2020 Fretboard Virtual Running Club

Mark_R

TTony said:..

I'm doing all of mine on a treadmill, but it's on a 4deg/5deg incline, so I'm always going uphill.  Thought if I start off doing that, then it's going to be easy whenever I run on the flat (I'm in Norfolk) 

Hill training is really good for you.  It builds strength and stamina, but its not always fun.  Try alternating steep incline and low incline.

If you have a treadmill, throw in a few interval sessions, say 30 seconds sprinting, 2 minutes gentle pace and repeat.  This too is not much fun but does help build speed, stamina and strength.

LastMantra

hywelg said:

I'm very good at virtual running.

Actual running I hate with a passion, and I have tried.

Same here. Just find it really boring! Also seems pretty hard on your body compared to swimming cycling walking etc always people talking about aches and pains. 
Don't mind if it's part of something else like football or whatever. 

Don't think I'm built for running, never been very good at it.

fields5069

LastMantra said:

hywelg said:

I'm very good at virtual running.

Actual running I hate with a passion, and I have tried.

Same here. Just find it really boring! Also seems pretty hard on your body compared to swimming cycling walking etc always people talking about aches and pains. 
Don't mind if it's part of something else like football or whatever. 

Don't think I'm built for running, never been very good at it.

I have very rarely had any aches and pains at all apart from after a "race". It's usually down to inappropriate footwear in my experience. I increased my cadence, and therefore reduced my stride length, a long time before switching to minimal type shoes. I believe that's the best way to reduce physical stress, regardless of the shoes you wear.

LastMantra

fields5069 said:

LastMantra said:

hywelg said:

I'm very good at virtual running.

Actual running I hate with a passion, and I have tried.

Same here. Just find it really boring! Also seems pretty hard on your body compared to swimming cycling walking etc always people talking about aches and pains. 
Don't mind if it's part of something else like football or whatever. 

Don't think I'm built for running, never been very good at it.

I have very rarely had any aches and pains at all apart from after a "race". It's usually down to inappropriate footwear in my experience. I increased my cadence, and therefore reduced my stride length, a long time before switching to minimal type shoes. I believe that's the best way to reduce physical stress, regardless of the shoes you wear.

Hmm maybe I could try looking at my technique. 

WiresDreamDisasters

If you're fat, running can actually be bad for you. Swimming is a better way to get your cardio if you're overweight.

Saying that, clocked up another 10km in the past 4 days.

fields5069

FWIW I found, in regular 7-series New Balance shoes, that I was pretty much landing flat footed, which suggests I was actually trying to land on my mid-foot, taking into account the fairly large heel to toe drop in that type of shoe. 

The magic cadence I have heard quoted is 180, i.e. 90 steps per minute per foot, although it varies for everyone. I'm usually there or thereabouts though.

LoFi

Johnnyseven said:

I'm doing the London Landmarks Half Marathon at the end of March so i've had to get training. I couldn't start until now as I had a knee injury I needed to get sorted first, now that's ok i'm ready to go. Did a couple of Parkruns in South Africa over Christmas and some runs last week - 5 miles on Sunday and just under 6 miles with my wife's running club on wednesday. I decided to do some running to and from work on friday which wasn't a good idea, 8 miles before and after work, my muscles didn't like it so I couldn't go out yesterday - I need to go a bit easier this week. I'm still cycling 10 miles to/from work on days i'm not running to keep the fitness up.

My girlfriend did that last year, and I went along to support her* - it's a fantastic atmosphere - bands everywhere, great crowds.

(* - I saw her off at the start line, made sure I was at various points along the route at the right time, and otherwise sat in various pubs with a book...)

LastMantra

WiresDreamDisasters said:

If you're fat, running can actually be bad for you. Swimming is a better way to get your cardio if you're overweight.

I'm tall(ish) and slim. I can walk for miles and don't mind running short stints but running longer distances feels anything but natural. 

I'm probably a bit top heavy. Broad shoulders upper body.

WiresDreamDisasters

Running with a woman in front so you can look at her arse takes the boredom out of it.

musteatbrain

Moving to 4x400m with 1 mins rest in between this week.
Not going to be earth shattering times, but it helps develop a fast running pace that I would like to hold for a fast mile.

I can then try and hold for 800m in a few weeks.
I find this gets me fitter in the shortest amount of time and then trundling around doing a few miles becomes much more tolerable

LastMantra

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Running with a woman in front so you can look at her arse takes the boredom out of it.

Then also running away from the police?

drofluf

For anyone who's trying to increase their distance; do it gradually! The advice I was given is to increase by 10% per week to avoid injury.

As to running; I wimped out at the sight of horizontal rain this lunchtime and settled for  session on the turbo trainer.

TTony

RedRabbit said:

TTony said:

LoFi said:

That's a very steep incline!

Oh, maybe I over estimated it.  I didn’t measure, just thought that 4/5 degrees would be quite a gentle slope so guesstimated it at that. 

1 to 2 degrees is recommended to replicate wind resistance when running outside but I've got to admit that the slight incline on the treadmill always feels tougher than running on the flat outside to me.

As I live in a hilly area I had the idea of using a steeper incline so I'd be used to the hills when venturing out. All I really did was make it much harder than I had to and hit a brick wall around week 5 or 6 (whenever the first 20+ run is). I'm not necessarily saying reduce the incline but if you start finding the longer runs hard it's something you can look at changing. Speed and power can come later, it's mainly your lungs and heart you're working on when you first start out.

If your treadmill doesn't tell you what the incline is I'd get a spirit level app for your phone.  I don't know how accurate they are but it'll give you an idea.  

Top idea @RedRabbit ;

So I can now state with reasonable certainty that the treadmill is currently set at 2.3 degrees incline.

I've just looked ahead at the c25k schedule for the next couple of weeks and think that the treadmill might just be getting adjusted!  Plus I'm probably going to take @monquixote's advice from earlier in the thread and repeat a week or two.  See little point in extending the running time when it's still (very) hard work.   

I did also read the instructions with the c25k app in which it says "if you can at a slower pace, then you're running too quickly".  I'm walking at 4mph and running at 7mph, so I think speeds might be coming down too ...

RedRabbit

TTony said:

RedRabbit said:

TTony said:

LoFi said:

That's a very steep incline!

Oh, maybe I over estimated it.  I didn’t measure, just thought that 4/5 degrees would be quite a gentle slope so guesstimated it at that. 

1 to 2 degrees is recommended to replicate wind resistance when running outside but I've got to admit that the slight incline on the treadmill always feels tougher than running on the flat outside to me.

As I live in a hilly area I had the idea of using a steeper incline so I'd be used to the hills when venturing out. All I really did was make it much harder than I had to and hit a brick wall around week 5 or 6 (whenever the first 20+ run is). I'm not necessarily saying reduce the incline but if you start finding the longer runs hard it's something you can look at changing. Speed and power can come later, it's mainly your lungs and heart you're working on when you first start out.

If your treadmill doesn't tell you what the incline is I'd get a spirit level app for your phone.  I don't know how accurate they are but it'll give you an idea.  

Top idea @RedRabbit ;

So I can now state with reasonable certainty that the treadmill is currently set at 2.3 degrees incline.

I've just looked ahead at the c25k schedule for the next couple of weeks and think that the treadmill might just be getting adjusted!  Plus I'm probably going to take @monquixote's advice from earlier in the thread and repeat a week or two.  See little point in extending the running time when it's still (very) hard work.   

I did also read the instructions with the c25k app in which it says "if you can at a slower pace, then you're running too quickly".  I'm walking at 4mph and running at 7mph, so I think speeds might be coming down too ...

I'm assuming you walk quite a bit (given the number of dogs you've got) so you're probably in better shape than I was when I started but your speed does sound high. 7mph would have you finishing a 5km in just under 27 minutes whereas a lot of c25k graduates won't actually reach 5km as part of the program. I get the impression that a sub 30 minute 5km is a common target for beginners and certainly one that I'm still working towards (I'm at around 35 minutes at the moment so around 5.5mph).   

The best advice I was given was to run at a pace that means you could hold a conversation/talk in full sentences for most of the run.  

The first few weeks of c25k make it fairly difficult to judge pace as you are running for a short amount of time with longer walking breaks in between meaning you can go flat out and recover between runs.  I think it's week 4 where it changes and the running periods are longer than the walks - a lot of people seem to struggle with this week or week 5 (includes the first long run of 20 minutes).  I'd use these as guide for your speed.  If you struggle you can repeat days/weeks at a slower speed.     

fields5069

LastMantra said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Running with a woman in front so you can look at her arse takes the boredom out of it.

Then also running away from the police?

It's legal now. It's called Parkrun.

MagicPigDetective

Did my first Couch to 5k run yesterday. I downloaded the app a year ago but never got round to it. I've got myself in an extremely unfit state, so I'm starting from scratch really. Felt good at the end of the run but will count for nothing unless I keep it going; trying to keep to three times a week is going to be difficult with work, the kids etc. Might try runs during my dinner break.

mcsdan

When running you have an oxygen debt that is around 10 mins behind when you first start. So if you go out too fast you'll get about 10mins in the run and will slow down/make it much harder. Ideally warm up before your run with some dynamic movements (heel flicks, high knees, side steps, arm swings etc) to get your heart rate up. Let that come down a tad before starting the run. Then take the first 10 mins a bit slower than normal e.g. 15-30 seconds per mile. Then increase upto normal pace over the next 2-5 minutes after that.

WiresDreamDisasters

30seconds per-mile ?????

Johnnyseven

LoFi said:

Johnnyseven said:

I'm doing the London Landmarks Half Marathon at the end of March so i've had to get training. I couldn't start until now as I had a knee injury I needed to get sorted first, now that's ok i'm ready to go. Did a couple of Parkruns in South Africa over Christmas and some runs last week - 5 miles on Sunday and just under 6 miles with my wife's running club on wednesday. I decided to do some running to and from work on friday which wasn't a good idea, 8 miles before and after work, my muscles didn't like it so I couldn't go out yesterday - I need to go a bit easier this week. I'm still cycling 10 miles to/from work on days i'm not running to keep the fitness up.

My girlfriend did that last year, and I went along to support her* - it's a fantastic atmosphere - bands everywhere, great crowds.

(* - I saw her off at the start line, made sure I was at various points along the route at the right time, and otherwise sat in various pubs with a book...)

That's good to know. It makes a big difference for events like this if there's a decent crowd to push you along.

mcsdan

WiresDreamDisasters said:

30seconds per-mile ?????

15-30 seconds in pace. Pace is usually given in minutes per mile or km. So you may run at say 9min 30 per mile pace ( written 9:30/mi ] so simply slow it down a tad by 15-30 seconds off the pace you’d normally run. You can also go by effort so if your normal pace for 3 miles is an 8/10 effort then just drop a tad off that so 7-7.5. It really depends on how you gauge your pace..