The Middle Ground

Glad you enjoyed yourself in 2012 prf

Suppose I had better pull my finger out if I want to keep my spot safe from that pesky Duck 

Just back from a 30 min trot, legs still a little sore from my death march on Sunday night, so no intervals tonight, steady miles for a couple of days probably.

YD, if I can run under 8.03 I'll be snapping on the heels of the top 3 

That was a pretty heavy-duty long run on Sunday night. Not surprised you're feeling it today. 

prf, going to kep my eyes peeled in that case!!

Well the list has literally just come out for Sunday - no 800, but two 60m races, a 60 hurdles and the option of the LJ or Shot Put for field events. The two 60m races are a given, reckon I'm going to do the LJ too. 

New WAVA rules state that only races that last longer than 2 minutes count……

See, it's when they start pulling new rules out of nowhere you know you've got them rattled 

There's a race in Macclesfield on 30th Dec which is no watches or GPS. Everyone predicts a time and there are prizes for those who get closest to their prediction. Maybe we should do something similar with a league table for correctly predicting WAVA before a race (desperately trying to get off the bottom of a table!!!)

Duck - Come on son, get out of your comfort zone, do the shot put!  5.72m to beat! 

Rattled Duck, no I am really happy for you to be ahead of me in the WAVA table…….Though I agree with Phil, the shot put might suit you

In the spirit of CBs suggestion, maybe instead of a prediction challenge, why not just simply add a WAVA improvement column to the chart. So WAVA at start of the year, best WAVA to date and current WAVA or something like that. Maybe a bit complicated but its an idea to mix things up a bit.

My shot put PB WAVA is 25.01%.  Thankfully it's too old to go on the table cos I managed this staggering feat back in 2009.  No one's asked me to do it since. 

You bunch of chickens and your wishy-washy open-ended goals. I'm gonna run sub-4:15 for the 1500 next year and if I don't you can all mock me relentlessly.

YD, how about a rule that only proper (i.e. track) races count.

Duck, do the lot. Just a shame you won't get to see if you can beat my 16.76m javelin throw

Love it Phil, if we can have a table where we're already comparing apples to oranges with track v road, then why not throw in some "bananas" in completely different sports

Ha ha i've been asked to do track next year for the club, but have sworn off doing any silly wava events

YD I was thinking it would be worth having wava for the last 4 months, last year and best. Showing improvement, temporary blips and long term trend...

Foot feels much better this afternoon, knee feels fine so two days into rest week is going well. Although I'm itching to go out for a run already!

Thanks everyone - possibly another park run this weekend but if not, hopefully at least one more will be run by the end of the year.

Simon - in answer to the hockey question, I guess it complements the running as cross training but obviously does mean I am compromising my mileage a little with two key sporting interests. We rarely do drills which are cardio specific although occasionally in saying that we may do some hard skating drills. My team isn't professional at all and often plays in practice scrimmages more often than not. Therefore we have short bursts of speed much like in any team sport. However, I’d guess that you are using the same muscle groups with much less impact upon your bones and joints with no strike off motion (I have played previously with a stiff Achilles with no ill effects for example). I do feel though that I have slowed down a heck of a lot over the last 6/7 years and I ache much more from hockey after a hard training session than I do through running (apart from when having completed a marathon!). The loss of speed also makes me wonder whether losing that yard or two of skating pace has also translated into losing an equal amount of middle/longer distance running potential or whether gains in stamina can more than compromise for a loss of speed with age. Adding to this, one of my team mates who is in his early 40s is faster than me although this was the opposite 10 or so years ago when I was a fair bit faster than him! I guess all this is another debate for another time/thread but this is a subject I am always coming back to.

Anyhow - interesting that targets are being bought up for next year...here are the races I have entered/am planning to enter and potential races I could enter as it currently stands.

Entered Races;

Stubbington 10K - 20 January: Target: 40 minutes (not sub-40 specific though plus its more undulating than flat)

Chichester 10k - 3 February: Target: Sub 40 minutes pending variables such as weather conditions (if not achieved there is always Eastleigh)

Eastleigh 10k - 24 March: Target: Sub 40 minutes and consider this very much my ‘A’ race 10k for the year. Again, this will depend upon other variables such as weather conditions.

Brighton Marathon - 14 April: Target: Just to get round without injury – preferably in 3:30 – 3:40 so no pressure on a specific time. At a minimum I would like sub 4 hours.

Gosport Golden Mile - 2nd June 2013: Target: Literally just entered this yesterday – no specific target yet and will see how other races go before narrowing this down as it will be my first ever mile race.

Races I will be entering;

Llanelli Half - 3 March: Target: Warm up in progressing towards Brighton so a ‘B’ race but will be nice to hit sub 1:30 if possible.

Promenade 5k summer series: Target: Sub 19 minute 5k for an official PO10/Run Britain PB of this time at this distance......

......

Potential other races;

Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon - 6/7 July 2013: Target: A race ran in pairs and not performance specific unless my friend (former work colleague) has a say otherwise. We did it together two years ago however and was shocked at his stamina levels at the time considering he had no sporting interests (or so it seemed ).

Amsterdam Marathon - 20 October: Target: If I do enter this, I would hope for a natural improvement on any time achieved at Brighton.

Zuvenheuvenloop (7 Hills Nijmegen, Holland) - 17 November: Target: It will either be this or the Amsterdam Marathon if I do decide to race one of them. It would be nice to get an unusual distance of 15k on the PO10 rankings (not especially worried about time targets).

I guess there may be other races which may come into the mix as well and some of the above could also be ruled out. It is nice to be flexible of sorts anyway (it will be interesting to see how the above changes!). Some of the targets, particularly for races which are those I could potentially enter are only very vague at this stage. There are always the park runs as well for maintaining good shape and race fitness. All of the above also depends upon withstanding any injuries – should go without saying!

Sort of marathon related, I was also looking to do a roller marathon at Goodwood but have just checked the site and discovered that the 2011 event was the last which appears a huge shame.

As to why I have not yet entered the Llanelli half, I am currently giving serious consideration on whether to join a 2nd claim club back in Wales from my home village. This would make sense what with one of my good friends being one of their key members and with my brother having recently joined. With races not really clashing too much with those in Hampshire, it would be good to represent them at Welsh park runs and in Welsh races where I can. Hoping to talk more about this with my friend over Xmas. 

As for everyone else.

Well done on the 10k CB. Looks like things are coming together nicely for the end of the year!

BR – Excellent time considering where you say you are at the moment.

YD – great mental strength on the 20 mile effort as noted…and along the same street??? Not surprised you are feeling the effects there.

Curly – congrats on the XC win and good news on the injury

As for the WAVA tables, I am starting to get my head round all this now and recognise that my recent 5k park run performances put me at approximately 65%. It would be good to push towards 70% at distances that play to my strengths next year although this will take some work!

Training this week – tempo run completed last night on the treadmill (not really planned but that's how it goes with me sometimes but it was a good session). Aiming for an easy 4/5 miles tonight and will post again once I get some more decent training behind me.

 Cripes man that's a long post.

Envy you having such marvellous selection of fast races on your doorstep. All being well I'll be joining you at a few of those.

Tell me about the Gosport golden mile? Simply a mile race recorded properly job?

Would be a ridiciulous trip for a 1mile race for me tho... It doesn't come a day before/after one of the Prom Portsmouth 5ks by any chance does it?

PP - no chance of a fast time at Chichester, I'm attending, so that means some sort of freak weather.

YP.. I got my fastest marathon at age 50 though I couldn't quite break any other PB's in that year.  There is a definite difference in your late 40's/early 50's in that the body simply doesn't recover as quickly as it once did.  I had to drop my mileage and train a bit smarter.  If I tried to reach old weekly mileages I would simply be running on tired legs all the time.  Still enjoying it though which is the main thing. 

Rob T.. good to see you are beating old father time rather handsomely!

BR.. hope the upward curve continues, nice win!  Good to see Curly on top of the podium too! 

Cracking Parkruns from Hilly, WJH & PRF.

PP.. 25.01%? shouldn't that be 25 feet?? 

4.1m on the treadie this morning plus 7m with clubmates tonight.  Still wearing shorts here though 2 layers on top & 2 pairs of gloves.

Good idea Curly, good news on the foot.

I agree Simon

That’s quite a race list WJH, I like the sound of 7 Dutch hills…..

Happy WAVA upgrade day Rob

Competitive club sounds like it might be a good move YP, specially as it’s now a race to sub 40 with you and WJH

xpost Wardi - bloomin freezing here, tights for me tonight! Though only one pair of thermal gloves.

I ended up doing that interval session in the end. Well it was a sandwich session of 1m – 10 x 0.25m – 1m.
Idea was threshold paced miles and 5k paced reps with a 1 min recovery between the short reps. Session came out at:

5:59 – 3 mins jog rec
1:26, 1:23, 1:23, 1:23, 1:24, 1:24, 1:21, 1:23, 1:22, 1:24
5:50

Reps 2-10 in the 5:28-5:35/m bracket, so near enough on pace, considering my legs were quite achy (quads in particular) and it was well bellow freezing out with loads of ice on the ground I am pleased with how the session panned out.
Next time I do the session I will have thicker bread and less filling.
With my short trot at lunch and warm up, recoveries etc it brings up 12.3 miles for the day.

Wardi - I am intrigued on why you often run 4.1m on the treadmill.  If you had a 4.1m loop from your house I could understand it, but on the treadmill.

In honour of the post by TR, my 2013 target is to be standing at the Red Lion in April with a smile on my face whatever the outcome.  Also to perform creditibly on the track in the summer.

RobT - 48?  A good bust up between you and Hilly for top 48 year old on the thread then.

Great run tonight.  Not fast, not this, that or anything but first up the hill in a random `let's all start racing each other up the hill' section of a club run.  Loved it.  Living the 2000s all over again.