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.

Did a bit of parkrun tourism today and went to run my bosses local one which is about an hours drive away. It’s a nice course on the coast which was lovely but it was so so busy at the start meaning I was slowed up and so I couldn’t pace as I was hoping to. By the time the crowds thinned out I had to leg it faster than I’d have liked to try and make up my time time (I know it’s only parkrun but I’d set myself sub 24 mins to challenge myself as I need to get my pace back up). I just about managed it coming in at 23:56.

still a lovely route and a nice bunch of people there.

I'm finding a lot of courses quite congested now. I love that parkrun is getting more popular even if I do want to run at my own pace more freely.

Today was quite good for that. A bit quieter anyway even though the weather was OK, plus my legs are knackered and have been for days so I took it easy near the back.

I was warned by a running friend that used to do this one regularly to get right to the front or be caught behind everyone but I felt a bit rude pushing my way forward when it was already packed as it’s the first time I’ve been to that course and didn’t know how fast others were. I didn’t want to push forward and then be the one holding people up! But I have learnt now. Next time I’ll make sure I wiggle my way right to the front. it was nearly half a mile before the path widens enough to easily pass people and I don’t like to be the person shouting at others to move out the way (like some men do at one of my local ones) as I just don’t feel that is in the spirit of parkrun!

Is parkrun more popular than ever then? I like a Weekend lie in as get up very early for work (DH even more so) so haven't been for ages. Thought this dismal weather would put people off! My nearest one is a very narrow course with lots of tight turn around so useless for a pb. Next nearest two are hilly or on sand in summer. I am envious of those with lots of local parkruns even if I don't want to get up!
Cross country for me today. It was wet, muddy and hard going. Looked at my watch on second lap and thought it was my slowest yet. Turns out we were misdirected on course and ran half mile more than we were supposed to, so 4.5 mile not 4! Got drenched watching DS/DH then helping take tent etc down.
I've recommended it before but the snowpea shoe drier has been a godsend in this running household over winter. Just in general really, with two DC with walking commutes just dying trainers in general.

I have no idea what is happening with parkrun at the moment - I turned up this morning and the carpark was completely full, but there didn't seem to be that many runners there. I should get back into the habit of cycling really. Lots of first timers/tourists and big groups all over the path which isn't helpful as we are a 2.5 lapper, and the front runners tend to lap anyone over 30 mins ie most of us on the first lap.

We have three parkruns in my town all within 3 miles of home. One is a relatively sought after letter so gets high numbers, but not many regulars/repeat visitors. All flat, two in parks and one in a country park. According to the 5k app my nearest 20 are all less than 30 km away (although I think that is as the crow flies rather than driving distance).

I did a slow parkrun and another 2 miles afterwards. Have my long run tomorrow, I think I'll aim for 10 and see if I can keep going for another 2.

Well done on your x-country @Jumbojem !

Interesting to hear about the park runs as I'm planning my first one soon, for the level I'm currently at, a slow start will not be a problem. I'm impressed with sub 24! I went on my 8am run yesterday and was pleasantly surprised as we managed 5K with one short bit of walking up a steep hill. I think running with someone else and nattering took my mind off potentially failing.

Well done on your run @LEVERONROSE running with others certainly helps.

I wouldn’t have made it out in the rain if it was for the lad (I call him my running son) I often run with turning up at my house at 8:30am. We ran a mile and a half together to meet the rest of the gang in a nearby village and then did 11 miles as a bigger group and then another just over a mile and a half the slightly longer way home.

Just over 14 very wet miles done. We had to run through an ankle deep flood at one point and it hammered down the whole way. Still good company and a bit of banter made it an enjoyable if wet and cold morning! I was going to do 15 miles but we made the decision that it was too wet to loop around my estate and just went back to mine to warm up!!

Parkrun is really popular in my town regularly get 400+ people it’s a flat fast one so holds a few records too but also has quite a few walkers plus tail walkers. You’d have no problem doing a 40-60min one as there’s such a spread of runners. But what they do really well is have local run club pacers at lots of points from 15mins to 30mins so they really encourage people to start in an appropriate place.

Got out for a very wet 6k run Thursday but lovely to have a dry 5k run this morning. I’m still nursing a sore hip flexor so taking 2d between runs to not irritate it too much.
Wow @Whataninterestinglookingpotato hard going when it’s raining on long runs hope you didn’t get chilled. Well done @LEVERONROSE on your run.

Well done @LEVERONROSE. parkrun is great, hope you get there soon and enjoy it.

@Whataninterestinglookingpotato what a legend you are! Well done.

@RunningInto sorry to hear you have an injury. Glad you had a dry run today.

I ended up doing 12 miles, not through choice. I got to the 6 mile point of my 10 mile loop and the path was too flooded to cross - a lake had burst its banks. So I had to retrace my steps. I saw a few people wearing race numbers and asked them what event was. Turns out that it was a quadzilla - 4 marathons in 4 days, with each marathon 7 and a bit laps of a lake. I'd find that as much of a mental test as a physical one (not that I could run 4 marathons in 4 days, but the thought of 7 laps every day for four days would finish me off!)

Has anyone taken out a joint strava Runna subscription? Is it worth it? I know experienced runners might not need Runna’s plan but I thought it might be an idea for a year whilst I do 10k etc and build up speed

Well done on your runs @RunningInto and @OhOneOhTwoOhThree doing 4 marathons in 4 days around a lake does sound like a lot!! Someone I know was doing a marathon both days of this weekend! Rather them than me!

sorry to hear you have an injury @RunningInto i hope it sorts itself out soon. I was talking to a friend about peptides and how she feels they’ve help her partners recovery following a running injury. So I have ordered some as I’m still a bit sore and time is a counting down until the marathon so anything I can do to get completely right at this point!!

@TheSlimmingPumpkin i haven’t but I have heard good things about runna. If you have a garmin watch though you can generate a plan for free. I have a marathon one I’m very loosely following, and by following I mean mostly ignoring it and doing what I want but just using the count down to panic myself a bit 😂. You can probably do a free trial before you commit and see if you think it’s worth it.

I'm finding a lot of parkruns near me are around their 2019 levels, plus there are new ones since then taking more hundreds more runners. The mix of runners has become more varied too, and there seems to be more young people coming in than I remember in earlier days.

I love the way that parkun has helped diversify running and social running.

@TheSlimmingPumpkin I haven't used Runna either, but I see from Strava that a couple of my pals have had good results following their plans.

I agree @BogRollBOGOF - definitely some younger runners at our parkrun.

I'm currently on a Nike Run Club plan.

I decided not to long run today. I'm due at the osteopath this week and my hip feels tired. I think it is just muscle from a couple of weeks of building up volume and picking speedwork back up but it just hasn't relaxed out in the last week and each run has been a bit of a slog. I've been running 10k long runs in the past month anyway so skipping a week isn't a great loss at this point and my body is clearly asking for some rest.
It felt fine at the gym, although I went on the gentler side with weights. That's made me feel happier that it's muscle.

My HRV is marginally on the low side. I've napped twice this week. Illness rates have been high at work and it wouldn't surprise me if I'm fending something off. Roll on half term! I've got the Vicks First Defense out incase.

It was also a busy week of family life with several off-piste extras reducing chill out time in the evenings.

I love seeing "retired" junior parkrunners on the results list. Often rather speedy runners too.

Mind you DS was nearly twice as fast as me yesterday!

Had hoped to run this morning instead got out for a quick 5k wet drizzling run around in lunch break (I wfh mostly). So fed up of it constantly raining everyday since start January it’s pants trails are just mud baths now and hard pavement irritates my joints.

I managed a humid 4 hilly miles at lunchtime - visiting my parents who live on top of a hill so whichever way I go there's a hill at the end 😁

I’m just back from run club 3.5 mile easy run as per my 10 mile training plan. Runna said I was too fast 😂🙈

Well done on getting out in the wet all!!

@tinks3110 i had a 30 minute base run which turned into a 67 minute run as it was club run. My watch is always shouting at me for going to fast! I just tell it to be quiet and do what I like 😂.

I had a very ploddy 5k with the dog yesterday. I wasn’t going to run but she bullied me into it.

Then just under 8 miles club run tonight. It ended up being faster than anticipated but I was surprised to find I didn’t struggle at all and felt good. I felt a bit bad for the new girl who just joined our group because it’s the one her boyfriend wanted to run in and she wanted to stay with him but it’s really a bit too fast for her and she really struggled. One of the long standing members stayed back with her to make sure she got back ok, I think our group leader felt a bit bad about it and did go and apologise for going too fast. Tbh, when we had the fastest group amalgamate with us and we’ve ended up doing 7:30/8 min miles the whole way I got annoyed, because that’s much faster than I want to run for a social run at as they’re meant to be enjoyable and chatty. I’m a firm believer in keeping to the advertised pace as much as possible. We weren’t as fast as that tonight be we were faster than the advertised 9 minute miles.

I don’t want to wear my new trainers until some mud dries up.

@TheSlimmingPumpkin that’s fair enough. My new race shoes have only made it out once on the only dry day we’ve had this year (last Wednesday) around the track!

I’ve been away from this thread as I lost my running mojo. Whilst I was still in the zone I booked a half so I’m trying to get myself back into the swing of things but this weather doesn’t help. I went out for a 5k after work today and kept going and ended up doing 8 miles. I am much slower than I was though. @Whataninterestinglookingpotato that’s a very fast group pace. Our club chair would not be happy if a group was going over its advertised pace!

I was up at run o'clock for an easy run.
Nice to hear the birdsong, and there were patches of lighter sky creeping in through gaps in the clouds. Still dark, but a hint of dawn.

My body felt better than last week. I saw the ostepath a few days ago and took an extra rest day for that.

Ive had an educational few weeks
Weve been away for a fortnight, to Indonesia which was hot therefore I haven't stuck religiously to my training plan, but Ive done not a bad job. Pretty much stuck to distances but didnt do all my sessions, think I did 1 interval session.

So, home now and im 3 weeks out from my slightly more than a marathon, decided on Wednesday id attempt my long run (20 miles) but carry my full pack with the water required for my ultra in June (2litres). Why i thought this was a good idea i dont know, first time carrying any real weight. I went well for the first 8 miles. Then my hip started niggling, by 12km I was having to walk every km or so for 5 mins. I kept going until i ran out of time and managed 17 miles in just over 3 hours. I was actually really suprised thst my final average pace was 6.30km, I was expecting 8ish!

Took yesterday off as my hip was so sore, and I was really starting to suspect id injured myself, but as the day went on, I got better so I now think it was the weight of the pack affecting my stance. Im having another rest day today, then park run tomorrow and see how I get on. But what a wally! Realised I should have started carrying weight on the shorter runs first 🤣

On the plus side my run in 3 weeks only requires 500mls of water so ill be fine for that!

Ive also signed up for a lap event, ive been looking at them for a while and saw one pop up local (ish, im in rural Scotland, nothing is local!) Thats a family festival type event and you only have to do 1 lap to get the medal and there's no prizes for doing the full 24hrs. I like this as im bad for pushing myself to hard sometimes.

Glad your feeling better this week @BogRollBOGOF

@Whataninterestinglookingpotato Thats interesting about run club. I keep avoiding the one in town as I think im not good enough, and being left behind really would put me off from going back. There's one this sunday I was going to give a go, but from browsing strava I think it is a proper social run.