Forum menu
@Spin, had a look at the SHR calendar at work today, meall nan tarmachan on 3rd October could be a goer I reckon, fingers crossed....
Signed up for the virtual Race to the Stones 100k. 1 week to do it. 16.5km this morning and just back from 10k. Had a knee problem come back at weekend but keeping it slow - it hurts but manageable. 74km to go...
At the ridiculous end of things ...
Sabrina Verjee is attempting all the Wainrights in one go, certainly for the female record, possibly outright. Live tracking here - https://live.opentracking.co.uk/sabs0720/# She hasn't had a nap yet!
Struggling to get motivated here - I manage a couple of runs then the weather changes and I don't go out for 10 days+ and feel like I am back at the bottom again. It hasn't helped by being laid off for several weeks with a broken rib and the one event I had planned being cancelled (Great North Run).
So after yet another break in my normal routine (15 days without running) I got out again last night - just three miles at 9 min mile pace (I did the GNR at that pace last year) and feeling it a bit today but I am determined to get back out again on Thursday and build up my stamina. It is frustrating as I always enjoy it when I am out there running but finding the motivation difficult to come by this year - what can I do to improve this?
Nothing can really improve motivation, it's up to you really. I've only been doing 18-20 miles a week for the last couple of months, but I've been doing a lot more biking and now we're allowed to travel for hillwalking, that probably won't go up much.
I do find that the more I run, the better I run, and the more motivated I am, probably through fear of losing fitness.
I always enjoy it when I am out there running but finding the motivation difficult to come by this year – what can I do to improve this?
It's a difficult year - otherwise I'd suggest either joining a club (not sure how possible that is in the UK with social distancing etc.) or signing up for another race (which will quite possibly be cancelled...)
One suggestion I've seen but not tried is writing the session on a calendar on the wall. Makes you feel obliged to go out. Another that I have tried (and it works) is to download a plan and try to follow it. The idea here is that you're not just "going out for a run" but actually doing a planned session. But it's definitely a weird year, and if you're doing other exercise instead I wouldn't beat yourself up about it!
I'd echo the above from Mogrim, @johndoh.
Clubs are a great way to meet new people, push yourself and generally have some purpose to your runs. You'll have at least 2, likely 3 club runs per week and they can add some interest and structure into your running. I joined one at the start of the year after years of procrastinating and it's been great, I love doing 2 runs a week where you have to thrash yourself to stay with the fast boys and girls, but plenty just go with a slower group and have a chat. Most clubs are back at it in the UK, albeit with some restrictions/precautions.
Re. challenges/goals, setting yourself a few that are unrelated to any event you may or may not do happen. It could be a certain number of miles per week, it could be the number of times you run per week, or it could be a time over a certain distance or course. Having something to aim at is vital.
Looking to explore your local area can help too. Have a look on OS Maps or GoogleMaps, find a path a suitable distance away and go explore it. I know my local area so much better now I run than when I didn't.
And finally, build habit. Pick maybe 4 days per week and a time that suits and commit to running on those days. You can add structure to that as well, Sunday long run, Monday easy recovery miles, Wednesday intervals, Friday tempo run, that kind of thing.
I found that run commuting was an excellent method of getting my runs in - although obviously not suitable for everyone, especially when most people are currently working from home. 6:20am, out the door and a very steady 8km to the railway station, 4pm leave the office and run 19km home. Not only was I getting a run in, but I was getting home at the same time, so there was a practical purpose. Currently virtually every run has a net zero vector starting and finishing at home, so it's just as easy to turn the 4:55am alarm off and stay in bed.
Before a marathon build I'll put every session in my Outlook calendar so that I know what I'm doing each day.
Also I'd say the Strava Heatmap is a great resource, although that may be behind a partial paywall now. If I'm travelling to somewhere new I'll always map out a few runs with the help of the Heatmap to see where is popular, and thus should be runnable. It's fine to just use Ordnance Survey but that won't tell you whether a marked footpath is in fact horribly overgrown or knee-deep mud and thus everyone avoids it.
But it’s definitely a weird year, and if you’re doing other exercise instead I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it!
Err, yeah, that other exercise bit LOL! TBF, I have got out on my bike more than I did last year (when I trained exclusively for the GNR) but my normal three times a week spin classes haven't happened since before Christmas (plumbing issue at my local Pure Gym meant it closed in early December and was just about due to re-open when lockdown happened). And of course parkruns haven't restarted yet and that was my normal Saturday run.
@lunge - xc spikes and track spikes are pretty different. Track spikes weigh absolutely nothing and are pretty minimal, of course there are different track spikes for different disciplines too to confuse the situation.
XC spikes often have some grip on the rear foot although this is minimal compared to a trail shoe, they often also have a small midsole with a little bit of cushioning although not much. They often weigh a bit more than track spikes and are a bit more solidly constructed (thicker material with less weight saving).
I don't tend to do much track work and if I do I often wear a racing flat (Adidas Takumi) but do have some adizero spikes as I picked them up for about a tenner so though why not. I have got some xc spikes which I also got relatively cheaply and are great when the going gets boggy. For spike length, usually it's about as long as you can get away with if it's really boggy and less so if its not as boggy - I've possibly got 13mm in at the moment. For the track, as i don't do enough I don't really know but I would say probably about 6mm currently although I've no idea if that's a standard length or just because that's what came with the shoes.
You could get away with XC spikes on the track but it would be less good the other way around.
Looking for some advice on a target 10k time please. I’m following a 12 week programme from the ‘faster road racing’ book but unsure of how to target my goal ‘race’.
First time I’ve followed a more ‘advanced’ program, its higher mileage and more quality sessions than the Garmin plan I followed for the GNR (25k ish p/w in total).
In the plan there are some 5k race attempts built into the workout, would the best method be to take the time of a latter one of these, double it and add a bit on?
would the best method be to take the time of a latter one of these, double it and add a bit on?
That would be a pretty simple way of calculating it - you aren't going to fatigue that much over 10k.
As a start point, double your 5k time and add a minute, that’ll give you just under 10 seconds per mile to play with.
Adjust up or down depending on how scary that number looks.
[img] 
[/img]
Bit of a change of scene since I last posted on this thread - me and my running buddy Esther have relocated nearly 600 miles north to Speyside and have the benefit of Ben Rinnes right on our doorstep! Already been accused of "cheating" as she wears a harness on the uphills! My 'flat' 10k circuit is around the forest at the end of the road and involved 200m of elevation. Will slowly build up the distances and hopefully some longer days out in the Cairngorms beckon.
On the subject of shoes with ankle support, I've just found that mine do a good job of inflaming my achilles on uphills so I'm sticking with 'shoes' for a bit.
Setting targets is the best motivation for me; weekly goals, run distance, trying to keep HR under a certain level on a run, or hitting a certain pace.
12k run tonight, which is my longest ever (by 0.5km) at 6:04 /km pace, avg HR of 149. Well happy with that. Managed to do the 10k bang on 1hr too!
My legs, however, are not. Gonna feel it tomorrow, no injury - just proper muscle fatigue.
Good work ta11pau1, there’s few feelings I like more than nicely fatigued legs, it means you know you’ve put a shift in.
Well done, all. Tough to get motivated and targets do help. 50km of my 200km done. 10 mile trail run with some fellow runners who have offered support. I realise this is a normal week for many,
But it’s a lot for me - previous record 57km. ITB playing up on right knee - very painful run this morning and only managed 6.5km. Will break out the old knee strap tomorrow - it’s not a cure but should get me through.
Nice one dovebiker - I was brought up (mainly) in Craigellachie and my folks stay in Aberlour. Long since moved away but I miss the area.
Good run last night - only short intervals, 5x1', but starting to recover some of the pace I lost during lockdown. It helped that the temperature had dropped a bit compared to the previous run, too.
Do you think good socks make much of a difference to your running experience?I wear the cheapest ankle socks from Sports Direct. Never had any issues but wonder if anything better would be good for foot health etc.
If it ain't broke... I'd not mess around with socks if they work for you.
If what you've got works then keep using them.
I swear by these Decathlon running socks if you want to try something different.
Due to getting increasingly frustrated with the crappy weather and finally being injury free, I've decided to try and get back into some running.
Plan is to start off nice and easy with the couch to 5k programme and, fingers crossed, I'll be able to build it back up and stay injury free. I think the killer last time was going too long and too fast too quickly. Typical newbie error!
Best of luck buddy, sounds like you know what you're doing, enjoy. 🙂
This weekend I'll be conducting a recce of the Capital Ring on my MTB. I'm going for the unsupported record so want to make sure I know of the available water stops and hopefully get familiar with the route to avoid too many navigational issues. There was a new record set at the weekend, unsupported, so I've revised my plans to ensure I'm also unsupported. It must be quite galling for the previous record holder as the new guy has actually run slower and a shorter overall distance through better navigation (all those tiny stretches where you're going the wrong way really add up).
The actual run pencilled in for Thursday next week 🙂
@tutboferret. Best of luck with it! 78 miles is a very long bike ride for me so that is quite some challenge. Hope you make a video of it. What time are you hoping for?
I’ve got 34km to go in my 100km challenge. Easy 10km today and might try to finish in style tomorrow with a 25km trail run from Headley Heath. Strap on knee is proving excellent.
78 miles unsupported is a huge run, good luck turbo!!!
I've got a charity virtual half marathon today, 300 or so other people all setting off at various points around the UK at 12pm. Going to run an old favourite route along the canal from Wolverhampton into the centre of Birmingham, no fast time in mind as I find it hard to push on when on my own, but a solid first half and a faster second is the vague plan, anything under 1:45 will do me. Hoping to find an open pub or 2 when I arrive in Town.
Great stuff guys!
The goal is around 10 hours, averaging about 4:40/km moving with a bit of stoppage time to fill water bottles along the way. I think the challenge will be to keep the pace under control so that my GI system keeps working normally so that I can keep fuelled. If I go too quickly then my stomach pretty much shuts down so I won't be able to get calories in. Run out of energy and it'll be a very slow painful finish.
I'll take my GoPro and a few spare batteries to document my endeavour. I'm not quite sure how I managed to record nearly an hour of footage during my Greenway run - that means that I was waving the camera around for over 1/4 of the time I was running!
@turboferret that's a hell of a run. In fact that would be a fairly big day out on a bike for most of us. Good luck with it!
I'll stick with my 2.6 miles of running/walking not moving like an arthritic pensioner today. That's a win in my books 😀
Bloody lovely half today.
13 miles on the canals, lovely temperature and just a very pleasant run.
Plus the pub was open about 10 metre from where I finished.
Not a bad time either given I had a backpack on.
Christ! 78miles at 4:40/km?? That only marginally slower than I can run 10!!! Mentalist 😉 Good luck!!
Just starting to get back out myself after torn ligaments in my ankle. Pretty quick recovery thanks to some help from a physio (fellow running club member), but legs feel bartered after only 3 weeks off. Need to ease back into it gently I think!
Grim run here this morning - too hot and I might have had too many beers last night 🙂
Still, it cleared the cobwebs so I suppose it wasn't a complete failure.
Do you think good socks make much of a difference to your running experience?
If you start getting into ultra distances, the wrong socks and blisters can ruin your day. Years of wearing badly fitting shoes day to day means my little toe is slightly tucked under it's neighbour and I can get blisters between my toes. Injinji toe socks have eliminated them for me - I'll quite happily do 50km off-road without trouble.
@turboferret that’s a hell of a run. In fact that would be a fairly big day out on a bike for most of us. Good luck with it!
I’ll stick with my 2.6 miles of running/walking not moving like an arthritic pensioner today. That’s a win in my books
that's why I love this thread - doesn't matter if you're just starting C25K, or are 6 months into your running career and proud of running 12k, or are running up scottish munros most weekend, or are doing 125km runs around London for fun 😀
All are welcome. 😀
I can manage 4:40 pace for about 3k, maybe a bit more. Mental.
Another 6km staple trail run tonight, I'm guessing it's a good sign when your you're running at your normal pace, look at your HR (via a chest strap) and think it could be mis-reading as it's lower than normal, but then realise it's not?
I'm steadily increasing my weekly km's - 21 last week, 18 so far this week, doing a biggish mtb ride tomorrow as I've not ridden for 3 weeks and I'm off oop north t'peak district on Thursday (going to try and sneak in an 8k trail run from langsett up north america to the split and back around the reservoir, if my legs will let me after 1.5 days riding!) but should still hit 23/24km running this week.
that’s why I love this thread – doesn’t matter if you’re just starting C25K, or are 6 months into your running career and proud of running 12k, or are running up scottish munros most weekend, or are doing 125km runs around London for fun 😀
Absolutely bang on sir! The most supportive, positive, un-STW thread on here. 😊
well given the news that grass roots sports is on the horizon I figured I'd better actually try to move at more than a walking pace before I start playing football again . . . .
wow - I only did a mile (didn't want to overdo it given my 45 year old legs haven't done any fitness work in the last 3-4 months) and had to slow to walking pace 3 times!
To make it worse (or better, as I have an incentive now) my kid came along with me and was happily chatting away at our pace, while I was doing my best not to puke
What a wake up call that was - it wasn't really a surprise, but I did think I'd make the mile loop without walking to be honest.
Best thing was, I felt great afterwards (once I'd got my breath back and had a shower) and my mental state this afternoon has been about as good as it's been at any time during lockdown.
Going to get my arse back in gear now, and try to get out daily (I do kinda hate myself for being lazy, but unless I have an sporting incentive I'm terrible)
Done it. 100k in 6 days finished off with a proper trail run in the Surrey Hills of 25km today. Furthest I’ve ever run today and really enjoyed running my mtb routes. Not fast but took it easy to conserve energy and legs. Much respect to those who run long distances!
Nice one root.
Targets are great, and then hitting them is even better.
Absolutely bang on sir! The most supportive, positive, un-STW thread on here.
Definitely, and I have no hesitation in telling people on other running threads to ask their question here - I know any answer here will be positive and encouraging, even if I don't necessarily agree 100% with it.
So love-in done, my run report 🙂 22km in La Pedriza, which is part of a national park to the north of Madrid. It's famous for its granite outcrops and lunar landscapes, but that's only part of its charm. It's also the source of the (frankly crap) river Manzanares that runs through Madrid, the only capital in Europe with a non-navigable river 🙂 Still, while it's not a huge torrent by anyone's standards it's still definitely a river, and the valley it runs down is a beautiful pine forest with bracken floors and a lot of dust... It's also definitely a mountainous region, so those 22km were good for over 1,100m of climbing. I made the stupid mistake of going with someone faster than me, and suffered accordingly. All good fun though, and thoroughly recommended if you're ever in Madrid.
@loum Cheers. 115km week. Won't be doing it again for a while but has peaked my interest in a proper ultra. Maybe build up to it for next year. Really like the idea of the challenge being to finish rather than get a fast time as those race efforts don't 'arf take it out you. Only managed this week by running.at low intensity.and keeping heart rate below 149bpm.
Good weekend of running here.
Did a Half on Friday as mentioned above, reasonable time and felt good all through the run.
Got up Saturday morning with the intention of doing 4 gentle miles after the days before's efforts. Turns out my legs felt awesome so a gentle 4 turned into quite a hard 10.
Sunday comes along and I'm going out on the bike with a few friends, but need to throw in a quick run first to keep up my streak (114 days as you asked...). 4 miles done, again, quicker than planned as legs felt food. Then went and did 50 miles in the bike, not quick and not mega hard.
And now, finally on Monday, it has kicked in. I am sat at my PC and can barely keep my eyes open. I want to eat everything, my legs hurt...and tonight it's intervals at the running club.
I don't know why I do this to myself!
Superb all! Well done Roots, lunge, chomp and mogrim!
I've not been running much, but it's the time of year for other stuff, couple of mountains last week, 2 big days on the bike and a wee 6am bootcamp this morning, it's good to mix it up, I think running really helps on the hill days and the biking, and those days in turn help my running.
I'm keener to get some full body fitness stuff done, most of us runners do very little upper body stuff, need to work on that.
Recce done, a nice day out. Quite lumpy south of the river. Wish I'd sorted the dragging front brake beforehand! Map on watch certainly essential if you aren't familiar with the route as the signs are pretty hit and miss in places.
A lot of the success will lie in the prep - unsupported means only getting water from public water sources ie taps, not shops/cafes/pubs. Scoping these all out in advance is essential. I discovered that a couple of the taps along the Union Canal/Rive Lee require a British Waterways Key, so I bought one of these. The bonus of everything being on Strava is being able to analyse previous efforts and see where they stopped. Still a couple of long stretches without taps that I've located so I'll have to carry more fluids than I'd like, or risk running dry.
Fryent Country Park looking south to Wembley
The first of several signs making it clear just how far you have to go!
Springfield Park just before hitting the River Lee at Warthamstow Marshes
One of the less obvious water sources that you really need to know about in advance near London City Airport
Up in Eltham
Water in Beckenham Place Park
When your watch strap breaks and you end up holding it along with your grip 😀
I was using my Edge 820 for navigation until the battery unexpectedly died after about 5 hours. I think I need to revise backlight settings if I'm going to use it again, but it spent quite a lot of time 'recalculating' which must have chewed through battery too. My Fenix 5S finished with 5% battery (although rebounded to 14% an hour later) so won't last 10 hours, my Fenix 3 finished with 25% battery so is borderline for the main endeavour, I think I'll have to consider the option of charging mid-way with a little external pack.
I had pencilled the attempt in for Thursday, which is going to be relatively cool, however the legs didn't feel particularly fresh this morning and my HR was a little higher than I would expect for a slow trot, so I'll play it by ear in terms of recovery. No point in rushing this as there is no deadline so it would be a bit foolish to run when I wasn't fresh.
TF - can you borrow a full sized Fenix 5? I think their battery life is about double the 5s. I find mind chews through the battery on long days hiking in the hills and wish I'd gone for the chunkier 5.