Running

If you can, go out for an easy bike ride today. That'll ease the muscle pain.

If you are going to take up running, then ease into it gently rather than starting with park runs. The risk of injury is high, especially coming from a cycling background.

an easy bike ride today.

Im going to head to one of the 7stanes trail centres. Don’t know if that quite qualifies as ‘easy’.

I guess the actual running isn’t that painful, just hard work, but my legs are in bits after it.

This is true.

If you have the heart and lungs of a club cyclist and you suddenly take up running you will be able to put a lot of power through your legs for a sustained period of time. But that creates a problem. The supporting muscles around your knees, ankle, calf will not be ready for it. Over use injury is likely, especially if you are older than about 25.

club cyclist

How very dare you! “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that’d have me as a member”!

I get what you’re saying though. Is this ‘couch to 5k’thing like a program for easing into running?

That said, knees and ankles have been ok. It’s my thighs and calves that are killing me. And my abs actually. Must be good for the core.

Managed one lap of the 13ish mile red route at Ae today and felt broken, should have gone gentler!

I'd really do no more than 3 k in one go.

To avoid damage/injury?

When I’ve run previously it’s been because I didn’t have time for a 2hr+ bike ride but I wanted a good workout. I dunno if 3k would give me that. Maybe if I just went flat stick for 3k?

Yeah. Just for a bit.
I've been somewhere like where you are now about a year or more ago.
No real time for an effort on the bike, perhaps falling away from riding bikes because of time commitments, getting a bit fed up with just commuting, feeling rushed.
I decided to try and run home / to work. From Sydenham to Elephant and Castle which is 8 - 10 km depending on the way home. To do that I started doing some run walks first. Then park runs. Then did one run to work.
Then i think i probably sacked off my good advice to myself and just started running more.
I didn't get too injured, but I definitely made the wrong choices with shoes, and bags on my back, and with trying to run to work/from work too soon.

Now I run most days to and from work (which has changed to only 5-8km away as I'm now working in Brixton). I don't think I'm any slimmer though. And I'm still not under 20 mins for a 5. But this daily running has kept me in the mid / back of the pack fodder of the london x league not quite old duffers section. Without any other bike riding/intervals.

I'd aim for an hours running after 2 months of 1 -2 times a week of ~3-5 km. In hindsight. Though if you told me this a bit ago, I'd nod and say yes. And then fuck it all off and go for a longer run as soon as I felt able and then laughed as I hobbled down the stairs.

Saw the physio again today. Ankle needs a lot more strengthening before I run on it. Got some new (and newly painful) exercises to do and ordered a knock-off Bosu balance thingy from t'Internet so I can do it at home without having to faff my way to the gym (which I wasn't doing frequently enough).

Next physio assessment early December, if I then get the nod for slowly getting back into running it will be mid/late Jan before I should consider 5-a-side. That'll be about 6 months since the original injury.

10k swim in a couple of weeks time and then I can bin the long hours in the pool and will try and keep fitness up with a lot more time on the bike.

10k swim

!
I've no knowledge of swimming but this seems extreme?! How long do you expect it'll take?

~3h40 of actual swimming, although I haven't been in the pool for 2 weeks now due to chest lurgy, so I'm not entirely sure the fuck-it valve won't blow after a couple of hours.

Swimming thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/138853/

Completed the OMM B course up in Largs over the weekend. It was brutally unrunnable terrain - needle sharp bracken, thigh deep bogs, waist height reeds - so we were reduced to a slow trudge for the majority of it. The total lack of paths or tracks meant that after each checkpoint you took a bearing and straightlined it to the next one; at least navigation arguments were ruled out.

Day one was slightly longer and over slightly tougher terrain - the controls were more spaced out and we had some nav doubts on one of our legs.

There was the classic OMM piper to wake everyone before the slightly shorter day two . I felt we were moving better on day two and were hitting the checkpoints pretty quickly, including one re-entrant that loads of people were looking for, but we didn't move up any places and were 10th on the day.

It was a lot tougher than the Saunders was in the summer and I was grateful for spending a bit more money on waterproofs and insulated jackets. Thank you for all the watch suggestions as well, I got the forerunner 45, which is perfect.

Well fair play to you either way, that's an impressive swim

Read this last week which I thought was interesting and got me thinking and then rethought when I read the post by Dooks on the swimming thread above. Does anyone here run without a watch?

I wear a watch but generally don't look at it during a run, it's mostly just a data logger to me and I get to look at the data when I'm done. Same with cycling and swimming.

Intervals are slightly different, I have it programmed to beep/vibrate at me accordingly,
warm up until lap button pressed
800m at <certain_pace>, 90s rest
repeat n times
cool down

Apart from the first lap press to end the warm up I don't have to touch or look at the watch during the run. If I'm not going fast enough on the running part then the watch will beep/vibrate a certain way, and then gently beep to let me know I've sped up enough, it then beeps/vibrates when I've done the running part of the interval and I know I can recover walk until it beeps/vibrates again. Lather rinse and repeat until I'm done although I may have to look at the watch if the intervals are pushing me close and I lose track of how many are left...

For all of my other runs I simply start it and then enjoy looking at the world (or hating myself) depending on what kind of run it is and how unfit I am.

Is there a running equivalent of a gabba? Something that's breathable, but showerproof and not boil in the bag, and can be worn in a fairly broad range of temps?

Is there a running equivalent of a gabba? Something that's breathable, but showerproof and not boil in the bag, and can be worn in a fairly broad range of temps?

I'm sure @kl can advise.

Soft shell jacket?

It's for 10 k at the absolute most.
I've got a boil in the bag shell which works, I guess I was just after something equivalent to a winter jersey for cycling with shower protection. After the last month of rain I see a future of wetter commutes to work.
#ihavenoideawhatitisiwant

I'll look at the Ron Hill stuff for starters.

I personally find clothing requirements quite different for running compared to cycling. You warm up quicker whilst running, and at the same time there's less bite from wind chill. So all in all you can get away with fewer layers, and I wouldn't bother at all with trying to be waterproofed when running, maybe just a light, wind-resistant shell over a couple of layers. I get wet from sweat anyway, but the wetness doesn't chill you to the bone like it does when cycling.

I wear a sleeveless base layer, arm warmers and sometimes gloves, then a tshirt and shorts or tights.

I do have an Adidas jacket where the arms zip off, but I've not worn it for years.

I also have a Soar running jacket which is good, but again, I hardly ever wear it. Super expensive, but I got it free cos I modelled it (stop laughing at the back)

A vest

Ah. And when it's hot?
No vest?

I might just dig my gilet out. That'll do right?
Superdry. Quilted. Goes with jeansandsheux.

But seriously: i'm at the "i think i need / want new kit, what do I need/want" stage.

The trail running world has more of the cycling like waterproof stuff. This for example https://theomm.com/product/kamleika-jacket/

Ms cookiemonster has a Gore jacket which is very similar to my gabba - soft shell with dwr

So they exist, though not sure they’re necessary for short urban running

I get the feeling the words "get a fucking grip, it's only a little run" are being unsaid.

No that’s not correct

The words are being said, just no one is typing them