Well, at 5.30am this morning I went out to re-re-start the ‘Couch to 5K’ plan after all; I figured I couldn’t really trust myself to wing it.
I’m now officially knackered and need to get ready for work; I managed 1.57 miles, and realised that it’s a good thing I’m actually training now, because if I attempted to race without actually doing any training there would be no way I’d manage a 10K in 13 weeks without needing to walk before the 100 meter point. (Not that 10K races have 100 meter markers, you understand)
Form was good, it was very tiring, and a niggling right calf muscle didn’t bother me too much; the good stretch at the end will hopefully have smoothed it a bit.
I was reading someone’s tweets the other day on Twitter (I won’t say who, since it’s rather inconsequential), when I saw them say that they were trying to lose enough weight to be able to start running again. Now, initial thoughts were along the lines of, “How big is this person?”, when I saw that the weight they wanted to get to was around 170lbs.
This is a guy, who I think is around 5′10″, so while 170lbs might be a little heavy for a non-muscular person of that height, it’s certainly not a weight I imagined would be the cut-off for someone to take up running again, especially since he said he needed to lose another 10lbs to get there. That makes him 180lbs now. I weight 100lbs more than that, and yet I don’t give a second thought to running (or attempting to) at my size.
But am I too big to be a runner?
So the question is: should I even be trying to run at my weight and size?
I’m happy to say that I am carrying a lot of muscle, so I imagine “only” about 70lbs of my overweight-ness is fat, for an average person of my “ideal” (according to BMI) weight, but it’s still weight that would be hitting my joints as I run. Should I be attempting to? Or should I work on losing the weight first, which will take forever?
My response? I walk around every day with this weight. I walk a mile, twice a day, up and down hills with this weight. Shifting to a shuffling run won’t do me any more harm, providing I don’t heel strike excessively, than doing this much walking.
I’m not a fitness professional (in case you were wondering! Ha!), nor do I know any beyond the internet inside my computer, nor have I consulted with any regarding this. I just like to think that I know my body.
It’s All About Heart
In my esteemed opinion, you can do anything providing you’re not going to keel over dead from it. For me, that means ensuring that what I’m doing won’t cause my heart to stop, which is generally an indicator of deadness. So, when I go running, I’m not trying to do 6-minute miles. I’m generally happy with 10-12 minute miles, since it’s not like I’m in a hurry to get anywhere.
But how about you? If you’re a porky plodder, are you comfortable with running even as a “plus-sized” (don’t you hate that expression?) athlete?
So, last week – I think it was Thursday – I did the first day of Couch to 5K. I did well; I focussed on my form, I took it easy, and I made sure my breathing was under control; I actually did much better on Day 1 than I did the last time I started C25K. Plus, I did it at 5.30am.
That was the only good part of the day; for the rest of the day, regardless of what I ate or drank, I was lethargic and headachey, and ended up in bed by 9pm.
It could have been the early start, or it could have been because I’ve done barely any exercising all year (I was even driving to work instead of walking the mile between train station and office; I’ve given up the car now, though, and have been walking again from two weeks ago).
I was planning on doing day 2 on the weekend, but ‘best laid plans’ and all that…
Focus, I needs it
I need to refocus on my plans and stop worrying about minutia I think. I kept telling myself at the start of the year to “keep things simple”, yet this isn’t what I’ve done; even worrying about what music to listen to while doing the Day 1 workout is silly; I never listen to music unless I’m doing this workout, since I use an iPhone app to blare out the running/walking breaks.
Perhaps I should just run for as long as I can, walk enough to recover, and then repeat until I’ve been doing it for 30 minutes?
I am coming back, I promise; I’ve been tackled by the great Sloth these last few months, but I only have about 15 weeks until the BUPA 10K – which I am running for charity again – so I need to get my house in order.
Meanwhile: I want some of these!
This is me. Hello.
I'm Mark. I am a new runner, and an overweight, big bloke. Not necessarily a good combination, you may say, and often I (or at least, my ankles) would agree with you. But what the hell, eh? Might as well give it a go!
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