Sub 5 or No Beer

Mr Amazing

Me; 29yr, 80(ish)kg 5'7" and Male, single with no kids.

The challenge, no Beer/no drinkies until I've run 1 mile in less than 5 Minuntes.

Best time to date 7:33 (today)

donothoponpop

Love the simplicity of this challenge, best of luck with it!

Sosa

It will be interesting to see how long it takes you to achieve it.
Sub 5 minute is no handy task...best of luck.

Slogger Jogger

Best of luck Mr A. A good downhill run of a mile should suit best

shels4ever

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Me; 29yr, 80(ish)kg 5'7" and Male.

The challenge, no Beer/no drinkies until I've run 1 mile in less than 5 Minuntes.

Best time to date 7:33 (today)

Best of luck will take a lot of work but defo possible, best of luck...

belcarra

Best of luck with this but your timing couldn't possibly be worse could it?
Of course, perhaps you're giving yourself an excuse to stay sober this xmas but rather you than me!!

The Grinch!

Mr Amazing

Sosa wrote: »

It will be interesting to see how long it takes you to achieve it.
Sub 5 minute is no handy task...best of luck.

It could (will) be months before my next beer ........what was I thinking :eek:.

Mr Amazing

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Best of luck Mr A. A good downhill run of a mile should suit best

Now that's a plan

Mr Amazing

Probably not going to get out today. (day 2 and I'm already slacking off ).

I'm going to keep a food diary in here too, need to lose a few Kg.

bowl of porrige, (it's actually a dolmeo lasanage dish )


Happy Christmas Everybody

christeb

Genial simplicity - I look forward to this and hope for your sake you're drunk before Easter!

village runner

Realistically you might never drink again. Sub five is a serious jump from 7.33. I rem taking up running in 2007 and running 5.39 for hte mile. Dont even think i would get under 5 min now.
Maybe a night out everytime you hit a certain target. Sub 7, 6.30 etc........
depends if one likes a pint. If you aint pushed on beer then it aint going to drive you.
Bottom line is the goal realistic ??? If it aint then you might pack it in after a few months...........
Maybe going sub 40 min for a 10km might be more achievable with hard training.

I dont see you having a beer in 2010. Harsh but i dont hold back.
At least you will shed a few ibs............

Running Bing

village runner wrote: »

Realistically you might never drink again. Sub five is a serious jump from 7.33. I rem taking up running in 2007 and running 5.39 for hte mile. Dont even think i would get under 5 min now.
Maybe a night out everytime you hit a certain target. Sub 7, 6.30 etc........
depends if one likes a pint. If you aint pushed on beer then it aint going to drive you.
Bottom line is the goal realistic ??? If it aint then you might pack it in after a few months...........
Maybe going sub 40 min for a 10km might be more achievable with hard training.

I dont see you having a beer in 2010. Harsh but i dont hold back.
At least you will shed a few ibs............

Was thinking the same thing VR.

Are you following a specific plan Mr. Amazing? Have you done much running before?

Dont get me wrong I think its definitely possible to break 5 (and just by taking weight off you'll see your times falling) but for me it would definitely be a long term target, over a few years rather than say a few months.

Bottom line, going under 5 for the mile take a lot of work...to put it in perspective Mcmillan puts it at the equivalent of a 2:48 marathon. Its serious running.

Mr Amazing

Hi village runner, Running Bing,

I hear exactly what you are saying........It is wildly ambition , and to be honest if I ever manage to run a sub 5 mile I will rank it as the greatest sporting achievement of my life.

I was out today did a 6:27:68 a lot less ice and clothes than last time.

Running Bing, I will definitely need a plan...but for now I'm concentrating on cleaning up my diet (this is a biggy for me) and general strenght/fitness, this is the real basic stuff like excerising 5 times a week etc...I will focus on this for the next couple of weeks.

Mr Amazing

A soso day today,
Did some strenght and flexiblity work for about 45mins, hamstrings couldn't be much shorter if they tried.
Still eating an aweful lot of rubbish . Getting my own place the end of January so that should make my diners/lunches a bit healthier.
Looking forward to getting out on the road tomorrow.

Food:
b'fast: skipped as didn't get up until 1pm
Lunch: soup, ham, patateos, turnip, lots and lots of chocolate buns and maranges.
Diner: baked hake and veg.

Mr Amazing

Run: 40 mins mixed pace with rain.

Food: Porridge, 3 apples, 100g of cewhew nuts, 10 slices of mccabrige and chesse.

village runner

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Run: 40 mins mixed pace with rain.

Food: Porridge, 3 apples, 100g of cewhew nuts, 10 slices of mccabrige and chesse.

#that mccambridge is lethal. That ten slices is the equivalent of 20 WW points and thats without the cheese. So you would have tought you were healthy and its way over your quota. I had 9 chocolate kimberly in 20 min but at least i know it wasnt healthy.

LionelNashe

Fair play. And well done so far. As mentioned by a couple of posters, I love the simplicity of this challenge. Imagine....in 2 years time/10 years time/50 years time, you will be telling somebody casually in a pub conversation "Once I gave up drink for 3 months/6 months/12 months until I was able to run a mile in 5 minutes". Picture also the Carlsberg scence from the end of Ice Cold In Alex..

Mr Amazing

Training: strenght and flexiblity today

Food: Porridge with seeds and nuts, tomatoe and bassel soup, prawns with mixed veg.

Stole this of runningplanet.com it's for 1500m but it's a starting point and it got a good bit of variety, I'm a little suprised how short the runs are.

Day 1 – 5 x 400 meter repeats @ current pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery. Then run 5 x 400 meter repeats @ goal pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery.
Day 2 – 8 kilometer fartlek run.
Day 3 – 2 x 2400 meter repeats @ 5K pace. Recover between each repeat with 2 minutes of passive recovery.
Day 4 – Run 8 kilometers @ easy pace.
Day 5 – 10 x 200 meter repeats @ 400 meter pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery.
Day 6 – 5K to 8K fartlek run or rest.
Day 7 – 3 x 800/200 compound sets. Run 800 meters @ goal pace then another 200 meters @ 800 meter pace. Take no recovery between the distances. Recover between each set with 4 minutes of passive recovery.
Day 8 – Run 10 kilometers @ easy pace.
Day 9 – Run 4 x 400 meter repeats @ current pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery. Then run 4 x 200 meter repeats @ 800 meter pace. Recover between each repeat with 30 seconds of passive recovery. Then run 4 x 100 meter repeats @ sprint pace. Recover between each repeat with 15 seconds of passive recovery.
Day 10 – 10 kilometer fartlek run.
Day 11 - Run for 21 minutes alternating between 1 minute @ mile pace and 2 minutes @ easy pace. Then run 8 x 100 meter strides.
Day 12 – 5K to 10K fartlek run or rest.
Day 13 – Run 10 x 100 meter repeats up a steep hill. Run @ goal pace. Recover by running down the hill @ easy pace.
Day 14 – Run 12 kilometers @ easy pace.

Mr Amazing

village runner wrote: »

#that mccambridge is lethal. That ten slices is the equivalent of 20 WW points and thats without the cheese.

I'm aiming for a relatively low carb diet so this was a slip up, but it is so nice and it's Low GI.

Mr Amazing

LionelNashe wrote: »

Fair play. And well done so far. As mentioned by a couple of posters, I love the simplicity of this challenge. Imagine....in 2 years time/10 years time/50 years time, you will be telling somebody casually in a pub conversation "Once I gave up drink for 3 months/6 months/12 months until I was able to run a mile in 5 minutes". Picture also the Carlsberg scence from the end of Ice Cold In Alex..

12 months :eek:.. hang on, I could never last 12 months, 3 to 6 maybe but not 12.

Running Bing

Mr Amazing wrote: »

12 months :eek:.. hang on, I could never last 12 months, 3 to 6 maybe but not 12.

ha this is the thing Mr. Amazing.

I imagine for most people it would take over a year and for a lot of people it would take significantly longer.

There's a lot of decent runners who have been running for years who could'nt go under 5 for the mile.

Now some people just take to running naturally and they improve very quickly (or if you have a history of running fast it tends to come back quickly in a lot of cases) but its the minority. 3-6 months seems a very short time frame (if your starting from scratch or haven't done much training).....the mile is really all about strength (its about 70% aerobic iirc) and it takes time to build strength.

Having said that 6:27 at 80kg is pretty good. You can afford to lose a lot of weight and just by doing this you will go quicker......just stay away from the McCambridges.;)

Mr Amazing

Running Bing wrote: »

Now some people just take to running naturally and they improve very quickly (or if you have a history of running fast it tends to come back quickly in a lot of cases) but its the minority. 3-6 months seems a very short time frame (if your starting from scratch or haven't done much training).....the mile is really all about strength (its about 70% aerobic iirc) and it takes time to build strength.;)

I've been running/jogging the last couple of months, 3 days a week for about 40mins along with some Kickboxing. I've been in a lot better shape but you've got to start somewhere.

Running Bing wrote: »

You can afford to lose a lot of weight and just by doing this you will go quicker......just stay away from the McCambridges.;)

I'd agree with you, I'm estimating I've got about 10Kg of insulation that I could do with loosing. I could probably shed 2Kg a month so there's 5 months.

If I aim for 6 months...I'm hoping it would look something like this.....

End of Jan, <6
Feb, 5.50
March, 5.40
April, 5.30
May, 5.20
June, 5.10
July, 5.00

Looks so easy

Mr Amazing

Training: Strenght and Flex......supposed to be running today but the weather has been horrible so it's a little frustrating.

Food: Porridge with seeds, peanuts, Rivita and cheese, salmon with veg and cheese.

Mr Amazing

Last post for 2009, Happy new year to everbody .

Training: 35 minutes mixed pace, felt very good.

Food: Porridge with seeds, xmas cake , 3 apples, prawns and roast peppers.

shels4ever

Mr Amazing wrote: »

I've been running/jogging the last couple of months, 3 days a week for about 40mins along with some Kickboxing. I've been in a lot better shape but you've got to start somewhere.





I'd agree with you, I'm estimating I've got about 10Kg of insulation that I could do with loosing. I could probably shed 2Kg a month so there's 5 months.

If I aim for 6 months...I'm hoping it would look something like this.....

End of Jan, <6
Feb, 5.50
March, 5.40
April, 5.30
May, 5.20
June, 5.10
July, 5.00

Looks so easy

Just wondered if your following a training plan and have some races planned? Did you do the 6:26 on a track or where.
Might be an idea to get down to a track for a time trial.

I ran 3:05 for an 800m 18 months ago and still dont think i'd get near the sub5 maybe 5:30 with a couple of months training . Would like to see what you would do 400/800m in at the moment.

Mr Amazing

shels4ever wrote: »

Just wondered if your following a training plan and have some races planned? Did you do the 6:26 on a track or where.
Might be an idea to get down to a track for a time trial.

Just around the block, measured using the car and google map thingy, so should be a mile give or take 10%. Once I get under 6 mins I'll sneak out to belfield for a few laps to get a real time.

I've been looking around at training plans both 1 mile and 1500m, haven't started anything definite just yet as the weather isn't being very co-operative . The real test will be monday when I go back to work, as I can only see myself traing first thing in the morning at arond 6am :eek:.

Does anybody know if there are any offical 1 mile races would like to get an offical time to stop me cheating .

Mr Amazing

Traning: strenght and flex again today, seriously icey out, had the car park itself earlier, just stopped the car and it slide over the curb all by it's self :eek:. Could really do with getting out on the road more but it's just not worth the risk on days like today.

Food: steak with stuffing, turnip, potateo, marmalade sandwidges, boilded eggs.

ecoli

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Stole this of runningplanet.com it's for 1500m but it's a starting point and it got a good bit of variety, I'm a little suprised how short the runs are.

Day 1 – 5 x 400 meter repeats @ current pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery. Then run 5 x 400 meter repeats @ goal pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery.
Day 2 – 8 kilometer fartlek run.
Day 3 – 2 x 2400 meter repeats @ 5K pace. Recover between each repeat with 2 minutes of passive recovery.
Day 4 – Run 8 kilometers @ easy pace.
Day 5 – 10 x 200 meter repeats @ 400 meter pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery.
Day 6 – 5K to 8K fartlek run or rest.
Day 7 – 3 x 800/200 compound sets. Run 800 meters @ goal pace then another 200 meters @ 800 meter pace. Take no recovery between the distances. Recover between each set with 4 minutes of passive recovery.
Day 8 – Run 10 kilometers @ easy pace.
Day 9 – Run 4 x 400 meter repeats @ current pace. Recover between each repeat with 1 minute of passive recovery. Then run 4 x 200 meter repeats @ 800 meter pace. Recover between each repeat with 30 seconds of passive recovery. Then run 4 x 100 meter repeats @ sprint pace. Recover between each repeat with 15 seconds of passive recovery.
Day 10 – 10 kilometer fartlek run.
Day 11 - Run for 21 minutes alternating between 1 minute @ mile pace and 2 minutes @ easy pace. Then run 8 x 100 meter strides.
Day 12 – 5K to 10K fartlek run or rest.
Day 13 – Run 10 x 100 meter repeats up a steep hill. Run @ goal pace. Recover by running down the hill @ easy pace.
Day 14 – Run 12 kilometers @ easy pace.

Be careful with taking schedules such as this one for a number of reasons

1. this appears to be an athlete coming up to competition stage of their training. This training will do well for quick benefits for an athlete who already has a strong base which is why the runs are so short but ultimately the athletes aerobic base is eroded.

2. Going from running three days a week to 6 or 7 days including hard workouts is inviting injuries. General rule of thumb on mileage is increase by 10% a week

3. This schedule has WAY too many workouts as general rule should be a hard day followed by an easy one. Its the rest time in which your muscles develop and adapt not during the training. I can only imagine that this schedule follows the beliefs of "overload training" which his sorted of intensive training is only kept up for a maximum of 3 weeks. The belief is that it forces body to peak perfect few weeks before goal race but so early in training will not help at all. this type of training is very controversial and many feel the risk of injury is too high to warrant this.

My advice to you would be keep it simple 2 workouts a week 6 days a week training including a long run.
In terms of workouts here are some examples
8*400m (with recovery = to time of rep)
6*800m
5*1k
3*1 mile
compound sets also mentioned earlier can be beneficial.

Best of luck with your training and if you ever need a pacer for an attempt send us a mail maybe

christeb

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Does anybody know if there are any offical 1 mile races would like to get an offical time to stop me cheating .

There are 2 mile races in Raheny in the Spring:
Weds March 10th
Weds April 14th

I would use these as time trials to see where you are, although it's a fast course I imagine your goal attempt will be on the track.

Mr Amazing

ecoli wrote: »

Be careful with taking schedules such as this one for a number of reasons

1. this appears to be an athlete coming up to competition stage of their training. This training will do well for quick benefits for an athlete who already has a strong base which is why the runs are so short but ultimately the athletes aerobic base is eroded.

2. Going from running three days a week to 6 or 7 days including hard workouts is inviting injuries. General rule of thumb on mileage is increase by 10% a week

3. This schedule has WAY too many workouts as general rule should be a hard day followed by an easy one. Its the rest time in which your muscles develop and adapt not during the training. I can only imagine that this schedule follows the beliefs of "overload training" which his sorted of intensive training is only kept up for a maximum of 3 weeks. The belief is that it forces body to peak perfect few weeks before goal race but so early in training will not help at all. this type of training is very controversial and many feel the risk of injury is too high to warrant this.

My advice to you would be keep it simple 2 workouts a week 6 days a week training including a long run.
In terms of workouts here are some examples
8*400m (with recovery = to time of rep)
6*800m
5*1k
3*1 mile
compound sets also mentioned earlier can be beneficial.

Best of luck with your training and if you ever need a pacer for an attempt send us a mail maybe

Hi Ecoli, thanks for the advise, the other one did look a little too complicated. The simplier the better at the moment.

Mr Amazing

christeb wrote: »

There are 2 mile races in Raheny in the Spring:
Weds March 10th
Weds April 14th

I would use these as time trials to see where you are, although it's a fast course I imagine your goal attempt will be on the track.

Cool I'll pencil myself in for March, it should have thawed out by then....hopefully

Mr Amazing

Ok I've cancelled running until the weather thaws as this is just too frustrating, on the upside the diet is working well.

Food: Porridge, salmon and veg, ryita, cheese,

Speedy44

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Ok I've cancelled running until the weather thaws as this is just too frustrating, on the upside the diet is working well.

Food: Porridge, salmon and veg, ryita, cheese,

I hear you & feel your pain. Slogged through 11mls yesterday, was very very tempted to bail at 4mls but glad I kept going. Try not to cancel the runs altogether, god knows how long this freeze will last and it could set you back a bit. Try to get some runs in on grass and make up for quantity with some quality, ie- if you can only do 4mls try to stick in 2 at a tempo or such.
Hang in there, we're all in the same boat

Speedy44

:-)

Mr Amazing

Thanks Speedy44, I took your advise,

Training: 4km of snow and ice in the park, but it felt good to be out there .

Food; porridge and seeds, fish cakes with veg, mash and garlic and cheese potateo (pub lunch).

useurename

best of luck with the training.i stopped smoking in july and i piled on pounds for the first time in my life.buying a weighing scales on friday.must change my diet.did you have any eating plans or diet plans to work off.best of luck with the running fast

Mr Amazing

useurename wrote: »

best of luck with the training.i stopped smoking in july and i piled on pounds for the first time in my life.buying a weighing scales on friday.must change my diet.did you have any eating plans or diet plans to work off.best of luck with the running fast

Hi userename, i don't really have a eating plan, just some rules I try to stick by
1) if it's got more than 10% sugar in it, I can't buy it!
2) I try to avoid processed carbs.

the 10% sugar rule is great, I challange you to find junk food with >10% sugar in it, (diet foods don't count).

You can't burn fat with raised insulin levels no matter how hard you train or how hunger you are.

Oh and getting off the sugar really helped me with moods/concentration etc.

Well done on giving up smoking, it can't have been easy. After that changing your diet will be a piece of cake .

Mr Amazing

Training; strenght training.

Food: Porridge with seeds, 300g nuts , soup. Not the best but I got stuck in the car for hours.

Mr Amazing

Training: 4 miles in the snow .

Food: Albran, 3 pairs, 4 crossaintes, rice pudding, popcorn, 1 choclate biscut. Seriously fell off the wage......will do better tomorrow.

Mr Amazing

Training: 21km uphill to see the snow. hopefully I got some good pics on the phone. The snow was waist deep at the top . Feeling absolutely completely shattered. But that's the cabin fever sorted.

Food: Four eggs on ryviata, yogart, jellys, pair, whey sake, (probably have hake and veg for diner as soon as I get my appitite back :rolleyes:)

Mr Amazing

Training: Still very stiff after yesterday's expidition, so, taking it easy today.

Food: Biscuts, coffee, burger and chips. what diet :eek:.
Going to get back to it tomorrow, going to swap the porridge for 3/4 microwaved eggs. (an egg burger)

Measured out my 400m and 800m runs so I'm all set for when the weather clears.

Mr Amazing

Yesterday
Food: Eggs, Cottage cheese, nuts, veg, hake.

Training: some strength work.

Today
Food: Eggs, Cottage cheese, nuts, veg, salmon.

Looking forward to getting out this evening even if it's raining .
Planning a
2 mile warm up.
4 x 400m at 5 minute mile pace (or as close as I can get).
1 mile warm down.

This should be interesting.........no hiding now .

Speedy44

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Yesterday
Food: Eggs, Cottage cheese, nuts, veg, hake.

Training: some strength work.

Today
Food: Eggs, Cottage cheese, nuts, veg, salmon.

Looking forward to getting out this evening even if it's raining .
Planning a
2 mile warm up.
4 x 400m at 5 minute mile pace (or as close as I can get).
1 mile warm down.

This should be interesting.........no hiding now .

It should be interesting indeed
What kind of rec are you taking? Hope its not as windy up there as it is in the wild west where I am. Typical Irl, we go from 1 sucky weather patern to another, and another ..............

pkumohideeile

Join an athletics club for a sub 5 mile! It's the quickest way to ensure you get a beer again in your lifetime.

Mr Amazing

Food: eggs, cottage cheese, nuts, crisps, choclates, chicken and veg. fecking vending machine, fecking lack of self control .

Got out running this evening Yay! !!

2 mile warm up, 1 mile warm down

4 x 400m +/- 10m

84 sec
83 sec
77 sec
76 sec

First 2 were up hill and the last 2 were the reverse.

Felt very very rough, like I was trying to kick the road to death. I need to teach my legs to run fast.

Not looking forward to the 800m, they're going to seriously embarrassing.

Mr Amazing

Food: eggs, cottage cheese nuts, chicken and veg.

Training: 8km in 43:21

I did some serious thinking after yesterday and well I'm a million miles away from where I want to be.

To keep me motivate I'm going to try and stick with my plan.
Jan / <6 Feb / <5:50 March / <5:40 etc if I can't make one of these I'm going to declare the challange lost. so I have 17 days to get under <6.

useurename

don't lose heart.maybe you should change the name to "goals for 2010".I'm a complete novice in the running stakes but maybe you would enjoy it more if you didn't concentrate on just the mile.give yourself other targets 5k,10k,10 mile and half marathon " if we chase perfection, though unattainable,we catch excellence":cool:

Speedy44

Mr Amazing wrote: »

Food: eggs, cottage cheese nuts, chicken and veg.

Training: 8km in 43:21

I did some serious thinking after yesterday and well I'm a million miles away from where I want to be.

To keep me motivate I'm going to try and stick with my plan.
Jan / <6 Feb / <5:50 March / <5:40 etc if I can't make one of these I'm going to declare the challange lost. so I have 17 days to get under <6.

Ah now don't be talking like that !
You set yourself a hell of a challange and its going to take time to reach it. How is your weight now? I am 5ft 11 and weigh 73kg. I am 44yrs old and it took me almost 2yrs before I was able to get down to 5mins. I used to run as a kid and have a pb of 4:38 from when I was 18, but I didn't run for years. When I started back in '07 I could only run 5:50. It takes time and commitment to run that kind of time.

Try to concentrate on losing some weight, but do it slowly, no more than 1-2lbs/wk otherwise you'll probably put ir right back on again. You've been making progress as it is, so you will get there. But you need to be realistic and set softer goals. If you can run a sub 6 by the end of the summer, and lose 8-10kg, you'll be well on the way.
Best of luck, and hang in there.

christeb

+1 to the above, I don't mean to sound harsh but you'd be taking the easy way out if you declare it lost already. As nuremous posters have said, it won't be easy and will take a lot of time. But if you're mentally up to it and can take the few set backs that will inevitably come your way in your stride, then you'll be all the better for it.

Good luck

Mr Amazing

Food Friday: Junk
Food Saturday: Bacon, eggs, tomatoes, bread, cheese pizza


Training Friday: NA
Training Today: 1 mile warm up / 4 x 800m / 2 mile warm down

800m (up hill) 3:10, 3:03
800m (down hill) 2:53, 2:53

Average 2:59.75 :eek:

Mr Amazing

useurename wrote: »

don't lose heart.maybe you should change the name to "goals for 2010".I'm a complete novice in the running stakes but maybe you would enjoy it more if you didn't concentrate on just the mile.give yourself other targets 5k,10k,10 mile and half marathon " if we chase perfection, though unattainable,we catch excellence":cool:

Cheers useurename, I know what you mean about the 1 mile....it's a though cookie of a distance . TBH I picked it because I like to run fast. (well fast for me ).