Running

I'll see to it, that its buried with you.

On a different note. Any of you barefoot folk struggle to go down hills? Much as I'm loving this new style of running. I find this really tricky.

Higher heel lifts & higher cadence.

It's the equivalent of spinning like a loon.

Be prepared for you HR to shoot through the roof - My max HR doing hill reps is around 185. Running as fast as I can down the sme hill, with a high cadence (100+), my HR hits 195+

I ran outside today for the first time in weeks (physio’s orders). I ended up covered in mud and blood (I had an altercation with a stick) but it was still about 100000000 times better than running on a treadmill.

I was feeling pretty gloomy about running recently so, like a good little capitalist, I decided to cheer myself up by buying new running clothes. I also got some expensive Nike socks and although they look a bit like my glove liners (I can guarantee they'll get mixed up at some point) they're amazing. Like, totally amazeballs. I can't believe how happy I am about a pair of socks...

Treadmills = shit.

Glad you're back outside in time for the rain and cold?

On a different note. Any of you barefoot folk struggle to go down hills? Much as I'm loving this new style of running. I find this really tricky.

Barefoot style should involve a deeper than usual knee bend, which along with the higher cadence helps reduce friction to a minimum (you're really just lifting your feet up, not pushing forward). Accelerating then becomes a case of leaning forward and picking your feet up a little later - falling forwards, in effect. If you can master that, downhill is less of a problem.

Best advice I had about downhill, though, was to not worry about technique and just go for it and all would be fine as long as I managed to avoid using my knees as brakes. Seems to work.

Managed 9 and a bit miles yesterday on my long run, result!

I was aiming for 8 miles but I had been feeling knackered before I went out and I didn't want to be obsessing over the distance covered in case I started to struggle early on and threw in the towel so after the first 3 miles I stopped looking at my garmin at all and just ran a comfortable pace (turns out that's 9:30 min/mile) until I was so tired I had to stop. turns out I wasn't as knackered as I thought so was pleasantly surprised when I finally hit stop and had a look at my watch.

Thing is aside from a momentary numbness in my right leg around mile 8 which went away almost straight away my legs felt good the whole way round so I'm thinking with a drink and an energy gel I could have gone further. think I might try and get up to a half-marathon on my long runs before christmas when my 16 week marathon training starts. psychologically I think it would be a good way to reassure myself going into it.

When I got home though I could tell I'd put in a decent amount of effort so I had a good long stretch and having recently read up on the benefits of an ice water bath in speeding up recovery thought I'd give it a go.

sadly we don't have a freezer and i hadn't planned ahead so didn't have any ice on hand but luckily it was chuffing freezing out and the cold water from the tap was pretty near to ice cold on it's own.

I'd read it's more bearable if you sit in the tub and then let it fill so you slowly acclimatise to the cold and also it helps to keep your upper body warm so your core temp doesn't drop massively. so there I was sitting in the tub in a sweatshirt, wooly hat with a mug of hot chocolate while my lower extremities were colder than a very cold thing.

I must say though I think it's helped. due to a bit of a fuckup this morning where I was intended to take my brompton on the tube to rest my legs only to forget my oyster card so i had to ride all the way in instead on stupid high brompton gearing my legs felt fine. think next time I do a long run I'll take some money with me and buy a bag of ice from the high street when I finish my run so I can go the whole hog.

^ Pics?

thought about doing a selfie but no.

Higher heel lifts & higher cadence.

It's the equivalent of spinning like a loon.

Be prepared for you HR to shoot through the roof - My max HR doing hill reps is around 185. Running as fast as I can down the sme hill, with a high cadence (100+), my HR hits 195+

I quite like the high HR. Never felt totally comfortable going fast enough to maintain a 160+ HR in my Asics. Which bugs me because I do it on the bike. Did a 6.5km run last week, and ran the mid 5km at a pace I havent really seen for maybe 10 years. Not earth shattering at 4:25 /km. But I'm a creature of habit, and have been running 5min kms, regardless of distance, for years.

Barefoot style should involve a deeper than usual knee bend, which along with the higher cadence helps reduce friction to a minimum (you're really just lifting your feet up, not pushing forward). Accelerating then becomes a case of leaning forward and picking your feet up a little later - falling forwards, in effect. If you can master that, downhill is less of a problem.

Best advice I had about downhill, though, was to not worry about technique and just go for it and all would be fine as long as I managed to avoid using my knees as brakes. Seems to work.

Definitly using my knees as brakes. I've never liked running downhill though.

This is often a symptom of not letting the heel "kiss" the ground very briefly.

While heel striking is wrong, landing just on the forefoot with the heel not coming down is also wrong (except for flat out sprinting). The heel should come down ever so briefly after contact with the mid foot. This stretches the achilles and by extension the calf. Not doing this means the calves always stay contracted.

This is often a symptom of not letting the heel "kiss" the ground very briefly.

While heel striking is wrong, landing just on the forefoot with the heel not coming down is also wrong (except for flat out sprinting). The heel should come down ever so briefly after contact with the mid foot. This stretches the achilles and by extension the calf. Not doing this means the calves always stay contracted.

Interesting.

This is basically what I've been looking to do. I was little unsure whether it was correct.

Interesting.

This is basically what I've been looking to do. I was little unsure whether it was correct.

Also, getting a foam roller (if you don't already have one) and rolling out the calves is a good idea. In terms of strengthening the calves, a skipping rope is actually pretty good. It's also great for ankle flexibility.

Ran for the first time in almost three weeks yesterday morning, that's about what I'm averaging at the moment.

Interesting timing with the chat about running style. I felt the ongoing hip thing starting to give me grief again after about 3k, and made an effort to run more on the balls of my feet and avoid striking the heel too much. Amazed to find that stopped the symptoms pretty much immediately.

I did notice this quickly had an effect on my calves, which I sort of expected. Obviously need to find a compromise between the two and hopefully I can get back to running more regularly, have missed it over the last few months.

Also, getting a foam roller (if you don't already have one) and rolling out the calves is a good idea. In terms of strengthening the calves, a skipping rope is actually pretty good. It's also great for ankle flexibility.

does anyone have any good resources that show how to use a foam roller properly after running? I have one at home that I bought for my girlfriend that I would like to start using.

Ran for the first time in almost three weeks yesterday morning, that's about what I'm averaging at the moment.

Interesting timing with the chat about running style. I felt the ongoing hip thing starting to give me grief again after about 3k, and made an effort to run more on the balls of my feet and avoid striking the heel too much. Amazed to find that stopped the symptoms pretty much immediately.

I did notice this quickly had an effect on my calves, which I sort of expected. Obviously need to find a compromise between the two and hopefully I can get back to running more regularly, have missed it over the last few months.

saw your run on strava, that's a decent pace for someone who's not running regularly.

Never actually got as far as an ice bath, but certainly found cold water for 10 min after my long runs helped a lot. I found it easier to keep tights/whatever else I'd be running in on too.

When I got home though I could tell I'd put in a decent amount of effort so I had a good long stretch and having recently read up on the benefits of an ice water bath in speeding up recovery thought I'd give it a go.

sadly we don't have a freezer and i hadn't planned ahead so didn't have any ice on hand but luckily it was chuffing freezing out and the cold water from the tap was pretty near to ice cold on it's own.

I'd read it's more bearable if you sit in the tub and then let it fill so you slowly acclimatise to the cold and also it helps to keep your upper body warm so your core temp doesn't drop massively. so there I was sitting in the tub in a sweatshirt, wooly hat with a mug of hot chocolate while my lower extremities were colder than a very cold thing.

I must say though I think it's helped. due to a bit of a fuckup this morning where I was intended to take my brompton on the tube to rest my legs only to forget my oyster card so i had to ride all the way in instead on stupid high brompton gearing my legs felt fine. think next time I do a long run I'll take some money with me and buy a bag of ice from the high street when I finish my run so I can go the whole hog.

Yesterday I did my 2nd ever 10k race. You know that meme of the dog on a computer with the caption ‘I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING’ – that was basically me. I was worried about being late for the race so tried to leave my house 2 hours early, put my race number on sideways on, couldn’t put my timer chip on my shoe properly, etc etc. That was before it even started. When the gun went off I set off at what I thought was my normal pace but it turns out was about two minutes a mile faster than normal (excuses: my watch has broken and I am an idiot and I figured I’d just follow the people in front). So the first 5k was alright, except that I’d forgotten that Greenwich Park is super hilly, and I got dropped by the people I was following and then I got dropped by the people behind them, and I ended up walking up some of the hills and grimacing quite a lot as the expensive socks that I was swooning over the other day still gave me blisters at 7km.

In the end I did it in 1.01.15 which is PB but it’s still a bit crap and I feel disappointed with myself.

Erm, yeah, also I wouldn’t advise eating an entire malt loaf at 2am the night before.

^ lol, plenty of lessons learned, well done!

Nice xc blog post here from a club mate http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3644767

"I could enter 10 seasons worth of cross-country
for the price of one triathlon (seriously)."

When I got into running seriously I bought myself a set of ice packs and now just sit on the sofa with them sandwiched between 2 pairs of compression tights.

Obviously not a helpfull suggestion if you don't have a freezer but for about 4 quid for a proper ice pack its a lot nicer way of doing the whole icing thing..

There have however been a few articles floating round recently that conclude icing actually slows down recovery of normal post training fatigue as it restricts blood flow and therefore oxygen supply though...

it might just be the placebo effect but I feel like I'm in much better shape today than i was last monday after running 7 miles the day before.

well done on the run too by the way hats. on strava i saw you were actually well under an hour as you ran an extra half mile (it's 6.2 miles for 10k)

I notice the route took you up that long gradual hill twice rather than up the main road as well, that sucks. I hate that hill. the movember route i'll be doing in 3 weeks goes that way twice as well. meh.

^ Nah, strava lied, I only did 10k. I think I might get a garmin watch as my phone gps is a bit erratic and it might stop me messing up pacing so much (hint: upgrade your one and sell me your old one cheap).

the forerunner 220 isn't out until jan 1st according to amazon (or april if i want the hrm-run to go with it) :(

^^ Still a good effort though, especially after the rubbish stuff you've had to put up with over the last month.

Good to have things that you know you can do better next time, as opposed to just turning up for the marathon as being your first ever race (Only a muppet would do that ... ahem).

Must be frustrating with the socks though :(