Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Buckster · 24 Oct 2015 at 10:10

My left foot always seems to strike on outside edge wheras right lands fine

I think my left hip and glutes are weak so working on those atm in gym

5 runs thus week so far including 2 club sessions trying to get my mileage back to over 25 a week and loose some fat ☺

I'm +10 kg over race weight from 18 months back

FoxEye · 24 Oct 2015 at 11:40

semi-pro waster said:
I don't want to take this in a medical direction as apart from the rules I simply don't know enough but did you explain your issues in the shop about one foot impacting flat and the other feeling ok? It may be that you'd be better with footbeds/insoles for one side or even different trainers on each foot depending on how bad it is? Assuming that wouldn't just exacerbate the problem. I don't know obviously and I'd defer to any experts but it might be worth the time and expense to do a more in-depth analysis than the 5 minutes or so you'll get from some running shops.

I can mitigate it tho, so it could just be bad technique. Normally when I walk I point my toes outward (was trained to walk like this as a kid). But if I let me feet do what they want to when I run then my left foot points slightly inwards. This reduces the impact/pain a lot.

The other thing I've found helps is to to place each foot in a straight line. Ie to consciously swing each step in towards the centre of my body.

Lastly it could just be that I need to strengthen certain muscles and that the problem will go away in time.

Scipio_127 · 25 Oct 2015 at 13:27

Running the Dublin City Marathon tomorrow. Hoping for a time of around 3hr 24min.
3 months of solid training behind me. Long slow runs of 2x22miles and 4x20miles done.
Did an easy 3km to loosen out a bit this morning. All done now just a sleepless night awaits before a 9am start

King85 · 25 Oct 2015 at 17:14

Good luck! No need for a sleepless night though, you know you've put the work in and can do it so just relax and look forward to it!

Indigo · 25 Oct 2015 at 19:47

Scipio_127 said:
Running the Dublin City Marathon tomorrow. Hoping for a time of around 3hr 24min.
3 months of solid training behind me. Long slow runs of 2x22miles and 4x20miles done.
Did an easy 3km to loosen out a bit this morning. All done now just a sleepless night awaits before a 9am start

As King85 said, you've clearly done the training and the long runs so just enjoy race day and fingers crossed you manage a decent nights sleep.

First Marathon?

D.P. · 26 Oct 2015 at 01:14

Scipio_127 said:
Running the Dublin City Marathon tomorrow. Hoping for a time of around 3hr 24min.
3 months of solid training behind me. Long slow runs of 2x22miles and 4x20miles done.
Did an easy 3km to loosen out a bit this morning. All done now just a sleepless night awaits before a 9am start

Good luck. Sounds well trained with all those long runs.

Out if curiosity, How did you decide on your pace? That's the biggest hurdle left for me as I start tapering for mine. Did my final real long run Friday, 21 miles. I'm adding more rest days now and a general cut back on miles.

D.P. · 26 Oct 2015 at 19:00

went hiking yesterday and today did 14 miles at 7:59 a mile. Fell and cut my knee, one of those nice manly injuries with plenty of blood but no pain or damage.

Still feeling the back of my knees, so tomorrow will be a rest day rather than going to the gym.

Scipio_127 · 27 Oct 2015 at 14:35

King85 said:
Good luck! No need for a sleepless night though, you know you've put the work in and can do it so just relax and look forward to it!

Thanks

Managed to get around 5 hours, so not too bad.

Scipio_127 · 27 Oct 2015 at 14:37

IndigoGorilla said:
As King85 said, you've clearly done the training and the long runs so just enjoy race day and fingers crossed you manage a decent nights sleep.

First Marathon?

Thanks

Its my second. My first was in Frankfurth last year in a time of 3:35:56.

Goodie · 27 Oct 2015 at 14:58

Just as I was starting to get some speed back after a running break I've gone and hurt my hip... Feels like it needs to crack/click but it won't, been like this for 5 days now

#Chri5# · 27 Oct 2015 at 14:59

Scipio_127 said:
Thanks Managed to get around 5 hours, so not too bad.

How did you do, as that's a fair bit away from 3:24? Not that it's not a great achievement to get round - my first marathon was a whole world of pain!

Scipio_127 · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:04

D.P. said:
Good luck. Sounds well trained with all those long runs.

Out if curiosity, How did you decide on your pace? That's the biggest hurdle left for me as I start tapering for mine. Did my final real long run Friday, 21 miles. I'm adding more rest days now and a general cut back on miles.

Thanks

How I decided my pace was after doing a half marathon in Sept. in a time of 1hr 38min(04:41 per km) in which I felt reasonably comfortable, I used this as a measurement against the Marathon itself. So doubling that would give me a time of 3hr 16min, and then add 10 minutes or so to allow for the extra exertion etc of the full marathon would give me a time of around 3hr 26min.
Because my training had gone so well I felt confident that a time of around 3:24/25 was possible and achievable. So this gave me a pace of 4:50 per km
and is the pace I decided to go out at.

Below I did a little race report for the Dublin Marathon 2015:

Chip time: 3:28:22
Found it very tough mentally. Had to make an emergency P stop into one of the portaloos on chesterfield avenue which cost me nearly 3 minutes! Was trying to keep the 3:20 pacers in sight before then. When I re-amerged the 3:30 pacers came flying by. Damn. Had to revert to plan B. So made the decision to stick with them until after the 22 mile mark and then see if I could achieve my B goal of anything under 3:30. Thank God for the support along the way and especially from the 22 mile onwards. Really helped me to dig deep to get in at a time of 3:28:22. So still got a PB of some 7 minutes. This was my first Dublin marathon, my second after Frankfurt last year(3:35:56).
Frankfurt was a very flat course where as Dublin had several uphills but Dublin triumphs in the way of spectator support along the way. But had a very happy day and my future plans are to get under 3 hours, I hope eventually.

Scipio_127 · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:06

#Chri5# said:
How did you do, as that's a fair bit away from 3:24? Not that it's not a great achievement to get round - my first marathon was a whole world of pain!

lol that was 5 hours sleep for night before the marathon.

Read the posts previously.

Scipio_127 · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:09

Oh and this is my strava data for the Marathon:

https://www.strava.com/activities/420780165

#Chri5# · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:29

Scipio_127 said:
lol that was 5 hours sleep for night before the marathon. Read the posts previously.

Hah, that's me skim reading

D.P. · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:37

Scipio_127 said:
Thanks

How I decided my pace was after doing a half marathon in Sept. in a time of 1hr 38min(04:41 per km) in which I felt reasonably comfortable, I used this as a measurement against the Marathon itself. So doubling that would give me a time of 3hr 16min, and then add 10 minutes or so to allow for the extra exertion etc of the full marathon would give me a time of around 3hr 26min.
Because my training had gone so well I felt confident that a time of around 3:24/25 was possible and achievable. So this gave me a pace of 4:50 per km
and is the pace I decided to go out at.

Below I did a little race report for the Dublin Marathon 2015:

Chip time: 3:28:22
Found it very tough mentally. Had to make an emergency P stop into one of the portaloos on chesterfield avenue which cost me nearly 3 minutes! Was trying to keep the 3:20 pacers in sight before then. When I re-amerged the 3:30 pacers came flying by. Damn. Had to revert to plan B. So made the decision to stick with them until after the 22 mile mark and then see if I could achieve my B goal of anything under 3:30. Thank God for the support along the way and especially from the 22 mile onwards. Really helped me to dig deep to get in at a time of 3:28:22. So still got a PB of some 7 minutes. This was my first Dublin marathon, my second after Frankfurt last year(3:35:56).
Frankfurt was a very flat course where as Dublin had several uphills but Dublin triumphs in the way of spectator support along the way. But had a very happy day and my future plans are to get under 3 hours, I hope eventually.

Nice report.

I'm liekly to use the same kind fo method to estimate my pace but I have found that I have increased a lot of fitness since my initial half marathon in august so that data is useless now. Then there is the issue that being my first marathon I should really aim for soemthign slightly more conservative.

I've done 13.1 miles in 1H:36 last week as a kind of time-trail, but by no means an optimal test. I've done a few ~13 mile runs at 1H:40M, so a sub 3:30 is possible but I want to be more conservative. Trying to decide between 3:30, 3:34 or 3:38 kind of times. I'm pretty sure I can run under 3:30 but I absolutely do not want to explode on my first race so it is more of question of how safe I want to play it, learn from experience, get psyched by a strong finish and then resume training for a spring marathon with tighter goals.

D.P. · 27 Oct 2015 at 15:40

Scipio_127 said:
Oh and this is my strava data for the Marathon:

https://www.strava.com/activities/420780165

Looks like a very well paced run, very even splits and a strong finish

Indigo · 27 Oct 2015 at 17:24

Scipio_127 said:
Oh and this is my strava data for the Marathon:

https://www.strava.com/activities/420780165

Well done, as D.P. said that's well placed and a strong finish as well.

I've followed you on Strava too, nice run streak you have going on.

Itchytrigg · 27 Oct 2015 at 18:53

Congrats Scipio!

I fear I've made a booboo in training in not including much/any hill work as I had not quite realised the elevation change in the 1/2 I am doing this Sunday. Elevation

Mostly in the first half so hopefully I can catch some time back in the 2nd half and will still try and push for the 7:30-7:40 miles I'm planning on.

D.P. · 27 Oct 2015 at 20:12

Itchytrigg said:
Congrats Scipio!

I fear I've made a booboo in training in not including much/any hill work as I had not quite realised the elevation change in the 1/2 I am doing this Sunday. Elevation

Mostly in the first half so hopefully I can catch some time back in the 2nd half and will still try and push for the 7:30-7:40 miles I'm planning on.

Run even effort, not even pace. When tuning downhill I would try to bank energy and not time earlier in the race. Running fast downhill put a load of strain on the quads so you don't want explode late. banking energy will make the next hills easier and the flats faster.

at least that would be my game plan.