Happy when we are running!

[MoshiMoshi]

Hear ye! Hear ye! All those who want to liberate themselves from the shackles of their domestic and work lives, join us here in our continued bid to run and be happy and feel free !

Hi all! peachsmuggler thank you so so much for the donation - you're all lovely (sob).

Am back from my second 20 mile, didn't go brilliantly tbh - my legs were tired, I was too hot, and it felt a long hard slog compared to last time. But DH has just reminded me that I AM running on tired legs, this is my last big run done, and now it's got to be rest and recovery time. I think the temptation is to panic and try and cram in more training, but I can tell I NEED rest now. A lesson learned for me, I think.

playthedayaway you'll get there, it takes time. Go slowly - I mean really slowly - and don't be afraid to walk. For breathing, I was always told relaxed breathing is for your in-breath to last three strides and your out-breath to last two. Concentrate on counting that, and it will give you something to think about.

Have a lovely weekend all, am relieved my big run is over - off out tonight if I'm not fast asleep by 7.30 pm .....

Handstands peach no wonder you are tired. I haven't tried to do a handstand for more years than I care to remember...probably best not to try now

Enjoy your Army fitness DrNo, though I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the right word

We have all been there playthedayaway, it can be hard when you first start. You have to go really slow, barely more than a walking pace and focus on your breathing. I breathe in for 3 paces and out for 3 at first which then becomes 2 as I get more tired Also try to breathe nice and deeply. It will get easier! As for warming up, best thing is to walk for a few minutes just to get everything moving and increase your pace very slowly.

Well done paws it's all down hill to the big day for you now isn't it It's going to feel hard, as you say you are running on tired legs, the accumulative miles start to catch up and I found it warmer than I expected aswell. Enjoy your cut back weeks, you have earned them.

My first 20 miler is done and dusted, I can look forward to a cutback week next week now. It went ok, the first half I kept the pace very easy, then tried to pick it up in the second half. I made it to marathon pace for the last 3 miles only, the last mile faster than marathon pace...I must have been desperate to get home The route is getting a bit tedious but it's the best route I can find. Being sandwiched between the Sea and the Downs is lovely but a bit limiting for running routes!

DH has gone out so I am practicing parenting from the sofa this afternoon. Thankfully as the ds's are 6 and 8 they prefer minimal input from me anyway

Enjoy your night out paws

Happy running everyone.

DrNo - well done on your Bootcamp session! They are great for conditioning which can only help your running in the long term.

paws - don't fret about the 20 miler as all that matters is that it is done! The purpose of these is building endurance. If they go well they also are great for boosting confidence! But if you struggled they also serve as great workouts for mental strength and I am starting to suspect that AA much of these marathon races depend on mental strength as physical strength and fitness. So a tough session will certainly help with that aspect which sets you up well for the big day!

doyouthinktheysaurus - It sounds like your first 20 went well! Mine felt really hard as I don't think I gave it enough respect and set out with the mentality of a 16 miler at most. I now make sure I feel rested and prepared both physically and mentally for a 20+ miler which seems to have helped so far.

peach - 5 weeks to go which means I will do two more long ones (1x20 with 13.1@HMP next weekend and then 1x22 steady MP+90/120 to build endurance). Then I plan to enjoy a two week taper ! I originally has a three week taper down in the diary bit missed a LR with my shin pain so am losing a week of taper to fit it in.

Urge. iPhone predictive texting means "as" becomes AA! And various other typos - sorry. Happily our thread is not too bothered about such obvious errors .

playthedayaway - do not worry one jot! Every run will seem easier than the last until suddenly you will feel like you could run forever. For now, work on walking-running eg run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute for a total if 21 minutes which gives you 14 minutes of running which. Then after it seems to get easier you can increase the running and reduce the walking. If that feels too hard you can increase the walking and reduce the running eg 2 minutes walking fmto every 1 minute of running. Don't think you aren't working hard because of the walking as you are! The continuous rhythm means you are keeping your heart rate high and working your cardiovascular system! The breathing will come with time. Sometimes new runners can focus too much on listening to their breathing as they are unused to it. Try to relax into it and get moving at a pace you could comfortably hold indefinitely.

Double urgh. Apologies for iPhone errors.

playtheday, well done on your first run. Please don't be disheartened, it just takes time. I would echo what the others have said about a running/walking combination. You can do whatever's comfortable, run 1 min walk 1 min, or run 1, walk 3, whatever feels ok and then slowly start building up the time that you are running and reduce the walking time. It won't be long till you are running more than walking and then running all the time. Also, definitely slooooooow down. You might feel that you are almost going to be walking, but this is fine. It will improve your fitness and give you confidence. As to breathing, try and relax. Pull your shoulders up to your ears and then drop them (you might realise you were holding them up a bit so try to keep them down). Also try smiling (easier said than done sometimes!), it really does help you relax which should help the breathing. Don't worry too much about holding a conversation, I struggled with that for ages! I think nowadays it is generally considered a good idea to stretch only after a run, not before. A brisk walk is a good warm up. And well done again, you're on your way!

DrNorth, nearly throwing up at Army Fitness, getting covered in mud, buying trainers. You are such a running geek! Huzzah!

Paws, well done on your 20. Don't worry that it was hard, you did it! Can't belive you are going out tonight, much respect!

Well done Doyouthink too! Another 20 miler. Awesome.

Moshi, when you say "enjoy" a 2 week taper, do you mean indulging in bootcamp and other intense sessions??

Had lovely walk in woods this afternoon and looking forward to 6 miler tomorrow, if only to work off all the pannetone

I am so jealous of you all out running.... Even the fitness session and mud sounds appealing

And please all leave your links to your pages ... Will get round to sorting donations when not posting from iPhone.... I hate autocorrect / predictive text too moshi.... But needs must... Am in "tin box" in peak district for weekend

I havent been out all week as have another chest infection and am on Abs and steroids... Dh and DS have been out for 13+ mile walk in peak whilst I drove dd to guitar lesson today and can't see me running for another week yet....

I will get back out there asap tho....

Hello putthe sorry to hear you're not very well, hope you get better soon!

DrNorth can't believe you put yourself through that, because the running isn't enough, lol, but well done you, hope you enjoyed the shopping!

Paws and Doyouthink thanks for the great breathing advice, will give that a go when I'm out again on Monday! I'm in awe that you both talk so casually about running 20 miles! How long does it take you?

Moshi and peach thank you so much for the encouragement. I am using a run/walk guide. Didn't think I was running that fast at the time but thinking about it now...still we live and learn.

Going to get the bike ready for the nicer weather too, start cycling to help my fitness levels.

What is everybody training for? If they are! What do you all mean by taper and having rest weeks?

Sorry to hear you are so ill hamster, chest infections are horrid. Do make sure you are totally over it before you get running again.

playthedayaway it's been along journey to get to 20 miles, it's a long way!! I did find it hard, you brain starts telling you to stop and you know can't It took me 3hrs 36 mins, I am definitely a plodder

Hi all, well I woke up this morning feeling dreadful - I thought I had something yesterday as I had a drippy nose and scratchy throat, but today it's turned into a full-blown cough and cold. I've decided to spend this week having a proper rest, my big fear is getting/staying ill before the marathon. hamster hope you feel better soon.

play - I'm an uber-plodder - 20 miles takes me just over four hours. By the time I finish the marathon most people are going to be at home with their feet up. As long as I can avoid the sweeper bus at the back I'll be happy.

Morning guys. Hope you all had a good weekend. paws hope you are feeling better today.

I have had a headache all bloomin weekend, only managed 3 miles yesterday and felt lousy the whole way. Think it might be my body saying woah, too much too soon. Today I am having a rest!

Happy Monday everyone........

This is a really active thread - I'm struggling to keep up with the reading as well as the running!

Doyouthink I just worked out what pace doing 20 miles in 3hrs 36 is and that doesn't seem like plodding to me. Thank goodness for pawsnclaws saying it takes her 4 hrs or I may have given up altogether, though I'm slower still, and only running 7 miles max.

Do you think it's ok to be a very slow runner? I read this online article where the journalist was laying in to slow runners who enter marathons, saying now it's dragging the sport down and no longer considered an elite sport, spoils it for the serious runners, etc.

Even 5k takes me over half an hour (and I don't walk) so I really do bring new meaning to the word plodder. Though I don't feel like I'm plodding when I'm running - it's just afterwards when I see how long it took me I get a bit discouraged.

Thing is I really enjoy running, so do it for fun and stress relief more than anything. I haven't entered a race for ages. Maybe I'm just too unambitious...

Anyway, you lot are all very inspiring - perhaps I'll find some speed in my legs someday too!

How you feeling today hamster, really sorry that you are under the weather, must be very frustrating.

playtheday, taper means cutting back on your training before a race so for example if you were training for a 10k then the week before you might run 10k in training or more, but in the week leading up to the race you would cut back on the mileage to conserve energy for the big day. The longer the race, the longer the tapering period. Rest weeks are similar. Sometimes during a prolonged training period your body just needs some time off. In those circumstances you might do some cross training, which is doing other activities which although not running, will help your overall fitness, like your cycling!!!

paws, hope you are giving yourself a break to get over your cold, am sure it will pass soon with rest. You too DrNorth!

I know what you mean thecoo, its been so fast moving since January. Great stuff!
As to plodding, I think it is absolutely OK! I am also a bit of a plodder and have struggled to come to terms with this sometimes. Like you though, running means so much more to me than being fast, I think it does to everyone on this thread fast or slow. I remember a few years ago, not long after I started running, talking to a guy at a party who was training for his first marathon and I asked if he was going for a certain time. He said sub 4 hours and when I said I was really impressed, he said well there's no point in running a marathon unless you are going to do sub 4. His comment really stayed with me and every time I have thought about running one I have thought of it and wondered if he is right, but have realised that it is bollocks! It may be right for him but everyone has their own level. As to the journalist you mentioned, well that makes my blood boil! Running is for everyone, not just the elite. I like reading Runners World as it has lots of good info and can b quite inspiring, but sometimes I find it a bit intimidating. That's why I love this thread we have runners of all abilities and we also support each other, without judging. Keep on plodding and enjoying!

Ok, rant over

Had difficult lovely 6 miler yesterday. Man I feel unfit, but enjoyed the second half!

Morning all

Hope you both feel better soon paws and DrNO. The ds's have had stomach bugs all weekend and now I feel nauseous and weak so we are all stuck to the sofa for the day!

Well done on your 6 miler peach

I know what you mean thecoo. I do class myself as a plodder and will be very pleased if I finish the marathon in 4.45 which I know to alot of people seems really slow,but it certainly doesn't seem slow to me when I am running I cringe when people ask me what time I am aiming for...

We are all different and I honestly think that I would not get much faster than I am now, no matter how much training I did. At times I do feel a little conscious of my slow pace but I enjoy running so much, and that's what it is all about at the end of the day! For some people a good marathon will be sub 3 hrs, for others a good marathon will be sub 6, it's all about the personal challenge.

peach put it much more eloquently than me

Thanks peachsmuggler - I know that running is for me and so it doesn't matter, but it's still good to hear it from someone else :)

I do like this thread because everyone seems to be happy with their own goals and is still encouraging to everyone else. I'm sure it's the most tolerant and friendly thread I've come across!

Enjoy your rest day DrNortherner.

Pawsnclaws and hamster hope you both feel better soon.

Get well soon, paws and DrNo! Fortunately, it is not to near to the marathon to affect your performance so make the most of your recovery time to get over it properly.

thecoo and peach - the journalist and Bloke At Party who you mention must be complete and utter KNOBS. What a ridiculous thing to say! I know many runners complain of the charity runners getting in the way of the serious marathoners, but for goodness sakes, surely the more that run the better? The more serious runners could easily avoid the races full of charity runners which are well publicised. Why should everyone have the same level of seriousness to it? They miss the point which is that everyone does it for their own personal reasons and nobody else can run for them or tell them how to do it (other than in an advisory way). Likewise our bodies and biomechanics are all very individual and we each have our own issues which may seem similar initially but will probably have solutions which can be applied in different ways to account for our different builds, lifestyles and preferences. That is what makes it such a bonding sport. It is so individual but we all speak a common language. Plus it is free and helps us keep strong, fit and healthy (both physically and mentally). Does the chap think that the person who takes 5 hours to complete a marathon is any less of a runner than the person who does it in 3? Personally, I think it is MUCH harder to be out there longer and the mental strength required from somebody willing to do that speaks volumes about them! The Less Than 4 Hours Or Not At All chap sounds like a mentally weak and narrow minded idiot.

Hi all, feeling pretty dreadful today, but hoping it's just a snotty cough and stays off my chest. Three and a bit weeks so should be enough time.

Speedwise, as long as I'm "running" all the way I don't see that anyone has the right to turn their nose up. Some people have the talent but not the determination, others (like me) the determination but not the talent. Some gifted people have both! There are plenty of elite races like the Boston marathon for those who object to the plodders. FWIW I've met some really elite sportsmen and women and they have been nothing but encouraging - it's the middlers who tend to be disparaging. How would the sub-4 hourers feel if the sub-3 hourers said they had no right to compete?

I have no hope even with training of getting near Moshi's time, and as for DoYou's - I don't count sub-5 as plodding! But on the day I'll be racing myself and no-one else. It's a personal journey for all of us I think. In my early 30s I was probably capable of just over 4 hours but not now!

Here endeth the lesson!

Morning all,

Well done on getting your 20 milers out of the way doyou and paws. The 20+ mile was always the big scary one to get over at the start of the training schedule! Knowing you can get through that distance should make you feel pretty positive about the full 26 miles though.

the coo, personally I think people who are hard on slow runners are idiots. I remember reading a great quote from a a leading distance runner saying he had the utmost respect for slow runners, for people who take 5 hours or more to do the marathon, as he couldn't imagine how much willpower it must take to be on your feet running for that long. (By the way, 5k in just over half an hour isn't slow at all!)

Welcome to the thread playtheday. Some good advice on here. One other little bit... depending on what phone you've got, you can get running apps which tell you your average speed etc. whilst you're out and about - helps give you a sense of where you might be pushing yourself too far. There's also some good websites like walkjogrun which you can map your run on so you can split it into sections for walking and jogging.

Hope all those struggling with various ailments get over them soon - it's awful not being able to run (sorry to hear hamster - hope you're back on you -paws feet again soon). Rest of you, don't, ahem, run yourselves into the ground!

Had a 12k interval run this morning (6x 1k at 5k pace and 6x 1k recovery) which normally I hate but happily this morning it went quite well. Managed to keep the faster pace at close to 14kph which was pleasing. Personally, I always look forward to the long slow runs, far more than tempo/ interval/ hill runs. There's just something about being able to lose yourself in the long runs...

Happy running y'all!

cestlavie - glad your session went well but am wondering whether you could tweak it to get more benefit? For example, if your recovery is done by distance then you would have spent more time recovering from each interval than the interval itself. Usually, it is suggested recovery is 50-90% of the time it took for the interval itself. So if you took 3 minutes to do 1K, you should choose a recovery time from 90 seconds to something not quite 3 minutes. The fitter you are the shorter you can make the recovery to try and get more out of the session. The deciding factor is whether you then find each subsequent interval too hard to sustain at the same pace, in which case you need to lengthen your recovery so as not to compromise the faster part of the session. Hope that makes sense but I suspect you may be selling yourself a bit short if you can happily run a 10 miler at 8 m/m pace .

hamster - forgot to say, get well soon! But stay around in the meantime as your input is valued on here .

Rest day for me so I had an hour's ballet which stretched everything and definitely helped with my sore shin and tight calf. I love the way it lengthens everything when running seems to shorten everything with the incessant bang-banging of the muscle groups and limbs that accompanies it.

Enjoy the sunshine fellow runners!

Hi all

Sorry for the post the other day - I was fed up of spending my life on the sofa. I am in a far better frame of mind today tho still very of everybody running.... but thanks for all the messages - I will get back out there as soon as I can..

it was cold but sunny this morning as I came home from the school run, and I would have loved to get out there and go through the woods for a run or even a run & walk but it isnt going to happen for at least this week saw gp today and chest infection is still resident and have another week of ABs and steroids and go back to GP next Monday

but I will shuffle over and make room on the sofa for Paws and Doyou .... hope you both recover quickly and get back to your training...

Reading what you've all being doing is good motivation for me too and I've ordered myself a book from amazon with HM training plans n stuff to keep me busy till I can get my trainers on again...

Thanks for the advice Moshi. It has also occurred to me that running equal distance splits isn't the best way of doing things and that maybe they should be say 1k fast, 500m slow to push things a little further. It's just finding the right balance, cos over a 12k run (basically distance to work), that would add another 2 intervals so I wonder whether I'd be able to work as hard over the intervals as a whole or whether the last 2-3 would get slow and loose? Probably a question of working up to it. Good advice though. Thanks.

By the way, thought for people wanting to be inspired - "Born to Run", great book, mainly about barefoot running but actually about the pleasure of running. Sort of book that actually makes you just want to get out and run...!

Thank you so much for the donation hamster, am throwing myself a little pity party today and seeing my total rise has given me a lift .

cestlavie I've tried interval training but can't help feeling I've not done it in a very scientific way, and that I could have got more out of it. Assuming I survive the marathon I'm thinking I need some proper help to carry on, maybe a running club or similar? Will look that book up though, I need inspiration at the moment.

Hamster thanks for the donation I am nearly at my target already. So chuffed.

Paws get well soon. Crap you feel ill

Thanks for the recommendation of the born to run book. I am loving reading about running at the moment - Runners World/Womens running etc. I am such a running crank.

Meant to say a woman who I met at Running Club said she had an amazing book to lend me that would prove very useful. When I got home and took it out of the bag it is Running over 40

I'm only 34!

Thankyou for the donation Hamster that was very kind of you Hope you feel better soon.

I've read Born to Run, loved it! Other good running books are Feet in the Clouds which is about fell running but very inspiring and my personal favourite Just a Little Run Around The World by Rosie Swale-Pope. It's as much a Travelogue as a running book but she ran around the world! It's an amazing story and you can't help but feel inspired by it.

I gave my copy away and it doesn't seem to be on Kindle or I'd be reading it again.

The lurgy seems to be short lived in this house, ds's will be back to school tommorrow and I'm hoping to feel a bit stronger and to get out for my run!

Awww Hamster, sounds rotten. Chin up lass. (you are a lass right? Need to check these days )

cestlavie, Moshi's advice sounds good. Was wondering though, are you in a running club? It's a great way to work on your speed training. Have just ordered that book you have recommended, thanks! Am really excited after Reading the reviews on amazon. Think I need a little inspiration at the moment and this looks like just the thing!

Paws, as above, cannot recommend running clubs enough for getting to grips with speed training. I did a big of speed and hill training on my own, just following plans off t'intertweb but it was only when doing that sort of stuff with running club that I really felt my fitness and speed improve. It's amazing how far you can push yourself when there are other people there. Also they tend to do a variety of training sessions which keeps you on your toes. I found when I did them on my own I would stick to the same ones and put in the least amount of effort I could get away with . But anyway, that's for AFTER the marathon!