Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running
- Thread starter platypus
- Start date
4:55am... Way too early
I did get on the treadmill last night for an hour. It has to be better than just sitting watching TV right?
Definitely. Whereas i just sat around watching tv
I was meant to be up at 6:30 this morning for a run, but a weekend of eating junk and drinking booze has really knocked my stomach. Not helped that my mother in law brought me 4 scones with 2 tubs of clotted cream and about 5 gingerbread men she'd made. All fairly perishable and therefore needed to be eaten quickly. It's like everyone wants me to be fat!
Aiming to get out today at dinner and then hopefully in the gym tonight. Want to try and get in the jacuzzi/sauna more often to help recovery as i increase volume.
Managing to get back to Club Efforts - flippin hard work though my efforts sessions have gone from 3.5-4 miles on my own to more like 6.5 miles. 3 weeks/sessions in and having a real difference on my fitness. Doing an additional 2-3 3 or 5 mile runs a week but doing the longer and faster club session is a bit fitness boost. Nothing like someone just behind you trying to catch up and someone just in front to try and catch
Tonight was 9x600m efforts (for me - 12 for the fastest) total 6.5 miles and shattered now
and have that horrible tired but restless leg
Tonight was 9x600m efforts (for me - 12 for the fastest) total 6.5 miles and shattered now
and have that horrible tired but restless leg
Went for a run yesterday (1st time with watch on) and just been having a look through some stats from Garmin connect. It's saying I was in zone 5 for 35 minutes and zone 4 & zone 3 for 5 minutes each. I'm guessing this is rather wrong so what is the best way to correct this or should I not really worry about it?
My VO2 shows as 48 and it says my fitness age is 20 which seems unlikely lol so not sure if it's just gimmicky stats or it's been setup incorrectly and I need to do some running tests to find max heart rate?
Was good to have the watch although I found I just kept checking it for pace/time at first so a little distracting
My VO2 shows as 48 and it says my fitness age is 20 which seems unlikely lol so not sure if it's just gimmicky stats or it's been setup incorrectly and I need to do some running tests to find max heart rate?
Was good to have the watch although I found I just kept checking it for pace/time at first so a little distracting
Highly doubtful haha. Just had a look and weight, age, height, sex etc all been input correctly. Only thing I can think is that it's believing I was running for that 35 minutes in zone 5 making me look better than I am. Maybe I'm super unfit and have too high a heart rate lol 
As mentioned previously, it's pretty easy for new runners to think running has to be hard and so will often run at a higher perceived effort level than is actually beneficial (without suffering too many downsides as runs are short/infrequent). Your cadence also seems low for your pace suggesting you may be taking longer strides than is "best" (although by no means is it guaranteed, i think Mo Farah has a cadence of 160 and look at how quick he is!)
Your HR starts off lowish and jumps quite early on, which corresponds with a jump in pace and then never recovers, presumably due to lack of a sufficient base level of endurance fitness.
What i'd suggest would be to have a play with the data screens on your watch, create one with just HR and Time and then next time you run just try and keep HR under 160 as an initial goal (ideally under 150), without your watch telling you your pace you'll be less conscious of trying to run at whatever pace you think you should run at
Your HR starts off lowish and jumps quite early on, which corresponds with a jump in pace and then never recovers, presumably due to lack of a sufficient base level of endurance fitness.
What i'd suggest would be to have a play with the data screens on your watch, create one with just HR and Time and then next time you run just try and keep HR under 160 as an initial goal (ideally under 150), without your watch telling you your pace you'll be less conscious of trying to run at whatever pace you think you should run at
Went for a run yesterday (1st time with watch on) and just been having a look through some stats from Garmin connect. It's saying I was in zone 5 for 35 minutes and zone 4 & zone 3 for 5 minutes each. I'm guessing this is rather wrong so what is the best way to correct this or should I not really worry about it?
My VO2 shows as 48 and it says my fitness age is 20 which seems unlikely lol so not sure if it's just gimmicky stats or it's been setup incorrectly and I need to do some running tests to find max heart rate?
Was good to have the watch although I found I just kept checking it for pace/time at first so a little distracting
Sorry, CBA to read passed pages
If your going off HR by the watch along forget it, you might as well pick a number divide by 3 add 5 then take square root for your HR, get a strap. Wrist based activity is useless other than walking around with air pods pretending to exercise and determining resting heart rate. They are not expensive and well worth it if you are keen to improve via HR training.I disagree (a little) with that. I think optical is fine for most runs and probably gives 90%-95% accuracy vs a strap. It's only major downfall is where there's a quick change in HR such as sprints or hill reps and it takes much longer to respond to those changes.
However for just getting out at a constant level i think it's good enough most of the time, and if i go for a leisurely plod and don't take my strap, the end reading is rarely much different to what i'd expect it to be.
However for just getting out at a constant level i think it's good enough most of the time, and if i go for a leisurely plod and don't take my strap, the end reading is rarely much different to what i'd expect it to be.
As mentioned previously, it's pretty easy for new runners to think running has to be hard and so will often run at a higher perceived effort level than is actually beneficial (without suffering too many downsides as runs are short/infrequent). Your cadence also seems low for your pace suggesting you may be taking longer strides than is "best" (although by no means is it guaranteed, i think Mo Farah has a cadence of 160 and look at how quick he is!)
Your HR starts off lowish and jumps quite early on, which corresponds with a jump in pace and then never recovers, presumably due to lack of a sufficient base level of endurance fitness.
What i'd suggest would be to have a play with the data screens on your watch, create one with just HR and Time and then next time you run just try and keep HR under 160 as an initial goal (ideally under 150), without your watch telling you your pace you'll be less conscious of trying to run at whatever pace you think you should run at
I was looking at cadence as well as it seems 'normal' should be between 170-180. Would it be beneficial to try and take shorter strides on my next outing then? For me that run was just over conversational pace I'd say, definitely not going full on and enough for me to want to carry on past 5 miles without issue but I wouldn't say it was a 'hard' run at all. I'm still getting to grips with the watch but I will have a play with the data screen, am I able to get it to notify me when my heart rate gets too high so I'll know to slow down.
Sorry, CBA to read passed pages
As I say I'm a total beginner with running but I do want to improve & be more efficient and not be wasting my time so I am taking on board what you all say. Should HR training be something I should be looking into? Or should I look to improve in other areas first and not worry so much about all this data so early on?
Yeah. I’ve been running around 5 years but have finally bought the book and been stricter with myself.
@Bunko yeah you should be able to set up HR alerts. I’ve done it a few times to help me as it’s easy to drift upwards.
As for cadence it’s tricky. I feel like mine is low and running at 9:30 pace at 180 feels bizarre. I seem to be around 165 for the pace but that’s with consciously trying to increase. Previously I was low 150’s. I think people suggest upping it gradually as it’ll work muscles differently so going 150 to 170 Carrie’s risks.
I did have a read about 80/20 when I saw it mentioned here at an earlier date, I shall delve into it further thanks. I seem to have found the option for setting a high HR alert so I have set it to 150bpm so I'll see later how that affects everything on a run, who knew running was so complex
Can anyone explain this.
Did a run last night, really suffered my hips and quads really hurt, despite taking it easy for the first couple, just to make sure I was warmed up
Did Parkrun this morning, absolutely went for it and felt fresh as a daisy.
I do use a massage gun, and foam roller to keep things happy, but I couldn't fathom what was going on.
Shoes last night was hoka clifton 8, and this morning Takumi Sen 8.
Both shoes I get along great with.
I'm thinking it's because several days without a run, made things tighten right up once I was further into the run, as yesterday was 11 miles and the Parkrun 5k.
Did a run last night, really suffered my hips and quads really hurt, despite taking it easy for the first couple, just to make sure I was warmed up
Did Parkrun this morning, absolutely went for it and felt fresh as a daisy.
I do use a massage gun, and foam roller to keep things happy, but I couldn't fathom what was going on.
Shoes last night was hoka clifton 8, and this morning Takumi Sen 8.
Both shoes I get along great with.
I'm thinking it's because several days without a run, made things tighten right up once I was further into the run, as yesterday was 11 miles and the Parkrun 5k.
I’m not sure there are any explanations sometimes.
I went out Wednesday night for a run and despite being fairly flat I felt awful and my HR was around 165 for the entire run and pace at 10:35/mile for 45 minutes. No matter how slow I ran i just couldn’t feel good.
Then Thursday I did a hell rep session and absolutely smashed it. Did 8x 1 mile fast paced hill reps and felt stronger with every one to the point I got further on each rep and had to pull myself back a little.
As someone mentioned above. The body is a baffling thing. Especially at our level where things aren’t planned out perfectly for our bodies to set ourselves up for perfection every run. You’re probably right in that not running for a few days just loosened things off.
I went out Wednesday night for a run and despite being fairly flat I felt awful and my HR was around 165 for the entire run and pace at 10:35/mile for 45 minutes. No matter how slow I ran i just couldn’t feel good.
Then Thursday I did a hell rep session and absolutely smashed it. Did 8x 1 mile fast paced hill reps and felt stronger with every one to the point I got further on each rep and had to pull myself back a little.
As someone mentioned above. The body is a baffling thing. Especially at our level where things aren’t planned out perfectly for our bodies to set ourselves up for perfection every run. You’re probably right in that not running for a few days just loosened things off.