Running

I wear the same shoes that I've run to the track in, normally Adizero Pro (the ones suitable for gardening, not fancy cheat shoes).

Racing is always sleeveless, I can't imagine wearing a t-shirt or sleeves for a XC race.

I have worn arm warmers and gloves with a vest before, but it felt like a fashion faux pas

Fast shoes always, I think part of the reason the Norwegians change shoes is that the ASICS Metaspeed have always been hard to get hold of and this is compounded by the fact Blu prefers the discontinued version 1s so they’re just trying to limit the use, I guess there’s an element of saving the fast shoes for fast stuff but I’ve run 2500km this year 90% + in carbon super shoes and I’ve not imploded yet!

I’m doing a trail 10k in Epping next month - reckon I can do it in a pair of old Pegasus’ or does that place usually require actual trail shoes? Guess it depends on how muddy it is.

I’ve ran around woods in the pegs before and they were fine. Though it was dry and zero elevation.

Should be ok this time of year.

This is from Jan, bit sloppier

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Jesus. That looks hilarious - I’m half tempted to get some trail shoes anyway even for casual stuff and the pegs have 1,000km on them…

I’d make sure to get them worn in so probably worth ordering and breaking them in soon if so

Just started back after a 6 month break from running, aiming for an April trail-marathon. It's interesting to notice what the break did, reckon I lost about 25% of my running ability that I had built up overall. The first runs back have felt sluggish and muscle aches have lasted for a couple of days after, whereas I wasn't getting any of that during regular running. I struggled with boredom toward the end of my road marathon training last year, think I stated the training cycle too early and it just went on and on. Hopefully a trail type of marathon will give enough novelty to avoid that. I'm slowly building some base mileage before probably gradually upping it in December time. Hoping for consistency and most of all to enjoy it.

Is it just the trail marathon as the target race? Could be worth doing a few XC races through winter, maybe drop in a half marathon in feb. Give you a few B races in between to keep things interesting

Keeping it a thing of joy is the main thing for me personally. As soon as it becomes a chore then what’s the point, right? That said, there’s a difference between it becoming a chore and having that “ugh, another 12k run then” feeling on a Wednesday, and then actually being glad you’re out there once you get moving etc.

You’ve got a nice chunk of time to build that base again and enjoy things before ramping up.

1 week post marathon and still not sure how I feel about it…

The level of traffic was a major factor, having to run through 3:45, 3:30 and 3:15 groups was not in the plan and added a lot of deceleration and acceleration and was definitely causing a lot of extra stress but I was still at half way in touching smdisrance of my target pace, when I decided that I didn’t have it in me to hit the target and slowed to the sub 3, i think part of the problem was that I never really gave myself a hard time target for London to pin my hat on, I always knew that once I’d done sub 3 it was a big jump to the next milestone and wasn’t ever quite in 2:49 shape so had settled on a target pace, which would have been tricky if I had tried sticking to it as my watch lost signal around the isle of dogs and I was working to time elapsed and mile markers from about 19 miles onwards…I know if the race had been different I would have been on track at that stage but I can’t ignore the fact that I pulled the plug long before I had any problems, so I’m really tempted to have a short recovery and build to another marathon in December where the traffic won’t be a problem, but it presents a few challenges…

It’s 8 weeks away so I need to get some miles in between now and then and none of my training buddies will be prepared to put long runs in at this stage in the year, and my family hasn’t already given me plenty of time off this year, plus I may very well have got a good for age slot for next April anyway when I can go back and make amends on my bogey course…

Holding off making a decision till Friday when GFA is announced but in the meantime I better stop acting like it’s the off season and get some east miles in and stop eating everything in sight as I don’t think Michelin man me will have much chance at a 2:50

When I've run multiple marathons, I've reversed the taper for 4 weeks, then tapered again. I ran 3.10 in the 1st one and 3.11 in the second. There was also a 3.12 sometime soon after.

Good luck with the next one!

I did a December one near hoddesdon round a track. Free cake and coffee at the end. I think it was a zigzag running event. Pretty traffic free if you exclude the other 100 odd runners. They were doing a mix of events from 5k to 50 odd miles

I switched my long run to a Saturday because I go to the track on a Monday with my daughter.

I'd run to a parkrun up to around 15 miles away, do that as a marathon pace run, then either run a bit more or just get a train home

Sorry for clogging up the thread, I'm at a bit of a loose end seeing as I'm having a rest week!

Yes, was thinking doing a timed half early January, good idea. @Well_is_it : going to keep it easy for now yes. It has to be fun agree, I'd rather run a slower mara time but enjoy the training more. @doubleodavey : I have been spying a local parkrun to try, just an early start is the thing that I will suffer from :) maybe when I have some more miles in my legs...

short recovery and build to another marathon in December

Go for it! When you are old and grey you will be wishing you did 😀

Holding off making a decision till Friday when GFA is announced

The worst part of marathoning. If you make GFA- I assume you're stuck, if not- you're pissed off, and then have to run another.

I'm happy with my no marathons since 2014 rule. Though a friend just entered me into the LM ballot... so, given I don't want to run it, clearly going to get a place.

Some days going for a steady pace run is a joyful experience. 70% easy paths and trails, 10% through the woods and a bit of road. Great way to spend a lunch hour

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nice indeed 🙂

It was a nice contrast to where I’d spent the morning and the harrowing shite I spent the afternoon reading on my laptop!

According to my Strava I’m at my highest “fitness” level of the past two years. My waistline, ankles, and all other markers beg to differ.

The blurb from Strava is below.. does anybody pay any attention to these metrics?
(I run with chest HRM)

“Fitness is calculated using your Relative Effort (based on either heart rate data or Perceived Exertion input) and/or power meter data. This way you can identify patterns in your training and see the big picture of how all your workouts are adding up over time. Your score is entirely relative to you. It serves as a benchmark, to show how many points you currently have compared to any date in the past two years.”

I enjoy following mine but it needs to come with some hefty pinches of salt. It's decent for tracking training load and fatigue I find, and I have ridden my best times uphill when my "fitness" has been highest

I find looking at this really depressing because after a big block of training it always shows me as being "less fit" than I was before I started. I think the occasional periods of runs without HRM chest strap (normally waiting for a new battery), and therefore terrible HR data from the watch throw the calculation out and the score associated with a hard training run doesn't come close to the score given to an easy run with bad (hugely over-reading/cadence locked) HR data so when I have good HR data everything looks "easy" to Strava.

e.g. two different 5 mile tempo runs, one has a training impulse of 830 and the other 92

Generally I know when I've been training well and start to see and feel the results so ignore Strava

good vibes :)

Found it's a good idea not to be performing for my watch! Sometimes it's worth asking if you're still enjoying it rather than always trying to improve your high score.

does anybody pay any attention to these metrics?

Only in the very loosest of ways.

The maths behind it is shonky approximation built on shonky approximation. It can be useful as an additional data point, but ultimately it's going to come down to how you feel.

That being said, waistline & cankles are not particularly accurate indicators either, depending on how fitness is defined.

Any recommendations for physios in or around the city?

Seem to have piriformis problems - hip pain and sciatic pain down to my calf. It goes away when running so I’ve been trying to keep going, but it’s not getting better