Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

So bought a couple of bits just waiting for them to turn up, got a pair of Nike Wildhorse 8 so i can try trail running. A Salomon AdvSkin 5 vest and the Salomon Bonatti Aero Wind jacket.
I live in Cumbria so we have lots of fells to try running on but as my map reading is pretty poor and my watch doesn't have maps i'm thinking of heading to grizedale forest and running some of the walking routes.

Has anyone looked at the Runna app? Looks quite good as it creates plans for all sorts of distances and runs and can send the workouts straight to the garmin watch which sounds good. My 10k is this weekend so not done much this week which feels odd as i've really got into the habit of getting up and going running. Got up to a bit over 20 miles per week during my build up so will slowly increase that so i can get to half / full trail runs. It'll take away the care about speed and enjoy the scenary and running.
 
JustBen said:
Went out for my last run before next weekends 10k. Went just over 10k in the rain, first time running more than the park run in the rain so was good. Just under an hour and a moderate pace.
Choose my Nike invincibles as they're quite grippy but can confirm they're super heavy when wet! Also choose to wear a north face shel type jacket I was given, it was alright apart from the heat it generated when dry and then when wet through it seemed to retain water in the sleeve where my elbow was(it emptied out when I put my arms down)
Nipples also started to rub near the end.

So lessons learnt about running in the rain .... Accept crappy times with heavy trainers, although they were heavy they gripped.
Wear no coat and waterproof vest or belt or a breathable coat one with a waterproof pocket for keys.
Vaseline Nipples and inner thighs
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Skintight baselayers are an absolute godsend for wet conditions and nipples, there's no flapping/rubbing.

On the subject of living in cumbria.
1 i'm jealous! - Where abouts? I have relatives around Maryport/Cockermouth
2 Grizedale is great, i did the marathon they do there and the scenery was excellent. If you ever fancy the 1/2 distance, it's incredibly runnable. The second half of the marathon was more technical
3 Get a watch with mapping. You'll never regret it!

Otherwise, most routes across the fells can be pretty obvious as long as you stick to proper paths and there's not massive opportunities to get too lost (probably easier said than done :p)
 
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One of those runs felt good about today, not because I felt good at all, quite the opposite and running on little sleep with stressful week, yet 43 seconds faster than earlier this week.

Again, just keeping fingers crossed for no injuries.
 
Martynt74 said:
Skintight baselayers are an absolute godsend for wet conditions and nipples, there's no flapping/rubbing.

On the subject of living in cumbria.
1 i'm jealous! - Where abouts? I have relatives around Maryport/Cockermouth
2 Grizedale is great, i did the marathon they do there and the scenery was excellent. If you ever fancy the 1/2 distance, it's incredibly runnable. The second half of the marathon was more technical
3 Get a watch with mapping. You'll never regret it!

Otherwise, most routes across the fells can be pretty obvious as long as you stick to proper paths and there's not massive opportunities to get too lost (probably easier said than done :p)
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I'm in barrow, so not much of a drive to get to any of the lakes. Grizedale is about 30 mins or so.
I'm going to sign up for the Cartmel 10k trail run for my next one which is in September
I've set a goal for next year to... On Sunday going to sign up for the lakeland series 55km, mix of walk run with most finishing around 10 hours. Event is in July so a full year to prep.

As for the watch I was looking online, looks like the fenix does that as does the enduro. Might see what comes in when new ones come up as enduro is really expensive, fenjx is doable.
I have a 645 music at the moment and get loads of use our of the music bit
neoboy said:
One of those runs felt good about today, not because I felt good at all, quite the opposite and running on little sleep with stressful week, yet 43 seconds faster than earlier this week.

Again, just keeping fingers crossed for no injuries.
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I found that just going out regardless of if I can really be arsed / in the mood still helps improve running. Sometimes if anything it destresses as you're not expecting much and can just zone out and relax. Im a person who's either really laid back or stressed not much in the middle so running helps
 
My body still conditioning to this abuse :p

Been doing daily physiotherapy
Started strengthening exercises
Rest for about 5 days
Piriformis has sorted itself out
Now getting left plantar fascitis
Right IT band continues to bother - can't do more than 2km now without it throbbing.
All a little frustrating. Feel I'm going backwards now rather than forwards. Have an appt with a sports therapist tomorrow
 
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Aintree 10k today, smashed it down all the way to the event but stopped for the event. Was bloody hot. Got a pb by nearly 2 mins with a 54.27 time, didn't feel a great run really but managed to keep up with the 55min pacer and by the end it was just getting one foot in front of another and over the line. Really happy with the time though and the event was well organised
 
JustBen said:
Aintree 10k today, smashed it down all the way to the event but stopped for the event. Was bloody hot. Got a pb by nearly 2 mins with a 54.27 time, didn't feel a great run really but managed to keep up with the 55min pacer and by the end it was just getting one foot in front of another and over the line. Really happy with the time though and the event was well organised
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Amazing effort and a great time.

I didn’t heed my own advice above. Went out today for what I intended my usual 4mile route after a few hours of procrastinating due to a hangover.

Then felt good and rerouted to do ~6 miles and then rerouted again and did a little over 8.

Just felt great being out in the rain, but my god my nipples are in tatters!

Did get me over 20 miles in a week for possibly the first time this year though :)
 
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Martynt74 said:
Amazing effort and a great time.

I didn’t heed my own advice above. Went out today for what I intended my usual 4mile route after a few hours of procrastinating due to a hangover.

Then felt good and rerouted to do ~6 miles and then rerouted again and did a little over 8.

Just felt great being out in the rain, but my god my nipples are in tatters!

Did get me over 20 miles in a week for possibly the first time this year though :)
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Feel the pain with the nipples, last Friday mine were in agony after 6 miles. For yesterdays run i put anti chafe and Vaseline on mine for yesterday. Dreading the first few runs with a running vest as that'll be new places to chafe. nothing worse than feeling it come on and realise you have nothing with you to stop it and miles to go to get home.
 
I am having some impure running thoughts for someone who can't even string 3 x 5k flat runs a week together at the moment.

Was always the plan before my injury but wanted to sign up to one of the trail runs in the Lake District. I see the last runs events of the year are middle of October, Helvellyn 5k on 14th and Ullswater 10k on 15th.

Prefer the look of latter but shortest one is 10k and I think that's beyond ambitious, although goal would be to just finish and hopefully not dead last :D
 
neoboy said:
I am having some impure running thoughts for someone who can't even string 3 x 5k flat runs a week together at the moment.

Was always the plan before my injury but wanted to sign up to one of the trail runs in the Lake District. I see the last runs events of the year are middle of October, Helvellyn 5k on 14th and Ullswater 10k on 15th.

Prefer the look of latter but shortest one is 10k and I think that's beyond ambitious, although goal would be to just finish and hopefully not dead last :D
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I think you'd be ok, you go walking quite a bit in the Lakes etc don't you? So you know the conditions fairly well, so then it's only fitness related. The 14k may even be better as it looks to be more aimed at slower runners/walkers with the extra hour time limit.

I don't know if the event sells out regularly, but maybe just give it till the end of August and see how you are? I'd say i'd do it with you, but i hopefully won't be here!

Which brings me to the fact we've sold our house, and so hope to be out of here around the 27th September :D
 
Ian_Eb said:
This is the move to Spain then?
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Yeah. Looks to now be moving full steam ahead.

Big 3 months ahead. Need to

1 - Get both kids out the house and into rental accommodation, so they're settled before we leave
2 - Find somewhere to rent
3 - Start looking for somewhere to buy - We keep exchanging house adverts we see, but now it needs to shift from "ooh look at this" to "does this actually work for us"
4 - Sort out getting there - Currently looking to buy a van
5 - Sort out selling the house
6 - Sort everything out at work
7 - Sort out selling all the crap in the house we won't be taking

Feels like a lot in 2 months! Hopefully the timeframe is do-able. The buyers have already completed ~75% of the legal work, so their buyer is moving into rental accommodation for a while, then our buyers will have no mortgage to complicate things, and we're the end of the chain.
 
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Martynt74 said:
I think you'd be ok, you go walking quite a bit in the Lakes etc don't you? So you know the conditions fairly well, so then it's only fitness related.
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I probably walked these routes at some point by now and didn't even look at time limits, I can most likely finish those now with fast walking pace.

I wasn't sure about 5k and already pushing me to 14k race I see, you'd make a good running coach for my unmotivated self :p

Can be my contact in Spain then, still somehow never been there and looks like so much amazing terrain to explore.
 
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neoboy said:
I probably walked these routes at some point by now and didn't even look at time limits, I can most likely finish those now with fast walking pace.

I wasn't sure about 5k and already pushing me to 14k race I see, you'd make a good running coach for my unmotivated self :p

Can be my contact in Spain then, still somehow never been there and looks like so much amazing terrain to explore there.
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Haha, well i think the 5k will be full of good, fast fell runners. Especially with the amount of elevation on a short distance. I think that would likely actually be harder than the longer distances, as it'll fill in all the same elevation (maybe more), over half the distance. Will just be a straight up and down!

There is some method to my madness!


(Caveat that i've not looked at any of the routes)


Currently, discussing the possibility of targeting either the Sierra Nevada or Pyrenees areas. Both being about 5 hours drive from where we initially wanted in either direction! Sadly my wife wants more reasoning to consider 2 areas we have no idea about other than "But look at the mountain trails for running"
 
In all fairness, I have also signed up to this for 30th September which is probably going to be harder than 10 or even 14k. Looks doable with cut off at 3 hours, especially if run on the downhill, no idea just how hilly the terrain is going to be since it's not open to public beforehand.

EDIT: Seen Inov-8 X-Talon 212 V2 on sale for £45 so grabbed a pair, should definitely do nicely assuming they fit my ape feet.
 
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I may be going blind (possible given my age! and requirement for glasses) but I cannot see that house on google maps. How are we going to call in for a BBQ/Beer etc?

Or... is that the plan? a bit of misdirection.

I feel like I should post running updates, but recovering from some sort of food poisoning so not been out for a week.
 
Ian_Eb said:
I may be going blind (possible given my age! and requirement for glasses) but I cannot see that house on google maps. How are we going to call in for a BBQ/Beer etc?

Or... is that the plan? a bit of misdirection.

I feel like I should post running updates, but recovering from some sort of food poisoning so not been out for a week.
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Don't get me started on that. So many houses don't show actual locations in Spanish adverts and it's infuriating.

You never seem to have any luck do you!
 
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