I’ve been asked to help out here this month as Realfoodieclub is taking a break and all the admins/mentors are picking up a little extra work until her return. Hopefully everybody had a great summer and now it’s time to get stuck into Autumn. For some of us this means races are drawing nearer as marathon season begins and more HM and 10k events are around. Right now the weather is much better for running than it was a couple of weeks ago... is it just me hoping that we don’t get another heatwave, or is it a runner thing?
This week sees the majority of kids back at school, and thus the traffic gets worse out there... what better time to be running rather than driving when we can? This week also sees the September quest as we focus on our running before events, recover from summer events, and challenge ourselves to pick up the cross training and strengthening work to push is into autumn a little less susceptible to injury. Let’s make a commitment to ourselves in the replies, or state what the month will be for us, and support each other to our goals.
What is the Quest?
The aim of the Quest is to help you find a focus or goal that you would like to achieve by the end of the Quest period.
The Quest takes one calendar month. You can join at any point during that time.
We ask that you are a C25K Graduate before joining the Quest. The reason for this is that pre-graduation your week is very much structured according to the C25K programme, and we wouldn't want the Quest to interfere with that.
Most popular goals are:
★ To run three times a week
★ To slowly increase distance
★ To train for a specific race
★ To add Stretch and Strength exercises to your weekly routine
The Quest is a personal challenge, so it's completely up to you!
Happy running and/or cross-training!!!
UnfitNoMore, Oldfloss , roseabi , and Realfoodieclub
1st September 2019
Written by
UnfitNoMore
Graduate10
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For me, this is make or break month for my HM training. I managed to get through August injury free, but am a little behind on my mileage targets... it looks like my longrun will peak at 10/11 miles rather than the 15 I was planning. So I’m running gently, and thinking that I will drop speed sessions and replace them with the recovery runs. My aim is to be at 9 miles by the end of September. If I get there injury free I’ll be confident that I can push into October and reach my new goals before taper.
Hello UnfitNoMore, nice to see you here. My first week of September is tapering for the New Forest 10k next Sunday, so short easy runs and 2 Pilates classes. But after that I will be trying to do more strengthening exercises to help with extending my distance to 10 miles. I’m sure I can do it now (I’ve reached 15k)so long as I take it slowly. So continuing with a short run, a parkrun and a long run. It would be nice to get a PB at parkrun when it cools down to get sub 31 but not obsessed by that.
My main aim is staying fit and injury free for the Great South Run in October
1.009k to find... shouldn’t be too big a deal for you, which is nice as it takes the pressure off a little. My friend always hits his best parkruns a few weeks after his marathon as he goes short for recovery and then tempo for 5k pace, so maybe you can use that GSR endurance in a similar way. Have a great day in the New Forest next week.
Marathoning for 5k would be extreme, he does it for fun too 😂, but Nike run plans take the long run to 16k for 5k races... so the theory is the same, build the endurance with slow running and then burn through it fast.
Not sure if I have any 'goal/quest' for this month UNM, after achieving my first 10K run in August I will just keep to 5k or sometimes the 10K distance.
I still do push ups, sit ups, I do my kettle bell excersises as well, o I still cycle and do planks.
As you say Autumn is the time for all those 10k, half marathon events, some on the TV, next weekend it's the Great North Run, I will be watching that, the following weekend it's my local 10K, I know a lady who is running in that and will be cheering her on, last year she ran it in 82 minutes, her son is a marathon runner, I met her on Wednesday just after I ran my first 10K run, so it's a busy season for us runners.
Nice that you have become an administrator here on Healthunlocked.
Thanks... I’m just helping out here for the month... I could rhyme off quite a list of people who’d make better admins here than I, and have it prepared in case asked!
I spent some time consolidating once I’d hit 10k just like we did after C25K and it sounds to me like this is your current quest.
Looking forward to watching GNR and then there’s that small matter of the 1:59 attempt in October... oh and something called the Berlin marathon in between, which I may be in Germany for, but knowing my luck it will be the wrong end of the country!
PS, just come back from a walk with my neighbours dog, I met a man and his son who are both training for that local 10k I mentioned on my previous post, his son is running in the 1K school children's run but he is running in the 10K event, he is truly a gazelle, his PB time at parkrun is around 16 minutes and he said he hopes to run a sub 35 minute 10K in two weeks, 33 minutes last year, so that's two runners I will be cheering on, same event but two runners at the oposite end of the speed spectrum.
When anyone finishes at a parkrun when is the exact time of your run recorded? is it the moment you are given the token or what I think, the moment that the person scans your barcode with the token before giving back the token to the volunteer?
The time is taken when you cross the finish line, the stopwatches record up to 500 times, then you stay in your finish order until you have the correct finish token. Busy parkruns have a funnel manager to keep people in the correct order and run the numbers back and forth between timer and token people, smaller ones don’t need one and the timer will shout the position that they’ve just logged and token person will confirm that they’re in sync from time to time.
My quest for this month is to add strengthening and stretching into my routine again. I used to be quite good at this, mainly for helping my niggly knee and it was great. Typically, as the knee got better the dedication slipped and now my knee is cranky again. I have three 10k events through the autumn, so this is going to be important now more than ever. I have a good runner’s yoga routine and I will add in specific strengthening exercises for my knee. I plan to do this every day that I don’t run, and just the yoga routine after runs. Still aiming for 3 runs per week where possible. I’m also coupling this with a better diet ✅
Good luck to everyone on their quests, and thank you to all the admins for keeping us on track 👍😊🌟
I’m probably guilty of this too... it’s so much easier to dedicate to strengthening a bit that’s actually telling you it needs attention than to just strengthen in general! Active every day is a good way to go, and smart to only do the light stuff on running days. Enjoy your journey through those events. When’s the first?
Three weeks today: doing the Hull marathon as part of a team of 4. My leg is 6.4 miles. Then one late October local to me and Doncaster 10k late November: which I agreed to do last November as I was mid-C25k!! I think I’d like one close to Christmas, too.
My Quest is to add some core strengthening exercises in. No idea how though and I am not good at this discipline. Suffering with a stiff neck at moment, I think obtained through running, although it doesn’t restrict me when running apart from looking left right at road crossings etc. Any advice would be gratefully received!
Planking is hard to beat for core work. I used an app called 30 Day Plank Challenge to get into it... starts with a few seconds and extends your duration gradually.
I do YTW (standing) for the neck and shoulders as well as a dumbbell routine on Nike Training Club.
Overall the Strength and Flex plan is a great place to start.
I’ve entered a 13K adventure mountain run in November. So I’m aiming to getting back up to 10K in September and train towards the 13K race. Should be about 750 people taking part. I’ll also continue running 5K.
My Sisters Husband is very involved in the Dublin/Wicklow Mountain Rescue Service. They organise a race every year as fund raising for their volunteer rescue service. I’m going to run it with my other Sister Ruth. We are aiming to just get around at an average 6.00 min/km pace or under. I’m aiming at getting up to 16K before it. It will be up and down hills on a trail course. There is also a 26k run at the same time. 26 and 13 kilometer options. 13K will do me.😀
Well I’m starting September with a week in a hilly bit of Provence. Taking the shoes but...🤔. However, to keep myself accountable - my September Quest is to get really comfortable with the hour’s running I’ve achieved with JuJu’s Magic Plan, and thereby to (I hope) start covering more distance in that hour. Still to work out how I’m going to do all this, so reading everyone’s posts.... 😄👍
Hi GS, how about picking up the distance version of Ju-Ju's plan from the distance that you got to in 60 minutes? Maybe starting at 1k less, and perhaps using 500m steps?
Great idea. I like the “manageable steps” version - suitable for a tortoise! I’m also hoping to get to the gym at our local leisure centre for some of the strength practice. Might make it marginally more interesting to me.... 😄
My main targets for the month are the last two milestones in my build up to the Great South Run in October, that is to increase my long slow run to HM distance (20k last month) and my race-pace (better than 6'00"/k) run to 15k (14k at 5'31"/k last month). But in a moment of weakness Dexy5 and I entered the New Forest 10k, which will be up first this weekend. My recent 10k PB is 51'28" (Bristol in May) so I guess I'll have to have a pop at that if conditions are half-decent - the course looks gorgeous. The plan for the HM is (a) for Dexy to pace me to hopefully well beyond half way, and (b) to do it on the same day as cheekychipmunks (I'd probably need to take a holiday somewhere 4 time zones to the east to do it at the same time ).
That 10k does sound great, I used to spend many hours in the New Forest hunting for hidden things! I can’t even imagine running 6/km for 15k! Have a great week into that New Forest run.
My quest for September is to finally run HM distance. I’ve done 19k already, and 21.1 is firmly in my sights. I don’t have a HM event planned until the spring (I’ll be entering the Bath Half which is in March 😀) but I’m so close and I’d like to have the distance under my belt! I’ll be running it on the same day - yet to be determined - as UpTheStanley . I hasten to add not at the same speed!
Then I’ll be tapering for the GSR, but that’s not until the end of next month. 😀
I have my first ever 10k event later this month, so my goal for this month is to get race ready!
I plan to run at least twice a week, keep up the strengh work and enjoy some nice walks.
The 10k run I did last week, I used the Galloway method right from the start, with good results, so one of my runs per week will be playing around with different intervals to see what works well. I need to feel as positive as I can about my race, it's quite a hilly course.😆
I’ve looked at that method with a view to my HM if I get any more niggles, and I did my first 10k back on 5/2 run walk which was a lot of help in getting me back into the swing of things. Have fun getting that balance right and then you can relax and celebrate all your hard work on that event.
Thankyou UnfitNoMore ...the summer has been a bit of a washout what with the rubbish weather but I've still managed to keep on running although my 3 times a week has gone to pot some weeks because of days out here and there etc...and I feel like my distance and stamina is taking a bit of a downward slide, so my quest for September is to get back into my running routine when normality resumes in the Cav household...and work on my stamina and distance...and throw some strength training in there somewhere...I have been taking part in a virtual run every month so far this year so I've got a bit of a bling collection going on...this has really kept me motivated and I would highly recommend doing this to everyone to keep you getting out there if you're struggling to get going x
Sometimes life gets busy, especially for mums in the holidays. Well done keeping the running going. You may not be at 3 times a week, but you’re running! I read somewhere that running once a week would maintain fitness, 2/3will increase it. So you should be in good shape. If you’ve been running a couple a week, it could be good to add the 3rd one in a little shorter to start with, it’ll soon build back up.
My daughter uses race at your pace for bling and an ever growing collection of running tops... they’re very good to keep you going for sure.
Back from a lovely holiday, the weather has cooled down - ideal running conditions for me.
Starting tomorrow when I’m on top of all the washing, putting holiday stuff away etc. I want to run 2/3 times a week & definitely get on top of s&f at least twice a week.
For months now I’ve been trying to do this, so I’m definitely going to knuckle down & get on with it.
I prefer the cooler weather too. It’s a great time to form the habit and develop a schedule around life too. S&F is great and helps to keep that injury risk nice and low. Have a good month
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