Some advice....

Dundalk

Just looking for some advice

I have been running since 2009 and think have taken as far as I can on my own. Im around the 42 min for 10k, 1h 35min for Half Marathon. I cant seem to get any better with these times. Im not part of a running club or gym.

Any ideas?

RayCun

Join a running club. Mountpleasant AC, Dundealgan AC, St Gerards AC all seem to be in Dundalk

louthandproud

RayCun wrote: »

Join a running club. Mountpleasant AC, Dundealgan AC, St Gerards AC all seem to be in Dundalk

Not forgetting North East Runners:

They'll give you plenty of training sessions that can improve your time.

Dundalk

louthandproud wrote: »

Not forgetting North East Runners:

They'll give you plenty of training sessions that can improve your time.

Are you a member?

Clearlier

If you can tell us what your training consists of now then we can probably give better advice.

Usually the following is good advice:

run longer
run more often
run slower, yes slower
vary your training paces
do some core work
set a goal

doughef

sorry OP.

Dont mean to hijack your thread but I could have written it myself!!

I joined a club about 2 months ago, doing the intervals etc but my pb for a 10k was 42 and I ran 47 in the samsung race the other night.
Obviously the conditions were awful and I had to stop for a pee but still..

Very frustrating...I'm just gonna have to put the head down and train harder!

Dundalk

Clearlier wrote: »

If you can tell us what your training consists of now then we can probably give better advice.

Usually the following is good advice:

run longer
run more often
run slower, yes slower
vary your training paces
do some core work
set a goal

When I go running, when when I try to start slow I always end up at the same pace. Last night i was to go on a SLOW 13 miles. I ran the first 1k at a slow pace and then went quicker and quicker. I cant seem to stay slow

louthandproud

Dundalk wrote: »

Are you a member?

No I'm not, but I know them..

louthandproud

Clearlier wrote: »

If you can tell us what your training consists of now then we can probably give better advice.

Usually the following is good advice:

run longer
run more often
run slower, yes slower
vary your training paces
do some core work
set a goal

Do some targeted intervals and speed work sessions...tempo's etc...

Clearlier

Dundalk wrote: »

When I go running, when when I try to start slow I always end up at the same pace. Last night i was to go on a SLOW 13 miles. I ran the first 1k at a slow pace and then went quicker and quicker. I cant seem to stay slow

Why not? Is it a lack of concentration? Why don't you slow down when you realise that you're going too fast?

I'd imagine what you really mean is that you don't know how to run slowly for a long time. If you can run slowly for 1k then you can run slowly can't you?

I'm being a little bit provocative here because "can't" answers aren't going to get you anywhere. You need to be asking how and why. To improve your running first of all you're going to need to make sure that you're head is in the right place.

A tip for running slowly is to get a heart rate monitor. Work out your max (using some kind of protocol or maybe your max in a 5k race but not an arbitrary calculation) and set an alarm on it so that when you go over say 65% of your max you get a warning to slow down. It'll be hard at first but you'll get there and you'll find that it gets easier fairly quickly.

The HRM will be a good way of doing it for you because in truth you want to reduce your effort levels rather than your speed - in time your speed will be higher than what it is now but for a lower effort. There's a guy called Hadd who wrote about it extensively on message boards and some people collated some of what he wrote and put it up for people to read. It's a fair bit of reading and the details may not concern you but the principles behind what he did are sound. The link I have is here.

Dundalk

Clearlier wrote: »

Why not? Is it a lack of concentration? Why don't you slow down when you realise that you're going too fast?

I'd imagine what you really mean is that you don't know how to run slowly for a long time. If you can run slowly for 1k then you can run slowly can't you?

I'm being a little bit provocative here because "can't" answers aren't going to get you anywhere. You need to be asking how and why. To improve your running first of all you're going to need to make sure that you're head is in the right place.

A tip for running slowly is to get a heart rate monitor. Work out your max (using some kind of protocol or maybe your max in a 5k race but not an arbitrary calculation) and set an alarm on it so that when you go over say 65% of your max you get a warning to slow down. It'll be hard at first but you'll get there and you'll find that it gets easier fairly quickly.

The HRM will be a good way of doing it for you because in truth you want to reduce your effort levels rather than your speed - in time your speed will be higher than what it is now but for a lower effort. There's a guy called Hadd who wrote about it extensively on message boards and some people collated some of what he wrote and put it up for people to read. It's a fair bit of reading and the details may not concern you but the principles behind what he did are sound. The link I have is here.

Cheers, thanks for the advice

Dundalk

I suppose I might look into joining a gym and start working on my core

louthandproud

Dundalk wrote: »

I suppose I might look into joining a gym and start working on my core

You don't need a gym to do that! Loads of DIY core stuff on the Web:

Planks, Kettle Bells...................