Running

Should I get a heart rate monitor or running watch or smart watch or nothing? (...) Would knowing my heart rate be useful?

I got a cheap used Apple Watch when I started out - originally just for the GPS function / so I could track my routes / find new routes / see how far I ran etc. (could have used my phone for this but really dislike the idea of having to carry it so went for a watch).

Later I actually started looking at the heart rate (using the free version of Strava together with the watch), and, more specifically, learned about heart rate zones (which I found too advanced / too "serious" at first - but which really made a lot of sense to me all of a sudden).
Doing this for a while I now have a pretty good idea what zone I'm in without looking at the watch / looking at the Strava summary after the run - so you could say I don't really need the watch much now, but it's kinda nice to have / fun to check the summary later.

Short answer: yes, I think you might find a watch useful, just get a cheap one and sell it on later 👍

I think getting a hr strap is really worthwhile - it’s much more accurate than wrist monitoring and has helped me when working with a running coach and with myself for consistency.

The inner tech bro wannabe in me really wants to get one. Struggle is real

How about an Oura ring?

But if you want to avoid unnecessary buying (you're on the wrong forum)
lol

thnx for the advice, it's very helpful, also @Airhead

Yeah was looking at those too 😅

I’d get a garmin with wrist HR or an Apple Watch .. if you’re willing to sleep in it you’ll get the majority of the data points as from a whoop anyway.

When Viccy park says closes at dusk does that mean 5:30ish?

They lock the gates closer to 6, but depending on which way you are coming from you can still get in from the south east corner (through the car park) if you fancy some dark lonely laps

Cheers! Went for a later than planned loop of regents instead

3 weeks and 1 day later I decided to give the shin splints a little test. Felt okay-ish on the move but can feel some tenderness now I've stopped. I guess bikes, dogwalking and playing with the dog are all slowing recovery somewhat!
I think I'm going to visit the docs to have a chat about my joints in any case, they always just kinda hurt on runs, regardless of fitness or conditioning.

Bramley 20 for me yesterday, a bigger-than-I-was-expecting local race run by Reading Roadrunners, a lot of good club level runners use it for Spring marathon training (as was I) so I knew I wouldn't be troubling anyone for position. It's two laps of a 10 mile loop with a 10 mile race taking place at the same time. Quite nice to be able to give encouragement to the 10 mile runners in their last mile or so.

My race plan was to split the run into three parts. Eight miles feeling easy, eight miles at a tempo effort, and the final four miles pushing hard. All based on effort levels for which I had approximate paces in mind with a target of finishing in 2:30. If I can do 20 miles in 2:30 then I'm looking good for a decent marathon PB come April 2nd.
Of course the first 8 miles felt very easy and I was consistently faster than planned but everything felt good and I felt I was in control and not getting pulled along too fast so just went with it, chatted to a few people, remembered how loud hundreds of trainer-shod feet on tarmac can be, generally enjoying the experience.
There are two "hills" on the course and at the top of the first one at about six miles in there were some marshalls saying "well done you've made it to the top of the hill" and I was thinking "that was a hill?"
The second hill comes just before the eight mile marker so getting to the top of that short but fairly steep rise I started on the second of my eight miles and upped the effort. Still feeling relatively good and having passed the 10 mile mark you lose a lot of company as the 10 mile runners peel off into the finish funnel and we headed back out into the lanes. Ticking off the miles and concentrating on maintaining the effort level took me steadily up to 16 miles, I'd been slowly reeling in people ahead of me and passed a lot more than I was passed by. Still feeling reasonably good but by no means fresh, I tried to up the effort level a notch but found this pretty hard to maintain without really concentrating on it. I felt like I was going at about a 10k effort but noticed a loss of power on the little rises and false flats. I knew I had to get up the final hill at 18 miles without stopping and it'd be downhill all the way to the finish - it wasn't but it was a good way to motivate myself! Over the final two miles I reeled in another runner who had been in the distance for a long time and was passed by someone who I'd passed a lot earlier in the race. I wasn't blowing up and had upped the pace so this guy had paced it well. Managed to get up to what felt almost like a sprint finish to cross the line in 2:23:48 and Strava tells me I set a new HM PB by about 1 min in that run which is really encouraging as I set that HM PB when I was both several years younger and at what I often think of as pretty much my peak running fitness when I was on my way to London 2019.

Really pleased with how it went, I didn't eat anything on the course but they had some isotonic drinks at mile 5/15 so had that on both laps plus a bit of water. The temperature was pretty much perfect at around 10 degrees meaning I wasn't sweating too much, overcast with only a light breeze I think a bit more energy going in would have prevented a bit of the feeling of loss of power but very reassurring to see fruits of my labours over the past few months.

Wow, great running well done!

Yet another half I've signed up for that I'm now not able to do, this time Yeovil.

If any west country folk would like my place let me know and I'll send you (when I get it) the race number.

26th Mar 2023
https://www.yeovilhalf.com/events/yeovil-half-marathon/

Good running & good write up!

What’s the forum approved running socks? I’ve a DHB pair that have gone holey at the toes after a year. Not sure if that is a decent lifespan or not.

1000 mile tacitel for me. Long wet foot days merino baa baa with Sealskinz.

Women's xc worlds bonkers finish.

I like hilly twinskin (wiggle have them) and 1000 mile. Socks and shoes are like saddles & bibs though. Different combos work differently for different people.

+1 for hilly

No injinji love on the sock front? They divide opinion but I get on with them really well.

More Mile. They'd survive longer than cockroaches in a nuclear holocaust.

My pairs must have several thousands of miles between them.

Sometimes they get retired if the top elastic gets a bit loose, but that takes literally years

I'm submitting a nomination for inov8 f-light. They look a bit more sporty and are a bit more techy than the more mile & hilly. Mine are on their way out after nearly 2 years and I'll replace with the same. Avoid Compressport I've gone through a couple of pairs in 2-3 weeks they must be made from very expensive tissue paper

I am trying to make myself accountable towards writing more and have chosen to do so through the framework of the week's training, trying to explore performance within endurance sport and occasionally music, bikes, football, art at the same time.

Committing to putting something out into the ether at least weekly. I'd love to be talking to someone other than myself and it may be of interest to some of the runners in this group.

First post went up today - https://mattw90.substack.com/p/im-just-talking-to-myself-here

Subbed - I really need to sort out writing more through my substack!!