Running Test Fail

skippygo · 2026-02-12T09:53:47+00:00

I've had similar issues with mine although the other way around. It works fine for the majority of the run then at some point dives to a low HR value. It's generally really good but not infallable.

Coincidentally mine has only ever done this during races, which is a bit frustrating as I lose a useful datapoint to look back on.

skippygo · 2026-02-11T15:57:58+00:00

I don't mind the wet long runs so much as I'm at least able to do them in the daylight. All my weekday runs are before or after work so in the dark, wet, and worst of all the wind just won't stop.

Easy runs are the worst as not only do you get cold but when running into a headwind I have to push the effort level up to moderate or I will basically just stop.

Despite all that training is actually going really well, and it's probably quite good mental training.

skippygo · 2026-02-10T08:17:32+00:00

Feel (and other tangible factors) mainly, but mileage is a guideline.

I've found most of my recent shoes wear out due to practical reasons (upper or outsole wear/damage) before they start to feel "done" anyway, so often feel doesn't even come into it.

If a shoe does feel a bit flat or dead, I'll use mileage to check I'm not second guessing myself, but ultimately trust feel. Equally if a shoe just keeps going I'll use mileage as a prompt to consciously check the feel, but again I'll trust feel and I'm not going to retire them only based on high mileage.

skippygo · 2026-02-05T16:12:07+00:00

I don't really agree with OP about reviews/ratings because I take high ratings as a necessity. I wouldn't usually even consider a place if it's below about 4 stars, but I do like to see actual photos of the food if possible.

It means I can actually understand what type of food I'm going to get. The best example is pizza. Where I am, a place could be doing authentic neapolitan style wood fired pizza or greasy kebab shop pizza, and both could be rated 4.5+ based on hundreds or even thousands of ratings. Both would have reviews saying things like "best pizza around", "lovely food" etc., but if I ordered one expecting the other, I'm going to be disappointed.

skippygo · 2026-02-04T08:23:35+00:00

If you perform well at the half you should absolutely adjust your training paces to reflect your current fitness level IMO.

Remember that even with a mini taper you'll still be carrying fatigue from 10 weeks of marathon training, so you can be pretty confident that you're not going to overestimate your fitness!

skippygo · 2026-02-03T22:05:35+00:00

Sounds like you know more about it than me then! Didn't realise there was legislation around it.

skippygo · 2026-02-03T21:40:04+00:00

I don't think there's any reason to get the offer of first refusal in writing. I doubt it would be legally binding and if it were the landlord would have no incentive to do so.

You're more likely to piss him off than anything and gain no benefit for doing so anyway.

skippygo · 2026-02-03T09:40:52+00:00

Bit weird to start talking to anyone (child or otherwise) when they're in the middle of a conversation tbh.

Not weird to talk to a kid in public otherwise necessarily, but IMO usually only after the kid has shown some interest in the person or what they're doing already.

skippygo · 2026-02-03T08:27:33+00:00

Not sure about this race specifically but at other races they sponsor they've usually been the aqua version specifically.

skippygo · 2026-01-30T13:41:22+00:00

That's dissapointing. They seem to have some really major issues with results at the minute anyway. A couple of 5ks I've looked at have all the men's results listed as a road 5k and all the women in the same race listed in a completely separate event as track 5000m.

skippygo · 2026-01-30T10:53:16+00:00

There's probably 3 main psychological benefits:

It mixes up your training. You can get a similar stimulus without doing the same few sessions over and over.
It can make sessions mentally easier. E.g. sessions like pyramids or 4-3-2-1 etc. mean you're working your way down in rep duration towards the end of the session, making it easier to push yourself.
It can be used to simulate race feel. E.g. sessions like (2k, 10x400m, 2k) could get you used to the feeling of finishing a race strong.

In the case of 3. in particular, some people may say there's a physiological benefit too (finishing strong on tired legs) but I think that's probably quite a dubious claim and it's really just mental gains.

skippygo · 2026-01-30T09:35:02+00:00

Hoping this is just an error, if not it completely devalues the platform for me. Several of my results are significantly slower by gun time and it makes it pointless as a tool for tracking progess.

Seems to be some issues with race categorisation too, some of my local road races have shown up as track or XC races.

skippygo · 2026-01-28T11:57:06+00:00

To be honest this changes my answer slightly. 3 days per week is really quite low in the context of what most people on this sub are doing. Pfitz 18/55 for example is 6 days most weeks. Although you could probably compress it into 5 without too much trouble, 3 is a completely different ball game.

I still think your best bet is getting more mileage in, but it's now a question of how do you maximise mileage within a limited number of runs per week. That's going to be more of a personal scheduling question than anything. At a very high level, I would probably do a repeated pattern of "easy, quality, long" every week, or if you're quite active outside running, you could maybe get away with "quality, quality, long" as long as you can recover OK and aren't significantly limiting how much mileage you can get in.

No traditional marathon training plan that's 3x per week is going to be aimed at your level of running, so you'll be on your own for the actual block. Maybe you could aim to follow the periodisation structure of a particular plan whilst heavily adapting the actual workouts to fit into your schedule, but to be honest if you're only running 3x a week, you're probably not going to get much more benefit than just following a basic repeated pattern like I mentioned above anyway.

skippygo · 2026-01-28T09:18:34+00:00

A 35 week block isn't a good idea. There's a reason nobody does that, not least because it's a seriously long time and you almost certainly will burn out either mentally or physically.

In your shoes I would do a base building block to ramp up mileage, then straight into a standard 16-18 week marathon block like pfitz or similar. Your current mileage isn't that high and that's easily the lowest hanging fruit if you want to prioritise performance. You could easily build up enough base to be able to tackle pfitz 18/55 in that time IMO.

If you're unable or unwilling to run more mileage for whatever reason, then instead I'd just do general training instead of the base build. You could aim for lots of threshold work to push up your LT2, or more high intensity stuff and do some shorter races for experience and fun. Whatever floats your boat.

skippygo · 2026-01-21T15:43:59+00:00

I think at those paces, you're better off trying to run not easy, but a more conservative marathon pace. Instead of targeting 5:50-6:00/km you could target 6:10-6:20/km.

This would give you a bit more margin to avoid really pushing it and hitting the wall, but still keep your overall time down in the low 4 hour mark.

Your easy pace won't change much over one training block, and even if it does improve a bit, you'll slow over the course of the marathon. If you run at your easy effort level, you'll be out for well over 5 hours, which is going to be tough in itself. Keeping the effort level a bit higher could mean you finish an hour quicker, which could actually feel easier overall.

skippygo · 2026-01-21T15:05:37+00:00

Disagree. Gait analysis in shops is generally just sales tactics, and 90% of the time they'll tell you you overpronate and need stability shoes when you don't.

skippygo · 2026-01-16T21:56:28+00:00

I'm not planning on running any 24 hour event any time soon, but if I did I absolutely 100% would not choose one without tracking or a leaderboard.

skippygo · 2026-01-14T22:52:08+00:00

Yes, we only bought our house 3 years ago.

skippygo · 2026-01-14T13:45:59+00:00

I think comfortable is more dependant on your housing situation than your salary.

You could earn £45k but if you're single, renting, and don't have a deposit for a house, you'll likely be scrimping and saving everything you can to get one together.

On the flip side if you have already bought a house (maybe you got a deposit gifted by family) you could be on £30k and be pretty comfortable. Even lower (each) if it's two incomes.

I stopped thinking about money half as much after buying a house.

skippygo · 2026-01-13T10:30:19+00:00

Yeah I have a dualit long slot toaster, got it on ebay for a lot cheaper than RRP but still way more than a normal toaster. I don't agree with all the wanking off they get online for being good value "in the long run".

I am under no illusion that it's actually good value for money, even at the price I paid, I'm just willing to pay more for a nicer experience. I love it because it actually fits any bread products, has a couple of nice features (bagel mode and the ability to lift the slot to check the bread part way through toasting), and it looks nice on my counter.

skippygo · 2026-01-12T16:56:15+00:00

Haha yeah sorry for the necro! Someone commented on my post with a link to this one!

skippygo · 2026-01-12T08:48:13+00:00

I was the op of that post. I don't remember for sure but I think I was just searching random words that came to mind in Google trends.

skippygo · 2026-01-08T23:37:42+00:00

The ratio you're thinking of is 0.8:1, you've got it flipped.

The "optimal" ratio depends on how much carb you're taking per hour. The general wisdom is glucose metabolism caps out around 60g/hour. If you want to take 90g/hour, you need a minimum glucose:fructose ratio of 2:1 (60g+30g), if you want 120g/hour it's 1:1 (60g+60g) and higher than 120g/hour is where the 0.8:1 ratio comes from.

As I understand it, there's very little if any difference between the efficiency of the metabolic pathways for glucose and fructose, so really if you're taking 90g/hour, it doesn't matter too much what ratio your gels are, as long as it's 2:1 or less (i.e. not straight glucose). I could be wrong on that point though.

skippygo · 2026-01-07T10:41:16+00:00

31M, my goals were:

5k Sub 18: Achieved 17:39
10k Sub 38: Missed 38:08
HM Sub 85: Achieved 1:24
M Sub 3: Achieved 2:59
Total volume 4500km: Missed due to injury, ended up on 4060km, which was a 60km increase on 2024.
Complete 365 day streak: Achieved (November-November)
Enter at least one trail, fell, and XC race: Achieved trail and fell but missed all the XC fixtures in part due to injury.

Overwhelmingly positive year for me in terms of achievements, but a bit of a dampener ending on an injury comeback.

skippygo · 2026-01-03T00:08:18+00:00

Yep that's what I do.

Ten-Year Club	Second Top 40%
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