Am I really unfit??
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I agree that running is different with regards to the leg muscles (despite my weak fitness level, my calves were what was holding me back in my running at the start) but if fitness level is the issue, the walking may help
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"Fit" is relative. Distance running is a practiced thing...one can be quite physically fit and unable or have great difficulty with distance running because it hasn't been specifically practiced. Often it isn't a matter of cardiovascular capacity if you're already fit, but rather a matter of the body not used to the mechanics of moving in an unpracticed way or using the muscles in an unpracticed way which can lead to a load of discomfort.
As an example, once upon a time my wife and I were very into endurance events and training. She was a 1/2 and full marathon runner and I was an endurance cyclist, regularly participating in 1/2 and full century rides. For fun I did a 5K with my wife which was a cake walk for her but I struggled mightily even though I could easily ride my bike at a good race clip for 100 miles. Conversely, "for fun" my wife decided to join me on a 25 mile ride in Santa Fe...for me that was a joy ride and something I was just doing just to do it...basically *kitten* and giggles for me. She had a pretty rough go of it, and while she completed it, she was surprised that her time was so bad and that I had finished a full 12 minutes earlier than she did. It wasn't so much the distance for her, but rather the rolling hills, lots of climbing, and just generally being uncomfortable in a saddle that long. She slept the whole drive home that afternoon.5 -
So today I went out and I did the C25K week 5 run 2 again so I ran twice for 8 minutes (second time was a bit more, maybe 9) and it was much easier than a minute the other day. I've slowed right down and can pick up the pace later on.
I woke up this morning and thought in 3 years I'll be 40 and want to achieve something so what can I do in that year...I'll run a marathon, ideally the London one buy I didn't realise it was so hard to get into so if I can't do that I'll find another. I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I've got 3 years to train, plenty of time!4 -
So today I went out and I did the C25K week 5 run 2 again so I ran twice for 8 minutes (second time was a bit more, maybe 9) and it was much easier than a minute the other day. I've slowed right down and can pick up the pace later on.
I woke up this morning and thought in 3 years I'll be 40 and want to achieve something so what can I do in that year...I'll run a marathon, ideally the London one buy I didn't realise it was so hard to get into so if I can't do that I'll find another. I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I've got 3 years to train, plenty of time!
You know, you can do this! Maybe not the London marathon due to ticket sparcity, but any marathon. I started running at around your age and I'm still running. One thing I noticed, and I think you noticed here as well is that if I start really slow I can go faster later on no problem. If I start faster then my run usually fails. What also helps is to walk a bit before running. I always make sure I have a walk of about 500-700m to my 'start spot', and then I start slowly, and then pick up later.4 -
So today I went out and I did the C25K week 5 run 2 again so I ran twice for 8 minutes (second time was a bit more, maybe 9) and it was much easier than a minute the other day. I've slowed right down and can pick up the pace later on.
I woke up this morning and thought in 3 years I'll be 40 and want to achieve something so what can I do in that year...I'll run a marathon, ideally the London one buy I didn't realise it was so hard to get into so if I can't do that I'll find another. I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I've got 3 years to train, plenty of time!
You know, you can do this! Maybe not the London marathon due to ticket sparcity, but any marathon. I started running at around your age and I'm still running. One thing I noticed, and I think you noticed here as well is that if I start really slow I can go faster later on no problem. If I start faster then my run usually fails. What also helps is to walk a bit before running. I always make sure I have a walk of about 500-700m to my 'start spot', and then I start slowly, and then pick up later.
I can and I will do this!
I also walk for 5 minutes prior to my run and do a 5+ minute after depending how far I am from home.
Fitting everything in is going to be challenging, I don't want to give up my weight training any time soon although that will have to get dropped with a few month's to go. I work and I have 2 small kids who can't be left alone and a husband who also needs a life and me who occasionally goes out to do something other than exercise.1 -
Since you have three years, I wouldn't jump into a marathon training program right away. Get to doing a 5K and then work on proficiency, then a 10K and work on your 10K proficiency...1/2 marathon, etc, etc. That strategy worked well for my wife and her woman runners group as she built up over the course of a couple of years. She's since "retired" from the 1/2 marathon and marathon game and now only does 10Ks at the most and honestly has the most fun with those...but she hit the long distance endurance stuff pretty hard for a couple of years. Her last race was in Lisbon and she ended up collapsing and blacking out on the course and woke up in the hospital, so that was her retirement party.3
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A lot have said slow down. Definitely! But it could also be running economy. A shorter stride might help slow the pace down, or you might be able to shorten stride and pick up cadence. Perhaps even maintain pace. If you are striding out where your landing foot catches you out in front of your center, that’s effectively creating a braking effect and you are actually working against yourself. Maybe something to try.0
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You're running at 8.2kph, am I understanding that correctly? If so, you definitely need to/have plenty of margin to slow down.
I started running 3 years ago at 6.2kph, 8.2kph was my precise speed yesterday for a long run.
Not saying you need to start as slow as me, but slower than 8 kph definitely.
No according to my watch my speed per hour was 7.17kph.
I haven't run since I left the military and no one could force me to run anymore. But when I was running regularly, my pace for an hour was 5 MPH / 8 KMH.
To graduate from USAF basic training these days, women have to cover 1.5 miles in 14 minutes 26 sec, which is 6.43 MPH / 10.3 KPH.
So I agree with the others that you have a lot of room to slow down.0 -
I did a 20 minute run yesterday which I was very proud of myself for. A friend wants me to do a 10K race in October so it would be nice to be able to do that. Maybe a half marathon next year too.
I am going to struggle to fit everything in though, it's proving tough doing 3 running days and 3 weight training days as well as having small kids and a job.
The kids are too young to be left alone and I'm at work 4/5 days they are at school so I'm relying on my husband to be at home but he also needs time to get his stuff done. Don't really know what the solution is other than dropping something/doing one run after a weight session so I can drop one evening.
Maybe I have too many goals, run far, lift heavy, lose weight, build muscle 🤔1 -
I did a 20 minute run yesterday which I was very proud of myself for. A friend wants me to do a 10K race in October so it would be nice to be able to do that. Maybe a half marathon next year too.
I am going to struggle to fit everything in though, it's proving tough doing 3 running days and 3 weight training days as well as having small kids and a job.
The kids are too young to be left alone and I'm at work 4/5 days they are at school so I'm relying on my husband to be at home but he also needs time to get his stuff done. Don't really know what the solution is other than dropping something/doing one run after a weight session so I can drop one evening.
Maybe I have too many goals, run far, lift heavy, lose weight, build muscle 🤔
Pretty much this...at minimum, they're conflicting. Being a 5K runner and lifting, etc isn't too big of a deal, but once you really get into more distance, particularly 1/2 and marathon distances, running pretty much has to be the priority. Even now, my wife mostly does 10Ks and she lifts 2x per week because otherwise she wouldn't get proper recovery (she's also 48). She doesn't lift "heavy" and her gym sessions are namely for cross training purposes and injury prevention and to maintain physical competency. She uses a runners lifting program that she started using several years ago with a coach and it's completely different from a more traditional (lift heavy/build muscle) kind of program. It's definitely not bodybuilding or powerlifting.
When she was really putting in the miles, she only was in the gym once per week. She does a lot of plyometrics, core exercises, and bodyweight work and band/TRX work, much more so than barbell stuff. I was similar when I was heavy into endurance cycling...lifting heavy multiple times per week lead to recovery issues and I worked with a coach to program work that enhanced my cycling skills more so than traditional barbell stuff (though there was some of that). Also, dieting and endurance training is a pretty tough road to ho as it is difficult to find the balance of calories to lose weight efficiently, but not so low as to impede performance. Neither one of us got into long distance endurance stuff until we were in maintenance and could comfortably eat what we needed to to perform and recover.
Mind you, we're both "oldish" and don't recover like we did in our 20s or even 30s.0 -
My distance won't be an issue for a while yet but I know that once I start training properly for a marathon the lifting will take a back seat and I'll just do enough to try keep what little muscle I've built.
I don't know if I'm doing enough generally, my steps during the week are around 12,000 including the runs, weekends are about 4-5000 including the runs. I'm on my feet at work 24 hours a week but gym, work and purposeful exercise aside I don't do a lot. I sort the kids, the house, we might go for a walk but it's not every weekend.
I've just set my calories to 1600 to try see a small loss, my TDEE is approx 1900.0 -
My distance won't be an issue for a while yet but I know that once I start training properly for a marathon the lifting will take a back seat and I'll just do enough to try keep what little muscle I've built.
I don't know if I'm doing enough generally, my steps during the week are around 12,000 including the runs, weekends are about 4-5000 including the runs. I'm on my feet at work 24 hours a week but gym, work and purposeful exercise aside I don't do a lot. I sort the kids, the house, we might go for a walk but it's not every weekend.
I've just set my calories to 1600 to try see a small loss, my TDEE is approx 1900.
You're probably tuned into this already, but with a deficit that small (which is appropriate!), it's essential to be on point with logging accuracy/completeness, and even if fat loss is proceeding apace, there can be periods of a few weeks where water weight/digestive contents weirdness will play peek-a-boo with fat loss on the scale, and may make it appear as if you're not losing when you actually are.
I went through a long period of re-losing a few pounds that had crept up over my first 4-years-ish of maintenance, didn't have the enthusiasm for a big deficit, so went really slowly. At one stage, there was a month or perhaps a bit more where even my weight trending app thought I was maintaining or even gaining, when I was pretty sure I was losing slowly. Sure enough, some weeks out, the expected loss showed up semi-suddenly. Bodies are weird.
(Yes, I know why, in my case: I'd resumed progressive strength training after a hiatus. I pretty much always add a couple of pounds of water weight when I re-start lifting, and hang onto it until I stop lifting regularly again. If fat loss is half a pound a week, and water weight jumps up by a couple of pounds, you can see how the scale would mislead for a while.)
It's a good plan you have, so don't let any pseudo-plateaus knock your confidence, if you're sure you're on track. Give it time to play out.1 -
My scales this morning tell me I've jumped up from 51.9 a week and a half ago to 53.1! I've been logging everything correctly as far as I can tell apart from last Friday when I had to guess. I logged my breakfast as normal but lunch ended up being a wrap and then dinner was a starter and a main. I came in at just over 5600, 4500 was for the wrap and the dinner, the rest was wine and my usual breakfast which is less than 500 calories.
Apparently I'm exercising too much but not moving enough but I genuinely don't know how to improve that. I can't walk anymore than I already am doing because I'm either at the gym, at work (walking) looking after the kids or having a well earned sit down.0 -
1kg is nothing, really. Just a certain point in your menstrual cycle can make you retain more than 1kg in water, depending. A new exercise, a bit more salt, a bit more carbs relative to other macros will all do that. This most certainly is just water, and it's normal. Unless you've eat 1000 calories over your maintenance calories every single day there's just no way this is bodyfat. I know it's not easy, but water fluctuations are normal. You could weight yourself every morning under the same conditions (naked, after loo) and you'll see that the weight will be higher on some days, and lower on others. Or just once a week and be on a very, very slow downward trend for 6 days, and then something happens and the flood comes, and on scale day you're heavier.0
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1kg is nothing, really. Just a certain point in your menstrual cycle can make you retain more than 1kg in water, depending. A new exercise, a bit more salt, a bit more carbs relative to other macros will all do that. This most certainly is just water, and it's normal. Unless you've eat 1000 calories over your maintenance calories every single day there's just no way this is bodyfat. I know it's not easy, but water fluctuations are normal. You could weight yourself every morning under the same conditions (naked, after loo) and you'll see that the weight will be higher on some days, and lower on others. Or just once a week and be on a very, very slow downward trend for 6 days, and then something happens and the flood comes, and on scale day you're heavier.
Definitely not unless I've seriously underlogged my dinner out which I don't think I have. I'm about 2000 calories over maintenance last week so that would mean I've eaten but not logged a good 5000 over a week which I absolutely haven't. Hope I will see a drop soon enough. People have told me I look smaller than I did at the beginning of the year so it's definitely noticeable what I have lost.1 -
No worries. It will happen. For menstrual cycle retention I'm usually experiencing 2 days past the point (for me, flood comes with menstruation and the water is gone 2 days after it's over, but for others at other points). The worst is water retention from flights. Go on a 2 week summer vacation, pack hiking pants that fit perfectly. After the flight they don't fit for a whole bloody week - and then there's the annoying night where I have to go to the loo several times, and then they fit. Same for return flight of course, but it's less annoying as I prefer home office suitable 'pants'
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Not a particularly helpful response but I absolutely feel this. I'm a fitness instructor, super fit in many ways, but one thing I am NOT is a long distance runner 🤣 give me 100m sprint any day of the week, i'm good at that! But anything long distance is like torture for me. Lots of interesting tips on here so maybe I'll give them a try sometime, although to be honest (much unlike you) I really haven't got the desire to make it a regular hobby 😂😂.0
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Not a particularly helpful response but I absolutely feel this. I'm a fitness instructor, super fit in many ways, but one thing I am NOT is a long distance runner 🤣 give me 100m sprint any day of the week, i'm good at that! But anything long distance is like torture for me. Lots of interesting tips on here so maybe I'll give them a try sometime, although to be honest (much unlike you) I really haven't got the desire to make it a regular hobby 😂😂.
I was also a sprinter vs long distance in school but I feel like this is achievable for me if I put my mind to it. It's hard work and it sucks but there is a huge sense of achievement when I've ticked off my run.0 -
I tried Couch to 5K and failed because I couldn't breathe. I really was that unfit. So I took long (2+ hours) brisk walks for a few weeks. This helped get my muscles started and helped with my breathing. As of my next run, I'll be in week 6 and breathing isn't my problem. Sore calves are, but they'll get used to it.1
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My scales this morning tell me I've jumped up from 51.9 a week and a half ago to 53.1! I've been logging everything correctly as far as I can tell apart from last Friday when I had to guess. I logged my breakfast as normal but lunch ended up being a wrap and then dinner was a starter and a main. I came in at just over 5600, 4500 was for the wrap and the dinner, the rest was wine and my usual breakfast which is less than 500 calories.
Apparently I'm exercising too much but not moving enough but I genuinely don't know how to improve that. I can't walk anymore than I already am doing because I'm either at the gym, at work (walking) looking after the kids or having a well earned sit down.
First: I agree with others that the "gain" is certainly water weight and/or digestive contents on their way to becoming waste, not fat regain. Just stay on course, I'm betting it drops off soon.
In case you haven't seen it, this is good, especially the article linked in the first post, so be sure to read that:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1
That said, there's also a whole thread where various MFP-ers share ideas for increasing daily life movement, some of which don't require extra time in one's day. Maybe file this one for future reference, since you're already going great guns on your running:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1
. . . because overdoing/overtraining is also a thing, and increasing all-source challenges (a.k.a. stressors) gradually is a good plan.
Best wishes!
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