Running

I did parkrun today.... as a volunteer. It was freezing but really fun. The other volunteers, the ones who do it every week, are lovely. Ahhhh, warm fuzzy feeling inside...

Well done. Parkrun volunteering is on my list of things to do.

Wimbledon Parkrun has about 350 entrants and 17 or 18 volunteers. That would suggest a volunteer every 20 runs or so (its a bit skewed by there being a few people that volunteer every week).

Forget distance and concentrate on time on feet, moving of course. Run/Walk at first until you can run the whole time. 20mins at first building up time slowly.

Yeah, gonna have to find some racers blogs to read assuming there'll be some.

Personally, I'd do it by time initially. If you run every other day for half an hour, walking if you feel tired, and slowly build it until you can run for the 30 minutes. Once you can do 30 minutes, keep doing it every other day for another two weeks, then make it 40 minutes. Do that for two weeks, and if you feel good, do 50. And repeat. Once you get to an hour, see how far you're going, and consider setting goals, or starting to train by distance, or just keep it there. And whilst you're building up, stretch every day. Glutes, quads, hamstring, calves, shoulders, back.

@LHL @rhb thanks for the input. I think I got a bit carried away with distance, I'll start tomorrow with time in mind

@Rikki I just started out too, figured running would be nice when there's not so much time or the weather is too foul to get on the bike. My gf (who runs 3 times a week but never goes out riding with me - boo) got me some adidas trainers as a gift. And now some hardcore cycling mates are starting to call me a traitor...

I'm 44 and my fitness level is OK due to 10k of cycling every year for the past 4 years, so the main thing I guess is to build up slowly to get muscles, tendons and joints to grow used to the impact?

Now I'm just back from my second 'absolute beginner' session. But is this boring?! 5x1 minute jogging/2 minute walking intervals... slowly increasing running time over 6-8 weeks to come... yyyaaawwwwwnn ;-)

A 10% increase every week means you double distance/time (whichever way you're doing it) about every 8 weeks. It starts off slowly but you'll be surprised how quickly the runs build up to the point that it's a reasonable training load.

I was really enjoying my 3 x 5km runs a week, but 2 months later having to do 3 x 10km runs is quite onerous (but sometimes enjoyable) however I've split the 30km up differently to make it more manageable, it's currently:-

Mon: Lunchtime run = 10k
Wed: Lunchtime run = 6k (focus on going faster)
Thu: Run to work = 12k
Sat: Parkrun = 5k (speed again)

Not recommending this as it's far from a proper training plan. When I get my weight down I'll move to a more structured plan with shorter runs for speed/strength work; right now I'm not that concerned about speed as the lower intensity runs help shift the weight better than trying to push it.

I'm 8 weeks into this half marathon programme for absolute beginners.

https://www.digitalrunning.com/couch-to-half-marathon-plan/

Six and a half miles off road, half running half sliding. Beautiful.

you were never tempted to speed it up or run for longer? it looks about the same for the first 12 weeks as the one I've chosen for now

that's serious mileage @Greenbank

10 miler today closed off the week with 37 miles in the bag. highest weekly total since the week I ran VLM last april. feeling pretty good about my training at the moment, even managed a decent track session friday eve in spite of the track literally freezing over as the session progressed and the temp dropped, might need to look at getting a pair of track spikes.

that's serious mileage @Greenbank

That's starting from nothing in mid-September; well, aside from 1h40m of 5-a-side football a week, and 80k cycle commuting a week, but no dedicated running until then.

Indeed, looking at @dubtap's linked Couch to HM plan it has a similar progression; Week 17 (which is about mid-September to now) has 19 miles of running.

Dorney 10k this afternoon.

44:43 clock time, 44:35 Strava time.

4 seconds. 4. Fecking. Seconds.

Still - 3:45 of my best 10k time in the past couple of weeks, and 1:15 off my target 10k pace.

The wind was a fucker though - 2 5k laps, with kilometre 4 and 5 straight into a head wind on the spit up the centre of the lake. 4:20 min/k on the way out and 4:25 min/k on the way back.

Ran for half an hour last night with no pain so I have hit the target set by the physio. I'm going to continue building up the length of time running this week before starting a more structured training plan next week (tempo, speed/hill, and long runs).

There isn't really enough time to follow a marathon training plan, and my original plan of starting from a half marathon distance back in October and building up nicely went out the window so I've drawn up my own plan. It doesn't give me a 26 mile run before M day, and I only have a 1 week taper, but given the circumstances I'll be happy to just get to the finish line.

Dorney 10k this afternoon.

44:43 clock time, 44:35 Strava time.

4 seconds. 4. Fecking. Seconds.

Still - 3:45 of my best 10k time in the past couple of weeks, and 1:15 off my target 10k pace.

The wind was a fucker though - 2 5k laps, with kilometre 4 and 5 straight into a head wind on the spit up the centre of the lake. 4:20 min/k on the way out and 4:25 min/k on the way back.

A challenge, accepted.

@TW

4 seconds. 4. Fecking. Seconds.

What's the 4secs about?

2hr very slow thing yesterday early morning. Longest on-feet and distance run for me at 22km. Pespiration was freezing on my merino top (sorry @KL)...

think he's referring to my strava 10k pb being 44:31 :D

I'm just jealous you're on your feet. Stress fractures are annoying rather than crippling - can still walk with minimal pain, but obvs can't run (also have to wear trainers with my suit, which is crippling in terms of embarrassment). In Edinburgh today, conditions are beautiful, would love to go for a little jaunt, but ah cannae...

Ugh.

New Strava 10k PB of 55:49. Not bad as that's down almost 2 minutes from a month ago. Long way to go still.

https://www.strava.com/activities/243624990

Feels like I've got half of one lung working right now.

Ooh, nice.

I'm going to ~1780m in a few weeks, might try a lung busting 5k whilst I'm there.

Think of all those extra red blood cells though.

Your veins will be running with black pudding by the time your back in the UK.

Did you take your blood oxygen monitor with you? Stats please!