Daily Check In Thread -- 10k+ version
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Think I have finally figured out my drinking/eating problems when running. Read an article on the subject and it is all down to hydration. Today I ran 13km and drank 2 mouthfuls of water every km and ate every 2nd km and I felt good. After a couple of difficult sections I thought my stomach was going to cramp and I was hesitant to eat but I did and I was fine. The best part was feeling good after my run, before it would take my stomach the rest of the day to recover. Over my run I drank a litre of water and I was still a little bit dehydrated at the end. Off to drink some chocolate milk and do my recovery yoga0
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MM I am inspired by your dedication to go out in the dark to log a half marathon on a website. I am not sure I would have done it. Good ultra training though.
Laura, given the distances you are doing, I'd say you have finished C25k and I'd move onto something else. Sounds like the trainer has a plan for you. I will be keeping up with the swim training, I need to keep up with the rest of my family. Will keep updating here.
Romy, glad you have worked out your running and eating/ hydration issues.
Had a nice long run this morning a dress rehearsal for the 15th, wanted to ensure I could pace correctly and that everything was ok. Well I didn't get the watch settings right, so I never got the alarms, so I went off too fast. Because I went off too fast, I could never speed up towards the end. The compressions shorts I had on started to rub at 6 miles, guess I won't be using them, back to the long leggings. The shoes are now broken in. I shouldn't blow up at the intended pace, the hope is that I do the first half at the right pace and hopefully have something left in the tank for a better effort towards the end. Onto 2 weeks of taper, this might also help.
Have fun with your running0 -
Thank you ladies, it is very real now, 16 days to go. Ceci, praying for warmer weather for you.
Had a hard session this morning, really did not want to do it, but got out. I actually started mentally talking to myself as the intervals were hard. On the first sprint interval my heart bounced to 191 bpm, previous highest I've seen is 186, including rowing many years ago on all out efforts (when wearing a hrm). Not looking forward to the repeat next Friday. Got my swim session done tonight, still following a pre start to 0 to 500m. These are getting easier.
Looking forward to a simple recovery run tomorrow.
Good luck everyone.
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Hi don't know how that happened with my previous post so apologies......
Anyway completed the 5k Resolution Run this morning and have the medal managed it in 29 mins 14 second I checked my splits to see my first km was slow at 9 min 30 seconds so I know I can knock a couple of mins off......really happy with my run considering that I was struggling to do the first week of the c25k at the end of December...... I have 6 week till the 10k race that I've entered so its rest day tomorrow and onto week 9 of the 10k programme0 -
Romy I'm fortunate that there are very few things that bother my stomach when I run. I can't eat much before I go out or it sits like a rock in my stomach, and bananas give me indigestion if I eat them before I run. Last year Jason had me playing around with different hydration and fuel types during my long runs so by the time my half rolled around I'd know exactly what to eat/drink and how often on race day. I bought a fuel belt with 4 small bottles for my long runs & would put Powerade in 2 of them and water with an electrolyte tablet (I like the Gu Brew) in the other two. I would take a couple sips of Powerade every mile, and found every 2.5-3 miles worked best for me for a Gu or Shot Bloks and I'd take in water with those. A lot of people have problems mixing gels with sports drinks but that's never bothered my stomach either - my original fuel belt only had 1 bottle so I'd bring Powerade.
Robbie this is my 3rd time doing C25K. In 2012 I completed it then quit running. In 2013 I did it again, and that time kept running. End of 2014 I took a 6 week break from running to rest a foot injury that wasn't clearing up, so started back with C25K to give my foot & my body a chance to ease back into running. It's obviously easier this time than it was the first two times, but not as easy as I expected it to be. Even though I had kept up with other workouts, there's just something about running.
Ian that's a great time! You just started running in December and you're already running a sub-30 5K? I'm impressed!!!0 -
Robbie, wow!.....your half-marathon kit is really inspiring. Great dedication!!
MM, you've also got great dedication. I always worry about running in the dark (and wouldn't attempt trails in the dark, I think) and end up on a treadmill. You go!! That's great! Also, congrats on completing a HM for Strava!
Romy, I hope you've figured out your issue. I don't usually hydrate or eat on a run (but I don't go far either....only 5-7 Km). Glad you felt good after the run.
Ian, that's a great, great time! You're doing impressively well with running!
I've taken what you've all said in mind when mulling over why I'm slowing down and feeling worn on my runs. I'm going to try to do longer runs on the weekends, since that's when I can usually put in some extra time. Thank you for the encouragement and advice. It's helped.
I've also noticed that my stride has gotten short. I'm not sure when that happened but while running last week, I've noticed that my legs are working hard but I'm not going very far because of these short strides. So, I'm paying more attention to lengthening my stride in a comfortable manner and I find that my pace is better, as is my energy level. I'm not panting as much or labouring to keep going. I may have found part of my problem....that's a start.
Had a good run today and that is very encouraging.0 -
I got out today after crappy weather yesterday kept us inside. 10 miles in 1:45:24 at my national park. I'll post some pics I took when I'm not my phone. It was great to be out! I was pretty bummed yesterday (when I should have run the 10 miles), but I'm good today. Will probably do a bike ride tomorrow at the gym, then pick up the training plan on Tuesday.0
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Thanks folks i was pretty well impressed with myself.....i have to confess though i have run before, done the marathon distance and numerous halfs but that was 30 odd years ago so I think I think the old me done not to bad.....race days great its still the same atmoshere and all the people are just so nice and friendly ...the rest of the world should take a leaf out the running community book eh?
Rest day today so its swimming and 4 x 10mins splits tomorrow to get me heading towards hopefully a sub 60min 10K in April0 -
I've also noticed that my stride has gotten short. I'm not sure when that happened but while running last week, I've noticed that my legs are working hard but I'm not going very far because of these short strides.
Short pace, high cadence is what you should be aiming for, as it places less strain on the lower leg. If you are focussing on lengthening the stride then concentrate on the push forward and getting more distance from that.
A cadence of 180bpm is seen as ideal. Personally I'm at about 160 and find that if I try to slow down too much my cadence reduces and I get bouncy, rather than smooth.
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Awesome time Iain, well done!0
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ftrobbie suggested a while back that I look into this group for support...finally making around to it.
I started the couch to 5k program last July and never looked back. I ran a 15k in November in just a little over 2 hours. I have a bet going with my husband that if I run another half marathon (ran one in 2012) that we can have another baby lol.
I am currently training for a half marathon. We are in week 5 of a 10 week training program. I am a slow runner, but still get the job done. I average about 13:30 mile pace.
This week is a 3, 6, 3, 10 week. I take a rest day after the long runs. This week will be two rest days after the 10 miler only because of work schedule. On my off days I usually do zumba, yoga, or rest completely.
Thank you in advance for letting me join in on the inspiration/support!0 -
Arrgh, I hate when I lose track of this thread and can't comment on everyone's progress! Unfortunately it has happened again, so well done everyone on getting out there running!
Tonights run was a total failure, except for the fact I made it out there and ran 6km. Shoes didn't feel right before I left, HR wanted to sky rocket soon as I started to run and legs just felt like lead. Persevered until 5k and then pulled the pin. Did a run/walk thing for the last km to get home. Normally I wouldn't pull the pin until at least 8k in as previous experience has shown that's when I do warm up/into my run, but tonight I couldn't even get my head into the game.
Still I got out the door and I ran. That's the main thing isn't it?0 -
That's it! Good job!Still I got out the door and I ran. That's the main thing isn't it?
Welcome, Tucky!
As promised, pics from yesterday's run at my national park:
It was like they cleared the road just for me. I was the only one there!
If you look closely, you can see the deer-
This is a Civil War battlefield, thus cannons-
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Iain, nice going, enjoy the c210k.
PaytraB, MM gives some great insight and advice
Tucky nice to see you here and as they say, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you go, enjoy it and realise you are beating everyone who does not get off the couch.
Taeliesyn, so you are human after all,
. Have fun and yes the most important thing is you did get out. There was a cyclist Graeme Obree, who frequently wouldn't train because he didn't feel like it. He wanted to enjoy training. See his accomplishments. Hope your energy comes back soon.
Ceci, nice pics
Easy recovery run for me this morning, so other than hip flexors being sore, not much to add. Will get to the swimming pool later, for another 0 to 500m session.
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MeanderingMammal wrote: »Short pace, high cadence is what you should be aiming for, as it places less strain on the lower leg. If you are focussing on lengthening the stride then concentrate on the push forward and getting more distance from that.
A cadence of 180bpm is seen as ideal. Personally I'm at about 160 and find that if I try to slow down too much my cadence reduces and I get bouncy, rather than smooth.
Oh.....that changes things, I suppose. So, the shorter pace is good? I'll try to count the bpm.
Thank you!! I'll keep this in mind as I try to figure out what's going on.I am a slow runner, but still get the job done.
That's the attitude that will get you to the finish line. Welcome, Tucky!0 -
Welcome Tucky!
Taeliesyn, there was someone posting about LHR training on the Beyond C25K group on FB yesterday. She is training for a half marathon and was getting really frustrated with her training, she is struggling to keep her HR down and is so slow. She trained for a HM last year and her times were 2 minutes per km faster. Unfortunately I don't have a magical ending to this story, she is ditching her HRM altogether and continuing her training without it. I think you need to be really dedicated to keep to this training but I have heard that it does have great benefits if you stick with it.
Petra, I am a short strider because I want to look after my knees. The technique that works for me is to concentrate on picking my feet up as soon as they hit the ground. This leads to a high cadence and uses less energy than pushing off the ground. It is also a great technique for running up hills! I think that is why my uphill splits are often my fastest.
Ceci, lovely pictures, especially the one with the deer. You must have been quick to catch that one!0 -
Welcome Tucky! Always good to see more people joining in the madness here
Great pics Ceci, and yep looks like they did it all for you!
Get the roller onto your hip flexors Robbie before they get too bad. The swim should help as well.
Paytra - Short can be good as it does help prevent over striding and should hopefully have you landing with your foot under the centre of Gravity.
I've found both my stride length and cadence have dropped with my LHR running, it seems to be a function of pace for me.
Romy, the 2min/km or 2-3min/mile often seems to be the original pace drop when moving to LHR training. I'm hoping tonights run will be better than last night, although if I'm still in my funky headspace I think I'll be saying feck it to the LHR with the group run and try to hold on to the fast guys and blow the funk out of my head.0 -
Welcome Tucky!
I haven't figured out cadence, although last year I was running next to someone at the gym and found that while his speed was quite a bit faster than mine we were running at the same cadence and it felt so much easier than usual. I figured I was following along with his cadence.
Today was my first 30 minute run on this C25K program (W8D2). Wednesday's 28 minute run kind of kicked my butt, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Tonight was one of those runs where minute 29 felt just as easy as minute 2. Those runs don't come along all that often for me, so I'm just going to sit here and savor that for a bit.0 -
THe whole philosophy about long slow runs I thought was to improve the aerobic pathways and teh mitchondria in teh muscles. Get them multiplying without overstressing all the connective tissue. The real issue is finding what is the right heart rate to work at. Although less accurate, I quite like the pacing guides based on McMillan running, advocated by Matt Fitzgerald. Pace is easy to understand and measure although does not account for how you are feeing or environmental factors.
Cadence I find it easier to shorten the stride and speed up the cadence to go faster. I follow Romy in that I can do hills resonably well as a result of a shorter stride and faster cadence.
Tempo run for me this morning which I struggled to maintain the pace for some parts. The alarms kept going off telling me to speed up but somehow I got some really good results for a mile, 2 mile and 5k. Not sure how it happened, but I like these pleasant surprises.0 -
Glad you had a good run Laura
Robbie I totally agree about the McMillan pace guides being pretty good, but since I run hills more often than not they tend to be a little ambitious for me. I will be using the McMillian HRR numbers though for my future LHR stuff, which I kinda was already.
Pace alerts can be a little deceiving at times as GPS signal fluctuations etc can throw things out horrendously. Glad it turned into a good run.
Although I totally threw all the LHR stuff out the window tonight as I just mentally could not have dealt with it. I am glad I did. A pre social run and then the social run. I skipped the shuttles/intervals tonight.
First run I set out without any alerts or stuff set on the watch and put it onto the run dynamics screen, so I could see Cadence, Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time. Basically just numbers that mean not too much. First 6k I averaged about 5:10min/km. My legs were fine, but my lungs were working a little harder than I would have liked for that pace. Had a drink and headed out again, came across one friend and joined her for 1.5 of her 800m intervals. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I was a bit dehydrated as I had a horrendous headache. Then joined some other friends for a little bit of a slow job before bailing because of the headache.
Group run started and I went hard on the 1st km, recovered and went at a more social pace for the next while. Had inter spaced periods of walking due to the fecking headache
Still managed a quite nice sprint towards the end, where I discovered a new Max HR of 210.
This means I'll be recalculating my numbers for my LHR running and I should have something more sustainable that isn't going to totally do my head in.0 -
I don't have a real HRM, only a watch that you have to hold the button down to get a heart rate. (It's been on my Christmas list for 3 years!) Occasionally, I check my HR while running, but most often use it for timing my runs in the gym and making sure my HR gets back down to a normal pace when I'm cooling down after a run.
I've never really thought about cadence. I have a naturally short stride. So, I really have nothing to add to this conversation!
One hour on the stationary bike yesterday. Supposed to do speed work today. It's raining, which will turn to freezing rain overnight and snow tomorrow.
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Glad you had a good run Laura
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Pace alerts can be a little deceiving at times as GPS signal fluctuations etc can throw things out horrendously. Glad it turned into a good run.
Although I totally threw all the LHR stuff out the window tonight as I just mentally could not have dealt with it. I am glad I did.
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You are right about pace alerts, I only use them with lap times and ignore alerts for the first 30 seconds or so. Using lap pace with the alerts seems to be ok for me, I kept dropping out of that after 5 minutes, which should have been stable by then. But clearly something clicked later on.
If LHR is not working for you, it is good to dump it and come back later. Firstbeat using training effect, which sort of worked for me when rowing training, used a similar concept to understand how hard you are working and how much rest you needed. My issue was that the Suunto stuff, it was matched to at the time, was just too unreliable and I got fed up of HR training with HR recording. It became pretty pointless. You seem to have been successful with what you were doing before, so you might need to go back for a while.
Ceci, nice going on the bike. My boss is prepping for a marathon by doing lots of cross training on a bike, with small amounts of specific running training. He is comfortable with how his training is going at the moment. He has been running for a fair while and believes he is in a better position than he would be if he did running training only. Keep it up, spring will eventually come
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My tuppence worth on the strides stuff came from a book I read written by Chris Brasher prior to running the Edinburgh Marathon some 30 years ago his tip was short strides for uphill, long strides for downhill and something in between on the flat. It was an inspiring read full of loads of tips defo worth a read.
First run out today since my 5k run on Sunday got in 6.5k in 41min went at a moderate for me and felt good I'll try the same on Thursday then again on Saturday when I'll push up the pace.
Totally gutted this morning with the snow but it was gone by midafternoon so yahooo, Romy how was it up your way? I've a trip to Inverness on Saturday0 -
Went out for today's run during lunch (between rain showers). 5 miles with some speed intervals. Other than app malfunctions and a pretty stiff wind, it was good!
Warmup 1 mile
15 sec fast, 3 min easy
30 sec fast, 3 min easy
45 sec fast, 3 min easy
60 sec fast, 3 min easy
45 sec fast, 3 min easy
40 sec fast, 3 min easy
15 sec fast, 3 min easy
Cool down to 5 miles
Finished in 49:280 -
Easy paced recovery session tonight. I moved office yesterday, giving me a much longer cycle through London than normal, so I didn't train last night.
On the whole HR training issue, I find that I struggle to run slow enough, going back to the cadence point I mentioned upthread. To run down to 130-135bpm I end up taking a really low cadence, so end up with sore lower legs.
I prefer working on pace intervals instead, which seem to work ok, although the Garmin isn't great for short intervals. It takes long enough to register the faster paces that it gives me no useful information. That said, during sprint intervals I generally don't have the wherewithal to look.0 -
I checked my cadence a few times on today's run (not on the uphill portion, though). I seem to have a cadence of 150-160. It seems consistent, regardless of where in the run I am (middle or end....the hill was at the beginning). So, I should be trying for about 180?
Today's run felt really good. I felt strong and able. I did walk once (my darn leg) for a half minute. This past week or so, I feel as if my runs are getting stronger but I have nothing to base that on, except feel, since my times aren't even a beat faster than normal.0 -
If 150-160 works for you Paytra, stick with it. Only mess with your cadence if you're having issues you can relate to over striding or similar. The 180 cadence thing is over rated and was actually just taken from an observation of what elites tend to run at. No studies (to my knowledge) actually show it's better for you if it's not natural.0
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I seem to have a cadence of 150-160. It seems consistent, regardless of where in the run I am (middle or end....the hill was at the beginning). So, I should be trying for about 180?
I'd stick with where you are, you could push it up but I suspect you wouldn't get much from it now. While 180 is seen as ideal it's unlikely that most people get there without specific drills.
The logic is that the higher cadence forces a shorter pace, which places less load on the lower leg, and reduces impact loading on landing. It also reduces the amount of up/ down movement in the run, so improving efficiency.
Good work in addressing it though. I generally work on the basis of the music that I'm listening to, which means only on pavement, I don't listen to music when I'm on trails.0 -
Hey nice runs everyone.
Some great insight from MM and Tae, supported by the link below if you want to read extensively on it.
http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/is-the-180-cadence-a-myth-or-something-to-aim-for/
Got a short swim session in last night, not enjoying it and left me tired, might not be the best thing to do during the taper. Will try again tonight. Nice easy run this morning, started off really slow and stiff but sped up significantly during the run, felt really comfortable towards the end and had to put the brakes on.
Feeling really strong on the runs once properly warmed up.
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Iain, much to my disappointment we have had almost zero snow this winter, because it is coming from the west it dumps it all on the mountains and there is none left for us! There was a lot of snow just to the north of Inverness but it should be fine by Saturday, nice town, enjoy yourself.
Lots of interesting discussion on the LHR training and cadence, very informative.
I've a sore knee after JogScotland tonight, my son has sore feet. Running on pavements does not agree with us. Was hoping to do parkrun on Saturday, will have to wait and see.0
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