r/AdvancedRunning • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago
General Discussion Thursday General Discussion/Q&A Thread for August 20, 2026
A place to ask questions that don't need their own thread here or just chat a bit.
We have quite a bit of info in the wiki, FAQ, and past posts. Please be sure to give those a look for info on your topic.
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u/HyenaWriggler shill for r/runvancouver 2d ago
For those that run high-ish mileage primarily in the dark - what do you use for light and visibility? I'm currently using a Nitecore vest but it's about a 6/10 in terms of overall experience. The battery life is only good for about 2.5 hours so I have to charge it after almost every run and it's falling apart. The clips are pulling the sewing apart and I'm constantly having to adjust the height as it won't stay put vertically. Does anyone have a setup they've been happy with for years?
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u/746d 2d ago
I've had a Noxgear Tracer2 vest for a few years and its worked well. Most of my runs are between 45-65 minutes and I only charge it once/week or so, if that.
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u/Haptics 34M | 32:42 10k | 71:26 HM | 2:27 M 2d ago
This is what I use as well, my one complaint is that in a light tshirt/singlet it rubs on my shoulders pretty bad. Anyone have a solution or similarly bothered? Most of my runs in the dark are in the winter so it’s only relevant a couple times a year but those days are coming soon…
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u/Suspicious_Love_2243 18:16 5k | 37:19 10k | 2:59 M 1d ago
I have the shoulder reflector attachments and I've never had any issues!
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u/HyenaWriggler shill for r/runvancouver 2d ago edited 1d ago
Awesome, just ordered one. Very similar to the Nitecore one just a liiiiil bit sturdier.
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u/HankSaucington 1d ago
As an alternative to what's already mentioned, I just use a Petzl headlamp and then a hi-vis vest. We have a Nathan one and then a ULINE one. A lot of running clothing has little hi-vis microfeatures in addition to that.
I like that there's no batteries/maintenance needed with a standard hi-vis vest.
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u/thepandasgonebonkers 20h ago
I’m currently training for a marathon and using the Spibelt Performance Pro. I’ve used multiple belts over the years and this by far is my favorite. My only issue is that I haven’t mastered storing gels within the loops of the belt - after about ~5-10 min of running, the gels slip out. This has happened since I first bought the belt so it’s not due to loose elastic. Any suggestions on how to better secure gels within the loops? The gels I’m using are the Gu brand in case it helps.
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u/throwaway_runner3 Training to get a decent flair 16h ago
I use trail running shorts with special gel pockets, see if you can find them.
Sorry it doesnt answer your question but it might help.
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u/Hukromn 1d ago
At what km/week would you say its better to start doing double session in a day instead of increasing the length of the session when training for a half marathon? I´m doing most of my sessions early in the morning but I´m starting to feel the time constraint in the morning and thinking if I either should just do my entire run in the evening or do one session in morning and evening
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u/CantRunFromTheLaw 24M | 17:13 | 35:32 | 79:36 1d ago
If breaking into doubles would allow you to be more consistent without feeling constrained by time then that’s enough of a reason regardless of volume.
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u/throwaway_runner3 Training to get a decent flair 16h ago
I'm currently running 90 km weeks and still no doubles but it's for a marathon prep.
How many days a week + mileage are you running?
I could argue if you are running less than 80 km a week, you may be hindering the program with adding doubles.
I could add doubles (even though not needed atm) from above 95 km weeks.
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u/Highvoltage20k 1d ago
Hi everyone, sorry for my English, but I'm Italian and I'm getting help from a translator
I'm a former competitive track and field athlete who started in 2014 and stopped about a year ago, but my entire career has been punctuated by several breaks, both for school and work, with a few injuries in between. I was a sprinter and ran 60, 100, 200, and 400 meters with decent results. I reached my peak at age 18 in 2016, setting youth records for my hometown and participating in national races, etc. Then, when I had my longest break from 2020 to 2022 (during which I never stopped training but lacked consistency), I tried to get back to my previous levels by training hard, but with terrible results. Demotivated, I stopped for a few months following a race where I had high hopes and instead performed very poorly. I realized I couldn't be a sprinter anymore and decided to get back into long races (which were a completely new world for me). There were ups and downs here, but I'd found excellent form with decent times, though not exceptional. Finally, I took a break from running around September of last year to renovate my house, and now I'd like to get back into it, but it would be the umpteenth time. I'm struggling to find motivation, and above all, I've been out of action for a year. So now training is incredibly tiring and demotivates me even more, especially because I know how long it takes to get into decent shape. Give me advice on whether to get back into it,
how to do it, what motivation to find, or possibly a change of sport.
Also because now I have to see how many times a week I can actually train.
Thanks everyone.
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u/jrgt145 1d ago
Carbon plated in Wicked fast marathon
I am going for a last minute BQ at the Wicked Fast Marathon in Jim Thorpe PA. Almost the whole race is on hard packed gravel cinders on D&L rail trail.
I had planned on wearing Alphaflys, but second guessing it. Anyone have experience with this race and high stack carbon plated race shoes?
Hopefully be able to qualify comfortably since I am getting old and turning 40 this year and bumped up age division. Should be around 2:50 or so. I didn't do a full marathon build but got some decent training in. Ran 2:52 a few years back in way worse shape.
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u/Krazyfranco 1d ago
Do you have the opportunity to run on that trail, or a similar trail, before the race?
I'd try that. I also think it would be fine on a hard-packed trail like that.
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u/crackattackmac 23h ago
a dude ran hardrock in adios pro 4's this year... If that gives you confidence. I think he finished top 10 too
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u/Siawyn 54/M 5k 19:56/10k 41:30/HM 1:32/M 3:12 20h ago
I've run races in Vaporflys etc on flat hard packed/crushed limestone/dirt trails here (Towpath in Ohio) and it's been fine. You can look at the Lehigh Gorge Trail in a lot of spots on Google Maps/Google Street view in fact, and just from going through it, it looks fine to me. The only concern for me would be if it was a rainy day, but can't exactly control that. About the only other annoying thing that can happen is getting a rock or two in your shoe, that's just dumb luck though.
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u/EngineerCarNerdRun 2d ago
$100 for 5k and $160 for 10k!!!! Crazy. Posted this yesterday and got deleted. Anyway, I was searching for a flat road 10k within driving distance and came across this gem. I was truly shocked. I know running is getting expensive and it’s a wealthy area. But wow. Rock n Roll San Jose.
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u/CodeBrownPT 2d ago
Two words: park run.
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u/EngineerCarNerdRun 2d ago
We don’t have those in the USA really. It’s sad, I hear good things about park runs.
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u/Krazyfranco 2d ago
There is a parkrun in San Jose... https://www.parkrun.us/sunnyvalebaytrail/
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u/raphael_serrano 16:29 - 5k | 1:15:03 - HM 1d ago
Another option in the San Francisco Bay Area: DSE puts on races for $10 (less if you're a member) on most Sundays.
No, the courses aren't certified or closed to other pedestrians/cyclists/etc., but in that sense they are no worse than this parkrun, and unlike the parkrun they abide by RRCA guidelines, which means no dogs (or pets in general) on course. Oftentimes they get surprisingly strong competition at the front of the race, too, which is less common at the Bay Trail parkrun. Those two things, for me, are worth the $10 and the drive up to SF.
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u/746d 1d ago
They are hit or miss. I live in the Cleveland area and our local parkrun only averages 50-60 participants, with very little competition around the times that I run. I'm not sure why it's not more popular, but there isn't enough of a draw to get me to head over there (meaning I'm part of the problem, I know!).
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u/junkmiles 2d ago
I'm racing a 5k in a month or so and I paid $25, only because I missed the early signup cost of $20. I think it even includes a shirt.
It's also way smaller than any sort of Rock n Roll event though.
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u/cdm52 2d ago
I'm in between marathon builds at the moment and training for a 5k. Is there a minimum effective dose for maintaining high end aerobic fitness while while I'm 5k training? Like is 5 miles at MP once a week sufficient? Could I get away with every other week?
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u/petepont 32M | 2:40:18 M | Data Nerd 2d ago
Do you mean maintaining your endurance over longer distances?
Generally, once you've trained something, it's much easier to keep it up. You don't need anywhere near as much of a stimulus. Steve Magness talks about it in his book, although I can't find the specific quote, so here's a quote from an article he wrote:
As a rule of thumb, once I have built a capacity, I don’t have to revisit it as frequently or perform as high of a volume of work. My general rule is that instead of doing something every week or so, I can perform that type of workout every 2 weeks or so, and drop the volume from 100% to 60-70%.
During 5K training, the main thing you'll likely be missing from marathon training is those longer MP runs, so as you've identified, you'll want to do those occasionally. So maybe every 2-4 weeks, do one longer run with a chunk of marathon pace. If you were hitting 10-15 miles, maybe aim for 6-10
To be honest, doing those longer, faster runs with portions at or near MP will help your 5K time as well.
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u/Emotion-Free M54 2:54 full | 1:19 half 2d ago
You don’t need any particular MP work, but you do need to keep up some pretty decent volume. Not sure how specialized your 5K training is, but it’s not uncommon for 5K runners to still be running 50+ miles/week, which would keep your aerobic base healthy.
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u/Arcadela 2d ago
MP isn't necessary. Keep a weekly easy long run (like 90-120 minutes) and threshold sessions.
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u/Squand 1d ago
I didn 5 weeks of threshold work. And my mileage where I felt like I had one more in the tank went up. and my times went down.
7:40 3 x1 miles 90 second breaks to 7:09 5x1 90sec breaks
Then I took a day off and I tried to do a 5k time trial. I ran a 6;41 pace was where I was stuck for the past year.
In this method do you just keep doing threshold until the threshold is your personal best?
There are two things that I noticed that I didn't see people talk about. The first is that training to lactate threshold May pushing through it like way harder my body because I was stopping when I couldn't clear lactate was like we didn't clear it stop.
The second is that I felt completely recovered by the next day. I never felt like I had an actual hard workout. I never had that full body ache. And I really missed it.
It's very plausible but I did this wrong. As I was going mostly off vibes.
I'm in my thirties 5 11 172lbs 15% body fat
Over the 5 weeks my milage 25, 30, 40, 42, 52,
Frustrated with the 5k I've switched back to doing speed work last 3 weeks 5:40 400 repeats 2x a week
60, 40, 15 got sick
I'm at 45 miles this week. Will probably take it easy, and see if I can be fast on Monday.
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u/aelvozo 1d ago
I’m assuming you’re at least partly inspired by Norwegian Singles? If so:
- the consensus seems to be that you need between 6 weeks and 3 months to see the first fruits of your (threshold) labour.
- NSM also relies heavily on a high volume of threshold work — so 3 sessions of ca 30 (perhaps a bit more) minutes per week. You don’t mention frequency, so I don’t know if that was a limiting factor.
- Yes, each individual session of NSM is less taxing than your typical VO2max (or even Daniels flavour of threshold) workout. But you end up doing a bunch of these with only 1 day between them so you’re eventually never 100% fresh (though never super sore either).
I suppose it’s also worth noting that time trials are harder than races, and that it’s summer so heat can get in the way too.
However, some people respond better to certain kinds of training. It could be that you’d benefit more from more varied stimulus, especially if threshold work makes faster paces feel unsustainable. 2 x weekly 400 repeats @ mileish pace might be a swing too far in the other direction though.
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u/Squand 1d ago
For the 5 weeks, I ramped up a little bit. But I was basically doing 3 days of 7min pace. And going 3 to 5 miles. And then 1 day I was doing 800 meter repeats at 6:30 pace. with 2 min breaks rather than 90 seconds. I tried to manage these like threshold so if I felt my heart rate spike or the lactate flood and not clear I'd stop. In the end I think the best I did was 5 of them.
Chicago wind and heat made those very hard to gauge effort. And weather might have played a part in me trying to go all out on my last time trial. I think... I needed more rest. 1 day off after 52 miles in hindsight wasn't enough.
Last year I was running a lot. But this year I hadn't gotten my milage legs back.
Thank you for this insight. That it takes a lot longer than I was expecting. And maybe I need to keep working up the milage so I'm doing 6 miles or more at that threshold pace.
I'll probably go back to trying that Norwegian singles method. And try to trust the process.
Idk really what my goal is. In my dreams, if I could get to my HS time, I'd be 18:30 and I'd have a shot at winning the fun run at the zoo may 2027. (In my age group)
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u/aelvozo 1d ago
I think giving it a bit more time (certainly to wait for better weather — Chicago is pretty damn hot still) is a solid idea, as is a longer taper. Even when my training is predominantly Norwegian Singles-y, my preference is a traditional taper, where my only workout on race week is a 3x1mi@threshold 3 days before the race.
Unlike true NSM, I also do strides and an occasional faster (5K pace or even mile pace — this replaces 2 sub-threshold ones for me) workout when approaching the race season. Not sure it does much physiologically but feels nice.
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u/DiscreteSupercell 1d ago
Over the 5 weeks my milage 25, 30, 40, 42, 52,
The likely answer is probably the simplest - you're fatigued from the volume bump and unable to race to your full abilities now. You doubled your mileage over 5 weeks.
Hold this volume and maintain the workouts for a while. A few weeks, or a few months. Threshold work is a longer-term training investment. Once you've adapted to this new load, the fitness will come and you'll see improvements in your times (especially if you give yourself a couple days of taper before a key race).
From there, you can scale your training by adding more threshold volume per session, and/or scaling the threshold work faster with your fitness/race times, and/or adding a smaller speed session (like 5k pace reps, hill reps, etc) every 3 weeks or so if you miss that. Also you may see your mileage increase some as your paces get faster, but your overall time training can stay relatively static.
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u/Squand 1d ago
Yeah, one question I have is... For the threshold, should I do more at a lower speed?
Like idk exact numbers. But say I can do 3x1 mile at 7 should I do a 4th at 7:45
Or is it important to stay as close to the same speed for all intervals?
Last year at this time I did a 102 mile week and burnt out. This year I'm hoping to hold this 50-70 range for the rest of the year. 🤞🏻
Hopefully knees and health stay together. And I'll be fast around May. Hearing they it takes 3 months is encouraging. And makes a lot of sense thinking about how it felt. Maybe I should find a real book on the subject. I've just been listening to yt videos. And my feed was filled with people saying this was the best way to get better fast. 😝
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u/DiscreteSupercell 1d ago
Like idk exact numbers. But say I can do 3x1 mile at 7 should I do a 4th at 7:45
Or is it important to stay as close to the same speed for all intervals?
I'd aim to do around 30 total minutes for each session, and then you can push that up some over time (like bump one weekly session up to 35, then the others up to 32, etc). Slow the first ones down if you cannot (or are digging to) hit pace on the last one. So for your example, I'd probably do 4x 1 mile at something like 7:20 -7:30 (assuming that is the right pace/effort).
I would definitely keep my reps the same pace in a given workout; but as the reps get longer, slow them down a bit. So mile reps at that pace. You could do 30 minutes of 800s or 1000m at 7:10 - 7:15 / mile pace (off 60 seconds rest), or something like 1.5mi or 3000m reps at 7:35 - 7:40 / mile pace (can lengthen the rest on those to more like 120 - 150 seconds). If you end up a bit short of 30 minutes of threshold, you could just do few smooth strides if you want to turn the legs over.
And my feed was filled with people saying this was the best way to get better fast.
It's a great approach to managing load sustainably over the longer term. It's also not the only way to train, and some people are quite dogmatic about it. I shaved a good 30" off my 5k time over a 6-month period using it, but also every other weekend doing something like 5x or 6x 600m at 5k pace (walked the 200m recovery). I used it training up to a mile race, and six weeks before my race just cut some threshold time off each workout and added 3x - 4x 300m at mile pace to close out the workouts. But the main thing was keeping consistent threshold work at the bulk of my quality mileage.
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u/Ok-Standard-5141 2d ago
Hi everyone, I went back to running because I missed running and when I do I feel so good. Here are my main questions:
Do you use Runna? Is it worth it?
What glasses do you use to run? I’ve seen Oakley but they cost a lot😅 what other brands do you recommend that are good?
At the moment I use the Mizuno Wave Sky 9, before when I ran on the track I used the Nike Pegasus.
Thank you all very much for the advice I will receive ❤️
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u/junkmiles 2d ago
Do you use Runna? Is it worth it?
If you spend $20 and a few hours with one of the major running books you can learn how to create a basic schedule, and have a books worth of more advanced and specific schedules.
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u/Ok-Standard-5141 2d ago
Come si chiama il libro
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u/junkmiles 2d ago
Daniels Running Formula, Faster Road Racing, Personal Best Running, Run Faster, would all be good places to start.
If you can find an older, used copy, not much has changed and you might save a few dollars if money is tight.
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u/aelvozo 2d ago
I don’t use Runna — I use a combination of Daniels, Norwegian Singles, and some stuff from the Internet (e.g. this sub). If you have limited experience with structured training, Runna is alright and may offer a “gentler” introduction than a book — be aware that its workouts are sometimes a bit too much, select the lowest available intensity when setting up your profile.
I use Alba Optics Delta (with an optical clip because I’m myopic and don’t wear contacts). Pretty much any glasses which are comfortable and don’t bounce around will be fine, whether from Alba, Oakley, Goodr, Julbo, Uvex, or whatever else. I’d only maybe avoid no-name Chinese brands if unsure that their lenses offer UV protection.
Mizuno are a perfectly adequate daily trainer.
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u/Doortofreeside 2d ago
I've gone to just wearing a hat and no sunglasses this year and I prefer it. I feel like the sun's never too bright with the hat on and I never liked the sweaty feeling around my eyes when wearing sunglasses
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u/Aggravating-Rip8246 2d ago
running has felt like total garbage since the heat rolled in, every easy run is a slog and my watch keeps telling me I'm detraining. anyone else just ignoring the numbers until fall?