New Mature Runners Thread

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  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    I didn't get to WACAC this morning. A warning light came on in Mrs Wm's car about the ABS system which as she's not done any emergency stops, probably hasn't ever needed to be used. Anyway, best to get it checked out and the place Mrs WM uses could fit it in today, so we dropped the car off there earlier on and are waiting for a call back with news on what's afoot.

    JoolieBee71 - I may abbreviate you to JB71 to save me typing ;) The last time I tried a 5k challenge was when my running club had one in 2019. The best I could manage was just under 30mins and that was eyes out on stalks, really going for it. I'm not running myself at the moment - had a knee problem in Dec 2020 and have been walking fast this year and only recently started doing walk/runs. Knee seems okay so far - but am taking things easy and taking my time to build up the running time. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to improve your 5k time with some structured training (intervals., tempo runs etc.).

    I have put some Nikwax on my leather boots this morning - surprise, surprise, when you apply waterproof wax to your boots using your fingers, when you come to wash the wax off, it doesn't really want to shift. Can't think why ;):)

    I ordered my bobble hat yesterday that I won in the prize draw on Fetch. It's an understated little number ..


  • WtnMel I hope you get Mrs Wm's car sorted out without too much difficulty. Love that hat, I'm surprised at your bold choice - you being such a shy retiring person. :) Your golf game last week sounds a bit of a mixed bag, and a waterlogged course doesn't sound much fun. I had to laugh at your Nikwax episode, I wonder how long it will take to wear off? That 50% off voucher from Beefeater must have been a nice surprise, I hope you both enjoy the meal and the trip to Charlecote Park on Wednesday. 

    JB71, hello and welcome. I would echo WtnMel's comments about structured training. Obviously the older we get the more we have to train in a more focused way, but as long as you can include interval work (and hill work if possible) in your training then you should see improvements. John B, one of the regulars on here, does a lot of 5k runs and may be able to suggest ways to fine tune your training. Also HS is our resident expert and may also have some words of wisdom for you. Good luck and keep us informed how you get on. 

    John B, well done for your impromptu 49 min 10k yesterday, I hope (but doubt) you'll be having a rest day today after your busy weekend.

    I had an "easy" 4 mile road run today, uphill for the first mile or so, then a bit undulating, then downhill. I always check the conditions by looking out the bedroom window for any frost on the cars or grass before deciding where to run. Today there was no sign of frost, but once I got started I found it was very frosty in places. It was a good job Garmin had scheduled a run at an easy pace today, I couldn't have done it any faster in the circumstances. My next run will be a "supersets" run on Wednesday. If it's not too frosty I may do that at the reservoir. 
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    I haven't deserted you, but every time I intend to post, something crops up and I put it off. I'm not running tomorrow, so hopefully "the deed will be done!" 🤞🙏
  • I know that feeling HS 🙂 Glad you are ok and just a bit busy.
  • JB71 is perfect.

    WTNMel loving the hat.

    Yes structured training is possible. I will do switchback style “hills” with an incline close to my house - so yes that is possible.

    I will keep you all posted!
  • JB71 - welcome from another JB. Sounds like you have fallen back in love with running. That in itself is great. You clearly were a very decent 5k competitor and perhaps something of a natural. A sub 20 5k would be a good time for a 50+ male and should be well within your compass. I would predict that you will get your 25 mins down to 23 without too much trouble but then it will be hard to chip away further. Much depends on whether you've piled on the pounds in the intervening years; it's a lot easier if you haven't.
    The one thing that this thread shows is that you have a long time of running in front of you. So don't go at it like a man possessed.
    I'm 67 and can knock out a 20.42 (and bore everyone with my achievements in the process) and am running at roughly the same pace as I was in my 40s. (I was pretty ordinary in my 40s!). So..............

    Here's some other tips based on my experience:

    1. Think about joining  a local club. (I never have but wish I had.)

    2. Assuming you live near one, start doing a Parkrun. This completely refreshed my motivation. I cannot speak highly enough of it.

    3. Trainers have moved on in recent years; when you get serious, I advise investing in some good ones. They make a difference. (And a Garmin is a good investment too.)

    4. In simple terms, do one long run a week at slower than your 5k target pace; one intervals session (e.g. 8 x 500 metres at 5k pace minus 20 seconds) and then.........

    5. Throw in some hill work if you can. (Listen to your body. You will at some point get injured, I'm afraid. If you are pushing for flat-out speed, this will follow but you can mitigate with some common sense, a quality I sadly lack.)

    6. Resist the temptation to just run fast 5ks - but test yourself every now and then (hence parkrun).

    And loads more, but this will come in time. The main thing: keep up your enthusiasm. Think about signing up for some races: they are a lot more expensive these days.

    Finally: unless we scare you off, hang around this thread.

    Mel, that is some hat!

    Aqua, our lovely weather continues down here on the costa with just a bit of light frost in the mornings. You were right: I didn't have a rest day yesterday, but instead went for a manic charge up some hills. This evening I'll go with my pal and his clubmates for a session along the prom and I promise (PROMISE) that tomorrow will be a rest day, other than a gentle bike ride. Have you got any club events lined up??

  • Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to JB71!

    JB71, you were obviously a very speedy runner in the past, so there is no reason, with appropriate training, as recommended by JB6, that you can't run well below 25 minutes. I'm not sure though, that you will run sub 20 minutes again. Having said that, I've changed my mind! a 20 minute 5k at age 50 is a WAVA of 73.74%, so well within your compass.
    My 5k pb is 18.08 set way back in time when I was 47. I'm 76 now and ran 26.45 on Christmas Day, which is a WAVA of 72.03%.

    Aquarius, Well done for your 6 miles on Saturday, and your "easy" 4 miles yesterday. Just as well it was scheduled to be easy, being the ground was icy in places. Thankfully it was ice free here yesterday. Good luck with your "supersets run" on Wednesday.

    WtnMel, yes thanks, the updates did eventually finish, but by the time that they did, I wasn't in the mood for any posting, so logged out and made a cup of tea, with a cookie to go with it.
    Sorry to hear that Alan beat you in your golf match, but well done for the par 3.
    I hope you have a good day on Wednesday at Charlecote Park.
    A good idea to get Mrs Wtn's ABS warning light coming on checked out. Hope it was nothing serious!
    I'm very envious of your bobble hat. You won't need to wear a head torch when you are running at night!✨

    JB6, well done for your 49 minutes for the 10k on Sunday. The best I managed last year was 55 minutes. I've entered the Exbury Gardens 10k which is in June, and will be my first road race since Covid. I'm hoping that with the competition, I will improve on that. Oh, I forgot, I've also entered the Salisbury 10 mile which is in April.
    I hope you enjoy your session along the sea front this evening with your friends.

    I'm feeling pleased with myself, because I was able to programme an interval session with recoveries into my Garmin. This took all the guess work out of distance and recovery times. I tried it out on Saturday on grass with Sarah H. It was 5 x 400 metres with 90 seconds jog recoveries. The 5th effort was the quickest in 1.56. On Sunday I ran a solo 10 miles on roads. It was milder than earlier days, and the roads and pavements were ice and frost free. Yesterday was another social run with the Monday Group in the forest, and we ran 7.22 miles. Today was a rest day, except for the usual Tuesday walk back from the supermarket with 4 bags of heavy shopping. The pavements were icy, so I walked very slowly.
  • Thanks for the encouraging comments - I possibly should have said I am female, but that shouldn’t make too much of a difference! I am looking forward to some switchbacks at lunchtime. I have kept fit throughout my 40s - I just switched to field sports (which I am still doing). Nice to find a supportive community. I plan parkrun this weekend.
  • Sorry JB71 for assuming that you were a male! I have revised my thoughts of whether you could achieve 20 minutes again for the 5k at age 50. Your WAVA for that would be 83.82%, which would take some doing! Good luck with your parkrun on Saturday, and please let us know how you got on. 

    This morning was a hill reps session in the forest with 3 running friends. We did 6 reps, with recoveries jogging back down. 
  • JB71, can I echo HS's apologies? I'd also echo his point about that 83.82% WAVA! But not impossible. In most Parkuns that would be the best WAVA in the whole field, I think - so that puts it into perspective. Looking forward to hearing your Parkrun race report.

    HS, I can sense that your upcoming races have perked up your training. I might be wrong.
    Admire your skill setting your Garmin.

    Some slightly worrying news from my end. I'm sensing shin splints in my right leg. Early stage. Any tips from anyone that's suffered the same problem would be greatly appreciated.

  • JB I hope you kept your promise and restricted yourself to just a gentle bike ride today :).
    My next club event is another GP 5k in a couple of weeks (on my birthday as it happens). I'm also considering doing the Masters XC championships a few days later, then the following weekend will be another XC. 

    JoolieBee - I think the clue is in your name ;) hope your lunchtime session went well.

    HS Well done for your hill reps today. Nice to have a couple of events to look forward to, will any of your running buddies be doing the same races? I'm so impressed with you programming your interval workout into Garmin. I think once I've finished the Garmin training programme I might try to programme some intervals in myself (I'll probably be asking you for help with it!). I see you have been putting in lots of miles over the last few days as usual. I wish I had your energy (not to mention pace, stamina and enthusiasm). Today was a shortened supersets session, after the usual 1 mile warm up it was two sets of 200m flat out, 600m almost as fast, then a mile slightly slower, with a 4 min recovery.  We went to the reservoir to do it as there was no ice today, but there was a strong wind which was in my face for the return part of the session. I hate running in wind, it's so exhausting. Tomorrow is a tempo run, followed by a trip to the physio for a "tune-up" then a dental check up.
  • JB our posts crossed. Sorry to hear about your shin problem. Are you sure it’s shin splints? 
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    JB6, I think that you are probably correct in thinking my training has perked up. I've certainly got more enthusiasm for the intervals, hill reps etc. It makes a big difference, having some races lined up.
    I reset my Garmin yesterday, in readiness for Saturdays interval session with Sarah F. It was for 5 x 800 metres with 90 seconds recoveries. I actually tried it out during this mornings forest run, but didn't put any effort into the 800 metres reps. Our aim on Saturday will be to run each rep in around 4 minutes.

    Sorry to hear about your suspected shin splints. Thankfully, I've never had them, so can't really offer any advice, except to take it easy for a day or two and see how it is. I'm not sure whether there are any stretches etc for that injury.


    Aquarius, good luck with the upcoming cross country races. It looks like you have a preference for off road running, the same as me?

    Thanks, I think hill work is probably our favourite session, it is so beneficial, especially for hilly off road races.  The only races so far that Sarah F has entered with me are, the New Forest 10 mile, and New Forest Half Marathon. We will both be entering the Oakhaven Hospice Forest 10 miles, when entries are open. I've also entered the Salisbury 10 miles, and the Exbury Gardens 10k which Sarah might also enter. Sarah H has entered the Southampton Half Marathon, and Giuliana the Southampton Marathon. She has joined the Monday Group, so that we can help her with her training. We are not sure yet whether our club will be holding the Solent Half Marathon again this year. We had to cancel it the last 2 years because of Covid restrictions.

    The only drawback with setting up training sessions on the garmin, is that the session can't be saved if a new session is required. I had to edit the existing one for the new one. It's no bother really, and takes all the guess work out of distance and times etc.
    That supersets session of yours sounded good. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be possible to programme it directly into the Garmin. You can only insert the distance, number of reps and recovery time. You can though, also add warm up and warm down, which is useful.

    Hope todays tempo run went well, and also the physio and dental check up.

    By coincidence, I had a call on my phone which stated "Dentist" on the screen. At first, I thought it might have been a scam, as on the news there had been an article that there was a shortage of NHS Dentists and people had been waiting a couple of years to see one. Anyway, I accepted the call, and it was to advise me that my appointment with the hygienist had to be cancelled, as she had a backlog of appointments. I made another appointment, so no problem. The Practice used to have some NHS customers, but has been private now for many years.


    It was very cold this morning, and I did a solo 7 miles in the forest. It was quite nice running on the frosty grass. 


  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    Evening all,

    Aquarius - it was just an ABS sensor that was needed for Mrs Wm's car but we didn't collect it until yesterday. They had problems getting the new sensor the same day - possibly because Mrs WM's car is now 17 years old? Glad you love the hat - my mate Alan has a very silly-looking hat for golf (strange sort of beanie that has flaps over the ears) so I may christen this new bobble hat at golf tomorrow if it's going to be cold ;) The Nikwax eventually came off after washing my hands a few times. Well done re that 4ml 'easy' road run. I see you are planning a couple of XC races and a GP run - hope for your sake the weather improves for them! I see you also managed a supersets session and glad to hear there was no ice this time. Good luck with the planned tempo run and hope there's not too much pain from the physio 'tune up' and no nasty surprises from the dental check-up.

    JB71 - glad you love the hat too .. it just jumped out at me when I was looking through the various designs. I guessed you were female from the name (Joolie) - hope that planned lunchtime session went well.

    JB6 - I see you are another hat fan :) Sorry though to hear about the (possible) shin splints. Unless I've mis-remembered, I think that's due to over-training but I'm sure HS will either confirm or correct me. I also think the remedy is rest - so more cycling, rowing may be on the cards.

    HS - I see your updates eventually finished. While I was sorting out some surplus cables (see below) I fired up my old laptop and it's been chugging away doing updates ever since (5hrs and counting). I see you like the bobble hat too - that's a full house then. I'm sure it will raise a smile with Alan if I wear it at golf tomorrow. Well done for wrangling your Garmin into submission and programming an intervals session onto it. Well done for the other runs you've been doing either solo or with the Mon group.

    After golf on Fri and my last walk/run on Mon, my left knee has been grumbling a bit. I may have tried to do too much running, too soon so will stick to walking for now. It didn't give me any grief while walking yesterday so that sort of confirms my suspicions.

    Speaking of which, we had a nice walk around Charlecote Park (NT) yesterday as planned. Well, the East side of the grounds anyway, as the West Park was closed as it was waterlogged. I managed to devise a few loops around the grounds to make up the (almost) 3ml walk. No post-walk pasty this time as we headed home via the local Beefeater and had our "50% off mains" afternoon meal. I didn't need to mention my voucher - they'd already had a few people in using them so the waitress asked if I had one too when I went to pay :)

    The local Rotary club are collecting old pc's laptops etc this weekend. I don't have any of them to give away but they wanted cables too, so I have sorted out some surplus usb cables etc. which they can have if they want them. While sorting through the cables, I also managed to find some 'junk' lurking in the cupboard which has now been thrown away/recycled.
  • john bateman 6john bateman 6 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2022
    Good evening,

    Mel, funny but I also found a whole drawer full of redundant cables. I had no idea which appliances they might have once fitted. Were there a national appeal (like thy have amnesties for knives) for useless cables I think there'd be so many that there would be nowhere to store them. No mention of a Friday golf match?

    HS, no shortage of events down there in Hampshire, then! Reading what you can do with your Garmin makes me realise that my own usage is as basic as you could get. I really should upgrade (something that Mrs JB has been saying for 40 odd years!).

    Aqua I did restrict myself to a gentle bike ride especially as I was cycling with an older friend. But then it came on to rain and he took shelter and urged me to get home ASAP, so I did have a bit of a sprint into a strong wind. Hope the dental and physio appointments went well. 

    The 'shin splints' weren't (I think) shin splints. They felt like it but I think the problem was caused by walking a long way in wellies with my son's dog. The walking action with totally different footwear (they were new) in mud must have triggered a reaction.

    So today I did my interval session which I changed from a 1 minute rest between reps to a 30 second one. It was a bit more tiring but not impossible (I think I just slowed the pace a tad).

    Just had a letter from HMRC containing some rather grim news, so might cheer ourselves up (Mrs JB got an equally grim one too!) with a bit of Parkrun tourism tomorrow. At least we can rest assured that we have a super competent bunch of government ministers spending our taxes wisely. (Sorry, couldn't resist it!)


  • Good afternoon everyone,

    WtnMel, I think that you are right that shin splints is usually caused by over training. It can last for quite a while. Many years ago, a friend of mine took 6 weeks to recover. It obviously depends how severe the injure is. Sometimes it could be, just a niggle. 

    I also had a collection of old USB cables, which I no longer have. I can't remember disposing them, but I must have. I've also still got most of my old mobile phones and Garmin Forerunners. I'm quite pleased with myself for succeeding in programming interval sessions into my Garmin. It's a shame that it can only retain one session at a time. I may have mentioned that I have now amended the session for tomorrow.

    Sorry to hear that your left knee has started grumbling again, so just as well to resort to walking again, for a while.

    Glad that you enjoyed your 3 mile walk round Charlecote Park, and that you had another half price meal in the Beefeater on the way home.


    JB6, we are really very lucky to have so many races available in Hampshire. In my younger days, when I didn't mind driving reasonable distances to races, I used to race nearly every weekend. 

    Good news that you don't believe that you have shin splints! I hope you don't have any after effects from todays interval session? 

    I hope the grim news from the Tax Man, doesn't mean that you both owe them some money!

    Enjoy the parkrun, and be thankful that we have such a truthful, caring, intelligent PM, 🤓who only has the Country's well being at heart. I've just gone to wash my mouth out with soap🤮🤡


    Nothing much to report. Probably the coldest day of the year so far, and thankfully a rest day. I'm hoping that the roads won't be icy tomorrow morning, as Sarah F and I am intending to do 5 x 800 metres, with 90 second recoveries. I've just remembered that I have already mentioned that in my previous post☹
  • AquariusAquarius ✭✭✭
    edited January 2022
    HS You seem to have a nice selection of races lined up, I’m sure they won’t present any problems for you with all the mileage you currently do. Thank you for the advice regarding programming Garmin, I’ll bear it in mind for a later date. Good luck with your interval training tomorrow, 4 mins per rep is a decent target.

    WtnMel Good news that Mrs Wm’s car is back on the road again. I hope your new hat did get an outing at golf today, and was duly admired by one and all. If you did wear it I hope it brought you luck. Pity half the grounds at Charlecote Park were waterlogged for your visit on Wednesday, but at least you managed to get a decent walk in, and had your meal to look forward to afterwards. I hope your grumbling knee sorts itself out, it might not all be down to running though -l this cold wet weather is unlikely to be helping it either. 
    We’ve also got a drawer full of cables and various other wires, no idea what they are/were for.

    JohnB Glad to hear your suspected shin splints may just be due to walking in wellies (which is quite possible). I hope you didn’t get too wet on your bike ride, it’s not nice cycling in the rain. Running in the rain isn’t much better, but at least the action of running means you are moving the top half of your body to some extent, and so have slightly more of a chance of keeping warm whereas when cycling arms and chest can get pretty cold (or at least that’s been my experience). Well done on that interval session, it sounds pretty tough. Pity about your HMRC communications, I hope parkrun cheers you up tomorrow. 

    Yesterday's Physio session was fine. I didn’t have any specific problems, just wanted a general “tune-up” (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but I pay into a monthly health plan that covers me for up to £600 of physio a year and £400 dental or optical treatment. I make sure I use my full allowance each year, and that way it more than covers what I pay out in monthly fees.) The dental appointment was just a quick check of a tooth I thought I may be having problems with, but all was fine.
    I should have gone out before breakfast for my run yesterday, but I felt too tired when I got up, and it was particularly cold, so I gave it a miss. I felt so guilty about it that I determined to do my run when I got home from my physio and dental appointments. We had one or two other things to see to so didn’t set off back home until after 2pm. Unfortunately we got caught up in a traffic jam due to an accident, so we had to make a detour which added a bit extra to the journey. As (bad) luck would have it we ended up behind a learner lorry driver. It was a huge lorry, and the driver was barely going above 20 mph, and being cautious to the extent of almost coming to a complete standstill going around roundabouts and corners. Eventually he pulled off and we got going again, only to have an ancient bus pull out in front of us so that slowed things up again. By the time we got home it was almost 4 pm, so I quickly got changed and set off on my run. It was freezing cold and the sun was starting to go down. I cursed myself all the way around for being so lazy that morning, and promised myself that in future no matter how cold it was, or how tired I felt, if I had a run to do I’d just get out and get it done. By the time I had finished my run yesterday the light was definitely going, and as I was off road there were no street lights to help me see where I was going. To add insult to injury the start of my run coincided with dog walking time. :/
    Nearly forgot to mention that I think I may do a parkrun tomorrow for a change. It will depend on the weather because if there is any frost our local parkrun will be off due to being so hilly. 
  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    Evening all,

    JB - I didn't mention the Fri golf match but there was one (see below). It's too easy to just use the basics of a Garmin rather than all the functionality. Glad to hear the shin splints .. weren't. Well done re your intervals. Shame about getting a grim letter from HMRC :(

    HS - I've kept a couple of my old phones. One is a Windows phone with a Tesco PAYG sim that can link to my car stereo and I can forward calls to it from my main mobile for hands-free driving. The other is a 'spare' in case Mrs WM's phone ever has a problem. Hope the planned session with Sarah F goes well.

    Aquarius - the new hat did indeed get an outing at golf (see below). Glad to hear the physio session went well. Reading the saga of delaying your morning run then getting delayed by traffic etc. etc so it was cold by the time you did get out. There's a phrase for putting things off and then wishing you hadn't - for which the acronym is .. JFDI :)

    Sounds to me like next time there's a rainy weekend you lot should all sort out those draws full of "come in handy" cables which by the sound of it, aren't likely to :) My sort out revealed I had numerous duplicates of the various combinations of the types of usb cables. They've now been whittled down to just two of each type.

    The golf today went well. It was cold and frosty and the ground was rock hard so they allowed trolleys. And with the ground being so hard, the balls were bouncing and rolling on for many more yards than usual. On one hole where we usually drive around 150 yds, our balls bounced on and rolled into a ditch 200yds from the tee! Although Alan beat me by shots, with my higher handicap, I actually beat him by Stableford point. My new hat was much admired and brought a smile to a few people's faces .. and kept my head lovely and warm.
  • First Park Run this morning. Of course went out too fast (stupidly running with a male friend who clocks around 22 mins). I soon told him I would drop off the pace and see him at the end. It’s a two lappet, first lap was misery, second lap I got my second wind and started picking people off. Time was just north of 27 minutes apparently, but I finished second in my age group. So that gives the first “SMART’ goal… finish first in the age group and take the rest from there. I can’t do another for a few weeks due to work commitments, but that should give me time to do some structured training.

    Be careful with those shin splints (physio Jools says!)… oh and I didn’t realise golf was a fixed part of the running programme :D
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    Aquarius, I'm looking forward to "proper races" this year. I hope you will be able to programme sessions into your Garmin. I did it by trial and error, but yesterday I had a look on U tube, and there is a short video advising how to do it. This was, however, by doing it with Garmin Connect. I haven't given that a try yet, but will do. I enjoy challenging myself, and usually persist until I succeed. 

    I did the interval session this morning with Mike. He is quicker than me, and 11 years younger, but he has just recovered from a minor calf strain, so was slower than usual. We did 5 x 800 metres with 90 seconds jog recoveries, and the 5th was the quickest, as we had both warmed up. It was 4.15, 8.33 minute miling, or 5.19 minute k'ing. I'm pleased with that, and believe 4 minutes is within reach.

    Glad that your physio and dental appointments went ok. I have a dental plan which covers me for 2 dental and 2 hygienist appointments. It also entitles me to a discount for any additional appointments that might be necessary.

    Sorry to hear about your problems with traffic due to an accident. There was a serious crash on theA326 this morning affecting traffic into and out of Southampton, with long diversions. On the bright side, work on the infamous cross roads at Ipley, near Marchwood is now completed, a mere 2 years behind schedule. It was classified as the most dangerous crossroads in the UK. Many cyclists have been killed there, and at one time, there was a "white bicycle" chained to the Give Way sign in recognition of the fatalities.

    If you did a parkrun today, I hope you got on ok, and were pleased with your time!


    WtnMel, the planned session with Sarah F didn't "go to plan" She woke up with a stomach ache, so decided not to run. There was, therefore, just Mike and I, as recorded in my post to Aquarius above. It was much milder than yesterday and no frost on the roads.

    Glad that your golf went well today, but it must have been tricky with the golf balls travelling much further than usual. Good that you beat Alan by way of the handicap!  I note that your new hat was much admired by other golfers, and kept your head nice and warm.

    Changing the subject, I'm listening to a CD by "Deep Purple" of the June 1975 California Rehearsals, featuring Tommy Bolin, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Pace. Probably their best ever line up! 


    JB71, well done for your parkrun, and finishing second in your age category , that was a very respectable time. Coming first is a very good target to aim for .Going off too quickly in a 5k is fairly common, as it is such a short distance. Having said that, it is probably a long way for couch to 5k runners. Best of luck with your structured training. That is a sure way of getting quicker.

  • Afternoon all,

    It's been a 'bit of a week'. Toothache, Covid in the family (d-in-law and granddaughter), IT meltdown and my son's cat had to be put down. The HMRC letter was one of the relatively bright points! But we all get these sorts of weeks - and many worse ones, so I'll stop moaning.

    Aqua, that insurance policy sounds pretty good. It looks as if you are getting full value. Your road journey plus the cold weather made for a frustrating afternoon. Well done for coming through it with such determination and positivity. Did you do the Parkrun?

    JB71, well done for breaking the ice with a Parkrun. It soon becomes addictive (I think I'm around 210). Great start too. The age category challenge is a real motivator isn't it? Shame you are working on Saturdays.

    Mel, a 200 yard drive is impressive. Well done on your win: my mate used to say 'a good scorer beats a good player!'.

    HS, were you a Meatloaf fan? (I confess I wasn't.) On the traffic issue I bet you notice a heck of a difference in the summer? Good to finish an intervals session with your fastest rep. You are clearly coming into a bit of form. Excellent!

    So, today a bit of Parkrun tourism: Bushy Park, where it all began as long ago as 2004. Truly a Mecca for Parkrunners. Got there nice and early which was important given the carpark fills up by 8.30. No surprise given a field of 1200 runners! A fantastic park (deer) with a nice flat, fast course - as the course record of sub 14 would indicate!

    Magnificent effort by the volunteers who are really efficient and charming. The downside was some congestion (no wonder!). I managed 21.32, 116th in the field and - like the 'other' JB - 2nd in age category. No complaints at all - the guy that beat me was sub 20 and (looking at his record) is a class act. Mrs JB did 36.10 and was a tad disappointed.

    Definitely a Parkrun 'must' if you get the chance - but we'll probably only do it the once. The traffic (all 100 miles of it as a round trip) was brilliant.

  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    Afternoon all,

    JB71 - a great result for your parkrun despite setting off too fast. I'm not really a runner these days Joolie. I had a right knee problem last Dec and went to see my local physio Isobel. After checking me over, she explained the lack of strength in my legs (quads etc.) had allowed my right knee to move inwards and cause the knee pain. My lower back, glutes and hips were also not at all flexible - Isobel devised a routine of stretching and strengthening exercises which I did daily while seeing her for a couple of months. The exercises tailed off a bit later in the year but I've got back into doing them more regularly lately and after quite a few months of fast walking, have recently started doing walk/runs. But my knee was grumbling again so I've probably done too much, too soon and need to backtrack a bit and keep an eye on my knees. Mention of SMART goals reminds me of work (shudder ..) .. each year we had to devise SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timed - for anyone not familiar with the acronym).

    HS - as you mention, sessions can be programmed into Garmin Connect and transferred to your Garmin .. that does assume you can get to grips with GC though! Well done re your intervals session with Mike. Your mention of the white bicycle at Ipley reminds me of a wrecked car that used to be on a raised bank near Hemel Hempstead to alert people (and warn of the consequences) of a similarly dangerous junction a bit further down the road. Shame to hear Sarah F had to cry off your planned session - but that you were still able to run with Mike. The balls bouncing further - and bouncing off in odd directions when hitting icy rutted bits of ground - made the golf a bit of a lottery at times. 

    JB6 - sorry to hear you had a s****y week. Re parkrun, I think I'm on two ;) But now I've vowed not to return to my (soon to be ex) running club, if I can get back to running 5k pain-free and regularly, I'll probably look at going back to avoid the boredom of running by myself all the time. As I mentioned - only a 150yd drive as per normal at golf - but a very useful 50yd 'carry'.  I was a Meatloaf fan - so a shame to see he'd passed away. As soon as I saw the news, the opening chords of 'Bat Out Of Hell' popped into my head. I'm not surprised to hear about the congestion at Bushy Park if there were 1200 attending. A good time from you though despite presumably being held up a bit. 

    I was feeling a bit stiff this morning after yesterday's golf so lots of stretching was the order of the day after breakfast. Then after our morning coffee I went to the local supermarket to donate the cables etc. I had sorted out to the local Rotary club.
  • john bateman 6john bateman 6 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2022
    Mel, thanks for the good wishes. Good to get into a stretching routine, although I'm pretty lax on that. Perhaps our new physio friend will tell me off! (I think the dentist will when he sees the state of my teeth.)

    So today I left the Garmin behind and simply ran for around 80 minutes: no idea of pace or distance and this was rather liberating. I had some company and we chatted throughout. Note to self: I must do more of this and stop beating myself up with targets which might be SMART but (in my case) not very smart.
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    JB6, sorry to hear about your unfortunate week, but we all have them from time to time. 

    I wasn't what you would call a Meatloaf fan, but he was very talented, and his 🦇 out of hell is one of the all time greats.

    There is certainly a big increase in traffic in the forest in the summer. Yes, I was pleased with the last rep, and I felt that I still had more in the tank.

    Well done for yet another excellent parkrun result. My aim this year is to get sub 26 minutes for a 5k, and our structured training sessions are geared up to improve our times. 

    I had forgotten about SMART this was applicable to us in the Civil Service, as well as for running training. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.


    WtnMel, I was pleased with myself yesterday, because I had managed to sync another interval session with my Garmin from Garmin Connect. However, I thought I would try it out during this mornings 8.25 mile forest run. Oh dear, it was a disaster; it was meant to be 200 metres x 5 with 60 second recoveries, but it turned out to be 1 200 metres, and 5 consecutive 1 minute recoveries. I've deleted the session and now "back to the drawing board!"😖

    A couple of runners on Strava this morning admitted to running with "Bat out of Hell!"

    Good to hear that you did some stretching this morning after breakfast.
  • Good afternoon everyone, 

    A very tough 9.4 miles in the forest this morning with the Monday Group. We had one of the club's Ultra runners with us, and he selected the most muddy, boggy, undulating course that he could. There was a lot of walking. There was also a very cold wind, which made it even harder. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day from running 😁
  • WtnMel: Well done on beating Alan at golf on Friday, and glad to see your new hat was much admired. Returning to the subject of cables….for the last couple of days Steve has had the house turned upside down looking for a particular charging cable that he swore he could remember seeing “just a couple of days ago”. Needless to say it remains hidden, the only place left to check is the loft, but it’s more than a couple of days since he was last up there. Luckily he found another cable that will do the job just as well. Why can’t someone invent a universal charging cable that can be adapted to any device you have? I’ve no doubt there is a very good reason why this has never happened (or perhaps could never happen) but it would make life a lot easier.

    HS: I see Saturday’s session with Mike turned out to be a speedy one, 4.15 for 800 metres is excellent, but a pity Sarah F wasn’t able to go. Oh dear, a pity your interval session programming didn’t go to plan yesterday, as you say “back to the drawing board” :) . I wasn’t a Meatloaf fan myself, but I know he was very popular. I don’t know how true it is, but Steve is sure he heard a report on the news yesterday that Meatloaf was an anti-vaccer, and may have caught Covid. But that may just be a rumour. Good luck with your sub 26 minute target for 5k. I’m sure it’s within your reach. I don’t like the sound of your run this morning, undulating, boggy and cold. Well done for getting through it!

    Jools: Well done on completing your first parkrun. It is difficult pacing yourself at the start when everyone around you charges off, that’s why I usually start at the back (I know I’m not going to get a fantastic time anyway) and ease myself into it. 

    JB: It does sound like you have had a really horrible week, my commiserations. It’s odd how these things all seem to happen at once. What a way to cheer yourself up though - parkrun at Bushy Park. It sounds a little too crowded for my liking, but an iconic one all the same. I’m not sure that I’d want to do a 100 mile round trip to get there, you must have had to set off really early to arrive before 8.30. That in itself deserves a medal! A good result for you, 2nd in your age category in such a big field (a pity the sub 20 guy decided to run that day). How brave of you to do a Garmin-free run yesterday, weren’t you curious about your pace? 

    I had intended to do parkrun on Saturday but had forgotten my training plan had me down for a 6 mile run (1.5 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1.5 mile cool down). In the end I decided to run the 1.5 mile up to the park with the aim of arriving at parkrun just as it was starting, do the run and finish off with a cool down mile or so. It didn’t work out very well. I arrived just before the start, but still had almost half a mile of the warm up interval to run, so I pressed the lap counter to move it on ready for the 3 mile run. However the start was delayed a bit while they explained why they’d had to move the start and finish area due to Covid, so I was a bit into the 3 mile run section of the workout before we actually got started. Steve had come up to the park with me, but instead of staying to do parkrun he’d gone off to do his own run and we’d agreed to meet in the park to return home, so I wandered around for a while after my run waiting for him, then realised I must have missed him and set off home myself. When I got my parkrun result I was disappointed (but not terribly surprised) to find it was my slowest time for that parkrun. I’d forgotten how tiring four laps of those hills is, but (I always try to find a positive) I passed a club runner who was complaining about how hard the course was, and stayed ahead of him until the end. The results showed he was half my age and his WAVA was half of mine, so I felt a bit better at that. I could also boast about winning my age category, except I was the only 65-69 woman running. I did have the 5th best WAVA though.
    I don’t think I’ll be trying to fit a parkrun into another run again, I’ve written that idea off as an experiment not to be repeated.  Next Saturday I’m thinking about trying a new parkrun that started up a few weeks ago, it’s in woodland fairly close to us, and is another hilly one.
    I watched the Northern Ireland International Cross Country on Saturday. It was only available on You tube, which is annoying but seems to be the way sport coverage is going these days.
    This morning I did a hilly 3.5 mile run, it was a bit chilly but otherwise no problems. Pilates tomorrow.
  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    Evening all,

    JB6 - a new week and I've also been a bit lax these last couple of days re stretching and strengthening exercises. I'm sure Joolie will give us some 'constructive advice' (ie. tell us off) and suggest we try harder :) Running without a Garmin on the wrist is indeed liberating - not done it very often mind you.

    HS - oh dear. After sync'ing a routine from GC to the Garmin, to find out it wasn't what you had planned. Hope you can work out what you did wrong for next time. Anyway, well done re those two forest runs. Trust the ultra runner to search out the muddiest, wet, undulating course!

    Aquarius - it will be nice to beat Alan again on shots as well as points. I originally thought usb cables were going to be the universal type of cable (as the name stands for universal serial bus). But needless to say, it's been updated a few times now and I suppose the latest iteration (usb-c) will eventually be superseded. Anyway, glad to hear Steve eventually found a cable for what he wanted to connect. I would also hesitate to do a 100 mile round trip or something similar for a parkrun. When I have travelled in the past, it's always been an overnight at a hotel before the race. Or in the case of the Bath half-marathon, we made a weekend of it and treated ourselves to a day at the Bath Thermae Spa the day after the race. Shame your plans to do a parkrun in the middle of your 6ml run didn't quite work out. Shame also about the time - but kudos for having a better WAVA than someone half your age!

    I drove to Pittville Park this morning and walked into town to pay the cash from last night's swim into the club's account. Just my luck that two of three positions were in use by people who rather than just paying in or taking out cash, appeared to be sorting out their finances.

    I'm away now for a couple of days. I'm driving up to Tring (Herts) tomorrow for my Uncle's funeral on Wed morning. Then I'll be travelling back home on Wed afternoon. So will catch up with things later in the week.
  • HS, I'd be very tempted not to invite the ultra guy again!

    Aqua, I  always look at my WAVA position (of course I do) and I'd be more than happy with 5th. (My Bushy Park one was about 13th I think.) I too used to try and incorporate a Parkrun into a longer run, but it never quite worked. I certainly couldn't resist trying a new course, especially as it's nearby. (Funnily enough a new one has just started along the coast at Portsmouth and we're doing it soon.)

    Mel, I hope the funeral goes as well as it can - including the journey. On the issue of the journey to London, it only took 75 minutes from door to run. I think 50 miles is about our upper limit. We did once drive to Taunton (a fair old distance from Sussex) for a full (hilly) marathon and drive back the same day. An overnight stay would have been much more sensible. Agree on the 'naked run' (i.e. without a Garmin) - liberating is the right word and I shall do it again.

    Rest day from running: some short reps on the rower and a long walk over the Downs with the up. The quality of the light at the moment is horrible - even the countryside looked ugly. Roll on Spring.
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    Aquarius, we will be doing another 5 x 800 metres again tomorrow, but this time on the gravel track in the forest, with 90 seconds recoveries.

    I believe Steve was correct about Meatloaf being an anti-vaccer, but is also a Trump supporter, so I've gone off him a bit.

    I'll keep trying for a sub 26 minute 5k. I didn't enjoy Mondays muddy run much, but didn't let anyone else know.

    A shame that Saturdays parkrun plans went a bit awry, but impressive that your WAVA was double that of a runner, half your age! I hope you find the new parkrun is good, despite being hilly.

    There isn't much sport on the BBC these days, but some on red button. I've no intention of paying for those expensive channels though. 


    WtnMel, I think that I might have sorted out now how to set up workouts on Garmin Connect to sync with my Garmin. My second attempt was almost ok regarding number of reps etc. but somehow the 200 metres came up as 1.6 k which was a mile. I've had another go, and will try out during my next solo run. It is easier doing it all on the Garmin, using the interval screen, but you can only save one, and then edit for other sessions. Using workouts on Garmin Connect, you can save as many as you want, giving each a name. I know tomorrows session will be ok, as I set it up on the Garmin, and used it on Saturday with my run with Mike.

    The furthest I've travelled to a race was to Stoke on Trent for the Potteries Marathon. This necessitated booking into an hotel the day before. The hotel was recommended by the race organisers and did "a runners breakfast."

    I hope your Uncle's funeral isn't too sad an occasion, but they can be very upsetting.


    JB6, I think the Ultra guy will only use the Monday Group as a second choice. He usually runs with others of a similar ilk. I hadn't heard about a new parkrun at Portsmouth. There was one there in the past, I believe, so it could be it being resurrected again.

    We thought it looked like snow during yesterdays run.


    Today is a rest day. 


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