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Run 1 Day, 2 Rest, until I get better? (Read 794 times)

cmb4314


    thank you for all your thoughtful suggestions.  Smile.  I'm in a small town with very limited options for cross-training, so I'm thinking wistfully about yoga and swimming.  Smile. The closest indoor pool is an hour away, but on the brighter side, a local gym will be building a new facility in a year or so that will include our first-ever swimming pool.  Smile.   It just won't do me any good for a long time.  

     

    Ive got to find a way to boost my energy without increasing my calories so that I don't just pass out after work on my rest days.  (occasional blood sugar problems complicate things.). However, I've sworn off the school's cafeteria food  because of Calories and sodium.  I'm hungry all the time now that I've switched to salads for lunch, and I gained two pounds last week after my first week of hunger and salads.   LoL. I really can't make this stuff up.

     

    This isn't a place that embraces fitness, that's for sure. My hometown has been "planning" a river fitness trail for several years now, and will do something about it "in a few more years." I'm still looking for any running places in the area, and everything is on the road, so I have three options which don't involve trespassing and risking getting shot: the park, with a one-mile paved path that isn't flat, the high school track, which is a rare synthetic track, for this area, and the pavement around the school where I work.  (My own neighborhood isn't safe for a woman walking alone.  criminals and broken sidewalks the city won't fix.  You know the civic attitude about the poorer neighborhoods not deserving upkeep.)

     

    Looks like my options are weights (which made me gain weight on top of my obesity) and exercise bikes.  I don't  mind the elliptical, but the numb feet are a challenge.  

     

    Two summers ago I was spending three hours a day on  the treadmill, bikes, elliptical, and weight  machines.  (Because I was angry and determined to give it all I had to lose weight. Im single, and i had the time, so i wore myself out at the gym daily, secretly fearing i wouldn't lose weight.). I  strictly controlled my calories and burned about 600 visit rise per day there.  I yo-yoed on e same three pounds every week.  I wound up  seeing two doctors offer it who shrugged and accused me of lying about food and how much I was exercising.  

     

    I'm frustrated, of course.  People accuse me of sitting home alone and eating like a pig, but what they are missing is seeing me skip dinner a lot of the time because I'm scared  to eat.  I just don't buy junk food.    (Once several years ago, one  of those two doctors told me that if I were in a concentration camp, I'd be the last one standing.  Eh, I didn't appreciate the flippancy of his attitude.  He told me that if I wanted to lose weight, I'd have to run 5 miles a day every day for the rest of my life.  I understand the calories per pound with that.  

     

    Thats why I've turned to running, finally.  I'm desperately hoping that once I get myself worked up into some distance running, I'll start to lose weight, finally.  But it looks like none of the weight is going to come off until I get to 35 miles a week.  

     

    I just hope my legs can hold up that long.  May will be a year of running for me, pain filled all the way!  Lol. I'm sure I've done something to deserve it.  I just hope I get to find out what that was, someday.

     

    I wonder if you're eating enough, if you're skipping dinner often and are hungry all day.  I never know if I buy it or not, but everyone always discusses "starvation mode", and how if you aren't getting enough to eat, you will retain weight since your body is trying to hold onto weight since it thinks it is starving.  I have seen some people say that it is a bunch of hooey, and some people say that they legitimately had to eat more to lose weight.  

     

    Make sure to get protein, and fiber in your lunch.  Protein is what will really keep you full in the long run, so I make sure that if I have a salad, it has some nuts and maybe some cheese on it.  And load up on more fibrous vegetables than lettuce, as well - the fiber will help you feel full for very few calories.  A serving of baby carrots at lunch goes a long way towards keeping me full for a while, because it is quite a bit of bulk, but the whole thing is only about 50 calories.  

    My wildly inconsistent PRs:

    5k: 24:36 (10/20/12)  

    10k: 52:01 (4/28/12)  

    HM: 1:50:09 (10/27/12)

    Marathon: 4:19:11 (10/2/2011) 


    Encouragement welcome

      I guess what I mean is that slower than 15 is me walking and just bouncing up and down.  It's not even a jog for me, going slower than that.  Ever see the middle school "teacher walk"?  It's a speed walk past all the kids to get where I need to be, but it doesn't ever raise my heart rate, because I've been doing it for so many years. 

      Pace Goal : 14 mm

      5k Goal: 40 minutes

       

      10k, half, and marathon someday....

       

      (Hey, I'm just getting started!)


      Encouragement welcome

        Here's my lunchtime salad:  carrots, celery, onion, bean sprouts, tomatoes, a few mandarin orange sections, a few dried cranberries, two boiled eggs (for protein), onion, mushrooms, cucumbers, baby spinach, plus a wedge of laughing cow cheese.  Oh, and two tablespoons of light asian sesame dressing and Mrs. Dash (because I'm now very paranoid about sodium after seeing my legs swell up after eating the school lunch. LOL I saw this with my grandmother's legs when I was young, and think i may have inherited that along with her diabetes.)

         

        All of this totals up to a quart of salad (ok, saw it on Pinterest) that I bring layered in a mason jar.  It's satisfying and filling at lunchtime anyway, but some days it just doesn't last me till the end of the school day, (lunch is at 10:30, and I have no choice about that) and even with a stick of celery and a little peanut butter after work at nearly 5, I never get over the hungries that day.  

         

        Maybe I'm not eating enough calories, but how much is going to be enough, I wonder?  

        Pace Goal : 14 mm

        5k Goal: 40 minutes

         

        10k, half, and marathon someday....

         

        (Hey, I'm just getting started!)

          I know you said going slower would just be bouncing up and down, but you mentioned in your first post that you were breathing hard all during your runs.  Easy runs mean you should be able to carry on a conversation while running, so if you're breathing hard the whole time I suspect you're not running easy/slow enough.  I had a hard time with that when I started running too, I felt like I could walk faster than I was running (and honestly probably could have), but it worked.  Running became a lot easier once I slowed down and I was able to gradually build up my distance, and over time got faster as well.  Slowing down will probably help with soreness/injuries as well.

           

          On the weight thing--as everyone else has said, to lose weight calories in need to be less than calories out, and in my experience unless you're somehow tracking your calories, you're probably underestimating what goes in.  My big downfall was always portion control--I would eat healthy food, but was eating way too much of it until I joined Weight Watchers and learned that my portions were too big.  The portion control thing is very important to understand before you start tracking so that you are tracking accurately--you'd be surprised how small "1 serving" is of a lot of foods.  Restaurants have done a great job of convincing us that "1 serving" equals a giant plate full of something, when in reality that's probably 3-4 servings at least so for me the biggest challenge of weight loss was resetting my eyes to know what a serving looked like.  Once I got that down, it became much easier to lose.

           

          If you have one in your area and can afford it, groups like Weight Watchers are nice because they give you tools to use, and also the meetings provide great support with the leader to offer advice and a room full of other people struggling with the same thing you are.  I lost ~70 lb on WW, the first 50 of which were pretty much from diet changes alone from following the WW plan, then later on I picked up running and dropped another ~20.  If there isn't a WW near you or you can't afford it, I know a lot of people use My Fitness Pal online to track their food & activities.  

          Wing


          Joggaholic

            There were quite a few excuses in your last few posts Cupidsgirl. Your post felt very negative. It was full of I can't do this or that. You have to start thinking outside the box like this-

             

            I was a beginner not too long ago, you can get very good technical advises here by the seasoned runners on what to do, but I think more importantly for beginners is having a positve attitude toward running. When I first started I was aggressive and wanted to go faster and see results, I expected it to be hard and I was willing to work hard. I did not get injured and I did see good results in the first few months, but I did not enjoy it. You can only be psyched and aggressive and in "attack-mode" for so long, and if you stay in that mentality it will be very easy to find excuses to quit eventually (I've done exactly that). Try to make running more fun and enjoyable. When you find that you have to work through the difficult breathing and sore legs and had to push through often, perhaps more mental toughness is not the right answer, as it may lead to injury and negativity toward running. Take it easier and think of is as a nice stroll or jog around the neighborhood or something. I can't say how to do it exactly, and it is not easy (as least for me, it was months) to cross over to the other side, from "running is hardwork, a chore, and it sucks, I don't feel like going out but I had to", to "I'm not scheduled for a run today, but heck, why not?".

            bojangles


              Do you just eat lunch or something? Post everything else you eat. Breakfast, dinner, snacks, drinks etc... And a method you can't go wrong with about how many calories you should be on to lose weight is- your weight X Ten = amount of calories per day. it is a little on the intense side.


              Encouragement welcome

                Breakfast - 1 cup of coffee with skim milk and no-calorie sweetener, 1 special K protein bar (180 calories), sometimes I swap that out with plain oatmeal with skim milk / water

                Drinks - Crystal light with extra water (I don't want kool-aid flavor - just flavored water), water

                Dinner - chicken / vegetable soup, if anything lately, homemade with low sodium veggies and chicken / stock, though last night I had a protein smoothie with frozen strawberries and skim milk. (And that was a seriously bland smoothie....)

                Snacks - sometimes a protein bar, sometimes celery with a couple tablespoons of peanut butter.

                 

                The heavier I get, the less food appeals to me. Sad  Thanksgiving kinda sucked, but that may have been due to the 3.5 mile Turkey Trot I did that morning.  

                Pace Goal : 14 mm

                5k Goal: 40 minutes

                 

                10k, half, and marathon someday....

                 

                (Hey, I'm just getting started!)


                Singer who runs a smidge

                  Cupids, I would be gnawing off my husband's arm if I ate what you ate!  I have a different perspective than most folks here -- I believe in Healthy at Every Size (http://www.haescommunity.org/).  No weight loss method has been proven effective over the long term for a significant number of the people who follow it.  And weight loss in and of itself has not been shown to improve health.  What science says we should be focusing on is healthy habits -- eating fruits and veggies, moving our bodies, getting enough sleep.  You're doing all that, and it is making you healthier, whether or not you lose weight. 

                   

                  You come across as being unhappy because of your weight.  I've been there, I've had my mood plummet after I stepped on the scale, I've said horrible things to myself.  But then I realized that the only thing changing my mood was a number, so I quit stepping on the scale.  Although I know I'm significantly overweight, I have no idea how much I weigh, and I love my body because I can breathe, run, swim, sing, dance, do tai chi ... pretty much anything I want! 

                   

                  If you want to lose weight, then I wish you success -- certainly there are folks here who know more about it than I do.  I just want you do know that you don't HAVE to lose weight in order to be the person you want to be, society's messages to the contrary.

                   

                  One of my favorite blogs is Dances with Fat.  Ragen Chastain is a championship ballroom dancer who does workouts I can't even comprehend and knows what it's like to be an athletic fat woman.  

                   

                  As for your shin issues, Venomized posted a routine for shin splints that really helped him, it should be a little further down the page.  Maybe it will help you too!

                  When it's all said and done, no one remembers how far we have run.  The only thing that matters is how we have loved.

                    How did your legs feel when you were including walk breaks in your workouts, versus the sustained runs you are doing now?  While eliminating the walk breaks is a great goal, its not necessarily the best priority when you're starting from the beginning.  If walk breaks help you extend your time on your feet and/or help limit your leg pain or soreness, I'd consider working them back into your workouts for some time longer.

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


                    Encouragement welcome

                      I want running to be fun like it was when I was a kid.  Smile  I'd like for it to help me lose weight.  My weight is making it painful to run (catch-22.  LOL) I did run 1 1/2 miles in 20 minutes the other night - I was breathing steadily, but not "sucking wind".  two steps in, two steps out.  I guess I was incorrect in saying I was out of breath, which to me, means anything other than my automatic doing nothing but existing kind of breathing.  I'm controlling my breathing when I jog, and if I get to the point where I lose control, I slow down to a walk and get it under control again before I jog, That 20 minutes was controlled breathing all the way, finally not panicked breathing. 

                       

                      I just want running to be fun.  So far, it just hurts. LOL

                       

                      I know I'm guilty of wanting improvements too soon, though.  6 months hasn't been long enough.

                      Pace Goal : 14 mm

                      5k Goal: 40 minutes

                       

                      10k, half, and marathon someday....

                       

                      (Hey, I'm just getting started!)


                      Encouragement welcome

                        The walk breaks just bring in another owwie - the muscles on the outsides of my calves.  NO idea what those are called, but they burn and hurt with any kind of distance walking. When my shins aren't troubling me (it has happened on occasion that they didn't make a peep!), jogging hurts my legs far less than walking.  Must be underdeveloped muscles there, right?  So I need to walk even more?

                        Pace Goal : 14 mm

                        5k Goal: 40 minutes

                         

                        10k, half, and marathon someday....

                         

                        (Hey, I'm just getting started!)

                          The walk breaks just bring in another owwie - the muscles on the outsides of my calves.  NO idea what those are called, but they burn and hurt with any kind of distance walking. When my shins aren't troubling me (it has happened on occasion that they didn't make a peep!), jogging hurts my legs far less than walking.  Must be underdeveloped muscles there, right?  So I need to walk even more?

                           

                          Hard to say what will work best for you, but many people find that short, periodic walk breaks during their runs let them extend their workouts without adding extra strain.  What's better: a 20 minute sustained run, or a 30 minute run with periodic walk breaks?  A lot of people would say the latter ....

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

                          GinnyinPA


                            Have you had your thyroid checked?  When I was about 40, I started having real problems not being able to lose weight.  A couple of doctors just said, "What do you expect, you're 40."  One doctor finally took me seriously, especially when I mentioned my mother had had thyroid issues.  Sure enough, it turned out I had an underactive thyroid.  I started on meds. and was able to lose weight again.  It's not easy for me, but it is possible now, if I really focus on what I eat.  Exercise doesn't seem to have much effect, but portion size and quality does.You also mention blood sugar.  Some diabetic meds can cause weight gain.  Talk to your doctor about that as well.  A diabetic diet is also very good for weight loss, if you follow it.


                            an amazing likeness

                              Let's first be certain that you're separating 'hurt' from 'ache' or 'sore'. I'm not implying that you're misreading your body's signals...just want to be sure that you should expect some sore and/or ache, but should not be dealing with 'hurt'.

                               

                              If and when something hurts enough to make you alter your movement, then you need to stop. Pressing on will only make it worse. Personally, I use a scale of 1 - 10 for hurt, based on "owe! -> ouch! -> Yeooow! -> Cant take it (breath...breath...focus on something else) --> pass out".  I really start paying attention at the "ouch" stage.

                               

                              Walking should be a low impact, with nothing more than muscle ache from exercise the next day.  It (walking) should be the base-building of time on your feet, and aerobic fitness that supports you're entry into running.  If walking is hurting you, you've got to get the why figured out...be it shoes, stride, feet, whatever.

                              Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.


                              Encouragement welcome

                                Did the whole metabolic workup last year via an endocrinologist who said that everything but triglycerides were normal, and I had already brought those down by 50% from the previous check on that.  Basically, one doctor (Mr. Run 5 miles every day) called me a liar / said he didn't know what was wrong and the endocrinologist's only answer was... Phentermine.  Love that rebound weight gain the minute you stop taking it.  

                                Pace Goal : 14 mm

                                5k Goal: 40 minutes

                                 

                                10k, half, and marathon someday....

                                 

                                (Hey, I'm just getting started!)

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