Obese, 42, sub 16

When kids ask for predictions, I try to be very encouraging and positive. Since you're not a young kid, I'll be honest. You'll never break 17 minutes again. If you break 18 minutes again for 5K it will be a very good achievement.

Not impossible this guy was 32 and an obese, booze drinking, pizza loving white man and he eventually got his 5k to 15:35 and hm to 1:13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CeZAm6p04

1. Follow a high carb plant based vegan lifestyle.

2.If you do nothing currently try walking around your neighborhood

3.lose the weight

4.Start running after you're certain the weight you're at then wont injure you

5. Add mileage improve and incorporate a good amount of speed work(you're 40, you've lost most your speed.)

6. Hang on for dear life and pray to God.

ironside wrote:

When kids ask for predictions, I try to be very encouraging and positive. Since you're not a young kid, I'll be honest. You'll never break 17 minutes again. If you break 18 minutes again for 5K it will be a very good achievement.

I was able to break 16 at 43:

-started running at 39

-was 40 pounds overweight

-smoked

-out of shape

Charlie wrote:

ironside wrote:

When kids ask for predictions, I try to be very encouraging and positive. Since you're not a young kid, I'll be honest. You'll never break 17 minutes again. If you break 18 minutes again for 5K it will be a very good achievement.

I was able to break 16 at 43:

-started running at 39

-was 40 pounds overweight

-smoked

-out of shape

I'll bet there is more to the story.

+1 for the high carb plant based lifestyle (you will not have to restrict at all eating mostly whole foods- just make sure you get a b12 supplement)

Also make sure you hydrate well (pee clear around 8 times a day) and get good sleep.

No smoking and preferably no drinking/caffine.

Until you lose a significant amount of weight, the far majority of your training should consist of low impact activities such as biking (or stationary), ellipticalling, or swimming/aquajogging.

I didn't weigh as much as you (I went up to 195 max), and I wasn't as fast as you in HS (best 3200 around 10:00), but I was about your same age when I started running again (I started watching my weight a couple years earlier).

One thing to keep in mind is the supreme value of patience. You will lose weight slower now than last time. You will gain fitness slower, and lose it quicker. Staying healthy and training consistently is the absolute most important thing you can do. If you get impatient and greedy, you can wreck your training plan quickly.

You'll need to be smarter about your training than you were in high school. You'll need to do a lot of homework about training plans and how to adapt them to yourself as a master's runner.

And if you never break 16, who cares? Over the space of 15 months, I dropped my 5K from 21:00+ to right around 18:00, and it's been tons of fun. Mixing it up with the fast guys in a local 5K is pretty exhilarating when you're in your 40s. Or the day when the endurance fiends all sign up for the HM, and you're the fast guy who smokes the field in the 5K - it's awesome. Getting in shape will give you a much higher quality of life, whatever your master's PR ends up being. And you can probably set new master's PRs for every year for the next 5 years and enjoy every minute of it.

Of course, the flip side is that you won't get a lot more chances to get back into shape and keep the weight off if you don't do it now. If the obesity doesn't kill you quickly, it will kill you slowly. Good luck.

Set your 5k goal time to your weight in lbs divided by 10. Aim for 25:00 now and 16:00 when you hit 160lbs.

Suggestionista wrote:

asbelk wrote:

What does a 250 pound 42 year old need to do to run a sub 16 5k? He ran 15:55 in high school.

Is Jack Daniels a good program to follow for this goal?

it would be interesting to know what your height is, but regardless, obesity and distance running don't mix. If the person in question (perhaps you are referring to yourself in the third person) could break 22 minutes for 5k, that would be a miracle. I don't see how an obese person runs more than 8 mpw without getting injured.

Thanks to your post I'll take your challenge tomorrow at 9AM. I stepped on the scale this morning and am disappointed to report I am up to 241 lbs. Adding to the challenge: I have not run in at least six months and did not run 100 miles over the six months prior to that.

Wish me luck.

DahOneWhoCannahType wrote:

Thanks to your post I'll take your challenge tomorrow at 9AM. I stepped on the scale this morning and am disappointed to report I am up to 241 lbs. Adding to the challenge: I have not run in at least six months and did not run 100 miles over the six months prior to that.

Wish me luck.

Good luck!

How old are you?

I just got finished with a workout. I'm using Daniels' (3rd ed.) White Fitness Plan. I'm in Phase 2. Today's workout was 3 min easy, 3 min walk, 20 x 1 min easy/30 sec walk, 4 min walk. I followed it up with plenty of stretching, calves, hams, quads, and glutes.

Yesterday, I recovered with no running and some moderate strengthening exercises. I planned to run, but my achilles insertion or bursa was telling me no. I used The Stick on my hams and gastrocs, and the achilles liked that.

So far, so good. As long as my body handles the light running in Daniels' White plan, I'm sticking with it instead of focusing on more low-intensity exercise. Although the plan's phases last 4 weeks each, I may cautiously extend that before bumping it up to the next phase.

If we take it gradually, appropriately respond to any pains, are consistent and patient, then we'll progress to our goals and give us ourselves the best chance of accomplishing them.

Again, good luck!

I know I know im dumb wrote:

Not impossible this guy was 32 and an obese, booze drinking, pizza loving white man and he eventually got his 5k to 15:35 and hm to 1:13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CeZAm6p04

Thanks for the link. Not sure I would've seen that unless you posted it. It was interesting and motivating.

Thanks for your other tips too. I have been running consistently for the past 6 weeks, following the Daniels' White plan. Fortunately, no signs of injuries so far.

asbelk wrote:

Honestly my man wrote:

I wouldn't worry about what training plan to follow until you lose the vast majority of the excess weight. The reality is that with 100+ extra pounds on you, you can't really "train" to be particularly competitive at anything. What you CAN do is really focus on diet and just make sure you're running regularly. Maybe try to build up slowly as you're losing the weight.

Good perspective. Thanks.

He's partially right and partially wrong. You can't train to be competitive at running at that weight, however during the process you can train hard on things like a stationary bike or elliptical and transition more to running as the weight comes off. There's no reason you can't make huge aerobic and fitness gains while losing weight with low impact exercise that'll make it easier when you're lighter and ready to do most of your training on the road.

I'm 52. This challenge has given me 18 hours to execute the perfect Couch to 5km training plan. Here is my plan:

Nutrition:

1. Last slide of pizza was this morning. No more pizza before race.

2. From now until race, eat only fruit.

3. Hydrate through remainder of today and continue tomorrow morning.

Actual Running:

1. Tonight: Trot 2-4 miles at HR no greater than 130BPM. Walk whenever that figure is exceeded. Throw in some 200M accelerations.

2. Pre-race warmup: Trot ~10 minutes as above. Throw in some ~200M accelerations.

Other Training:

1. I've done ~1,000 miles of cycling over the past 10 weeks.

2. Have not done any running for at least the past 6 months.

Mrr82 wrote:

... You can't train to be competitive at running at that weight, however during the process you can train hard on things like a stationary bike or elliptical and transition more to running as the weight comes off. There's no reason you can't make huge aerobic and fitness gains while losing weight with low impact exercise that'll make it easier when you're lighter and ready to do most of your training on the road.

It's not my goal to train to be competitive at 250 pounds. The goal is to shed the pounds (down to 170/180) then start training to be sub 20, sub 19, ...

DahOneWhoCannahType wrote:

I'm 52. This challenge has given me 18 hours to execute the perfect Couch to 5km training plan. Here is my plan:

Nutrition:

1. Last slide of pizza was this morning. No more pizza before race.

2. From now until race, eat only fruit.

3. Hydrate through remainder of today and continue tomorrow morning.

Actual Running:

1. Tonight: Trot 2-4 miles at HR no greater than 130BPM. Walk whenever that figure is exceeded. Throw in some 200M accelerations.

2. Pre-race warmup: Trot ~10 minutes as above. Throw in some ~200M accelerations.

Other Training:

1. I've done ~1,000 miles of cycling over the past 10 weeks.

2. Have not done any running for at least the past 6 months.

Along with the fruit, I'd want to get some lean protein in there too.

Of course, be careful on those 200m accelerations and don't ignore any pains that might lead to injury especially in plantar, achilles, and knee.

Any stretching? Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Where do people find these age graded calculators?

No stretching. I haven't stretched in many months so starting now risks weakening muscles, provoking an injury. Regarding protein, I might have a boiled egg. The race is on a canal towpath where the surface is soft, so at least I won't be pounding along the roads.

Race plan is: get to my lactate threshold heart rate (from cycling) and not back off. The only thing that will make me change this plan is if I feel I'm injuring something.

I'll report back how this goes.

The soft surface is good.

A note about form: Today, I ran with more of midfoot strike and used my hip flexors for foot lift rather than calves. This reduced demand on my calves and achilles and really helped compared to recent runs where I had more of a snappy stride as if I weren't carrying a ton of extra weight. My body let me know that stride was a bit much.

Concentrate on losing weight first. He can do it assuming neutral height, exceptional aerobic development and weight being ~165 lbs.

PEDs, most likely.