Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

"Nice" 6.2 miles at lunch today, 2 hill climbs giving me 605ft of climbing for the day and came out with a 7:54/mi average so pretty happy with that. Hills were hard work but kept the run at an average 166bpm.

23 miles so far this week feeling pretty good, shall be putting in a nice long run Sunday to round out the week, should be about 15 miles I think and for my first time will be doing it via heart rate only aiming to keep between 150-160 which should be my "aerobic" zone...maybe!
 
That is a point though, do you think we should come up with a new first post? I know it was actually one of the main resources I used when I first started running seriously, about 6 years ago. But as it is, if people do that now they'll probably end up with a lot of advice and impressions which current thinking would say is just straight up incorrect. There's a big focus on stretches which a lot of evidence seems to have shown can be ineffective a lot of the time and damaging if done before exercise, and the post is very strongly in favour of barefoot running on which there's no strong evidence either way. Our understanding has probably moved on a lot since 2007, as has the UK running community - there's no mention of parkrun, for example. When was the last time platypus posted here?
 
I managed to get my weekly LR in. was hoping to do it yesterday but was suffering some minors DOMs from 4 days skiing with evening treadmill runs (8m,5m,8m,6m).

Wednesday: 9.5m 1:19:44 8:24 min/mi 414ft Average HR 144 bpm
Yesterday: 11.30m 1:32:35 8:12 min/mi 438ft Average HR 145 bpm
Today: 21mies 2:56:07 8:23min/mi 921 ft average HR 149 bpm


Depending on how I feel I will do 8-12m tomorrow and 14-16m Sunday and should hopefully hit 80 miles for the week, 74m last week. Not bad with the ski vacation.
 
Last edited:
Itchytrigg said:
"Nice" 6.2 miles at lunch today, 2 hill climbs giving me 605ft of climbing for the day and came out with a 7:54/mi average so pretty happy with that. Hills were hard work but kept the run at an average 166bpm.

23 miles so far this week feeling pretty good, shall be putting in a nice long run Sunday to round out the week, should be about 15 miles I think and for my first time will be doing it via heart rate only aiming to keep between 150-160 which should be my "aerobic" zone...maybe!
Click to expand...

Those Heart rates seem quite high, this is what Pfitzinger lists:
Lactate Threshold: 82-91% Max HR
Marathon Pace: 79-88%
Long Run: 74-84%
general Aerobic: 70-81%

An estimate of your max heart rate is 207 -0.7*Age, so for a 30 year old 186.

You general aerobic run should then be at say 75% * 186 = 139.
Personally I can get my HR up to about 193 so I am looking at 145.
For a long run for me it would be about 79%* 193 = 152
The last weeks I have been trying harder to keep at the correct heart rates, no coincidence my general runs were 144 and 145, with my LR at 149 respectively.

The top end of the general aerobic rate is 81%, for me that is 156 and looking at my training history that is exactly what I hit when I am thinking I am doing my standard runs at the limit.


Working out your heart rate reserve percentages is more accurate but a little harder. the heart rate will differ typically by a few BPM but adds up if you have a very low resting heart rate.

Working harder than these zones general just mans you get tired quicker and take longer to recover. Not critical if you can keep up with your training plan but non-optimal. Furthermore, there is some belief that doing most of your running in the general aerobic zone encourages endurance adaptions such as your ability to source more energy from fat -important for marathons but not for <= 10K races.
 
Thanks DP. By that calculation my max should be 173 if I did it right, 207 - (0.7*34) yet my max typically comes out around the 190 region. Will try Sunday then at 80% which should be 152 and see how I fair, should be a flat route compared to what I do on my lunch breaks. Today's average of 166 I think was good considering, the 2 climbs saw me hitting 189 for the first climb and 185 on the 2nd.

I generally have just been going by feel so very much interested to see if I can get some better performance on a more scientific approach.

I remember watching Izzard trying to do that for Mandela, amazing effort required and you could see how heart breaking it was when the Dr told him to stop.
 
There are different formulas for working out your max HR but the best is to measure yourself. If you've observed 190 in a set of hard intervals of 3k-5k race then that is your real max.

Running hills obviously increase your relative heart rate even with a slightly slower pace on the up hills. Nothing wrong with that, good strength building and you get some of the benefits of intervals but less impact going uphill. You have to realize that is considered a very hard work out, like intervals or lactate threshold run. You will need more recovery time, don't want to schedule back to back hard days, and only only to do 1-2 hard days a week and it is suggested running at such heart rates accounts for no more than 20% weekly miles.

If you do a lot of runs at 145bpm you should find them quite relaxing and you will not feel so fatigued afterwards. You will be able to run further and have more weekly miles with a lower injury risk. It will also make you run faster and increase endurance. Train slower, race faster.

http://www.amazon.com/80-20-Running-Stronger-Training-ebook/dp/B00IIVFAEY

A lot of the fastest marathoners on the planet who race sub 5minute miles for 26.2m do a good chunk of running at the 8-8:30min a mile pace.

It's a very common mistake to believe that to race faster you need to run faster in training, it is logical but unfortunately wrong. A small amount of hard training goes a very long way, lots of easy running is what builds the critical components of running, and what's more it is far less injury prone.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, looks like an interesting read so will try and pick up a copy.

As the weather looked pretty nasty for tomorrow, I ended up doing my long run today. I tried, but found it hard to get below 160 as it just felt slow, probably not helped by the fact I did the hill work yesterday. Still got in a 13.6 in at 8:08 and 163bpm, cut short as rain was coming in and I wasn't convinced I'd last the full 15 planned.

I do feel fatigued now, weeks miles come in at 36.2 all done on 5 back to back days and only one of those days I'd call "easy". Wouldn't be my normal ideal but been working around weather to get miles in.

Will take a couple days rest, and come back Tuesday aiming for a lower heart rate, I think I've brought my miles up again a little too quickly. Last 5 weeks, 15, 0, 23.2, 17.4, 36.2. But I'm here now so no going back!
 
Last edited:
Running slow does feel strange and awkward, I have to try really hard otherwise I also run at near 160BPM. The more you do it it the more natural it feels, then when you want to run fast for intervals/hills/tempo the easier that feels as well because your legs are fresher and stronger. Easier days get easier, hard days get harder.
 
All makes sense, when I was on a training plan last year it was leading down that path but as I had to work out the paces myself I was probably a little quick during that, but still made some good improvements.

Ordered that book, out to the US next week so should arrive in time so I can consume during the flight. Based on the reviews it didn't look like a book to get on the kindle.
 
Suddenly turned from winter yesterday (-5*C) to spring today, (17*C) got in a nice 11.9m in 1:25:49 at 8:02 a mile. Average heart rate exactly where I want it, 146bpm, not bad for 500ft climbing and a day after my 21mile long run.
 
Ran the Hampton Court Half Marathon this morning, my first ever race!

Still waiting for official times and rankings but pretty chuffed with my performance. I've never ran a sub-90 half before in training but today I ran a 1:23:21 according to my Garmin. :D

Now if only I could learn to swim properly.:(
 
PermaBanned said:
My pacing on that long run was on point. I kept feeling like I was going way too slow, that I might be fatigued or something, but as it turns out I stayed on my target pace pretty much the whole time to within 10s.
Click to expand...

I find on a long run it always feels awkwardly slow to begin with, then it just feels slow, then it feels about right, and then at the end you realize that if you ran faster you would have to push yourself mentally and physically a lot more at the end to keep pace.
 
Shamrock said:
Ran the Hampton Court Half Marathon this morning, my first ever race!

Still waiting for official times and rankings but pretty chuffed with my performance. I've never ran a sub-90 half before in training but today I ran a 1:23:21 according to my Garmin. :D

Now if only I could learn to swim properly.:(
Click to expand...

That is insanely fast! Congrats on that.
I'm dreaming of a 1:29 half
 
Finished my week with a MLR: 15.0mi 2:04:33 8:16min/mi, 600ft, average HR 147.
82 miles for the week and a 2nd best weekly PR, not bad consider on 2 days I was skiing and just did some easy short Treadmill runs, but I did run on all 7 days, and in fact have been running for 16 days straight now :eek:

Its now 2 weeks since I purchased my new running shoes. Before that I was getting increasing pains in both my feet, in different areas on different days. Most prominent was signs of plantar fasciitis on my right foot, and a strange bruise like sensation on my outer left. I also had a niggling knee pain now again on me left knee. Almost every day I was wondering if I should take a rest day to let my feet recover, but even when I did it seemed to make no difference. I cut several workout short, including an interval day because my feet hurt to much to safely ignore.

The day after getting my new shoes I did a very hard interval session and felt great, and in total I have done 74 miles last week, 82 this week = 14 days of running = 156 miles = 11.1m a day, WITHOUT A SINGLE ISSUE. I have run a hard interval day, a hard tempo day, a 20 mile long run with 9 miles at marathon pace, a 21mile LR, and 48 miles in the last 3 days without any foot or knee problems.


The old shoes had 600miles on them, the difference is night and day. This is all just anecdotal but to me it is a very clear reminder to regularly get new shoes. 'm now keeping a very close track of the miles on each pair.
 
Shamrock said:
Thanks! Official results came in last night...

Rank 51 of 3818, time 01:23:19

Where do you upload your runs to DP? Strava lets you add shoes and logs the miles for you.
Click to expand...

Damn fast!

I use Garmin connect, strava and an excel sheet, and now record the shoes I use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom