The Annual Running thread – beginners/ultras/whatever

What he says ^^^

Socials are for chatting, races are for racing.

Chat at the start, maybe run the first 1/2 mile together then gently split. This is what I did with my brother-in-law at the Brum marathon, we started together, did the first mile, maybe 1.5 miles together then parted (well, he went off into the distance…). No point running together unless you’re very closely matched IMO.

I’m doing the QECP marathon …

See you there.

Sound advice.  Cheers all.

Running together is great if you’re evenly matched. I hooked up with a small group with the same target for a marathon a couple of years ago and it made the first half fly by very comfortably. 2nd half we were all on our own as people found how over-optimistic they’d been 🙂 I would never do a race with mates unless the faster ones are very happy to take it easy. Eg I have paced my wife a couple of times when I only wanted an easy run for myself.

Train together but racing is for, well, racing. No mates.

Was the calf injury related to the Achilles problem you were having last year?

No, seemed to be a bit of a tear. felt healed then would “pop” about 1 mile into my run. Seems better now, nother 3 miles tonight just trying to hold back.

No, seemed to be a bit of a tear. felt healed then would “pop” about 1 mile into my run. Seems better now, nother 3 miles tonight just trying to hold back

Interested to know what your physio recommended to regain full range of motion etc?

Eccentric/Concentric strengthening exercises? Proprioception? … stretching? 😉

Good luck with your return to form surfer.

edit – oh btw – dunno if it was your gastrocnemius that you damaged but:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3845475/

“In the sub-acute phase, rehabilitation should consist of passive and active stretching program, soft tissue techniques, and proprioception training”

Just saying … 😉

QECP is back to its claggy best.. 🤦‍♀️

Aye, the frost has gone here too, back to the fun brown stuff!. Volunteered to marshall at a local parkrun – Troon – on saturday, looking forward to paying back some of the fantastic cheeriness that I have received on parkruns in spades!.

Parkrun volunteering for me this week as well, run director at Oldham. Run with the tri club tonight, been buying new running shoes today so need to try them out.

Eccentric/Concentric strengthening exercises? Proprioception?

Yes lots of exercises and importantly cross frictional massage. No mention of stretching although he is a decent triathlete by the sounds of things and appears “educated” in these things so not suprising really 🙂

He did ask me why all the “bloody old fellas were so fast” Told him we had no TV in those days!

He did ask me why all the “bloody old fellas were so fast”

“frictional massage” … not heard it called that before! 😉

If you cum too quick … try and think of Margaret Thatcher … 😉

QECP not bad today, bit loamy but we’re due a bit of rain this afternoon..

Parkrun starts 0900 in the morning if you are interested..

Old shoes on, two weeks off to recover and made it all of 200 metres yesterday afternoon before my knee started to hurt so I had to abort…

Very annoying, especially since I can swim and pedal pain free. Physio tomorrow, they reckon it might be IT Band Syndrome, I am not too convinced, pain is in the back of the knee, below the bend/top of calf when my foot is landing , no pain when moving the knee in any other movement.

Round 3 of my ‘half or more a month’ race completed at Retford yesterday.

A very good race and excellent conditions too.

I managed to complete to my goal time so happy with that and feeling positive for the next installment which will be my main race for the year.

5 weeks until Boston marathon…

Can I ask how people think running helps or hinders fitness on the bike?

I stated the year with the usual Zwift fitness builder stuff and to be honest got quite bored of it at about the same time I started doing a couple of runs a week 3-4 miles. Over the last 6 weeks or so I’ve done more running and less biking and did a 10k yesterday in just shy of an hour. Not quick but hilly and feel I’ve a lot more improvement in me. Next target is a sub 25min 5km.

From a cardio and weight loss point of view, running is great but I’m a bit worried that less time exercising (albeit at higher intensity) won’t do me any good for 5-6 hour rides later in the summer etc.

It’s nice not having a garmin or a screen to stare at though.

First run over the weekend in my On Cloudflyers. a brief review:

Good. They’re light, nice amount of support and feel like they move nicely with your feet. They feel supportive but not too much so. Very comfortable generally.

Bad. Not much really, they gave me a small blister but that was as I am a fool and my first run in them (bar 1km on the treadmill) was a 12 miler. A few shorter runs and I think they’ll soften up and be the right tool for the job.

Running fitness / bike fitness

I think the only overlap is the cardio side.

The strength/conditioning for running is good for running but doesn’t really provide any advantages on the bike as you’re using different muscles in different ways and with running you’re weight bearing through you legs/joints whereas with cycling not so much.

For running you need to get your body used to the impact and stress which you don’t really need o for cycling.

If your doing lower intensity but longer rides then you need to build endurance and shorter more intense running wont provide enough of that for you. Maybe try some longer slower runs or maybe just do some longer slower rides?

That’s just from my experience.  I run more than I ride now and I’m usually fine on longer rides if it’s not too intense. My quads are usually the first things to suffer though on longer rides as they aren’t used to it.

My biggest ever week of running completed – 133km, felt very tired on the way to work this morning, but that may have been partly down to working until past midnight and getting up at 5:45am…

Less than 6 weeks to London, miles are mounting up!

I seem to be lucky to be able to avoid too much injury, apart from some ongoing minor PF in one heel, but it’s manageable and doesn’t stop me doing anything.

Cheers, Rich

Running fitness / bike fitness

I think the only overlap is the cardio side.

The strength/conditioning for running is good for running but doesn’t really provide any advantages on the bike

Yep – I would agree completely. Although I would also add that running is a good, time & equipment efficient alternative for cycling that can provide similar psychological benefits e.g. ‘blowing the cobweb away’.

In terms of muscle use though I find that [for me] running more than once a week or so causes muscle adaptation that results in less effective/efficient and slower cycling. Not a massive difference, but a difference all the same – especially on the longer rides.

I agree with alanf ^^ that the quads are the most noticable muscle group and that they adapt pretty quickly.

Bin stealthily watching this and quietly getting out and abaat.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>I’ve done my usual, gone mad, remembered how many miles I used to do and gone from ~25 p/week to 50 p/week in a couple of weeks aaaaaand injured. Bolleaux.</span>

Right knee. Front just below cap, can run it off in 2-3 miles but hurts like a hurty thing ’till then. Presumably reduce/no mileage and RICE? Anything else apart from an injection common sense?

FKCU.

Thanks all. My plan is to mix and match I think. At the minute, I’m leaning towards more running to shift the weight and hopefully improve aerobic capacity at 1 hour ish efforts. If I can use the bike to maintain the same sort of FTP, this should make me faster up the hills going into summer. I’ll then gradually lengthen the miles on the bike and do the odd run for sharpness.

Parkrun rollcall anyone?

have had a few weeks off – more than a few actually – skiing weekend, one weekend of mrs dd laid up and few heavy Friday nights meant none since Feb3rd. Naughty naughty.

Sank a few last night, woke up with thick head and  wasn’t going to go but thought **** it, at least it’ll clear my head. Just live with a poor performance I’ve never felt tempted to chicken out but when I got out of the car in Ashton Court, it was absolutely bloody freezing – and blowing a hooly. Damn near got back in and went home. But y’know, feeling awesome and all that…

Just had results through. 23.14 so 37 seconds off last one and a jump of 34 places to 65th. Next aim will be to beat 23 – hadn’t thought it would be achievable a while back – it’s the bloody hill at the beginning!

I’m putting all this down to switching from previous run/sprint80/sprint100 stuff to @surfer’s suggested intervals. So cheers to you for that @surfer. I think carrying around 6kg less than from my first parkrun (this year) in January (25.19) has helped as well. 🙂

Keep on truckin’ all!

No Parkrun for me, ours is still off due to the park having some work done. 15 miles in the wind and snow instead, not overly pleasant, not overly fast but done. Now for beer.

Wilmslow half tomorrow, should be bracing! Hoping for a decent group to shelter in with some of the pacers…

Shouldn’t have gone – after recent weeks of injury free I had a minor niggle but thought it would be OK. Then my local was off, park is a bit soggy and needs a chance to recover, so went over to Homewood (Chertsey / Ottershaw if anyone’s local)

Cracking course, like an old school XC with a proper steep hill mid way. Which the calf was fine on. Down the other side, then up another minor incline…… and calf went again. Only sensible thing I did was stop there and then, so I got a DNF but hopefully won’t take long to recover.

Now sat with feet up watching rugby and cursing.

Ooof theotherjonv! Unlucky with that.

Discretion better part of valour and all that – there’s one to do every week. Hope it sorts itself soon

Stay warm in the cold winds.. tight muscles don’t like the cold.

I’ve been over QECP three times this last week, each time in a completely different conditions.. hard rain and slippy slop, baking hot and no wind and this mornings bitterly cold sleet.. Got to love the variety.

We’ve got the Spring Marathon there in a couple of weeks now, so I’ve upped my pace and tomorrow will be interval hill climbs.. I expect vomit and crying.

🤡🥊

You’ve lost 6kg since Jan DD? Ace!

Struggled a bit recently myself – few colds and weak excuses, plus a bit more riding/turbo. And when I have ran I’ve overdone it. Nice slow hour or so tomorrow morning planned though.

You’ve lost 6kg since Jan DD? Ace!

Err, yeah – definite timber-time in Dec. Resolved to enjoy Christmas and tackle in new year. Running, swimming, cutting down on beer and cutting out sweeties has helped a lot but no biggie, it’s timber – just needed burning – still a bit more till target. Thanks though!

Saw this on Twitter 🙂

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👍👍👍🌨🤩

I ran 15 miles this evening. Walking is proving tricky.

Self medicating with Laphroaig…

Seems like all the road races are off. Except perhaps a 20 miler in Lancaster but I’m not doing that.

Snow here, think I’ll run locally up and down the estuary instead of the trek to QECP.

I did Ashton court yesterday too. Not as quick as DD but happy with my new pb there of 26:04.

i think it’s the only time I’ve still been cold at the finish.

I did Ashton court yesterday too. Not as quick as DD but happy with my new pb there of 26:04.

i think it’s the only time I’ve still been cold at the finish.

Any PB is A. Good. Thing. Awesome work. I was a little bit confused for the barcode scanning – couldn’t figure out what to do I was that cold. 😀

Days like today are what treadmills are made for.

was suposed to do clumber duathlon on sat, was canceled though so did park run instead. Was cold and hard work. 

R.e. above running is not social for me i dont really enjoy doing it but feel better when its over (type 2 fun?) If i get fast i wont be running for as long, though thats lieing to myself ’cause i’ll just increase the distance.

Anyway got some time to put in some actual training for the run, can you know 2 mins of a 5k in 5 weeks?, from a 27min to a 25min.

I needed some new running shoes so I went to a running shop in Tunbridge Wells where they got me to run up and down a few times and then put me on the treadmill video. The upshot is they could see no reason why the shop I bought my old shoes from (Sweatshop in Brighton) put me in support shoes. I ended up with some Brooks Ghost 10s, which are a neutral shoe.

I’ve now done 4 runs in them and they are sooooooo much better than my old ones. The added comfort really makes running more enjoyable. I did 10k today, which was the first time since the British 10k last June, due to various injuries and lack of time.

PS. There’s something very soothing about running whilst it’s snowing.