Cougar, is that the Great Yorkshire Run? I’ve just been offered a place but think it’s a bit far to go for a 40min run.

Ah yes, I remember the thread – hows the preparation been coming along?

Prep… nah, you’ve lost me, sorry.

I’ve done, er, two practice runs so far. Oops.

Cougar, is that the Great Yorkshire Run? I’ve just been offered a place but think it’s a bit far to go for a 40min run.

It is, yes. You could run more slowly and get your money’s worth?

a 40min run.

Subtle.

It is, yes. You could run more slowly and get your money’s worth?

One would have to run veeeeery slowly to get their moneys’ worth. Did it 2 years ago, and was quite a dear do if I remember right.

….got a nice medal/t-shirt though.

Thus your quoted times are invalid then

piss off deadly 😀

😛

Ignore him Emsz.

Jesus, you can be such a jerkoff sometimes DD.

Subtle.

actually I made a point of not putting my actual time there for that very reason. 8)

there’s no moneys worth to be getting it’s a freebie, hence why I was actually considering it.

EDIT Ah well, emsz knew I was teasing.

there’s no moneys worth to be getting it’s a freebie, hence why I was actually considering it.

In that case, you have to do it in no time at all. Or an infinite amount of time. Or something.

My brain just divided by zero, I’ve got a headache now.

Jesus, you can be such a jerkoff sometimes DD

Ah well, emsz knew I was teasing.

Nice demonstration of the problem with communicating via text.

EDIT Ah well, emsz knew I was teasing.

lolz.

Nice demonstration of the problem with communicating via text.

So it seems 🙁

🙄

oh dear

Sorry emsz. Forgot my smilie.

Join a running club and if you aren’t already add some speed sessions (intervals, tabata, get down to an athletics track or join a local club for ideas.) You can train to heart rate zones and the like but I like to break my training into easy and hard with about a 50/50 split as I get most of my aerobic development on the bike. Easy is a pace you can hold a conversation at. Hard is racing or speed sessions. Most people tend to make there easy sessions too hard and there hard sessions too easy. Try not to fall into this trap on your speed sessions and push really hard. Have a look for local 5k or 10k races to do as well as its a really easy way of getting a hard session in.

11 weeks isn’t really enough time but for future reference you might want to look at your running style. I joined a club at the start of summer with the intention of getting my 5k time sub 16mins to which the coach suggested it wasn’t going to happen unless I changed to forefoot striking. I’m just back up to the speed I was before after about 2months. But the immediate advantages are I can run every day whereas before I would run once/twice a week to avoid knee injuries.

Iain

Thanks Iaiaiaain. I’m pretty happy with my running style. I’ve never looked at myself from outside, but I made an effort as soon as I started running to stick to a mid-foot strike. It’s now habit, and it feels good.

Also have been doing a mix of intervals and distance, whenever I can actually drag myself out of the house. Tonight is some interval training – 1km warm up, then back and forth along the reservoir path, changing from sprint to jog every time I get to a new bit of fence…

EDIT: A few people have mentioned joining a running club, but I don’t think it’s for me. Running has become my very personal, cathartic, escapist activity. It wouldn’t be the same if I had to hold cheerful conversations and pretend I was enjoying myself.

Join a running club

My one and only dealing with a running club was not a favourable one. I basically got told that I wasn’t one of Them, and asked would I mind pissing off so they could have exclusive use of the track (which they then proceeded to not use for an hour and a half).

Should I join a club, I know which one I won’t be joining.

I joined a club at the start of summer with the intention of getting my 5k time sub 16mins to which the coach suggested it wasn’t going to happen unless I changed to forefoot striking.

I’d suggest you change club if that’s what the coach said. There are plenty of sub 16min club runners who don’t forefoot strike.

When I’m in a running mood (not currently), I found a mix of club running and solo running to be quite nice. Solo, I could stick an iPod on and listen to my favourite stuff. But I couldn’t be committed enough to do intervals, hill stuff, etc so running with a club meant I was kinda “forced” to do it. It did improve my times to be fair.

It sounds like you are though – fair dues.

Edit: Jesus, sub 16 mins 5k – that’s somewhere in a parallel universe for me 😳 *impressed*

Cougar, they sound like a right shower. The crowd I ran with in Brizzle were nothing like that – very welcoming. They weren’t triathletes too were they? 🙂

I am running my first, and only, 10k of the year in December. Unfortunately, it’s not open to followers of the iDave method, as you get a Christmas Pud for finishing.

Hopefully i’ll see you there Jamie. I posted my entry off today, but the Percy Pud always fills up so quickly i’m worried i won’t get a place.

I ran my PB there two or three years ago. Great course – flat, fast and scenic. It is definitely South Yorkshire’s premier 10km race.

And nuts to the tententen in Endcliffe Park the month before, they can shove their £17 entry fee up their…

There are plenty of clubs around that have less competitive groups.
My club has both and as long as you dont get in the wrong group as they leave the clubhouse you will always have somebody to run with. If you do make that mistake you will soon realise it.

Cougar, they sound like a right shower. The crowd I ran with in Brizzle were nothing like that – very welcoming. They weren’t triathletes too were they?

I’m being slightly disingenuous, but not much.

I’d gone to a local park for the first time in years, and discovered a running track, so started doing a few laps. After a couple of laps, a woman with a severe haircut and bad tracksuit plotted an intercept course and asked me if I was a member of their running club. I replied in the negative, and she said haughtily “well, WE have exclusive use of this track until 8pm!”

Thrown, I tried to assess what was going on. On the one hand, if she’s right then I don’t want to be an arse about it. On the other, I can see no evidence of this fact. I point out that there’s no signs and get told “well, we have. Have you paid to run today?” What? I replied that as far as I knew it was an open public track and there was no indication anywhere that payment was necessary. “So can you leave?” she says.

I looked around. It’s hardly packed; there’s a handful of adults and kids sitting looking bored on the grass in the middle of the track, and someone taking hurdles far too seriously on the opposite side of the track. I’m the only one actually running.

By this point I’m thinking that, even if she’s right, I’m feeling a little hard done by. So I pointed out, “well, you’re not using it.”

“We’re about to!” she cried. So I gave her a big smile and said, “ok, fair enough, when you do I’ll move on” and set off running again. She glared at me like she’d just caught me laying a cable in her flower bed.

I got another three laps in before she collared me again. Indicating the Disinterested Dozen, said “we’re starting now.” “Ok then,” I plodded off.

I plodded, in fact, to the caretakers’ building for a chat. Turns out that she’s right, and they have paid for exclusive use. There “used to be a sign” but apparently it got taken down when there was a royal visit a few weeks ago.

So I went back out and carried on running round the park (not the track). During the next hour after they’d kicked me off, they used the track for about ten minutes (largely standing about, one or two of them occasionally running for about 40 metres) before going back to sitting on the grass looking bored again.

Ultimately, the misunderstanding wasn’t her fault, but she could have been a bit less frosty about it, especially given how little they actually used it. Left me with a bad taste.

The club I ran with for a while (Southville in Brizzle) were all very pleasant. Big group meets – 4 or 5 leaders would call out distances and expected pace and the rough route. And there was always a “run/jog at the speed of the slowest member” social group too for people just starting out or just looking to get out for a pootle with other slow runners.

I did get carried away one night and went out with a speedy group – severely bruised ego as I spent the night looking off in the distance just about managing to see the route they were taking 😳

Seems like you came across a right bunch – thankfully, they’re not all like that. Best of luck in your upcoming anyway.

Seems like you came across a right bunch

TBF, I only dealt with one of them, the rest might be ok. The guys running the park didn’t seem overly shocked at my experience, however.

phil.w – Member
I joined a club at the start of summer with the intention of getting my 5k time sub 16mins to which the coach suggested it wasn’t going to happen unless I changed to forefoot striking.
I’d suggest you change club if that’s what the coach said. There are plenty of sub 16min club runners who don’t forefoot strike.

POSTED 19 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Well unfortunately I can’t train with the club as I’m no longer up north but the coach knows his stuff. Aside from knocking 1min of my 10mile tt, 1min off my 400m swim in 10weeks (which got me few race wins toward the end the season) the club also has a national champion and a couple lads that have raced at European level. He didn’t quite say it was impossible more that to persevere with heal striking getting better would have required an improvement in my aerobic system which is already quite good hence the fastest way to improve would be to work on my form. The guys who were close to me in terms of aerobic capacity would literally dance away from me as the run sessions got past halfway and my quads and knees started to hurt.

I wasn’t really keen in the beginning as no one wants to go from being an ok speed to being super slow (which is what happens to begin with) but as mentioned above I knew the coach was good and everyone in the club ran that way and they were hauling in race wins like no tomorrow. So now having made the switch and seeing both sides of the coin I am much faster running off the bike already despite my standalone 5k being about the same. I can run 7 days a week should I so wish so just in that respect the possibilities of improvement are vast compared to only being able to run twice a week maximum. And compared to before it feels like you are floating along, so much less effort than heal striking. So yes possible to be very fast heal striking, but much easier, for me anyway, to learn to run on my toes.

Iain

And nuts to the tententen in Endcliffe Park the month before, they can shove their £17 entry fee up their…

Get a nice red tshirt with a big 10 on it tho!*

*I only do ’em for the freebies…..even tho you technically pay for it.

The whole things a racket now (race entry fees that is) If you race regularly then by being a club member you get reduced entry fees plus club runners get to run in relays, track meetings and cross country leagues for free. I can recommend joining one even if you dont train with them often.
I’d love to say Athletics clubs aren’t cliquey (sp) but in my experience they are just as cliquey and intimidating to newcomers as other clubs.
I joined my first running club almost 25 years ago and I’ve met some of my best friends through running so persevere and ignore the arses!

Well. Today was warm, wasn’t it?

Depends whether you’re oop north or dahn sarf.

Like surfer says the big secret of running clubs is you can do loads of competition for free/cheap. Most races give you a £2 reduction which you quickly get back from membership fees if you fancy a race fairly regularly. I run mostly fell – 3 or 4 quid, cross country – free, winter league – free, summer multi-terrain – quid, and the occasional road run – I have to give my wallet prior notice of these 🙂

There are arses in clubs and nice people. I’m a bit of both…

I was subtly alluding to the fact that I did my 10k yesterday, and it was very, very, very warm.

All in all it went ok. The legs felt reasonably good – the limiting factor was the heat – it was about 28 degrees, and I was amazed at how much more difficult that made things. I found that in order to try and keep cool I had to run too slowly, which felt really inefficient and bumpy. So, I generally stuck to a faster pace, and slowed down just occasionally to let myself breathe, and chuck some water over me.

At the start, as this was my first running event, I put myself about 2/3rds of the way down the field. This was a bit of a mistake, as I spent the first 1k either weaving through people and occasionally bumping into them, or politely biding my time but running at a horribly slow lurchy pace.

53:59 in the end, which I actually reasonably pleased with, given the heat and the crowd.

Good work. It’s tough in that kind of heat, specially if you’re new to it. Dodging people is always a problem in bigger events. Back for another?

Exceptionally well done. Chapeau.

Good work Big Tim

Back for another?

Probably, yeah. It was surprisingly fun.

Piggy that’s a FANTASTIC achievement *kisses*

well done you!!

running in the heat is hard.

Chapeau.

Hat? 😕

Well done, always good to be left wanting. I can symathise with the heat as I done my first ultra on Saturday……that heat was no joke. Pleased I did all my training in the driving rain and howling gales of a Brecon Beacons summer.

Well done. I really fancy doing the Mold 10k this weekend but I think I’m still too heavy, plus I’m only up to about 6.5 treadmill km in 40 min. I don’t fancy stumbling round the second lap in the dark 🙂