what have i let myself in for...

gillie80

Oh lordy. So ive just started 'training' for a 10k in june. Ive not run since i was in school. I hurt in places i forgot could hurt. Why, why am i doing this to myself? Oh yeah cos 1 i wanna lose weight 2 i wanna lose a bunch of it before i go on boliday in july and 3 cos im a sucker and cant say no to my best mate. If it means i can lose anoth 20lbs in 10 weeks itll all be worth it.

rsclause

Start slow and build. I would do interval training at first walk, run a bit, walk and gradually increase the distance and amount of run. Lots of people recommend C25K. When I start doing anything I start slow to where I don't get sore at all. The last thing I want is to get hurt. I started walking and added short runs. As I got stronger I would start looking for hills to go up. I felt so good and strong I came back from my Friday run and opened the paper to see a half marathon for the following day. I did it and loved it, it was my first race. It also was key to me losing 50 pounds too. I didn't start running til I was 52, you can do this!

gillie80

Hi rsclause. Thanks for the advice. Its definitely the way to go. I've got 6 weeks to build up and I can always walk/run some of it. Well done on the half marathon. You run any ... whole marathons?

SueInAz

You've got this. I didn't start running until a few weeks after my 45th birthday and I've actually done nearly every race I've run using a walk/run strategy. My first half marathon 4 years ago I ran for 2.5 minutes and walked for one minute. The last couple I ran for one mile and then walked for one minute. 5K races I'll run the whole distance but anything longer is now using the one mile/1 minute strategy. I have no desire to run a full marathon; I tell people I'm only half crazy.

Are you starting from any kind of running base now or are you going "Couch to 10K"? You might want to look into structured 10K plans based on your current level. There are plenty of them out there. Make sure you aren't increasing weekly distance too quickly. You should stick to no more than a 10% increase from week to week. That means if you ran a total of 5 miles last week you should run no further than 5.5 miles this week, however you split up the days and runs.

gillie80

Hi SueInAZ, yes ive downloaded couch to 5k to start, however i've realised that being well endowed shall we say my sports bra is just not up to the job so off shopping i shall go to get another one. i think i'll probably use the run/walk strategy. i like the idea of running, it's jsut getting started i guess. plus my brother now has a 'project' as he runs a lot so he'll keep me right