Daily Check In Thread -- 10k+ version
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I tackled W5D1 of 5K to 10K again today. I still walked on the steepest uphill parts, but much less than on Saturday's attempt, so I'm counting it.
Stats: 6.3 miles in 81:19 for a pace of 12:54.1 -
Last weekend was the Bad Cow Weekender, an event over Saturday and Sunday with back to back marathons, Saturday and Sunday, a 10K on Saturday evening and a Half on Sunday morning. I ran the HM, but loads of runners did two or three races, with back to back fulls. Two runners did all four races.
The route was a circuit of just over 5K, so repeated loops of that. So about 200 runners going round and around on coastal heathland. A short video done by one of the other runners, I'm visible about 40 seconds in; black Inov-8 race vest on the left of the shot -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZts_RzQCE4
I hadn't done anything particularly long since the Giants Head eight weeks ago, and was using this as a bit of a warm up to this weekend when I've got a 12 hour race on Sunday, where I'm raising money for the Veterans Mental Welfare Charity, Combat Stress.
The first time I've done a lapped route like this, but at over 5K it didn't feel all that repetitive. The big advantage was that having been round once I was able to plan my subsequent runs. Two points where I walked up slopes, but knowing when they were appearing allowed me to pace myself more effectively than a larger route.
Once we were out on the route it was good as there was no way to tell whether someone was on the half or the full, and everyone was, as ever with trail races, quite chatty and friendly. It was a fairly frequent case of passing and being passed throughout, and we had no idea whether we were being lapped or not, some of the time. A few people stood out and personally I lapped maybe half a dozen people over the four repetitions on the half.
The aid station was very good, as ever well stocked and I took a slightly different approach to nutrition and hydration. I grabbed a cup of water on each circuit, and had water melon, flapjack and jelly babies from the aid station, rather than using gels. I felt ok, so there is a bit of improved conditioning as I needed less hydration and fuel than normal.
In terms of shoes I opted for my Inov-8 Race Ultras. As you can see from the video a very dry, hard packed, trail surface. Road shoe would probably have been alright on much of it, but the trail shoes worked well and I felt pretty comfortable in them. The longest I've run in those shoes now. Unfortunately Inov-8 are retiring the design and replacing it, although the new model is getting good reviews.
So a fun race, that despite not pushing hard it gained me a Half Marathon PB of 2:06:58 and I'm feeling pretty confident about the Frolic on Sunday. So, the bling...
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Awesome recap, @MeanderingMammal I feel like such a slacker!
I ran just over 2 miles yesterday. Okay, really I walked about 1/2 of that. It was hot and my legs were complaining. I'm signed up for a 5k on Labor Day. I will be running with a co-worker, so there will be walking involved. I'm planning to try to encourage her to finish and not worry about pace at all.1 -
W5D2 of 5K to 10K today. I'm still walking more often than I'd like. I think I'm going to finish the 5K to 10K program and then cut back to a shorter distance and work on not dropping to a walk on the steep parts.
Stats: 6.3 miles in 81:29 for a pace of 12:56.1 -
Great job @NancyN795 !! Since my 5K race earlier this month, I've kind of felt like I'm in limbo with my running program. I don't have time in the mornings during the week for longer than 5k runs, so have been doing 3-5k on Tu/Th and a longer run on the weekend. Today I was successful in running a full 5 miles without walking in 51:30.
Anyone know of a good program that can fit in that type of schedule? I'm thinking maybe about doing interval runs for the Tu/Th and slowly increasing my distance for the weekend run. I'm doing another 5K run in the middle of September.0 -
Great job @NancyN795 !! Since my 5K race earlier this month, I've kind of felt like I'm in limbo with my running program. I don't have time in the mornings during the week for longer than 5k runs, so have been doing 3-5k on Tu/Th and a longer run on the weekend. Today I was successful in running a full 5 miles without walking in 51:30.
Anyone know of a good program that can fit in that type of schedule? I'm thinking maybe about doing interval runs for the Tu/Th and slowly increasing my distance for the weekend run. I'm doing another 5K run in the middle of September.
I can't imagine how I'd do this if I had a job and a family to take care of. Being retired has its perks and being able to find time to exercise is one of them. But, it still takes more time than I really like. Plus, I've learned that, for me, during the summer it has to happen before breakfast or not at all. So, I think your shorter runs during the week and a longer run on the weekend sounds like a reasonable compromise.1 -
@rusgolden If you can find somewhere to fit a 4th day in, you'll find it soo much easier to build your weekly mileage, and it doesn't have to be a long one. You could always experiment with running in the afternoon/evening too (depending on family etc)
@NancyN795 Great work on the program, and that sounds like a decent plan once you finish. Maybe keep one of the longer runs though.1 -
Perth City to Surf Half Marathon yesterday for me. Lead up during the week for it was great, but probably a little intense to truly race it, which is fine as I was using it as a fitness test and not a race. Saturday however was definitely NOT the way to spend a day before a race. One of my non running activities is being a member of the Mounted Section of our SES, so Saturday was spent with a 4am start. Out of the house by 4:45am and I wasn't home until 6pm. Several hours of driving, several hours of standing around and several hours of horse riding, is not the relaxing pre-race day that I should have had.
Anyway, woke up on Sunday with a massive feeling of "Feck it, I'm going back to sleep, screw the race" Finally dragged myself out of bed, got a few mouthfulls of breakfast in, about half a can of rockstar and out the door. With almost nothing going like I had planned. Couldn't find my bag for drop bag usage and stuff, so no warm clothes for the finish, and all sorts. I ended up taking my hydration pack, without the bladder in it, to carry my gels, my phone, finishers shirt and my jacket (waterproof, mostly windproof, but super breathable, so not warm!). Leave the house for my 4k warmup run to the train station, cruise that through, hang around freezing, get the train in no worries and then hang around the start line freezing for over an hour as I had over estimated travel times.
Finally we marshal and I put my jacket in my pack, and then we're off. Started the first few hundred metres way too fast as always, especially when near the front of the pack. Headed in to Kings Park pretty much on my soft target pace, which would still have given me a PB by a few minutes. 2k in, we'd hit the first downhill and people had thinned enough that it wasn't dodgem's any more. Not clear running, but easy enough to find space. Chatted with one dude for a bit, who I ended up playing leapfrog with for probably the next 7 or 8k. Out of Kings park, I had a chic shoot past me, either she slowed a little or I sped up (Yeah I sped up lol) and I caught her, we ended up running together for a few km's at probably 20s+/km faster than I thought for my A target. Some banter, including a comment from my about going to fast, followed by "stuff it, it feels good I'll stick to it" she replied that she liked my attitude. I think we were together for a good few km's she eventually dropped me with about 5 or 6k to go. I found even though my legs felt exhausted I was still powering up the hills, a bit of banter and some singing with another lady for a few km's and then it was through Perry Lakes.. I was narly half way through and the brain tried to screw me.. I thought about how empty my legs felt.. and BANG it felt like I was cooked.. I took a moment to re-*kitten* and started the positive thinking, mentally saying I felt fine, I felt strong, not even 15 minutes left etc, and it worked after a few positive mantra's I felt good again.
Up the last set of hills and I kept gaining on people, up and up and down and up and down and up and then DOWN... Knowing there was just over 1k left I started to push on the second last down, I knew there was a little rise to still get over but I felt strong enough, over the rise and down and down some more, round the corner to the 600m or so long finish 'chute' I was digging deep trying to mow down people in front of me, but the legs were empty.. I was gaining but I wasn't gaining in my usual finish line sprint fashion. The dude I'd been leapfrogging in Kings park came up along side me and then shot past. I tried to find something to hold him off, or hammer after him, but I was smoked.
I crossed the line in 98min (1:38) and change. Absolutely blitzing what I thought and what I was hoping for. Soft target was 1:45, happy target was low 1:40, and over the moon was 1:39.5x.
I haven't raced a half for a while, so it's about an 11min PB for official time, about 9min over the HM distance set during a training run, and somewhere in the region of a 20min course PB. So totally beyond stoked. And although I'm sore this morning, I've had a lot worse legs before.3 -
W5D3 of 5K to 10K. I think that I walked less than last time - however, when I do run on the steep parts, it is clearly no faster than I walk, since I'm not any faster. Next time, I'm supposed to run the full 10K distance. I'm sure I'll still end up with some walking.
Stats: 6.3 miles in 81:47 for a pace of 12:58.2 -
So Sunday was the big day, 12 hours of trails. A fuller report later, but I managed 62km, 39 miles, in 9:23 total and 8:05 moving.
I was near comatose most of yesterday, and worked from home today.
Brutally hard work, but a lot of fun. A colleague asked me about it on the phone today and I found myself saying that it's six weeks until the next Marathon. Hadn't even made a conscious decision yet.4 -
@taeliesyn and @MeanderingMammal -- you gals amaze me! Great job!
@taeliesyn - you had mentioned about trying to run 4 days/week... it's not that I can't, but don't want to give up my strength training workouts on MWF and unable to do those on the weekend. So, that would push me to doing runs on both Sat and Sun, and I prefer to keep my longer runs for the weekend, so don't see me doing back to back with longer runs. That said, I might be able to do my longer run during the week instead. I didn't think I would have time, but I ran 3.8 miles today (somewhat by accident) and I got a little later start than usual, so could have run 5+ had I got an earlier start. The holiday week is going to mess up my schedule anyway, so I might give that a shot next week.
Stats: 3.8 miles in 36:33, pace 9:36/mi0 -
Getting a shorter recovery run in after a long is quite useful, particularly if you end up going longer as back to backs are a staple in many endurance plans.3
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MeanderingMammal wrote: »Getting a shorter recovery run in after a long is quite useful, particularly if you end up going longer as back to backs are a staple in many endurance plans.
Okay, and thank you! Also, sorry for calling you a 'gal'... I failed to check your profile first.
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W6D1 of 5K to 10K. Officially - 10K with no programmed walking! However, as usual, I did walk on some of the hills, although I think less this time. It was a great morning for a run - cloudy, low 60s - and I had some interesting podcasts to listen to that kept my mind busy.
Stats: 6.22 miles in 79:01 for a pace of 12:42! Big improvement over my last run.0 -
Last Sunday was the East Farm Frolic, a new event in the calendar this year from White Star Running. A 12 hour event on trails in Dorset, around dairy farming land and a bit of forestry. The farmer hosts the Dorset Invader Marathon and Half Marathon event, and having done the Invader Half last year I knew what it was like.
I booked my place about 6 months ago, although don't think I appreciated that it was only 8 weeks after the Giants Head Marathon, so it was always going to be a bit of a challenge. Notwithstanding that I set myself the goal of 50K minimum.
So an early start, with the car boot full of kit and food, and my partner to provide some support. A 90 minute drive to get down in time to register for an 0800 start.
The route started with a shallow climb, before a flat stretch, then into a fairly steep hill. So 750 metres in and walking for almost everyone. Then about another km of shallow climb before a sharp, steep, descent a long climb and then another sharp descent over a very rocky path. Another climb up to the aid station, that was about 4km out, followed. As ever with White Star well provisioned with flapjack, shortbread, fruit, jelly beans, flat coke, cider and beer. A cider each time round was bound to help dull the pain. That was followed by about 2.5km of descent down to the timing mats, and changeover point for the relay runners. A second aid station set up with Tailwind was at the bottom.
There were about 80 solo runners and a total of about 400 relay runners in teams of two, three or four. So out onto the second session meant a few fresh pairs of legs being introduced to the course. That was both disheartening and quite motivating. Someone romping past was bound to frustrate, and it was an effort not to get caught up in it. Equally the teams all had to carry a baton, a rubber squeaky chicken. Most of the relay runners ended up squeaking their way round and were all very supportive as they passed the soloists.
Four times round gave just over a half marathon, and seven gave just over a full marathon, with many soloists pulling out at that stage. Once I'd started running I talked myself into aiming for one and a half marathons, because that's a good idea eight weeks after your first marathon. I'd also planned to stop each circuit for a few minutes, which helped to maintain my endurance.
It was wet all day, and fairly warm for much of the time. I was fairly surprised that I managed to fairly comfortably finish the seven laps for a marathon without the emotional barrier I'd hit at the Giants Head, and the fueling crash I'd experienced then as well. I'm not sure what to put that down to, but I'm thinking a few cups of Tailwind probably contributed, as well as the cider and cake
Eight times was getting hard and I was slowing a bit, and by this time the field had noticeably thinned as both soloists and some smaller teams were winding up. As a result it was more challenging, although everyone still out was extremely supportive.
By the end of the ninth I was suffering a bit, sore feet, moderate shin pain front the stony descent and hitting the final reserves of energy. I'd twisted my ankle about three weeks before and was starting to feel that, so chatting to someone on her first marathon distance, motivated me to wok through that. Having avoided the wall at Mile 20, it hit me badly at mile 32 and I walked to the car at the end of circuit 9 close to tears, leading my partner to stick a coffee in my hand and tell me to sit down. A banana, and a second coffee, led to a bit of a recovery, and a realisation that I'd burst through my initial goal of 50km and I was close to my aspirational goal. So once more round.
I shuffled off, feeling the pain in my feet. I'd worn my Inov-8 Race Ultras but had Saucony X0dus and my Ino-8 Road Claws with me as alternatives. The Race Ultras have limited forefoot cushioning and the balls of my feet were feeling everything by this time, so it was a struggle. But I managed to finish the tenth circuit and come in after 9:23 with a distance of 62km. One km short of my one and a half marathons, but I really didn't think I had another 6km in my legs to do an eleventh.
A really good event, challenging and a test of my capacity. I wasn't the only one that pushed through. One runner came to do her first half marathon, and kept going for seven loops. Another, whose longest distance had been marathon kept going for 62 miles. The success of the weekend means that WSR are adding a couple of other 12 hour events to their programme, and I'm looking forward to the Woodland Frolic, although I've now got another marathon in 5 weeks and a half in December.
Also, epic bling. The pendant was different for solo, pairs, trios or fours.
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Good work MM
@rusgolden as MM said, a shorter recovery the day after your long run can and usually does wonders.
Good work @NancyN795
Umm.. everything is mostly just ticking along for me, a lower mileage week this week just gone as after my DOMS disappeared, there seemed to be a bit of a niggle, so I took a few days off to let that settle. Next week should be another big week (50miles or more I hope, with about the same cycling), then I start tapering for my two 50K's in the US.0 -
Thank you all for the encouragement and advice. Yesterday, I ran a full 10K without walking in 60:59 and felt really good. I wasn't totally spent after, so I think I could push the pace a little bit next time.
I followed you advice and ran a short 2 mile run today with about a half mile walk for my warm-up and cool-down.1 -
@MeanderingMammal The East Farm Frolic sounds like a great event. I really loved the Race Bling, I mean who can argue with a Squeaky Rubber Chicken and different Pendants for solo, pairs, trios or fours.
Dorset puts it in the United Kingdom? Sounds like something I would Enjoy. We have so many Long Distance/Ultra type events that its hard to justify going over seas.
@rusgolden My first 10k was closer to 65 mins so great result. Time for you to go and register for a local 10km event.1 -
Thanks @juliet3455!! I'm actually signed up to do another 5K in 2 weeks and I want to do a double race in early October... it is a 5K + 3K event. I've not done anything like that before and sounds fun!2
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W6D2 of 5K to 10K. As usual, I did walk on some of the hills.
Stats: 6.22 miles in 78:11 for a pace of 12:34. That's fast for me.3
