Looking at joining a club and they also take part in a local cross country league.
Haven't run it since school, but I loved it then (even though we were all just drafted from the football team).
Is it only for fast fast fast people?
So I’ve seen several social media posts about the Chinese running shoe which are allegedly on par with some of the well known brands (Nike/Adidas/Asics etc).
Has anyone got a pair, or similar and able to give an honest review?
Given the price I’m tempted to give a pair a shot
I've just been given a voucher worth £120 from Inov8 after returning my Mudtalon V2s (I found them too sloppy, heels kept slipping, and laces hurt the top of my foot)
What would you recommend using the voucher on? Shoes? Gear? I was thinking of trying the Trailtalon speed...
I am after some advice on how to structure my training block(s) for my first Half Marathon, which is 36 weeks away. I am just coming to the end of a 10K training plan, which I am running as a time trial this weekend. So over the course of the 36 weeks, I need to do a 10K -> HM distance transition, and then I would like to do some improvement on my HM time.
I was thinking I could do this either as three 12 week blocks, with the first focussing on increasing distance, and the next two focussed on improving my HM time, or as two 18 week blocks (distance increase and then speed improvement). I'm not sure which of those approaches would be better, or if there are other approaches I should consider? Would be very grateful for any advice on how to structure the training.
Context
I am a beginner runner, having started in February of this year with C25K. I am just in the final week of a 5k to 10k transition plan, which I did over 17 weeks (I probably could have done this over a more condensed period in retrospect). I have been using Runna (I know) to design the training plan - to be honest I don't really use the 'AI' coaching, but do find having a defined plan, that tracks my runs with a nice UI helpful in keeping me accountable.
I expect to run my 10K time trial in ~55mins (Garmin predictor says 53m30s, but I take that with a pinch of salt). My aim for the Half Marathon would be to complete in sub 2 hours, which I think should be achievable. My longest run to date is 12km. I can only run 3 times a week (generally 1 easy, 1 speed session, 1 long run) due to other training commitments (strength training is my priority).
I grew up in the Peak District, UK, and spent a lot of time outdoors as a child, especially hiking with my family. I started fell-running as a young adult, and gradually moved to longer, more technical races. In 2019, I won the 268-mile Montane Spine race outright, breaking the overall course by over 12 hours. In 2024, on my third attempt, I became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons, reaching the gate with just 99 seconds to spare of the 60 hour time limit.
Aside from running, I am a mum to three children (8 years, 6 years, and 11 months) and a specialist veterinarian, working at the University of Edinburgh Small Animal Hospital. In 2022 I co-founded the Green Runners, a community-led group founded to inspire and inform runners to make more sustainable choices for the planet.
So Reddit, ask me anything about running, racing, balancing work and motherhood with training, activism, or anything else you are interested in!
After being unsuccessful in the London Marathon ballot I am looking for a flat, fast course that has fairly good odds of ideal temperature and low wind (where I live is incredibly windy) and is happening in Spring time!
Considering Rotterdam, Vienna, Barcelona but would like any opinions! Seville and Copenhagen are no longer available. Would like to PB!
Thanks guys
Training for my first half marathon (doing it for charity not aiming for a time). I have completed 14 weeks of training and yesterday I ran 19k. I really struggle in the middle of the run, the start I feel fresh and can run, and then end I push myself as nearly finished but the middle is awful and I end up walking a lot. I just want to stop and sit down. Obviously I do feel more run down at that point but I seem to be able to push through at the end. I took gels when necessary, drank 750ml of water during the run and tried to maintain a slower pace (but didn’t succeed). Obviously there are so many physical variables about why you might stop, but does anyone have any advice on overcoming that mental barrier when you feel you have already ran so far yet still have far to go.
44M, targeting Amsterdam Marathon (18 Oct) — unexplained fatigue mid-block, looking for input. All bloods came back as normal.
Background: Started running mid-2024. First marathon Edinburgh May 2025 in 3:23 (tough final 10k with ITB issues and wind). Current block is a 24-week Runna plan, now ~8 weeks out.
Things seemed to be going fairly well with the plan until I returned from holiday (week in Greece, managed around 40k to keep me ticking over). I felt like I was making progress, Vo2 Max (Garmin) climbing to 61 etc.
Then what happened: Following the holiday I ran a 5-mile TT (31:24 for 5 miles), followed by a couple of 13k easy runs, then six days later a 23km progressive long run that fell apart badly.
Session was 5k conversational / 6k @ 4:45 / 6k @ 4:35 / 6k @ 4:10 — I blew up during the 4:35 block and finished on 5:30s feeling completely empty. Easy pace was already costing 8–12bpm above baseline from the first kilometre.
I was pretty surprised, as while I expected the session to be reasonably taxing, even the final 4.10 section was below my HM pace.
Anyway, that was just under a month ago. The first week following the blowup was rough, all runs felt tough, with my HR on easy runs around 15bpm higher than usual.
Also, my quicker paces were not accessible – felt like I had to empty the tank to do 300m at 4m km pace!
The following week felt a little better, then after around 2.5 weeks my easy runs were back to a more typical HR (although perhaps still a few beats above where i'd expect).
I ran 31k and 44k in the weeks that followed the blowup, all easy pace. Then last week I did 73k, again all easy, with the exception of a 5k slightly above target marathon pace during a midweek run.
I finished the week with a 27k easy run on Sat, feeling good afterwards. Took Sunday off, then went out for an easy run yesterday – again the HR was about 10bpm above what i'd expect and easy pace felt noticeably harder than it should.
I followed that today with a 15k, including 5k ish around marathon pace. It felt better than yesterday, but HR is still a bit high and the level of effort to maintain around 4.25 pace seemed too high.
During the last month my predicted Vo2 has dropped from 61 to 57.
While I'm not completely emptied like I was at the end of the last month, I'm still not quite feeling 100%. And it seems that my recovery from longer runs is still slower than I'd hope/expect.
With that in mind I was curious if anyone has similar experiences? Does sound like it could be over training? I've included a table of my monthly mileage below, which is around 28% higher than the previous 12 months, I didn't think that was excessive. However, I have just realised that the month I blew up was my highest ever at 264km.
Anyway, for the moment the Runna plan is out the window and I'm sticking mostly to easy paced stuff to try and keep the mileage up, but feel like I'll have to incorporate quality faster sections again if i'm to approach Amsterdam with any confidence.
Would love to hear your thoughts, especially anyone who has experienced similar issues...
| Month | Distance |
|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | 116km |
| Sep 2025 | 173km |
| Oct 2025 | 148km |
| Nov 2025 | 141km |
| Dec 2025 | 72km |
| Jan 2026 | 227km |
| Feb 2026 | 132km |
| Mar 2026 | 138km |
| Apr 2026 | 116km |
| May 2026 | 194km |
| Jun 2026 | 220km |
| Jul 2026 | 264km |
| Aug 2026 (to 18th) | 138km |
I travel often and usually want a running route from my location, eg the hotel I am staying in. Anyone suggestions?
I will preface I know there is only so much advice I can here I know but I don’t have any running friends so here goes.
I ran Manchester back in April 4:07:58 and then hit rock bottom with illnesses and just for some reason a bounce back to zero fitness. Since then I’ve got my training back on point and I am finally seeing progress.
I have a half now in the middle of sept and Runna (I know) is estimating me to run it at 1:44 which is not going to happen, but I don’t know what time to aim for now and I like having pace goals in mind so any advice?
I did a recent race 10km at 51:00 and a training 5km at 24:21 which were both PBs. My last half was in February and I did that is 01:57:28, again a PB
Based on this I was thinking around 1:55 might be a good goal but is that too ambitious or underselling myself?
Any words of wisdom?
Basically I've been a solo runner for a good number of years now.
My wife recently mentioned joining a local running club.
What's the actual experience and benefits of these?
Because i assume that everyone's ability is different so it can make experience either too easy or too hard. Or do they break off in smaller groups etc?
Or is it more of a social thing?
What's your experience and would you recommend?
Thanks in advance!
Hi all.
Recently ran my first half marathon, and felt a twinge in my knee two thirds in. I slowed down and finished the race but two days later I am feeling some discomfort, especially when walking downstairs or twisting.
As I'm now the wrong side of 40, and am planning to scale up to hopefully complete a marathon at some point next year, I figure it's a good time to work with a physio to try and nail down any imbalances and ensure I'm in a good position physically to scale up, and potentially improve my HM time.
I have access to a physio service through my gym (Nuffield health), and while the cost isn't onerous it's not nothing either, and I'd honestly like to avoid it if I can. That said, will the NHS even offer me anything? Anyone have any experience with Nuffield, or want to offer me any alternatives? I'm based in East London so anything around there would be great.
(20M, 50km weekly mileage, 400km ytd) I’ve recently hit my dream goal of running a sub 20 minute 5k after 8 months of running, around 4 months of intentionally increasing mileage and roughly 6 weeks of incorporating admittedly on and off speed work.
For additional context, I weighed just under 100kg (and ran just about sub30) in January having bulked up as I played American Football in my first year of uni (albeit a benchwarmer) and would consider myself adept at the gym (4 years plus experience).
I no longer play American Football and i’m all
in on running and have lost \\\\\\\~18kg currently sitting at 80-82kg, planning to lean down mainly for physique purposes but also the running gains.
I’m currently on 50km a week and very much enjoy and have felt enthralled with the art of running, especially the psychological side and the cool way pushing yourself still feels as hard as that first run did and the patience and self restraint required to follow a plan that may not necessarily be the most enjoyable. My weekly plan is a 16-20km long run, then either a 6x1k @5k pace or/and a longer threshold run, then i fill the rest with easy runs and i go to the gym 3-4x a week mostly upper body and light lower body stuff.
Asides from that, I enjoy having a running goal to actively work towards and so am now looking for a new intermediary goal before my first marathon in April. I’m between a sub40 10k and a sub1:30 half, i’m aware a sub40 is harder to achieve than the half but that’s the beauty of a challenge like that.
My main dilemma is i’m planning on doing a Hyrox mid Octoger which lends itself more to the 10k but it’s (conventional?) wisdom to book a half so as to get the race day practice and have a reasonable anchor for the full. I wouldn’t mind scrapping the hyrox but it seems fun and wouldn’t mind giving it a go but wouldn’t be able to stack a half on top of that.
I’m also open to any other challenging/stretching goals especially one that complements my marathon training very well for which I’m aiming for sub3 (ambitiously) and 3:15 (realistically)
So I’ve applied to five charities in total, I got rejected from one. I’ve heard nothing for the other four, and one of them even told me that they would get back to everyone by 14. August, and I still didn’t hear anything?
I understand that it’s possible to not hear from some, but being ghosted by four charities?
I’m curious is anyone has heard back from charities or anyone in the same boat as me?
It would be incredible to run London marathon and my dream marathon, I understand that there’s a lot of competition around charity places but at this point I would just like to know.
Hey all
I'm thinking a bit in advance about a halfmarathon race effort I have 16 weeks from now.
For context my training plan is 3 runs per week. 1 interval/fast run, 1 easy and 1 long.
I'll be buying my first pair of carbon plated shoes for the race which I'm looking forward to
I'm just wondering how everyone implemented their first pair of carbon plated shoes into their training in the lead up to a longer race effort and how far out.
Logically I'd assume adding them as the long run shoe would make most sense / or sessions close to race pace. Just want to make sure I avoid any niggles from adjusting to a new kind of shoe!
Thanks in advance
I'm looking for shorts that can snugly hold 2x250ml soft flasks in side/hip pockets, plus some other stuff round the back. Any ideas?
I currently run in what are basically PE shorts with pockets, and the weight of the bottles doesn't bother me, just that they move around a bit more than I'd like.
I've looked at belts and they either don't have the capacity, seem to bunch up if fabric-based, or have the bottle pockets in odd or less accessible places. I don't want a vest.
Ideally flappy shorts rather than lycra-tight all the way down the leg but will consider anything at this point!
Hi All
After some recommendations on open ear/bone conduction headphones. Have a race on Sunday and just seen that I can't have regular in ear headphones but I don't have the mental strength to run without music 😂
So after any suggestions of something that will stay put, preferably not something that wraps behing my head as I don't get on with that style. Bonus points if I can collect/it can be delivered tomorrow.
Thanks for any help! :)
I’m an absolute beginner, doing C25K and currently just finished week 1!
I’d like to purchase some very cheap running shoes for now and was looking for recommendations, particularly for wide feet. With the sales on atm, my budget is around £60. With how new I am to this, I’m not really looking to do a gait analysis
I tried on Adidas Duramo SL (£25 on amazon!) and sized up but still felt quite narrow for me. I’m typically a 7-7.5 women’s. I’m currently running in an old pair of VEJA Condors. They are my everyday/ just walking about shoe and a couple years old so hoping to not wear them down anymore.
