Random Running Questions

Hello,

I'm fairly new to running and after messing about for a few weeks and making all the beginner mistakes I decided to educate myself. So now I know I need to slow down and do some base building which is fine.

My question;Can I use cycling some days to increase my base or will this be detrimental to running? Ive tried looking it up but no clear answers.

For reference im running about 25-30km a week at the moment

Thanks

IvoryTower wrote: »

ill give that a bash so, i really just ignored it until it cracked and left a stingy kinda slit on my heal, might as well stick something on it

Sounds sore! I'm not sure about putting cream on it if it's an open wound :eek: Maybe better to put something more healing on it for a couple of days first - can't beat old fashioned sudacream, if it's good enough for baby's bum :pac::pac::pac:

With races off what are people training for, those who follow textbook plans aimed at a target race i suppose in particular?

I'll be finished a 10 week base plan in a couple of weeks and trying to decide what's next. The target for the year was an October marathon but i can't see that going ahead although it hasn't been officially cancelled yet.

I'm leaning toward 5-10k as I see some opportunity there to do a TT or a virtual race.

It's not all about races either, i could train to train but I need a bit of prescription or a plan of sorts to follow.

Just wondering what others are doing.

Reality_Check1 wrote: »

Hello,

I'm fairly new to running and after messing about for a few weeks and making all the beginner mistakes I decided to educate myself. So now I know I need to slow down and do some base building which is fine.

My question;Can I use cycling some days to increase my base or will this be detrimental to running? Ive tried looking it up but no clear answers.

For reference im running about 25-30km a week at the moment

Thanks

I don't think you will work the bike hard enough to really improve your base but it is great to get on a bike just to mix it up, loosen the muscles and give the legs a break.


If I am lacking motivation to run I will just get out on a bike and do an hour around the local parks. It's a change from the 70-80km per week low HR runs.



I am deep into base training ATM.

partyguinness wrote: »

I don't think you will work the bike hard enough to really improve your base but it is great to get on a bike just to mix it up, loosen the muscles and give the legs a break.


If I am lacking motivation to run I will just get out on a bike and do an hour around the local parks. It's a change from the 70-80km per week low HR runs.



I am deep into base training ATM.

The thing is as someone new to running the op doesn't have to work the bike hard. Just because it might be harder to get heart rate up doesn't mean that theres no benefits to it.
The biggest problem with people that are new to running, is the go to hard. So 60 minutes riding a bike at a heart rate of 120/130 bmp will have a huge benefit for myochondria density building.

Reality_Check1 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies I will keep up the bike few days a week so and I really enjoy it



I normally find it easier to stay in zone 2 on the bike alright however today I did 70k with over 700m of elevation so hopefully I was working the bike hard enough

So you had a great recovery while free wheeling down the hills

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Coaching group that I'm part of has integrated TT's in place of sessions and have been designed to give a team feel.

Butterbeans wrote: »

Same. Our club coach has been keeping us on our toes with TT's involving solo and team orientated efforts. It's no substitute for a race but it's keeping people motivated and connected.

I'm not in a club.... I just follow generic plans for target races and in between take periods where i set my own training or follow base plans etc.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

It's a really interesting question. One I've thought about a bit during my easy runs of late. It's certainly a unique time for runners.

Before I say anything you already know the caveat with me that I'm coached so I don't have to worry about the figuring out. I'm also a long term type of runner so if I didn't race for the rest of the year it wouldn't bother me all that much. In some ways this lockdown has been a blessing for me in that I haven't been tempted with the distraction of races and there's no fomo. I can just let Luke work his magic.

It's a tough time especially for people motivated by racing. I think the long term approach type people will come out of this in a great position.

To answer your question though if you are working from a plan in a book you can't really go wrong hovering around 10k fitness. It's the perfect transition point down to shorter stuff or up to the marathon (in my opinion). 10k has a nice balance and mix of sharper speedy stuff and tempo stuff (depending on what plan you follow).

I'm biased though, as you know.

Thanks P. I was thinking about this recently and i like to think i'm a long term runner (it sounds good, right) but in practice i'm not. I'm motivated by long term goals progress is probably a better word here. I have some loose long term goals and i hope to be running long term for sure but in the absence of a coach i rely on generic plans which lends itself to working in 12-20 week cycles typically focusing on a target distance/race. Despite the crazy nervousness i do love racing and race day, i love the buzz, it feeds the addiction. Oh the good ole days Anyway i guess a 10k plan isn't a bad place to start - thanks.

ariana` wrote: »

With races off what are people training for, those who follow textbook plans aimed at a target race i suppose in particular?

I'll be finished a 10 week base plan in a couple of weeks and trying to decide what's next. The target for the year was an October marathon but i can't see that going ahead although it hasn't been officially cancelled yet.

I'm leaning toward 5-10k as I see some opportunity there to do a TT or a virtual race.

It's not all about races either, i could train to train but I need a bit of prescription or a plan of sorts to follow.

Just wondering what others are doing.

ariana` wrote: »

I'm not in a club.... I just follow generic plans for target races and in between take periods where i set my own training or follow base plans etc.

Thanks P. I was thinking about this recently and i like to think i'm a long term runner (it sounds good, right) but in practice i'm not. I'm motivated by long term goals progress is probably a better word here. I have some loose long term goals and i hope to be running long term for sure but in the absence of a coach i rely on generic plans which lends itself to working in 12-20 week cycles typically focusing on a target distance/race. Despite the crazy nervousness i do love racing and race day, i love the buzz, it feeds the addiction. Oh the good ole days Anyway i guess a 10k plan isn't a bad place to start - thanks.

FWIW my mentality of balancing long term development with short term motivation is to keep the training very simple but measure the overall approach week by week as the sign of improvement

For instance a simple 5k/10k progression

Week 1 - 10 x 1 min hard 2 min easy (30 min total)
Week 2 - 10 x 1 min hard 2 min easy (30 min total)
Week 3 - 12 x 1 min hard 90 sec easy (30 min total)
Week 4 - 12 x 1 min hard 90 sec easy (30 min total)
Week 5 - 15 x 1 min hard 1 min easy (30 min total)
Week 6 - 15 x 1 min hard 1 min easy (30 min total)

Keep the paces and effort of the hard segments the same and have this as primary session of the week, maybe suppliment with a short tempo or something but let the sessions take care of themselves.

Where you want to measure improvement is the rest of the week
- Did you get slight increase on mileage WoW
- Did you fit in your strides 1 or 2 times a week
- Did you eat well during the week
- Did you do consistent or more core, mobility, strength work

For me putting the big effort into the smaller details is where the big gains will be made in terms of long term progression but seeing an extra box or two ticked each week increases motivation and starting each week fresh with a target of progression helps with motivation. Even a slip up week can draw a line under start fresh and go again the following week.

It certainly has helped me even in area's where I was starting with a 5 min yoga routine simply to establish a habit to build on. The little habits becoming routine no matter how short start the snowball off that can roll and roll and continue to build. Momentum is your friend.

What is the general consensus about events happening in Ireland the rest of this year? I was planning on doing the half marathon in Limerick this month but that got postponed. Now that it is moved to October, I can still work towards an end goal. If it was to get cancelled, I would find it hard to keep training during the winter for long distances.

Lazare wrote: »

I've had this idea for a while, dunno, probably already is a thing.

With all the virtual races going on I was thinking today that it might be good in the current situation.

A progressive time/distance trial.

Basically you've to run each km (think it works better metric) faster than the previous one. As soon as you run a km equal or slower to the previous one your race is over.

So you run say 11km progressively faster and your 12th is 3 seconds slower, game over, your result is 11km.

You could have some sort of trust based rules that you're not allowed start off at a ridiculous pace etc.

Think it could be fun, while also being a cracking workout.

What do people think? How far do you reckon you could go?

You've been peaking in my sessions book :P

Generally this is my golden run of all my progression runs - i.e session pulled as soon as you slow on a split. I find it helps to keep the session quite controlled plus it helps for discipline for any of my athletes who have a habit of being too agressive in sessions early on (also a handy tool for developing effort based sensory data in athletes as you change pace subtling and can monitor it in relation to pace on a spectrum)

It's a great idea for a novelty race though.

I reckon I could probably go to 10k effort starting at easy distance wise is anyones guess.

I think honour system wouldn't be needed just average out a persons easy days on strava for the a two week period recently and use that as a baseline.

1) Does anyone wear a girdle or waist wrap whilst running for comfort and if so, where can you buy them?

2) Are there any other asthmatics out there that find running more than 5k impossible? I would consider myself quite fit, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot exceed 5k without feeling like my lungs are about to explode.

Lazare wrote: »

Great point about it being very beneficial for discipline. I think I was doing it just for the OCD

I have found even the most stubborn athlete who can never slow down paces never wants to bail on a session so they always manage to pull the pace in line for that session.

Amazing some of the sort of mindgames you have to pull at times

Swashbuckler wrote: »

The crazy nervousness is normal for all. Don't ever worry about that. I'm the same. I think most of us are.

Would you consider getting a coach?

Haha glad it's not just me, the 1m TT is always causing nerves :pac:

I have flirted with the idea, even went so far as to have a few emails back and forth with one (someone you'd be quite familiar with) earlier this year but I didn't pursue it in the end. I've read some of your posts on Shotgun's log about not having to think and that definitely appeals to the chronic over-thinker in me but there's something holding me back, i think maybe it's the magic bullet (along with maybe some cheaterflys ) that i want to keep for when i feel i can no longer make progress on my own - i don't think i'm quite there yet.

KSU wrote: »

FWIW my mentality of balancing long term development with short term motivation is to keep the training very simple but measure the overall approach week by week as the sign of improvement

For instance a simple 5k/10k progression

Week 1 - 10 x 1 min hard 2 min easy (30 min total)
Week 2 - 10 x 1 min hard 2 min easy (30 min total)
Week 3 - 12 x 1 min hard 90 sec easy (30 min total)
Week 4 - 12 x 1 min hard 90 sec easy (30 min total)
Week 5 - 15 x 1 min hard 1 min easy (30 min total)
Week 6 - 15 x 1 min hard 1 min easy (30 min total)

Keep the paces and effort of the hard segments the same and have this as primary session of the week, maybe suppliment with a short tempo or something but let the sessions take care of themselves.

Where you want to measure improvement is the rest of the week
- Did you get slight increase on mileage WoW
- Did you fit in your strides 1 or 2 times a week
- Did you eat well during the week
- Did you do consistent or more core, mobility, strength work

For me putting the big effort into the smaller details is where the big gains will be made in terms of long term progression but seeing an extra box or two ticked each week increases motivation and starting each week fresh with a target of progression helps with motivation. Even a slip up week can draw a line under start fresh and go again the following week.

It certainly has helped me even in area's where I was starting with a 5 min yoga routine simply to establish a habit to build on. The little habits becoming routine no matter how short start the snowball off that can roll and roll and continue to build. Momentum is your friend.

Thanks L, great information (as always), some really nice ideas to build on there. I spotted the table on your log where you track the supplementary stuff by time/day, I like measuring stuff - not sure why i hadn't thought to measure the supplementary stuff.

does anyone have recommendations for sunscreen? currently on a 35 day streak of running (praise be the running gods) but i am thinking with the weather getting better and even if it is not, i should be wearing sunscreen more often. The usual stuff just runs into my eyes so anything that might be a bit more sweat proof?