A New Running Thread for 2017

Hm. that link doesn’t seem to work. Hang on.

Try this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53473173/halfmarathon.pdf

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brilliant thanks for this, looks good. As its my first half completing the distance is top priority and would like to get under 2hrs if possible but that will be a bonus.

Could playing 5’s be considered an interval session?

I treated it as such, yes.

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My tip from doing my first one is to make sure you do some of your long runs on hot days if possible, I was well on course for a sub-2hr finish and then it was unseasonably hot on the race day and it absolutely killed me. If yours is in August it’s less likely to catch you out but deffo worth bearing in mind.

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as well as Marckee’s sage advice, I think a lot depends on things like age/build/general fitness/any history of chronic knee/ankle issues. I reckon your original 3 run plan is a good starting point, then just build on that with whatever your body feels comfortable with, whether that’s intervals, 5s, swimming/cycling or whatever

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Oh yeah, Hackney last year was not great.

I think an August race will be fine though - plenty of time to acclimatise.

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Absolutely dreading a repeat this year tbh

(Dreading it in general frankly, preparation has been a complete shambles one way or another)

Much depends on your targets. A “get you round” plan will be light on “speedwork” sessions as the aim is only to build up stamina. If you’re going for a fast time then yes one or two interval/fartlek/track sessions a week are pretty much essential.

For suggestions, as @Marckee says, most decent training plans will suggest something and it’s a bit difficult to know what to suggest without knowing what your current pace is like, but given the distance of most of your runs at the moment then you’re probably best with something short and sharp initially. Something like 4 or 6 x 400m w 1 minute recovery between each rep.

Whatever you end up doing in terms of speedwork, try and hit an even pace or gradually get slightly faster on each one; it’s always tempting to go balls out on the first rep, but you won’t get the benefit from the later ones if you do.

nice one cheers for that, should have said its the Aberdeen half so more likely to have snow in August haha but will definitely try to get out on some hotter days too so I don’t get caught out

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I’ve got an entry, but it’s only a week after the marathon, so I’ll just see how I feel on the day and if I’m up to it, just trot around slowly, rather than push myself.

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Gonna be dead good when you lap me doing your slow trot around…

Gonna try and do 15k or thereabouts on Sunday to definitively know how my knee is either way and then maybe another long one next weekend if it’s ok before sticking to a couple of shorter runs a week in the fortnight before it.

I was in the same position (contemplated doing the sheffield half which is this coming sunday) and there’s absolutely no way I’d be physically or mentally ready to take it on. Obviously you might be different but I’m still really leggy just walking around, and all I want to do this weekend is relax and maybe go to the parkrun

thanks, bit of background, I’m 28, reasonably fit and healthy. Most recent 10k time was just over 50 mins and for my faster runs I seem to hover around 4:30 per km and for slower runs 5:30 per km. Out of interest what is a fartlek session?

Yeah, but you pushed hard during your marathon and got a blinding time. I’m planning on running mine at an easy pace, only marginally quicker than my training runs, none of which have left me unable to run a week afterwards.

ah fair enough (and thank you), assumed you were going all out in the marathon

I won’t make it around if I do.

In that case finger in the air would be to try aiming for around 90-92 second reps initially if going for a 400m and go from there.If you feel it was really easy at the end, then either lengthen the session or try and go a bit faster next time, if you’re not managing to finish it, then a bit slower.

Fartlek is Swedish word that literally means “speed play”. It’s not a defined session; you go out and run alternating easy/hard pace in an unstructured way; e.g. you might run hard to the bus stop, recover for a bit, then go hard again for 30 seconds or 100 paces, slow down again until you reach the school gates and then push hard all the way through the park. For once, the Wikipedia entry is better on this than any running website explaination I’ve seen.

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Just started running now that I have settled in to Sweden. It is a really nice way to explore my local area and I’ve run through places I would never have seen otherwise. Just done a couple of 5Ks but it’s great to get back into it.

excellent thanks for this, will give the intervals a try and the fartlek sounds like something I could easily incorporate to my plan too