Running

Hear this all the time, people get an injury then give up running. Take it easy and enjoy with the emphasis on enjoy :)

agree, there's usually a period of discomfort/chasing minor injuries around as your body gets used to it. take it easy and ease up if your body is not co-operating but keep at it and eventually you should be able to run just fine (to varying degrees of fine based on your fitness/physiology/motivation levels and a million other things).

Unless there's a headwind the only advantage in sitting behind is stressing out your opponent, there's no drafting advantage if no headwind, you aren't going fast enough when running- However, no one likes someone breathing down their neck and not being able to see them, its a psychological see your enemy at all times thing.

but isn't his point that if you're the fastest and you're just going flat out then a surge shouldn't be able to catch you

This.

during the mens marathon in rio gold winner kipchoge chastised the silver runner for trying to slipstream him and basically told him to run to his side if he wanted to stay with him. when he didn't kipchoge just opened the taps and burned him off and the silver guys race was done. if he'd let him sit behind him for a few more km chances are the silver runner might have had enough left to out sprint him for the final stretch.

If this is the case and drafting makes a difference then it changes the whole game and the tactics make sense, but aero doesn't apply at my speed and if it applies to the pros then why the flappy clothing?

EDIT: new page. @Spares if it's all about psychology then wouldn't the front runner get a "hell yeah! I'm winning!" boost? I certainly do when I find myself unexpectedly well placed in the local xc league.

Also, these guys are professional athletes... They presumably have exceptionally high drive and self belief or they wouldn't have made it to the Olympics and many teams will have psychologists dedicated to helping the athletes overcome the stresses of racing.

@ewanmac I'm glad you asked this as I've pondered it for ages!

Over 10,000m Farah is arguably quickest as well as having the best sprint in recent years. If you look at the data at the source below and sort for times for 2010 to date, you'll see only three athletes have a faster time (Bekele, Rupp, Rotich), and even then only by a matter of seconds. Farah and Tanui are the only two who have run fast consistently (each with three of the fastest 25 times since 2010).

The reason it turns into a tactical race is because they are not confident they can run away from him - and rightly so, as he is at least one of the fastest as well as having the strongest finish. With the absence of pacers, even an elite athlete could easily blow the pacing and risk losing everything, so I suppose they are maximising their outcome by fighting for silver.

http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m_10kok.htm

The picture over 5,000m is a lot less clear though. Gebrhiwet is faster and more consistent, but he probably isn't sufficiently quicker to risk everything by running away from the field and holding out. Hence you end up with the slow and tactical race that favours Mo again.

Rest day over, boooo!

First run in 3 weeks following rib injury last night - went easy, felt good, no reaction. Then woke up in the night with my ribs in agonies again. ffs

Anyone following UTMB?

Currently Pommeret, Grinius, Miller top three. Maybe two hours left?

http://www.ultratrail.tv/

Trying to find how my mate's doing, but can't find an athlete tracker function. It's Nick Reed, if you can see.

Website is poor, and footage is focused mainly on Miller. Will have a check.

This kinda works, found Nick Reed:

http://utmb.livetrail.net/coureur.php

Appears to be at 80km?

Tollefson jumps past Miller who appears to be suffering, with both David Laney and Dominguez within 15 minutes of him. Could be losing places after having lead for so long.

Cool, thanks for that. He's just looking at getting round within cutoffs after dnf last year, not a fast guy.

Looks like he bailed at 80km. Oh well, twice in two years, dammit.

Entered this ;
http://escapefrommeriden.co.uk/crow/
Lolz
Will there be hot towels and cheesecake at the checkpoints?
There aren’t any checkpoints

That looks rather a lot of fun.

^^ sorely tempted when I saw it, got a (bike) route from mcr passes near there could reverse it and just head homeward. Probably not a good idea though.

That does took awesome!

90 miles would take me to somewhere near home. Maybe another year when I've run a bit further.

Discussed with Partner last night.

With DtD only 3 weeks before might be a step too far tho?

3 weeks is good recovery, although depends how hard and fast you go

It'd make DtD a (hard) training run for Meriden -> Manc. Got club xc season by then too so lots going on.

Edit: I don't really want to refocus so will probably only enter if spaces still available at start Nov & I'm not feeling completely trashed!

#justdoit ;)

Perfect for me as its 105 miles to home, which sounds achievable.

#couldbewrong

Ultra distance runners: how did you go about running so bloody far in one go and how long did it take you to reach that level?

I would very much like to be able to run a bloody long way in one go but currently struggling with getting past 2k without Knee Death striking me down* so trying to get an idea of what's reasonable to expect from my feeble body.

* most frustrating having run through all weather in winter to not be able to run in the lovely sunshine.