Running

I'm curious to know which!

How are you getting on?
I'm getting to the end of cyclo-cross season, I've not really been training beyond an interval session and a run a week. I'm bored and did 10k today running.

Did the plan for three weeks. Can't remember which one but it was one that was posted up here. Overdid it, was completely exhausted, then took a night off the schedule and haven't ran once since then, more than two months ago. Haven't been able to put myself into the mindset to get over it. Putting on weight, depressed, not sleeping well, hate my kids. So I can't say it worked out well for me.

Adding my +1 to a good read, ta.

Sounds rough. Hope you can turn things around & have support with this.

When you're ready to run again, if you want help putting a manageable plan together I'm sure there's a few here would be happy to help, myself being one.

Fuck.
I'm sorry if I've brought it all up.
I've had similar phases with bike "training". The best thing I found was to just go for a plod on a bike and not put any "this is training" on it.
Hope you get you shoes on and go for a plod through some woods soon.

anyone want to buy my £100 Runner's Needs voucher? help me out please :) Want shoes from somewhere else.... thanks :)

Update from me: since the start of November I've run 72.3km and have been loving it. I've tried to ease myself back into both it and cycling and can feel fitness coming back, maybe moreso than ever before. The week generally looks like:
Tough-ish 5k, running with gf and trying to push her
Tuesday run club with the guys from lab - easy 8k
Then either an easy or hard parkrun depending on how I'm feeling/how many beers have been had.

Got my 2nd best 5k at parkrun over the weekend and maybe my best ever run longer than 5k yesterday!

Have to say that this little corner of the forum is great, everyone is so encouraging and friendly. It helps the whole sport feel really accessible to me so thanks for that.

@dubkev I have to echo chalfie, take yourself out for a couple km, at a really comfortable pace, and just enjoy how you feel afterwards. Hope you find your feet again soon.

Och man it's tough. I go through similar phases pretty regularly, minus having kids.
Get unfit, put on weight, feel bad. Get motivated, start exercising, see improvements, overdo it, burn out/get injured, get unfit, put on weight, feel bad.

As far as I'm aware it's a very common cycle. Maybe just go for a run. Just one. Don't put it in the context of a training plan or anything. Don't worry if it's a good or bad run. Just go for one and see how you feel. Then you'll be one run better than before. I find it really hard to get back going after "falling off" whether it's diet or exercise or simply being motivated enough to get out of bed in the morning.

One of the things I've found is that keeping up little efforts is more beneficial in the long term. I've got my weekly mileage targets, and missing them makes me feel bad, especially as several weeks missed start to pile up easily, and I start to feel some sort of anxiety about how I can "fix" this deficit by doing stupid long runs (which is often a bad idea if I've not been running much), when actually just going for a run, regardless of length or intensity, is the best thing to do.

Say you aim to run 3x per week, and do so, but then stop. You may feel that running less than 3x is somehow not enough as you're below your intended target and thus feel disappointed. But in reality, if you ran 1x per week consistently - you'd still make progress. And most importantly, managing to do anything - however big or small - is still better than doing nothing.

Hope that helps - fitting these things into modern life can be the hardest part of the battle sometimes.

Bollocks to them. There are so many running clubs that are excited and keen to help people to get into running and have groups of all abilities. Just keep looking and don't get disheartened by those sods.

Folks, thank you all for the kind advice. TBH i was pretty resigned to just strava'ing my runs and pootling about. Ive emailed a different group and its a totally different response. Just come along and have a go, see how you get on and worst case run with their couch to 5k group.

You might be interested in reading this, if you haven't already:

https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/paperback-shop/wrestliana

Sounds interesting - the author seems like quite a intriguing guy.

I could lend you it if you were down this way at all (central London). GBP are a brilliant independent press.

Cheers for the offer, I'll happily chuck a tenner to an independent publisher for a copy tho or just see if anyone wants to get me a copy for xmarse.

I think I'm fit to burst after watching this, such a great story and video.

https://www.runnersworld.co.uk/training/motivation/the-story-of-david-slater?fbclid=IwAR04bdHDUOfHqZDDt1Kfb_oIchHTYva4y5T1r-Jb0WYL9tcsVE6zSK527hY

thanks for that. High quality content from you in the Running thread atm!

Thought I'd try some "training" and did 3x1 mile in the park. Happily surprised with the pace (6:15, 6:50, 6:40), and it definitely feels like it'll be productive over time. Maybe 1x a week. I also feel less shagged than I usually do after a run. One thing I was curious about was my relatively low HR (avg 140 on each mile), is it just low because of the short interval time?

Anything worth considering with training like this? Ran a mile to the park to warm up, 3x1 with a few mins in between each rep to let my HR settle, ran a mile home to warm down and then a bit of stretching.

One thing I was curious about was my relatively low HR (avg 140 on each mile), is it just low because of the short interval time?

It takes a while for my HR to get going, so HRavg for intervals is a bit misleading.

Here's some intervals of mine from a while back (you'll need to copy and paste it otherwise it embeds a load of Garmin nonsense into the webpage):-

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1697536008

HRavg was ~8-12bpm down on HRmax for each of 800m intervals. I was trying to run a constant pace during the intervals but the loop I use is not entirely flat.

I only ever looked at HRmax for each of the intervals, that gave me a better understanding of whether I was adapting and needing to up the pace the next week.

One thing I was curious about was my relatively low HR (avg 140 on each mile), is it just low because of the short interval time?

Yeah, basically. When I was in the a habit of paying attention to HR for MP or similar tempo sessions, I reckon it would take at least 3 miles of continuous hard running for HR to start leveling out, and even then it would creep up a little over the rest of the run. So interesting to look at afterwards but for pure rep sessions (even longer reps like miles) not really of use for pacing.

I tend to have at least 2 miles to warm up, with the end of the second mile a bit quicker to get the stride ready for the faster pace (and get HR and breathing up a little bit more). And if you're looking to repeat the session, set a specific recovery time. Over a few sessions you can progress things by way of either increasing number of reps, length of rep, or shortening recovery time. (Or of course increasing pace, but my objective would be to apply the same perceived effort and hope the pace improves with fitness.)

Annoying cold here, interrupting what was looking like a useful bit of running + x-training mojo. Harrumph! Back on the indoor rower next week hopefully.

@nefarious If you enjoy that kind of format and if you're looking to make a specific improvement might this plan have some interesting ideas you can steal/tweak:

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

Thanks @Greenbank @PhilPub and @HatBeard - all useful info.
Deffo should be a bit more organised when doing the next ones re: specific recovery time etc. Was just pausing my watch which annoyingly takes away the clock so I was just going off feeling.

Some ideas I might pinch in that plan for sure HB. Although I'm wary of following a plan too closely if I don't have a race to aim for/peak at!

I (roughly) followed it coming back from a running hiatus to try and regain some speed and help push me sub-45 for 10k just before I went into a marathon training cycle and found just doing those mile repeats helped me get much faster.

I think you're on the right track just throwing a few sessions together over a couple of months to help improve without getting too deep into a plan. but even then that macmillans one is pretty handy as it's simply progressions of a specific once a week workout than a fully prescribed 7 day plan.

I put my new trail shoes through their paces (thanks @Brum) and did my longest ever run, 26k, over rolling hills and through woods. I got a half-marathon PB (1:39), so a faster time is there for the taking if I feel like doing it on the road.

Most of my running is along arterial roads at night. I enjoy it (so long as there is little traffic), but I don't often feel the motivation to stay out for longer than an hour in that environment. I'm still seeing improvements, though, and hopefully closing in on a sub-40 10k.

I went to see Lewisham Foot Health yesterday, it was very interesting.

In brief: I strike correctly with my left foot/ankle/leg, whereas with my right I strike at an angle and roll through the mid-foot, and then as my foot comes off the deck my whole lower leg whips round to straight again. Also, my right glute is doing basically nothing - it's maybe 25% of the strength of my left.

Finally, after one look at my flipper like feet the chap recommended Altra shoes - anyone else using them?

I've got a bunch of exercises to re-aim my right foot, but I'm thinking that sub-21 5k was as good as this year is going to get, and the sub-20 is sadly for next year now.