Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Indigo · 24 Jan 2022 at 00:37

Agree with Andy, I only bother eating on a run if it's going to be around 90 minute or more, otherwise I'm good to go. Don't take hydration unless out for an hour or more either in current weather. In summer I'd probably take a bottle just in case.

Martynt74 · 24 Jan 2022 at 08:26

Yeah, i think too many people obsess about hydration and it's odd seeing people at parkrun with bottles of water in their hand.

My run yesterday was fairly brutal. 24 miles, but 7500ft of elevation. Much tougher than intended. My route was 6300ft yet it ended up recording as 7500ft.

Distance was around 50% of the Spain run so double this time keeps me well under the cut off. Even allowing for slower progress in the second half, especially when factoring the extra elevation of this run and also some spectacular wind I had to battle between the tops of Fairfield and over to Dove Crag (~850m high). At one point i was struggling to even stand up and was a little nervous of what terrain was coming up as i'd already had to scramble over some rocks and i'd have struggled in the wind

Managed to go over on both my ankles at different points and also slid on some smooth rock and fell and whacked my left knee quite hard. Nothing that stopped me running, but got a few aches this morning!

Overall it was a great run. However I think I’d have enjoyed it much more had I hit the 12 mile mark and turned around and retraced my steps. The trails up to that point had been dry and runnable with the odd patch of rocky tricky terrain. However up Fairfield it was heavy snow and ice and then the descent into Ambleside was steep and boggy in most places, followed by farmers tracks for the last 3 miles which just had that covering of mud and animal poo which is never pleasant!

SPG · 24 Jan 2022 at 08:29

Indigo said:
1st parkrun of the year in a while for me today, so far only managed 24 parkruns (including today) in around 7/8 years as I use to work most weekend and prioritise other things when off. Now have 6/8 weekends off so looking to see if I can get my total to 50 this year!! A big ask possibly but think it's certainly possible if I'm consistent and don't get injured.

Speaking of injury, my previous 5K pb of 18.45 was set before I injured my achilles and spent 18 months not running. Now it's back to the drawing board as it were but was happy with today's time of 22.48. It's a benchmark set and it'll be good to see how close I can get to my previous times come the end of the year.

Thats a cracking time, you must be one of the skinny runty type people... I suggest you eat more fried foods and choclate, so you like the rest of of pushing a sub 25 just.

Ian_Eb · 24 Jan 2022 at 10:13

Speak for yourself with the 25mins nonsense

I came in at 31:14 on Sat which is my fastest in quite some time. I reckon I could be under 30 by standing more towards the front next time. Didn't think it was too bad, considering I only got in from the pub until 00:30 either!

Martynt74 · 24 Jan 2022 at 10:16

Ian_Eb said:
Speak for yourself with the 25mins nonsense

I came in at 31:14 on Sat which is my fastest in quite some time. I reckon I could be under 30 by standing more towards the front next time. Didn't think it was too bad, considering I only got in from the pub until 00:30 either!

Good effort!

Yeah, getting a decent place at the start is fairly key. It takes such a long time to thin out if you're at a busy parkrun and due to the nature of the timing i'd be trying to start at the front if going for a PB and then just running to the side to let the actual fast people get past. Otherwise you're adding around a minute or more just by the time you've past the starting line!

Ian_Eb · 24 Jan 2022 at 10:23

Indeed. It isn't just the crossing the start line, but the navigating round anyone who may be going slower but started farther up.

Martynt74 · 24 Jan 2022 at 10:41

Also forgot to add to my previous post, but it's great when you're out and see so many different abilities.

I passed some fell runners along one section early on my run coming towards me, then they must've been doing a similar route but in reverse as i then came across them again on the top of Fairfield Fell, at this point i was struggling having just cliimbed up a 2500ft climb over around 3 miles on loose rocks and was being blasted by wind so absolutely freezing and feeling a bit miserable. They came hopping over all these jagged rocks as if they were on the first mile of their run! Was pretty incredible to see.
Then as i was on my final climb up to the car, which again was a short but very steep road, i came powering past some walkers who seemed amazed that i was able to get up the hill so easily (easily being their words, i was just motivated by a warm car!), same on some descents you often hear walkers express amazement that people are running on the same routes. It made me feel less of a fraud!

Takes me back around 9 years when my wifes parents had a lodge in Porthmadog in Wales. We went for a walk up the local hill and i remember struggling up the hill as some fell runners came bounding past us. Was incredible to see and i still remember how amazed i was that people were capable of that.

SPG · 24 Jan 2022 at 11:49

Fell runners are all a bit bonkers though to be fair.

neoboy · 24 Jan 2022 at 21:06

Yeah see them on my hikes and can never imagine being that fit.

Did Cheviot yesterday too actually and wind was brutal, definitely need warmer clothing, first time I struggled to keep warm on a hike.

Martynt74 · 24 Jan 2022 at 21:27

neoboy said:
Yeah see them on my hikes and can never imagine being that fit.

Did Cheviot yesterday too actually and wind was brutal, definitely need warmer clothing, first time I struggled to keep warm on a hike.

And then think about me in thin running tights and shorts, a base layer and long sleeved t shirt, Rab vital wind shell and the thinnest hat/gloves you could imagine!

I definitely need to look at new clothing for future trips I think. I’ve loved the long routes and am picturing long runs in spring/summer which I imagine will annoy the wine no end as yesterday I was out from 6am to 5pm!

neoboy · 24 Jan 2022 at 21:32

Martynt74 said:
And then think about me in thin running tights and shorts, a base layer and long sleeved t shirt, Rab vital wind shell and the thinnest hat/gloves you could imagine!

I definitely need to look at new clothing for future trips I think. I’ve loved the long routes and am picturing long runs in spring/summer which I imagine will annoy the wine no end as yesterday I was out from 6am to 5pm!

In all fairness I'm ok when I move, it's when I stopped at the top for food, all sweaty in allegedly -4C windchill factor that I started to struggle.

I am in a pretty sorry fitness state at the moment after months of no running, still funny ankle and piling on weight like there's no tomorrow after Christmas period!

hux · 25 Jan 2022 at 20:42

@Martynt74 When you look at it, there's very little between the 7x and my vertix 2, both are sapphire
titanium with dlc coating.
Both share the same gps chip, from what I can see the only real advantage is the better mapping, however cs is non existent.
But I do however get close to double the battery.
I can't honestly see the point, once you figure in the price difference.
I wanted the Fenix 7, but once 5k and DC started doing rumours, I could tell it wasn't going to be much of an improvement.

As for me, running is going well. Gave myself the day off, so today felt pretty fast even though the watch said otherwise.
Reckons I'm capable of a 1h39hm, yeah I kind of disagree, don't think I'm that fast but will see in march.
As for gels, I have a box of the sis double espresso, but with 150mg of caffeine I use them very sparingly.
Might get one of those gel flasks, just to make things easier come race day.

Martynt74 · 26 Jan 2022 at 08:53

Yeah, it's very similar to my Fenix 6X Pro, and i'm stuck with Garmin devices until Vitality health start acknowledging other devices which i doubt they will, but at the moment proving my activity saves me around £700 a year! I think the touchscreen maps is the only real selling point for me. I'll often be following a route on my watch. It's the bit at around 4:30 in this video that points out the main benefit for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJSH075QWs&ab_channel=MarkLewis

Where the plotted route doesn't quite match exactly, or you veer off route a little and then it'd be nice to easily be able to see where the route ends up and if there's an alternative to retracing your steps to take the right turn.

Still not enough for me to warrant an upgrade though.

SPG · 26 Jan 2022 at 08:59

The only problem with these bloody watches is now I am getting older i can hardly read the bloody screen.......

hux · 26 Jan 2022 at 09:51

Martynt74 said:
Yeah, it's very similar to my Fenix 6X Pro, and i'm stuck with Garmin devices until Vitality health start acknowledging other devices which i doubt they will, but at the moment proving my activity saves me around £700 a year! I think the touchscreen maps is the only real selling point for me. I'll often be following a route on my watch. It's the bit at around 4:30 in this video that points out the main benefit for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJSH075QWs&ab_channel=MarkLewis

Where the plotted route doesn't quite match exactly, or you veer off route a little and then it'd be nice to easily be able to see where the route ends up and if there's an alternative to retracing your steps to take the right turn.

Still not enough for me to warrant an upgrade though.

Yeah forgot about that, perhaps fire them a message.
I've ordered 27 of those Columbian gels in coffee, just to see what the fuss is about.

Martynt74 · 26 Jan 2022 at 10:02

Haha i should be on commission as an OCUK Ambassador at this rate

I have tried in the past with Vitality but i think they have certain API's which connect to external parties and i guess the work needed to set that up is fairly huge, so they just cater for the popular devices (Fitbit, Polar, Garmin and Apple Watch, possibly Samsung watch too). When we move to Spain i'll likely cancel the policy as the benefits (Amex/Waitrose cashback) won't apply over there so there'll be less incentive to pay the higher premiums. Then i'll be able to explore Coros/Suunto offerings.

Ian_Eb · 26 Jan 2022 at 10:33

When you move to Spain, make sure you buy a place big enough for ust to all come over

I woke up at 5:45am this morning to run, and then just rolled over and went back to bed. Way too cold/early/lazy at this time of year!

Martynt74 · 26 Jan 2022 at 10:48

Haha, see this is where there is a current disagreement. My wife wants to be a little more conservative and reduce mortgage costs and be as close to the beach as possible, whereas i would love to be a bit more inland with a decent sized plot where we could stick a couple of log cabins to rent out.

We've been watching a lot of New Life in the Sun, and the number of people who set up B&B's/holiday lets over there that specialise in Running/Cycling holidays offering tours makes it so tempting. Not that i'm good enough at either to run tours because i'd still be at the bottom of the hills shouting for them to wait for me, but to target rentals at that sort of audience would be superb.

We don't particularly need a big house for the 2 of us, however we fully expect people will want to visit and so having that additional space for other people would be crucial, and help keep things separate from our home.

Ian_Eb · 26 Jan 2022 at 11:33

We watch that as well, but came to the conclusion that we could just take the caravan and then sit in english bars with union jack shorts and a knotted hanky hat, whilst drinking watneys red barrel

Martynt74 · 26 Jan 2022 at 11:35

Then you will be barred