Running

Thanks, some good ideas here! If people are going for a 5k pb, what’s the general consensus on warming up? Do you like to get a few minutes running in your legs before an effort like that or just some more static type stuff?

Begrudgingly warm up a bit. Run an easy km if you must. It will probably help

5k pb would be a full warm up for me - say 10-15 mins jogging with strides in the latter part, and a few sprints. Aiming to be slightly in oxygen debt with time to recover.

My 5k pb was at Battersea Park. Warm-up was actually 8 mile bike ride followed by a quick mile or so of running. But would normally do as above, good 15 mins building to a decent clip, plus some strides.

Definitely a decent warm up for a proper 5k effort. I’ve run close to my pb off the bike in triathlons.
As above, 10-15mins easy jogging, a few strides. Finish ~5mins before the race begins

what’s the general consensus on warming up?

Have you ever done a 5k and spent the first 1k thinking "fuck me, this feels shit" and then, after that, feeling "ok, this feels good".

Well if you warm up properly, maybe by doing ~800m of medium pace running before hand, then at the start of the race you're in the "ok, this feels good" phase from the beginning.

Try it, you may find that it actually works.

I do approx 2km of faffing .. jogging around, gradually removing clothing layers .. leg swings and toe-bouncing eventually moving up to some faster strides etc.

Then I arrive at the start line early because I’m paranoid and wait there to cool back down completely undoing my good work before the race starts.

Warming up, like stretching afterwards, is for me in the same bucket as flossing; I know I should do it, but gah, life’s too short thanks.

I'd go with longer warmup for full gas 5k. Minimum 15 mins steady then into another 15 mins dynamic stuff inc strides skipping/bounding etc.

On a short run where you will be doing efforts a warm up is essential - you should probably just have started to work up a sweat at 5km I'd be spending almost as much time on the warm up as the run! On longer runs you can treat the start as a warm up.

Accidental parkrun PB today in 17:58 at Sutcliffe Park
Would have got me 1st last week... only good for 12th today as a dozen went sub-18, including 6 sub-17 and 2 sub-16

Rapid! Nice work.

Managed a 5k PB this morning after 5 weeks of this plan!

Wahey! Well done.

One of my 9 year old twins and I went to Thames Path today, it was his second one, and he took nearly two and a half minutes off his first time. He nearly outsprinted me at the end, but I managed to hold him off, making it 10-0 to me Vs the kids.

Nice one! Just had a look at results, Holly Dixon 16:26! (She was 3rd at the Southern XC last week.)

Yeah, Holly's a mate. It was only a threshold effort too - did a couple of laps then realised she was closing on someone she trains with, so pushed on a little. Broke her own course record by a couple of seconds without intending to.
I suspect the guy that came first, Bobby, will pick up some results. He's only been running a couple of years and picked up a 2.38 marathon, 70min half and today's sub 16 was a PB, but reckon he'll find a minute on that this season.

Oh to be young and talented...

You've done a good job not bragging about your V50 course record today btw, so I'll do it for you - nice work!

^Congrats @PhilPub

Loughrigg Silverhow fell race today, AM category, but undulating rather than all up then all down. Legs wouldn’t have survived otherwise with so few training miles in them. Still, fantastic to be racing in the lakes again. Ran well. Hung onto someone who had reccied it and knew the lines, saved me a decent chunk of ascent, and no doubt gained me places and time. He was so polite to even give me navigational tips as I overtook him in the final mile “right at the wall, hit the foot bridge and down the road to finish” what a joyous bit of class and sportsmanship.
Finished the last mile with the bit in my teeth for sure. Should be some funny pictures to follow.

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Lovely experience from today. Was smashing it down from Silverhow, decent bit of descending and picking up some places. Hang onto a group of runners, with one in particular showing his familiarity with the racing lines. I managed to catch up with him at the road crossing before going back up Loughrigg. I thank him for his good lines and route finding, and he asks if I know my way to the tarn and I admit I don’t (nor do I particularly fancy uncurling the map in my cold hand and straining my hypoxic brain to try and interpret it to navigate from). He kindly suggests I follow him in that case! He remarks he’ll be slow going up Loughrigg (he wasn’t). Every time I bobbed in front for a minute he offered me the route - “turn right at the wall but don’t go through the gate” etc. but I never need the advice as he claws me back each time. Towards the final mile I manage to put some distance in and he shouts to me to “take a right, then over the footbridge and down the road to finish”.
He’s a v60 (the category which he won), so has little to prove against some bumbling 35m, but it just struck me that it was a lovely bit of sportsmanship - he could have easily let me flounder, go wrong, or heaven forfend actually attempt to navigate for myself, but instead just handed over his inside info and let me get ahead. Maybe I’m just a big soft idiot, but it really made me think about the great spirit carried in these races, and how lucky we are to get to enjoy them.
He also climbed Loughrigg while basically giving a sales pitch for the yet unreleased Ron Hill fell shoes 🤣. Tony Bolton, you’re a legend.

Fellnrunning community for you huh

Getting after it

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Two tickets to the gun show!

lol

Great to see you enjoying yourself!

I wish I could run downhill. Love a bit of fell running and this is great inspiration. Top bombing!

@duncs @Thuekr - Thanks! I've got four under my belt at the moment and eyeing up some others. Dulwich out of reach though, 15:46!

I’m rank average (48/138 at the race) but I descend better than I ascend. The going up is improving although if I aim to keep going to the lakes this year, I’ll need to get some proper hill reps in sooner rather than later.

Seeing the front runners descending on the way back as we headed up was incredible - the speed paired with the expression of those at their athletic limit was something. I wish I could’ve seen them on the more technical bits. One thing I do see a lot of at my end of the race, is that people zigzag too much. I’ll regularly pick up a place simply by having the confidence to run in a straight line on the rougher stuff, while others try and aim for slightly out of gait but flatter placements. The day will come when I go down like a sack of shit no doubt, maybe then I’ll share their sense of caution.