The Running Thread

[DJRC]

Pretty damn good.
We are 3 weeks in and half a stone down.

I didnt run friday, ran yesterday and took today off again. Someone around these parts said that I shouldnt be running everyday and the rest days were just as important. So having run 5 days out of 7 this week I think Ill live. Anyway, Im 3 weeks into this shindig and Im doing over 3km running everyday out of the 5.4km daily circuit. Monday the plan is that goes upto 3.6km but more importantly that is composed of 3 x 1200km sections with just one walk now between each block of running.

Im actually really quite shocked at what Ive managed in 3 weeks.

[Insanity Magnet]

DJRC said:

Insanity, fear not. Just follow Trooper and myself for examples of "less fit gentlemen" shall we say as we attempt to regain some kind of prime in life. Taking it easy is pretty much our motto!!!

Good luck with the BP.

Thanks DJRC.

I made a start today! Rather than be careful and look up couch-to-5k podcasts, I decided that I needed a little bit of exercise to wake me up this afternoon (this is after the F1 earlier - must be the drugs) so I went out for a plod around the fields. 18 minutes of 2 minutes on , 1 minute off, not fast and not very far, but didn't feel as bad as I thought I would. Maybe there's hope.

I found my HRM earlier, which somehow still had some battery left, and dug through the rather sparse training log on there. Last time I ran was June last year, with a total of two runs in 2011. I managed about 7 runs in 2010 and before that a few in mid 2009. Let's see if I can't have a better stab at things this time.

Edited by Insanity Magnet on Sunday 2nd September 21:02

[E38Ross]

DJRC said:

Pretty damn good.
We are 3 weeks in and half a stone down.

I didnt run friday, ran yesterday and took today off again. Someone around these parts said that I shouldnt be running everyday and the rest days were just as important. So having run 5 days out of 7 this week I think Ill live. Anyway, Im 3 weeks into this shindig and Im doing over 3km running everyday out of the 5.4km daily circuit. Monday the plan is that goes upto 3.6km but more importantly that is composed of 3 x 1200km sections with just one walk now between each block of running.

Im actually really quite shocked at what Ive managed in 3 weeks.

A big, genuine well done.

I wasn't suggesting you should run every day, merely commenting on that no running isn't bliss

Keep it going mate, it will be worth it.

Ewen - any news on that core stuff mate? Not meaning to hassle you

[AM04ARO]

Did an easy 5k which turned into a quick 5k. Started to push for the first time in weeks and felt out of breath for probably 3 of the 5k.

I am loving my new shoes as the only thing I have had to think about in the last couple of days has been my breathing. Getting my gait analysed has been the best thing I could have done.

[ewenm]

E38Ross said:

Ewen - any news on that core stuff mate? Not meaning to hassle you

Sorry, forgot about that! Timely reminder, thanks.

Key exercises:

• Posture awareness/lower back positioning - lower back squeeze and glut contractions (left and right independently) moving on to glut exercises.
• Pelvic Stability - side planks and crunches
• Squats and lunges when the above are all being done well.

Form is everything.

[InertialTooth45]

E38Ross said:

Well done InertialTooth45, good work. Really pleased for you.

Cheers mate, well done on your parkrun.

[DJRC]

Insanity Magnet said:

DJRC said:

Insanity, fear not. Just follow Trooper and myself for examples of "less fit gentlemen" shall we say as we attempt to regain some kind of prime in life. Taking it easy is pretty much our motto!!!

Good luck with the BP.

Thanks DJRC.

I made a start today! Rather than be careful and look up couch-to-5k podcasts, I decided that I needed a little bit of exercise to wake me up this afternoon (this is after the F1 earlier - must be the drugs) so I went out for a plod around the fields. 18 minutes of 2 minutes on , 1 minute off, not fast and not very far, but didn't feel as bad as I thought I would. Maybe there's hope.

I found my HRM earlier, which somehow still had some battery left, and dug through the rather sparse training log on there. Last time I ran was June last year, with a total of two runs in 2011. I managed about 7 runs in 2010 and before that a few in mid 2009. Let's see if I can't have a better stab at things this time.

Edited by Insanity Magnet on Sunday 2nd September 21:02

Insanity, no thats a good way to start. Im doing a bastardised form of the couch routine. My wife and I had a challenge of doing 5km run and we had 7 weeks to prep. She is doing the couch routine starting week 3, I am doing my own. I have a set route of 5.4km, which is basically a km there and back to a "lap" I do of 1.5km. I started off just walking the route each day on the first week. After that I have added another section of the "lap" to run to slowly build up going from more walking/less running to more running/less walking around the lap and eventually it will be no walking and running each lap fully. That combined with a diet aswell as based around veg and fruit, minimal pasta/carbs and a minimal mix of red and white meat. Also good for lowering the BP...the wife has me down as a heart attack candidate!

[onedsla]

ewenm said:

Thinking back to my Half Marathon PB, it too was run with a suicidal first 10k (31:05 => 65:35 pace) to hang on for 67:33 finish.

I just wouldn't recommend it

Nor would I, although my 10km road best was en route to my half marathon PB. My second best road 10km was in a 10M race. My actual 10km PB is 2-3 seconds slower.

Perhaps it's not such a crazy tactic after all? Certainly interesting that it's not uncommon.

[Insanity Magnet]

onedsla said:

Nor would I, although my 10km road best was en route to my half marathon PB. My second best road 10km was in a 10M race. My actual 10km PB is 2-3 seconds slower.

Perhaps it's not such a crazy tactic after all? Certainly interesting that it's not uncommon.

Another here. My 10k PB is about 3 seconds faster than my half marathon PB pace. (18 years and half a body's worth of lard ago, so not due revision any time soon...) The HM was one of those freak performances that I seem to remember would usually appear after a period out after a niggle.

ETA - 19 years - yikes.

Edited by Insanity Magnet on Monday 3rd September 15:11

Edited by Insanity Magnet on Monday 3rd September 21:51

[ewenm]

I think it just shows how we "experienced" runners are still rubbish at pace-judgement, both in terms of setting target pace and then sticking to plans in a "race" situation.

That said, there's a difference between racing and going for a time. If going for a time, I still think even (maybe slight negative) splits are best. If racing the risk/reward ratio is different - the risk of going hard and blowing up is closely balanced by the potential reward of hanging on for a win.

[Insanity Magnet]

DJRC said:

Insanity, no thats a good way to start. Im doing a bastardised form of the couch routine. My wife and I had a challenge of doing 5km run and we had 7 weeks to prep. She is doing the couch routine starting week 3, I am doing my own. I have a set route of 5.4km, which is basically a km there and back to a "lap" I do of 1.5km. I started off just walking the route each day on the first week. After that I have added another section of the "lap" to run to slowly build up going from more walking/less running to more running/less walking around the lap and eventually it will be no walking and running each lap fully. That combined with a diet aswell as based around veg and fruit, minimal pasta/carbs and a minimal mix of red and white meat. Also good for lowering the BP...the wife has me down as a heart attack candidate!

I'll try for another one later on today (work from home so able to take a little break). Interestingly, this morning I had my lowest BP reading since hypertension was diagnosed a few months ago (123/83 @64 BPM).

[DJRC]

So, week 4. Over half-way. Been dreading this week to be honest...it strings a lot of running time together.

I dont like being scared or worried. Especially by a poxy little thing like life. So I did the only thing I know how...decided to make the challenge more difficult and provoke myself to accomlish it out of spite.

So the session was extended another lap...out to 6.9km. And I ran the whole last lap, inc. the incline at the end. In total I ran 4.2km out of the 6.9 and did it in 43mins.

Im feeling just a little bit of pride at myself

[ewenm]

Good work! See, this running lark is easy

I did about 1hr55m mostly offroad yesterday, meeting some friends who were spending 2 days running ~50 miles of the Cotswold Way into Bath. I ran out along the route until meeting them and then running bak with them (carefully timed to avoid me running too far ). Nothing today (except a 20min walk to collect a finally healthy Caterham ) but doing my club's undulating 5k road time trial to prove fitness before the Midland 6 stage road relays.

Edited by ewenm on Monday 3rd September 20:09

[Locke]

ewenm said:

doing my club's undulating 5k road time trial to prove fitness before the Midland 6 stage road relays.

Edited by ewenm on Monday 3rd September 20:09

Good look, what is your target time Ewen?

[ewenm]

Locke said:

Good look, what is your target time Ewen?

Not sure really as I've done no speed work to get my pace judgement calibrated. It's not the easiest course - twisty and undulating so somewhere around 17:00 would be good (and secure me a spot in our relay first team I hope!).

[InertialTooth45]

I'd like some advice on putting together a training plan. I've been building my base fitness back up over the last 6 months and have now got to a point where my running is feeling nice and comfortable. In the last couple of weeks I've broken my set 5k and half marathon PB's of 24:30 and 1:57:30 and on Sunday am hoping to break the 50 minute 10k barrier.

My training up until now has been usually 3 sessions a week, one long gentle which has gradually increased up to half marathon, 1 quicker short distance, usually between 5 and 10k, and then the odd speed session thrown in.

My next long term goals are 1:40 half, 45 min 10k and 22 min 5k. Would also like to beat the 4 hour marathon next year too. I'm available most days to train so what would e a good format? More days training? More speed work?

Thanks in advance

[trooperiziz]

Supposed to be the final run of Week 7 for me on my current C25k plan tonight, however i'm planning on doing something different.
It's been 8 weeks since I started this running lark, and to get through the plan i've had to slow down my running pace significantly, I run much slower than my "natural" running pace.

Tonight i'm planning to up the pace considerably and see how I compare to what I used to do before I started taking this seriously. There is no way i'll be able to hang on for the full 25 minutes needed to move onto Week 8 of the plan, but it will be fun to see how much farther I can run than before I started. At least I hope I can run farther!

If by some miracle I do manage to get to 25 minutes before dying, then awesome, but that isn't going to happen. My natural running pace is around 10-11kph I think, i'm currently running at just over 8kph to get through the full 25 minutes without stopping.

This is going to kill me, I can't wait

[GR33NIE]

InertialTooth45 said:

I'd like some advice on putting together a training plan. I've been building my base fitness back up over the last 6 months and have now got to a point where my running is feeling nice and comfortable. In the last couple of weeks I've broken my set 5k and half marathon PB's of 24:30 and 1:57:30 and on Sunday am hoping to break the 50 minute 10k barrier.

My training up until now has been usually 3 sessions a week, one long gentle which has gradually increased up to half marathon, 1 quicker short distance, usually between 5 and 10k, and then the odd speed session thrown in.

My next long term goals are 1:40 half, 45 min 10k and 22 min 5k. Would also like to beat the 4 hour marathon next year too. I'm available most days to train so what would e a good format? More days training? More speed work?

Thanks in advance

I'm currently in a similar situation and have very similar times to these stated

More days training and more speed work I think is the key, I have a great book called 'The Lore Of Running' which contains some excellent training plans. For sub 50min 10K (comfortably) you need to be doing something like 1-3K 3 times a week (fast) 5-8K 2 times a week and one longer run which I normally go for on a Sunday. It sounds a killer but proved very effective for me!

[DJRC]

I think I discovered this "core stability" lark yesterday aswell. Cor, that helps a bit doesnt it?

[trooperiziz]

trooperiziz said:

Supposed to be the final run of Week 7 for me on my current C25k plan tonight, however i'm planning on doing something different.
It's been 8 weeks since I started this running lark, and to get through the plan i've had to slow down my running pace significantly, I run much slower than my "natural" running pace.

Tonight i'm planning to up the pace considerably and see how I compare to what I used to do before I started taking this seriously. There is no way i'll be able to hang on for the full 25 minutes needed to move onto Week 8 of the plan, but it will be fun to see how much farther I can run than before I started. At least I hope I can run farther!

If by some miracle I do manage to get to 25 minutes before dying, then awesome, but that isn't going to happen. My natural running pace is around 10-11kph I think, i'm currently running at just over 8kph to get through the full 25 minutes without stopping.

This is going to kill me, I can't wait

Heh, that run was interesting.

Managed 20 minutes before I gave in, with 2 walking stops in that. Ran for just over 7 minutes at my "natural" running pace which is about 10.5kph according to my garmin, had a walk, ran another 3 minutes at 8.5kph, had a walk, then ran just under 8 minutes again at 8.5kph.

Did 3k in 20 minutes, average speed of 9kph, average pace of 6:40 min/km, including the walking.
My first 1k was done in 5m41s

A long way to go to hit my 5k in 30 minutes goal though.

Back to the plan next run.