The Running Thread

[VladD]

Carlton Banks said:

It is a half marathon though....do you still suggest 14 miles?

I'd say 12 to 14 if you can. You need to get your body used to covering the distance and if you can do a little more, then so much the better. Better to be over prepared than under.

I should point out that I'm no expert, but looking at training plans I've done recently, this is what I'd try and do.

Edited by VladD on Monday 11th May 10:51

[MC Bodge]

Carlton Banks said:

Firstly, finish the race without dying.

Beating my PB (2hrs) would also be good!

Just that really.

Don't train or race too hard.

[VladD]

krallicious said:

VladD said:

Is it muscle pain or joint pain? If it's joint, try taking Glucosamine. I have a friend who runs who swears by it.

It's a dull ache just under my hip. Feels almost like bruising on the bone if that makes sense.

Just ordered some so I will report back. Thanks for the tip.

I'm suffering a bit from this myself now, so have done some more research.

Runners World said:

If you have tight leg muscles and feel a dull ache on the outside of your hip during or after a run, you could have bursitis, an inflammation of the fluid-filled sacks that lubricate your joints. Bursitis is caused by overuse, or a tight hamstring or iliotibial band (the ligament that runs along the outside of the thigh). You may feel a dull ache, burning, rubbing, or popping sensation on the outside of your hip. Initially pain appears during or after a run. Reduce your mileage, stretch your hamstrings and ITB after a run, apply ice, and take anti-inflammatories. You should be better in about a week.

Runners World said:

If the outside of your knee also hurts, and most of your running is done on the roads or track, your hip pain could be caused by Iliotibial band syndrome, an irritation of the ligament that runs down the outside of the thigh from the hip to the shin. You can get it by always running on the same side of the road or the same direction on the track, running too much too soon, having tight hamstrings, or wearing old shoes. Change your route or alternate directions on the track, stretch your hamstrings and ITB, and replace your shoes. If you catch it early, you can reverse it in a week or so.

[Foliage]

VladD said:

krallicious said:

VladD said:

Is it muscle pain or joint pain? If it's joint, try taking Glucosamine. I have a friend who runs who swears by it.

It's a dull ache just under my hip. Feels almost like bruising on the bone if that makes sense.

Just ordered some so I will report back. Thanks for the tip.

I'm suffering a bit from this myself now, so have done some more research.

Runners World said:

If you have tight leg muscles and feel a dull ache on the outside of your hip during or after a run, you could have bursitis, an inflammation of the fluid-filled sacks that lubricate your joints. Bursitis is caused by overuse, or a tight hamstring or iliotibial band (the ligament that runs along the outside of the thigh). You may feel a dull ache, burning, rubbing, or popping sensation on the outside of your hip. Initially pain appears during or after a run. Reduce your mileage, stretch your hamstrings and ITB after a run, apply ice, and take anti-inflammatories. You should be better in about a week.

Runners World said:

If the outside of your knee also hurts, and most of your running is done on the roads or track, your hip pain could be caused by Iliotibial band syndrome, an irritation of the ligament that runs down the outside of the thigh from the hip to the shin. You can get it by always running on the same side of the road or the same direction on the track, running too much too soon, having tight hamstrings, or wearing old shoes. Change your route or alternate directions on the track, stretch your hamstrings and ITB, and replace your shoes. If you catch it early, you can reverse it in a week or so.

I been getting a bit of the hip ache, thought id just bruised myself falling snowboarding so just left it, I will have to have a good stretch and get some ice on it...

[VladD]

Foliage said:

I been getting a bit of the hip ache, thought id just bruised myself falling snowboarding so just left it, I will have to have a good stretch and get some ice on it...

More research: Stretching the ITB.

Google search said:

Basic ITB Stretch

Iliotibial band stretches.

Starting Position: Stand upright and cross your right leg behind your left.

Action: Lean slightly forwards and to your left side until you feel a stretch on the outside of your right leg. Lean on a chair/wall if needed. Hold for 30 secs

Repetition: Repeat 3 times, 2x daily, or before and after exercise

Progression: Place your hands on your head whilst doing this to increase the stretch

[Foliage]

Thanks VladD

[MC Bodge]

Rolling the sides of the thighs along a Foam roller can also help. Be warned, though, it might hurt a bit the first couple of times.

[ewenm]

I've found this to be an effective ITB stretch

[KTF]

Any suggestions on stretches, etc. to improve your flexibility?

Looking at videos of me running, I am very 'stiff' compared to others and have a short stride with very little swinging of the legs. In general my flexibility is rubbish as I can only get down to shin level when I try to couch my toes so this is not a new thing.

I think this is holding me back when I compare it to videos of other runners and my running club have recently started Yoga for runners so I was going to go along to that to see if it made any difference. However, I was just wondering if anyone else has had something similar and how they fixed it?

[Cybertronian]

Smitters said:

Stroud Trail Half Marathon done. Beat last years time by 1 one minute per mile for the same average heart rate and came in the top 50 of 210 finishers. Pretty pleased with that! Also felt stronger in the final quarter and was able to chase down, if not ultimately catch, some folks ahead. Only got overtaken once in the second half too, though took six or seven places.

Got a recovery week in store now, some physio and time to sort a little home gym before kicking off the second phase of training for the Autumn marathon. Chuffed to bits to be honest.

ETA - placing!

Edited by Smitters on Monday 11th May 11:38

Well done! I know a few from my local Parkrun that raced there yesterday. A few of their Garmins came up over 14 miles!

[krallicious]

Thanks for the information. It might be overuse that is causing the problem but I have reduced my distances a lot over the past 2 weeks. Flexibility is certainly not a problem with me (oh errr) but I might start taking some anti inflamatories to see if that helps.

[Halb]

Did the Manchester 10k, got a pb, 52 mins. Want sub-50 next year.
Back to weights now and the odd parkrun.

Anyone know why it's the Morrison's greatrun series and not Bupa? Got noodles in the race pack, which seemed...interesting.

[KTF]

Halb said:

Anyone know why it's the Morrison's greatrun series and not Bupa?

http://www.greatrun.org/news-and-media/news/morrisons-to-become-new-great-run-series-sponsor

[marting]

How much does everyone end up drinking if running for 2-3 hours?

I'm stepping my mileage up for Berlin Marathon in Oct and I'm finding taking ~500ml of water for a 30km run isn't enough. Google seems to suggest drinking around this amount per hour which seems excessive to me.

[Alapeno]

Halb said:

Got noodles in the race pack, which seemed...interesting.

I sat this one out but had a nosy in the bag that my OH got. It seemed a little bit poor compared to previous years. Although it's noodles every day for lunch this week

[Alapeno]

Just entered Lakeland Trails Half Marathon Challenge on 7th June.

Anyone done any of the Lakeland Trails runs? It's my first proper trail run and I'm expecting to be well off my half pace (just under 2h) as it's meant to be quite tough. That and the fact I've not ran that far in over 6 weeks.

[SpydieNut]

marting said:

How much does everyone end up drinking if running for 2-3 hours?

I'm stepping my mileage up for Berlin Marathon in Oct and I'm finding taking ~500ml of water for a 30km run isn't enough. Google seems to suggest drinking around this amount per hour which seems excessive to me.

I take about 1.5l in my camelback for runs over about 16 miles, or say 2.5 hours, if it's hilly. did 18 miles of hills (just over 2 hr 30min) on the weekend probably had 500ml left at the end. it was fairly cool though, but I certainly wasn't dehydrated.

[chonok]

Runners World said:

If the outside of your knee also hurts, and most of your running is done on the roads or track, your hip pain could be caused by Iliotibial band syndrome, an irritation of the ligament that runs down the outside of the thigh from the hip to the shin. You can get it by always running on the same side of the road or the same direction on the track, running too much too soon, having tight hamstrings, or wearing old shoes. Change your route or alternate directions on the track, stretch your hamstrings and ITB, and replace your shoes. If you catch it early, you can reverse it in a week or so.

I seemed to have done this yesterday during a run (Never had a running injury before in about 5 years of running!

Am supposed to be doing Chester Half on Sunday (been training for it for months!)

Any chance that it will clear by then?? Will the stretching help speed up recovery? I am hoping it won't re-appear after the first few miles

Edited to say that my pain is on the right side of my right knee, only hurts when I walk/run and isn't *that* bad..

Edited by chonok on Tuesday 12th May 16:27

[Smitters]

Cybertronian said:

Well done! I know a few from my local Parkrun that raced there yesterday. A few of their Garmins came up over 14 miles!

Cheers - I ran it last year, so I knew it wasn't quite a UKA approved 13.1. I did have a comedy chat with one guy up the first hill who was aiming for 2.30. When I pointed out our pace was for a 2.10 he looked a tad worried he "may" have started a bit eagerly.

[MC Bodge]

I only had a half-hour window for a run earlier so tried some Tabata intervals.

10 min gentle warm-up.

20secs Hard as possible, 10secs slow (The article I had read suggested 8 reps "if you can manage it")

7 mins cool-down


I tried hard (it was flat), but found that it wasn't too bad, so did 10 minutes worth of intervals (ie. 20 reps).

I'm not sure if this is contrary to the Tabata idea or if I just wasn't working hard enough. I had slowed a little after the first couple of intervals, but was fairly consistent with the remainder and was still driving myself hard.

I usually do a weekly session of multiple sets of 10 x 40"/20" (or longer, lactate) intervals on my bike which feels relatively harder as the 40 seconds feels like a long time (and have been doing running fartlek sessions) so I suppose that I am used to doing this kind of thing,

I might try doing multiple sets of these 'Tabatas' or doing them on an incline next time to increase the resistance.

What is magic about 20 second intervals as opposed to 30 or 40 seconds?

I am hoping to increase my speed for 5K/10K races.

Any views on the subject?

Edited by MC Bodge on Tuesday 12th May 21:33