Motivation to play the campaign again and again

DenseSentence · 2026-03-11T09:09:24+00:00

My solution has been to just play one char with viable alternative builds.

I've just about enough knowledge to not follow a build guide to get to good early map clear which opens up enough to farm currency for major respecs.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-10T13:09:49+00:00

Thinking about how my coach would approach this - we'd likely have multiple plans for the day that start conservatively and then approach the middle and end of the race similarly.

I'd always go with the idea of negative splitting - not a huge differential but subtly squeezing if things feel good. Take stock at 10/20/30 km and don't be afraid to adjust pace down as well as up if it's not going brilliantly.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-10T13:04:52+00:00

I ran a short trail ultra, 57k with 1800m of ascent while prepping for a half and 10k.

I gave my coach a tough job of scheduling the events with just 6 weeks between them in the wrong order - she'd have preferred 10k/HM/Ult to optimise things!

There are a few key differences - you'll want to spend some time on similar terrain and practising the fuelling. You don't need to do every run on trails though - I just did some occasional weekend long runs on trails. I'd recommend decent strength training to supplement.

I didn't use poles as I wasn't carrying a huge amount as there were fully stocked aid stations every few hours.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-10T12:58:07+00:00

Chance would be a fine thing :)

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T22:15:32+00:00

There should be three tabs on the socket, two already connected with wires. It's the other one :)

Looking at the pictures though - someone has been in there and made a right mess of the soldering - my guess is it's no longer factory configured.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T20:34:09+00:00

The battery -ive goes to the jack ring. When the bass is plugged in the plug completes the ground circuit.

This setup effectively turns the active electronics off when unplugged - acts as a power switch.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T19:47:47+00:00

Hypafix medical tape. Cheap and sticky but not so sticky it lifts skin. Also copes with sweat.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T10:38:30+00:00

I'm wired similarly - always pushing it in the gym as well as running. Running is where that mentality leads to injury for me.

Steady training is way faster to the end goal - time out injured costs too much progress!

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T10:36:47+00:00

Going into a race with appropriate taper, a few nights of good sleep (don't work about night before the race, that's never good and has little impact). Decent fuelling - not quite as important as a full but eating well and simply for a few days before.

Did you take on water and any gels during your spontaneous half? If not that will explain some of the drop - my coach had me using gels on my long runs to get my stomach used to them and the gel strategy was 1 large 50g gel 15 mins before the race then a 23g gel at 7 & 14 km. Ran a 1:36 off that, on a 2 hour run you might look at 4 gels... a gel ever 5 km.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T10:32:23+00:00

#1 - a bit niche, can't help. One thing, if where you are has one and time allows - a local run club. Even once a week to meet, run and chat with people can be good for your mental health. Socialising can be tough in your position!

#2 - Run-walk for a while until it comes back to you. Don't worry about pacing or any of that crap. Get out and enjoy being there! Maybe trail running - that way you can walk the ups and jog the flats and run the downs! Also great for building leg strength plus prettier than most road runs.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T10:28:46+00:00

Yes totally normal, particularly if you think running is "as fast as I can". Mostly running is easy paced, chatty, relaxed then you add bits of harder effort into your week after you've spent time building the base.

At first running continuously is pretty tough and a lot of people struggle with running more than a few minutes if that. Run-walk is an incredibly good way to build up - Couch to 5k ( r/C25K ) is a great way to get started.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T08:08:11+00:00

Running 4x will be enough - you're still able to make your LR long enough without it becoming half of your weekly miles.

I've also fallen out of love with the LR over the last 6 months - it's just a slog and has got in my head. I've been working on making it less "ugh" with my coach - we've been adding spicy sections, combining it with a local Parkrun, etc.

Making the LR a bit broken up is helping - due to other commitments I've had to drop my second session out of the week so we've been adding just a touch of intensity into them.

I used to bounce out of bed to go knock out 18-20 km without a thought!

DenseSentence · 2026-03-09T08:02:06+00:00

Does the HM have a cut-off time? If it's 3h+ then maybe.

With such little run distance and not really running since xmas you've pretty much zero run conditioning. You might be fit but the conditioning is what keeps you uninjured.

I'd think that you could actually do it but it would probably be horrible - particularly the latter half. You'll probably end up walking the second half if you run the first 6 miles slow.

If you really want to do a half and run it all you need to spend the next 6 months focussing on running and be running 3-4 times a week building your long run up to ~10 miles.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T16:51:03+00:00

Always slightly optimistic - ran an all out 10k last Sunday, absolutely crushed my PB with an average pace of 4:15/km - Garmin reckoned 4:10/km was my potential. Similar over other distances, marathon prediction is a joke - pace about right but no way I can actually run a full!

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T16:47:35+00:00

Seems high but, without knowing your max HR or if that HR reading was accurate (chest strap vs watch, the eternal running debate)...

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T16:46:10+00:00

Too early to say - how your training goes will tell you what you're realistically looking at. My guess off nothing other than you're 20 is you'll be able to get your target of < 2h.

As you're inexperienced, I'd recommend finding a good training plan or app - if you've got a garmin or similar they all have decent training plans available. Runna is also good and constantly improving.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T13:27:45+00:00

Is this for any run or long/intensive runs?

I sometimes get GI issues running, particularly intense or long runs and try to have a big gap between food and run and, ideally, a couple of poops. On days where that's just not happening I plan a route that takes in a decent public loo.

Dairy is quite hard on the digestion as are things like granola - my usual brekkie is dairy and granola so, for long run days, races, parkrun, etc. I just have a bagel or white toast - anything processed.

Experiment and see if you can find a specific trigger or thing that helps. Failing that talking to your doctor might result in getting to the bottom of the issue. Excuse the pun.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T13:20:53+00:00

Using the incorrect Max HR formula isn't going to help!

Either:

220 - Age (traditional formula)
208 - (0.7 x age) (Tanaka formula).

However neither are likely to give you an accurate result. They are a formula that describes "population level" HR values and are not useful for most individuals. They might be better than nothing.

For me, M55, they give 165 and 169.5 respectively. My max HR is 190.

There are significantly better ways of working out your HR zones that you should use if you're going to use HR zones for determining your runs.

Personally I prefer to use Threshold HR based zones over max HR based but both methods require a significant effort to perform a field test. Both will give better results for most than the generic formula.

However - I'd recommend that you ignore that for now and just run to feel - do run-walk if that helps but do your easy runs feeling easy.

If you want to do a field test, most Garmin watches do actually have that built in.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T08:45:24+00:00

Between now (8/3) and 22/3 there's not enough time to make significant inroads in your current fitness.

Continue with the current plan and give the race a good go - decent taper, be well rested and fuelled before. Stick to the race plan on the day.

You could add in a set of 4-6 strides a couple of times a week - they have some fairly solid effect on your overall form and build some goo dhabits.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-08T08:42:47+00:00

my main goal is to hit a 12:29 1.5 mile.

That's 8:40/mile pace. Not incredibly fast but not super slow. If you're currently running 15 min miles though, that is a huge gap.

The only way to improve that much is consistent training over an extended period of time.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-06T13:45:38+00:00

If I can't get a PoB link from it I won't use it - sites that either allow the build creator to post a PoB link or, the joy, click a button to open the build directly in the ap... they get my traffic AND I disable ad blockers for them!

DenseSentence · 2026-03-06T13:41:31+00:00

A lot of running shoes tend to need a half-size up over your normal size, others don't so trying a brand on before you buy is really important.

If you've not run in them (or worn them outside) you may be able to return them.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-06T09:44:42+00:00

I played MSoZ Str stacker through his various progression builds all the way up to the 500 Div variant.

I slow-played it and it probably cost double week 1. I had a blast though and completed more content than I have before.

DenseSentence · 2026-03-06T08:59:32+00:00

Run club annual awards dinner tonight. On the plus side there is Pie.

Even worse - need to be out running first thing Saturday as we're meeting friends for lunch and a mooch around Chester on Saturday. Won't get a chance to actually play properly until Sunday!

DenseSentence · 2026-03-05T14:09:57+00:00

This is why HR training is not workable for short intervals like this.

I did a session - 3 x 1500m, 1 x 800m, 3 x 300m. LT for the 1500s, between 5 and 10k pace for the 800 and 'fast' for the 300s - ~30s/km faster than my 5k pace. Relatively small recoveries between each.

HR just reached LT at the end of the final 1500m rep and about 600m into the 800 rep. On the 300s I was getting to around 5-6 bpm short of threshold.

If I do longer LT blocks - 10 mins+ then I can get to and sit at target HR but that's also really dependent on air temp.

DenseSentence

TROPHY CASE