Running

@Arducius @Philipflop spaces if you're quick...

https://escapefrommeriden.co.uk/enter/

First group run for well over a year last night.. felt quite elated as we set out in sunshine also, completely different vibe to the solo winter trudging I’ve become accustomed to.

It’s given me a nudge and now I fancy covering a festive 42km over the Easter weekend as a little chocolate-burning challenge.

A bunch of upcoming marathons in China have had a lastminute change of sponsor as the sponsors have spoken out about Xinjiang cotton. It's made for some really interesting press releases as the marathons can't say explicitly why they have changed sponsor other than "to protect the national interests"...

I pushed myself very hard on a hills session on Wednesday and that pretty much describes how I felt for 24 hours!

Took me a while to figure out why my jaw was hurting....from gasping with my mouth as wide as it goes.

On the plus side my lungs felt amazing on my usual hilly circuit today.

1st 5-a-side last night, lots (well, in relative terms) of linear running does nothing for walk/sprint/jog/walk/turn/sprint/walk/turn/turn/sprint/walk/jog/etc.

Just did a gentle 5k and so many joints (ankles/knees/hips) hurt for the first half a kilometer (it doesn't help that this is mostly uphill) but settled down after that. Glad of the gentle recovery run.

Same! Just got back from a really suprisngly comfortable not-as-slow-as-usual hilly run. Turns out running hills makes you better at running hills....who knew?

I kept needing a piss

Could you have over hydrated? You can only absorb so much water per hour (was told something like 700ml but don't quote me on that) so if you drank a lot all in one go then it will just pass through and not do as much good as the same volume spread over a longer time.

I read Endure (2nd ed) by Alex Hutchinson recently and it goes into amazing detail on lots of things based on the authors research into published papers.

The main thrust of the hydration argument is that people often end up better hydrated at the end of a race than at the beginning, despite only drinking a nominal amount of water during the race.

The main reason is that glycogen, the main store of energy in the body, is stored alongside 3-4 times as much water (e.g. 1g glycogen to 3-4g water). As your body frees up the glycogen to burn, the water is released into your blood stream.

Interesting! I've had a theory that water must be released when fuel is burned as I can run for several hours at a low intensity when it's cold or wet without needing a drink. I figured the water was coming from stores and as you're not sweating you don't actually lose much.

Will look up that book.

4 x 700 at track... felt sluggish but numbers looked ok considering I only just got back to sub 20 5k again recently.

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Big day tomorrow. Have done the work, bought the cheat shoes, just a case of going out and doing the business...

Enjoy! I hope there's a constant tailwind for you.

Hope it goes well!

Yep, good luck Ed! Hope you get the time you want...

Good luck. Might need gloves if it's like today.

2:56:05 felt good throughout, settled at 2:57 pace and still felt good at 38k so pushed on a bit!

Nice one 👍

Get in!! Well deserved return for some excellent training.

\doubly impressive as solo.
You nutter.
Congrats!

Inspirational stuff!

I now feel like my 3:30 London marathon is more realistic as long as I put the work in.

It wasn’t solo as it was an official event, but the staggered start did mean it was a bit lonely at times!

Definitely..

I’ve done every run and strength and conditioning session my coach has set since Christmas and completely cut our booze, and as a result lost 5kg, but with the right commitment it’s amazing how easy race day felt.. did the last km in about 3:30 which is my 800m reps pace!

Great effort. Training and sacrifices paid off in a big way.

Now for the 5k pb.

How about HM PB next, then 10km, then 5km ... all the way down to 100m