Running

I just came across this, seems like the National Trust are trying to get in on some park run style action with free 10k events. No idea if it's a country wide thing or just this one but could be good for a day out:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/074b9e97-6ab0-4e80-9538-f8e2a537073d/pages/details

well spotted.

there are a few others - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/trust10-trail-runs

I work near Polesdon Lacey which is a hilly one. There is a Strava segment called heart attack hill

Cheers fellas. Salomon are my choice for hiking, so will maybe go with them. Will have a butchers at innov8 and Saucony also.

Did a run yesterday, started fenix without getting satellite link thing. How accurate will the distance and times recorded be?

The pace and distance will be off - Do you remember where you ran? Could map the route for the full distance and work out pace using the elapsed time.

Ballz. I'll have a look, but it was in Dulwich woods(2 loops, over to CP,Home) so I'm not sure it will be possible to map..

Getting my kit together for tomorrows London 2 Brighton challenge. idea was to run it if I'd gotten marathon ready this spring but that was a major flop so I am walking it as training for spitfire 24 hour in July instead.

a 16 mile walk one week followed by 18mile/10mile on back to back days the next is enough training for a 60 miler right?

I guess I'll see tomorrow. not expecting to finish the whole thing but it's a 2 day event so who knows.

please pray for my sole(s)

Enjoy. Many pubs on the route?

I imagine there'll be a few. tempted to use my checked bag to send a cooler full of beers to the finish line. only prob is you have to move it through each checkpoint yourself and I expect I wont be thinking straight enough for that by the second half.

Huge pub crawl with big Brighton session at the finish... forget the cooler!

I've painstakingly just copied over all of my data on runs for the last few months. I was just wondering whether there was a nice calculator to see whether I'm making any progress.

Obviously, pace is a good place to start, however, how do you compare a 5km run to a half marathon?

A second problem is half of my running is in hilly Bristol whilst the other half is Cambridge which is as flat as a pancake, so naturally all my runs in Bristol tend to be slower.

So is anyone aware of some formula that can take all of this is account?

Strava has something called GAP which is supposedly grade adjusted, but I think it overemphasises the effect of hills on pace.

A calculator like the one on fellrnr would let you plug in a time for a distance and get predicted race times, if you did that with a range of distances you'd get a variety of predictions out and could see from that whether you're improving.

Thanks a lot! Fellrnr looks very good indeed - the most in depth one of these 'race time predictor websites'.

I've got all my data into a spreadsheet so would love some sort of formula so I can just replicate for each rather than plugging in each run individually.

Glas Tulaichean Uphill Race today, 670m in 7.2km. Good craic, great wee run, utterly breathtaking views at the top. 17/42. Not bad after smashing up Schiehallion the day before.
Scotland’s great (the sun being out deffo makes a difference!)

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Shit the bed a bit on the L2B.

Forewent the usual ultra prep and didn't tape my feet as I've advocated here before.

Got massive blisters on my forefoot (including from ball of my foot up between my two biggest toes) and heels.

got to the 40km checkpoint and spent ages drying feet, putting on blister plaster, tape and vaseline and was planning on at least hitting the halfway point at 56km as legs were otherwise fine but made it 500yds out of the checkpoint and a blister went pop and I could barely walk on a 16km leg that was mostly uphill, decided that was enough and did the walk of shame back into the checkpoint for the shuttle bus.

the blisters on my right foot were much worse and i think was down to a ridiculously long stretch of about 3-4k along the side of a ridgeline where the camber meant my right foot was under pressure to stop it from sliding to the left down hill on every step.

frustrating thing is the "london" part of london to brighton lasts about 35k until you get out of the m25 so I was barely into the 'good bit'

think I'll return next year and give it a proper go.

on the upside blisters aside my legs bounced back well and i got plenty of time on my feet so still on track for spitfire scramble in july i reckon

Sounds savage - can’t blame you at all. Even tiny blisters send me out of whack - can’t imagine what that would have been like! 40km is no walk in the park either. Glad you’re looking at it positively.

Ouch! Many pubs? ;)

Might have a spot in Convergence. Think a steady just 30+ from Hebden Bridge to Hope should be suitably challenging. Mostly PW unless I can straightline bits using other paths.

Edit: declined the offer, would impact on other stuff. May do self supported long run out that way from home to cheer on others instead.

First run for weeks today, had only a banana and coffee beforehand and suffered some sort of minor asthma attack/mini bonk/dehydration running up a big steep hill. I've been given an inhaler for what might be sports induced asthma but always, always forget to bring it with me, so I've no idea whether or not it actually does anything.

But anyway, onto the point. I still can't figure out how to run with a backpack. No matter which bag it either rubs/irritates my neck, restricts my breathing or bounces around.

Particularly the waistband is a problem. If I tighten up the shoulder straps so that the bag doesn't bounce, the waist straps ride up over my stomach. Are my bags just too short for my back? Or is the waist band not actually supposed to sit around your waist and carry weight (this is how you do it with a hiking pack - maybe it's different for running)? Do I need to cultivate a nice beer belly?

I also have a problem with bags bouncing when I breathe out. Either it's so tight that I can't fully breathe in or it's loose enough that it bounces when I breathe out and the straps slacken off.

Any advice appreciated

the stretchy running vest type bags are infinitely better than backpacks for not bouncing around as you run. the weight sits higher on your back but generally is much less noticeable. obviously it depends on what you're carrying in the bag as to if you can fit it into that kind of bag but if you're running with something like a laptop it's always going to be a compromise on comfort no matter which way you go.

Today was with a 32l OMM Classic, which you'd think would be pretty good for running... I have a vest but it's really low volume and not big enough to take my spare set of clothes. No laptop so I'm generally not carrying that much weight.

Maybe if I take out the rigid bit in the back it'll conform to my body more and bounce less.

i think with a pack as big as a 32l you're going to struggle if it it's not full when there's not much you can do to compress it which looking at the omm website seems to be the case.

I remember seeing a guy run past me on saturday and he had a similar situation where his bag was 1/3 full and it was swinging about a foot on either side of his body and looks like the least comfortable thing ever (especially on a 100k race).

is there a stretchy mesh pocket in the bag? if you're not carrying a lot it might be work putting the heavier/bulkier items inside the pocket to keep it as close to your back as possible and not able to bounce around so much....

you could also make your own compression straps quite cheaply and just loop them through whatever anchor points around the bag you can find. I used the daisy chain loops on my salomon vest to do the same with some simple items off amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0073UN4US/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BVBQM9E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BVC9TCU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks, great idea. It's got spare hooks for compression straps just like that so I should get those involved. The mesh pockets on the outside are stretchy but your ability to compress the pack is limited using only those. Will give it a go 👍

takes about 3 minutes to put together from those parts. just trim the cord to length and clip the bits on.

those sizes work but the items linked might not be the cheapest, worth double checking.

What bags are you using?

Edit 32l omm way too big as hatbeard says. For light commutes I use Ultra8, for carrying more the adventure light 20l. Owt between is ultra 8 plus compressor pod = 11l. Key is for it to be about full & packed well whatever is used.

Fwiw i'm thinking of getting the 32l for fastpacking so i'm not strapping stuff to bottom of 20l (8l drybag typically).