The Middle Ground

Ta WJH. Find Curly tomorrow (who always seems to do well at being the hub for threads meet ups), and I'll probably meet you tomorrow!

Stevie G . wrote (see)

Ta WJH. Find Curly tomorrow (who always seems to do well at being the hub for threads meet ups), and I'll probably meet you tomorrow!

Oi it is my thread ya know

Okay WJH its tres easy to find me, curly haired woman wearing a Ranleagh blue top. If you want to see some pics to be sure have a look on fetch (same username) there are a few of me in club kit

Bear with me if I am gibbering wreck, I usually am before races! Stevie we were thinking of going for lunch afterwards if you know anywhere good?

If it makes me any easier to spot I've decided on the outrageous red shorts and Union Jack flavoured Brooks Green Silence.  Sort of like this but a few pounds lighter...

I'm hoping it'll be worth hanging around for prize giving (although I have heard of at least one very quick V40 due to be racing...) but I'm giving a lift to a few club mates so will need to head back after that.

 It was meant as a compliment.

Agree with Curly, before a race you don't want to really see anyone, but after , if it's gone well, is great for revelling in it!

Fraid I don't know the area at all, have raced in Portsmouth a few times, but Chichester is a totally new place! If the race has gone well, even the local greasy bikers cafe would taste like magic

Phil I'm planning on showering...guessing they have showers since it is a hockey club at race HQ. We shall see, but yes I'll be hanging around. 

No worries Stevie am sure we can all find somewhere. I'm hoping Moraghan may pop down too since its not that far from him

Good luck with the Chichester runs tomorrow, conditions look pretty good.

The Dewsbury course was looking just perfect today for those involved. Anyone chasing PBs should be in with a shout.

That would be monumental if Moraghan came along

34.43 today, 37secs off the pb to finally get under that 35!

Good to see Phil, apologies to Becky et al. It was my fault as I suprisingly found a clubmate and we had a little cool down.

Also, I was trying to find someone to make sure I'd show in the results, as long story short, had to swap number, and the initial results there showed me merely as "runner 1332". However, I'm in there now...phew

Will look forward to the other race reports...I know of at least 2 other pbs....

Great runs from Stevie, WLH, and Phil! Stevie must be great to be setting such huge pbs at this point in the game? How did that compare to previous efforts?

Also good to see YP at the finish who had a decent mp session by the looks of things

A good run for me today, I still feel like there is a little more in there somewhere, but right at the start I had a weird heart flutter from nerves so it took me a while to get up to pace. Miles 2 and 3 were better, mile 4 (with the uphill) was quite slow, but I'm pleased that when I turned into the wind at 7k I was able to grind out some decent pace until the nice downhill started to take effect and finish with 41:35 chip time (41:51 gun so you can see how busy it is at the start ). I must have just negative split as I went through 5k in 20:59.

Very pleased with a 2:23 minute pb but I do feel a little lacking in race sharpness and that combined with the wind, as I was on my own for the last 3k, meant I didnt get the full kitchen sink in option that I had with Gosport.

No worries though this was only a B race and fitness has improved since Gosport so thats all good. 72.97% for the wava table too

2.23 pb is pretty good!  You sounds almost casual about it, that's huge! I've never taken that off from one 10k to the next!

It's an odd course isn't it, on the one hand it must be fast, to get the ilk of Phil Wicks and co along.

Yet on the other hand, it starts with a half km uphill, has 3 other inclines, steepest at 7k, and the wind was reasonable in places if not particularly strong.

There's got to be faster courses out there, but they need to have the quality of field attached.

I'd felt in sub 35 form for a while, but my last 2 10ks had been fights against strong wind in places.

However, this finally levels out the 57.09 10miler at CP.

McMillan laughably reckoned a 34:18 was doable off that, but we all know it's too sharp down the distances!

Wokingham half up next week, hoping for a pb double.

Ah it reckoned 41:45 for me from the half I think so yet again I beat it mwhahaha 

I agree about the course. Bit of an odd one, I still feel mildly like there was more which is I am so casual I guess. Not disappointed at all, just a bit lacklustre if that makes sense? Was suprised to be 48th woman though - the time would have got me in 20s last year, but this year there were 10 womens prizes so I think it got tastier at the front. Not much I can do about that except get faster

Soooo target for Woky??

YP, must be pretty hard to purposely aim at under racing pace, so fair play for trying it!

Curly, standard must have shot up this year.I was thinking perhaps top 60 or so, but 71st instead. Phil Wicks didn't even win, so that says a lot!

Eastleigh is meant to be very fast, not sure if that's still open for a next attempt for you? 24th March. Otherwise, Silverstone 10k midweek in May, or Dorney lake in July (be lucky with weather!)

I know you lot love your WAVAss, so I thought i'd key in 34:43. 77:71%.

Bizarrely, 57.09 at CP was exactly that, 77:71%

Couldn't resist seeing what 77.71% would be for a half.

1:16:07 is the answer!

With current pb of 1:17:53 we'll see what comes out!

Stevie nah I'll save it for Staines in May - marathon kick back, jog to the start, perfectly flat and 650 runners

Well if you can pull out a 1:15:xx that would be awesome right

YP great to see you today, glad to hear your leg is better - cant wait to see what you do over this year. Think its going to be good!

Right where are those Dewsbury reports eh?

Some great results from Chichester! Well done to all, and particularly one vet who hasn't posted yet!

Dewsbury results are up: without spoiling anything I'm sure that one thread member will be particularly pleased!

Well done on the PBs particularly Curly.  Boy that is a fast 10k time!  I'd take your hand off for that.  You're going great and it must be making you feel really confident for your marathon. 

Great PBs at Chichester - so far seen Stevie, Curly, and a nameless v40 who should hurry up and mention himself!  Nice training run there, YP!

Haven't seen Dewsbury results but it looks like some people were running pretty quick from the photos.

YD, nice mileage last month.  How is the training looking against your plan?  Are you refining the marathon sessions?

Didn't race myself today (there was an xc) because Thursday killed me.  10*150 off 1min, and a supplementary 300 to wrap it up off 1min too.  Lactate up to about the bridge of the nose.  So unbelievably out of it on Friday so took it off and figured on a long Saturday run, but that sank from 15.5 down to 12.5 at the first decision corner, then down to 8 at the second decision corner, then finally ended up being 7.  Today started off badly, the first 2 miles being incredibly stiff and robotic, but a quick break suddenly saw me recover as though I'd warmed up.  6.3m to a meeting point, 3.5 over forty something minutes up wooden stairs and down mud slides, then another 6.3 home though I tacked a few extras on just because I was feeling fine, even though it was approaching 3 hours out by then.  Not fast, but fine, but I decided I needed to recover as something in the last week has been too hard, so 16.5 total.

Moscow trip cancelled this week so going to get some more long miles in as I'm out there next week, and I simply can't do two and a half hours on a treadmill in one session.  And people don't like you doing it either.  Have you noticed the looks they give you?

Good to bump into some familiar faces at Chichester today, and a pretty damn fine day out on the whole.  WJH - sorry I didn't bump in to you.

Curly - Huge chunk off with more to come, fantastic! I could see it being a funny start for getting into a rythm.

SG - Another significant step in the right direction.  Great time today, hats off.

YP - Shame you couldn't give it full beans today but hopefully it'll go a good way towards training for the bigger picture.

Am I the only one who didn't manage a negative split?!   Me and club mate Stuart ran the whole thing together with some serious PB smashing and sub-33 in mind.  With the most substantial incline plus a couple of other slopes out of the way, we went through halfway in 16:32, and Stuart suggested before the race that a -ve split was a given on this course.  Unfortunately the wind took its toll and combined with another drag at 8k to force my slowest split, but we had a damn good tussle between us at the end, forcing a fastest final km in 3:05 on a slight downhill.  Stuart pipped me on the line and we finished frustratingly close to 33 mins, still a nice PB of 33:06 (chip), which was good enough for the V40 prize. Yay!  £90 towards my next pair(s) of running shoes.  Also, in fine prf "get 'em in early" style, it's currently good enough for a national V40 ranking of 2nd.  *print screen*  Oh and I beat Steph Twell.  She's quite good.  

Curly- cracking 10k pb, many congrats!