Turbo: are those Nike shoes the ones Kipchoge used for the sub 2 hour marathon? Look subtle – think I’ll get a pair for work.
No, they are the shoes worn by his support runners and pretty much every fast marathon runner over the last year. Kipchoge was using a prototype pair that haven't yet been made available to the public, these in fact.
Couple of guys in my club have those (not the prototype ones, obviously!) and while I'm sure they're great shoes I can't get over how stupid the tail fin thing looks.
Is there really 2 inches of foam under the heel? Reminds me of back to the future, or some weird 1960s, psychedelic moon walking sequence from a sci-fi B movie.
I've got those ridiculous NEXT% in pink (although tbh the colour was a BIG selling point to me); I've only worn them once to have a try (I'm crocked at the minute from a cross country race) and although it might be a placebo thing, I ran a hilly club run - normally I would be somewhere around 6:50 pace - but I was nearer 6:30 pace without really trying - they're really "bouncy"...
Been reading on them - sound pretty amazing. The foam returns 85% of energy which is nice. Apparently the Saucony with the everrun(tm) sole I’m receiving tomorrow will return 83% of energy, no more, no less, so I’m looking forward to springing my way to some personal beasts!
I'm guessing if I'm needing stability shoes due to pronation/flat feet, I'm out of luck in getting cheap pairs like everyone else seems to be doing?
I’m guessing if I’m needing stability shoes due to pronation/flat feet, I’m out of luck in getting cheap pairs like everyone else seems to be doing?
@j4mesj4mes, Nope, Nike Struture are under £75 on the Nike website. https://www.nike.com/gb/t/air-zoom-structure-22-running-shoe-1KqM5f
I’m sure you could find something on the ASICS Clearance site too.
Got my Saucony omni shoes for £79 quid in the end which I think is ok. It’s only £10 more than I paid for a pair of running shoes in about 2004 so can’t complain.
cheers @lunge. Admittedly, I was hoping for cheaper but guess that is in the running world. As I start to bump up the weekly mileage, shoes start getting expensive as they don't last as long as they used to.
Nonsuch parkrun was great fun - another mudfest, sliding all over the place, hunting the verges, loved it.
Forgot all hope of a PB due to conditions and kept pace with a fellow Sutton Runner. Picked it up in the last km and gave it full beans.
Slightly shorter course by about 20m and not quite 5k. Previous best from a few weeks back was 23:48 on the summer course and I was hoping to dip under 23 minutes.
Came in at 21:48 and I’m really not sure where that came from. Pretty happy with that! Obviously hill training and the sessions with coaches are working. Next goal is of course sub 20 minutes, but that seems a long, long way off. There again, I never thought I could run sub 22 so who knows?
I need some proper deep studded trail shoes though as I’m sure I can pick up time if I have grip and don’t have to pussyfoot around.
I hear you @j4mesj4mes, I got 300 ish miles out of my shoes. If you’re anywhere near a Nike Store it’s worth a look in there, I picked up 3 pairs of my favourite shoes for under £60 a pair as they are 3 seasons old and I wanted to stock up.
What fartlek app are the non members of the Apple cult using?
I need some proper deep studded trail shoes though as I’m sure I can pick up time if I have grip and don’t have to pussyfoot around.
Proper trail shoes are quite a bit slower than asphalt running shoes, they have a rock plate built into the sole which slows you down. So I wouldn't count on them being that much faster.
What fartlek app are the non members of the Apple cult using?
Fartleks don't need an app! They're supposed to be unstructured - sprint to that set of traffic lights, then jog for a minute or two, then another sprint until we get to the park gates, etc.
If you're looking for interval training apps, however, search for "hiit" on Google Play. This is the one I use when I'm not using the Garmin workout planner: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ihunda.android.hiit
There are loads of other apps available, this just happens to be the one I found!
Glentress trail half today, featuring a not to be sneezed at 2400ft of climbing.
Enjoyed the climb to the mast, even though pace was slow, no option really on such narrow trails in a big field.
Descents down leithen door etc to top of deliverance were ace, then I went through a period of cannybefuctness and glided in the last 4 miles. It's been a long season.
How ignorant are GT mtbers when yer a runner? Never met as many ignorant bawbags in aw my life. Sad times.
Us and them mentality. Problem is that foot users have right of way and that annoys some mtb folk as they have to slow down.
Good effort though and way beyond what I could do at the moment. I’m encouraged by my recent results and thinking maybe I could start doing longer races.
Think the GT bikers will view this area as their playground and everybody else is intruding. I did the 10k trail run the night before the GT Sevens, and around this time last year The Mighty Deerstalker which was fantastic, but both avoided the times the Storm Troopers are in attendance.
Aye, fair enough, that's mibbe how they think, got fed up cheerily giving it 'morning' and getting bugger all back.
All the interactions were on fireroads, so not as if you're on their trails....
I think I’ve narrowed down my XC/trail shoe down to the Inov-8 X-claw 200 in black. Low drop, light, wider fit in the toes, flexible, a bit of padding but not too much and what looks like great grip. Just need to work out if I need 11 (shoe size) or 11.5.
Mogrim, I just like it when a wee bleep tells me to drag my sorry bones to the next point.
Root, go big. My trail shoes are 11.5, shoe size 10.
Tailwind energy powder - seems to be a lot of rave over it?
Doesn’t seem to be particularly well known on the riding scene though?
I’ve normally stuck to just water in my soft flasks as I don’t fancy trying to clean a stick mess but this tailwind stuff says it washes out with just water.
Anyone know what the neutral unflavoured one tastes like?
I supported a lad doing BG last year who used Tailwind. Really rated it. The name did make me giggle a bit. #parp
Mogrim, I just like it when a wee bleep tells me to drag my sorry bones to the next point
😀
Still not a fartlek though... but the app I mentioned above will do that for you. Although I definitely prefer Garmin, mainly as I don't usually run with a phone, at least not when I'm doing anything like speedwork.
Anyway this weekend's running was a 24km LSR, cold but sunny and not too much wind - pretty much ideal autumn/winter weather. Looking forward to next weekend's race, though, it's a fun and relatively short (17km) trail race in a nearby town. Just hoping the weather is favourable!
Was back in UK for a brief visit this week. Can't do our club race (Kirkby Moor) next week but the weather was good so had a trot round the route. Granted I picked some bad lines and stopped to chat to some other runners reccying the course, but when I uploaded the run to Strava I was dead last on the leaderboard 😭 Running through knee deep heather on faint trods is a skill that doesn't come easy. Nice views over the Duddon estuary though.
Saturday was a bit different. Met @mrsparkle of this parish and did my first parkrun. Warmed up limping from tweaking my ankle in that bloody heather but ran round at 4.20 for 4.8km (don't think I've ever run one km in 4.20 before) which was enough for 2nd. Might even do another.
Annoyingly 4.20 is about the same pace my club mate ran Kirkby when he won it last year.
Running through knee deep heather on faint trods is a skill that doesn’t come easy.
I hate heather with a passion, awful stuff for running. There's loads of it round here.
Managed to get out for a relatively gentle 4 mile road run yesterday (after not running much in the last two weeks). As always it feels so good to be out despite the difficulty in motivating myself on a cold and wet Sunday morning.
Needed to blow off steam last night, managed a 10k pb 47.5 mins, pretty chuffed. Shaved nearing 3 mins off my last attempt and have only been building base in z2. It hurt.
Beautiful morning on the canals this morning. Ice cold, clear sky, an amazing sunrise, just perfect way to start the week.
Good to hear everyone enjoying getting on and moving those legs.
I’m on a bit of a high after the weekend. I think I am definitely going to aim for a sub 20 parkrun before I get too old and my legs fall off.
So, I improved by nearly 2 minutes over 5 week of club sessions and varied running. I need to increase my pace from 4:25/km to somewhere near 4:00/km which I know is mighty difficult. Any training suggestions or just stick with what I am doing and see where it leads?
Cheers.
I have no idea how people can go <20 minutes for a parkrun - no matter how much I train (and I can happily run half marathon distance for fun when I have the time) I just don't have the leg speed.
I am very tempted to enter the Manchester Marathon next year - the finger has been hovering on the 'Enter now' button all morning.
I've just started doing bit of running, upto 5km at a time, but my calves really hurt. I can feel them tightening whilst running, and then really hurt afterwards, to the point that I can't comfortably walk down stairs for 3 to 4 days aftertwards.
I warm up and stretch after the run and have new trainers. Is the issue likely to be due to my legs not being used to running or something else. I've had alot of knee issues in the past, could it be linked to this?
It's now got to the point where running impacts on everything else, ie I cant ride due to the calf pain.
Any ideas?
^^^ Rest is all you can do - don't keep running or the injury will take longer to recover. When you go back to it, build up the distance more slowly and make sure you do some specific warm-ups/downs to focus on the calves. It could also be a stress fracture.
Also look at your running technique - are you over-striding?
I had very similar when I started @teenrat. The things that helped me were dropping the weekly total mileage a bit, stretches, foam rolling and doing eccentric calf lowers. The latter of which, when I did them 2 or 3 times per day, really helped.
I've got sub-20 PR and sub-45 10k goals in mind. I think the latter is going to be easier than the former! I am currently at 48m for 10k (running on my own), so I reckon 45m in a race shouldn't be that far away. The sub-20 parkrun seems a long way off though. I'm at 22m at the minute and finding another 2 mins is going to be hard! Definitely need to get back into the club track sessions - not been able to make them for ages.
Managed sub 21 a couple of times this year, sub 20 was one of my targets, but I've not really managed to have a proper go at it, ie warmed up etc.
No races left this year, thankfully, so I'll make sub 20 my priority now, along with running for fun with no real goal. 🙂
As Lunge says, eccentric lowers and raises, plus rollering. Not convinced stretching does anything but turn the above into a workout and it will help to build strength then build up running slowly. Unlikely to be a stress fracture they often come on after a longish period of fast higher mileage training and tend to be felt less in the muscle.
The way to get faster is to run with faster people who will push you.
Also running more/further will help to improve your endurance, but that wont necessarily make you quicker. You need to pair that with some sort of speed work, with the aim of increasing cadence.
When you run with faster people, you have a higher level to aim for which can give you the extra motivation to push yourself beyond what you would normally do or your perceived limitations.
One of my previous targets (2013) was to go sub 40 for 10K, I struggled with this at first and it took me a few attempts to crack it, however, once I passed that hurdle, it was no longer challenging and my times dropped even more.
After changing my training and running with some different people for a while, this year I've managed to run under 33:30 for 10K.
Tha is Alanf. I am definitely running with faster people at the club and I think over the past 5 weeks I have pushed myself much further than I would have if I’d been going solo. I’m just about keeping pace with the runners I considered way faster than me now over short distances but there are plenty of faster members.
Sub-22 was hard and I was using a fellow member as a pacer, but I was comfortable enough until I wound it up in the final km. It was slippery, gloopy, rooty, very muddy, I was sliding all over the shop, and I forgot my inhaler so I feel I have it in me to go faster.
As Alan says - case in point: I run (when not injured) 60-70k a week in the hills. Low cadence etc. Can't run 10k on flat in much under 50m. I know what I need to do but prefer pottering round in the hills.
Nobeer, T-R and anybody else lucky enough to be in the real north; High Terrain are advertising a Cairngorms Ultra next year.
If there isn't one already would there be appetite for a STW Strava running club?
Best I get my backside off the sofa and get in the hills tomorrow... reading some posts here has made me feel rather pathetic.
Spin; runners of singletrack is the club name
Cheers duckman, just joined.
I can’t find that group - should I search something else?
