Running (5 Viewers)

[Travs]

National Road Relays today at Sutton Park. 65 of the top clubs in the country toed the start line.

1st Leeds City
2nd Bristol & West
3rd Highgate Harriers

Not seen final results yet but Godiva were around 35th (and 7th or 8th Midlands club.... a massive improvement over our 16th at the Midlands Relays a fortnight ago).

Leamington AC were a couple of places in front of us. Nuneaton Harriers somewhere 55th-60th.

On a personal note, another pb, beating my performance from a fortnight ago by 11 seconds. Was still in the slowest 15-20% of runners there today though.

Today's showing confirms that i'm firmly in pb shape for the 5km, and possibly even an outside chance of going under 18mins..... however i'll not get the chance to find out, as today is my last "flat" race until October, its mountain running all the way now as i prepare for the world masters.

 

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[Travs]

Big weekend coming up....

Friday afternoon is the uphill mountain running trial for the GB team for the mountain running world champs.... so off to Keswick in the Lake District to compete in that.... really i've got no chance of being competitive as just about everyone else there will have a realistic chance of grabbing a GB vest.... i'm just there to get an uphill race in on the build-up to World Masters Champs in September.

Then on sunday i was a travelling reserve for the inter-counties fell champs, also at Keswick.... however i have now been promoted into the team, so another appearance in the green/blue vest of the mighty Warwickshire.

First race is uphill only, but around 3000ft of climb in 4 miles. Second race is 10 miles with approx 3000ft of climb and descent.

There is a very distinct possibility that our scoring three runners for Warwickshire will all be over-40 veterans.... i bet that doesn't happen often.

 

[Bosworth Blue]

Have to admit seeing Martin Warren’s posts on Twitter has inspired me to start running properly again.

 

[SkyBlueSoul]

First proper run since August last night, stopped making excuses and got out for a gentle 5km

 

[speedie87]

Anyone got experience of trying low heart rate training, Maffetone like stuff, to build up an endurance base?

 

[Sick Boy]

First proper run since August last night, stopped making excuses and got out for a gentle 5km

Aiming to do my first ‘proper’ run again within the next couple of months, dreading it already!

 

[We'll_live_and_die]

Anyone got experience of trying low heart rate training, Maffetone like stuff, to build up an endurance base?

Yep, I did plenty of trail runs at 10/11minutes per KM and my speed and general fitness improved no end.

 

[Travs]

Anyone got experience of trying low heart rate training, Maffetone like stuff, to build up an endurance base?

I'm not familiar with maffetone, but building up a solid base of endurance through "easy" cardio is basically the core principle behind all decent running.

Going out and trying to hit a 5km pb on every run is a fast lane to disappointment and most probably injury.

 

[Sky_Blue_Daz]

Have completely lost the passion for it , need to get out of the rut I’m in , literally wake up do a few jobs till evening then drink then bed and repeat

Haven’t ran for about 2 weeks thinking of a few gentle 5ks then get back up yon5 miles asap

 

[Sick Boy]

Have completely lost the passion for it , need to get out of the rut I’m in , literally wake up do a few jobs till evening then drink then bed and repeat

Haven’t ran for about 2 weeks thinking of a few gentle 5ks then get back up yon5 miles asap

It’s understandable with all that’s been going on recently mate. I think just getting a few short kms in would help you get back into it soon.

 

[Travs]

Big weekend of racing in the Lake District.

Friday afternoon was the trial race for the GB Uphill team for the upcoming world champs in Annecy, France.

I had no illusions of getting anywhere near selection, but just wanted a good test on an uphill-only race. Despite running as well as i've ever done before, i finished about 58th out of 79.... although i was one of the few people in the race over the age of 30, let alone 40.

Then on sunday it was the inter-counties fell champs, where myself, two Godiva clubmates, and one from Kenilworth, donned the green and blue vest of Warwickshire, up against the best the other counties had to offer..... in the ladies there was one from Godiva, one from Stratford On Avon AC, and one from Knowle & Dorridge.

The four of us in the men's race were quite evenly matched and it was a good battle... i was first to the summit after over an hour of racing, but succumbed to my weekend's efforts on the descent and had to settle for 2nd counter, 78th overall. We were 19th county in the final standings.

The ladies' race was started 15mins after ours so i obviously didn't get a close-up view of the action, but Julie Emmerson of Godiva finished a fantastic 13th overall despite suffering terribly on the descent... with Warwickshire 11th county.

Think i'll take it easy this week, before ramping up again ready for my next race in just under 6 weeks time.

 

[SkyBlueSoul]

Managed to get out again today. 5k back under 25 mins, will start to push a bit more now. End of the season should mean I can be more regular with weekends an option.

 

[DawlishSkyBlue]

Big weekend of racing in the Lake District.

Friday afternoon was the trial race for the GB Uphill team for the upcoming world champs in Annecy, France.

I had no illusions of getting anywhere near selection, but just wanted a good test on an uphill-only race. Despite running as well as i've ever done before, i finished about 58th out of 79.... although i was one of the few people in the race over the age of 30, let alone 40.

Then on sunday it was the inter-counties fell champs, where myself, two Godiva clubmates, and one from Kenilworth, donned the green and blue vest of Warwickshire, up against the best the other counties had to offer..... in the ladies there was one from Godiva, one from Stratford On Avon AC, and one from Knowle & Dorridge.

The four of us in the men's race were quite evenly matched and it was a good battle... i was first to the summit after over an hour of racing, but succumbed to my weekend's efforts on the descent and had to settle for 2nd counter, 78th overall. We were 19th county in the final standings.

The ladies' race was started 15mins after ours so i obviously didn't get a close-up view of the action, but Julie Emmerson of Godiva finished a fantastic 13th overall despite suffering terribly on the descent... with Warwickshire 11th county.

Think i'll take it easy this week, before ramping up again ready for my next race in just under 6 weeks time.

Good going, is that all English counties or just Midlands?

 

[Travs]

Good going, is that all English counties or just Midlands?

That was all English/Scottish/Welsh counties.

Although "counties" in the loosest possible sense..... it is the counties as defined in UK Athletics..... so there was Northern Ireland, North Wales, East Wales, North Scotland, East Scotland, North-East, amongst others.

So it is a struggle for a "flat" county like Warwickshire to compete against what are effectively national and regional squads.... and thats before you even get to thinking about traditional mountain-running counties such as Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Shropshire (although we did beat Shropshire this year)

But even ourselves in Warwickshire benefit slightly... our county in Athletics is the "old" Warwickshire, containing a large part of Birmingham (Birmingham is divided up between Warks/Staffs/Worcs)

 

[DawlishSkyBlue]

That was all English/Scottish/Welsh counties.

Although "counties" in the loosest possible sense..... it is the counties as defined in UK Athletics..... so there was Northern Ireland, North Wales, East Wales, North Scotland, East Scotland, North-East, amongst others.

So it is a struggle for a "flat" county like Warwickshire to compete against what are effectively national and regional squads.... and thats before you even get to thinking about traditional mountain-running counties such as Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Shropshire (although we did beat Shropshire this year)

But even ourselves in Warwickshire benefit slightly... our county in Athletics is the "old" Warwickshire, containing a large part of Birmingham (Birmingham is divided up between Warks/Staffs/Worcs)

Ah OK. Is there a Devon team or just South West?

 

[Travs]

Ah OK. Is there a Devon team or just South West?

Yes Devon did have a men's team, came 12th.... probably the strongest of the non-traditional fell counties (although Devon does have a small fell-racing scene centered around Dartmoor and a couple of races near the coast paths.

Their cause was helped by having one very strong runner (Jamie Parkinson) who finished inside the top 20 individually.

You can qualify for a county through birth, or having been a resident for i think 9 months. Some counties are easier to get in than others though.... Cornwall, Kent, etc, they might not have a full team, or may be weak, so a decent chance of a vest..... but Cumbria for example, unless you're top 10 in the country there's no chance.... i think at Warwickshire we're somewhere in between.... an elite runner would walk into our team, but our team on sunday was still fairly solid (our last finisher is a GB Veteran level triathlete)

 

[DawlishSkyBlue]

Yes Devon did have a men's team, came 12th.... probably the strongest of the non-traditional fell counties (although Devon does have a small fell-racing scene centered around Dartmoor and a couple of races near the coast paths.

Their cause was helped by having one very strong runner (Jamie Parkinson) who finished inside the top 20 individually.

You can qualify for a county through birth, or having been a resident for i think 9 months. Some counties are easier to get in than others though.... Cornwall, Kent, etc, they might not have a full team, or may be weak, so a decent chance of a vest..... but Cumbria for example, unless you're top 10 in the country there's no chance.... i think at Warwickshire we're somewhere in between.... an elite runner would walk into our team, but our team on sunday was still fairly solid (our last finisher is a GB Veteran level triathlete)

Yes Devon did have a men's team, came 12th.... probably the strongest of the non-traditional fell counties (although Devon does have a small fell-racing scene centered around Dartmoor and a couple of races near the coast paths.

Their cause was helped by having one very strong runner (Jamie Parkinson) who finished inside the top 20 individually.

You can qualify for a county through birth, or having been a resident for i think 9 months. Some counties are easier to get in than others though.... Cornwall, Kent, etc, they might not have a full team, or may be weak, so a decent chance of a vest..... but Cumbria for example, unless you're top 10 in the country there's no chance.... i think at Warwickshire we're somewhere in between.... an elite runner would walk into our team, but our team on sunday was still fairly solid (our last finisher is a GB Veteran level triathlete)

Yes there is a fell race series on Dartmoor. I've only ever done the Haytor one but hope to do some this year

 

[Travs]

I did Holbrooks Parkrun this morning. A new one for me.

Fancied this one because its predominantly an off-road course, and less numbers than Coventry or Warwick, so i'd be less focused on a particular time or pb, and less likely to get pulled into a race... just wanting a decent run out after last weekend's big efforts.

This was all well and good, but myself and the eventual winner soon pulled away, and neither of us were entirely sure where we were going on the 2nd half of the lap.... we got round the first lap in one piece.... this probably played into my hands as the winner is more than capable of putting 60-90secs into me over 5km, but we reached halfway dead level.

Now he knew the way on the 2nd lap and didn't need my assistance, he soon stretched away, finishing in 18:30 while i trailed in at 19:11

Paced it quite well as i looked at my watch about 1km in and i was bang on 19min pace, so i didn't really drop off despite the first lap mishaps. However my calves were extremely sore afterwards so i'm not yet recovered from last weekend.... it was a sorry trot back home afterwards.

A good course and a very friendly atmosphere due to the many helpers from Northbrook AC. I'd probably stay away from it in winter though, unless i really wanted a specific muddy cross-country workout. This time of year its absolutely fine.