Runners Thread Continued

[almost40]

Hi everyone, and congrats to those who did so well over the weekend. I was trying to post a new message on the runners thread, but couldn't because I think there were too many messages (over 800). I have a beginner's question. I ran (walked/ran) everyday for 1 week, then missed 1 week, and then went out this morning, and found that I could not run at all. My ankles are in severe pain when I run, but strangely do not hurt at all when I walk. So I ended up walking the whole way. I just bought new trainers - but I can't imagine that's the problem. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I agree arabica, once I stop running and have a walk I find it SO hard to get myself running again...

not been running much lately,and fell of wagon with fags but am ciggie-free today (after a mad chuffin' night last night) - it was just a blip, honest!! - and managed a v nice 30 min run in the rain this a.m. MUST get distance up for half mar in sept....

gizmo hope your dh is okay now, and beetroot ouch! your poor toe! (I once damaged my ankle by stamping in anger, felt v v stupid with nasty flesh coloured rubber ankle support...)

going to a conference thur/fri so no running till w'end. Must get a biggie in at some point. On june 16 is the biggar mini marathon (10k). three quarters up a hellish hill. Only about 40 people run so you feel very exposed. Am tempted tho...

When did you hurt your toe, Beetroot? Most impressed that you can run at all at the moment: maybe you can do some 'dry' cross training (ummm, can't think what now, I guess swimming wouldn't count ) for a similar length of time? It's raining here too, I wish the summer would be a bit more 'summery' but then I guess we'd all lose the virtuous feelings that come from running in the rain!

I am virtue personified, of course , and managed to get out at lunch to run some circuits. I have a feeling this 'public commitment' thing might work, but let's see how it goes after a few weeks, when I realise you lot actually don't know where I live

Actually I'm another of the 'daren't stop or it will be all over' brigade. So many of the books advocate run/walk that I assume it must be the right way to get started but I wonder if there could be a jog/jog schedule that work equally well. So I guess stick with what lets you build up the time & distance (including your MP3 player, Cod!)

Oh, BTW, Fiona, DH is fine - 7 stitches in the kneecap and most embarrassed but now able to appreciate 'you haven't got a leg to stand on/you must be hopping mad' jokes.

Message withdrawn

All the books (that I have looked at anyway) also assume that you are in perfect health & aren't recovering from anything or prone to back, neck, knee or other problems. If I am indeed able to run 5km without stopping on 18 Sept, I'll be making my red-hot remedial runners' strategy freely available to anyone who's interested!
Not been able to get out for a run since Saturday. Tried on Monday, but got really bad hayfever after 8 minutes and had to stop. Evenings are bad time to run if you've got pollen problems.

Cod - just think of the time on your feet not the distance. If you're running for 18 mins, gradually increase it just by a couple of minutes each week. I find increasing my time easier if I can get dropped off and then just run back home. Mentally its better because you're always 'heading back' and even when I'm really flagging at the bottom of the street I won't let the neighbours see me stop

Longer you spend on your feet, Coddy, the greater the health benefits...so time is key.

I'm looking forward to Arabica's 'Remedial Running' book - will it have a chapter for the terminally dumb? I think I may qualify, since I have just found out I've run all my 400 m pieces on a 300 m track

Blimey, been gone 5 days & missed stacks !

Sorry to hear about Beetroot's toe, Fiona's fags (grrr!!) & Gizmo's short course .

Excellent efforts being put in though, keep it up guys ! I started with the walk/jog thing but found I had to switch to a v. slow jog/ slow jog quite early otherwise it was too easy to walk..

Cod, if you want to build up your distance, just try increasing like Potty suggests, then work on speed later once your endurance base is there but if you want to get faster over your 2 miles, you'll need to start doing some faster bits (intervals)

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who goes for a flat out finish for the last 50m before I get home

Gizmo, as an ex-electrical engineer, I do know a bit about meters !

Confession time... I've been away since Saturday and haven't run AT ALL !

BUT, I've done a 4 mountain challenge around the city of Bergen in Norway. Highly recommend it to any nutters amongst you (Gizmo ?!), I'm going to go back for the full 7 mountain version next year.

Weather was foul: pouring rain, gales so strong I really thought I'd get blown off the 1st mountain, fog... Main aims were to finish and still be wearing shoes (mud was feet deep in places..) It took us just over 6 hours to do 15km + 1.2km of climbing - not quite what I'm used to !

Had intended to run & do an orienteering meet too but trainers were beyond help, as for the legs - ouch ! Next day was tough, the day after was worse

Hope to get back to normal tomorrow.

Hello Twink, welcome back, I wondered where you were.

Although I think you must have mistaken me for Prettybird - muddy mountains sound right up her street! I must say living in Cambridge does sometimes give you a desparation to climb something a little more challenging than a flight of stairs, so maybe.....

Anyway, congratulations on your slide into insanity. Did you get trench foot?

Remedial running strategy is going to need a re-think: DS fell over yesterday, I bent to pick him up and OUCH! Now staggering about with a very sore back. From experience I know it will take about a week to be mobile again so no running or even power-walk training for a while yet.

poor you arabica!

haven't been running since wed as was away with work, but MUST get out tomorrow, as have a bit to run in edinburgh marathon (4 miles as part of a relay team) next sunday. Feeling a bit creaky but kinda wanting to get out there... sort of.

Twink - I think you are the only true nutter here Have you ever done a Karrimor Mountain Marathon? - dh did one a few years back in the most appalling weather conditions you could think of - said it was the toughest thing he'd ever done.

Didn't get chance to do my hour this week so saving it now til after the RFL next weekend.

Sympathy to all the walking wounded. Hope you are back up and about soon.

Twink - it might have been unpleasant at the time but I bet you felt really smug afterwards

I really must get my ass into gear and start running again.

Mt bacl toe nail is no longer sore - so that is not an excuse. The fact that I've been run off my feet at work (pun not intended!) could be an excuse - but it would be just that, an excuse.

I did go an try and buy a new pair of running shoes on the Bank Holiday weekend, but they didn't have any of the Ascis in my size - and after trying on every other pair of running shoes in the shop (Brookes, Saucony, New Balance....), decided I would just wait until the Asics were back in stock (later this month).

So I bought a pair of the (very) expensive (red) Masai Barefoot Technology shoes instead - they're supposed to help exercise your core stabilsing msucles and all sorts, as their sole is not flat so you haver to balance. And as a nice wee side effect, they are supposed to help with cellulite! I bought them for the support they will give my arches, in re-educating how I stand, of course

Gizmo - just for the record, I hate cross country. The Tough Guy is/was a total aberration! I like my nice regular road running, when I can get into a groove with my nice even pace and "tune out". Wimp, me, YES!

"Mt bacl toe nail" = "My black toe nail" - for those you haven't yet worked out my inadequate typing!

Prettybird - keep us info'd how you get on with your new MBT shoes, I have been thinking about buying them for about a year. I dream of them having amazing effects (flat stomach, no more sore back etc)...is it true?

Have to say that so far I have just noticed the backs of my legs being a wee bit stiffer. But I have noticed that I am finding it more difficult to engage my pelvic floor - because it's already engaged (ie good news). I have a tendency to arch my lower back slightly, so by consciously tilting my pelvis forward (ie flatten the arch) and then engaging my pelvic floor, I can feel that I am using "those" muscles (which were damaged by ds). When I am wearing the shoes, my pelvis seems already to be in the "better" position.

I'll keep you posted about my epxeriences!

am coveting those new shoes of yours pb, am getting quite a lot of aching between bum & knees (backs of legs) and think you're right, I need to replace my shoes, but frustratingly haven't opportunity to get intoglasgow or edin anytime soon, apart from running my 'chunk' (4 miles) of edin marathon on sun. And a recommended shop, 'run and become' (!) is closed on suns. Become what, I wonder???

have been out three or so times a weeek, back in swing I think after post 10k lull. A v scary 10k race here in our village in 9 days' time, with the hill from hell, gonna give it a whirl anyhow.

Still fixed on doing half mar in septemeber pb??

Yes I am still going to do the 1/2M. I will get out soon for a run again!

Like lapsedrunner, I first saw the MBT shoes mentioned aobut a year ago and thought that they looked interesting.

I'm to walk into town for lunch - a 20 minute forced march (there and back) up Sauchiehall Street, so that should give the MBTs some work to do! I'll see how my muscles fell tomorrow!

I have to say, Achilles Heel in Great Western Road were fantastic - really tried hard to find me a pair of suitable shoes, but equally determined that I shouldn't buy any that weren't absolutely right. I'll be going back later in June, when they should have the full range Ladies' Asics back in stock (there was a run on Ladies shoes for some reason - I wonder why? ).

But then I did spend even more than I would have spent on running shoes on the MBT shoes - and they will still the sale for the running shoes at a later date.

Ooooh, I now have shoe envy...although I'm not normally a great one for fussing about my shoes, both of my pairs are looking like they've been dug up after spending 3000 years in a bog.

Am liking the sound of the Masai thingies, although 'barefoot' sounds a bit scary. Are they Nike?

Anyway...I am obviously infected with general lassitude (I blame you, Prettybird ) since my brand new shiny schedule took a horrible beating over the weekend. Not one single, solitary step run, I'm afraid. I went a wedding and got horribly drunk, if that counts?......

.....No?.....

....Hmmmm, thought not.

But in true Robert the Bruce style I will try again. So here is this week's schedule:
Mon - hash (didn't do, but see today instead)
Tues - rest (instead of which I went for a brisk 5 miler)
Wed - 2 mile warm up, 6x600 m fast with 2 min recoveries, 2 mile warm down
Thurs - 4-7 miles slow
Fri - 1 mile warm up 3x2000 m at 80-85% HR with 4 min recoveries, 1 mile warm down
Sat - rest
Sun - 8 miles easy

Work is banzai this week and I'm meant to be going to France on Friday for a long weekend so G*d knows how I'm going to do this, but where there's a will, there's - oh who am I kidding!

No they're not Nike - I think they are an indepdendent company.

Have a look at their web site .

Now don't you go blaming me for your laziness! I'm the only one here sitting on their fat arse! No else allowed! All of you have got to get out and run!!!!!!! Shame me into going out too!

But at least I can be smug and know that I am working my feet, arches, legs, bum, pelvic foor and back with my posh new shoes! The lazy woman's way to exercise! In the Q&As on the web site, it mentiones burning feet: I have (and am still) defintiely felt that - it's like a permanenet tingling in the sole of your feet, like blood is going places it's never been before. Must be working!

Good, if they're not Nike I might be able to fit them into my rather questionable personal ethics (where Nike products=sweatshops but eating Nestle products is OK 'cos I can't manage to wean myself off Shreddies ). Whether I can fit them into my budget is another matter...

Anyway, how can they be making your feet all tingly if you're just sitting on your bottom? They don't make specialist running pants as well, do they?

Oh wow, I can see I have underestimated them...an entire gym for your body...in your feet?

Maybe I should pay some more attention to my poor old feet. There were some good exercises for your feet in this month's Runner's World. Walking around on the sides for five minutes, then on tiptoes, then trying to pick up a ping pong ball with your toes. It might stop my arches from their current gentle downward slide...