How's things going with life, training, running? Tell us all about it!!!
★ HALF MARATHON GROUP PEOPLE: Please let us know roughly when in the next few weeks you are going to be running your virtual HM!!!!! Comment below. We want to be there for you with our pom poms whenever you are running your vHM 😍
EDIT: Actually, here's a direct link to the HM Woohoo board. I'll add people there with your suggested dates: docs.google.com/spreadsheet...
I've been keeping a bit of a low online profile, and I've gone old-skool and got myself an actual diary to record my non-gps-able workouts in (and the windsurfing, which although perfectly gps-able I keep forgetting to record it)!! It's purple 😄 I'm also revisiting the barre workouts (Suzanne Bowen Fitness) that were one of my staples from before I started running, and a huge fitness and work inspiration to me!
Anyone else revisiting something old?
And although I'll miss the lovely summer weather, I admit I'm really looking forward to some cool, crisp Autumn and Winter running - who's with me??
As always, if you're new here, or just taking a look and getting comfortable before posting, hello! This post is a great place to introduce yourself if you're ready to do so.
Panic, panic, panic!!! I’ve only just remembered 😱, I’m running for England against Wales in the Vitality Running World Cup on 3rd October! I can’t do both!!! Can I move my HM to 11th October? I’ve got so used to having no official races I forgot all about it!! Sorry ☹️
I’m not revisiting something old but I have restarted football with my under 11’s team. First game of the season was yesterday and I hadn’t realised how much I missed the kids humour!!! Great to have it back.
I was originally aiming for the half marathon this week but I’ve really cut back on running in the last couple of weeks as it’s awful in the heat of the day!! I’m aiming now for the 5th to 11th October which should give me enough recovery time to ‘want’ to do the virtual Vitality 10,000 in the last week of October!
The HUHM group has been a good motivator and I’m sure it will be amazing to finally do a half marathon but a little bitter sweet too as the purpose of the group will have been completed.
Loads of us doing the Virtual Vitality Kevin, it will be a doddle after all this HM training 😁👍
I’m still signed up for the spring HM I was supposed to do this year and that is keeping me going (I did it virtually in the end). Maybe find one of those - I reckon they are more likely to go ahead next year as more adaptions are made🤞🤞? That may be a way of keeping going over the winter? Personally I found winter training much easier.
I joined the first HM group in this forum and I'm still here ... every spring, every autumn the same goal comes round again; the same training and the same excitement for a new HM 😀
I'm hopefully doing the virtual Vitality 10k too (so long as I'm still in working order by then)
Hi roseabi my plan at present is to run my virtual HM in the week commencing 5 October. I won't be working on 7 October nor the following weekend so those seem sensible options, depending on the weather at the time.
I've planned a few days up in Suffolk on holiday the week before that, COVID permitting. I'm staying in an old coaching inn in a very rural setting, so hopefully it should be OK. I'm hoping there will be lots of places to run around there too, so I'm packing my running gear. Everything including my 'normal' clothes has to be packed onto the back of my motorbike, so I'll have to be ruthless when deciding what to take!😄
In the meantime I'm keeping up my runs for the LEJOG challenge, which quite a few of us on here are doing. So far I've gone 186 km (116 miles) from virtual Lands End and I've got 758 miles still to go before I get to John O'Groats. I'm surprised how motivating I'm finding it, and the dedicated Facebook group is very supportive and it's very well organised. The t-shirt and medal at the end will be very well deserved by everyone who completes it. I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking for a new challenge!
My half marathon is still going ahead next Sunday! It will be a real event, though the start will be staggered to alow social distancing, so no crowds on the start or the finish line. I did a 10k in the same place, with the same organisers two weeks ago and it felt very safe, so I'm really looking forward to it.
I'm already thinking about what to do next, I've found online a group of "old ladies" who meet locally and play football, I'm thinking of giving that a go in October, afer I recover, sounds fun and a good way of socialising.
I'll write a proper race report after the half, if nothing changes from now to Sunday and I can still do it
Hi roseabi, still debating my plans for the half, current and original plan is to keep building up from 10 miles for a few weeks to get up to HM distance for the first time on w/c 26th October. Then the plan continues another 2 weeks where it tapers and complete a second half in November where I will “race” and try and beat my benchmark from October.
However I found 10 miles very tough. I know a lot of training plans only go up to 10 miles so the generally feeling is half marathon is within reach from there. Wondering if I’m just going to introduce more self doubt by have two more long runs (11 and 12 miles respectively) which inevitably I won’t find easy, so should I just go for it in a couple of weeks? I know it is a personal thing whether to go up to the distance in training or not, I’m just suddenly seeing advantages of not doing it I never saw before!
In terms of revisiting something old I ran with Laura again last week! Used the C25K plus stamina podcast for a 35 min tempo run. It was a boost to cover well over 5K when the first time I tried it I don’t think I even managed to 35 mins at that cadence. Not sure on the music though, don’t think I’ll use it too often 🎶🤔
Hi PurpleFish59, as you said it's a personal thing. In my training plan, I had to go from 10 to 11 then to 12... but the day I was supposed to get to 12 I couldn't help it and went for the full half. I know the training plan increases distance slowly for a reason but I also know myself and I couldn't manage the feeling of being so close but not there yet, so after 12 miles, I was feeling ok, and just continued (very slowly, I probably would have made it faster walking at that point). My suggestion is to go with the plan, if you are hating it during your run don't think you need to get to 13.1, just go for 11 or 12 or what you have planned, but when you get to 10.9 or 11.9 miles, check with yourself if you really want to get to 13.1 that day and change plans if needed
I think that the original plan still makes the most sense, and I know that I’m still relatively new to runs over about 12K distance so probably shouldn’t rush it. I think like you said it’s that impatience of feeling so close yet so far! I remember less than a year ago the idea of 5K seemed like a huge effort and that all these long runs and time on my legs will make it less difficult each time!
Yes more a set of ramblings from my tired brain than a well structured question 🙈 I also realise that the reason for 10 miles being the longest training run on some plans is that the race day atmosphere is what gets you the last 3 miles, which I won’t have the advantage of!
I agree with advice to see how you are feeling, and adjust accordingly. Saturday was my 2nd 10 miler: I’d planned a route that I could finish after 10 miles if I wanted, or also continue a bit further if going well. After 10 figured could do 1 more mile, then same at 11, so ended at 12! At that point I did half think to carry on and do the full 13.1 - but decided that as I’d already gone over target to not push it, and also save that distance for the actual event in 2 weeks 😀
Gotcha! Sounds like you're going well - 10 miles IS tough, but I'm sure you can do your HM, and the advice from the others is fab! We'll be rooting for you xx
Hi roseabi . Please pop me down for Wednesday 14th October for my HM. I might switch it to the 7th if we aren’t allowed to go to Cornwall on the 5th, but I’m optimistically hoping we can still go. Of course I’ll let you know. 😀
Then two bunches of us on here are hoping we’re able to do our Virtual Vitality 10000 on the 25th (pleeeeease🤞). It was to be one bigger group but of course we’d exceed the Rule of 6, so now we’re hoping for a VV Midlands and VV South! 🏃♀️🏃🏃♀️🏃
As for the changing weather - oh yes please! I love running in the crisp autumn air. 🍁🍂🍃🏃♀️❤️
I'm with you! Love running in the elements. Autumn and Winter running are right up my street. I did a HM run on Saturday as part of my training for the VLM on 4th October.
As with several others my HM is planned for 4 Oct. If all goes well this should be an actual HM rather than virtual as well 🤞
I don’t mind autumn and spring, but personally I’m not such a fan of winter running! Though was nice to get out for a run at lunch time today - had stuck to early or late the last few months as cooler then 😀
Oh yes, some cooler weather please!!! Not too much rain for a bit though - I don't want the river paths getting muddy over the next couple of weeks.
I plan to run my HM somewhere between 5th and 30th October (the last day for submission for the virtual Oxford HM) -probably 30th!!!.
I've also entered the Vitality 10K so will aim to do that one on 24th or 25th to check the legs are working.
I'll hit my 1000k running target in the next two weeks, so November and December I will probably have lots of bike mileage to make up to hit my end of year target after all this focus on running!!!
After a fail on getting to 10miles (usual problem) I am aiming to build a bit of confidence and drop down the distances a bit and increase up to the 10M target (and after that the HM, but focussing on the 10M first). It helps that the Leeds HM has been cancelled in that the time-pressure is off.
It's great to see on the forum so many people are getting the 10M and the HM distances done - kudos all round (and great encouragement to me). And to those who might not have got all they wanted just yet - I hope you will get there in the end.
The last few days have been beautiful hereabouts, the trees look poised for a lovely autumn (apart from the horse chestnuts which have got the leaf-miner problem). So looking forward to get out for some nice runs. A further bonus is I'm dropping my working hours down (yay!) so after a very busy summer I'm hopefully going to have some relaxed autumn days.
I must say a special thanks to everyone in this forum and in the Strava group for their encouragement and good wishes over the weeks. It's been great to share with you all
I'm now considering "what next?" and I'm seriously contemplating joining the local running club if only to have someone point out all the bad running habits and technique I've probably developed!
I’m trying to run and not sweat 🙄 I got my eyebrows “topped up” on Saturday so can’t sweat for 5 days. At least it’s not the two weeks from first time around 🙀 I’m just running 5K’s really slowly which I’m hoping will be good for me 😇 but I’m itching for a long run. I have to wait until Thursday, it’ll be like Christmas, whoop whoop. And I adore this time of year - autumn and winter, my favourite.
In other news, I still haven’t received my bling from my virtual HM over two weeks ago! Apparently it was posted last week so I’ve been watching out for the postman like a stalker 😂😂
Good luck everyone for your HM’s and have a great week to all 🍀
Hi Roseabi, The "all being well" must have been a premonition because I'm currently on the IC again with an ankle problem so please can you take me off the list for that week I've decided to bow out gracefully from trying to do a HM with the group this autumn as it's pretty painful and swollen (it's not helping that I have to do a 2km school run twice a day either) so I don't think I'll be able to join in again before the group finishes Thanks to you, Linda and everyone else for the support so far, hopefully I can join in a future group if you do it again. I hope you don't mind but I'd like to stay in the Strava Autumn HM group until it finishes because I'm enjoying seeing how everyone is doing and giving the well deserved kudos
hmmm pondering if I should do my HM in October at training pace or just have a smash at a PB...its a flat one....been working on a race day plan around my pacing and i think its going well....starting at 5:50kms knocking down to 5:20's last 5k....hmmm...not sure I'm ready 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😶🤕
Hi roseabi. Well I finally got the deferral email from the race director, so the 50k race is officially off (no surprise) but a couple of friends have offered to ‘crew’ for me with a snack table/base so I’m going to give it a whirl on the looped course anyway. Most of the training is done by now. I’ve warned both my friends in advance that it will take a looong time. They already have boardgames, books and day drinking planned so I think they’ll be fine. 🙂 Me on the other hand...🤷♂️ everything after 42k is new territory and the course is more hilly than they made it seem. I don’t care, I’m not looking to break any records, just to finish.
Sounds like your friends will have a great time crewing for you...reading and day drinking sounds fun, though I couldn't promise I'd be away when you stopped for a snack!
Hi I completed my virtual half on Sunday . I found it tough going esp from mile 7 . I Jeffed it but still struggled coming in at 2:53:30 . Definitely need to train more in future 🏃♀️💯
A half marathon is a half marathon! Just to prove it, I've given you uyour badge - congratulations!!! Jeffing on Sunday I decided I must be stronger than the elite runners because they don't even run for half as long as I do!!!
I almost feel like a bit of a fraud posting here! I only joined so I could congratulate MccHa on his half marathon. 😂
I graduated from C25K on 24 July. After a couple of weeks of consolidating, all my forum ‘buddies’ were doing really well with their pace, but although mine was improving slowly - something just didn’t sit right, I just felt I was out of my depth somehow - pushing too hard every time I went out for a run.
So I started doing long, slow runs, increasing the time I spent running. Just once a week. The first long run I did was a revelation and I realised what was missing. After a few weeks, maybe 4, I was up to 90 minutes and 10K. There was no-one more surprised than me! The side effect was that my pace on the shorter runs started to improve significantly, much to my amazement!
I’ve now done 3 x 10K runs in around 90 minutes. Suddenly, 10 miles has started creeping into my mind. Who would have thought it?! My plan is to continue to increase the time I spend running on those long runs until I get there. Then - who knows? 🙂
Hi, you doing really well Jools2020 remember not long ago we were struggling in the C25K runs and now 10K just a walk in the park 😂😂😂🤞🤞🤞 keep going Slow jogging is God’s gift for us 🙏🙏🙏
Just gave my trainers a good TLC and put in the Lovely sun to chill next to me 🙏 hard life running!!!
Definitely not a fraud!!! You're doing really, really well - and are absolutely welcome in this forum. The only reason this post is so HM heavy is that we are about to start some virtual HM races in lieu of the real thing. The only place you'll find a 10 mile badge is over here, so maybe it's meant to be. Good luck whatever you decide 😊
I have to say though, the HM club just keeps on giving...I've started my Zone 3 HR training now and had no thoughts of further long runs but was tempted by the virtual 10 miles 😁 and now I'm wondering whether to join in and do another HM as others are doing theirs in the next month or so! 🤷♀️
My real HM is still supposed to be happening on 1stNov, although I really doubt that now. I’m up to 10 miles in my training plan this week, which I am putting off from tomorrow until Friday as the weather forecast is a bit better🙂
It’s the Coventry Half. They are due to update runners with the latest plans next week sometimes. It was already postponed from April so strongly suspect it might go virtual.
Going to do it in a few weeks time I think. I was going to do it this Sunday, but I have been struck down with a cold so I want to wait until that's gone! 😀
Hello rosabi! I am signed up for the Brighton HM in February which I reckon totally won’t happen because of Covid. But I’m happy with how my training is going. My first 10k three weeks ago was 1:17, my third this morning was 1:04. I’m using a Garmin coaching plan which has a lot of slow runs and run/walk days. I have always had plenty in the tank still at 9k (though today I used that up on a fast last km which still wasn’t particularly fast, I’m not a natural sprinter) so I feel quite positive about getting to 21km or whatever within four months. I originally had a goal of 3:30 but I am starting to think 2:45 is perhaps feasible. I’ll be happy just finishing though.
I would love to get a fast time, but I'm 46 and a bit overweight and for my first HM I just want to not get injured, and like you say to enjoy it. I have been surprised at just how enjoyable it is to run!
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I've decided to bow out gracefully from trying to do a HM with the group this autumn as it's pretty painful and swollen (it's not helping that I have to do a 2km school run twice a day either) so I don't think I'll be able to join in again before the group finishes 
