The Running Thread

[Roger645]

KTF said:

What about the forerunner 310. £112 from amazon at the moment which is a bargain for what it does:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Forerunner-310XT-Mu...

Agree, they are a great bit of kit and have used one before, unfortunately I have a credit note from the original retailer as the Fenix was 8 months old when I returned it so they wouldn't do a refund. Good suggestion though, thanks.

[marting]

Do the Garmins and Suunto Ambits all require periodic syncing to get their QuickGPSfix data in sync?

My tomtom watch is really irritating that I need to sync it with my phone every couple of days to ensure it picks up a GPS signal quickly.

[anonymous-user]

Dan_1981 said:

In very very basic terms can someone explain a decent running technique.

I keep reading and hearing all about heel strike and other such terms.

Which bit of your foot should hit the floor?

What should your arms be doing?

Any decent breathing techniques? I find my self "panting" pretty easily.

Ball of your foot should strike the ground underneath your hips; not further forward than that; and drive backwards.

Arms bent at the elbow and moving forward/aft. Not crossing across your chest.

If you're panting easily, your pace is probably too fast. Find a pace that allows you to run for 30-40 mins and be able to conduct a conversation at the same time. Start slow, build up. A Garmin/Suunto GPS watch is very useful for this - it will tell you your pace (eg minutes per km or mile) on the fly. Running too fast is pretty common, but you want to build from a slow base, both in terms of running generally (lessens impact, allows you to concentrate on form and avoid injury) and specific runs (aim to negative split - run the second half faster then the first - which is indicative of fitness and form holding over the run).

[cannondale]

Roger645 said:

Anyone here using a Suunto Ambit as the running watch? Having just returned my Garmin Fenix due to its appalling software glitches I'm looking for a new watch and these seem to get good reviews.

I use the Ambit 3 to track my running and can't fault it. Picks up satellites fairly quickly and the uploading to the Movescount site and ease of linking to Strava makes it really worthwhile.

The watch is a good looking watch and it's worn every day all day. Just don't look directly at it in the middle of the night when you use the back light!! It's a bloody good light!

[anonymous-user]

Another Ambit (2S) fan here. I especially like the way you can customise the metics to be displayed under each activity, and that it can pass as a watch if need be. Even used it for the first time this week for open water swimming (under my cap) - quite interesting to see how close I was to a straight line.

[ewenm]

33rd in the TeamGB Trial race for the World Mountain Running champs today. Wet course with a nasty hill to be climbed 3 times. Pretty happy with that run overall. Good chat with others over the weekend has given me better focus and good training ideas.

https://www.strava.com/activities/374773811

[cwis]

Greg66 said:

Arms bent at the elbow and moving forward/aft. Not crossing across your chest.

I was crossing my chest slightly and held my hands high up - I kept my arms lower today and kept my hands wider than my chest - and didn't get a stitch in my ribs for the first time (ever) while running.

My shoulders seemed further back, I was more upright and breathing was easier and slower. I had to concentrate on keeping my cadence down rather than up!

Many thanks! Such a simple tip too!

[AbzST64]

Well after thinking I had got over my injury I asked about last week regarding a calf strain/pulled muscle I ran my first race in over a year.
Was a 5k hill race with roughly 150m ascent / descent, I finished 14th Overall and 6th in age category (Mens Senior, im 31) with a time of just over 23mins. That was with pulling my calf muscle AGAIN at about 3.5k so just ran through pain to the finish! Winner was 18mins in a course record.
Happy with the result especially knowing I should have been able to go faster without injury!
Now to book into physio as meant to have a 10k race in 2 weekends time so not sure if my leg will be recovered in time!

[ewenm]

AbzST64 said:

Well after thinking I had got over my injury I asked about last week regarding a calf strain/pulled muscle I ran my first race in over a year.
Was a 5k hill race with roughly 150m ascent / descent, I finished 14th Overall and 6th in age category (Mens Senior, im 31) with a time of just over 23mins. That was with pulling my calf muscle AGAIN at about 3.5k so just ran through pain to the finish! Winner was 18mins in a course record.
Happy with the result especially knowing I should have been able to go faster without injury!
Now to book into physio as meant to have a 10k race in 2 weekends time so not sure if my leg will be recovered in time!

Well done. That's a high proportion of U20s/V40+ in the top few to have 8 of them ahead of you! Hope you can recover before the 10k.

[boyse7en]

Did my first-ever split long run yesterday and I'm suffering this morning.

Did 13.5 miles in the pouring rain running to work, worked 7 hours then ran 10 miles home in the blazing sunshine.

Quads are really stiff and it hurts when I sit down or stand up

[AbzST64]

ewenm said:

Well done. That's a high proportion of U20s/V40+ in the top few to have 8 of them ahead of you! Hope you can recover before the 10k.

Thanks. Yeah im waiting for the official result list which will tell me who was in front, I do remember a couple of young boys (think one finished 2nd).
Just looked at your strava you linked earlier...wow great running!!

[ewenm]

AbzST64 said:

Thanks. Yeah im waiting for the official result list which will tell me who was in front, I do remember a couple of young boys (think one finished 2nd).
Just looked at your strava you linked earlier...wow great running!!

And yet I was still 8:40 off the winner and 5:30 off challenging for GB selection so need to be at least 10% quicker! Lots of work to be done over this winter. I still need to do the analysis of how many V35 runners were ahead of me as I'm racing the V35 category in the World Masters Mountain Running champs on 12th Sept, so it'll be useful info for benchmarking (I'm 39).

[Foliage]

cwis said:

Greg66 said:

Arms bent at the elbow and moving forward/aft. Not crossing across your chest.

I was crossing my chest slightly and held my hands high up - I kept my arms lower today and kept my hands wider than my chest - and didn't get a stitch in my ribs for the first time (ever) while running.

My shoulders seemed further back, I was more upright and breathing was easier and slower. I had to concentrate on keeping my cadence down rather than up!

Many thanks! Such a simple tip too!

I try and keep my hands near my hip bone/just above my pockets but a bit more round my front, if that makes sense.

[MC Bodge]

AbzST64 said:

Well after thinking I had got over my injury I asked about last week regarding a calf strain/pulled muscle I ran my first race in over a year.
Was a 5k hill race with roughly 150m ascent / descent, I finished 14th Overall and 6th in age category (Mens Senior, im 31) with a time of just over 23mins. That was with pulling my calf muscle AGAIN at about 3.5k so just ran through pain to the finish! Winner was 18mins in a course record.
Happy with the result especially knowing I should have been able to go faster without injury!
Now to book into physio as meant to have a 10k race in 2 weekends time so not sure if my leg will be recovered in time!

Ouch. Good luck

[marting]

I'm still training for my first marathon and I'm about 5 weeks till D-Day.

I'm pretty confident I can do the distance, I've been up to about 35km in the past.
However various reasons I wasn't able to get out on my long run this weekend and I wont be able to next weekend (hopefully I can do on the bank hol). Running for ~3hrs in the week isn't easily doable either.

I've been able to run ~4 other sessions each week, but weekends are a struggle as of late. Am I risking a lot by missing my LSR? Is it time to get up at 4am to fit one in? :S

[Gargamel]

marting said:

I'm still training for my first marathon and I'm about 5 weeks till D-Day.

I'm pretty confident I can do the distance, I've been up to about 35km in the past.
However various reasons I wasn't able to get out on my long run this weekend and I wont be able to next weekend (hopefully I can do on the bank hol). Running for ~3hrs in the week isn't easily doable either.

I've been able to run ~4 other sessions each week, but weekends are a struggle as of late. Am I risking a lot by missing my LSR? Is it time to get up at 4am to fit one in? :S

Five weeks to go, assuming you won't want a long run in the last two weeks then that leaves you three weeks to get them in.

15 m
18 m
20 m

That's what I ran when I trained for a marathon as my last three long (slowish) runs. I was doing a short recovery run the next day then two other sessions in the week (hills and speed)

So I reckon you need to get up and get the miles in ! You will regret it if you don't

[cwis]

Foliage said:

I try and keep my hands near my hip bone/just above my pockets but a bit more round my front, if that makes sense.

It does.

My hands were moving up and down (moobs to ribs) and inwards. I guess this pulled my shoulders forwards and inwards.

I'm now trying to keep my forearms flat and parallel. I probably look a right tt but who cares!

[marting]

Gargamel said:

Five weeks to go, assuming you won't want a long run in the last two weeks then that leaves you three weeks to get them in.

15 m
18 m
20 m

That's what I ran when I trained for a marathon as my last three long (slowish) runs. I was doing a short recovery run the next day then two other sessions in the week (hills and speed)

So I reckon you need to get up and get the miles in ! You will regret it if you don't

Thanks Gargamel, I think I'm going to see if I can squeeze my long slow run into a early morning session this week... Knew it was a mistake committing to my first marathon a few weeks before I get married Good excuse to avoid in some of the wedmin though

You mention a two week taper, the plan I'm following seems to include the following in the final weeks 20m, 12m, 8m, D-Day. Would you recommend a longer taper, is it too much to be doing 8m the weekend before the race?

[ewenm]

cwis said:

It does.

My hands were moving up and down (moobs to ribs) and inwards. I guess this pulled my shoulders forwards and inwards.

I'm now trying to keep my forearms flat and parallel. I probably look a right tt but who cares!

Normal advice is elbows bent at 90deg, swing from relaxed shoulders, hands relaxed not clenched, all motion in the direction (plane) of travel, no sideways motion at all.

[Smitters]

Top running this weekend by the sounds of things. I managed to finally get out on Sunday avo for an 18km long run. With nine weeks until my marathon, it's suddently quite a distance jump!

I'm also interested in the taper time. I was planning on racing, and had set a three week taper, but now I'm just getting round. Worth cutting the taper to two weeks to give a slower build up in LSD?