Would you like to be friends?

Hi everyone.
I'm a 42-year old doctor by training and am currently working as an addictions therapist. I live in the beautiful city of Singapore and love the tropical beaches out here near the the equator.
I'm on this site for 2 reasons mainly.
First I wanna look good and feel good. I am chasing that elusive six-pack that I have not have since my twenties. I do not accept that "it's all downhill from 40 onwards" and I refuse to live in beer-gut-ville. I am determined to prove that us 40+ men can look good too.
Second as I'm not getting any younger I want to live as healthy as possible which I think is one one the keys to avoiding injury and illness.
I'd love to add any and all kindred souls out there so that we can share in this wonderful journey together.

Hi,

Glad to share the program of how I started out running with you all :-)

First thing to mention here is I’m not re-inventing the wheel, there are many similar programs out there on the web and I got this one from a fitness magazine, so I’m not taking any credit for it but just saying it worked for me and I’ll be adding some details about lessons I have learnt from my sessions that might be valuable to you too. First four things I learnt that will help you straight away are:

1. Ensure you are fit enough to do some basic exercise before you start this, I’m no doctor or fitness expert this is purely my story and advise.
2. Go at your own pace, this is not a race and is about getting stamina into your legs and lungs, you can ask me about stage 2 – Speed and 3 – Endurance once stage 1 is done
3. Forget distance too at this point, it might become important to you later if you want to race but at this point forget it.
4. This is a 14 week program of running & walking, I’d recommend following it and not jumping ahead as that didn’t help me and actually put me back.
5. If you try to start a new week and the change is too much, repeat the previous week. This is not a failure, this is just a slower improvement that week, you’ll get there.

So basically this is a 30 minute session 3-4 times a week with a rest day in between, expect the last day if you do the 4. So I did this either in my lunch break from work (we had showers) or after work and before dinner on a Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat, it’s good to do the last two of any session with no rest day and then you are ready for Monday’s new challenge (but adjust the days how you want). The list below is the 14 sessions, session 1 is simply walking strongly for 4 minutes and then running for 2 minutes and then repeat that for 30 mins (5 times). Each week you either end up losing a bit of rest/walking time or adding a little running, it gets more aggressive near the end but you’ll be full of running power by then. If you can’t run for 2 mins to start with I’d just adjust that down to what you can do with run with that, walk for 4 for the 30 mins and improve weekly until you can do the 2:

Walk Run Repeat
4 2 5
3.5 2 5
3 2.5 5
3 3 5
2 3.5 5
2 4 5
2 5 4
1.5 5 5
1.5 6 4
1 6 4
1 8 3
1 10 3
1 15 2
0 30 1 GOAL!

This is it! And good luck. I’d advise simple stretching before and after (but I was never the best at making sure I did this!!). Also on a the food front, if you are feeling very tired the next day after this you might need to eat some of those calories you earn running on those days, so on a M,W,F & S I tended to eat 50% of the calories I earned in running. Remember at this point food is fuel for the runs, before and after (don’t eat in the hour before and eat some carbs within 30 mins of finishing).

Stage 2 – This for me was speed work, I wanted to run 5k in 30 mins at this point and was a little behind that pace. So here you can work intervals of running and running hard to slowly improve you overall pace, I followed the Nike Speed workoputs of 10 mins warm up pace followed by 4 sets of intervals at 3 mins fast and 3 mins normal pace, with a 10 minute cool down. My pace has improved so much over the last year I’ve gone from 33 minutes for 5k to 23 last week!!

Stage 3 – Being competitive and always wanting to push myself the next stage for me was a 10k, so I entered myself into a race and gave myself 3 months to train. I added 0.5k at a time until I hit 10k. That 10k took me 60 minutes and from then on it was all about pace improvement with intervals and by race day I completed the course in 49 mins and whilst leaving the event I entered their Half Marathon which was 3 months away, more training and I completed that in 1hr 54mins. All this in 12 months from the humble beginnings of 2 mins of running at a time 

Hope this is useful and feel free to ask questions or send me a message. Ultimately the result for me is I’ve gone from overweight and unfit to being energetic and within my BMI by miles, it’s now the off season of races here in the UK so I am just working ok the gym on stabilising muscles for running and general fitness, it’s too cold for much running outside.

Also if you want another running guru and expert who has been on a great weightloss and running journey follow my MFP and Instagram friend joyzy who’s lost over 100lbs.

Steve (@sdr_fitness_goals on Instagram)

Hey all!

I am 26 years old, working as a systems analyst for 5 years. I am calm, i love games and tecnology.

Why I Want To Get In Shape
I've been weighing around 134kg for 4 years on average. I decided to change all that, losing 30 kg and put an end to my sedentary lifestyle.

Please add me and lets do it together!

Hi!

I'm just starting out on here but would love people to chat to! I'm doing the fitness thing on my own and I find it pretty hard to motivate myself somedays!

For exercise I'm using www.blogilates.com - the girl is so upbeat and knows how to keep your attention! She is on you tube under POP pilates

Hi guys, I thought I'd post here as although I'm not new to MFP, I've only just starting logging properly and discovered the massive amount of support that is available through the forums. It'd be great to have some more friends to see how other people eat and exercise I definitely use it more to track what I eat, rather than lose weight, but I still need that encouragement.

I am a keen runner and can only agree with the widom that has been passed on to you so far on this thread, but if I can stress only one thing, please let it be this: Get a pair of running shoes fitted properly. I know they can be a little pricey, but it really will help prevent injury and generally make your running career easier! Also, double lined socks help to prevent blisters if you're having problems with those.

Otherwise all I can say is good luck and if anyone wants to add me, I'd be more than happy to accept.

Jen

<snip> but if I can stress only one thing, please let it be this: Get a pair of running shoes fitted properly. I know they can be a little pricey, but it really will help prevent injury and generally make your running career easier! Also, double lined socks help to prevent blisters if you're having problems with those.

Jen

This is very true, especially if you find any feet, toe or calf pain, then get checked out for some shoes. On the sock front, after I got some proper runners socks from SportDirect (pretty cheap) my sore toe issues were solved! Black toes can be part of the journey though and I've had my fair share!

Hey I'm also a music student...but from England
I used to swim...A LOT...and i need to find a stables to get back in the saddle while I'm at uni

apart from that I dance, I do the 30 day shred (which you can find on youtube) I walk loads, I'm starting yoga....and I try to run too but in the winter as soon as I get downstairs I think nahhh. Definitely more suited to indoor stuff in this weather.

Hello!

I'll add you as a friend because I'm wanting to be in this for the long haul too! I love to run, I'm on here to kickstart my lagging marathon training (first running goal I make is a marathon, not a 5k, I am crazy apparently!) and hope to maintain my weight and fitness I will have acheived by the end of the marathon!

My favourite site is running4women.com! It's packed with exercises and they ask you to try out free products sometimes which is quite cool. There's lots of training plans and recipes too