The Running Thread

[ewenm]

Smitters said:

I just had one of those runs - where you feel invincible, with unlimited leg strength and you just float round. Amazing. As long as I recover well, I'd say that's a guaranteed mojo for a week!

Nice

I had a great lunchtime run too. Sunshine, shorts and t-shirt, off road, 7.2mi in 46:38. Happy days.

[MC Bodge]

Smitters said:

Bound to get easier - adaption and all that. My main concern is that I run three times a week - I don't have time for more as I have a baby - so a double day represents great value for money, but also is quite a hike in mileage, which as we all know, is a recipe for injury.

I've just got a bunch of High5 tabs from Wiggle (on offer) so am now equipped to recover at the desk. Good to do the stroll to the water cooler too - to keep the legs ticking over.

I keep a log of my various exercise and my injuries have occurred when I have increased the mileage too quickly. I am currently trying to build it up at a sensible rate by increasing the distance a bit and frequency to every other day from every 3 days rather than banging out a 10 miler (which I could easily do cardio-wise) at this stage.

[Smitters]

ewenm said:

Nice

I had a great lunchtime run too. Sunshine, shorts and t-shirt, off road, 7.2mi in 46:38. Happy days.

Cheers. I did about that, only sub km for miles...!

MC Bodge said:

I keep a log of my various exercise and my injuries have occurred when I have increased the mileage too quickly. I am currently trying to build it up at a sensible rate by increasing the distance a bit and frequency to every other day from every 3 days rather than banging out a 10 miler (which I could easily do cardio-wise) at this stage.

I do the same - I have a spreadsheet of the distance, pace, HR and time. If I'm on plan for each bit of data, it gets coloured green, close, yellow, way off, red. Then, at a glance I can see if I'm being naughty and straying from plan, or being good. Theoretically red could indicate a run far too slow for my plan, but in reality, it highlights running too far and too fast at a glance.

[Craphouserat]

I have taken advice from the good people here and had my gait analysis done at a running shop rather than go into a generic sports shop and buy a pair of random shoes.

Tried on 4 pairs - never asked prices and although I paid double my £50 budget the pair that were recommended turned out to be the cheapest. A nice pair of green Asics.

Lumped in with with shorts and decent breathable tops and £200 is gone...but I want to do it right and investing in some gear I'm guessing can only help encourage me to get off my ass.

Couch to 5k begins this weekend - thanks for everyone's input.

[MC Bodge]

What was the verdict of the gait analysis or was it more a case of choosing the shoes that felt right?

Good luck! Don't over-do it. Do run lightly on your feet. Do concentrate on lifting your knees/flexing your hips -not flicking your heels out from your almost unmoving knees/hips like quite a few women around my way seem to do...

[MC Bodge]

Smitters said:

I do the same - I have a spreadsheet of the distance, pace, HR and time. If I'm on plan for each bit of data, it gets coloured green, close, yellow, way off, red. Then, at a glance I can see if I'm being naughty and straying from plan, or being good. Theoretically red could indicate a run far too slow for my plan, but in reality, it highlights running too far and too fast at a glance.i

Ooh, conditional formatting? I'll need to increase the complexity of my own spreadsheet! At the moment I just look at the gradient of my graphs on the various tabs...
My calves feel a bit tired (but not injured) this morning, but I have done Fairly strenuous biking for the past 3 days and 2 runs (flagging towards the end of last night's). It is a rest day today with a walk at lunchtime.

[RizzoTheRat]

Good work, decent trainers are well worth the money even if (like me) you're not doing a massive amount of running.

For shirts/shorts I find Trespass do some decent stuff at good prices, and Sports Direct now sell the Karimoor Run range which is sensibly priced. It is worth having proper "technical" stuff rather than trying to run a cotton t-shirt though.


Regarding my surprise earlier in thread that I should be training up to 16km ready for 10km races, I'm starting to see the point of longer training runs. did a couple of 8-9km runs (stop/start as need to mapread for Beat The Street) last week and then did my fastest Parkrun since last August on Saturday (still 40 seconds down on my PB but a good minute faster than anything I've managed over the winter). Did a fairly slow continuous 8km last night and felt pretty good for most of it. I think I'm starting to reach the point where I actually enjoy running

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Wednesday 18th March 09:32

[Craphouserat]

MC Bodge said:

What was the verdict of the gait analysis or was it more a case of choosing the shoes that felt right?

Good luck! Don't over-do it. Do run lightly on your feet. Do concentrate on lifting your knees/flexing your hips -not flicking your heels out from your almost unmoving knees/hips like quite a few women around my way seem to do...

Was told my overall running style is good - there was a bulge around my right ankle when I was in bare feet - basically found trainers that supported this and stopped it bulging out so much. The Asics felt the best and corrected the bulging.

Thanks for the advice re running posture.

Cheers.

[ewenm]

Just popped out for an early lunchbreak to do some hill reps. There's a 250m(ish) parkland grassy hill near here that is steep, uneven and muddy in places. The plan was to do 6 reps with jog back recovery but it turned into 2 sets of 3 reps as my original rep 4 got interrupted by a dog <sigh>. The session went OK, first one since my abortive Bath Half so I was a little tentative and hence the low number of reps. First set was 72s per rep, with 1m45s recovery. Second set was 74s/rep 1m45s rec.

[MC Bodge]

Good effort.

[krallicious]

I have eventually managed to shake the cold

Did my first run in 10 days and felt good. My lungs still feel like there is something blocking them from working at full capacity but an 8.3km, combined with cycling to the park and back, was enjoyable.

[Smitters]

Bah - I am guilty of ignoring the signs. Felt a bit tight in the chest after Friday's run home, then had a slightly sore throat on Tuesday, but went out and had that excellent run, which was pretty hard on the CV system on Tuesday. Full blown lurgy by Weds am, coughing gunk up and feel terrible.

On the plus side, it gives my niggles time to rest and I can still do stretching and core work, but on the minus side, I have a weeks holiday coming up and was looking forward to some nice, easy exploratory running. Damn lurgy. Daaaaaamn you!

Note to self. Don't ignore the signs.

[MC Bodge]

It is still going ok (fingers crossed) with the calf muscles.

I've not got a lot of speed back yet (and I'm resisting doing any short, hard intervals or hills at the moment), but did manage 7.5k @ 4:40-4:50min/km earlier, which is ok as a sustained pace for the time being.

My legs did feel start feeling a bit heavy towards the end, though, after having done a lunchtime session in the gym.

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 19th March 23:23

[MC Bodge]

MC Bodge said:

It is still going ok (fingers crossed) with the calf muscles.

...Athough the calf muscles are still getting stiff after doing sessions weights or running. I'd have expected them to be more conditioned by now.

Anybody else experienced this?

[fletch78]

Reading Half Marathon tomorrow, running for Macmillan.
Anyone else in the race?

FLETCH

[bigandclever]

Me

But I'll plodding along like an arthritic donkey, not racing

[fletch78]

bigandclever said:

Me

But I'll plodding along like an arthritic donkey, not racing

Haha, me too...all for charity, was aiming for under 2 hours, but after a recent hospital visit just aiming to finish, so reckon around 2h30...good luck

[honest_delboy]

I'll be there, quite handy for me as I work in Green PArk.

[lost in espace]

I have run 18 marathons so am not a newbie however would appreciate some advice.

Right so far in March on consecutive weekends I have run:

Cambridge boundary marathon, hilly, muddy, windy. 4.45
Cambridge half, very busy, flat 1.44
North London Vitality Half, hilly 1.48

I have this morning been for a 22 miler at about 10/11 minute miles. The runs listed above were done off the back of pretty shabby training, mainly 5 and 10ks.

Today's 22 miler was horrid, I was asked to run slowly with the group I was with, but it was a real tough one after about 17 miles. I have a low carb, high fat diet and find I don't really hit the wall, but my legs were like jelly. After yesterdays parkrun I got a bit dizzy, but I did push myself.

I am not sure if I should eat more (at least some!) carbs, or my legs were just tired from 3 weeks of tough running. I thought I was enjoying being sort of marathon fit, but today I am rethinking!

[anonymous-user]

lost in espace said:

I have run 18 marathons so am not a newbie however would appreciate some advice.

Right so far in March on consecutive weekends I have run:

Cambridge boundary marathon, hilly, muddy, windy. 4.45
Cambridge half, very busy, flat 1.44
North London Vitality Half, hilly 1.48

I have this morning been for a 22 miler at about 10/11 minute miles. The runs listed above were done off the back of pretty shabby training, mainly 5 and 10ks.

Today's 22 miler was horrid, I was asked to run slowly with the group I was with, but it was a real tough one after about 17 miles. I have a low carb, high fat diet and find I don't really hit the wall, but my legs were like jelly. After yesterdays parkrun I got a bit dizzy, but I did push myself.

I am not sure if I should eat more (at least some!) carbs, or my legs were just tired from 3 weeks of tough running. I thought I was enjoying being sort of marathon fit, but today I am rethinking!

I'd take a break!! There's a difference between marathon fit and doing a marathon, 2x halves and a 22 miler in consecutive weeks-plus the intensity of a park run and the training runs.

With that sort of racing schedule I'd recommend doing bugger all inbetween-and 3 long races/runs then a week off inbetween, unless this has worked well for you in the past?

Disclaimer: I'm not a coach and although I haven't stepped on a track in a while I still consider myself an 800m/1500m runner who does the occassional half marathon so after a half (I only do one a year) I take a full week of 5k easy runs every other day, so could be I'm being too cautious.