The Middle Ground

nice one Curly, odd distance but a nice result!

BR, that time for a park run doesn't sound too shabby to me.

Road 10k for me today. My usual 10k hard luck story, windy course meaning a 35.25 ish time, slower than I went through 10k at my last 10miler!

Nice run out though, felt fine, raced well, but just one of those days.

You know when a course has some really windy sections when you hit a still km and think, wow this is lovely!

I suppose the progression is that last summer I was really delighted with a 35.20, and now I know a 35.25ish was under par.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

I suppose the progression is that last summer I was really delighted with a 35.20, and now I know a 35.25ish was under par.

Says a lot!. Well run in windy conditions.

results out...35.24....this is the bit i think surely i could have found 5 secs even in wind!

Chip time 46:20. Some PO10 stalking puts me ahead of a guy with a 10k best this year of 40:49 so that's another confidence boost! Plus it was 5 mins 30 secs faster than last year!

Top bombing that Curly, nice one!

Stevie -  that’s a good days work then, you know the PB will go when things fall into place for you.

CB – can’t beat a bit of post-race PO10 stalking, sounds like a good result that, nice one. When is the next race?

Good work on the 20 Hilly, sounds better than mine!

Hideous 20 mile run for me tonight. Wasn’t able to get out until after Junior went to bed, so running up and down the high street in the dark it was. Legs wanted to pack in at 12 miles, decided to plough on to 20, I was reduced to a shuffle by the end. Think under fuelling might have played a part as I haven’t eaten much today and have been on my feet all day. Anyway, all decent miles in the Marathon training bank..

Well raced Stevie.

YD, it's those kind of run that will make the marathon feel easy  Well done with sticking at it!

Curly - great stuff.  I bet you're glad you joined a club now!

SG - another excellent performance.  When's the next attempt?  A few of us are doing the excellent Ribble Valley 10k on 30th Dec.  I know it would mean racing north of the Watford Gap...

CB - excellent progress and a good confidence booster.

YD - ploughing on with empty legs at this early stage of marathon training?!?!  You need to get yourself a mentor, sunshine

Well stuck out YD. Sounds like a very tough one, but worth it in the long run (pun not intended!)

Next race is a trail race in Stockport in January, and I'm hoping to get a number swap for the Helsby Half, which would be interesting.

ta folks, have to realise a pb is so special because they're quite rare, and you not only need peak fitness, but conditions in favour too.

Think I'll leave 10ks to a possible double header in Feb/March. 2 really high quality races, top 100 under 36min type fare, down on the south coast.

Rest of this year I envisage as a couple of xc, with maybe a road 5k thrown in, is a Boxing day one, which is a nice little setting, but might be a park run instead...

Look forward to spring 2013 in theory though. The 5k, 10k and half times are soft, the 5miler probably has a little chunk to come off, and it's only the 10miler that probably would take a top effort to beat.

YD, good effort keeping that run going mate. That's the king of mental toughness that'll serve you very well indeed.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

Rest of this year I envisage as a couple of xc, with maybe a road 5k thrown in, is a Boxing day one, which is a nice little setting, but might be a park run instead...

Stevie G planning a parkrun . I don't believe it .

Good 10k effort btw. Plenty to come off that judging by your recent 10 milers. Did your recent niggles give you any trouble?

Curly – Great effort for the win. Got to be happy with a medal!

YD – Well ground out. A 20 when your legs aren’t playing ball is good stuff.

Chubby – Sounds like a strong effort from you and good to see PO10 stalking confirming it.

I’m feeling pretty stiff and sore today. Might cut the miles a bit this week. That would then give me 4 more weeks at 70 and a final easy week prior to Brass Monkey .

Sounds good CB, the fact you are looking at pushing the boat out for a quick half speaks volumes.

Stevie – if you are considering Ribble Valley, I can recommend a couple of decent northern parkruns

What about the Marathon then Mr V?

I think you are right BR, I had it in my head that I wanted to get a 20 miler on the board, but it wasn’t a smart training run. I didn’t get in until nearly 10pm, inhaled a massive bowl of pasta and went to bed. Unsurprisingly I didn’t sleep well and I feel pretty ropey now.
The SPO (an apt name for her yesterday) has a nasty little ear infection, I hope by running myself down I haven’t left the door open for that to get in!

Morning all!

Stevie some great racing there - I agree with the others that the pb will probably come easily next time.

Sorry you arent feeling great Mr V hope the ease back works.

Wow YD thats a lot of effort for 8 miles extra - shows some mental toughness, but yes possibly a bit of a risk...

CB always nice when the form lines show good things well done!

I've done a few of my own from Saturday and beat a woman who ran 3:12 this year. Nice.

Not so nice, long run called a day at 12 miles yesterday. Knee was fine but went as soon as I stopped at some traffic lights, cold walk home, and have decided to move forward a planned rest week (was due to be over xmas) so will be hoping for all niggles to be gone by next week.

Y D wrote (see)

Sounds good CB, the fact you are looking at pushing the boat out for a quick half speaks volumes.

I'm not sure it'll be quick!

Hope the knee recovers soon Curly. It's still 12 miles in the bank.

MrV  ... that's a cracking long run! .  You shoudl be pretty happy with that.

Solid mileage Simon! Looks liek you're on your way now.

PRF ... looks like my window for a once-in-28-year-victory has now passed. Nice parkrrunning!

Nice parkrunning WJH.

Alehouse - good to hear of some progress!

BR -  good to see you back to winning ways. Having a few weeks of eating more and running less won't do you any harm.

Hilly - nice parkrun and nice WAVA. I'll have a look to the table for you after this post ... I reckon it will be lurking shortly after the Abbey Dash.

YD ... will be watching the mara build up with interest. Bad luck on the 20 ... sometimes its better to cut things short but on other occasions it's good to feel just how tough things can be when the fuel runs out!

Curly - golden girl! Great win !!

CB - some good Yule Yomping there. Looks like it's all coming back nicely!

Stevie - 35:24 is a solid enough time on a windy day. Nice one.

Sunday was an 8.3M run while the boy played hockey out at Pocklington. So, that's week 1 of winter base done - 38.5 miles (6 x 5M ish and 1x 8.3M). I'd like to build on that but this week & next will be a bit disrupted as two work-related o/n trips to Colchester this week and  London next week (I'll bring my kit just in case, but it's never straight-forward).

oooh, we've lost August now and so quite a few MG afleets need to do some serious up-dating. Come on, dig out those less than perfect out-of-season times.

_________________________________________________________

MIDDLE GROUND WAVA LEAGUE (September-December) 
Calculator here: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html 


82.20% PRF (HM, 1:18:41, September)
82.01% Hilly (10K, 40:55, November) 

77.71% SG, (10M, 57:09, October)
77.41% Wardi (5K, 19:51, October)
75.58% YD (5K, 17:16, September)
73.52% Dr.Dan (10K, 40:27, November) 
70.78% Curly (5M, 34:12, September)


Out of date:
Dash
Minni
CB
72.88% Mr V (5K, 17:42, July)
70.17% YoungPup (5k, 19:36, July)
81.43% BR (5K, 17:01, August)
87.45% RobT 5K, (16:28, August)
84.00% PhilPub (5K, 16:15, August)
78.83% Simon (4'26.73, August)
78.02% Duck (800m, 2'09.65, August)
76.18% Ratzer (200m, 27.55, August)

BR - That's a cracking parkrun report, you miserable sod! 

Curly - congrats on the bling, great race!  Really hope the rest week sorts you out as you seem to be coming into fine form over t'country.

SG - sounds like a solid performance.  Weather will be perfect for Chichester I reckon - mid-34 on the cards, surely. 

YD - Sounds like tough work at that time of night.  They'll all feel easier from now on!

After a fairly big week and decidedly non-taper-like session on Thursday, I think my XC performance on Saturday would go down in the race report as "solid".   Southern Counties Vets at Woodford, 10k over not particularly hilly but very muddy/slippy ground.  Very difficult to get any rythm going, especially when people are head-over-heeling in front of you. Legs felt pretty heavy after Thursday's fast 10 miler, and HR was barely reaching HM levels even at max.  That's enough excuses - I paced myself pretty well given how I felt and finished 11th.  Club mate had a stormer, finishing 4th, which was actually good enough for a bronze in the V40 race because the race was won by a rather quick V45.  We didn't think we'd done much in the team competition so cleared off pretty quickly, but it turns out that (with the help of a DQ in another team) we ended up being 2nd team, so there's a silver medal with my name on somewhere! 

15 miles easy yesterday brought up 72 for the week.  Will be taking it slightly easier this week as next Saturday is the Kent county vets which we're targeting a bit more seriously - and I'll have to pull out something pretty special to be our first scorer.  Game on!

Phil –That’s one thing I find with cross country - any residual tiredness in the legs really finds you out. I can usually train through a road race with only minimal performance drop off but not so with strength sapping mud! I’m also hoping my planned slightly easier week will set me up for a decent performance on Saturday. However my aims are slightly more modest – trying to help my club move out of the relegation zone!

Dan – I think there’s a more recent table you’ve missed but I’m too lazy to go searching for it  Sounds like you’ve been getting some practice in on the Snake Lane course

Curly – Hope the recovery week sorts you out.

YD – I was purposely ignoring the question because I haven’t decided yet  Got until next Monday to put my name in the hat.

Nice performance PP, and great news on the medal!

MIDDLE GROUND WAVA LEAGUE (September-December) 
Calculator here: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html 


84.08% BR (6.4km Northern Road Relays, September)
82.20% PRF (HM, 1:18:41, September)
82.01% Hilly (10K, 40:55, November) 

77.71% SG, (10M, 57:09, October)
77.41% Wardi (5K, 19:51, October)
75.58% YD (5K, 17:16, September)
73.52% Dr.Dan (10K, 40:27, November) 
70.78% Curly (5M, 34:12, September)


Out of date:
Dash
Minni
CB
72.88% Mr V (5K, 17:42, July)
70.17% YoungPup (5k, 19:36, July)
87.45% RobT 5K, (16:28, August)
84.00% PhilPub (5K, 16:15, August)
78.83% Simon (4'26.73, August)
78.02% Duck (800m, 2'09.65, August)
76.18% Ratzer (200m, 27.55, August)

I await comments...

Curly - Blimey, a race winner. Take a bow! Sounds like a tough racing mentality is lurking in there somewhere, before you know it you'll be challenging people to smackdowns.

Chubby - Some tough racing from you as well and nice to see the BS calculator being put to good use.

Stevie - Thats not a '10K hard luck story', its a good hard race that you executed pretty well. And I cant believe that you adeptly sidestepped Hilly's suggestion of a northern 10K.

YD - As already said, that run showed some great mental toughness but you dont need to be giving yourself such a hard time at this stage. In coming weeks completing 20-22s will become second nature so save the mental resources for fast finishing long runs and racing. We dont want you knackered by the beginning of February after all

Hilly - A good strong effort yesterday, nothing like Barnsley hills and wind to knock the robustness into shape.

Dr Dan - Excellent work on the WAVA table

BR - Two posts in three days! Much more impressive than any parkrun win.

Phil - They used to say that the V45 age group was a soft one, not sure thats true anymore! A really good week for you however you look at it, any week that includes a 60 min 10 miler, a race of some sort and a decent long run is a very good week.

11.5 miler for me yesterday with some strong winds in places. It is just about regularity of training at the moment and just letting  the improvements come along in their own good time. The last 3 weeks have been 55, 41 and 54 miles.

x-post: That WAVA table lost a little of its sparkle rather quickly there

x-post 2 - 6.4km my arse!

Some super weekend training and racing going on per usual!  Sorry you've picked up a niggle Curly, good to ease back though and not let it get to the stage mine got to!!  So beating someone with a 3.12 marathon eh - look out Brighton...