Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

daveski said:
Went to Fell Foot parkrun today as I'm in the Lake District for the weekend. Finished in 20:31 for my fastest parkrun time in 3 years. Happy with that!
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Such a nice Parkrun Fell Foot. I went there a couple of years ago, It was hot so loads of people just jumped in the lake for a swim at the end.
 
neilw said:
Such a nice Parkrun Fell Foot. I went there a couple of years ago, It was hot so loads of people just jumped in the lake for a swim at the end.
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It was not warm enough for that on Saturday! It is a lovely parkrun though and made a nice change from running round Newark.
 
ShiWarrior said:
i stopped just over 3 miles

https://www.strava.com/activities/2346786724
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As above, if you get aches or pains of niggles beyond a general tiredness in leg muscles you need to rest.

As a beginner you need to to be very careful in increasing volume. Beginners tend to suffer running injuries disproportionately and yet they can mostly all be avoided. On the flip side people who take running seriously also get some injury risk due to pushing their bodies to new limits, their injuries are a little less predictable.

As a beginner you need to take s long term view. Be thinking in a time frame of a year or more about how your training will increase gradually. One of the fundamental issues is cardio fitness increases rapidly as you run, and as you get used to running you can increase distance rapidly and push through tiredness. But your bones, joints and ligaments can take years to adapt to the increased loads of running. Running is safe and Your body will know exactly what to do to make your self stronger but it takes time. It will takes months for bones to make the first small changes,as you keep running your body will know bones and joints have to be stronger still but that will take another few months. This lags behind for a couple of years. Then even when you are an experienced runner if you suddenly increase training load everything will have to be made stronger again and this will take quite a few more months.


So be patient and don't run when things hurt. Over time you will find you can run massively more, way faster and have no issues.
 
D.P. said:
As above, if you get aches or pains of niggles beyond a general tiredness in leg muscles you need to rest.

As a beginner you need to to be very careful in increasing volume. Beginners tend to suffer running injuries disproportionately and yet they can mostly all be avoided. On the flip side people who take running seriously also get some injury risk due to pushing their bodies to new limits, their injuries are a little less predictable.

As a beginner you need to take s long term view. Be thinking in a time frame of a year or more about how your training will increase gradually. One of the fundamental issues is cardio fitness increases rapidly as you run, and as you get used to running you can increase distance rapidly and push through tiredness. But your bones, joints and ligaments can take years to adapt to the increased loads of running. Running is safe and Your body will know exactly what to do to make your self stronger but it takes time. It will takes months for bones to make the first small changes,as you keep running your body will know bones and joints have to be stronger still but that will take another few months. This lags behind for a couple of years. Then even when you are an experienced runner if you suddenly increase training load everything will have to be made stronger again and this will take quite a few more months.


So be patient and don't run when things hurt. Over time you will find you can run massively more, way faster and have no issues.
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cheers D.P.
Great post, thank you so much :)


I have been running for nearly a year with no problems, just that, yesterday i ate differently and i think that was my downfall, and when i ran , i felt like my sugar levels dropped to zero and I stupidly tried to carry on, thats what done it, im sure of it lol

I didnt know about all the bones etc, so thanks for the lesson :)
Top bloke !

EDIT//
actually i felt fine on the run, no pains, or niggles
 
Complete guess here but maybe a trail one has more water proofing properties as you're more than likely to get wet?

Since the marathon i've really struggled with running. My ankle is less of an issue now (typically just in time for me to have a physio appointment!) but i just can't seem to run even 5k without stopping and walking a few times. I really need to start getting back some consistency with running a few times a week but motivation is very much at a low, even when i feel i "want" to get out and run it feels like an effort.

Have signed up for the Lytham Windmill half in July. Should be a pretty nice scenic run along the sea front.
https://www.fyldecoastrunners.com/windmill-half-marathon.html


Hoping that spurs me on a bit more.
 
In the interests of sharing the bad weeks as well as the good ones, this week hasn't gone well!

From out of nowhere at the weekend my right leg really started to hurt. Really deep ache that stopped me sleeping. Only way I can describe it was it was like the total pain/fatigue you feel in both legs in the half hour when you finish a marathon.

No running for two days and it eased quite a lot. Tried an easy run yesterday and CV was fine but legs felt shot (very easy pace). No running today either.

And to top it all off I've now picked up a cold! First one in over a year ago can't complain too much but the timing is awesome. Maybe after the marathon my system is low and still recovering.

Ah well, onwards....
 
Managed my longest run today at 10miles/16.5km. Generally felt good at an average pace of 6:42min/km and took me around 1hour and 50min. Unfortunately, I've got some awful blood blisters on my feet so time to give rid of the Hokas I feel :(
 
How old are your trainers? Or are they the wrong size? Never had blood blisters before on runs.

I had this plan for this year, to run 2019 miles. This is approx 5.5 miles a day on average. I was well ahead of target till I went on holiday and now I am 40 miles behind (if I don't run today and I'll probably get a few miles in!) and I'm already tempted to give up on the challenge before we're even in June! 40 miles just seems like such a lot!
 
daveski said:
How old are your trainers? Or are they the wrong size? Never had blood blisters before on runs.

I had this plan for this year, to run 2019 miles. This is approx 5.5 miles a day on average. I was well ahead of target till I went on holiday and now I am 40 miles behind (if I don't run today and I'll probably get a few miles in!) and I'm already tempted to give up on the challenge before we're even in June! 40 miles just seems like such a lot!
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Just start adding on a random mile here and there and it will soon go down. I try not doing stuff like that, as life does tend to get in the way, and it would annoy me if i didnt do it.
 
daveski said:
How old are your trainers? Or are they the wrong size? Never had blood blisters before on runs.
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They are 2 months old and I've covered 200km on them so far. My last pair of shoes, was a set of Hoka One One Arahi 1s, in a size 7.5, while these are size 8 and Arahi 3. The socks haven't changed as I run in the same CEP compression socks.

I went to the local running shop yesterday and had a chat with them and got given a few sets of free insoles to try out. I think the insole edge is on my right foot is a bit short in the width and rubbing against the edge of the insole. You'd mentioned about the size, my left foot is an 8 while my right is a 7.5 and the reason for me changing size was due to the 7.5 being too tight on the size 8 foot and it gave me pins/needles/numbness when my foot swelled in heat. If this issue persists with the different insoles, I'll bin them and look at other brands, etc.

Best of luck with the 2019 miles challenge :)
 
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Advice please.

Got a ten mile race on Sunday.. I completed my last 10 mile run yesterday (1.19) morning. Given I'm 51, it takes me a little longer to recover so I was wondering if I should attempt some smaller ones between now and Sunday or just leave it? I was thinking Tuesday and Thursday both 5miles each. Thoughts? My aim is to break 1.18.
 
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