#679

a) For trail, no so long as it’s relatively dry. For fell, definitely. The terrain and steep ground you’re likely to encounter will be difficult to impossible in road shoes. Having grippy shoes will massively enhance your enjoyment. You’re looking at the best part of £100 for a good pair, but there are cheaper options and the likes of sportsshoes.com are good for sale stuff.
b) I’m not familiar with trail, but for fell running you can either follow race routes, follow walking routes from guidebooks/websites (there’ll be fucking loads for the Peak District) or make up your own. In all instances some degree of navigation will be required. Strava’s good too. The web’s not great for fell running generally, though I think the FRA Facebbok page is pretty active. Club websites often have race route details and you’ve Dark Peak Fell Runners on your doorstep.
c) The Peak is a pretty good place to start fell running - terrain’s relatively easy going (though bogs and peat hags will be tough in wet conditions) and the climbs/descents aren’t huge. Go somewhere like Stanage where the paths are easy to follow and have a go. If you cycle a lot you probably be relatively strong on the climbs, descending less so. Don’t underestimate the potential severity of conditions on higher ground, especially in to Autumn and Winter. Carry enough gear to keep warm. Navigation is essential if you want to explore and get in to more interesting places - places like Bleaklow and Kinder are a nightmare in low vis.

Happy to geek out further over fell stuff if you’ve got any questions.

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#680

That’s really handy cheers. reckon I’ll start with some low intensity trail runs and see how I’m going before dropping any bunse

#681

First day of spring, knocked out a 40km trail race. Finished probably near the back but it was a good time. Pies and mash and craft beer at the prize giving :smiley:

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#682

Don’t really know what its like in the UK, but I’d imagine you could run in road shoes on the easier trails. If you wanted to get serious, I’d get a pair of trail shoes. I love my Solamon Speed cross, really grippy and make technical descents easier.

In general: you need to throw out a lot of ideas from road running. Like on a road you might run 5m kms and you know if that’s fast or average for you. On a trail, much harder to judge your effort level, you mostly have to forget about pace.
Also technique. You mostly want to be taking short fast steps, especially going downhill.
And you need to think about gear - what will the weather be like on an exposed trail 600m up, versus a road in town? What medical gear do I want to take? Are the trails well marked, do I need a GPS file or map? Etc.

#683

I saw some excellent running on the strava group over the weekend - including some epic fell-running and hill-climbing!

Great stuff.

If anyone is based in north London/Hertfordshire/Essex/Bedforshire and fancies blowing away the cobwebs in between christmas and new year, then entries for the Buntingford10 have opened today.

This year it’s on Sunday 30th December and it’s a well-organised event with a field of about 400-odd. It’s run on roads, heading out of the town and through surrounding villages, before ending up at my old school for tea and cake.

It does sell out though, so you’ll have to be quick.

Oh, and it’s 10 miles, not 10 km.

#684

Presumably we’ve all been rejected by London again then?

#685

My girlfriend got her rejection through on Saturday; mine’s not come through yet. The top looked nice this year.

#686

You can check the realbuzz site

https://hub.realbuzzregistrations.com

#687

I didn’t get in. Kinda relieved a bit really. I think half marathons are probably the my limit in terms of enjoying the training.

#688

It’s is no for me. Will try again next year and start looking for another half to do that I haven’t already done.

#689

oh bums what a shame

image

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#690

Agree with these sentiments. Marathon training takes over your life in a way training for a half doesn’t need to. I’ve not done a marathon for about 4 years, but recently I’ve been thinking I’d quite like to do one again. I just don’t think i can justify dedicating enough time to it as I’d want to improve on my PB etc… which is probably close to the limit of my ability in the first place!

#691

Fuck! It used to be about a 1 in 6 chance, thats near enough 1 in 20!

#692

It’s what I liked about training for the sprint triathlons I did over the summer. I really enjoyed the training because each element was in easy to manage, bite-size chunks of about an hour at a time, two at the most, that I could do individually already.

#693

Rejected! Phew!

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#694

i would have quite liked to have done it but tbh I was relieved when I got rejected

It definitely would have been a “oh fuck” moment if I had got in.

#695

Yeah, I read “congratulations” instead of “commiserations” initially and my heart skipped a beat in an “oh fuck” way rather than an “oh yes!” way

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#696

Same here!

Also I ran ONE MILE the other week and I almost died and since then i’ve been going “pls don’t let me get into the marathon”

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#697

Aye, I’ve let myself slip massively (predictably enough after a PB at the half marathon) it’s extremely depressing when you go out for the first time after a while…

#698

tbf I don’t really have time to fit it in! I’ve been cycling to and from work most days, doing 2 evening classes in the gym, 2 yogas in the week then normal gym time at the weekend. When can I run?

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