Running goals, motivation and chat 2025

[Jumbojem]

All welcome! A place to share or goals and achievements and to motivate each other along the way.
A virtual mumsnet run club perhaps?

I have been on a half mara chat group the last few years but currently not training for one. So, my 2025 goals are:
Now until spring - get fitter for a 15 mile hilly trail run event in April.
Summer - try for a 5k PB, try to get faster?
Autumn - maybe do a half mara? Cross Country again ( I am slow and old but love this).

Who else wants to join me?

@Starlightstargazer not for long runs, as I go as slow as I can and eat snacks, so enjoy them - but very definitely get the fear when I have a tempo/speed/fartlek on the schedule!

@OhOneOhTwoOhThree congratulations! I do more trail races than road precisely because of the walking thrown in 😅

@EasternStandard and @LaPalmaLlama yay to sunny runs!

@BogRollBOGOF whenever I have a speed session scheduled for the week before my period, I always just mentally add about a minute to whatever pace I'm supposed to hit. Target pace just isn't going to happen. I've been taking a course of probiotics and magnesium for hormones/tiredness/poor sleep/poor diet and I think it's done me some good.

I did "this weekend's" long run this morning. DH and I had a trip out for a picnic and wildlife-spotting yesterday and I neither wanted to get up early and run in -2 or go once we'd got home at four-ish (so potentially getting dark at the end of my run by the time I'd actually got out). Fortunately it was a deload week, so only 10k. Theoretically, I should be able to do my three runs for this week on Weds, Fri and Sun, but I might skip my second 10k easy run if I or my legs are feeling tired.

treadmill is just sooo booooooooring

Hats off to you! I think know I'm weird cause I don't mind the treadmill, but I am peri now and can't stick the overheating these days.

@BogRollBOGOF I hear you! I had a threshold run on my plan and it was hard work to just run let alone put any pace. Somehow at 50 the luteal phase is worse than in my younger years, is it because I have less energy generally so its more noticeable? Thankfully period arrived day before this weekends XC, but portaloos and queues are bad enough but when period needs are added in its a challenge!
Race was glorious in terms of weather and scenery but oh wow I was slow, and we had a team photo and I just look huge in a group of otherwise athletic looking women. Determined to start next season fitter and faster and preferably a bit less fat. There is a lady who I usually finished close to but over the months I've gone backwards and she's got faster, can't even claim its age as she's older!
In more positive news i got a wonderful trail run in on Friday, plenty of hills, not too muddy and just over 7 miles. Just pottering about following new paths to see where they go.

Glad everyone has been out and enjoying the sunshine. I managed 8.5 miles yesterday - the longest I've done since injury. It was glorious running along the Embankment in the sunshine although I do find each time I run there are more and more irresponsibly ridden ebikes to avoid.

Just been out for 4 miles - I decided to mix up my usual intervals and run flat out for 2 minutes and walk briskly for 1 minute, which meant that I was half a minute a mile faster than usual. I couldn't have kept it up for many more miles, but was fun to push myself on a short run.

My trail run was mostly on paths, apart from a mile long diversion around a muddy field to make up the distance. Seems like a few runners missed the turn (including DH, who was following the runner ahead of him) and instead of being cross with themselves have been quite rude to the organisers. Completely uncalled for at a small local event staffed by volunteers.

I know we talked about on the last HM thread but any tips on heart rate zones?Strava thanks I'm mostly running in zones 2 and 3, while Garmin thinks I'm in zone 5. Strava thinks my max HR is 190 bpm, which is a lot more than 220 minus my age which Garmin uses.

Zones 2-3 sound about right (and desirable) for general running. I only really hit zone 5 when sprinting after a hard parkrun/ race.

My max heart rate is 6-8 beats more than 220- age would suggest. Not really sure if resting heart rate is a factor (mines normally 47-48)

What I have trouble with is with low impact things like walking barely even getting to zone 1 unless I'm power walking uphill

@OhOneOhTwoOhThree Garmin sounds like it's putting you in way too high a zone. You can manually adjust the heart rate zones in the app. I think there are also some things you can do to get it to personalise your zones but I can't remember what now. Do you wear your watch all the time or only when exercising? I wear mine all the time so it will know my usual heart rate range/resting HR.
I can't get into zone 1 with just walking either, and even on sprint intervals I'm struggling to get very far into zone 5. But they is something I need to work on!

My Garmin also over estimates my zones. I did a short and very gentle 3k jog yesterday as a shake out run and Garmin said I was working at threshold.......

How do you actually find/ approximate your max heart rate other than the 220-age which cant be true or I'd have died during Park run? 😂

@LaPalmaLlama I just Googled a heart rate zone calculator and then put my details into a few to check they all came out the same and then adjusted my zones on my watch.

Also, as people pointed out on the spring HM thread, optical HR wrist watches aren't the most accurate, so not too worry about being a bit off.

My zone 2 was originally down as under 120 bpm - sitting working at my desk I'm at 90! I don't even get below 80 doing yogic breathing.

I tweaked mine on Garmin. It's not in a very intuitive place through settings.
Click on your watch picture at the top and go into User Profile and it's hiding in there.

I think it originally wanted me to be at 120bpm before hitting any kind of recognition of exercise which given that that's well over double my resting heartrate is surely some kind of benefit.

Yoga isn't exercise. Apparently. That rarely gets above 80bpm 😂

I managed the 16 miles last Sunday although I was almost on my hands and knees over the last couple of kms. I’m so slow! It took me 3 hours 14 minutes. Felt good until about 2hrs 15 and thought ‘yay fab’ but it didn’t last!
well done everyone for getting out there x

Hello! Jumbojem invited me over here from a yoga thread. I’m just starting to get back into running solo after five years of only running with my dog (and then a second dog more recently). He’s a retired racing greyhound and was really, really into running when I got him but he’s getting old now and though his heart is still in it, his legs aren’t. Feels like the end of an era for both of us!

Anyway, I'm trying to get some strength and stamina back slowly as it’s a long while since I ran without stopping to sniff and pee on everything (mostly him, sometimes me), but knocked out my farthest run in a while this morning, a lovely sunny 8k. I live on the edge of the peaks so want to get fit enough to join the local fell runners club. My DP has recently joined and started racing which he’s loving. There’s a race in the next village over at the end of July so my first aim is to do that. It’s a short one and part of a village fete so should be fun and end in a well deserved hot dog.

@Fibrous welcome to the thread and good luck training for your race. Always good when there's food at the end.

@Starlightstargazer well done on your 16 miler. what's on the menu this weekend?

Thx for the thoughts on heart rate. Technically my max should be around 170 but even when I'm running at quite a relaxed pace it can get close to that- conversely my resting heart rate is very low (40's, which is mainly genetic I think as my DF is similar). I guess what I'm asking is, is there a real life test you can do (like run a mile as fast as you can and measure HR) which is considered a fairly accurate way of ascertaining your "real" max HR? Or maybe I should not worry too much and just run by feel.

Bag is packed with all the essentials (jelly snakes, canned coffee) for my race tomorrow - quite looking forward to it now although the distance is going to be a test. Will be fairly dry underfoot hopefully as we haven't had any rain this week.

@Fibrous welcome! End of July for the first race sounds like a good goal to aim for.
@LaPalmaLlama how did the race go? Was it trail as you mention ground conditions?

My usual running partner has been recovering from an operation and I've really missed casual runs with company. So I braved asking someone from my XC group if she wanted to go for a trail run. She was equally pleased to have someone to run with and we did 7.5 miles through the woods and back on the coast path. Weather was lovely. I'm slower than her though so post the trail run I'm going to do a 5k plan to build some speed, if I can!
Hope everyone else has managed to get out and enjoy this lovely sunshine.

Such glorious weather here today, managed 16k yesterday. There was a local 10k this morning which imm glad I didn’t run because it was so warm! I did go along to cheer though

have a question for you ladies. My birthday is coming up and with the marathon the plan for the autumn imm just wondering what kind of watches you use. I am using a pretty ancient series 3 Apple Watch which I love generally however I don’t feel especially over shorter distances it’s particularly accurate for pace. I also can’t really easily record split times.

choices are either upgrading to a much newer Apple Watch if the trackers are better, or keeping what I have but getting a garmin or similar for running specifically. I’ve had (cheaper) fit bits in the past and never been very impressed. At least the Apple Watch is pretty bombproof. I just think it’s likely that things have moved on in the five years since I had it!l

@Jumbojem it was good thx and yes, trail. . Not as scenic as I’d hoped- quite a lot of running around the edges of arable/ livestock fields- but it was a fast course with v few bottlenecks and well organised. I placed 3rd in the veterans which was a nice surprise as I basically ran the last 3k on fumes- not enough distance specific training so by 20k my legs were like “um can we stop now please?” And then there was an absolutely massive long and rocky hill that I had to get over 🤣. The woman who won the veterans ran it in 1:55 which seems insanely fast for 24k over trail- kudos to her! She was in the 50-59 category! Life goals!

well done @LaPalmaLlama

I cheered on my teens today from the injury bench.
one with a respectable 53 min the other 59 (but faster than the pe teacher). both didn't really train apart from being generally active.

Garmin, always Garmin! I currently have a Fenix 7 which is brilliant, gives me alllll the stats I need including tracking my sleep and giving suggested runs which it will base on the race you're training for if you want it to. The battery is fab, I charge it about every 10 - 14 days, the screen is big enough to see a map. I luffs it.

I've previously had a Forerunner and a Fenix 6 they are great as well.

That’s really helpful thank you

I expect a garmin is what i want. Can I ask two very silly questions

1. does they talk to Strava?
2. presumably they have their own app which gives you lots of data too
3. can you manage your music eg via Spotify in it? My Apple Watch really struggles with this if I’m running at the same time

sorry three questions

I have a Coros Vertix which is great but tbh is overkill for what I use it for. I got it when I was doing a lot of really long races and wanted amazing battery life. I had a Suunto before that which was good but their back end/ app was not that good so I just used to bounce the data to Strava.

Thanks for all the heart rate advice. Strava has my max heart rate at 190 BPM (I am closer to 60 than 30, so that's def not 220-age). I'm going to try to find some time to look into it more this week. My resting heart rate is low 50s.

Well done @LaPalmaLlama! Super stuff. I love a bit of trail but a rocky hill sounds scary.

Welcome @Fibrous. I fell off the yoga thread, I should get back on it - I'm still practicing every day with Adriene.

@Jumbojem how nice to find a running partner. I'm doing all my runs solo just now, but an old friend is joining my workplace soon so we will start to run/walk/chat our way around the park after work.

@bloodredfeaturewall hope your injury clears up soon.

@Clearinguptheclutter I've only ever had garmin watches and have been very happy over the years - you can set it up to sync to Strava. I have a forerunner 45, my only regret is not buying a swimming watch when I got last year. At the time the extra £100 felt like an extravagance but I wish I'd spent the money. I use my phone for music but I think you can use the garmin as well (have just never tried).

10 slow and mostly trail miles for me today - and a. good session with the massage gun afterwards.

Have a good week everyone.

@Clearinguptheclutter

Yes it talks to Strava
Garmin's app is Connect, captures all the stats, you can add races to the calendar and create your own workouts/training runs. Also you can search for routes and download the maps
You can manage music on it but I don't, I use my phone

I have an apple watch (couple years old) that I've been using to sync up to strava but now I'm running a bit more enthusiastically I've dug my old forerunner out of the cupboard. I think Garmin is better for running and apple is good for life and music. I am actually thinking of wearing both on a run - maybe one on each wrist so i look less like a bellend - and using the apple for music and the garmin for pacing etc. My near vision is bad these days and I don't wear my glasses on runs so the less looking at watches I do the better, so having one for each function is easier than fiddling around. I hate running without music, unless it's a dawn one where the birds are going nuts.

hi @OhOneOhTwoOhThree ! nice work on the daily practice. I have been a bit slack this week but did one this morning at the gym and it felt really good after a weekend of gardening.