Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
10k & half marathons
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
Course, if you are talking about loading then anything and everything goes I reckon! Not sure of the technical make up of such foods but I tend to scoff lots of crumpets and scotch pancakes when loading. Toast and jam, bagels and cream cheese..... Oooo, I am starving now!
I am trying out meal replacement/supplement shakes at the moment as they are designed to be a great balance of protein and carbs as well as nutrients and though I am having them about an hour before a session, they would probably be perfect for right after a session to restock your body.
All I can figure out re: training talk about speeds is easy is just that. Easy. Youcan hold conversatoin and are not puffing for breath. I think it is really difficult to judge these kinds of things on the road though which is why I am so pleased to have a GPS watch! It tells me how fast each mile is and I judge my pace from that.
Oh, and while reading to distract myself from my cold bath this morning after my 12 miles today, I read that another good thing about speed training is that is gets your body used to working as lactic acid builds up.
But I completely get the aerobic base thing. I think that the sessions I do, though designed like a speed session, probably aren't really doing much for my speed to be honest because I don't think I am pushing myself to as hard as I could go, and I don't have the confidence to try that either. For me the session is perhaps just comforting myself that I do have the strength to keep up speed, and I would also like to think it is getting me to train at a steady pace. Some times my road runs are very jerky - a lot to do with hills around my way I suppose, but I find it difficult to get to grips with keeping an even pace.
At the time of half (March) I was around 12st 8, during last 3 months I have followed my wifes swiming world diet and gone from 13st 1 to 12st 2. I feel I am ready to have a go at my 1/2 Marathon PB in Majorca in December as my fitness has returned rapidly. However I am unsure about whether to return to normal eating or carry on dieting.
Any thoughts anyone
For the record I run 3-4 times a week and cover 25-30 miles, plus 1 circuit session (use this for speed) and 2 weights sessions.
Please keep this thread going as I am keen to learn.
I notice that earlier on you said that you ran your treadmill sessions with an incline of 1.5. A word of warning, when I trained on a t/mill I found that 1.5 incline caused minor injuries to my achiles & ankles. When I train on one now I prefer to increase speed rather than incline.
Undulating I don't really agree with dieting as such, especially when doing hard training. Is 12st overweight? It depends on your height & build, but as I average about 10st its easy for me to say. Using 800m reps,(my understanding is that interval is the recovery period), are a good base for speed training, however not sure that I agree with YASSOS in using them to predict marathon time. By the way I did the Majorca half many many years ago. I think it was a flat course, but all I seem to remember is enjoying myself with plenty of wine, beer & late nights.
I personally think diets are daft. They are good for making you think about what you are eating and realising how much is crap but also how much is good stuff. Myself I just eat to support my training really. Eat food full of energy to make me full of energy. I work on the basis that I will perform better with less fat on me so the best way to keep that down is to avoid putting too much fat in. When I started training I reduced the amount of fat I was eating which really just meant looking at labels a bit more. But then of course there are the healthy fats to be aware of, so now I just try to eat well. I don't restrict myself, I just know that if I eat rubbish I will feel rubbish and my training will suffer.
I bought Anita Beans Sports Nutrition book. It is a bit technical in places and goes on about the maths to work out your optimum carbs/protein/fat intakes and things which I don't follow (partly because I don't own kitchen scales but also because it is a bit faffy in all honesty!) but it makes you think about how to benefit your training with what you eat. Great book - thoroughly recommend it!
Mon: Nothing - went to athletics club with all the best intentions of getting some training, but they sent me packing cos they wanted to see my training routine!
Tues: 7-8 mile lunchtime run (though GPS only measured 7ish miles, it was cutting out a lot. Ran perhaps a little too hard, but felt great!
Weds: Gym in the evening - speeds training over 6 miles 700m@12kph with 300m recovery
Thurs: strengthening session in gym using x-trainer and including leg drills
Fri: Pilates
Sat: 12 miles
Sun: nothing
Legs feeling a bit stiff today and I should have gone for a short run yesterday perhaps but didnt have time. I made sure I did lots of stretching after the run on Saturday though and I did the 20 minute cold bath and arnica gel and I wasn't achey and hopefully my hamstrings like me for it....!
Got the new Nintendo game Donkey Konga on Saturday though so little time for anything else now!!!!
This week is screwed up too as we have builders in today so no run this morning for me and I can't get to the athletics club tonight either. For the rest of the week though....
Tues: 6 mile lunchtime
Weds: Speed/strengthening (not decided yet)
Thurs: 6 miles (early morning?)
Fri: X-training & pilates
Sat: Long run 12 miles
Sun: easy 5 miles
Subject to lots of change though. There is a leaving do on Friday after work which is a pain because I am really trying to get into this pilates thing. And I am not sure if I am up to veryearly (5am) runs yet. I was going to wait for the clocks to go back but I got lots of new reflective kit at the weekend and I want to try it out!
Does anyone else do hill training on a hill? I am not sure how many reps to do. I have found a good 100m stretch and was thinking of 2km warm up and 15x sprints up this hill section and then 2k cool down (or maybe longer - dunno how long the hills will take to do!)
The only training i've done on hills until lately were the steady state type of runs, where a hill or 2 were on the route, so not your typical hill training.
Until recently. The other week i decided on a MHR test so found a ¼mile 5% gradient and went up it 5 times and jogged down recovery quite tough by the 5th one i was almost dying, didn't quite manage it all the way on that one, but i'm sure they have their uses even if the race you are aiming for is flat.
Someone said once that hills are speedwork in disguise
So not an expert on hill training but am sure someone will tell all. :O)
My hill work has consisted so far (just started it tho') of running at a steady pace up hill for 1 min, walking down to recover and repeating an increasing number of times. I've been aiming to maintain the pace i would have on the flat when going up hill. Should I be sprinting instead?
I like your 45m 10k thread Pammie - collecting some good tips on there!
I've decided from reading around the threads that I need to spend the next two months building up a steady solid base mileage so will be concentrating on getting up to 35-40mpw (from current 21-25 or so). Will still throw in occasional bits of speedwork tho' 'cos I like those!
Like most other people my runs are in hilly areas.
My boss tok 8 minutes off his half mara time in two weeks by making the second one a downhill race!!! THAT's the way to do it!
<<goes off to find Pammies 10k thread....>>
I trained for the Cardiff half and did a 5k and two 10ks as part of the training just to see how I was going.
I now have another half in Nov and a couple of christmas runs - though one is a 10k I am giong to take quite seriously I think. Then I have an 8 mile race at the end of Jan that I am using as a motivator to keep me going into the new year and perhaps determine goals for the rest of the year. Then another 10k in Feb that I have to do well in as I am possibly racing against my brother in law.
So I am not racing very often and each race has its reason. I was toying with doing halfs as my long runs, but the time and effort to get there and back and not push myself too much so I can get on with the rest of my training made me realise it was a silly idea.
After Feb, I don't know what I will do. There is a local half in March that I want to do. I also applied for FLM with no intention of getting through (of course come early Dec my whole plans may be changing...! But I doubt it). I might have an easy month then and get back into it and spend summer training for Cardiff races again. Or I might skip my PB courses and just run a few other races - maybe off road or hillier ones and wait another year before completely smashing my original times....! (I have high hopes for 2006!). Hmm.... maybe 2005 will be a relaxing running year......?!!?
But it was a good session I did. It felt like it at least.
On treadmill:
2k warm up
700m@12.0kph
200m@9.0kph recovery
* 7
On the last one, after the 700m I did 100m@13kph and another 100m@14kph, another 100m@15kph and 200m at 16kph. It felt great and made the 7th 'lap' easier because I was looking forward to the sprint finish!
Then cool down to complete 6 miles.
Top notch! Loved it!
I can't contribute to the half marathons as I see that as way beyond me and have no desire whatsoever to put myself through that sort of prolonged agony, but 10k is my distance. At least I hope it is now.
I started running back in May this year and was doing 3k (on the treadmill) and gradually built up to 10. I've always struggled with distance (refused to slow down!) but now I'm training on 11k. I was tiring at 6-7k, now I'm tiring at 8-9, so I guess I'm getting there!
Anyway, this is what I do:
Sunday: long run in the park, hilly, muddy 2 laps about 10k. Sometimes hard sprints up the hills. I run with my husband so it's good fun.
Monday: 2 10 minute treadmill hill/interval sessions - blast it as it's only for a short period, cover about 5k in all.
Tues: nothing
Weds: 50 mins on the treadmill (2%) and I get to 11k. Goal is to push towards 11.5k in 50 mins.
Thurs: Same as Monday or a fast 3k
Fri: nothing
Sat: nothing
Not quite as focused as you I'm afraid!
I am tempted to keep races short and go for speed and I think you with your times JennyD may have convinced me! I might go in for hilly/off road halfs to keep my distance endurance up and focus just on my 10k time next year. With a couple of 5k's for good measure. Hmm..... and with that approach I could also argue my way into the local athletics club for some proper training too!!!!
<<jogs off to think about training for the hundreth time this week!>>
1/2 marathon is my favourite distance and although I'm concentrating on the marathon at the moment I've enjoyed reading this thread. Just spotted a couple of points I wanted to comment on:
1. Pace judgement. Easy runs mean just that. If you use a heart rate monitor, probably no more than 60% WHR. Above that is steady, which is still comfortable (up to about 75%). Tempo runs should be done at between 1/2 mara and 10m race pace, for about 4-5m. The idea here is to work just below your lactate threshold. DON'T treat these as time trials - by running too fast you will lose most of the benefits.
For myself, the paces would break down as follows: easy 8-9m/m, steady 7:45-8:15m/m, tempo approx 6:20m/m. The point being that you can run a lot slower than your race pace and still get important training benefits.
2. Aerobic fitness from other sports. Sadly, it's not very transferable. For most people, the limiting factors for your aerobic system are in your muscles: you're taking in enough oxygen, you just can't ship it to where it's needed very easily. To improve this you need to be training the right muscles for the right action: in other words, running is the only way to make your aerobic system more efficient for running.
I have found this thread very interesting! I am also trying to improve my time for the 10k as I really enjoy this distance.
My only question is where does everyone get the time to run 5x a week? I struggle to run 3x. This is compounded that i struggle to run on a treadmill (it is too boring) and the nights are too dark for me to run on my own. I would run with other people but i enjoy running on my own so that i pace myself well
Does anyone else have this problem? or am i just lazy??
I have a similar prob in that dark nights are scarey for running alone. Learn to love the treadmill, if you do speed sessions on the treadmill it will not be boring, i.e. 10 x 800m fast with 1 mins rest inbetween. ALso use music, i.e. house music to keep you going. These sessions involve changing speed and so are not boring!
Most running clubs will have a good mix of people who run at a variety of paces. That way you'll have the company, safety and motivation too!
Jen, I give it my all every run I do, might only be for 10 minutes but I blast it. I know it's against all the rule books and I've had a few do gooders tell me so, but the truth is I'm lazy so I don't put in that many miles. "Recovery" runs bore me, I want to run fast, not slow. If I want to recover, I veg out with a bottle of wine. Tried and tested in my opinion as the best recovery remedy.
x
Hee Hee JennyD - I've had some of my most memorable and best runs in howling gales & lashing rain! :-D
Good earlier post Aardvarrk!
sammygirl - i think speed sessions on the treddie maybe better! i have started doing hill programs which have made it more bearable! however speed scares me...incase i fall off the back! but i suppose i will ahve to get over that!
aardvark - i am considering joining a running club but i may moving soon so waiting to see how that pans out - otherwise i think that will be my next course of action. Sadly i can't run to work as we have no showers!
Am going to try and go for a morning run soon......when i can drag myself out of bed!
Otherwise i enjoy running in horrendous weather! it adds a bit of drama!
Thanks again
Probably some people think I'm mad for going full out but I think a lot of you are mad for liking awful weather! Nope, I like my creature comforts.
I have struggled these last two weeks to find time to run and am now falling into the laziness routine cos I haven't done it regularly for a while (two runs this week - whah!). I was running 3 or 4 times a week - one early morning, one weekend day, once in the week in the evening and possibly an extra run in either the morning or at the weekend. But yes, it mostly revolves around getting up in the mornings, or getting out at lunch times might be a new one. I am lucky with flexible working hours and showers and a gym at work.
I really have to put running on the back boiler for a couple of weeks though because I am studying part time as well as working full time and we are currently having our kitchen done up too so I am torn between writing essays, reading research, painting the kitchen, running and also normal stuff like household things and possibly a bit of shopping....?!??! Boo hoo!
Not a bad week for me this week, 24 miles - am aiming for more consistency and slowly increasing mileage to 35mpw get a stronger aerobic base so:
Sun - 8 miles (undulating)
Mon - 5 miles easy
Tues - (work got in way)
Weds - 3+ miles intervals
Thurs - 5 miles comfy
Fri - 3 miles faster
Backed this up with leg strenthenging exercises such as lunges, leg raises etc, a circuits session, spinning class, pilates class for core strength, a resistance session at the gym and a bit of boxfit for upper body strength. Haven't picked my target 10k yet!
Just off for my Saturday morning long (currently around 8 miles at mo' - will see what happens this morning!)
Good weekends everybody!
Had my longest ever run today: 10.7 miles. I was well pleased :0)
I worked out my pace to be about 9.1 min miles.
I'm training for a half in March and a 10k in January. My question is should I keep increasing my distance until I can do more than 13.1 or should I keep the distance the same for a while and work on upping my speed over this distance?
Any advice welcomed :0)