Official Running Thread

smudge said:

I'm quite fortunate in my job where I get to run in lots of different places. For example this month I set myself a target of a minimum of 10k a day, and I've run in Casablanca, Tangier, Las Palmas Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz Tenerife, Funchal Madeira, Malaga, Alicante, Barcelona, and Gibraltar. I included the top of the rock as part of my run in Gib', for old times sake. My God, my legs the next day! My point is that running is a great way of having a good look around wherever I happen to be. This itinerary is probably the least "glam'" that we do, but I've enjoyed the ports running wise. Better than the tread mill when the ship is rocking, which is challenging. Here's me representing the Albion at the top of the rock. Couple of our Nepalese security guards were just getting out of the cable car when they saw this old git sprinting the last yards to the summit!
View attachment 95502

Click to expand...

dazzer6666 said:

Used to run up there on my regular work trips to Gib.......quite atmospheric in the early morning sometimes, often seemed to be shrouded in fog. Apes just tend to sit and watch you plod past......

...meanwhile, just starting week 3 of no running. Still struggling with a niggling pain in the glute/hamstring. Physio thinks it's linked to a sciatic nerve issue. Very annoying. Race plans will very quickly be going down the bog if I'm not back on it in a couple of weeks.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

I did the Gloucester 20 mile road race yesterday. It was a great event, one of the best I’ve ever done. There were only 500 runners and the route was on country lanes a few miles south of Gloucester. It helped that conditions were perfect too. I would highly recommend it if anyone is ever in the area. I was a bit unsure about how valuable it would be beforehand but covering that distance in a competitive environment has given me more confidence than any training run.

My finishing time was 2:31:28. I didn’t give it my absolute all as I didn’t want to completely ruin my legs three weeks before Brighton, but I wasn’t too far off. So with that in mind and knowing how I felt by the end (tired, starting to ache and dropping towards 5:00/km but still running relatively comfortably) I think I am aiming to go sub-3:30 at Edinburgh in May. Brighton is still a case of just finishing.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

Thanks. The problem I’ve got is that my lack of marathon experience means I don’t really know what pace to stick to. On one hand I think I can do sub-3:30 right now (and in the right circumstances I probably could), on the other I’m respectful of the fact I’ve never done a marathon and I don’t want to crash and burn. It’s really hard to find the right balance between the two without the experience of covering the distance before.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

I did the Gloucester 20 mile road race yesterday. It was a great event, one of the best I’ve ever done. There were only 500 runners and the route was on country lanes a few miles south of Gloucester. It helped that conditions were perfect too. I would highly recommend it if anyone is ever in the area. I was a bit unsure about how valuable it would be beforehand but covering that distance in a competitive environment has given me more confidence than any training run.

My finishing time was 2:31:28. I didn’t give it my absolute all as I didn’t want to completely ruin my legs three weeks before Brighton, but I wasn’t too far off. So with that in mind and knowing how I felt by the end (tired, starting to ache and dropping towards 5:00/km but still running relatively comfortably) I think I am aiming to go sub-3:30 at Edinburgh in May. Brighton is still a case of just finishing.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

I was a bit conservative yesterday because a) I didn’t want to wear myself out and take a week to recover and b) I wanted to try and run fairly consistently to practice the ‘not burning out’ strategy. I think I’ll do the same on marathon day so I would expect to get to 20 miles in about the same time. Who knows what happens from there. I appreciate the confidence though, three experienced runners can’t ALL be wrong surely!

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

What I like about this is that your splits get slower as you go, which is exactly what will happen for me, yet you still got a great time. I read so much about negative splits, it’s almost like you’re not a serious runner if you don’t do negative splits. But in a marathon surely it’s near impossible to achieve? If I can follow a similar path to that run of yours on 15/04 I’ll be ecstatic.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

What I like about this is that your splits get slower as you go, which is exactly what will happen for me, yet you still got a great time. I read so much about negative splits, it’s almost like you’re not a serious runner if you don’t do negative splits. But in a marathon surely it’s near impossible to achieve? If I can follow a similar path to that run of yours on 15/04 I’ll be ecstatic.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

Thanks. The problem I’ve got is that my lack of marathon experience means I don’t really know what pace to stick to. On one hand I think I can do sub-3:30 right now (and in the right circumstances I probably could), on the other I’m respectful of the fact I’ve never done a marathon and I don’t want to crash and burn. It’s really hard to find the right balance between the two without the experience of covering the distance before.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

Thanks for all the replies. This is interesting reading.

One more question if I may. A sub-3:30 marathon is dead on 5:00/km. Now I’m not going to do this as I wouldn’t be brave enough in my first marathon, but what’s likely to happen if I went out and ran the first half of it at 4:30/km or faster? That would obviously buy me the leeway to average 5:30/km in the second half. I’m sure the answer is that I would burn out and end up falling behind the pace, but is there any case to be made for the speedy start? Has anyone done it in a marathon? I won’t do it (this time) but I’m just wondering as it is normally my strategy for shorter races.

Click to expand...

The Complete Badger said:

Thanks for all the replies. This is interesting reading.

One more question if I may. A sub-3:30 marathon is dead on 5:00/km. Now I’m not going to do this as I wouldn’t be brave enough in my first marathon, but what’s likely to happen if I went out and ran the first half of it at 4:30/km or faster? That would obviously buy me the leeway to average 5:30/km in the second half. I’m sure the answer is that I would burn out and end up falling behind the pace, but is there any case to be made for the speedy start? Has anyone done it in a marathon? I won’t do it (this time) but I’m just wondering as it is normally my strategy for shorter races.

Click to expand...