The Running Thread Vol 2

[Cybertronian]

84:54 at a very cold Brass Monkey Half up in York. Thrilled to bits, especially because I knew it was touch and go whether I'd be able to get under 85 minutes. Almost a 2 minute PB since my last half marathon in October

[Smitters]

F**king shin splits from running on the roads too much at work. Darkness, a head torch and the home trails, soft and squishy, beckon.

Bah.

[naturals]

wiggy001 said:

So my TomTom Runner 2 Cardio with Music turned up early and I was able to give it a test run over my usual 5k. Here are my very quick pros and cons (considering I've previously been using the Strava app on my iPhone.

Pros:

- It's pretty simple to use and fairly intuitive
- The screen is easy to read whilst running (and I run without my glasses on!). In the config you say what metrics you want to see bottom left and bottom right, which always appear. When running you can push up and down to change the main metric (eg so you can should distance and pace permanently and flick through heart rate, time etc in the main display as you run)
- Despite feeling a little "stiff" when I first tried it, the 4 way button used to navigate the menus works well (even with running gloves on)
- It seems like it has a lot more features that I need right now, but will be useful in the future
- The GPS route/distance seems to be pretty similar to that given by Strava.
- If you have the TomTom phone app running and bluetooth switched on the run will sync with your TomTom account immediately (although it's a little slow to be honest). It then automatically sync'd with my Strava account which I wasn't expecting (I'm not yet sure if that is because the tomtom software was running on my laptop, as I thought you needed to use the PC/Mac app to sync to Strava etc). Anyway, with my setup I had my run on Strava within a few minutes of finishing my run.

Cons:
- When you finish a run (by holding left once to pause then again to finish) you get no summary of the run. If you want to view it on the watch you need to go back in through the menus to find the run
- The TomTom software isn't great. But I don't intend to use it as I use Strava.
- You need to remove the watch from the strap in order to charge it, which doesn't feel like it should be necessary and may, over time, cause the strap to weaken with constant removal.

Overall, and with no other watch to compare to, I am impressed.

Now a quick question. I'm 37 and running 2 or 3 5ks a week at around 5:30-5:50 pace (to give an idea of fitness). My heart rate on this 5k run was around 130 for the first 2.5k then rose to around 180 and stayed between 180 and 197! Whilst at 180 I wasn't maxxed out at all (my pace was steady for the whole 5k). Given the formulas for max heart rate of 220-age, that suggests I have the heart of a 20 year old, which I'm pretty sure I don't.

Any thoughts?

I agree on the annoyance of having to go back into Run > History to see your finish time. A small run summary would be a great addition.

Re: Charging, there's no need to remove the watch from the strap on the standard Runner Cardio. The strap bends up slightly, leaving the back exposed enough to clip into the dock.

On the heart rate, 197 sounds high at 37. I'm 33 and rarely hit more than 193/194. You should lose a beat or two a minute from your max per year and as far as I know maximum heart rate isn't related to health (though obviously the cardio output at that heart rate will vary based on fitness). Initially I was hitting high 190's which seemed wrong (source: training partner who is a heart surgeon). He suggested trying the watch on the other wrist. Seemed to give me much more accurate readings of 193/194 max.

[ewenm]

Cybertronian said:

84:54 at a very cold Brass Monkey Half up in York. Thrilled to bits, especially because I knew it was touch and go whether I'd be able to get under 85 minutes. Almost a 2 minute PB since my last half marathon in October

Well done Andy!

[ewenm]

wiggy001 said:

I probably wouldn't try for consecutive days and I think the general consensus is that you should avoid doing the same exercise 2 days running. If you want to do something maybe mix it up with something else?

I'm sure others that know what they are talking about could better advise though!

Depends what you're trying to achieve. Competitive runners tend to run at least 6 days a week, often far more than that, but their goal is competition and performance. If the goal is general fitness and/or weight control, then it may well be better to have a more varied program.

[Cybertronian]

ewenm said:

Well done Andy!

Cheers Ewen!

Noticed a real deficiency in race pace yesterday, so I'm going to spend a bit more time in the next 2 months ahead of the World Half Champs to try and really nail that down. At £59, it's the most expensive race I've ever entered, so it'd be nice to try and get something positive out of it!

[Gargamel]

£59... I hope the T shirt is made of rubies or something...

A fair chunk of cash to go for a Jog

85 Minute half mara that is a decent pace. Congrats on your PB

[johnwilliams77]

Thanks to a lot of the good advice posted on this thread and seeing the amount of people talking about running I am a recent C25K grad and have done 2 weeks of 30mins runs (3.2miles each time). Once my partner catches up, we plan to follow the training plan to 10km using the 10k app. I will also do my first park run this weekend. I will aim for the average speed for the run of 27mins...

12 weeks ago before I started this I was a good couple of stone heavier (I got the flu in the middle) and I am now around 86kg (powerfully built!), I am not massively concerned if a BMI scale says I am obese, I just want to have a bit lower % of bf. I have also been cycling most days to work which no doubt helps a bit in this quest and cut out alcohol. I have been no angel though, plenty (perhaps too many), 'cheat' days!

[NordicCrankShaft]

For some reason I've agreed to do a half marathon with all my mates. I've managed over the last 2 weeks to run a grand total of 25. The biggest problem I have at the moment is getting out of the house to run because we've had snow on and off for the last two weeks.

The marathon is on 6th March, is it an unreasonable goal to set myself to be half marathon ready in the next 6 weeks? Bearing in mind up until this plan I haven't done any proper running in years but I am quick active with Squash, skiing and mountain biking.

[ewenm]

Cybertronian said:

Cheers Ewen!

Noticed a real deficiency in race pace yesterday, so I'm going to spend a bit more time in the next 2 months ahead of the World Half Champs to try and really nail that down. At £59, it's the most expensive race I've ever entered, so it'd be nice to try and get something positive out of it!

Bloody hell! £59! Hope it goes well. The guy who won the race I did on Sat is targeting Cardiff too with I assume a target of 68ish. Given how he's going at the moment, that should be well within his grasp.

[Cybertronian]

Gargamel said:

£59... I hope the T shirt is made of rubies or something...

A fair chunk of cash to go for a Jog

85 Minute half mara that is a decent pace. Congrats on your PB

ewenm said:

Bloody hell! £59! Hope it goes well. The guy who won the race I did on Sat is targeting Cardiff too with I assume a target of 68ish. Given how he's going at the moment, that should be well within his grasp.

Cheers, Gargamel! The PB has made my other distance PBs look completely soft - I now need to find an extra 30 seconds from somewhere to realign my 5k times...

It's not as bad as the Great Manchester Run at £38 for just a 10k! But yeah, still pricey. I paid full price as an unattached runner for an extra sting, whereas my club runner pals received a £5 discount. Had I have waited to enter, I'd have actually received £10 off for also participating in last October's Cardiff Half...

The in-laws are from around the area, so I've not got to factor in accommodation or food costs, and we were due to be there over Easter anyway, so multiple birds with one stone.

[Cybertronian]

NordicCrankShaft said:

For some reason I've agreed to do a half marathon with all my mates. I've managed over the last 2 weeks to run a grand total of 25. The biggest problem I have at the moment is getting out of the house to run because we've had snow on and off for the last two weeks.

The marathon is on 6th March, is it an unreasonable goal to set myself to be half marathon ready in the next 6 weeks? Bearing in mind up until this plan I haven't done any proper running in years but I am quick active with Squash, skiing and mountain biking.

You'll probably find you have a decent cardiovascular system from the other sports you're active in. For you, the biggest challenge is staying injury free in the next 6 weeks from a base of little running (hopefully the squash has given you some injury resilience).

If your goal is purely to complete a half marathon and be happy with the completion, then I think 6 weeks is enough time to get you to the start line and through the finish line. Or did you want to try and go for a time, and if so, what would that be?

[markh1973]

johnwilliams77 said:

Thanks to a lot of the good advice posted on this thread and seeing the amount of people talking about running I am a recent C25K grad and have done 2 weeks of 30mins runs (3.2miles each time). Once my partner catches up, we plan to follow the training plan to 10km using the 10k app. I will also do my first park run this weekend. I will aim for the average speed for the run of 27mins...

12 weeks ago before I started this I was a good couple of stone heavier (I got the flu in the middle) and I am now around 86kg (powerfully built!), I am not massively concerned if a BMI scale says I am obese, I just want to have a bit lower % of bf. I have also been cycling most days to work which no doubt helps a bit in this quest and cut out alcohol. I have been no angel though, plenty (perhaps too many), 'cheat' days!

Sounds good

If you've been running marginally over parkrun distance in 30 minutes aiming for a 27 minute parkrun is a big reduction.

What's the parkrun course like (surface, hills etc) compared to your normal running route.

[Foliage]

markh1973 said:

Sounds good

If you've been running marginally over parkrun distance in 30 minutes aiming for a 27 minute parkrun is a big reduction.

What's the parkrun course like (surface, hills etc) compared to your normal running route.

My local park run has stairs in the route, STAIRS... I refuse to enter.

[egor110]

Smitters said:

F**king shin splits from running on the roads too much at work. Darkness, a head torch and the home trails, soft and squishy, beckon.

Bah.

what do you do that requires running on the road for a job?

[AndStilliRise]

Current problem is that i can not get my HR high enough to train effectively. For the previous 2 weeks, through sprinting or spinning i can not seem to get it above 168. This could be holding me back.

Today I did 1 mile w/u and then 5 miles @6:40 pace and everything was below 168. Although the pace was testing.

Does anyone have any idea how i can train my legs without using the engine?

[johnwilliams77]

egor110 said:

what do you do that requires running on the road for a job?

Not sure if that was an attempt at a joke but I am quite sure he means running near his place of work, i.e. lunch breaks or after work, on roads.

[onedsla]

AndStilliRise said:

Current problem is that i can not get my HR high enough to train effectively. For the previous 2 weeks, through sprinting or spinning i can not seem to get it above 168. This could be holding me back.

Today I did 1 mile w/u and then 5 miles @6:40 pace and everything was below 168. Although the pace was testing.

Does anyone have any idea how i can train my legs without using the engine?

What is your max HR and why do you feel that staying below 168bpm for a 6 mile run is not effective training?

Nothing short of a sustained max effort (very hard to do on your own) of around 10 minute duration is likely to get close to your max HR. Training at different intensities serves different purposes. As discussed above, general aerobic effort (easy pace) may be right for the majority of your running, with a day or two involving either a sustained hard effort or several shorter but faster intervals with short recoveries.

[anonymous-user]

Just finished a really hard group run with the local club. 8 miles at a 6:47 average with some fairly quick sections in there.

Some of it wasn't so clever, like charging into the bottom of a long hill at sub 6 minute mile pace right in the middle of the run, but it's always good fun when there's a group of you hitting a good pace!

[The jiffle king]

cookie118 said:

Just finished a really hard group run with the local club. 8 miles at a 6:47 average with some fairly quick sections in there.

Some of it wasn't so clever, like charging into the bottom of a long hill at sub 6 minute mile pace right in the middle of the run, but it's always good fun when there's a group of you hitting a good pace!

That type of run really can inspire as you end up doing a session you were not expecting but it feels like you are part of a collective of like minded people... good pace!!