Running

Are you doing any weight/strength training

Yeah I do, 3 x week. However since the gyms have closed I do neglect my lower strength wise. I still stretch most days etc

Even just some raises on a step would be good. Hold something heavy or put something in rucksack etc. Some squats and lunges also good and easy to do without any equipment.

I found that strength training cured my tight calves much more than any stretching or foam rolling did.

Good effort. I hope the birds and sunrise have rewarded you.

I am usually really good with weight routines but this whole running thing is pretty new to me.

Ive always had very slim legs/calfs so they have always taken a beating.

Ill give this ago for sure. Thanks

Do you do single or double calf raises? I end up doing then when I'm injured but I think I should just get them in my normal strength routine!

6km yesterday, first run over 5km since coming back from b0rked ankle.

Have been doing 3 x 5k a week and now aiming to build the long run back up to 10km by the end of May (I miss my old 10km route although some bits behind the back of Putney Vale Cemetery will be tricky to do whilst maintaining 2m social distancing).

From there I can aim for ~15km by end of June and HM distance by end of July.

Also will add intervals once weight is under 90kg (mid June).

Promised myself I wouldn't enter anything else (except VLM ballot) until my weight began with a 7 instead of a 9 so hoping to actually do some faster runs in 2021 as not likely to hit weight target until mid November.

Single, never really put much thought to that but always done single as I guess it's slightly harder!

Nice. Will get these in my routine.

I followed your advice for a bit of a rest, then on Monday I was getting grouchy from not having an exercise fix so jumped on my bike for a quick 40k in the evening...

Today I did my 5Km route over the hill again, and was a little slower than usual 27minutes dead for 5.2km. The pacing was much better however and I didn't feel as bad at the end. Obviously still panting like a dog and sweating buckets, but the rest seems to have let everything settle a bit. Ill try building in a proper days rest every couple of weeks while I get a bit more run fit.

Im going to plan out a flat 5km route that I can try to see what my pace is.

Had a good lunchtime run post nights today (had to pick car up from servicing). Legs felt a bit rubbish as they usually do post nights. Wasn't really pushing, aiming for politeness > speed.
Surprised myself with a 39 min 10k. I do love the towpath.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3335370653

Quick!

Theres a kid who runs a similar route as me and I have come across a few times, he looks about 14/15. He ran past me today like I was standing still, then came past me again 15 minutes later again like I was standing still. Bloody quick. The second time he came past at least he was breathing hard. Makes me feel old/fat and slow. I think realistically I'm only fat (ish) and slow (ish)

your 5 an 10k strava pb's are impressive....

They're glitches from when I was younger, fitter, using gen 1 garmin fenix, and running in the hills of Derbyshire. Best timed 10k is 36ish. Never timed a 5k.
I'd like to think if I trained properly I could be an OK runner.

I’d be counting them!

Good effort. I hope the birds and sunrise have rewarded you.

The huge reduction in cars is nice. Running around SE1 is so much more pleasant. My legs still felt like dead weights on the first run though. Second one was better. Going to try for a bit of distance on the third one.

Is not running a 10k in 36 considered good?

Stop bragging 😅

They're glitches

I ended up deleting my first few park run strava efforts from before I had a watch - my PBs were set a good few minutes faster than I would ever hope to run in real life.

why would you say your strava efforts pre-watch are so far out? Were you recording them on a phone, and is a watch gps considerably more accurate??

@Josh - nice modest response from lowbrows i thought. 36 is super human in my book!

also very curious about this...

I was recording on a phone, and you could see that the route it tracked was all over the place. This substantially increased the 'distance' i'd ran, which made my pace much faster. You'll notice runs with a watch have a much smoother line as the GPS signal is more accurate.

I once ran 10k with a friend after I got a watch. She recorded on a phone, which recorded 11.1k. Her 'pace' was about 30 sec/km faster.

That’s what pushed me to get a watch a few years ago. Was very depressing seeing an amazing pace then discovering it was a glitch!

Basically, it's not that useful to compare strava times/pace. When I got a watch (Garmin 735XT) i was suddenly running much slower which did initially hurt my ego.

The flip side is that it was much more accurate, so I'm not going to enter a race thinking I can run much faster than I'm able to.

You often see this on Strava KOMs for running. There'll be someone out for a saunter, but weirdly in the middle their pace will go bonkers, so someone running 9 min miles, randomly gets a KOM over a stretch where the phone thinks they were doing 4 min mile pace. If that makes any sense.

Annoyingly, my 10k pb was set in Amsterdam, doing 3 laps of Vondelpark, including the 500m ramp into the park. Measuring this now it was actually 10.3km, which means that my time of 42 mins, would actually be 40:48. Cycling everywhere, and running an almost perfectly flat course obviously helps, I just wish I had a more reliable record of it, as it's astronomically faster than what I run now (6 minutes faster than my current 10km pb according to strava, although I've never tried a proper 10km since).

How busy was the towpath? I'm trying to find a half marathon route for this weekend but had discounted the Thames towpath because I thought they would be silly.

36 minute 10k is solid. Get training and come and join ESM!