General tips and advice

Hi folks,

Some may have seen my thread in the general section regarding advice on marathon training / motivation and saw my completely haphazard approach to "training" (and probably shook your head whilst reading it).

I have been running, on and off, quite sporadically for probably about 6 or 7 years.  In fact, I did my first 10k 7 years ago as a fundraiser with my football team.

I've since ran a few charity runs at 10k, half marathon and marathon distance but I've stupidly never followed a training programme.

My PBs are:

10k - 46 mins

Half - 1 hr 54 mins

Marathon - 4 hours 24 mins

(I'm a 30 year old male, about 11 stone at the moment)

After reading some of the advice and looked at some training programmes etc. I've realised that the reason I struggled with training before is probably because I was trying to do too much, too soon, at too fast a pace (things like going out and attempting a 20 mile run at 4 hour marathon pace, thinking that would be the best way to train for a 4 hour marathon).

So, getting to the point...  I really want to improve on those PBs and improve on them significantly.

A couple of questions - what would be a realistic target for each distance if I followed a proper training programme?  (What I'm hoping to achieve next year if it's realistic is compete in a 10k race in March and try to get close to 40 mins, half marathon in May and go close to 1 hr 30, and marathon in September, going under 4 hours, possibly targeting 3 hr 30, depending on how the first two go).

What should I do between now and January (when the focused 10k training will start)?  I'm thinking about getting back on my bike over the next couple of weeks to give my legs a rest from the marathon I did on Sunday and I've got a bit of a niggle in my foot as well, so think running on that wouldn't be a great idea.  Once that clears up I was thinking about just keeping the miles up - long slow runs at the weekend of about 10 miles or so with couple of shorter runs through the week.  Should I be doing any tempo runs or just keep it all nice and slow until the actual 10k training starts?

Thanks in advance!

Hi again - one other thing...

I'm thinking about getting an HRM for my Forerunner 210.

Are there any less expensive alternatives to shelling out £40 or so for the Garmin one that are compatible with the 210?

Cheers

Any advice on the above posts guys?

I'll just use this thread to monitor my training progress.  Writing it down here will hoepfully help me to stick to the training plans etc...

So, I was intending going out on the bike at the weekend but found the tyres flat and the compressor that is usually in my wife's car had been left at the in-laws...

So, I risked an easy run on the treadmill.  Did 6 miles at just below 10 minute miles just to see how I got on.  Turns out it wasn't a great idea...  Although my ankle injury didn't play up at all whilst I was running, it was pretty sore later on on Sunday and yesterday.  Thankfully it's started to ease off again today.

I've bitten the bullet though and booked in for physio tomorrow.  Got the bike tyres pumped up so will stick to that until the physio says that it's okay to run on it.

Next piece of advice...  Given that I've gone from sporadically doing about 20-25 miles in a week (mainly on one big run, and not regularly getting up to that level - sometimes down as low as 10 miles a week), having ran a marathon just over 2 weeks ago and then only 6 miles since and assuming it takes say another 2 weeks for the ankle injury to clear up, how many miles would it be sensible to start off with once I get back into it?  Would it generally be okay to do a couple of shorter (less than 5 miles each) easy runs through the week and then say a 10 mile easy run in the first week back or should I ease myself in slower than that?

(I will speak to the physio first, but just wondered what the experienced runners think?)

So, having gone for the physio appointment and taken the 4 weeks or so rest from running, together with doing a bit of cycling/swimming and strengthening exercises and stretches, I finally got back out on my feet this week.

Went for an easy (just under) 4 miler, concentrating on form (trying to forefoot/midfoot strike) and keeping it at an easy pace (running by feel to a certain extent).  I think I started out a little too quickly and my pace slowed a bit in the second half of the run, but I was trying to look at my Garmin as little as possible.  Calves were a bit stiff for a couple of days, I think mainly down to the forefoot striking which is new to me.  Looking at the splits, I was going downhill first half and uphill on the way back, which would explain it to an extent, but no serious hills in there. Overall, felt pretty good.

Went out for an easy (just over) 4 miler yesterday, again concentrating on form and keeping it at an easy pace.  It felt really good.  Despite not looking at my Garmin at all, I kept the pace pretty steady.  8:28/mile, 8:37/mile, 8:42/mile, 8:38/mile.  Quite chuffed with that!

Aim is to go out tomorrow and do a decent 8-10 miles, keeping the pace easy and see how I get on.  This running by feel malarkey seems pretty good.  Going to keep this up until the end of the year and then start on the 3+2 programme for the 10k I've signed up to in March.

Having now read "Born To Run", I'm massively inspired...

Hi Rob - thanks!

Next race is Garioch 10k www.rungarioch.co.uk

I'm reading the "Run Less, Run Faster" book at the moment, so am planning to use their training programmes for the 10k, starting in early January.

So, feeling pretty good after heading out for a 9.5 miler this morning.  Same drill - easy, steady pace, didn't look at my Garmin once.

Splits were like this:

1 - 8:42

2 - 9:06

3 - 8:57

4 - 8:38

5 - 8:51

6 - 8:34

7 - 8:57

8 - 9:14

9 - 8:56

I'm quite happy with that - I was probably worse at keeping a steady pace previously when I was constantly looking at my Garmin.  The three above 9 minutes all had overall elevation gains.

Looking forward to heading out on Monday again for another 4 miler

(Beautiful day here in Aberdeenshire - that probably helped!)

So, been a while since I've posted on here.  I'm actually managing to follow a training programme (not 100% to the letter, but almost!).

I missed the first week of the 12 week programme (my calculations were out by a week - oops!) - we had a baby in December, so I'm blaming lack of sleep...

Started in week 2 and just jumped straight in, hoping to keep up with the paces etc.  I struggled a wee bit to keep with the interval and tempo paces, but I'm in week 6 now and am now managing to keep up with the pace on intervals and tempo runs which feels good.

5 miler today, aiming for 7:37/mile.  Average pace was bang on 7:37 and the intervals session on Tuesday went well - only missed the pace slightly on one interval by a few seconds.

Main aim for the 10k in March is to beat my previous PB which is just over 46 mins (can't remember specifically - it was a long time ago...), if I can go under 45, I'll be happy and anything under that will be a bonus.  With 6 weeks of training to go, I'm feeling confident of knocking a few minutes off the PB.  

Good stuff - where in Aberdeenshire are you from?  I ran the Garioch 10k a few years ago (I think in 2010) and struggled with it after doing zero (and I mean zero...!) training!  It seems to have grown a bit since then - it was well organised and friendly back then, so hoping it will be the same this year!

So, yeah - been a while since I've updated.

Completed the Garioch 10k in 42:52 in March.  Very happy with that   knocked 3:59 off my PB (set in 2004!).  Training turns out to work - who'd have thought it?

Anyway - next race is the Campbeltown Half Marathon on 26th May.  Training is going pretty well, aiming for about 90 minutes.  Taking it fairly easy a few weeks ago I ran 13.1 miles in about 100 minutes, and last week I ran 14 miles in 111 minutes.

I think I've got it in me to at least go sub-95 based on current fitness.  Few weeks of training left, so will see how it goes.