Beardys running log - Ct5k

[sojournermike]

5.15 sounds like a good time to run at the moment - I was out at 6 this morning and it was already pretty warm!

Couple of years ago we had a summer holiday in Provence. I took to heading out about 8am when it was only 25C. Usually by the time I’d meandered through the vinyards and olive groves the temp was knocking on the door of 30. Lovely time.

[Polar Bear]

5.15 sounds like a good time to run at the moment - I was out at 6 this morning and it was already pretty warm!

Quite so.  On Wednesday I was even earlier.

The biggest benefit of all is having the place to yourself.  I do see the occasional dog walker or runner but it's all very uncluttered.

What I have noticed though is just how the traffic has ramped up again even at such an early hour.

[Polar Bear]

Well, I have pushed the button on the Fenix 6 Pro Sapphire.  Once it is here and working I shall investigate repairs for the 735XT.  What I read online indicates around £60 by Garmin.  I can suck that up as I intend to pass it on to a needy but skint family member.

It arrived late morning.  Still finding all it's new features but really loving it.

735XT already powered down.  Must put a reminder in my diary to contact Garmin UK about a repair.

[Greenbank]

Might have just snaffled a used Forerunner 945 for just £366 on eBay.

It is one I bid on last night but was outbid (it went for >£400) and this morning I it has been relisted with a Buy It Now price.

Could be some sort of a scam but it was a genuine email from eBay and I've paid via Paypal so I should be protected.

Half expect it to fall through though with some "sorry, I pressed the wrong button" kind of rubbish excuse.

If it arrives and all works fine I'll have a used Forerunner 935 for sale in the next few weeks (will need to see price they're going for on eBay first).

Other than that I did my 10k loop this morning to give me a 20 mile week (mixed units are fun). No run until Wednesday now, give the legs a chance to recover a bit.

[SteveC]

A bit warm out there this morning. Did my usual '10k' loop for a Sunday. Deliberately going slow, but ten minutes longer than a fortnight ago? 

[Beardy]

I went out last night when it had cooled down some. It was very pleasant. As you know I’m following a Garmin Coach 10K training plan and it’s quite frustrating that the easy runs are quite a bit less than I’d normally do, but I’m trying to stick to the programme. 

[Greenbank]

...
As you know I’m following a Garmin Coach 10K training plan and it’s quite frustrating that the easy runs are quite a bit less than I’d normally do, but I’m trying to stick to the programme.

I've said it in the running thread (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=58.msg2498621#msg2498621) that coaches looking at people's own unstructured/self-made training say they do their fast runs too slow and their slow runs too fast.

I'm a perfect example of this as I tend to most/all of my running at pretty much the same intensity[1] so I'm definitely guilty of doing this myself. When I was able to do parkrun and was doing intervals it was better as those two runs were done faster than I'd normally run, and then the remaining runs were slower mostly due to accrued fatigue!

There's nothing bad about a "just do some runs" plan, but the point the coaches will make is that you increase your risk of picking up injuries if you do this, and it'll take you slightly longer to see specific improvements than if you followed a proper structured plan, but I'm in no huge rush and I really dislike running slower than even my (relatively) slow plod.

1. As in I feel pretty much spent at the end of each run, whether it's going a bit quicker on a 5k or taking it a bit more slowly on a 10k or longer run. I don't run each individual run at the same speed although I'm not far off.

[Polar Bear]

Garmin Coach can never replace an actual human being who interacts with you, sees you running, sees the little things which make all the difference to your personalised plan such as lifestyle influences.

It also depends heavily on what your targets really are.  I don't particularly want to get significantly faster mainly because I already have difficulties seeing where I am going as thing already are.  Garmin coach just wouldn't comprehend this and couldn't provide me with guided runs from time to time.

Injuries come from a variety of things including over training, under training, accidents whilst training, not warming up / cooling down properly, badly fitting or inappropriate for other reasons shoes, etc. 

My approach is to minimise the risks to me and to increase my distance.  I am finding that increased fitness and associated steady weight loss is resulting in my average speed slowly increasing as it is.

[Polar Bear]

First run with the Fenix 6 this morning having used the 735XT for over two years.  First observation is that it measures my standard 1k to be 1.03k and did this consistently on my 7k run.  The outcome of this was that my pace had an uplift.

I would expect a Fenix 6 to be a technical step forward from the Forerunner 735XT and I know that Garmin has changed the gps chip in it's high end watches recently which includes the Fenix6.  I don't really know how to validate the new readings unless I can find a measured course for a calibration run.

Regardless, it was a good run this morning and I am pleased with both my ogoing progress and my new Fenix 6.  👍

[Greenbank]

GPS devices, in general, are poor at consistent distance measurements. They know where they are to within a few meters at any particular point but then using these slightly inaccurate positions for distance means you end up accruing error. Much of the smarts within a GPS are to smooth the resulting tracks into something sensible, and take into account things like cadence (running) and wheel rotations (if a wheel sensor is fitted on a bike).

I have my 935 set to auto-lap every 1km when running, and as I run the same routes over and over again I can tell that the location of the individual lap bleeps varies quite a bit. Sometimes it's right by a certain lamppost, the next time 20 yards before, the next time 20 yards after, etc.

My usual 5k loop is anything from 4.95km to 5.05km. If it's shorter than 5k I run past my front gate for a bit and then double back.

I've got 28 GPS plots from the same parkrun and they range between 4.91km and 5.09km. That's a 3.6% variance.

[Polar Bear]

Interesting.  I had become so used to the 735XT which has been remarkably consistent but I suppose that I should have expected a variance.

Will be interesting to see what Wednesday's 9k brings.

I could wear both watches and compare ...

[Beardy]

Talking of disparities, I’ve got my Garmin Connect account sharing data with Strava, and even based on the same data set they can’t agree what my distance is, thus they give me different pace figures as well. I assume that this is because they’re using different averaging and smoothing algorithms, but it’s quite irritating. I think I’ll be dropping strava when my membership comes up for renewal.

[Greenbank]

From my experiments I've found that GC uses distance determined from the GPS track points.

Strava uses the 'DistanceMeters' (that the watch is also calculating using its own smoothing algorithm) in preference to distance calculated directly from the raw trackpoints.

Here's a long Strava support thread that has some more details (including my observations): https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/208861027-Feedback-on-Run-Tags-and-Moving-Time-Pace-Calculation?page=6

[Greenbank]

Might have just snaffled a used Forerunner 945 for just £366 on eBay.

It is one I bid on last night but was outbid (it went for >£400) and this morning I it has been relisted with a Buy It Now price.

Could be some sort of a scam but it was a genuine email from eBay and I've paid via Paypal so I should be protected.

Half expect it to fall through though with some "sorry, I pressed the wrong button" kind of rubbish excuse.

Looking more promising as I have a RM "Guaranteed by 1pm tomorrow" tracking number. We'll see...

[EDIT] Arrived today (2nd June) and looks to work fine, haven't tried it on an actual activity though (got a run to do tomorrow morning).

[mrcharly-YHT]

I was extremely exasperated with how slow Strava updated. I'd substantially increase my speed and strava didn't show a change for over 30s.

Same issue for a paddling-specific app I used.

Then, in the app, I found a setting for GPS update frequency. Altered it to 1/s (most frequent offered), from the 'default'. App's updates improved and it showed speed more accurately.

Tried Strava again (wanted to record distance). Now Strava updates frequently!

So it is worthwhile digging into settings. These aren't visible in the Phone OS.

[Polar Bear]

Another milestone today, or should that be kilometrestone?

My Bridge to 10k plan had me doing that target 10k yesterday but I don't tend to run if it's raining, and it was.

I was awake well before my alarm today and for some reason was feeling nervous about 10k.  My self-belief was doing an impression of a chocolate lifeguard even though the scales put me at my lowest weight since 2012 and then I enjoyed a very satisfying pre run empty!

Once at my local rec I set off and my brane was all over the place.  I was monitoring my pace every 0.5k and keeping to a steady and even pace in spite of myself.  5k came and went but still the self-doubt continued as the half k's rolled off one by one.  9k came and I realised that I had run 9k faster than the 9k scheduled runs in the previous two weeks which gave me a lift for the final k.  Totally unplanned but very motivating.

I allowed myself a smile and backed off a bit, was finally able to relax and enjoy the run in.

10k done.  Feeling weary but smug.  C210k in less than five months seems pretty good to me.  😊  👍

[sojournermike]

Another milestone today, or should that be kilometrestone?

My Bridge to 10k plan had me doing that target 10k yesterday but I don't tend to run if it's raining, and it was.

I was awake well before my alarm today and for some reason was feeling nervous about 10k.  My self-belief was doing an impression of a chocolate lifeguard even though the scales put me at my lowest weight since 2012 and then I enjoyed a very satisfying pre run empty!

Once at my local rec I set off and my brane was all over the place.  I was monitoring my pace every 0.5k and keeping to a steady and even pace in spite of myself.  5k came and went but still the self-doubt continued as the half k's rolled off one by one.  9k came and I realised that I had run 9k faster than the 9k scheduled runs in the previous two weeks which gave me a lift for the final k.  Totally unplanned but very motivating.

I allowed myself a smile and backed off a bit, was finally able to relax and enjoy the run in.

10k done.  Feeling weary but smug.  C210k in less than five months seems pretty good to me.  😊  👍

Brilliant, well done PB. Hope you had a decent breakfast to reward yourself!

[Polar Bear]

Thanks Mike.   

Just porridge with honey but the finest organic oats and milk with "pure" honey direct from a farm just up the road.

Now looking at such diverse targets as a Quarter Marathon, 5k under 30 minutes (not that far off in fact) and 10k in 60.

I have my eyes on Rugby Half Marathon at the end of October but that might be a tad optimistic.

[Greenbank]

Well done, I can remember a similar feeling of pride (amongst other things) at the end of my first 10k.

10 miles (16.09km) is also another milestone (no pun intended) along the way to HM distance.

[Hot Flatus]

That's probably a good thing.

I, on the other hand, am now injured. Real stiffness and pain near hip. Quite sudden onset. I think it is a yoga injury exacerbated by running. Trying to self-diagnose, and I think I've fucked the top of my hamstring

Went to the physio today. Hadn't realised theyve been open for a month 

Havent run (or cycled much) for a month and after a bout of gardening the pain really flared up resulting in a limp. Hip felt very unstable.

After 10 minutes of bending limbs in various directions, and eliminating the hip he scanned my hamstring and found nothing. Then prodded my glute really hard. Made me get up and walk and the pain and limp gone.

Dont think I can run yet, but I'll try cycling. Deep glute strain was his diagnosis.

[Polar Bear]

Well done, I can remember a similar feeling of pride (amongst other things) at the end of my first 10k.

10 miles (16.09km) is also another milestone (no pun intended) along the way to HM distance.

Yes of course.  10 miles.  Should have thought of that.   

[Beardy]

Much kudos PB, I’m four weeks into my 10K plan and at the moment seem to be doing less distance than before I started. I’ve had a visit from the black dog this week and haven’t been able to get out until today, which will have put me back slightly.

I also acutely aware that I’m more than a bit over weight, but with the current situation and the black dog visits, I seem to be eating more junk then ever 😟 If I could ever get down to my flying weight gain I’d probably float over a 5k and my knees would be grateful into the bargain. Not that there’s ice danger of me losing 7st, though I’m sure my knees will thank me for just losing a couple of stone

[Polar Bear]

Thank you Beardy - very much appreciated.

I too an significantly overweight.  I have lost around 2 stone in the past 12 months but am 5 stone over my "race" weight of my halcyon days of marathon running.  The weight comes off naturally with more running.  I decided to go vegetarian in September which has helped and there is so much available to help with basic nutrition these days as well as all of the tech assistance on your wrist and in your phone.  I have bought a couple of Anita Bean's cookbooks for recipe inspiration and "athlete's" nutritional requirements.  I find things like that just prod me along with a feeling of warm inspiration.  She has a great Athletes Cook Book as well as one for vegetarian runners, both with some excellent recipes.  Perhaps give something like those a try to inspire and motivate you.

Stick at it, believe in yourself.  Listen to your body though and don't make it do what it cannot yet do.  You will get there if you want to.

By the way, my dog needs a walk just as much as yours does.  Taking it for a run is hugely theraputic for me and beneficial for the dog.  I would hope that yours likes a run out too.

[Beardy]

I’m not sure the black dog is too keen on the running to be perfectly honest, it certainly takes the hump and backs off after a run. It buggered of yesterday.after the run, and has only made a token attempt a to return this afternoon. 🙂

[Polar Bear]

So, you let it off the leash then?  Why didn't I think of that ...