serious question, in this nation of fatties with a terrible health crisis, why do we discourage people from running?

Running and Nordic skiing are some of the best calorie burning exercises out there ...period. So they are great. But if you’re doing it just for health reasons, you don’t need to do much more than 30-60min a day or like 25-30miles per week at most. For most Americans just doing this and maybe supplementing with HIIT and/or crossfit type stuff is all that’s needed.

For letsrun folks looking to be competitive runners, 70-100mpw+ is needed to be good. Of course no need to look down upon the group mentioned above. Everyone has different fitness goals and it’s all good

I was around the road race scene before all these people showed up and the sport was just fine without them.

Bob Sacamano wrote:

Logic rules the day wrote:

Because for the 'average joe', the last thing most need, is jogging. Get in the gym, implement a total body strength circuit routine, and use a rowing machine.

Metabolic and strength enhancement are easily developed without jogging...and ultimately, better.

Exactly. If someone is seriously overweight, running, in many cases, is a terrible idea.

Pringles is part of a balanced breakfast at my trailer home.

Bebdbdjdjd wrote:

Running and Nordic skiing are some of the best calorie burning exercises out there ...period. So they are great. But if you’re doing it just for health reasons, you don’t need to do much more than 30-60min a day or like 25-30miles per week at most. For most Americans just doing this and maybe supplementing with HIIT and/or crossfit type stuff is all that’s needed.

For letsrun folks looking to be competitive runners, 70-100mpw+ is needed to be good. Of course no need to look down upon the group mentioned above. Everyone has different fitness goals and it’s all good

C'mon man....you've got to have decent genetics and be built for running for the average person to run 25-30 mpw. Otherwise, people will just develop chronic injuries and get frustrated. Running is a high-impact excercise and isn't for everyone (at least at the 25 mpw you suggested). Many people would be better off with walking, non-weight bearing cardio & strength training.

alien observer wrote:

Growing group of people who encourage running at Parkrun.com. Doesn't matter if you run a 5k at 13:00 or 1h13m.

An 1h13m 5k?

Did they say screw it and go to McDonald’s for lunch part way through?

Hey, I’m all for people running races at a slow pace, as long as there goal is to actually run the race (or at least do that hobby-jogger-shuffle of 10 on, 1 off if it’s a marathon)

I think that there’s a real misconception in the US that exercise, particularly long-distance cardio stuff, is an efficient way to lose weight or stay in shape. There are plenty of habitual joggers who stay fat. There are lots of middle-aged guys who have the fanciest bikes and bicycling gear, routinely bike long distances with their cycling buddies, and still have big potbellies.

Europeans worry a lot less about exercise than Americans. In many places it would be strange to see a jogger out in the street, yet the people are thinner than Americans. It’s no secret why: they just eat less, maybe walk around more, and what they do eat is better on average.

Diet trumps exercise every time.

Putting aside the fact that walking is the best exercise for the majority of people, in what way is your experience made worse by "these people" showing up?

Karl Hungus wrote:

Runners are dickbags, by and large. You see this at the start of most races, with dick wagging over PRs and posturing by wearing shirts from running clubs or various other distance races. I love those who show up at 5k fun runs with marathon finisher shirts. It honestly saves me the time in wondering if you are, indeed, a twatwaffle.

Having said that - anyone who wants to run/jog/power walk their way through a 5k or more is a runner and should be encouraged, not discouraged, to run further and/or faster. Anyone who wants my advice will get what I think I know, which is probably wrong.

Don't be a dick. Anyone who finished last in a race still suited up that morning and got the job done. Don't treat them like crap because you finished before they did.

So if someone comes to a race wearing a shirt they got from a marathon they're a "twatwaffle", but if you walk a 5k you're a runner?

Reasoning... NOT your strong suit.

What if someone shows up to a 5k in a race shirt from a 5k? Is that OK?

What about a 10M or 1/2 marathon shirt?

No shirt?

What if the person wears a marathon shirt but WALKS the 5k? Huh whadaboutdat?

What's wrong with wearing a club shirt? That means you are part of a racing club, you might have even received free gear from a local running store.. you owe that store owner the small sacrifice of actually advertising for their store. To NOT wear the racing singlet would be a real dick move.

25 miles a week isn't much

M 3 m am 5 miles on

T 5 miles

W rest or recovery run

Th 3 miles am 5 miles pm

F 4 miles am and thats 21+ already

S rest or recovery run

S rest or cross train (rollerblading is best)

25-30 miles right there! Without the doubling and rest days it's more difficult but not high milage. To work your way up cut the 5 miles to 2 miles and subtract a mile from runs as needed. Then add gradually each week till you run 25-30. 10-15 is a safer start sure but most people can build up to 25 or 30 just by starting slow and training smart.

If you're overweight start with 60 minute walks. If that's too much 30 it's not that hard to run once you're used to it people just don't build up properly and get injured for that reason.

Logic rules the day wrote:

Because for the 'average joe', the last thing most need, is jogging. Get in the gym, implement a total body strength circuit routine, and use a rowing machine.

Metabolic and strength enhancement are easily developed without jogging...and ultimately, better.

What many ,if not most "average Joes," need is an exercise routine that they'll actually do and the cheaper and more convenient that routine is the more likely it is that they'll keep to it. Joining a gym and then getting to it several times a week is a lot more involved than heading out the door at work during your lunch hour or right after work for a 20-30 minute run is lot simpler and more convenient than getting to a gym is.

Ya rly wrote:

25 miles a week isn't much

M 3 m am 5 miles on

T 5 miles

W rest or recovery run

Th 3 miles am 5 miles pm

F 4 miles am and thats 21+ already

S rest or recovery run

S rest or cross train (rollerblading is best)

25-30 miles right there! Without the doubling and rest days it's more difficult but not high milage. To work your way up cut the 5 miles to 2 miles and subtract a mile from runs as needed. Then add gradually each week till you run 25-30. 10-15 is a safer start sure but most people can build up to 25 or 30 just by starting slow and training smart.

If you're overweight start with 60 minute walks. If that's too much 30 it's not that hard to run once you're used to it people just don't build up properly and get injured for that reason.

Walking is the best excercise for the average Joe/Jane. Walking is less impact and produces far fewer injuries (just look at all the injury-related threads on this forum alone ?).

[quote]Stoppit Smith wrote:

If races only had the fastest people, it would look like the edgy, angst-filled, intensity-driven scene we saw at high school XC races or, for those who made it, XC College races.

I agree with the OP because i have been on the receiving end of a lot of ridicule here on letsrun because i think 20 is a good 5k and 1:40 is a good half.

Someone named Daniel challenged me directly to the Carlsbad 5000 this year, and as i saw in the results, he wasn't even there.

Having said this, i agree that we should not discourage anyone from even racing.

When you train and train you sometimes want to know what your time will be.

These people in tutus are enjoying themselves, outside, with friends, getting a bit of a sweat in and crossing the same finish line we are.

And, because I am Mike and letsrun knows who and how I am....i am going to truncate this farther in my style.

Many of you paint these slower people who dress differently as weird and like they don't belong there. Right? But where are many of you after the race? The beer garden....with your friends.

Many of these slower finishers skip the beer garden because there is no room and because they already had a ton of fun.

So, if you want to take away the slower charity runners/walkers, women in tutus, fun runners and others whose dream to cross the finish line was realized that day, you are entitled.

But then you get no beer, no swag, no medals and you will be surrounded by some of the same people with the same frustration that as hard as you try, you will never catch them.

Yeah, there are some people even you can't catch. Maybe you should not even qualify to be there.

Capisce?

I suggest re-thinking this.

Mike

[quote]maybe this wrote:

You said "Capisce".

That made my day Mike, thanks.

modernskeptic wrote:

with labels like "hobby jogger" and by sh!tting on people in forums for asking certain training questions or being rude to someone because of their goals realistic or not. if someone is working out AT ALL.... I say good for them

it's easier to dominate weak and soft fatties....if everyone was a stud then I'd be in trouble

Pretzel Man wrote:

But then you get no beer, no swag, no medals and you will be surrounded by some of the same people with the same frustration that as hard as you try, you will never catch them.

That made my day Mike, thanks.

That would be just fine, maybe even better.

"It is worrying that Internet meme content - which, by definition, has come to represent the Internet-fuelled propagation of items such as videos, jokes, rumours and websites (Shifman 2014) – produces a predominate sense of happiness regardless of the underlying tone or image used (see the appendix for examples of health-related Internet memes). If this is the broader case then we run the risk of normalising and accepting ridiculing and stereotyping of “non-normative”, “fat”, “unhealthy”, “irresponsible”, “at fault” individuals because of cultural ignorance."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/internet-memes-obesity-intl/index.html

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-18/not-onion-internet-memes-making-teenagers-fat

Are LetsRun memes making us slower and fatter?

Discus.

We some hard cold George Carlin frankness, more than ever!!!

https://youtu.be/nLRQvK2-iqQ

@maybe this wrote:

maybe this wrote:

I was around the road race scene before all these people showed up and the sport was just fine without them.

Putting aside the fact that walking is the best exercise for the majority of people, in what way is your experience made worse by "these people" showing up?

The experience is moderately worse. Parking is more of a problem. I have to drive down on the day before to pick up my packet. They used to give out awards about an hour or 90 minutes after the start of a 10K and they can't do that any more.