The Running Thread

[RUNAMOK]

Did my second half marathon yesterday - Retford Half Marathon. Finished in 1hr36, pretty pleased, faster than my previous attempt. Mrs did it in 1hr41 and that was her first! Pretty nice course, when we weren't on main roads.

[MC Bodge]

The jiffle king said:

That's a really tricky question and my experience of runners is that we try to do too much too soon.

I would build the base miles back up slowly and then gradually introduce the speedwork, starting with less intense at the start (3 x 1 mile reps) before moving to the quicker 8 x 400m over time. For me, the tempo runs are what really helps and I'd introduce these slowly once the steady miles are fine.

Cheers.

I know I need to be patient. I was tempted to go faster last night, but resisted.

I think I'll aim for 2-3 x 5 km and 1 x 6km ( increasing gradually to 10k) per week before doing any speed work.

[cerb4.5lee]

RUNAMOK said:

Did my second half marathon yesterday - Retford Half Marathon. Finished in 1hr36, pretty pleased, faster than my previous attempt. Mrs did it in 1hr41 and that was her first! Pretty nice course, when we weren't on main roads.

Both great times A friend of mine was running in that one too I reckon I should do it next year as its not that far from me.

I am doing the Sheffield half in april but I am only looking at doing it in just less than two hours though but looking forward to it.

[markh1973]

The jiffle king said:

cerb4.5lee said:

markh1973 said:

My wife did her first HM yesterday - Lydd - with a team raising money for our son's school. Her target was to get under 2.30 which she did finishing in 2:16:48.

Good stuff and I bet she is well chuffed with that.

Great time!! My wife did her first half in 2:12.... then within 4 years ran a 1:43 half and a 3:42 marathon which just goes to show what you can do on 3 days a week.

She was very pleased indeed.

Eldest boy won the kids race beforehand too so that was nice.

I can't run at the moment having torn ligaments in my knee skiing so am getting my running boosts vicariously.

Exercise bike arrives on Wednesday so at least I will be able to maintain some level of fitness.

[cerb4.5lee]

markh1973 said:

The jiffle king said:

cerb4.5lee said:

markh1973 said:

My wife did her first HM yesterday - Lydd - with a team raising money for our son's school. Her target was to get under 2.30 which she did finishing in 2:16:48.

Good stuff and I bet she is well chuffed with that.

Great time!! My wife did her first half in 2:12.... then within 4 years ran a 1:43 half and a 3:42 marathon which just goes to show what you can do on 3 days a week.

She was very pleased indeed.

Eldest boy won the kids race beforehand too so that was nice.

I can't run at the moment having torn ligaments in my knee skiing so am getting my running boosts vicariously.

Exercise bike arrives on Wednesday so at least I will be able to maintain some level of fitness.

Sorry to hear about the injury to the knee and I used to love going skiing but not been for over ten years now and it does always seem to be a risky pastime but it is so rewarding and great fun to do.

You sound like you have a lovely sporty family.

[RizzoTheRat]

Need some training plan advice. Planning to do a few more 10k's this year, having done the 3 race Yately series with a PB of about 61 minutes last year, so plenty of room for improvement, but I've only ever run 10k 4 times in my life.

Aiming to do 3 runs a week, one of them being parkrun (but I can cycle to it, 14km round trip for some cross training), so leaves me 2 training runs a week. What sort of distance should I be aiming to get up to to improve my 10k time? Presumably I should be doing a bit more than 10k at least once a week, and some form of intervals another day?

There seem to be hundreds of 10k plans around but I'm not a serious enough runner to change other things in my life to fit around a running plan, and the Mrs is training for the London marathon so I don't want to be doing her distances

[The jiffle king]

RizzoTheRat said:

Need some training plan advice. Planning to do a few more 10k's this year, having done the 3 race Yately series with a PB of about 61 minutes last year, so plenty of room for improvement, but I've only ever run 10k 4 times in my life.

Aiming to do 3 runs a week, one of them being parkrun (but I can cycle to it, 14km round trip for some cross training), so leaves me 2 training runs a week. What sort of distance should I be aiming to get up to to improve my 10k time? Presumably I should be doing a bit more than 10k at least once a week, and some form of intervals another day?

There seem to be hundreds of 10k plans around but I'm not a serious enough runner to change other things in my life to fit around a running plan, and the Mrs is training for the London marathon so I don't want to be doing her distances

1 x long run, 1 x speed and 1 x tempo

Build the long run up to 10+ miles over 10-12 weeks and you'll have the stamina you need... build by 1 mile per week max!!

The tempo run is your park run, although you really should try to do 4-5 miles on a tempo if you can (do it before the start of the race)

Speedwork - to get your legs moving quickly. after warming up I suggest a mix of 4 x 1 mile reps, 6 x 800m reps and 8-12 400m reps with 1-2 minutes rest between reps

[MC Bodge]

The jiffle king said:

1 x long run, 1 x speed and 1 x tempo

Build the long run up to 10+ miles over 10-12 weeks and you'll have the stamina you need... build by 1 mile per week max!!

The tempo run is your park run, although you really should try to do 4-5 miles on a tempo if you can (do it before the start of the race)

Speedwork - to get your legs moving quickly. after warming up I suggest a mix of 4 x 1 mile reps, 6 x 800m reps and 8-12 400m reps with 1-2 minutes rest between reps

I would also suggest running multi-terrain/off-road too (with hills), if you get the chance.

Don't go too hard with the speed work, as I have done in the past.....

[The jiffle king]

MC Bodge said:

I would also suggest running multi-terrain/off-road too (with hills), if you get the chance.

Don't go too hard with the speed work, as I have done in the past.....

Great addition, multi-terrain makes it more interesting and start slowly with the speedwork... please take heed of this as too many people get injured by going crazy on speed work.

Had a lovely 5.5 miles this morning, it's crisp outside and was glorious at 0630 this morning

[RizzoTheRat]

10 miles = 16km, to be honest that's further than I was expecting to prep for a 10km race. First one's 10 weeks away so plenty of time to build up to it. Did 8.5km (slowly) on Monday which was the first time I'd done more than 5km in probably 5 or 6 months. I'm thinking a couple of weeks of building my distance up a bit before I start doing some speed sessions, does that make sense?

Interesting point on terrain, I did a couple of cross country 5kms last year and find them way more fun than a road run. Definitely need to practice on hills too, even shallow ones kill me at the moment.

Entered a 10x1km relay with the Mrs, several 10k's to do, Endure 24 and possibly a couple of 5 milers so I need to do a lot more training this year.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Wednesday 11th March 09:52

[The jiffle king]

RizzoTheRat said:

10 miles = 16km, to be honest that's further than I was expecting to prep for a 10km race. First one's 10 weeks away so plenty of time to build up to it. Did 8.5km (slowly) on Monday which was the first time I'd done more than 5km in probably 5 or 6 months. I'm thinking a couple of weeks of building my distance up a bit before I start doing some speed sessions, does that make sense?

Entered a 10x1km relay with the Mrs, several 10k's to do, Endure 24 and possibly a couple of 5 milers so I need to do a lot more training this year.

Hi

You don't have to do 10 miles, it will just improve your stamina. 8 miles would also work but at 10 miles, you'll have the deep stamina for the last 2k. Agree with building up the miles slowly and then introducing speedwork.
I think you're doing Yateley 10K series. I've run that before and it's a good course, but quite tight at the start.

Let us know how you get on with the build up of miles

[RizzoTheRat]

Yeah, ran the Yateley series last year so that's the one I want to beat a time one. Frimley hospital 10k is the first one though, and apparently a bit hillier.

On a separate note, I downloaded the "Zombies, Run!" app on my phone the other day, 2 episodes in so far and getting in to the story, makes for a nice alternative to just listening to some music on you run, and with the option Zombie chases it forces you do a a speed session every so often. I'd recommend it to any "casual" runners. Quite funny jogging along with the Mrs the other night when she suddenly yelled "Crap, Zombies!" and sprinted off in to the distance

[The jiffle king]

RizzoTheRat said:

Yeah, ran the Yateley series last year so that's the one I want to beat a time one. Frimley hospital 10k is the first one though, and apparently a bit hillier.

I've done Frimley as well a few years back and it's not flat, but it's not the hilliest. The fastest one locally is the Datchet Dash which is at Dorney lake and is pancake flat, but this year they are doing a different event in Windsor Great park.

The Shinfield 10k which is usually on the May day holiday Monday is usually good with just a small climb at 4k and then downhill after that

[RizzoTheRat]

The Mrs did the womens 10k in Windsor great park last year, there's at least one decent hill as we found it a good place to heckle spectate from

Shinfield's the day after Frimley, don't think I'll be doing that one.

[ewenm]

Combination of too much work and a cold means I've only run twice this week, both my usual 5.5 mile run-commute. Today was good though, PB on the route and I think maybe a Strava CR on a 1 mile uphill segment although I won't know until I download the details later.

192 days until main target race!

[Craphouserat]

Guys

Apologies I have not read this thread...slightly large ! Basically I want to start running.....mainly to get my fitness levels up and try and lose some weight. I have a very bad back ( couple of spinal ops and possibly more ), never ran before.

Can you recommend a decent pair of trainers for approx £50-£70 - don't want to spend too much just in case my back cannot take it.

Any basic advice much appreciated.

[KTF]

Craphouserat said:

Can you recommend a decent pair of trainers for approx £50-£70 - don't want to spend too much just in case my back cannot take it.

There is no 'best' as it depends on your running style. Go to a local running shop and have an analysis done then see what ones they recommend.

[ewenm]

Craphouserat said:

Guys

Apologies I have not read this thread...slightly large ! Basically I want to start running.....mainly to get my fitness levels up and try and lose some weight. I have a very bad back ( couple of spinal ops and possibly more ), never ran before.

Can you recommend a decent pair of trainers for approx £50-£70 - don't want to spend too much just in case my back cannot take it.

Any basic advice much appreciated.

The key thing with trainers is to get a pair that fit your feet properly. Obviously you need to try them on to do that. I recommend trying to find a local specialist running shop (not JJB/JD/etc) and talking to them about it.

For a beginners training plan, look up "Couch to 5k". For motivation, look up parkrun! Lots of people start running with those two.

Hope the back responds well to it.

[Craphouserat]

ewenm said:

The key thing with trainers is to get a pair that fit your feet properly. Obviously you need to try them on to do that. I recommend trying to find a local specialist running shop (not JJB/JD/etc) and talking to them about it.

For a beginners training plan, look up "Couch to 5k". For motivation, look up parkrun! Lots of people start running with those two.

Hope the back responds well to it.

Magic....thanks for that.

ONly one runnning shop near me that i've been told is massively expensive...but I will go with advice I think and have a word with them. Better speaking to someone who knows as opposed to a spotty teenager who couldn't care less in JD !

CHeers

[ewenm]

Craphouserat said:

Magic....thanks for that.

ONly one runnning shop near me that i've been told is massively expensive...but I will go with advice I think and have a word with them. Better speaking to someone who knows as opposed to a spotty teenager who couldn't care less in JD !

CHeers

Even if you just talk to the running shop guys to find out what brand fits your foot, it's worth it. Obviously I'd suggest you buy from them as you've used their time and expertise, but you can usually find the previous version of the same shoe at the online retailers a bit cheaper.

One thing some people do is buy their first pair from their running shop but then get subsequent pairs cheaper online...