40 years old- worst shape of my life and the future is bleak

Former D1 guy. I let myself go in my mid-30s, was a borderline alcoholic, which was fueled by some low-grade depression. I finally decided to do something about it. The hardest part was committing to it long term; not giving up after a week or two weeks, but sticking with it long enough to see real results.

My solution was to sign up for a 10k with a bunch of former teammates. Nothing competitive, just an excuse to get everyone together. About four months out I realized I had no time to waste and went at it.

I was 38. I had raced at 142, and now I was 187. I don't have much to offer in the way of advice, since my strategy was to get a gym membership and start off lifting and logging some treadmill miles. First day on the treadmill: 2 miles in 17 minutes, and I was wrecked. About four months later, I was routinely breaking 30 minutes for 5 miles. Gradually I phased out the treadmill and started running outside, when those 5 milers took more like 35 minutes. Took about a year to feel like I was anything resembling a runner again, but so happy to have done it.

Now about 10 pounds from racing weight, and the fear of ever going back has kept me motivated. That, and the running has become my version of depression medication. It helps my mental outlook, keeps me positive.

So I say this to you: You'll be glad you did it. And find something to focus on that gets you through the tough initial period. After a few years under your belt again, you can slack and not lose much because you have some sort of base again.

Good luck. Lte us know how it goes.

HonestThief wrote:

ofsaa silver wrote:

I can't beleive this bs. Are you guys serious? This guy needs to get his ass moving.

My day:

5:00am up

6:00am squats, legs 30 min cardio

9:00am drop wife off at work

9:15 meet home inspector and contractor

11:00 go to office paperwork and book client meetings

2:00 pick up wife go to hospital for ultrasound expecting baby

3:15 drop wife off back to office

5:00 pick up wife

5:45 - 45 min cardio on road bike indoor trainer

Dinner, bed repeat.

Relax on Sundays.

Stop being a p***y!!!!!

so you work like 4 hours a day? is that even possible? what do you do?

goes with his wife for an ultrasound. EVERY DAY

(except Sundays obviously, that would just be excessive)

I vary the intensity, which is easy to do on the fly with the AMT. Basically it goes 1-5 on the "stair" control, with 1 being basically flat, to 5 high stairs, and then the scale goes 1-20 on the resistance (20 being hardest). Too break things up I vary both, but usually keep it around 2-3 on stair variable, and 12-18 on resistance. I usually do an hour of this, sometimes up to 2 hours. I had a bad injury, and did nothing but this for 8 weeks leading up to a marathon, and still did half way ok.

It is vastly different, IMO, than an elliptical. I cant stand the elliptical, feels awkward to me, and doesnt mimic running nearly like AMT.

I find that its approximates easy to moderate running. In my experience no machine (minus treadmill) can replicate the intensity of hard intervals. It does get HR up, so great for cardio, but easy on the legs (I even think it helps with strengthening because of the resistance).

Again, I highly recommend. And even better when you dont feel guilty watching shows. In the past months I have watched all of the episodes of Arrested Development, House of Cards, and many movies, none of which I would ever have time to otherwise.

Your attitude reflects your background as an All American. Things are not as bad as you think. When you said you had gained weight, I thought you might be up to 250 or higher. You are only 20 pounds above competitive weight.

I'm sorry for your accident, but you can't simply write off your options by saying you don't like them. I'm 61 and I'm losing my eyesight to the point where I now use a white cane. I was never an All American, but I was a competitive runner as an avocation, and I regularly trained 80 mpw when marathon training. It's over now. I've become a treadmill jogger exclusively. I can't say I enjoy it much,but it's what I can do presently, and I prefer being chained to a treadmill in a dingy basement to being entirely unfit.

It's not always easy, friend,but if you can't run anymore because of an accident, I'd encourage you to keep a good attitude and try to take advantage of the many options that are still open to you. I wish you well.

ofsaa silver wrote:

I can't beleive this bs. Are you guys serious? This guy needs to get his ass moving.

My day:

5:00am up

6:00am squats, legs 30 min cardio

9:00am drop wife off at work

9:15 meet home inspector and contractor

11:00 go to office paperwork and book client meetings

2:00 pick up wife go to hospital for ultrasound expecting baby

3:15 drop wife off back to office

5:00 pick up wife

5:45 - 45 min cardio on road bike indoor trainer

Dinner, bed repeat.

Relax on Sundays.

Stop being a p***y!!!!!

What kind of pretend job do you have where you roll in to the office at 11, work for about 2 hours, and spend the rest of the afternoon carting your wife around town?

Some of us actually work all day, you dig? Like get in no later than 830am, take 30 minutes to scarf down lunch at our desks, and then work till at least 6pm. I'm out of the house for work 8am to 8pm many days.

I agree with you on the need to stop whining, manage time better, and exercise in the early morning, but you're living some fantasy life that apparently only requires 10 hours of actual work per week.

Conundrum wrote:

Old fat and slow wrote:

This isn't the only place I'm researching this, just looking for some input from the community. Thanks for your support.

I have to wonder why "wait,really??" would take the time to make that post.

My guess is a total lack of familiarity with LRC. Common sense and logic have no place here. By using logic/analogy, yes "wait, really", I'm sure on a vegetarian forum it would be odd to ask how to cook a meat dish, but, this is LRC. It's largely not about running. Even the posts about running are mostly not about about running per se but are to insult the performance of a runner.

So, while I agree with you, on the surface it seems illogical to go to a running forum to ask specifically how to not run, it's by far from unusual on LRC. The fact that the old man mentioned the word "run" in his post puts him in the 5% of LRC posts.

I'm inspired by you man. Running on a treadmill is hard.

OP: You are very normal. I coach xc skiing and there are lots of guys who get back to it in their 40's and have more fun than when they were 'fast'.

I would also second the people who have mentioned rehab.

I was out of running for about 4 years in a row. I never thought I would run again. I remember actually crying over it once when the pain was really, really unrelenting.

I'm back to running now. About 1 min off my 3k pr right now.

What got me healthy again was giving my body time to heal and a refocus on athleticism. Only endurance activities isn't good for my; it really benefits from supplemental strength and rang of movement exercises.

Also: Find people to do it with. Almost none of us would participate in this sport without our peers and friends.

So is the corollary of that statement true: that every compliment from me is an insult? Because, for a change, I wasn't really trying to bust your chops (much), and was paying you 1.5 compliments. The first one was obvious (I enjoyed your humor at X-Fit's expense), the 2nd less clear, and yes, maybe a 1/2 compliment, 1/2 jab. The "classic BW" part of your post should be self evident and, I like said, only part of that description is negative (part is positive). You answered the question only as you could have, with a 'thinking-outside-the-box' mentality, delving into some historical and/or anthropological angle probably no one else would have brought up. Which yes, is correct (interesting article in the NY Times a couple months back on that), but doesn't really help the guy since he wants to clearly improve his cardio and *overall* muscle strength/appearance, not become good at throwing things. I am not saying throwing can't be part of an overall physical regimen, but for someone time pressed, it certainly is not going to be the focus or step 1 of his training/conditioning. (and I thought all of this was intentional on your part. I am trying to give you credit here and not believe that you really think that this guy should focus on throwing rocks, balls, or spears to begin his journey towards being in good shape. I thought this was part of your shtick so to speak)

Baseball pitchers are only as strong as they need to be. It's a very specific skill, and a little guy with relatively moderate strength can throw 20 mph faster than some giant with tons of overall athletic strength. Clumsy? I dunno, but I am not sure if this guy is complaining about being clumsy.

This is great stuff. Just caught up on every post from Flagpoles on down, thanks guys!

I know I can run again if I did some hardcore rehab, but the sound of it is intimidating. I just ordered some rubber bands that I'm going to use to strengthen some weak muscles/tendons in my legs (or all week muscles/tendons).

I am going to do the every other day dumb bell/x train plan. I can do some light lifting at home and obviously can make the time. Basically I just need to commit- which I officially did yesterday.

[quote]Optional wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oXIdPoSLlE

WATCH

John Degenkolb wrote:

[quote]Optional wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oXIdPoSLlE

WATCH

Thanks. Nice post.

30-45 minutes walking each day. Resistance work twice a week (weights, kettlebells, push ups, etc). 20 minutes. Cardio twice a week (anything that get's your heart rate up). 20-30 minutes.

Eat real food.

That's all you need.

50 Something wrote:

Invest in an ElliptiGo.

^This. Even if you cannot get back to running competitively, you will have an option of becoming a competitive Elliptigo racer. Just ask Adam Goucher.

ofsaa silver wrote:

Get up at 5:00 am. Be at the gym for 6. Lift hard for 45 minutes then do 30 min of hard cardio. 5 days a week. Eat 6 small meals a day with lots of protein and stop being a little b***ch.

Eat lots of protein and fat, and as little carbs as possible, especially grains.

Grains make you skinny fat. Eat meat, meat and more meat. You will be buffed.

Old fat and slow wrote:

This is great stuff. Just caught up on every post from Flagpoles on down, thanks guys!

I know I can run again if I did some hardcore rehab, but the sound of it is intimidating. I just ordered some rubber bands that I'm going to use to strengthen some weak muscles/tendons in my legs (or all week muscles/tendons).

I am going to do the every other day dumb bell/x train plan. I can do some light lifting at home and obviously can make the time. Basically I just need to commit- which I officially did yesterday.

I think you have the right idea -- a step at a time and be consistent. Even a 30 minute brisk walk before breakfast can make a difference. You haven't been specific about your injuries from the auto accident, but I would wonder if scheduling some PT isn't in order if you know that you have particular issues to address. Sounds like you could make running again a long term, motivating goal... You have a couple of kids. You should want to be able to go on runs with them as they get older!

Really? Just get off your ass and do something. You have too many excuses. What do you think other people have to deal with? Pick some aerobic exercise to do and just hit it 3 days a week for 30-40 min. Do some basic weight-lifting for strength. Find a gym and a good trainer and get a full body workout going. 2-3 days per week. You can do in 30 min. You could get in shape in no time if you had a decent attitude. BTW...read about John Troutman. He had gotten fat and out of shape but just came back to break a 45-49 AG mile record. He's got amazing talent, but you don't have to run a 4:12 to be in shape.

cmondude wrote:

Really? Just get off your ass and do something. You have too many excuses. What do you think other people have to deal with? Pick some aerobic exercise to do and just hit it 3 days a week for 30-40 min. Do some basic weight-lifting for strength. Find a gym and a good trainer and get a full body workout going. 2-3 days per week. You can do in 30 min. You could get in shape in no time if you had a decent attitude. BTW...read about John Troutman. He had gotten fat and out of shape but just came back to break a 45-49 AG mile record. He's got amazing talent, but you don't have to run a 4:12 to be in shape.

Scroll up pal, I already made a commitment to get back in shape. Tomorrow is day two.

Would you consider incline walking? You had trouble climbing stairs, so certainly this would be challenging. There are many treadmill that can incline up to 15% or more. You wouldn't need to leave the family at all.

Today is day 5, and I'm very sore. Like I said, been alternating between circuits with DB and elliptical. Feels good to get into a groove and I'm hoping to keep this going long term.