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?

@OhOneOhTwoOhThree and @JanuaryOSunshine thanks for the advice on headwear, did almost 5 miles with nothing on my head and was fine. I like my hat as it neon pink and reflective so good for this time of year.
@Gymbunny2025 I ran outside this morning and it wasn’t cold or icy. I live on the east coast of Scotland. I feel at this time of year I need to get out when the weather is fine.

Finally made it out yesterday afternoon and bagged 8.5 miles - my new trainers are now very far from pristine....

Today is a sort of rest day - just 15 minute pilates challenge and a gentle jog. Tomorrow is the dreaded hill sprints though.

Hello all!

I am signed up for the same spring HM as last - should've started my plan today ... Brought everything to work except my shoes. Figured I'd go tomorrow, but forgot we have workers in and I have to be in all day for the dog. So it's not going that well so far.

Also, I am still havering about a plan. I used Runmotion app to do a 5k plan in November/December and quite enjoyed it, but when I put in my HM date it's given me a plan with a max run of 1 hour and 40 minutes at 8'/km pace! So a max long run of 12.5km! Mystifying, that will never be enough. I once did a HM with max training runs of 16k and felt a bit underprepared.

So I was going to go back to a plan I got off the Very Well Fitness website (I've used it in the past), but it goes up to 14k long run in week 2 and 18.5k in week for! So either I use that and shorten the long runs, use the RunMotion and extend the long runs or find another plan. Argh.

I don't have a Garmin so can't use that and I only run three times a week (I have hypermobile Ehlors Danlos syndrome so can't push it too much).

Not sure if this helps but when I did HMs I did a weekly 5k fast run, 7-8k mid pace run and the longer slow run every week added a km on till I got up to 18k. That worked well for me and I had an easy week the week before the HM. I also did 2xweekly strength training sessions in mainly to avoid injuries just squats, lunges, planks type stuff.

Very similar to me and I’m planning on the same for my spring half this year. Luckily I did a 10 mile race just before Christmas so distance wise it doesn’t feel too much at all.

I never did the strength training through, admittedly. Good for you

Got an impromptu fast 5k in at lunch time as the sun popped out and it made it a toasty 2c in the wind chill. I’d normally run Tuesday morning before work but wasn’t fancying the minus temperatures forecast so good to get it ticked off.

@Trickedbyadoughnut - might be worth a look at Hal Higdon novice 3 (his hm plan for 3 runs a week). Goes up to 10 miles. I quite like his plans (got me round the London marathon) they are very clear and sensible and available for free on his website.

@BunBabbitBun
Sorry, don't know how I've managed to randomly tag someone and I can't seem to delete it!

I did not want to go for a run in the cold and dark but glad I did, it was one of those runs where you suddenly feel good and start to enjoy it. Just a shame I'm quite limited in places to run in the dark. Planning some lunch runs on office days, just get to get over the rigmarole of carting all my stuff in.

@Londonmummy66 I like Hal Higdon too.

@Jumbojem and @JanuaryOSunshine well done on your runs.

I've had a proper rest day today - just a short yoga session and lots of trips up and down the stairs tidying the house and putting things back where they belong. Somehow everything seemed to be in the wrong place after Christmas and new year visitors.

5k planned tomorrow morning - putting it here so I make sure I do it!

I kept mine firmly on 😂

I got a decent, dry, bright window in the weather. It was worth scheduling into the afternoon for that!

I managed 8 miles today but it was a faff, a lot of turning back as roads were flooded and it wasn't safe to safe through. The trails are awful, pretty unrunable with the volume of water sitting in them

Well done to everyone who got out today. I'd planned a mile but it was pelting down first thing and then random additional meetings stopped any chance of going out in daylight. Any other day I'd have gone round the village after dark but didn't fancy inadvertently heading into a flood. I didn't fancy the road to the gym either! Did some yoga instead at least.

@bakewellbride I've been in a bit of a rut and I'm trying to haul myself out of it. Slowly but I'm definitely feel a bit stronger, I think half of it is mental so I'm aiming for consistency this month - weather permitting!

I'm wondering what's runnable for this week's long run. I don't like long runs on roads, fields will be calf-deep mud, there are aready floods near the river on those flat off-road routes.

Same issue with floods and mud in Somerset (the flat bit). Footpaths are impossible and the mud is so clay-ey you can never get it off your shoes afterwards. And I haaaaaaaaate running with soaking wet feet!

Very in awe if those getting out! I've been opting out of outside and just using my treadmill at the moment.

Head to Muchelney for a duathlon? Cold water swimming is great for recovery

Thanks @Londonmummy66 I have looked at that plan a few times, but I'm not sure how to work out my pace run/tempo pace - do I work on my current pace or try to work towards the pace I'd like to achieve? As I've been running consistently for a year and a half now, I'm hoping to try for another PR, the race is in 16 weeks, so presumably I need to push the paces a bit?

Well done to everyone getting out! We'd had freezing rain overnight so it was very slippy down our road, but DH phoned and said the main road was well gritted so I decided to take the car and drive to the non-slippery bit for 6km this morning before the tradespeople arrived for the day - also meant I could run on the cycle path instead of the road in the dark. Still a bit annoying to have to drive to go running, but I really needed to go today after taking all my kit to work yesterday except for my shoes.

Well done @Trickedbyadoughnut!

I did my 5k run, then Yoga with Adriene, and then for a walk and coffee with a friend so the rest of the day will be spent on the.sofa!

@BogRollBOGOF love a cold water swim. We're at the coast this weekend so I may get a dip in after parkrun.

I'm also confused about 'race pace'

as far as I'm concerned I run and go slower or faster according to my breathing.

how do you distinguish between paces?

Well, I consider interval pace 'near death' and tempo pace 'just below pukking' pace, but I think there's probably more technical ways of working it out 😅

I have no idea about how to guage it either though, other than something similar to @Trickedbyadoughnut. Even then, what feels like 'near death' pace one day can be another day's 'pushing it a bit but still comfortable' pace. 🙄
It must be a thing you can learn as I remember reading, I think Paula Radcliffe's autobiography, and she talked about a coach setting them off on track runs where they had to run at a particular pace, and this would have been before the days of tracking watches.
Also, my son has a friend who is a professional runner who paced him for a 10k on a track, and he was within 2 or 3 seconds of the same time for each 800m lap.

My easy runs I do at a pace where I could (and do, if I'm with friends - the best type of runs😃) comfortably hold a conversation. Race pace is more uncomfortable!

Interval pace depends on how long the intervals are
5k race pace (for me) is around 2 min/mile quicker than easy running
10k or half marathon is about 1.5 min quicker per mile
Marathon pace is maybe 1 min quicker

Not sure how helpful this is because not everyone works in miles.

the app i use, uses perceived effort levels which might be easier, where 1 would be walking and 10 would be sprinting as fast as possible.

eg easy runs are around 3
Longer intervals might be 5 or 6
Short, fast intervals might be 7

I've never been asked to do anything more than 8!

Well, I consider interval pace 'near death' and tempo pace 'just below pukking' pace, but I think there's probably more technical ways of working it out 😅

yeah, that describes how I do intervalls

Basically if you have a goal time for your race you need to calculate what pace you need to run to achieve that time. And then you run that pace in some of your training runs

I do pace targets on the peloton app and there are 7 zones between recovery and extremely hard. I find they are described really well