Heading for The Mall (May)

[ladyrunner]

Today I'm feeling battered and sore from yesterdays 20k walking race. It's probably unimaginable to most people that run as to how much effort and pain you can go through whilst walking for almost 2 hours. Once again I put this down to being too competitive and getting carried away early on in a race. Probably also the marathon 3 weeks ago, not having any speed in my legs due to lack of intervals, and not being at my fittest at the moment due to drinking alcohol everyday for the past month. Well this is all going to change as I have a date on The Mall in exactly 28 days time and next time round I want to feel fitter and be able to beat my rivals Diane and Steve with ease, as I was doing back at the start of this year.

I think that to get back into this sort of form over the next 3 weeks I will start back doing the Saturday morning Parkrun 5k. Not many months ago I was walking this in 26:20 but now I think I would be 27:00+.

So back to the race on Sunday. 20km on a warm day (by British standards for April MLCM :} ) but also a very gusty day. The course was a 2km lap with some gentle inclines and two stetches into the head wind which I found increasingly tougher as I tired. That's 10 laps in all.

Before the race I had planned to lap in 11:20, but before the end of the first lap I had already got into a competition with my rivals Steve and Diane, and we completed it in 11:05. That's 2.5 minutes per 10k faster than I had planned. I was walking with my friend Jo and each lap we kept pushing and pushing to try and build up a gap between us and them. Steve had started to drop back each lap and we had gained a good lead on him, but Diane was causing us problems. No matter how much we were pushing she was not dropping. At 8km I was already feeling the pace and wanting to slow down but had to keep going to keep ahead of her. My friend Jo seemed to be walking with ease. I decided to try and continue at this effort for another 3 laps and thankfully during this time Diane was starting to drop behind.

With 3.5 laps to go we had built up a good lead over Diane of about 100m so I decided to let Jo go off and I slowed down to try and conserve my energy for the last couple of laps which I know were going to hurt even more. If I had kept pushing at this effort I believed that I was sure to run into some big problems later in the race which would also probably mean these two overtaking me again. As I was feeling the pain memories of the Rotterdam Marathon kept flashing through my head. I was trying to remain positive. Only 6k, 5k, 4k to go etc. Jo was walking away from me with every step but I was still managing to hold Diane and Steve off. This helped me get through the last couple of laps. I pushed on but knew that they weren't going to catch me.

At the finish I felt exhausted from the effort and from the heat. I collapsed on to somebodies camping chair and stayed there for about 10 minutes until I felt recovered enough to stand up without falling over. This was another race with no shade, therefore no escape from the sunshine.

I was very happy with my time 1hr 55mins 51 seconds and finished in 3rd place. My friend Jo was 2nd in 1hr 53mins, Diane was about 20 seconds behind me and Steve 1hr 57mins. It was a great feeling to finish but not a good feeling to know that in 4 weeks time I have to do this all over again at The Mall in London. I wanted to say 'Never Again' but I can't miss out on this once in a life time opportunity (at my age) of racing on the Olympic Games course in my home country. 2hrs is the qualifying time so undoubtably we will all be there, along with handfuls of international race walkers who are wanting to take advantage of testing out the course before they contend for medals in 2012.

Julie

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Congratulation, that's a fabulous effort! I'm always impressed how fast genuine race walkers travel - much faster than I can run just for starters!

Indeed you must qualify and enter the Olmypic trial event - they are fabulous occasions and to be honest, many of the trial events are better than the real thing ... not sure why exactly, but there seems to be a more festive feel to them, and certainly over here anyway they were extremely popular. Perhaps because they were free for spectators and everyone is keen to see how the course/facilities check out. Great fun! Even in your cold climate!

[El Gordo]

Crikey, I thought this was going to be thread about the royal wedding when I saw the title, but instead it seems RC is about to have its first Olympic gold medallist....

Hurrah!

[marathondan]

Fantastic result Julie, very well done. How does the entry for the test event work? Surely it will be oversubscribed? Or does that time guarantee you an entry (a la Boston marathon)?

[ladyrunner]

Yes the sub 2 hours gives you guaranteed entry. We have another friend Joan who has not been able to do a 20k race, yet will be around the 2 hour mark as she has done 57mins for 10k. I spoke to the organisers and they say that they are not sure yet if we can enter her as the race has a strict sub 2 hour qualifying time.

I pointed out that with this qualifying time there will only be about 10 women in the race and that the event was going to be full of internationals wanting to test out the course for 2012. He then said that this is not the case as the event is only open to athletes from UK clubs.

After my race I went back to clarify the situation with regard to getting Joan entered, then he mentioned that there are 20 Chinese athletes attending who have managed to get entry because they are here in London training for 3 months and have joined an English athletic club. He also followed on to say that many internationals have shown interest and that they have been directed to join London Clubs for the day so that they can come and take part.

Have the Olympic organisers (or whoever) gone mad? Why not let them race non-scoring for their country!!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Have the Olympic organisers (or whoever) gone mad?

Probably. This was our experience 12 years ago...

http://youtu.be/teoL6FKEtCY

[Sweder]

Superb result Jules, you are a class act! I'm entirely unsurprised at your soreness after Rotterdam. It's so easy to blow that off but a City marathon in (relative) heat takes plenty out of you. Given the generally accepted (probably inaccurate) recommended post-marathon rest period is one day per mile I'm amazed you cracked 2 hours so comprehensively. You clearly have excellent residual fitness in those long legs

The Mall will be an incredible event. Tell us about the course. I presume it's a series of laps? Where does it start, will it be a fully cordoned-off race circuit and can we come and watch/ cheer? I'm getting withdrawals from cheer-leading and feel the need to come and make some noise ...

[Bierzo Baggie]

Congratulations ladyrunner.. qualifying for the Olympic trials sounds mightily impressive.

And 20k racewalking sounds knackering..don’t you feel like breaking out into
a run at times?

Well done, looks like it'll be a day to remember on May 31st.

[ladyrunner]

A funny video MLCM . There is probably always this worry on the road events. On Sunday they were double measuring the 2km lap before the start to be sure incase somebody did a qualifying time, later to find out the course is short/long!!

Sorry Sweder I don't know details about the event yet other than it starts at 4pm on The Mall. I am sure that it will be a 2km lap (1 km up and down The Mall) and yes it will be open to spectators or cheer leaders. It would be great to see you there.

Just to clarify this event is not the Olympic Trials - it's the Olympic Course Trial event with a qualifying time of 2hrs. The qualifying times to get selection for the Olympics are some thing along the lines of:-
Women's 20k 1:38
Men's 20k 1:28
Men's 50k 3:58
So not something that I am considering . Maybe 20 years ago!!

Julie

[Sweder]

The qualifying times to get selection for the Olympics are some thing along the lines of:-
Women's 20k 1:38
Men's 20k 1:28
Men's 50k 3:58
So not something that I am considering . Maybe 20 years ago!!

Julie

Cool! I could probably walk 20k in 3:58 ....






.... oh.

[ladyrunner]

It's amazing how motivated a date at The Mall can make you.

A good week of training to report on tired legs following last Sunday's 20k race.

Tuesday: 48 minutes steady walking off road. Approx 4.5 miles. Legs and body tired and calves/hamstrings sore.

Thursday: Treadmill session of 5 x 1km. To break down the boredom of intervals on the treadmill I set an easier pace for the the first 600m then stepped up the pace for the remaining 400m. Felt good today and recovered from the weekend. All pains in my legs have disappeared too. First interval a steady 6:15 getting down to 5:36 for the last two.

Saturday: Double fun at Parkrun. Turned up hungover for my hardest session of the week. Will I ever learn?? I had arranged to meet my 2 new best walking buddies Jo and Joan for 2 x 5km Parkruns. We set off at 8:20am for the first and steadier 5km. This was a pacing exercise to get Joan used to walking at sub 2hr pace for 20km in readiness for The Mall Olympic Event (if her entry is accepted as she has never done a 20km race therefore not achieved the qualifying time). We completed this 5km in 29:36. After a 10 minute recovery we were back on the line again this time with 382 other hopefuls. The first small lap was very congested so I was surprised to reach the first 5km in 5:24 (some days I have been 6:00). This spurred me on as it dawned on me that I must be having a good day and was feeling fit. 2km 10:30, 3km 15:45, 4km 21:15, 5km 26:33. The last 2km got tougher and I started to feel slightly nauseous from the lager but a brilliant result and over 40 second improve on my last time. Not quite a PB but only 13 seconds away. Finished 206th out of 385. Beat Jo today 27:30 and Joan got a walking PB 28:11. (BTW - Both are faster runners than me Jo 19:06 and Joan 19:46, me 20:43 for 5km).

Hoping to get up tomorrow for a jog/walk in Stanmer Park or on the Downs to keep the training going

[Sweder]

Hugely impressive effort, especially after drinking ... lager?
Is that permitted here? Yuk*

Clearly technique is all-important in race-walking. I recall trying to keep up with you on our last outing (SDR Relay leg 9) - I fell behind in no time, resorting to running to catch up. I confess to feeling vety self-conscious when trying to walk at speed. Try as I might I can't help feeling like an unfortunate post-curry relief-seeker mincing at high speed toward the nearest gents

*caution: beer snob on the premises

[ladyrunner]

Hugely impressive effort, especially after drinking ... lager?
Is that permitted here? Yuk**caution: beer snob on the premises

Fosters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCdMfP-g...re=related
My chosen drink before a race - full of carbs, minimal hangover and dehydration. LOL

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Fosters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCdMfP-g...re=related
My chosen drink before a race - full of carbs, minimal hangover and dehydration. LOL

I just want to make it perfectly clear that Australia has nothing to do with Fosters anymore. It is now an English ... beer.

[Sweder]

Fosters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCdMfP-g...re=related
My chosen drink before a race - full of carbs, minimal hangover and dehydration. LOL

I just want to make it perfectly clear that Australia has nothing to do with Fosters anymore. It is now an English ... beer.

*Splutter* Eh? G'Day mate, how about a glass of the amber nectar?

Amber?
Nectar?
Useful, I would suggest, only when required to provide a sample after a horse race. And exclusively antipodean in origin.

[ladyrunner]

Some more training to report whilst it is still fresh in my memory. It must have been all of 3 weeks and i've managed to keep a record of all my sessions on here (that's something that I haven't achieved for many years).

Sunday: Lacked motivation today - probably due to not having organised to meet anybody for a run. Got up, sat around for a few hours then dragged myself out the door at about 10:30am for a gentle plod (jog) around Stanmer Park. Did 58 minutes and probably covered about 5.5 miles. Ran through some of the Open Access paths today rather than sticking to the normal main paths.

Tuesday: 10 mile walking session with Jo and Joan. Met them at 9:30am for a steady walk. We headed out from the Red Lion in Shoreham, through Shoreham Airport then along the seafront to Worthing and back. Out in 56 mins and returned in 51 mins. 1 hr 47 mins in total. Was feeling tired today - probably from the fast 5km that I did on Saturday. It was a warm/sunny day again (by British standards) with a breeze. In the evening I didn't feel too well - seemed to have a bit of a chill - maybe a touch of sun stroke??

Wednesday: Met the steady marathon group for a gentle run on the Downs. By steady I would say that generally they are 4-5hr marathon runners, not the other speedy lot aiming for sub-3 to 3:30! Covered approximately 6 miles in 1 hr 6 minutes. Finished feeling good but today I have woken up again not feeling myself (I'm not sure if it's tiredness from my training and a busy life, or whether I'm feeling exhausted from a few weeks of personal problems that I've had to deal with).

Tonight I've got my treadmill interval session to do - I'm really not in the mood for it at the moment. I would rather go out and have a few beers, but I need to stay focused on my race on The Mall. Only 18 days to go.

Julie

[Sweder]

Hang on in there Jules. It won't hurt to take it easy for a day or two. I felt exactly like that last night - in fact I felt fat and lethargic when I got in, the result I suspect of cramming about 20 days activity into 6 days here.

Long story short I stared at my running shoes so long the sun went down and a storm blew up. I didn't run and actually felt much better this morning after a mammoth (for this trip) seven hours in my snarf chamber. Listen to your body. Stress is a real bastard for knackering you out too - I had a stressful couple of days out here (missing trucks, pissy exhibitors) and I'm sure that contributed a lot to last nights' mini- rebellion.

I know you're in great shape. Give yourself a day off, have a few jars and get some good, deep sleep. You'll be back in the swing in no time

[ladyrunner]

Thought I'd better sit down and catch up with writing up my training before I start to forget what I've been up to. Had a busy week in preparation for my race at The Mall and a PB to report.

Thursday: I forced myself on to the treadmill for the same 5x1km walking interval session as last week. I didn't feel like it before the session, but having started and blasting out some of my fav walking tracks I soon became motivated and started to push myself. My first rep was 6:00km, gradually getting faster on each one, to finish on a 5:33km.

Saturday: Another double Parkrun date and another hangover to report, but nowhere near as severe as the previous week's one . Met my friends at 8:10am after a couple of minutes warm-up we started off on our first 5k. Recorded approximately 30:30 for this one. I thought that I was feeling a little tired so wasn't expecting the fastest result for the 2nd 5k (the Parkrun race). However, I made a good start on the first small lap (6:55), kept my pace for the second larger lap (16:33 - 9:38 lap). At this point I knew that it was possible to get a PB if I could hold myself together and keep up this pace. Completed in 26:14 which meant a 9:41 third lap. A Parkrun PB by 6 seconds and all is looking very promising for The Mall .

Sunday: Met Moylebird and Gillybean plus some others (Clare and Lou) for a steady 5 mile run on the Downs from Woodingdean on the Trailblazer course. Moylebird is slightly injured still from a running fall which occurred about 3 weeks ago where she bashed her knee hard. I ran with her very steady for the first 2.5 miles. We chatted about Moyleman and one of his best mates Alan who is 40 in a couple of weeks time. Running through Death Valley I was telling Moylebird how back in the years past we all used to race up The Snake every Sunday on our long run, including Moyleman. From memory I used to run between 15-18 minutes depending on how I felt. It was always a race to the top, approximately 2 miles up hill. I got to the bottom and the temptation was too great. I set off at top speed to catch up with Clare and Lou. Caught them up then they stopped at the first gate (5 mins) but I kept going. Nothing was going to stop me now. I was motivated to get to the top as fast as I could and was thinking about Moyleman and how some weeks I would beat him, but others he was just too strong. It was always close though. Back to my run - on the top half the wind became head on making the running tough but I still felt strong and kept pushing. With about 200m to go you run over a small ridge and the gate (finishing post) appears in to sight. At this point I found a finishing gear and sprinted up to the gate. An impressive 15:43 bottom to top and lots of smiles on my face. As I was waiting for the girls to appear a man ran over the hill with a big grin on his attractive face - it was Dave (Ladies'Man). Do you remember him Sweder?? We all regrouped and jogged back to the cars with him. Don't remember the time another good session completed though.

Monday: Arranged to meet Moylebird, Gillybean and Marian at Preston Park to take them race walking. This was their first time race walking so we set off gently whilst I talked them through the technique. As they progressed I got them doing some short faster strides to try and improve their speed, and a few drills to try and get improve their technique. It was a fun session with lots of giggles. 3 and a bit laps (approx 3.5-4 miles) in total in 50 minutes. They all finished feeling tired in their legs and hips and keen to meet up again next week.

Tuesday: Met up with Joan for a steady walk from the Red Lion in Shoreham. We set off on the long road climb up to Truleigh Hill, at the 5 way junction we cut down to Adur Footbridge then headed back along the Downs Link off-road path. 66 minutes in total. I'd guess approximately 6 miles covered. A nice day for a walk, little breeze, bit of sunshine and not too hot. 66 minutes of chatting too - mainly about men and relationships (very girlie) .

Two more days to go until I have a rest on Friday. Then only one week until my big race.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Nice work and inspiring stuff there LR! Looks like you're right on song for The Mall. Hope you enjoyed your "rest" day!

[ladyrunner]

Hope you enjoyed your "rest" day!

Yes MLCM I did enjoy my rest day. But not until I had done 2 more days of training.

Wednesday: I met up with the steady marathon group for a run on the South Downs. Despite it being a steady run for me I did struggle round the 8.5 mile circuit. By the time we finished at 8:30pm, I was in desperate need of some dinner. 1hr 30mins in total on a damp, foggy and cool evening.

Thursday: I had experienced some leg and hip cramping during the daytime, probably brought on by 5 continuous days of training. Today I wanted to do my interval session on the treadmill which is usually 5 x 1km. I decided I didn't want to skip the session as this week's full training schedule will probably aid my performance on The Mall and anyway next week I am planning on taking it easy. So after a warm up I started my 1km reps. I'd decided to take it easier than usual and see how I felt. I did a comfortable 6:00 for the first rep and each interval after I steadily got a bit quicker. At the end of my 3rd interval I decided that I was only going to do one more. I didn't want to risk injury but felt that I had done enough to make it count. I completed the last interval in 5:39 which is fairly fast, but I held back a little. Warmed down with my hand weights doing 5 minutes of bicep/tricep swings and 3 minutes of shoulder presses whilst walking steady. A well deserved rest tomorrow

Saturday: Double Parkrun - this time without a hangover I met my friends Jo and Joan, plus a new recruit Trevor who I had been meeting up with throughout the winter for long walks. In a race he is usually about 1 minute quicker than me over 10km. We did our first 5k together in 30:02. Then set off with the other 350+ runners for the hard one. Trevor and I set off at a storming pace 6:48 for the first small lap. I managed to hold on to him for the second lap 16:18 - this was my fastest ever large lap 9:30. A quick mental calculation made me aware than if I could continue at my usual pace then I could do what I thought was impossible .... break 26 minutes. At this point with one lap to go Trevor started walking away from me with ease, and I had to knuckle down and keep pushing as hard as I could to try and break 26 minutes, but failing that atleast set a new PB. There was a few tense hours to wait for the email result, but when it did arrive it was very good news. A new PB in 25:59 .... how close was that??