Running

The one question I get constantly from my 'less active' fellow middle-agers is. Which local run would be a great target for me to start getting back into shape?

The one that allows you to ride a bike.

On the subject of fecking Your legs running on tarmac. Any recomendations for supportive insoles for a low arched runner?

My achilles is back to full strength. But it'll only happen again if I doont try and address Things.

(yes I've already lowered my bike saddle)

You forgot to mention '...and raise money for charrideeee too.'

It has already been invented, just not reached critical mass yet:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/trailwalker

Isnt there also hellwalker or something. Pretty sure a mate was banging on about it on facebook. Basically a really really long walk. Fair play to them like.

needs some srs investment from some companies with big marketing budgets....

Nike Orpheus Walking boots?

I went out for a couple of runs yesterday, one before work and one after, it was a very pleasant way to separate "paid to do this" from "free to do this", I took lots of photographs, also.

In the evening run I finished a little over 10 miles and felt quite fresh- I had been running pretty slowly. Much more slowly than I would normally go.

Possibly silly question- if I run a half marathon at this sort of pace in order to fit that distance into my training would that be valid, as it were, or do I need to regularly run that distance at race pace to force adaptation- I.e make my legs comfortable with the distance?

It might be valid for marathon training - building distance endurance is usually a bit slower than marathon pace, and progressing from over 10 to 20 miles.

I' not sure of it's value in training for an HM

#guesswork

there is definite benefit to the long slow run, however, based on some strava stalking and your 5k race pace mentioned a few weeks ago, that run was probably excessively slow!

I really rate the training paces that the attack point website spits out based on your vdot score, have a look and use them to give your training more specific focus in the same way you would use power zones on the bike to improve threshold power: you need a mix of sessions to improve your strength, endurance and technique.

New Parkrun PB. 25:16 by my Garmin, will wait for official time. Was hoping for sub 25 but not enough HTFU spray applied.

Getting better at knowing how hard I can push and how far out I can go for it.

(VDOT gives me some interesting predictions. With a BMI of 24 I should be targeting a 21:33 5k, 1h39 HM and 3h25 marathon. I'd be very happy with any of those. Just have to keep going to lose the excess weight.)

^ Shedding excess kilos makes a lot of difference I can imagine! Are you on a sports diet of some sort?

55km into my running 'career' I finally ditched the 2/3/4 etc. minute run/walk training plan and went for a proper run at medium pace.
https://www.strava.com/activities/271102099
Used no timer, no heart rate monitor, just ran along the way it felt good. It turned out pretty steady, happy with that. Legs feel a bit stiff now, but I'd like to do this twice a week or so as I'm starting to see the fun in it.

(All in all 'twas a pretty sporty day, as I also did 2 shifts of messengering about town and 1 'sh*t I forgot my keys and the gf has a dinner party 10km from here' ride, haha)

20 miles, road, 2h35, miserable.

Shedding excess kilos makes a lot of difference I can imagine! Are you on a sports diet of some sort?

It's a general "exercise (a lot) more and don't over compensate with increased food" diet, all self control (which I know works for me most of the time). First 6kg flew off but stalled with Christmas and a couple of boozy holidays. Have another clear run after Easter[1] so that should be the next 6kg down before July. That gets me near enough to BMI=25 and things should pick up then as I'll have 4kg left to go to get to a weight I'd be very happy with.

1. Two week school holiday over Easter means I'm mostly on childcare duties so I lose my 3 main training days (1h run on a Monday, 30min fast run on Wednesday, plus 1h+ swim and 2h+ cycle Friday). Might be time to set the alarm for 6am on those days and get an hour run in before the family wake up.
   

My alarm now goes off at 4:30am on Sundays in order to fit in a 4hr ride

#mug
#whipped

^ Ouch. Didn't Pifko jnr#2 just arrive?
My daughter is 20 months now and although her sleeping has been a lot better in the last month I can't force myself out of bed any earlier than I have to just in case the next night is a bad one. More htfu needed I guess. Due to this yesterday's return to running after illness/Xmas/illness consisted of just under 5k at solar eclipse pace. Much rubbish, such slow.

ouch. I have no kids hence no harsh dscipline needed like you guys do. admirable!

4:30 on a Sunday is painful.

Welwyn half today as a marathon pace training run. Almost perfect conditions on a very scenic course. Well organised and really friendly race. Much more confident about London now.

Hope everyone else had a good weekends running.

Went for a quick run earlier (5k), I think I've finally turned the corner on this cold as it felt good- slow pace a reflection of the city, not my legs (Istanbul is not ped friendly).

have had a cold for the first time as long as i can remember for the last 4 days so i've haven't trained since last thursday, not ideal training for Brighton...

Feeling better today and hoping another nights sleep will see me bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning to squeeze in 20 ish miles tomorrow to try to get back on plan...

Hi all, haven't been on here for a while but I've just had confirmation of my London Marathon pacing duties, should it be of benefit to anyone. Runner's World provide official pacers from sub-3, through 15 mins intervals all the way down to 5hr+ (walk/run schedule). For completion they have at least one pacer at each pace, off each start, Blue/Red/Green. We all run round with massive flags on our backs.

As such, I'm pacing sub-3 (2:59) off Green start. (Celebs + "Good For Age".) This is potentially of no use to anyone other than CJ from Eggheads, who is looking to go sub-3 following his 3:16 time last year. Jenson Button has a 2:58 pb, so I'll only see him if he's struggling (or I fcuk up my pacing, which I won't. Gun time last year doing the same job was 2:59:01.)

Whatever your targets, good luck anyway. Nearly there, eh!

A sub-3 is a damn good achievement, but to be in charge of pacing others as well? Nice work!

Hi Phil. Hopefully won't see you until post-race.

@Dammiti never tried running round istanbul when out there. can you get along the side of the Bosphorous anywhere?

I'll try tomorrow, will report back.

https://www.strava.com/activities/272980309/overview

not quite 20 miles, but not bad for a monday when i'm still suffering a bit from the remnants of this cold...

Swim time!

Something odd happening there? 2:23 moving time but 11 hours elapsed?

Something odd happening there? 2:23 moving time but 11 hours elapsed?

Working day in the middle.

^this....

not an ideal way of doing it, but Fridays run will be 2:20 ish without a break...