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ASICS Super Six: Alex (Sub-4:00)
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Back from New Zealand, via Abu Dhabi, this morning. Exhausted! And just remembered I'm racing a 10km this Saturday....
Afternoon - well done Kate
No running for me just helping with yet more DIY. Got a 5km race on Thursday night, first time in ages for that distance.
Another long term lurker, joining late and hoping to break a time we're not allowed to talk about later this year.
Started marathon running last year, did Shakespeare, aiming for 3hr 45, blew up big style for 4hr 48. First hot day of the year and it took its toll. Robin Hood last September and skimped a bit on a Furman training programme by not doing some (most) of the cross training to improve by 6mins.
So more focussed on the running this year and have the Mittelrhein marathon at the end of the month with a target of sub 4hr 20, then Frankfurt in October hoping to break the 4hr barrier. Half marathon and 10k times all point to sub 3hrs 45 but I just seem to be better over the shorter distances as it's not transferred to the big one so far.
As for refuelling, I've tried Lucozade and SIS Go gels but have suffered with stomach aches and haven't felt any stronger for taking them. So I'm following the Jaffa cake plan. Used them on my last 3 LSR's and whilst I don't think I've been more sprightly, they certainly taste better. Something to look forward to every 4 miles
Thanks Alex and Suze, and hi to SlowRunningMan.
I don't think I'm conventional but what I think helped was a) running a marathon 2 weeks before and not enjoying it as much as usual so this one felt lovely b) the hills help, as they make the flats feel easy and the last naughty one c) going off too fast knowing that I might blow up and drag myself round meaning that I had some spare time at the end.
So, next target is 3.50, but all my marathons are now off road with big old hills so not until 2011!
SRM, how do you transport your Jaffa Cakes, like the idea but I think they're going to get squishy in my back pocket.
Hi SRM! Your goals sound super sensible and you're likely to surprise yourself by smashing them by quite a bit over the next few runs I reckon!
Also interested in how you carry jaffa cakes. Whenever I think of my next marathon / half marathon, the first dreadful thought that enters my head is... oh NO not more JELLY BEANS GELS and SUGAR STUCK IN MY TEEEEEETH.
Perhaps I'll string apples and bananas around my neck next time?
Kate - sounds good. To be honest I can totally understand what you mean when you say that the hills actually helped. Whenever I came across a (slight) hill or change of terrain on my longest runs / half marathons / 20 miler / that longish Paris run, my legs felt kind of 'relieved' - I think it was just breaking the monotony of pounding over a flat surface over and over. Did my first hill session in a long time last week and really enjoyed that too. Perhaps I should enter the San Fran NIke marathon ballot after all...?
I do my long runs wearing an Innov8 Race Pro4 waist bag to carry a bladder with fluids in. It also has a couple of pockets which hold quite a bit. I wrap the jaffas in foil and away I go. Not had any problems with meltdowns so far and the foil stops choc getting everywhere, hold the jaffa in a bit of foil, then go from full moon to total eclipse (you'll only understand if you've seen the advert)
I was contemplating the jelly bean/baby option again, but I found it too fiddly last time and very sticky
Agreed on the hills, their fine if your use to running on them. I do like the odd hill every now and then as its like a little goal/sense of achievement mid way through a run rather than just at the end.
Alex - ihave joined the foam roller club. Everytime you talked about foam rollers i was thinking of one that you paint with rather than a massive metre long foam club. Started getting knee pains this weekend on my run on saturday. normally i can deispel them by chnaging my running technique but this time it didn't go away so decided to walk the remaining miles home. Don't think its bad and some foam rolling should help.
Oh Barry, the foam roller will change your life. Make sure you're rolling on your TFL, not your ITB though - it's much more effective. Wikipedia handily offers an image so you can compare the locations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_fasciae_latae_muscle. Happy rolling!
Rollin' rollin' rollinnnnnn
morning all
I am also suffering some knee pain....sorry if this is a stupid question but how do you foam roll your knees?....where abouts do you roll? My pain is in the front of the knee rather than the back.
Hi Marmalade - sorry to hear about the knee pain.
My pain was on the outside of the knee - which apparently means my ITB (which runs down the outside of your thigh) was tight and pulling on the outside of my kneecap, where your ITB joins your knee.
So the idea is that if you have pain on the outside of your knee, you put the foam roller on the floor and roll yourself back and forth on the whole length of the outside of your thigh, which stretches your ITB and eases the pain around your knee. However, Asics physio Sarah told me that the ITB isn't particualrly malleable, so you get much better results trying to stretch the TFL, which is at the top of your ITB - it's much easier to stretch as well as it's a much smaller area. See my link above for where to find it.
This is all for pain on the outside of your knee though -I'm not sure about pain at the front of your knee at all.
Hope this helps!
On the shoe note, I'm going out in search of non-blue & grey running shoes this weekend! Woohooo!
Did what was meant to be a very slow recovery run yesterday after a 21 mile LSR on Monday. My legs had other ideas though and did 6 miles averaging 8.34m/m. Must have been the weather, lovely sunny day, not too warm and a nice breeze.
Thanks for the advice. Interestingly i did feel that something was going on in my thigh area as I was walking abit strangely!! nothing major and anyone else wouldn't have noticed but I could tell.
Are you still running Peckham tomorrow Alex?
I will look out for you but I'm sure you will be speeding off at the front. I am running with my OH who only just decided to try this running lark in january and now is in his first race tomorrow. I am soooo proud of him. I am going to run with him to make sure he doesn't go out to quickly and finishes the 10k as this will be a major boost to him.
Hope its not too warm though!!!!
Welcome back Alex!
Kate - what offroad ones are you doing?
Marmalade - yup, the plan is to run Peckham, despite a snotty cold and too much work to do this weekend. Should be a nice (energetic) break...
KateF - YOU ARE WONDER WOMAN!!!!! What does your weekely training schedule look like to maintain these sort of fitness levels?
Report from Peckham 10k yesterday ....Alex, I looked out for you and tried to pick out faces that looked like you on the various super six videos I have watched. But its amazing how people start to all look like each other so in the end I think I saw about 10 people that could possibly have been you!!! Anyway I am pleased to report that the OH finished his first 10k in 1 hour 3 mins which is now his PB to work on. He did the usual mistake of going off to quickly which I did try and tell him to pull back a bit but he was getting carried away I think!! Anyway mistake learnt. After that I ran home as I had 14 mile to run and got slightly lost along the way.But knee held up and feels ok today.
You may remember that I asked about Garmins and from advice given on here I bought a 305. I had been using a Polar and it seems that the distances seem to vary between the Polar and the Garmin. I think the Polar may have had me running a bit shorter than I should have been. I am presuming that the Garmin should be fairly accurate and so when it says I've run 10k or whatever is should be right....anyone else had this problem with different models of watches?
I've had a Polar 625X and now own a Garmin 310XT, I got fed up mapping the routes by hand, which is the main reason I changed and I deserved a treat
I think the accuracy ratings between the two on a normal run tend to be fairly similar, give or take a decimal of a percent. It was on the runs where the pace changes significantly such as tempo and intervals that I had problems with the Polar and even then it still wasn't wildly out.
Final LSR yesterday, 21 miles in lovely sunshine. Felt good and was a nice little confidence boost. 3 weeks of taper madness about to kick in
I've only used a Garmin 405 and find it to be very accurate as regards distance. I've also run using both foot pod in shoe and satellite and (assuming it takes an average of the two), the same route comes out at the same distance. I actually find the satellite frighteningly accurate - to the point where you can see where you've crossed the road!
In other news, I have new running shoes! Finally! And they're not blue and grey - they're white and a very girly purple. I'm pretty happy.
Now, when is everyone's next race please? I'm running the Homerton 10km tomorrow morning at 10am. Haven't raced since the marathon, and definitely haven't been running far enough lately, but I'm looking forward to a lovely run around Hackney Marsh. It was my first run there last year, most of which I spent marvelling at how lovely the woods / canal path were. It's now my local park run too.
New trainers seem to be doing the trick - I reckon purple's closer to being fast (like red) than the old blue & grey anyway...
Mittelrhein marathon on the 28 May, running up and down the Rhein
. Starts at 5.30pm, so should finish sometime between 9.30 and 10pm. It's getting very warm and humid over here but training has gone pretty well.
Couple of quicker runs this week, when I joined the RAF in 86 the fitness test was a 1.5 mile run in under 12mins. Quickest time I ever managed back then was 9min 27 and I hated running back then, so did it again for the first time in 24yrs, done in 9min 57 and that included a 10 sec for sorting my laces out, so happy with that. Then a 4 miler yesterday, felt comfortable enough at about 8m/m
This morning's Homerton Hospital 10km was lovely - it set off from the newly-unveiled Hackney Marsh changing sheds (doesn't sound lovely, but it's actually quite glamorous, and absolutely enormous) and wound through the woods and fields three times before ending up at a really nice family day. A guy latched on to me quite near the start and we ran side by side, at the same pace, the whole way. He even slowed down when I had to blow my nose (cold is persisting), so I did the same for him when he slowed to collect a cup of water. It was really nice running with someone of the same pace, not talking, right to the end.
Anyway, the course was apparently 'around 10km' and my Garmin seemed to think it was 10.4, so I wasn't too disappointed with my time of 52 minutes. I felt a bit out of shape to be honest, so am going to pick up the training properly now and start following a half marathon schedule.
In other news, I have just pulled a blood orange and almond cake out of the oven and slid in a tray of baklava... yummo.