The Running Thread

[krallicious]

Wow, seems to have been a lot going on this weekend. Well done on the PBs.

I did the 3 Ländelauf in Basel on Sunday and it was an odd race. The course was changed at the last minute and went from flatish to a bit less flat which was quite hard work and the weather was quite bit hotter than forcast. I managed to nail the first 13km in well under an hour but I set off far too fast and the following 7km were horrible.

Kms 19 to 20 involved a big climb from the river to a bridge but the final 600m was all downhill. I beat my PB from the Frankfuter Half in March by over 4.5 minutes and ended with a 1.44.19. Legs are hurting to day though.

[marting]

35KM training run for me this Sunday. Not be best run but its the furthest I've been so far, it was a struggle towards the end.

The mojito flavoured gel did it for me, what a brilliant invention!!

[KTF]

Netley 10k at the weekend and a new PB of 40:56 beating my previous PB of 41:29 from last year from a 10k on a flatter course.

Not bad considering I wasn't planning to run it (my wife was but she was injured to I took her place) and its 3 weeks after London.

The marathon training has definitely had an impact on my overall fitness.

[SpydieNut]

marting said:

35KM training run for me this Sunday. Not be best run but its the furthest I've been so far, it was a struggle towards the end.

The mojito flavoured gel did it for me, what a brilliant invention!!

well done on the distance though - how did the Camelbak work for you?

on a personal note I think I've tweaked my right hip dammit . felt a bit achey on the runs last weekend, so left off until Wed, then just did 9.3 miles, but was more achey at the end . still slightly achey and I'm stressing a bit, as I have my ultra in 2 weeks time . so for the next few days it'll be having regular nsaids and stretching sessions and hopefully will come right.

bah - whoever said runners are always in 1 of 3 stages WRT injuries was right - they're either injured, just getting over an injury, or just about to have an injury

Edited by SpydieNut on Monday 18th May 16:26

[marting]

SpydieNut said:

well done on the distance though - how did the Camelbak work for you?

on a personal note I think I've tweaked my right hip dammit . felt a bit achey on the runs last weekend, so left off until Wed, then just did 9.3 miles, but was more achey at the end . still slightly achey and I'm stressing a bit, as I have my ultra in 2 weeks time . so for the next few days it'll be having regular nsaids and stretching sessions and hopefully will come right.

bah - whoever said runners are always in 1 of 3 stages WRT

The camelbak did the trick brilliantly thanks. I think I would have bonked without the water I was able to carry. Saw a few boy scouts by a river that I run along, they did call out and asked if I wanted to swap bags with their large backpacks.

How far is your ultra? That must take some training... Where do you find the time? I find it fine doing shorter runs in the week, but a LSR kind of kills my Sunday if I want to do any other than running.

[SpydieNut]

marting said:

SpydieNut said:

well done on the distance though - how did the Camelbak work for you?

on a personal note I think I've tweaked my right hip dammit . felt a bit achey on the runs last weekend, so left off until Wed, then just did 9.3 miles, but was more achey at the end . still slightly achey and I'm stressing a bit, as I have my ultra in 2 weeks time . so for the next few days it'll be having regular nsaids and stretching sessions and hopefully will come right.

bah - whoever said runners are always in 1 of 3 stages WRT

The camelbak did the trick brilliantly thanks. I think I would have bonked without the water I was able to carry. Saw a few boy scouts by a river that I run along, they did call out and asked if I wanted to swap bags with their large backpacks.

How far is your ultra? That must take some training... Where do you find the time? I find it fine doing shorter runs in the week, but a LSR kind of kills my Sunday if I want to do any other than running.

- very glad the Camelbak worked as well as expected smile - it makes longer training runs possible in ways that I just couldn't do by trying to carry a bottle of water etc. I don't get on with waistbands with water bottles in either.

I'm going back to South Africa next week, to run the Comrades on 31st May. I did the down run last year and so this year it's the up run. it's 56 miles and my time last year was 9 hrs 35min (which I was very pleased with, as my first attempt, although I was absolutely finished and the last 5 miles took about an hour . this year I expect to be slower (although apparently the up run is easier, as the quads take some fearful hammering on the downrun) as I've had a couple of injuries to get over in that time. so I'm just going to try and have a comfortable run and to finish it

i'll get back to working on pace etc once I get over this. I enjoy the shorter, faster runs much more, but there is something about the challenges of the longer runs that I enjoy too. I'm nowhere near as quick as many on here (and at 5'11" and 85 kg, am not really the ideal long distance runner's build), but I did do a 3hr 19min Manchester marathon a few wks ago, which I was pleased with. it's a very flat course though . i've already entered for next year and the aim is to try and get sub 3hr.

timewise - I run before work in the morning, when the roads are quiet (usually 4:15-5:30ish, around 10 miles) then longer runs, at the same time, on weekends

loving my new foul-weather running kit, as mentioned a few pages back, as it really opens up the days it's possible to train comfortably and safely. it's all too easy to get cold and wet and dangerously chilled when you're out on the roads/trails.

Edited by SpydieNut on Monday 18th May 16:36

[RizzoTheRat]

One of the guys from my local club's doing the Comrades too, looks like one hell of a race, good luck.

[SpydieNut]

RizzoTheRat said:

One of the guys from my local club's doing the Comrades too, looks like one hell of a race, good luck.

- thanks Rizzo!!

[marting]

SpydieNut said:

I'm going back to South Africa next week, to run the Comrades on 31st May. I did the down run last year and so this year it's the up run. it's 56 miles and my time last year was 9 hrs 35min (which I was very pleased with, as my first attempt, although I was absolutely finished and the last 5 miles took about an hour . this year I expect to be slower (although apparently the up run is easier, as the quads take some fearful hammering on the downrun) as I've had a couple of injuries to get over in that time. so I'm just going to try and have a comfortable run and to finish it

Good luck I look forward to hearing how it goes - there must be some interesting stories coming from an event that long and tough!

[SpydieNut]

marting said:

Good luck I look forward to hearing how it goes - there must be some interesting stories coming from an event that long and tough!

thanks Martin - will report back. the most amazing part of that run was the crowd support and the general atmosphere. it was just incredible. along virtually the entire route (and it's one long road, not laps) there are spectators, cheering you on, all day long. they set up picnics etc by the side of the road, some people bring music systems outside their house etc - it just makes the run. sure it's hard, but they help take your mind off the road. it's quite an emotional start and finish to be honest and like nothing I've done before.

[krallicious]

Good luck with the run Spydie.

Does anyone have suggestions for treating a bruised foot? I seem to have bruised the ball of my right foot. I think that my sock must have folded over on itself somehow and it now very tender. I also managed to pick up around 5 blisters on each foot which is a first. My new shoes were broken in before the half so I am struggling to find a cause as to why my feet are so bad.

[Smitters]

SpydieNut said:

marting said:

Good luck I look forward to hearing how it goes - there must be some interesting stories coming from an event that long and tough!

thanks Martin - will report back. the most amazing part of that run was the crowd support and the general atmosphere. it was just incredible. along virtually the entire route (and it's one long road, not laps) there are spectators, cheering you on, all day long. they set up picnics etc by the side of the road, some people bring music systems outside their house etc - it just makes the run. sure it's hard, but they help take your mind off the road. it's quite an emotional start and finish to be honest and like nothing I've done before.

Yes - definitely need a race report on this one. I'm planning to do it in 2020 for my 40th. I've done a few trail ultras and even snuck under 12 hours for 52 miles, but Comrades is something else and I don't want to be on the rivet for the last hour trying to beat a cut-off, so I'm giving myself a few years to build up and targeting somewhere between 9 and 10 hours.

[john2443]

Cybertronian said:

The race has measured long by about 50m on the previous 3 times I've run it.

If that's measured by Garmin it doesn't count for anything, they aren't accurate and the proper measuring takes the shortest route and a 10k should be plus 10m anyway to allow for measuring errors.

[ewenm]

john2443 said:

Cybertronian said:

The race has measured long by about 50m on the previous 3 times I've run it.

If that's measured by Garmin it doesn't count for anything, they aren't accurate and the proper measuring takes the shortest route and a 10k should be plus 10m anyway to allow for measuring errors.

On top of this remember the shortest route is not the same as the racing line. The shortest route will have lots of very angular turns in it between straight lines with very few of the curves you'd actually run.

[Cybertronian]

john2443 said:

If that's measured by Garmin it doesn't count for anything, they aren't accurate and the proper measuring takes the shortest route and a 10k should be plus 10m anyway to allow for measuring errors.

ewenm said:

On top of this remember the shortest route is not the same as the racing line. The shortest route will have lots of very angular turns in it between straight lines with very few of the curves you'd actually run.

That's fair enough. I can appreciate there's always a bit of margin for error built-in to make sure races aren't short.

But is there any defence for the race measuring short on mine and many other people's Garmins etc? Strava has plenty of activities logged at 6.1 miles and runbritain has pegged the difficulty at -0.2; almost everybody that's claimed their performance handicap has achieved a PB or a season's best.

[Smitters]

This is quite an amusing article on the subject of GPS... http://www.ultrarunning.com/featured/the-borg/

Just done a cheeky lunchtime effort, basically setting out hard, speeding up and segment hunting, resulting in a spectacular detonation with 200m to go on a 1100m segment. HR at 190, ego writing cheques the legs and lungs just couldn't cash! Time for some speedwork methinks.

How do more knowledgeable people feel about 12 x 500m efforts at 3.50/km with a view to a sub 20m 5k? Was thinking off two mins of slow jogging?

[Willy Nilly]

Smitters said:

How do more knowledgeable people feel about 12 x 500m efforts at 3.50/km with a view to a sub 20m 5k? Was thinking off two mins of slow jogging?

I'm in a club, we run on a Monday and it's a fairly informal session, so I treat this as a sort of tempo run. Pilates on a Tuesday. On a wednesday we are at the track doing various reps, for instance last week was 8x400 reps with starting at 5 minutes total time to run the remainder being recovery, I started at 1:13 running time, got to 1:08 and finished at 1:13 and started to feel faint, after each rep the recovery time was reduced. In the recovery bit we just keep moving about 'till the whistle goes again.

Basically, on a Wednesday I run flat out. The idea is for me to get used to running at a certain pace and using the speed work to get faster. My aim over winter and into the spring was to get under 18 minutes at Parkrun which I have now done (17:54) and I got 17:57 at our club 5k time trial. For my long steady distances I've been up to 24km and have sneaked the odd km at my target race pace. Also have been doing up to 6km on the beach in a 16km LSD run.

Whether or not this is the right approach, I don't know, but it has given me great results. I do try to just enjoy my running rather than obsessing over it and try to cheer my club mates on as we go long on club days.

[Smitters]

Cheers WN - I'm not in a club - a six month old means I have to train at unusual times sometimes - so no track access, but I figured I could find a loop of the right distance. I like to have sessions with a purpose as my time running is precious, so they have to count. I guess the simple truth is that to run faster, you have to run faster sometimes!

[MC Bodge]

Smitters said:

Cheers WN - I'm not in a club - a six month old means I have to train at unusual times sometimes - so no track access, but I figured I could find a loop of the right distance. I like to have sessions with a purpose as my time running is precious, so they have to count. I guess the simple truth is that to run faster, you have to run faster sometimes!

I'm similar. 2 young children mean that running is early morning, lunch time with colleagues or late at night. Cycling is mostly commuting (on an excellent route, admittedly).

I like the idea of doing Parkrun, but spending half of the morning out in order to do a 5K run isn't that appealing when I can get out for a decent bike ride or run from the front door before breakfast. For similar reasons, I rarely do any mountain biking these days.

I went out with a faster runner for the first time in a long while today which was good for me.

I've a long way to go to reach my target pace, but I have come a long way since suffering injuries every 10Km or so for the past few years.

[Smitters]

Agree re Parkrun MCB. My closest is a 30min drive, so hardly practical, but one on the doorstep, as mates of mine have would be different. Plus a burn up in a Saturday would kill my LSD Sunday run. However, I do think there's real value in taking your kids to it, to see people running for fun, so that may take priority when the ewe lad can run himself.