Congrats on another massive PB today Posted by GaryQQQ
haha is that a wee rubdown Gary?
If not, I'll take it as one as I deserve it.
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I've noticed over the years that myself, and occasionally a certain other diary owner whos name begins with L, ends in 180 and has ambert in the middle, are always quick to post when we have something to brag about, not so much when things don't go according to plan.
Seems that applies to my running as well as cards. Apoliogies.
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No PB yesterday, but I guess it was the 2nd best result, in that I didn't run.
So my streak is still alive.
The problem was I woke really really tired.
And my legs felt a little weak.
After the 10 miler on Thursday I probably shouldn't have gone swimming on Friday, but I thought a steady 40 lengths would relax my muscles more than anything.
Turns out I was wrong, and although I was up in tme yesterday I really wasn't feeling good.
So 10% with the race date and injury prevention in mind, and 90% coz I'm a lazy POS, I decided to skip Park Run this week.
Actually it's probably more like 0.5%/99.5% in favour of lazyness if I'm honest. ugh. poor from me.
There's nothing wrong with taking an unscheduled rest day, in fact it's recommended. It's important to listen to your body and act accordingly. Forcing yourself out when tired or unwell is unwise. No training schedule is set in stone, to be followed rigidly no matter what.
When I posted yesterday I had just opened Parkrun results page and saw your name with 'PB' next to it. Unfortunately I didn't notice it hadn't been updated and that I was looking at last weeks results. Sorry about that.
I'm a week ahead of you race-wise. I'm running in the Bridwater Half Marathon a week today. I'm not tapering much because the marathon is my main focus, and it's only 10 weeks away now. I succesfully mananged my first 20 mile long-run on Friday, in the heat of the day, on far from fresh legs, so very happy with that. My plan is to run as usual up to and including Wednesday (8 miles easy today, rest Monday, 7 miles with speedwork on Tuesday, 10 miles easy on Wednesday). Then I'm going to cut-back. 3 miles at race pace on Thursday, rather than my usual 5. Another 3 miles at race pace on Friday instead of a long run.
In the tapering phase I always run on all my usual days, I find I feel stale if I skip entire runs, or jog around at a ridiculously slow pace. I prefer to go out as usual but reduce the distance run. I avoid bombing it around too fast, but ticking-over at race pace, or close to it, for a while leaves me feeling sharp and keen to race.
Saturday is always a rest day for me. I can't participate in park runs unfortunately because they start during my work hours.
Today I took the advice of Matt, which was seconded by Gary, to do one last endurance run 11 days before race day.
It didn't really go according to plan, the idea was to just do a steady 10 mile and feel good about it.
In the end I did a steady 10 mile and I feel really bad about it.
Ill get my excuses out of the way first...
Long term readers will know I have some sort of (still undiagnosed) fatigue problem.
So far this week, and lots of last, it's been really bad again. I go through stages where I can stay on top of it, and stages where it gets me down.
Lately it's started to win again.
I was close to cancelling the run and "doing it tomorrow" but as they say tomorrow is always the busiest day of the week.
And theres every chance I will feel like this on the big race day and then there is no tomorrow......
So I had to drag myself up and out.
I think this is where I went wrong, I totally overlooked the warm up, I did 2 or 3 token stretches and then started jogging.
4 or 5 miles in it became really heavy work. Literally, my legs felt like they were carrying extra weight.
My feet hurt, my calfs started aching, my joints felt stiff, overall it was just very tough going.
Every stride felt like a real effort.
Energy wise I felt ok, at the end I wasnt overly exhausted but my legs were!!!
It was also deceptively hot on the route. That didn't help.
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So all in all not the best final preperation.
But what's done is done, theres nothing I can do about it now.
I'm just going to have to dig in and battle on, that's the part of running hate whilst its happening but the feeling afterwards is amazing and makes it all worth it.
It's going to be nip and tuck. 11 days to go......
Well, we know this much now; you can manage to run 10 of the required 13.1 miles even if you're having a bad day.
The 10 mile point in a half-marathon is just a parkrun to go. Even if you're having another bad day you'll be able to squeeze out the extra 5K to complete the course. You'll be so close to that tough target you set months ago that's there's no way you're gonna stop now. Just a parkrun away, that's how close you'll be. You can do it, and will do it. Dig deep and get it done. The pain is only temporary. The pride you'll get from finishing will last forever.
What's more likely is you won't be having a bad day and you'll be loving life as you power home in that final parkrun, passing runners who went out too fast and are now paying the price.
My suggestion for race day pacing is this. Go out at an easy pace that you know you can maintain to 10 miles. Maybe slightly slower than you set off in the 10K. When you get to 10 miles see how you feel. If you all is well, and you feel up to it, then put your foot on the gas and pick it up, finish in style. If you feel rough, just jog home from there.
Maybe yesterday wasn't such a bad thing after all, as it's left me in no doubts about what lies ahead.
It's certainly washed away any potential thoughts of over-confidence.
In a sick kind of way I'm looking forward to hitting that wall around 10 miles just so I can smash through it and overcome the biggest challenge in my biggest challenge at the end of 1 huge challenge.
Bring on the pain !!!!!
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This morning I received another of those lovely emails telling me someone had donated to my justgiving page.
I'm not 100% sure but I think it may be another long term thread contributor and origional Team Dohx7 member, TheDart. AKA (in some parts at least) Cameron.
If so, thank you so much matey, such a generous donation, which has made my day.
Massively thankful to you and everyone else who's been kind enough to donate so far.
And congrats to yourself and fellow thread Stokees, Alan, Elliot, and...welll....stoke....on the cracking signing of Bony, once one of the prems most prolific strikers over a big sample. Hopefully he finds his way back to that sort of form again.
Could well be the deal of the Xfer window.
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Once I add a few offline donations I've received the total will be around £300, which is a massive result for the charity.
Myself and Jennie at the Sanctuary are so greatful for all your support.
Each day that goes by the emotions get abit stronger, nerves, fear, trepidation, desire, will to succeed and the overwhelming emotion of Excitementtttttttt.
Lets goooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!
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(on the negatives, monthly poker results tomorrow....)
And you have nothing to worry about there Alan, mini Fergie seems to have got us playing.
Even our main striker, who once said "I need 6 or 7 chances to score one goal" netted a hat trick at the weekend.
Not posted for a while, but I have been lurking and have enjoyed following your impressive progress.
There are so many positives from how you have approached 2016, I sincerely hope you continue to reap the benefits.
As for Stoke City, as football fans we are all different, but I agree that Bony looks to be a great signing for Stoke, if his hunger is there, he is just the type of player we have been missing.
Nevermind run good, just keep on running captain :-)
Always forget the poker stuff in here seems to be what people are least interested in
Can't blame you tbh, 100 hours for -30 quid isn't the most exciting read.
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Anyway on the positives, back to park run this morning.
I have to admit, recently I've not been enjoying running as much as I once did, the training has gotten tough and repetative, running within myself for 2 hour periods has gotten abit boring.
But the park run today definitely brought the buzz back.
I love the challenge of taking on last weeks PB, it's relatively short, fast, and we get to that love/hate period of hitting the wall after 20 mins instead of 2 hours.
I'm pleased to report an eigth successive PB, taking 27 seconds off the last one.
I'm now @ 25 mins 57 seconds, exactly 7 minutes quicker than my first attempt 2 months and 1 day ago.
It hurt alot today from a long way out but I loved every second of it
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Almost exactly a week to go until the big day.
It's getting quite scary, 16 months of work has gone into it, fighting off alcoholism, depression, agorophobia, chronic anxiety, mystery fatigue conditions, obesity (ok still working on this one) and being a lazy so d.
Scary that I might actually complete the journey.
But even scarier that I might not.....
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As I said when I started the fund raising, this week I'm going to be playing some poker with the profits/cashes (?) going towards the total, see if we can get up to the target.
The first 'Mayflower Games' will be the DTD comps (along with a few others) on Monday night.
Hopefully see some of the threadites at the tables there.
Still lurking JJ good luck with the big run how far you have got shouldn't be defined by how you do on a single run, progress is progress, just get that mental picture of the people that wrote you off ready for when you hit the wall lol. wpwp on the new pb as well.
Poker wise what do you think is the reason behind the losing month,standard at 20nl improved? runbad? 100 hours of husngs>cash imo do you do any study/ review your hh's (a grind on sky i know) if you don't check out screencastify it's really useful and you can 2x the speed so plough through reviews.
Once a party poop.r always a party poop.r I'm afraid. (which as you've just been walking the pooch I thought was an apt segway in, although apparently I'm not allowed to say it on the forum). To try to go from one extreme (never exercised) to another (half marathon) isn't just ambitious it's totally stupid. (GELDY sitting on the fence as usual). I went from an occasional game of tennis via 3k runs to 5k runs several times a week. Next stop crutches as both my achilles rebelled against it. (And I've run a half marathon before! ) You are doing great. If somehow a half marathon happens then amazing. But to ruin all that great improvement through hairbrained objectives would be so upsetting. So regardless of how much well meaning support you get for it hit that nail on its head. A 10k city run would be an awesome objective in itself, something I've had to give up the idea of ever doing anytime soon, but if you want a stretch objective then go for that, nothing more. Posted by GELDY
Been away for a bit but this was one of the first threads that I had a proper catch up with. I have to say that I'm seriously impressed.
You have come such a long way since the last time I read. You had a few doubters, some more so than others, but most of us knew you could do this.
If you hit the 10 mile mark in sheer agony and are doubting if you have the strength to carry on, then you have the highlighted comment by GELDY to push you on through the final 3 miles.
I have just given my donation. I'm not sure if the doubters have or will be donating as well, but perhaps they should whilst eating a big slice of humble pie.
Best of luck with the half marathon. I'm assuming it's the London Marathon next year, Ironman 2018 then off to Tokyo??
Those tedious slower miles you describe are the foundation of your success. They've built and maintained your aerobic fitness, which in turn gives you the ability to go faster for short periods. All sensible runners, even Mo Farah, will do most of their training (say 80% of it) at a pace that feels relatively easy. Pushing too hard all the time is a common mistake that brings worse results and a higher risk of injury. Well done for not falling into that trap.
A couple of suggestions that might help; whenever possible try new routes. A change of scenery works wonders. Get off road if possible. Canal tow-paths, footpaths, cycle routes, old railway beds, trails, stuff like that. Don't be afraid of hilly places. The pace is unimportant, and conquering hills might give you some of that love/hate pain you mention. For ideas find local people, fellow park-runners maybe, on Strava who have public profiles and see where they run. Secondly, are you into podcasts? A lot of people listen to their favourite podcasts while out on their long run, definitely recommended, a much better distraction than music, the time seems to pass so much quicker.
Thanks Rik for the donation, very generous mate. And for the kind words.
Hope your return to the forum and the felt is an enjoyable and profitable one
I knew in the back of my mind what Geldy (and my own father) said back when I started the challenge. I appreciated their honesty, I've often thought about it during training.
I didn't realise his words were so strong though, haha. Thanks for bumping that.
Hopefully I can prove him and my old man wrong, the latter especially as he will be there at the finishing line.
He can get the drinks in after
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Thanks again for the tips Gary.
I tried mixing up the route the other day as I have some wheels now.
I drove 20 mins away from home to run down some country lanes and by a canal.
Then when I was 4 miles from the car I got soaked to the skin lol.
Strava is a top idea ! I will get on that.
As for podcasts I've never really gotten in to them. I have a short attention span, something that's often cost me at poker. Especially in mtts when hours of good work can be undone by 1 lapse of concentration.
So I tend to prefer music as I can drift off into a train of thought without missing much.
I've found that with running I'll often think "oh god this is boring what am I going to think about for the next 4 miles? zzzz"
Then the next thing I've realised 3 miles have passed and I cant remember anything about it.
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Stoke, thank you for being so kind mate.
Don't worry about donating, I remember a good 9/10 months ago it was your own comments specifically (and those of Tomo and Geldy iirc) which spurred me on to make a doctors appointment and get this whole thing going.
Without that inspirational post I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this close to achieving my goal so you've played a huge part in getting me here. Ty sir. Hopefully see you in DTD on Monday!
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@ben, ty mate, and thanks again for your earlier Donation
The poor month I'd attribute abit to run bad (the first half specifically) abit to struggling to adjust to the games on here, and abit to just generally not playing very well.
fwiw I was down $450 on bwin/party, so I mustve ended up a chunk on here pre rakeback.
Its just one of those things, I reckon I'll be able to crack it. But losing/break even months are going to happen. Just sucks it happened in my first month but it's made me more confident if anything.
Graph looking boss! i'm clueless in regards to standard swings at cash but yeah would hazard a guess 20bi over a decent sample is bound to happen. Defo reccomend the reviewing if only a short bit of time like half hour/hour a week, id saythis whether you had your best month ever or worst month, personally feel like it accelerated my progress in game a huge amount once i did it regularly rather than just every few months when i ran really bad and thought i had forgotten how to play poker , watching/listening to boss players on twitch defo counts as well as long as the poker brain is ticking over.
Graph looking boss! i'm clueless in regards to standard swings at cash but yeah would hazard a guess 20bi over a decent sample is bound to happen. Defo reccomend the reviewing if only a short bit of time like half hour/hour a week, id saythis whether you had your best month ever or worst month, personally feel like it accelerated my progress in game a huge amount once i did it regularly rather than just every few months when i ran really bad and thought i had forgotten how to play poker , watching/listening to boss players on twitch defo counts as well as long as the poker brain is ticking over. Posted by benc
Defo cash > sngs on sky at the minute. JJ has the game to beat a relatively shallow downswing I know sky regs that have lost a lot more before turning it around.
Having transitioned from husngs to cash I wouldn't go back the other way other than to have a few fun games. The main reason being that the lobby is cluttered with regs from pretty much 6am to midnight, some very good ones too so you really have to fight for the right to sit and wait for a rec/weaker player to join. Even a competent player who is a bit rusty at husngs will struggle with someone who is atuned to playing hundreds of them every day.
Plus cash really is a purer form of the game and much more skillfull imo.
JJ good luck with your run on Sunday, I will be following from a distance with interest.
Yep agreed it's a very tough enviroment these days at mid-high stakes, the lower stakes not so much though imo, i'd hazard a guess anyone who is competent hu could defo beat lower stakes games on here for a nice profit over a decent sample and maybe print a better hourly multiitabling than at 20nl (again clueless about standard profit over decent sample so could be completely wrong). I've never played cash properly so have no idea about a standard downswing etc etc but having followed this for ages i'm sure dohh has been crushing cash whenever he has put the hours in so wasn't suggesting a sudden switch because of a losing month just know dohh has dabbled in the past and i'm always going to be championing the hu way of life, and yeah nothing pure about bingo shovefest poker:) hope the cash tables are treating you well Ace.
I remember the old "no skill in shovefests" lines. haha.
It's probably the most misunderstood format of poker, people have no idea just how much skill there is in playing sub 8xbb even.
It is a fun and interesting format no doubt. But theres alot of off putting things about it, the main one for me would probably be the lack of action, plus the rake. I remember sitting for 30/40 mins accross £5-20 turbos/speeds one night and didn't get a game between 8pm and 9pm.
That's obviously quite rare but I'd imagine it's quite frustrating still especially if the lobbies are as AceGoon suggests.
The answer is of course to get better so that you can sit all these good players comfortably and win, but I'm not that good.
Cash action here is really good. I should be beating it. And I think I will....
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However, tonight is a fun MTT night.
I'm going to play the 3 DTDs as part of 1 man Team Mayflower, all cashes will be going onto the total, as well as cashes from some other mtts on here, £5 freezeouts/turbo £2 speed rebuy, maybe the mini etc.
Lets see if I can get some binks to get the total rolling.
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Exciting week ahead, and then a weeks holiday up in Scotland next Monday/Tuesday. Lifes good
Comments
Saturday is always a rest day for me. I can't participate in park runs unfortunately because they start during my work hours.
It was also deceptively hot on the route. That didn't help.
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Thanks again xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/woofwoofx
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Rakeback & promotions = +£122.50
Hopefully see some of the threadites at the tables there.
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Then the next thing I've realised 3 miles have passed and I cant remember anything about it.
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This was last month on bwin...
http://imgur.com/a/zHN0y
http://imgur.com/a/JKwo5