May 2018 Running Challenge

zdyb23456 wrote: »

BTW, if you want good race photos, you can help by smiling, run with good posture (which you should be doing anyway) pushing your hat back further on your head so we can see your face, and position yourself so that you're not blocked by other runners.

Even when I try to do this I still look ridiculous - my face always looks like I'm pained or really uncomfortable or just overall unhappy with my situation. Not to mention super sweaty and crazy hair all over the place. Oh well, I'm not doing it to win any beauty contests

cburke8909 wrote: »

Compared to this time year, how have you improved your fitness?
I would say I have improved greatly as a runner. A year ago I would have been happy with 8 minutes a mile for a 10k or half marathon. Most of my training runs were 6 miles at the maximum and I was only running 4 days a week. I was starting to eat much better but still lapsing at times.
Today I can hope for a sub 1:40 1/2 marathon, a BQ is possible. I run 6 times a week. My diet is even better and I have lost 9 pounds more.
The only drawback is that a year ago, I was doing more cross-training and strength. I need to find a way to add those back in.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Well, I've done a run and I've done a legs day with weights, and my calf didn't blow up like a balloon! Knee was a little puffy and warm yesterday so I gave it a low impact walking day instead of running. Hoping to run tonight.

Compared to this time last year, how have you improved your fitness?

I just looked through my logging for last year at around this time, to aid my memory. This time last year I had never been to a gym and not yet started c25k - which meant I had difficulty running one minute without a break, and running a quarter mile was unthinkable for me. I was obese (middle of normal BMI now) and had just started adding weights to my bodyweight routine at home. I was doing Zumba and HIIT stationary biking as my main exercises. Only six months earlier, I was morbidly obese and practically bedridden with undiagnosed diabetes and a massive ovarian tumor, so May last year was already a huge improvement over that!

If you had asked me three months ago, before the Baker's cyst in my knee ruptured, I would have been able to brag about finally getting my 5k time under 30 min, and deadlifting and squatting my bodyweight for the first time. I've been benched for most of three months and my most recent 5k was almost 40 minutes. I am back to zero with the weights, at least as far as my legs are concerned - just started being allowed to add weights and lifting less than half of previous. BUT! I'm back, and confident that my fitness base is still present which will allow me to regain quickly. In terms of upper body strength, I'm still chasing my first pull-up and have graduated to being able to do bent arm hangs and negatives. I can do twenty good form push-ups - this time last year I was doing knee push-ups. I did one of my old Zumba routines for fun recently. This time last year, five minutes would have me sweating and breathing hard. Now I can basically do that all day. Running had made a huge difference to my fitness levels. Also, my resting pulse rate is about 48 now. When I was sick and obese, it was sometimes up over a hundred. By a year ago, it was down to about 72.

acarmelo0000 wrote: »

Hey, just found your group, I think I might join. My goal is to be able to run for an hour without stopping at 4mph on the treadmill. Right now I can only go for 25 min sooo I have some work to do.