runners united (burning up pavement, burning up threads)

squix How old are your children? I've found hauling my 2 year old around has done wonders for my upper body strength! Hauling myself into our ladderless loft is not as hard as it used to be.

How hilly is the Edinburgh 1/2?

cestlavie I section my runs. I wonder whether this explains why I find it hard to run them the other way round? When I do make myself, it's really interesting to see how different the route is.

I won't be getting a Garmin!

I bought a box of just past sell by date chocolate liqueurs yesterday and ate 7 of the 9. How much cake/torte is that then?

Moshi you weren't running running were you? I mean, this wasn't a training run was it, or were you just running around the house?
I hope it gets better soon.

I have rolled over the side of my Burks more times than is healthy. There's something to be said for so-called healthy shoes!

sleepwhenidie - 20 lengths with dry hair is exactly how I swim....I don't think a Triathlon is for me . I do find swimming the day after a long run a nice recovery activity though - I try and stretch out whilst plodding along and find it helps. Should have done it this week as I am still feeling Sunday's run in my legs today.

Driving - go for the Garmin (being the verteran of 2 runs with one!) - not sure what the difference is between the 205 and the 305 but my 305 has a calorie counter - just too tempting to offset calories burned against cake or torte if we are being posh . I got mine on ebay, I think it's new - had all the stuff in the box with it anyway. Re the nausea - are you making sure that you are having rest days? It's tricky isn't it when trying to juggle all the things that we need to - grabbing the opportunity to run when we can - I know I sometimes cram a weeks running into 3 or 4 days and then feel completley shattered.

moshi - oh no...hope it's sortable in time

paws - me too - doing first park run with some friends, think they start an hour later up here in Scotland though (9.30 rather than 8.30) something to do with the light.

With regards to the resitance training - I might try Body Pump classes over the summer - any one tried it? I am looking for something to strengthen my core and upper body. I've tried pilates before but only when I was pregnant and I remember thinking - this doesn't feel like proper exercise - I'm not sweaty and I'm not out of breath.

10k this morning at just a bit slower than my target pace for the half. I've found looking at my Garmin stats a real boost - whilst overall my average pace is slower, I know that my very slow hill climbs are playing a big part in that. On the flat I am pretty much spot on where I want to be - there's just the small matter of sustaining that for 13 miles!

Oh dear sorry to hear that some of you have injury woes. My legs were tired yesterday so I did some cross-training at the gym. I've signed up for a new pilates course starting next week, I can't help feeling that while running is great it definitely needs complementary stuff going on too.

I read in a book somewhere that Lance Armstrong said that running a marathon was the worst pain he'd ever endured despite his tremendous physical fitness - I guess running probably just stresses the body in a different way? Either way, I've decided I need to work on my otherwise weedy body and get some different training going.

Am doing my first parkrun with a friend first thing on Saturday - the morning after a night on the town with the same friend .... something tells me we may not be at our best?!

sorry to hear about the injuries and enforced rests, just bear in mind it is all part of the sport, helps build a resilient and determined mind too or something

regarding Lance, respect to someone who beats cancer and goes back to the top of his sport, I am sure his metabolism and general fitness is extraordinary
I am just glad my doctor said my blood pressure was fantastic

happy running all

Lance Armstrong is a freak of nature, did you also read about how his body copes at altitude compared to most people's? Bizzarely he is almost unaffected, quite amazing.

Sympathies to thecoo and moshi, being forced out of action is horrible. thecoo could you swim instead until your achilles is better?

FWIW (I still don't class myself as a proper runner), I think resistance training definitely helps, I am a much better runner than I ever used to be and I can only attribute it to lots of squats/lunges and time on the stairmaster at the gym. I also think swimming helps, if you are doing it at a decent speed for reasonable distance, twenty lenghts breaststroke while keeping hair dry probably won't cut it. I think it has made it easier for me to regulate my breathing while running IYSWIM? Now all I need to start doing is getting on a road bike (DH's passion) and consider triathlon training...not actually doing one though, too scary!

moshi just seen your post - you poor thing!!! Get that ice pack out pronto!

Thanks everyone for the sympathy - just what I needed! :)

Have made a doctors appt for tomorrow morning so will see what happens. It feels almost like a stiffness when I wake up, then just a twinge during the day, but sore when I ran. Ice does seem to help the soreness. I'm guessing I probably just need to rest until it heals completely, but that's soooooooo hard when I want to train for my race.

Doyou I am horrendously grumpy when not running! Have been doing weights, crunches, etc to try and get rid of some of the restlessness... my poor muscles don't know what's hit them.

Pavlov sorry you're feeling rotten - hope you recover soon.

Sounds like everyone on here will have a Garmin soon!

Oh No Moshi!

Remember: Rest Ice Elevate - repeat ad nauseum. (And pray to the running Gods)

Aaarrrrggghhhhhh! I have sprained my ankle running along in my Fit Flops! Swollen ankle today. First race in less than 3 weeks. Eek!

Chewy Resistance training will improve your running and not just wear out your living room rug.
There!

Well, I braved to local bored teens last night to do some speed intervals on the football field. I ran the diagonals as fast as I could with jog recoveries between. Easy 1 mile jog there, did this for 1 mile (Nike+ so not remotely accurate on sprints!), easy jog home again. Feels sore in a good way today at the backs of my thighs.

Does anyone here do resistance training? I have been doing the EA Sports Active wii game with lots of lunges, squats and pylometrics. Tell me it will improve my running and not just wear out my living room rug!

I split up distance into chunks too - I just assumed everyone did it.

Fab time bonkers

My Garmin has arrived! Can't wait to use it tomorrow! :)

I was doing some research on resting heart rate earlier - did you know that Lance Armstrong's resting heart rate was 32bpm?! My jaw practically hit the floor when I read that!

Love the idea of classifying cake against length of run to burn it off.... Should do the same with wine but I dread to think how many miles I should run to offset a typical weekend ;)

paws - just to add to the other info re asthma, peak flows are individual - best to compare your own over time rather than to other people, and also re predicted values - these may often not be accurate, particularly for people who are fit / athletic or those who sing, play wind instruments - you may find your pf when well is higher than predicted....

If I recall, typically they look for a drop of >15% on exposure to a trigger - eg exercise - or an improvement of >15% in response to a bronchodilator ("blue" inhaler).....

Pollen can be an asthma trigger as well as causing hayfever symptoms too....

Hope you get some answers and it doesn't stop you running....

OK, before you all start bowing in my presence, I should point out that my PB of 43min for 10K was when I was 18. I am now 40!

Right, I'm going to watch The Exorcist now, maybe I will get time tomorrow when I'm at work to catch up with all the posts and write about something other than myself!

Hi everyone, congratulations Bonkers, great time!

I am very tonight, went out and did 5m and felt fantastic, my knees didn't hurt and 4 days rest seems to have improved my running, it was a gorgeous evening and I felt like I could have carried on going for ages, even on the uphill bits. Knees complaining slightly on stairs now but no worse than usual so I will start plotting that longer route, maybe 6m for Friday, will swim tomorrow.

Thanks for the psychology stuff cestlavie, interesting. I definitely "section" my runs between landmarks along the way and agree that trying to focus on your running at that moment makes it easier and more enjoyable than thinking about the total distance left to go.

Absolutely peach ! BTW, I should clarify, having re-read my post - I didn't think of you all because I think of you all as loose women (after all one of you's a man !!) more to do with the fact we'd been discussing whether we ran with music etc...

pavlov - hope you're over the lurgy soon !

Great post cestlavie, I think I will try that, if I ever do a long run again!

Wheely,massive sympathies on your Loose Women viewing, it is abominable eh. Bunch of ill informed folk sitting about regurgitating Daily Mail headlines. Am wound up just thinking about it. I need some torte.

Today's run thwarted by sheer exhaustion. Got exercise class tomorrow so let's see how that goes.

bonkers wow that is fast! well done!

no running today. i am sick. sore throat, swollen glands, v v sore muscles, twingeing nerves. i thought at first it was because of the run yesterday but why it hurt so much did not make sense, and had the sore throat yesterday so might explain why i found the run harder than i thought i would. It has become difficult to know how much soreness is due to illness or running! I took my running stuff to work but just could not face it. life seems to get in the way of running!

I like the idea of drum n bass music to run to, a god steady hard rhythm, friend also said she runs to the Tron soundtrack which is excellent, and might be better as no words to distract me!

I am reconsidering the run to work rather than from, will mean less faffing with myself and the children hassling me for hours before i leave, will literally get up, dressed to run, coffee, chat with kids for 30 mins, leave. Then i can have time to myself to get ready at work!! this morning it took me over 1.5 hours to get ready and leave what with kids wanting feeding, cuddles, me to listen to reading, dh running around stressed due to broken car and needing to get the bus for school run, general chaos. I sat there thinking, i could just run in right now?!!!

Thanks cestlavie. I do the breaking up thing in the same way as wheelybug but am going to have to rethink that for my race in few weeks time. I know the route, but have never run it.

thecoo sending sympathy to you.

bonkers 43 mins for 10k gulp - wow

Am doing a Park Run for the first time on Saturday - any tips?

Damn phone!!

Niggle not giggle!