Running goals, motivation and chat 2025 - Part 2!

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Hi all, just setting up a second thread - I hope you don’t mind @Jumbojem but the other one was getting a bit close to ending…

Sorry to keep harping on about the weather but it’s still raining up here so instead of running this morning I’m going to get back on my lovely water rowing machine which I’ve neglected totally since starting running back in Jan/Feb. I miss it (and I miss the muscle toning it gave me) so I’m going to get back on this morning for a change.

Might do parkrun tomorrow or a longer run, haven’t yet decided.

My parkrun is 10 mins away too. Seems daft to go anywhere else. Where I lived before there were 3 that were quite close so I dabbled.

I thought it might’ve been it for me as well tbh but i had sponsors for the great north run and felt like I couldn’t let them down. Plus I love running 😂 I feel like I am just getting back into enjoying it over shorter distances

I've got a few parkrun options.
A & B are equidistant, and I'm recognised as a regular at both.
A is my roll out of bed run. Free parking, fast course.
B is more interesting, older and my "home run" DS1 prefers it.
C is slightly further, technically faster but too popular and congested at my mid-pack pace, so I go less often than I used to.
D similar distance to C, hilly trail. I like it, but need the capacity to cope with the hills. DS1 won't go and has a long-held grudge about the park based on its name and confusion over a feature in another park when he was little 🙄

I've tried out a few others in the surrounding area for various reasons, but there's still a good number I could do within an hour.

I would travel more if the DCs weren't in the equation.

Hello! I'm on my hols and I did a very scenic parkrun yesterday - and from the looks of the crowd who listened to the briefing, and the range of club t-shirts and similar, I think half of the attendees were tourists! Then went for a drive around the rest of the day, and found the other one I could have done - complete with permanent signage! But with a £5 parking charge...

No other runs though this week, just some big hikes. Home in a few days and back to the normal training programme.

Had a nice but humid trail run with dog early this morning. Made easier as ddog was very well behaved and we only saw one other person out.

My local parkrun is fast and flat but only a 5min drive, it does attract a lot of tourists. I’ve done a few others in random places. one round a reservoir in Cornwall which was good and another in the Forest of Dean which was all up hill the first half but down hill all the way back. Plus I’ve done one near Eastbourne oh and another up near Stoke. My eldest DD competes in different places all over for her sport so I chuck in my trainers if I get a chance to nip to one they really are a great free event.

Thanks, everyone. I’ve just been for a 4km brisk walk in the trainers I was in when I fell and everything felt OK so I’ll try a gentle run next.

My training feels very compressed as the GNR is a B race/training run (Cardiff is my A race) and I haven’t really gone further than 12km yet.

I’ve got to do 11.5km, 12.7km and 14.6km before the GNR - and those all feel very short distances before a half.

But I’m fresh off the back of hiking a marathon in July - and I Jeffed all my training (getting up to 30km in the end). I’ve had a really good month at the gym so I ought to be able to get around, albeit at a very modest pace! I’m just frustrated that I’ve been fatigued for so long after the hike and just as things were starting to feel a tiny bit better I’ve tripped!

Hopefully I’ll manage my 11.5km run one evening this week and if that goes well I’ll brave my interval session, which I’m finding a bit scary right now!

Try not to be scared @lightanddreamy it will all come together.

Though I am starting to wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew signing up for an October marathon 🙈. I’m going to try and run with my normal pace group tomorrow and see how that goes. I’ve been struggling a bit to pick up the pace this past week.

glad you enjoyed your park run tourism @TyneFilth

Well done on your trail run @RunningInto

Oh, I think your running game is strong at the moment so an October marathon is we'll within your capabilities.

Is this your first one? If so, have a A, B and C goal to manage expectations and whatever mental or physical pressure you put on yourself that day.

Thanks @xsquared hopefully it’ll all be fine. I wanted to use it to try for a GFA place for London so getting under 3:43 would be my A goal. But as it’s my first one I was never sure that was achievable anyway and would be happy with anything sub 4 hours. C goal would be to just finish. I don’t know how hard I’m going to find it.

Going to try and get back to building up my long runs this weekend. I’m very aware I have a holiday and Bristol to bath trail race in the middle which may mess with the training. But fingers crossed it’ll all pan out fine.

Did a gentle 8k last night after a three day break, taking my August total up to 84k so far. Hoping to break 100k by the end of the week.

Hope the training goes well @Whataninterestinglookingpotato

A nice short faster low tide run this morning. I was short on time with an early work meeting but I have to do something outside in the morning or I just can’t get going. It’s now been drizzling rain on off this morning which is heaven after last few dry weeks.

Glad you enjoyed your run earlier @RunningInto
we had a few spots of rain earlier but it’s still very dry, which I wasn’t sad about as didn’t realise we were doing trail tonight at the club run and wore my road shoes!

still, I kept up fine with my usual pace group so I was pleased about that. I feel as if I’m pretty much back to normal now. The marathon training gang are going to do 5 mile loops on Sunday so you have a choice of distance. I’m going to try and do at least 15 miles and see how it goes.

hope everyone else is having a good week

I managed to 'jeff' a 10k distance today! Super pleased to have covered that distance although I think my leg muscles will definitely feel it tomorrow!

I didn't run at all last week due to being away (it was far to warm to be running for me!) I've been reading this thread through to keep up with all the progress. Hope you are all having a good week.

Well done @SoapCollector thats a great distance!!

I went to hill reps tonight with the running club. Dd1 came too and did super well until she started to have an asthma attack and she hadn’t brought her inhaler. I was ahead and didn’t even realise until I got back to the start and saw her coming back up the other side of the hill with the lady who coaches. I felt bad, but dd1 was fine. She is 20 years old and tbh, should remember to bring her own inhaler!

I’ve got a 5 mile race on Monday which should be fun. Hope everyone else is having a good running week.

Thank you @Whataninterestinglookingpotato good luck with your race on Monday.

Well done runners!

@Whataninterestinglookingpotato hope DD is OK. Well done on your hill reps.

@SoapCollector that's a great distance, well done! Likewise @MissScarletInTheBallroom !

I'm quite envious of your drizzle @RunningInto

I jeffed with a friend yesterday. Somehow we egged each other on and we were really fast (by our standards!). I thought maybe my watch wasn't working properly because we were in among some tall buildings but it turned out we'd sped around. I had to drop my car off today and ran home afterwards - 2 minutes a mile than when I last did it last January, and 1 minute a mile faster than this time last year. That has given me the motivation to keep up the running through the winter instead of getting lazy and having to rebuild fitness in the spring.

Well done @SoapCollector and @MissScarletInTheBallroom great runs. Ugh hill reps that takes some motivation well done @Whataninterestinglookingpotato i hope your DD recovered ok.
It’s great when you can see improvement @OhOneOhTwoOhThree im at that point in my life when I don’t see too much I’m just glad to still be doing it but I am getting stronger which I’m loving despite spending a lifetime of hating strength training!

Quick Cold sea swim this morning it was only 9c air temp with a chilly wind and I was shivering getting changed but then did a great fast 5k to warm up with negative splits all the way. I couldn’t feel my toes or hands when I started was red faced at the end. Happy Friday everyone hope you all get to enjoy some bank holiday running.

Hi all! Don't think I've posted for a while, DC had A level and GCSE results over the last couple of weeks so been a lot of big life choices happening. It all felt very overwhelming and I have been sleeping terribly. However, I have been m plodding away on my runs and persuaded the whole family to get out for a run when we were camping last weekend.
Aiming to get out for a decent long run this weekend. Someone I know had entered Forest of Dean trail half which is sometime this Autumn and I'm vaguely thinking of doing that.
Any good European runs that people can recommend? Halfs rather than maras I think, feel like pushing my boundaries a bit now the kids are older and I can go away without them.

Feel your pain @Jumbojem my DC had Alevel results and I found it far more emotional & draining than I expect. Luckily she did ok but having not met gcse or mock expected grades she really hasn’t expected to meet her final AL but did phew! No university yet taking a couple of years out to continue her sport & get some money. Running really helps my sanity as much or more so than the physical side. My other teen we are home educating through exams due to send so that’s a whole other layer of stress again why I run. Hip joint sore this morning after yesterday fast run so need to give it a rest may do short cycle & yoga instead.

Well done to your DC ok their A level results @Jumbojem and @RunningInto it’s a super stressful time!! I was surprised too just how stressful it was with dd1 a couple of years ago. Luckily dd2 has opted for a T level and got her year one exam mark on A level results day. The mark she got apparently means that she can’t get less than a merit next year now, and a merit is what all unis ask for to do the course she wants, so that takes away a lot of the stress!

off to do a bit of park run tourism this morning at a sort of localish one (about 30 mins away) then into our nearest city to have gait analysis and get some new shoes as my birthday treat 😁. I’m actually really excited. Never thought I’d be so excited about running shoes!

long run tomorrow and a 5 mile race Monday. Happy running everyone.

Well done to your DC @RunningInto and @Whataninterestinglookingpotato
Finally managed to do a 10 mile run today, didn't really plan a route but managed to do a good one mix of gravelly cycle path (extremely dusty, had to clean my shoes after!), farm track and road. Plus a good mix of flat and hills. Felt pretty strong, did stop for a walk break couple of times, and a Costa express cortado and wafer biscuit half way as only 1 piece of toast before heading out and no gels. Just my hip was a bit sore last couple of miles.
Also now too tired for the housework which desperately needs doing 🙄😆

Oh and happy birthday @Whataninterestinglookingpotato enjoy your treat!

Thank you @Jumbojem my birthday isn’t until next week but we’re away for it so went to buy my shoes this weekend. Well done on your 10 mile run!!

dd1 and I both got a PB at park run today. It was a nice, reasonably flat, paved course, so a good one for a PB.

into Bristol after to get shoes. I ended up buying two pairs 🙈😂. I got some saucony endorphin speed 5s for track and racing, but as they’re played they won’t last as daily trainers and my current novablasts will probably be dead by the time I’ve finished marathon training. So I got another pair of novablast 5s too as they were on such a good discount it seemed rude not to! Now I’m broke 😂.

Long run tomorrow and then race day Monday.

One grumpy Garmin looking forwards to routine resuming. I've just done the one parkrun while away on holiday, but done a few little hill walks, generally walking around and a bit of sea swimming.

I've never really swum in the sea before but we were near a beach in a bay so not too wavy. I took my tow float to not worry about depth too much. DH could see it clearly without glasses.

My ankle will be happy to return to life in a house with flat floors, and that was another reason not to stress about fitting extra runs in. I'd left this week uncommitted in my training plan and have enough long runs planned in to reach my target milage.

You’ve got to have a life outside of training @BogRollBOGOF im sure you’ll have enough fitted in and you’ll be fine.

I got out and did my 15 miles with the marathon training gang this morning. Quite a good pace and felt strong despite my dodgy hip, which held up ok.

feel like I need to get as much in as I can this week as go on holiday next weekend which is going to set me back somewhat, but hopefully not too much.