I’ve been adding some longer runs to my short hill climbs. Today I won my class in a 5k by being the only person to show up 
. My times on the hill climbs are improving a lot but I need to work on endurance.
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Had some time off after being in an accident earlier this year. Finally fully recovered and ran a 5k this morning. Felt awful but good to get back out. I have 10k, half and a marathon booked next year. I start training properly again in July and hoping to get around 43 mins for the 10k
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May I ask: have you completed no. 30 yet?
Just checking in. How’s everybody doing? I’ve been pretty consistent with four sessions a week, 10-14km, for the past year, with the odd recovery phase here and there. Also, I’ve tried running in the dark with a headlight. I probably looked even more like a complete twat than I usually do, but it felt great to go out at 5 in the morning, chilly air, not a lot of people out and about, even though I got a bit paranoid a few times, b/c it was pitch black around me.
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Hey, for anyone in this thread I thought I’d update and see how everyone else is doing.
I quit drinking a month ago as I realised I have a serious problem with booze. I can’t just have one and I was drinking heavily everyday. It was ruining my family and work life.
I started running again and have fallen head over heels with it. I have a marathon booked in Edinburgh next May. I don’t care about time, I just want to be the healthiest I can be, especially so that my son has a decent male role model.
He has been running 3k with me every Saturday and it’s great to include him in my hobbies (he is 4).
Anyway I thought I’d reach out to anyone having personal problems and say that running has helped me focus while also calming my thoughts. I suffer from bi polar and so after twenty years of therapy and meds feel that it really is on me to make a difference to my life.
This forum has always been so giving and supportive and I wanted to say thanks to every like and reply I’ve had over the years.
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Been quiet over here. How’s everyone going? I’ve been doing longer runs over the last few months, working up to around 12k before my MCLs got tired of it. Since then I’ve been trying to stabilize things by doing more squats and going for shorter runs a few times a week. By the way a good tip for squats is to try to remember to squat instead of bending over when doing stuff around the house like getting things from a low cabinet. I’m already seeing some positive effects.
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I’ve been weightlifting for a few years, so plenty of squats in the tank, but have just started running. I’m trying out some zone 2/heartrate based training, turning my 5km commute to work into a training opportunity. Sure seems like my aerobic fitness is crap, I can only maintain <140 BPM if I walk up every incline. I think the weight training has been good for my joints and mobility though, the running doesn’t seem to pose any problems there.
A conceptual question for the experienced runners: would running 8x5 km per week have a somewhat equivalent effect to say 10x4km?
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Oh, nice, I’ve been wondering whether such a thread exists over here - while I was running and then forgot about it again 
I’m back into running and I’m doing some structured training this time. Nothing fancy though, one threshold unit and a long run in zone 2 per week. But I’ve put in one rowing session as well! Works wonders for my back… Trying to get to my 10k PR from 15 years ago and I want to do a proper half marathon in October. And it does look pretty promising so far, I always thought that I couldn’t get there again, now that I’m in my mid fourties.
Don’t worry too much about your heart rate in the beginning. Just make sure that you enjoy the experience and build up your endurance so you can run for an hour or so without feeling completely exhausted. Your body needs to make a few adjustments and over the course of a few months, it will be much better at this. Personally, I’d say you only need two to three sessions per week because your body needs rest. If you don’t rest enough, you will eventually hurt yourself.
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Not sure if I’ve posted here, but since leaving teaching in 2021 I’ve gradually gotten into running. Battling employment has helped in that I have the time and no excuses. Last year, my goal was running 3 5ks (about 484 miles for the year)a week and I was super close to that. I had a few minor breaks to manage some pain and my neighbors don’t shovel their sidewalks in the snow so I missed maybe 2 weeks straight for that in the winter. So pretty pleased I came so close despite that. This year I’m on pace for 600 miles. I’d imagine something will interrupt that pace, but that’s despite missing some time due to the snow/lack of shoveling by shitty neighbors.
The big pickle will be maintaining it if I can find work.
Really enjoying the routine though.
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In response my question would be: when are you going to rest your body? The distance difference is negligible and the total is the same so shouldn’t matter, but not getting enough rest means long term your body is at risk of breaking down.
I’m not massively technical on running, so others might have different opinions, but my wife used to do a lot of run commutes and agrees about rest.
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I’ve got 19 years of running long distances on my belt.
The trick is you plan your mileage / km for the week and the week after you can only increase your volume by 10% max.
This means if week 1 is 20km then week 2 should be 22km max for the week. Week 3 could then max out at 24km. Again if you overdo it you can make the recovery cycle take longer. The best strategy is if week 1 is 20 and week 2 is 22, let week 3 stay at 22. This will help improve your recovery time.
Your body will adapt and recover faster as the weeks go by.
So to answer your first question if you want to do single runs that add up to what you do in doubles then that is fine because your weekly volume number is the same. The first few days of this strategy may feel painful but your body will adapt
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Elektronauts has a thread for every hobby that I do
I started about 2,5-3 month ago with running.
From building up endurance from ZERO I started with really slow run and walk intervals.
1:2 (1min run 2min walk) then 2:2 , 3:2 , 4:2 etc.
This week I finished my first full 5k without dying and a pretty good hr.
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I started running 3 years ago approx. I wanted to lose some weight and I was walking a lot everyday with my GF. We must arrive to 10k steps everyday.
One day I came to the idea to run to make it faster. Now I run 4-5 times per week ( around 40-45 km) with strides, threshold run,sprints etc. I recently added some gym exercises and make 3 km swimming.
I aim to a pace under 5:00 per km in my next 10 km race.
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Little update.
Still going strong!
My week is now
One chill 5k,
one faster 5k (34min pb)
and one chill 10k.
The only thing what’s holding me back is the ongoing heatwave in Germany .
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Stoked to post on the elektronauts running thread! My partner has been running for a few years but it hasn’t been my thing - but both of my children and some in-laws are joining them on a 5k in October so I said sure, fuck it, I’ll do a 5k in a couple months.
Turns out starting a regular running practice in your late nid forties is really hard? Come on man, im way more used to doing stuff im already decent at lol. It’s good for me though.
I started with a couch to 5k app that had me alternating between walking and running on beginner runs, but it became surprise paid after one week, so i just switched to the Nike run app, which has me doing 20 minute runs with no walking. Its great though, because the Nike run app keeps telling me to slow down, which is consistently useful advice.
When I was I high school and college I was a decent epee fencer, I went to nationals a few times - which sounds impressive, but I did not do well at nationals lol. Then halfway through college I chose a codependent relationship over athletics and then didnt really do anything aerobic except bike commuting in new York and Oakland for a few years. Then I didnt really do shit for like a decade. Then three years ago, I realized therapy wasn’t helping, broke up with my therapist, tried to find an olympic style fencing school to join, couldn’t find one within doable driving distance, said fuck it and started doing taekwondo.
There’s some overlap between fencing and taekwondo (balance, keeping and breaking distance, you can hit em hard but you probably don’t need to), so i kinda had a leg up, and ive been doing it for a few years now since then. I basically have been living for sparring week at the end of the month every month lol.
Anyway I sweat like a pig with very serious sweat glands somehow during sparring because like I said cardio/conditioning has not been a priority. All of which is a long walk to say that having a specific goal for running - the 5k, then we’ll see - feels like a really good thing to be doing alongside tkd, and im hoping to make this a habit for a long time.
Last thing - i was in a great band for a few years where the drummer had been a runner since high school. So we’d be driving to shows in her beat up old truck, playing basements, sleepin those basements, then while the other band member and I were trying to wake up like “fuck man how are we going to get coffee” she’d go for an eight mile run lol. I always thought that was so rad. Using your body is cool.
Anyway. If anybody’s got advice for a new runner, id love to hear it. I just read this whole thread and am super impressed with you all.
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I don’t think I’ve posted in this thread before. I’m not an experienced runner, only been doing it a few years but am enjoying increasing my distance and pace, did my first 10k event last month.
The cool thing about running is that - just like in this thread - everyone I know who’s into it is genuinely pleased to chat to anyone else who is, regardless of the difference between their ability. A friend gave me some great pacing tips for my 10k that helped him the month before going a marathon. I find that really motivating.
One thing I struggled with a lot when I started is pacing. My main sport is cycling and I couldn’t believe how slow a runner I was, so I always ran too hard and ran out of steam too early. Short walk breaks (just 100m or so walking) helped me to learn how to pay attention to the effort rather than the speed I was doing. It’s taken me a couple of years to be able to run without constantly checking my pace on my watch!
The other thing is to have a training plan and try to stick to it. Even if you don’t feel you could manage a run that day, try to see how you feel after you’ve been out for 5-10 minutes - after which time you’ll probably end up doing the run you actually planned after all.
Finall.y - get enough sleep! Nothing makes training harder than doing it on a sleep deficit.
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Good on you and keep at it. I’m pretty sure being able to run an uninterrupted 5-10km will give anyone a boost in endurance that enhances their other activities whether it’s combat sports, hiking, or just rocking out!
My own route to running was through climbing. I felt physically very strong from climbing but if I had to run for a bus I was knackered. That didn’t feel right as a 28 year old. So I started running. Before there were apps, this was my method: run 1km each day Monday to Friday, then on Saturday put it all together and run 5km in one go. I did Parkrun, if you have one near you. It is a challenge but after that you’ve crossed a threshold and you can head out for a 5km 2-4 times a week and it will get easier and you will get faster. Also fine to run less distance, just make sure you run a few times a week—consistency is key. Add an extra km here or there and you’ll be doing 10km and further. If you want to do a marathon then definitely follow a training plan!
Sometime while getting into it all I read the book Born to Run, which was enjoyable and I’d recommend.
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I can relate. I’m attempting to ease back into this after a fair break (kids, work, neglect etc). Wow starting again in your 40s vs the 30s is the truest backward leap I’ve experienced. They weren’t kidding when they say the body keeps the score.
The big issues is I was having knee problems, and I needed a kick to get back out there. That came with knee pain just going up some stairs and I knew I needed help. I found an excellent physio who has been gradually adding stretches to help me build back up. It’s taking it’s time but I’m slowly improving in that area.
I went for couch to 5k and like you I hit issues with the longer hotter summer. I’ve been walking loads as well so my level of activity is way higher than before which is a start.
I’ve lost the thread of the couch to 5k but my thinking is I’m doing something which is a step up from nothing. I’m not really following a plan. I now try to run for as long as I can and then walk a bit and then run some more.
One thing I have noticed is how powerful music is. I know you’re supposed to avoid that in public spaces for safety reasons, but I find that music helps me get out of my head in a good way. I can feel myself running way longer and stronger when tunes are involved.
Music also seems to have helped with my timing. When I run without, I don’t know why but I tend to focus more on the sensations of the run and breathe too much/too fast. When I do it with music I immediately feel calmer and naturally take on a slower breathing pattern.
I’m hoping to try a Parkrun at some stage but need more kms under the belt first I think.
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Thank you, this is helpful! Im definitely just doing whatever my app tells me lol, going to do my best not to overthink it. So probably 3 runs a week and two tkd classes.
@holonology listening to music has been one of the best parts of this so far! Im getting back in touch with Deafheaven and my Judas Priest roots 
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Absolutely, if you have an app or training plan that is working for you, stick to it. Be wary of AI training plans, I’ve heard they can be bad.
Three runs a week is a great amount to enjoy the benefits of running. Good luck with your 5km race, and as you say don’t overthink it and just enjoy it.
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