A journey from fat(ish) to fit.

RonanP77

I've introduced myself before and put most of this up on various threads but I figure I'm better off gathering it all together in one place.

I'm 36 and hit the scales at 13 stone at Christmas. I had been very fit in my early 20s but after years of shift work and general laziness I got really out of shape.

I got a trapped sciatic nerve in January and the physio told me running was the best way to sort it out. I had already started walking a good bit at that stage. I bought a bike too and did my 1st Duathlon last weekend.

I have set myself a number of goals for the year and a few longer term goals too

Goals:

Run the 3.65k loop of the lake without stopping - achieved.
Run 5k without stopping - achieved.
Run 5k in under 30 mins - achieved.
Run 5k in under 25 mins - achieved.
Run 5k in under 20 mins.

Run 10k without stopping - achieved.
Run 10k in under 50 minutes.
Run a 10k in under 45 minutes.
Run 10 mile without stopping.
Run a half Marathon.
Run a full Marathon.

Complete the following adventure races.

Mide Mud Run 5-7k.
Run-a-Muck 10k.
Hell and Back 12k.
Tough Mudder 12 mile.

Complete a Duathlon - achieved.
Complete the Kayakarun.

Learn to swim.

Lose 21lbs - achieved.
BMI under 25 - achieved.

I'll keep things updated here and put up a proper plan when I'm settled on one.

adrian522

Best of luck with it,

Is it all adventure races you are doing?

RonanP77

adrian522 wrote: »

Best of luck with it,

Is it all adventure races you are doing?

I intend doing normal races too and a few local Duathlons. I haven't put a photo on here before so hopefully this works, it's 4 events I really want to do.

adrian522

Nice one, I'll be doing 3 of them myself!

Tigerandahalf

You have some great goals there and I like that you are mixing up the events you are doing.
I do not know your work pattern but it is important to get into an exercise/running routine. If you are on shift work it will perhaps make it more difficult.
Swimming is also great to combine with running. Starting off you will probably get knee niggles and in other areas too. Swimming is great as a recovery session.
Do some core strengthening too, simple things like planks, side planks, chin ups, push ups. These will strengthen up your core and should help to prevent injuries.
A physio also told me it is very important to move around every 10 or 15 minutes, especially if in an office job.
Do 5/10 minutes of stretches after each run. Will stop the after stiffness and prevent injuries.
Eat well and drink plenty of water and of course less beer!

RonanP77

I moved off shift work but drive a fork truck so that involves a lot of sitting around.

I had been doing some press ups and planking but hurt my shoulder so had to stop. It's feeling better now so I should start back at that this week. I got a small set of dumbbells off my brother in law so I'll do a little with those too.

Tigerandahalf

A big thing is to cut down on the food. Try not to eat after 9pm and if peckish snack on fruit and veg. Peppers are a great veg to snack on, the yellow ones can be lovely. I have recently started eating pineapple, really nice and a lot sweeter than I thought. Thought it would be bitter.
When in Spain they generally serve orange juice freshly squeezed. It is delicious and you couldnt drink concentrate after it. I now buy a bag of oranges and squueze two of them with my hand into a plastic jug. Takes 2 minutes and you have a lovely glass of juice.

RonanP77

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

A big thing is to cut down on the food. Try not to eat after 9pm and if peckish snack on fruit and veg. Peppers are a great veg to snack on, the yellow ones can be lovely. I have recently started eating pineapple, really nice and a lot sweeter than I thought. Thought it would be bitter.
When in Spain they generally serve orange juice freshly squeezed. It is delicious and you couldnt drink concentrate after it. I now buy a bag of oranges and squueze two of them with my hand into a plastic jug. Takes 2 minutes and you have a lovely glass of juice.

I normally have supper at 8:30, it's always cereal and I probably shouldn't be doing that. I have a fairly good diet, lots of fruit & veg, very little processed food. I drink a lot of water but could always drink more.

I need to learn a little about nutrition, about whats's high in protein/carbs etc, how much of everything I need and why. I can make changes based on that.

SeanPuddin

It's like reading a GTA unlock list, some great goals to achieve there. Best of luck with it all.

RonanP77

I've come up with my training plan that I'll start this week provided my knee heals up by tomorrow evening. If not I'll start it next week.

Monday; Rest.
Tuesday; 4k run.
Wednesday; Intervals (2.5k)
Thursday; 5k fast.
Friday; Rest.
Saturday; 10k run.
Sunday; 40k+ cycle.

I'll keep this going for a month then switch it up a bit.

I have 3 events within 10 days of each other so need to fit them in around it too.

29/05 - Knockbride Duathlon 2.5 - 20 - 2.5
02/06 - Kingscourt 6k charity run.
08/06 - Bailieborough 10k run.

I'll probably need an extra rest day or two between those.

Tigerandahalf

You are putting a bit of structure in place.
As you go along make that Saturday run a bit longer. It will give you the extra endurance for completing a 10k race.

pointer28

You're doing intervals and a fast 5k back to back which is probably not a great idea and you're running 3 days in a row.

Try to have at least 2 days between hard sessions to get the best out of them and avoid injury ie Tues and Fri rather than Tues and Weds.

adrian522

What does the intervals involve?

Also the 5K fast as mentioned above, probably change it to a different day so you recover after the intervals, and maybe change 5K fast to 5K tempo, where the first 10 mins will be slow paced, gradually getting faster in the middle and then slowing down again gradually to finish at your easy pace for the last 10 mins.

RonanP77

Maybe intervals is the wrong term, I'm new to running and don't understand all the lingo yet.

It's a short loop that I know quite well so I can picture it and I've chosen certain sections I intended going pretty much flat out on. I'm going to jog to start, go flat out, jog again and so on. There would only be about 1k flat out or maybe less.

I hadn't really considered that it and the fast run were in a row. Maybe tempo is the way to go for the first while. As I say, I'm a complete novice so I'm only guessing at it all. I appreciate all the advice, it'll be a big help. So far every run apart from the 10k I did last Saturday have been fast runs, every time I go out I've tried to best my previous time. That's probably while I'm always getting niggling injuries.

pointer28

You'll also end up tired all the time and not have the energy to go hard when you want to.

About 70% of all your running should be at an easy, conversational pace. You will find that if you do your easy runs easier, then you will have more energy for your harder runs and you'll be able to do them faster.

Also, 1km is a very long rep if you're really doing them flat out. I do two intervals sessions a week, for example my half marathon session would consist of 3 x 4km reps at HM pace and my fast intervals might be 12 x 90 secs at faster than 5k pace. I don't so the same sessions every week but that's an example.

The harder you run the intervals, the longer you need to recover. Obviously, HM pace is a lot slower than 5k pace so I take 1 min recovery for every 1k at HM pace and for the faster stuff, I recover slightly longer than the interval. For recovery, I mean really, really embarrassingly slow jogging, the purpose of recovery is to loosen out the legs and get your HR back down not to get fitter.

HM Intervals
3 x 4km @ HM Pace, 4 min jog
6 x 2km @ HM Pace, 2 min jog
4 x 3km @ HM Pace, 3 min jog

Faster Intervals
12 x 90 secs Hard, 120 secs jog
24 x 45 secs Hard, 60 secs jog

This is just what works for me though. You could be completely different and someone more knowledgeable than me might have different advice.

adrian522

Maybe change Wednesday to an easy day same as Tuesday.

Thursday then could be either the tempo or the intervals (maybe alternating week to week) and leave the rest of it as is.

So 1 fast run, 1 long run plus the cycle would be enough stress on the body, keep the rest of it easy paced.

pconn062

I'm just going to throw my two cents in here (feel free to ignore). A runner who is trying to break 50 mins for a 10k does not need to be running any intervals, or even tempo runs. More running is the best thing you could do at the moment to increase your fitness and improve your times. Speedwork (or intervals) is pretty pointless if your aerobic system is underdeveloped, and will only provide a short term boost if anything at all. I would suggest the following:

Tuesday: 6-8k easy (there is no real point in a 4k run, it takes roughly 30 minutes of running for your aerobic sytem to gain any benefits, it wouldn't be worth getting changed into running gear for 4k!)

Wednesday: 5k steady (with 1k warm up and cool down, this should be faster than your easy pace but not flat out, you shouldn't never really run flat out unless you are a sprinter, think of it as a comfortably hard pace).

Thursday: 6-8k easy (you don't need 5k hard, just more volume)

Saturday: 10k easy (you could increase this by 1k a week until you are up to 16k if you wanted)

Keep your cycle on the Sunday and your rest days.

So the key is more volume. Your easy runs should be very easy, conversational pace. If you were interested in improving you could add 1k to your easy runs every week or two until they are 10k or so and your long run is 16k-18k. I wouldn't even be looking at speedwork until your mileage is much higher and your aerobic system is more highly developed and ready for hard intervals and tempo running. I would introduce another days running before I introduced speedwork. Good Luck.

RonanP77

See this is why I signed up on here, lots of advice from experienced runners. That's a lot to take on board, I have a much better idea now of what I have to do an I'll change my plan completely.

I suppose I just wanted to be faster than the lads at work so figured the faster I ran in training the better. I can see now how stupid that was and what's being said above makes a lot more sense.

Toblerone1978

Folks, would using a HR be useful for someone like RonanP77? He would get an idea how easy he should run on easy days, how hard to go on steady days?

When I was starting off, I didn't really take it easy on easy days. Knowing what I know now, I would had a HR monitor on me and instruct myself not to go above a certain HR level?

RonanP77

Would a HR monitor be expensive?

I just did a 4..6 km walk at a handy pace on the way home from work. My leg is still tender from Sarurday so I didn't want to run. I hate missing a day so figured walking was a good compromise. Tomorrow I might be fit to jog on it, if not I'll walk again.

pointer28

Do you think the tenderness is just normal soreness from a race or an injury? Is it just a tired achey feeling or is there any sharp pain?

If it's just general achiness I find that walking the dog or a short spin on the bike does the world of good.

RonanP77

pointer28 wrote: »

Do you think the tenderness is just normal soreness from a race or an injury? Is it just a tired achey feeling or is there any sharp pain?

If it's just general achiness I find that walking the dog or a short spin on the bike does the world of good.

Just a bit of soreness from running further than usual. If it was bad I'd give the doctor a shout. I'm 36 now, getting pretty old so I guess I can expect little aches when ever I try to step things up a bit.

I'm going to have a good look at all the advice from earlier and stick up a new training plan based on it.

Tigerandahalf

If you are getting aches I would cut back on the amount of days you run. I still only run 4 days each week. I feel my legs need to recover on the other days. You will make plenty of progress training just 3 or 4 days a week. After a few months increase the days if necessary.

RonanP77

After taking on board al the advice I've come up with a new plan. I have a few events coming up that will fall on rest days so I'll need to adjust things for those.

Monday; Rest.

Tuesday; 6-8k easy.

Wednesday; Rest.

Thursday; 5.5k steady (1k warm up and cool down)

Friday; Reast.

Saturday; 10k easy.

Sunday 40k+ cycle.

That'll do for a month, I'll increase distances then. Saturday 10k I might start increasing a little straight away.

That gives me plenty of rest, plenty of distance and no real fast running.

All I need now is to learn how to stretch to make sure I stop getting stiff muscles I do about a 2 minute stretch after all runs but that's it.

Tigerandahalf

That sounds like a good plan to start with.
You dont want to be sick of the running after 3 or 4 heavy weeks.
If you gradually build up and commit to that amount you will make a lot of progress. Plus you are much more likely to enjoy it.

RonanP77

I can add in an extra day then when I'm fitter. It's a start though and a lot better than just going as fast as possible every time.

Cleanman

Hey Ronan, good to see you taking all the good advice you've got so far in here and on your thread on the main forum. Remember to take Tuesdays and Saturdays run at an easy pace for now and you can work a bit harder on Thursdays run. Once you build the volume up a bit, then you can look at adding more days and more speed work. Best of luck with the training.

RonanP77

I didn't stick to my plan today, I hadn't run since Saturday because of a sore knee. I just did a little test run today to see how it was.

5.81km easy @ 6:03/km.

I'm not sure if my knee passed or failed it's test. Both legs felt pretty sore most of the way around but the rest of my was good. It was a really nice run around the lake and woods, I wasn't out of breath at the end and finished in good form.

I had a hard few days at work and I haven't been drinking enough water, I figure that's why my legs were sore and tired. I know it's nothing to worry about or talk to a doc about.

I keep getting little injuries though and it is annoying, I'm obviously doing something wrong. I have Asics and they weren't cheap so I can't blame the footwear. I run after work and normally won't have eaten or had a drink in 4 hrs at that stage. On a 5k run that shouldn't come into it though. Maybe my technique is wrong, I dunno. I have a personal trainer buddy I might ask. I did more stretches than usual today but still only about 3 mins max.

Ososlo

RonanP77 wrote: »

I didn't stick to my plan today, I hadn't run since Saturday because of a sore knee. I just did a little test run today to see how it was.

5.81km easy @ 6:03/km.

I'm not sure if my knee passed or failed it's test. Both legs felt pretty sore most of the way around but the rest of my was good. It was a really nice run around the lake and woods, I wasn't out of breath at the end and finished in good form.

I had a hard few days at work and I haven't been drinking enough water, I figure that's why my legs were sore and tired. I know it's nothing to worry about or talk to a doc about.

I keep getting little injuries though and it is annoying, I'm obviously doing something wrong. I have Asics and they weren't cheap so I can't blame the footwear. I run after work and normally won't have eaten or had a drink in 4 hrs at that stage. On a 5k run that shouldn't come into it though. Maybe my technique is wrong, I dunno. I have a personal trainer buddy I might ask. I did more stretches than usual today but still only about 3 mins max.

Hi Ronan,
Just wondering if these shoes were recommended to you by a running shoe specialist in a proper store? Even expensive shoes might cause you problems if they're not suitable for your particular foot. You might over or under-pronate and need a particular type of shoe to support you.

RonanP77

Ososlo wrote: »

Hi Ronan,
Just wondering if these shoes were recommended to you by a running shoe specialist in a proper store? Even expensive shoes might cause you problems if they're not suitable for your particular foot. You might over or under-pronate and need a particular type of shoe to support you.

I got them in Lifestyle Sports. She just asked what size I wanted and told me Asics were the best.

I don't know anywhere around here that you'd find a running specialist.

Ososlo

RonanP77 wrote: »

I got them in Lifestyle Sports. She just asked what size I wanted and told me Asics were the best.

I don't know anywhere around here that you'd find a running specialist.

I don't know where you're based but the best in the game are Amphibian King and Runways

You need to get your gait analysed and the above stores can do this for you. If you give your location, someone in your area might be able to give other recommendations for other stores if these aren't convenient for you.