I’m determined to do something about my poor running this year. My goal is to be able to run a decent 5k at the end of a sprint triathlon.
To do this, I have been losing weight (93 kilos down to 89 now). I want to lose one more kilo and then maintain for a while before I start again. Ideally, I would get down to 85 kilos eventually.
I also started interval training. 400m x 10 at my 5k goal pace with a 1 minute rest in between (I walk around the starting line at the track). I did 400m x 11 yesterday. The goal is to do up to 15 to 20 such repetitions. Maybe I’ll switch to 800m intervals too.
I also do a 6k run once a week at a decent pace. It’s an undulating path and I like this. I might do 7k runs too on the same path. This is my “slow run” but I actually have a hard time having a slow session and everything turns into trying to better my times.
What else should I do? Is there anything explained above I shouldn’t be doing? Thanks for the help to the runners out there.
Well done with the weight loss, marasan. Definitely not easy, especially with your love of beer. Hats off to you!
I used to run way way back in the day and our weeks mostly consisted of:
Long runs at conversation pace, hill repeats and pyramid track work outs.
So, we used to do these pyramid work outs starting at 400m and the highest we did was 3200m. (400–> 800–>1200m–>1600m–>3200m<–1600m<–1200m<–800<–400). Of course, you don’t need to mimic the above, but just to give you an idea. We rested by slow jogging 400m after each distance and starting the next distance when we hit the start line.
Just an idea you can try to mix things up. All I remember was the on going theme of most of our work outs and practices were to do more distance than the event we were training for.
I really should work on my long runs. Maybe even 8k or so at the slow pace you mentioned.
The pyramid track workout is not something I’ve heard of. I’ll think about that. Hill repeats is something I’ve done in the past (long ago) and maybe this would be a good way to mix things up when I don’t feel like doing intervals on the track.
That really has been the hardest part. I’m limiting myself to drinking one time per week. And even then, I’ve been drinking scotch instead whenever I can. But with the warm weather, I think this is only going to get harder. As I mentioned in another post earlier, I discovered a great beer from England just this past weekend.
Unfortunately, I can’t give any scientific reasoning behind my training ideas to help you get faster, I did these work outs when I was still in my tween years, but glad I can help mix things up for you!
yeah nicely done with the weight loss. It’s never easy. i know I flirted with with almost being 110kg. The heaviest I’ve ever been, really out of shape and just eating garbage and only moving for work coming back home. Took me 8 months to get down to 85kg to go train and fight in thailand. And I’m in my mid 20s and was training 2-3 hours a day about 5 times a week.
Honestly, getting rid of alcohol, i know you may not want to hear it and going out was a major factor.
Marathon training is actually one sport I have zero clue on how to train for. I ran long distance in high school to keep in shape during off season for other sports. But since then, sports science and training techniques have changed. No longer do certain athletes run much long distance. I play baseball regularly on the weekends, and play basketball once during the week along with muay thai training. It also helps I work at a gym part time. But I run sprints. Sometimes I run miles at my fastest pace, I got down to close to 7min mile.
So I pretty much do hill sprints, and interval training for conditioning. The days of having every athlete run long distance is passed, the science shows there are more effective ways to condition for certain athletes.
When I did run long distance, we just ran everyday. I don’t know what else you can really do.
I’m with you with the marathons. I’m not interested in them at all. I do sprint triathlons, and that includes only a 5k run at the end. So basically, I need to be able to run a 5k when I’m already fatigued. So these intervals are really good - also psychologically because it trains you to be mentally tough when you’re tired.
As far as what other things you can do, I think many runners now are using cycling as a cross-training tool. Less injury and it’s just good to mix things up.
But at the end of the day, I don’t know that much about running. Maybe others can help me here and I’m sure I’ll learn as I focus on this sport this summer.
To get yourself already fatigued to get ready for a run, another suggestions you can take into consideration is buying a stationary trainer or rollers for the bike. Doing a quick session on it at home, throw on the sneakers and hop over the road to the track, or better yet, just run up the road into the hills.
Cycling will definitely help with building endurance and lowering your lactate threshold heart rate, but from what I hear, it’s different muscle groups.
Brick sessions (cycling + running) are something I should do more of. Cycle a distance, cycle to the track, lock up the bike, and then go for a run. But that’s really time consuming and so while not a replacement, it seems these interval training sessions are not bad in that respect. At least that’s what dawned on me yesterday as I was on my 7th or so repeat- that the pain was similar to what I feel during a triathlon race.
I will also do some swimming + running sessions soon (the track is right outside the pool in Xizhi).
This guys swears by the benefits of cycling for running performance:
You say that half-jokingly, but you would be surprised. There are a lot of runners out there that don’t take advantage of the huge body of evidence supporting the benefits of interval training. They just run 5k and then 10k, and then 12k, etc., all at an even pace.
With swimming, that’s me: 1500m almost every time I go to the pool. But over the years I got decent in the sport. With running, though, I feel I’m going to need something else. Ideally, it will be a mixture of something elses because running is not something I particularly enjoy (but I feel that’s changing a bit lately). And ideally, I’ll take advantage of good research and information gleaned from others’ personal experience because I can tell it’s going to take some magic for me to hit the numbers I want on my runs!
I hate running. I struggle at 5ks or more. IDK if it’s physical or mental, likely a mixture of both. I just don’t have the will to push myself doing anything past 2-3k. It bores me and it doesn’t bring me any satisfaction as an athlete. I only use a mile time to gauge where i am going all out because it more simulates something like a 5min round in boxing. I just don’t care much about 5k times. plus, i think i’m just not built or trained for long distance. Most of the guys I see, I don’t want to call skinny, but they don’t necessarily need muscles for certain things like me. Really low fat, which is fine by me, but I don’t look anything like a runner so i’m guessing my built also affects why i’m not great at running outside of sprinting.
I have almost the same exact mentality towards lifting.
It brings me no joy to lift/push/pull weight up/down/left/right. Maybe because I’ve never done it long enough to see any gains, but I was never into lifting weights in hs or during university. Gladly, it’s not a necessity for the sports I participate in, but I would never say lifting is useless.
I almost have to stop lifting, because some lifts don’t make much sense for athletic purposes depending on what sports. Besides feeling like it’s manly to tell someone how much I can bench press, it’s pretty useless besides maybe adding on some size for certain athletes that benefit from it. But at a certain point, too much muscle for most athletes outside of body building hurts performance.
I have almost no knowledge of this, but i’m guessing controlling your breathing is really important in running? I know I always found this weird, when i run, I feel awkward in controlling breathing. I don’t know if i’m suppose to take really slow deep breaths in, quickly exhale or what. I know when fighting, controlling my breathing and heart rate is a really important skill.
Hi guys, can you suggest any warmup tips/exercises before running? How long should it be done before actually stepping on the treadmill or hitting the road?
I should weigh in here since I’ve been running regularly since about 2005. The key to improving running, as it seem some others have already mentioned, is cross-training. Run too much and aim to high too soon, and you’ll easily injure yourself; be consistent and listen to your body.
I’ve found that the easiest way to get better is to (as counter-intuitive as it may sound) get yourself relaxed before you go. Stretching is good - stretch for a good 5 minutes at least. Also walking beforehand really makes a difference. Some of my best runs have happened after yoga class; an hour of yoga.
