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Im 14 stone and 6 ft. If you saw me you wouldn't say I am carrying a lot of timber. Broadish shoulders,44 chest, size 34 waist, and virtually no flab. Most of my weight is probably in my thighs as a consequence of cycling and rugby.At best i think i could lose 1/2 to 1 stone then Id look unhealthy!
Currently running between 40 and 50k a week. Looks s like I am best concentrating specifically on speed work and hills. I did manage a 24.13 this morning so confident I can improve to 23 soon.n
I trained 6 days a week most weeks and got down to 15:15. Granted, i was 16 and a lot fitter than now! But what gets you faster is teaching your legs to turn over faster and not give up.
Measure a 2k course, or enter some shorter runs. At least once a week do intervals between 3-800m.
BUT, if you're not used to it, take it very easy to begin with. Do a proper warm up that lifts your heart rate right up.
Something like 4x800m at target 5k race pace, 2 min jog recovery between. Or 6x400m faster.
20min should be absolutely achievable for you. Don't forget hill sessions. Even a short 4k fast run with as many hills as possible over a set route. Aim to finish the last hill on your knees ?
World record for 5k is 12:37 (that's 3 consecutive sub 4 minute miles,
That's on the track. Informal road world record is only 13 mins! ?
How do you learn to run properly ( safely) then?
Look both ways before you cross the road?
Zippy +1
A lot of people only get out 1-2x a week which isn't enough. You really have to throw yourself into it.
There will always be exceptions. Some people can train quite lightly and have a major training "response" and run at a high standard. These are rare IME.
It also depends on how fit you are now, what your previous sporting history is and how you react to the stresses of training. Typically you would be running around 30-35 miles per week as a minimum.
JGG, you might think you won't like how you look at 13 stone but I bet you'd be miles faster and overall healthier. Of course you don't have to if you don't want to. But it's surely the most effective and straightforward way to knock a chunk off your run time. I know BMI is a crude measure but you are comfortably into the overweight category.
I've never actually done a Parkrun, but since joining our local fun runners last October I've knocked about 3 minutes off my 5k time (we have a 5k race around town on the first Tuesday of every month followed by cake)- which last Tuesday (after waiting to cross a road and getting held up behind some slower runners) was 20:59 - and I can feel that there is loads more improvement to come.
What really worked for me (I can't afford to lose any weight as I'm 5'11" and only 9 stone 11lb) was running 1km at around 5:00 pace, then 1km at 4:00 pace (or as close as I could get) and repeating it for 8km. After a while the faster stuff felt almost normal.
I've badly twisted my knee cross country racing at the weekend, so I'll have to see how that goes, but I'll be disappointed if I don't get to 19 minutes this year.
tarka,
Re your interval training.
For years the only running I did was intervals, only 1 run a week of 2 minutes flat out, 1 minute slow, repeated 8 times. If I did anything further I got injured. (Maybe poor technique.)
I still managed to run sub 20 minute 5kms in duathlons and sprint triathlons.
But everyone is different.
I've done quite a lot of running, still got under 36' for 10 on a triathlon at over 40 and finally gave up racing at 55.
My advice is leave your watch at home, run for the pleasure of running, and if anything starts to ache or feel uncomforatble walkk home. If you really feel the need to go faster I suggest fartlek with short periods or increased pace and varying speed with terrain.
A 49 I just relied on the pace I had already got and tried not to get injured which gets harder and harder as you get older. I could still get on age-group podiums with no speed work whatsoever. I think my strategy has paid off because I can still [s]run[/s] jog, still walk in the mountains and do long distance walks - several of my triathlon and raid contemporaries who didn't back off soon enough are now properly ****ed.
I used to run sub 40 ten ks. Trained 3 times a week with lots of drills, hills, 800m sprints and core/weights work. Ff 8 years and I would struggle a 23m 5k at the moment. Age and lack of training...
The age thing reminds me that when I was attempting to get under 20 mins there was someone I often used as a pacemaker and gradually began to be able to finish ahead of them. I found out that on his 70th birthday he'd beaten 20 mins for the Preston Park one.
My parkrun PB is 17:34 at Rother Valley, which if anyone knows it is very flat. My local parkrun (Barnsley) is the exact opposite. My pb there is 18:11 (18:23 on Saturday).
I'd like to go sub 18 at Barnsley and sub 17 elsewhere this year but it's not my main focus. I'm looking to get quicker at half and marathon distance.
I do speed and hill reps at least once a week and a couple of longer runs - I'll be ramping those up from now to get more mileage before my April Mara.
I put my times down to more endurance from the longer running and the speed/hill work.
As Surfer says, there's no substitute for running more (for most of us). Build up you mileage and build in some dedicated speed work or hill sessions.
Just to add, I'm 43 next week and had a MI 18 months ago resulting in me being dead for 10 minutes, until I was resuscitated.
I pb'd every distance I did last year from 5k to Mara 🙂
Just to add, I'm 43 next week and had a MI 18 months ago resulting in me being dead for 10 minutes, until I was resuscitated.
I pb'd every distance I did last year from 5k to Mara
But would you pass a drugs test 🙂
Just to add, I'm 43 next week and had a MI 18 months ago resulting in me being dead for 10 minutes, until I was resuscitated
Bloody hell!! Welcome back!
I run with a guy who is a Prof at a Uni hospital. 50% of his time is clinical and he had a Cardiac arrest last January. Fortunately he was on the ward at the time and although he died for several minutes his colleagues worked on him to bring him back. He had an entry for the London Marathon which he ran in April!
Not so much "coach to 5k" more "dead to Marathon" Legendary status 🙂
But would you pass a drugs test
maybe not, I'm on a few 🙂
Not so much "coach to 5k" more "dead to Marathon" Legendary status
Pretty similar, I was running the Northumberland coastal run when I collapsed (800m from finishing). Fortunately a fellow runner was a cardiac nurse and there was a defib to hand. Managed to get air ambulance to Newcastle hospital and had an emergency stent fitted. This was July 2016. I was back running by September and did my first race back (10K) in November.
I had a good for age and did London marathon in April 2017 and set a pb of 2:45:54.
The human body is an amazing thing!
I know BMI is a crude measure but you are comfortably into the overweight category.
How do I put this politely without sounding like an arse... You can either accept that BMI is crude or accept it as reliable, not both.
Someone with a large amount of muscle (44" chest and 34" at 6ft sure sounds like it) might be overweight according to BMI, but BMI doesn't work for outliers. It works for most, but not for all. BMI is not a reliable guideline for people with a large amount of muscle.
April 2017 and set a pb of 2:45:54.
The human body is an amazing thing!
Wow, well done, thats pretty impressive!
I've only done about 20 5k's in my life and started late and have no consistency. Aged 30 - 22min 5k's fair play for anyone going under 20mins as thats a decent pace indeed! I'm not aiming for anything just fitness
Pretty similar, I was running the Northumberland coastal run when I collapsed (800m from finishing). Fortunately a fellow runner was a cardiac nurse and there was a defib to hand.
Right place right time to have it happen. A very similar thing happened to someone I know on a 10K run. He'd just passed a St Johns Ambulance station with a defib and had a nurse running alongside him at the time. His surgeon was fairly certain that had he collapsed anywhere else on the course he'd not have made it.
With a hilly pb of just under 21 minutes I think I found the following conditions useful. Some or all of which might be useful:
1. Regular weights. I found a strong core and arms helped particularly in the second half of the run.
2. Treadmill fartleks or sprints - As I was in the gym often I found treadmills easier to try and replicate the constant pace needed. As others said it's likely to hurt so best prepare yourself for 'hanging on.'
3. Find your motivation - either beating that same person or trying to beat the person who always finishes 100m ahead of you each week.
4. If time permits maybe try longer slow training runs to improve your running efficiency. I found during marathon training that 5ks seemed a breeze in comparison and some good times suddenly came without meaning to.
5. Don't over do it.
His surgeon was fairly certain that had he collapsed anywhere else on the course he'd not have made it.
That sounds familiar. Only 10% of people who have an MI outside of hospital survive. Right place, right time. I was very lucky. It couldn't have happened in a better place. A few days before I was out in the woods on my own. If it had happened there, I wouldn't be typing this now...
After a year of running my 5K time has gone down from 32 minutes to 25 minutes. This has happened with a very lax training schedule in which I probably get out about twice a week on average and with no other training involved. I'm considering upping the anti and going for a sub 20 minute time with a dedicated training program. How hard will this be for a 49 year old man ?
I’d suggest it is not that hard. I would simply up your runs to four or five times a week. Don't worry about intervals as you do not have the running background to cope with them yet. Let your body get used to running regularly and your time will come down naturally anyway. 25 minutes off two runs per week is pretty good. You can reassess things once you have done say 8 to 12 weeks of this and then see how close to 20 minutes you are.
Age isn't an issue. Last year I ran sub 20min at 49 years old on three to four hourly runs a week and no intervals. In my early forties I was running 35min for 10k and 75min for a half marathon (I was training more then). The key is to listen to your body.
Good luck!
Lardcore, for every aging ex-rugby player with a 34"' waist of rock solid abs, there are roughly 25,000 of them who have gone a bit lardy and are trying to convince themselves they are lean mean machines.
Sure, but on the odd chance he might be exactly that (strangely, some people do tell the truth even online) BMI won't do much. All things being equal a lighter person will be a faster runner, no doubt. Even if you're an Arnold you could still lose some weight, even if that loss comes at a decrease of overall muscle mass - if you're suddenly overcome with an urge to become the next Mo Farah 😀
Anyway, I know my 13.5 stone is at least 20% fat, so BMI suggestion definitely applies to me.
I know BMI is a crude measure but you are comfortably into the overweight category.
BMI isn't just a crude measure, it's not fit for purpose. If you want a crude measure that actually works look at waist measurement. The taller you are and/or the wider your shoulders/chest, the more prone BMI is to calling healthy people overweight, particularly anyone that does strength training.
Im almost 42 and run about 5-10 miles a week. Parkrun PR is 16:35 and I ran a 16:53 earlier this year.
Diet is vital if you want to get faster. The leaner you get ( no less than 18-19BMI) the faster you can go with the same cardiac output.
I run in the Nike Vaporfly 4% and have been high carb low fat vegan for 18 years now.
Weekly parkruns or 5k TT's are key in bringing your time down.