The Annual Running thread – beginners/ultras/whatever

I’m glad that Christmas is over, not that I over-ate, just that it’s easier to get my runs in again now. I need to get to and from work, so 2 hours of running a day is easily justified without being anti-social 😀

Cheers, Rich

@djtom I enjoyed the Roc last year. Did long score and not quite as good as last year but think was 4th or 5th solo. Be doing the linear next year for a change.

I had forgotten the local night Orienteering league starts again next week. All informal but good for a quick training run and a pint afterwards to undo the good work.

Bit of a rolled sore left ankle for me, came off a wet root into a left foot mulchy bog onto a lump of flint at QECP and my heals quite sore.. which is a bit dull.

Managing every other day 10-15k on the trials, might be over doing it a bit and the ankle might just force some rest.. which is a bit dull.

Had a good Xmas, plenty of time for running, weathers been wet and windy down this way so have kept to QECP/Head Down/Earlswood/Bere Forest basically under forest cover.. which has been fabulous.

Just bought some ON Cloudflyers and Cloudventure Peaks to try out on the trails and gravel trails, I’m a big Sal SpeedX fanbouy and this is a departure for me, but I like the ON range and hope they’ll like me…
These:

and these:

If you are bored and fancy spending some time reviewing/deciding what to buy, I subscribe to this Youtube site: Trailrunningreview
Trailrunningreview_Youtube
Forgot to say, its a Spanish site …

Did some intervals this afternoon – 8 x 400m. Hurty.

Edinburgh marathon for me.

Going for 3.30 in the run up i hope to beat

19mins 5k
40mins 10k
1.5hr half

All of which i’ve been a whisker off un the past (literally 1second for the 5k)

Edinburgh marathon for me.

Going for 3.30 in the run up i hope to beat

19mins 5k
40mins 10k
1.5hr half

All of which i’ve been a whisker off un the past (literally 1second for the 5k)

Good luck. Pretty much same position I’m in but I’m aiming for an autumn marathon. Currently at 19:25 5k, 41:39 10k (but only ran one 10k race which was August ) and 1:33 half.
Ran my first road marathon in October aiming for 3:20 but the wheels fell off at mile 19 and I came in at 3:40. Lesson learnt! Going for it again this year but I know what I need to do this time around in terms of training

If you are bored and fancy spending some time reviewing/deciding what to buy, I subscribe to this Youtube site: Trailrunningreview
Trailrunningreview_Youtube
Forgot to say, its a Spanish site …

Mayayo’s quite good for Spanish trail running, particularly if you live near Madrid (as I do 🙂 )

https://carrerasdemontana.com/

Bah. Turned my right ankle hard on Thursday night. Running in the local woods and it was slippy with lots of tree fall/logging. Tripped, stumbled and rather than going down on my face which would be preferable I ended up with all my weight on a twisted ankle. Makes me feel quite peculiar just bringing it back to mind!

Finished the run. Walk/Jogged. Ankle the size of a grapefruit! Now after ICE down to a baseball size but walking still very painful. Realistically I’m not running my first half next weekend 🙁 Postpone until April I think.

I appreciate it’s a ‘how long is a bit of string question’ and I will go see the physio again (ironically the left knee is actually fine which is what I was worried about) but any prognosis on recovery time? Ankle doesn’t hurt unless I walk on it. I assume I’ve done ligaments. But not sure to what level.

TLDR; running at 50 appears to be 1 run = 1 injury 🙁

Bloody annoyingly I felt pretty good as well. Actually confident I could get round the half.

Another join for the Strava run group 😀 on as Lee H 😀
Doing mostly trails as I find it’s easier on the body and is more interesting! Doing red Jan on Strava, run every day, and doing really well imo lol!
I’m another big fan of sal speed X
Well done folks and keep digging deep 😀

Best of luck with the recovery Alex.

Parkrun this morning, try and set a decent baseline time on a fast course, though yet another Friday night 7 a side comeback may slow me down a bit….

I got my first run in yesterday morning before work. Just 2 miles at a (very) steady pace (7.55/mile). Just trying to condition the legs.

Felt good, no injuries. I’ll probably stick with that distance/pace for the next 2 or 3 runs then start to pick up the pace/increase the distance.

I’m going to sign up for the Cumbrian Run to give me something to aim for. It’s a few years since I last did it but managed 1.45:02 with very little training, so hopefully take a good ten minutes off that.

I may even sign up to the Strava club…

You may be lucky with the ankle, I turned mine in a race a few years ago (heard a loud pop) and despite a big swelling and red bruise up the side of my leg I was jogging on roads in a week. Didn’t venture off-road for a while and it felt weak to side forces for a long time though.

but any prognosis on recovery time?

I turned my ankle a few years back at work. It took a month for it to be back to normal… I’m past 40 now, so everything takes longer 🙁

Alex and thecaptain

Yes, been there as well when i was playing decent level* football, which in itself is a lot harder on ankles with more turning, etc. Running should mainly keep them in straight lines, roots and standing on other runners at the start aside!

Trouble is that ligaments don’t heal like muscles, with far less blood supply, and in fact may never heal to the pre-injured state. But pain goes far quicker than recovery, leaving you susceptible to injuring again and again.

* there was a relevance to the decent level – it was decent enough that we had a proper physio who taught me to strap properly for support so I was less likely to do it again. Tubulars are ok for compression during recovery but won’t really help with support, you need to shave your foot and lower leg (trust me on this) and then get some 1″ or 1.5″ wide Zinc oxide tape and tape some additional external ligaments on to assist the weak ones in your foot.

You might need to experiment to ensure you get the right tightness to not restrict you too much, key is keeping it far enough back so the foot can still flex fore and aft so you can run, and enough to allow you to pronate or whatever as you run but only that.

Bloody annoyingly I felt pretty good as well. Actually confident I could get round the half.

You would’ve have aced it, your times were bang on the money! Don’t be tempted to get back too soon, it will take at least 6 weeks to heal, and for us oldies, probs even longer than that.

chill for bit and start gently

Thanks all. Seeing physio Monday and will follow her advice as well. She’s sorted out my many injuries over the years….

Nick – yeah well I can postpone until April so plenty of time to get ready. In more worried now about when I can ride again. It’s not ‘tomorrow’ is it?

Aimed to get inside 25 mins at this morning’s park run, 24.16, delighted with that!.

First run outside since mid November due to an Achilles injury. Deliberately steady for just about 6k in 30 mins, no pain and once I got going, not as hard as I feared it may be. Very happy indeed.

not ‘tomorrow’ is it?

Probably not, you might get away with strapping it, but in reality probs just add more time to the recovery

@NB – any time I get under 25mins I start to hum the Chariots of Fire Music so good effort 🙂

@NickC – yeah I know. I’m giving it a week off. If I get all grump-a-tron due to no exercise, I’ll have to go swimming*

* it’s not really swimming. It’s more enthusiastic sinking.

Injuries are part of what we do, just don’t try to come back to a fitness level too quickly otherwise you may just agrivate the same injury or create another.

And I’m not 100% convinced that injuries heal slower once over the age of say 40, I reckon it’s our perception and expectations that make us “think” they heal slower.

We’ll all be back on it soon enough, tomorrow I’ll be over QECP if anyone’s around and fancies joining me.

Thanks @BB. I’m staying positive but I’m not good an inactivity. But so easy to make it worse. So I shall behave… anyway I feel I’ve hijacked the thread so back to running posts not me whinging about injuries!

Worst injury last year was when I turned my ankle – walking into the sports hall to get my number before a race!

Fortunately it only seem to affect twisting forces, and I could still run. Which was lucky as it was a mountain marathon… It sorted itself out over time, still feel like a muppet when I think about how I did it though 😆

Hey, we all have injuries.. it’s good to hear about them because we all learn from how they happened, the conditions, and subsequent healing process. Good solid cathartic expressions never hurt anyone.

I’m similar to you when not doing anything, or unable too, purely because I feel sometimes times running out and I should be enjoying getting out there. I find it tricky to switch off unless I’ve had a good solid session of intensive exercise.. that’s why I choose trail running, surfing and CXer because I’ve got lots to choose from 😆

Definitely that ^^^. The whole running out of time thing. ‘Wasting’ Days I could be outside doing stuff. Probably not a bad mindset to have…

Wrote a thing: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4050 – warning, has pictures of a strange looking object that might be a foot* and some swearing…

*It’s now like WCA’s foot tho. I’m still traumatised by that 🙂

So anyone been racing this weekend?

Got local XC race. Only 4.4 miles so nothing too much but I find these short xc ones a real mind game. Slow down your going too fast, no go faster its only short, no slow down it hurts.

Any recommendations for a set of ice spikes?

I’ve been getting some miles in this week and worn out a set of cheap pull-ons.

I’d prefer something that lasts a bit longer.

I have entered this

https://www.course-eiffage-viaducdemillau.org/

should be able to finish but need more training to make it more interesting .

@epicyclo – Kahtoolas are the usual recommendation

whitestone – Member

@epicyclo – Kahtoolas are the usual recommendation

Thanks. I’ll get a set of those, but they’re probably a bit overkill for what I’m running on.

I think something with the same sort of spikes as I have on my bike tyres would be ideal. 🙂

Just dug out the couch to 5k app, virtually no riding last year has seen me very out of shape.
Followed the app for the 30 minutes which got me 3.5 k then walked/jogged the rest of it, 5k in 38 minutes.

Goal: be able to run the full 5k in 8 weeks, ideally around 25 mins. Hopefully thats feasible, and lose 1 1/2 stone. Hopefully doable too!

Entirely doable Nick, since end of Nov I’ve lost 2 stone, and gone from over 32mins to just over 24.

Bit of clean eating, and some of Joe Wicks HIIT workouts on the days I’m not running (which are getting rarer and rarer!) And only eating carbs after exercise.

No science, and some may poopoo, but it’s working for me.

Tom Bosworth can walk a Parkrun 5k in just over 20 mins. Pretty amazing

@nobeerinthefridge excellent 😀

Question – c25k says take a rest day. / only run 3x a week. I was going for a pedal, but it’s -7 this morning here and icy. My knees ache, but I feel ok. Should I press on?

(Edit: I’m also ‘ahead’ of c25k, running 5k+ last couple of days and adding another running set)

First run of the year. 5k in 22:44. **** me that was hard. Long way to go for a sub 20 this year

My goals for this year are to get my local parkrun down to under 25 minutes, think my best last year was about 28, survive the run at the 2 iron-distance triathlons I’m doing, and get myself round the 50ish miles of the run at the Double Brutal in a relay (can’t let the swimmer and cyclist down after they’ve done their bit). And get some weight off.

I had the Beds & Bucks County XC Championships yesterday – that was brutal – it was supposed to be 11km (which I was pacing for) but ended up at 14km! Good measuring AAA! Results not properly out yet, but I think we got 3rd vets team. I’ve wrecked my knee though so no running for a couple of days I think 🙁

My knees ache, but I feel ok. Should I press on?

If you knees ache then possibly not but in the past I have never followed my own advice. You will lose little if you dont run today and wait until tomorrow but if you run today then lose 10 days through injury, that is a big deal.