Running

Yes I kept wondering where this hill was! Just 231ft ascent according to Strava . Still an interesting course, reasonably quick although a bit muddy now through the woody bits.
I came 15th in the V40 race, not my highest position for the Southern Vets but I thought I ran well, and the field was just very strong - guy who came 2nd has run 30:57 for 10k this year. A bloody long way to go for 33 minutes of running, especially with the A40 down to one lane on the way back at Acton. Just over three hours to get home. Ugh!

This is why I run so slowly. Get my money's worth/make the travelling worthwhile.

Or something.

Marshalled up norf in Lincolnshire on the Wheatley 10. Enjoyed cheering people on, it was nice giving something back. Running with hounds is a big thing up there.

It's about that time of year, again, that I decide to target a sub-20 minute 5k, for some time towards the end of the first quarter of next year.

I intend to follow a 10 week plan that has a decent mix of speed, tempo / threshold and endurance

Given that I haven't run any distance I anger this year (pretty much every run has been a pootle), I'm going to give myself another 8 - 10 weeks on top of that to reach 21:30, which is where I was last year, and which will be a reasonable checkpoint

My base cardio is probably better than it was last year, purely from bike miles, but I've lost run speed somewhat

Aside from the obvious things to be wary of (I think I've ironed out most of the kinks that were leading to injury), what else do I need to think about?

^ I may extend the 10 weeks to 20 weeks, which is probably more realistic

I'll be dragging my ass out of bed this weekend to get a baseline time at Parkrun

I saw a post run comment from one of our runners that it was a different course than we'd ran earlier in the season and instantly felt guilty.

And yeah that's a fast field.

@rhb are you going to this? http://www.buxtonadventurefestival.co.uk/speakers-films/2017/01/11/Jasmin_Paris/

Whilst i'd defo enjoy it, it is not possible for me to go. You going?

Probably, sounds interesting

Cool, enjoy. The Askwith talk could be good plus the film with it (barefoot runner) interesting too. May 10th, think it'll be another Weds though?!

Can only make the first one, anything else I will have to catch elsewhere.

Of course, big adventures await!

The Urban Nights series continued last night with the 7 Hills race. Sheffield is claimed to be built on seven hills, like Rome and people in the city don't half bang on about it. However, it would take a good 3-4 hours of running to stick a foot at a decent elevation on each one, let alone the top.

So instead of that, the RO picks 7 William Hill betting shops and you can visit them in any order. The race map looks like this.

This one became a choice between short and climby or longer and flat. I chose short and regretted it on several occasions. However, I did manage to smash my 10k time at 53.54 and may fastest 15k run with 1h24.05. There were a couple of bits of walking in there when things got a little steep and I just blew up.

Impressed by this talk upthread of 20 minute 5k's. I suspect I'll never quite get that fast but, as we approach a new year, I'm going to start working on distance instead as I'd like to try an ultra at some point.

Next Urban Nights race is the North Stands run where you visit the North Stand of all three major football grounds in Sheffield. Navigationally and terrain wise it's the easiest so, as long as the winter weather isn't too severe, I'm going to try and get that sub 1h20 15k.

Urban Nights

These sound great, very creative.

I'm going to start working on distance instead as I'd like to try an ultra at some point.

D'ya have an event in mind?

Not travelling til tomorrow now so will run Sunday instead, ta for the info still, good to know for future trips.

what else do I need to think about?

Probably just keep in mind to aim for steady progression to target, not huge steps, track your progress & build in rest periods. Once you have your baseline time & a training plan folks might be able to offer more specifically.

This is brilliant.

Aye, it's what happens when orienteers and fell runners sit in a pub thinking up new things to do in the winter months when evening runs on the moors become a bit less attractive. I can't count the number of creative "suggestions" I've come across that have never even made it to a start line.

Someone got in touch with William Hill and told them about the race claiming that a lot of people enter it To see if they were interested in sponsoring it. They sent the RO a trophy plate.

Not decided on an ultra yet. Going to see how I progress for a couple of months. Planning on running from Glossop to Sheffield by way of Derwent dam in March and see how I feel after that.

Is that along the Snake Pass?

It'll be off road so up Doctors Gate, over to Alport Castles, down to Fairholmes for a quick cup of tea, up to Wheel Stones and Moscar top, down to Headstone up to Redmires and possibly down the Mayfield Valley to get up to marathon distance.

do that training plan I was following when you came and did some track work with me 2 years back. I knocked minutes off my times and i probably managed about 80% of the total plan. targeting sub 45min 10k on this plan I spontaneously did a 5k time trial on my own and ran a 20:34 at the track on a day i couldn't be arsed to do 12x400m all all the recovery laps after a days work and riding over to the track on a boris bike.

https://run.mcmillanrunning.com/the-best-10k-workout/

Cool, be keen to get gpx of your route as have a few solo city to city training runs shuffles to do for EfM and Sheff -> Mcr is probably the lumpiest/remotest so hardest to route plan.

Edit: fwiw others are Liv -> Mcr & SoT -> Mcr

where you visit the North Stand of all three major football grounds in Sheffield

Hillsborough, Brammall Lane, and...?

http://www.sheffieldfc.com/stadium ?

@Landslide Hallam up in Crosspool

@rhb ha ha fuck no. That would be about a 3 hour run and Sheffield FC ground isn't in Sheffield, it's in Derbyshire.