Running

Good running! Those false-flat bits running along the camber were draining. Enjoyed the holloway/descent/climb bit when there were streams of runners moving in both directions. I’m definitely not put off.

What club are you with?

I'm with the (once) mighty Eton Manor. Blue and white hoops

How about you?

Another Chapeau for getting xc done too.

Likewise @doubleodavey nice one.

London Heathside. They train at Finsbury Park track. I picked them partly because the Park was originally a gift to the poor of the metropolitan borough of Finsbury (of whom I’m one). There was no green space here back then, and there’s very little now. Developers would have us with even less…

(dark blue with red and gold at the side)

@rhb - thanks again. Inspired by all on this thread.

I know a couple of Heathsiders, one who runs for Northern Ireland (and us occasionally).

Keep up the good work, and maybe see you at an XC soon

Good running. Heathside seem to be a good club to join, they participate in everything and run good 5000 races in the summer.

I was running along the Paddington spur of the Grand Union today getting depressed by developers. Where there were once hedges and trees there are no metal railings blocking the ay into a brand new housing estate - I really hope that once the houses are built they are going to replace the greenery they destroyed in the building of it.

Group outing to the Southerns in January???

Don’t talk to me about developers [spits].

Are the Southerns the one at Hampstead Heath in Feb? I’m hopefully doing that one (and dreading it).

Was supposed to do a short race this morning but feel absolutely wiped out, so thought I'd console myself by doing a fast 5 or 10k, which I then bailed on as well. Currently feeling totally battered after a day mainly spent sitting on the sofa.

I also backed out of a 10k because I felt too tired to race, went out with the cycling club instead and found it absolutely harrowing in the cold rain, wished I was running instead.

Running is the best way to enjoy being outside in bad weather IMO.

I have my first trail race next weekend

Yes. The longest cross country race you will ever do.

Except perhaps the Orion 15 in March....

Re: HRM spikes, here's pace and HR trace from first 2 miles tonight, had wet the strap & skin first but HRM still spikes, plus a sudden blip down before it levelled out about 145 bpm ish. Note: looks to me like pace spikes after hrm has peaked.

2 Attachments

That looks fun. In the mental calendar.

Mental calendar.

We (me and @speculoos and another friend) had a nice time at the Gatliff run in Edenbridge yesterday. They do a 50k, 35k & 20k and we opted for the shortest route as we didn't know what the navigation was going to be like and we're just getting our distances up. Was anyone else there? Would be up for a longer distance in future, not sure what following shorthand directions would like when starting to feel tired but it was really fun over a short distance.

In relation to feeding, I normally always train without fuelling and would say I swear by it, but I have had a couple of bad experiences on longer runs. Doing a 30k marathon training run a few years back in Danish winter I completely tanked and had to walk which ended up with me being too cold to unlock the front door and needing to lie in bed for a very long time to warm up. I know I need to get it right as pushing up to ultra distance will mean that a crash could leave me quite far from home. I'm unlikely to run more than 50k unsupported, but am keen to know how to get a good mixture between fuelling and running on reserves.

First track session tonight with the Heathsiders. Last time I did one was 30 years ago. Gulp.

I've been looking for a challenge and thanks to rhb posting a bit of warning I snapped up a place for EfM next year! Really excited, furthest run so far is 50km but I've got a year to prepare for what is at the moment way above my head! Any advice would be much appreciated from the insanely impressive ultra runners on here.
My primary concern at the moment is the navigation, my sense of direction is poor to say the least and think I am going to have to rely on technology a lot. By the looks of it I am going to have to start saving for a high end Garmin to upload a pre planned course to or am i missing something? I can't seem to fathom whether something like the 735xt is going to be sufficient or do I need to be looking at the 935 or Fenix? Would Apple watch be any use given I could get a heavily subsidised one through health insurance, presumably battery life would be the main hurdle here?

Thanks very much in advance.

Ace. Which way you thinking of heading? Canal can eliminate much Nav, but brings different challenges.

I used paper maps with phone as backup. Powerbank handy too for recharging tech stuff, e.g. Anker Powercore Mini

Heading towards London, thinking of it as a long run home after work with a bit of a detour! At the moment the plan is to be pretty much unsupported and hope the wife is willing to come collect me when I run out of steam or time.

Was 12th V40 in the Fraternity/Sorority XC and first scoring for our B team who came 2nd (A team won). Happy with that. Expect to be a lot lower down the mix in the Met League this weekend, then hobbling around the Sunday League.

Enjoyed the first track session. Was absolutely soaked from running up there, so all the standing water on the track made no difference. Felt a little beaten up by the time I'd run home again. Giving my running shoes a day off today.

i use a 935 for exactly that and it works really well but you are just following a line on the screen not an actual map.

battery life is amazing even with all that stuff going.

you still need your wits about you to follow it and you have to allow it a second or two to orient itself when you lift your arm up to look at it.

getting proper trail routes involves getting hold of a decent topo map, i have a weird faff where i had to buy garmin topo maps and install it on my garmin edge 810 and run garmin basecamp with the edge plugged in to use the maps which is a little clunky though some websites let you make routes online and download them as well.

off course notifications are perhaps too sensitive and wish there was an option to allow a little leeway as it triggers a lot on wide paths when you are a couple metres from the specific track point.

in addition i tend to download the offline explorer maps from osmaps onto their app for my phone for the entire area i will be in as a backup. premium membership is like 3 quid for a month so i just buy 1 month when i have a trip planned.

overall i recommend it though.

I have a 735 xt and use the DWmaps app. It lets you upload a route to the watch, giving you a line to follow/alerts you when off course. It's a bit of a fiddle to get used to but it works well once you've figured it out.
It's opened up a load of things for me - mainly going on more adventurous runs when working away.

It will also show you a background map if you pay for premium, but you must have it connected to your phone and your phone needs a data connection.

The background map updates as you move, rather than being uploaded to the device with the route (this is due to memory restrictions on the app/watch). The background map thing isn't usually much use for me, but I think it would definitely help in an urban environment.
One factor that may sway you is battery life - you'll definitely need to charge the 735 once or twice if recording for 24hrs. Should be easy enough to manage with a power pack though. Watches like the 935 have a better battery IIRC.

Thanks very much for your detailed responses @HatBeard and @nefarious, very helpful.

By the looks of it DWmaps will work with my current 230 so I think i will give that a try and see how I get on with it before I make a decision about getting something with a more appropriate battery life!

By the looks of it the Fenix's justifies the premium by coming with Topo maps preloaded?

Cheers guys

A few tips for DWmaps, hold down the up button to get to settings on the watch - this is particularly useful when getting the app to refresh the current route.
Open the app and refresh the route before you drive off somewhere only to find you don't have signal any more!
If you're having any troubles with it, gimmie a shout - I can hopefully minimise the frustration of getting to know the app.

Heading towards London

I'd advise downloading the gpx or kml file of this year's winner then... It is still up on racedrone for now, G Arthus number 37

https://racedrone2.net/events/playback/escape-from-meriden

P.s. unsupported is tough but fun. No-one to talk you into stopping early either!