The Running Thread

[MC Bodge]

Dr Murdoch said:

Quick question...

What is the purpose of knee length socks?

I have a couple of pairs of More Mile ones and a pair of Aldi ones.

They may or may not have a health/recovery benefit, but they are comfortable and they probably won't do any harm.

I also have a pair of calf compression sleeves. They feel very pleasant when on and made my calf muscles feel secure when running when I was coming back from injury.

As somebody who has suffered with calf problems, I thought they were worth a try.

[Lotus Notes]

ewenm said:

Well done. I drove over to Vallorcine today and it must have been a tough loop out there too. Good work completing the marathon! That final section to La Flegere and then the 5k to the finish was tough enough with only 12k in my legs, never mind 30k+!

Thanks, I was happy to finish.

I think you fell foul to the altitude - You're already 12% down on O2 in the valley, never mind the 18% at the finish. If you ran it at the end of this week, you would noticeably improve.

[ewenm]

Lotus Notes said:

Thanks, I was happy to finish.

I think you fell foul to the altitude - You're already 12% down on O2 in the valley, never mind the 18% at the finish. If you ran it at the end of this week, you would noticeably improve.

Maybe... however I did a tough track session in Chamonix last Tuesday, and then felt great on a 8m/1000m+ run to La Flegere and back on Wednesday. Saturday I felt far worse than Wednesday. I did have a dreadful night's sleep, and the 8am start meant 5am breakfast which I struggled with.

[Lotus Notes]

ewenm said:

Maybe... however I did a tough track session in Chamonix last Tuesday, and then felt great on a 8m/1000m+ run to La Flegere and back on Wednesday. Saturday I felt far worse than Wednesday. I did have a dreadful night's sleep, and the 8am start meant 5am breakfast which I struggled with.

That's quite funny, I've been getting up at 5am for the past week to 'acclimatise' and hate it. But I can manage eating 1h30 before a race.
Pre-race nerves always mean a bad nights sleep..I need to get some help on this!

[ewenm]

Lotus Notes said:

That's quite funny, I've been getting up at 5am for the past week to 'acclimatise' and hate it. But I can manage eating 1h30 before a race.
Pre-race nerves always mean a bad nights sleep..I need to get some help on this!

I had the standard anxiety dreams/bad night worrying about my alarm etc. I get those even when I have to get up early for work, but it was much worse this time. Unfortunately being on a family holiday in Cham precluded any 5am acclimatisation for me. Interestingly the guy who finished 11th in the Cross had been up at 3am the day before as he was a major part of the support crew for his Inov8 teammate who won the 80km race. I was ahead of him in the track session... maybe that would have been better prep... up early then a long day in the hills.

[Dr Murdoch]

Change of training plan due to temperature (31 degrees), rather than tempo run I think a steady 10k.

Wise or am I being a girl?

[ewenm]

Get out early for your tempo while it's still cool.

[Dr Murdoch]

ewenm said:

Get out early for your tempo while it's still cool.

Cheers Ewen

Not really possible due to work and family constraints. Got an afternoon off today so its ideal time to go for a run, well ideal apart from the temp of course!.

I might take the first mile slow and then see how long I can maintain tempo pace, I doubt it will be nearly as far as I have been managing so far recently.

[The jiffle king]

For anyone running in the heat and concerned about it, I have quite a bit of experience having lived in Spain and now in Atlanta where temperatures are regularly 35C.

Most of it is common sense, but I'll spell it out:
- Go early or late as it's cooler
- Drink before during and after
- replace electrolytes, when it's really hot, water on it's own does not work
- Go a little slower
- Suncream...yes even for 40 minutes as the sweat amplifies the sun

Now the ones which I've learned from painful experience
- Stretch when you have re-hydrated. The muscles need water and it will help
- Adapt your session e.g. I don't do reps where I have to stop for 2 minutes as I just pour with sweat, so I run fartlek or tempo
- For a 10k run in 35C heat, I think I lose about 2 litres of water. 0.5L before, 0.5L during and then 3-4 pints afterwards
- 20 minutes cycle after the run does help remove the lactic acid but you need to keep drinking
- I'd wait at least an hour for alcohol

[Mark-C]

thelittleegg said:

Although I don't mind heat personally, I have noticed that high temperatures really hit both pace and HR when I look back at statistics from my Garmin.

I was going to do some hill repeats this afternoon, however now think a cross country 5-6 miles through the woods is going to win instead.

Yep running in the woods down by the canal works for me in this weather. Not an option for everyone though.

If somewhere shaded isn’t an option I just run as late as I can.

I wear my hydration pack whichever I’m doing.

[john2443]

Dr Murdoch said:

Change of training plan due to temperature (31 degrees), rather than tempo run I think a steady 10k.

Wise or am I being a girl?

We did 6x800 on the seafront at faster than 10k pace tonight - it was bloody warm! 10k in the same place in 2 weeks, hope it's a bit cooler by then.

[Cybertronian]

Likewise - didn't want the warm conditions to derail me.

Attempted 5x 800m at 5k pace but had to stop after 4x for fear of a blow-out. Managed to hit target pace for the session, so not a complete loss.

[MC Bodge]

I went for a medium paced run at lunchtime. It was quite warm (high 20s C) although I have run and ridden in hotter conditions abroad. It is just unusual to have such warm temps in NW England.

I drank a lot of water before the run and spent the afternoon trying to rehydrate.

My biggest problem was cooling down enough after the run, before chairing a meeting.

[Dr Murdoch]

The jiffle king said:

Useful stuffl

Thanks for sharing, I wasn't fully aware of the need for elecrolytes, amount of water and stretching once hydrated

I set off to do a temp run at 1pm yesterday (whats that about mad dogs and englishman?) and lasted about 1/2 mile at tempo pace before realising it wasn't gonna work, so I switched to a steady pace and increased the distance to 6mile.

Legs and body had had enough by the end, done twice that distance on Saturday with no real issues (apart from chaff-age, but I'll spare you the details..)

Edited by Dr Murdoch on Wednesday 1st July 11:54

[markh1973]

Dr Murdoch said:

The jiffle king said:

Useful stuffl

Thanks for sharing, I wasn't fully aware of the need for elecrolytes, amount of water and stretching once hydrated

I set at to do a temp run at 1pm yesterday (whats that about mad dogs and englishman?) and lasted about 1/2 mile at tempo pace before realsing it wasn't gonna work, so I switched to a steady pace and increased the distance to 6mile.

Legs and body had had enough by the end, done twice that distance on Saturday with no real issues (apart from chaffage, but I'll spare you the details..)

I have a race this evening - glad it's only a one mile relay lag as opposed to anything longer.

I did a hard 20k on Sunday morning and didn't fully appreciate how warm that had been - didn't stretch enough or refuel sufficiently so legs haven't been feeling great.

Have a 15 mile race on Sunday - not intending to run it hard as the week after I have my first marathon which I am also not intending to run hard.

Hope the temperatures have dropped a bit before the weekend

[ewenm]

Family plans meant a hot midday run down from Plan de l'Aiguille to Chamonix via Montenvers. https://www.strava.com/activities/336806238

[anonymous-user]

Normally run straight from work but currently waiting for it to cool before heading out later-didn't fancy running in the furnace of earlier!!

[ewenm]

Early morning run for me today, with a bit of climbing... https://www.strava.com/activities/337374160

Edit: Although I did take a tumble on the descent giving me some cyclist-esque gravel rash and now have aches and pains all over the place. The fact that some people can do that climb (3.8km length, 1km ascent) 20 minutes faster than I did it is incredible! So fit! Admittedly I wasn't racing it but even so I reckon I could have got to within 15 minutes of the record but no more!

Edited by ewenm on Friday 3rd July 21:25

[anonymous-user]

Years best 5k in an inter club race Tuesday evening , 19.15. Was on for sub 19 but the last k on grass took a bit too long.. Try again at a parkrun when it's a bit cooler!

[SpydieNut]

ok - so I'm off running for another 3-4 weeks. you may recall (or possibly not ) that I posted a few weeks ago about an ultra in South Africa. well my hip/top of my leg bone had been hurting for a few weeks before that run, so I gave it a fortnight off and it felt better - not right, but better. but I had everything booked, so I had to go and do it. after about the first 20 miles it got worse, but uphills weren't too bad. downhills were more painful and got more so as time went on. to the point I walked the last few hours (literally)

a week after and things weren't better - sooooo, long story short (ish), I went to see someone and had an x-ray and MRI scan - and have an early stress fracture of the top of my femur. but he said after 6 weeks of rest it should heal up fine and then I can get back into running.

oops . of course I'm now watching everyone getting out on these lovely days and feels quite envious.

but I have another small problem - completely unrelated, but that I hope someone could help me with. a couple of months ago I bought some foul-weather running gear - and love it, but I have managed to put a very small (1-2mm) hole in my softshell (Inov-8 Race Elite™ Softshell Pro Full Zip (AW15) ). The hole in the blue 'plasticky' material. It's low down on the left side, more on the back than the side, so I don't think it will affect the function at all, but I don't want to make it worse/larger, by continuing to use it while the hole is there.

I was wondering what I could use to patch or repair this, if anything. I've contacted the shop I bought it from - they don't think it can be repaired. I've e-mailed Inov-8, but haven't heard back from them yet.

I'm sure something like a bicycle puncture repair kit would be too harsh a glue to use and may well dissolve the plasticky material. Would a blob of silicon (etc) be OK, just to stop the hole getting larger with use over time?

I'd value any suggestions.

Many thanks