Any running folk on here

[Tosh]

Dude, if you'd slowed down a bit, you'd have seen the volunteers hoping to put vaseline on nipples... (actually, just giving you a fingerful of the stuff for you to apply0

[Cam]

Well done Macca. And Tosh too for volunteering. 

[Tosh]

Having done both, I can safely say that volunteering is much more fun than running. ;). I've already said I'd do it again next year

 

[Gethin]

Message from one of my cousins “my knees are like a bag of smashed crabs”

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

5 hours ago, Tosh said:

Dude, if you'd slowed down a bit, you'd have seen the volunteers hoping to put vaseline on nipples... (actually, just giving you a fingerful of the stuff for you to apply0

yeah, saw all them, never really felt the nipples, then when I took my top off I noticed the blood. 

Not as sore as I'd feared

[Zoob]

On 24/04/2023 at 07:07, Sir Tokyo Sexwale said:

yeah, saw all them, never really felt the nipples, then when I took my top off I noticed the blood. 

Not as sore as I'd feared

Have you already flown back to NY? feel that a 6 hour flight is the last thing a body needs after running a marathon...

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Nah, fly Sunday, agree that doing that & then flying can't be great

[crisps]

Thinking of doing my first official half marathon in June. Not a big one but there’s one in Southport and one near Preston (Freckleton). Preston one has a slightly later start time so think I’d prefer that. Would probably attempt 1:50 on that. 
 

Still not sure I fancy attempting a full one though. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by crisps

[Tosh]

Southport will be flatter

[Cam]

23 hours ago, Sir Tokyo Sexwale said:

Nah, fly Sunday, agree that doing that & then flying can't be great

Loads must do though. Would be interesting to know how the run and then cramped legroom on a plane affects them. Much better to rest, stretch them by walking around town for a few days, get a cheeky parkrun in and then fly. 

Macca - do the other big marathons have all the fun runners & fancy dress guys? Obviously the very limited coverage we get of the others tends to concentrate on the Elites. 

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

London seems to be really big on charity, costumes and all that. You do get some but not loads in other ones (mind I've only done NY, Boston, Berlin & Chicago as well)

It's a weird mental task to run a marathon, your brain hurts, I'm constantly re-evaluating and calculating splits etc in order to see how close to target I am and whether I can hit a faster one etc but the mental arithmetic gets really hard after a while. But I do remember seeing the following on Sunday

Spiderman
T Rex
Eiffel Tower
Guy in suit with shoes 

And I don't really pay attention, tey say "go out and enjoy it, take in the surroundings" I'm too competitive for that, I'm entirely concentrating on what needs to be done. That said, I did take in Tower Bridge, that was quite a buzz & the finish always is (except in Chicago where they were syill jittery re COVID so had zero spectators down the final straight to the line so it was silent)

Edited April 27, 2023 by Sir Tokyo Sexwale

[Cam]

I've been watching a few of the POV videos (trying to spot a few I know who did it this year) on YouTube and been surprised by the crowds & atmosphere.  It doesn't really come across on the tv.  Mainly because they're concentrating on the Elites and it's either a drone/crane shot or a narrow shot from the back of a motorcycle.

The crowds, and certainly the couple of grandstands, looked deserted early on but I guess the public comes out to cheer on the ordinary runners rather than the front runners.

[crisps]

Some decent progress over the last few weeks/months. Unfortunately spent a few weeks mid Feb-to-March with Covid - a stag do - and then a cold after that which hampered things a little but I tried a 24 min park run early Jan and ended up with 24:51 which I was pretty disappointed with at the time but the bad days do happen. However I managed to get 23:59 on the 28th Jan and I’ve had a few improvements since and hit my first sub 23 today @ 22:42. Also got a 5km pb last week at 22:28 just on the canal so pretty much all flat. 
 

Finally Started more “proper training” over the last couple weeks following a plan (slow runs, tempo, intervals etc) more instead of just random runs like I have done for my first year or so of running, so the current goal is to attempt to get to ~20 mins for a 5k this year. Managed to do 2k of my park run course at 4:10 per k/m (6:40mile) on a non park run, so it feels like it’s going to be possible one day but I still find even running at 4 min k/m pace is very difficult, but I’m enjoying the intervals attempting near them speeds etc. Just got to have patience and take the gradual improvements  

Also got the summer evening Wesham 10km in a few weeks which I’m looking forward to. The one last November was my first 10k race so it’ll be good to see how much progress I’ve made since then. November was around 53:30 but will be hoping for around 48:00 this time. 

Entered the ballot for London 2024 too. Whether I’ll do it if selected is another matter but I guess I’ll decide at the time!

Edited April 29, 2023 by crisps

[Tosh]

Well done @crisps

For the slower folk…I’ve an intermittent calf problem. On,y comes on running and sometimes I can do 1k before it feels like a tear going across the calf, and it’s quite painful for days after. Takes a couple of weeks to recover. Other times I can do a 10k no problem. So I am nursing it. So yesterday I did a 10k but walking a minute, running a minute on repeat, for over an hour. Did a couple of 2 minute runs in that with no issues. 
 

My steady 5k is about 6min/km. This was 6.40, and I felt fresh as a daisy after, with no leg issues. Ego takes a bit of a hammering but better than nothing 

[Cam]

On 29/04/2023 at 22:47, crisps said:

Entered the ballot for London 2024 too. Whether I’ll do it if selected is another matter but I guess I’ll decide at the time!

I had been weighing that up all week. I had become obsessed, chatting incessantly about it, watching highlights, viewing YouTube videos, having the ballot entry pages open on my tablet & phone. 

It would be my first and a pretty idiotic thing to do but I felt particularly inspired this year and figured I could always back out later on. Every day I was close to entering but decided to give myself one more day of procrastination & anxiety. By Thursday night I was dead set on it. I figured I would enter while at work on Friday so I wouldn't have to tell the missus what I was up to until it was too late for her to talk me out of it. I was really looking forward to it.  I closed the entry page down on my phone. I would enter on Friday lunchtime. 

But then I forgot.

It wasn't my usual lunch at my desk. The staff had heard of a new pie shop that had opened in town so we tried that. And with no window open on my phone & the memory of a goldfish... 

But I'm feeling pretty relieved about it tbqhwy. If it's that easy to distract me by pie I may not get the best person to be signing up for a marathon. 

[kop205]

5 hours ago, Cam said:

I had been weighing that up all week. I had become obsessed, chatting incessantly about it, watching highlights, viewing YouTube videos, having the ballot entry pages open on my tablet & phone. 

It would be my first and a pretty idiotic thing to do but I felt particularly inspired this year and figured I could always back out later on. Every day I was close to entering but decided to give myself one more day of procrastination & anxiety. By Thursday night I was dead set on it. I figured I would enter while at work on Friday so I wouldn't have to tell the missus what I was up to until it was too late for her to talk me out of it. I was really looking forward to it.  I closed the entry page down on my phone. I would enter on Friday lunchtime. 

But then I forgot.

It wasn't my usual lunch at my desk. The staff had heard of a new pie shop that had opened in town so we tried that. And with no window open on my phone & the memory of a goldfish... 

But I'm feeling pretty relieved about it tbqhwy. If it's that easy to distract me by pie I may not get the best person to be signing up for a marathon. 

I think you may still be able to apply for a charity place.

[Cam]

1 hour ago, kop205 said:

I think you may still be able to apply for a charity place.

FFS, don't tell me that!

Hmmmm..... 

Edit: you're right. Very Hmmmm indeed. Cheers. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Cam

[kop205]

17 minutes ago, Cam said:

FFS, don't tell me that!

Hmmmm..... 

Edit: you're right. Very Hmmmm indeed. Cheers. 

Doing it for the PIE Project seems apt.

Edited May 1, 2023 by kop205

[Cam]

I'd happily sign up for any research they have going. 

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

3 hours ago, Cam said:

FFS, don't tell me that!

Hmmmm..... 

Edit: you're right. Very Hmmmm indeed. Cheers. 

I applied in Jan through a charity & got in - pick a less well-known one as they'll have fewer applicants. 

I did Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt

[Cam]

13 minutes ago, Sir Tokyo Sexwale said:

I applied in Jan through a charity & got in - pick a less well-known one as they'll have fewer applicants. 

I did Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt

It's a very definite possibility now. 

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

just don't underestimate the work you need to put in. It's a grind but, yeah, the london crowds were excellent, really loud pretty much start to finish

[Cam]

On 01/05/2023 at 23:20, Sir Tokyo Sexwale said:

just don't underestimate the work you need to put in. It's a grind but, yeah, the london crowds were excellent, really loud pretty much start to finish

That's a worry.  I've done a handful of Halfs (and a Metric) before and I know I over-train for them.  It's why seeing what you did for London was so fascinating.  But I do so much it becomes tedious and so time-consuming.  It's usually four months of 3 miles on a Saturday, increasing distances on a Sunday (so a couple of weeks at 5m, then a couple at 6m etc), and a laddered midweek run (so 5m on a Weds, then 6, then 5, then 7, then 5 etc).  A few weeks in to it and I'm looking at four hours at a time with driving, warm-up, running, warm-down etc.  It interferes so much with life.

I'm coming from a much lower standard than you (heart issue in August, a year of limited running beforehand, nine months of limited running since) so I know it's a leap.  I'm beginning training this week for a Half in September. I don't know if I'll be able to run that like I used to be able to but it's doable even if I just plod.  I know I couldn't run for 26m now but I was looking at the ones plodding along at 5 or 5.25 hours and thinking "I could do that pace all day long!".  I figured train to a little over Half distance and then blag the rest

I'm going to sign for a 10k for July and see how I run that with a couple of months training behind me, then work out whether the Half is an absolute maximum now or if it can be a stepping-stone.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

that's the right approach.

 

Sept for a half should be fine - 4 full months of training so you can go easy over the initial weeks. When I first started again after PF I did like 7 miles in week 1 - 2M, day off, 2M, day off, 3M

I increased 10% a week - the first 4-6 weeks you're not doing much but the 10% once you get into 20 mpw suddenly adds up & you have to then ditch it or you'll be at 60, 80, 100 in no time

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Brooklyn Half this weekend. 7am start - 4.30am alarm....