Runner's screed

[Janik]

A less technological version of the same is to be aware of your breathing. Or at least that works for me. If Simon G you were chatting as you were running, you can't have been breathing too heavily. It's just not possible to talk and be drawing great lungfuls of air in at the same time. Any attempt to try leads quickly to breathlessness, if not a coughing fit. So that is the way to approach pace control when running on your own - ask yourself "If I were to attempt a conversation at the moment, could I do it?" If the answer is 'no', then you are going too fast; slow down until the answer is 'yes'! Then you are in your comfort zone, where the distance you can cover suddenly balloons up.

What I've noticed is the difference in pace between 'comfort zone' and pushing it can be rather small. My run today was a 10k deliberately aimed at being taken easily. Yet I still covered the distance in under 50 minutes (~49m30s according to the wristwatch), which is only 2 minutes slower than my 10k PB (47'22"). In pace terms, that is 'only' the difference between 7m37/mile and 7m57/mile. Yet today was a brief pause to catch my breath at the end before stretching down and moving on with the day, whereas the PB involved gasping for air for a couple of minutes, stretching and then spending the rest of the time 'til bed saying "oh god, that hurt!"

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Back in the days when running in races was thing, it was remarkably common to get stuck near people running in pairs yapping their f-ing heads off, while at the same time being obsessive over whether they were falling behind their target pace...

[Simon G]

A less technological version of the same is to be aware of your breathing. Or at least that works for me. If Simon G you were chatting as you were running, you can't have been breathing too heavily. It's just not possible to talk and be drawing great lungfuls of air in at the same time. Any attempt to try leads quickly to breathlessness, if not a coughing fit. So that is the way to approach pace control when running on your own - ask yourself "If I were to attempt a conversation at the moment, could I do it?" If the answer is 'no', then you are going too fast; slow down until the answer is 'yes'! Then you are in your comfort zone, where the distance you can cover suddenly balloons up.

What I've noticed is the difference in pace between 'comfort zone' and pushing it can be rather small. My run today was a 10k deliberately aimed at being taken easily. Yet I still covered the distance in under 50 minutes (~49m30s according to the wristwatch), which is only 2 minutes slower than my 10k PB (47'22"). In pace terms, that is 'only' the difference between 7m37/mile and 7m57/mile. Yet today was a brief pause to catch my breath at the end before stretching down and moving on with the day, whereas the PB involved gasping for air for a couple of minutes, stretching and then spending the rest of the time 'til bed saying "oh god, that hurt!"

This is the issue I have, I try and run slowly, but then I don't feel like I'm running at all. It's certainly something I'm trying to work on - maybe I should start yapping to myself as I trundle along.

[Janik]

But that is good news, that it feels like you are not running at all. Because if you cover the distance, it still counts. No pain, no gain isn’t true! Going slower and therefore being able to go further burns more calories/improves fitness. And also builds stamina to do 5k’s quicker in the end.

[Janik]

Having claimed pace control was reasonably straightforward, I felt I should actually try and run the run as well as talk the talk. So I went out to do that last Friday, partly because, as you may remember, the weather was pleasantly spring like at 10-11C, sun out, gentle breeze, birds singing away at the joys of it all. Seems an age ago, doesn't it...?

Anyway, yes, I have a 5 mile course around my home town, with well defined markers exactly at each mile. So I set out to go round this course at three varying speeds; jog the first mile (for me a sensible target for that is 8 minutes), burn the second (7 minutes, which is at the edge of my performance envelope), go at a decent lick in the third (7m30), burn the fourth, jog the fifth. I think this might be called a cadence session, though that wasn't something I was aware of before doing it.
Time at mile 1 - 7m45. Oops, too quick.
mile 2 - 15m05, so 7'20 for that mile. Hmm, too slow. This is trickier than I thought!
mile 3 - 22m31, which is 7'26 for that mile. That's better. And also within 1 second of the target time at 3 miles.
mile 4 - 29m39, i.e. 7'08. Not quick as rapid as hoped, but hey, there was already 3 miles @ 7m30 in my legs at this point.
mile 5 - 37m47, i.e. 8'08. Exactly a minute slower than the previous mile as intended. Great.

Inspired by that, and with the snow proving much less significant than forecast, I was out again on lunchtimes this week for two runs at 'cruise' speed. Which turned out to be 34'23 for 4.6 (dead flat) miles (7m28/mile) and then 32'30 for 4.3 slightly more up-and-down miles (7m33/mile). That was extremely good form for me so today I went for it and aimed to run a 5k PB. But how to achieve that? Well, how about set a target pace of 7m00/mile, i.e. the burn speed from last Friday (that I didn't actually achieve!), try and hit it, and if I do hit it, then sustain it? That sounded like an idea. First mile time - 6'58. Two miles - 13'58. And then at the finish - 21'43"47, or 6m59/mile. The previous best was 22'18"49, so that is 35 seconds off my time in one chunk. Whoop!

[Janik]

I've entered a half-marathon in the autumn. So I thought I ought to try running the distance and see how I got on. Not that I had any real doubts I could manage the distance as I had already run approximately that far once previously (on NYE), and that estimated length was conservative if anything. But today I had mapped out a course of exactly the right distance and took the stopwatch with me. Did it in 1'41'01"

I'm happy with that, particularly as it came in just under my target speed of 7m45/mile (it works out at 7m42). I was up on the time all the way, though I did slow a bit from an initial pace of ~7m37 that I managed over the first three miles. Plus the course is not flat. It's as flat as I could figure out around this place, but even so it has 109m of up and down over the length of it. The last mile home has a good chunk of that... and this hurt at the end of the third lap!

Now for some food! I'm starving...

[San Bernardhinault]

All the training advice I was ever given for long races was to never run the full distance beforehand. If you do all the short pace work and enough long-enough runs, up to 10-11 miles for a half marathon, you should be absolutely fine. Of course, the reason to not run the full 13 before the race is because you need to preserve enough energy - given that you seem to have 7 months before your race, that's probably not a problem here. In fact, if your long runs were 16 in two weeks and 20 in four weeks you're probably in shape to do a decent full marathon in less than two months.

[Forest Gump]

Cracking work there Janik.

I've been working towards a half in a few weeks time. As I'm (hopefully) moving house soon, I'm planning on doing a half marathon within the postcode boundary I'm currently in, as some kind of farewell.

My 'long' run mile pace has gone from about 10 minute miles to just above 9 minutes over the past month or so. For the first time I've been doing a lot of interval training, and eating a bit better too. Maybe it's just the lack of beer...

[caja-dglh]

I think that depends on how focused you are on that race. If you want to hit a true peak or it is your main goal that makes sense. A person I know ran her first road half-marathon earlier this year. It might be her first road race ever. I think she ran 90 miles or so in the week of the race, with probably 7,500 ft of vertical gain, and placed second overall in 1hr 20min or something similarly ridiculous. She typically looks to place in Ultra Marathon events and ran it for S+G.

[Levin]

Running is a scam. Your entire body lets you know that it doesn't want to do this and that it would much rather be doing anything and you don't even get to go fast. You trudge along, slowly going past people walking people and then two minutes later you're in essetially the same place. You try to go faster and it feels like your heart and lungs are going to explode but when you look around you're not travelling at an appreciably different pace.

And then you have to coordinate your legs and feet and stride and land on your heel and not be too bouncy. It's rubbish.

My knees did stop hurting after a few weeks though. I've just finished the couch to 5k app course. What apps do you use to keep track of things and to give you programs to improve your running? I've got a Garmin watch if that changes anything.

[elguapo4]

I use MapMyRun on my phone. It's ok, but a bit user unfriendly. For example, you can't stop and check how far you've run, and then start again, you have to finish that entire run.I might get a Fitbit when the shops reopen

[Janik]

I also use MayMyRun to figure out routes, distances and elevations. But not an app. I map out the route in advance, learn what it will be, and then use a stopwatch to time it (which is easy to stop and restart if I have to wait to cross a road!).

As for Levin's post, it does get easier over time if you stick with it regularly. But it's very incremental. From one week to the next - no noticeable difference. But if you can look back at a run you've just done and compare it with the same run from six months previously, then it suddenly shows how much things have improved.

Oh, and you can go fast. I've overtaken a few cyclists, which is always fun given they have a mechanical advantage (assuming they know how to work their gears properly!).

What grinds me is there is always a headwind. But then there would be if you are moving constantly forward at ~8mph, an average 8mph one! Even a dead still day means that. In fact a dead still day just means a constant headwind with no let up...

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I don't use any apps or a watch for normal running, but use a watch during races and for long distance walking use MapMyRun (in which you can distinguish between walks and runs, not that it matters really). MapMyRun tends to be very heavy on battery usage and data storage (as most GPS based things would be, but this seems noticeably draining). I tend to switch off the voice update feature because I usually listen to podcasts when running or walking and it pauses the podcast while it slowly tells you how far you've gone, total time, split time and it greats after a while.

[Simon G]

I use the free version of Strava. You can stop and start at any point and map your runs ahead of time if you so wish.

As I was getting frustrated in not being able to increase my distance past 5km, I decided to just do more 5km runs, so this week I have run 5km everyday (Monday to Friday). Oddly, despite the tiredness in my legs, my runs got gradually faster as the week went on. I've really enjoyed it, but I think I'll go back to 3 runs next week and then maybe do 5 the week after, and alternate going forward.

[johnr]

I'm reasonably fit 57 year-old (in normal times, badminton, cycling, walking etc). In January, bored, I started the NHS Couch-5K challenge. I followed all of the guidance to the letter. Week 4, both knees 'went'. A few weeks of rest, then online physiotherapy advice, and I restarted at Week 2. Knees went again, and then spent another two weeks barely able to walk. The left meniscus is still damaged, but am gradually walking more each day, with exercises to strengthen the rest of the leg. Running isn't for me, obviously, and am now worried that, post-lockdown, I've done too much damage to resume badminton etc. Bah.

[Levin]

Oh no, that sounds awful. The only time cycling has left me in as much pain as running has this year is when I got doored. I was probably a bit too gung ho in weeks 2-5, running through pain but actually running was the only time my knees didn't hurt.

I've just finished the NHS couch 2 5k and I was relying on my old smart watch (no GPS) to calculate my distance. My final 30 minute run came up to 6km. I'm still waiting for my Garmin to arrive so today I just went out with my phone. I did the same route and ran for a bit longer to get to 5km. I feel very let down by my old watch, to be fair doing 6km in 30 minutes after running for a couple of months was a bit suspect.

[caja-dglh]

This story is brilliant, though I can't believe the "it was just a coincidence" line.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

First proper race in over a year today, I'd done 3 or 4 "virtual" runs instead of getting refunds on actual events entered in the last year but today was the first time running with actual people since last March.

It was a local, rural half marathon which I'd never ran before (marshalled it one year, and a part of the county I know reasonably well) so a strange mix of being in familiar territory but not knowing where the course was heading next. Probably hit the first four miles too hard (or alternatively it got me up to speed, so to speak) and was toiling towards the end but the wheels stayed on, and the familiar physical and mental patterns of running a race like that kicked in quickly. Before the race I thought 2:15 would be a decent result, so was pleased with 2:09.

There have been times in the last year where doing another distance race seemed an increasingly remote possibility so it was good to be back.

[elguapo4]

Good to hear, my last competitive run was September 2019, I'd love to get one in this summer.

[Tactical Genius]

I'm reasonably fit 57 year-old (in normal times, badminton, cycling, walking etc). In January, bored, I started the NHS Couch-5K challenge. I followed all of the guidance to the letter. Week 4, both knees 'went'. A few weeks of rest, then online physiotherapy advice, and I restarted at Week 2. Knees went again, and then spent another two weeks barely able to walk. The left meniscus is still damaged, but am gradually walking more each day, with exercises to strengthen the rest of the leg. Running isn't for me, obviously, and am now worried that, post-lockdown, I've done too much damage to resume badminton etc. Bah.

Try some of the exercises from this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6nfG69c9g

[caja-dglh]

Of course Mark Bell of the hip flexor torture (the slingshot is amazing for monster walks) is also working with the knees over toes guy.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Parkrun was due to restart in the UK on 5 June, but has been put back three weeks while they continue the process of getting agreements from local landowners. Approximately half have been agreed (including my local one as of yesterday) but starting with half will be problematic as it will lead to too-large numbers at the ones that do have the go ahead.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Yikes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57216601

China ultramarathon: Severe weather kills 21 runners

[Tactical Genius]

Of course Mark Bell of the hip flexor torture (the slingshot is amazing for monster walks) is also working with the knees over toes guy.

I had never heard of that or this fellow. What Hip Flexor workouts does he do. Mine are notoriously weak and meant it kept breaking down during my football days with groin stains.

[caja-dglh]

Bell has this band which is called the slingshot - it is nothing particularly novel but is a real durable band for monster walks, forcing you to focus on knees pushing out on squats etc. It is always in my gym bag and causes me significant misery.