Today I made my second visit to the Letchworth parkrun. Another big crowd there again on a lovely bright, if cold, morning. I left home a little earlier to cycle there with time to spare.
I ranked a bit higher this week with a time about a minute quicker. It was very muddy on a lot of the route, so we were sliding around a lot. I'm sure that must slow me down a bit. There's a long muddy hill to climb and I had to walk up some of that the second time. You will see that there was a guy much older than me just ahead. He's doing really well. There were also some kids running. It's very inclusive. I hope to keep on improving.
My Endomondo app ran on a little longer after the finish. As usual I don't trust the maximum speed. My quickest kilometre was the last one when I found the energy to pick up some speed in hope of improving my time and maybe picking up a few places.
This was on the way back. I was at the top of a hill that I struggle to cycle up on the way there. Maybe I'm building some cycling muscles too. It's about 3 miles each way, but mostly uphill on the way there. At least I get to coast a lot on the way back.
As I'm looking to do the local half Marathon in May I need to get more organised with my training. Endomondo will create a plan for you. I did this previously for a 10km event. It at least gives me more of a mix of training. I don't stick to it as they specify a pretty slow pace on a lot of the runs. There's also a lot of shorter runs. I may extend those a bit as I like to do at least a half hour and it depends on what route I take. I'm open to any advice from experienced runners on what I could be doing.
Run free!
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars
If this post is over seven days old you can vote up one of my newer posts to reward me.
Spam comments may be flagged. Beware of the Commentphant!
what worked for me training for my first marathon (and may not work for you) was running a steady pace for 10kms. It's ok to walk whenever you need to. Take a break and keep moving, then pick the pace back up and run until you need to walk again. Don't run at a fast pace, just a moderate pace.
This will build your endurance and stamina and let you get used to being on your feet for a longer time - like an hour or so.
Then try to cut back on the amount of time you spend walking until you can run the 10km non-stop.
Then.... the scary bit happens. go for a really really long run. As far as you think you can go. Again it's ok to walk bits of it. but try to be on your feet for more than three or four hours.
Then have a light week to recover, and then go back to the 10km run. you should see a really big improvement in your time and comfort running that distance.
Then you just rinse and repeat using longer base distances. e.g. the next bracket using 15kms as a base distance.
I found that i actually skipped the 15km bracket and went straight to the 20km one. Then 30km 3 times a week. (then I thought this is a bit silly, you'll kill yourself. So I dialed it back a bit)
For pretty much all of this running, you don't have to do it fast. just take your time and work on being as relaxed as possible while you are running. The speed will come with the endurance and the experience. so don't worry too much about that right now.
Disclaimer - I've come last or second to last in every race I've been in. So take my advice with a grain of salt ;-)
It obviously works for you. I'm going to have to face the longer distances. This race is only about double what I usually run, so it feels achievable.
it sure is. And you have three months to train for it.
you are doing 5km now no problem, so next week bump that up to 10km - with walking as needed, and do that for a month. don't try to go further than that for the first month and see how you get on.
the first week will be hard. the second week will be just as hard, the third week will seem a bit easier and by the fourth week you'll be looking for some more challenge. And that's when you step it up another 5kms.
Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.
-Julie Isphording
Resteemed by @runningproject
Kind reminder:
Remember to vote your Running Author of the week!
It looks like a great running and social event! I especially like that it is very inclusive in terms of age and fitness level. Saturday well spent and it is not over yet :) Fingers crossed for half-marathon training!
You can do two or three interval runs to build your strength and then a long run that is not that fast. Then again from the beginning
Ahh I envy you. Cant remember the last time I had a good run.
My morning routine was a quick 10 minute footwork using steps
Then 2km fast pace
Situps, stretch
run 2km back.
Stay fit!
Did you use a gopro for your pics or just your phone?
Just my phone. I do have a cheap action camera, but not used it much yet.
Preparing for a half marathon takes what like 2 months ? Running thrice a week ?
I'm aiming at 3 times a week. It's 3 months to the race. It ought to be possible
All the very best for the preparation. May god keep you motivated. lol
Sounds very difficult for myself.
You look younger than me. I'm sure you could do it.
Thanks for the encouragement. My current goal is weight gain. Hope to gain 10 kg. I'm highly underweight.
Hey, let's support each other. I will resteem and follow. Please check us out
https://steemit.com/fitness/@mynsf/77g6xrik
Hi. I see you are fairly new here. I'll just say to be wary of asking for mutual support here as we get a lot of spam that does that. Make your comments relevant to the post and then people may check you out. You will see some other runners have commented here, so check them out. It can take time to build a following, but it pays off.
Ok. That makes sense. I'll definitely do that. Thanks for the priceless advice. Bots are very annoying!
Up-voted for making him understand and not flagging him right away. I hope every whale teaches new joiners in a polite way.
I do check before flagging. Newbies need some help
I saw a newbie(reputation 25) being down voted by 3 people for writing 'Nice post' as a comment. Felt sad for that poor guy. It might have been from his first 100 comments. Too harsh for him.
run run run
Nice to try running under SUN