Running

Top 20 finish but minutes behind my best. Also beaten by my local nemesis rival even though he walked some of the last hill.

19th at Dartford parkrun with the twins and a 30 second headstart today.

And tonight I will rest

Orion seem to have the Friday night events pretty sorted at the moment.

First double day for a while yesterday. Did Osterley parkrun in the morning then the Salomon Sunset Series on Boxhill in the evening. I managed to take a wrong turn which cost me a significant amount of time but overall it was a really good event.

Running tracking app of choice for people?

Strava on android.

Fetcheveryone is developing an app (iphone only at mo with android to follow) which might be worth a look as it evolves.

Edit: if you mean so other folks can track you, racedrone.

^^^^ & ^^^ good stuff both

Was anyone following Western yesterday? Walmsley was on a ridiculous run and blew up somewhere around 70 miles I think. Won by Ryan Sandes in the end.

thank you. It's just for myself. I'll try strava.

I was checking the standings until 10pmish he was well ahead of the field.

I know he's considered to be capable of breaking the record however do wonder if that is his best 2 chances blown with last year's wrong turn now this.

North Downs Run 30k today. I entered a few weeks ago on the basis of being 95% confident my achilles injury was behind me, and hoping it would spur me to get back to some fitness. Was slightly dreading the wheels falling off at some stage, having not run any further than 11 miles since February, but I held it together pretty well and I suspect 500+ miles of cycling so far this month hasn't done my endurance fitness any harm. Finished 12th overall, 3rd V40, and ran three minutes faster than last year. (When conditions were worse, but anyway...) Achilles feels fine, legs not too battered and I didn't lose any places in the last 10k, so pretty pleased with the run altogether. Such a well organised event and the free cake, tea and squash at the end went down a treat.

My friend was meant to run that today, also mv40 and suffering with Achilles tendonopathy. I took him out for a ride instead. His furthest by about 45 miles!

Article & comments worth a read:

http://filmmyrun.com/walmsley-fucks-western-states-100-2017/

Fair observations really. I think you need a lot of self belief and determination to nail your colours to statements like he made before this years race... last years minor nav error turning into a major problem showed a lack of both.

Any recommendations for calf compression sleeves? Are they all much of a muchness or is it wise to buy a specific brand?

i have some skins ones (smallest size) and they were baggy around my ankle. never worn them, they're languishing in a drawer somewhere.

i used to wear compression socks a lot, but to be honest i don't think they had any benefit other than keeping my legs warm in the winter.

I like my Hilly calf sleeves.

Tried on Skins versions but the hem isn't very stretchy. Ones thay fit over my heel didn't offer much support. I couldn't get the next size down beyond my heel.

CEP are good if you get the right size for your calf.

chainreaction has a ton of the compressport ones on sale at the moment and they seem to be the most popular at races i've done in europe

Cheers! Will check those out

Strava on android

Thank you for this recommendation. I used it for the first time last night, and it was very handy

Noob question. Should I run for longer at the same pace, or faster in the same time, with the aim of losing weight?

My basic understanding is that longer, slower workouts utilise fat stores more than high-intensity carb-burning workouts.

Although I can't seem to lose any more weight at the moment, so don't listen to me.

Longer at a slower pace. Weight loss - then weight management - is a long term project, so start as you mean to go on. Doing the majority of your running at an easy pace, even once you're experienced and used to doing harder sessions, is the best way to slowly and sensibly build running muscle, and get joints and tendons strong and more injury-resistant. The biggest risk with trying to run every run faster is that you over-stress all these things, causing greater injury risk. Which means (a) you can't train, and (b) you're more likely to get put off keeping it going as a long term habit.

...You could analyse the relationship between pace and fat-burning, but ultimately it's the overall work-load in the long term that will determine long term weight loss. Someone enjoying their running and happily knocking out 25-30 miles a week will be burning a lot more calories than someone smashing a couple of 5 mile runs each week and giving up after a few weeks cos running is too hard!

More here with the MAF Method about running at a lower pace for fat/weight loss.

Thanks for that!

This is what I seem to do. Run regularly, get faster and faster (for me anyway...) then pick up an injury.