runners united: the newly garminified thread for people who love running

[rhetorician]

all welcome: young, old, fast, slow, running for a week or 20 years, on-road, off-road, racing. Add yourself to the list, or just post!

20/08/11 - Frank Duffy 10 mile, Dublin - rhetorician
29/08/11 - Spofforth 10k Trail Race - DrNortherner
03/09/11 - Dingle Half-Marathon - rhetorician
04/09/11 - Great Scottish Run Half-Marathon: EmmaBemma
11/09/11 - Bristol Half- Marathon - thetasigmamum
11/09/11 - Bristol Half- Marathon- N4nny
11/09/11 - Addidas 5K: MoshiMoshi
18/09/11 - GNR: Hamster, Run for fun, popsycal, LaLa, SLF, Fannybanjo
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, Quenelle
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
09/10/11 - Herts 10k - WishIwasCherryMenlove
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
30/10/11 - Nairobi Standard Chartered Half Marathon - M&M
05/11/11 - Glendalough Trail Run - rhetorician
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
22/04/12 - VLM: MoshiMoshi, ibbydibby
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity

fanny bloody hell that is speedy! Well done. Deffo get in that running club. Mine is probably mostly men with a 60/40 split but my dh would never be insecure about me going, he just jpined too

Popping in from Italy to keep up with the correct thread ! Hope all are well.

Welcome newbies - ellieg I think we've met before on a thread ?

Good luck for the race at the weekend rhet

Very hot (35 ISH degrees) and hills that are tricky to walk up. But am pleased to report I have run twice - an almost 4 mile trail run which knackered my feet a bit and a quick 5k tis morning . Too hot for much distance but keeping legs turning. Dont know how masters does it.

WIWCML are you doing the women's sprint or the mixed sprint at Blenheim? I want to enter but haven't plucked up the courage yet.

Need to get those other races entered too.
Meant to go for a tun tonight but it would have been more like a swim so will go tomorrow morning while ds1 is at holiday club and ds2 at childminders. Then Parkrun on Sat.

IwishIwasCherryMenlove you sound far more triathlon orientated than I am! Saying that, I have done two (with 8 years gap) and did the Olympic distance (I did the London Triathlon in, er, London.) I have friends who have done the Blenheim one - they said it was really tough (hilly?)

DebitheScot I had to swim in the Thames and while I am a VERY confident swimmer normally, the open water freaked me out big time! I have swim in seas all over the world blah blah blah but never, a fact that dawned on me as I got into the Thames, in water I could not see in. While all the others were steaming ahead doing crawl, I ended up having a mini panic, being unable to put my head in the water (it's the pushing forward into darkness thing) had someone in a canoe come over to me and then stay with me, chatting while I chatted back doing sidestroke, all the way round. A swim that took me 40 mins in the pool took over an hour but I didn't care - my achievement was to finish, and I managed that!

Before tri training I couldn't even run. I started running fast, got knackered by the end of the block and then thought I was too unfit. A friend then took me out and made me run very slowly, almost jogging on the spot when I got too knackered but NEVER stopping and quite quickly I saw my fitness improve dramatically which spurred me to carry on.

PeachSmuggler I am hoping that running will help with the head clearing. And will be much better than drinking ! I have recently moved house and the one we are in is a building site, so things are stressful and money is tight anyway. So, any head clearing exercises are more than welcome at the moment!

babysaurus that's what I'm scared of. The not being able to see. I panicked in the local pool once when I forgot my goggles because I couldn't see, even though I knew it was very irrational and silly.

Wow fanny! That's amazing!

I've had to resort to joining a gym. :( DH isn't keen on me running round here with the lack of streetlights. I happily run in the dark when i'm go Ireland but it's out in the sticks so I suppose the issues are different. Oh well, induction on Monday. And at least I can do a bit of cross training too and run outside on a saturday and sunday.
Happy running!

I remember Peaches, how you doing? wow 27 weeks.
Fanny dont know where about your are but in a few weeks there is woodford 10k and marple trail 10k. Wow thats fantastic speed,very jeaslous
[wave] back to Quenelle, sorry you had a bad run.
This thread is moving so fast its difficult to keep up.

Orange thanks - I'm in Chester. I love trail running but will probably forgo on trail raving until next year - more chance of me injuring myself!

Badger last year I was a gym member and during the week I'd do interval training on treadmill then LSR on weekend. My average 10 mile runs were 79 mins so my fitness levels were actually better because I taught myself to run faster on the treadmill. Programme in intervals and do 0.5k very fast running and 0.5k recovery. I'd do that for 5-7k and really reaped the benefits. I just couldn't justify the £105 month (that was including the kids) just to run on a treadmill.

Oh lord I've woke up with an awful sore throat and ear ache - I often wonder whether my immune system suffers the more I run..? I always seem to get ill when I ramp up my training and I've ran every day since Saturday (bar Tuesday). I've also pushed myself, even my recovery run was not really recovery... My mum will curse as she thinks I do too much as it is. I'm lying in bed, DH brought me to Ibuprofen so hopefully that'll help. Last think I need 4 weeks away from GNR.

Debi I agree - the thought of swimming in dark water fills me with dread. I salute anyone who attempts it.

Just looked up runmeter but it is for iphones. Does anyone know of an alternative for an android phone?

rainbow go to the market icon on your phone and search for run. I know that mapmyrun has an android app but not sure of any others. I'll have a look and let you know.

Had a look rainbow and there's mapmyrun, runkeeper, runningshoes diary and others. I think mapmyrun run you can then sync it with your computer. Good luck!

Thanks. Just found and downloaded runtastic that looks good but I like the idea of synching it to my pc.

Morning all, just joining in the chorus of praise for fanny I am so in awe of you. You must be part gazelle or something!

Badger, are you also in Ireland? I have an issue around winter running also. We're very rural.

Hello, well my 10k training continues. Today I managed 6k which is my furthest so far. We'll draw a veil over the time (compared to most of you I am a tortoise) but the great thing is it was a hilly route and I managed to run the whole way. I'm really pleased with how I'm doing, my race is in 8 weeks so I am well on target with my training.

I use mapmyrun on my iPhone to record how I'm doing. I don't seem to be going any faster yet but at the moment I'm just focusing on getting to the distance I need. I figure increased speed will follow in time - does that sound sensible?

piffpaffpoff actually, I think most of us on here are not terribly fast - there are a few who are, but really it's the running that matters. I've decided I don't care about it very much in fact :)

fanny I think you have probably just ramped up too fast - just add a little each week and let your body adjust; also, I know I keep saying it, but you need to train your body to run slower for most of the volume you are doing - learning to run at appropriate paces is as demanding as running fast, you know! it takes real discipline. If you were doing 70% of your mileage at 10 min/mi you would be able to do more volume, your endurance would be better and you can still run some of your runs fast!

I still think you should join a running club - does DH not realise that you will be red and sweaty and absolutely at your least attractive :o (well, I would be, but maybe you are actually a gazelle!)

rhet you've nailed it. I need to adjust my speed in order to condition my body better. You see before GNR training, I'd do 3-4 runs a week - all long. I'd do them as quick as I could but I burnt out. Now I need to truly step back on LSR and push it back to a 10 min mile BUT when you've programmed yourself to be speedy its bloody hard! Wise words rhet and I'm going to follow them. Like today I could be doing a "jog" - I'd rather pass but it's probably very important. I need to look a bit harder at my "plan"... Today going to rest though. I'm quite a slight person and not a huge eater - I need to add more carbs into my diet too. Hmm it's tricky this running lark! Oi don't be hard on yourself re times - people can only do what they can manage to do - you've put a hell of a lot of effort in - more than me. Forget times and be proud of your achievement (pot calling kettle black here....!) haha I get sweaty but not red and I'm certainly no gazelle!! 5ft 6 so not a Minnie but legs are not long at all!

piffpaff I always aimed to get mileage up when I started and then worked on speed. So you should be fine.

well quite fanny - I think that the best I could be is just not very fast, and age is not on my side! but I am extremely fit, my endurance is good and I'm hoping that the running streak will deliver results. My ambitions are pretty modest - 25 min 5 k, sub 1 hour 10k, sub 2 hour half. I'm not there yet, by any means! I need to get back to some decent intervals, but the fact of the matter is that I just don't enjoy half killing myself to get to x or y speed - I do enough of that stuff in my everyday life (setting goals, trying to achieve them), so I am trying consciously to make my running the opposite of all that IYSWIM. It doesn't come naturally to me, but I think it's good for me. I've run over 800 miles so far this year and I've not been hurt (or sick, really).

I am not a slight person and probably eat too many carbs...here, have some of mine!

My problem also is that I started running for toning and weight loss after having each of the children so I tend to probably eat under the required amount for the exercise I do. Won't help me after a tough week if I haven't fuelled my body correctly.

We all punish ourselves Rhet when we have goals to meet but half the fun is trying to get there - we may never meet them but at least we damn well try!!!

Wise words from rhet there fanny. Giving your body proper days off to recover is a pretty important part of the training especially cos you sound like me, i.e. you push yourself a bit too hard on each run and don't do your long slow runs slowly or treat your recovery runs as recoveries.

I just had two weeks off running completely cos of being on holiday plus trying to get over a niggling injury and was pretty stressed about how much I've have lost on return, especially with a hilly HM coming up in 3 weeks time. Bizarrely, the time off has made my legs feel far better and stronger than when I went away when they were feeling like lead despite of/ because of a solid few months training. More importantly have SO discovered my running mojo again after feeling like June/ July was a slog - am now really looking forward to each run! Had a lovely tempo run in to work this morning (just under 5 miles at 7.25 min/ mile) and am now having the weekend off...

piffpaff, you'll see it many times on here that although various folk (um, like me) get a little obsessed over times and intervals, the main thing by far is that you enjoy running for it's own sake. Definitely focus on mileage at the moment and don't worry about the speed.

I think it's easy to get hung up on times, but please never be embarrassed to post your times just because some folk on here are faster. The beauty about running is really, the competition is just with yourself. We all praise and encourage everyone on here, regardless of pace or distance. We all know the pain and dedication involved

cestlavie they say you need to rest completely every now and then and each time I've rested the first time I go back out I feel bit shaky but the next time I seem to fly! I am also in awe of your time for your 5 miler - I seriously doubt I could have carried on another 2 miles at the pace I was running last night (similar pace to you) so well done.

hear hear DrNortherner - I agree - we all achieve something each time we run and especially as (as far as I know) we aren't teenagers, the majority of us have children and busy lives. However I feel this thread does spur me on as no-one in my real life runs or has a clue about my times(!) whereas on here you all understand how hard it is! DH is about times and pace so when I'm chuffed about a certain run it's over his head. So as long as we have a nice support network with likeminded people to pat us on our backs - that's what counts. Also bear in mind I've been running for 15 years and believe me - I'm a novice compared to some of you newer runners - we can all learn from each other and I value everyone's advice....

Thanks for the treadmill tips fanny!

No encyclo i'm in England but have a lot of family in Donegal so i'm there every 2/3 months to visit. It's my favourite place in the whole world and I cry like a big baby every time I leave! We're over again in 3 weeks and we can't wait!

cestlavie the 10k I did in June was done after 2 weeks rest and then an easy week after having sore shins. I got a 53 min pb in it.

rhet do your race ambition times match up? Mine are sub 25min 5k, sub 50 10k and 2:15 HM. Looking at yours I'd say if you do manage sub 25 5k you should be able to easily smash 1hr for 10k (my current pbs are 26:35 and 53:08). And maybe I should be aiming higher for HM but it will be my 1st.

I was thinking today while out for a 4 mile run how impressed I am with the milage some of you do. I'll have done 3 runs this week once I've done parkrun tomorrow but it'll only be 12 miles. That's pretty poxy compared with the 25+ a lot of you seem to do. (I have cycled 35 miles too this week)

Donegal is gorgeous Badger I just love it there. OMG the beaches!

Fanny's comment about running originally to lose baby weight reminds of something else I really want to ask you all.

Are you all like racing whippets? I'm not. I carry around a stone I don't need. (5'2" and 9st 12 age 45). I doubt very much I'll ever drop below 9 stone, but I clearly don't need some of this flab, and last time out I really felt I was carrying the extra weight around like a sack of spuds.

Does your running take care of your weight?
Do you find you're eating a specific diet to aid performance?
Are you like me and believe that running 6-7 miles every other day should mean you can eat whatever the Hell you like?

Thoughts?