Running

And then the getting faster stops. And you start to question why you spend so much time doing something for no appreciable return. And then you have a good run or race and it all makes sense.

and then finally.................the overuse injury

The cycle begins again.

Or you stop doing it and get annoyed at how quickly you get slower compared to how slowly you got quicker. So you start up again, or find a slightly different way of doing it (trail vs track, shorter stuff, or longer).
Rinse and repeat.

... at some point as your body crumbles you'll look into 80/20 theory and realise you can salvage a few more years participation...

This is making me not want to continue.

tibialis anterior pain - the muscle on the outside of the shin, front of lower leg. When I try to lift my foot it hurts a lot (no problems pushing down), so walking is very painful but running (midfoot strike) is fine.

Is this shin splints? I’ll take it easy, and I’m already seeing a physio on Monday for something completely different :-/

This is making me not want to continue.

That's the spirit. Run away while you have the chance.
Then run away again. Then run a long way away, then again with short sprints interspersed and jog back.

Also run around in roughly 400m circles.

After all this running away don't forget to stretch.

....or upload it to Strava. Because if it's not on there then there really isn't any point in doing it...

😂😂😂

I currently wear Nike air zoom structure for all runs. I’ve read some places to get some ‘quicker’ shoes for short, fast runs. What does this mean?

I like Nike shoes, what would be ‘quick’ Nike shoes? Sorry if this sounds utterly clueless.

It means they want you to buy more trainers.

I’m in! I like trainers. What shall I buy? Ha

You could get some racing flat style trainers? Brooks Hyperion, saucony kinvara styles.

Fly kit racers or Pegasus 35 turbos maybe ?

Or Nike Vapourfly 4% for the lols

Too early to call Jim Mann as the challenger winner?

https://live.thespinerace.com

Will check those shoes out.

I’ve started doing a version of interval training. 5 mins slow - 30 seconds all out sprint/90 seconds recovery (10 time) then 5 mins slow.

Should I be running at a set pace during the recovery or just a slow comfortable speed so I’m ready for the next sprint?

4th parkrun today, was great. An old friend turned up too which added to a generally enjoyable morning. I think it was my 2nd best time, around 22 mins. My PB is still my first ever, which is funny.

A silly thing, but it doesn't quite register as 5k on gps, so it won't pop up in the pbs section on my strava profile.

Should I be running at a set pace during the recovery or just a slow comfortable speed so I’m ready for the next sprint?

The latter.

Here's an example guide with descriptions of the effort levels (RPE) at each stage: https://www.bupa.co.uk/marathon-plan

it doesn't quite register as 5k on gps,

Go wide on all the corners & the track laps!

Yeah I've been thinking about this! It gets up to 4.97km so I need to find 30m somewhere. Really want to push for 19.xx now, so next week I'll try starting from far nearer the front. Will potentially be quite a psychological shift - I get a lot of satisfaction from passing people and pushing on, but I think, especially with the mass start, it's costing me.
Will have to get used to people blazing past me and clinging on for dear life.

next week I'll try starting from far nearer the front

I'd actually written that advice in my post earlier (based on your Strava pic of the start crowd) but thought it a bit 'preachy' so deleted it!

Defo worth moving up at start, you'll get dragged along a bit by the faster crowd. You may find too much at first and you blow up but that's part of learning to run on the limit.

Fwiw (related to above) your HR graph starts quite low and climbs slow in the first mile, so you defo should try go out a bit harder IMO and see what happens.

Maybe see if there's a 20min pacer you can tag onto?

Fwiw (related to above) your HR graph starts quite low and climbs slow in the first mile, so you defo should try go out a bit harder IMO and see what happens.

This wasn't for lack of trying, there was a huge turnout today! Preach away though, I'm still noob so happy to take advice. I think you've told me that before too...
Start position was also dictated a bit by meeting a friend who I've not seen in months and not wanting to immediately bugger off up the crowd.
Let's see what next week brings in any case. Thanks again.