Running

I'm off to Sutton Coldfield for the national 12 stage road relays. Hopefully a bit less controversial than last year. I've ended up on leg one so I'll probably come last.

Enjoy. If you are last you're taking the pressure off your teammates as there's no way they can lose places... #everycloud

Anyone doing Manchester Mara? Enjoy if so.

Just kicking back into some mileage after 3wks downtime since Trafford 10k. 2x double run commute with backpack days Weds & today felt surprisingly easy, which was a nice welcome back.

Well. 52nd of 75 isn't a disaster. Ran 29.34 for 5.3miles so I'll take that. Out club b team finished 35th overall. In the country. Solid.

Nice one @juanito

MCR Mara tracker is shit, gonna have to ride over to see what's happening for the ~3hr folks.

Can you keep an eye out for Eton Manor vests please? Blue and white hoops, a friend of mine is running

Yeah. There should be a blue kent vest around 3 hours as well.

The Manchester marathon twitter has taken a hammering this morning.

Lots of vests, I spotted the mate I was cheering for but that was about it I'm afraid.

Three EMAC One, 100% success! First home was the debutant marathoner, second home was the Iron man triathlete, third home was the multiple marathoner.

I did a junior parkrun with my youngest twin and moaned about my foot hurting. Sod running an extra 25 miles!

Looking to do my first organised event. Anyone doing / done this?
http://slow.org.uk/events/surrey-hills-race-2019/

I ran around where I work yesterday.
Running in central London on the flat is much easier that running in SE London....

Good luck pacing this weekend @philpub. May your balloon fly high and your splits be steady.

Ta very much! I've had two breakfasts this morning and now working on a pace band. Exciting times.

I might cycle down and hang around the power station. I'll wave if I see you

Cool. Race-day ensemble should be nicely coordinated. I won't pick up my pacing balloon till the morning but it's officially coloured "cyan" which shouldn't be too far from the t-shirt in the aquamarine spectrum.
(Edit: my phone's making the top look more blue than it is. Definitely more aquamarine going on here.)

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I've been marathon training fairly solidly since Xmas, feeling pretty fit and fast but got wiped out by some virus thingy earlier in the week... Anyway I'm in Cheltenham on a stag do and managed to wake up this morning feeling like a run was a good idea so headed over to parkrun. 19:36 later and I've set a new PB! Pretty reassuring after a tough week and too many beers the night before. First time sub 20 and I felt like I could have done better if I was fresh. Pretty happy with that.

good work!

I didn't make it to Brighton today, managed 65 miles but my friend had a wheel failure (3rd puncture and broken spoke) at Pyecombe, 5 minutes away from a pub. Every cloud and all that.

How did you get on @PhilPub? One EMAC member ran a debut sub 3, another one went to the medical tent, and another won her v65 age group. She is a regular 90% age grader at 5k

and according to Strava I averaged a mighty 88w for my bike ride with a 5.35am start. I wonder why I bother!

Pretty good thanks! Quite hard conditions I think, it started off looking ideal (fresh, sunny, light breeze) but a stiff Easterly soon developed and the last 4/5 miles were a massive slog back along the front. Dragging a balloon the size of a Spacehopper exacerbated things somewhat, not to mention the comedy stop at 7 miles (check out the pace dip on my Strava log ) when a gust of wind made the balloon dip and tangle up with a course marker cone/tape, almost garroting me. Got going again and felt very comfortable helped by a tail wind between miles 10 - 16, gradually building up a ~1-minute cushion by mile 21 and the turn into the wind. Spent the rest of the race gurning, putting in far more effort than the rest of the race and overtaking I guess a number of sub-3 hopefuls who were thwarted by the wind. So hats off to anyone running a debut sub-3 today!

Chip time: 2:59:26. Halfway I think was around 1:29:30. Would do again, although my right foot has flared up a bit so I'm gonna enjoy some rest and maybe some cycling.

Does anyone use Training Peaks? I've just signed up with a coach (lol, getting desperate, fatboy?), and use that to schedule training etc. Can't really be fucked dropping £90 for the year if it isn't worth it.

In other news, plodded round the Yorkshire 3 Peaks route the other day. Ended up doing a full marathon distance as you have to take the long way up Whernside when it's not race day.
I can't say I was inspired by the course, but I'll withhold judgement until I've actually raced it.
I've also entered some silly races (which is the cause of getting a coach, sheer desperation), with Y3P on the 27th, Kintyre Ultra 2 weeks after that (32 miles and 3300ft I think), and then The Old Counties Tops (37 miles, 10,000ft) a week after that. It's pretty fucking stupid really, but if I take everything as easily as possible, I might just make it round TOCT. If I don't survive, all my running gear goes to whoever gets first dibs on here.

Pacing balloons sound like such a duff idea. I've done a couple of runs with a flag which was OK, but sod losing your head

Competed in the Bath Duathlon yesterday...the first run was tough, got properly boxed in and there were a lot of spikey elbows. Pretty frustrating because the pace was a little slower than I expected. Managed to squeeze out of the pack and get to the transition in 3rd place.
For the first time I think ever, I was in a position to take the lead...it would have been meaningless at that stage though.
Lost about 8 places in the transition, did ok on the bike and then pulled back a place on the final run to get 9th....
9/10 would do again

The pacing organiser asked me at the end whether I had any thoughts on using balloons. Yeah, get flags! I said.

Oh, someone requested a balloon photo.

That looks like a total pain in the cunt. lol.