The FastDay Forum

Good luck, Carieoates

I'm on Strava now.
Re headphones - when I run on my own I listen to my BBC podcasts, but I'd never wear them during a race, I have a personal hatred of that because for me it is rude...I like talking to other people, encouraging them or whatever and when someone has headphones on they are on their own, it just doesn't seem to go with the spirit of racing.

[carieoates]

All done, very very warm. I'm not great on that heat and I had my cap on.
Just assessing the damages, tight instep on left have new insoles for runners but hadn't tried them out in time.
All in all I'm happy, feels better after than during, time was 1hr 14.55.

Congratulations on your first race @carieoates! I'm glad you enjoyed it and the experience will help a lot towards your GNR (hopefully in cooler conditions!)
The heat was dreadful yesterday. I did a 26km trail race, 500m ascent in a temperature of 30°C (the race started at 4pm). I took a lot longer than I wanted, 2H58m, but I was the first (and the oldest!) woman and won a nice cheque to spend in the Endurance Shop for 50€. I hope everyone else had a good weekend running. I'm going to have a rest for a week now. I have never felt so awful during a race, it was much harder than a marathon.

Well done @carieoates, particularly in that heat yesterday. Didn't get a run in at the weekend but did marshal at a parkrun.

[carieoates]

Foam roller........oooch.....ouch..... Nough said,

Foam roller........oooch.....ouch..... Nough said,

Hearty congrats on your first 10K !

Finally managed to get under 24 minutes at parkrun - 23:45 for our full 5k home run, which was hard work but very satisfying, my best performance for nearly two years. And yesterday I did a speed-test on my bike and got within a minute of my PB from last year. Things are getting better all the time at present!
It could be due to re-starting interval training once a week, 6x400 metres with a minute rest between. It is horrible at the time but seems to pay dividends...

On a completely different tack from CreakyPete's and Carieoates's latest triumphs, I just want to report that I got my GPS watch and have been experimenting with it for about 3 weeks.

In the end I chickened out of stumping up £225 for a Suunto Ambit 2 and got a Garmin Forerunner 15 for £90 from Amazon. The uploading to Garmin Connect via the laptop is fine, I can even see the Activities on my Silk Browser so only have to use the laptop to upload and edit. No proper Garmin Connect app for Kindle, one has just appeared but I want to see some reviews first.

I really enjoy running and walking with this watch, I love the way it picks out a 5k or 10k segment from a longer run and tells you if it's your best ever. Very informative to compare this with the elevation profile, I know just which stretch of which course to try for a sub-8 minute mile for instance. And I know which hill I was going down yesterday when for a few brief seconds I was doing a 5' 50" pace . I now have the freedom to walk or run anywhere and know just how far I have been.

The total ascent issue is less clear. Today I climbed Blencathra from Scales, which Garmin said was 2.23 miles and 2028'. 2 weeks ago when I did it it said 2.25 miles and 2012'. Consistency is all I ask! When today's effort synched with Strava, it gave me 2044'. Does anybody know if this is because Strava works off the unadjusted data (Garmin has some elevation adjustment software on its site), or does it apply it's own algorithm? According to Wainwright this walk is 2.25 miles and 2150', so I May just multiply any future Garmin ascents by 2150/2020 and leave it at that. I have already pointed out to my jogging partner that a route from her house goes up 220' in 3.5 miles, whereas the worst from mine is 297' in 5 miles. I can't wait to moan about the Parkhead route!

On the negative side, I can barely hear the beep even when not wearing the watch and holding it close to my ear, so alerts are useless out on the road. May be it is a faulty unit,and I probably have a bit of age-related hearing loss, but it means that some of the features that might be used by the more serious runner such as run/walk and virtual pace don't work for me.

I also turned off Activity tracking after a little play with it. The sleep graph was interesting; I did not realise I tossed and turned that much. I can't hear the Move Now alert and the step counter has all the shortcomings of a wrist-based device. I still wear my Omron counter anyway. Switching all this off conserves the battery for activities, after all it only promises "up to" 8 hours in GPS mode, so if I do 6 1/2 hours walk and then have to hang about for a lift home it might be touch and go whether it lasts long enough in watch only mode to reach a charger. Oh, and I don't know if Garmin or Strava are to blame, but once I synched them the previous 30 days activities were not uploaded to Strava.

So, on the whole I'm glad I got it.

The total ascent issue is less clear. Today I climbed Blencathra from Scales, which Garmin said was 2.23 miles and 2028'. 2 weeks ago when I did it it said 2.25 miles and 2012'. Consistency is all I ask! When today's effort synched with Strava, it gave me 2044'. Does anybody know if this is because Strava works off the unadjusted data (Garmin has some elevation adjustment software on its site), or does it apply it's own algorithm? According to Wainwright this walk is 2.25 miles and 2150', so I May just multiply any future Garmin ascents by 2150/2020 and leave it at that. I have already pointed out to my jogging partner that a route from her house goes up 220' in 3.5 miles, whereas the worst from mine is 297' in 5 miles. I can't wait to moan about the Parkhead route!

Consistency has defined limits. As I recall, without an external correcting influence such as DGPS, the accuracy expectation for any GPS is plus or minus 25 meters or about 75 feet horizontally. Vertically the error is increased to 1.5 times the horizontal value due to satellite orientation. So, at best any vertical measure is plus/minus 113 feet. Tis' the nature of the beast. Glad to hear you like what you have.

[nerd mode on]
The accuracy of a GPS satellite system is only possible because of highly accurate clocks. To understand how the system works you can envision each satellite as radiating a radio signal that forms a sphere - a ball. With two satellites these radio signal spheres intersect to form a form a ring - like touching soap bubbles. Two satellites identify your location as somewhere on that ring. Adding a third satellite sphere locates your position horizontally. A fourth satellite is then used to calculate your approximate altitude. Given that these satellites are some 25,000 mile up, the resulting calculation involves trig with one exceedingly tall isoceles triangle (and very tiny angular differences which explain the altitude error). Viola! Technological magic.
[nerd mode off]

Hi barbarita - the Blencathra data looks surprisingly good to me, that sort of spread is to be expected. I suspect Strava has its own interpretation of altitude gain from mapping data. I seldom heard the beep on my old watches, my 910xt is set to vibrate so I definitely know when another mile (or quarter, as I am using it at present) has passed. This watch has a barometer, which is good, but you really need to set your starting altitude each time to calibrate it and even then it sometimes chucks in spikes of height for no apparent reason, even when running on the riverbank. Precision is not really the name of the game here, more 'swings and roundabouts' from day to day!

Good enough to be able to claim 789 miles on foot since my operation...

To ADFnFuel - GPS satellites orbit at half the height quoted, you might have been thinking of geostationary TV satellites at 22,300 odd miles. Otherwise your nerdy summary was very good! GPS is poor for altitude but Garmin and Strava do their best to correct from mapping data if allowed. Barometers change with the weather, of course...

[carieoates]

You know you're a runner when.....
You pack your running gear when going on holiday,
You try to plan a 5k route when checking map to get to holiday hotel
Girls eyes only.....you have to do a Paula Radcliffe in a bush beside the field
You get more upset about losing your stats when your phone crashes than that fact that your phone has had it's day.
6.8 k today in the heat was ok but was aiming for 8 miles, was far to hot even its my cap on and bottle of water in hand.

I move house, go on holiday and all sorts of good things break out. Well done with your runs, walks, cycles and climbs.

I have just got a Garmin 220 and am experimenting with the settings and alerts. I quickly found that I couldn't hear the alarms but the vibrate option was sufficient to get my attention. I love geeking out on the data provided after runs and it has really helped me to understand my training better.

Nice job of getting under 24 minutes again, Pete.

Should have fully restored internet by tomorrow and and have a Parkrun to report on from the weekend.

Have fun y'all.

I'm a regular snail-like Parkrunner and may someow have agreed to my first 10k in September. If the plan comes off then the group of Parkrun friends I'd be going with would all be doing a 10k or 1/2 marathon - and before 2 weeks ago I'd never run more than 5k in one go! So I need to find out whether a 10k by September is possibility or a pipe-dream. Did my 1st ever 6k in one go 2 weeks ago on the gym treadmill; my first ever 7k on Monday. Still aching like crazy today and thinking I'll try another 7k next week before increasing again.

I was a smoker for years - gave up 22 years ago - but I think the bronchitis I had over & over way back then has affected my lung function. I Parkrun slowly because that's what I can manage and I'm not at all sure 10k is within my capacity! Impressed you did your first 10k just recently @carrieoates - hopefully I'll be just as successful!

[carieoates]

@WarriorPrincess, great work there with the improved distance.
I've got GNR in a month. haven't run since Sunday. Gulp.
Why not consider doing Jeff Galllways method, it's a walk run system which is helping many runners improve their distance and time. There's an app.