Running

Sorry to hear that fella. Rest up and get yer mojo on for the marathon.

@ewanmac - Worth searching the events tab on Runner's World too. I might have some suggestions if you've got an idea on preferred details - when/where/terrain, etc.

North Downs Run yesterday. Went pretty well considering possible course conditions after all the weather. It's 30k, hilly, and about 85-90% off-road, which is an interesting mix of downs (woody trails) and rutted fields (orchards, poppy fields, cows in grass). Ideal shoe choice would've been trail shoes but I've not got anything between road shoes or fell shoes with aggressive lugs (Inov 8 Xtalons), so I went with road shoes which were very slippery in places. In hindsight the XTalons may have made me a minute or two faster overall but they're not much fun on tarmac, and all my most recent injury niggles have related to my feet or ankles, so I've no regrets in playing it safe.

Spent a lot of the race swapping places between 5th - 8th position, usually being overtaken on slippery downhills by people in more appropriate footwear, or simply stopping to do my lace up (another schoolboy error), and making up for it on the tarmac. I'm missing a bit of endurance fitness at the moment but managed to pace things pretty well and even took a final place back with 1k to go, to finish 6th overall and 1st over-40. The race incorporated the British Masters' multi-terrain champs, so I'm a national champion to boot. Yay! MsPub had a good one, defending her women's title. Lots of free cake at the end to top off a satisfying day.

I massively backed off the running after Stockholm, ran into work this morning and it was fun (even though it rained):

My goal is for the run to take an hour, and to be able to run all week - goal one is pretty close, goal two remains to be seen.

Run-commuting starts today. 2x 4mi per day sounds like enough to get a good workout, yet not start hating it within a couple of days. I hope...

Is the general consensus that Bournemouth marathon is a good one? After my marathon fiasco back in May and endless sprained ankles, I kind of want to have another go.

I think a lot depends on the wind. If there isn't any then it's great. If there is then it is less great.

@juanito @PhilPub Thanks both. The current preferred option looks like the Winchcombe 10k hillclimb which seems like a brave option but looks like fun. Probably not a pb course though.

In other news, I tried a benchmark test today to get my training pace zones sorted for Abingdon Marathon training. Ran the slowest time I've ever done, so I've probably got a fair bit to do if I want to PB in October.

Can we talk about......the EU refe...only joking, heart rates.

I have never really used a HR monitor but I have one so I wore it today. I did a 5.9 KM at 4:53 min/km. Not particularly fast and if I ran a 5 km I'd expect to do 20-21 mins at the moment and I ran a HM @ 4:35 in March. I didn't feel I was working very hard, although a touch of hey fever didn't help, but...

my average heart rate was 179 and my max was 226. my HR was over 220 for about 2 mins as I was getting going but I didn't really feel it. I'm 34.

Can I deduct anything from these things? do I work out my HR zones from that HR max? Will I die of heart explosion?

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Look at that cadence, oh the shame

Can I deduct anything from these things?

The readings in the first few minutes (up to 6 minutes) looks too high for your given pace and elevation, compared to your later pace and HR.

Mine often does the same.

Your HRM may need you to be sweatier for a better reading, or you might want to change the batteries.

Most likely the higher readings are erroneous. The HRM takes a little while to settle down. Are you wearing a chest strap? The signal can take a while to lock in, and gets more reliable on wet skin. It looks as though the reading starts getting reliable around 1-2km in (high 150's), steadily rising as you get more warmed up into the run.
So no, don't work out your zones from this max, although if the average was 179 and you really weren't working too hard, it could well be over 200. (So forget any age-related formulae you might have seen.) You need to do a max HR test, which is usually said to involve having a decent warm-up then blasting it up a big hill a few times, although personally I've clocked my highest readings at the end of all-out 5k and 10k races.

@ewanmac - An uphill 10k sounds like fun. Unfortunately I'll be on holiday!

Thanks both, I'll do a parkrun or something to work it out.

I do suspect my max HR is a lot more that the 220-age tho.

@PhilPub It's not all uphill, but the single 200m high hill in the middle will certainly get the HR up for us flatlanders :-)

Anyone got a garmin footpod that they want to sell? I'm intrigued to monitor mine for a bit. 910xt compatible.

resting max HR

whut?

@Hats - I haven't done the full, but have done the HM a number of times and find it well organised and not too pricey.

If there is a bit of wind (usually a westerly), then you should also be rewarded with a fair amount of tailwind as the mara course looks to be fairly balanced in terms of east/west heading
http://www.run-bmf.com/documents/www.run-bmf.com/route_maps/bournemouth_marathon_map_(1).pdf

my max HR

whut?

Fetcheveryone is the best site to find upcoming events.

Agreed.

Hope you can find your mojo soon, sounds like a rest definitely on the cards.

Well done @PhilPub national champion, nice.

As others mentioned, HRMs can take a while to settle, or battery is fubard. I now wet both chest and strap plus still don't start mine until a few mins into runs as a 0.1s 'spike' into the 180's means I can't establish true Max for the run (still happened on Sunday just gone despite all this!).

Went out for a run this afternoon and ended up doing half marathon distance in 1:56..... Happy with that.... Looks like I'm becoming a runner!
that's it, just had to tell someone! 😂

^ nice one.

That's definitely running. Good work!

Quads are proper creaky since Sunday but loosened them up with 6 x 1k last night. Taking things easy now till Friday when I'm doing a VO2 max test as part of a study into whether asthma medication (Salbutamol) may be a performance enhancer. Yay, I'm doping! :)

VO2 max test as part of a study into whether asthma medication (Salbutamol) may be a performance enhancer

That's been done to death already, hasn't it? It's beneficial to those with asthma, but not to those without.

Free VO2 max test though. Enjoy the pain!

That's kind of what I thought. According to the study blurb, "Salbutamol is commonly used to treat athletes with asthma. There is little research available that investigates whether this medication provides a performance enhancing effect. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interaction of high doses of inhaled salbutamol on repeated cycle sprint performance. The findings of this study will inform the World Anti-Doping Agency policy on athletes using these medications in the future."

But yeah, free VO2 max test. Can't wait!

high doses of inhaled salbutamol on repeated cycle sprint performance

That is not going to be pleasant...

Just realised my training plan has over 90km of running this week, didn't even notice! 42km done so far with another 9 today!

Actually quite enjoying it, the 26km before work tomorrow might break me!

Spotted your last session on Strava, nice solid pacing miles 4 to 8 close to 7m/m.