Random Running Questions

Liam28

ultrapercy wrote: »

Yes very good time for 11 and not a bad time in general. It would place him in the top 25% of even competitive adult races. It's not necessarily a sign that he will become a top class runner but he obviously is fit and competitive. He should go along to his local club and find out if he enjoys athletics first and what he's good at will follow.

OK thanks. I was not sure if it was a genuine time or how it would rank. He did say there were secondary and college students running also, and he finished in the top 10. Will definitely bring him to an athletics club as he has got an appetite for running now, although he has a collection of gold medals from local Community Games. Maybe a pair of running shoes for Christmas too.

runnerholic

I actually think the Kildare open 5k today was short. My Garmin only registered 4.91K, and I got a pb in windy conditions. Delighted with the time obviously but I suspect it may not be genuine.

Utdfan20titles

runnerholic wrote: »

I actually think the Kildare open 5k today was short. My Garmin only registered 4.91K, and I got a pb in windy conditions. Delighted with the time obviously but I suspect it may not be genuine.

Congratulations on your 4.91k pb

tang1

UM1 wrote: »

Bang on measurrmrnt ..exact same route as le cheike 5k...

runnerholic if UM1 says it's correct distance it's the correct distance. GPS watches are not 100% accurate.

Pacing Mule

tang1 wrote: »

runnerholic if UM1 says it's correct distance it's the correct distance. GPS watches are not 100% accurate.

Assuming that the start / finish line where in the place they were measured

My first 5 mile race turned out to be short as they erected the start line gantry in the wrong place on Chesterfield Avenue.

BeepBeep67

Interesting little App that calculates your longest running streak - what's yours?

Gavlor

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Interesting little App that calculates your longest running streak - what's yours?

5 days. Fancy apps my arse.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Any reccomendations for a gps running tracker, like a garmin etc? Just something non too fancy and affordable really?

Maximus Alexander

I suppose it depends on what you consider affordable, but I have the Forerunner 225 and absolutely no complaints. Love it actually. I've no experience with the cheaper Garmins though. The 220 is a bit cheaper and basically identical - it has a strap HRM instead of the optical one which some people prefer.

The Muppet

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

Any reccomendations for a gps running tracker, like a garmin etc? Just something non too fancy and affordable really?

not too fancy could be the garmin fore runner 10 it does not have a heart monitor and costs about €105. A step up is the garmin fr 15 , it is a good fitness tracker and gps watch, had one myself and it did everything i needed until i started running interval sessions. ,It costs about €130 it has a heart monitor too but the heart strap is extra,

Next is the garmin fr220 which is what i upgraded too it has a few nice features you may like/need as you progress, You can program a session like intervals into it and if you sync it with a smartphone you dont need to connect it to a pc to upload your workouts to garmin connect it costs about €170.

If you just want a tracker and have a smartphone wahoo do some nice ones , I have the tickerx and still use it as my heartstrap , It was my main tracker for a few months but you have to look at your phone to see the data which is awkward mid run if thast something you want to do.

The prices for the fr10 and fr15 are from argos , the fr 220 is sports direct and Halfords sell the wahoo or you can buy it direct from their website , its just under €100/ That's where i purchased my stuff shopping around may save you a few quid.


you can get excellent reviews of all watches from http://www.dcrainmaker.com


t

Tigerandahalf

Is there any feature on Garmin Connect to just bring up the races you have run in the year rather than having to scroll through all of your activities?


Thanks

davedanon

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Is there any feature on Garmin Connect to just bring up the races you have run in the year rather than having to scroll through all of your activities?


Thanks

Yes! The calendar will show you your whole year, or a given month, or week.

BeepBeep67

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Is there any feature on Garmin Connect to just bring up the races you have run in the year rather than having to scroll through all of your activities?


Thanks

You can categorize an activity as a race or mark it as a favourite to allow easy searching afterwards

Tigerandahalf

davedanon wrote:

Yes! The calendar will show you your whole year, or a given month, or week.

BeepBeep67 wrote:

You can categorize an activity as a race or mark it as a favourite to allow easy searching afterwards

Ok thanks. I normally mark races that way but didn't know you could do a filtered search.

Luighne

I went to weigh myself this morning to see how much on put on over the Christmas. I'm off running now nine weeks with injury but I got a shock to see I'm 6kg lighter. Would this be mainly down to muscle loss as I haven't been doing much work in my down time?

TFBubendorfer

pac_man wrote: »

What type of surfaces should one consider when doing the long run during marathon training? On the one hand, id imagine it might be beneficial to get the legs accustomed to pounding the pavement but the impacts raise the chance of getting injured?

I've a preference for grass or the trails of the Phoenix Park as its easier on the legs but am slightly muddled as to weather I should be doing all the long runs on concrete to replicate the race.

Any thoughts?

If you are training for a road marathon then you need to run your long runs on the road.

If you're unused to road running then introduce it gradually.

Chartsengrafs

Looking for opinions of folks who have over time improved their average interval time for a given distance in training.
Say 400s on a track, I would be interested to hear how people went from say being able to run a consistent 12* 85 second laps to 78. Or 78 to 75 seconds. Would you deem the accumulation of weeks of speedwork or a stronger overall aerobic running fitness to be of greater importance? Or both? Or something else entirely..shorter distance fast-twitch development added to the mix? Hope I explained this correctly.. it's late!

TFBubendorfer

pac_man wrote: »

What are the benefits when doing long runs on the road?

Daylight at this time of the year dictates that I do practically all my other runs on pavement with the exception of the long run.

The benefits are that your legs get used to the pounding of the road surface. Every surface is different and if you train on a different surface than the one you race on, you will notice it late in the marathon.

If you're doing all your other training runs on the road, then that will help already. If you're worried about daylight (obviously personal safety comes first!) then keep doing your long run on trail or grass right now but make sure to do at least a couple of long runs on the road closer to your race when the days will be longer.

Spirogyra

Can cycling be considered as contributing to marathon traiming mileage in anyway? Ran 10 miles on the road,but before that did 80 minutes on the bike indoors,as it was raining heavily. Would ideally like to have done 12 or 14 miles today, but does the cycling help in any way?☺thanks

pconn062

Basster wrote: »

Looking for opinions of folks who have over time improved their average interval time for a given distance in training.
Say 400s on a track, I would be interested to hear how people went from say being able to run a consistent 12* 85 second laps to 78. Or 78 to 75 seconds. Would you deem the accumulation of weeks of speedwork or a stronger overall aerobic running fitness to be of greater importance? Or both? Or something else entirely..shorter distance fast-twitch development added to the mix? Hope I explained this correctly.. it's late!

The best way to improve that would be to cut back on the amount of reps you are doing and focus on the quality. So for example if you are currently doing 12x400m @ 85 seconds a lap and you wish to improve then you could do:

6x400m @80 seconds off 90 secs recovery

Then progress to 8x400m, 10x400m, 12 x400m. Then you could go back down to 8x400m @ 80 seconds but reduce the recovery to 75 seconds (as an example). When you can do 12x400m in 80 seconds off 60-75 seconds recovery then go back down to 6x400m but aim for 78 seconds, and so on.

So a progression of 400m's over the course of a season may look like:

6x400m in 80 seconds off 90 secs-2 mins recovery
8x400m in 80 seconds off 90 secs-2 mins recovery
10x400m etc.
12x400m etc.

Then

8-10x400m in 80 secs off 60-75 secs recovery
10-12x400m etc.

Then

6x400m in 78 seconds off 90 seconds-2 mins
8x400m etc.
10x400m etc.
12x400m etc.

Then

8-10x400m in 78 secs off 60-75 secs recovery
10-12x400m etc.

And so on. This is just one way of doing it.

So essentially, you use the longer recovery to build the number of reps. Then shorten the recovery, while lowering the number of reps to adapt. The key to speed work is progression. You should be aiming to progress the session throughout the training block. Either more reps, faster reps, shorter recovery etc.

Regarding a culmination of speedwork vs aerobic fitness, you need both over the course of a training block for the best results. But the aerobic fitness will allow you to run the higher volume of faster reps. You need the base fitness in order to handle the faster training. Speedwork is just the icing on the cake after base mileage, tempos, strides, hill reps, S+C.

Chartsengrafs

Thanks pconn for your detailed reply, makes a lot of sense.

I hadn't considered reducing the number of reps and adjusting recovery also. Might be tricky running it by the coach who is all about volume for some reason, with pretty active recovery.

Definitely agree with your final paragraph.

BeepBeep67

Basster wrote: »

Thanks pconn for your detailed reply, makes a lot of sense.

I hadn't considered reducing the number of reps and adjusting recovery also. Might be tricky running it by the coach who is all about volume for some reason, with pretty active recovery.

Definitely agree with your final paragraph.

As my coach used to say, you better have money (miles) in the bank before spending on the credit card (reps/races)

ThebitterLemon

pac_man wrote: »

What are the benefits when doing long runs on the road?

Daylight at this time of the year dictates that I do practically all my other runs on pavement with the exception of the long run.

Try and stay off concrete pavement if at all possible.

I find this much harder on the legs, much more so that tarred roads.

No harm in mixing up your runs across a mixture of surfaces but as TFB says you do need to spend a good portion of time on your feet on the roads.

Best of luck with it.

TbL

Firedance

Does anyone have any tips for doing a long run (18 miles) after a long flight (8 hours)? Will make sure to hydrate on the plane but would you run first & sleep later or vica versa? Has anyone done this & how did it go ?

annapr

Firedance wrote: »

Does anyone have any tips for doing a long run (18 miles) after a long flight (8 hours)? Will make sure to hydrate on the plane but would you run first & sleep later or vica versa? Has anyone done this & how did it go ?

I did a long run (only 15 miles) after a 4 hour flight last year and it was the most painful run I ever did. Long haul dehydrates you anyway, so plenty of water, get up and walk around on the flight as often as you can to stretch. I would go by how you feel when you get home... But I find if you get in early in the morning, a few hours sleep helps a lot and you can still go out in daylight (assuming there is any in Ireland that day). And getting out for a run is a great cure for jet lag.

Then again, I think TbL did 20 miles or so from the airport at one stage last year... So he will have better insight!

ThebitterLemon

Flew from Mexico through London and on to Shannon.

Bulmers met me at arrivals and after a quick change in the car we were off.

Did 22 miles in horrible weather.

Had hardly any sleep but I kept the legs well stretched throughout the flight and also made sure I'd drank plenty (of water )

Consider a pair of compression socks too.

I'd recommend doing it directly off the flight as otherwise (for me anyway) I'd probably find reasons not to do it.

Wasn't too bad at all (apart from the fact that I'd to listen to Bulmers talk sh1te for 3 hours )

Good luck with it

TbL

Firedance

thanks both! some good advice there, flight lands at 5am so by the time I'm home, fed, more water etc I could probably go straight out the door but will see how I feel. I have compression socks with me too. At least I won't have to listen to Bulmers, having said that if anyone else is around and wants to join me for the last 8 miles when I'll be seriously flagging I'd be more than happy to listen to anything being said

tang1

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Bulmers met me at arrivals and after a quick change in the car we were off.

TbL

It is a questions thread, why were both of ye changing in the car?

annapr

Firedance wrote: »

thanks both! some good advice there, flight lands at 5am so by the time I'm home, fed, more water etc I could probably go straight out the door but will see how I feel. I have compression socks with me too. At least I won't have to listen to Bulmers, having said that if anyone else is around and wants to join me for the last 8 miles when I'll be seriously flagging I'd be more than happy to listen to anything being said

PM me, depending on when might keep you company for some of it!

Bulmers74

For the record, I did not change in the car with TbL! I reckon only for each other that day in the conditions we would've bailed if going solo.
I'd be inclined to try the run before sleep if possible.
'Motivational recordings' can be provided if necessary;)