runner united (we talk almost as fast as we run)

[drivingmisscrazy]

a thread for runners to chat, debate, share tips, triumphs (and the occasional disaster!) - new runners particularly welcome, the only thing that's required is enthusiasm (and a pair of running shoes)

29/05/11 - Stirling R4L: squix
29/05/11 - Plymouth Half Marathon: sungirltan
30/05/11 - BUPA 10K: MoshiMoshi
01/06/11 - BHF Canary Wharf 10K jog: june2009
05/06/11 - Tilty Hilly 5(mile): bonkers20
05/06/11 - RFL 10k: LaLa
08/06/11 - Claver Peak 5 miles: hatwoman
11/06/11 - Clumber Park R4L 10k Hamster
12/06/11 - Bath R4L 5k Dillinger
12/06/11 - Redcar half marathon - DrNortherner
12/06/11 - The Heroes half marathon - Futurity
19/06/11 - Dash for Dads - Pawsnclaws
19/06/11 - Half Ironman UK 70.3 - Twink, MoshiMoshi
25/06/11 - Lewa half marathon Kenya - Masterandmargaritas
26/06/11 - Stortford 10 miles - thecoo
26/06/11 - Colworth half marathon - cestlavie
06/07/11- Yately 10k (not actually booked yet): DebiTheScot
10/07/11 - RFL 5K, Kingston & Kempton Park: Wheelybug
10/07/11 - Felsted 10K: bonkers20
16/07/11 - Phoenix park 5 miler - drivingmisscrazy
17/07/11 - RFL St Albans - Pawsnclaws
17/07/11 - Dundee Half marathon - TheChewyToffeeMum
17/07/11- Chichester (Sprint) Triathlon: DebiTheScot
20/08/11 - Frank Duffy 10 mile, Dublin - drivingmisscrazy
03/09/11 - Dingle Half-Marathon - drivingmisscrazy
11/09/11 - Bristol Half- Marathon - thetasigmamum
18/09/11 - GNR: Hamster, Run for fun, popsycal, LaLa
23/09/11 - Notting Half Marathon: cestlavie
25/09/11 - Edinburgh Urbanathlon: backwardpossom
25/09/11 - Windsor Half Marathon: Doyouthinktheysaurus
02/10/11 - Standalone 10K: Futurity
02/10/11 - Bradford Half Marathon - MrsWednesday
02/10/11 - Baxter's River Ness 10k - backwardpossom
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely

I am a black coffee person too with the odd soya latte thrown in
but regarding baked good I recommend making them yourself, you become aware of what really goes into them, these days I only have croissant very rarely, you should see just how much butter goes into making them, I was astonished, still they were yummy

I make these muffins when we have to travel early and spend the day in the car keeps you going

That sounds like fun notyummy. Actually, I was at home last night whilst DW was out in town and having missed too many runs lately had been wondering about any exercise I could do in the garden that would be worthwhile. If I'd read your post in time I could have gone for that (though have image of DW staggering through the door at midnight and finding me collapsed in the garden rather than curled up in bed).

Fartlek is fun isn't it EmmaBemma - I've been adding it in once a week. It's a bit like running when you're a kid I find. Just run as hard as you can until you can't run any further, get your breath back and then go again. Strangely DS and DD seem to be able to do this all day... fartlek actually appears to be their normal existence!

Good luck DrNo and futurity on this weekend. Getting a bit closer so imagine you're both getting quite excited about it now. Weather is looking not too hot either at this stage.

My HM in June is looking a bit shaky as friend who I was doing it with ("hey, trail HM in middle of summer with no shade sounds like fun, let's do it!") has managed to double book it with a romantic weekend away with his wife... needless to say, HM wasn't the winner! Wondering whether to do it by myself, especially given lack of training over last 3 - 4 weeks. Feel like it'll definitely be a disappointment in trying for a PB but perhaps that's just negative thinking....

Good to hear things were good with your Moshi

Happy running all

notyummy sounds like fun, not. See, I'm just not the kind of runner who is willing to puke in pursuit of my goal...this might be way I'm at the back of the pack.

Made the mistake of putting on the Wrong Socks this morning - my most recent pair of ASICS seem a bit narrower in the toe (or my feet have spread!) and the winter Smartwools are too thick: cue calf pain and a dead foot for most of the run. Must find the thin socks...

ps on the coffee front I am strictly a black coffee/double expresso kind of girl (with the occasional macchiato). But I rarely buy it as DP make me buy myself (yeah, right) a Gaggia for my 40th birthday. It's been worth every penny.

don't drink tea or coffee as I don't like them (simple reason!). I am a hot chocolate addict though which they do at Starbucks and Costa..with cream..and marshmallows...(wonders why I struggle with my weight!?)

Weather is looking ok for Sunday (touch wood). Says "white cloud, 17 degrees, 10mph wind". Don't mind rain to be honest but would rather it didn't.

Am now trying to work out what best to eat over the next few days? Any thoughts welcome!

Hi Futurity I just checked forecast for Redcar on Sunday and it also is predicting 17 degrees. Had negative thoughts last night as my route is a long stretch of 6 miles out and back, mainly on dual carriage way surounded by chemical and steel works. Nice Suddenly thought I wished I had trained on a long 6 mile stretch........keep trying to banish negative thoughts to the back of my mind.

A friend of mine was meant to run a 10 mile road race last nice (his first) and he chickened out at teh last minute as when he turned up it was full of club runners and he got scared. What a wuss

Yes, agree, any advice on nutrition over the next few days much appreciated. Please let it contain Peanut butter..........

Oh and I never drink coffee. Am a total tea fiend, but not these poncy teas that seem to be all the rage now a days. I liek a good old cup of strong Yorkshire tea.

DrNo I am also primarily a tea drinker - I probably have one cup of coffee a day. I drink the best tea in the world, Barry's Gold Blend. Irish people have been known to beg for charity parcels with tea-bags in when in exile...I will be packing a little ziplock bag of these when we go to France in a couple of weeks. One of the many reasons I hooked up with DP is on account of her ability to make a fine cup of tea :o

I don't really get coffee shops. £2.50 for a warm coffee that tastes no better than 1 I could make myself that would also be hot. I hate when they come out warm, bleugh.
And tea, don't get me started on that! A teabag costs no more than a penny and they charge £2+ for that too. And it's never as nice as my tea. So if I am in Starbucks I'll always have coffee as for some reason I think it's better value for money but then I never enjoy it as much as a cup of tea I'd made myself.

I made caramel shortbread the other day and for the first time thought about what I was putting in it. Shortbread- lots of butter and lots of sugar. Caramel- lots of butter and lots of sugar. Chocolate- lots of sugar.
Tastes amazing though

Poncy tea drinker here (the shame - I am in danger of being kicked out of Yorkshire). I drink gallons of white tea, which is like green tea but less bitter.

Moshi, great news the op went well, I hope she is recovering well too. It's hard seeing people you love in pain, hooked up to machines - when I've been in that situation I tried to focus on the face and ignore the surroundings. I hope you are doing ok too, it's hard work being the supportive one.x

DrNo and Futurity - not long to go now! I am excited for you

In the last week before my race I tried to eat a bit more pasta than normal, stayed off the alcohol, and stayed away from anything that I hadn't eaten before (all tips gleaned from Marathon Talk and the Pre-London threads on here). On race day I had my usual breakfast (porridge and toast) plus an energy bar, which I'd had on one of my long runs. Drink plenty of water the day before but you don't need to go mad. Peanut butter should feature heavily, I'm sure (also a fan!).

I love coffee shops. Not sure why given I only drink black coffee so don't need any of their fancy ways. I do limit myself to 1 strong one a day. NEVER instant. I tend to drink Redbush otherwise, not particularly keen on normal tea although I do drink it if RB not on offer.

Those muffins look lovely SFX

5 miles on the treadmill this morning - I think a tempo session although confused as to what that is. This is what I did:

2K warm up
0.5K at 11KPh
0.5 at 11.5 KPH
2K at 12 KPH
1K at 11.5KPH
1K at 11
1K warm down

Where 12KpH is my hopeful racepace.

Does this sound right or am I barking up on th e wrong tree.

Oh and what are fartleks ? Like speed sessions but worse ?

And I think I might be turning into a proper runner at last - I am finally embarassed about my bright shiny new shoes and want to get them dirty .

I think fartlek translates as speedplay and I always take it as a less structured way of introducing speed into runs
like oh tree run fast as I can until I get there, pant pant recover
shiny thing up ahead run as as fast as poss and so on

wheely my current shoes were pristine due to the dry weather until the IHMOID put paid to that...the last pair were girly pink, so I made sure to plonk them in puddles asap.

DP and I v. excited - long story, but there's a farm that's been in the family for 300 years in the south (Blackwater Valley, beautiful). After her father died, it passed to her mother - the land is leased but the house has been empty for a few years. DP loves this place, so we have finally decided to make the house habitable for weekends and holidays away - it's very basic (there is now running water and a loo in the house, but that's a relatively recent development) and needs a clear-out, a good clean and some basic maintenance. There's a huge fireplace (originally used for cooking too) and we're going to put a wood-burning stove in. Eventually we'd like to put the sleeping loft back in, but for now, going to get furniture and bits from freecycle. The family can use it - and friends (which includes you lot - it's on a ferocious hill :o but in beautiful country for running). We've no capital really which is a shame, so the aim is to make it comfy, warm, possible to cook and wash. Space outside for barbecues, kids to run free and climb trees; eventually I want to get some beehives. It would all be much easier if we had about 10k, but we don't. Mind you, our hol to France for a week is going to cost us about 2k, so we'll recoup our money. So excited - it's about 2.5 hours drive from Dublin, so perfectly practical for a weekend.

sorry - that was very long!

That sounds very exciting driving. I'd love a holiday house... I have also coveted a wood burning stove for years and have finally had one installed in our house... although we had it put in during the warmest March for years and we haven't had call to use it yet so it is as pristine as my running shoes . Less white though.

Fartleks sound a good option for doing speed training outside rather than having to work out distances/speeds etc - that's far easier on the treadmill (after 2 years running on a treadmill I am finally beginning to see their advantages).

Driving sounds lovely, what a great project to undertake - something you can do at you own pace and where you know that the outcome will be something to love and cherish for years to come.

I probably have an espresso a day either straight or in a capuccino, sometimes double and rarely after 3 or I'll not sleep. I drink gallons of tea - but tends to be poncey tea - peppermint, camomile, earl grey, love Red Bush (when I ask for Red Bush DH starts acting like a 9 year old boy and bursts into giggles!) but my favourite is also Barry Tea - although I prefer the normal as I find the gold too intense. It really is a tea of beauty. Our lovely baby sitter asks for nothing but a cup of Barry when she babysits. Have only found one outlet in Edinburgh though. DH always teases me as I hide it when we have people to stay (most of my friends and family drink more tea than I do) as it is a thing to be appreciated. I also never take milk in tea.

DH is from an Italian background and has very strict coffee requirements and doesn't really understand my very precise tea requirements.

Hi all, just managed to squeeze in 6 miles today between my dad taking ds3 out and having to get to school for ds1's swimming gala - but had to do it at the gym as the rain today was ferocious. The gym was boiling hot, so I got off the treadmill looking like someone had thrown a bucket of water down me. May as well have gone out!

Made it to the swimming gala in time, ds1 loves the water but isn't the best swimmer. He was OK on the front crawl but struggled with breaststroke, seriously he looked like he was about to drown. I was on the edge of my seat ready to jump in and save him! But he made it to the end (last in his heat), and his lovely PE teacher (very macho Kiwi called - honestly - Kylie) was cheering him on and high-fived him. God loves a tryer!

driving I'm super-jealous - sounds lovely. Your dd and dd/ds to be are going to grow up with such lovely memories. My nan and granddad had a very modest mobile home in Dorset when I was little - no running water/no toilet - but we had the happiest times there.

To continue the tea theme - I love peppermint/camomile/green tea, but don't like anything fruity. It's quite rare for me to have "proper" tea but if I do I have it black. I have some Russian friends who make the most lovely tea, black with lemon. I don't know what they do with it but it always tastes better than mine.

For pre-race food you can't beat a peanut butter bagel. Just delicious and full of carbs and protein.

driving that sounds brilliant :)

I'm away to the club - don't know what they've got in store for us tonight... might be broken when I get back!

well it's been a bit of a drag to be honest - no-one really looking after it, all of us with small dcs, DP's mum trying to keep things together. I think we all assumed it would be sold, and if we'd done that back in 2003-4 we would have made a killing. But then the asset is gone and now there's another generation who have the place in their DNA. My sense is that in their lifetimes agricultural land will be priceless and we need to teach them how to use it (not that I know this myself, really).

Anyway, as I say, great for hillwork (the summer DP's dad died I spent a lot of time running up the hill that is the housefield - mostly chasing cows, rather than training, but the effect was the same!)

keeping on trucking with my running - slowing down my easy pace (most of you would choke on your peanut bagels if you realised what I was slowing down from) and speeding up the rest. I think I need to differentiate more and make my easy pace genuinely easy. This has the benefit of enabling more volume. We'll see. My ambitions are pretty modest. DP and I off out for a meal in our local, and I at least shall sample some fine Irish-brewed beers...

driving it sounds idylic. Hope you get to spend many a happy time there

I was meant to run 3 miles today, buy popped to see my best friend who recently had a baby and I stayed longer than I meant too. Now cooking dinner waiting for dh and ds to return from footie training. Don't work Fridays but can't fit a run in as spending the day in a spa with a friend (ooh get me) then off to the theatre in the evening.

I keep pushing those negative thoughts to the back of my mind. I can run 13 miles

thanks for the link about tabata training notyummy, i do this regularly with star jumps, press ups, crunches, that type of thing. I love it :)

my new trainer noticed my knees kinda crunch (i never noticed that before) and told me he had the same thing, turned out to be soft cartilage and that running long distances/ skipping/ jumping may not be the best thing for me long term all the things i enjoy doing!!! (he eventually had to have an operation).
bit of a downer. still doing my hm in sept though, we'll see after that.

driving that's a lot of running. i did 5k yesterday in around 30 minutes (forgot to switch on imapmyrun and didn't even look at the time properly)
i only do a couple of runs a week at the moment, planning on joining the gym's running club next week, it's only been running about a month or so, i'm not sure how popular it is.

time to get my little terror angel to bed!

O M G. Just got an email from TFM radio - they want to interview me about my reasons for running on Sunday.......eek!!!

DrNo - you are the perfect person to ask - you have lots of different things motivating you, and it will be a great chance to get across your very obvious love of the sport, and to talk about your dad and how he inspires you! GO for it. (oh, and by the way, you can run 13 miles, too, 13.1 to be precise)

DrNo - erk! Are you going to do the interview? And yes, you CAN run 13 miles. You'll be nice and refreshed for the weekend after your spa day.

The farm sounds beautiful, drivingmisscrazy - what an exciting project. And beehives! Wow. I love bees (whilst being simultaneously terrified of them - not a great combination)

tabata training sounds really interesting notyummy (by interesting I mean, of course, horrific - though am loving cestlavie's use of the word 'fun') - there's a long straight road along the seafront near me that could be ideally suited to a spot of tabata when I get back from a shorter run. Hope I don't puke.

wheelybug - my interpretation of fartlek is pretty much as sfxmum says - pick a spot, run as fast as you can towards it, jog for as long as it takes to recover, repeat until pain.

well done to your son, pawsnclaws. My daughter is just starting swimming lessons. She can't do any proper strokes yet, though she does manage to propel herself forward for a few feet each time. She loves it though and has got so much more confident in the water, it's great to see.

I drink both tea and coffee, fact fans! All sorts of tea (though I now can't bear Red Bush, even the smell triggers strong sense memories of morning sickness in my last pregnancy) and coffee made in my stovetop espresso pot, which makes the best I've tasted at home.

wheelie I find myself spending absolutely ages calculating laps and speed This is what happens in my head, calculator in hand... "So if I do 5 kms in 30 mintes, that's 1 km per minute, what's that in miles ah yeah 9.6, no hang on, yes yes 9.6 miles per minute... so is that, yes, that's 10km per hour I think, is it? yes yes that's right, (he usually tells me I should be doing some work instead ;)"
So I ran at 10kph when I did 5k yesterday. It really should NOT have taken me that long to figure this out, should it .
How long is your race? The longer it is the slower you should (?) go I think (still fairly new at this running thing myself tbh!?)

time for dinner...