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2017-02-25 2:12 AM


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Subject: Late starter
Hi I am starting to run again having just turned 50 last year and needing to get fitter and lose some pounds, currently around 230lbs wanting to get to 210.

A little about me. I used to run and could maintain 7min/mile in my early to mid 20s. I love swimming and cycling so my goal this year is to do a sprint tri and finish. I don't have a target apart from finishing, not dying or spending the next week in bed and ideally not coming last.

I tried the c25k but always crashed and burned around week 5 and became demotivated as it just seemed a step too far. Now I have been doing a modified (my own version) and can run 20 mins non stop for 2.5km. Oh and at the moment it is on a treadmill.



Edited by pingu 2017-02-25 2:14 AM


2017-02-27 5:23 PM
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Subject: RE: Late starter
Are you doing anything with diet? You know the old saying "You can't outrun your fork." Every little bit of working out helps, but without diet changes you'll likely struggle to hit your goals.


Shortly after my 46th birthday, I was 232 lbs, and completely unfit. Walking a flight of stairs left me out of breath. My back hurt all the time, and my knees and hips would ache after any sort of extended walk, even at a slow pace.

I finally said "enough is enough." With a well structured diet and a minimum of exercise (~30 minutes morerate intensity bike riding a day), I got to 210 lbs in 6 weeks. I kept with the diet, and mixed some lap swimming in with the biking. Got to 195 in another 10 weeks. Once I'd lost that much weight, I found it easier to work out at higher intensities. I started training for competitive swimming, 4-5 days a week for an hour, give or take. Of course, I stuck with the diet that had gotten me that far.

Within a year of starting my fitness improvement, my weight was down to the low 170s, and I was posting swim times about 110-115% of what I could do at my peak as a competitive High School swimmer. I was pretty pleased with that, given that I'd been out of the sport for 27 years and hadn't done anything to keep in shape for well over 20 years.

For most people around our age, weight loss requires a strong commitment to better eating. There's really no easing into it, you have to jump. Fitness, on the other hand, can start small and build gradually. Sounds like you've already taken the first fitness steps. Now you gotta keep it going and let it snowball. If you struggle to see gains in your running, substitute more swimming and/or biking. I find runs take me much longer to recover from than a swim or ride. For triathlon, I under-train the run and over-train the swim. My quads hate me for it on race day, but my lower body joints thank me for it the rest of the time. I do very little running (less than 100 miles last year), but I can run the 5k of a Sprint Tri at ~8:00/mile pace.. The swim and bike work gets me most of the way there.

Edited by gary p 2017-02-27 5:33 PM
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