Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Hank_Marvin said:
Hello,

Anyone got any gps watch suggestions.

I can only afford to go second hand really allthough the new tomtom runner 2 looks decent and only £100, just need distance, time and pace really with a nice display and good tracking.

And ability to upload to runtastic but I could move over to another platform.

Wouldn't want it to be too old incase the battery was duff.

Any ideas would be great.
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Garmin 220 would be my recommendation. £130 new so second hand should be a fair bit cheaper.

Also look into Tapiriik for sharing your runs across different services.
 
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Will start watching some 220's on ebay. Googling tapiriik, thanks!

310xt looks a bit of a beast but multi sport is handy as I bike a bit too.


Thank you

Wireless syncing would be nice too.
 
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For what it's worth I use the TomTom Multisport GPS which is still on sale at £105, although I've yet to try the HRM or the other sports options it's around your budget and seems a decent enough watch. Occasionally it seems to take a while to locate the GPS signal but other times it's near enough instant. If you wanted the runner only version of the watch but with HRM it's only £95.

There may be better out there but it's pretty simple to use and the battery/storage is good for a few runs before you've got to re-connect to upload if you're not near a computer for a while.
 
Yeah the tomtoms are reasonable, quite tempted.

Those 220's are going for a few pounds less then you can get a new one for, madness. 310xt are going for about £40 which isn't bad and would get me in the game.
 
Hank_Marvin said:
Hello,

Anyone got any gps watch suggestions.

I can only afford to go second hand really allthough the new tomtom runner 2 looks decent and only £100, just need distance, time and pace really with a nice display and good tracking.

And ability to upload to runtastic but I could move over to another platform.

Wouldn't want it to be too old incase the battery was duff.

Any ideas would be great.
Click to expand...

I have a garmin 610 second hand, works fine for a basic run watch. I got it with the heart rate strap and added a footpod for cadence and better immediate pace. Small and discrete but screen is clear. No bells and whistles
 
Like the last 2 days I did a ski tour and then ran on a treadmill. Was a blizzard and they were threatening to close the road so I cut It short at 3700ft. With the extra time I did 8 miles on the TM, biggest issue was it was far too hot in small hotel fitness center, got drenched.

Back in the hottub with a microbrew in a can.
 
So i'm just signing up for the M2N marathon now that I'm getting my leg pain under control. I've had a very erratic few months training wise so I was thinking I'd build back up slowly with something based on Higdon's Novice 1 plan, but probably mix in some of Daniels' interval sessions. I was thinking about maybe doing a more casual marathon before then, essentially treat it as a training run but just get a feel for the distance and what sort of time I could realistically aim for, but if a Higdon training cycle is 18 weeks that would leave a bit over a month between the end of that and the M2N itself, which is on July the 17th. There is a local marathon on the 11th of June... I guess it depends on how things go, but is this a terrible idea?
 
Have you ran a marathon before? And I'm assuming the M2N Marathon you have a possible time in mind too?

If you havn't ran a marathon before I'd say it's better to build up slowly and focus on running just the M2N one rather than both. Don't underestimate how long it will take to recover from an effort over such a long distance.

Only running the one also means you can spend the extra time getting ready to start the 18 week training plan or starting now and allowing yourself time to adjust midway through if you need to or repeat certain weeks again to benefit from a more gradual build up and reducing the risk of getting injured again.

In terms of having an idea of what time you can aim for have you ran a half marathon before and if so when was it?
 
I ran a half at the start of last November in 1h53ish, but that was after very little training due to injury and i could have paced it better, i had a lot left at the end. The VDOT equivalent for that is 3h54, i think i could aim for around 3h30 relatively easily which is four or five points lower.

You're probably right though, thanks :)
 
IndigoGorilla said:
Have you ran a marathon before? And I'm assuming the M2N Marathon you have a possible time in mind too?

If you havn't ran a marathon before I'd say it's better to build up slowly and focus on running just the M2N one rather than both. Don't underestimate how long it will take to recover from an effort over such a long distance.

Only running the one also means you can spend the extra time getting ready to start the 18 week training plan or starting now and allowing yourself time to adjust midway through if you need to or repeat certain weeks again to benefit from a more gradual build up and reducing the risk of getting injured again.

In terms of having an idea of what time you can aim for have you ran a half marathon before and if so when was it?
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Agreed with this. I'm still recovering from my marathon 2 months ago, and there us no way I could run 10 miles 4 weeks from my race. Sure some people can do back to back marathons, and a slower pace will greatly reduce recovery time, but it just seems pointless because a slow marathon is still not training for a goal marathon.

Rather, I would do some modern long runs that incorporate race pace. Something like 8-10 miles at 30 seconds slower than goal pace, then 12 miles at goal pace and 1 mile cool down. To be extra useful you can make all paces progressives, so the slow starts 1 minute slower than goal but end up 20 seconds slower and then you kick it up a gear, and run the last miles of the fast section 10seconds faster than goal. Hey the total run at around 22-23 miles. The recovery time will be massively better than a full race, but you get the benefit of race pace specificity. AMD if you get pain at mile 18 etc you just stop, if you entered a real race you would likely push through doing more damage

In all of this race pace has to be set at the time based on shorter distances like a 10k or half marathon. You can't train to a pace, you have a pace based on your training and test that in races which you then use to adjust goals and training.

Also, Higdon's novice plans dont have the milliage or number of long runs to really suceed. If you are thinking g of doing this due to your current milliage I woild.look at a run-walk system from Galloway, you won't end up much slower but will have a massively better chance of finishing.
 
PermaBanned said:
I ran a half at the start of last November in 1h53ish, but that was after very little training due to injury and i could have paced it better, i had a lot left at the end. The VDOT equivalent for that is 3h54, i think i could aim for around 3h30 relatively easily which is four or five points lower.

You're probably right though, thanks :)
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As I said above, you can't aim for a time/pace
You have a pace dictated by fitness, you improve fitness with training, you can't train to a goal. Otherwise everyone would be running 2 hour marathons.

There is a huge difference between 3:54 and 3:30, don't underestimate the difference. Jumping 4-5 vdot values in 18 weeks is unrealistic at this level, certainly with a Higdon novice. You would want to be doing like 70miles a week and some solid intervals to make that progress IMO


You seem keen on doing a test marathon, dont, do a test 10k or half. That will set your goal pace.
 
So Mrs MoDe is running the GNR this year and is currently doing her couch to 5k program. I play Basketball once a week and the odd game of 5-a-side thrown in the mix. To help her out I have opted to do some Park Runs with her on a Saturday morning, and in general I am hoping it will improve my overall fitness, shift some weight and improve my stamina for Basketball.

I plan to go out tonight for my first run in a long time, Is there a specific plan anyone would recommend I follow based on the above?
 
If it's the first run in a while I don't see the need to be running anymore than 5K and don't run too quickly, make sure you feel like you can hold a conversation and take walk breaks if you have too.

The basketball and 5-a-side will help a little at least too. Let us know how you get on. :-)
 
D.P. said:
As I said above, you can't aim for a time/pace
You have a pace dictated by fitness, you improve fitness with training, you can't train to a goal. Otherwise everyone would be running 2 hour marathons.

There is a huge difference between 3:54 and 3:30, don't underestimate the difference. Jumping 4-5 vdot values in 18 weeks is unrealistic at this level, certainly with a Higdon novice. You would want to be doing like 70miles a week and some solid intervals to make that progress IMO

You seem keen on doing a test marathon, dont, do a test 10k or half. That will set your goal pace.
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The target pace on the sign up form turned out to be a range so i went for 3:15 - 3:45, which feels pretty generous but i'm not going to complain. I do plan to do some Daniels-esque intervals, maybe for the Wednesday session from Higdon, but i want to keep my overall running mileage relatively low to start out with and rely more on cross training to try to reduce the risk of further injury.
 
just out the gym, on such a downer.
I've had a chest cold for the last while, and I stopped coughing up colours so decided I'd do a run in the gym, to keep out the cold still.
Couldn't keep my old 5km pace up (6min/mile)
slowed all the way down to 8min/mile
half hour run and I didn't feel dead but not great and had covered 4.12 miles.

Feel like I've lost so much since I hurt my foot back in nov and reeled in the running to let it recover.
 
PermaBanned said:
The target pace on the sign up form turned out to be a range so i went for 3:15 - 3:45, which feels pretty generous but i'm not going to complain. I do plan to do some Daniels-esque intervals, maybe for the Wednesday session from Higdon, but i want to keep my overall running mileage relatively low to start out with and rely more on cross training to try to reduce the risk of further injury.
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If you are worried about injuries then I definitely wouldn't do any intervals or speed work, and in general keep paces slower than suggested b various pace calculators.

Weekly millage is actually only very slightly correlated with injury incidence until the weekly millage gets very high, e.g. 90+ miles per week. Injury risk is more strongly correlated with:
  • Poor Technique/form
  • Poor shoes/worn out shoes, badly fitting shoes
  • Over-training, insufficient rest and recovery periods
  • Fast pace running, intervals, tempo runs
  • Increasing millage or days running too quickly


If I was worried about injury then i would drop all speed work, slow down, and very slowly increase weekly millage to allow adaptions to occur that will strengthen bones and joints. I probably also wouldn't worry about racing a marathon and instead spend a year increasing base millage. But I really like having a goal so I probably wouldn't head that last piece of advice! But seriously, running too fast and any form of intervals puts far more stress on joints and bones. you want well placed, light foot-steps maintaining good form and posture, correct cadence and good foot strike. People can run 100 miles in a single race and get little more than DOMS, running 100 miles over 6 days is much less stressful. Ultrmarathon achieve that by running slow.

You get a triple whammy improvement going slow :
1) Slower speeds means shorter strides and less vertical oscillation which reduced impact forces.
2) You don't get so tired to maintain better form which reduces stresses
3) Most of the adaption required to do well in a marathon occur at slow speed, such as increased capillary formation, improved ability to metabolize fat, increases in mitochondria, improved slow-twitch muscle density.
 
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GiraffePencils said:
just out the gym, on such a downer.
I've had a chest cold for the last while, and I stopped coughing up colours so decided I'd do a run in the gym, to keep out the cold still.
Couldn't keep my old 5km pace up (6min/mile)
slowed all the way down to 8min/mile
half hour run and I didn't feel dead but not great and had covered 4.12 miles.

Feel like I've lost so much since I hurt my foot back in nov and reeled in the running to let it recover.
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I felt the same way last week, down to the foot injury and then bad cold/cough, but in the end managed to get in a respectable training week and feel much better. This week is looking a bit dicey due to work schedule and then the weather also looks dire except for today but I've had 2 hours pseudo sleep on a red-eye flight home.
 
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