Running/Fitness The Running Thread

[Wormkilla]

Start at Mardalup Park, run down over the Causeway Bridge and back up along the river behind Optus over the Windan Bridge for a ~ 7km loop that's pretty flat. If you start at the same spot but go over the Matagarup Bridge instead I think you go around the East side of Optus and get a bit under a 5km loop that's again pretty flat.

Bold Park main loop (Zamia I think it's called) is a hilly 5km, do that once or twice.

Herdsman Lake loop is ~ 7.5km as well that's pretty flat.

Can always run out and back along the coast as well.

There's also a few social groups if you want company, WA Marathon Club website lists a couple and they run their own sessions a few days a week - I believe Wednesday is the one to start at for a more social experience.

https://www.wamc.org.au/training

Awesome thanks for that.

 

[Wormkilla]

Running saga continues. Still pushing to get to 10km non-stop with my 41 year old body. I've decided that's my end goal. Once I reach that Im just going to work on increasing my pace and probably do some strength training in the gym. I just cant see how I can physically run further. Aerobically I feel ok, but I do get knocked around badly by any heat and humidity. Its the physical pain that stops me from running further at this point. General soreness and knee pain at the start of runs which is taking longer to run through. Hit 6km's and my calves or hamstrings start seizing up. Neck has been playing up a lot lately post-run. Have a recovery and exercise plan I'm following with a physio at the moment which has a least kept me going.

Currently do the WWF Challenge 60 and getting in 60 minutes of running and walking everyday. Its not intense and its keeping me accountable. Consistently "closing my ring" on my apple fitness app burning 800 calories a day lol.

 

[M Malice]

Running saga continues. Still pushing to get to 10km non-stop with my 41 year old body. I've decided that's my end goal. Once I reach that Im just going to work on increasing my pace and probably do some strength training in the gym. I just cant see how I can physically run further. Aerobically I feel ok, but I do get knocked around badly by any heat and humidity. Its the physical pain that stops me from running further at this point. General soreness and knee pain at the start of runs which is taking longer to run through. Hit 6km's and my calves or hamstrings start seizing up. Neck has been playing up a lot lately post-run. Have a recovery and exercise plan I'm following with a physio at the moment which has a least kept me going.

Currently do the WWF Challenge 60 and getting in 60 minutes of running and walking everyday. Its not intense and its keeping me accountable. Consistently "closing my ring" on my apple fitness app burning 800 calories a day lol.

I feel for you, I loved running and had done it all my life but alas I gave up running altogether around 5 years ago when I was 59 years old, knees are what said no more for me. Still miss it, especially when out on my daily walk and you see other people jogging.

I replaced it with regular Bikram Yoga and high intensity low impact Pilates which I love.

 

[Wormkilla]

I feel for you, I loved running and had done it all my life but alas I gave up running altogether around 5 years ago when I was 59 years old, knees are what said no more for me. Still miss it, especially when out on my daily walk and you see other people jogging.

I replaced it with regular Bikram Yoga and high intensity low impact Pilates which I love.

Sorry to hear that mate. What happened to your knees exactly?

 

[M Malice]

Sorry to hear that mate. What happened to your knees exactly?

Never got them diagnosed professionally, just the wear and tear of old age. My knees are fine for everything else, it's the impact of running that gives me pain in the front of and just below the knee, I do a fair bit of trekking as well and steep downhill climbs is the only other activity that gives me a bit of pain in that same area.... tried a few jogging comebacks over the years but Nahh no good.

 

[Wormkilla]

Been doing some "Zone 2" training keeping my heart rate between 123-153bpm. But the thing is I actually cant run for long periods without it going over 153, even at my slowest possible pace. So instead Ive been doing bouts of slow running and walking keeping it in this range. I know this is meant to be great training for building aerobic capacity and for burning fat, and I still am burning plenty of calories doing this, but it doesn't feel like I've put in the work compared to doing a normal run.

Anyone else done zone 2 training?

 

[Willo_]

Been doing some "Zone 2" training keeping my heart rate between 123-153bpm. But the thing is I actually cant run for long periods without it going over 153, even at my slowest possible pace. So instead Ive been doing bouts of slow running and walking keeping it in this range. I know this is meant to be great training for building aerobic capacity and for burning fat, and I still am burning plenty of calories doing this, but it doesn't feel like I've put in the work compared to doing a normal run.

Anyone else done zone 2 training?

I used to do it a lot, there is a bit of hit and miss based on just the fact that wrist HR isn't always accurate. I did find it got me fit though, you feel like you have a handbrake on early but all of a sudden you start to get moving a lot better IMO

 

[Wormkilla]

I used to do it a lot, there is a bit of hit and miss based on just the fact that wrist HR isn't always accurate. I did find it got me fit though, you feel like you have a handbrake on early but all of a sudden you start to get moving a lot better IMO

Thanks for that. Did it take a lot of training to notice improvement in pace? At the moment I reckon I'm getting more sorer doing this slow jogging to walking stuff than just maintaining a steady pace (with a massive heart rate). Knees in particular are feeling cooked.

 

[Willo_]

Thanks for that. Did it take a lot of training to notice improvement in pace? At the moment I reckon I'm getting more sorer doing this slow jogging to walking stuff than just maintaining a steady pace (with a massive heart rate). Knees in particular are feeling cooked.

If I'm being completely honest I can't remember exactly, I'd been running for 18 months and had a couple of half maras under my belt when I started.. So going by HR just got me to slow down basically but within a month or so I noticed real improvements in my pace to the point I was going at the pace that had been my effort pace but my HR was still comfortable. It may not have been the HR stuff though and also that I was just following a properly structured training plan that had a lot to do with it also

 

[Wormkilla]

If I'm being completely honest I can't remember exactly, I'd been running for 18 months and had a couple of half maras under my belt when I started.. So going by HR just got me to slow down basically but within a month or so I noticed real improvements in my pace to the point I was going at the pace that had been my effort pace but my HR was still comfortable. It may not have been the HR stuff though and also that I was just following a properly structured training plan that had a lot to do with it also

Thanks again. Will keep up with it.

Finally got to 10k's last night without stopping. Very slow but did it. Not sure I want to go further now.

What plan did you follow out of interest?

Now that I've got to 10k's I'm not sure what goal to work to next...maybe try and improve my 5k pace, or bring in some strength training. But I definitely reckon I need a set goal to work towards.

 

[Willo_]

Thanks again. Will keep up with it.

Finally got to 10k's last night without stopping. Very slow but did it. Not sure I want to go further now.

What plan did you follow out of interest?

Now that I've got to 10k's I'm not sure what goal to work to next...maybe try and improve my 5k pace, or bring in some strength training. But I definitely reckon I need a set goal to work towards.

The set a goal thing absolutely works for me and motivation, I find entering something keeps me going and accountable.. At that particular time I think I'd just done the Garmin Half Marathon plan, it isn't great.. Pretty generic and I also likely did it wrong as I had no idea on pace so just pushed each run. Then I had a guy setting me a program and he was all on HR

 

[owen87]

Been doing some "Zone 2" training keeping my heart rate between 123-153bpm. But the thing is I actually cant run for long periods without it going over 153, even at my slowest possible pace. So instead Ive been doing bouts of slow running and walking keeping it in this range. I know this is meant to be great training for building aerobic capacity and for burning fat, and I still am burning plenty of calories doing this, but it doesn't feel like I've put in the work compared to doing a normal run.

Anyone else done zone 2 training?

You're doing it right, the whole idea is that you aren't bashing your body up and can get up day, after day, after day and go again without getting injured.

Most people run way too hard and ultimately get injured.

If it's a walk-run combo at first to stay in the right zone then so be it, running might also feel uncomfortably slow at first as you build in to it. As the weather cools down (heat will raise your HR a fair bit) and you keep at it you'll find you're able to go further and further without your HR drifting out of the range.

If you want to read more about it I'd recommend this one if you haven't already, and it includes training plans for various distances;

https://www.booktopia.com.au/80-20-...term=4584619899117612&utm_content=Ad group #1

Thanks again. Will keep up with it.

Finally got to 10k's last night without stopping. Very slow but did it. Not sure I want to go further now.

What plan did you follow out of interest?

Now that I've got to 10k's I'm not sure what goal to work to next...maybe try and improve my 5k pace, or bring in some strength training. But I definitely reckon I need a set goal to work towards.

On this; if you're happy with 10k then you can try adding in a faster session a week for some variety, looking to do some ParkRuns and see how you go there. Heaps of people chase 30m / 25m / 20m as goals. Also look up any of the major fun runs and maybe aim for them? City to Surf is a hilly 14km that's pretty iconic, but I'm sure there's ones closer to home that you might be interested in if you're from WA

 

[Wormkilla]

You're doing it right, the whole idea is that you aren't bashing your body up and can get up day, after day, after day and go again without getting injured.

Most people run way too hard and ultimately get injured.

If it's a walk-run combo at first to stay in the right zone then so be it, running might also feel uncomfortably slow at first as you build in to it. As the weather cools down (heat will raise your HR a fair bit) and you keep at it you'll find you're able to go further and further without your HR drifting out of the range.

If you want to read more about it I'd recommend this one if you haven't already, and it includes training plans for various distances;

https://www.booktopia.com.au/80-20-running-matt-fitzgerald/book/9780451470881.html?msclkid=a5e471d22d7618c411f117d07142eb3b&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Smart Shopping Test 2&utm_term=4584619899117612&utm_content=Ad group #1



On this; if you're happy with 10k then you can try adding in a faster session a week for some variety, looking to do some ParkRuns and see how you go there. Heaps of people chase 30m / 25m / 20m as goals. Also look up any of the major fun runs and maybe aim for them? City to Surf is a hilly 14km that's pretty iconic, but I'm sure there's ones closer to home that you might be interested in if you're from WA

Awesome thanks for that. Good to know that the zone 2 training is the way to go. How many sessions per week would you recommend doing this, and for how long?

 

[owen87]

Awesome thanks for that. Good to know that the zone 2 training is the way to go. How many sessions per week would you recommend doing this, and for how long?

As many sessions as you like, for as long as you like, you could do all your running in Z2 if you wanted and would probably still continue to improve for a really long time with sufficient consistency and volume, heaps of runners do exactly that.

If you want to include harder sessions (and you don't have to if you don't want to) then no more than approximately 20% of your weekly volume should be above Z2 as the recovery demands will simply be too high and ultimately result in injury. Even if you look at elite runners (a lot of them have public Strava these days) you'll find they do a pretty similar ratio, they can just run a lot faster and still be in Z2.

How often you run would be up to you and what your goals are, but if you're doing say 5 runs a week you'd want only one of those to be harder or limit the distance you're doing in harder sessions, a lot of elites do double run days so they'll do 2-3 hard sessions a week (which still keeps it to around the 80:20 ratio given ~ 14 runs a week). If you're doing say 3 runs a week, then you can work it out on a distance / time basis.

This is quite an easy to follow resource from reddit;

 

[AvantGardener]

Awesome thanks for that. Good to know that the zone 2 training is the way to go. How many sessions per week would you recommend doing this, and for how long?

I would throw in one quicker session. It depends on exactly what you're training for though tbh. If just training for general health with side goal of 10km I would do 2-3 Zone 2 sessions a week a 1 quicker session a week. I have found if its 100% Zone 2 my improvement stalls. You can jazz it up a bit more once you get fitter and have a new goal in place.

As for knees hurting more on the Zone 2 perhaps two things going on here. 1) because it is easier physically on heart and lungs maybe you are overdoing distance for what your body can handle the repeated impact. or 2) your running form at the slower speed breaks down so knees are taking more of the force than they should be. I would be weary of the distance you are increasing each week, perhaps only 1 run a week should increase in distance towards the 10km but keep the other 2 at the lower distances and also try and find some grass to run on while you focus on correct running form at the slower speed.

 

[Wormkilla]

I would throw in one quicker session. It depends on exactly what you're training for though tbh. If just training for general health with side goal of 10km I would do 2-3 Zone 2 sessions a week a 1 quicker session a week. I have found if its 100% Zone 2 my improvement stalls. You can jazz it up a bit more once you get fitter and have a new goal in place.

As for knees hurting more on the Zone 2 perhaps two things going on here. 1) because it is easier physically on heart and lungs maybe you are overdoing distance for what your body can handle the repeated impact. or 2) your running form at the slower speed breaks down so knees are taking more of the force than they should be. I would be weary of the distance you are increasing each week, perhaps only 1 run a week should increase in distance towards the 10km but keep the other 2 at the lower distances and also try and find some grass to run on while you focus on correct running form at the slower speed.

Thanks for that.

I’ve read 80/20 Running and have started a 5k program to speed up my times. I’ve done some work on the indoor bike at the gym and found it so much easier to maintain my HR in zone 2. Tomorrow I’m going to try the treadmill and see how I go compared to outside. The program has me doing all sorts of different runs - fartlek, hill sprints, long slow runs etc. Enjoying it so far.