Club night in torrential rain.
A hill session.
5 x "long" hills..... about 250mtrs at around 8-10% gradient, kicking up to around 12-13% last 75 metres or so.
12 x "short" hills.... the first 150mtrs or so of the long rep.
Found myself in a group of 2 with one of the uni students.... i was getting the better of the longer reps, but he had the speed for the shorter reps.
10 miles, and 4 miles this morning.
400mtr track session on thursday.
Club night and another foul night.
Torrential bursts of rain, and strong gusting wind on the track, sometimes down the straights, sometimes across the track.
8 x 400mtrs with 2mins rests.... had been really looking forward to this session and really attacking some decent rep times, so was a bit disappointed with the weather as it was obviously going to make things difficult.
But we persevere...
75,75,75,75,76,74,75,76
If i'm being super-harsh, i was a bit cheesed off to lose that second on the final rep... but that really it nit-picking, and clearly i ran consistently and strongly.
My coach texted me a few mins ago and claimed the weather was worth 5 seconds per rep.... i think this is a little generous, as i highly doubt i'm fast enough to knock out 70sec reps... but the weather was definitely worth at least 2 seconds.
10.5 miles along with 4 easy miles this morning.
Saturday i'm off to Church Stretton for a hill rep session. Will try to get a reasonably long run in tomorrow morning of at least an hour.
Last nights RATRun was from The Waterloo in Biggin. Torrential rain, a flash of lightening and strong winds on the 15 minute drive there. After pre ordering chips we stayed in the pub for a few minutes to let a hail shower pass. Eventually the 6 of us set off out of the village to Dale End and as we ran up Highfield Lane we surprisingly found ourselves removing waterproof tops as the rain had stopped and the brightest stars were beginning to shine!. Over saturated fields to Reynards Lane and more fields to Morson Wood and into Beresford Dale, the flat meadow by the river being knee deep in water.
Up to The Whim, home of Hartington Brewery, and then up more fields on what is now no longer concession access land, to the TP on Wolfscote Hill. It was properly dark by now with clear starry skies in all directions. Half a mile of fast grassy descent to Brighton and then the very muddy and rutted bridleway into Biggin Dale. Up the other side, where a sharp shower appeared from nowhere, to Dale Head, a short stretch of tarmac before a few more fields back to the Waterloo.
A very leg sapping 6.5 miles, 948 feet in 1hr 1 min
The Waterloo was heaving when we got back. Apparently the pub and campsite had been taken over by a lesbian motorcycle club for the holiday weekend. I've never seen so many scary looking "wimmin" in one place, however, not scary enough to put us off our delicious chips which were washed down with a very good Horizon, 4%, a Crisp Golden Ale from Wadworth which had traveled very well from Wiltshire.
An enjoyable evening.
Last edited by Llani Boy; 29-03-2024 at 03:55 PM.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Good company for your cheesy ships!Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Managed to get the group I lead out on non lit roads for a bit on Thursday night. Great after all the dark runs over the winter. Shame they are not up for head torching. Still clocks change on Sunday - bring it on.
Over to Shropshire today for a hill session.
Hill reps up the Lawley from the fell gate behind the farm. 1030mtrs and (according to the OS Map) about 560ft of ascent.
Wanted to rack up just over 30mins of intense work, so would work out number of reps after the first one.
First rep 8:39, so decision made to do 4 reps.
8:41
8:44
8:45
Very pleased with consistency, especially on my first attempt at this session. Hopefully bring those times down a bit over the summer, as i plan to do this session a number of times.
A tough rep... there is no "run in", its straight into a borderline un-runnable slope... gradient constantly changing... although the average gradient for the rep is just under 16%, the final 150-200mtrs have little overall elevation (but a lot of undulations), so the average gradient of the main climb must be pushing towards 18%
I couldn't run it all... (well i perhaps could for a one-off effort, but would have been suicide on a rep session)
11.5 miles including an extensive warmup over Caer Caradoc, and a very slow warm-down back to Church Stretton.
A fantastic morning in the sun.
Mount Famine and South Head from Hayfield CCC site 7.5km/450m. First run in a few weeks so didn't push it but felt good to be out on some hills in the sun.
Hip and thigh feel ok so off out on the bike again tomorrow morning..
Last edited by PeteS; 31-03-2024 at 12:06 AM.
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
An easier day today, bringing the week to an end with 82 miles.
Very pleased with the week, three decent sessions.
Next week all hinges on whether i make the team for the National 12-Stage next saturday (should know within the next 24hrs)
Either way, i'll do a longer run tomorrow, a club session on tuesday, then take it from there.
Next week will be my last week of two flat sessions, before moving to 1 x flat and 2 x hill sessions the week after.
Ditched the capris and back into shorts. First time this year. Hooray!
Just a local run out the back door. 7.88 miles, 1hr 34 mins, 1538 ft ascent. This route has been a 'slosh' for month. I'll head off to the Hows for some drier running hopefully this week.
Am Yisrael Chai
Club night. We seem to be on a prolonged run of abysmal weather for club sessions. Struggling to remember the last one where we didn't get soaked and blown about all over the shop.
2 x 2.1km with 5mins rest. The theory being with the large recovery we would hit these hard.
Whilst i was generally well recovered, low heart rate, etc.... my legs were still suffering from the big hill rep session on saturday.
Last time i did this session i managed 7:30 and 7:37, so i was hoping to take a good 5-10secs of these times...
7:32
7:29
Whilst i felt strong and like i could have kept that pace up for a longer rep... the speed wasn't there, i was just a bit too stiff from the weekend... this was emphasised by the 2nd rep where i went "all in" but it only bought me a 3 second improvement.
The crap weather should probably not be discounted though.
9.5 miles for the session, and 3 easy miles AM.
Made the team for saturday's National 12-Stage, so its easy all the way for the rest of the week.... so with the taper down for that, plus broadband issues meaning i'll need to work in the office for a couple of days, i think i'll struggle to make 70 miles this week.
12 miles today, including a fairly decent quality hour. Brings the weekly total to 71.5 miles.
Very pleasing week, including another pb yesterday in less than ideal conditions.
I actually went off on my leg at the same time as an ex-clubmate.... she beat me by exactly 10 seconds... and a couple of weeks ago she ran 17:16 on the 5km.
I'm not remotely suggesting i'm in that kind of shape (i've no doubt the wind and hills yesterday suited me rather than her), but i must surely be in with a shot of going under 18mins.
Alas, i won't get to find out... next week marks a full focus on uphill running, and a switch down to one club/flat session per week, and two uphill sessions (1 reps, 1 continuous).... and there will be no more flat races until the next cross-country season.
Kicking off next week with a hill rep session on tuesday (probably 5 x 5mins), then 400mtr track session thursday, and continuous hill session saturday or sunday.
Its now less than a fortnight until the Skiddaw Uphill GB Trial.
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