14th October

10.5km, 1:30ish

This is going to be pretty much every Wednesday night from now over winter. When the evenings are light enough my club does it's Wednesday night run in a different area each week, but now the nights are drawing in and we're running in the dark we stick to the same hill every week.

Last night the sky was amazing. So clear you could see the Milky Way, and our resident astronomical physicist was pointing out all the orbiting satellites which I'd never seen before.

Resting today, might do a small run tomorrow and then 5k on Saturday morning.

I found the results for the weekend's race. I came in 131st out of 387 with a time of 2:56:13. So 2 places outside the top third. For a Lake District race I'm pretty happy with that as the level of competition is always so much higher than everywhere else.

What is your target time for the 5K?

Not 100% sure because I've not done any proper road running for a long time. My PB two years ago was 19:11 but I think it's going to probably be around the 20:30-21:00 range on Saturday. I guess my aim is to get comfortably under 20 mins again by the end of the year.

You have a Garmin watch, right? Thoughts on it (usefulness, value for money etc)? I don't even time or track my runs at all really, and am terrible at pacing, so I'm thinking about getting just a bottom of the range Garmin Forerunner 10. I'm sure this lacks some cool features of the more expensive ones, but would it be lacking in any genuinely useful stuff? I also cycle a fair bit and hope it would be useful for that too.

The forerunner 10 doesn't support heart rate tracking, the FR15 does.
For cycling, both are not really useable (the fr15 slightly more).

17th October

Preston Parkrun

5km, 19:32

So that was a nice surprise. Totally smashed it and got reasonably close to my pb. I started off at what I thought was a comfortable pace and my Garmin was showing 3:45 pace which was a bit of a shocker. I slowed down a bit from there because I know I have a tendency to go out too fast in these things. At each km I was almost bang on the 20:00 target so that acted as a great motivation to keep pushing, but as I got close to the finish I realised my watch must have underestimated the distance and I was actually closer to 19:30, which was an awesome surprise.

Splits:

Km 1: 3:56
Km 2: 4:05
Km 3: 3:51 (the course is 3 laps with a hill in the middle, and km3 misses out the hill)
Km 4: 4:10
Km 5: 3:46 (Big finish, my Garmin counted it as 0.9km but 3:46 was the km pace)

Edit: Looks like I'm wrong about the hill - Strava says that Km 4 begins at the top of the hill, so I must have just put in a big effort for Km 3 and then slowed a lot on Km 4

I guess the new target then is pb (19:11) and sub-19 by the end of the year. I'm going to try and put some work in over the next few weeks and go back to run this again in 3-4 weeks time for a retest.

I use the Forerunner 110. Pretty sure it can cope with heartrate monitor, but tbh I think hr stuff is overrated. Basically I use it for tracking my distance/time out running and uploading everything to Strava, which it does pretty flawlessly with no fuss and faff.

I actually only put my watch back on a few weeks ago after running without it for the rest of the year. I was going through a phase of just getting out and enjoying my running rather than worrying about the minutiae of training and performance. I've just started using it as a way of keeping myself accountable more than anything. Being able to see how much I've done, and if I've had a slack week or whatever should keep me in training. Also, for this 5k today it was great to see approximately where I was at with regards to pace.

When I cycled, I just had the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone and spent £20 on a case that attached to the handlebars. It displayed time/pace/hr/cadence (with the additional sensor) etc, could show you a map and some other functions. Worked really well and got round the issue of needing to spend a ton on a bike specific computer.

Nicely done Ron! You're a beast!

Ty sir!

19th October

4.2k, 25:33, Very easy pace, flat off-road run

Wasn't going to run today as didn't have time but decided to turn the morning dog walk into a run instead. This is the kind of thing I need to do regularly to get plenty of low-impact training in that ups the weekly mileage without really even noticing the increase in training.

20th October

15.6km/9.7 mile, 1:26

Nice easy pace, fairly flat run on mix of good off-road trail and paved paths/roads.

Haven't done any long road runs for a while so didn't want to push it too far today. I felt like I'd have no problem doing another 5 miles or more but the main issue is how robust my legs would be for this kind of running. The constant pounding of road running is different to the variety you get when running in the hills so I'm going to just be a bit on the cautious side and build this up slowly.

and congratz on the great 5k time!

19.32 for a 5k ...

Wish i had not stumbled into this thread now.

Hi Hap! What you doing in these deep depths of 2p2? Are you a runner?


21st October

4.2km, 26:17, very easy pace, flat, off-road trail run.

Legs felt pretty dead this morning, but this should do me good as a recovery run. Probably going to have tomorrow as a full rest day, then going to aim for a hill reps session on Friday.

Cannot really class myself as a runner yet but i go through phases of trying to get fit and running on my treadmill is part of that process.

Started up ( again ) and im in my 7th week so things are going ok.

Basically run a 5k on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a gym session on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Since my latest start ive ran faster with every run and im down to 28.30 which is a PB for me but i feel there is still more to go as im not really struggling that much yet.

Been taking a minute off my time every week so far.

Pretty sure im going to hit the proverbial wall soon but im fine with that because ive already surpassed where i thought i would be at this stage.

Will up the speed to 10.6km/ph on Friday which should be a time of 28.10

That's awesome that you got back into it and are sticking at it. But ugh... doing it all on a treadmill? Get out there and explore the world around you!

Do you know if you have a local ParkRun? If so you should get down to that imo, it's a great way of transitioning into an outside environment with like-minded people. There are tons of new runners there so there's no worries about the standards.

When you say you 'do a 5k' does that mean you're just hammering it out as fast as you can? If so you probs wanna slow down a bit - training should be a mix of mainly easy running mixed in with a hard session or two per week. Most people do their easy runs too hard and their hard runs too easy.

Its a part convenience and part " not ready " to step outside and run scenario

Living in the hills of North Wales ..there are ample great places to go and have a run and ill carry on getting fitter and then venture into the outdoors.

I get up .. get my lad off to college and then do my fitness at home before having a shower and off to work .... so right now ill use the convenience excuse !

Definitely something i will look into at some point.

The last time i attempted to get fitter, i could never do a 5k without having to walk at some point but this time ive not walked once in any run.

I think i started off at something like 9km/ph until i hit the 5k.

All ive done since then is up the speed by 0.1 and see how i fared, so far ive just carried on upping it by that much and im currently at 10.5.

0.1 is roughly 20 seconds quicker every 5k ... so its not a huge difference.

Ill keep doing it until i feel its too fast and ill just consolidate for a few runs before attempting to move up again.

There is no time frame or rush to push myself too hard.

Do you take any supplements Ron ?

I currently just have a Total Protein shake from myprotein but ive now just purchased some creatine to add to the shake.

I also take zinc, D3 and multi vitamins.

It's awesome for new runners in your position. It's free and has runners of all standards, from the sub-17 guys at the front to the fat old ladies getting round in 45 minutes.

The main reason I say to get outside is that compliance is key to any kind of training program, and I've never known anyone who's kept up a training program of running solely on the treadmill, simply because it's just too boring.

That's awesome, great progress.


This is a decent idea. Once you've got to the point where you've really pushed yourself then it'd be time to sort out some intelligent training where you're not just nailing it every session.

I just have whey protein (the basic one from myprotein), mainly as a way of getting extra calories when I need it. Most other supplements are pretty much useless unless you're getting on for elite athlete status and you know exactly what you need and why. As far as vitamins and mineral go, you should generally be getting everything you need in your diet. If you're not..... eat better!

What's the creatine for? Afaik it's only really useful if you're training max-effort lifts (1-5RM), it doesn't really do anything else.

Thinking of entering a half marathon as a was of keeping me motivated on this road-running business.

There are local ones at the start of December and at the start of January. I would really like to break 1:30 so I don't want to enter the earlier one and miss out, but then I would like to just enter it and get it done. I used a race calculator based on my 5k and it gives me a time of almost exactly 1:30. I do expect to be improving before December, but there's not much room to play with there. It would suck to do it and get just over the target meaning I'd have to do another one. Hmm... Guess I'll see what my next 5k comes out like.

Im not the greatest eater to be fair ... not really a fish or veg type of guy.

Im not sure why im buying creatine lol ... seemed like a good idea to add to the shake just to see how it affects me in any way.

Ive bought a 1kg bag and will just see if it has any benefits.

Not really interested in taking anything else tbh.

Just happy to keep to my morning routine and see how i progress over the coming months.

Your dog looks pretty much exactly as my old dog. Mine was a schnauzer/sausage-dog/terrier mix with exactly the same black and white coat at same spots, and also pretty much same size and proportions.

Creatin does also support recovery after endurance training, by helping to get water and nutrients into your muscle, working especially well togetehr with like half a litre of grape juice or so, since sugar supports the creation-absorption (and general recovery) really well.
However, I think all supplements are unneeded, except Omega-3 if you cannot afford or stomach decent fish. All supplements are just bumps in the way to a balanced diet of real food, imho.
IMO, one only might need supplements in case of of having more than 3 really highly intense workouts per week, aka sometimes two days in a row.

i would recommend to do the january one. i think you have the speed and the endurance, but you will need the time until then to adapt to the road. yes, 19:30 would cut it close, but i'm very sure that you'll be easily below 19' in max 6 weeks with some good speed sessions. and you definitely have the endurance from the hills. but it's a slightly different form of endurance. on a hill run, you can (at least a little bit) coast on the downhills. on the road, you never have a good reason to slow down and recover.

or as a suggestion: do a test tempo run in 2-3 weeks. do a small mini-taper beforehand and do a mid-run 10km tempo in HM pace and see how that feels. if it feels still somewhat easy at the end, i'd say go for gold.
many HM training plans have such a mid-week tempo run in HM pace to really get used to the pace. many expand those week for week up to 9-10 miles. but i think a 10k tempo will already give you a solid impression if 1:30 is achievable.

It's so much better to start incorporating these things into your diet than just replacing it all by supplements imo.

Hey. My dog's a cross between a Border collie and a Patterdale terrier, pretty much bred perfectly for running around mountains. There's prob going to be plenty more pictures of him in this thread as he comes with me on all my runs in the hills.

You could be right about the creatine, I don't know too much about it. I do stand by my point though that for a relative newcomer to running/exercise in general, the effect of supplements like that is negligible relative to eating well and structuring your training/recovery properly.

Yeah you're probably right here. It's definitely a different kind of endurance. The hill running is way more varied. You use different muscles in different ways as the terrain changes and you're constantly changing where the impact and stress is occurring. On the road is just a constant pound with the same muscles and the same impact in the same joints over and over. I definitely need to make sure I'm robust enough to handle a longer distance race.

Sounds like a great idea, will probably give it a try at some point.

23rd October

Did a long hill rep session. 15 minute warm-up followed by 3 reps of 1.1km with 125m climbing, broken up by a gentle jog back down and short rest at the bottom.

Rep 1: 7:15
Rep 2: 7:33
Rep 3: 7:56

This was absolutely horrible. The first rep wasn't too bad, but the 2nd and 3rd were just disgustingly hard. Doing such long intervals was so tough. When you do say 1 minute intervals, by the time it starts to hurt you've only got like 30s to push through. These ones started hurting after about a minute or so, and you had to push on for another six minutes after that. Horrible. But probably very worthwhile.

Total distance/time: 9.2km, 1:06