2020 Fretboard Virtual Running Club

mcsdan

drinks on runs really depend on how far, intensity and what the weather is like. I do a 7.5-10 mile run on a Wednesdays atm with the middle section at speed (fartleks) so tend to take a 250ml bottle of drink with me this time of year.  For longer runs this time of year I'll allow 500ml per hour. I tend to judge by time since the terrain is varied and an hour going up hill for 2-3 miles is just as hard as doing 6 miles flat in an hour.  One key thing is to make sure you don't over hydrate and effectively water down the salts in your body. Use of electrolytes help here. You can get these to go in your drinks or tablets. For long races I use tablets since they can be taken independent of fluids e.g. hot summer day 2 tablets an hour, winter time 1 tablet for 2 hours.

For 5k you don't need to take any fluids and may find that it works against you with the water sloshing in your stomach. Hydrate before and after. Electrolytes aren't an issue on this distance since you'll have plenty in your normal foods.

I've coached beginner c25k courses and they all start off clutching their water bottles like they are going to dehydrate in 10 mins! So get them to leave bottles at start and concentrate on running without sloshing.

I've seen 10km races advertised with water stations every 2km and people commenting that they want more!!Hmmm!

mcsdan

Garmin is partly back up now. Communication from them has been appalling.  Anyway back up and can sync runs,activities again.

mcsdan

Still training despite garmin being down!. I've added in the strength work now with squats, deadlifts, glute bridges etc. Also long hill repeats and fartleks (like unstructured speed work) during the week. For long runs I've kept the distance around the same but am doing much hillier runs. Yesterday was 20 miles with 2600 feet of hills. Will up the hills to around 3000 feet on this weeks long run and complete this phase the week after with a 50km/31m training run (only about 1200 feet of hills).

Iamnobody

Congrats on the PB @PolarityMan

I PB’d my 10k last week. At the moment I’m settled on a just a couple of longer runs a week (not long in @mcsdan ‘s works though!).

I might throw in the odd 5k to mix things up soon just to keep it from going to repetitive.

I didn’t know Garmin was down as I don’t use it!

However I wouldn’t let it stop me. Despite mentioning my PB above I’m hoping that long term running will be something I just do and enjoy without obsessing too much about times.

I’n new to it so it’s easy to make constant improvement. I imagine I’ll plateau soon and then be a bit more care free about it. 

Thanks for the tips on the drinks - it seems like I can easily do 10ks without one - the tip about looping past home on longer runs for refreshment is a good one - better than carrying a water bottle. Thanks.

fields5069

I tend not to drink on any run up to 13 miles, although when I was doing 17-milers I probably should have been starting to drink and maybe take a gel around 8 - 10 miles in.

8 miles yesterday on the run through my childhood haunts.

Iamnobody

fields5069 said:

I tend not to drink on any run up to 13 miles, although when I was doing 17-milers I probably should have been starting to drink and maybe take a gel around 8 - 10 miles in.

8 miles yesterday on the run through my childhood haunts.

My longest distance (ever) and without a drink is only 14k so I haven’t had chance to test beyond that. I wasn’t that dehydrated so could have probably squeezed a few more Ks out before feeling I needing a drink. 

Biggest problem at my age is holding water once it’s in there! I don’t want to be stopping every 5mins for a pee break! 

fields5069

Iamnobody said:

fields5069 said:

I tend not to drink on any run up to 13 miles, although when I was doing 17-milers I probably should have been starting to drink and maybe take a gel around 8 - 10 miles in.

8 miles yesterday on the run through my childhood haunts.

My longest distance (ever) and without a drink is only 14k so I haven’t had chance to test beyond that. I wasn’t that dehydrated so could have probably squeezed a few more Ks out before feeling I needing a drink. 

Biggest problem at my age is holding water once it’s in there! I don’t want to be stopping every 5mins for a pee break! 

That has happened to me a few times. I was running up a canal but there weren't really any places to hide to do the needful.

Deadman

Bloody hell. I think that was the sweatiest mess I've ever been in my life tonight. 

Just 5x 5km runs this week. And 300 push ups per day.

Happy Friday, all.

drofluf

Deadman said:

Bloody hell. I think that was the sweatiest mess I've ever been in my life tonight. 

Just 5x 5km runs this week. And 300 push ups per day.

Happy Friday, all.

“Just” 5x5k!?!

well done

mcsdan

no 1s are least of the worries! It's no 2s that cause the problem!

On a long training run a few years back I was trying out different foods for fueling. Dried fruit would be good I thought. Dried apricots. Yummy. I ate a whole bag on the run. Then I needed the loo. Really needed the loo. I carry an "emergency bag" but the section I was on was a public canal and lots of people around. I eventually came to a toilet but was locked with a pin code. I asked one of the canal boat owners if I could use it and he explained it was for boat owners only and was very hesitant to give me the code. I had to agree to not mention who gave me the code if I was stopped! "You aint seen me right!". I explained I was desperate and got the code! lol. Anyway, code worked. 2469 BTW I remembered due to the song 2468 Motorway haha but 1 better! "2469 take a s**t"! Lesson learnt: dont eat dried apricots on a long run!

Another time was in a race. I'd eaten some dodgy food/gel at one of the checkpoints. Needed the loo. Emergency bag to the rescue. All fine. However about 10 miles after I needed to go again. Emergency bag gone! Luckily there was a sign for toilets on the path I was running about 4 miles away at one of the locks on the Thames. Great I waited and carried on running. Very carefully I should add. Got to the lock and the toilets were being demolished! I asked the lock keeper and he pointed me to some old brick outside open air toilet. I got there and they were literally an outside brick urinal. I had to go but was careful. Saw the lock keeper and explained - he gave me a couple of doggy bags ( and I'm sure had a good laugh) which I cleaned up and disposed of in the doggy poo bins. Bear in mind this was about 94-95 miles into a race so extremely knackered, brain dead and very hard to squat down. Lesson learnt this time: carry several emergency bags!

That race was also interesting since I got halluncinations and thought I could see bright green snakes on the path in front of me. Trying to run through those was like an Indiana Jones scene! Once I realised after the third time I knew to get more carbs in resulting in eating more carbs than I would do normally and having to go somewhere.

So no 1s are easy!

Sorry for the detail but thought it would make a few laugh. Those that know

djspecialist

Not so much running this week, because my local lido has reopened. Two swims this week, which were nothing short of fantastic. I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoy getting in there!

BigMonka

@mcsdan those stories are brilliant! I’ve heard from other people about hallucinations on extreme distance runs too.

Ive mainly been running with my kids (aged 9 and 6) but this week managed to get out for a couple of 10ks with just my wife whilst my in-laws looked after the kids. They weren’t quick runs but it was nice to able to go a bit faster than with the littluns.

Iamnobody

@mcsdan I hadn’t even thought of No 2s! Running does tend to shake the insides a bit though!

When I first started running this year I worked out a 5k loop door to door. I was chatting to a colleague and he mentioned finishing away from home and walking the last 1 - 0.5k or whatever as a cool down.

This sounds sensible and something I’ve started doing now my runs are typically are longer and I can get away from that door to door loop. 

Is the walk/cool down good advice?

fields5069

Only once have I needed a poo on a run, and just basically had to walk a couple of miles home. I wasn't too desperate but I definitely couldn't run.

I'm sticking to my "around the houses" 8 mile run, 3 times per week. I'm playing with the route to make it challenging but not too energy-sapping that I can't make it home.

I'll have to buy a head torch if I'm going to carry on running it through the winter, though it would only be for half a mile of darkness so maybe I can get away with not bothering.

@Iamnobody that's what I do, I think it's a good idea to bring your heart rate down gradually. I generally just slow the run to a crawl and do some "high-knee" and "arse-kicking" strides as a bit of an active stretch.

Deadman

drofluf said:

Deadman said:

Bloody hell. I think that was the sweatiest mess I've ever been in my life tonight. 

Just 5x 5km runs this week. And 300 push ups per day.

Happy Friday, all.

“Just” 5x5k!?!

well done

Ha, cheers bud. OK what I meant was "the usual".

Nice bit of comedy on here this week, keep it coming guys..

I once used an orange peel to wipe whilst I was out for a long walk, I thought I was being all Special Forces-y and resourceful. I squatted down, peeled and ate the orange then used the skin to get rid of the worst of it. I semi-buried the poo-laden orange shell and figured it was ok as I was returning nature straight back to where it came from. Little did I know that within a few minutes it would cause my passage such intense stinging and irritation. I did the 3 or so miles back in record time and couldn't wait to get in the shower. Don't do it (not that it would ever enter your minds to anyway).

mcsdan

Yes, warmup and cool down are good practice.  Warmup depends on what I'm doing. If it's easy or long run then the first mile is the warmup. If it's something faster then I find a couple of miles works for me but you may find just some dynamic exercises like heel flicks, high knees, skipping etc works.

mcsdan

Good few weeks running recently. I've done a 48.7, 39 and this week 45 miles of running with long runs of 26.2, 20 and today 21.5 miles. In conjuction with fitting in some strength work too. So all moving along nicely and heart rate training is really paying off. Today's 21.5 miler was 35 mins quicker than the last time I did it (same route) and I consider I was much fitter then. Also did it at avg of 141bpm heart rate with 91% of the running zone2 or lower.  Last time it averaged 163bpm. So a massive shift in how hard the heart is working and a quicker time too. Still not feeling 100% back to full strength so going to up that side a little and also have some mobility to work on (right hip).  Other than that pleased how it's progressing.

A "down" easy week coming up to allow everthing to settle and recover.

mcsdan

Nighttime running is great. Seems to heighten your senses.

I like night running in the summer - so much cooler and quieter. I usually have a good night section in races due to cooling down a bit.  The odd thing about running through the night is you don't notice the birds stop singinh but you do notice it in the morning when they wake up. It's usually before dawn so when you hear the birds you know daylight isn't far off.

I've done races that follow national paths e.g. South Downs, North Downs, Thames, Cotswolds etc and when they are shown on the TV I tend to watch to see if I recognise them. Rarely do then I realise that was the night section in a race so only really see about 2m in front of you.

mcsdan

Picked a good week to take it easy!!  Bloody hot out there this week.

25 miles this week over 4 runs finished with 11.4miles this morning. Last couple of miles a struggle to keep heart rate down in the correct zone due to the heat. The difference between running in open fields and woodlands was about 6-8bpm just due to the heat. Quite tough when my target zone is only 10bpm between min/max. My watch recorded max temp in the fields as 100.4F/38C. Not sure how accurate that is but it was hot and exposed. Anyway run done.

Back to a increasing mileage next week. Hoping the weather cools a bit!

Hope you've all managed to get some runs in this week.

Iamnobody

mcsdan said:

Picked a good week to take it easy!!  Bloody hot out there this week.

25 miles this week over 4 runs finished with 11.4miles this morning. Last couple of miles a struggle to keep heart rate down in the correct zone due to the heat. The difference between running in open fields and woodlands was about 6-8bpm just due to the heat. Quite tough when my target zone is only 10bpm between min/max. My watch recorded max temp in the fields as 100.4F/38C. Not sure how accurate that is but it was hot and exposed. Anyway run done.

Back to a increasing mileage next week. Hoping the weather cools a bit!

Hope you've all managed to get some runs in this week.

Great stuff as usual from you - to think 25 miles is one of your lesser weeks. 

I’ve managed an 11.5k, 15k and a 5K this week.

I usually only run twice a week but slipped the slow 5 in accompanying the wife on her first run. Can’t see her getting really into it but at least she’s got her first decent run in the bag.