First time running in over a year today. Recently lost 40 lbs 5-10 of it from having covid the last couple weeks but I managed to go 2 miles and only felt like dying a little lol. So I count that as a good start.
Not much of a runner, but ive been finally consistent doing weight training in the gym and I try and finish off around 2 workouts a week with a mile run. I always hate it, but very much looking forward to the day it doesn't hurt. Hopefully soon enough I'll be running a couple miles easy.
You can get there!
I remember those painful early days. It might sound counterintuitive, but the more I run the more I enjoy it. Add more miles if you can. Go slow and easy. You'll start enjoying, or at least not hating it, sooner than later.
That does sound counterintuitive but I'll give it a try tomorrow!
Good! And if you have the time, see if you can add one more run per week. It eventually produces a positive feedback loop. Just don't go crazy and jump up to massive distances or days right away. You really want to ease into it with this sport.
I was making good progress on a half marathon plan. Halfway through, got up to 9 miles on my long run. Very slow pace intentionally but also because I'm slow and new to running. I took a full week off because stress is starting to effect me physiologically. Yesterday was my first run back, also got a running coach, and it sucked!
One mile warm up, repeated a fartlek 3 times of 3 minutes on, 1-1/2 minutes jog, 2 minutes on, 1 minute jog, and 1 minute on, 30 seconds jog. Another mile cool down. Got caught in the rain on the coold down too, lol.
My hamstrings are shot. Tomorrow I have another tasty one that I am but also am not looking forward to.
4 mile run and ending with 6x100m sprints.
I'm aiming for a sub 2-hour half next year.
If these are the kind of base building exercises your coach has you doing, sub two hours should be no problem. Enjoy the ride!
Thanks. I hope so! I hope my body can handle it though. I'm fit, but not running fit, and I think with mental stress my body is having a hard time recovering.
I'm not sleeping very good and my Garmin watch shows my HRV dropping. Any advice?
Restless sleep is one of my major overtraining warnings. The HRV and sore hamstrings also suggest you need a break. (If you don't want to back off a bit, you can try taking an aspirin or ibu before bed.)
Thanks for the advice. I really hate the idea of taking more time off. I really feel like I regress easily. Both with running and weight lifting. To be fair, I'm done more hard runs (effort) this week than I have in close to 15 years. I expect to be sorry. I wonder if adding more protein and sleep might help?
Every body is different, and you might be able to train your way through it. But do be alert for early signs of injury. Some pains can start small and seem like they're going to go away, but then they never do unless I back off. My most common pains happen around my hips, and I always try to run through them until I realize that they're not healing and I need a couple days off (which I hate.)
Actually, based on your reply I started looking into overtraining symptoms and I really believe that's what's happening.
I've been a weightlifter for about 15 years. I'm 37 now, and I just started running. But I'm running 3 days a week and my lifting 3 days a week. I started having sleep issues and then heart palpitations 2 months ago. I thought it was stress and so did my doctor, but I thought it was weird because I didn't feel stressed at all. Now that I think of it, the symptoms started as I was heavy into my running program.
I took a week off completely, and my stats and body felt more normal. Now, 4 days back, they are starting again. I think that's pretty obvious what's happening.
It sucks because training is literally a part of my life. I guess I'll have to cut back weightlifting for now since I'm focusing on becoming a better runner.
I hate taking time off. Even a pre race taper is hard.
But you can get past overtraining by reducing your volume and ramping up slower.
Thanks. That's what I'm going to try. I'm going to reduce my volume by taking out weights for now because I know I can get back to where I am more easily. I am just now starting to build a good running base and I don't want to regress.
I admire your persistence and focus. It sounds like you have a plan and that's great that you're talking to your doctor about it.
Probably just a random coincidence, but the one time I had a panic attack was in my early thirties when I was serious with weight lifting and biking. It literally happened at the gym. I had to lie down on the floor and wonder what the hell my heart was doing. It was scary.
Weight lifting is a great complement for running, but the lifts, reps, and frequency that I see runners doing are very different from what a body builder's program is like. Most resistance programs for runners that I've seen are relatively high rep, lower weight, and targeted on core, back strength, legs (including focusing on tendons), etc.
Out of curiosity, why are you focusing more on running?
Because I want to become a better runner and make it a part of my lifestyle.
Dealing with shin splints for the first time in my life. This time last year I ran a sub-4-hour marathon and my overall volume has been way down since then so I'm really struggling to find a balance between enough running to keep me happy and satisfied without exacerbating the injury. It's frustrating to see myself struggling with efforts that were once my easy days.
I have 33 weeks until a 50k trail run, so hopefully that's plenty of time to heal up and get back to a good training volume.
Its a pain in the ass, but you will get through it! Just started running again after 3 months of on and off running and even 7 weeks of fully stopping. Trying to Balance my running now with more biking and strength Training.
I've been feeling mostly poor lately on runs but first misty run of the year today, was brilliant. Like running through misters that people are so grateful for at races...but it's your whole run. PNW USA FTW
Six weeks ago I finished my couch-to-10k training, and ran my first 10k after a gap of 3.5 years. It went well, but the fatigue lasted for two weeks. Afterwards, I fell sick and couldn't start running for two more weeks. Finally last week, I started training again, for a faster 10k. And I realised that running couple of times a week actually makes me feel more rested and full of energy, as compared to a more sedentary life.
This is a real achievement. Congratulations!
isn't it such a bummer how right all those self righteous arseholes telling us to get off our arses to feel less tired were?
I was a couch potato (well active but not athletic) till 30s and the benefits are frustrating large. Still mad about it.
Currently half way through the Strava marathon plan. Feeling fairly optimistic about my chance of success, but noticing a couple of issues now:
Getting bored after two hours into a run. I'm getting into more podcasts though so it shouldn't be too bad.
Running only on gel for fuel doesn't feel great on my stomach. I think I need to bring some light savoury snacks to mix it up a little.
I like to mix up long runs with some long intervals at a quicker pace. They don't need to be fast or terribly long. Just something to anticipate and give me a feeling that I'm progressing through the workout-milestones.
I'll probably be a bit less conservative with my pace once I've got one or two marathons under my belt and feel more comfortable with the distances, but for now I'm determined not to injure myself!
Actually felt strong on my 5k run this morning with the doggo. Considering I'm about 20 kg overweight, I've gotta say I'm pretty happy with that.
I got a bug of some kind last Friday, and though I feel better, I'm not quite there, and exercise is still taking it out of me, so I've stuck to cycling this week. Will get back out there this weekend
I've gained about 30 lbs (14kg) over the last two years. I fell out of the habit when I got my first job out of college, but now that I'm not working remotely I have a better schedule, yet I still have trouble maintaining motivation long enough to make a habit of it.
I love running, but I can't seem to make myself do it. With winter closing in again I worry that I won't be able to muster the strength to go run outside again until the spring.
Any tips or inspiration anyone could share would be appreciated.
Try to find a local group or run club to get out with.
How would one go about this? Serious question. Are there sites with lists? Are there things to avoid?
There are usually lists online, yeah. You could search "running group [your city]" and probably find a couple. You should also check with your local running stores and ask if they know about any. And if you find more then one don't be shy about trying more than one. You might find that different groups have different personalities, goals, etc.
Whenever I do not feel like running but know I should, I just put on my running clothes. And I tell myself that I will just do a short run.
That way I make it myself easy to do a minimal effort run, but usually when I start that way I still do a pretty ok round.
What I want to say is, make it yourself easy by lowering the bar somehow. Once a week a run of 30mins is already better than doing nothing.
This is good advice. I just take one step at a time: coffee and snack, running clothes, shoes, out the door, warmup, and then a bit of running. Usually, but not always, I keep going.
In larger perspective, I follow a program of scheduled workouts. And set a goal of some sort at the end. There's lots of programs out there.
Lower the barrier (get clothes out etc before hand), make it novel; pick somewhere different to run (if you've the time for some travel), reward yourself after, set a goal (either running metrics or like "I want to see the pretty garden anyway so might as well run there).
Treadmills suck but are better than not running if the weather sucks.
Find some nice tunes or podcasts or audiobooks and only listen while running to make it more exciting.
Also acknowledging that for a little while it's going to suck and be hard and just being ok with that can be useful. Until you get fitter and get the habit it's hard, it's ok to find stuff hard. Sometimes just accepting that makes doing something transiently hard easier.
I need better shoes. Any recommendations? I don’t do much but I have some older Merrels I need to replace. I haven’t tried on clouds but hear they’re great
No recommendations other than to go to a shop that will fit you, IE. Observe your running style on a treadmill, then fit a shoe that's appropriate to your gait.
My only complaint with my On Clouds so far is that they hold rocks in between the grips. I have also worn Altra and Hoka shoes with no complaints.
I've been trying to get back into it more. It's hard after college when all the running friends you had have moved away, and work takes up way more time. I've been doing about 30-40 minutes every other day. I find it a lot harder to regulate me pace when I run less.
My milage has dropped a fair bit recently with my eldest starting school and our routine being upended. Each run is feeling harder but I keep telling myself that there is no optimum routine any more and if I miss the 'best' time to run, that just means I need to look for the 'next best' time... Crammed a 5k into my lunch break yesterday and I am proud of myself.
very casual runner here - few to no plans or goals
but I haven't been exercising much because work was very demanding last few months
i hate taking longer than 30min to run 3.1 miles, and yesterday was 35min, but to be expected after a couple of months off.
wife made me record myself saying I felt good after the run so she could play it back to me whenever I'm feeling like I don't wanna go lol
I ran my fastest 5k a couple of days ago. Just left the house feeling good. Wasn't intending to go at such a quick pace. Had been doing around 5:50 -6 min KMs since I put the shoes back on around 4-5 months ago. This was like 5:29min/km average. Was very surprised. Feel like I'm getting better.
been doing decent. trying to finally get back to 10 miles a week. had some good runs this week with 8 min/mile pace. it had been a while.
Taking a break because I am feeling my knee on the outside, and I do not want to get a runners knee. I was thinking of two weeks but not sure. Anyone experience with this? When should I be okay again to run?
@calhoon2005 I ran 5 times in the entire month of September. Not feeling too good about that.
My goal for this month is to hit 6-7 runs, that will be an improvement.
Just started the other day, and my legs hurt 🫠 my right knee has been acting up so I'm not sure what the best stretches are to warm it up. It mostly twinges when I stand up after squatting or bending over so that's neat. Happy 36th birthday to me 😅
Pretty well. I've been increasing distance and time after some tendonitis and everything seems to be going ok.
I'm not very interested in racing much more than myself so atm I'm working on getting up to 10 km's. Yesterday I did my longest in both time and distance with 1:20 9 km. Not prize winning but significant for me, that's on hilly sandy trails as well so I feel I'm probably pretty close to my goal.
Still having difficulty building up speed but I'm happy with my progress and don't want to push too hard all at once and end up on time out again.
A place for runners.