[Plattsy]

Yeah got the 330s with the new bright yellow upper. Really noticed the difference in traction when it gets soft under foot. Can't wait to break them in but I won't be risking them in the race on Sunday. I only managed about 4 miles in them last time before the pain started affecting my calm.

Anyone running the Leg it round Lathkil on Sunday?

[Graeme78]

That's a shame I liked the orange 330's, it'll take ages to get rid of that yellow colour

[Plattsy]

Yeah they do stick out a bit. A run over the peat bogs above Langsett ought to sort it out.

[Houdini]

Right now, I'm the fucking king of the Edgebaston Reservoir racetrack.

 

you back in brum fraulein?

Nein.  Reichside.

Does no-one roadrun here.  I don't like mud!

[jfw]

darks nights are necessitating road sessions (though my knees aren't loving me for it)

tempo run tuesday

intervals/speed work thursday

have you ever tried interval training houds? - i think it would appeal to your masochisitic side.

variations on a theme of - run so hard you're nearly sick - jog/walk to recover - repeat

[Falling Down]

I downloaded one the Nike/itunes combo's for interval training and it worked a treat. 45 minutes of poppy punk tunes with varying tempo's and an instructor talking over the top 'Go on 1 more minute' type of stuff until you want to be sick.   

Doing half of the Edale Skyline tomorrow morning 

[Houdini]

...have you ever tried interval training houds?

Yes, found it effective but shit-boring.

I rarely run for less than an hour.  I run for fun, not to get better at running.

[jfw]

shirley the feeling sick/endorphins is the fun

isn't it similar feelings of challenging yourself that make running more than an hour fun?

this weekend I have been mainly running up and down (x 6) pendle hill

up


down


up


etc

[Houdini]

"Isn't it similar feelings of challenging yourself that make running more than an hour fun?"

No, I don't think so.


Feeling sick has never been fun for me.  And running for the lengths of time I do is mostly about just getting some in, making the most of the time out/weather - not facing a challenge.  The fitness comes naturally from just going out, I can't be arsed digging for more.  Running for an hour is hardly challenging though, is it?  3?  Yeah, but in this minging month it can wait.   I don't think I'm interested in physical challenges anymore, or atleast not at the moment    Roll on summer and early mornings.

(I was going to enter the Birmingham half a few weeks back, but couldn't, it seemed such a mindless futile thing to do.)

Each to their own.  Your pics look good.

[jfw]

I downloaded one the Nike/itunes combo's for interval training and it worked a treat.

can you post a link?

[Falling Down]

They're on the iTunes store if you search under Nike so I don't know how to link direct.

[chriss]

Hi all been running for a little while I do 10km/half marathon's (road) & have just got myself a GARMIN 405 GPS watch. It's fairly expensive, but an excellent training aid when out running & you can download your info on to your PC & web page & look at your data, good if your a bod...Living in Essex the elevation function is fairly useless ha ha.

[Plattsy]

I have the Garmin 305 (cos it's price dropped loads when the 405 came out) which is amazing. Not hooked it up to the laptop yet. Probably should. I really like the way it tells me how far I've run since I've bought it and how many calories I've (something like 23,000) burnt so far.

Have a grumble though. It does take forever to find the satellites. So I have to set off without my distance or pace info until the watch finds the them, usually 400 to 800 yards down the road.

 

[jfw]

are garmins compatible with macs?

i know a lot of mapping software isn't, our home computers are macs

[Plattsy]

Apparently so.

http://www8.garmin.com/products/trainingcenter/

[Duma]

the bods on amazon seem to reckon you're better off with the 305 and £70, so long as you aren't bothered by the look of the thing.

[chriss]

Scrub my last post, fucking thing has died fourth run out!! Someone is getting shouted at tomorow.

[Plattsy]

Ran the Tigger Tor yesterday. What a great race and what a start. No steady ease yourself into it. Nope not here. Really enjoyed it though and managed not to walk until I reached the bottom of Higgar Tor which was a result for me. With some luck I might make the top half.

Tweaked my ankle though and I think I'll miss the Mickledon Straddle next Sunday. 

Anyone ran any races lately?

Possibly entering the Grindleford Gallop although the distance does scare me a little.

Whilst I'm here, on the ankle thing. I guess ankle sprains/strains are a common injury for fell runners. Any tips/hints on prevention/strengthening?

[jfw]

hi plattsy

got long races lined up in near future - high peak marathon beginning march 

skyline end of march

yorkshire three peaks in april

been struggling to build myself up after flu over xmas - did HPM recce on saturday, 16m 3400feet - got slightly over eager recceing - and tonsils/glands telling me about it yesterday and today

i wonder if i have actually destroyed my immune system?

re ankles - wobble boards/air cushion thingies if you can be arsed - i got one when did my ankle really badly, used it religiously - but of course fallen  out of use since its been alright.

running in itself builds strength/propricipiation (sp? the nerval feedback that tells your brain what position your ankle/foot is in) - after bad strains/sprains the propri thingy wotsit is out of cock and wobble boards, balancing on one foot with your eyes closed etc help build it back up. if you don't have that feed back - you can go too far over on your ankle before you act to correct it.

[Plattsy]

Hey jfw, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely give the standing on one foot with my eyes closed thing a try. The ankle in question has caused me problems in the past (massive rupture to the deltoid ligament through an eversion injury) so I'm always concerned when I tweak it.

Hope you feel better soon and yup it sounds like you've trashed your immune system. (Mine will be trashed soon after a weeks snowboarding in Feb). Might be best to completely rest, recupe, eat well, lots of water for a week or until you feel back to good health. HPM is still a few weeks away. Guess it's a balancing act between health and fitness.

Got a friend who is trying to convince me to run the Edale Skyline. Sounds like a great race. One I think I'd be just happy to finish, we'll see.

[Graeme78]

Not done a race since June last year, got Winter Hill a week on Sunday. I'm trying to do the club championship for the first time in three years, so am missing the Edale Skyline. Hope you get some reasonable weather for it!
You should go for it Plattsy, I've run most of it, and it's an ok run, you'll be fine if your ankle's ok by then.

jfw your ticklist looks scary for the first half of the year. Good luck with it, hope it all goes well.

[jfw]

jfw your ticklist looks scary for the first half of the year. Good luck with it, hope it all goes well.

cheers graeme i am somewhat concerned myself!

just aiming to finish HPM (so fairly plodding - though gruelling in time)

similarly hoping to just finish skyline (and not get timed out!) - hoping to be a bit more on form for 3 peaks

your injury all cleared up?

[Graeme78]

The injury seems to be doing ok. I think I have overtight muscle compartments in my left calf. Needs a real good stretching before running.
Hoping to do a lot more racing this year and get some real fitness going. You should be ok on the skyline, you've got two and a half hours to get to Mam nick, but don't forget the checkpoint is one the other side of the road. Seems a bit dirty to me.

[Pantontino]

Just wanted to say how inspired I was reading through this thread last night.

After years of telling myself that I would start running, and endless badgering from  a mate (Noel craine) who is a fanatical fell runner, I've finally crossed the line about 7 weeks ago. The catalyst was a bad finger injury in the autumn, a nagging worry that I am far too heavy to ever pull on small holds, and the insistence of a mate who was probably bored of listening to my empty threats about starting to run, plus my decision to get back into winter climbing after a 4-5 year hiatus. Since then I've been going out twice a week, just steady laps of Llyn Padarn at first, but my eyes have always been on getting up in the hills.

I walked up Snowdon on the Watkin path with my missus over the New Year and as we hit the main ridge under Lliwedd this sprightly fell runner came skipping along the horseshoe. I was stood there sweating in full winter kit, breaking in a new pair of winter boots, and feeling more than a little overdressed. I looked at this bloke and realised that he was the King of the Mountain, and that I wanted to know everything about how he became able to do what he was doing.

At first i had some problems with Plantar Fasciitus, but solved this by getting some proper shoes (Inov8 Roclite 305s) and doing the golfball treatment thing. After I'd got the hang of the Llyn Padarn circuit and could run all the up hill sections without breaking my stride, I then moved onto running up to Twll Mawr and through the quarries; the uphill switch backs from the Nant Peris end of Llyn Peris were hard to run the first time, but I managed them by zig zagging. The quarries are so good to run through, the slate trails are nice and firm, but not punishing on the joints like roadwork, and there is always something interesting to look at.

My next target was the Moel Elio horseshoe. Stupidly I went for this on a really windy day and the up hill summit push, with wind blasting in my face, broke me and I had to speed walk instead. The rest of the ridge was fantastic, even though I had to speed walk a few more sections. As I hit the Telegraph Valley (all slightly down hill) I was thundering along feeling completely euphoric when I bumped into Noel who was running the other way - I hadn't told him what I'd been up to so he was bursting with enthusiasm for a new arrival in the 'game'.

Anyway, I reckon I pushed it too hard, as I then came down with a bad chest infection. I got some antibiotics and was out of action for about 10 days in total. Yesterday I went for a 'steady' Llyn Padarn circuit after I'd dropped the kids at school and despite my nervousness about triggering the infection again, couldn't resist cranking things up a bit. My lungs felt really clear, and I managed to run the really steep section leading up to the Fachwen road (apologies to none N Wales folk if all these geographical references don't mean anything) I realised that I had probably been running with clogged up lungs even before I got ill.

So last night I felt pretty psyched about the potential to break into to some properly challenging fell runs, but today I feel rough, as if I'm about to be ill again. Fingers crossed, I'll be alright. But if not I guess it is lesson learnt the hard way.

Apart from the obvious attracion of the physical challenge and endorphine glow, the unexpected pleasure for me is the way that I'm discovering aspects of the landscape around me that I didn't know existed. I guess i'm pretty lucky living in such an amazing place; I reckon I've only scratched the surface in terms of classic local runs.

Noel is keen for me to go out and try some of the big fell runs, but I don't reckon I'm ready yet. Some of the stuff he does looks like a world away from where I am. Not sure about doing any races either - I think I like the isolation of running on my own, it gives me time to think stuff through, or just let my mind wander. I've also no idea what level I'm at compared to proper runners - I'm sure I'd get my arse kicked badly.

[Pantontino]

I haven't tried running with music yet, but I'm keen to experiment with this. Bought my daughter a nanopod for Christmas - reckon I'll 'borrow' it and fill it up with some furious American Hardcore (for the up hill thrashes) and stuff like that latest Animal Collective album (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/148230-animal-collective-merriweather-post-pavilion) for the mellower flat and down hill sections.