Platypus' Beginners Guide to Running

Yeah. It seems to be just in rounds so run as much as you can between set dates and try and get the UK to win!

I suppose in theory if you wanted the UK to win then you’d be better avoiding it if you don’t run much and just letting the people who run loads enter to increase the average. But hey it’s the taking part that counts!
 
Is it on averages? I've entered. I don't know how much I'll still run in 2 months (I think is when it starts) as I'll probably be moving over to cycling at that point. I would have thought it's just on totals?

**EDIT** As I think about it, an average miles per population would make sense?
 
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Me and my brother are doing the Baldock Beast (Herts) on Sunday the 23rd of February, half with some cross country tracks, should be fun!
 
Well... First run in 6 months last night (Treadmill 5 km with Avg HR at 139 bpm). No weird pains or anything and I can still walk this morning, so that's hopefully a good sign.

Lets see how it goes in the upcoming weeks.
 
Congratulations. Hope things continue to improve. Presume you'll be deferring your marathon place?

I think i might be coming down with something. Ran on Thursday and on the 3rd mile i was going downhill and felt really drained and had to slow and walk. Then Friday i ran and felt a little better. Sunday i was doing a longer off road run so Saturday i just did a short 4 miles which turned out quite fast. In hindsight i should've rested as i was completely drained on the Sunday run with a group. I just hung right at the back, luckily one other guy was also struggling so i wasn't alone!

Got back home and even small errands around the house had me feeling out of breath. Going to rest today and see how i feel in the morning.

I've been making a big effort to lose weight and being quite strict with my intake. I'm wondering if part of it is finding the right balance between having enough of a deficit to lose weight but still fueling my body sufficiently for running.

Weighed myself last Thursday and was 108.5kg. I was 103kg before christmas! Really want to be <100 by the date of the run in Feb. Especially as they've released the route and it's gone from 18 to 21 miles!
 
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Had to drop the place to be honest. It falls badly with kids holidays and general finances :-(

Then today I find that my sister if moving to London and the whole accommodation issue would have been sorted for free :(
 
Ah, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you can get a few months running without issues and maybe aim for Chester later in the year?

Least you've already done London!


Woohoo free trainers. There's a new Vitality Amex card with an offer where you get £50 back if you spend £50 at runners need.
 
Nah, i just have a Vitality policy and saw the offer with their new tie-up with Amex.

It's a decent credit card too, gives up to 2.5% cashback depending on your activity level. I worked out i should be around 2% which is better than most cards.
 
Hoping for help or pointers on where to go for help...

At the weekend I was signed up to do a half-marathon trail run in May.

I've never really been a runner. I'm currently 108kg (17st). I went to the gym today and ran/jogged for 30 mins doing intervals of 4 mins at 8kmh, 1min at 12kmh, and was pretty tired at the end.

I want/need to lose about 18 kg (40 lb) over the next 19 weeks.

I have 30 mins each workday for gym/running time, and possibly some time pre-, or post-work, then at the weekends I'm going to start doing parkrun again (which I did each week for the first half of last year), which is 11km including running to it and running back.

What I'm after is a exercise programme.

What would anyone recommend?
 
If you're ran for 30 mins at those intervals i'd say you must have a pretty decent base of fitness already which is good.

You're about the same weight as me, with about the same weight loss goals as me too! I've ran both half marathons and a full marathon so it's definitely do-able, especially with 4 months of training.

With you saying you have 30 mins for gym/running. Do you also have other sports/exercises you need to fit into that?

I don't have a specific plan but i'd just try and aim to run 3 times a week midweek for 30 mins and then at the weekends aim for a longer run increasing distance each week. If you can run off roads for that then all the better. As a rough guide that should definitely get you there. Then you can choose if you want to keep increasing distances or try and put more work into increasing speed.
 
Thanks for that excellent combo of info and motivation!

Yes, I'm looking around for training programs and that's pretty much what I'm finding.

I have no other pressing fitness targets, but currently it's looking like I'll run 2 or 3 times in the week, working on increasing pace due to the fixed time cap I have. I'll see how I go but might try to do some circuit training and weights sessions in between the running days. Then I'll use Parkrun as the basis for my longer run, increasing the distance each Saturday, and hopefully squeeze in a short run on Sundays.
 
Yeah thats fine. Just wasn't sure whether you had other constraints on your time :)

Circuit training and weights would be a big benefit. As would swimming just to improve core fitness.

I wouldn't get too hung up on specific training plans, some are really rigid and i find they don't really mix with day to day life.

The time cap for most runs is pretty much walking pace so you shouldn't need to worry about that!
 
Marvt74 said:
Yeah thats fine. Just wasn't sure whether you had other constraints on your time :)

Circuit training and weights would be a big benefit. As would swimming just to improve core fitness.

I wouldn't get too hung up on specific training plans, some are really rigid and i find they don't really mix with day to day life.

The time cap for most runs is pretty much walking pace so you shouldn't need to worry about that!
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Sounds good.

In terms of the fixed time cap, I meant how long I have to train on workdays. I won't be able to increase my time spent running, so I'll have to focus on running faster during that fixed 30 minutes I have.
 
Ah got you. If it was me i'd go with 3/4 days in the week and then the longer (increasing) run at the weekend. That should get you around 20 miles a week which should be more than enough with the main focus being increasing distance at the weekend run up to the 13 mile mark.

Just don't try and do too much too soon as you could end up injuring yourself. Just take it easy and enjoy it :)
 
garnett said:
Sounds good.

In terms of the fixed time cap, I meant how long I have to train on workdays. I won't be able to increase my time spent running, so I'll have to focus on running faster during that fixed 30 minutes I have.
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Don't try to run faster, just run as often as you can and make nearly all your miles feel easy. Speed will come naturally.
 
Marvt74 said:
I've been making a big effort to lose weight and being quite strict with my intake. I'm wondering if part of it is finding the right balance between having enough of a deficit to lose weight but still fueling my body sufficiently for running.
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I think I found this last year (I came from 138kg down to 97kg). I started with a 1,700 calorie target, but at that point I was still huge and didn't cycle far, then as my fitness improved I gradually upped my intake to around 2,500 so as to have more energy for the longer riding. I think I still notice it the next day if I have a very low calorie day.

It's also interesting (and annoying) that as you get fitter and lighter you burn a lot less calories per exercise and of course your natural target also comes down...
 
Yeah, i have my base as 1500 calories per day as i'm pretty inactive on a daily basis (get up, drive to work, sit at desk, drive home, sit on sofa) so it seems that's a decent target to aid weight loss and is fine for most days. I then add on top calories i've burned from running which seems to be around 1000/hour as a rough guide which is probably a little high.

I need to stock up on healthy foods to increase intake on running days. On Sunday i was out around 2hours and Strava suggests i burned 1700 calories. That's quite a lot to make up through healthy food, on top of the 3 meals i had planned for the day. Things like Macadamia nuts are probably good in this situation.
 
1,500 is probably quite low, even if inactive? If you're topping up what you exercise though, that probably works fine. I generally didn't, so would have some days eating around 2,000 and then burning around 1,500... so a huge deficit, but then on a rest day not such a big deficit of course. I think I would aim to just 'fuel your run' rather than replace what was burnt?
 
I just went with one of those websites where you enter your height/weight (108kg/190cm) and it works it out for you.

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I think for general runs of around 4 miles i'll be fine, and the 4.5 miles i did this morning felt fine. Then aim to be much better at "stocking up" on the night before my longer weekend runs.


The plan is to get to around 95kg/100kg by the time of my run in the middle of feb which i think should be do-able. Once at that weight i think maintaining it will be fairly easy given the amount of running i do. I'm only really as fat as i am because i have a habit of buying bags of sweets a few times a week in the car and that doesn't do me any good!
 
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