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    My training has begun in earnest. Slow increase in distance on my long runs - I'm now up to 5 miles, going for 5.5-6 on Tuesday. Increasing the pace on my super short fast run on Thursdays. I'm now below an 8 minute mile, for my 1.3 miler, but I need to increase the distance now and the trouble with that is that the run is uphill from about 0.9 miles onwards so maintaining pace on the back end mashes my lungs to shreds.

    I'm only running three times a week, because my main exercise remains my two long weekend bike rides and I can't be too exhausted for those. But I think I'll be OK for the half marathon in June. The question is whether I'll beat my goal time. The target is 2 hours 13 minutes. The reason for this is that the guys I cycle with are all former competitive runners (and much older than me). One is 70 years old - and his record time for the full marathon is 2 hours 13. So my goal is to go half as fast as his best.

    Meanwhile, I still have a vague intention of joining WFD on the AFC half marathon in August, if he's still planning on doing that.

    Comment


      Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
      Meanwhile, I still have a vague intention of joining WFD on the AFC half marathon in August, if he's still planning on doing that.
      Certainly am, I've already entered. I made a note yesterday when I was doing a 10K with a crosswind blowing snow and hailstones into my face, that I wasn't allowed to complain about the heat when I'm running in the summer.

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        Anybody here have any experience of establishing or administering Parkrun events? It recently arrived in Finland (Tampere to be exact), so I got in touch with the organisation to see if they had any plans to set one up in Oulu. They said that Helsinki was next on the agenda and that there were no current expressions of interest from Northern Finland, but then asked me if I wanted to establish one here myself with their support. It is an interesting proposition, but I imagine it’ll require me to put in a fair amount of time and effort.

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          Not being involved in setting up a Parkrun myself but from talking to the people who set up Southport, it's clear that's there a fair bit involved.

          As I understand it there are two main things to think about:
          The course
          Obviously you need a course in which a large number of people can run 5km safely, without causing damage to the area or annoying other users of the area. If you are going to do laps, I believe that Parkrun advise that you shouldn't do more than three (I've done the one at Highbury Fields which is five and a bit laps, and you need to concentrate when running to ensure you've done the right number). Most courses do seem to be laps, but it's worth having a look at different courses to get different ideas about how you can set up a course.
          Again obvious, you need to get permission from whoever owns the land, whether the local authority or private landowner. Also need to take into account how people are going to access the course - if it's more remote ensuring that there is suitable parking will be more important.

          Volunteers/ admin team
          You will need to establish a team to help you run the event. Every Parkrun needs a number of volunteers each week to run, with different people doing different jobs - timing, handing out tokens at the finish, barcode scanning, marshalling, tailrunning - exact roles and numbers will depend on how many people you expect and the setup of your course. Hopefully, once your Parkrun becomes established you will be able to get volunteers from amongst your runners, but you will need a core team at least initially.

          Onc you have your course and team set up you will need to spread the word - local press and local sports clubs would seem the most sensible ways to do this. With there not yet being any other Parkruns in Finland, part of your publicity will be explaining what Parkrun is. This last point also makes setting up a Parkrun over there more difficult than in the UK - I know that a number of the people who set up the Southport event had support from some of the nearby Parkruns, letting them shadow their team and learn from their experiences.

          -----------
          I had my first race of the year yesterday in the shape of the Mad Dog 10k here in Southport. Lovely weather but I was a bit disappointed to manage only 46:07. Admittedly I did lose a couple of minutes when I stopped to be my lace, managed to break the eyelet and have to relaxe my shoe - the big holes in my shoes should have told me earlier that I needed to buy a new pair.

          Also did the St Helens Parkrun on Saturday morning. Quite a nice one, although my time was not helped by me bursting into laughter at the start. This was provoked by the eventual first finisher, who was a class or two above anyone else present - he had a massive lead almost before anyone else had got going. In the end he finished 3 and a half minutes ahead of the person in second.

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            Agree with all that, it sounds like a lot of work. When I did the new one at Whinlatter above, the director made a comment about the course, saying she'd been measuring it with a click wheel since the previous April, which gives an indication of the lead in time required to set one up. There's a new one planned for Whitehaven, they had a public meeting about it in the autumn but it hasn't yet started. In both cases there are relatively close parkruns and I know that there has been a lot of support from the established runs in getting the new ones going.

            In terms of picking a course, obviously many are public parks and/or based around local authority facilities, car parking of some form is a must - nothing will kill a run as quickly as local residents complaining about parking - and some sort of cafe (partlcularly one with toilets) helps.

            As I said above, there is such a thing as being too popular - I think Carlisle is reaching saturation point and it would help to have options closer by to spread the crowd. Including myself in that cos I'd rather rotate round a few than keep doing the same one in Carlisle, but Carlisle is so much easier for me than the alternatives.

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              Meanwhile I've had a shaky start to the year, I did a new half in the Lake District early in January, when it was -3 at the start, and hilly - but hopefully they'll keep it going as it makes a good new year challenge. Then two local 10Ks, first aforementioned in hail and snow, and the second in 40mph winds. For the latter I wasn't very well and was coughing and spluttering throughout, which then set in for a week. So no great times to speak of, and I've decide to keep a record of my mileage this year, and finished January on 75 which was a bit less than I wanted.

              Yesterday I did the London Winter Run 10K, start in Trafalgar Square, up to St Pauls and back, all closed roads. I was still not fully clear so took it easy on the first half, stopped at the water station for a drink and a right good chest clearing hockle, and finished with a good last km, slight downhill on the Strand then left into Whitehall, finishing near the Cenotaph for, in the circumstances, a respectable 57 mins. 16,500 finishers so a bit different from my usual local 10K races.

              Comment


                Impressive stuff, WFD. And good luck, MOF.

                My start to the year has been very good, by my standards. Helped, undoubtedly, by some pretty spectacular - although occasionally warm - running conditions.

                Just under 50 miles in January, which would be impressive under any circumstances for me, but particularly as I've cycled over 100 miles every week so far this year, too. My long run last Tuesday was up to 8 miles, at just over 10 minute mile pace. For me, that was a big achievement because I was running from home which means that it's not nice and flat like my normal run by the lake. Strava says I had about 500 feet of elevation gain on that run, and maintaining any kind of pace while moving my mass uphill is a serious deal.

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                  February and early March were a bit of a mess, I got an ear infection which laid me low for a week and then the beast from the East hit Cumbria in a big way, making it impossible to do anything for a week, including the Haweswater Half Marathon, which was cancelled for I think the first time in its history.

                  Two years ago I did the Workington to Keswick charity walk (approx 31 miles), and this was the view:



                  I did it again on March 18th, when this was the view:



                  I nearly didn't make the start, never mind the finish. The snow returned to Cumbria the day before, and setting off for Workington in the morning, I nearly lost control of my car fifty yards from my house. I persevered and arrived in Workington at 7.30am, to see on Facebook that the course had survived a late inspection and the event was officially on.

                  I tried to set myself to do both running and walking, but really I wasn't ideally set up for either. I lost five minutes at the start pissing about, but managed to run some of the early miles to get ahead of a fair amount of the field. The first half of the course is up and down, up and down, but not unpleasant. I knew it would get more unpleasant after Buttermere.....



                  ...because Honister Pass was next. I was already wearing three layers but took time at the midway check point at Buttermere to add a fourth under my hoodie, and set off towards the hill like a modern day mediocre Frodo Baggins in compression calf sleeves and Carlisle United training gear.

                  Honister is a 800 foot ascent, with gradients of up to 25%. The temperature hadn't been above freezing all day, and there were 30-40mph headwinds on most of the course, and it fairly whipped down the valley as I was going up, and several times it stopped me in my tracks. And then it started snowing. At times I wasn't sure whether my eyes were watering from the wind, whether snow was melting on my face, or whether I was just flat out crying. I realised that this was the grimmest situation that I'd ever put myself in voluntarily, but dug in and reached the top, where I allowed myself the least celebratory celebratory photo ever.



                  The conditions coming down the other side weren't any more fun, but at least it was down hill. At the last check point I realised a couple were right behind me, and I thought fuck that, I'm not dropping two places now, so ran a couple of downhill stretches on the road towards Keswick and held them off, and even inadvertently went a slightly longer way to the finish, and beat them by two minutes. I clocked in at 7 hours 19 minutes, taking 32 minutes off my 2016 time.

                  The official results came out today and I am chuffed to bits to see it confirmed that I was 12th out of 128 finishers.

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                    Bloody hell, WFD, that's a hell of an effort. Well done.

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                      Great Ireland run next Sunday, did my last 10k training run before the event today,48 minutes 42 seconds, well pleased with that although today was on the flat on a virtually windless day and next Sunday is on a very hilly course with god knows what weather but the aim to beat 50 minutes is still on

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                        Just finished the Great Ireland run, poor conditions with wind and rain,also suffering from a bit of a cold,done it in 52 minutes 21 seconds, thinking of doing Manchester next month,anyone ran that course before?

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                          Congratulations. I understand that pace is a personal thing, but to me 52:21 is a fucking great time for 10k, particularly in tough conditions.

                          My training has fallen back over the last month and a half. Too much travel combined with a lingering cough-cold (which seems to be my third or fourth of the winter when I normally don't get any) has just meant I haven't put the miles in. My target time for the half is moving in the wrong direction right now.

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                            Thanks SB ,pleased enough with it, hopefully I'll get a few summer runs in,if we ever get a summer that is

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                              I did the Mersey Tunnel 10k today, starting round the back of some abandoned warehouses just outside Liverpool City Centre then going through the Kingsway Tunnel before going up the promenade to finish at New Brighton. Felt very easy at the start, going down into the tunnel but obviously then got a bit tougher as you had to come back up. Finished in 47:12 which was okay but I hope,to do better in my next event - the Liverpool Spring 10k next month.

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                                I'd kill for a 52 minute 10K at the moment, well done in the circumstances.

                                Is it the Great Manchester Run? I've not ran it but expect it'll be flat and well organised, if a bit expensive. And well attended, the crowds will be big - depends what you're into really.

                                I'd like to do that Mersey Tunnel 10K sometime, it's been on my list of possibles for the last couple of years but the dates haven't worked out.

                                I've got Blackpool Marathon next week, which I'm approaching as a training exercise for another one next month - it's going to be a fairly grim experience whatever the weather because there's no hiding place - on the plus side it is very flat. Indications are that it will be too warm, which it was last year too - they do a half at the same time and I did that last year, and it got warmer as the day went on so the full marathon runners were struggling on their second lap. I'm not stressing about pace or finishing time, if I can get 18-20 competent miles in and struggle the rest, that's all I need.

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                                  Yeah it's Manchester great run,I'll have to check the cost of flights,if it's too expensive I won't bother

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                                    ...and I'm back. After an absence of two months due to weather and, it has to be said, laziness, I got back in the parkrun saddle just wanting to get around and not trying for a PB especially in the sun. I came in a reasonable - for me - 33 minutes 8 seconds which I was happy with especially as I started off with my ankle and knee in agony but soon ran them off. I have to say that I am amazed by my cousin who is running great times in the Barry park run. I thought I should have a go as it is obviously flatter than ours until she showed me a parkrun elevation league which showed it was actually 5th in the country and much hillier than Bath.

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                                      And welcome back...!

                                      I had the unusual experience of (mostly) walking our local parkrun on Saturday, due to yesterday's events. I offered to be the tail walker but they already had one, so I walked the first two and a half laps, got bored and jogged the last half. My daughter was volunteering for the first time - she's doing it for her DoE, and has to do it 13 times to get the appropriate credit. We'll see how that goes.

                                      Yesterday I did the Blackpool Marathon, and how I ruefully laughed while driving into Blackpool in the pissing rain, listening to the news on Five Live saying they were putting on ice packs and extra water for the hottest ever London Marathon. Things got off to an entertaining start when I picked up my number and thought they had made a mistake with my age, only to discover I had an exact namesake in the race, and they'd given me the wrong one, but I spotted it in time and lined up as myself.

                                      Since doing the last marathon in October the longest run I've done is 15 miles, so was reasonably pleased to get to 18 miles in reasonable shape before gradually hitting the wall and battling on. The last hour or so was absolutely freezing, particularly the last 2.5 miles, a long straight into a headwind. The main objective was to not set a new worst, which I achieved with eight minutes to spare with 4:37. Now a lot happier for the main event of my spring, next month in Copenhagen.

                                      Long suffering daughter came with me yesterday, and when we got back she put on a Carlisle top and went for a run on her own - she must be after something....!

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                                        We went to watch step-daughter #2 run the London Marathon yesterday. She'd originally entered in 2017 but had to defer due to injury. However her 2018 prep has once again been disrupted due to a different potentially more serious leg problem.

                                        We missed her in the crowd at Mile 9 and Mile 11 but finally saw her, in quite a bit of bother, at Mile 19. What we hadn't expected to see was her running with her dad. He was there as a spectator but knowing how under-prepared she was he'd come in his running gear, run the backstreets for the first ten miles monitoring her progress before she was at the point of giving up, whereupon he leapt the barrier and helped her from miles 10 to 25.5 where he left the race and met her at the finish. He'd actually covered 32 miles by the end.

                                        Edit: reely bad English.
                                        Last edited by HORN; 23-04-2018, 21:24.

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                                          Cumbrian man (29) dies in London marathon.

                                          He's been on Masterchef apparently, so it's getting a bit of coverage.

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                                            Very sad news. There were lots of dire warnings about the heat yesterday.

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                                              Well done marathoners (and marathon-plusers, in the case of Horn's step-daughter's dad). One of my friends who ran London yesterday had a similar experience to Horn's step-daughter. Got into 2017, had to defer (pregnancy, not injury, but there you go), couldn't defer again but was underprepared. Had a tough time, but got to the end.

                                              I've just joined a gym whose focus is narrowly on endurance athletes, so there's nobody in there trying to look buff and build muscle - it's all small group training focused on getting in shape for long runs and bike rides (usually much longer than I do). It'll be interesting to see how it helps - my core is weak and I know I need this stuff. Anyway, today was my first real workout, and I tried to run my normal Monday recovery 5k afterwards and I couldn't even finish. Abs were fucked, glutes were fucked, and I was exhausted after 3.5ks, and had to walk the last bit home. If it means I can't actually do my training runs because I'm hurting too much, it may not actually be that good.

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                                                I am not sure what your relationship is with your step-daughter's dad, HORN, but that is a lovely story.

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                                                  My last London marathon was back in 2007, which was also a scorcher with heat-related fatalities. Set out to achieve sub 3:30 and was on course for that but blew up at about 18 miles. Had to walk/jog alternately the last 8 miles, and ended up limping over the line just as the 4:00 ticked over. Decided there & then that was my last one.

                                                  And stuck to it - never entered another race at any distance since.

                                                  Still usually do a regular 3 to 5 mile jog a couple of times a week, but never bothered if I sack it off due to inclement weather, or stop if I see something interesting.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                                                    Things got off to an entertaining start when I picked up my number and thought they had made a mistake with my age, only to discover I had an exact namesake in the race, and they'd given me the wrong one, but I spotted it in time and lined up as myself.
                                                    That sort of thing is worth sorting ahead of the start. Race organisers can get a bit lairy if you don't.

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