June... my goodness how the time has flewn

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Don't scare yourself so much CC5, you'll be fine. 20km is no problem at all. Now if it were 20 miles then you ought to be concerned.

Just kidding, of course. I have no doubt you'll breeze through 20 miles. Just stay injury-free, be relaxed about whatever time you might set and you'll get the job done. Promise.

[Sweder]

Don't scare yourself so much CC5, you'll be fine. 20km is no problem at all. Now if it were 20 miles then you ought to be concerned.

Just kidding, of course. I have no doubt you'll breeze through 20 miles. Just stay injury-free, be relaxed about whatever time you might set and you'll get the job done. Promise.

Ready my race report, it's a piece of cake.




Bwahahahaha ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Sweder's right. I was being too nice.

[marathondan]

Well done for taking the plunge Charlie. I agree with MLCMM, don't obsess about times too much. I know you like to track pace to monitor your progress, and there's nothing wrong with that. But there will always be fast runs and slow runs, and you mustn't worry if one session comes in slow. I think you should just put in consistent effort over increasing distances, and then perhaps over the course of a month you will see an improvement in pace. But ultimately your pace will be what it will be: so long as you're putting in the miles at a good level of effort, there's not much more that you can do.

I should also mention the race day fairies. You won't believe in these till you experience them. But on race day, they will sit in your pocket, on your shoulder, tucked into your water belt, and will somehow make you run 30-60s per mile faster than you do in training. I don't know how they do it, but I think most here will vouch for their existence.

[Sweder]

Yep, those little blighters are real enough. If you're not careful they all jump out at the start and before you know it you've overtaken Mo Farah. There are also nerves, or butterflies as they are sometimes known. The secret of match-day butterflies, I was once informed via a golfing instruction, is to get them flying in formation.

[glaconman]

This is all worth while.

Sprints (in whatever form) increase your capacity. Think of it as a fatter pipe.

[Charliecat5]

This is all worth while.

Sprints (in whatever form) increase your capacity. Think of it as a fatter pipe.

They increase the size of my pipe!  I wish I'd known this 20 years ago!  

[Charliecat5]

My thought for the day.

I ran 11 miles this morning, uphill and down.  It was bloody tough...  I had to fight for every mile. 

In those rare moments when my mind had time to think… not distracted by the grumblings and talk of rebellion coming from various other parts of my body… it started to reflect on the concept of ‘fitness’.  What does it actually mean?  How does it really manifest itself? 

Then it came to me.  It has been staring me in the face for months, or rather crossing my path for months.  Fitness is the ability to pass through a gate without breaking your stride.   To run right up to a gate, pass through and continue running without a single pause for breath.

When I can do a gate without slowing down 10 paces beforehand, without the sluggish pass through… checking not once, but sometimes twice, that the gate is shut properly, perhaps a quick slurp of water and then the 10 paces afterwards building back up to the pre-gate stride… then, and only then, will I know that am properly fit.  

   

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

When I can do a gate without slowing down 10 paces beforehand, without the sluggish pass through… checking not once, but sometimes twice, that the gate is shut properly, perhaps a quick slurp of water and then the 10 paces afterwards building back up to the pre-gate stride… then, and only then, will I know that am properly fit.  

Couldn't you just vault it?

In all seriousness though, I was having this very discussion about what constitutes fitness with some of the fitness freaks at work the other day. We concluded that the only fitness that really matters is cardiac fitness, which is obviously directly linked to overall health and longevity. Everything else is just a measure of how fit you are for whatever it is you are doing.

So, you can measure your important fitness through resting and recovery heart rates, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the like.

You might be right about the gate thing, but I can't see too many doctors installing them in their consulting rooms somehow.

[Charliecat5]

I’m out and about this week… so it’s a step-back week.  However, I’m staying in Penrith tonight right on the edge of The Lakes, so it would be rude not to pack my runners and head out onto The Fells.  Trouble is my hotel is on the edge of The Lakes next to the M6.  It’s a very nice hotel, but the running ain’t easy.  I found a park with a flat half mile circuit.  Having run round it 5 times I'd seen all there was to see, so decided to call it quits and head back.

2.5 miles at a pace just under 8 min/mi.  Not great… not bad.  It’s miles in the tank.

[Sweder]

Sessions like these - where you could easily have blown it out and gone to the pub - count for more than you'd imagine.
Nice work.

[marathondan]

I think most would agree that when you're preparing for a distance event, it's the long slow weekend runs that are the real deal breakers. But it's these short, hard, fast midweek sessions, fitted in around everyday life, that give you the fitness to keep ramping up the long ones.

[Charliecat5]

This is a step-back week.  Busy at work… loads of travelling.

 
Soooooo…. after a day in Penrith I caught an earlier train than expected to find myself deposited in St Andrews with an extra half an hour in hand. 

My client picked me up from the station and delivered me to the hotel and then said: “I’ll see you Jimmy!”…  well actually he said: “I’ll see you in an hour”.

Once in my hotel room I went on-line to see if anyone had been busy in RC and noted that BGG had been out again… slowly increasing his miles.

On a more important point, I am only here for a few hours so I should explore the town.

Before I knew it, my running shoes were on and 35 minutes later I had run 4 miles through town and along West Sands Beach.  

Beach running… now that makes the backs of the legs work!

[Sweder]

Beach running, very Chariots of Fire. Tried some in Brazil, towards the end of a rather challenging 15k. I hadn't figured on the sand having the heat of a thousand suns, or that the waves might arrive with such alacrity as I was distracted by the local, ah, fauna. A tale told here.

Anyway, good on you for not allowing me to make so much as a dent in your mileage this week.
Safe travels.

[Charliecat5]

Humidity at 85% and a pollen count rated 'very high'... This evening's run will be chalked up as a bastard.  9 miles in under 90 minutes.  The only bit of which to write home about was the fast ascent up to Blackcap.

Coming home I took a detour.  From BC down the Offham quarry, then to Hamsey and back along the river to Pells.  From what I could see through the sweat pouring over my eyes and the hey fever induced snot flying out of my nose,  it was lovely.  

It's a glamorous life.