Keep Fit Club - ALL exercise types!

[Terry Tibbs]

Cheers Taka, I'm determined to get there, but I suppose some measure of patience is needed. [emoji3]

Do you guys ever work on cadence? During that session I did some 1,2,3 counting roughly every second, and trying to land on every number. It felt quite good but I did have to increase my cadence quite a bit from my more natural slow bound. I also found I couldn't do this and concentrate on breathing in time with each foot fall.

[Taka]

Strides and drills will help with cadence, as will working on your form and footstrike to become more mid-foot/forefoot. I'd say it's not worth concentrating/trying to change too many things at once - bigger risk of injury and all that!

I have an unusually high natural cadence of 190 to 200+ steps per minute due to my forefoot strike. Works fantastically for acceleration and racing up hills, but it's less good at going downhill where I find each step almost acts like a brake. Also doesn't help that I don't have the balls to just let myself go when going downhill and let gravity guide me down.

[charlesr]

Downhill is a mystery to me too Love your high cadence - I imagine your legs just being a blur like in a cartoon.

[Taka]

Ha! I wish!

Side by side with others in a race, you wouldn't be able to tell that I had a higher than normal cadence to me.

[charlesr]

I did a review of the Mizuno Wave Universe 5. Check it. Share it etc.

[Terry Tibbs]

I was planning another 800s session today, but two things: it rained heavily so the field I use would have been waterlogged. Secondly, I went and left my watch at home. Gah! I took my phone with me instead and had a really decent Fartlek session. Wasn't really sure what to do, so I just jogged, ran, sprinted, as I fancied. I was quite tough on myself in places. [emoji106]

[Taka]

Good work, Terry. I enjoy a fartlek sometimes when I can't mentally deal with the structured nature of an interval sesh.

I did 3x 1600m at my 10k pace tonight. Lungs were pretty good but it was so windy out there. Was aiming for 4x reps but due to fighting the wind, I was knackered by the end of 3x so called it quits.

[charlesr]

Well done peeps.

I did a 5k sesh this morning - first "fast" run in ages. It was not fast.... My legs are still recovering from that race though. I foolishly did 29k in my Vivobarefoot ONE a couple of days ago which is really daft only 2 weeks after a marathon. I'll be continuing the really easy runs (fast and short or slow and short) for another week.

[Terry Tibbs]

Much better session today. Had another stab at 5x800, and here's the results:

1. 3:12 (3:59/km)
2. 3:11 (3:57/km)
3. 3:12 (3:57/km)
4. 3:03 (3:48/km)
5. 3:06 (3:51/km)

Some factors that helped this time:
-2 days rest
-nice circular loops around a cricket pitch
-kept the pace, breathing, and form as even as poss, while trying to stay relaxed (i.e. not run rigid).

https://www.strava.com/activities/312799763

[Taka]

Much better session today. Had another stab at 5x800, and here's the results:

1. 3:12 (3:59/km)
2. 3:11 (3:57/km)
3. 3:12 (3:57/km)
4. 3:03 (3:48/km)
5. 3:06 (3:51/km)

Some factors that helped this time:
-2 days rest
-nice circular loops around a cricket pitch
-kept the pace, breathing, and form as even as poss, while trying to stay relaxed (i.e. not run rigid).

https://www.strava.com/activities/312799763

Nice splits! Clearly you'd warmed up as well come the fourth rep!

Give those another bash for two, maybe three more weeks and then have a go at Parkrun. Would even be worth visiting another nearby event that's flatter and faster if your home venue is hilly, unpaved etc.

[Terry Tibbs]

Nice splits! Clearly you'd warmed up as well come the fourth rep!

Give those another bash for two, maybe three more weeks and then have a go at Parkrun. Would even be worth visiting another nearby event that's flatter and faster if your home venue is hilly, unpaved etc.

Cheers dude. It was a good session, and felt just the right balance of effort vs control. I was breathing like a mofo in the last rep, but I reckon if it came to it I could have managed one more. I'll do as you suggest and repeat this session for a few more weeks, and see how consistent I am. As for Parkrun, I tend to do it most weekends anyway, but I generally treat it as a LT run (so, for me that's around 22 mins). I'll keep doing that for another month perhaps and then attempt an all-out.

My Parkrun is not too hilly, but it is offroad and not very even underfoot. It's also very twisty turny, and there are some bottleneck sections that force you to slow down. Dogs and crowding can be an issue. As you say, perhaps a 5k TT elsewhere is in order.

[Taka]

Cheers dude. It was a good session, and felt just the right balance of effort vs control. I was breathing like a mofo in the last rep, but I reckon if it came to it I could have managed one more. I'll do as you suggest and repeat this session for a few more weeks, and see how consistent I am. As for Parkrun, I tend to do it most weekends anyway, but I generally treat it as a LT run (so, for me that's around 22 mins). I'll keep doing that for another month perhaps and then attempt an all-out.

My Parkrun is not too hilly, but it is offroad and not very even underfoot. It's also very twisty turny, and there are some bottleneck sections that force you to slow down. Dogs and crowding can be an issue. As you say, perhaps a 5k TT elsewhere is in order.

You've hit the number of reps and pace pretty much bang on then if you felt like there was one more inside you.

Perhaps worth making the Parkrun pilgrimage to Bushy Parkrun? It's flat, pretty fast and you can be guaranteed there'll be no shortage of people to work with aiming for 19:59!

[Terry Tibbs]

To be honest, although I'm determined I can't see myself going sub 20 in a matter of weeks. There's a big diff between holding that pace for 15-16 mins with 4 rests, and doing the whole shebang in one go. I wonder if I could even hold sub 4min/km for 2-3km at the mo.

[charlesr]

Find out!

[Taka]

Positive mental attitude!

In a race environment with other people, it'll happen. Treat it like a proper race with a small taper, a good night's rest etc. Beauty of the 5k is you can recover quickly from it. Each attempt is in effect training for the next time, too.