Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

5 miles of hills with Nottingham sweatshop tonight around the park estate. I like my hills and this wasn't anything new but it was hard going tonight as works manic and I've not been eating much this week. End of the running week though, 20 miles logged and next run is colwick park run on Saturday :)

Touch wood I'm calling my ITB issue resolved / over as its not hurt for 5 weeks and I'm regularly doing 8miles on it. Weight wise I've not lost / gained a single lb since Dec 2012.
 
What I eat every day:
3-4 tomatoes + 1-2 cucumbers a day
0.5 liter of organic fat free sugar free yogurt with nothing
250 grams of fat free white cheese mloads of proteins inside
100-200 grams of mixed nuts
One liter of Skimmed milk.
1-2 bananas 1-2 apples

For dinners i eat depending on taste:
Baked white fish in herbs. So fat Free
Turkey/Chicken Breast in herbs. So fat Free
Wholemeal Pitas or Rice for carbs

For drinks : herbal tea atm or sparkling mineral water. NO COFFEE AT ALL. I eat caffeine/ guarana pills instead before running in the mornings.

Im a stubborn ******* i can eat only grass as long as i see results. Hard time comes in evenings when i get stoned and get munches. I just grab few carrots and grind on that or chewing gum like 2 packs a day atm.

Soon i will move to electronic cigarets. I only smoke 3-4 fags a day only after workout because i like to smoke :) Not quitting just moving to different stuff hehehe.

it's pretty clear you know nothing about nutrition tbh.

first of all you need a balanced diet, from what i can see your only source of fat is nuts, you actually do need a decent amount of fat intake per day, first of all it helps your body produce hormones such as testosterone, it's also healthy for your heart and brain if you consume specific fats, etc. basically you should be eating fat every day as part of a balanced diet.

you need a good quality sources of fats:

coconut oil, nuts, avocados, red meat, etc.

fats you should avoid are - margerine, vegetable oils, hydrogenated fat and refined fats.

you need complex carbs in there original form:

sweet potatoes, rice, spinach, lentils, beans, broccoli, etc

carbs you should avoid are refined carbs (stuff which you wouldn't find growing at a farm):

breads (doesn't matter if it's wholemeal or not), chocolate, sugar (yes the cane grows at a farm but you don't put sugar cane in your tea it's refined granules from a refining process), pastry, etc.

protein:

eggs, meat, lentils, peas, etc.



fat is good for you, it's the amount and types you need to look out for. if your looking to stay thin then it's calories and good sources of food you should be looking at not the fat content.

excessive calories is going to make you fat, not eating fat itself. fat making people fat is a myth. it's actually carbohydrates that is the main problem in most peoples diets, specifically refined carbs like chocolate, etc. e.g. if i eat a fatty piece of steak at least i am getting lots of nutritional content for my calories, with a mars bar your getting basically sugar and that is it, no nutritional content what so ever.

also you say you dont drink coffee yet you take caffeine pills? wtf is that all about? that's like me saying i dont take sugar in my tea but i will have a mars bar instead. also im pretty sure guarana has some percentage of caffeine in it as well unless i am mixing it up with something else.

caffeine has it's advantages and disadvantages, it gives you energy, appetite suppressant, keeps you awake, etc, but on the other hand it increases your heart rate, increases cortisol levels which produces stress on your heart and decreases testosterone levels, etc, etc.

basically it's one of the worst things you can take before cardio imo unless you really need the energy advantage, as your heart rate will be increased meaning you burn out faster. a lot of bodybuilders use it though even though it can decrease test levels, something i cant quite figure out myself but they feel that the extra energy which makes them work out harder outweighs the negative side of things probably, but i don't know the specifics of that.


anyway a "balanced diet" is the key phrase here, your diet has no balance as it is mainly carbs with some protein and very little fat.

use this calculator

http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

and you will be shocked at how much fat you need every day compared to how much you are eating.

again just to re-iterate its calories and where those calories come from that is important, not fat
 
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Well done zed :-)

Did my first run tonight 5k in 35 mins exactly. Found it easier then the walk run thing I have been doing only walked 3 times for 250yrds a time. Is that good ?
Also under my rib cage hurts ?

And when I run /jog what's the best form? I have my feet very low to the floor there is not much knee bend is that right?

i think the best form is to keep your feet moving, and it's better to take quicker shorter strides than longer slower strides, basically you shouldn't be doing huge leaps but shorter strides but many more of them in the same amount of time.

when i first started running about 15 months ago, i done 5K in 50 mins, now i can do 5k in around 27:30 iirc, i'm doing one tomorrow, so hoping to improve upon that.

the best thing to do is not walk at all but find a pace which suits you for the whole run. so don't go too fast at the start, burn out and then need to recover mid run, best to go slow and steady like the tortoise rather than fast and short like the hare.

i did 8k in 47:58 the other day, i was hoping to do 10K but the pace i picked was too fast and just stopped after 8K, i should have picked a slightly slower pace.

i also sometimes alternate between two speeds which helps a lot, say i do 2 minutes at 12 kph then 2 minutes at 10 kph so it evens out to 11 kph over a 5K, this way i can sort of recover during the slower pace.

it's best to just train at your own pace with little improvements each time.
 
Psycho Sonny
My eating habbits are messed up 110% :P
I eat two meals a day. One around 6pm and second aroun 10pm.
Then over whole day i eat nothing or some instant noodles for lunch cause i love this stuff :D

I cant have healthy diet cause try to stay away from fridge after smoking a joint in the evening.

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My dinner from last night. 0.5kg of lattice 0.5kg of carots some nuts and strawberries. I had 1 turkey breast tio go with it and 0.5 liter yogurt.
For me it needs to be massive and as little calories as possible cause i will eat 2kg of **** in ONE GO :P


You need to remember i used to eat 14 inch pizza for one meal heh.
 
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Think I might have given myself a stress fracture. I'm fairly new to running and I reckon I worked my way up to 5k a little fast. I ran a 22:36 on a Wednesday for my first ever 5k on a treadmill. A few days later on the Sunday I followed it up with a 22:11. But getting off the treadmill I noticed an ache in my shin. I've had shin splints before along the front of the shin but this time it was different - the pain is on the back of the shin bone, on the inside of the leg. I put it down to muscle soreness and thought nothing of it.

A week has come and gone and now the pain comes back when I've been walking for more than say 10 minutes. It's not severe, but it is localised to one very specific spot which makes me think it' a micro-fracture. Might be time for a trip to the doctors.

Been reading around and suggested healing time is 4-6 weeks :(

Well it's been 9 months and I still can't run for more than 10 minutes without the pain coming back. I never went to the doctor initially, as I knew they'd tell me to rest it for 6 weeks. I gave it 12 initially and tried again.. no luck. Then another month, and another.. every time I try to run, it comes back. I've tried supplements, different terrains, shoes etc..

I've just been to the doctor and am going for an x-ray in the next couple of days (just to rule anything out - it probably won't show anything up) and after that it'll be onto a bioinformatics centre probably.

It really sucks. I wasn't too bothered last year because I'd only just started running and it was coming up for winter. But now it's summer and I'd like to see if i can get into triathlons at some point and feel like my body just can't.
 
yer_averagejoe Tell me wrong. Weed should be prescribed for anorexia haha.
I been smoking for 13 years every evening now.
Helps me to cope with my financial problems... So i dont think i got 50f left on my account for food till next payday :/
 
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Ha, sorry it just seems so funny to me that someone who is so conscious about his diet would be perfectly ok with neglecting their lungs. If it works for you that's cool, I don't have any fact or figures to back an argument up. It's just unusual to find a health freak that smokes :)
 
yer_averagejoe

Like I said before. Nowadays Smoking is reeward for me.
I only smoke after workouts. I get up in the morning run to work --> work 8-10 hours -> run back -> 50 minute workout --> MY first cigarette of the day :)

I dont think smoking kills. Gives You cancer but care about that.
One of my BFF from school times died from drinking two years ago. He was 28 years old and started having belly pains so he went to a doctor.

Doctor said MATE Your pancreas is ****ed You need to stop drinking and never drink again cause you can die.
But it was to late month later ambulance took him into intensive care in hospital. He died 2 weeks later after coma.
He was proper healthy lad never sick or **** like that. But he was drinking few beers every evening....
This is why I live day to day. Cause how do i know i wont die tomorrow ??This is reason i quit drinking altogether and did not had a single beer this year so far even on my 30 birthday.
 
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your allowed to do whatever you want with your life so long as your not harming others.

but i would agree smoking and fitness don't really go hand in hand, neither does binge or regular drinking.

the reason why you need large meals is because your eating the wrong stuff. if money is an issue you can replace meats with quorn (frozen stuff can be found cheap in iceland, farmfoods as well as asda, etc) and buy vegetables from a fruit and veg shop or most specialty asian grocers for cheap.

i'll give you an example of a meal below:

2 quorn fillets fried in groundnut oil or coconut oil (add sauce or seasoning to your own taste) along with a bowl of mixed veg (steamed or microwave from frozen) and 2 sweet potatoes (microwaved in a bowl with a little water).

very simple, quick dish to make and all ingredients are relatively cheap.

you get fat from the oil, protein from the quorn, nutrients and fibre from veg and complex carbs from the sweet potato.

there is no way you could be still hungry after that imo judging by your frame in the second picture. if you are then increase your water intake, have a pint of water before you start eating, then another pint whilst eating your meal and then another pint after your meal.
 
I dont think smoking kills. Gives You cancer but care about that.
One of my BFF from school times died from drinking two years ago. He was 28 years old and started having belly pains so he went to a doctor.

Doctor said MATE Your pancreas is ****ed You need to stop drinking and never drink again cause you can die.
But it was to late month later ambulance took him into intensive care in hospital. He died 2 weeks later after coma.
He was proper healthy lad never sick or **** like that. But he was drinking few beers every evening....
This is why I live day to day. Cause how do i know i wont die tomorrow ??This is reason i quit drinking altogether and did not had a single beer this year so far even on my 30 birthday.

you dont think smoking kills? yet you know it gives you cancer?

thats like saying guns dont kill but they will put a hole in your body.

also it looks like the reason why your mate died is because he was a regular heavy drinker, his organs weren't being given time to rest / heal with his everyday drinking.

if he had simply cut down on the drinking earlier on in his life he would probably of been okay, by the time he did it was too late, better he would have cut down at a younger age and lived til 60 imo than die young from alcohol abuse.

doctor's recommend 1 glass of wine per day max, anything over that and your damaging your body. im guessing you dont know the full extent of his drinking, as they can hide it so well or sneak a sly one in whilst your not looking, etc.

anyway do what you want, but it looks like your in denial about the reality of such things. you quit drinking because your mate died from it yet you know smoking is just as bad yet continue to do it suggesting you would rather enjoy life and live day to day instead, then why not just pack in the fitness and eat pizza's, kebabs and drink a keg every night then? surely you would enjoy yourself a lot more that way?
 
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Psycho Sonny only reason i started working out is to dance on pills all night on raves. Like i used to 10 years ago.That is only that that motivates me to move my ass every day and get going.

Other thing was to show those fat *******s I know that anyone can get fit if they want.
And tbh few of my mates started working out and stuff after they saw my results :P

If it goes for cash i am broke cause in 2007 i lost my job due to redundancies. And i could not find ANY job for months and months (That was when crisis **** hit UK). Got into depression and had to borrow allot of money to pay for food and rent. And i am still paying that money off.

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This is me in June 2008 when i was almost 15 stone and no perspectives for future at all.
I hope to make it to 50 Males in my family got history of heart attacks in 40s so its possible that i wont make it heh.


BTW. Good hint on sweet potato. Never had those in Poland need to try it out :). I will try out other stuff You sugested and see how that tastes .

Are them Rice Waffles ok to eat btw ?
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I will defo try that quorn stuff. Loks like something i could eat ^^
 
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rice cakes are fine as a snack, not something you would want to replace a proper meal with. the only snacks i eat are fruit or nuts or greek yoghurt with honey.

i try not to snack and eat 2 meals per day.

i follow a IF diet. which is intermittent fasting where i have a 6 hour eating window. therefore i do not really get much time to snack.

basically i have my first meal of the day at 2pm with nothing before then, i then have my last meal of the day at around 7pm and then nothing after 8pm until 2pm the next day.

so between the hours of 8pm and 2pm (18 hours) i cannot eat or drink anything which has calories in it (so im fasting for 16 hours everyday), therefore water only. so i drink a lot of water everyday which is healthy and helps me with my running as i am well hydrated as well as keeping all my organs and everything running efficiently as possible.

so during my 6 hour window i only have enough time for say 2 meals and maybe 1 snack, that's it.

to learn more about IF go to http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

i'm not saying you should follow this, im just saying it's what i do.

sweet potatoes are cheap and a good source of carbs, much better than bread, so yeah you should try them instead of say pitta and see what you think.

i think your exercise regime is really good, just your diet could be improved.
 
Psycho Sonny very similar brakes between meals.
I also drink loads of water. I would say 4-5 liter a day.
 
This is how my everyday training looks. I know its not perfect but. Try anything harder after 3 mile run up hill with only 10 minute brake to change over

I know its messy but my room mates sister is staying over and making all the mess in Kitchen :/
 
Did a jog last night and then this morning did a park run 31.09 in red hot conditions manages to knock 3.51 off my best time so far. Really enjoyed it if you not tried one give them a go.
 
Ye hot as hell in nottingham im off for my 3 miles in 30 minutes. I bet i will be veeeeery tired and then i will do just 2 series to hot for 3 :P


Back made it 3/6 miles uphill in 30 minutes plus 33 minute workout.. Hot as **** today
 
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Ye hot as hell in nottingham im off for my 3 miles in 30 minutes. I bet i will be veeeeery tired and then i will do just 2 series to hot for 3 :P


Back made it 3/6 miles uphill in 30 minutes plus 33 minute workout.. Hot as **** today

You don't say, we did colwick park run 5k (topped up to 8k with an extra lap) this morning, was complete murder. Got home and half filled a skip then started on the beer, half cut now lol.
 
Hoping there's someone on here who can provide a little nutritional advice.
I'm running the London 10K tomorrow. It's been a terrible run up to it training wise - not run since Tuesday (which was a 10K in 1hr 4 mins - PB is 1hr 1 min so disappointing!) and swam 50 x 25 metre lengths on Thurs.
Bad bit is went for a few drinks last night (I know I know!!!!) and not done anything today.

So with that in mind:
a) What should I eat tonight?
b) And breakfast tomorrow?
c) Should I go for a short run tonight to loosen things up a bit?

Help! :)
 
Hoping there's someone on here who can provide a little nutritional advice.
I'm running the London 10K tomorrow. It's been a terrible run up to it training wise - not run since Tuesday (which was a 10K in 1hr 4 mins - PB is 1hr 1 min so disappointing!) and swam 50 x 25 metre lengths on Thurs.
Bad bit is went for a few drinks last night (I know I know!!!!) and not done anything today.

So with that in mind:
a) What should I eat tonight?
b) And breakfast tomorrow?
c) Should I go for a short run tonight to loosen things up a bit?

Help! :)
I should be doing it tomoz too, but currently shivering and aching :( will make a call tomoz, don't eat anything you haven't run on before, it's only 10k it will be fine nutrition won't make a huge difference. I will run from Waterloo to baggage drop to loosen up a bit
 
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