Official Running Thread

[Curious Orange]

After the disappointment of Monday I started to get back into my stretching routine, and have been binding the ankle that was giving me grief.

So I wandered out on my 8.5 mile route today and tried to concentrate on keeping my cadence up and keeping my form, but allowing myself little rests when I felt my concentration flagging. The upshot was that I was back to clocking 7:31 miles. I still don't feel like my best, and that run wasn't easy, but it is positive progress again.

Just need to lose the few pounds I gained last week now.

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

Just ran over part of the SW coast path near our holiday place in West dorset. Tough going over those cliffs, have full respect for dazzer6666 and Pembury doing 100 miles of that kind of terrain!

 

[Bozza]

First attempt at hill repeats. Is this the right sort of pattern?

 

[Pembury]

First attempt at hill repeats. Is this the right sort of pattern?
View attachment 65963

That looks good to me. Nice one. Also its good to mix up your hills with long gradual gradients and small sharp uphills that you can really 'attack' ....and on the downhill really cane your quads on.. Nothing better than running down a downhill, knotted 'technical' trail.

 

[dazzer6666]

First attempt at hill repeats. Is this the right sort of pattern?
View attachment 65963

Looks spot on. Couple of type of hill interval you can try :
-hard up, gentle recovery down
-gentle up (walk if necessary), hammer down (brilliant for conditioning the quads)
-Kenyan Hills, same effort up and down
Good to mix it up [emoji3]

 

[downham seagull]

Ran the New Bedford 10k on Sunday, 39.30 in warm conditions. Great course. 33rd/430 finishers. Will be 1000 runners next year.

 

[Curious Orange]

Ran the New Bedford 10k on Sunday, 39.30 in warm conditions. Great course. 33rd/430 finishers. Will be 1000 runners next year.

That's a great time!

 

[dazzer6666]

Ran the New Bedford 10k on Sunday, 39.30 in warm conditions. Great course. 33rd/430 finishers. Will be 1000 runners next year.

Superb wheels !

 

[Guinness Boy]

Nice easy paced five miler along the front first thing this morning. An absolute belter of a morning and the legs working again made for a cracker of a start to the day.

 

[soistes]

Loving the off road stuff at the moment. A nice gentle easy-paced 10k out-and-back along the downs from Ditchling Beacon last night, stunning views, so envigorating.

 

[Simgull]

Loving the off road stuff at the moment. A nice gentle easy-paced 10k out-and-back along the downs from Ditchling Beacon last night, stunning views, so envigorating.

View attachment 65972

That's one of my favourite routes. I sometimes extend it on to Lewes for a round trip of just under 20km. The views are stunning and the mixture of gradients is challenging without being extreme.

 

[Bozza]

Loving the off road stuff at the moment. A nice gentle easy-paced 10k out-and-back along the downs from Ditchling Beacon last night, stunning views, so envigorating.

I've only done a little bit but I'm itching for more. Instead of a flattish 6-7 miles on the road this evening I might explore some trails, even though that means a big climb to get up to Cissbury Ring first.

 

[soistes]

That's one of my favourite routes. I sometimes extend it on to Lewes for a round trip of just under 20km. The views are stunning and the mixture of gradients is challenging without being extreme.

Not done the Lewes extension yet, but might try that one day. A tougher looping version I ran a couple of times in the winter is to start from the car park in Stanmer village and run up through the woods above Sussex Uni to the South Downs way path, then westward along past the Beacon and down the hill near the Chattri memorial, and then back crossing the Ditchling road and through the other side of the woods near Coldean. About 15km if I remember correctly -- the long initial uphill drag is a killer, but you feel so great when you emerge at the top, see the Amex and then start cruising along the path to the Beacon.

 

[dazzer6666]

12 Mile loop from Jack and Jill
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/703194663

10 mile version
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/650550614

 

[Simgull]

Not done the Lewes extension yet, but might try that one day. A tougher looping version I ran a couple of times in the winter is to start from the car park in Stanmer village and run up through the woods above Sussex Uni to the South Downs way path, then westward along past the Beacon and down the hill near the Chattri memorial, and then back crossing the Ditchling road and through the other side of the woods near Coldean. About 15km if I remember correctly -- the long initial uphill drag is a killer, but you feel so great when you emerge at the top, see the Amex and then start cruising along the path to the Beacon.

Yes I've done something similar in horizontal rain and howling wind last January- one of the runs I reminded myself of before starting the marathon. That long climb was a slog splashing through muddy puddles , great feeling over taking mountain bikers on the way up, although they had their own back on the flat section!

 

[Bozza]

Tell me (again) please about the Garmin watches, as I'm feeling the urge to invest.

Is the 620 worth the extra outlay on the 220? Is the 225 much of an improvement over the 220? Does the fact there is a 225 mean there'll be a 625 soon?

Thanks!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Tell me (again) please about the Garmin watches, as I'm feeling the urge to invest.

Is the 620 worth the extra outlay on the 220? Is the 225 much of an improvement over the 220? Does the fact there is a 225 mean there'll be a 625 soon?

Thanks!

I cannot comment on the difference between Garmin's, I have an old 210, but I can say it's the best bit of running kit I have ever purchased. They're solid, robust and do what they say they'll do. Well worth the investment.

As for trails, I love them but only in the summer. I've done some wonderful runs over the downs, Firle, Beachy head etc. I also did an organised 20 miler out near Portsmouth a few years back. It was a staggered start over the morning so you rarely saw anyone else and it was wonderful being out in the middle of nowhere running up and down and through wooded areas. Go for it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[soistes]

Tell me (again) please about the Garmin watches, as I'm feeling the urge to invest.

Is the 620 worth the extra outlay on the 220? Is the 225 much of an improvement over the 220? Does the fact there is a 225 mean there'll be a 625 soon?

Thanks!

Mine's just a bog-standard Forerunner 10, so doesn't have heart rate and stuff like that. Having said that, I find it brilliant, and it does everything I need -- if I was buying again I might go a level up just to get the wireless connection for synchronising etc (rather than having to do it through the USB charger). What I like the most is the ability to set a target pace for racing etc, and it then bleeps you when you're on pace, ahead of pace or behind pace etc (as well, of course, as giving you the exact data on the dial continuously). Again I suppose if I was being a bit picky it might be nice to have the ability to set different paces for different laps so that you can get alerts for a negative split etc, but I just do that by starting slightly behind target pace, picking up to on-pace for later laps, and trying to run slightly ahead of pace towards the end. The Garmin connect app also synchronises fine with other systems like Strava etc.
Occasionally, I find that it takes a bit of a time to lock into the GPS when I turn it on, especially if I'm running somewhere new, or there's very heavy cloud, but actually that's not usually a problem, and it actually means that I end up doing my warming up exercises properly, which is something I tend to cut corners on.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Mine's just a bog-standard Forerunner 10, so doesn't have heart rate and stuff like that. Having said that, I find it brilliant, and it does everything I need -- if I was buying again I might go a level up just to get the wireless connection for synchronising etc (rather than having to do it through the USB charger). What I like the most is the ability to set a target pace for racing etc, and it then bleeps you when you're on pace, ahead of pace or behind pace etc (as well, of course, as giving you the exact data on the dial continuously). Again I suppose if I was being a bit picky it might be nice to have the ability to set different paces for different laps so that you can get alerts for a negative split etc, but I just do that by starting slightly behind target pace, picking up to on-pace for later laps, and trying to run slightly ahead of pace towards the end. The Garmin connect app also synchronises fine with other systems like Strava etc.
Occasionally, I find that it takes a bit of a time to lock into the GPS when I turn it on, especially if I'm running somewhere new, or there's very heavy cloud, but actually that's not usually a problem, and it actually means that I end up doing my warming up exercises properly, which is something I tend to cut corners on.

Another one with a Forerunner 10. Get the same GPS acquiring issue and normally use this to warm up like you. However, I have lost one run entirely due to this when the thing went in to power save before it got a location. For that reason I also always carry the phone with Strava on.

The virtual pacer is the thing I love. I used it for my recent PB and it kept me on 50 min pace for the first 3ks before the heat kicked in. I also love being able to take a quick glance at my wrist to time Fartlek 30-20-10s and intervals.

On an even better note just had a check up at the docs. I am a kilo off normal weight and my blood pressure is back to normal from "consider admitting".

 

[Bozza]

On an even better note just had a check up at the docs. I am a kilo off normal weight and my blood pressure is back to normal from "consider admitting".

Great news! Was that a "you're over 40 so we're checking you out" thing? If so, by way of coincidence, a colleague in my Bristol office told me he's just had one of those - I'd never heard of it before, but I look forward to the invite dropping through the door at some point.

My weight loss has slowed a fair bit, which is natural I guess - the first couple of stone were relatively easy to shift - but I am also more relaxed about food and drink than I was earlier in the year too. It's still going in the right direction though, which is the main thing I guess.