Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

To start with I think I'd prefer the 7 mile run incorporating the hills rather than straight reps.

Can use the early miles as warm up and take the hills at any pace you want to. If I were to do reps I'd personally find it hard to do them at a pace that wouldn't be damaging if I was coming back from an injury. On the downhill sections make sure you slow your pace down as well and don't let the hill carry your speed. I find this hurts my legs as well if I'm not in complete control. I prefer to use it as a breather and get ready for the next section.

As Fuggan said though, always good to mix it up as well and rep sessions up steep inclines are good but if you're sprinting it can be hard work on the muscles.
 
Came to the realisation today that I could probably lose 2 stone to be in an ideal weight to be racing. I'm 12stone12 at the moment, 5'10, I reckon 11stone7 would be a good racing weight.

Might start looking into that, but I love food. :D
 
I'm 5'11 and between 12st and 12st 4lb depending on diet.

At the moment I'm still getting quicker and responding to training well so I'm happy with my weight where it is. Being lighter would be beneficial but I'd rather have a better life balance with it all if that makes sense. :)

Have a good running mate as well who drops weight when it comes to racing season but he said it's a fine line making your strength and power last when your a little underweight and not having enough.
 
Yeah, fair point I guess. I think there's still a lot more room for improvement in other areas on my end before I start looking at weight loss! :p
 
So plantar fasciitis seems to have finally gone now; longest injury I've had to date, all in rekon about 5-6 months to be back to 'normal'.

Everytime I pop back onto this forum Indigo you are knocking more and more PB's in - fantastic effort.

I'm mulling over my next goal. To recap, I've only done one marathon (windermere last year, 3h 35m). It was a warm day (20) and as you can guess quite hilly. I'm thinking a sub 3h 30m would be a nice goal on a flat course in the autumn. Any recomendations?

Cheers
 
Cheers Darkness, as you may know Windermere was also my first marathon so I know how it isn't ideal for a PB and the time of year it's at means it's always a warm one as well.

Not sure if you want to travel far based on your location but I know Chester in October is a flat course.

Other than that this website lists a few marathons around the UK and there's a page for half marathons as well.

UK Marathon List

Good luck on coming back from injury and hope it all goes well for you this year. :)
 
Just did my first ever run. So utterly painful - why do people even do it? :p

Average pace was 8:53 and total distance amusing just under 5k - 3.1 miles. Classic rookie mistake to not build enough slack into my route I guess.

I'm fairly happy with that given that I've not ran before and I did a sweet spot turbo session beforehand /excuses.

After finishing I've had some carbs and protein and done a quick ten minutes recovery pace on the turbo. Going to do a few stretches too. Any other recommendations to aid with recovery/having my legs work in the next two days?
 
The first one is always interesting. I remember not having done it since high school, and it being a lot more difficult than i remembered :D

Stretches before and after every run. See this link from the OP to see how. I cut a few of those out because they just weren't doing anything for me but that's your call. But actually taking a few minutes to stretch can just decimate your recovery time, especially in the beginning. If it's particularly bad you could try foam rolling?
 
Cheers for that. I did a few of those but there were some I hadn't thought of. I'll add in some of the extra stretches.

Any thoughts on the idea of doing recovery ride stuff afterwards? Or I guess the equivalent would be to go on a short (couple of miles) walk.
 
I've always been a believer of "never stretching a cold muscle". So I usually just take the first klick or so a bit steadier than the rest of my run and use that as a warm up. I spend a lot of time stretching and foam rolling afterwards though, found that helps with recovery. Dynamic stretches, lunges, that kind of stuff.

Are you following any sort of programme FrenchTart or just running for a bit of variation from cycling?
 
Fuggan said:
I've always been a believer of "never stretching a cold muscle". So I usually just take the first klick or so a bit steadier than the rest of my run and use that as a warm up. I spend a lot of time stretching and foam rolling afterwards though, found that helps with recovery. Dynamic stretches, lunges, that kind of stuff.

Are you following any sort of programme FrenchTart or just running for a bit of variation from cycling?
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Partially as a variation from cycling and with the eventual aim to do triathlons/etc. Also, an old friend of mine is a regular marathon runner and whenever he comes to visit we can't really exercise together as it is. This will make things a little easier if I can get remotely proficient :p

To be honest I'd already done a bit of gym work (including some stretching) and an hour of intense turbo training before I did this run so I think I was quite thoroughly warmed up. It won't always be that way though, I guess. I suppose if I'm going into it cold I'll make sure I take it easy for the first km as you suggested :)
 
How fast do people progress in running? I've been looking at athlete profiles on the park run website. I can't find anyone sub 17 that had started over 22 minutes on their first 5K. Also I noticed some people run a 25 minute 5K for the last five years with no improvement. Are these people just not serious? Surely everyone who is fit and under 50 should be able to perform a sub 20 5K?

I am trying to find people that started slow 25-30 minutes and worked their way down to sub 18 but I can't find any yet. Does this not happen?

Is it about how well the body responds to cardio input? How fast you can recover, that makes you a fast runner? Aside from physiological talent. I've only been running five months so I don't know how fast I will get yet but my dream goal is sub 13 and my "realistic" goal is sub 16. I'm far away right now.

Also just wanna say I can't believe after 27 years I've really fell in love with running. I can't stop thinking about it, it's consuming me. Even running slow is enjoyable. Why did it take me so long to find out. I love it more than skateboarding and I did that for over 14 years. I wish I had done running.
 
Nate Silvers said:
How fast do people progress in running? I've been looking at athlete profiles on the park run website. I can't find anyone sub 17 that had started over 22 minutes on their first 5K. Also I noticed some people run a 25 minute 5K for the last five years with no improvement. Are these people just not serious? Surely everyone who is fit and under 50 should be able to perform a sub 20 5K?

I am trying to find people that started slow 25-30 minutes and worked their way down to sub 18 but I can't find any yet. Does this not happen?

Is it about how well the body responds to cardio input? How fast you can recover, that makes you a fast runner? Aside from physiological talent. I've only been running five months so I don't know how fast I will get yet but my dream goal is sub 13 and my "realistic" goal is sub 16. I'm far away right now.

Also just wanna say I can't believe after 27 years I've really fell in love with running. I can't stop thinking about it, it's consuming me. Even running slow is enjoyable. Why did it take me so long to find out. I love it more than skateboarding and I did that for over 14 years. I wish I had done running.
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I'm way behind you on the running front but I just did my first run which was (almost, got the route slightly wrong) 5k and the total time would likely have been 29 minutes if I'd not undershot by 0.1 miles.

I can't really see how you wouldn't be able to improve rapidly on that. I already have a good fitness base, which I guess gives me an advantage over someone starting running "from the couch" and I really felt it was my leg strength/pain tolerance that held me back.

That said, some people are more than happy to just run at a slow pace and not push themselves. There's nothing wrong with that - and tbh it's something I did for quite a long time with cycling. I regret it now, but at the time it was fine for me.
 
For me, progress was pretty quick. I started out September time, my first run was 4.3 miles, took 43 minutes and almost killed me. But I kept going and my next go at 5k, which was just over a week in and I did 27.5 minutes, I'd spent that week recovering but running at least 1-2 miles daily. 2 weeks later I was down to about 25 mins.

I kept going and started bring in a 10k run every 2 weeks, with my first race in November during which I also put in a PB 5k which was about 23 mins.

Between Christmas and new year got my 10k down to 47 mins (my race was just short of 51), and last week I got my 5k down to a new PB of 21:44.

Since my race in November I haven't been training as hard but still get out around twice a week at least so I'm not really see much improvement in time, but it is there. If I started going out more I am confident I could bring it down, however I got bored of flat running so have been throwing as many hills into it as I can.

I'm also now trying to fuel properly both for running and cycling as I've now stopped trying to lose weight as I hit my goal of 13st around Christmas time.
 
Sounds about right. I did a bit of jogging before my first 5K so my first 5K could have been 27-30 minutes. I thought I had a good fitness base too, from skating and compound lifts. Leg strength was definitely a factor looking back. I know for certain because after a 5K my legs were toasted, I couldn't walk for a couple days. Now it's not a problem to run a 5K and run home.

I know people that can cycle really fast but can't run for more than 15 minutes, why is that? Is it because running works the whole system? I noticed when I cycle in the cold winter my hands and feet are freezing but when I run even with no shoes my feet and hands are sweating hot. Is that because running works the blood around the body better? Or just because you don't move your hands/feet when cycling.

I know some people just run for fun and that's cool but I would be interested to know how long it will take you to go from 29 minutes to sub 20 if you keep the running up. Is running talent instant or does it unveil itself by how well your body responds to the running demands.
 
Nate Silvers said:
I know some people just run for fun and that's cool but I would be interested to know how long it will take you to go from 29 minutes to sub 20 if you keep the running up. Is running talent instant or does it unveil itself by how well your body responds to the running demands.
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Sub 20 is pretty quick in 5k land. There are loads of variables that'd come into play here of course. I can't answer the question as my PB is still not sub 20. :p (20:38)

On the other hand, if I trained specifically for a sub 20 5k time, I reckon give me 6 weeks and it'd be done. In my mind it all comes down to how you train.
 
Itchytrigg said:
For me, progress was pretty quick. I started out September time, my first run was 4.3 miles, took 43 minutes and almost killed me. But I kept going and my next go at 5k, which was just over a week in and I did 27.5 minutes, I'd spent that week recovering but running at least 1-2 miles daily. 2 weeks later I was down to about 25 mins.

I kept going and started bring in a 10k run every 2 weeks, with my first race in November during which I also put in a PB 5k which was about 23 mins.

Between Christmas and new year got my 10k down to 47 mins (my race was just short of 51), and last week I got my 5k down to a new PB of 21:44.

Since my race in November I haven't been training as hard but still get out around twice a week at least so I'm not really see much improvement in time, but it is there. If I started going out more I am confident I could bring it down, however I got bored of flat running so have been throwing as many hills into it as I can.

I'm also now trying to fuel properly both for running and cycling as I've now stopped trying to lose weight as I hit my goal of 13st around Christmas time.
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That's a long run for your first run, wow. I think I ran about 2KM and collapsed. I started out September too! I too remember that first week after a 5K recovering. I remember getting to 25 minutes too but this was after over a month, not 2 weeks. I got stuck there for a couple months, never thought I would get faster than 24+ minutes. 10K I did it once months back but it really hurt my hips. I feel ready for it now.

My 2nd 5K which was in November I got about 23 minutes too (23:18).
Last week my 5K was 21:20. Very close to yours too. I can get 20:41 but I have to try 100% from start to finish and really sprint, I mean it hurts. I bet you could do it if you really tried since your progress is similar to mine.

I gotta say though I'm not bored of flat running. I can't get out enough to run because I've got blisters on my soles so I have to take it easy but I wish I could run everyday twice a day. I always listen to music though so that helps. I can run to anything, fast, slow.

Well done losing weight, 13 stone is still quite heavy unless you're really tall though. Is that muscle? If not why do you want to stop losing the weight?
 
Fuggan said:
Sub 20 is pretty quick in 5k land. There are loads of variables that'd come into play here of course. I can't answer the question as my PB is still not sub 20. :p (20:38)

On the other hand, if I trained specifically for a sub 20 5k time, I reckon give me 6 weeks and it'd be done. In my mind it all comes down to how you train.
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I honestly don't think it's quick if you are fit and healthy. There is a guy on my park run who does sub 17 and he's over 55. Look at some of the age timings. I think everyone should be able to run sub 20 every time they run, it should be really easy.

I can't do it either. I know it's because I'm not fit enough. I have nothing else that is stopping me.

Our PB's are only 3 seconds apart. Either one of us is fitter than the other or one of us is a more efficient runner. Maybe both.

Do you really think you have to train specifically for a 5K? Someone told me they got to sub 15 minutes and he runs twice a day, progression runs. That's it.
 
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I think the route can make a huge difference. It certainly can in cycling and today I had to slow down a lot for school kids leaving school and crossing roads/etc.
 
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