I read a book by Lauren Fleshman called “Good For a Girl,” and the way she describes racing is like trying so hard you no longer can see color.

For those who have competitively raced, what does it feel like to try that hard and how do you know how hard to push before you throw up or pass out or something?

Two of my non competitive races have had me choking down vomit at the finish but afterwards I still feel like I could have done way more. Is that normal?

Thank you!

At the beginning of this training block, a coach that has led one of the local groups mentioned "avoid the middle" - meaning to not run the easy runs too fast to a point that the paces of easy and harder workouts wind up being very close. One of my big focus areas has been on making my easy runs easier and conserving energy for the harder workouts. It's definitely been a big mental shift, so wondering from others how you've done this.

Like what is the spread for your easy run vs. half or full marathon pace? If you like to use numbers for a range (I'm a numbers person more than feel), how did you determine what it was? Would appreciate any insight or advice.

I’m a 27 y.o F, I ran 2:49 this past April and had a phenomenal prep, peaked at 60 mile weeks and was locked in with recovery, because I had the time to do it. Now because of work and life, I haven’t had the time to prioritize recovery as much as I used to. I’ve run a few 50 mile weeks with cycling, swimming, and strength training mixed in over the last few months, I’m always doing some endurance training. But every time I try to do more than 2 weeks of 50 miles, my posterior tib tendons scream at me. I want to be able to run a fast half marathon in November, and then be ready to train for the Boston marathon pain free. Anyone have suggestions for transferring running mileage to the bike? Once they calm down again, I want to stick at 40-50 miles, and make up for the rest with the bike or elliptical or swim. Just not sure how or where to start.

Been doing some lactate testing the last year and gotten the feeling and the lactate very close with morning sesions +- 0.1 mmol error, and in the evening identifing when i was without energy (lactate would be way lower and hard to speed up) and when i was feeling good (Going fast, floating, high but controled lactate)

The question:

how do you use it to test what works or not? Or how long does it take the body to see meaningful adaptation?

For example:

Same session before peak was 1.8mmol, after race period and not enough rest same session as baseline session each week: 2.4, 2.5, 2.5, 2.6. Later i realice i was overtrained and these should been a signal,

but now that season starting and getting back to testing by testing each week in same conditions after how much time the adaptation would be greater tham the variance

I’m training for my third marathon (Belfast 2024 3:37, Dublin 2025 3:03) and am in the midst of mileage just under seven weeks out from Amsterdam Marathon. Half marathon PB 1:25, 10k 38:30, 5k 18:38 all earlier this year.

Training has been ok up until now, with my mileage increasing from previous successful blocks (last four weeks have been 106k, 108k, 106k followed by a deload last week). I now have a four week block before a three week taper, which includes a half marathon, and two long runs with significant MP segments. Speed workouts up until now have been threshold based, but will be a bit shorter and sharper. Weekly mileage will drop a bit to around 100k with the idea to focus on the quality of these sessions.

My concern is this- because of the mileage (before this block I had done two 100k weeks ever) my body has been drained, even on the back of a de-load 75k week where I actually skipped an easy run because of fatigue. I’m pretty good at listening to my body but I’ve felt as if this increase in general mileage has felt heavier than expected, and as a result my tempo/threshold workouts have suffered, and essentially I’m lacking confidence now because I haven’t gotten many indicators from my watch (in terms of paces) for what feels like ages.

My plan for the block had been 2:5x:xx at the end, but I’m under no illusion that it’s a big ask. On top of that, my big takeaway from Dublin last year in terms of what I need to change is that I hated running with the pacing group due to crowding at fuelling stations and just being used to running alone.

So, I’m just wondering if anyone has any comforting words/advice/similar experience? Should I lower my mileage even more to focus on nailing MP/speed workouts? Or even change my approach to pacing for the race? All feedback appreciated

Edit -
Thanks for everyone’s advice insight. To clear up, I’m 29M and am a teacher (and no kids) so have a good bit of free time on my hands, especially over summer. I have no major responsibilities outside work and making time for my partner (still the priority!!) which is why in this block I’ve gone for higher mileage.

After this block my plan is to focus on shorter stuff, vO2 max and top end speed which is where I think I have a lot of easy gains to make. But for now, I’m going to increase my carbs, lower my weekly mileage by a further 5/10k in order to really focus on ‘key’ workouts. I’m going to prioritise even half an hour more sleep per night, and slow down my easy runs by another 10-15 seconds per km.

Thanks again for all the help and advice!

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I’m planning on using bicarb for a road mile in a few weeks and so tried out the protocol today. My research made me think that crapping myself + vomit was a near certainty so I wasn’t holding out hope. Anyways, that was this morning and all went very smoothly so sharing my protocol:

Dose: 20 caps = 20g = 0.3 g/kg (top of the 0.2–0.3 research range)

Timeline:
• 08:00 — breakfast: porridge, summer fruit, coffee
• 08:32–08:46 — 20 caps, 2 every 90s, ~900ml water alongside
• 08:55 — normal BM, not urgent (coffee + fluid, too early to be the caps)
• 09:00 — faint salty taste, no burping. Coating holding.
• 09:30ish — did some casual split squats and band exercises
• 10:36 — run starts. 1h50 after last capsule
• 12:12 — 15km easy + 6x150 strides done. 3h26 post-dose, still nothing.

Result: zero symptoms throughout. No burping, bloating, nausea, cramping or loose stool.

I’ll probably retest with a track session pre race as well and also not sure if there was any effect on performance given it was an easy run (this test was just for GI discomfort).

Update:
Forgot to post the product: healthspan elite sodium bicarbonate 1000mg delayed release caps.

I did a treadmill test yesterday with gas exchange and lactate sampling and got a result I’m still trying to make sense of.

The run was about 79 min. HR started in the 150s and gradually moved up into the high 170s. Lactate was 3.4 mmol/L at around 30 min and 3.5 at around 60 min, then 5.7 at the end.

What surprised me was on the substrate side. Fat oxidation stayed around ~1.0 g/min through most of the run and was still substantial as I crossed the point where lactate began to rise clearly.

I know substrate calculations become less reliable once you get into clear non-steady-state territory, so I’m mostly interested in the long middle section rather than the final few minutes.

Training over the last few months has mainly been fairly modest-volume Zone 2. Very little dedicated threshold work.

Has anyone here seen this kind of pattern before?

I’m especially curious about whether the ability to keep fat oxidation high relatively close to LT2 is actually a useful endurance trait in its own right, or whether I’m overthinking something that’s fairly normal in well-trained runners.

Possible explanations I’ve been thinking about are training history, diet/substrate availability, mitochondrial capacity, metabolic flexibility, or just something about the testing setup.

Would be interested in how people here would interpret it.

Strength training and mobility are clearly important, but what strength training? And how often? And cross training like swimming and biking, or plyometrics, core work, etc

What do you all do outside of running to be a stronger runner?

(Not looking for advice on a personal situation but rather hoping to start a discussion on different cross training modalities)

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Been running more seriously this past year, sitting around 40 miles a week building toward a fall half, and something interesting has been happening with my rec league soccer. My aerobic base is genuinely better. I can press for longer without gassing out, recover faster between sprints, the cardiovascular side feels like a clear upgrade.

But my first step feels slower. Like my legs have forgotten how to fire quickly. I noticed it first on tracking runs where I had to accelerate hard after the ball and something just felt muted compared to last spring when I was running less and doing more gym work.

Curious if anyone here has navigated this balance, specifically people who do a primary sport on top of running mileage rather than pure running focus. I know the research on concurrent training is kind of messy, but practically speaking, has anyone found that layering in plyometrics or short speed work helped preserve that explosive quality while still building mileage? Or is there a point in a training block where you just accept the tradeoff and come back to power work in the off season?

My PR context: nothing elite, 1:52 half, working toward sub 1:45. Training is mostly easy aerobic with one workout a week right now.

What's everyone up to on this weekend? Racing? Long run? Movie date? Playing with Fido? Talk about that here!

As always, be safe, train smart, and have a great weekend!

Question about prioritisation rather than whether massage works.

Background: 34M, 70 mpw at peak, 2:48 marathon, running seriously about six years. Over that time I have gone through the usual sequence of adding recovery inputs, dropping the ones that did nothing, and keeping about three.

Kept: sleep above seven hours, an easy day that is actually easy, and soft tissue work every two to three weeks through a build, compression gear helped in terms of comfort especially after solid recovery work. Dropped: cold plunge, most of the supplement stuff.

What I cannot work out is where soft tissue work should rank when time is finite. If I have four hours a week outside running, the honest options are more strength work, more sleep, or bodywork. What I have read on massage and performance is mostly small studies with soft endpoints, so I am going on how I feel, which I do not entirely trust.

For people running higher mileage than me: has soft tissue work earned its place against strength work in your week, or is it the first thing you cut when the schedule tightens.

I’ve been coaching for a couple of years as a side hustle, mainly just amateurs looking to improve on their times or reach certain distance milestones.

As much as I love the sport, I find almost all clients to be increasingly uncoachable, with the exception of masters athletes who don’t post their runs on social media or use Strava.

Most of my clients are in their mid-20s to mid-30s and they just won’t stick to the plans and paces I set. I’ve noticed that a lot of clients really hate any run being slower than a 6:00/km pace, even if that’s practically zone 4 for them.

I have one client who would title every run “easy zone 2 jog” or “recovery jog” on Strava despite the pace being their 10k PB pace and HR being 175+. When I called them out on it they said it “felt easy” and maybe their HR monitor was off. Yeah, right!!

I’m curious whether this was a “thing” in the past, before people used Strava etc to post their runs. I often feel like my clients are more worried about looking slow on socials than training for their best performance on race day. It’s got to the point where I straight up tell them I won’t work with them if they won’t listen to me.

Any thoughts, experiences, wisdom?

Needless to say, all the clients I’ve had who have refused to run anything slower than their LT2 pace ended up burned out or with poor race results.

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I've been very interested in this topic for a while. We know that the amount of carbs you can tolerate per hour can be trained & some cyclists are doing crazy numbers. I thought it was because cyclists are producing more power, but that actually might not be the case(because there is no elasticity needed from the muscles, like running).

Running is higher impact & requires more recovery. Also arm movement accounts for more energy used/needed.

I've heard some cyclists use 160g-190g carbs/hour, which got me intrigued.

I've heard some people say that elite athletes use more carbs per hour than (because they're pushing their bodies to it limits) mass runners. Which doesn't make sense to me. If elite's are obviously more efficient than a mass runner, wouldn't that mean their body is using less energy(relatively) to cover the same distance?

I'm not really sure if a car/horsepower comparison is a fair anology in this case. Elites are running faster, yes. But they have trained their body since they were young, so their efficiency would obviously be alot high than someone who is running their 1st marathon & is likely doing 30-40mpw or less, maybe? Rather than 90-100+mpw for years & years.

I don't know. It's extremely interesting to me. What do you guys/gals think of it?

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This has been asked so many times before but have any women worked with any female online coaches (most past posts seems liked responses from men)?

Looking for someone for a February target race, who helped you enjoy running more, and was not an upload and no adjustments made coach

also I suppose women who have worked with male coaches who they absolutely loved

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Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha has regained the world half marathon record (pending ratifcation), running 56:51 in Buenos Aires. With an incredible performance running a negative split he shaved 29 seconds off of Kiplimo's 57:20 from Lisbon in march (also not yet ratified)

Is Kejelcha now the greatest distance runner of all time?

Full WA article linked below

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-label-road-races/news/world-half-marathon-record-buenos-aires-2026-yomif-kejelcha

I was running today and had a thought:

Let's say you have two runs. Run A was 5 miles, HR 180, pace 8:00 min / mi. Run B was 5 miles, HR 160, pace 8:00 min / mi. All other factors being equal (humor me), did your legs get a better workout in the higher HR run than the lower?

I'm really curious about this and would love to hear everyone's opinion. I figured this was the right subreddit since it's not a beginner topic, or so I would think.

Hoping we can get some discussion going, and maybe some studies that talk about this.

Thank you, all!

Who's taking part? How's everyone feeling?

Bureau of Meteorology is saying 12°C-20°C with a chance of showers in the morning.

In case you missed it, finisher medals contain a tribute to Allianz Arena... in Munich, Germany (rather than Sydney's Allianz Stadium): https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/23/sydney-marathon-medal-allianz-stadium-munich-germany-unfortunate-error

I have been running about three years and now and currently training for my third half marathon, running about 40-45 mpw. Early this summer I developed major heat intolerance, crazy high heart rates/palpitations, and fatigue. Got heart issues ruled out and further testing reveled low iron levels. My ferritin was 7 and saturation at a 10. My doctor put me on supplements to help and wants to re-test in 10-12 weeks.

Its been 5 weeks and I got some other blood work to rule out low vitamin B, folate, A, E levels (all good). My ferritin has only increased to 8. My doctor won't adjust anything until we do another full iron panel in 5 weeks.

My question is this- for those of you with low iron, how are you handling running? I just completely bonked my 10miler race today because my heart rate got sky high on a pace that I know I should have easily been able to do. And yes, my diet is full of iron-rich foods, carbs and plenty of hydration. Definitely not a fueling/recovery/overtraining issue.

I'm getting to the point I just feel defeated with my running and I'm seeing no progress. All my runs seem to be hard and/or slow. But I love running and don't want to give it up.

Any suggestions or tips on how to stay motivated and keep running would be appreciated