Quitting running at 42 and putting weight on

Your clothes no longer fitting, impotence, reduced life expectancy - so all good.

Changes in life? Your income will go down.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Your clothes no longer fitting, impotence, reduced life expectancy - so all good.

I mean staying fit, but not running, unless for the occasional jog. I think my body weight will naturally go up to about 175 pounds, hopefully a lot of that will be muscle ( :

I will stick with my original answer, everyone thinks they will keep fit.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

I will stick with my original answer, everyone thinks they will keep fit.

That's a sweeping statement my friend. I cycle to work (won't stop doing that) and do two gym sessions a week as it is. I will have plenty of time to keep doing this routine. I'm not going to get fat if that's what you're saying? I'm actually hoping my health improves - I'm not sure hammering intervals in your forties is that 'healthy' anyway.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Your clothes no longer fitting, impotence, reduced life expectancy - so all good.

I can vouch for all the above. Ballooned in weight, is the term for the 10 years after I quit.

Firmer e*ections...your wife and GF will love it.

One Life wrote:

I'm nearly 42. PRs ranging from 1.54 to 71 in the half. It's been a blast but I think I'm out. Kids, work, getting older... this is the right time. I can still run about 16.30 but I'm not sure it's worth the effort anymore.

Anyway, I've always weighed about 150 pounds, and I'm 5" 10. I can put muscle on quite quickly and my immediate aim is to put on about 25 pounds.

What changes will I notice in life doing this?

swifttaylorgrande wrote:

Firmer e*ections...your wife and GF will love it.

Seriously, my sex drive is pretty low most of the time. I'm hoping for an improvement in this area.

One Life wrote:

That's a sweeping statement my friend. I cycle to work (won't stop doing that) and do two gym sessions a week as it is. I will have plenty of time to keep doing this routine. I'm not going to get fat if that's what you're saying? I'm actually hoping my health improves - I'm not sure hammering intervals in your forties is that 'healthy' anyway.

Have a look around you, many people think they are doing their best to stay fit.

Oh and have a look at the research about intervals and testosterone levels

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

One Life wrote:

That's a sweeping statement my friend. I cycle to work (won't stop doing that) and do two gym sessions a week as it is. I will have plenty of time to keep doing this routine. I'm not going to get fat if that's what you're saying? I'm actually hoping my health improves - I'm not sure hammering intervals in your forties is that 'healthy' anyway.

Have a look around you, many people think they are doing their best to stay fit.

Oh and have a look at the research about intervals and testosterone levels

I've been doing this fairly seriously for over 25 years. Without sounding like a dick, I think my chances of staying in good shape are better than the average middle aged person. I know what I'm doing and I know how to put muscle on.

I agree that some people 'balloon' when they stop training, but not everyone. I've never previously had rapid weight gain when I've been injured.

Over the past year or two I have gone from a racing weight of 150 to now being 170 pounds by dropping my mileage from 90+ to around 25-35mpw.

I've added lots of pullups to my new exercise routine and have put on a decent amount of muscle. Shoulders are a lot more broad and I like the way my body looks a lot more. Still running decent too, about 15 seconds off my lifetime mile best. Thinking about a switch of pace to more mid distance training to switch things up.

I wouldn't worry about putting on a bunch of fat if I were you. You have the routines down to stay in amazing shape, if you start noticing you are putting on a bunch of fat I'm sure you'll just run/cycle more.

Good for you wrote:

Over the past year or two I have gone from a racing weight of 150 to now being 170 pounds by dropping my mileage from 90+ to around 25-35mpw.

I've added lots of pullups to my new exercise routine and have put on a decent amount of muscle. Shoulders are a lot more broad and I like the way my body looks a lot more. Still running decent too, about 15 seconds off my lifetime mile best. Thinking about a switch of pace to more mid distance training to switch things up.

I wouldn't worry about putting on a bunch of fat if I were you. You have the routines down to stay in amazing shape, if you start noticing you are putting on a bunch of fat I'm sure you'll just run/cycle more.

Thanks for this. Do you feel better? I feel so drained a lot of the time.

Do you miss the running routine and getting loads of miles in? That's what I worry about, mostly I think it's a mental / self identity issue.

Watch your diet.

Lower your carbohydrates.

No processed foods.

Limit sugar (read labels carefully).

The best time to start is now.

Voice of experience.

Haha we'll see Ryan hall in 5 years.

Started out as attempt to "out on muscle", translation, "get fat"

Then there inevitably comes a point where you're like, "crap ok slow down now."

Seen it too many times going back to bob kennedy

I'm 40 and It's been about 10 years since I gave up the hard training.

It's tough to give it up and it took me several years to find the right mix of diet, cario and trips to the gym. For whatever reason I've completely fallen in love with lifting weights over the years. Not a bad thing but I went from a 160lb racing weight at 6ft 2in to 205lbs now. I put a ton of effort into diet so I'm remarkably lean and it certainly wasn't a overnight transformation.

I think I have loved lifting so much because it's a newer challenge. I can still hit PR's. It's very motivating and fun.

Anyway, my routine and goals change from time to time but I'd say a typical week looks something like this.

2 runs of 4 or 5 miles

1 to 2 hard interval sessions on the rowing machine (bought one for home). Typically, something like 10 by 30secon/30sec off or 10 by minute on/minute off. 10min warm up. 5min cool down.

3 to 4 days a week lifting hard at the gym

a few hour'ish walks with the wife and dog at night

The beauty is that I'm training for fun at this point. If I get tired of one thing I'll take a few weeks off and do more of something else.

That said, It's still hard losing the identity you've formed over your lifetime of training balls in the name of running fast.

Good luck.

Actually strength training does more to increase life expectancy than running.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Your clothes no longer fitting, impotence, reduced life expectancy - so all good.

54 years old. Training to get under 3 hours. PR of 2:36:13 years ago. Sorry for you buddy, but I'll remain fit and have no problem doing it.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

I will stick with my original answer, everyone thinks they will keep fit.

One Life wrote:

I'm nearly 42. PRs ranging from 1.54 to 71 in the half. It's been a blast but I think I'm out. Kids, work, getting older... this is the right time. I can still run about 16.30 but I'm not sure it's worth the effort anymore.

Anyway, I've always weighed about 150 pounds, and I'm 5" 10. I can put muscle on quite quickly and my immediate aim is to put on about 25 pounds.

What changes will I notice in life doing this?

It definitely is hard to get past the 'identity' and purpose you had previously attributed to endurance running. I've been doing it the past year myself. Have gained ~25 lbs and some of it is fat which I am fine with - but that doesn't mean you have to.

I still run 2 or so times a week(3 slow miles at a time) with some cycling thrown in, but otherwise am focused on lifting heavy 3-4 times a week and progressing there.

It will feel great to get strong and you'll feel pretty horned up from time to time. Clothes will fit better if you gain in the right places and are wearing them a little big right now anyway. You'll probably feel a little off without the endurance running mentality(getting in as much mileage as possible to progress) while you're doing shorter workouts that leave you feeling like you could have done more.

If you are focusing more on weightlifting then I would recommend getting on a program and sticking with it to the T and trusting in it. It can be demotivating and cause doubt if you're just going to the gym and throwing some weight around without any sort of direction or understanding of whether or not you're doing enough or too much to reach your goals.

Good luck.