Introductory post

[cyphomandra]

Well, partly introductory, and partly being too lazy to respond to previous separate posts. I've been running for while and started entering events last year - mostly 5/10k, but I did my first half-marathon last November in ~2:05, and while I was extremely excited to actually finish it my goal for this year is to do the same run again and go under 2 hours. Unfortunately then I moved cities, and now it's cold and dark and I am slug-like, plus lacking all my previous routes and fellow runners, but I have now joined a Saturday morning running group and hope that this community will also help me prise myself away from the computer some more (only slightly counterproductive!).

So, as per previous posts, my goal for the year is as stated, but what I need to work on over the next few months is speed, and I plan on doing regular 10k runs to get some idea of how I'm going on this. I am actually thinking about using one of those free one month trial memberships at a gym to do speedwork on the treadmill - do other people do this? Does it work for you? I used to do sprint work once a week at a nearby park but none of the areas around my current place are really suitable, and I'm really bad at motivation for speedwork.

And I usually run to music - for long runs or races I often use the podrunner podcasts, because they have a set bpm that means I can just switch off and run to that, but otherwise I have a very elderly iPod shuffle which has mostly had the same music on it for the last four years. Possibly I should take off the Leonard Cohen songs if I really want to speed up...

Comments

[ilanarama]

Ugh, I hate treadmills, but I do know people who do speedwork on them and that works okay for them. The one thing you have to remember is that treadmill speeds don't correlate precisely with real running speeds because of air resistance - I think runworks.com has a calculator that figures out the differences.

The bit of advice I was given for improving my speed was to simply run more, keeping my long runs slow but increasing the speed of some of my shorter runs, and to do a tempo run (about 10K pace but for no longer than 20-40 minutes) once a week or so. Which has worked for me, and I'm glad because I hate intervals.

[cyphomandra]

I also detest intervals and am keen to explore any alternatives :) I've read about tempo runs, but I'm not very good at estimating my pace - did you say earlier that you used a heart rate monitor? One of the guys in my group had one with a GPS function last week, and it looked very tempting, especially as it provided time/k without my having to do calculations in my head. Or, now that I think about it, there's a 1.8k loop in the park that I could work out times on.

[ilanarama]

Yeah, I have the Garmin GPS/HRM, the older version (301) which you may still be able to find cheaply since it's been superseded by the 305. So I can both watch my pace, and my HR, and try to keep one or the other in a certain range.

Oh, another suggestion is to do hill sprints and hill repeats instead of intervals. Supposedly they are good for strength and speed and less likely to cause injury.