for the next few days. Good racing from everyone at the weekend, those at Gosforth, parkrun and XC. Seen times but only skimmed over race reports. 

Been training as well as I can do, acceleration work is gradually improving & the general runs are solid too. Decided on the 4/15 for the indoors (no way I am doing all 3 Josh, I want to be able to walk afterwards) and there's XC the day after so should be a fun weekend. 

Fetch mile race this weekend, will probably be a TT but I think sub-5 is doable if I don't muck up pacing. 

Probably won't be posting until Thursday at the earliest, so training & recovery vibes until then. 

YD, nice racing. Your recent improvements have been quite impressive.

Duck, sub-5 is definitely doable for you.

Training is going horribly for me. Something seems to be seriously wrong: an HR of 135 is resulting in a pace of 10:30/mile compared to 8:00/mile for the same HR back in August. I could grudgingly accept that it is a lingering virus if I could actually go out and do some running without my knee causing me constant problems. Oh and today my achilles has decided to cause me pain as well. This is all despite hardly any mileage. I hate running at the moment and feel like just packing it in altogether - it is after all supposed to be fun and I haven't really enjoyed it since August.

A good call Duck

Sorry to hear that Simon, not sure if I have any advice to offer, chin up

A hard session, a race, a long run, plenty easy mileage and a runner enjoying herself, sounds like a recipe for success Curly!

As for WAVA, I have jumped up a spot!

MIDDLE GROUND WAVA LEAGUE (August-November)

Calculator here: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

87.45% RobT 5K, (XX:XX, August)
84.00% PhilPub (5K, 16:15, August)
82.20% PRF (HM, 1:18:41, September)
82.01% Hilly (10K, 40:55, November)
81.43% BR (5K, 17:01, August)

78.83% Simon (4'26.73, August)
78.02% Duck (800m, 2'09.65, August)
77.71% SG, (10M, 57:09, October)
77.41% Wardi (5k, 19:51, October)
76.52% YD  (5M, 28.20, November)
76.18% Ratzer (200m, 27.55, August)
73.52% Dr.Dan (10K, 40:27, November)
70.78% Curly (5M, 34:12, September)

Out of date:
Dash
Minni
CB
79.15% forever (5K, 20:41, July)
72.88% Mr V (5K, 17:42, July)
70.17% YoungPup (5k, 19:36, July)
68.70% Darola (5K, 20:48, July)


To match my WAVA on Sunday I need to run 58.28, that’s double Saturdays distance for 11 seconds per mile slower, very tough, unlikely, but not out of the question. To move up a spot on the WAVA table I need to run a 57.41, that’s only a 6 seconds per mile slowdown over double the distance. I think you can rest easy Wardi

Simon – Have you been to the docs and had blood tests etc? Two months ago I couldn’t even run 4 miles without walk breaks and now I’m reasonably close to previous fitness levels. So things can change for the better pretty quickly. Hope things improve for you soon.

Duck – Busy is good. I reckon you’ll nail sub 5 if you get good conditions.

Curly – You seem in top form right now. Great to see.

YD – Yes I know that feeling. Very good sign to run that time without feeling you’ve had a go to the well type effort.

My Saturday effort sees a 1.5% fall from my last wava rating. But given I’d have struggled to hit a 50 wava 2 months ago I’m pretty happy with it! Going to be an interesting run in these monsoon conditions tonight....

MIDDLE GROUND WAVA LEAGUE (August-November)

Calculator here: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

87.45% RobT 5K, (XX:XX, August)
84.00% PhilPub (5K, 16:15, August)
82.20% PRF (HM, 1:18:41, September)
82.01% Hilly (10K, 40:55, November)
81.43% BR (5K, 17:01, August)

78.83% Simon (4'26.73, August)
78.02% Duck (800m, 2'09.65, August)
77.71% SG, (10M, 57:09, October)
77.41% Wardi (5k, 19:51, October)
76.52% YD  (5M, 28.20, November)
76.18% Ratzer (200m, 27.55, August)
73.52% Dr.Dan (10K, 40:27, November)
71.43% MrV (5M 29.52 November)
70.78% Curly (5M, 34:12, September)

Out of date:
Dash
Minni
CB
79.15% forever (5K, 20:41, July)
70.17% YoungPup (5k, 19:36, July)
68.70% Darola (5K, 20:48, July)

I'm still at the bottom of the table though eh... got a way to go before I start getting decent, but its looking promising at the moment!

simon I do wonder whether you are doing it the wrong way around by going out and training hard when you cant train easy... could explain why you are still suffering post virus. Back to basics for a while perhaps?

Duck hope you run well at the mile! Good luck for sub 5

Mr V we hve just light rain at the moment, but one of our routes is flooded for the foreseeable future Its my favourite too and the way around is dull. Trouble with living by so many motorways and railway lines is we are quite restricted where we can cross them which means boring routes in general. The river is out of the question at the moment as its too flooded and too dark! I do like training in the winter, but am going to have to scout out some more routes for long runs I think... there are only so many laps of Bushy Park I can do

Hi everyone. Some good very enjoyable/motivating race reports so well done all. 

Simon - hope things pick up with the training soon....amazing how both high and low it can make you feel.

Alehouse - great to hear the positivity and well done on the walking improvements! 

And there was me feeling sorry for myself about having a common cold the other weekend...

Last week (Monday to Sunday) ended up in a total of around 28.5 miles. Generally, I felt a lot better after catching a cold last week as mentioned previously and can confidently say that I have noticed improvements in my running form this week. Either that or my body has just had one of those better weeks!

Last week following a tempo session on the treadmill on Tuesday (yes I bizarrely enjoy it ) incorporated the following;

An undulating/hilly fairly easy 6 mile run through Winchester in an average of 8:20 m/m pace.

No running Thursday night....then Friday just a 3 mile steady jog around my local area in Gosport...in an average of 7:23 m/m. I was very pleased at this as I had a fair few gears left and because I felt that my legs were heavy in the morning...but this clearly wasn't the case. I felt 'locked' into a very comfortable rhythm which I felt I could have sustained for quite a few more miles....

Spent the weekend in South Wales catching up with family and ran just over 5 miles Saturday evening after missing out doing the Cardiff park run first thing (not enough sleep in the end to justify it)...again I tried to not look at my watch and surprised myself with the effort levels I was putting in with the following mile splits...7:24, 7:34, 8:35 (incorpating a large hill), 7:32 and 6:50 for the last mile back (decided to shift an extra gear). Ok, nothing spectacular about these mile splits admittedly but for the effort levels I was putting in, I was again pleasently surprised at these. I have to admit I love running in very wet conditions so perhaps there was a phsycological reason too why I enjoyed this run so much. 

Yesterday I ran 8.5 miles with a friend up near Treharris/Nelson in South Wales who rides a standardbred horse (which make very good running partners). I was able to catch her up whilst my she galloped off on the uphills whilst she had to take it easy on the downhills...more of an enjoyable run/early morning run more than anything at a very slow pace/a fair few stops...but there were some very steep valleys to contend with along the route back after the downward decent. Was hoping to go a bit further but will aim to try and incorporate a long run at some stage this week.

Have a good week training everyone. 

YD.. I'm racing the Edwinstowe Trail XC this Sunday (Sherwood Forest).  Assuming it will be part quagmire I don't think I will be improving my WAVA on the day!  Cracking run from you though by the look of that picture you were well and truly errr, trumped in the final stages!  Pleased to note good outings from Mr Viper, Minni & Kelly too.

Good to see PRF out of bimbling mode, nice Parkrun!

Well dones to Stevie & Curly for fine XC efforts.

Congrats to Hilly & YP on very long runs.

Simon.. I had a virus back in April/May which went on for weeks.  It was like driving with the brakes on.  The body usually kicks them out sooner or later but I can identify with your experience.  Good luck with it.

Slightly below par Parkrun from me on Saturday, 20:28 at York.  The old legs just didn't want to work in 1 degree temps & 30m visibility.  Not too crestfallen, will just have another go in a couple of weeks.

15.4m around the country lanes yesterday, I saw water where I've never seen water before!  Got wet feet from road flooding about 4 times, glad to get home and hosed down!  Still, I set off to do about 12-13 but enjoyed it in a way so added a couple of loops on.

MIDDLE GROUND WAVA LEAGUE (August-November)

Calculator here: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

87.45% RobT 5K, (XX:XX, August)
84.00% PhilPub (5K, 16:15, August)
82.20% PRF (HM, 1:18:41, September)
82.01% Hilly (10K, 40:55, November)
81.43% BR (5K, 17:01, August)

78.83% Simon (4'26.73, August)
78.02% Duck (800m, 2'09.65, August)
77.71% SG, (10M, 57:09, October)
77.41% Wardi (5k, 19:51, October)
76.52% YD  (5M, 28.20, November)
76.18% Ratzer (200m, 27.55, August)
73.52% Dr.Dan (10K, 40:27, November)
72:09% Minni (5m 35:11, November)
71.43% MrV (5M 29.52 November)
70.78% Curly (5M, 34:12, September)

Out of date:
Dash
CB
79.15% forever (5K, 20:41, July)
70.17% YoungPup (5k, 19:36, July)
68.70% Darola (5K, 20:48, July)

I know forever has opted out the forums but she does occasionally drop into the marathon one and a couple of weeks ago she ran a sneaky sub 3:15 marathon.

blimey well done to Forever!!!

WJH shame to miss Cardiff parkrun - no hills there Good training from you though!

Wardi I know you said you've struggled with cold in the past so it could well be one of those things, still I think its progress to consider 20:28 not that good now.

Nice wava Minni

I'm with Simon

Simon - it does sound exactly like what I had!  Mine started in July and went on until Oct!  I had exactly the same where I went out for a run, but couldn't get a pace above about 12mm.  It was awful and I really thought I was seriously ill at one point!  Went to doctors for blood test, which came back okay then was referred for a brain scan.  All I can say is that eventually it will all start to feel easier again, but if it's the virus I had, it's months not weeks!  I too suffered with different parts of my legs, which as you know then resulted in a full leg injury.  Hope you start to feel some relief soon!

Wardi - we too enjoyed splahing through some floods yesterday, although PRF at one point did question going through - by answer was 'don't be a wuss' as I waded through

Just an easy 5 miles this eve in constant rain, but no floods this time.

Sounds like a good session tomorrow Curly. You're only at the bottom of the table until I do a race!

Simon there's not much advice I can offer, but I hope it picks up soon. Didn't Duck have a wobble last summer and want to give up? Maybe he can offer some advice...

Looking forward to a gentle double tomorrow. Analysing today's session tells me that I went 7s/mile faster than the same session 2 weeks ago, so there's progress, and there's no problem with my legs afterwards, so my speed should return with aerobic fitness and weight loss. No worries then - I can manage both of those.

YD there's some cracking photos of you on HERE