Running/Treadmill Guidance

Name

Name

Name

Soldato
Joined
8 Oct 2009
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3,234
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United Kingdom
Hi there,

Im looking to improve my running, 28 year old male, mostly a swimmer and cyclist up until the age of 20. Never ran properly in my life. I can do 1K on the treadmill at around 9kph in around 6min 30 before almost collapsing. Weigh around 14 stone. More of a bulky build, not lean, not tall and not meant for running!

10k booked in for late April. Anyone else in a similar boat of not having ran properly before? Struggling to find a decent speed to get me used to running. I asked a personal trainer and looked on the internet and general consensus seems to be if you are doing 1k in anything less than 6 minutes then just give up.
 
Why would you give up because of a time. You run and get better/fitter gradually.

I did my first 10k in 59 minutes. My second and third I got it down to 52 minutes. I have always been around 13-15st and I'm 5ft6 so overweight

I then did a half marathon with little to no training and did that in 2h10 so 10 minute miles.
 
Name said:
if you are doing 1k in anything less than 6 minutes then just give up.
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You're listening to absolute idiots then. That would mean 70% of the people doing a 10K would have to give up.

I found when starting running longer distances I found a pace I was comfortable with and knocked it down about 20 seconds per K or so. Then just build up the pace as you continue training.

Don't be put off if you walk a decent amount of the 10K.
 
Well abit of better news I decided to push it and managed to do around 3.5k took me almost 25 minutes with some walking inbetween. Ordered some trail running shoes in preparation!
 
my main advice would be to slow down. If you are collapsing at the end then you are running too fast. Keep a nice relaxed conversational pace. Ignore the speed of the treadmill, the pace you are running at, what other people say, ignore times. just run for fun making sure it feels easy and enjoyable so you want to do it tomorrow.

Speed will come naturally by increasing your volume of easy running.Asa beginner you will make raid progress. Wont be long before you can do 15-20k and 12kmh etc. Don;t force it. Don't push yourself too hard. Just work on slowly increasing the volume of running.
 
Start slow - technique is better than speed.

Get your walking/running gait right walking then ramp up from there.

I used todo 45 minutes of 12-15km/h with incline, just takes time to build up to that.
 
D.P. said:
my main advice would be to slow down. If you are collapsing at the end then you are running too fast. Keep a nice relaxed conversational pace. Ignore the speed of the treadmill, the pace you are running at, what other people say, ignore times. just run for fun making sure it feels easy and enjoyable so you want to do it tomorrow.

Speed will come naturally by increasing your volume of easy running.Asa beginner you will make raid progress. Wont be long before you can do 15-20k and 12kmh etc. Don;t force it. Don't push yourself too hard. Just work on slowly increasing the volume of running.
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This is great advice if you start off obsessing over speed and times you only make it harder and injuries more likely, take it easy and build up you'll be surprised how quickly you'll be running distances and times you didn't think possible.
 
I was in a similar situation - had never run but was exercising regularly when a friend convinced me to give running a proper try. Initially I was the same, I could maybe run for 5 minutes before needing to rest but I just devoted more time to it and built it into my routine - within a few weeks was able to do 5km without resting and not to much later trained for a half marathon and over a period of 10 weeks progressed to running 20km in under 2 hours - something I never thought I'd be able to do.

Good advice already given on how to approach it, just run at a comfortable pace and don't over do it, slowly increase speed and distance over time and you'll very quickly see that you're making progress which in itself is a really rewarding feeling.

Also a little side note I've personally found running to be the most effective and enjoyable way to keep weight under control :)
 
treadmills are also boring as heck, originally designed for slave labor in prisons to keep the inmates subdued.

Run outdoors unless safety is impaired.
 
I've just started again and decided to try the skill mill at the gym. Good lord that was hard.

As said try and get out as there is quite a difference.
With the treadmill I just mixed it up doing 5k flat, then inclining every 0.1 of a mile (gets steep by the end) then a mile of 12mph and slowing down to 3.5mph when I could do anymore.
How on earth anyone is able to achieve 12mph for 26 miles is beyond me
 
Name said:
I asked a personal trainer and looked on the internet and general consensus seems to be if you are doing 1k in anything less than 6 minutes then just give up.
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What's he a personal trainer in? Because he knows f-all about fitness.

Way back in 1998 I was Mr. Average 5ft10, 13.5st and not into fitness in anyway, other than the odd game of badminton. Nature prevailed and I had a pretty severe heart-attack that necessitated immediate bypass surgery. As a consequence I found myself in Cardiac rehabilitation. I'd never been on a treadmill in my life and my first effort was walking 500m (took me about a week iirc.. LOL)

You need do nothing more than stick at it, with small increases each session, time, intensity, speed. whatever you fancy that's as complicated as it gets. Within a couple of months I went from steady walks of about a mile, where I went just fast enough get me huffing and puffing, to gradually finding my cruising speed which was about 10.4-11.2 kph. (you will find your natural pace) I found I could do 5K comfortably in under 30 mins. At first 5K is a challenge but 5K becomes 5.1-5.2-5.3.... until you reach the point were 5.0 isn't really any effort. I got to the point where I was doing 3 times a week and 10K,5k,5K.

The biggest issue with running on a treadmill is it's repetitive nature. Your stride is identical every time so it can be harsh on your knees and joints. Spending a few quid on decent trainer's designed for running is money well spent. Also you have to warm up and down for 10-15 mins, just jumping on and off won't do you any good at all.

I tried running outdoors and just didn't enjoy it at all. In summer you'll be sucking in midges and flies with every breath and running with rain in your face just isn't fun. Plus if you're anywhere near a main road you'll be gulping in traffic fumes which isn't nice when you're blowing hard. While it is repetitive on the treadmill I found it more relaxing as you can natter to other folk in the gym and generally chill.

I did find that around 10K was my limit but in my case it was just related to fatigue due to my heart issues.

Sorry a bit self indulgent there, but the gist of it in your case is "go for it!" I would say that 10K by the end of April would be doable, you're just not going to worry Mo Farah. Do it, take your time enjoy it. Start slow so it's comfortable. You don't nee to be hanging out of your arse at the end of every run to "Get the benefit"

I've stopped it all now because of more problems related to my heart, but I'd give my right arm run again.
 
Last edited:
Name said:
Hi there,

Im looking to improve my running, 28 year old male, mostly a swimmer and cyclist up until the age of 20. Never ran properly in my life. I can do 1K on the treadmill at around 9kph in around 6min 30 before almost collapsing. Weigh around 14 stone. More of a bulky build, not lean, not tall and not meant for running!

10k booked in for late April. Anyone else in a similar boat of not having ran properly before? Struggling to find a decent speed to get me used to running. I asked a personal trainer and looked on the internet and general consensus seems to be if you are doing 1k in anything less than 6 minutes then just give up.
Click to expand...

i think the first time i started running i did like 6K in an hour.

i could then do 5K on an incline in 25 minutes after around 2 years.

i could also run around 15km in 90 minutes

the trick is to stick with it. pick a pace that you can manage for an hour and do it. if you manage to do the full hour at that pace then up it by 0.1 and try again. rinse and repeat. when you fail to increase pace by 0.1 then either go back down and do it a few times or just try again depending on how you feel.

you won't be able to go from running 8kph one day to being able to run 10kph the next day or even the next week.

it's slow gradual build up of stamina and speed.

i think i could do 2.4km in 11 minutes too but that was a full out sprint for that time and i would need 5 mins to recover after.


this was after doing it for 2 years constant training though. 6km in an hour to 5k uphill in 25 minutes is no mean feat. i am not built for running either. lot of muscle mass and weighed 85kg when dripping wet. normal weight is around 100kg and when i let go is about 120kg (19 stone).

so if i can do it nobody has any excuse tbh.
 
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