Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Overall, great volume and if you a TTing a half marathon in 82 minutes you are in great shape. My advice would be to try and train on similar terrain to the course, and get in similar amount of vertical. Otherwise have some long runs that go to 25-30 miles now and then, but at a very easy pace taking walking breaks etc. to get you in the mindset of a long slow ultra.


But I think you could easily do a 50 miler this year once races open up in the UK.

The big difference that was hard for me to get used to was the fact you are not racing, just pushing yourself hard. With a competitive marathon you are worrying about 10 secnds here, 30 seconds there; keeping a constant pace within a few seconds/mile; and everything builds up and up to what becomes seemingly overbearingly hard finish before you pop over the line. With a 50 mile race, you are going to start out at soemthign much more akin to your easy training pace, and the slightest chance you can get to walk up a hill you take advantage of. The difficulty goes up and down, so does emotions, and the state of your stomach. You might seem to be in a horrible situation mile 37 but end up sprint to the line at mile 50. Sometimes you will end up walking for no other reason than you are friggin' tired, which is odd when you come from marathon racing.

The overall biggest difference is that a few gels and cups or sports drinks wont suffice. You will need to keep consuming calories and keep hydrating. It is hard to know what it is like after 5 hours of eating gels and dried fruit. This is hard to train for, and would be the main reason for some longer LRs, where the time on your feet is not much for the physical training but getting used to nutrition and hydration strategies
 
I am also no longer motivated by marathons. I have tried super hard the last few years but either injury, weather or COvID got in the way. Once you get close to your limit yo need everything to line up perfectly, and dedicate a good 5 months super hard training, fairly strict diet to hit racing weight.
 
D.P. said:
Overall, great volume and if you a TTing a half marathon in 82 minutes you are in great shape. My advice would be to try and train on similar terrain to the course, and get in similar amount of vertical. Otherwise have some long runs that go to 25-30 miles now and then, but at a very easy pace taking walking breaks etc. to get you in the mindset of a long slow ultra.


But I think you could easily do a 50 miler this year once races open up in the UK.

The big difference that was hard for me to get used to was the fact you are not racing, just pushing yourself hard. With a competitive marathon you are worrying about 10 secnds here, 30 seconds there; keeping a constant pace within a few seconds/mile; and everything builds up and up to what becomes seemingly overbearingly hard finish before you pop over the line. With a 50 mile race, you are going to start out at soemthign much more akin to your easy training pace, and the slightest chance you can get to walk up a hill you take advantage of. The difficulty goes up and down, so does emotions, and the state of your stomach. You might seem to be in a horrible situation mile 37 but end up sprint to the line at mile 50. Sometimes you will end up walking for no other reason than you are friggin' tired, which is odd when you come from marathon racing.

The overall biggest difference is that a few gels and cups or sports drinks wont suffice. You will need to keep consuming calories and keep hydrating. It is hard to know what it is like after 5 hours of eating gels and dried fruit. This is hard to train for, and would be the main reason for some longer LRs, where the time on your feet is not much for the physical training but getting used to nutrition and hydration strategies
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"overbearingly hard finish" - Yes, this. I love the cross country and county stuff, got to run with some famous faces, but it's too bloody hard at the age of 45 to keep doing the same training patterns, same overuse injuries all for a diminishing target as I get older - Much better to get back to the enjoyment of running and give the racing a rest.

The calorie deficit does worry me as i've had to work hard to find a strategy that worked - Hopefully I can just add on top of the Tailwind as it's the only thing that keeps me settled, I'll find out soon enough!

I'll switch to get more of the same terrain and up the vertical slightly - The race is only 1750m over 50 miles, while my 50km is only 800m, so nothing like the mammoth amounts you achieve.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.
 
This weather can do one. It's been dry for ages and so i envisaged even the "fields" section of Sundays marathon being quite dry and firm and pleasant. I imagine all this rain will have just turned it into a boggy mess :(


I've also left my virtual run challenge till the last minute, the aim is to run a mile in each hour of the day. I'm fairly covered from normal runs for the normal hours, but i've not got to the point i need to do a mile in each hour from 12am to 5am before the end of June and thats not very convenient with starting a new job and sundays event!
 
Well I'm injured again and with something new this time. My hip has been niggling at me for a couple of weeks but last night it got so bad I couldn't even sleep on my left side.

Back to no running, ice packs and ibuprofen for now I guess.
 
Well that’s an enforced rest period I guess, just got an nhs self isolate notice from the app. My training for London had been going well, at least it’s now and not closer to the event.
This aside, feel like I’ve been making some good progress and managing 40-50 miles a week without too many issues now. Just need to dial in energy for the 18+ Long runs to feel more confident.
 
Couple of tough breaks there. Sorry to hear it.


Got out last night and did my nightly Virtual challenge miles between midnight and 4am so very close to being sorted for that luckily.

Had told myself I wouldn’t drink today but we went out for lunch and my wife got a pint that looked delicious so I caved!
 
I just need to stop being lazy and start stretching, no wonder my hip flexor started screaming at me when I roll out the door and just start running :D
 
Haha some leg swings should help.

The Grizedale marathon was tough. The first half was a great course. Lovely wide forest trails.

Moved onto the second lap and immediately sensed a world of pain. The first hill was very steep and rocky all the way up. The hills then on were mostly very steep and very loose pebbley surfaces so it was difficult to run either uphill or downhill and made for very slow progress.

What was very strange is that the combined ascent from the GPX maps was around 3000ft. However during the actual routing on my watch it suggested I’d covered around 6500ft, with specific hills being ~800ft which felt accurate. However when my watch synced at the end it reduced it down to 4000ft.
 
Well bloody typical... Been training for Outlaw full for the past 3 years (couch to stupid i have called it) and for all the time I have been injury free..... 4 weeks before the event and have tweeked something that makes my left hamstring go bonkers if I run more than 8k...

Bodies are ****.
 
SPG said:
Well bloody typical... Been training for Outlaw full for the past 3 years (couch to stupid i have called it) and for all the time I have been injury free..... 4 weeks before the event and have tweeked something that makes my left hamstring go bonkers if I run more than 8k...

Bodies are ****.
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Had that happen before, liekly because you are at the peak of the training cycle before tapering and are so focussed on trying to nail those last key runs that your ignore any minor niggles. Now I tend to not bother with a high peak but aim for a longer build with more recovery.

The first thing is not to panic. Just rest a load. Even if you don;t run until a week before the race. A few days doing nothing at all, then cross train if you can. Loss of fitness will be pretty minimal. You will want to do a test run about 4-7 days before hand to check if it it is still worth going through the hassle of turning up.

If you take 2 weeks off running, then try a short run you might be good to get a week of very little easy runs done to stop legs going too stiff. Once recovery is well under way, then very light amounts of running can promote recovery
 
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Thanks, I have been keeping the runs really low and slow. The idea of a week off running might help and just enjoy the TT bike
 
Evening all,

I've just completed a couch to 5k training plan. I think what I would like to do next is bring down my running time.

Ideally I'd like an app that can help monitor my progress and give me audio notifications to help me gradually improve my time.

I have Strava which is great to review after a workout, I'd just like something a bit more real time whilst running.

Essentially I'd like to race myself and beat myself ever so slightly on each run!
 
Crizzy said:
Evening all,


Essentially I'd like to race myself and beat myself ever so slightly on each run!
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Please don't do that, ypu will get injuried pretty quickly. You need to follow a training plan or learn how to train yourself.


What you want is a heart rate monitor so you can slow down your runs.

Run slow, race fast
 
Ok so obviously injury is something I most definitely want to avoid, so thanks for the tip!

I have an old knee injury which has prevented me running far in the past, but doing the couch to 5k and performing correct stretches post workout has really paid dividends and I feel great.

But I do want to challenge myself and I want to continue to see real improvements, this is what keeps me motivated.

I have a heart rate monitor, I've got a galaxy watch thing which does all the business, but now I've completed couch to 5k I am not sure where to turn to next... :confused:
 
Yeah. You’d be better trying to do a “fast” 5k once a month or so and working to constantly improve that. Don’t try and run faster every single time. Lots of slow volume is how you improve.

I guess question is where do you want to go? Do you just want to keep to 5k distance and see how fast you can go or do you want to build up distances?

Different goals will have different training methods.
 
@D.P.
Bit of a different question. But when you’re booking events away from home, what do you do to deal with the fact you can’t train in similar circumstances?

Ive seen a few longer runs in Spain near my parents place. They seem to be very dry dusty mountain trails which is easy enough to replicate but my concern is the heat. Is there anything you can do to help prepare for that? Presumably just wrapping up in multiple layers isn’t a great idea.


Also how do you cope without support? I always watch a lot of YouTube runners who drag in a lot of family/friends to crew for them. I imagine that for normal people that’s just not happening. Nor would I want them to.
 
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Thanks both,

My aim is to get my 5k down to a respectable time, I would train towards 10k but I think timewise it's a little unrealistic right now.

So it sounds like I need to schedule in a regular consistent paced 5k run, with the occasional faster one once a month or so?
 
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