Running

Bucket list tick off with London Marathon done.

Ran in 4:12, pleased with that for my first marathon.

Atmosphere is truly something else.

Ha! No this was a run I wanted to see what my normal capability would be.

Maybe next time! Although I did see someone running in the same Dino outfit I wore before!

Doing a 10k race tomorrow. Last year I did the same one in 1:05:22 so really hoping to break the hour mark this time.

First 5k is very flat compacted gravelly type road then bang on the 5 marker its uphill all the way to the 8 sign on tarmac. More tarmac down to the 9 then the final km is half potentially muddy woodland footpath half the original gravel road.

Should be able to pace myself better knowing when the hill is coming and how long it’ll last.

1:09 on Strava, 1:07 chip time.
Absolutely cooked in the heat but it felt like a good one. Got to see a deer get onto the road and run along ahead of us for a bit too.

Finally pulled my finger out and had an attempt at a run after working my way up to it with walks this year. Started off a bit too keen and the bastard hill right at the start pushed me to my max heart rate straight away, so had to rein it in a wee bit. I've got a long way to go but already itching to get out there again (preferably when it's a bit cooler!)

I feel fucking great after that!

Ran a 10k up and down a hill in Northumberland at the weekend. Legs felt like jelly on a couple of the later climbs but the steepest parts of the course were all on a big downhill into the finish so I took the breaks off to try and make up time there.

1hr 4min my third fastest 10k ever according to Strava although the chip times aren’t available yet.

Felt good. I don’t get to go hiking anymore so this kind of thing is my biggest excuse to get somewhere countryside-ish.

Back on the running buzz again (I never fully lapse but drop down to 1 a week at times), only 5ks, got 4 in last week and realised that my runners are probably in need of replacement.

"But these are only new" I thought to myself before realising I bought them 3 years ago and they probably needed replacing a year ago. Not appreciating how truly old your footwear is is a real dad move to my mind so another old man milestone reached there I guess.

Anyway, any recommendations for a decent but not massively expensive pair? Most frequent distance is 5k, might do the odd 10 but that's the max.

Ideally as low as possible. Topping out at just over 100 of my euros. So probably 80 - 90£
I would invest more if I was doing anything more than short distance but I just don't think it's needed.

I use Asics gel nimbus 23's. Good for support.

As a flipside, I paid about £40 for my first pair from Decathlon and they've lasted fucking ages. So it's swings and roundabouts.

I generally wear stuff til it falls apart though.

My latest pair cost me about £130.

I manage to get around 1000 km out of my shoes, though some start to fall apart before that. Can generally feel when they start to lose support. Probably should retire them before this as I love bouncing along in a new pair of running shoes.

Agree re. gait analysis, I've had it done a couple of times over the past ten years. Still buy the same models based on that, though sometimes save a bit of cash by getting last year's version. They generally don't change too much year on year.

I alternate between Asics Gel Kayanos and Mizone Wave Inspires. Read somewhere that alternating shoes between runs can help avoid injuries but that's probably a load of bollocks as it seems like I'm constantly nursing some running related aches and pains nowadays.

Ah cool no worries. Yeah man I recommend the gait analysis. Can be quite interesting.

Is there a FG Strava group I can join? I miss the old Nike challenges from the old place, I’d probably never have started running without it.

Really influential on me starting doing it too.