Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

The 2min 20s was only a 800m race, but I've never run much past 200m before as I train for sprints, not a distance runner.
Didn't do the 2km last week, not ready for it.
Will be doing a 400m next week, hoping to break 60s as I've never raced it before.
Will slowly build up over time for 1,500m racking for pentathlon/decathlon.

 

5kms is my distance of choice usually and pretty much the same as the runner you mention. My Business as usual every second day 5km is around the 20 minutes mark. Gets me huffing and puffing but can do another slower 5km on top of that no problem.

Around the 22 minutes for a 5km is usually an easy run to my mind and anything above is pretty sluggish.

These days i've been adding another 3 kms on top of that at a little slower pace and also been doing longer intervals to get back into longer distances which is improving my 5km times too.

 

Knapsack 6 hour (and 3 hour) lap race is open for those interested @bob shovel. Be a few there I believe.

 

Completed the Jervis Bay Half last weekend. Despite having an injury leading up to the event making the lead up a little tough I managed a PB by over 8 minutes. Gun time of 1:42:07 very happy my running is coming along.

Previously I had always regarded myself as someone that would never be a fast runner and always just plod along, feel the limiting factor was actually my training. Consistent focused training has seen my running come along more than I could have imagined in a very short time and made it much more enjoyable.

Legs are basically recovered and just over 2 months now until my event so back to building up the kms for my longest run ever if everything goes to plan (previous longest is a marathon).

Anyone else kicking running goals?

 

Instead of starting a new thread I thought I’ll ask for some suggestions here for a threadmill as the post is more relevant.

Well, I am in the market for a medium range threadmill, due to work, baby son and Time constrains running out on the roads is not an option. Not after the second hand gumtree stuff either after a recent bad experience.

Reading the reviews Nordic track 1750 is appealing but slightly on the expensive side where as T70 is cheaper and on budget and seems to do what I want. I am medium built, 5ft 8’, will be using it for some brisk walking and some lite running. Anybody use any of them what are your thoughts?

Any opinions or suggestions I am all ears for it.

 

I have the model up from the 1750. Solely because it was on special and cheaper than the 1750, not for any added features/function.
I lashed out after trying a cheap one and not liking it at all.
I don't have any experience with the T70, I would expect it to be fine for walking. Running is where you need it to feel stable it IMO, rebel sport stock Nordic track, not sure on models, they do test runs so I would suggest trying one out.

 

@Sannie I've got the 1750. It works well, it's well built and I give a it a fair bit of hammer. It's got a good gradient spread and top speed too. I've abused mine quite a bit and it's not showing any signs of issues. Last time I checked I'd put over 1000k on it.

I don't like the console though, it's just an Android tablet with Nordic software running. Don't get me wrong, it works, but it occasionally reboots itself and need a power cycle to get out of a stuck boot up sequence, Just makes it feel a little sort of cheap if you know what I mean?

The mill itself though is very good, very heavy and well built.

Just make sure if you get one (or similar) that you put it together where you intend to keep it long term. They are obscenely heavy and in the case of the 1750 won't fit through a door way unless you pretty much disassemble the whole thing first (I know as we just moved and there was no easy way to do it). It's designed in a way that you pretty much have to strip the whole thing back down again to be able to move it (and then it's a 2-3 person job just to carry the conveyor bed - like I say, they are HEAVY.

 

Well, had some X-Rays done last week to see what's going on with the toes. Got the results today. They're toast. Basically the same issue as my back, degenerated joints have narrowed the joint gaps and thrown bone spurs, so the pain is the bones etc rubbing the nerves as there's not enough space left for the nerves to move freely in the joints. That's that then, I guess I'll be running in pain for the foreseeable.

Just got back from Mountain Biking along he Goldfields trail, didn'tt have many toe related issues thankfully, other than some stiffness as the riding shoes wont allow me to flex the toes for relief unless I take them off. Loved the ride, very tough going (much harder than I remember from last time!), but a great adventure. 200k of rough, rocky rutted mountain bike trails right through Gold Country from Balaratt to Bendigo split into 3 days of riding. Had a ball and rekindled the enjoyment of riding, might wind the running back a little land get more riding in, see if that helps me get a few more years out of the toes.

Something that struck me was how dry it was. We did the same ride 3 years ago exactly (same weekend), last time it was green and wet all the way along. Lush gardens, full dams and standing puddles in the 4WD ruts. This time the whole route was scorched brown, virtually empty dams and not a green lawn in sight. The whole lot was a tinder box, quite frightening.

If anyone's interested, below is the ride we did and has a few photo's on if you click the tumbnails.

DAY 1 - 78.0 km Mountain Bike Ride on November 22, 2019 by Anthony B. on Strava

DAY 2 - 46.5 km Mountain Bike Ride on November 23, 2019 by Anthony B. on Strava

DAY 3 - 59.1 km Mountain Bike Ride on November 24, 2019 by Anthony B. on Strava

 

Thanks @RS Gumby I'll give them a go, it's more nerve pain from them being pinched in the reduced joint gap, but I'll give those a shot anyway. Cheers.

 

Haha I was down there for the Husky Half too! Didn't get my goal of 1:48 but still finished in 1:53 after I blew up with 6km to go.

The single file dirt/sandy section between 6-8km ruined my rhythm and I never really got it back after that. Also wasn't great for my shoes either. Give me a course that is all road or all trail, none of this bits and pieces rubbish.

I ripped a hamstring on Saturday at cricket so my running is shelved. Can't believe I've had 1000 miles of no problems but a 20 metre quick single has caused a bit of grief. I didn't get run out and we won the match so I guess it was worth it .

Will just have to walk Parkrun for the foreseeable future.

 

Would have been great to know you were there, could have caught up after.

The dirt section was my slowest of the entire run, stuck behind people and too narrow. The change in terrain didn't bother me too much, tamer than some of the local tracks I run. I have found since including more hill and speed work my ability to get back into a rhythm has improved, find I can force myself to run quicker to get it back after an effort be is stairs/hill/terrain/break.

Lots of people talk about shoes, I often run trails in road shoes and it doesn't seem to bother me. Might be that I am not in tune with my running enough to notice, I do run in old shoes with torn sides for some of my runs.

 

Trails just significantly degrade the shoes faster than normal wear and tear I’ve found. The odd pebble getting stuck or dirt/mud seeping into the stitching/folds seems to cause a noticeable difference in shoe life.

I was hoping I’d be further along with my running than I am.... since 2017 I’ve brought my HM time down from 2:03 to 1:49 and my 10k from 54 to 47.... I guess that’s progress but I do feel a little stuck.

Would you suggest a bit more intervals and hills instead of lots of slow (~6:00/km) 10k training runs?

I feel like you should get used to running fast in order to actually run fast if that makes sense

 

I am far from experienced and don't really know what I am doing (had to face this fact from past results) just following what an experienced ultra runner tells me to do currently. Every week there is a long "easy" and then a mix of other runs/distances; Hills, tempos, steady state, intervals, progressive etc. I run 5 days most weeks, sometimes 4. My "easy" pace is ~5:00/km now on flat ground, trails etc slow me down but aim to maintain the perceived effort, he calls this easy but not lazy.

All the reading I have done says 80% of your running should be proper easy (currently I am following what I am told and I do far more hard stuff and no proper easy based on HR) and the other stuff focused, running 5 or 6 days a week. The understanding I have is this works well for almost everyone, there are outliers that have programs that work for them but can't be applied to many people so you should probably ignore their advice and stick to the program that will get you 90%+ of your genetic potential.

Examples of runs recently done to give you ideas;
14km - 5:00 for first 7km, 4:50 for second.
Hill repeats for 30 minutes at 80% effort, recover down + 1km each WU/CD
Fartlek 2 mins on @ 4:20 pace, 1 mins off @ 5:30 x 10 + 1km each WU/CD
6km @ 4:45 pace + 1km each WU/CD
1 hour easy (5:00 pace) with 10 x "strides" during second half (run before HM)
* strides are brief 15-30 second efforts at near sprint with 4-5x effort time recovery

I have been focusing on improving my cadence for two reasons (apart from been told to). Almost all experienced/higher performance runners have higher cadence even at slower paces, it is a good way to improve running form/break bad habits.

I am interested to hear what others think, to work on HM results based on my recent learning a week might be something like;

M: Hill repeats or hilly run
T: Rest
W: Mid week easy hour with strides in second half.
T: Tempo/Steady/Fartlek or other speed type work ~45 minutes
F: Rest
S: Long easy 1.5-2 hours
S: Easy recovery ~30mins

Put the rests where you feel you need them.

For myself the focused running and run plans make running more fun and interesting, I sometimes just run a trail still when I feel like it.

Keep in mind I am not a coach and my results were pretty poor previously when doing my own plans, which in retrospect were just random runs.

 

@marty998 You've come along way with those times man, well done. Like a lot of training, you make big gains early then it's orders of magnitude harder to get the incremental gains.

After never being able to run, and trying and an off for decades, I'm a firm believer that almost anyone can if they approach it correctly. On the other hand, I don't believe everyone can be "fast". My take on it is anything under 5 minutes per k is pretty dam good, to get down closer to 4 minutes per k takes a lot more dedication and focused training and under 4 minute K's is the realms of natural aptitude, some people will just never get there.

Like Hodor said, a general rule is a long run per week, a recovery run and a hard/tempo run per week. The old adage make your hard runs hard and your easy runs easy. My times improved the most when I started using heart rate for the easy runs. A run may feel easy but if your going a little bit too hard you're not getting the benefit. Your body adapts during recovery, if all your runs are in the grey zone then your not working hard enough to stress the body to make adaptations in recovery, nor are you going slow enough to recover so you end up just adding to a fatigue load.

My biggest speed gains came from the month I did of minimum daily 10k's at low HR and zero speed work. My body got stronger and adapted to more hours on my feet, when I ran "fast" again after that month I smashed all my PB's across the board, even down to 5k hard runs. I was very surprised.

I prefer the higher volume, lower intensity training now for me personally, at 43 and with a lot of joint issues surfacing, I just break far too easily once I get the speed up a bit. That's where hills become your friend, they call hill repeats "speed training in disguise", you get the same effect as sprint training without the impact and stresses on the body of all out flat speed work.

It's been almost 3 years since I started, (starting from zero essentially), it was around 2 years of pretty consistent training to get from being able to run 21k at all to then going sub 1:45 (just). So you sound similar to where I was/am at @marty998 - that equated to about 2500k in the tank in training miles based off my Strava records to get to that point.

If you're looking for a better HM time then you probably need to make your long runs longer than 10k, I think I was putting in a HM every weekend, a mid week 10-15k and a speed day when my HM times started coming down.

It reverses pretty quick though! Don't think I could run 21k right now, time to get the volume back in for me.

 

My best results came with running hills and sprints once a week

 

Absolute gold those two posts above by @Propagate and @Hodor.

@marty998, if you want to be quicker then simply put you need to get used to running quicker for longer. Best way to achieve that is intervals as in 5 * 1km intervals at your planned speed. Rest in between intervals would depend on your current fitness levels but shouldn't be more than a minute or two as you want the body to recover nut not fully rest.

As the guys mentioned, the long weekly EASY run should be a staple in your program.
Volume is King when it comes to long distance running.

At the end of the day, it's up to you how want to plan all this. I like to keep things very simple and i go by effort. If it's an easy run, i try to keep it easy, huffing and puffing but feeling good. As for speed sessions (I do these very sparsely ) and Tempo runs and hill repeats, I go as hard as i can but make sure i take it easy for the next few days.

I rarely time myself but I've done it enough to know my average pace. Many years ago, the last time i did a HM, I used the program attached. Couldn't be any simpler than this and i ran a 1h:26:44s trail HM.

Most importantly to my mind though is listening to your body. This is were most of us fail i think. Training is easy, resting is hard but if you fail at resting, your body will break and you will get injured.

These days, i just love going out and just running.I find it so much more enjoyable when i don't have any goals but at the same time, i don't like easy runs so i always make an effort.

Best of luck with your efforts, I'm sure you'll get there simply because you seem to be consistent and dedicated to it.

PS: One more very important thing to mention, your weight making a massive difference. Even loosing 1 KG can improve your times by a lot so diet and weight control are very important too.

 

Thanks @Hodor, @Propagate and @paulF

Been sitting here feeling sorry for myself unable to do any running because of the hammy. Off to walk Lakeview Parkrun tomorrow, and with a four week trip coming up to far off lands the training won’t restart till Jan.

I think I’ve definitely failed at the resting, which is where I’ve landed myself now. I like the idea of a daily 10k, it’s just finding the time to go and do it... perhaps just go to bed an hour earlier, wake up an hour earlier and get it done in the morning.

Weight loss is an interesting one. The last week I’ve found it unnecessary to have lunch. Body doesn’t need the extra calories to run so I’m down to two meals a day and no snacks and not feeling terribly hungry at all. I’m 78kg, but have quite a heavy frame ..... BMI puts me in the overweight category, so should have a little bit to lose.

Much to ponder, thanks for the training plans.

 

New 10Km world record of 26:38 !
Joshua Cheptegei breaks world 10K record at Valencia - Canadian Running Magazine

 

Any new year running resolutions?

Hoping that around 2000km this year is possible. Would never have dreamed it six months ago, with the KMs ramping up since then and the body mostly holding together it seems a real possibility. Still seeing gradual improvement at most distances and speeds so looking forward to seeing what 12 months of solid running can do for me.