runners united: no speed limits (LFDT), all running all out for fun/glory etc

[rhetorician]

12/11/11 - Ashton Court 10K - N4NNY
13/11/11 - Stebbing 10 Mile - bonkers20
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20.11.11- Gosport Half-Marathon- Tulip27
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby, MoshiMoshi
27/11/11 - Bicton Blister (10M) - RunningAllDay
27/11/11 - RNLI Reindeer Run Stirling Uni 10K - Squix
03/12/11 - Jingle Bells 5k Phoenix Park - rhetorician
07/01/12 - Bupa Great Winter Run 5k Holyrood park - bumply
22/01/12 - Four Villages Half Marathon (Helsby) - Fannybanjo
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
04/03/12 - Milton Keynes Half Marathon - pawsnclaws
10/03/12 - Blackpool Half Marathon - DrNortherner, Fannybanjo
11/03/12 - Cambridge Half Marathon - Futurity, Runnerstipple, Cherry (what have I done??)
25/03/12 - Edale Skyline - (21 miles. 4,500 ft climb) Hatwoman
25/03/12- Fleet Half Marathon- DebitheScot
31/03/12 - Olympic Park Run - wiifitmama, runerstipple
01/04/12 - Reading Half-Marathon - RunningAllDay, Tulip27
22/04/12 - VLM: ibbydibby
29/04/12 - Shakespeare Half Marathon - FairyBasslet
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity
09/06/12 - Blenheim Sprint Triathlon - Cherry
29/06/12 - San Francisco Marathon - MoshiMoshi

new thread, peeps; all welcome to chat - new, old, fast, slow, etc

Blimey, 700 posts in less than a week!
I will have to cut down my work hours on the grounds I can't keep up

Re wills discussions, I'm going to put my job hat on and tell you you must all have one! Especially with kids about.

Talking of which, monkey , so not only do you live down the road, your dh works down the road from me, but you are both lawyers also ... Are you actually me? Maybe you're my more exciting alter ego a la brad Pitt from fight club.

Interested to see bras - so the shock absorber then? I am a big fan of my ennelle for my small bod but heaving bosoms. Shock absorbers look more like a crop top right?

I was going to do the shred tonight but was lazy. Jillian will shout at me tomorrow.

sticky sounds fine to me what you're doing. I think any type of speed work is good. I would however add spurts of fast pace into a shorter run for around 90 secs to a min then recover for around 60 secs and do that x 10 or similar as well. Again, there are no "rules" - just do what suits you, keep doing it and you'll notice you find it easier each time. I can now run a 7.45 min mile for 5 miles whereas 2 months ago could only do it for 3.

sticky how long is your race? I'm trying to speed up for a half, so am concentrating on speed endurance rather than short bursts of intense speed. So a 5 mile run would get progressively faster with a good 3 miles at a slightly faster pace.

rhet I think that's an amazing achievement. Times like these I wish I kept a proper training diary.

orange and wheely thanks for the ds information. I'm tempted by the Lego ones?

is m&m about? I need advice about trivial stuff that I bet my male colleagues haven't given a second thought to. master - do you have any idea what I can expect clothing wise at a work meeting in Addis involving NGO types, academics and some govt officials (from a range of govts). I have visions of the women in beautiful, smart, weather appropriate stuff and I have nada remotely smart beyond a single black suit - which just seems heavy and very English. not very Addis in the autumn. I've ordered a couple of grey pencil skirts (really pushing the style boat out ) but that would probably mean no jacket (and I've no idea what top - but I'm sure I can find something in the back of the wardrobe). any idea what I can expect - also weather wise - any idea what it's like at the moment? I know you're not in Ethiopia btw ... but you're nearer than me!

Even short intense speed sessions will help monkey but I agree, for a HM, I too have worked on speed endurance however it all helps. If you want to get faster, it's simple really, we have to go a good part of our training... Faster!!

Hey, I'm starting running club next Wednesday!! Can't wait.

cherry 689 of those are mine about cocks and kinky beds.

rhet that's an impressive total. just looked at mine - 582 km this year; 822 in 2010; 1352 in 2009. I seem to be going in the wrong direction

monkey I think that's half my problem at the mo, I don't have a "race". I have pretensions towards a marathon next year, but the only thing I have now is the 5k park run. GNR so far away it doesn't help me plan! So I looked at an "improve your 5k time" plan, but the runs weren't long enough for me (like LSRs best). So I'm very

Can I ask an ignorant Garmin question - if I had one, would fanny's suggestion be "programmable" so I could see what pace I was doing for that 90 seconds? Am hoping that come the new year I will be a garmin owner!

cherry I wish my life was exciting! Remember the first rule of fight club - there is no fight club?! I'm a retired lawyer now, haven't worked since I had ds2 - there were things I loved about it, but my hours were terrible. DH and I did meet at law school though, all those years back so I guess it was good for something! Did you make it to running club? Very exciting about the possible parkrun in St Albans, we'll have to get a Snorbens Posse going.

oh yes monkey I have (grown up!) friends who say lego on DS is fab. DD1 has a very ancient DS, she loves the Sims, and a very cheap one my parents got which has lots of "old school" games on it (which means she now knows how to play all sorts of things - she was showing me how to play checkers the other night).

I haven't played lego games on a DS (it's all too small and fiddly for me) but loved them on the Xbox !

oh sorry cherry what's that? No Shred? Tut. Tut.

sticky yep, a Garmin would change your whole training. My friend has just got hers and I can't wait for her to see the difference. It's vital for speed work imo. The 110 shows you the pace you are running at but only shows you your average pace when you've finished. That kind of does my head in on longer runs.

sticky it depends on which model you get - you can't do this on the 110 (which I now have) but you can on the 205 (which is winging its way to bonkers as we speak) - you need to make sure you get one that you can set up intervals on. Having said that, you probably could get a rough idea with the 110 just by timing each 90 secs as a lap, and then 60 secs of recovery as a lap. But the 205/305 you can programme to beep manically at you. I wish I could have the features of the 205 with a HR monitor in a watch the size of a 110...

also there are other sports watches out there that will do this for you other than Garmins...

rhet that's what I do but agree, it is annoying but unless I went Moshi hardcore, it does me.

Thanks sticky will look at those now.

the Garmin forerunner 210 will do interval seshes...bugger, should have bought that one. Otherwise you could do your intervals on a treadmill - or run them over a set distance - so find a stretch of road, get a read of distance on your NEW GARMIN that you are getting for chrimbo and then you will be running repeats, rather than timed intervals. It doesn't matter which, just if you are running the same distances then you can see how your pace gets better. If you are running 90 seconds you will gradually be running less distance as you get faster. As fanny says so wisely, very precise timings probably won't matter for any but elite athletes.

whispers (no one look now pls)

Can?t believe how much running chat there is on this thread ? I am using hatwoman?s technique of having word open in one window and scrolling down the web window but even then there?s just toooo much

bonkers - loved the spurious appearance on the Dr who thread

fanny - didn?t realise you were a scouser ? that?s where I?m from originally too and I have family that still live in Formby and Southport

rhet - woo hoo, high fives all round, what a great achievement!

Shock absorber run bras for me too ? I wear two or a sports bra and a crop top - normal bra size is about 32 D or 30E (was 34F last year ? one of the biggest downsides of losing a load of weight) but I wear a 34DD in the shock absorber as I find them a little tight and I like to be able to breathe whilst running

Photos of me in the great Edinburgh run can be found here. There is also a video ? I come round the bend about 5 seconds in - so if anyone fancies doing a bit of gait analysis - go for it - will be interested in your thoughts - my excuse is that it was at the end of a really hard 10K. I think I move up and down too much rather than forward.

look on amazon - polars, timex etc. Almost none of them are GPS though, and involve footpods and other fuckwittery that I can't be arsed with might slow me down...also the more bits the thing has the worse it is, given DD's propensity for putting random things in the cooker (or 'ooven' as she calls it)

yeah, I think I'll hold out for GPS. The nike+ is pretty good once calibrated, but I want the real deal now. at ooven! I used to love DD1's Wicklow accent (even when she was shouting she didn't want to go in the booggy!). DD2 has a wicked Cown - ee Doo - rum tho!

Yay squix watch you go!

Bras - hmmm, boobless since bfeeding 4 kids.

GPS watches - Garmins all the way. Friend working in running shop tries em all out and the Garmin is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of functionality and reliability.

yes she went through a n. Dublin phase, 'can I have some pe-ahs, ple-ahs'. Together with her accomplished glottal stop she is genuinely the world's first Cabra Cockney :o

gps is just fabulous - I love it and it appeals to my inner nerd - I've always loved maps and mapping and this aspect of running gives me a lot of pleasure. However I can now see that even what i think of as hills are mere pimples on the Garmin elevation. Am going to have to seek out some proper gradients (trails in 3 rock mountain - could run them if I took the car to work...)

I think it's almost time for a runner's letter to santa...

rhet - you and your DDs and DP will have to come and stay with us in San Fran and run the hills around there. There are mountains not far away in Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.