Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Guess it depends on your definition of 'quick' really.

I don't think you have to train specifically for a 5k but maybe for a sub 20min 5k. What I was trying to say was, if all I had to train for was a 5k race I'd train a lot differently to how I am training for the marathon. For example I'd be doing a lot of speed work, lactate threshold and VO2 max stuff if I was training for a 5k, whereas obviously for the marathon it's all about distance.

Who knows, I haven't run a park run for a few months since starting my marathon training so long distance stuff might be more beneficial than I think.

Really don't know, just educated guesses. :p
 
Yeah some 5K courses are faster than others, ours is really nice, it's flat and nearly all asphalt. There are a couple tight 90 bends though. One thing that makes a difference is start near the front, loads of times I've got stuck behind people and had to run on the grass around them.

Also once you get to the 20 minutes mark you will know it because it's the first time you'll start overlapping the people at the back of the group. I remember seeing all these people walking in the last 1KM and thinking why give up now, didn't realize they were the back of the group. Never happened until I hit under 21 mins.

Well it's more my definition of "fit" than quick. The 55 year old running sub 17, would you call him the flash? :p

You're training for a marathon, that's awesome. You are competing against the distance as well as the time so I guess the training would be different. I bet your 5K would improve after the marathon. I thought you had to start running from under age 10 to be elite. Guess not.

I think if you got really fast at 10Ks you'd be ready for a good marathon though. Some 10K athletes did well on little training on their first marathons. I know he's an anomaly but Kenesia Bekle only trained for two weeks for his first half marathon and beat Mo Farah!

Someone just told me they got from 29:30 at Huddersfield parkrun in Jan 2012. Now in Sept 2014 - 17:39 on same course. That's a solid progress apparently and I'd agree. It's possible! Faith restored.

Also this man. Elijah Lagat.

An office worker that started jogging at age 27 on request form his DR. because he was overweight with fatty tissue around his heart. Ended up winning some big city marathons including Boston Marathon.
 
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My 5k course today was running from my house, down the road and past two schools, down into a bit of the Fallowfield loop, then back up and past another school before finally running back towards my house :p It would be interesting to see what it's like to run on anything remotely like a proper course.
 
Nate Silvers said:
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?
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I'm 6 foot 2, I have a little weight still in my stomach but I feel right if that makes sense, this time last year I was around 16st2, September I was 15.

I don't think it's muscle, but then I do cycle (not as much as I would like) and I've been trying to do strong lifts as well, sadly can't at the moment as my wrist is still messed up from coming off my bike over a month ago.

For me, running fits my free time nicely, have a 3 year old and my 2nd was born in September so I could get out for a really good 30 minute workout around them. I now also go out at lunch as ~5k is just enough for getting changed, showering and then getting some food ready to eat at my desk.

Someone at work linked me to tough mudder, which is coming up near me in May which I'm very much considering!
 
How come you chose that route? I marked out a cycle track on Google maps and ran that.
Didn't your path have roads to cross? How do you like running anyways? I remember you in the lifting threads I think. You should do a park run race this weekend if you can, you might get the running bug.
 
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13 stone at 6'2'' is a perfectly reasonable weight.

@Nate - I just wanted to get out and do a run. I might try and plan something better for stuff in future but being able to just start and end at my house is quite nice.
 
FrenchTart said:
13 stone at 6'2'' is a perfectly reasonable weight.

@Nate - I just wanted to get out and do a run. I might try and plan something better for stuff in future but being able to just start and end at my house is quite nice.
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When I go for a run at home I do the same, and use Strava to roughly plan a route when I want to explore or try something different, I got bored of running the same circuit around my village, it's only 2 miles for a lap so stretching it to 5k involves repetition which I'm not such a fan of.
 
FrenchTart said:
13 stone at 6'2'' is a perfectly reasonable weight.

@Nate - I just wanted to get out and do a run. I might try and plan something better for stuff in future but being able to just start and end at my house is quite nice.
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If you get the bug or just want to give it a go you should try out the Park Run 5K at Platt Fields park. 9.00 every Saturday morning.

And on another note if your interested or even have the time with the cycling in joining any clubs/groups let me know and I can point you in the direction of quite a few in Manchester. :)
 
Itchytrigg said:
When I go for a run at home I do the same, and use Strava to roughly plan a route when I want to explore or try something different, I got bored of running the same circuit around my village, it's only 2 miles for a lap so stretching it to 5k involves repetition which I'm not such a fan of.
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Part of me thinks I could ride my bike out to somewhere nicer and then do the run from there but that would involve carrying my cycle shoes in a rucksack or something. My peddles are just about usable for very short distances without SPDs but it's pretty painful.

IndigoGorilla said:
If you get the bug or just want to give it a go you should try out the Park Run 5K at Platt Fields park. 9.00 every Saturday morning.

And on another note if your interested or even have the time with the cycling in joining any clubs/groups let me know and I can point you in the direction of quite a few in Manchester. :)
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Thanks - I may take you up on that :) I have to take a break from exercise as of next week for at least a few weeks but from March I am likely to get on it properly so I'd be up for both of those. Do you make the Platt Fields run?
 
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No problem, I know of evening runs for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and two groups do Sunday morning runs as well.

I don't make Platt Fields unfortunately. Done it once but quite often in work on Saturdays and live in Stalybridge so it's not the easiest place to get to on public transport that time in the morning.

I tend to have a long run or a race planned on Sundays so Park Run doesn't fit in with my training unfortunately either.

If you don't mind a bit of traveling then Glossop or anywhere in the Peak District is a nice place to run. Both Glossop and Edale are accessible easily by train from Piccadilly as well.

Enjoy the break and hope you come back stronger. :)
 
20mins 5k for someone under 50 who is fit is not fast at all. I think with even a basic low mileage program and shedding some pounds any average fit male should be able to run under 20mins for a 5k given time. It's all about doing the right type of running/training. For someone 50-70 20mins would be solid and like the older guy mentioned running under 17 at his age, that is awesome! I hope to be him in 40 years :)

My first 10k I ran in 41mins on a downhill course which was murder in 2011, honestly no idea what my first 5k is, the first one I remember was that one around Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh, Great Winter Run thingy and I ran 19:29 there. I had been running 3 months at that point and it was 8 weeks after the downhill 10k.

From January 2011 to Spring 2014 time I got my 10k PB to 33mins dead and 5k PB to 16:02. So big progression can be made, a 22min 5k guy can run a 16min 5k if they train properly IMO. I wish I had gotten better higher quality races in June time last year when I was fittest as I know I could run under 32:30 and 15:40 but I put all my effort into aiming for a race, using the PB races as tune ups and have amazingly been injured since July 2014 until now. <3 running.
 
IndigoGorilla said:
No problem, I know of evening runs for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and two groups do Sunday morning runs as well.

I don't make Platt Fields unfortunately. Done it once but quite often in work on Saturdays and live in Stalybridge so it's not the easiest place to get to on public transport that time in the morning.

I tend to have a long run or a race planned on Sundays so Park Run doesn't fit in with my training unfortunately either.

If you don't mind a bit of traveling then Glossop or anywhere in the Peak District is a nice place to run. Both Glossop and Edale are accessible easily by train from Piccadilly as well.

Enjoy the break and hope you come back stronger. :)
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Ah, understandable. I live in Burnage so Platt Fields is very easy for me to get to by bike. Not too far to Glossop either though until I'm a bit stronger at running I'd be concerned that trying to cycle back would be painful :p I guess I could go the train route as you suggest though.

Cheers /re the break. I'm hoping I'll be able to get on the turbo a bit earlier even if other forms of exercise are out so with luck I won't lose *all* my fitness....and if I can get one or two more runs in before then my legs might be encouraged to increase in strength enough to make running a little less painful.
 
Dieting is having the desired effect. I've taken my weight down to 190 lbs, from a bit over 200, over the past month. Was aiming for 1.5 lb a week of weight loss, and have hit that apart from the first week where it dropped a bit more.

Effect on my heart rate has been quite pronounced. At the start of january it was hitting 160 at one mile, 170 at two miles, and close to 180 at 3 miles(at 10 min/mile).

I'm now at 145 at one mile, 155 at two miles, 156 at three miles, and 165 at four miles. (9.30 min/mile). So the heart rate coming down with the weight means that I'm finally able to start upping the distance, and I've reintroduced some tempo work onto my mid week run. If all continues well I'll be back to a 10k long run by mid march, and will have split the mid week run into two. Present plan is to get the weight down to 182 lbs, and then I'll have a think about what to do longer term.
 
xdcx said:
From January 2011 to Spring 2014 time I got my 10k PB to 33mins dead and 5k PB to 16:02. So big progression can be made, a 22min 5k guy can run a 16min 5k if they train properly IMO. I wish I had gotten better higher quality races in June time last year when I was fittest as I know I could run under 32:30 and 15:40 but I put all my effort into aiming for a race, using the PB races as tune ups and have amazingly been injured since July 2014 until now. <3 running.
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What sort of training do you do for such results?
 
Too many posts to quote - But knocking minutes off a 5k time isn't a trivial task - have you considered the real difference in pace of a 20min 5k and an 18 min 5k, I don't mean the figures more how it would feel to you?
 
xdcx said:
...when I was fittest as I know I could run under 32:30 and 15:40 but I put all my effort into aiming for a race,...
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Try putting your figures in here - http://www.heartbreakhill.org/age_graded.htm

So you are saying you would have run a 5K in 15:40 and 10K in under 32:30?

For an 18-30 year old male that would put you firmly between National and World Class runners....
 
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