My Forum

The warmth/burning would usually indicate youre well on youre way to blistering if its a friction issue....which is never fun. Not everyone can get away with them but you could try a apir of twin skin socks. Personally i often find Hilly twin skin a reliable brand. If you do try some i would recommend using the smallesy size you can get away with, this simply helps reduce the chance of the layers folding/creasing up and causing pressure areas.

Personally i wouldnt even entertain the Newtons, there priced.....well its just madness,lol.

Minimalist is not for everyone and can cause just as many injuries as when wearing 'normal' running shoes. Ofcourse it has its uses, i sometimes use minimalist a part of active recovery and on occasion with use barefoot on the beach(in the warm north sea,lol).

Are you a neutral forefoot striker already?

Do you NEED to change?

If you want to try 'natural' or 'barefoot' dont buy any shoes, just get yourself down to the beach or find a field where you can have a bit of a jog about with no shoes. its really not all its cracked up to be and if you running now pretty much trouble free that is whats most important.

@Canary, the guy at the running shop either has no idea on the technology and devleopment in each Nike shoe or is an idiot.......... or both,lol. 

You ideally need a better setup before thining about dropping 15-20 second per mile over marathon distance of such a low weekly mileage. More than likly 9.45 is going to be your race pace. The Hyde Park will be a good indicator however may be a very bad idea for someone who is operating of such low mileage, in terms of timescaling i mean. I think it may be more beneficial to do a 'test' over a shorter...maybe 10k and use a calc(mcmillan) to give you an idea on where your fitness is.

RicF, good point about the pre warm up...warm up. Ive heard people doing this but only ever the elite runners. Its worth a stab, ive tried alot of other methods so it cant do any harm.

Jamie Newton 2, fair point....i wouldnt say i'm over training at the moment but yes have been guilty in the past. Was alot younger then i didnt really know what i was doing, just ran as i felt and aslong as i enjoyed it would go eyeballs out the day after a track session. With regards to a 90min warm up i was 100% joking. Oxygen debt chasing better runners might be something to look into though....with better monitoring of my pace early on it could well be the issue. Another thing for me to try.

CheeRS

Afternoon all, quick question on trainging vs race performance. Bit of background to help.... Ive benn running for 15+ yrs, had some decent runs/races when younger but have had a rough time with injury since 2004. From then training is....patchy at best but has just started to pick up once again and has gone well for the last 10 weeks. Current weekly mileage hovers around 50 over 6 sessions a week.

Current annoyance is my training splints(on sessions) and general feel during long runs doesnt match my race performance. To be honest i always feel rough during a race, never feel like i get into my running and often feel very weak from early on. Most bizzare thing at the moment is that about 90 mins into a long run i can knock out 6 mile at 6:00 pace(depending on terrain) at what i feel is like 90% effort(best guess as unconfirmed with HR monitoring), however come cross country of 10k race i'm 30-40 seconds down on those splits and pinging what feels like 100% effort.

Ive tried going into races with/without taper, short/long warm ups, strides/no strides, slow start,fast start  but nothing seems to give the....proper outcome. I must admit a 2-3 mile warm up with a few mins at race pace prior to race seems to dull the shock to the body of the manic race starts.

Any ideas? Should i try running 90mins prior to a 10k race? Seems a bit extreme.