{"id":2715,"date":"2023-08-16T16:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/variousbits.net\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2023-08-16T16:01:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T15:01:22","slug":"a-post-about-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/variousbits.net\/2023\/08\/16\/a-post-about-running\/","title":{"rendered":"A post about running"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I think I first started running when I was about 17; although I have a terrible memory, I do remember going regularly around the hills near my home town, and the coincidence of geography and age only really works if it was when I was in my late teens. Then there was a significant period of time off (there’s literally no way my weed-and-booze-smudged lungs could have coped with a run during uni, although we did play squash – drunk – once, which resulted in a scar for me and a detached retina for my friend…), but then I picked it up again (extremely intermittently) for many years following that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the past 5 or so years I’ve been much more consistent, trying to run several times a week, with my basic ideal of “every other day” with a mixture of 5 and 10k distances (~3 and ~6 miles), which gives me round about 50-70 miles a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over this time, I’ve picked up a few useful tips and techniques that I thought I’d share here. Some of these are blindingly obvious and you’ll find them with any half-decent web search, but others are a little bit niche and have taken me years to figure out. Bear in mind that I’m no ultra-marathon weirdo, I’m just a relatively fit 50 y\/o guy – and that all these things work for me, but (as they say in the disclaimer handbook) – please let your own circumstance \/ age \/ fitness \/ sense be the guide here, not mine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least half the internet says you absolutely must<\/strong> warm up but don’t bother about warming down. The other half says the opposite. The third half says don’t do anything. The final half says do both. There is no consensus, and after years of trying All The Things, my advice boils down to: do whatever works for you<\/strong>. Try each \/ any \/ all and see what works for your run, your post-run fatigue, strains, etc. Be very gentle, whatever you do (you’ll see me say this several times here!) – so if you are going to stretch (for instance) your Achilles then don’t bounce, instead ease into a stretch gently. You’re much more likely to pull something nasty if you overdo a stretch by going at it too hard. Be kind to yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For what it’s worth, I find what works best for me is a gentle pre-run stretch which focuses on ankles and calves (these are the muscles I have learned are a little weak for me!), and then sometimes I need a bit of a yoga moment post-run, but quite often I don’t bother with any post-run stretching at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This has been perennially good advice which has worked for me since way back, and is coupled to the above. However fit I am, I always<\/strong> regret a fast start. It works much better for me (and it seems for many others too) to start off gently and for the first 1-2 miles to just stay really slow, right at the bottom end of my training heart rate (Zone 1 or 2<\/a>). Even if you feel good, force yourself to stay at a nice slow pace. I find that after this time I can pick the pace up if I feel like it, and this will then do me well for longer runs. If on the other hand I start fast, I’m most often regretting it by mile 3 \/ 4!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn’t properly research or understand cadence until about 2 years ago – it was probably when I got my first Garmin running watch that I did some reading and then discovered it is actually a widely talked about thing. Cadence (or SPM – strides per minute) is a posh way of saying “how fast your legs are going” which is itself a way of describing how often your feet hit the floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStart slowly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Think about cadence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n