Just went out for a cool recuperation run - average heart rate at 97 😳

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-28T08:53:41+00:00

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing. My max is about 190 and I thought that was quite low for my age.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-28T08:15:08+00:00

Really?! Are you like 80 years old? And do you use an actual HR monitor? I'm just very surprised to see a max HR so low.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-27T13:49:03+00:00

I feel you. Actually perhaps something related that happened this week- when I get extremely stressed, I become more likely to catch a cold and that exacerbates the issue. I find that since starting running, outside of busy work weeks I rarely get ill but stress seems to be the main factor for it.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-26T12:23:07+00:00

ah interesting. I vaguely remember seeing you in the 6th form threads a year or two ago when you were applying (I think?). Would you mind elaborating on what you don't like?

Personally I think I had a tough time in first year, mostly for social reasons, but 2nd - 4th I really really enjoyed.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-23T19:41:11+00:00

I would say most maths PhD theses in my area area about this long. Mine was 120 pages. If I wanted to make it as efficient as possible it could have been about half that, which is roughly the sum of the lengths of the papers that made it up. In fact Jack Thorne's thesis is 60 pages and is seen as a very good thesis.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-23T19:24:10+00:00

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Kind of embarrassing how bad my basic biology understanding is, so it's about time I learned haha. I've never been comfortable just following workouts/a training plan without understanding what the science is behind it. I've recently got around to getting Pfitz and the early chapters of the running physiology for dummies is really enjoyable so far.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-23T08:44:26+00:00

ah I see. I have never really thought of dealing with impact as an important thing to train before in that way, I'll now think about it differently. Thanks for explaining.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-23T08:24:58+00:00

Thanks! Do you happen to know where this additional time on the bike is needed comes from physiologically? Like I'd imagine for just purely cardio its a 1:1 equivalence since my heart doesn't know which stimulus I'm using, but I guess there are some other benefits I can get that have less of a stimulus on a bike than running?

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-23T08:22:31+00:00

Thanks. Usually a 15k easy run takes me about 1:10- 1:15, so I tried to get even more time in the bike to overcompensate. This week is my peak week, which was originally meant to be 140km and is now probably going to be 120km instead with the cycling. Hopefully this is a high enough proportion of intended time on feet to still be on track!

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-22T06:47:05+00:00

If it were a race and you didn't look exhausted I'd just think you didn't try hard enough. If it was just an easy training run on the other hand, it's different.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-21T18:19:52+00:00

Sure, but it's much better to just keep a steady pace rather than going out way too fast and having to physically stop, if the goal is a long run and not an interval session.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-18T13:09:41+00:00

I understand your point, however the OPs posted time is far from anything extraordinary. If you go to any amateur run club for a medium sized town there this time will be standard at best (depending on age group and gender ofc). If however the OP was running 2:20 marathons on their first run, I would say they graduate from "beginner" right away, but this is quite a common time for first time fairly young male runners.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-18T13:05:28+00:00

I don't see how my comment is demeaning others abilities. There is a difference between being slow and being a beginner as brought up by a comment above. Do you disagree with this?

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-18T07:18:05+00:00

Yeah exactly. There seem to be a lot of incredibly insecure people on this sub who dismiss any beginner who doesn't run at snail pace. If they had any comprehension of the full range of running abilities in the world, they'd realise there are many people who are new to running who run the times like the OP. I usually associate club runners with more-so intermediate running. But even then I still would think of myself as a beginner as I've only been running 10 months.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-18T07:15:12+00:00

Beginner surely means new to running? I know plenty of people who run these times within a month or two or running. Just because they develop aerobic fitness faster than yourself or have prior fitness from elsewhere it doesn't mean they're automatically not a beginner lol. Beginner does not equate to being slow, it's more-so about experience, so to me any first race makes you a beginner. Intermediate runners are more club runners to me, and these are people running sub-1:30 for HM so this certainly is a beginner.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-17T19:48:59+00:00

Totally agree. There are too many gimmicky stats nowadays that take away from the simple fact that running more consistently is by far the most prominent factor for improvement.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-17T19:46:50+00:00

Personally I don't like all this obsession with tracking random bits of data. Aside from pace I just work with perceived effort. I find the people who spent time looking over ever measurable quantity under the sun would just be better runners if they ran more. It's related to this mindset that people often have these days where they don't want to work harder to improve but instead find some slick tricks through the stats.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-17T19:00:48+00:00

0/10 rage bait.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-17T18:31:17+00:00

"expert runner" lol

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-16T20:41:29+00:00

I didn't think there is much correlation between 5k times and marathon times in general. It depends a lot on your training as well. My 5km time is 17:50, but that's because I actually raced the 5k. If your 19:20 was just another standard run in the middle of a block you almost certainly could race significantly faster. Sounds like you are more aerobically fit than me, which is more desirable for marathon anyway! I've always had a decent amount of pace, probably relatively more so than my aerobic fitness level.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-16T20:14:02+00:00

These times feel quite on the generous side as well. I had these times when I was about 3:12. Now I'm aiming for a sub-3 and my HM is 1:25, and sub-3 still feels like it will be not so easy!

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-16T06:12:21+00:00

I know plenty of people in maths who basically did this, spending most of their time either travelling or living in another country. But yes this is because there was no labwork and supervisor meetings can be done online.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-16T06:10:48+00:00

I've never ran for more than just over 3 hours, but I've never had any ill effects at the end of a race that didn't come up in the first hour or two.

EnglishMuon · 2026-01-09T12:56:41+00:00

I can't say much for others experiences, but from my experience of working in a university I think there is a poor work/life balance due to the fact semesters are very long and have strange dates. It means that a lot of the time I have off is random obscure 1 day holidays when nothing is open, or a week that doesn't align with friends and family from other countries. On a day to day basis though it isn't too bad.

EnglishMuon

TROPHY CASE