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Hope everyone is well? Did anyone do parkrun this week?
I managed to get out last night and acheived 4 miles (ish) but came back early as there seemed to be dickheads about everywhere last night, including kids letting off fireworks in the park I was running through
I'm hoping to get out again tomorrow, although i'm in a bit of pain, think i've puled a lat while mucking about with my eldest lad, doh!
Didn't make it to parkrun this week - was thinking about it, but I'm not feeling 100% and my legs are a bit tired, so didn't think I'd do myself justice. I also needed to fit in an 11 mile run this morning, and we have visitors tonight/tomorrow, so thought it would be a bit antisocial for me to go out for 2 hours!
Had an ok training week. Missed running club on Tuesday, but ran home from work on Thursday (7 miles), did 5 miles yesterday (day off work, so had the day to myself) and 11 miles this morning. Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow! I have felt like I've had a cold coming for the last week now, but it hasn't got any better or worse. Wish it would do one or the other so I can get on with things!
Thanks for the encouragement the other day, too! I know you guys are right, and I'd say the exact same thing to anyone else. It's just frustarting that I have to work so hard at it, but it seems to come so easily to everyone else. Think it runs in the family - my sister isn't very fast either, and while my dad IS fast, he has to work like crazy at it.
Will do a longer run tomorrow. Just so busy with work, it's hard getting out.
Will only make one running session with the club this week too I think!
Brian.
Wow again Lauren! busting out the miles, you put my 4 miles to shame with your 23mi
Gonna get out tomorrow for definite.
I know what you mean Brian, it is hard getting out. I'm struggling at the moment with the amount of work i'm getting piled on me from uni. Gonna change the days I get out I think and move my mon morning session to sun evening (mon mornings just aren't happening). Luckily i'm doing plenty of walking and cimbing stairs lol
On the Movember front, i've done the initial shaping of my tache, i'm hoping it will be a beauty haha still can't work out how to get pics into the thread (anyone know how to?), if you go to the link I posted for my Mo Space hopefully you will be able to see it.
There's a little picture icon on the message box of a tree. If you click on that, might be able to work it out from there? I did have a look at the link - looking good! Think taches generally need a couple of weeks to get going, but it looks like it's going to be a good one! My boyfriend is resisting shaving the rest of his face, but I think it has to be done today - he just looks like he normally does and not very Movember-y.
At least you got out to do your 4 miles. Better than nothing! My legs were completely dead today, we went for a sedate walk around the park, but I just couldn't keep going, haha. Now it's November, I'm starting to ramp up the miles - adding on another club sessions, social run on Monday nights. Think it's either 8k or 10k and I'll be in the slow group, for sure! I'm a bit sad I've had to drop one of my BMF sessions, but I'm sticking with the Wednesday night, which is social night, so hopefully I shouldn't miss too much of the fun!
Anyone see any good fireworks last night? I LOVE Bonfire Night, I think I might even prefer it to Christmas.
Looks like nobody made it to Parkrun this week! I went on another hike up the Mourne Mountains on Saturday, it was a five hour trek, weather was glorious here in NI. Haven't done a great deal of running this week, but picked it up over the weekend, did 6.5k on Friday night, and just got in from 9.7k there now. Feeling a little done in with the 8miles in the mountains on top of the runs.
Most of my friends are doing Movember, but despite my years I have the top lip of a 14 year old, I feel like I'm missing the fun
We don't really do Nov 5th here in NI, Halloween is the big fireworks night for us, I had my daughter at a good show last week. My back was broke from carrying her around all night!
Have a good running week everyone!
Morning Guys
Havent been on here for a few days due to a mentally busy week of work and college. The running took a bit of a back seat last week as well after the shins started to get the dreaded tight feeling after a 4 mile run on monday. I was back in lovely Norfolk for the weekend as well so thought I will get back to the park run this week instead
Thanks for all the advice on the running clubs. I've decided to bite the bullet and join my local one in Clapham called Clapham pioneers who go out running tonight followed by a beer and pub supper. Sounds pretty perfect if you ask me!
Lauren, dont feel disheartened about the time itself, the fact that running (unless you are running competatively for position) is really a personal thing, improvements in time are a much better reflection of how you are doing. It's all relative and relatively speaking you've smashed several minutes off your 5k pb which a lot of people would find very difficult to do.
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on how the run goes tonight. Pretty nervous but know there is nothing really to worry about.
Rich
Had a couple of good club sessions this week. Social run on Monday, which was lovely. I stayed in the novice (slow) group and there were only five of us, so got to have a good chat with everyone. I think in a couple of weeks I might try to promote myself up a group. Then the track session last night was a 3k time trial. I ran with another girl the whole way and we dis it in 14:47, which we were really happy with as we were aiming for 15 minutes. Then 5x800m, which we did each one in under 4 mins. I feel like I've made a bit of progress anyway and felt fantastic when I got home!
What have the rest of you been up to this week?
Lauren, another impressive load of training! You are gonna be killing it soon
Hi Guys
Annoyingly I was in College until gone midnight on Tuesday so that shattered my intentions of going that evening. It's always the way when you finally build yourself up for something. I'm fully determined to go next week though as they are doing an interval session which could be fun. What are people's views on park runs this weekend? Another weekend of PB's?
Rich
It goes up through Battersea Park and across Chelsea Bridge, then all the way along the river to Waterloo Bridge, a bit of messing about along the Mall and then back the way I came. I just ADORE running in Central London before all the tourists are up and about. I sometimes look up at those iconic sights and think "I LIVE here!"
Deadbox, I was at work earlier and didn't have time to write properly - what a bummer about having to cut back. It'll be hard, but probably for the best in the end. Can you cycle/swim or do something like that in the meantime? You don't want to let your fitness levels drop too much. How is the 'tache coming along?!
I was naughty yesterday, I was getting annoyed with uni work and decided to go for a gentle run instead. Went out for a gentle jog, just trying to keep HR to 70% and keep my posture right. Felt good, cleared my head a bit and I ended up doing 5.5mi in 50mins. I've had a load of mobilisations done this week on my lumber spine and been doing my postural exercises and my bak is feeling a load better aready.
The tache is coming along nicely i'll attempt to upload a pic from 'Day 9', here ya go
Did anyone do parkrun this morning?
What a tache! Love it! Good work on the 5.5 miles. Don't overdo it though, you don't want to
I DID end up doing parkrun this morning (only decided I was going at about 8:15, so only had 10 minutes to get ready which is probably why I was silly and forgot my barcode, so I have no actual proof of this, but I cracked 26 minutes! My Garmin had me coming in at 25:47, which I reckon is close to the actual result (I was 80th). Shame it doesn't go on my parkrun record though. I was also a bit naughty and walked for a few seconds too, until another nice lady came up behind me and encouraged me along. So I know can do it faster!! I checked at 2.5k and I was dead-on 12:30, so I slowed up a fair bit in the second half.
I'm not going next week, because I have a 10k on the Sunday. My previous 10k PB is 57:10, and I want to come in well below that. 54 minutes is the target. We'll see.
Any other parkrunners this morning? Rich? JLB? How did you get on?
Looking forward to finding out my official result, I'm pretty sure I've knocked off around a minute down to 26:30ish.
Great job Lauren, on the time, and not giving in to the mental demons!
Gutted for you Deadbox re your back, hopefully you can keep up some kind of level of running, but don't do yourself any injuries. Get the cycling and swimming going if you are allowed, it will set you up for Tri once you can run properly again.
You'll have to let us know the official time! A minute off would be brilliant!
I really would like to do some swimming, but I haven't got a good pool near me and the one by my uni is quite expensive. As long as everything goes well I'd love to attempt a triathlon at some point.
My question is mainly regarding speedwork, at the moment i do a 5 mile fartlek run, in which i do 5 double lampost sprints but i used to do 85m-100m hill sprints aswell.
So what i am wondering is are hill sprints effective speed work on their own or are they best used to support other speedwork like 200m-400m repeats?
Basically i read that to run fast you need to run fast & that can only be done to its fullest extent on flat surfaces, which means that while hill sprints are good as they have you working hard & strengthen your legs, they are best not used on there own.
So basically for speedwork 80m hill repeats, or 200m flat repeats?
Any thoughts, ideas or experience with this would be appreciated.
P.S. anyone find their a fair bit slower on treadmills than road?
This may be the wrong discussion to ask Andrew, I don't think the rest of the posters here would mind if I described us as, at best, to be novices.
My thoughts (for what they are worth) would be that the fartlek and hill work you've deascribed might be too anerobic?
Do you have a timed run you have achieved to base your training paces around?
Regarding the treadmill, I don't use them but my friend who is well over the 6' mark finds it hard to use his proper stride on a treadmill and doesn't seem to be able to go as fast.
I've given myself an easy week this week - I felt completely wiped out after the parkrun in Saturday then 10 miles on Sunday. Monday morning my legs felt ready to drop off. Went for a swim Monday night instead, which made a nice change. Then Tuesday night, I did a really slow run with some colleagues who run on and off. Ended up doing less than 3 miles in about 28 minutes, so not much of a workout really, but again, a nice change! Tough BMF session last night though, pretty much every muscle in my body hurts today!
I'm just concentrating on getting myself ready for Sunday's 10k now. I'm aiming at that sub 55 and I'm going to be really disappointed if it doesn't happen. The Macmillan pace calculator thing is telling me 53:34 (previous PB 58:53 I think) and it was spot on (to the second!) for my 5k time this week! I think I can do it, its just a matter of focus. It should be a really nice route around Kew and along the Thames - my favourite place to run anyway!
Hi Guys
Been uber busy the last week so haven't really had any time to post.
DeadBox, gutting news about the back. Did they say when you would be able to get back into some easy running again or did they just advise against it completely for now? You never know though, it could be a good chance to let all your joints have a propper recovery and youll find, as long as you get in some swimming or cycling to keey the fitness up, that you may be able to increase your stride and start shaving some time off when you're allowed to run properly again.
JLB, 70 seconds is a massive improvement, What is your secret to knocking so much time off? I did the parkrun on Saturday but felt a bit crap from the start so only improved by 1 second which was a bit disappointing as I felt I ran at a pace which was a lot harder to maintain. I finally joined the club though on Tuesday and did a 3.2 mile which felt really good and fast. No one timed it properly but the consensus that it must have been around the 25 min mark. I guess with running its so hit and miss on the day.
Do any of you have a bit of a strategy for when you eat or what you eat before a run? I couldnt face breakfast on saturday morning which I think could have been the reason for feeling terrible. Would appreciateyour thoughts.
Rich
Rich, good job on joining the club - I'm sure you'll see some good improvement! It's always about how you feel on the day. Maybe leave it a couple of weeks and try the parkrun again - I get a bit demotivated if I go every week with only a few seconds improvement. I much prefer every 3 or 4 weeks with significant improvement.
Well done on the PB Rich, every PB is a good one! I'm not really sure where the 70secs came from, I'd been away from Parkrun for a couple of weeks, the last one I did I was probably on the same kind of pace but had to stop for 1 walk rest about 1k from home and then struggle my way in. It was mostly a mental thing I think, this time I refused to give up, also, there were several people running close to me which I always find helps to maintain a pace.
You definitly need something in the belly, I usually have a banana about an hour before and maybe a small glass of smoothie just as I'm leaving the house (so about 15-20mins before). But that's just for the Parkrun, during the week I'm just running whenever I have 30-60 mins free, so any nutrician plan goes out the window.
Everyone is obviously hard at work this thursday afternoon! haha
I was thinking that it could be good to just go on a club run this saturday instead and then do a timed parkrun in a couple of weeks time to see if the extra work has paid off. I'm not really sure what I was nervous about when joining as everyone was really friendly and went for a pint afterwards. Always good to meet new people when moving to a new town.
Cheers for the advice on the eating, I'm pretty convinced that it must make a difference. A lack of food and several pints the evening before probably didnt make for the best preparation. Lauren, you seem to be able to find loads of interesting other runs about in London. How do you find out about these? I wouldnt mind giving a 10k a go in the next few weeks.
Rich
Yeah, wasn't so busy at work this afternoon...
Try checking the Event Finder on this website - that's a pretty good way to find races. Otherwise, I'll sometimes just Google "10k South London" or similar. Also a good idea to check running club websites (especially Mornington Chasers and The Serpentines) as they tend to have smaller and therefore cheaper races listed. I don't tend to enjoy the massive events as much, so I always look for quieter ones - I find there is just as much support.
Have you lived in London for long?