Hello all - so happy to see that this thread is still going After Paris Marathon in 2019 I kept on running through the summer (always using the Shades training plan of course!). However, in the Autumn of that year I tripped up running for a taxi and banged my knee up quite badly. By the time I got to see a specialist Covid happened (so I didn't actually get to see a specialist). It took about 6 months for my knee to stop aching and i fell out of the habit of running
I'm back to being absolutely massive. I tried a run-walk the other day and it really is like I'm starting from scratch - actually worse. I want to fix things. I found a marathon 18 weeks from now (Milton Keynes) so this fits in nicely with the Shades level 1 plan I still have a copy of from 2013. My two questions are:
1) Should I have a base level of fitness BEFORE embarking on the plan (in which case i will find a later marathon) or can i be run walking the first few weeks?
Hi Khani - lovely to hear from you again, hope all the family are well.
You can start the Level 1 plan now, the plan remains unchanged and you can start with a run/walk. Just don't overdo it too much in the early stages and ease up if you get any niggles. I'm sure your fitness will return quickly and you should lose a bit of weight along the way just by being a bit careful with the portions.
Thanks @SHADES. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to get a reply from you. I remember you frequently and you always have my best wishes.
I remember all your advice about taking it easy with pace and I learned the hard way just how important that advice is. I will go slow. My goal is just to finish with a smile.
I ran out of steam at 2.5 miles last time I went out. I’ll just increase the walking this time
No running since Monday here,absolutely crazy week this week,shop has been at a standstill at times with the amount of customers inside,nearly there.
Good news from Tokyo with a slight easing of restrictions,we now don't need to book a slot at expo,and it was a test at at the expo,now its 2 tests to take away and self report the results.
Ian better news from Tokyo! One more day of being hectic then a well deserved break!
Khani welcome back, enjoy the journey hope the knee is okay now
Shades well done on the 7 miles
Cal frustrating about the MRI
5 miles this evening, have my 100th parkrun planned for tomorrow and 50th volunteer. Not sure if I’ll bother with Xmas day parkrun or May get out earlier
Shades, they did try to call me on my landline. The issue is that I have taken to unplugging it at night due to some nuisance calls a while back, and I don't always remember to plug it back in again, so that one's on me. Some good news, though - I just received a copy of the letter Prof. Sharma sent to my GP. It doesn't have the CT scan info but basically he's said my heart structure looks normal and valves OK so the MRI is just to check if he EEG missed anything. He also mentions he negative T wave thing I have is seens in 4% of athletic females so it's entirely possible it's just a quirk of my anatomy. I'm in Manchester now - train was perfect (first time that's happened in the last year) but Colin was kept late at work so I had a coffee waiting for him. I'm letting him sleep in while I go to parkrun today - more adventures on the Metrolink.
Ian - you have my utmost admiration doing your job at this time of year. I guess you have to treat it like a marathon and the finish is just around the corner.
Good news about Tokyo, hopefully maybe even less restrictions by the time you travel there.
Robert - congratulations, that's an impressive ratio of runs to volunteering.
Cal - I never answer my landline, haven't done so for years.
The report from the Prof must be the best Christmas present you could have. I hope that relieves the anxiety you've had to endure and you can settle into enjoying your running and marathon training. Terrific news.
Well done getting to Manchester OK.
Now we're into the Christmas holidays I can do all my runs in daylight for the next 10 days as there'll be so little traffic. I'm not yet used to having to wait until dawn as I don't sleep later.
Sonsbeek parkrun, in Arnhem, Netherlands for me today. A really beautiful park with lovely buildings, ponds and bridges, on a two lap course, with a slight incline each lap. Mainly tarmac with a short gravel section each lap and in the region of 30 runners today. A couple of nice cafes nearby, and it’s a great location.
I put in a bit of effort today at around 22:30 which is a bit depressing, but something to work on.
Big G - don't look at that time as depressing, you know your 5k times are the fine tuning of your training and you're making good steady progress.
7 miles today, flat. Floods have gone, river has still burst its banks but path/roads all runnable now. Nice to run in daylight with little traffic, which seemed to be heading for the supermarkets. Good to bump into a couple of running friends and arranged to meet up for dinner the night before my next marathon as they'll be there too.
My local parkrun (Torbay) was cancelled at short notice because a new padlock appeared, but no key available! Not sure what it means for tomorrow’s event at the moment.
That sounds like a nice parkrun, Big G. Well done, Shades.
I managed to get myself to Sale Water Park on the tram, no issues. The parkrun itself is scenic but is on the most god-awful surface - stony gravelly trail but with sections that are just broken bricks. I ran about as fast as I could safely so finished in 28:36. I was first in age group, though. Colin is taking me to another parkrun tomorrow.
Cal, I was speaking to a Dutch couple today at parkrun, who now live in Spain. The couple are trying to help get parkrun off the ground there and when I said I thought I’d heard it was starting soon in Spain, they were less optimistic and said they’d be surprised if it would start there in 2023. They seemed to have insider knowledge and were taking about parkrun’s priorities being getting U.K. numbers back up, getting France restarted (apparently there’s some momentum there due to the 2024 Olympics and removing barriers to entry) and expanding Dutch events. And then Spain may feature, according to them. Where they got their info from I don’t know but they seemed well informed so I thought I’d pass it on.
Regarding Dutch expansion they pointed me towards this, which has potential new events. Another potential ‘Z’ according to that…. Selfishly for me, still nothing particularly close to Zwolle, where OH’s parents live, but never mind.
Big G-I'm looking at doing a parkrun while I'm in Tokyo,can't be too many Brits who have done it as it started after the marathon in 2019,then there has been lots of entry restrictions since then.
Big G - it sounds like that Dutch couple have had an almost official response from parkrun. Surely would be foolish to attempt to start up in a new country with the energy crisis/high inflation as not good timing to set up a new charity and look for sponsors. Maybe at the end of 2023 when inflation should be down considerably they might start planning. Not sure how parkrun can reverse the 23% downturn in numbers right now until we hit the next running boom.
5 miles done, love my run on Xmas day, very few cars and the peacefulness is amazing. Only saw one other runner and a few dog walkers. 38 miles for the week, a vast improvement on last week's paltry 5 miles. Hopefully 50 miles next week.
Sounds a nice run, Shades. I got about 6 miles in, starting at 8:30am here. It’s lovely running here and I’ve found some nice routes now. I think I saw about 8 other runners out, and a few dog walkers, but otherwise very quiet.
Rcouture - hope you are enjoying your Christmas in the sun...miserable and dark here
8 miles this morning. I didn't wait for daylight as I was bouncing off the walls after all the food I ate yesterday. My planned route was lit by streetlights for the first half anyway, but I came back the same way as I only saw a couple of cars and I could run happily down the middle of the road. Colder today but good running conditions and for once I wasn't under or over dressed, had a most enjoyable run.
Had a nice day, different food-wise as it was a fresh fish platter for the main. Very enjoyable though.
We are catching the ferry back tomorrow AM, and had originally planned to drive home from here in one day, which we’ve done before, but it’s a long day. We’re about 4hrs from Dunkirk though so have just decided to book a hotel near the ferry, so we’ll be leaving here this afternoon to get to the hotel. It breaks the journey up as it’s 5hrs (if absolutely everything runs smoothly…) from Dover to home. OH is working 28th so at least she’ll hopefully be a bit fresher for that as well.
Yesterday I did Worsley Woods parkrun. It's a mixture of fast, flat tarmac with a muddy trip through the woods including two lots of steps, stuck in the middle. My middle mile was two minutes slower than the other two. Today I popped out for a six mile run. I wore my rainbow leggings and the sky decided to match me on the way back, though I had to endure a little drizzle for the pleasure. I'll be making my way back to London tomorrow, but via Sheffield as there are no trains from Manchester.
8 miles this morning, was prepared for the cold but not for the frost and ice. No frost where I live but 20 minutes into my run heavily iced cars and the odd dicey road/pavement, had to keep changing my route but at least the light traffic made it easy for me to find the safest part of the roads to run on. Heavy rain and gale force winds on the way but at least no ice/frost for the next few days
Wore a new pair of shoes today, I bought them months ago but they were still boxed. They're white, only colour I could get at a decent price, ran past a plate glass shop front and happened to glance at my reflection and I looked like Minnie Mouse but without the ears
Well, aside from the fact I had to get Colin to drive me from Manchester to Sheffield to get the train...there are no trains from there until tomorrow (and Colin has to work).
6 dark, drizzly miles this morning. Less miserable than it sounds, though. It was quite warm.
Comments
I'm back to being absolutely massive. I tried a run-walk the other day and it really is like I'm starting from scratch - actually worse. I want to fix things. I found a marathon 18 weeks from now (Milton Keynes) so this fits in nicely with the Shades level 1 plan I still have a copy of from 2013. My two questions are:
1) Should I have a base level of fitness BEFORE embarking on the plan (in which case i will find a later marathon) or can i be run walking the first few weeks?
2) Has the plan changed since 2013?
Cheers,
Khani
You can start the Level 1 plan now, the plan remains unchanged and you can start with a run/walk. Just don't overdo it too much in the early stages and ease up if you get any niggles. I'm sure your fitness will return quickly and you should lose a bit of weight along the way just by being a bit careful with the portions.
Have a lovely Christmas.
You are used to doing a comeback, you know you can do it. Doesn't matter if you have to walk, it's time on feet and miles in the bank.
Shades well done on the 7 miles
Cal frustrating about the MRI
5 miles this evening, have my 100th parkrun planned for tomorrow and 50th volunteer. Not sure if I’ll bother with Xmas day parkrun or May get out earlier
Late night last night and up early today for a parkrun here in NL.
Shades, they did try to call me on my landline. The issue is that I have taken to unplugging it at night due to some nuisance calls a while back, and I don't always remember to plug it back in again, so that one's on me.
Some good news, though - I just received a copy of the letter Prof. Sharma sent to my GP. It doesn't have the CT scan info but basically he's said my heart structure looks normal and valves OK so the MRI is just to check if he EEG missed anything. He also mentions he negative T wave thing I have is seens in 4% of athletic females so it's entirely possible it's just a quirk of my anatomy.
I'm in Manchester now - train was perfect (first time that's happened in the last year) but Colin was kept late at work so I had a coffee waiting for him. I'm letting him sleep in while I go to parkrun today - more adventures on the Metrolink.
Good news about Tokyo, hopefully maybe even less restrictions by the time you travel there.
Robert - congratulations, that's an impressive ratio of runs to volunteering.
Cal - I never answer my landline, haven't done so for years.
The report from the Prof must be the best Christmas present you could have. I hope that relieves the anxiety you've had to endure and you can settle into enjoying your running and marathon training. Terrific news.
Well done getting to Manchester OK.
Now we're into the Christmas holidays I can do all my runs in daylight for the next 10 days as there'll be so little traffic.
I'm not yet used to having to wait until dawn as I don't sleep later.
7 miles today, flat. Floods have gone, river has still burst its banks but path/roads all runnable now. Nice to run in daylight with little traffic, which seemed to be heading for the supermarkets. Good to bump into a couple of running friends and arranged to meet up for dinner the night before my next marathon as they'll be there too.
Elevation
Managed to get to the gym to squeeze a session in before Christmas. They're closed now until Wednesday.
Well done, Shades.
I managed to get myself to Sale Water Park on the tram, no issues. The parkrun itself is scenic but is on the most god-awful surface - stony gravelly trail but with sections that are just broken bricks. I ran about as fast as I could safely so finished in 28:36. I was first in age group, though.
Colin is taking me to another parkrun tomorrow.
Regarding Dutch expansion they pointed me towards this, which has potential new events. Another potential ‘Z’ according to that…. Selfishly for me, still nothing particularly close to Zwolle, where OH’s parents live, but never mind.
images.parkrun.com
About to head out for a short run soon.
Big G - it sounds like that Dutch couple have had an almost official response from parkrun. Surely would be foolish to attempt to start up in a new country with the energy crisis/high inflation as not good timing to set up a new charity and look for sponsors. Maybe at the end of 2023 when inflation should be down considerably they might start planning. Not sure how parkrun can reverse the 23% downturn in numbers right now until we hit the next running boom.
5 miles done, love my run on Xmas day, very few cars and the peacefulness is amazing. Only saw one other runner and a few dog walkers. 38 miles for the week, a vast improvement on last week's paltry 5 miles. Hopefully 50 miles next week.
8 miles this morning. I didn't wait for daylight as I was bouncing off the walls after all the food I ate yesterday. My planned route was lit by streetlights for the first half anyway, but I came back the same way as I only saw a couple of cars and I could run happily down the middle of the road. Colder today but good running conditions and for once I wasn't under or over dressed, had a most enjoyable run.
It is sunny here today though.
Yesterday I did Worsley Woods parkrun. It's a mixture of fast, flat tarmac with a muddy trip through the woods including two lots of steps, stuck in the middle. My middle mile was two minutes slower than the other two.
Today I popped out for a six mile run. I wore my rainbow leggings and the sky decided to match me on the way back, though I had to endure a little drizzle for the pleasure. I'll be making my way back to London tomorrow, but via Sheffield as there are no trains from Manchester.
Hope your journey home goes OK, maybe pack some sandwiches just in case 😉
Heavy rain and gale force winds on the way but at least no ice/frost for the next few days
Wore a new pair of shoes today, I bought them months ago but they were still boxed. They're white, only colour I could get at a decent price, ran past a plate glass shop front and happened to glance at my reflection and I looked like Minnie Mouse but without the ears
Did you have a polka dot skirt on then?
No polka skirt, just the huge shoes. I think white shoes always look twice the size they actually are.
6 dark, drizzly miles this morning. Less miserable than it sounds, though. It was quite warm.