Advice for a Novice

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Autumnleaves Feb 2013 10:38am, 26 Feb 2013 1,810 posts	0 Autumnleaves If you don't fancy the idea of a club - or your local one isn't on a convenient night (which is my issue!), a local running buddy can be great too. I used to think I far preferred running by myself - I do still like a bit of head space that way - but I bumped into a neighbour about a year ago and we now run together at least once a week - it's great, and kept us both going through the winter, cold, dark nights etc. We've both had nights when we've admitted we wouldn't have got out the door if we hadn't known the other was waiting.
Endorphins Junky Feb 2013 10:39am, 26 Feb 2013 4 posts	0 Endorphins Junky Slower run with someone then - it's safe the say that the way I run at the moment means that talking is quite beyond me - it's all I can do to breathe! Again, thank you for the replies - a friend recommended this site and said I would get lots of friendly advice - one hour in and I'm suitably impressed!
BanjoBax Feb 2013 10:41am, 26 Feb 2013 3,926 posts	0 BanjoBax EJ - nice work on the PB Did you do a test to work out your HR or use a formula (formula often inaccurate) ? a nice simple approach is Parker's (HR training for a compleat idiot) where the idea is alternate hard and easy days, do whatever you want on the hard so long as it is hard, easy days easy (keep below 70% of WHR = range between Resting & Max HRs, can go upto 75% at first). Obviously need a Long run in there too, below the 70-75% too. If you want a more structured plan I like Jack Daniels formula amazon.co.uk am sure others will have their favourites too, see thread http://www.fetcheveryone.com/viewtopic.php?id=46180
Autumnleaves Feb 2013 10:47am, 26 Feb 2013 1,812 posts	0 Autumnleaves Running with a buddy is a very good way to slow a long run down I find!!
Andy39 Feb 2013 10:47am, 26 Feb 2013 134 posts	0 Andy39 I was just like you 4 years ago EJ until I ended up with a stress fracture that led me to seriously evaluate my training. You may feel like you don't have time at the moment but definitely consider an occasional parkrun. You will love testing yourself against other runners of varying standards. From there I gained the confidence to enter an occasional 10k. One a month isn't going to eat into your time too much and my family enjoy coming and supporting me. You can pick some races at great locations. The races give you something to aim for to keep motivated. Also, once you have a race in mind there are loads of plans out there to suit most ability and distance. Also, log your runs on here.
Endorphins Junky Feb 2013 10:54am, 26 Feb 2013 5 posts	0 Endorphins Junky BB - didn't use a formula, did some tests on the treadmill. Probably going to do them again once I get back to outdoor running. Andy - fairly sure I want to avoid a stress fracture(!) so thanks for the heads up.
Vancouver Jogger Feb 2013 12:38pm, 26 Feb 2013 3,322 posts	0 Vancouver Jogger I don't race very often because of work and family commitments but a race does provide a target to aim for and helps to structure your running. Depending on the age of children things will vary, but I have three girls (under 7) who enjoy going to a race every now and again especially ones with bouncy castles etc. Loops/laps are good too as they get to cheer lots of times. One time I was doing a half marathon and had to wait for several hours before we could leave because they wanted to cheer on the marathon runners!
Funky Chicken Feb 2013 1:16pm, 26 Feb 2013 75 posts	0 Funky Chicken The way I understand it, hard sessions can result in small tears in muscles which then knit back together and get stronger over time. If you make every session hard and too close together, the muscles don't get enough time to recover and you can end up with more serious muscle damage or it can start to take its toll on your bones. So rather than making every session a speed session, you'd be better off alternating steady sessions with something faster - you may find you get quicker that way rather than trying to increase your speed every time you go out.
fetcheveryone Feb 2013 1:34pm, 26 Feb 2013 12,470 posts	0 fetcheveryone Try this article for some explanation of the different types of run: http://www.fetcheveryone.com/cms-2
Canute Feb 2013 6:55pm, 26 Feb 2013 508 posts	0 Canute As many have pointed out, running fast all the time is not only the route to injury, it is not even a good way to get fit, because you hit a false ceiling and stagnate. So you need variety. What goes into the mix depends on your goals. If you eventually want to race HMs or marathons, the main ingredient in the early stages is high volume, low intensity stuff to build up the slow twitch fibres that are willing to work for hours on end – but that tends to be lethally boring on a treadmill. If your goal is aerobic fitness rather than long races, it is possible to mix high intensity interval workouts with low aerobic sessions. However, you need some way of making the low intensity stuff interesting, and also of monitoring to ensure that you are actually improving your aerobic fitness. Here is where the HRM comes into its own. If you are at all inclined to be geeky, you can derive almost endless fascination from keeping track of your HR at specified low or moderate paces. The goal is to see your HR at a specified pace gradually decrease over a period of weeks or months. Minimising the rise of HR during the course of a moderate paced run is also a good indication of increasing fitness. I do not regularly follow the Hadd thread, but I suspect that you will find lots of people on that thread sharing their progress towards minimising HR at low or moderate paces. I also find that I can keep my mind comfortably filled in a contemplative sort of way simply by focussing on breathing and form during slow and moderate runs. Focussing on what your legs are doing is generally unhelpful, but focussing on relaxed shoulders, a tidy arm action and the rhythmic flow of breath to the base of your lungs can be soothing.