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Can’t bare to even look at a bike right now, but after wallowing in self pity for a few days I decided to get off my sofa and go for a run instead. My first run in 14 years.
it was absolutely miserable. I don’t have much bike fitness to speak of right now, but even still I thought I could run 5k no problems. Took me 26.22, it felt painfully slow.
6 empty bottles of wine on my living room table having drunk so much red wine over past 3 days that my shit has turned green probably didn’t help, and suggests some quick wins are available. But for some reason I thought I’d be closer to 23 min than 26
as an aside, it turns out that you can buy 461 pairs of asic running shoes for the price I’ve spent on bike stuff since the start of lockdown. So pound for pound, it’s a sport that seems much better value in terms of money spent Vs physical suffering..
After a few years of playing at it, I spent a lot of last year running and would be extremely happy with 25 mins for a 5k. However, much like my biking, I'm happier doing longer, slower runs. It probably doesn't help that I hate the first 3km or so any time I'm running 😂
Faster than me so I wouldn't worry about it. I can't get below 30 mins for a 5k. Then again, I didn't start running until 12mths ago, I'm over 50, overweight and under-fit, plus my asthma seems to not enjoy running... 😂
it was absolutely miserable. I don’t have much bike fitness to speak of right now, but even still I thought I could run 5k no problems. Took me 26.22, it felt painfully slow.
Pop down to your local park run tomorrow morning and I think you'll find yourself in the top half of the field. Most people who have not run 5k in the last 14 years would be the wrong side of 30 minutes.
Worst humblebrag ever 😉
Wish I could run that slow.
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I've been doing it about 4 years now and still haven't worked out how to enjoy it. Any pointers?
The advice far starting running after a 14yr break is usually start slower
not being funny, but my perception was if I went any slower it would have been more akin to fast walking!
no doubt my legs will be aching in the morning..
not being funny, but my perception was if I went any slower it would have been more akin to fast walking!
Adjust your perception then as that was much more than fast walking.
no doubt my legs will be aching in the morning..
Just have a couple more bottles of wine this evening
Walking pace is generally considered to be around 5kph, so you are already twice as fast as that.
I’ve been doing it about 4 years now and still haven’t worked out how to enjoy it. Any pointers?
Not possible to in my experience.
I run a 10k loop from home a couple of times a week, off-road & rarely dip under 40 mins. If I do, it becomes exponentially harder & even more unpleasant.
I’ve done a few 19 min 5ks & find that harder. Makes me feel ill for hours running at that pace.
1 star Google review. Do not recommend. Also seems to have little or no relevance to bike fitness.
Around 25 mins for a 5km is not slow in the grand scheme of things. If that’s your starting point, then you should be able to run a decent pace with a bit of consistency.
Yeah it wasn’t remotely enjoyable, but certainly focused the mind which is what I needed
I run a 10k loop from home a couple of times a week, off-road & rarely dip under 40 mins. If I do, it becomes exponentially harder & even more unpleasant.
That is humblebragging!!
A long time since I considered myself a runner and I might have been able to run that pace (4 mins per km) for a couple of km, but not 10. However, I could knock out loads at upper 4 mins per km. And I also learned that if you run at 5's or 5:20's, then it was very pleasant as you weren't about to be sick, could chat, look at flowers, and so on.
Might I suggest slowing down and not making every run a max effort.
How slow am I?
As above not very / very. Compared to who - park run average is above 30 mins for that distance (albeit, most are sort of off road, clue's in the name). The police fitness qualifier (run) requires the equivalent of about 6:50 per km (actually it's a bleep test, so that's the average, top is about a 5 min per km pace, but the total test is only 525m). OTOH, WR 5km is 12:35 so 2:31 per km, and you're way off that.
Might I suggest slowing down and not making every run a max effort.
I guess the question is why are you running anyway? Once past the initial 3km or so I just like the feeling of being out in the countryside, relatively unburdened, making progress under my own power. I'll undertake routes I might avoid on a bike, even using my time to explore new tracks. For some other folk it'll be a means of burning calories as quickly as possible.
That is humblebragging!!
Indeed. Frankly, anyone running 5k under 30 minutes can blooming well jog on 😜
Pace is irrelevant just get out enjoying running. Something very liberating about getting from a-b without all the faff of a bike
Keep going and imagine the endorphins will take the want away a little to drink so much wine
The police fitness qualifier (run) requires the equivalent of about 6:50 per km (actually it’s a bleep test, so that’s the average, top is about a 5 min per km pace, but the total test is only 525m). <br /><br />
oh, I don’t know why, but for some weird reason I am chuffed that I might be able to outrun a copper…
after 525m they're spent anyway, so I'd work on sprinting rather than stamina.....
why are you running anyway?
my mental health is at rock bottom. For 26.22 minutes the only pain I had was in my legs which was nice. Cycling is great but my mind wanders far too much if I’m not absolutely caning it.
Intense exercise also gives me a nice buzz. For me it’s a bit like coke, but without the health impact (and associated hookers)
As others have said, go slower. I recently started running again after a ten year break and with my dog so some canicross. I ended up doing tendon damage in my hip and it HURT! I’m back running now but learning to go slower because as others have said my heart and lungs were making cheques that my legs can’t bank. Cycling doesn’t move the legs the same as running will.
”how slow am I?”
Not as slow as me, loser!
Pretty handy in fact, when I was doing triathlon I could just about hit 20 as a fat, piss head, knacker I’d be lucky to 30 at the minute, on a flat route with a tail wind so 26 sounds decent to me
I'm glad someone else gets green poop after red wine. Sorry, can't help with the running question.
I’m glad someone else gets green poop after red wine. Sorry, can’t help with the running question
yeah I had to google that. But worrying when you first see it!
10 minute miles here.
My ego dislikes this thread.
Nothing under 30mins for a 5k is slow.
Red poo after green wine is much more alarming... 🙃
Dial it back bro. Your lungs are writing cheques your legs can’t cash.
+1. Rapidly heading toward injury. Annoying reality of running is that one can't just go out and send it without any repercussions like one can on a bike.
Keep at it, but just heavily dial it back! If you can keep yourself on the green side of injury, you're in for some much more efficient and less faff workouts than cycling 🙂
26:22 would get you top 50 out of 200 ish at my local parkrun (although you’d be 9 minutes behind me as we’re all humble bragging…). So not in anyway slow.
If you joined my running club you’d be in the 3rd fastest group out of 7 . So again, not all slow.
Very impressive for a drunk/hungover cyclist.
Good to know, especially as I’m handicapped by ridiculously short legs.
have decided to celebrate my new found running ability with a bottle of rioja..
God invented the wheel, stuff running !
That's quick to me.
However, I'll echo the above, I don't know anyone who was fit from riding, started running, and didn't suffer a painful injury. Usually knees. I needed physio, and had to dial it right back then ramp up slowly to do it pain free.
Cat on as you are, and if be pretty confident you'll be googling 'runner's knee' before too long. And that will bugger any bike riding as well.
Also, go to a local running shop and get them to fit you with some shoes.
I've dabbled on and off with running. I'm naturally built like a racing snake and my Personal Best for a (measured, actual race) 10k is an hour flat. Turning in 26:22 for a 5k after 14 years, I'd be doing the Dance Of Joy once I could walk again.
Last time I ran anywhere was probably a cross-country at school, about fifty years ago, and that barely qualified as a ‘run’, more a trot…
With my knees the way they are, and my general stamina, a steady stroll is all I can manage at my age. Which is still better than some friends of mine who are younger than me.
One reason I’ve taken up archery - we’re not allowed to do more than stroll up to the target in case there’s an arrow buried in the grass. 😁
I’ve been doing it about 4 years now and still haven’t worked out how to enjoy it. Any pointers?
This. I run quite a bit, especially in winter as it’s less faff for a quick burst of exercise. Always trail and fell, always at an in between pace (5min/km.) still struggle to get anything other than the mearest hint of occasional type2 fun hit. My OH will happily run 50km through the lakes for ‘fun’, I just don’t get it. Horses for courses though.
I'm not a runner - much as I like the idea my ankles and knees don't. Last 5k I did was in 2018 and that was my first for a year. Pretty much dead on 30 minutes so 26 and a bit seems amazing to me.
A couple years prior to that I did Couch To 5k in one run. Legs were fine. Lungs and heart rate suggested otherwise. Always find it weird how fitness seems so activity-specific.
If and when I ditch 15kg or so I might try running again...
Horses for courses though.
That’s cheating!
have decided to celebrate my new found running ability with a bottle of rioja..<br /><br />
Some of the best runners I know are high functioning alcoholics. They suggest they drink excessively to cover up the aches and pains from running
Really?!
Running is just painful and boring at first but there's definitely a zen-type enjoyment to it once you get reasonably fit. I like it just as much as I like cycling- and also trail running is way more fun than road running.
In a winter like this one its also just so much easier to go for a run than slog through the soaked lanes or trails in expensive kit listening to my rims getting destroyed and then spend half an hour trying to clean a bike with frozen hands.
5km out and back along the canal in 26:47
Only finished c25k a couple of months back so just trying to consolidate that win.
For an overweight bloke turning 50 this year, I'll take that.
As the saying goes, I overtook everyone 9n the sofa
Legs all good today!
I told you the wine would help!
told you the wine would help!
yeah legs fine. Head not so good!😝
Anything under 30 minutes for a 5k is decent. Get off road, onto more enjoyable terrain. I find trail running much more enjoyable than bashing the pavements. Better scenery, better for your legs. Even walk/jogging off road is good.
I've not been running regularly for a couple of years. My 5k PB after my second marathon was 19.25. I'd be lucky to crack 24/25 minutes these days.
In a winter like this one its also just so much easier to go for a run than slog through the soaked lanes or trails in expensive kit listening to my rims getting destroyed and then spend half an hour trying to clean a bike with frozen hands.
Whereas we have loads of ice, making biking very problematic. A pair of studded running shoes and I feel like Spiderman. Did 17km on some very icy tracks earlier and no grip problems.
Running is just painful and boring at first
I was in the middle of my second Cardiff Half when it dawned on me how bored I was, plodding around the docks of Cardiff. If it had been a bike race there would have been some adrenaline somewhere, but this was just plodding, plodding, with people plodding around me. I gave up running other than short training runs ready for the 'cross season
A short while later I ran limped the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya, with a nasty groin strain because I'd not had enough time to train for it properly because of having given up, etc. I was still plodding, but this time through the Kenyan highlands which had apparently been cleared of any dangerous animals, but we still had glimpses of the helicopter that was keeping an eye on them, and occasionally had armed rangers at the side of the course. I was less concerned about the boredom in that event, although I think it was my slowest run ever. At one point I stopped for a while because I couldn't see anyone else, just a giraffe about a 100m away. Alone in the Kenyan bush - that's the sort of run I like. Still painful, though, I couldn't get out of bed properly for weeks because of the groin strain. 😀