Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
RW Forum SIx – 3.30 – 4.00
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Well done Carter! I just did a mere 3 miles in this heat and it wasn't fun, so that distance is impressive!
Carl, I had a problem with my Garmin (bought online) they didn't even ask for proof of date of purchase, just sent me a new one. Their customer service is fab!!
I did get out for a run this morning and it was hot. Maybe not the 32deg that carter had up in the lakes but it felt real hot.
With the garmin playing up and the nike + sitting idle for so long, it was a case of running with no watch.
It was really nice to be out running again. I decided that I would run through the Heath, not exactly flat and the hills would not be considered hills up north where carter runs or out in oirish country side.
The ankle annoyed me a little for the first mile and after that I hardly noticed it. Since I have come back in it is more of a dull ache in my heel.
Did I say it was a tad warm. Well it was. t-shirt came off after a mile or two and I am sure the white flesh must have scared the masses generally enjoying their sunday morning stroll in the park.
Different bits of me were slightly agrieved at having to move again and while my breathing was a little heavy at times all in all I am pleased with the first outing.
I managed about 3.6 miles (I checked the map when I came back in) without stopping and having set the stopwatch before I went out I completed the 3.6 miles in 30 minutes.
So that can't be too bad.
Had a cold shower when I came back but it made very little difference to the body temperature. It was hot indeed.
Other than the dull ache in my right heel, there has been no other reaction since.
The new running shoes fitted like a glove and felt really comfortable.
So I am cautiously optimistic that I will be able to get some miles in this week and if recovery goes well I will start marathon training in a weeks time.
Well done Carl, happy for you. New shoes a good move too.
AliBali - yes its great to be back out and whether the new shoes were needed or not, they do feel good.
How is your own running going ?
Watch dropped to 51% charge but is now back up to 62% charge. Wierd or what !!!
This week has been pathetic. My ankle was dodgy earlier in the week so I took a few days off. I then had my last exams yesterday for my fitness course so was a bit busy preparing for them. (But am now a qualified fitness instructor-yay!)
but did finish today with a lovely 55 minute run in the sun with a colleague. She is new to running so it was pretty slow. Just over 5 miles. But she did really well and I enjoyed just being out again. And my ankle felt a lot better having been rested.
next week I am annoyingly on jury duty so hope it doesn't last too long and interfere with my running! I have 2 weeks today till the Dundee half and would like to get in at least two more runs over 10 miles. Up till now I was doing quite well with some nice long runs under my belt.
Fantastic news on your latest qualification. A fully fledged fitness instructor. Well done you AliBali.
With all that going on I would not worry about not running this week. As you say you have been doing ok up to now. A couple of decent LSR's in the next week or so and you will be fine. Bet you surprise us all with a great time in Dundee.
Carter - good work in the lakes. Hot out there today!
Oirish - great race report
Carl - fingers crossed the shoes will sort you out. Garmin's don't like being left on the cradle for longer than necessary.
Carter- great work on your run- I think you did v. well on that run in this heat! All good practice, innit!
Carl- thank you! I hope that I can do as well as I wish in Dundee. I am aiming for 1:47:xx.... just anything under 1:48 would be a very happy new PB for me! Apart from the last week or so... my running has been generally good since London and my confidence a bit restored. I have had some great long runs where I've felt really strong and like I could've kept going and going... and I've done some great faster work too. But would really love to get in enough running this week to feel confident that it has all come together in time for this race!
Carter - Good work there man. What was the weather like? Maybe we'll find out in his full report.
Alibali - Or now I feel I know you better may I call you 123? Big congrats on passing your exams and qualifications, exciting times.
Don't worry too much about your prep for Dundee, nobody feels they have ever got it quite right in the run up to a race and you have plenty in the bank at this stage, just consider it a longer taper and be grateful that you are going to be as fresh as a daisy come the start line.
It is important you remain in a positive state of mind if only for the poor souls up in court in front of you!
Carl - I'm a complete Luddite when it comes to technology - by that I mean when it goes wrong I start smashing it up, embrace the freedom of just running, I was about to say eau naturelle but as you are already starting to run half naked I don't think I should give you any encouragement. On the plus side if you are running around Hampstead Heath there will be plenty of other semi naked and naked men around to deflect the attention.
I had a look at the results page of my race on Saturday and the winner of the tab race - same route, 30lb rucksack and running in boots did it in 5 minutes faster than I managed and 6 minutes ahead of the next finisher
I watched these guys come home afterwards and regardless of your politics re the military these guys are seriously fit, it was ridiculously impressive to see.
I can only imagine the banter at work this morning among the troops, there were civvies coming in ahead of the 1 hr 50 mark which is the qualification for the Paras selection and a fair amount of military long after it. I imagine the ribbing is merciless
Oirish- call me whatever you like... within reason
Hey these military dudes can be quite impressive some times! The last 10k I did, I passed a group of soldiers who finished just behind me I think, they were doing the whole 20 paces walking/20 paces running. I think it was quite gentle training for them as they were all chatting and didn't look like they'd broken a bloody sweat. In full army kit, boots, rucksacks, full length trousers, crazy gear for a warm days running. And I was just amazed that you could be so fit as to do a 10k, HALF of which you walked, and still finish in 49 minutes! They made it look like a walk in the park.
Evening all.
We travelled up to the lakes on Saturday morning and it got off to a promising start by not getting lost. We were staying above a pub a couple of miles outside Coniston in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice old place and the food was great. I went to register in the afternoon and it all went very smoothly. The weather was lovely so we opted to sit outside a pub for a couple of shandies, had some food then a couple more shandies. My preperation wasnt ideal as I have been greedy for a couple of weeks and been drinking to many beers. That needs so improve with my training stepping up from this week.
The start line was on the banks of the lake and the scenery was stunning and the weather gorgeous. There was marathon challange and race and half marathon challenge and race and they all started off at hour intervals with my race off at 11. I wasn't feeling particularly good so I decided I would run at marathon pace; it didnt take me too long to realise it wasn't going to be that fast. Thre first mile was heading away from the lake, through the village and off on to the first trail. Then it was undulating for the next two miles but definitely going up rather than down. I was pushing quite hard and the splits were 8:41, 9:21 and 8:35. Not bad at all but I knew there was more climbing to come and no way I would be able to maintain that pace. The first drinks station was at the top of a rocky trail and I passed quite a few people who were already walking. And then the climbing began. And then the walking began too. It was stifling in places, red hot for most of the time and the heat was bouncing back of the ground. To say we were on trails there wasn't as much shade as I was expecting. Knowing I was only running this for fun I stopped on a couple of occassions to take in the views and the only word that springs to mind is breathtaking. There were lots of stunning properties that had amazing views over the lakes and mountains. It would be a runners paradise if you lived up there. Anyway, it was a strange race as I spent many periods running on my own for the first few miles and on a couple of occassions I wondered if I had taken a wrong turning. There were some real steep climbs too, not very long maybe 300 yards long, but nobody ran all the way up. The terrain was rocky in places and my feet were starting to burn. I got to the aid station at about 6.5 miles where I took on a hydration drink of some sort when I wanted plain water and I had some kendal mint cake which was bloody awful. Fortunately, neither of them made me feel badly. Mile 4 - 6 splits were 10:38, 9:41 and 9:39. The next two miles were really tough, mainly due to the heat, and I ran them at 10:47 and 10:24. About here I joined a group of a few others and it seemed like we were forever overtaking each other, stopping to walk, they would overtake you and it was like this to the end of the race. Then we ran around another, smaller lake and half way round there was a fork in the road where the marshall asked me if I had already run a lap of the lake and when I told him I had not he kindly informed me that I would need to. This was a bit of a blow as I thought we were heading for home but on I went around the lake again.
We then, thankfully, went into the woods so got some restbite from the sun. Here we began our decent; basically, in the distance we were running uphill in the first 9 miles we descencded in 2. This battered my knees so I went fairly slowly down and was passed by a few people at this stage but there were plenty of other runners/walkwers on the course doing the half marathon challenge. These 2 miles were knocked off at 10:15 and 9:42.
It was all flat for the last 2 miles and on easier trails so I stepped the pace up a bit. I felt I was running at marathon pace and although it was hard I also felt fairly comfortable
The last 2 miles were run at 8:37 and 8:26. However, when my Garmin beeped the 13 miles mark I thought we looked more than 170 yards aeay from the finish line. I find that when I know how far I've got to go I start thinking about it and can pace myself in to the end. So this was a bit of a blow but I carried on regardless. We then entered the field where the finishing line was and another kick in the teeth was that we had to run around the parimeter of the field and not straight to the finish line as I was expecting. Anyhow, there was decent crowd there clapping everyone home so it felt really good when the announcer read my name and number out as I crossed the line, feeling quite emotional if I'm honest. I picked up my goody bag and tee short and proceeded to drink a copious amount of water. Mrs C came over to me and she was nearly in tears as well and told me how proud she was and the such like. This did take me back a bit as she hasnt really been that interested about my running. It must be the sun getting to her I thought. I then went for a paddle in the lake to cool down a bit and my feet and legs really seemed to appreciate this. It has got me thinking whether a cold bath after a run might be beneficial after all. Today I havent felt aching or stiff at all. So, we sat in the sun for an hour and then I heard the name of another forumite so I went over and introduced myself and we had a bit of a chat (for those of you who listen to the British Trail Runner podcast it was Alistair 'Archi' Stewart - for those of you who dont this wont mean anything to you !). So, I finished in 77th position out of 151 in this event.
My overall thoughs of this race were that it is in an absolutely cracking location, very well organised, the marshalls were brilliant and the enteratinment and facilities on the start/finish line were top class. I would highly recommend this event to anyone, I am looking to do this again next year for definite.
Mrs C and I then went into Coniston and sat outside a pub with a couple of beers. We then went back to our lodgings and sat outside for a couple more. It was at this moment that Mrs C made an astonishing comment. She said she had really enjoyed being at the race, was impressed with what I had done, to the point where she was jealouse and made the remarkable statement that she wanted to run a race like this herself. I was quite speechless for a while with this revelation. So, we have agreed to enter the half marathon challenge (cut off time of 3.5 hours rather than the 2.5 hours for the race).
Great report Carter - sounds like a great day out. Defo on my to do list.
Carter - fantastic report. Really tough event and I am not sure if it would be an easy event in any weather. Can you imagine running that on a wet summers day !! So next year you will be much better prepared for the unexpected extra lap of the pond and lap of the finishing field. But you will be running a tightrope as the competitive nature in you has to be reined in while you encourage Mrs C to keep going. But then again she might just be showing you a neat pair of heels as she streaks ahead on those tough climbs ....... Great result my friemd. I am sure you are pleased you only signed up for the Half. Imagine a full 26.2 miles of that stuff.
Other than the usual stiffness in my ankle early doors, no ill effects from yesterdays jaunt. No stiffness or anything.
I am beginning to think the ankle will be just a fact of life for a while whatever I did to it.
Had to postpone the physio today as I could not leave work in time so it is scheduled for later in the week. I am aiming to get out tomorrow evening and get another 3-4 miles in.
Carter - sounds like a real blast & cracking weekend away...... must have been good to impress the Mrs! Good time on a hell of a course in the heat too!
I had to take the day off today to look after the kids (child minder on hols & Mrs RW at work).... so we spent the day at the beach. What a great day, the sea temp was amazingly warm and we swam, splashed, ran about on the beach, collected shells, built sandcastles etc etc all day ..... I was a bit blown away to be honest - felt like being on a beach in Spain & the kids proclaimed "they had the best day of their lives!"
Finally left the beach around 6pm and headed for the obligatory McDonalds.... home about 8pm and got the kids showered & off to bed and got out for my run @ 9pm. Told Mrs RW that being a house husband would be great - she brought me down earth with a bump reminding me there was more to it than going to the beach everyday!
8 mls with 4 @ LT tonight ..... a sweet chilli chicken sandwich & fries followed by a toffee sundae or two probably wasn't the best pre-session nutrition. However got the session done - splits as follows:
9.24; 9.04; 7.30; 7.22; 7.22; 7.37(last half mile uphill - tough finish to the LT section!); 9.03; 9.02
Club session tomorrow evening.
Carl - I would bin the physio tbh.... just run whilst listening to your body & you'll be fine.
Ali - cheers, yes I did alright and it has just increased my motivation even more now.
Ricky - sounds like you had a lovely day on the beach. Was it harder work than going for a run ?
Carl - I agree with Ricky about the physio. You know what the problem is and you've got your exercises/stretches to do so just get on with it now.
Carter - well done again my friend. It sounds like a great event, certainly one I could consider for future years. I had read a piece about it somewhere previously and had thought it would make a nice event to do as part of a break away.
It is great news that Mrs C has come over to the dark side. The sight of your red faced, sweaty, lycra clad, exhausted body was bound to set her pulses racing. Either that or she had topped up on the beers whilst you were running
Ricky - Nice quality time with the kids on what sounds like a really great day out, sometimes a little treat falls in your lap (as I explained to Mrs O when the Spearmint Rhino credit card receipt fell out of my jacket) It must of been wonderful to have the little uns to yourself and gad about together? It's the simple things in life eh?
Mrs W is right though it's not all Macdonalds and beach trips, there is the daytime telly to watch, bottles of gin to stash around the house, gossip to be exchanged and those Candies aren't going to crush themselves. (At this point Mrs O has just stopped reading over my shoulder and departed to another room smiling......it's the gin I reckon)
Carl - I think you have the right attitude re the ankle. As the others said you know how to manage it now and have all the info you need to protect and maintain it but at some point you just need to grit your teeth say sod it and get out there and road test it. Don't do too much too soon and it'll be okay.
Carter- I loved reading your report. Sounds like a great race.
Carl- did you get out today for another run? How's it feeling?
Ricky- you seem to do a lot of late evening runs. I am full of admiration...though I do like evening running, most of the time if I let myself get home after work then that's me glued to the sofa/bed and not a lot of moving to be done! Which is why I try to run straight after work a lot.
Well I have had a really good star to this week's running. Yesterday after a long day at work I got out to enjoy some sunshine and did 35 minutes, starting off easy and taking myself to a hill near the beach where I did 4 reps of up and down the hill. It's a small hill of 94ft elevation popular with dog walkers and runners as it has stunning views over to the beach. Then I jogged back. Really enjoyed it and pushed myself on those hills which my legs were feeling today.
Then today I had the start of my jury service. Got out quite early and decided I was selfishly not going back to work (as tomorrow after court I do have to go into work unfortunately...) so used the rest of my afternoon to do an hours run. Got around 7 miles in on an out and back route. Was feeling exhausted to start so gave myself a good bit of time just to ease into it but ended up doing a huge negative split....35 minutes out, 27 back! Admittedly I had started EXTREMELY slowly and way back was gently downhill vs the way out's gentle uphill. I was imagining it was the last few miles of the Dundee Half Marathon and by the end, I really felt like I'd bloody run a half. I collapsed on the ground, gave myself a few minutes there, dusted myself off and went for a well deserved Toffee Crisp and bottle of Coke
When I got home, my colleague that I ran with on Sunday night texted me and asked if I fancied a run. I said sure, why not, and went and did another 20 minutes very slow. So just over 80 minutes for me done today, with at least a few miles done at very decent pace.
Amazing report carter! And great that Mrs C wants to do a race too. You too could put your wedding photo on a T-shirt and celebrate your anniversary!!
Carl, great to hear that you are back out there! I'm sure the ankle will settle down soon!
Ricky, your day at the beach sounds lovely!!
And some more great running from you Alibali
So,tomorrow eve is race night. It won't be fast as it's 3 laps of a "testing course" (killer hill!) and the temperature is due to be 21 degrees at 7:00pm, but, as thise who have followed the highs and lows of my last 8 months know, it will be a significant moment. Will fill you in on how it goes tomorrow!
Good luck Rachel. Can't wait to hear.
Evening all. I still haven't had chance to read back and catch up with what everyone has been up to the last few days, I will endeavour to do this tomorrow.
9.5 miles for me at MP tonight, that's 8:30 for me. Not hot but very humid. I'm struggling to get all my runs in at the moment, as with the nice weather comes wanting to make the most of it and do family stuff. So I will be doing a LT run at lunch tomorrow, my long run on Friday is hopefully going to be a 20 miler and I've got a 12.12 mile fell race on Sunday up in the peaks. Onwards and upwards then.
Stay cool everyone
AliBali - lots of good running for you recently - sounded like fun ones too! Late evening runs are the norm for me & the result of long self employed hours & two young children! There really aren't enough hours in the day!
Rachel - woohooo, go you... good luck tomorrow !
Club session tonight - we were close to 30 degC today at one point and the car was still saying 25.5 degC as we pulled up to the club @ 7pm
Warm ups followed by 5 x 3mins with 90 sec recoveries then straight into 5 x 1mins with 60sec recoveries. So quite fast & intense stuff - garmin said the 5x3min session avgd 6.20 m/ml pace and the 5x1min session avgd just over 5m/ml pace!
AliBali - some great unning from you this week. Looks like the 'rest' last week has done you some good.
Rachel - really great that tomorrow you are going to have a race. Really best of luck and most importantly enjoy it. Looking forward to your report.
Boys - I know you are all right. Have had a stressful day at work today so put the physio on ice eventhough.
I got out tonight and repeated the run I did on Sunday. Ankle is much stiffer tonight post run than it was on sunday so hopefuly some more stretching will sort it. There is no doubt that tonight the ankle was not flexing as much as it should so maybe I did not stretch enough before I went out.
I was aware ratehr than it was painful.
My garmin was behaving itself tonight and my splits were : 8:26; 8:35; 8:21 and 4:35 (8:02). Overall time for 3.56 miles 29:57 giving an average of 8:23 per mile. I did push for home during the last halff mile or so.
It was not easy as the legs were telling me that they were not used to this and the breathing is not where it should be but it was good to get out late as it was.
Oirish, you will be pleased to know that even though it was dusk I did not encounter anythng too strange whilst venturing into the treelined paths on Hampstead Heath. In fact I was slightly surprised how many people were still out and about. I was back in home just after 10pm.
Ricky - great session from you tonight. Looks like you are enjoying the club running thing.
Carter - amazing run from you tonightconsidering the hard HM on saturday. Looks to me like you have recovred from your injury and come back much stronger for it.
Good grief this thread had mutated back into a running thread again!
Rachel - Good luck today, I can imagine how excited you must be, enjoy it.
Carl - They were probaly all out "Badger hunting"
Carter - Very impressive turn around from the weekend. That's a big mileage this week.
Ricky/Alibali - I'm a morning runner. If I have to go in the evening I come home f work and get straight back out again. It is only if I have someone else to run with that I can find the motivation to get out and run later in the evening. Horse for courses and all that.
Speaking of which 10.2 miles yesterday @ 8:57 avg and this morning it was a speed session so 7 miles @ 7:05 avg and all done by 6:20am
Oirish - I've had to go out running at all times of the day in order to make sure home life is not affected too much. I don’t think I run any better/worse depending on the time I run; do you find you run better in the morning or is it all about the motivation ? Your race at the weekend sounded like hard work but fun, especially the part where you tried to ‘pull the woman on the start line’ ! Cracking running the last couple of days especially the speed session of 7 miles @ 7:05, are you P&Ding for Dublin ? How is the TENS machine treatment going ?
Carl – have you managed to work out the Garmin yet ? It sounds like the ankle is steadily improving but I guess it will take time for it to completely heal; I still get the odd pain in the knee after 4 months but the stretches seems to prevent it from being really painful. Maybe, at our age, we just have to accept that we are going to have these niggles quite a lot J I think you said you were following P&D for Dublin too, have you been able to follow much of the plan yet ? When do you think you will be ready to sep things up a bit and put some bigger miles in ?
Ricky – I’ve got some orthotics which I will be using in my new Brookes trotters. On the couple of occasions I have used them so far I haven’t really noticed a big difference to when I run in my existing trotters that don’t have them in. A nice LT session from you with some decent splits, how do you find those sessions in this heat ? I assume you do get some decent weather over there ?? You ran a 5 minute mile, very impressive indeed sir. How are you finding running with the club ?