'Mature' runners.

Afternoon all,

No run day as I've had to rearrange my schedule around life so i will now have to run 4 days in a row.  Good practice for later in the year I suppose 

Columba hope your ankle is OK?  Sorry to hear about your friend.

Matsmum, I'm not a club member as they are all quite  away from home, the nearest taking 45 minutes drive each way so 1.5 hours out of an evening.  I did belong to one for a couple of years and that was just a 30 min drive each way and I enjoyed running with others but I didn't enjoy running in the evening as they didn't start until 7:30 so the whole evening was taken up.  I'm quite happy running alone and would never want to run my LSRs with anyone as running alone develops great mental strength.  I do, however, enjoy running races with people 

Norunday which is just as well because I've felt tired. Bathed the doodle instead
.
JJ

A 6 mile run at recovery pace this morning. The sun came out as I was completing my run.

JJ - Running would be less exhausting than bathing some doodles.

Matsmum, I was running (alone) for 10 years before joining a local running club last year. The running club is based in Rhayader, 10 miles or so away, but on Tuesday evenings they have a session in my home town so that's when I join them. I am often the oldest, and nearly always the slowest, of them, but they are really friendly and encouraging; if they get far ahead one of them will run back and run with me for a while, or if they're doing laps around blocks of streets in town I do one less lap than the rest of them and catch up that way. 

Still, I was interested to read Red's comment that "running alone develops great mental strength".

It was a working day today, not a running day - and my ankle is still a bit sore so I wouldn't have run anyway. The last few miles of my journey home were horrendous, as it got very foggy and I was crawling along a country lane with no lighting, no cats' eyes and no white line to mark the middle. I was going by glimpses of grassy verge between swirls of mist. But in Aberystwyth itself it was brilliantly sunny, a really beautiful day. 

Columba
Running alone certainly requires mental strength but running with others brings extra speed and speed/endurance.

I quite like the picture I have of you crawling along a country lane. Where was the car?
JJ

Around me! - I'm pleased to say. Though I did wonder, from time to time, whether to stop it and get out and see if I could get a better idea of my surroundings from outside. Fortunately it's a road near home that I'm very familiar with, so knew roughly when to expect the ups, the downs, and the curves. 

Morning all,

A tempo run for me planned for this afternoon.  I'm trying to work out a route that doesn't involve hills and that only leaves cross-country tracks which are impassable without waders!  Hills it is then 

JJ, that's what I use races for - speed/endurance - but for marathon and ultra running you need to be able to dig right down into the dark places in your head when the going gets tough and you're all alone (even if there are people around you).  I've met lots of people who've only ever done their LSRs with other people and they have struggled in the marathon when running on their own.

Columba, I agree that fog and country lanes are a complete nightmare.  Especially at the moment as all the lane edges are deeply rutted as the rain has washed vegetation away leaving deep mud.

Agree with your comments Redhead tend to run alone most of the time occasionally with my brother or son in law. The mental side of running is strengthened by running alone.
Had a dark, flipping freezing minus two run 6.7 mile run to work through the Monsal Head Tunnel brilliant emerging from the tunnel to the light and the frost everywhere. Kept the pace down apart from one mile to 7.50mm and an 8.09. So cold though when I got to work, thank goodness for a hot shower!! Reminded me of school cross country.

Driving in thick fog is probably more dangerous even than snow. Apart from the near zero vision, there are always the idiot drivers and cyclists with no lights.

When I was training for my 3 marathons in 1993, I did all my LSD runs alone and on roads.

Mark, it isn't that cold here yet, but is forecast for the weekend. There is also snow forecast for Sunday.

Tonight is a session of 30 second sprints at the Marina, so it should be very cold, with the wind blowing off Southampton Water.

Well it's definitely cooler here today but not as cold as for Mark!  Bet you were grateful for the shower.  I love the concept of keeping the pace down to 7:50, LOL

TE, you'll need your long tights on this evening and I think our forecast is now for sometime over the weekend.  

Must change Kizzy's blanket to a thick one as she has a thinner coat than Esther who is like a teddy bear in the winter.

My run was marred by me wanting a wee at 1.5 miles into it 'cos of the cold.   Of course this shouldn't have been a problem out in the middle of nowhere except that every man and his dog seemed to be out coppicing, pruning fruit trees or just generally doing stuff in the fields and woods.  Most inconsiderate!  I had to make a 1 mile diversion to Great Dixter who very kindly leave their toilets open all hours for just such an emergency.  Phew.  So, in the end I did 6.5 miles and the middle section was certainly quicker!!! 

Red, I think you are right, tonight will probably be too cold for shorts. I had considered wearing my new tracksters which I bought in a sale on boxing Day, but they are slightly on the wide side, and therefore not really suitable for a sprint session. They will be ideal for steady training runs, or warming up before races. I will, therefore, wear my trusty Ron Hill's. On the subject of wee, our lady runners use the facilities in the nearest pub.

Last night's session was held in nasty, drizzly rain. We did 4 sets of  five 30 sec. sprints, with 30 sec recoveries between sprints and 60 sec recoveries between sets. We ran in the Marina and the ground was wet underfoot, and there were several humps on the route. I was afraid of falling again, and ran rather cautiously at first. It is very important to keep moving during recoveries, as I, and several others found that by not doing so, our legs tightened, making it dfficult to get going again for the next effort.

A nice bright morning at the moment, so will be going for a run shortly.

Morning all,

Waiting for our accountant to get back to me so I can combine posting stuff to her with my run.  It's nice and bright here too but quite cold (which I don't mind).  It will be a gentle leg-stretcher of around 5 miles today ahead of the tougher weekend stuff.

TE, you are right to be cautious, especially when it's dark.  I have a great mental image of you running along with your wide pants flapping around 

Another freezing run home last night and run in again this morning and did do three miles in 26 mins as minus temps again but the sun is out now as I type loverly day. Need to wear in my new fell running trail type shoes this weekend. As its wedding anniversary no 27 today, my OH is going to the ballet tomorrow with youngest and I am going for a long run, good deal I reckon!! Happy weekend all and stay safe as that ice and snow comes in, if it does.

Snow is forecast for us too - but today is bright and sunny for a change although the wind is cold. Am about to take young dog Charly out for his very first lesson in tracking, will lay three short trails each no more than about 50m in a straight line, and see how he does.   

Red, they're not flares, but slightly wider than my tracksters

Mark, congratulations on your 27 years A nice picture of your Salomon Speed cross 3s. They won't stay clean for long.

BIW, hope young Charly performs well.

A nice easy 6 miles this morning, bringing my weekly total up to 40 miles. I will have a rest day tomorrow, and on Sunday go for my first forest run since my fall before Christmas, with club colleagues. Snow is forecast for Sunday, and heavier on Monday. I'm hoping it won't settle, as there is no way that I am running on icy pavements any more.

9 x 200m reps for us on Wednesday, which the group I was leading managed in around 55 - 59 seconds. We then jog/walked 200m for a recovery.

This morning we did a recce for our CC6. Warning TE, it is currently VERY muddy, and I can't see it drying out. We had fun though, and I've hosed off my shoes again!

Hope Charly gets on well, BIW.

Mark, congratulations on the anniversary!

Charly did well, I'm very pleased with him. Once he realised there were treats to be had he tracked slowly with his nose to the ground all the time, which is the way it's supposed to be done. A lot of dogs tend to go too fast when they start out. I'll give him a longer trail to follow tomorrow if the weather is ok.   

I shall be pedalling on the bike trainer this evening.

Hello everybody, I am really interested in all you say about running clubs. I joined one between the September Half and the November Half in 2009, and just that two months shaved 11 minutes off my time. But I prefer to run alone, unless my daughters or grandchildren join me. I do not like running in the dark, and also I am pressed for time and resent the time travelling to and fro since there are no local clubs.

JJ - you are a very funny man and you really made me laugh. I shall never look at a man with a HRM in the same way again. Why is Maizie the world's most expensive mongrel? Have you no insurance? The Golden we had before Chase lived to 13. When she was 10 we rushed her to the Cambridge Vet hospital because she couldn't breathe. She was the first dog ever to have a tracheostomy and made medical history. From then on I cleaned her tube twice a day. She was so good and knew I was helping her. She even learned how to bark through it. Amazing.

Columba -How is your ankle? Your poor friend. I met and married my husband when we were impoverished students ( at Aberystwyth by the way!) and have argued and laughed our way through 46 years.Can't imagine life without him.

BI - You are amazing. All those marathons and triathlons. Unbelievable. My youngest daughter, H, has run London and done a triathlon. You can read about us all on www.runningformatthew.co.uk if you are interested. Hannah manages the website and is in the process of updating it, but if you go to the archives on her blog you can see a lot of our history, Well, from Good Friday 2009 anyway

Diana D - does your daughter have a running buggy? They look great but cost a lot, I think.

Well, I have kept up with the training, and on non running days I am on the exercise bike. It is a bit antiquated and the load up/down is stuck on the up. It's like cycling up the side of a flipping mountain and I am in a complete sweat in 5 minutes, much more than when I run. I have had masses of work to do the last couple of days but took advantage of a gap of 2 hours at 2pm. I did NOT feel like going. I felt absolutely cream crackered.. I therefore left my music at home because I wanted to use my mind to motivate myself and not use any props. Sounds daft I know. I did the 6 miles with the fast 4 in the middle, and it took me 61.04, a really good time for me. Really happy!

I went to Pilates on Wednesday evening, and last night after work we took little K into the City for training at the City Athletics Academy. She is buzzing!  Its a 2 hour round trip but worth it to see her so happy.

Red - you made me laugh about needing a wee. It happened to me once when I was out in the dark a couple of miles from home. I couldn't find anywhere private and car headlights kept highlighting me. In the end I decided to just let go! I thought I would freeze, but I actually stayed really warm and comfortable until I got home and washed everything. I highly recommend it!

Didn't run today. Too much going on and with some very cold weather coming I spent a lot of time on winterising things in the garden. That means protecting plants that may be slightly tender.

Hope everyone's noticed the opening thread on General.

TE
Not sure about the benefits of 30 second reps that make muscles tight after a set of 5. Seems too quick to me. For our type of racing they need to be done right on lactate threshold from which it's possible to recover quite quickly.

Good weekly mileage for this time of the year.

mcs
Ballet music is excellent but I've never been able to find a satisfactory explanation for the dance moves. No, I'm not a philistine.

The shoes come into the category of "knobblies". Great for any form of off-road runs and especially XC racing.

Redhead
What's a leg stretcher?

IW 
Sharp dog you have there.
JJ