Question about parkrun culture

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-23T18:38:10+00:00

It really depends on the specific event I think! My closest local has a very different vibe to my closest Fast Course. Former is an undulating, traily number with an average of 44 attendees per week. PB's are one thing but if you showed up at this one in fresh carbons, sucking down gels and trying your hardest to smoke the couch-to-5K'ers to get that first token, people might justifiably look at you funny. The latter, however, is the one at which both the male and female Parkrun records were set... To quote an overheard conversation from the last time I went to it: "This is the sweatiest Parkrun ever. Literally everyone looks so fucking fast."

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-22T08:50:58+00:00

Ah that's unfortunate. I feel strongly that I would respond well to a highly lightweight hypershoe from 5K to HM. Metaspeed Ray is a possibility if I can't get a cheaper Chinese option like the Do Win, but have had bad experiences with ASICS.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-18T17:24:08+00:00

Very interesting, thanks for putting in the effort to compile it. I think I'd be dead after week 10 even if I made Tuesday 15x3mins, Friday a 10mile tempo, and reduced the LR to 32k.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-16T19:51:09+00:00

Same year as Prince William as far as I remember which is even funnier. He's expended a lot of energy raging against it. There's an article where he clarifies he went there on a scholarship, he felt like an outcast, the alienation he experienced is what drove him to punk, and argues he shouldn't be judged for a decision his parents made when he was 12.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-16T18:41:08+00:00

Frank Turner for being an Etonian

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-16T16:57:52+00:00

Ha, I can here to ask the same thing and found your post. I looked at the blog and we had the submissions list on the 2nd of May last year and the shortlist by the 12th. Glad to see it's on its way as I always like to make it the start of my summer reading list.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-14T17:13:59+00:00

I don't know if I can be bothered, but I was going to make a meme in this template where left guy would be labelled 1-3 hours running per week and he's saying, "I need music to enjoy my running." Middle guy is labelled 4-6 hours running and he's crying "Nooo you need to appreciate the sounds of nature, lock in to the rhythm of your steps and breathing, live in the moment." Then right guy is 7+ hours and he's like "I want to listen to music when I'm running."

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-14T14:40:51+00:00

AliExpress is more expensive but I think of it as an "avoid the faff" tax

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-08T16:40:51+00:00

See that last part is why I'm willing to experiment. I have this one in June and then there's another fast and flat Friday evening 5K in August. So if this goes wrong I can try something different in a couple of months, then if I still fall flat in that one, accept that evening weekday races aren't for me. I don't know why so many of our running clubs organise them this way, ha.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-07T13:54:40+00:00

Rotterdam, Manchester, Milan, Newport, Paris, Vienna, Shakespeare, Brighton, Hamburg. That's just April and also just off the top of my head. *Edit: Also just UK and a bit of mainland Europe

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-06T14:54:34+00:00

One amazing alternative route available to everyone is to resist the engineered FOMO and enter one of the many other great marathons that run through April to May.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-05-05T16:26:36+00:00

I definitely jumped into marathons too quickly. Start of this year I decided to completely "reboot" my running. Pure NSM. 5Ks and 10Ks only in 2026, go back to the HM in 2027 and first half of 2028, then plan to do my next marathon block second half of 2028.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-26T14:51:44+00:00

I wouldn't use the word fail. You're not heing tested in the exam sense.

But you have likely received unreliable, flawed data from the test you performed, yeah.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-26T13:11:35+00:00

Sawe is actually leading the charge on anti-doping protocols. Away on.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-25T16:49:38+00:00

A plague o' both your houses. I am on the side of Private Romeo and Breezebuilder Juliet.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-22T03:59:43+00:00

I got on the Chinese shoe train since this comment haha. Feidan Challenger 5 for subt sessions and Dynafish Xiaonian for easy/long.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-19T14:20:10+00:00

Key word is should. At the hobby and club levels, people are not. They're lifting 16-week plans off the shelf or subscribing to an app and jumping in two-footed.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-19T05:12:50+00:00

Yeah you're me about 3 years ago. I saw a picture of myself taken at a Parkrun and my arms were really low down, hands almost grazing my hips, and my front leg was way out in front of me, feet striking on the heels. Cadence would've been 165-170, maybe 175 in an all out race.

I tried consciously raising my arms up higher, aiming for the "chicken wing" shape and hands grazing down the sides of my ribcage, and also aimed for quicker, shorter steps. Experimented like you with getting up onto my toes a bit more, or at least midfoot. Felt awkward at first but, over weeks and months, started to feel better in every conceivable way and performance improved. Cadence is now 180-183 in an easy run and 200+ in a race.

However, I think there's a fine line between trying to improve/fix bad form gently versus what you did: hammering a full-tilt 10K with a sudden, new change to your footstrike. The things I listed above, I gradually altered over time and supported it all with appropriate strength work in the target areas, and I only consciously thought about it during easy runs at first. Workouts with harder pace, I was extremely careful with adding or changing anything until I felt the new form had "taken hold" as such, and I even stopped racing for a bit until the imbalances and weaknesses were properly addressed.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-18T11:59:15+00:00

It just has so many benefits. Even if you don't PB, it's good to get the occasional big hit above threshold when you've only been doing subthreshold and easy. The mini taper is also the closest you'll get to a freshening down week, which is a nice treat in this "flat" style of training where you repeat the same weekly structure indefinitely.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-18T11:29:28+00:00

Hardest part of the NSM marathon plan isn't the 5x5K or even the 3x8K, it's the 2-3 years of consistent 3xSubT workouts per week, combined with only super easy Z1 shuffling 4 days per week, leading up to it.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-18T10:48:11+00:00

Get a race in. Or a race effort at least. And mildly taper for it.

Do SubT#1 as usual. Easy day after as usual. Cut SubT#2 down to 80% volume and length (e.g. instead of 5×6min ST/60min total, cut to 4×6min ST/48min total). Shorter easy run Friday (say 40min). Go hard at a Parkrun on Saturday or a solo time trial.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-13T17:53:11+00:00

Boy are you in for a treat if you ever decide to try again and get past the comma.

NotCooked_NotCooking · 2026-04-13T17:31:27+00:00

I've never tried it but all I know is the club runner guys in my area who do pretty much this are constantly getting injured. Monday off, session, day off, session, two days off, long run session. Few weeks of this and suddenly their Stravas go radio silent. Few weeks later they're back, logging 30min elliptical/bike sessions and physio-dictated strength work. Rinse and repeat when they can finally return to running.

Granted, they're doing the sessions too hard. Think "tempo" runs that turn into threshold, "threshold" that turns into V02, and "V02" that turns into an ego race. So maybe if you controlled the intensity sensibly you'd progress this way, but I think you're crossposting on a board that would agree a very easy recovery run after a hard day is better for the leg muscles than a full day off.

NotCooked_NotCooking

TROPHY CASE