The Running Thread

The Running Thread

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MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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ewenm said:
How many times a week are you running?
At the moment, every other day, so 3-4 times (and 100 miles give-or-take of cycling). I'm still wary of pushing too hard and suffering calf problems, but intending to increase up to around 16k for a long run.

ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Standard 3-runs-a-week schedule:

Tue: Steady miles, mid-distance
Thu: Tempo/Intervals
Sat/Sun: Long slow miles
With a 4th run being another steady run.

The cycling will have an aerobic effect but in my experience it is limited unless you're doing a lot of hills.

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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ewenm said:
Standard 3-runs-a-week schedule:

Tue: Steady miles, mid-distance
Thu: Tempo/Intervals
Sat/Sun: Long slow miles
With a 4th run being another steady run.
I'm assuming that the "steady, mid-distance" is at a higher effort than the "long slow miles", but lower than "tempo".

I'll build the distance of the longer runs at at around 1km week to avoid over-stressing.

Tempo will probably make way for shorter, faster intervals as time goes on.


ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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yes

I use the speech definitions for paces:
Easy/Slow: can hold a conversation comfortably.
Steady: conversation harder but still possible. Short sentences.
Threshold: one word answers only.
Tempo/intervals: no chance!
thumbup

Cybertronian

1,516 posts

162 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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In need of a second opinion.

Registrations go live today for the IAAF World Half, due to take place in Cardiff over Easter weekend next March. I normally race a half around March time anyway, so this would tie-in nicely. A couple of cons though: it's £59 for unattached runners and has a field limit of 25,000.

I would likely be aiming for a 1:25 or better finish time, so congestion shouldn't be too bad early on and the boosted numbers may even help me in the later stages, providing people to work with. I've run the course several times and find it conducive to PBs if training has gone well.

I've got family in south Wales, so accommodation would not be an issue.

So, what do we think? Do it or don't do it?

Roger645

1,728 posts

246 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Cybertronian said:
In need of a second opinion.

Registrations go live today for the IAAF World Half, due to take place in Cardiff over Easter weekend next March. I normally race a half around March time anyway, so this would tie-in nicely. A couple of cons though: it's £59 for unattached runners and has a field limit of 25,000.

I would likely be aiming for a 1:25 or better finish time, so congestion shouldn't be too bad early on and the boosted numbers may even help me in the later stages, providing people to work with. I've run the course several times and find it conducive to PBs if training has gone well.

I've got family in south Wales, so accommodation would not be an issue.

So, what do we think? Do it or don't do it?
Do it! ok, price is a bit high but sounds like financially you are sorted for somewhere to stay.

ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Cybertronian said:
In need of a second opinion.

Registrations go live today for the IAAF World Half, due to take place in Cardiff over Easter weekend next March. I normally race a half around March time anyway, so this would tie-in nicely. A couple of cons though: it's £59 for unattached runners and has a field limit of 25,000.

I would likely be aiming for a 1:25 or better finish time, so congestion shouldn't be too bad early on and the boosted numbers may even help me in the later stages, providing people to work with. I've run the course several times and find it conducive to PBs if training has gone well.

I've got family in south Wales, so accommodation would not be an issue.

So, what do we think? Do it or don't do it?
Go for it but expect congestion at the start unless you elbow your way well forward. The Bath Half is ~15,000 runners and even just 20 rows back teammates of mine were complaining of early congestion.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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You should see what the Bath Half is like at the back for us biffs then!!! It doesnt start thining out until you are on Upper Bristol Road...

I cant think of anything better than being in the the World Half, an event like that is going to be quite special.

Cybertronian

1,516 posts

162 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll do it because I think I'd only regret it otherwise.

I do wonder what they'll do, if anything, to the course to accommodate another 10,000+ runners. There are a few pinch points on the route (first mile and mile 6ish).

There's a cheeky £4 admin fee thrown in as well to bring it up to just shy of £64 for entry...

Roger645

1,728 posts

246 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Cybertronian said:
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll do it because I think I'd only regret it otherwise.

I do wonder what they'll do, if anything, to the course to accommodate another 10,000+ runners. There are a few pinch points on the route (first mile and mile 6ish).

There's a cheeky £4 admin fee thrown in as well to bring it up to just shy of £64 for entry...
Ouch, must have taken their pricing strategy from the Royal Parks events!

Cybertronian

1,516 posts

162 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Tell me about it! Better result in a PB or I'll have paid for a super expensive training run.

Earned double brownie points with the Mrs, though, where she gets to see her folks for Easter next year and she piped up with, "Oh. I guess that means a spring marathon is out of the question for you then?"

ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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Session tonight 4x6min efforts round Bath Uni campus with approx 3 min recovery run. Distance covered was between 1.09 and 1.15 miles per rep. Felt ok but tired due to too much work!

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
quotequote all
ewenm said:
yes

I use the speech definitions for paces:
Easy/Slow: can hold a conversation comfortably.
Steady: conversation harder but still possible. Short sentences.
Threshold: one word answers only.
Tempo/intervals: no chance!
thumbup
Good stuff.

Having just been for a 7.5k run with a mate, I can confirm that a steady average of 152bpm is comfortable conversation level, which surprised me a little. I could presumably keep Going at that effort for a very long time.

Throwing in a couple of short sprints didn't result in my legs falling off either.

Encouraging, but must not over-do it....

Thinking about it, The HRM may be useful for gauging effort (and progress) on a long, slow run, but less so for anything involving speed or harder efforts.

Edited by MC Bodge on Saturday 28th March 09:32

MC Bodge

21,552 posts

174 months

Saturday 28th March 2015
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Encouraged by the previous run (and starting to re-read The Art of Running Faster) I decided to do a fartlek session to do a bit of faster running and get a feel for how slow I am at the moment.

I warmed up and just ran hard to arbitrary targets (lamp posts, trees, road junctions) at various distances, with slower recoveries.

I felt slow, with little power, but discovered that I'd still allegedly managed a Strava 5k Effort of 22:10 in the middle, despite the fast-slow efforts and averaged mid 4's/km -I'm quite pleased with that at this stage, having not done any speed work or runs of more than 8.5km since September.



Ps. The HRM didn't appear to go above 171bpm (even after multiple hard efforts over a few hindered metres), but I'm not convinced that was accurate -it has erroneously shown 170-odd in the past whilst walking...

Edited by MC Bodge on Saturday 28th March 16:51

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Saturday 28th March 2015
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ewenm said:
The cycling will have an aerobic effect but in my experience it is limited unless you're doing a lot of hills.
Hello Ewen, my experience of mixing running with cycling was always pretty positive, but I know a lot of people that disagreed with me at the time.

With the hills I found that because you're not supporting your body weight on the bike, blood flow is better so you can go very lactic on a climb and then recover. I could always do more lactic acid tolerance type stuff on the bike as a result, which was great for 800m/1500m training. it's like doing 4 x 200m until you're sick and can't move, but being able to get up and do it again another three or four times.

The aerobic effect I found pretty good too, but I was a runner that never managed to string more than 5 hours running a week together without getting injured. I ran my best when I was in good running shape, had an injury and spent three months cycling and cross-training in the gym. I went from doing 5-6 hours a week running to consistently doing 10-15 hours of aerobic work over that period. It made a huge difference. I picked up the injury before Christmas and didn't run at all from January until March time, I did something like 6 miles first week back, 14 the next, 30 the week after with one of the quickest short legs at the Northern 12 Stage on the Saturday of the third week.

That was a result miles better than anything I'd achieved before, PB for 5k is something like 15.11 and that race I was faster than people that were running low 14s at the time for perspective. Most people, myself included, didn't think I'd make the team at the trials the week before.

I could never have done that level of aerobic work just running and I'd concede that if I had I probably would have been faster, but for a lot of us aerobic fitness is the limiting factor and it's limited by how much running the body can take.

I did find it far more beneficial to do more shorter rides, 90 mins to 2 hours, rather than very long rides that leave you completely wiped. And I found it quite difficult to balance training around racing as it's very easy to leave yourself heavy legged if you're not careful.

What seemed to work was no bike for 3 days before a minor race. For important races I'd cut out training rides for 10 days, as the start of a taper, but I would try to exercise twice a day for the week before the race to keep legs loose. That would be something like 80% of the running I was doing + 30 mins very very very steady flat cycling in the evening.

Christ I miss running and racing now I think back. Must make more of an effort to get fit again this year....

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Sunday 29th March 2015
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Braintree 5 Mile in 30:31, came 13th. Yay. Not run a 5 mile road race before so didn't know what pace to rn at but it went well

KTF

9,788 posts

149 months

Sunday 29th March 2015
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22 miles in the wind and rain with a 7:55avg. Last mile was a 7:30 which is a bit keen really.

Still, that's the longest training run for London out the way with a 20 miler next week then tapering from there.

eric twinge

1,614 posts

221 months

Sunday 29th March 2015
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21.5 miles for me today with a 9 min per mile average which was pretty slow but it was cold, wet and windy in southampton this morning. Really struggled at the end. I'll do a 22 miler in the new forest next week for a change of scenery and then start tapering back for the VLM.

KTF

9,788 posts

149 months

Monday 30th March 2015
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What do the other long runs for your taper look like?

On my plan, the longest run (22) was yesterday then the remainder are 20, 18, 12, and the Marathon.

Smitters

3,995 posts

156 months

Monday 30th March 2015
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I have a Garmin Fenix and it's sat acquisition is variable at best and no better than the FR305 it replaced. Somewhere between me putting it on a windowsill and then running straight off, to having to do some light stretching and jogging on the spot as I'm too OCD to let it connect as and when it wants. Holding the watch by the train window seems the least worst solution...

Re bike GPS vs iPhone (I know, O/T) Aldi are doing basic bike Garmins for super cheap next week I think. Like sub £100... doubt it has HR, but then neither does the iPhone.

Also, I still have lurgy. sore lungs. Time to see a doc.
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