Go vegan. The weight will melt off. Drop the time goal. Just run to finish.
Go vegan. The weight will melt off. Drop the time goal. Just run to finish.
Losing weight is the way to go. Get a calorie counting app for your phone. Log everything you eat. Make sure you have a calorie deficit every day.
Of course you need to run too. Just focus on easy mileage, build it up gradually.
I second that minimizing consumption of animal products will help you lose weight, probably in part because you are forced to load up on whole foods, fruits and vegetables, fresh stuff with lots of nutrients. Once you get the nutrients in, hunger is often satiated because your body knows it has enough stored calories already. But if your food is deficient in any nutrients, your body knows and tells you to keep eating in order to satisfy the nutrient need, even though it has enough calories.
Do not cut out carbs entirely. Burning fat is fine for sleeping, sitting and walking, but when you run you burn glycogen and after you need to replenish the glycogen you burned, and that means carbs.
Don't starve yourself. You want to speed up your metabolism, not slow it down by sending it in to starvation mode.
You can do this. 4 hour marathon is an awesome goal, but remember that you don't want it to end there. Pace yourself.
Almost forgot probably the single most valuable tip: stay hydrated.
This means get a water bottle and bring it everywhere. You don't have to overdo it, but you have got to be hydrated to burn fat. Fat is very energy dense and water poor. You need to be hydrated in order to be able to dilute it so that you can burn it. If you're dehydrated, your body has to burn glycogen which requires less water. Then you get hungry because you've burned up a bunch of glycogen and it feels like you just went for a run.
Also sleep. The less time you spend thirsty or tired, the better.
Also, find a relaxed style yoga class. It will help prepare your body to run and keep you healthy. It's like a multivitamin for stretching and strength.
Someone posted this awhile back, sort of relevant to you.
If those are your pr's from freshman year of college/senior high school and you were under-trained like most high school runners then I'd venture that you will be able to run under 4 hours for a marathon by June/July simply based on the fact that you are a male in your prime with decent talent. That is provided you increase your mileage gradually and continue your healthy lifestyle and weight loss down to the below 210lb range. Whether you should run a marathon so soon after getting back into running is a different question. I'd say most definitely no you shouldn't and you may want to revise your marathon in November goal because genuine marathon training is not necessarily all that healthy or feasible for someone, particularly someone overweight, in their first year back. I'd focus on getting the 5k back into around 18min range before you worry about marathons. At your weight it is a much more feasible distance to train effectively for. You will also have the ability to run many races this summer and not have to worry about the daunting marathon race distance which you've never attempted even when in shape.
pr100 wrote:
Losing weight is the way to go. Get a calorie counting app for your phone. Log everything you eat. Make sure you have a calorie deficit every day.
Of course you need to run too. Just focus on easy mileage, build it up gradually.
Never. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER count calories. EVER
Never.
Ever.
I think you can. Easily. You have talent, you're still young and you're motivated.
The main thing you have to do is lose weight. If, right this moment, you changed nothing about yourself besides losing 40 pounds, you could break 4 hours tomorrow. And losing 40 pounds in 7 months is easy. Keep off the booze, drink a lot of water, increase your mileage by 15% every week until you get back up to 70/week. You'll reach that in 3 months or so. Don't worry about pace, stay on soft surfaces, don't be ashamed to do 2 3 mile runs in a day instead of one 6 miler. Walk if you have to. Don't skimp on sleep. If you have a niggling injury, swim or bike (depending on what the injury is).
You should report back to LR every week. If you're serious about this (and, in particular, not a troll...) two years from now, you could be back to your high school racing weight and within a reasonable distance of qualifying for the marathon olympic trials. No joke.
Get to work
Thanks everyone for the extremely helpful advice and encouraging words. I will try to come back once in a while to update on my progress.
I've been noticig I am having some trouble with a few things so far:
1. I am getting too eager and feel like I am recovering more quickly from runs now so I am having trouble being patient.
2. I am having a terrible time finding soft surfaces to run on... When I started, the shin splints were aweful, but they have stopped. What can I do? There are zero trails I know of here in the nashville area.
3. I am conflicted on how to diet now.... I want to know what foods, specifically, I should be buying for optimal performance/ recovery.
The good new is, the urge to drink is lessening every day. It's only been 35 days off the sauce, but iv noticed the running taking the place of the "buzz". Yes, I would consider myself an alcoholic (that's basically the reason I left my college track team)
I could coach you. But so can you. Coaching is easy. Avoid booze, run 5-6 days a week building up to easy workouts and longer efforts up to 16-18 miles, do some ... um situps or something. Also really important would be to find a training group. It gets pretty lonely running and if you're a sociable guy it will really keep you moving.
I was up to 190+ from 150 five years after running in college. Ran for four months, lost 30+ pounds and ran well under 3 hours. It's not rocket science, it just takes commitment.
I think you are replacing one addiction with another, and that makes you an injury waiting to happen.
Here is what I mean. Your new booze is running. Once you start to see progress you are going to want more and more, and you may begin to overdo it. I'll use the word you did - patience! You need to have it.
If you can stay disciplined, and injury free, you will absolutely make 4 hours for the marathon.
I think you can easily get to sub-4.
Step 1: cut *all* booze and smoking (if you need help to do this, get it)
Step 2: drink lots of water daily, min 7 hours sleep daily. Drink only water (no soda, booze, fruit juices, etc)
Step 3: healthy balanced diet (quality eggs, quality meat, lots of veggies)
Step 4: Start running. Increase mileage very slowly. Week 1 should be no more than 10 miles. Week 5 no more than 25 miles. etc. Pace-wise, go easy.
Step 5: Lift weights, cycle, play sports. Basically the goal here is to turn your body from a weak tub into an athletes body. You need to drop weight and these activities will help.
Once below 200 lbs, you can start worry about "workouts", training plans, and all that crap.
But at 26, if you stay disciplined and patient, sub-4 thon should be easy.
That's Great! Thanks for posting!
What is the physiological explanation behind water diluting fat cells?
Hydration is overrated.
Dehydration can according to some research papers but you don't need to drink massive amounts of water to avoid dehydration.
At 6'2" and 230 that is not obese. That seems to be a word people use for everyone who is not skinny.
I am 6'2: and weigh 205. When I was 26, I was about 190-195. I was well under 3 hour for the marathon.
Start a training cycle and gradually build your mileage.
Watch your diet.
You will loose more weight and the running will come easier.
4 hours is well within your reach at this point.
Good Luck.
1. Great that you feel good about the changes in your life, and that you are apparently coming to terms with your demons. If running can be a tool to make healthy changes in your life, fantastic!
2. If you avoid injury, you probably can reach the 4 hour goal. As other posters have said, progress in mileage gradually, no more than 10% per week. Cut back mileage significantly every fourth week or so during your build up to give your body a chance to recover. Cutting out your heavy beer consumption and eating consciously healthy meals along with regular exercise will probably help you continue to drop weight.
3. Going back to point #1. Don't invest too much in this one marathon. If it gives you added motivation, fine, but remember that the goal is ongoing lifestyle change. Much more important that you're off the sauce and still enjoying running this time next year than that you managed to run a sub-4 hour marathon in Nov 2015. I've seen people who throw themselves into completing a marathon, thinking that the experience will be magically transformative, push through injury and/or lack of sufficient training to suffer through 26.2 miles. And then they just stop. Check that thing off the bucket list and get on to the next thing they hope will be magically transformative. They didn't enjoy the journey or the destination. They achieve the goal, but lose the dream. I'm not saying don't go for it -- just recognize that if you do get injured, or don't make fast enough progress, or only wind up running a 4:30 marathon, that this really is about a journey that will hopefully take you long past November.
Never give up, never surrender wrote:
At 6'2" and 230 that is not obese...
It's a BMI of 29.5. Obese is 30+. So, yes, technically that's not obese but it's as close as you can get. And before someone jumps in with how BMI can be misleading and that it's possible to be fit with a high BMI I'll point out that the original poster said he got fat by drinking too much, eating badly, and not exercising. So he's very overweight, borderline obese.
I didn't get as fat as you, but I was older (35) and had more time away from running and did a similar thing, with a similar goal. I also had kinda similar high school PRs (a little slower, but 16:5x 5k, etc...)
Went from zero in March of 2012 (coming off ACL/MCL/Gastroc injury sustained wake surfing) to a 3:59:51 marathon in early October.
That marathon was insanely hard and a huge bonk, but I did make my goal by 9 seconds. I think to avoid it I should have ramped up mileage a little higher and worked out a better plan for eating/drinking during the race).
Anyway, it's totally doable. Get lots of easy miles in, lose the weight. The race itself will be super painful, but you'll do it.
You've gotten plenty of positive feedback and I agree, a sub 4:00 marathon is possible for you given your history. But, if I were you I'd take a step back and make sure this is the right decision.
Is your goal to lose weight? To change your lifestyle? To get healthy again? To have something to focus on while you get over your alcohol issues? I'd venture to say those are and should be your main goals.
Do you need to a run a marathon to accomplish those goals? No, definitely not.
Could attempting to train for a marathon from zero base and at your weight be counter productive to your goals? Yes, absolutely! You could get injured (I'd say that it is fairly likely). You could miss your goal and feel like you've failed (bad idea). You could fail to lose weight by shifting your focus to training (bad idea again). Everything could go right and you meet your big goal, but then lose focus on the back end (happens constantly).
A better plan, to me, is to focus on your lifestyle. Commit to working out daily, however long or short. Commit to getting your diet in line. Commit to staying off alcohol. That is PLENTY of things to focus on. After a year, if successful, you'll have changed your lifestyle, your life, your weight. At that point, train for a marathon if you still want to, but don't make some huge event the point because at the end of the day, that really isn't the point.
Thanks for the continued support and advice from all of you! When I created this thread, I was SURE someone from the LRC was going to tell me to give up running or something. I am pleasantly surprised!
I posted this last Monday, so I am updating on my progress.
I weighed in this morning at 227. (230 as of last Monday). I know it's water weight/fluctuation, but it's still encouraging to know my weight is not increasing.
I only ran 15 miles this week. What I am hearing is that I should be building SLOWLY so I am holding back. I am itching to increase now, but I know I will overdo it and get hurt. All of my runs were at between 9:00/9:45 pace. I ran 4 days.
My diet is improving somewhat, but I am finding this to be the most difficult part of what I am doing. Once you become a fat guy, it is really hard to give up eating like a moron. I have been eating A LOT more fruits, but the only vegetable I like is spinach, but I have had lots of that as well. I am drinking a TON more water, and I am noticing a difference in my mental sharpness.
Finally, I have still not had a drink of alcohol.
What I am worried about is how I am going to get more miles in on SOFT SURFACES! This week all of my miles were on pavement and I know that's a huge risk, especially at my weight.
Thanks again everyone!