Woohoo. 10km this morning. Feeling pretty good at the moment, and getting some semblance of fitness back now that Little Miss Cognac is in the picture.
The Perpetual Running Thread: 2011 Edition!
- Thread starter clm100
- Start date
First 30k+ hilly run in a couple of months yesterday. Legs were really feeling it later on that day, although are OK this morning.
Not for the first time, my route collided with an organised race (Windsor Half Marathon), so had to stop and check my phone to try and not go diretly along the paths they were using and instead just cross them.
Not for the first time, my route collided with an organised race (Windsor Half Marathon), so had to stop and check my phone to try and not go diretly along the paths they were using and instead just cross them.
Ran 5k this morning after being sick with a nasty head cold for about 10 days and not running at all. Pretty flat course. But it's something. Need to get in shape for a 1/2 marathon in mid-January. It's the running in the dark time of year again.
Highly recommend the foam roller approach. I know it's all very subjective, but I definitely feel better when I use that during recovery. Also in warm up, actually, if I remember to give myself 10 minutes before heading out the door.
The hills aren't that big near where I live - just hillier than my non-hilly runs.
These things are all relative - 250m climb over 30k feels a lot more than 60m over 30k (and TBH I don;t evn know how that run gets up to as high as 60).
That said, I've been on holidays recently to areas where every run was a hilly run, so my legs were probably relatively used to hills - not just to the combo of hills and distance.
I realised while doing mountain ultras that it is more important (for me at any rate) to train for the elevation climbed than the distance. On a long run, that is what will get you first.
PB on my partial beach 5km route this morning. Progress!
It's about 3km of path and 2km of sand in total.
Sand running is always an interesting experience - if you are used to paths.
That sounds fun! I got a run in my last trip, was a full minute per mile slower due to heat/humidity I wasn't use to. I was pleased enough by that and the fact that I actually felt decent on the run (just slow), vs. what I thought I would feel like, which was totally-suffocating-in-the-heat-and-humidity...
Yeah, it's so massive. She's basically the fittest person I've ever met. We had a small team there helping her out during the down time (only about 10-15 minutes per lap, and that decreased to about 5 minutes per lap on the last few): Making food, preparing fluids, sunscreen, ice packs, generally cheering on and encouragement etc. But just such a mammoth effort on her part. We're very impressed, and very proud of her.
Congrats on the marathon! I'm considering gearing up for a trail marathon either this year or next. There's a few really nice ones around these parts.
My whole motivation for getting back into running was a friend planning a 100 mile trail run in the Rockies for his 40th birthday. He was asking for people who could pace him at 10min/mi for at least 10mi at a time. I trained up pretty close to that before spraining my ankle while hiking. So I missed his race. I think he came in 2nd for over 40, but it took him about 24 hours.
We're both coming up on 50 soon, so maybe I can try again. Hopefully he's gotten slower, because I haven't gotten much faster.
We're both coming up on 50 soon, so maybe I can try again. Hopefully he's gotten slower, because I haven't gotten much faster.
20th finisher. Not of the race this year, but 20th ever to finish it. Two minutes under the 60 hour limit. https://run247.com/running-news/trail/barkley-marathons-2024-jasmin-paris-report
It was a really impressive result - but I'm slightly shocked by the amount of coverage I'm seeing of it everywhere including in non-running sites / pages. I worry only half jokingly that UTMB will try to take over Barkley Marathons. I feel it is one of those races that got some of its mystique from its relative obscurity and idiosyncrasies - I think if it started to lose these then a new race would end up needing to emerge to bring back some of those qualities.
24 hours is very good for that distance (depending on the terrain / weather). I took 34 hours on the 100 mile race that I did - although it came up on my Garmin as 107 miles at the end and has in heavy rain for over 20 hours of it. I came equal second in my age category - equal twelfth overall. Two things that struck me were how many people (more than half) dropped out along the way and how widely spaced the the runners finishing were - the net person to finish was 40 minutes after me and there was nearly 16 hours between the first and last finisher.
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I've never done a backyard race - but I wonder how much the format would hinder as well as helping. The need to do a lap every hour stops you from taking longer breaks - and there is basically no advantage of building up a buffer of time early on, which is what many people do in normal hundred milers.
Theoretically you have way more rest stops than on a normal race format - but I find that resuming after rest stops in long runs is often the hardest part - so more of them isn't necessarily as helpful as spending more time snacking etc on the go.
I've heard from a runner in Japan I follow on insta that there are places in the cities there where you can rent running shoes for a few hours, so you don;t need to bring your own with you.
There's definitely a lot of work to it. There's an interesting video on YouTube about Phil Gore at Big's Backyard last year (he's from Perth and was the previous record holder at 102 laps). These guys schedule their laps for sleeping eating, ablutions, Misc. It's pretty tough to get to one day, but going for 4+ days if just nuts.
I guess one of the benefits of doing a backyard ultra is that logistics/support/medical is way easier to organise too. It's also something that is trying to measure pure endurance rather than endurance at pace. So building a buffer isn't the point. Depends on what your goals are I suppose.
Yeah - although similar to other forms of long distance running, aspects of how it works are very different and must need a change of mindset. Even in the runs with frequent and brutal cutoffs (like Spartathlon which I think has 70+ cutoffs and people say that is the hardest part of it), any time buffer you get is retained, rather than reset every hour.
That said, for the types of races I've done recently, the hills have such an impact that it is very hard to calculate any sort of pace - the one in Garmin Pace Pro with the slider set to giving hills the biggest impact still doesn't do it. I settle for thinking I'm way ahead on pace early on and then watching that lead evaporate as I hit the first mountain assent. You get a bit back again on the downhills and flat, but on rough terrain, it is often risky to run a fair bit of the downhill (someone on a race I was on slipped, hit a wall and had a broken arm, wrist and head injury after slipping, which required mountain rescue team and air ambulance), so I tend to take it slower than some, meaning that any attempts to estimate where you are against a target finish time is incredibly tricky. The only way I can see working at all is checking against the times you took on segments during previous runs on the same route - it is usually only towards the end (say last 20% of the total distance) that you have any kind of accurate idea of what your finish time is going to better than 30 minute accuracy.
Just as I was finally getting used to running in the heat following moving to the opposite side of the world, the temperature drops. Was about 13 degrees this morning, which doesn't sound bad - but bear in mind that I've worn t-shirt and shorts continuously for all but a couple of days since mid November. Having jumped from the tail end of one summer to the start of another I'd forgotten what it feels like when it gets colder.
Anyway - hoping it doesn't get too chilly too fast - all my running stuff suited to anything other than hot days is still in a shipping container at the port awaiting customs clearance...
One thing I don't think I will have to worry about as much as I used to though is the mud on winter runs - they have concreted just about every path within a 20km radius of me. Generally this is not ideal as I like to train my feet / ankles for when I can actually get to proper trails by running on uneven ground - when the winter rains kick in though, it will mean that I'm looking far less dirty than I used to.
Anyway - hoping it doesn't get too chilly too fast - all my running stuff suited to anything other than hot days is still in a shipping container at the port awaiting customs clearance...
One thing I don't think I will have to worry about as much as I used to though is the mud on winter runs - they have concreted just about every path within a 20km radius of me. Generally this is not ideal as I like to train my feet / ankles for when I can actually get to proper trails by running on uneven ground - when the winter rains kick in though, it will mean that I'm looking far less dirty than I used to.
Just had a notification a few minutes ago that our stuff has cleared customs and been moved to the shipping firm's warehouse, pending a delivery date. Just a few days under 5 months since it left the UK.
Next will be trying to work out which box anything is actually in - shipping abroad isn't like normal moving where a lot of stuff is packed into a van as it is - everything is boxed or wrapped in multiple layers of brown paper and then numbered on the inventory, even big furniture items...
Filled my water bottles before a run and notices that one of them has a tiny leak in it. Looking online, Ultimate Direction only sells the bottle with lid - not just the bottle part and it isn't cheap. Does anybody have experience with other brands of flexible water bottles - that will fit securely in the holders in an Ultimate Direction vest (I assume that they are a fairly standard size and interchangeable with other brands)
No clue on collapsible water bottles, sorry. :/
Currently in a month-long fitness challenge at work. Not necessarily running 5 miles a day, but at least a combination of running or walking 5 miles a day. We'll see, haven't worked out every day for a month straight in a long time.
Currently in a month-long fitness challenge at work. Not necessarily running 5 miles a day, but at least a combination of running or walking 5 miles a day. We'll see, haven't worked out every day for a month straight in a long time.
I had one until my son got too big for it - it was pretty fast, I could still manage a 50 minute 10k with it, but when the wind picks up you really notice it - you are basically pushing along a massive scoop shape. I used to give my sone important tasks to do mainly watching out for dog or horse poop on the path and alerting me. He'd do it for a few minutes, then I';d notice he had gone silent and fallen asleep.
I'm getting a little frustrated. Started running again. It's only once or twice a week. Usually aim for a couple miles, sometimes less. Very little volume. For a month or three it was a lot of run/walk, then two weeks or so ago I hit a solid 2+ miles with no walking. Since then, every. single. run. has been cut short by my body nope-ing out. Last time I just couldn't run anymore. I'd start a light jog and my body would have none of it. I ended up walking back. Today my calf cramped up. Every time I tried to pick up the pace faster than walking it said no, all the way back home.
Hopefully it will pass, and I expect it will, but it's frustrating to have made all that progress and then feel like I'm right back where I started. I'm wondering if my body is telling me to spend some time with my kettlebells or something else for a little while instead of running.
Hopefully it will pass, and I expect it will, but it's frustrating to have made all that progress and then feel like I'm right back where I started. I'm wondering if my body is telling me to spend some time with my kettlebells or something else for a little while instead of running.
I got a jogging stroller even before Mini-MadMac could go for a run in it, and the moment he was big enough I had him in there almost every chance I could. The extra wind resistance is no joke, especially out in the middle of the Prairies where I am; pushing into a 40 km/h headwind is tough on me and the little guy.
I found that choosing routes with more cars to look at keeps him engaged longer, although he usually gets bored about 40 minutes in and wants to get out to run around on his own. He'll be 2 in August and is getting a bit heavier to push around, but I went for a quick 5 km run yesterday and he had a pretty good time!
Took him on a 5k fun run once. After repeating to me over and over that "slow and steady wins the race", he started off super fast trying to overtake everyone, then when I caught up with him he paused for a second, then kept on running fast.
By 1k he was starting to tire and and my wife eventually caught up with us.
At 2k, there was some Indian drumming, which brightened his spirits.
Just after 2.5k he said that his legs were too tired and went on shoulders for a bit.
Finally at about 4.5k he got off my shoulders, then when he saw the finish line up ahead decided to sprint to the end.
Looking at the times, I'm surprised how fast his peak speed was (my Garmin was on his wrist) - He peaked at 4.49 min/km. He was age 6 at that point.
Nowadays he likes short sprints in the parks and longer walks (or I walk and he goes on his scooter). He'll get into longer runs at some point though I suspect. Occasionally I over-hear him telling other kids about my running (apparently I do a half marathon every day in his mind).
Is it always cramps, or is it different things each time? Have you tried running at a different time of day to see if that makes any difference which might then point towards causal factors?