Running (3 Viewers)

Travs

Well-Known Member
Most people in my club who’ve done it seem to think that it’s slower than Cov. Although I think that’s because they are not strong on the hills, and that steep little hill just knocks a little bit out of them.

My pb is at Bedworth... I think it possibly quicker than Cov, but it can punish you if you have a bad day.

There’s obviously loads less people there than at Cov, but being three laps instead of two means you still encounter “traffic” if you’re at the front. However the thing I like about Bedworth is everyone seems aware of what time they can do, and positions themselves accordingly... this means I get a good run from the front row!

At Cov, they have signs for approx times, but you still get a few clowns on the front row who are going to take 24 mins (no disrespect at all meant to the 24 minuters out there, but when you know there’s going to be perhaps 30 people going under 20 mins, think about your starting position!)
 

bezzer

Well-Known Member
If you like a challenging parkrun give Rugby a go. The hill, which you have to do twice, is murderously hard in the wet!
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
I took a Coventry Godiva team up to the Rossendale valley in Lancashire for a Fell Relay Race yesterday. Weather was fairly tame this year, but underfoot conditions and the boggy terrain was as bad as ever.

Our fastest guy went first leg and came back in a stunning 5th position.... I was next and despite running the 6 mile leg 8mins faster than last year, I still dropped back to 12th place..... our third leg climbed a place to 11th but teams behind gained on us. Our final leg was a Vet40 Lady and she ran as well as we could have hoped for, possibly even exceeding expectations. We knew we wouldn’t hold our position, but held on to finish 20th which was a great achievement for the club, when you consider there were only three of us who actually race on the fells with any regularity, and we were up against two teams from the current English fell champions and relay champions..... 8 teams from the home club, and a number of other top fell teams from around the country and Wales...
 

Rich

Moderator
Marcothon starts on Sunday, but with parkrun tomorrow I’ll be starting tomorrow.

Fingers crossed I stay injury free and manage to complete it.

For those that are curious Marcothon is running at least 25minutes or 3miles everyday in December. There’s quite a large group on Facebook and Strava to give encouragement to other participants.
 

bezzer

Well-Known Member
Marcothon starts on Sunday, but with parkrun tomorrow I’ll be starting tomorrow.

Fingers crossed I stay injury free and manage to complete it.

For those that are curious Marcothon is running at least 25minutes or 3miles everyday in December. There’s quite a large group on Facebook and Strava to give encouragement to other participants.

Marcothon sounds interesting. I might give it a go although I tweaked my Calf running Draycote last Sunday......
 

Rich

Moderator
Marcothon sounds interesting. I might give it a go although I tweaked my Calf running Draycote last Sunday......
I’m planning on steady runs apart from my usual effort runs twice a week.

I think the trick is to take it steady.
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
Strong week of training so far.... track session on Tuesday.... 4000ft hill session Wednesday.... 11 miles last night.

a couple of very gentle runs this evening and tomorrow morning, then off to a fell race in Shropshire on Sunday. It’s the 3rd race in the Shropshire champs, and my first. You have to complete 4 out of the 7 races, and I’m up against it now as I’ve already missed the first two and there’s a third one I can’t do as it clashes with cross-country. So really have to do all the remaining races to get a good position.

Finished 17th overall last year in the champs, but it will be a stretch to match that this year, having missed one of the races where I usually post my highest score. Need a good run Sunday.... no pressure....!
 

Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon

Well-Known Member
Marcothon starts on Sunday, but with parkrun tomorrow I’ll be starting tomorrow.

Fingers crossed I stay injury free and manage to complete it.

For those that are curious Marcothon is running at least 25minutes or 3miles everyday in December. There’s quite a large group on Facebook and Strava to give encouragement to other participants.

Boxing Day would be a challenge
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
Ran a fell race in bitterly cold conditions on the Shropshire hills today. 1hr37 which was a pb by 6mins, and finished 42nd (i’d never previously got in the top 80)....

although I was slightly downbeat to not get under my target of 1hr35.... although most people I spoke to said they were the worst underfoot conditions in memory on this race, and times were generally much slower than usual, so at least I bucked the trend...
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
Bumper day of cross-country for Cov Godiva yesterday... due to the rain, a few Midlands venues were postponed and moved up to where our race was being held, in farmland between Stoke and Crewe...

Ladies off first, and Nuneaton and Tipton Harriers looked like they were fighting it out for the team win. Cov Godiva possibly somewhere between 3rd and 5th despite missing a couple of their faster ladies. Although I can’t be sure as I was warming up...

Then it was the men’s turn... this was a novel race, as it was being ran in conjunction with the Division 3 race. So there were around twice as many as usual in the race (around 500), although we were only racing against the other guys from our respective divisions... this also gave us the added interest of racing against some of the other local teams from around here who are in Div3.... Masseys, Northbrook, Cov Triathletes, Nuneaton Harriers...

As to the race, three laps of an undulating farmland course... I had a bad 2nd lap but without losing any places... just lost time on those in front... Final lap was much improved and picked up one or two places to finish 157th...

Godiva finished a fantastic 4th on the day, behind Birchfield, and the two talented sports academies from Loughborough and Birmingham Universities. Putting us 5th in the league, and in the most local battle of all time for 5th position this year, with Warwick University, who we share the track and facilities with.

our ‘b’ team was exceptional yesterday and 3rd.... moving them up to 5th overall in a very tight league... a measure of our strength in depth yesterday was that I ran the course (advertised as almost 10.5km although it might have been a bit shorter than that, hilly, grassy and muddy) in 39:33 (a fairly good time, and my best ever finishing position in a League race) yet couldn’t even score in the ‘b’ team, being 13th finisher for Godiva.

Next league race in Northampton in Jan...
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
Been intermittent fasting and lost about 7kg all fat. Swimming lots and just started yoga. Only managing to run once a week due to gout and arthritis but have steadily been inching back to my parkrun pb over the last 6 weeks

Managed to run my fastest time in about 6 years yesterday at Coventry in 24:38. Surprised as I’m now not sure what the limit will be only managing 1 run a week
 

speedie87

Well-Known Member
Been intermittent fasting and lost about 7kg all fat. Swimming lots and just started yoga. Only managing to run once a week due to gout and arthritis but have steadily been inching back to my parkrun pb over the last 6 weeks

Managed to run my fastest time in about 6 years yesterday at Coventry in 24:38. Surprised as I’m now not sure what the limit will be only managing 1 run a week

I got down to 23:20 only running on a Saturday morning, no other exercise other than spot of yoga at home. I started turning the parkrun into a 10k and just carried on at end not even stopping for a time.
 

Rich

Moderator
Bedworth parkrun have our Christmas event this weekend.

Fancy dress is encouraged, there will be pacers and much merriment.

Pop down if you want to try one of the best parkruns around.
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
4th race in 10 days this afternoon, at Warley Woods in Smethwick.... Warwickshire Cross Country Championships...

interestingly, Warwickshire for athletics purposes is the “old” county of Warwickshire, including Coventry and much of Greater Birmingham, hence the venue ‘over the border’...
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
Good day out at the Warks cross country champs...

Godiva with individual golds in the senior U17 and U20 races, and team gold in one of them. I think team gold in one of the girls U17/U20 races too...

in the seniors we took silver behind Birchfield Harriers. Massive well done to our city counterparts at Massey Ferguson who took the bronze.

I had a poor run... felt relatively strong and could have gone round again at same pace, but had no turn of speed, I guess due to too much racing over xmas... shipped around 8 places in the final quarter of a mile. 36 and a half minutes for what was supposedly 10km but I reckon was less than 9km.
 

Rich

Moderator
Smashed my 10km pb at Draycote this weekend. Knocked 2 minutes off my previous best now comfortably under 49.30 over this distance.

I’m wondering if I can get 1hr 45 in the cov half in April????
 

Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon

Well-Known Member
Smashed my 10km pb at Draycote this weekend. Knocked 2 minutes off my previous best now comfortably under 49.30 over this distance.

I’m wondering if I can get 1hr 45 in the cov half in April????

Roughly 8 minute miles isn't it? What are you currently doing a half in? Im aiming for under 1:45 but i seem to have bad days when i got to an organised run, i managed 1:47ish on a practice run but then got more like 1:52 at the MK Winter Half 2 weeks later!
 

Rich

Moderator
Roughly 8 minute miles isn't it? What are you currently doing a half in? Im aiming for under 1:45 but i seem to have bad days when i got to an organised run, i managed 1:47ish on a practice run but then got more like 1:52 at the MK Winter Half 2 weeks later!
I’ve only done the distance once. Cov half last year, with a chest infection. 2hours 5.

I did 10miles around Draycote over Christmas in just under 1hour30.

so it’s all a bit unknown territory for me, but still got plenty of time to practice and build up pace over distance.
 

Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon

Well-Known Member
I’ve only done the distance once. Cov half last year, with a chest infection. 2hours 5.

I did 10miles around Draycote over Christmas in just under 1hour30.

so it’s all a bit unknown territory for me, but still got plenty of time to practice and build up pace over distance.
Yeah youve got time, maybe aim to cover 13 miles by mid feb and do one each weekend during march? Youd have a good chance then id think
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
How far is this?

half I think...

rather than running a half marathon every weekend, as suggested above, I’d suggest sticking to something around 9-10 miles but trying to run a little (but not much) harder than race pace. You’ve already done a half before so don’t think there’s any issues regarding managing the distance...

that said, there’s a good mental advantage to knowing you’ve done the distance on a weekly basis...

I’m not an expert, but I wouldn’t necessarily be running race distance every week...
 

CrawleySkyBlue

Well-Known Member
half I think...

rather than running a half marathon every weekend, as suggested above, I’d suggest sticking to something around 9-10 miles but trying to run a little (but not much) harder than race pace. You’ve already done a half before so don’t think there’s any issues regarding managing the distance...

that said, there’s a good mental advantage to knowing you’ve done the distance on a weekly basis...

I’m not an expert, but I wouldn’t necessarily be running race distance every week...

Yeah it is a half marathon.

I tend to just stick to 5km because that is the parkrun distance, but I also try to do a 10km once a week as a top up. I don’t usually run much further than 10km and didn’t before the half marathon last time. I’ll probably do a few longer runs, but plan to just stick to 5km/10km really.

I run mostly to get outside for a bit everyday and run more for the mental benefit rather than the physical benefit (but that’s good too).

Happy running all!
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
Went over to the Warwick Racecourse Parkrun this morning.... a fairly new one I think, only about 3 or 4 months old...

a good course for speedsters and pb chasers.... apart from a hill at halfway (not too bad) it’s pancake flat...

I ran a steady/lacklustre 19:27 despite the considerable ice, and diverted start.... still a good 25 people ahead of me...

recommended.
 

Rich

Moderator
I managed to knock 94 seconds off my parkrun Pb at the weekend. Now at 22.20 down from 24.01 in September. It’s amazing because there was a pacer in September and I hung onto the back of him and was nearly dead/sick at the end. This week felt so much easier and I recovered so quickly after the finish.

Joining a club has made a huge difference to my abilities. I’m wondering what heights I can achieve now???
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
I managed to knock 94 seconds off my parkrun Pb at the weekend. Now at 22.20 down from 24.01 in September. It’s amazing because there was a pacer in September and I hung onto the back of him and was nearly dead/sick at the end. This week felt so much easier and I recovered so quickly after the finish.

Joining a club has made a huge difference to my abilities. I’m wondering what heights I can achieve now???
I’m so happy at running every week and swimming today keep fit. Really please to put a number of 24:30 together and not be injured . Great time rich
 

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