Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Shades Marathon Training
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
I booked another race yesterday. Sportiva are a local company that do dualthons and triathlons around me and they had a Black Friday deal so I have entered my first duathlon, which will be in March all being well. Just a short one - 5k run, 15k ride, 2.5k run. They have another in April at a different venue, which is 10k/42k/5k which is interesting too. Even when back running properly and it's warmer, I do think I may try and maintain some cycling even if it's just recovery/easy days as I have enjoyed it. Slippery slope, I know - I don't want to be thought of as a cycling *******!
A fairly interesting read here about the evolution of Nike super shoes and the competition.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/28/it-stretches-the-limits-of-performance-the-race-to-make-the-worlds-fastest-running-shoe
I wasn't interested but I noticed that the Next% and Alpaflys aren't included in Nike's 25% off Black Friday deals. I did see that some original Vaporflys came available for a short time but they were snapped up very quickly. I think some prefer those over the newer models?
I looked at the booking app last night and on the first day of reopening all except 2 evening classes all have a waitlist, never seen that before. Good to see that everyone is keen to get back to classes. The gym is not so heavily booked, but I noticed there seems to be more last minute booking for the gym.
What!! 2 race entries in one week!
Interesting article re the shoes, she ran really well in the London race this year. Cal is our expert on Nike and can probably advise on the popularity/demand of the Nike shoes.
Talking of shoes, I managed to get my white shoes a little dirty today, not much. There was a huge muddy puddle in a gateway to a field and if it hadn't been so cold and maybe closer to home I might have deliberately given them a dunking. I'm sure it won't be long until they're nicely grubby.
12 miles today, very cold at start of run with that lingering mist that makes it feel a bit colder than it is. Sun finally came out so I was able to don the shades. Saw my kingfisher on the way home, looked so beautiful in the sunshine.
Been out for a walk with OH 3 days in a row up to work and back around for between 4 and 5 miles in total each morning. I had zero issues yesterday and just a very, very mild twinge at a single point today. Although mild, it's still annoying and I wonder if I should try and get rid of it totally before running again as the stop/start nature of the last few weeks is doing me no favours. I'm continuing with the exercises and stretches. I had a long chat with Simon from Dawlish Coasters today as he lives in Paignton, near the zoo. He's in for the DD and is missing racing a lot. He went out for 9-miles with Wurzel yesterday - I think they run and travel together fairly often in normal times, to different parkruns etc.
Not sure what he's heard but I had to speak to Chair a couple of times yesterday about the DD and the booking system to help iron out a couple of admin related things (I seem to have become the Trotters IT guy, not that I'm complaining....!). He said one of the big online race entry booking systems has folded, so he was wondering if the one we use may become more popular. Interestingly the Sportiva company I booked the duathlon with use the same company as Trotters have started using the last 2 years. 100MC use them for the membership too. We have had a few small issues with membership and also the DD entry management this year, but they do sort issues very quickly. I think it's just a very small number of people who run it (i.e., 2 or 3) but they are very approachable.
Sportsshoes have shipped my NBs so should get them tomorrow. I got an email from Adidas saying there's a delay there; I think they come in from Germany though, and I'm not bothered about a delay anyway as I don't need them urgently.
What I will say about the 4% is that they're not magic - I've had average and poor races in them as well as PBs. So there's that.
14 miles today, mostly along the river. I ran down to Battersea Park, along to Putney and then, for a change, over Putney Bridge and back along the north side. You can't hug the river all the way on the north - you have to divert around Hurlingham Park and then there's a bit around Chelsea docks where you have to go around the old Lotts Road power station. I actually took the wrong road here and ended up on the King's Road but I found my way back south again.
Pace was pretty slow and the legs felt quite fatigued for the second half. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise after the 10 on Friday and the fast finishing 7 yesterday. I can't help thinking that I've lost a lot of fitness (speed and endurance) since the summer, though. I should probably lay off the mince pies and ice cream for a week or two.
PF is tricky, some people can continue to run and not damage it further, others will make it worse. But if you wait until you never get a twinge you could be looking at 6 to 12 months, so good luck deciding whether to run or not.
Which of the online entry systems has folded?
Incidentally I had a chat to a guy when I stopped to look for my kingfisher, he was out cycling with his children. He entered Snowdon Half and it was deferred, then cancelled. No refund but offered to get medal and shirt if he did the virtual. Company not answering emails now. So a word of caution perhaps, company is RunWales.
Speedy service from Sportsshoes, incidentally I don't think the women's NB 1080s were reduced in price.
I saw the Amazon van in our road this morning and the driver was having a big sort out, the van was full to the roof and 75% of the boxes were the same size, busy day for him I think.
Cal - don't be so hard on yourself re current level of fitness. Only a couple of days ago you thought you were poorly and couldn't run at all, so you're doing really well.
Shades, it's apparently FullOnSport. I thought he may have been wrong as they are still accepting race entries, but after Chair mentioned it I had a quick look and saw this from White Star Running which says the same.
https://whitestarrunning.co.uk/update-on-full-on-sport/
Shades: I went to the post office here yesterday to post my UK presents and they were not accepting anymore parcels as they were full
Cal: ice cream and mince pies are epic fuelling ;-)
I've had to cut back on the longer runs at the weekend because life has unfortunately got in the way. I managed 10k this morning and then had to get back for our friend who was visiting to pick up all our old baby stuff.
Cal-I am completely in the same boat with fitness,even before this injury.Good to reset and go again next year.
However, I adore stollen so will buy one soon. Now as they're very morish and fairly solid I chop mine up into slices and freeze it. They freeze well and it's only for 3-4 weeks.
I did wonder if it was Full on Sport. I thought they were in trouble right from first lockdown because as it was an IT business I expected it to be still operating. Three times I sent the correct response to get a refund for Barnstaple marathon and nothing happened. I emailed North Devon RR and I got a refund from Full on Sport the next day. So I guessed they weren't maintaining the business.
Emmy - what with BF and no travel to other countries I expect they're busy.
Isn't 10k a very long run for 5k training?
Ian - I don't think there was ever a problem with their races in normal times. But no refunds, no future discounts and now they don't respond to emails or even send generic emails.
Hi Jelly - good to have you back. Sorry to hear your mother has had a few falls, hope she's OK now, must be a worry for you.
Great to see you've entered DD, we've 6 months. That's 4 of us from this thread, might be 5 if Steve has entered.
Shame about your watch, that's annoying. You could always slap on a bit of duct tape if you don't want to do every run naked.
Tavy Half? I deferred my place this year to 2021. It's good DD training. I'm hoping we might be nearly back to normal racing by then.
I had a refund from Taunton, can't remember if they deferred places.
I've deferred North Dorset too, first weekend in May.
Jelly, good to see you're back in for the DD. Sorry to hear about your Mum though
Shades, regarding my injury and trying to run, it's hard to know what to do for the best. A few days ago I was telling myself not to run unless it was pain free for 5 days in a row. It's my birthday in a couple of days and I want to go for a walk with OH (nothing strenuous) that day so won't run before then, but I may try a short run a day or two after that.
Shades: call it my "long run"
Have you tried taping the foot? Lots on YouTube about taping for PF. Taping might help when you're going out for a walk or run. I take it on your birthday you might be going for a walk with a 'substantial' meal along the way.
Jelly - I don't think any of us are going out much these days.
Day 1 of my Connemara training plan, which was a choice of rest or 6 miles recovery. Did 6 miles as am taking my rest day on Wednesday. Very cold and very foggy, no wind. But I had chosen the right kit, just perfect for the conditions and there was no ice underfoot so had a good run.
Shades, I haven't tried taping it so I'll have a look into that. I've been looking at lots of videos though. The physio recommended I check out an Australian physio/researcher called Jill Cook and I found this interesting for an overall view of the current thinking about tendons. On there she mentions how athletes can exercise through an ankle sprain, or lower back pain, or lots of other things, but this just stops them in their tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kKzoi8Zrik
My birthday is tomorrow so still in lockdown, but we'll get a coffee and bacon bap somewhere
Nice to start a new plan to work on. I find it funny how many plans start with a rest day.
I think the 3 weeks and 6 days has caught a lot of folk out but at least it's not 4 weeks and 1 day, imagine the furore that would cause.
I'm shopped out re running shoes now but I did need some electrolytes now I'm venturing out for long runs so have just placed an order with Decathlon. I don't order from them very often but today they have free delivery. I ordered some salt tablets, for races
No code needed for the free delivery, but is for today only.
Big G - Coffee, bacon bap and a steak sounds like an ideal birthday to me! Not a fan of mince pies or stollen though. More of a chocolate fan for Xmas.
Are you doing some studying?
Rcouture - another good run from you and that's an improvement not having DOMS today.
I use the salt tablets in a marathon whether it's hot or cool as I can't take any sports drinks and I need some electrolytes. I could use the tabs but that's a faff having to dissolve them in water during the race, I don't/won't carry a drinks bottle. I have in the past used concentrated electrolyte drops which are easy to add to water as they don't need time to dissolve.
In hot weather I would maybe use more salt tablets than in cooler conditions.
Unlikely I would take a salt tablet in a half marathon unless it was very hot.
That's impressive all that studying, sounds like you've already got quite a lot on without considering an OU course.
Rcouture - I've just about finished the ones I had from Zipvit and they're not stocking them anymore.
Have ordered these today. There are others on the market but these seem good value.
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/salt-capsules-x100/_/R-p-188711
That was a good deal you got there on the 1080's. I wore mine this morning, my Elf shoes as I call them.
They are brilliant on hills as I found out today, the heel is a perfect fit for me and my foot didn't slide to the front of the shoe, cushioning so good too on the downhills.
Today was Day 2 of Conne plan and a 6-10 mile hilly run scheduled. I worked out a route round town even though my favourite hilly routes are on the quiet country lanes. Now that it is so dark in the mornings that would mean going out a lot later than I like plus even the quiet lanes have some school/work traffic and I would be running at the busiest time. I designed a route that I could do laps of the hilly parts so I can increase the distance, today I did 8 miles, total climb 672 feet.
mile 2 206 up
mile 3 121 down
mile 4 159 up
mile 5 130 down
mile 6 115 down
mile 7 158 up
mile 8 105 up and 173 down
But for anyone that's done DD it's the downhills that need the work too, so mile 5 and 6 had no climb at all, so that was a solid 2 miles downhill. By the end of mile six I could really feel my quads. Ankle was fine, I do have it taped lightly though.
When I got to the top of the last hill I had a birds eye view of the town which looked lovely with the Christmas lights and to the other side was the most amazing dawn with a beautiful red sky.
Yes, I'm very pleased with the NB deal. They arrived yesterday and the wider version is good as well. I think I'll save that one for if/when I get up to about 10-mile runs, and keep the standard width for shorter runs. The Adidas will be here today so really they weren't that delayed at all.
I really do not want to get my hopes up but the foot feels good. We did our weekly shop yesterday and walking up the steps with the heavy bags and I felt nothing. Yesterday morning's approx 5-mile walk I felt nothing either. Last Monday it was quite bad walking up the steps with the shopping, and then I couldn't run on the Tuesday. I'm not running today but we're walking (mainly flat and we won't be rushing), so depending on how that goes I may try a short run tomorrow. Not sure if I should do running and spinning on the same day though, so I may cancel the spinning tomorrow afternoon if I do run in the morning. My spot will get snapped up very quickly if I do that, so it won't go to waste. I have a swimming session booked tomorrow so I'll keep that regardless.
If I do run, I am wondering if I should start with a run/walk at first, just to ease back into it.
OH is busy thinking about the veg garden for next year already. She did amazingly well this year with a large amount of produce, and we've still got loads of stuff left - pumpkins and squash mainly, but we also froze a lot of beans, and have a lot of chutney, and tomato sauces for pastas etc. She bought an indoor grow lamp in the Black Friday sales so I think she'll be setting that up in the next couple of days. She can start the various seeds/plants off early indoors which makes them stronger/larger when they get planted outside. She's still got other stuff growing outside - there is still some leafy veg out there, quite a lot of winter lettuce, and she's been planting garlic and onions etc the last few weeks. I think she wants a greenhouse too but hasn't bought one yet.
My other lap which I did twice was up Coombeshead Road up to Highweek (not Pitt Hill, will save that for another day) then down Mile End and Ashburton Road.
My plan is to run both laps from the other direction later on and when my ankle is 100% as they will both have very steep downhills going in the other direction, a la DD .
I think I would buy the wide 1080's next time, the tightest part for me in on the top of my foot, I have quite a high arch, I feel it when I put the shoe on, then I don't notice it but as we said in warm weather might need the extra space.
Fingers crossed about the foot. Carrying heavy shopping is a significant extra stress on the legs/feet so that's promising.
My guru friend used to often have me run a mile/walk a mile when recovering from injury, it worked for me.
I bet those indoor lamps are popular with others that might be growing certain substances
Shades-nice hilly loop,think the bulk of my training will be around rest hill,it is a loop of about 150ft and 1.5 mile,1 side is steep,the other is a gradual hill,none usually need walking but after 10 laps they may be.
Got myself a pair of Adrenaline from up and running for £75 inc delivery,Shades nearly had some for you but 7.5 was closest.
There were hills on my menu today as well, Shades, though nothing like yours (it was 8 miles with some hill reps in the middle, which Garmin made 185m but Strava put at 788 feet....Strava always exagerrates, though).
I ran up to Hill Path in Streatham, which is long and nasty - starts off not too badly but then gets really steep in the middle (Strava reckons 17% at the steepest part), then goes around a bend and while the next bit isn't nearly as steep, it hurts if you keep pushing. Breathing was what I now term "lumberjack porn" as it sounds like someone sawing through a log interspersed by loud gasps.
I did five reps - first at an easier pace and then pushed on the next four. The fourth rep was the fastest, probably because there was a large dog on one side that ran alongside me and barked loudly until I was out of range (fortunately he wasn't there for the last rep - owner probably called him back in). That rep actually got me into the top 10 fastest female times. Reclaimed my Local Legend status on there too, after a clubmate nicked it last week. He'll probably try to get it back now and we'll end up in some hellish eternal battle.
After I was done with that I made my way back, and did a few faster bits on the way home but took the last mile easy.
I could definitely feel the upper hammy after the reps but it's fine now so I'm pretty content that I've not done anything to anger it too much.