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The runners' thread...

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windhoek said:
I went out for my first run in three days this morning and although I planned on running somewhere between 7-9 miles, I bailed out after two and a half as my running form and pace were all over the place thanks to a sore/stiff/tight left thigh/hip/groin. I reckon I'll need to take a week or two off running as I can now hardly walk the length of myself let alone run any distance that could be called long.

My musculoskeletal fatigue/injury or whatever means I won't be running the Rannoch half-marathon next Sunday. In fact, I doubt I'll be doing any competitive running (competitive against myself) until next year as I'll probably have to start from scratch to slowly regain the levels of fitness and endurance I had before I ran the 10K last Sunday. It's all my own doing, of course; in retrospect, running 9-10K three days after a competitive 10K was a bad idea. If nothing else, I'll know better next time.

All the best for your 10K Gareth :)
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Windhoek - sorry to hear that but I guess a half marathon race could have caused more damage. Take it easy, be patient. Do check out a balanced training schedule to match your starting point and goals. I used Runner’s World schedules a few years ago - they were pretty solid middle of the road affairs and very effective - sensible steady progression week-by-week and a good mix of paces. You need to build in shorter efforts than 2 miles and also build up to running long slow runs in training - probably slower than you imagine.

At the moment I’m building up to a 6 mile cross country race and 5 k Parkrun in November - happy to take about 6 weeks training to get to those races with probably no more than 10% increase in distance (both long-run distance and weekly total) per week.

Ian
 
Thanks for the comments guys and also the advice on joining a club.

My running friend who did Shoreditch with me joined Watford Harriers back in April to help his running and he has gone from a high 44 min 10k to running a sub 41 on Sunday which he was over the moon about. He put that down to the interval training they do as well as a more consistent method of training. I need to try and get along to the Tuesday sessions but it is my band night usually so tricky to fit in.
 
Yeah that's the tricky part about running, trying to find time to put in consistent and worthwhile effort in training. I do shift work which means my days off vary from week to week as do my start and finish times. Sometimes I start at 8am and finish at 4pm while other days I start at 1pm and finish at 9pm. I also do sleepovers which are really energy and motivation-sapping. I guess it all comes down to whether I want to prioritise running over all other non-work activities. If I can do that, I'm sure I'll make good progress. If not, I guess I'll get a bit fitter and faster, but maybe not as much as I otherwise could.
 
I'm pleased to say my zombie shuffle from yesterday has been downgraded this morning to a John Wayne hobble :)
 
My legs are struggling to get going today. Yesterday was not too bad but the first descent of the stairs this morning was hilarious. I had planned a short gym trip but it might have to wait another day.
 
So the day after yesterdays 13.1 miles as a final training long run, were muscles fine - but joints definitely suffering. Thought I needed a double knee replacement when I got up this morning :(

Anyway now I know I can do it, I have 2 weeks to recover and fit for the race itself (not that I'll be racing).
 
sean99 said:
.... the intervals should be long and somewhat hard (think 800m -1500m) rather than short and brutal (30 second / 200m flat out). Both types of interval training improved the 5k time relatively to control runners, but the long hardish intervals caused a much greater improvement than short brutal intervals (though both types of interval resulted in significant improvements versus just banging out steady miles).
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Just the kind of session I like! We used to do all sorts of variations of this on the track, from 400m to 1600m.

Today I went little shorter but did....

10 minutes jog / warm up / strides
10 * (2 minutes hardish with 1 minute recovery)
10 minutes jog warm down.

I'm nowhere near a track at the moment and just shuttled to and fro on a flat stretch of pavement. Always start at the same points so you see whether you're getting faster or slower through the session.

A real quality session in just 50 minutes - probably 5 miles or so altogether. and just the thing to get my speed and efficiency up for next month's races, hopefully.
 
As a beginner I found that increasing my training run duration & distances had more of an impact on improving my 5K time than interval sessions did. In particular I found my 5K times improved substantially when I started doing more 10K training runs - even with those runs being at a pretty slow pace.

I've been meaning to go back to doing interval sessions though - I've got access to a 400m running track only about 1.5K away from the house so really need to get around to using that.
 
SteveG said:
As a beginner I found that increasing my training run duration & distances had more of an impact on improving my 5K time than interval sessions did. In particular I found my 5K times improved substantially when I started doing more 10K training runs - even with those runs being at a pretty slow pace.

I've been meaning to go back to doing interval sessions though - I've got access to a 400m running track only about 1.5K away from the house so really need to get around to using that.
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I used to live next door to the 'Roger Bannister' track in Oxford. It's such a lovely place to run and train. I sometimes used it for long runs if I couldn't be bothered with traffic, kerbs, pedestrians, poor streetlights, street furniture etc.
 
To echo windhoek, here is a picture of the last 50m before the finish line. The girl behind me to my left passed me like a jet plane on full reheat just pipping me on the line but I had overtaken the guy behind ;-)


37361288300_d187a1ab4c_b.jpg
 
cutting42 said:
To echo windhoek, here is a picture of the last 50m before the finish line. The girl behind me to my left passed me like a jet plane on full reheat just pipping me on the line but I had overtaken the guy behind ;-)


37361288300_d187a1ab4c_b.jpg
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I love the aerodynamic hood, a bit like mine :D
 
Yeah, she looks like she's hitting full-sprint mode. I had a 40-50m kick at the end of my 10K, but it wasn't a sprint by any means, more like a high-tempo run that I could have sustained for only a few seconds more at a push. Anybody who can full-on sprint at the end has probably held back a bit too much earlier in the race.
 
windhoek said:
Anybody who can full-on sprint at the end has probably held back a bit too much earlier in the race.
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Hmmmm.... the most satisfying race finish I've had was the Great Aberdeen Run, where I managed to dig deep in the last 1/2 mile and overtook around 10-15 runners. I think I upped my speed from around 5:15/K to well under 4:00/K pace and was flying. Did I run too easily in the race up until that point? Probably not - I set a 10K PB on the outbound leg. However, I managed to dig deep late on, though I do wonder if I'd sustained the PB pace somehow, I'd have finished 10 minutes quicker for the 1/2 marathon.
 
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