Beginner's Running

spdmrphy

Righto,

After quitting the tobacco approximately 4.532637 months ago I returned to my old favourite endeavour of swimming. Now, after a fairly brutal first month or two in the pool I have regained some of my old form and fitness, and decide to branch out a bit. I was never much of a runner to be honest and had never run continuously for more than 2 miles until recently. Anyway, i plotted out a few loops on gmap pedometer (recommended to me by my sister who runs about 23 out of 24 hours every day as far as I can tell) and got stuck into them last week.

Here's the loop for the curious ones:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2431152

Anyway, after trying this three times, I can now get to within 150 metres of the end before I need to walk. And I'm pretty happy with that to be honest!

Anyway, to get to the point: how do I progress from here? Stick with this 3 mile loop for another few weeks? Switch to a 4 mile loop? Focus on completing the 3 mile loop in shorter times before progressing in distance???

I Don't Know!!!

I should probably mention my goal is to get to half marathon distance in a reasonable number of months.

Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Except suggestions about how to keep the length of your posts to a reasonable level...

Odysseus

Its really depends on where you want to go with your running. Do you want to try some races 5k, 10k. Have you a desire to try a longer distance half marathon or marathon.

As you noted yourself you can stick with the distance and try to finish in a faster time, or branch out and go for a longer distance. Its really time for you to set a few goals for yourself then achieve them. Personally I would suggest getting up to 10k a couple of times a week. But as I said it depends on your goals. Best of luck with it.

DAVE_K

I might be missing something but I can't see from your post how many times a week you run??

But anyway back to your question. Well done on the progress - you'll find with a bit of persistence the walking before you finish your run will be something you used to do........if you do need to walk just slow the pace down but keep jogging slowly.....your heart rate will come down pretty quickly and you'll be right to pick up the pace again with the added satisfaction of knowing you didn't have to walk.

I'd bring the number of miles you're doing up slowly so maybe you could do 1 to 2 longer (and ever lenghtening runs) every week and a quick session around your 3 mile loop. I trained for my first half marathon last year and coming up to it the majority of my runs were in the 10 - 12 Km range with some longer ones a few weeks out from the event.

spdmrphy

DAVE_K wrote: »

I might be missing something but I can't see from your post how many times a week you run??

Well, I've only really just begun, but I've done three runs in the last 5 days, hitting the pool tonight the running again on Thursday. I would imagine I will end up running 4 or 5 days a week though.

Odysseus wrote: »

Its really depends on where you want to go with your running. Do you want to try some races 5k, 10k. Have you a desire to try a longer distance half marathon or marathon.

As you noted yourself you can stick with the distance and try to finish in a faster time, or branch out and go for a longer distance. Its really time for you to set a few goals for yourself then achieve them. Personally I would suggest getting up to 10k a couple of times a week. But as I said it depends on your goals. Best of luck with it.

As for goals, at the moment fitness is the priority. Perhaps that is stating the obvious, and I suppose fitness could be gauged by how far I can run without busting a gut...

So, I'm thinking about half marathon distance in 6 months if that is feasible, and I would definitely be keen on a 10k race or something in the early months of next year.

Killme00

http://www.cairnscommunications.com/fitness/couch-to-5k.htm

This really help me build up a little distance. I was never a runner and still aint but i can do 5k after following this. You should also be able to scale it up to half marathon type distances. You seem to enjoy the swimming so why not set a date to do a triathlon as one of your goals.

spdmrphy

Yep, triathlon had crossed my mind. I actually have a cycling background as well, and would be keen to get back to it. But, one step at a time!!

DAVE_K

With those days per week available I'd be doing 2 - 3 longer runs and 1 - 2 short runs with fast intervals thrown in

spdmrphy

DAVE_K wrote: »

With those days per week available I'd be doing 2 - 3 longer runs and 1 - 2 short runs with fast intervals thrown in

When you say longer runs, do you have more than 3 miles in mind? Regarding intervals, I've been reading up about fartlek training, but I think thats one for the long* finger until I get the hang of running regularly.

*but not that long though...

DAVE_K

Yep by longer runs I mean up the mileage (maybe by a K a week or a mile every two) every week until you're capable of running non-stop for 50 - 60 minutes - at this point you should be up around the 10 k mark. When you've got that nailed you have the endurance bit sorted - maybe then start working on the speed.

spdmrphy

Cheers Dave, that sounds like a plan. I'll get stuck in so!

Highway_To_Hell

The Ireland Great run is taking place on the 5th April and would be a good target to set yourself. I was similar to yourself in that I stopped smoking 20+ a day last Jan and started Triathlon training to get/keep the weight off and clear the lungs. I might take a wjhile to run 10K nonstop but once that milestone is achieved the extra KM's are easy to add on.

If you are thinking of completing in Tri's there is the Dublin Duathlon series run on the 1st wednesday of May, June, July and August which are well run and fun to do (all levels take part) the distances are 2 mile run/ 10 mile cycle / 2 mile run, the August one is a longer race of 5k/20k/5k. these races are great to give you a feel of multi sport and the feeling of running after a bike section (brick).

For running the Adidas race series is good as the distance increases for each race during the summer July - 5 Miles, August 10 miles, September 13.1 miles - all leading up to the full marathon in October.

Your 3 mile route has a nice bit of a hill towards the end which will sap a lot of energy, I am sure if you ran on a flat course you would have no problem covering 3-4 miles non stop. But it's good to have some hill work in your runs.

If you are enjoying your runs in the current weather just wait until next summer and we are back to running in the rain.

Oryx

Highway to Hell, any chance you could link to those events again, the Duathlon series and Adidas? The link above is to a closed event, and Ive had problems tracking down events like this. Even on that runireland site I cant find anything?

And OP, if I were you Id work on pushing for that last 150 metres. And as has been said, then extend your distance of running non stop, time it, then work on pace. Thats what Im at at the moment, Im just getting to the stage where I can now do sprints as part of a 10k run. Up to now, I had to just keep plodding as it was all hard, regardless of pace!

spdmrphy

Highway_To_Hell wrote: »

Your 3 mile route has a nice bit of a hill towards the end which will sap a lot of energy...

If you are enjoying your runs in the current weather just wait until next summer and we are back to running in the rain.

Jaysus don't even mention The Hill... It is getting easier though, which is a good sign. As for the weather at the moment, I love running in the cold because after about 5 minutes you dont even notice it. It makes me feel good to be out in a pair of shorts when everyone else is wrapped up in fifteen layers!

Thanks for the links, the Great Run seems like a target to work towards. I'm hoping I'll have reached the 10k mark a good bit before April, so with luck I should be able to put in a semi-respectable time.


(Is it just me or is the Great Ireland Run link to the Italian version of the page? I happen to be learning Italian at the moment... thought that was a bit of a coincidence!)