The Virtual Runner Running Blog » reading roadrunners

Mortimer 10k, Long Run & Puffy Knees

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:52:02 +0000

Nice title eh? I think one of the hardest things is trying to think of a damn title for each blog post. It can be a bit of a challenge!

The Mortimer 10k is put on by my running club the Reading Roadrunners. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it (it was in Sept) but I have been waiting all this time for someone to put the finish times on the site. They only recently went up!

Anyway, it wasn’t chip timed or anything but they had my finish time this year as 00:55:59. That is a pretty good time considering I felt like I was in more pain then last year. I also managed to shave time off from last year’s 00:57:09! Pretty impressive considering all of the hills.

I did my long run today with Garfield and it was slightly painful for quite a few miles. I had shin splints for about the first 4 miles and I had to stop an stretch a couple of times to get the tightness out of my lower legs. This always seems to happen to me when I get new trainers which are nice and cushioned. Why is that? If they aren’t cushioned I get other types of injury… I can’t win!

For today’s long run I started at my gym (Pulse-8) and ran from there to Dinton Pastures and back again.

I got to Dinton Pastures and tried to mix it up a bit with regards to the direction I ran around the lake and it was a bit difficult. I think I’m getting bored with the scenery of Dinton Pastures! All those people walking dogs…

Overall the run was pretty good (even with the pains) and I managed to keep an average pace of around 6 mins per km. That is the sort of pace (or a little bit slower) that I would be happy with in the Brighton Marathon.

Now after my long run I am drugged up with Ibruprofen to help with the horrible “puffy” knee feeling that I’ve been getting lately. I think I’ll need to concentrate a bit more on let weights/exercises on my non running days to build up my quads. I think they’re getting a bit weak from all the running and it’s causing me a bit of knee trouble. Jeez, if it isn’t one thing with running it’s another isn’t it?

I’m off to put my Santa suit on and lounge around the house…

Themed Runs & Reading Roadrunners

The Virtual Runner — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:00:16 +0000

It seems I’m getting into themed runs lately as I’m registered for the Halloween 5 Nite Run (31/10/2009) and the THc Santa Dash (29/11/2009). One is at 9pm and comes with a skeleton t-shirt and headlamp and the other comes with a red suit and beard (you figure it out).

I’ve never done a 5k event before and I’m looking forward to doing these ones for a bit of fun and for the medals (I love the medals). I’ve also managed to rope a few work colleagues into doing the Santa Dash and we’re raising money for Thames Hospicecare as well. If any of you are interested in sponsoring our little team you can do so at www.justgiving.com/grouprisk.

I had a query on my post yesterday regarding the Reading Roadrunners. I Run Because I Love Food asked “I’ve wondered about joining Reading Road Runners, but worry it might be a bit serious – are they the bunch that meet at Palmer Park?”

Yes, that’s them. I’ve been a member for a while now but me and my mate Tony have only just started going to the Wed night track sessions again. They also do track sessions on Fridays I believe but I don’t go to those ones.

When I first joined the running club I was a bit nervous because I thought it was just going to be a lot of elite runners and they’ll all be whipping past me constantly. And the truth is, there are a lot of elite-ish runners who go whipping past me constantly, however the running club also has load of normal runners like me and my friend Tony. They are a nice sociable bunch of people and very welcoming to new people. In fact, the first couple of sessions are free so you can see whether you like it or not.

On a normal Wed night they have a little meeting with all of us by the track at about 6:30pm and let everyone know what runs are happening etc and then everyone splits up and heads off with different running coaches for some training. There are loads of coaches and you can join any session you want. All really flexible and a great way to spend cold Autumn and Winter evenings.

I do find that the membership seems to dramatically increase after new years when all the new joiners suddenly appear. But on a normal night like last night there were quite a few people at the track.

On top of all that, by joining a running club you get discounts at Sweatshop in Reading and you also usually get reduced entry fees for events/races because Reading Roadrunners is UK Athletics affiliated.

Loads more info at www.readingroadrunners.org

Running Club & New Kayano 15 Shoes

The Virtual Runner — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:28:07 +0000

That’s right, I’ve gone and purchased a nice new pair of running shoes. The arch of my right foot has been bothering me so I thought it was about time to move on from my Adidas Supernovas.

I got myself pair of Asics Kayano 15s and I wore them this evening to running club. I did my interval training in them and they felt pretty good. It was nice to have the cushioning again; something that is missing from my Adidas shoes.

The Kayano’s were reasonably priced at £85; which isn’t that bad considering they are usually £115 – £120. They’ll be coming out with Kayano 16s soon so that probably explains why it is possible to get the 15s at a discount.

Running club (Reading Roadrunners) went well. Me and my mate Tony (yes, I’ve mentioned your name again) went to use the track for the first time in months. We have been going to where the club meets the past two Wednesdays, however the track wasn’t open because it was being renovated (looks good now).

I took Garfield the Garmin with me and we decided to try out one of the workouts that I put on it. They were 5 x 400m repeats with a 200m recovery inbetween each.

It was hard (according to Garfield) for us to maintain a steady pace during the intervals. We knew this because Garfield kept beeping everytime and a message appeared on the screen saying we needed to slow down. Us? Slow down? Jeez, I would have thought speed-up instead!

I’m happy with our 400m paces because they are all close to 5 min per km and they got progressively quicker (5:12, 5:06, 5:03, 5:01 & 4:55).

Overall a good run. Tomorrow morning I’m off to the gym again and I’ll do some cycling and a bit of weights. Friday will be a steady run and then long run on Sunday again.

I’m thinking I’m going to need to re-adjust the days I am running because at the moment I’m only able to run 4 days a week and that isn’t enough. I need 5 days!

Running club is great, however because it is in the evening it messes with my overall weekly schedule. I usually run first thing in the morning and my long runs are always on a Sunday. Before I went back to running club I would run on Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri & Sun. Now, since going back to running club I can’t really run on Thu mornings (can I?) because I had running club less than 12 hours previously the night before. This means that going to running club is actually reducing the amount of mileage I am doing but adding more quality.

I am now going to have to entertain the idea of running on Sat mornings. Probably not until after christmas though.

Time for a cup of tea….