Looking for a few stories/experiences from the LRC.
What happened to you when you quit running/training? Say you were running anywhere 50-80 mpw and just decided to stop. How much weight did you gain, etc.?
Or how about this....if you didn't exactly quit, but started running something like 10-15 miles per week, how much did your fitness drop off? Did your former easy pace become a struggle?
Thanks.
It wasn't good. I went from being a competitive college runner to overweight in about 4 years. After college, I trained but not at the level I was used to. Throw in a injury that kept me from running a step for 6 months and then some personal problems( divorce, depression) and you have me at my current weight at 215. I weighed 135 in college. I carry the weight well, but when I have my shirt off it's really bad. Trying to start again but living in a real rural environment with no real training options is tough. Right now, I can barely run 5 minutes without stopping. Moral of the story, don't ever get out of shape if you can help it, because time and circumstance is not on your side.
I can't help you with the "stopping running" story but I can help with the "starting running" story.
I got really tired and my feet hurt. I was hungry all the time and I got ITBS. I figured out what type of shoes to wear and I upped my miles. I got runner's knee after doing too many plyos too fast. I got smart and stopped getting hurt. I started wearing splits and singlets. I lost a bunch of weight and bought a bunch of new clothes. I ran even more miles and got even faster. I set PRs every time I raced and was hungry all the time again. I started wearing tights and no shirt instead of splits and no shirt. I started posting to this place all the time and my social life evaporated. I stopped caring about splits and tights and just FREAKING RAN!
Started road biking due to a running injury. Weight hasn't changed at all. If you continue to exercise or not, a strict diet should help you keep a healthy weight.
I looked and weighed almost exactly the same, within 5 lbs. Still jacked as f'ck. Good metabolism I guess? Oh, and not being a gluttonous fatass stupid brain helps!
Not to be an ass, but how can you gain 80 pounds, which in your case was like 60% of your body weight, and carry your weight well?
Frankenweenie wrote:
Not to be an ass, but how can you gain 80 pounds, which in your case was like 60% of your body weight, and carry your weight well?
He probably looked really skinny while in college. Im guessing now he doesnt look fat (double chin, big ass gut, kankles), but he doesnt look fit either.
Im only 19, but I dont think I would ever really quit training or running after college. I feel like all the work I've put into my body would go to waste, especially at the young age of 23-24.
got injured as sh*T and had to stop. picked up biking, got pretty good. started lifting and got really strong. in two months bench press went from 165 to 245 (and 275 in two more months), put on 15 lbs of muscle from 145 to 160. drank my face off. got really sick of drinking. hurt my elbow lifting. 16 months later decided i would try running again. went horribly. tried again. went terrible. and again. and again. and again. to this day im still trying to get back where i was. its f*cking hard, even just getting back to my high school times, and im not even old.
heres the deal yo wrote:
got injured as sh*T and had to stop. picked up biking, got pretty good. started lifting and got really strong. in two months bench press went from 165 to 245 (and 275 in two more months), put on 15 lbs of muscle from 145 to 160. drank my face off. got really sick of drinking. hurt my elbow lifting. 16 months later decided i would try running again. went horribly. tried again. went terrible. and again. and again. and again. to this day im still trying to get back where i was. its f*cking hard, even just getting back to my high school times, and im not even old.
How old are you now? What were your HS times? How fast can you run now?
I ran 80,000 miles in 31 years, wasn't asny good but had fun..then, two knee surgeries and 5 epidurals to the spine and I quit.
The only thing it did bad for me is that i was more stressed all the time..
it was the endorphin high that I missed most.
That was in January 2009.
then, my wife was diagnosed with brain cancer (GBM) in September 2009 and I had to take her to MD Anderson in Houston
I was so stressed at that point that I was throwing up in a room at the Rotary House, athe hotel hooked up to the hospital.
One morning, I was puking and decided to hobble downstairs to the lobby and out the door and uptempoed my hobble around the block..and the next day I wasn't any worse off...
Hobbled again the next morning and still the pain was "no worse"
I'm still at it, but can only run every other day...
25-30mpw..
The sugeries and especially the back problems just won't go away..
De-emphasizing running got me back into other sports though..
Season tix to Diamonback games, Coyote games...
So, all in all it wasn't all that bad.as long as I can get that high every few days.
I got leaner and more muscular.
I stopped running after graduating high school. Decided not to run in college (I started the season on the team, but decided not to pursue it any more). I was 19 and instead wanted to build my body to get girls. I started eating everything I could get my hands on and lifted like crazy. I went from 145 to 170 in about a year. I got the attention of girls which was my goal, but something was missing.
I first noticed the itch for the sport while standing on the sidelines watching the LA marothon. As I saw runners go by my, my entire body vibrated with excitement. I wanted to be among the runners. It was instict, like I was meant to be a runner and my entire body knew it.
After that experience, I made it a goal to run that LA marathon the next year, so I picked up my running shoes, started running again, lost the weight and been running ever since. I sorta regret not running in college. I look back and wonder what could have been. Now running is part of my life. It will always be, and I can't deny my body what it naturally wants and needs. I think I will continue to run for the rest of my life, as long as God permits me to.
Don't ever stop running
No offense taken. I basically looked like a skeleton in college. Got many comments that I "looked unhealthy" and so forth. I'm taller than the average runner as well. I mean I have a small belly but I don't look obese or anything. But when you have been as fit as I have been you know how big you are compared to those days. To me, I look huge, but to the average person I don't look so bad.
stopped due to double stress fractures that started just prior to fist meet of season haunted me all of my last yr.
ran 3 mile about 2-3x wk then down to 1x.
2 yrs after ran a 4:14 mile ... and beat gerry the jogger - he had been retired as well
ran a 9:10 2 mile
started training cautiously and timidly = about 4 m day x 3-4 days a week - ran a 31:27 10k at altitude. Last race I ever ran
played lots of basketball
I stopped running after college... just too beat to keep going. over the next 2 years, I would run sporadically, maybe at most 10 MPW. Really got back one winter when I hibernated and didn't run at all. Ballooned up to 173 from 135 when I graduated. Didn't really notice how fat I had gotten at first until my clothes stopped fitting. Decided I wanted to get back at it. Started with like 30 MPW... it was awful. Struggling to run 4 miles at 8 min pace was terrible. Every run felt like a tempo. You don't get easy runs, because 4 isn't easy anymore. You look in the mirror and feel like a linebacker.
Anyways, spent next 8 months trying to lose weight, gain strength. Ran a marathon at 150 lbs.
Then I decided to get serious, started running 80 mpw, and I am down to 133 and getting a lot closer to my college pr's.
It takes a long, long time, but you can get back. Just have to be patient.
One problem now is a bunch of the clothing I got when I was fat is now too big, and my belts are all stretched out....
I never officially quit...I just transitioned from serious competitive runner to casual fitness jogger. The transition was slow and gradual. Due to advancing age and a series of minor injuries, my race times gradually slowed. Eventually, I became so slow that I started to question why I was training so hard to be so mediocre (compared to my PRs, anyway). Gradually, I stopped training as hard because it didn't seem worth it to post such lousy times. Then of course, my times got even slower due to the decreased training intensity. Now the transition is complete. I jog 4-5 miles a day, 4-5 days a week for general health and to keep from getting fat. I still occassionally enter a 5k race, but harbor no illusions that I'm actually racing. I've gained about 10 pounds from my competitive days, which means that I've gone from skeletal to a normal, healthy weight. My doctor now describes by weight as "ideal", whereas he used to tell me I was underweight.
Working a real job did it to me. Wake up and am too tired to run. Come home and too tired to run. I'm just too tired to run.
my case wrote:
I never officially quit...I just transitioned from serious competitive runner to casual fitness jogger. The transition was slow and gradual. Due to advancing age and a series of minor injuries, my race times gradually slowed. Eventually, I became so slow that I started to question why I was training so hard to be so mediocre (compared to my PRs, anyway). Gradually, I stopped training as hard because it didn't seem worth it to post such lousy times. Then of course, my times got even slower due to the decreased training intensity. Now the transition is complete. I jog 4-5 miles a day, 4-5 days a week for general health and to keep from getting fat. I still occassionally enter a 5k race, but harbor no illusions that I'm actually racing. I've gained about 10 pounds from my competitive days, which means that I've gone from skeletal to a normal, healthy weight. My doctor now describes by weight as "ideal", whereas he used to tell me I was underweight.
Thanks for this...I see myself sort of going this route a in few years because I know my times are going to be slower anyways. I'm just wondering what to expect. I still want to be able to run 10 miles on the weekend though!
I started a website.
my case wrote:
I never officially quit...I just transitioned from serious competitive runner to casual fitness jogger. The transition was slow and gradual. Due to advancing age and a series of minor injuries, my race times gradually slowed. Eventually, I became so slow that I started to question why I was training so hard to be so mediocre (compared to my PRs, anyway). Gradually, I stopped training as hard because it didn't seem worth it to post such lousy times. Then of course, my times got even slower due to the decreased training intensity. Now the transition is complete. I jog 4-5 miles a day, 4-5 days a week for general health and to keep from getting fat. I still occassionally enter a 5k race, but harbor no illusions that I'm actually racing. I've gained about 10 pounds from my competitive days, which means that I've gone from skeletal to a normal, healthy weight. My doctor now describes by weight as "ideal", whereas he used to tell me I was underweight.
This is a good approach. Too many competitive runners view it as "all or nothing". They're either running 100 miles a week, doing intervals, tempos and long runs, or they're sitting on the couch eating donuts.
There is a middle ground known as "healthy exercise".