Running

Same situation here. It seems there are an unlimited number of options and it's hard to differentiate as the features are very similar.

I'm on the lookout for:

• decent navigation
  
• long batter life
  
• integrated HR monitor
  
• sub £300 (new or used, don't mind)
  
  

Let me know what you end up with.

And if anyone else has a suggestion that fits this ^ please let me know.

Probably out of budget but Coros are the current hotness with ultra runners. Insane battery life on all models and generally favourable features pound for pound compared with Garmin/Suunto/Polar etc. Seem to be a bit behind on software/app but they get updated more regularly than the others too.

I'd take a serious look at one of these https://www.coros.com/apex.php

The new prices of the ambit3 seem crazy now. I got the “run” maybe 3 years ago for not much over £100. That seemed like good value.

200-300 is just crazy

I was looking at those - on Amazon for £227 at the moment.

I'm just not sure if I'm ready to go back to breadcrumb trails.

I went out about 1715 hadn’t eaten or drank anything other than water since 1400. But did have a sugary coffee at 1300.

I also think my new more mile socks helped. My feet felt so comfortable.

Headphones - Bose Soundsport are driving me nuts, the buds are either too small or too big for me. They sound great, let in some ambient noise but I'm constantly adjusting them or they are falling out.

Aftershokz? something that goes over the ear? Recommendations please..

Recommendations please..

Mpow Flame 2. Cheap, durable, sound fine (for running), stay in.

I’ve got the Powerbeats Pro Bluetooth ones and have been very happy with them.

Airpod pros although the aftershokz I've tried from others are pretty cool - I like to run in hats and so a band of any kind is a no-no for me

Hey there LFGSS runners. I have picked it running again from the xmas break and been doing every second day (a 3-run pattern of long / short / short) without fail. Something that I've noticed this time around that didn't seem to be a factor previously - I'm not losing any weight. Diet is the same as before, and I'm not drinking, but the bulk I put on in the run up to Christmas just doesn't seem to want to budge.

Should I just be upping the distance? Was expecting to be seeing at least some results now, but nothing. I think not cycling to work every day any more is having an impact.

Personally I feel like I can't lose weight through exercise. I must simply eat more calories without realising.

But if I could, I'd assume there'd be a lengthy lag before you start noticing - a month doesn't seem long enough.

I would monitor what you are eating carefully if your goal is to lose weight, it doesn't take much to eat back the calories lost from running and more. If I'm not careful I tend to put on weight when running more miles as it makes me more hungry, I gained about half a stone without realising when I trained for my first half marathon.

It depends on how long and hard your running but if your weekly total is 2 hours at low intensity that won't actually burn enough calories for significant weight loss. Even if you think your eating the same just 200 calories a days extra will offset your running. As said above a month isn't that long either so if your maintaining weight and getting fitter your still in a better place. For upping your running you have to build miles pretty slowly so the extra calories burnt will correlate with that so any weight loss will be gradual as well. And that is actually a healthier more sustainable approach. I can recommend the DQS app by Matt Fitzgerald (his books are also good) if you work on slowly building miles and improving your diet score at the same time you should be on the right track. Good luck with it.

I think that you should run more, and do some faster running sessions within that.

Running before breakfast might also help, as long as you don't overeat afterwards.

Having said that, I'm not losing any weight, but then I am drinking loads and not doing a lot of running.

tldr: Dr Doubleo is a quack, take advice with a pinch of salt

It depends on how long and hard your running but if your weekly total is 2 hours at low intensity that won't actually burn enough calories for significant weight loss

Not sure I agree with this. Plenty of people lose lots of weight with this activity level if they are backing it up with dietary changes.

According to Garmin Insights, running 2 hours per week puts you in the top 20% of Garmin users in terms of running duration. Three hours per week puts you in top 10%

@dubkev sometimes I find my metabolism gets stuck in a bit of a rut and I need to shake things up with a type or intensity of exercise I'm not used to. Have you considered doing some strength training? Works wonders alongside cardio for fat loss.

Yeah your right but i did say straight after that quote even if you think your eating the same even a couple of hundred calories extra will offset what your burning. You'll build fitness but won't lose weight. Unless someone if really counting their calories a couple of hundred can sneak in pretty easily.

even if you think your eating the same even a couple of hundred calories extra will offset what your burn. You'll build fitness but won't lose weight. Unless someone if really counting their calories a couple of hundred can sneak in pretty easily.

Fair, point. Missed that.

I do remember that when I was a young whippersnapper with a young whippersnapper metabolism I'd lose a fair whack of weight just by thinking about going for a run even if I was still overeating. Not so much now in my very late thirties.

But if I could, I'd assume there'd be a lengthy lag before you start noticing - a month doesn't seem long enough.

My lag tends to be about 6 weeks. In that time my body shape is changing but weight stays roughly the same. I'm adding muscle and losing fat but muscle is more dense than fat so it looks like I've got a bit slimmer. Once the muscle addition starts to slow down then the weight starts to comes down.

I've done 95kg -> 75kg (and back up again obviously) a few times. Hoping to make it stick this time once I get back down there.

3 runs a week at the moment (long, steady, steady). Tue/Thu/Sat. Steady = 5k at 6:00/km, sometimes more gently at 6:30/km. Long run has gone 6km, 7km and the next weeks will be 8km, 9km and then 10km (where I'll hold it for a while).

Mon/Wed/Fri is 100 pushup challenge (just restarted so on W1D2 today). And leg blasters: https://sawback.com/blog/leg-blasters/ (ouch)

Sunday is enjoying not doing anything specific, or gentle weeping in a corner trying to ignore my lead-like legs.

Once my weight is below 90kg one of the runs will become intervals. That means I'll be doing (long/gentle, intervals, 5k/steady). The intervals start at 5x800 (90s walk between each), 4x1000 (100s) and 3x1600 (120s). 800m intervals at 5k race pace, longer intervals a bit slower than that. I rotate through the three interval distances over a 3 week cycle, with a 4th week as an "easy" week so that my body has a chance to recover. The interval run on this 4th week just becomes a suitable length "easy" run. The intervals build up in distance until I'm doing 10x800 at 5k pace (ouch), 8x1000 and 6x1600m.

At some point in all of this I may add a 4th and/or 5th run to the week, but they'll almost always be gentle/easy runs. Or, if parkrun was back on, I'd use a Saturday parkrun as my ongoing benchmark and I'd add in a 4th "easy" run somewhere in the week.

When I was working in the office I used to do a 11.5km run commute once a week which neatly ticked off one of the runs, but Coronabollocks has stopped that.

There's an old adage along the lines of "Most people do their slow runs too fast and their fast runs too slow."

Right now, in my relatively unfit state, my Garmin (Forerunner 945) is taunting me that absolutely all of my running is in the "high aerobic" level (which for me is HR > 158bpm). Even if I do a gentle run at 6:30/km. I despise running slower than 6:30/km, it just feels useless (even though it's probably what I should be doing), but I know that if I stick with the "just running" phase I'll soon improve and 6:30/km running will drop into the "low aerobic" category and my training status charts will start to make a lot more sense. I can then start to push the faster runs towards 5:00/km and below and when the intervals start (or I restart 5-a-side football) it should start to give me some time in the anaerobic category.

(I am not a qualified coach or trainer, I've just built this up from years or reading around and looking at the plans that others use. I don't get injuries but I still don't end up controlling my weight or getting to some form of new stability so take this all with a large pinch of salt.)

Having pretty religiously followed MAF running from June last year, it is frustrating but it does work...

My MAF pace has gone from nearly 6min kms down to less than 5, interestingly around Christmas it went back up to 5:15 but seems to be dropping down again now.

Now that I have some top end work back in it has taken a while to get speed in the legs and that massively felt like the limiting factor as I just didn’t have the strength to move my legs faster than 3:45 per km, but as I said that’s changing and was pretty pleased to knock out some kms reps last week in the 3:30s

My long awaited endorphin pros just arrived this morning 😁 thanks @doubleodavey for putting me on to run and become for these. Everywhere else seems to be just starting to take pre orders for these now for delivery in a week or two. I'd recommend run and become their customer service was very good. Even though shops are closed its still nice to deal with a person and they were very helpful on the phone and email. Can't wait to give these a blast.

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I also wouldn't under estimate how much more sedentary we are now - its basically been 3m of lockdown and so your general burning of calories is down and your body is basically in lazy boy/hibernation mode. That's what I'm finding anyway.

Fully unscientific thoughts

Interested to hear how you find them... been a big fan of kinvaras for a few years whereas I didn’t enjoy Nike or hoka previously... so tempted..

Says the bloke doing a marathon a month.

Edit. New page fail. But yeah, much sedentary.