RunningAHEAD - Topic: From a slug to a runner

Teresadfp

One day at a time

posted: 5/9/2009 at 4:33 PM

Wow, Ken, cool story! You're right, that's a LOT of potential runners in your family!

NolaGal1

posted: 5/12/2009 at 1:58 PM

I'm 46yo and out of shape. When I was a little girl I was very active. I swam rode bikes and when I was 13-14 years old decided to start 'jogging'. Now, this was all before title 9 so there were no track teams for girls so I just put on my sneakers and ran as fast as I could. I remember I started out running in place in the living room because I was too embarrassed to be seen taking such frequent walk breaks! Surprised

Well, I eventually settled on a 2.25 mile route that I ran every day in 14 minutes. Then I got a pair of new fangled running shoes that felt like I was walking on clouds. Then I got a boyfriend...Running fell by the wayside. After college, I tried running again, and again and again every 2-5 years. I had awful problems with shin splints and hip pain. It got to the point, I just thought there was something weird about my physiology that I was the one healthy (if not a little overweight by this time) human who could not sustain a running program. Earlier this year, I was doing one of the Walk Off te Pounds fitness tapes which involves wallking in place and some running in place. I enjoyed it a lot and began wondering why I could run in place with no pain or soreness but had always had so much trouble running otherwise. So, I went out and started running in place with a slight forward drift! Wink

Actually, I think I've found that my stride has always been way to long and running in place 'fixed' that. I am still 'running' very slowly, but I am doing it with no joint pains. Sure, my muscles get sore sometimes, but it's a good kind of sore. Yesterday, I 'ran' for 42 minutes with just a couple of minutes walking in the middle and felt fine. It's hard to explain how happy I am to have 'found the secret'! I have always dreamt about running a marathon and feel like I have the opportunity to do the work and make it happen! How's that for looking forward! Big grin

LedLincoln

not bad for mile 25

posted: 1/18/2010 at 4:29 PM

My story isn't particularly spectacular, except that I started running at age 55, having done NO distance running in my life, no high school athletics. I wasn't particularly overweight; I dropped from 175 to 155. What is spectacular is the way I feel now, compared to two years ago. Sorry I can't post before and after pictures of that!

Hope to complete my first marathon in May, and I think my goal of a sub-4:00 is achievable.

Berner

posted: 1/19/2010 at 12:24 PM

Quote from LedLincoln on 1/18/2010 at 4:29 PM:

What is spectacular is the way I feel now, compared to two years ago.

This is the best part about "discovering" running, to me. I've always been young at heart ... but now I actually feel it as well.

And to reinforce it, I'm now thought of as the "runner guy" by my family and friends. I find it very motivating - I never want to have someone look at an older me and say, "Didn't you used to be a runner?"

How To Run a Marathon: Step 1 - start running. There is no Step 2.

gregw

posted: 1/19/2010 at 1:03 PM

Never really an athlete. No high school sports and definitely not running. Lots of time sitting in an office chair in front of a computer. Started running for good on 2 Jan 2005 at age 33, 5' 9.5'' and 187 pounds. Now 38 and 165 lbs. I'll cut and paste my story from a narcissistic blog post (I think that's redundant) I made recently. Pretty much sums up my running in 10 lines. (Numbers in parentheses are the month of the race.) Basically it took me 4 years and ~9,000 miles to go from running 10 miles at 8:29/mile to 6:41/mile.

2005 - 1224 miles
10M - 1:24:49 (4), 20M - 3:06:27 (9), M - 4:49:21 (10), 10k - 50:17 (11), 5M - 38:56 (11)

2006 - 2589 miles
M - 4:17:03 (3), 10M - 1:19:25 (4), M - 4:00:03 (5), HM - 1:40:08 (10), M - 3:56:14 (10), M - 3:43:16 (11), 5k - 21:23 (12)

2007 - 2640 miles
5M - 34:20 (1), 1:09:49 (4), M - 3:24:15 (5), 5k - 20:32 (5), HM - 1:33:29 (9), M - 3:27:34 (10), 5k - 20:35 (12)

2008 - 3180 miles
8k - 32:45 (3), 10M - 1:08:49 (4), M - 3:21:50 (5), 5k - 19:49 (5), M - 3:15:22 (11), 5k - 20:15 (12)

2009 - 2303 + 41h59' XT

HM - 1:29:48 (1), 8k - 31:55 (3), 10M - 1:06:43 (4), M - 3:19:01 (4), 10k - 41:47 (10)

blog, training log

spaniel

Feeling the growl again

posted: 1/19/2010 at 2:06 PM

I was the slow fat uncoordinated kid, not an athletic bone in my body. But I loved competition and was never satisfied with where I was so I worked really hard. From my first race (2 miles in 29:58) in 7th grade I worked to improve, 12:53 in 8th grade. HS was slow improvement at first until I lost a bunch of weight and cycled constantly one summer, 20:32-19:12-17:22-17:01.

I walked onto a mediocre D-II college team (went there for the academics) and was stagnant for a couple years on relatively low mileage, never broke my HS times. Then my junior year I cc skiied a TON in the winter and came into track taking 2 minutes off my 10K PR (down to 34:18). Senior year did not improve on this but I took 3 sec off my 5K (16:13).

After college I ran my first marathon (2:53). I became a big believer in mileage and worked my tail up, topping 4000 miles in 2003 (15:37 5K, 2:29 marathon). 2004-2005 were stagnant as I fought what turned out to be anemia issues, before I topped 4100 miles in 2006 and had a streak of 16 weeks with only 1 below 100 mpw. Resulted in what was supposed to be a tune-up 10K generating my 5K, 8K, and 10K PRs (15:18, 24:55 and 30:57 respectively). Got injured and "jogged" my goal marathon (2:28).

Family and responsibilities have curtailed things since then. My shorter PRs will never be touched again but perhaps the marathon in a few years.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

Greg Rowe

The shirtless wonder

posted: 1/19/2010 at 4:31 PM

Quote from SurfNRun on 1/8/2007 at 2:16 PM:

I'm interested to see if anybody here had gone from being non-athletic whatsoever to say a sub 3:30 or even sub 3:00 marathoner...i mean those that didn't really run competitively in high school and college...just anybody who late in the game one day got off the couch and said 'i'm gonna start running and i'm gonna get fast and far'. How long did that journey take, etc...

Just about 4 years ago when I started running one mile at any pace was difficult for me. My first marathon was almost exactly three years ago. I ran a 4:18 which is just about a 10 minute per mile pace. One month ago I ran a 3:09. I was 26 when I started running. I was far more interested in weight lifting prior to becoming addicted to running. When I was 22 years old I was able to bench press more than 300 pounds. So technically I wasn't non-athletic but I certainly wasn't a runner in any way shape or form.

I'm thrilled with my progress and hope to keep it going. I've been able to shave about 20 minutes off of my marathon times each year. Unless I work extremely hard I don't think I can hit the 2:50 range. Anything is possible if you work hard enough but I'm not sure I'm willing to put in the work required for that sort of achievement.

run.therowes.net

From a slug to a runner - your story! (Read 7492 times)