Runners united: I run, I do running, I am a runner

[DebiTheScot]

We've run out of room on the other thread so I hope you don't mind me starting the new one.
This thread is for runners to share running stories and chat about life in general too. Anyone with running shoes welcome!

Our latest race list is below. Feel free to add or remove races from it.

06/07/11- Yately 10k: 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
24/07/11 - Harrogate town centre 10k - DrNortherner
20/08/11 - Frank Duffy 10 mile, Dublin - drivingmisscrazy
03/09/11 - Dingle Half-Marathon - drivingmisscrazy
11/09/11 - Bristol Half- Marathon - thetasigmamum
11/09/11 - Bristol Half- Marathon- N4nny
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
25/09/11 - London Half Marathon Run to the beat: June2009
25/09/11 - New Forest Half Marathon: MoshiMoshi
02/10/11 - Standalone 10K: Futurity
02/10/11 - Bradford Half Marathon - MrsWednesday
02/10/11 - Baxter's River Ness 10k - backwardpossom
02/10/11 - The Run, Northampton - YeahThatsTheBadger
09/10/11 - Great Eastern Run, Peterborough - Futurity
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity

Naught naughty sciencebint. You will have to make up for it next week! Enjoy the festival! Weather looks good for it.

I've just run my furthest yet 7 miles I'm so pleased still slow but I did it

Mile 1: 11:45
Mile 2: 11:41
Mile 3: 11:50
Mile 4: 12:09
Mile 5: 11:55
Mile 6: 12:27
Mile 7: 12:31

Well done N4NNY!! dont worry about the times, once you've got your endurance up you can work on getting faster

Ohhhh Chewy that banana milkshake Sounds lovely - may well try that after next LSR

Well I managed to do 3 miles before - quite pleased with time considering on tail end of cold and had antibiotics this week - 23mins 29 secs. slower than usual but surprised myself as thought I'd be awful.

Thank fannybanjo I try not to think too much about times but it's hard especially when you see the fantastic times of people on here. I am really pleased with myself tonight though for completing my aim of 7 miles how on earth I'm gonna do 13.1 though I don't know but I said last week when I did 5 miles I dont know how I'm gonna do 7 mile but somehow I did so somehow I WILL do 13.1

Well done N4NNY! If you can do 7 in training doing 13.1 in a race will be a breeze- trust me! You should be really proud of yourself. I hope you are fueling up now. Must do it within 30 mins of running to get maximum amount of carbs in and top up your glycogen levels.

fanny - nice paced 3 miles! Sometimes we surprise ourselves when we least expect a decent run. That is the nice thing about running!

Thank you moshi it's good to know it will be a breeze I'm panicing a little but I do have 6 more weeks to train so still lots of time to add mile on in training.

I'm doing parkrun in Andover this weekend expecting a PB because it's a flat course my "home" park run has a long steep hill for the first 2.5k which most people including me end up walking some

N4NNY - with 6 weeks to go to reach the distance you have plenty of time to make it a breeze on race day! Good luck at your parkrun!

Can anyone read my little plan and tell me if it's do-able please? I've got my 10k in 9 weeks and i'm planning on increasing my distance by about half a mile every week. I currently run 5k fairly comfortably and did just under 7k on tuesday. I'm planning on increasing my distance on one run every week, doing some speed stuff once a week and one normal run which will include some hills. I went out last night for my usual run and included a big hill which I ran up and down 3 times.
So, is this achieveable? I don't want to just finish this, I want to run it and finish in a decent time so i'm thinking I can do it if I can get up to 11k-12k in training together with speed and hills work.

There is a children's 1k race at the same time and ds, nearly 4, has decided he wants to do it (i think the medal and goody bag are his motivation!) so i've entered him and he is so excited!

Sounds fine to me Badger. An alternative to increasing by regular increments would be to increase your long run by slightly more for 3-4 weeks then drop your mileage back for 1 week to consolidate before increasing again. You should probably also avoid doing more than about 8k for your last long run the week before the race (tapering).

I am feeling all virtuous today. Last night I did 2.4 miles concentrating on landing on my forefoot. And this morning I did it again (taking advantage of DH being around before he went of to ogle at the women golfers at the Open today). It feels very different to my usual gait - much lighter and quieter and I have to engage my core muscles more. Now my calves are feeling quite tight.

chewy - forefoot running does engage the calves quite a lot more so make sure you do plenty of stretching that also engages the soleus muscles. Otherwise you can get knock on shin strain (ie shin splints!) from the tightness (speaking from experience here as a forefoot/midfoot runner!)

Hi all. I'm registered for tomorrow morning's parkrun. Am very much looking forward to it.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Hi All

Just a quick pop in as meant to be going off to the inlaws for the weekend for a big do. But suddenly decided to registerour passport details for our hols in 2 weeks as I just remembered I hadto do it so meant to be dfoing that rather than MN-ing !

Those working up to 10K - I used the bupa 10K plan - picked it up a few weeks in and it did the trick.

Well done N4NNY !

After Sunday's horrible run I've had a great running week - 5m in gym on monday, 5miles out on Wednesday and it was a good speed (41 mins) nd I had something left at the end to really speed up in the last mile (usually go off fast andslow down ) . Then just over 8 this morning - prob averaged 8.5 mins mile and again had something left to speed up in the last mile. Themain issue was how busy the roads were so I kept having to stop to let cars go by. So, 18 miles since Monday (plus the 7 on sunday) and I hope to get out sunday too (hnagover permitting).

Feels good after a few weeks of not feeling good about running !! Considering doing 10 miles next w/e. It would psychologically be good to get through 10 miles before we go to italyfor 2 weeks where I'm expecting it to be too hot for any serious running.

Have good weekends all ! Science - Its SFX who is also going to Bestival.

Just popping in. Work has been somewhat 24/7 lately but have managed to fit in a few good runs here and there all the same.

Off on holiday for a couple of weeks tomorrow (hoorah!). Not sure how much running I'll be able to fit in as am glamping for the second half and have barely seen DW or the kids for the last couple of weeks so disappearing off on 10 mile runs for the first half in Portugal may not be received too enthusiastically...

Next HM is only 7 weeks away so think training might be screwed for that but to be honest, think my legs could use some downtime regardless - I've been fairly lucky with injury but the flipside is that they've been beating the pavements fairly non-stop for the last year.

Sounds like people are enjoying some good running out there which is lovely to hear. Enjoy it all and happy running!

great times there wheely - puts my weedy efforts into perspective. Great job of the 7 miles upthread, too. I have done far too few long runs, and I've 5 weeks to my half - but planning on churning out a few longish ones over the next 4 weeks...not sure about the 2:15 goal, but will give it a go. July has been a mess, running wise - work, family, lots of time away etc etc, but have managed to do around 20 miles a week, as opposed to my usual 25-30. Hoping for a good month mileage wise in August, Sept and Oct.

Does anyone know how I should train for the 15k distance? I was thinking of just following part of a half marathon plan; think I am going to do the Dublin half on september 24th, just for the laugh.

cestlavie I bet you will surprise yourself in that half (that's what I am telling myself about mine ha ha ha) - have a great holiday - and you too wheely. Am a bit because mine is over and all I have ahead is work, and then work + teaching, and then work + teaching + newborn...(yes, I know she'll be gorgeous etc etc but you know what I mean)

hello newbies -( just in case you think i am running half marathons while 5 months pregnant, it's my DP who is up the duff.)

Hey nice to see you cest - manic here too ? hope you enjoy your hols and I?m sure you?ll manage a half in 7 weeks.

wheely sounds like a good run ? how are you feeling about the Great South? Seems like ages ago I booked it. I?m following sort of the same plan I did for the ½ - probably not as many miles but that has the added bonus of going a bit faster. I know I can do it ? it?s doing it at a decent speed that?s the challenge. We?re off to Italy too ? down to the south for 2 weeks can?t wait. I?ve bought the 30 day shred to take with me (I might get the odd run in too) but I?ve still not been brave enough to take it out the package yet.
N4NNY ? good luck at the Park run ? I did it about 3 months ago and loved it - really well organised. Must do it again sometime but things keep cropping up on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning which means I shift my long run to the Sat.

Had a great early morning run yesterday - out at my usual 6 am - 4 miles ? 10:30 warm up, 8:45 2nd mile, 9:05 third mile and 8:11 4th mile ? was very impressed at myself doing 2 x sub 9 min miles ? particularly at that time in the morning ? I managed to sustain 7:30 min miles for a wee bit too (ok it was going down hill but hey . I also spent the last mile making a conscious effort to pick my knees up ? DH saw me setting off the other day and said it looks like I was dragging my legs a bit so I thought I?d see what happened and it seemed to work. Either long slow 10 miles tomorrow or a 7 ish tempo run. Will see how I feel and what the weather?s like.

Oh and I realised that my ???s in my Gruffalo post the other night were correct after all? brain was like mush after a long week ? sad thing was I realised I was right after all doing dynamic lunges warming up at 6am the following morning.

Good running over the weekend.

Hello, do you mind me butting in on your chat to ask a question?

I am an evening runner (10-12km) but will be running my first Parkrun tomorrow morning (9am, 5km). Will I need to eat breakfast beforehand, do you think? I've never run in the morning before, and have no clue

Thank you!

Welcome Dreams, not necesarilly. Fuel wise you'll be fine as your glycogen stores will do you fine for a 5k. You might find performance wise that you may be the kind of runner who does better with something to eat, but for your first one, you can do without and see how you go. In saying that, if you are up and feeling hungry then you could have a banana or a bagel maybe.

Good luck, hope you enjoy it!!

Thank you - I will let you know!

Hi Dreams think people differ in their requirements to eat before running in the morning - last time I ran before breakfast, I felt as if I was "running on empty". I find that (fingers crossed) I can eat my usual breakfast of toast and cereal at about 7.30am (no later) and that is ok for parkrun at 9am.

As peach says it may be advisable to have a banana at least...

Also hoping to make it to parkrun tomorrow, but only just home from meeting in London, so a bit jaded and dehydrated. Had v good session at running club last night though.

Hi dreams, when I run in the mornings I try to have something light and quick - some dried fruit to give me some quick sugar or something easily digestible from the fruit bowl - I also have to make a conscious effort to make sure I drink water before I go too. Hope you enjoy the parkrun

Good luck and have fun to everyone doing parkrun today.

I just realise that I probably could have found myself a parkrun for this morning...what is it about my mother? she knows I almost never get a lie in, so what does she do? starts blasting incredibly loud classical music at about 7am!!

Oh well, at least now I am up and ready to run in the early morning sun. Grrr

I had a lovely run (not a parkrun though)..it was 4.5 miles and was just so easy .don't mean that in a showing off way...I just didn't have the voice in my head telling me to stop! I ran at a really good pace, went off road through a forest that was fun and barely looked at my Garmin...all in all it was very pleasant (sighs in a contented way as doesn't happen very often!)

Hello again

The parkrun was amazing. 250 people and a wonderful atmosphere. I didn't eat, but drank lots, and felt fine. Took it at a fairly slow pace, though, so may be different next week when (if) I push forward a bit.

Thanks for your advice :)

Hi, can I join you? I finished the c25k programme tonight so think I can safely call myself a runner now! I ran 5 km for the first time tonight in 34.5 minutes. My aim next is to bring the time down to 30 minutes and then star ncreasing the distance.

So my first question to you all is what is the difference between a hill and an incline? I often read on here about people running hills. I am in a not too hilly part of London, but we do have lots of what I would call inclines. They are bloody hard work and I would love to call them hills! So, how do you define it?