Speed work for overweight

shels4ever

Hi All,
Thanks for all thegGood advise iv'e recieved over the past few months. , I was a regular sub 5 mins miler 10 years ago , but put on weight and got un fit, i've been back running for the past 3 months not and found it very hard to get any spead into my legs...

10 min mile easy for 6, 7, 8, miles but my 5 k time would have been 29 mins..So no really change

Over the past 3 week i've done my first speed work session in 9 year. I can now feel that i'm runing a bit too fast on my long runs and i'd say in the next 4 week , i'll be back to an 8 min mile.

My goal is to get as close to 35 mins for a 5 mile this year or by rahney early next year. I've jsut a question on speedwork sessions.

As the moment i'd do 1X4 min 1X3min 1X2 mins 1X1 min followed by 4X1 min.

I'm still on mileage build up and have no training runs longer then 8 k , My plan is to get up to 35-40 mile a week by mid summer and do some sessions like
5 X 1000m building to 5 X1500 by the end of the year.

I was jsut wondering if anyone has an y suggestions, these are the session i used 10 yeas ago , maybe there is a better approach now.

On the weigh i've down abotu 5 kg but have another 10 to go before i can really make any in roads... but really loving the training again.

TheRoadRunner

Fair play to you. I was in the same boat as you about 6/7 years ago. I was carrying way (way way) too much weight and speed had packed its bags and left me.

In my opinion the speed sessions you are doing may be a little intense. I would work off shorter intervals 60-90 seconds. As you get fitter/lose more weight you can up the duration/intensity. I'd be afraid that you might pick up an injury if your speed sessions are too intense at the moment.

Have you thought of rejoining a club ? Or even meeting with a club for training. Most have people of all sorts of abilities (past and present). Whats more a good coach will take strips off your times with a half decent raining program.

Looking at some of your previous posts and the times you have run in the past you will definitely have he ability to reach your 5 mile goal time by January. And there is no reason you shouldn't be able to go much quicker.

token56

I wouldn't be to hard on yourself, 9 years of no speed work is long time. Personally I hadn't done a speed session in a year when I started back and felt I lost alot but i am slowly getting it back but if you were a 5 min miler i think a 35 min run for 5 miles shouldn't be a problem after a bit of training.

Personally I prefer running for a certain distance rather than a certain lenght of time for speed.
In terms of speed training what i am doing at the moment is between 8-10 * 300m with roughly 45 sec recovery. This is mixed up though maybe do 200's, 300's or 400's. If you are just starting back though you can obviously increase recover to 1min or 1.5 min and maybe start with 6 of them. Work your way into them after a while by shortening the recovery, doing more, etc.
I will am going to start doing 800's and 1000's now after getting a bit of speed back.
Also I am doing it with a club at moment. I find speed sessons are harder to do or your own normal helps to have someone with you, even just one other person makes a differnece I feel.

Fast_Mover

So it is possible to get the speed you once had back, even if you have zero at the moment..just get good training behind you?

token56

Fast_Mover wrote: »

So it is possible to get the speed you once had back, even if you have zero at the moment..just get good training behind you?

I am not going to say you definitly will, but with the right training regaining former fitness including speed should not be a problem. This is obviously said within reason, a 50 year wont regain the full speed of when he was 20, although in saying this i have seen some pretty fast 50 yr olds. Also avoiding a serious injury.

Speed is something which decreases with age, but not drastically, the effect would be more visible for sprinters. But if you had good basic speed at one stage, its not something that leaves you completely.

shels4ever

Thanks, Well 3 weeks of sessions and its starting to show something well maybe, Just feel that my longer runs are some much easire now and took 4 mine of my last 5 mile time in a bhaa race today.

So fingers crossed it the hard work will pay off.

At the moment i wouldnt join a club i'm too unfit (really I know all level but I'm jsut a bit below terrible).

we have set up a group in work to run in the bhaa and have 2 sessions a week, maybe it might be an idea to get a coatch out someday too?