Welcome To Fetcheveryone

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:55(9:55/m) 124/134bpm
2) 1m - 10:38(10:38/m) 130/148bpm
3) 1m - 10:10(10:10/m) 123/144bpm
4) 0.78m - 7:47(9:58/m) 127/141bpm

Testing, testing. Horrific temperature based virus Saturday to Monday.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:04(9:04/m) 124/177bpm
2) 1m - 9:22(9:22/m) 125/131bpm
3) 0.06m - 31(9:20/m) 122/123bpm

Keeping hr very low

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:18(9:18/m) 121/167bpm
2) 1m - 9:22(9:22/m) 119/123bpm
3) 1m - 9:03(9:03/m) 118/125bpm
4) 1m - 8:59(8:59/m) 121/124bpm
5) 0.06m - 37(11:05/m) 120/123bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) 118/128bpm
2) 1m - 8:20(8:20/m) 127/133bpm
3) 1m - 8:29(8:29/m) 130/136bpm
4) 1m - 8:13(8:13/m) 130/135bpm
5) 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) 128/135bpm
6) 1m - 8:45(8:46/m) 128/134bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:35(8:35/m) 116/129bpm
2) 1m - 7:55(7:55/m) 127/132bpm
3) 1m - 8:57(8:57/m) 137/152bpm
4) 1m - 8:44(8:44/m) 137/157bpm
5) 1m - 8:47(8:47/m) 136/156bpm
6) 1m - 10:19(10:19/m) 132/139bpm
7) 1m - 8:42(8:42/m) 131/144bpm
8) 1m - 7:55(7:55/m) 134/140bpm
9) 1m - 8:08(8:08/m) 134/143bpm
10) 0.77m - 6:01(7:50/m) 136/140bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:55(8:55/m) 121/130bpm
2) 1m - 8:49(8:49/m) 126/133bpm
3) 1m - 9:08(9:08/m) 125/133bpm
4) 1m - 10:22(10:22/m) 123/131bpm
5) 1m - 8:22(8:22/m) 122/129bpm
6) 0.97m - 8:41(8:58/m) 125/130bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 16:41(16:41/m) 131/166bpm
2) 1m - 8:20(8:20/m) 137/142bpm
3) 0.17m - 1:22(8:08/m) 134/136bpm

Quickly realised virus still affecting me. Probably 90% effort.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 6:05(6:05/m) 154/173bpm
2) 1m - 6:05(6:05/m) 169/172bpm
3) 1m - 6:20(6:20/m) 171/174bpm
4) 0.08m - 28(5:49/m) 168/170bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:20(9:20/m) 131/140bpm
2) 1m - 8:39(8:39/m) 143/155bpm
3) 0.57m - 4:58(8:40/m) 142/158bpm

2 min surges x 8 in latter half. Good to break it up. Felt stronger as run went on.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 7:45(7:45/m) 125/136bpm
2) 1m - 8:28(8:28/m) 130/136bpm
3) 1m - 7:08(7:08/m) 131/139bpm
4) 1m - 7:29(7:29/m) 135/141bpm
5) 1m - 7:50(7:50/m) 138/145bpm
6) 1m - 7:22(7:22/m) 139/145bpm
7) 1m - 7:16(7:16/m) 139/143bpm
8) 1m - 7:26(7:26/m) 136/144bpm
9) 1m - 7:35(7:35/m) 143/147bpm
10) 1m - 7:09(7:09/m) 145/147bpm
11) 1m - 7:17(7:17/m) 149/157bpm
12) 1m - 7:16(7:16/m) 148/154bpm
13) 1m - 7:26(7:26/m) 143/151bpm
14) 1m - 7:07(7:07/m) 149/157bpm
15) 1m - 6:45(6:45/m) 149/156bpm
16) 1m - 7:12(7:12/m) 154/160bpm
17) 1m - 7:22(7:22/m) 158/164bpm
18) 0.84m - 6:23(7:35/m) 158/165bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) 126/168bpm
2) 1m - 9:24(9:24/m) 125/131bpm
3) 1m - 8:34(8:34/m) 127/133bpm
4) 0.22m - 1:55(8:32/m) 128/130bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:07(9:07/m) 122/174bpm
2) 1m - 8:52(8:52/m) 129/135bpm
3) 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) 130/135bpm
4) 1m - 8:58(8:58/m) 134/139bpm
5) 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) 134/140bpm
6) 1m - 8:42(8:42/m) 133/137bpm
7) 0.45m - 3:42(8:16/m) 134/137bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:08(8:08/m) 119/130bpm
2) 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) 129/135bpm
3) 1m - 8:00(8:00/m) 132/141bpm
4) 1m - 8:05(8:05/m) 140/157bpm
5) 1m - 7:53(7:53/m) 140/161bpm
6) 0.78m - 6:17(8:05/m) 129/133bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:24(8:24/m) 128/139bpm
2) 1m - 8:27(8:27/m) 142/153bpm
3) 0.03m - 17(9:08/m) 148/149bpm

Bugatti 10k still not 100% so gave it probably 90% effort. Overtaken by Matt Polson and James Head - bit didn’t have it in me to try to catch. About a minute slower than last year - not too bad given virus.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 5:53(5:53/m) 126/166bpm
2) 1m - 5:51(5:51/m) 174/178bpm
3) 1m - 6:08(6:08/m) 171/178bpm
4) 1m - 6:20(6:20/m) 169/172bpm
5) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 170/172bpm
6) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 172/175bpm
7) 0.24m - 1:40(6:51/m) 174/176bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:40(8:40/m) 135/177bpm
2) 1m - 17:01(17:01/m) 135/149bpm
3) 0.09m - 47(9:02/m) 143/147bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:28(9:28/m) 122/172bpm
2) 0.91m - 9:04(10:00/m) 122/127bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:43(8:43/m) 129/137bpm
2) 1m - 7:51(7:51/m) 133/138bpm
3) 1m - 8:43(8:43/m) 137/146bpm
4) 1m - 8:27(8:27/m) 134/138bpm
5) 0.69m - 5:55(8:33/m) 132/135bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:57(8:57/m) 116/170bpm
2) 1m - 8:40(8:40/m) 119/124bpm
3) 1m - 8:53(8:53/m) 118/127bpm
4) 1m - 8:19(8:19/m) 118/122bpm
5) 1m - 8:34(8:34/m) 121/127bpm
6) 0.19m - 1:37(8:20/m) 122/126bpm

Easy and strides. HR high

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:11(9:11/m) 130/140bpm
2) 1m - 8:03(8:03/m) 139/144bpm
3) 1m - 8:19(8:19/m) 142/150bpm
4) 1m - 10:01(10:01/m) 145/160bpm
5) 1m - 9:31(9:31/m) 152/165bpm
6) 1m - 8:59(8:59/m) 151/165bpm
7) 1m - 8:16(8:16/m) 149/153bpm
8) 1m - 8:00(8:00/m) 145/148bpm
9) 0.82m - 6:18(7:42/m) 147/150bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 10:17(10:17/m) 125/134bpm
2) 1m - 14:00(14:00/m) 130/145bpm
3) 1m - 8:43(8:43/m) 140/149bpm
4) 1m - 9:56(9:56/m) 133/141bpm
5) 0.2m - 1:47(8:51/m) 131/137bpm

4 laps Grange profession. Despite dull route, enjoyed the session aspect without actual mile splits (split each lap)

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:22(8:22/m) 130/140bpm
2) 1m - 7:40(7:40/m) 137/145bpm
3) 1m - 8:15(8:15/m) 133/142bpm
4) 1m - 7:01(7:01/m) 145/151bpm
5) 1m - 7:06(7:06/m) 145/148bpm
6) 1m - 6:51(6:51/m) 152/158bpm
7) 1m - 6:40(6:40/m) 155/158bpm
8) 1m - 6:42(6:42/m) 158/162bpm
9) 1m - 6:48(6:48/m) 161/163bpm
10) 1m - 7:04(7:04/m) 162/167bpm
11) 0.94m - 6:59(7:24/m) 150/158bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:12(9:12/m) 120/174bpm
2) 1m - 8:47(8:47/m) 120/124bpm
3) 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) 119/124bpm
4) 1m - 9:36(9:36/m) 116/122bpm
5) 1m - 8:47(8:47/m) 121/125bpm
6) 0.09m - 54(10:26/m) 119/123bpm

Forest Mere explore. Including 6 x 90sMP effort. Feeling better than in previous couple of weeks

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:43(9:43/m) 123/135bpm
2) 1m - 9:47(9:47/m) 126/139bpm
3) 1m - 8:51(8:51/m) 136/155bpm
4) 1m - 7:58(7:58/m) 138/148bpm
5) 1m - 7:59(7:59/m) 140/149bpm
6) 0.87m - 8:09(9:23/m) 134/148bpm

Exploring bridlepaths including 5 x 90s approx MP

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:19(8:19/m) 129/175bpm
2) 1m - 9:00(9:00/m) 135/149bpm
3) 1m - 8:56(8:56/m) 134/151bpm
4) 1m - 7:18(7:18/m) 139/151bpm
5) 1m - 8:23(8:23/m) 129/152bpm
6) 0.37m - 3:01(8:08/m) 142/156bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:10(8:10/m) 126/132bpm
2) 1m - 8:00(8:00/m) 132/150bpm
3) 1m - 7:27(7:27/m) 136/150bpm
4) 1m - 7:24(7:24/m) 135/147bpm
5) 0.11m - 52(8:10/m) 128/130bpm

And a few strides. Feeing quite stiff. Weights at spa?

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:31(9:31/m) 121/178bpm
2) 1m - 9:12(9:12/m) 124/146bpm
3) 0.86m - 7:28(8:43/m) 131/150bpm

I chose this marathon as a pre-second child, solid challenge. It looked like a nice route, and whilst probably not a fast course, didn’t seem ridiculously hilly (780ft in the end) or off road - so ‘normal’ training should suffice. It fell about 14 weeks post-London, which seemed to work well. In reality, this was a bit off an in between - neither close enough to London to truly rely on the fitness from that, not far enough away to allow for full recovery and a proper build.

Training actually went ridiculously well in June. I did my biggest ever seven day mileage, knocking on 90M for the first time. I felt fast and in great form. I had a look around for a genuinely fast course, thinking now could be the time to finally nail a sub-2:50, but unsurprisingly nothing was on offer. Nonetheless, I enjoyed racing quite a few halves and 10ks with a reasonable degree of success. Looking back, I think fatigue was building through too much racing, and hit a peak in July. I had a couple of rubbish races, then eventually succumbed to a virus. I was astonished at how long it seemed to take to get over it - probably actually only in the day or two pre-marathon after a concerted stint of healthy eating, no drinking and a reasonable amount of sleep. Whilst I had around 5 post-London 20 milers in the bag, nothing had been longer or included any marathon pace. Although, to be fair, a few of these morning runs were supplement by heavy weights and a recovery run later in the day. In this context, I was looking forward to Bath, whilst remembering that it was definitely going to go in the experience rather than true performance bucket.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on the pulse of the event. There were due to be around 500 marathon runners, 800 in the half, as well as I don’t know how many in the 5, 10, 50k. This bode well, but the multi wave side of things worried me for some reason. There was a park and ride to the start, which was far less of a faff than I anticipated, and actually quite a nice way of building the atmosphere - a bit like a very watered down version of the train to the London start, with a few more west-country accents. I had plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere at the start, and chatted to a couple of club mates. Pleasingly, and sorry for TMI, I had two successful poos, didn’t miss baggage drop and remembered to vas my balls. I had time to do a few warm up glute activation exercises and drills, although I always wonder about the pay off in a marathon with these - is it just depleting glycogen storage? Due to the narrow start, and runners of the 5 and 10k retracing their steps to create a two way race in the thin tunnels, there were waves. Incredibly, the first was at 9am, the last at 1.20pm, departing every 10 minutes. Talk about making it complicated to organise! To be fair, they did a fantastic job with logistics - genuinely seamless.

I was in the second marathon wave. No one had looked especially fast in the first wave, so I was hoping anyone a bit speedier would be in my wave, and not the final two marathon starts. I positioned myself at the front after ignoring the team warm up - can’t see much point in a token shoulder stretch before a run... 3, 2, 1 and we were off. From about 20m in, a young chap in yellow and black quarters and I were chatting away. He asked me my goal time and it seemed we would be in broadly the same ball park. It became clear it was his first marathon, although he was an experienced fell runner, including mountainous races up to 15M. I really enjoyed chatting away with him for first four or so miles as we overtook all of the previous wave and most of the ultra runners. The two tunnels were surprisingly great. Cool and with a perfect surface - lovely for running. The were dim, but sufficiently lit. Even some piped classical music in the second. Possibly ideal marathon conditions for a pasty fellow like myself. The first tunnel was 400m long, and the second a beast at 1600m. After the second tunnel, we negotiated the first of a few tricky short descents down steep steps - these were never long, but put enough of a dent in pace for any serious goals. In fact their narrowness was especially tough of the second lap - running down ‘duck feet’ style was tough on my groin. We hit an incline shortly after, and that was it, the fell runner was off.

I had debated whether VFs of Adios would be the right call for ages. I think Adios would actually have marginally faster, given the stony canal path and a few short off road sections. But given my legs feel pretty good today and I was nowhere near an arbitrary time margin, it wasn’t a bad decision to go with (my older pair of) VFs. The canal path was really beautiful, passing stunning cricket pitches, viaducts, aqueducts (still couldn’t tell you the difference), pretty villages and loads of canal life. The heavy rain earlier in the week had left a few puddles, but nothing that couldn’t be fairly well negotiated. It was never really busy with runners, but there was certainly enough company. Uniquely, these were of a huge variety of speeds - due to the million and one waves and distances available. I did a double take on the second lap at this point, when I saw a bloke bailing out his sinking boat. He had a few helpers, and I was in no fit state to offer real assistance at this point - but a bit of a shock nonetheless.

The canal met the river, and wound into Bath, visiting Poultney Bridge, Sydney Gardens and Bath Abbey - genuinely all exceptionally pretty. I got a big lift from seeing my wife, daughter and mum, with aforementioned high fives all round. I completed 13.1M in just under 90 minutes. I felt tired yet not destroyed. However, there was then a significant climb to the turn around point - giving 13.4M for each lap. This wasn’t just my GPS, but was mentioned at the start. So - a cheeky ultra it would be then.

I seemed to slow fairly rapidly in lap two. It was warm, and I was unfortunate to get back to the start just after a large wave began. I had to pull rank, sounding a complete knob shouting: “on your right” for a couple of miles. I enjoyed getting back in the shade of the tunnels, but could feel myself fatiguing. I wanted to go hard, but remembered I was there for the experience. It was a bit weird not knowing if my current second place would be scuppered by a later wave, but I realised that was out of my hands.

My lack of long runs came to bite me from about 21M onwards, and I slowed to 7:45 - 8:30 pace at the end. It was a bit of a death march, and I could feel my chest tightening a little bit, whilst my heart rate was dropping from previous levels. Didn’t quite know what to make of this. At the one out and back (with a couple of miles to go), I saw third place. He would have been about half a mile behind, so I decided I was probably safe, unless he was truly shifting and I slowed to a walk. Arriving back at the steep uphill finish, I was greeted by a big crowd and plenty of cheers as second place finisher. I finished in high 3:13s and was very relived to have finished.

There was a fairly length cross country style funnel to walk back and forth through, but in retrospect nothing even close to walking to the FGFA baggage lorry at London. All I really wanted to was sit down and have a little moan and cry. My groin muscles were hurting and I just couldn’t find a comfortable position. I settled upon an approximation of the foetal position whilst rocking back and forth. The weird thing was to be surrounded by hundreds of other runners who had completed the 10k. I’m not belittling their achievements at all, as I think it is a bloody hard distance to get right, but no one else seemed to have that long lasting pain that can come on post marathon. I am not quite sure what was causing it, as, pleasingly, my blood sugar levels were perfect. Perhaps heat/salt related. I headed back to the bus and continued groaning the whole journey back. I was very close to throwing up, to the point of another passenger checking on me. Heroically, he offered my his burger - but it wasn’t an offer I could accept. Some cold water and a bag of salty pork scratchings seemed to sort me out, and today I have felt good. I have just about resisted the temptation to run, although suspect I will tomorrow.

In all, a good choice of race. I wasn’t in shape to run a time, I had a great experience and got a pleasing podium. I’d genuinely recommend it as a training long run before a big city autumn marathon. I’ve managed to keep my shit together today, not eating every biscuit in sight - I’m hoping this means recovery will be swift (he writes whilst two-thirds of the way though a bottle of wine).

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) 150/159bpm
2) 1m - 9:55(9:55/m) 157/160bpm
3) 1m - 2:15(2:15/m) 149/152bpm
4) 1m - 6:58(6:58/m) 154/163bpm
5) 1m - 6:45(6:45/m) 158/164bpm
6) 1m - 6:40(6:40/m) 157/162bpm
7) 1m - 6:44(6:44/m) 156/159bpm
8) 1m - 6:49(6:49/m) 156/161bpm
9) 1m - 6:48(6:48/m) 158/161bpm
10) 1m - 6:54(6:54/m) 161/167bpm
11) 1m - 6:51(6:51/m) 161/167bpm
12) 1m - 6:55(6:55/m) 161/165bpm
13) 1m - 6:56(6:56/m) 159/161bpm
14) 1m - 7:20(7:20/m) 164/172bpm
15) 1m - 14:49(14:49/m) 163/168bpm
16) 1m - 7:20(7:20/m) 155/163bpm
17) 1m - 7:21(7:21/m) 153/161bpm
18) 1m - 7:14(7:14/m) 156/163bpm
19) 1m - 7:20(7:20/m) 154/157bpm
20) 1m - 7:13(7:13/m) 154/157bpm
21) 1m - 7:18(7:18/m) 156/161bpm
22) 1m - 7:54(7:54/m) 155/158bpm
23) 1m - 7:49(7:49/m) 153/157bpm
24) 1m - 7:45(7:45/m) 154/157bpm
25) 1m - 8:01(8:01/m) 152/164bpm
26) 1.85m - 7:30(4:03/m) 153/162bpm

Legs feeling ok. I doubt due to not going mental in the race nor with food after.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:07(9:07/m) 119/123bpm
2) 1m - 8:58(8:58/m) 123/127bpm
3) 1m - 9:15(9:15/m) 121/126bpm
4) 1m - 8:48(8:48/m) 120/126bpm
5) 1m - 8:32(8:32/m) 122/125bpm
6) 0.04m - 27(10:36/m) 118/119bpm

Fantastic on the hill with the club

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 12:37(12:37/m) 133/193bpm
2) 1m - 8:47(8:47/m) 144/157bpm
3) 1m - 7:51(7:51/m) 128/138bpm
4) 1m - 9:32(9:32/m) 132/149bpm
5) 1m - 9:01(9:01/m) 132/144bpm
6) 1m - 9:18(9:18/m) 131/156bpm
7) 0.36m - 2:41(7:22/m) 119/126bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:48(9:48/m) 125/168bpm
2) 1m - 9:03(9:03/m) 127/131bpm
3) 1m - 9:25(9:25/m) 129/134bpm
4) 1m - 8:26(8:26/m) 127/135bpm
5) 1m - 10:29(10:29/m) 123/133bpm
6) 0.01m - 3(8:01/m) 107/107bpm

Split Summary
===
1) 1m - 9:32(9:32/m) 131/167bpm
2) 1m - 9:57(9:57/m) 142/158bpm
3) 1m - 12:20(12:20/m) 142/166bpm
4) 1m - 8:45(8:45/m) 130/145bpm
5) 1m - 7:40(7:40/m) 124/137bpm
6) 1m - 8:01(8:01/m) 136/143bpm
7) 1m - 8:23(8:23/m) 138/144bpm
8) 1m - 8:09(8:09/m) 136/142bpm
9) 1m - 8:15(8:15/m) 140/147bpm
10) 0.17m - 1:33(8:53/m) 135/139bpm