Random Running Questions

Murph_D

it's harder than it looks

martyboy48

Ososlo wrote: »

ha ha reminds me of the one and only time I ever ran on one.
I was geting fitted for my first pair of runners in Runways. I'd never run a step in my life before (ground or treadmill). He puts me up on the machine. I just couldn't run on it. Don't know why. I fell off it every time I tried to run on it. They had to do other tests instead to check my gait. First time they'd seen the like. Morto!!!!:o

Were you facing the wrong way

adrian522

Like this?

dintbo

The first time I 'ran' on a treadmill I couldn't walk properly when I got off. It was like I was hammered drunk for about 30 seconds.

Pacing Mule

Is it normal for heart rate to spike during the first half mile or so before settling back down to normal easy paced rate ?

28064212

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Is it normal for heart rate to spike during the first half mile or so before settling back down to normal easy paced rate ?

It's more likely a problem with your strap than with your HR. See: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html

Pacing Mule

28064212 wrote: »

It's more likely a problem with your strap than with your HR. See: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html

That makes perfect sense. I have been wetting the strap alright but I warm up with a few minutes brisk walking that doesn't really break sweat. So chances are that the times it spikes is because the strap has dried off and once I sweat it gets back to normal readings.

Ceepo

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Is it normal for heart rate to spike during the first half mile or so before settling back down to normal easy paced rate ?

Garmin I assume. ?

Pacing Mule

Ceepo wrote: »

Garmin I assume. ?

Correct

Ceepo

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Correct

Notorious for spiking I'm afraid

Cona

Haven't run since before Christmas so am quite out of shape right now.

Any advice on best plan of action to get back into it?

Will target Ballycotton as my first real race I guess.

vigos

Cona wrote: »

Haven't run since before Christmas so am quite out of shape right now.

Any advice on best plan of action to get back into it?

Will target Ballycotton as my first real race I guess.

I'm in the same boat as you although a much longer break and posted the same question earlier. From looking into it I'm just going to start off with a couple weeks easy runs everyday if possible and then start throwing in a couple of tempo runs a week and see how the body copes.

Cona

vigos wrote: »

I'm in the same boat as you although a much longer break and posted the same question earlier. From looking into it I'm just going to start off with a couple weeks easy runs everyday if possible and then start throwing in a couple of tempo runs a week and see how the body copes.

Weather is making it difficult to get out the road...hopefully tomorrow night. Few easy nights running and will start picking it up from next week. The only way forward is to just run.

Vito Andolini

I've been base training for the last 6 weeks or so, before I started I do we the max hr test in the p+d book, and the result I got was a max hr of 184.
Today at the end of my run I did a couple of strides, the last couple were up an incline, my hr hit 189. Was it just a spike or what do ye think?

Clearlier

Vito Andolini wrote: »

I've been base training for the last 6 weeks or so, before I started I do we the max hr test in the p+d book, and the result I got was a max hr of 184.
Today at the end of my run I did a couple of strides, the last couple were up an incline, my hr hit 189. Was it just a spike or what do ye think?

Sounds very much like a spike, have you looked at the numbers on a graph?

vigos

Vito Andolini wrote: »

I've been base training for the last 6 weeks or so, before I started I do we the max hr test in the p+d book, and the result I got was a max hr of 184.
Today at the end of my run I did a couple of strides, the last couple were up an incline, my hr hit 189. Was it just a spike or what do ye think?

Well how did you feel after the max HR test compared to the strides? A max HR test is usually a pretty unpleasant thing to have to do, and you should be breathing very heavily with nothing else to give in the legs

Did you feel like that after the strides? If not most likely just a spike on your HR device. By looking at you how you were breathing at the time, how you felt you can probably use that to judge if it was a spike or not

Vito Andolini

I was definitely a lot worse after the hr test, I didn't think of it like that, haven't looked at it on a graph yet my laptop is dead waiting on a new one.
I'll put it down to a spike, and forget about it so! Thank lads!

6781

Haven't run the past two and a half weeks I seemed to have picked up a groin strain. I thought it was getting better so just tried just walking faster at work today to see how it was but ended up with a niggling feeling. I cant really afford to get it looked at for a the next couple of months so just wondering is there anything I can do as I'm finding it very frustrating not able to run or just wait it out?

Itziger

Question for coaches: What's the difference between 2x5k at 'Y' pace with 90 secs rest, and 1x10k at 'Y' pace???

Is there any reason that the first would be more beneficial?

Just to come clean, I was supposed to do the 2x5 yesterday but I made it 1x10 instead. It was very cold, there was snow coming and I thought, screw this, keep going.....

28064212

Itziger wrote: »

Question for coaches: What's the difference between 2x5k at 'Y' pace with 90 secs rest, and 1x10k at 'Y' pace???

Is there any reason that the first would be more beneficial?

Less chance of injury, allows your body more recovery time. You could just go out everyday and run as hard as you can, but that's going to have you up on the physio's table pretty quickly.

vigos

Not a coach so could well be wrong and am open to be corrected but if the session called for a 90 sec rest and you didn't need it then maybe you could be running faster for the 5km intervalsI would expect a 2x5km session to be run at a harder pace than a 10km as its probably meant to build different things

Although It would depend on what stage of training you're at as well base building etc.

Anyway interested in what others would have to say

Itziger

28064212 wrote: »

Less chance of injury, allows your body more recovery time. You could just go out everyday and run as hard as you can, but that's going to have you up on the physio's table pretty quickly.

Well anyone who does that deserves the physic's table as it is plain stupidity.

There was very, very little chance of the session leading to injury for me. It is basically Marathon Pace and I just felt there wasn't that much sense in taking the short break but I could be wrong. That's why I said I'd like to hear a coach's take on the difference between 2x5 with short rec. as against 1x10.

I'm currently looking to do a Half in March btw.

Krusty_Clown

Itziger wrote: »

It is basically Marathon Pace and I just felt there wasn't that much sense in taking the short break but I could be wrong.

This extra piece of information changes the question/answer. The simple answer is that 2 x 5k @ marathon pace with 90 seconds rest is easier than 1 x 10k @ MP. If it's a progressive plan you may eventually build up to 5 x 5k @MP with 90 seconds rest, and at that point you'll really see the difference between the two scenarios. If you can manage 10k @MP with no residual impact, then no harm. But if it's part of a progressive plan, you might get bored waiting for the plan to catch up!

Itziger

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

This extra piece of information changes the question/answer. The simple answer is that 2 x 5k @ marathon pace with 90 seconds rest is easier than 1 x 10k @ MP. If it's a progressive plan you may eventually build up to 5 x 5k @MP with 90 seconds rest, and at that point you'll really see the difference between the two scenarios. If you can manage 10k @MP with no residual impact, then no harm. But if it's part of a progressive plan, you might get bored waiting for the plan to catch up!

Yeah, you could be right. The guy giving me the plans is doing it for naught - I don't even know him and thing is, he gives me the info every two weeks, so I don't really know what's coming. It kinda keeps you on your toes but can be a little frustrating too. I'm going to follow what he says and see how March goes. I can always change tack for another Half at end of June. Nothing much lost.

ECOLII

@Itziger

There are a number of reasons why tempo's etc would be broke down. Injury risk is the main reasoning and by breaking into intervals can allow the athlete to focus on increasing the volume without affecting the length of recovery of a session

Krusty's example of 5x5k would take an awful lot less recovery than 25k @ MP.

The other thinking behind it is perhaps the coach doesn't want it to be a hugely taxing session. Not all sessions have to be ball busters and by doing an easier session one week might allow a harder session later in the week or the following one, always good to take the session in context of the overal plan rather than the merits of the session itself. Using sets can enable less stress while still allowing for specific stimulus.

The more specific you can be with a session the better, if comparing like for like single effort will trumph segments but if the segements allows more quality or better recovery then sometimes the latter is the right option despite being slightly less specific

Itziger

Thanks Ecoliiiii,

That's kinda what I was looking for. I can imagine 5x5k being easier and needing less recovery than 25k! And I have a feeling this plan is a 'ramp it up as we go' one too so maybe by the middle of next week I'll be saying, 'Maybe I should have split that 10k last Saturday!'

Ceepo

Itziger wrote: »

Yeah, you could be right. The guy giving me the plans is doing it for naught - I don't even know him and thing is, he gives me the info every two weeks, so I don't really know what's coming. It kinda keeps you on your toes but can be a little frustrating too. I'm going to follow what he says and see how March goes. I can always change tack for another Half at end of June. Nothing much lost.

Because it 2 different types of a workout.
running 10k at x pace will increase blood lactate more than 2 X 5k at the same pace with a recovery.
Without seeing the rest or your training however i am only taking a guess this is probably why he gave you this session.

Not trying to be smart but would you not ask him what the reason for the session was as I'm sure he knows why he prescribed it in the 1st place.

Itziger

Ceepo wrote: »

Because it 2 different types of a workout.
running 10k at x pace will increase blood lactate more than 2 X 5k at the same pace with a recovery.
Without seeing the rest or your training however i am only taking a guess this is probably why he gave you this session.

Not trying to be smart but would you not ask him what the reason for the session was as I'm sure he knows why he prescribed it in the 1st place.

Ceepo, this is my first time working with this lad and to be honest with you, I don't want to be putting too much pressure on the guy. He gives me a two week plan every second Sunday and I do most of the sessions as he prescribes. This time I just felt the 2x5 sounded a small bit easy. As I followed it with a 20k easy run today there wasn't much chance of my injuring myself. Now if it was 5x2k and the next day was hard, then I really would have stuck to it but as it was I thought, no harm if I just keep this rolling. The plan is 5 days a week and this is what the past week looked like:

Mon. - Rest
Tues -12k easy with 4x80m 'strides' (He described em as 'progressive', easy to fast)
Wed - 6x1k at 10k pace approx. (3.40/3.42) in my case.
Thurs. 12k mid pace - about 4.40
Friday - rest
Sat. - the by now well-known 2x5k
Sun. - 20k Easy

Ososlo

When people say their legs were 'swimming in lactate' or their legs were 'full of lactate' what do they mean exactly? A fancy way of saying their legs were tired?

Krusty_Clown

Ososlo wrote: »

When people say their legs were 'swimming in lactate' or their legs were 'full of lactate' what do they mean exactly? A fancy way of saying their legs were tired?

Nah, I believe it's subtlety different (non-scientific answer - I'm sure there'll be a more scientific answer along shortly!). If you ever tried to run a PB in a 400m, it's that icy cold feeling that grips all of the muscles in your body as you exit the final bend and hit the finishing straight. It feels like your muscles have been injected with a fast setting agent that wants to grind all movement to an instantaneous halt; meanwhile, your brain is screaming at you to exit stage right and drop out of the race. With tired legs, you'll gradually decelerate. With legs 'full of lactate', your central governor has left the building and wants to call an immediate halt to all proceedings. That's my interpretation anyway!