Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

Bayview's post is pretty spot on in my experience. Breathlessness will subside as you get fitter but it does take some time. I had a pretty decent motorcycle accident in 2014 and couldn't run for around three months. Nothing broken but bruised body for months especially around the hips area.
I did Pilates like yourself and that helped a lot with mobility and getting some strength back but from a fitness perspective,only running will improve that. It took me a very long time to get back to my previous running times. As in almost 6 months from memory.
It goes without saying that loosing weight will make a massive difference. Get on to it slowly but make sure you listen to your body and most importantly try to enjoy it.

 

Download the Fitness22 Couch to 10K app and start following it. 3 days a week and it starts you very slowly and importantly stops you getting ahead of yourself later on too! My mate is 47 and started from zero fitness. He's now smashing out 3x 10K runs a week. Took 20 ish weeks to get to this point. My partner is 45 and she's never ran or exercised much, she's up to week 8 now and getting hooked, she can now jog for 25 minutes.

Take it slow, listen to your body and importantly keep the consistency / regularity up.

Report back in here regularly to track your progress and get encouraged!

The old adage if adding no more than 10% training load per week to your routine seems spot on, which is what the app helps you do, starts you slow and stops you going too hard too soon.

 

Now that would be a bit too cold lol I think Melbourne is moderately cold which makes some of the running sessions seriously great

 

I should add, the app is free to download and gets you the first 2 weeks (6 sessions) after that it's $10 to unlock the whole rest of the program. There's a couch to 5k too but just go straight to the 10K one as the 0-5k part of the 10K program is exactly the same in both apps. It's really handy as it tells you when to run/walk etc and if you're walking/running to music it'll cut into the music to give you your next cue.

 

If you've not exercised a lot before theres also a degree of getting used to what breathlessness actually is. What I mean is a lot of people that do zero exercise would say they're breathless and stop where's what's happening is their body is ramping up and getting ready to really work, breathing hard, sucking in the oxygen for those muscles etc. you'll always feel like your bodies working and you're breathing hard but you'll get more efficient and faster/stronger for the same perceived effort and you'll ge more comfortable with the feeling of your body working and you'll be surprised how quick the fitness gains come when you're first starting out.

Sounds like you're on top of your diet? Shedding the weight will be 90% diet at this stage. The biggest weight loss I made was in the 5 weeks I was laid up injured with zero exercise. The only thing I could do to mitigate the damage was really assess my diet and it worked great. I started using MyFitnessPal to count calories which in turn helped me fine tune what I ate to get the best bang for buck from what I eat. I've dropped my meat intake down to almost none, gave milk away and cut the dairy back and ramped up the veggies, fruit and nuts. I'm feeling the best I have for years.

 

First off talk to a sports doctor to assess where you are with your injury and what level of activity is safe due to your weight, don't even think about doing any activity flat out at this stage.

On your walk/runs you should be able to have a normal conversation, you need to keep your exercise aerobic and avoid anerobic exercise currently.

 

Nah; go hard or go home!!

I do a 10k Fun Run every Australia Day, and I try to run at a pace that will allow me to get to the end without stopping...so; it's an easy measured pace, and I can have a chat with my running partner for maybe the first 3 km's, and then after that; starting to labour and conversation is pretty difficult...if I could converse with him for the entire distance; I would deem it to not be really working very hard...just my opinion of course....

It wouldn't feel like much of a slog based on the "conversation" criteria.

Years ago I used to do "circuit workout" classes...we used to get to the point of feeling like a vomit coming on!! they were tough!..a female doctor used to run them and she smashed us.

Same with the pre-season runs at footy training...a good number of blokes stopping on the side of the running track to hurl....probably not really a good idea to go that hard I guess.

Back to the OP; definitely agree that a shorter time frame at the beginning is advisable; hence I suggested 15 mins only...he is already doing regular walks, so a step up could be in order.

 

Thank you friends. I am constantly amazed how supportive other runners are. Also my physio has come out for a run to assess my progress. Will have a go with the app and report back.

 

I've ridden bikes for years @Heinz57 and raced a fair bit in mountain biking, (not an any level, just weekend warrior stuff), but even among friends the elitism and competitiveness I saw in cycling is way higher than what I've seen in running so far. Sure, there's no doubt some ******* in all sports, but everyone I have met so far that runs at any level has been great, friendly, supportive and encouraging. You'll here a lot of runners say not to compare your times against anyone else, only yourself.

Emma's only got 3 more runs left on the app program before her 5k attempt and she was sat last night musing on where to go to run them as she wants to enjoy it as a well earned goal and not the usual twice round the block training. It's fantastic to see her so pumped about it, she "ran" a 5k about 20 years ago for the Race For Life women's cancer awareness. She "trained" for that one with some friends, they came dead last and she was a wreck after only running a short part of the 5k all up. She was only 25 years old at the time. Fast forward to now and her run yesterday was 25 minutes and she pulled up just shy of 4k in that. Not setting any speed records but the fact she ran none-stop for 25 minutes has blown her away. I'm excited to see if she will carry on and crack the 10k, that's her goal and this is coming from someone who 8 weeks ago said "I'm not built for running", "I'm too heavy", "it's so unconformable"... etc etc. She literally saw how chilled I was each evening after a run and what it did for my mood so she gave it a crack and so far is loving the journey. As a by-product, the drive to achieve the 5k goal and run stronger has made her more aware of her diet and general health.

@Bayview it's great you can smash out a 10k with no training but the vast majority of people can't. As I say, I've been very fit and active most of my life and ridden hard and far for years, yet even after the short, "easy" parts at the beginning of the program covering only a few K and for only 10-20 minutes of total combined running at conversation pace I was pulling up sore. I got ahead of myself as my engine was good from cycling but the legs and joints weren't tough for running so I skipped forward on the program a couple of weeks and I wound up injured, laid up for 5 weeks. My mate is like you though, he used to run years ago and he has a job that keeps him on his feet, (I sit desk bound all day), he came out to run with me early on and casually smashed out 10k then kept going and called it a day at 20k! I was gasping and took myself off home at about the 5k mark buggered.

Listen to me, I've been "running" for 6 months and I'm carrying on like a bloody expert..... Feel free to take what I say with a pinch of salt, I think I'm still in the Honeymoon phase of my running ;-)

 

That's excellent that your physio ran with you.

The information that is important to you at this stage is where to find advice specific to you given you current circumstances.

Sometimes less is more.

 

I definitely can't "smash it out"...it's bloody hard work for sure, and it takes me about 3 days to get over it!! The last 2 km's is absolutely horrific...

My point for the OP was to start with a smaller schedule as I said; but go hard; most folks don't know hard they can actually go until really challenged and from my experience everyone can always go a bit harder than they do.

Nah; it's all good info; at the end of the day the OP will do what he feels is right for him.

Good on you for getting out there!! It's hard sometimes.

 

Just got back after today's session. Speed training day today, Fartleks - First time I've tried it, adding it in as a one day a week session. The oval across from work has a 300 meter gravel track around it. 3x laps warm up, then 10 laps Fartleks (1 lap sprint, 1 lap walk/jog x 5), 3 laps cool down. 16 laps total for just shy of 5k. My word, that is tough! Close to spewing at the end of the last two sprint laps. I can see how it will really improve my overall speed, though I can't say that I'm looking forward to next weeks session!

 

How was everyone's run/training at the weekend? Anyone go anywhere interesting or smash any PB's!?

I managed to tick off another goal and ran half-marathon distance on Saturday. Just over 21k in 2:08, I was stoked! Unfortunately, my hip gave out again at 7k but I struggled on and finished my route (in a fair bit of pain by the end I have to say). It'll come good, it's done it before, too many pavement kilometers in hard soled trail shoes. The route was 60% pavement 40% trail. Next time I'll run it in my softer runners.

Shame as I was feeling pretty good otherwise and reckon I could have gone under 2 hours. I stopped a few times to explore some side trials and take photo's (an excuse to stretch the hip out really).

The wind picked up for the return leg and it got very cold, I've never enjoyed a Soy Flat White and Chocolate Slice so much in my life as I did in the nice warm cafe at the end!

I was a little sore yesterday bit not too bad, worse today (DOMS, Twodayitus), right foot is a bit tender underside from a little lingering plantar fasciatus, the running doesn't seem to be making it worse but the yoga definitely is (all that stretching of the feet in Downward Dog!). Hip is a bit tender, calves know they've done something and quads feel like they're bruised if you press into them. To be honest though, none of it is particularly sore, I just know I've worked. Very surprised how well I've pulled up to be honest.

Previous longest run was 15k so a pretty big jump. I'll wind back to 12-15k again now for a few weeks before trying another half.

Easy week this week, no runs yesterday or today, gentle yoga tonight and Vinyasa Yoga tomorrow, get everything stretched back out then Fartleks again Wednesday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, (whether you ran or not!).

Found another great little hidden beach down a side track, Woolleys Beach...



Unfortunately the trails are not continuous around these beaches, you keep having to duck back up to the road...



HMAS Otama in Westernport Bay from another little side trail....



The face at the end of a first half-marathon, spent!

 

Looks like a great trail to run @Propagate , nicely done.
I did 12 laps of the oval in front of my place last night so pretty much the usual distance but running on such a soft surface feels so good and less taxing on the body compared to running on the pavement. A bit boring but i feel that i concentrate a lot more on the run itself while doing laps.
I've noticed my right tibia has been swollen for the past few weeks especially when i make an effort to run fast on the pavement so decided that oval laps will be the go to runs until it's completely recovered. Kept it to a decent average of 4 minutes 15 seconds a km but the last two laps were pretty hard so felt really good afterwards.

 

Nice work, good average too @paulF It'll be soft surfaces for me too the next few runs.

 

Fartlek Day today! Wretched things.

15x 300 meter laps of the oval. 3x laps warm up then 10x laps alternating a full gas lap / walk lap then 2x laps cool down.

The oval is on a slight slope, the last 100m being the most uphill which is just great as I'm running out of gas at amount 200m then really having to dig deep to run the last 100 as hard as I can right as it pitches up slightly!

The Fartlek days are paying dividends though in terms of bringing on the strength and overall endurance pace.

The Yoga is going amazing too. Coming up about 7 weeks now at 2-3 times per week and noticed a massive difference in strength and flexibility already. I never have been particularity flexible but I could always just about touch my toes with the tip of my fingers, last night I gave it a shot and blow me, got both palms completely flat on the floor with two straight legs! I was gobsmacked. It's helping the running no end, loosing things back up after runs and opening up the hips, groin, hammies and calves.

 

No wonder the sprint laps hurt, Garmin Connect is more accurate with the distance, each lap is 380m not the 300 as Strava is showing.

 

View attachment 17270 Hope everyone's running is going well. My legs has been feeling so much better after doing the past few workouts on a soft surface and the right Tibia is no more inflamed or swollen even though i didn't even rest at all. What a difference it made. Another side effect is actually being able to concentrate on effort more so i felt my runs to be faster than usual.
12 laps around the oval is getting a bit boring but doing 6 laps clockwise and then 6 anti clockwise is not bad and seems to be harder too maybe due to to a bit of ondulation difference around the field.
Also acquired these bad boys for my every now and then longish runs

 

Nice @paulF Nothing like a new pair of runners!

No running for me since Thursday and nothing on the cards for the coming week either. I ran home from work on Thursday night, 4.5k and felt decidedly slow... woke up that night with a stinking cold which is now migrating onto my chest. I'll rest up for a week until it's cleared I reckon.

The reason I ran home is Emma, my partner, hit the 5k point on her Couch to 5k app on Thursday so she ran to my office to meet for for a celebratory breakfast! She was STOKED. It was so great to see. It took her 35 minutes to run the 5k and she was over the moon. That's the furthest she's ever ran in one go and she's really chuffed with it, she was pretty smashed ehn she rocked up at work mind. So, she took my car oie and hence I had to get home under my own steam.

She's starting the 5k to 10k program now, really proud of her. She's a huge advert for all those out there that say they "can't run" or "not built to run" as if you'd met Emma 2 months ago the last thing you would ever have though she'd do would be to train and commit to getting up to 5k and she's done it!

She's dropped a decent few kilos in the process too, more so because the running has really helped her commit to clean eating rather than losing it directly through the running. All in all, it just helps put you in a good head space.

 

Anybody got any experience with correcting toe out / heel whip / splayed feet?
I know my form suffers from this and have been trying to correct it for some time, but not sure if it's anatomical or something that can be fixed without causing issues elsewhere.
I'll be seeing my physio in a couple of days to do an assessment, but wondering if anyone else has experienced or corrected this ?