Quitting running at 42 and putting weight on

One Life wrote:

What changes will I notice in life doing this?

Being in 40s as well, i often think of my 'life after running'.

First, your life will generally become more relaxed.

I've noticed that when i was injured...

As far as i can love running, it drains a lot of my mental energy and push me in a selfish mode. All i do is organized according to my workouts schedule and week mileage. When i'm forced to change schedule i'm generally nervous and intractable even if a spend good moments with my family/son.

I'm sure that after some time to adjust to your new lifestyle, you'll be fine.

Stay active and mix up things... Lift weights, ride a bike, hike, jog, eat healthy, stay outdoors and enjoy your family.

You can be in great shape even without 'serious' running and competitive mindset.

I think people are overestimating how big this guy will be with 25 extra pounds of muscle. I also think people are overestimating how hard it is to put muscle on at 40.

With a clean diet and a good 3 to 4 day a week weight progam it's achievable pretty quickly. There's this place called the internet that one should go to in search of workout programs. Find a good one. Stick to it. Hit your lower body every bit as hard if not harder than your upper. That's crucial.

When your starting point is 80 miles a week you're super tiny and skinny. Even the bigger fast distance runners are tiny in almost all cases.

This dude clearly has a work ethic. He's also 42 or whatever. If he was attempting this change at 23 I'd say he'd probably end up fat in a year.

He'll do well and probably be healthier in the end because of it. It may just take some trial and error and learning from mistakes to get there.

JackTheCat wrote:

One Life wrote:

What changes will I notice in life doing this?

Being in 40s as well, i often think of my 'life after running'.

First, your life will generally become more relaxed.

I've noticed that when i was injured...

As far as i can love running, it drains a lot of my mental energy and push me in a selfish mode. All i do is organized according to my workouts schedule and week mileage. When i'm forced to change schedule i'm generally nervous and intractable even if a spend good moments with my family/son.

I'm sure that after some time to adjust to your new lifestyle, you'll be fine.

Stay active and mix up things... Lift weights, ride a bike, hike, jog, eat healthy, stay outdoors and enjoy your family.

You can be in great shape even without 'serious' running and competitive mindset.

Now this struck a chord with me. What I won't miss is the stress of trying to maintain my running 'schedule'. Every time my wife suggests a family day out or a weekend away I think, "what about my planned run for that day?". I get totally annoyed if I have to work late or my children are ill and all because of running! This can't be good...

If my circumstances were different I would carry on no doubt, but they're not. It's a great sport and a great pastime, but it's time for a change.

Thanks for the supportive comments around putting a healthy 25 pounds on in my forties. I don't expect my fat percentage to go over 10 but I accept it will rise a bit from where I am now. My waist is 29" at the moment, I don't expect that to go up much either.

I don't want to swap one obsession for another, so I'm sticking to just three gym sessions a week. No messing, 30 - 45 mins of hard work and out. I will fit a generally active lifestyle around that, plenty of walking, cycling, swimming and some limited running. Let's see what happens.