The Annual Running thread - beginners/ultras/whatever

I’m enjoying looking at everyone’s runs on Strava - someone did a very impressive 19 minute parkrun yesterday!

Second parkrun yesterday and a 28.50 which I'm pretty happy with! Down from 30.09 last week. The mid lap hill is still brutal though. Trying to motivate myself to go for a spin on the road bike today to loosen up.

Well I should have been running the Gloucester half today 🙁 Good day for it as well, no rain, hardly any wind and not freezing cold. A short muddy walk with the dogs wasn't quite the same. Ankle is definitely on the mend tho. Just need to be disciplined in recovery and not try to start strengthening it too early.

@WH - good effort that. A minute off in a week!

Signed up to a 55km ultra in October this year, did a half marathon in 2012 and not run much more than 5ks since. Plan to do one 'long' run a week, gradually building up distance, plus a shorter run and also stick to my normal cross fit sessions 3-4 times a week.

Will be interesting to see how the mileage increase goes.....

@wallop

I’m using strava on my Apple Watch. In settings you can turn on cues to give you pace alerts. Works well. You get a buzz at each mile interval and it displays your total time and pace for the previous mile. I’ve got some Bluetooth headphones and the cues play through that when I’m wearing them so don’t even have to look at the Watch.

Did the Trigger Fell race yesterday, 24 miles 4300ft ascent from Marsden to Edale. Great route but tired today. Hoping that will kick start my year as not done enough recently.

Saw loads of Spine runners as they set off on their 268 miles of hell. Cheered me up knowing I was half way round my race and they were a LONG LONG way from getting into it.

Here’s the live tracker for the Pennine Spine Race on now..
[url= http://live.thespinerace.com ]Live tracker..[/url]

Nice work on the Trigger. I like a challenge as much as the next nut, but the Spine is Proper Nuts. Seen the slideshow and that was plenty.

Cheers Alex, was pretty chuffed to be honest. Felt it the next day mind! Yoga tonight should help stretch out the kinks before a hilly run tomorrow night. Enjoying the park runs so focusing on short but hilly midweek runs. Hoping by keeping the mileage down initially I should toughen th legs up and help avoid injury.

Thank you, Blitz!

Marcus from this forum is doing pretty well in The spine race.

Leaders are just unbelievable in what they are doing.

Told wife about it and was told quite clearly I was not allowed to do it. I could say confidently she did not have to worry.

MattOAO, my two cents to aid you:

If you find it difficult to pace by feel then try a hear rate monitor

I found it difficult at first to measure effort, I started using a HRM to understand what was going on with me, I have since got better at measuring effort but still like to have my HR on my watch when running. Helps me correlate how I'm feeling to what my body is doing ie am i tired and running badly or am I feeling great and doing well. I do suggest giving it ago, my first one was just a Lidl HRM with basic watch cost around £10.

Be careful!

You may feel like your doing well, just please be mindful of the stress on your body.

This also, I felt good going into last week, decided to run further than I had before and mix in some hills, got carried away and ran too hard/fast and my calves ached all week! From someone that usually does this, dont get carried away too easily, I think they say dont increase your weekly miles by more than 10%-20%

Hope this helps!

Question for those in the know, today I did my first lunch time treadmill session, I did a 6min warm up before doing 4 x 2min on - 2min off/recovery before a warm down.

I would like to add speed to my running as my aim is for the a sub 20min 5k, are 2mins on and 2mins off too long? should I look at shorter bursts of the same intensity which was roughly 90-95%?

I plan to do this session twice a week (tues and thurs) and will then use the other 2/3 runs I do in the evenings during the week to do long slow runs, trail runs with some hills and then some at pace running between 5k and 10k.

oikeith
Hope this helps!

Nice run in the snow today!
[img] [/img]
https://www.strava.com/activities/1359890456

Sounds ok to me oikeith, there are many ways to skin a cat. Assume your 2mins are faster than target race speed. Treadmill is usually easier than on road so don't be coy about pushing the pace a bit (but work towards something you can complete the final set at). I would also tend to make the recovery shorter than the work, eg 3 on 1 off.

Thanks Cap, I was thinking about trying a pyramid style interval so 1 min on, 1 min recovery, then 2 mins on with 1 min recovery and finally 3 on and then 1 min recovery before warm down and then overtime as I get stronger/fitter/faster increasing this up to maybe 5mins but keeping the 1min recovery.

Am I correct in saying with the interval sessions if I keep doing the same one it will become easier but instead of running at a setting on the treadmill I should always do it at effort and feel?

Am I correct in saying with the interval sessions if I keep doing the same one it will become easier but instead of running at a setting on the treadmill I should always do it at effort and feel?

Personally I'd run at a setting, and slowly increase the setting each week - add another interval, or up the speed a bit. Going by effort and feel is pretty hard to estimate and a bit too variable for my liking when it comes to speedwork. It also runs the risk of overdoing it if you're feeling enthusiastic, or underdoing it just because it's been a long day at work and you can't be bothered. (other excuses also available)

What mogrim said. Plus, so long as you’re in a reasonable zone there’s no need to be right on the limit every time you do the workout. Pyramid probably a decent idea, I tend to use equal intervals just cos that’s what I’m used to (also easy to program on my garmin).

Personally I'd run at a setting, and slowly increase the setting each week - add another interval, or up the speed a bit. Going by effort and feel is pretty hard to estimate and a bit too variable for my liking when it comes to speedwork. It also runs the risk of overdoing it if you're feeling enthusiastic, or underdoing it just because it's been a long day at work and you can't be bothered. (other excuses also available)

This.

There's an app called "Running For Weight Loss" which does a program of interval sessions...start the app and a voice tells me warm-up/run/sprint 80%/sprint 100%/walk/jog over a really good 40-50 minute session. I'm normally a bit impatient and usually try to up the intensity too soon but since new year, I've been sticking rigidly to the program - 2/3 interval sessions a week - a mate down the road comes out for a 0515 start and we're back home by 0600ish...nice to have someone to share the suffering of an interval session. 🙂 Then parkrun or something longer at the weekend. Taking the intensity up steadily has been really good for us - as we'd both be wanting to do 100% sprints too soon otherwise.

I subscribe to the premium version of the app - and I can't remember what the free version does. But you could always subscribe for a month, scroll through the program and get all the info you need which you can then download to a watch that allows interval sessions to be programmed in.

i have some nice uk13 shoes in the classifieds if anyone is interested. I am doing the new forest 10k with my gf this year, it is both of our first 'event'

So Marcus (if its the right Marcus?) for anyone dot watching the spine is in joint 10th now after overnight leader has dropped out.

Obviously deranged and a bit unhinged but still a long way to go for him.

http://live.thespinerace.com/

So Marcus (if its the right Marcus?) for anyone dot watching the spine is in joint 10th now after overnight leader has dropped out.

First three men have now finished 😯

Did Padside (Nr Thruscross Res) to Appletreewick this morning over the moors, snowy and deep in places. Just over two hours ain’t bad considering the weather..

Did Padside (Nr Thruscross Res) to Appletreewick this morning over the moors, snowy and deep in places. Just over two hours ain’t bad considering the weather..

Thanks for the conditions report - I was thinking of heading out on the CX bike tomorrow in that area but might take the fat bike instead 😀

Perfect conditions in SW Scotland today, I'll manage a wee 6 or 7k before going a a wander up the local hills.

That'll take me to 110km for Jan, only 50 to go!

I've joined the Strava group, thank you Wallop for setting it up. I'm hoping that it will motivate me to get out a couple of times a week. I need to speed up a bit really, I'm the slowest of the slow things at the moment 😳

Parkrun roll call anyone?

Christ, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the hill at the Ashton Court one. 😆

Lloyd Park parkrun this morning. Proper slopfest, the hill midlap was properly exciting getting up and down! I don't think anyone set a PB today! 31.09 for me which I'm pleasantly surprised by

Local Parkrun is off for a few weeks so did 5k round the canals. Now I know this group should be positive and smiley about how wonderful running is...but it was horrible. 26 minutes which is the slowest 5k I’ve done in 12 months, no drive, Garmin played up, still struggling after giving blood earlier in the week, rain and sleet, just plain horrible. May go on the turbo later and do a bit more as I feel like I got sod all from the run.

DD - the hill is why I haven’t done it yet!

DD - the hill is why I haven’t done it yet!

It's why I do it...God knows why...it's bloody horrible...I kinda enjoy the suffer I suppose. Funny one today, passed a guy that had decided to walk about 200 yds from the turn at the top...recognised the "fdx" on his shirt as I was wondering what it stood for. Continued running. Was passed by one or two on way back...but not him. And there he was getting his barcode scanned ahead of me at the end. 😀 Htf did that happen?

There are, I'm sure, people who take short cuts or cut laps (if that's possible for your route).

Well, it’s an “out and back again” route rather than a lap so yeah, could turn around before the top I suppose. Strange thing to do though. I’ve learned to live with being slow. 🙂

Scoffing a pork pie salad and large coffee in Prologue after a 22k trail run around Thuscross/Fewston/Swinsty reservoirs, conditions are clear but muddy and most of the snows gawn..

Am trying to get back into it, got a duathlon in a few months. Would like to get 5k down to 25mins, PB is 28min.
Doing the local club virtual run challange to run 75k in Jan.

Parkrun roll call anyone?

Did pines this morning went for too fast to start with but did a 29.15. So chuffed with that.

Good work bigdean.

Just had my results through. Managed to get back under 25 mins - at 24.50 so that’s one thing. There are some proper bloody whippets at that race so my 122nd place isn’t too bad I suppose. 6th in my age cat though. 😀 A way to go to get back to my pb but if I manage to shift some kgs, maybe I can get back to near 23 mins again.

I know there are there threads on this but is anyone using the Vivoactive 3 for their running watch? Any good?

Finally signed up to the Strava club. Training has been a bit hit and miss since Christmas but need to get back on it now!!

Rachel

I know there are there threads on this but is anyone using the Vivoactive 3 for their running watch? Any good?

I've been using mine when running. I've not really hit anything to compare it to but it seems pretty good so far. The HR measurements appear to be pretty accurate as does the GPS tracking when runs are uploaded to Strava.
I'm pretty happy with mine overall.

I just use my Garmin 1000 and the HRM.

I was Run Director for Oldham parkrun this morning. Which consisted of getting out of bed early, and heading to the park to confirm that it was, infact, far too icy to be able to go ahead. My running plan for the weekend is head out for a slow 10 mile or so plod tomorrow along the canal.

Seeing a proper [Sports] Physio is definitely the right approach I reckon.

I had this doing a Winter season on the snow in Canada:- Foam Roller, Lacrosse Ball, wobble board, stretching and strengthening exercises sorted it.

Cheers!
I’m back running!! Started doing some yoga and gone down in intensity,seems to have setteled down now.

 

Ajf - yeah right Marcus, number 155. How addicted to the dot watching did you get ? I’ve not long got in from the trip home and being allowed to sit with my feet up for a bit. Certainly a brutal event and not one to be underestimated. I’ve never feared for my life and / or fellow competitors in any other ‘ultra’. Just trying to make sense of all the emotions at he moment.

Congratulations. Incredible effort. I’m sure it will take several weeks to process the memories.

Congratulations! To do that distance in winter is out of this world!

And all my running plans for this weekend came to naught, thanks to a stinking cold. And I'd just got back into the rhythm after Christmas 🙁

That race looked, and probably was, bonkers. Seriously I think you have to be a little mad to do it. So well done all who did it (and those that failed to finish, which being the nature of the event in winter it totally understandable)

Makes my 43k over the weekend (2 days) in Yoikshires snow and gloom seem rather insignificant 😆

Well. I tried to run the Ashton Court parkrun course this morning, which basically involved walking up the hill, and then running back down it again 😆

Bloody well done! Yep I was enthralled by it all. You all looked a bit unhinged and kind of worried when I saw the competitors on the Sunday.

Some great races within races going on. The pointy end was a really interesting one and would love to see Jim Mann come back for another shot.

Some really tough conditions for you all! Cold, but seems to just get worse when you all got near Cross fell.

Thankfully its not on strava as that would really mess with our strava running club and make our weeks running seem a bit insignificant.

Would be really interested to hear your thoughts on it, once you have managed to gather them all.

I had thoughts about a 'winging it' Bob last year, ie not rehearsing it to death. But then I did a half distance/height thing with my intended partner and realised how far apart we were in fitness. I'd be in the 23:55 category on a good day and he just had too much in hand over me, to make it less fun for both of us. Did a leg on his attempt and stayed bang on schedule ...he dropped me 🙂

Hello. My name is Matt. I'm 43.

Today I went to my first ever fitness class.

PiYo to be precise.

I thought it was a nice gentle combination of yoga and Pilates.
Transpires it's a 'pretty high intensity' class, with lots of stretches. I've discovered what a squat feels like x100, how to try and get my leg past my ear, and what a downward dog is too. 😳

I've stretched places I didn't know needed stretching.

I've even swallowed my pride and been only bloke there. Sorry about the sweating ladies.

A hint for anyone else - overconfidence leading to you running 4k there as a warm up is not to be encouraged.

😆

@stever - After last nights 'discussion' with the wife about weekends away to recce and train I was thinking if I could 'wing' a Bob. I winged a Fellsman in just over 14 hours last year but I think its the amount of hills thats the issue for me.

Will probably in spring take enough food stuff to do in one, plus a bivi bag and sleeping bag and see how far I get solo before resorting to sleep. That should give me confidence to have a proper go in Summer with a bit of proper planning/training.

Today I have just agreed to do the Marmot Dark Mountains race this weekend as a friends partner dropped out today. In the elite category it seems and thats another winging it affair. Should be good for it but 30+ miles in the dark around the peaty lumps of Bowland will be slow going.

@Matt - I used to be the only bloke at my yoga class apart from the teacher. I used to come out of that a wreck! Used to wake up the next day feeling like I had been hit by a bus. Its not easy!

Well I plan on going more - there's a class twice a week at home and twice at workplace with same lady, so I I've choice and flexibility about when.

I'm only doing one a week though....you can't make me...

Out of interest, how are you guys cleaning your trainers after running?

Just been out this afternoon and it’s been pouring down so mine are currently soaking wet and muddy. Is it worth just chucking them in a bucket of water to soak then drying them in the airing cupboard?

I normally just let them dry out, stick some paper inside and leave overnight then use a hard nail brush to get rid of excess mud..

If they're filthy then i wash them under a tap with washing up liquid, then dry them over night.

Don't think I do anything that others don't do..

@ajf - I guess ours was as much a 'piggybag' attempt as a 'wing it' - we'd got 3 of the legs down between us and had support lined up that knew the rest well enough, but neither of us had covered the entire ground. I'd imagine it'd be frustrating to have the fitness in hand but be denied by slow nav. I'm happy enough winging it up to a point, eg Welsh 3k, but this was a wing too far for me! You're way faster than me I think and stand a much better chance 🙂

Re: shoes. I've got 3 pairs on slow rotation loitering by the kitchen radiator. Used to just ignore them but now rinse through under the tap occasionally - the winter slop here does seem a bit corrosive.

Just got back from a trip over to Llanberis to run a couple of laps of the run course for the Brutal Triathlon (not including Snowdon, I'll work up to that...). 10 slow miles done enjoying some surprisingly mild weather. Shoes are in a bit of a state but as far as cleaning them goes, I'll let them dry out and then the mud will fall off next time I wear them...

did a 7km round that London earlier and got a helluva soaking in the process. I found the worse the rain got the more I enjoyed it 🙂

Will try the newspaper in the shoes tonight to see if that works as I'm hoping to pop out tomorrow for another little run....

I'm just groaning like an old man when I stand up or sit down today...

I am training for a 40 mile race at the end of June. Waiting for the route to be confirmed.
I am only running for 40 minutes comfortably so far so have quite a lot of work to do. I have been struggling to find a decent pair of shoes too. I bought some xtalons but they were so narrow I could not possible wear them for a long run. I would imagine they would cause injuries too.
It really is a lovely time of year to be running.

Hello. My name is Matt. I’m 43.

Today I went to my first ever fitness class.

PiYo to be precise.

Tried Pilates once, was basically an hour of trying to not to fart whilst being in positions that made my body want to get rid of excess air...

Richmond Park 10k for me on Saturday, Started running again on 30th of December with a 5km which left me in pain for a week. Did a 7k Saturday with only mild ill effects. Aiming for sub 55 min which I know is slow, would be delighted with anything sub 53.

Did the first of my 'Half marathon or further' races. I'll be doing one each month for the year.

14th Jan Brass Monkey Half - York.

Got a PB so very pleased with that.
Ultimate goal is the Boston (Lincolnshire) Marathon in April.
I've got the Liversedge half and Retford half in Feb/Mar to contend with first.
I doubt there'll be more PBs in those as they are not flat like York.

I only really started running in October of last year as I'd been advised not to ride after herniating a disc but my physio and GP agreed that running would OK and had been running 3 times a week since.

Come January I started a charity event called RED (Run Every Day) January to raise money and awareness for the mental health charity MIND averaging 5km a day for the first 16 days until exam stress from uni took its toll and I fell of the wagon.

Exams are over now which has afforded me a bit more time to get back out again which is great as I've been rather enjoying it and have plans to do a few more events over the year to continue fundraising.

Hopefully this isn't too cheeky but please feel free to have a look at my Just Giving page and if you like leave a small donation 🙂

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/carlrichmond77

Good stuff stayhigh, well done.

Managed to take  80 secs off my previous 5k PB yesterday, down to a (still slow!) 22.56! I know it's going to be tough, but I'm more confident now of getting down to a sub 20 at some point this year.

Go me! First sub 30min 5k today. In the p*SS*ng rain, dark, wind...

Off to QECP at lunchtime for a 20k hack, anyone fancy it?

awful weather, I could feel the rain running down my back...euurgh.

What watches are folk using?I just updated my FR10 with a new Garmin 235, and I have to say, I'm not massively impressed with it, same route it's lost (or gained half a mile!) the screen's too dark, the menu is un-intuative, and complex, the writing on the watch too small, and it wan't reliably sync with the still crappy Garmin Connect!

balls

I had my longest run on thursday at 12.2km and today I got my first sub 30 5km at 27:19 😀  Tomorrow will be a gentle pootle as my legs feel like lumps of lead now.

There is a local half marathon coming up in March which would give me around 7 weeks to train for it.  Too short notice or crack on?

Well I managed a 30 minute walk yesterday just. My 15 year old dog was having to wait for me and I collapsed with exhaustion when I got home. I’m still eating pretty much everything I see and fall asleep whenever I sit down for more than 30 mins. I think it’s gonna be a good 8 weeks before I run even gently again. Glad the rest of you are still getting out. What’s all this cleaning trainers about ??

The big question is what next ?

Well duathlon training is leaving me tired, but in a good way.

Rode to park run (only 4 miles) do the run, ride back attacking the hills and keep high(ish for me) speed on the flat, home the run another 4k.

Last run was awfull, got home and ate for 20mins 🙂

Have trained pretty hard this week with 5k's imediatley followed by turbo trainer intervals. Cant wait for the rest day.

Anyone do the QECP trail run this morning?

It was rather busy 🙂

stayhigh, 7 weeks should be plenty of time if you work on increasing your run length, add 2km each week and you'll soon be there.

Did my first long marathon pace workout today, went ok though it's always difficult both to choose and to hit a pace this far out from race day (10 weeks to Manchester marathon). But a useful long hard effort anyway.

The big question is what next?

Keep going by making it interesting...

I'm currently deliberately running different routes in different bits of town and fields.
Trying to pluck up courage to do a park run thingy.
Making note that my belly *is* shrinking.
Planning on riding my bike more.

Completed the elite course at the Marmot Dark Mountains race this weekend. 37 miles of bogs, heather and hills. I think I totaled about 2500m of ascent. To make matters worse, you start at 7pm at night and run through the night. Not bad considering I only knew about running in it on Tuesday.

Its gps tracked and will be given my trace soon so will get that on strava (or it never happened) but in meantime http://live.opentracking.co.uk/darkmount18/

[quiote]<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 12.8px;">Trying to pluck up courage to do a park run thingy.</span>

There really is nothing to be scared of, a more inclusive atmosphere would be hard to imagine!

In my case, another weekend wasted. Last weekend was manflu, this weekend I've been busy throwing up. Getting bored of this now 🙁

There really is nothing to be scared of, a more inclusive atmosphere would be hard to imagine!

10 miles on Saturday morning in the wind and rain at 8:45ish pace, felt pretty good and is my longest run of the year so far. Legs felt a little heavy yesterday but oddly 25 miles on the road bike helped clear them a little.

Got a 10 mile muddy off road run this Sunday, couple of 5k's in the week will hopefully prepare me for the fun, that and a heavy session on the beer on Saturday night...

Been making use of the treadmill while away with work. Doing different interval sessions, both speed and hill based. Will try get some proper hill runs in when Home.

Just joined the waiting list for the ring of steall race too. Giving a target for the year.

After managing to spanner myself on the bike at the weekend I didn't much fancy riding today so went out for a run instead.

Managed 3.3 miles which is the farthest I've ran and with my slight detour after getting lost on the way I ended up going up and down a local hill, which is only a small one as hills go, and looking at Strava I managed a top 60 place out of 300+ runners 🙂

Best of all was that I really enjoyed it. I know that it's early days but I reckon that if I keep going with the baby steps and not overdoing it I'll be ready for my first Parkrun soon.