Day 119

Got up early and did my long run of the week. I wasn't feeling great about halfway thru but I kept at it and ended up going 9.5 miles. Starting to get a sore throat but I very rarely get sick so I'm not too concerned.

Breakfast: Usual-561 cals

Lunch: Baked chicken breast, rice a roni-697 cals

Dinner: Pizza from a local place...2 slices meat lover's style-700 cals

Snacks: Protein bar, English muffin, popcorn-432 cals

Totals: 2390 cals, 138g protein

Running
Mile 1 11:03
Mile 2 11:01
Mile 3 10:58
Mile 4 11:05
Mile 5 11:16
Mile 6 11:02
Mile 7 11:20
Mile 8 11:09
Mile 9 11:00
Mile 9.5 11:03/pace

A couple of years ago I was in a local fell race when a I recognised a guy that was running near to me. The last time I'd seen him was about 8 years previous when I'd regularly served him in the pub I worked in. He was well overweight and a heavy smoker and drinker. He said he'd been running for a couple of years at that point and he ended up narrowly beating me in that race. At that time my fitness was probably on a par with how I am now.

The next time I got chance to speak to him properly was at a big race I did a few months ago (the Langdale Horseshoe one I reported on in my log) . It was a race that took me just under three hours, and he beat me by about 25 minutes which is a huge margin. Given that my 5k is around 19:30, I'd guess that he goes sub-18.

He's about your age and height, and has gone from overweight and extremely unhealthy to being a very solid runner after a couple of years training, to running at a pretty incredible standard after another couple years.

So like Tron said, it's not how far you can go, it's how far you want to go. Put in the work and you'll improve beyond what you'd imagine. Just make sure you set your goals and work towards them.

Ron,

That's very encouraging! I feel like I wasted about 20 years of my running life so I really wanna commit to seeing how far I can go before age starts to catch up with me.

Monday morning weigh in

232.2

Week 1 -5.4 lbs
Week 2 -1.0 lbs
Week 3 -3.4 lbs
Week 4 -1.6 lbs
Month 1 -11.4 lbs
Week 5 -.4 lbs
Week 6 -1.8 lbs
Week 7 -3.2 lbs
Week 8 -2.2 lbs
Month 2 -7.6 lbs
Week 9 -2.0 lbs
Week 10 +1.4 lbs
Week 11 -4.0 lbs
Week 12 -1.0 lbs
Month 3 -5.4 lbs
Week 13 -1.6 lbs
Week 14 -.6 lbs
Week 15 +4.2 lbs
Week 16 -3.6 lbs
Month 4 -1.6 lbs
Week 17 -2.4 lbs

Total -28.4 lbs

Total mileage:
Week 1 17.2
Week 2 20.1
Week 3 22.2
Week 4 25.3
Week 5 16.1
Week 6 21.1
Week 7 25.0
Week 8 23.2
Week 9 30.5
Week 10 13.0
Week 11 31.0
Week 12 27.1
Week 13 19.0
Week 14 22.0
Week 15 8.0
Week 16 26.1
Week 17 30.5

Inching my way back to the 220's...weighed in at 231.0 after my run yesterday. The next 2 weeks are gonna be tough with the holidays coming but I'm committing to at least maintain where I'm at now and not derail my progress!

sound's good! besides losing weight (and staying injury free obviously), the amount of running you do is by far the biggest factor determining your running success. that's why elites (and sub-elites) run 100+ mpw week after week after week. (and imho one of the big genetical factors is in being able to handle this massive work load for years without getting injured). so your mid-term goal should be:
- continue losing weight: don't rush it, but just avoid major fallbacks. it's normal to plateau from time to time (or during holidays), but just go back to dieting directly afterwards and the negative effects will be minimal.
- increase mileage: do it slowly, do it sensibly & include recovery weeks. and in general: first run more often (but keep at least one rest day per week for now), then run longer, then run faster (/with higher intensity). but again, no reason to rush it. get your body used to regular ~30mpw, then increase by a few miles, get used to that and repeat. and as always, most of the runs should be easy runs with one long run and one additional "quality workout" per week. personally, i would not go above 40 mpw until you're below 200 lbs. those are obviously quite randomly picked numbers, but...
- staying injury free: this is just super important. i know, you never had problems and i hope it stays that way. but you'd be the exception in my experience. do / did you do any strength training?

long-term, you still have a few years where you'll be able to continually improve. of course, your absolute potential constantly decreases while you age, but you'll be able to get closer and closer to reaching your full potential. and that potential is probably quite high. there's no reason why you can't run 70-80mpw for a year sometimes in the future and go sub17. to fully develop one's aerobig engine takes 5+ years. so i'd guess you would probably peak at ~45/46 and from then on it's a long and slow decline
but hey, that's way too far away. just make sure you stay motivated for the medium-term and don't go realYTF on us!

This is so unbelievably true. Being injured just sucks so much. You lose your fitness, you lose your motivation and it can be hard to resume the training once you are fit again. Whatever you do, staying injury free is the absolute key point.

I'd say it's true that maybe his potential will peak around there, but unless he actually reaches that potential (very unlikely because it would mean training like a professional), then there's no reason he couldn't keep on improving well into his 50s, and even longer if you look at the longer distances.

All of those things sound incredibly encouraging...I really never thought I'd have much of doing a sub 20 5K but that's definitely my long term goal now! I was doing strength training 2-3x a week but I've gotten away from it the last couple months. That will change in the new year...what kind of exercises would you suggest?

imho: ideally, do a slightly adapted starting strength version. i'd do 3x3 squats instead of 3x5, keep the rest of programing probably the same (but only work out twice a week). add in some core stuff (no expert here, but look in nick's log http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...g-log-1478839/ for discussion of core / stability exercises (senseisigh seems to know what he's talking about). i think "running plyometrics" would be good to incorporate as well. stuff like http://running.competitor.com/2014/0...runners_102221 (that's just a randomly picked link) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvH5WZk0f90 should help. and foam rolling as well... of course, that's a lot of additional work. doing a twice weekly one hour session of SS is already a great beginning!

but that's just my layman's guess. (but imho it all makes sense, hehe)

http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2015...ing-myths.html is supposed to be good (it's a very good author, i just never listen to podcasts, but it's on my todo list since a long time )

Day 120

4 mile recovery run...no soreness at all, feeling great.

Breakfast: 2 protein shakes, protein bar-550 cals

Lunch: Baked chicken breast

Dinner: 2 beef enchiladas, hard taco, chips-853 cals

Snacks: Skinny cow, Dove candy (2 pieces)-230 Cala

Totals: 2017 cals, 81g protein

Running
Mile 1 11:08
Mile 2 11:05
Mile 3 11:09
Mile 4 10:59

Day 121

Easy 4 miles, gonna do intervals Wednesday on a track at the local junior college.

Breakfast: Usual-539 cals

Lunch: Grilled pork chop, Mac & cheese-810 cals

Dinner: Burger King A-1 steakhouse burger-810 cals

Snacks: Skinny cow, granola bar-240 cals

Totals: 2399 cals, 174g protein

Running
Mile 1 10:58
Mile 2 11:11
Mile 3 11:08
Mile 4 10:54

Day 122

I went to the track at a local junior college to do an interval run. It was a little warm and humid for this time of year...did a one mile warmup jog then 4 half mile intervals with one lap of walking in between each one. I was really feeling it after the first one but managed to stay very consistent with my time splits. Finished with a one mile cool down. Gonna do another easy run tomorrow which will be 9 days straight running. Going to pick my younger two kids up Friday and they'll be here until the 27th. My goal is to get at least 5 running sessions in while they're here and eat at least close to maintainence!!

Breakfast: Bacon, egg & cheese biscuit-579 cals

Lunch: Grilled pork chop, Mac & cheese-772 cals

Dinner: Philly cheesesteak, chips-741 cals

Snacks: Skinny cow, popcorn-292 cals

Totals: 2383 cals, 162g protein

Running
Mile 1 10:58
Intervals
4:07
4:11
4:10
4:07
Mile 4 11:24

nice!

but don't overdo it. 9 days without a break is a really bad idea imho at this stage. i understand that you're super motivated right now and want to crush and that you want to be especially focussed before the holidays (&the kids), but as always: don't increase your injury risk unnecessarily (and your body also NEEDS to rest to adapt and get stronger / faster).

if you just had taken a rest day before or after your long run, it would be a four or five day streak, that's a huge difference to 9 days. and i know, the runs feel easy and your body feels great / fine. but running injuries really "sneak up on you". you feel great until all of a sudden, you don't anymore (of course, that's not always the case, but very often). (and just tell me if i should shut up with this stuff; don't want to annoy you)

btw: finding something to crosstrain (swimming, cycling, weightlifting, yoga, etc) can be a great idea for rest days. cycling is great because the training effect is very similar to running but you have no ground impact (as long as you don't crash, haha), but it's not that cheap. i hate swimming, but i think it's a great addition to running (great for some upper body muscule endurance training; and also no impact).

intervals: i would increase the amount of "interval-total-distance" the next time (ie your last workout was 4x0.5 miles aka 2 miles). if you keep running 30-35mpw, it's fine to go over the 2 miles you do atm. go up to 5x0.5, then 6x0.5, 7x0.5 (and feel free to change the distance / pace / break length).
the general guideline is to not go above 10% of your weekly mileage. because you only do two workouts a week, it's fine to go close to 10% (or slightly above it).
you can also do a tempo-run instead (warm-up, then 20-25min tempo pace [~9:20 - 9:30 says daniels], then cool-down.

Day 122

Easy 4 miles...taking Friday off and traveling to pick up my kids for Christmas!

Breakfast: Tried a new local place...3 egg omelette w/ bacon & pepper jack cheese, grits, English muffin-686 cals

Lunch: Usual breakfast-624 cals

Dinner: Papa Murphy's meat pizza-950 cals

Snacks: Granola bar-90 cals

Totals: 2350 cals, 137g protein

Running
Mile 1 11:02
Mile 2 11:06
Mile 3 10:59
Mile 4 10:54

Tron,

No worries, I know it was bad to go that many days in a row. I honestly didn't even realize until I typed that out yesterday that I had gone so many days without a break. I just knew I'd miss Friday and possibly Saturday so I wanted to go Monday thru Thursday...then it dawned on me I went the last 5 days of last week.

I've got a rotation going of interval/tempo/hill repeats for my Wednesday tough runs.

Day 124

Traveled to pick up my kids for Christmas...cold front came thru and I've got a bit of a cough and flem. I get this usually just once a year but I feel good otherwise.

Breakfast: BK sausage Crissanwich, small hash brown-752 cals

Lunch: Arby's smokehouse brisket sandwich, handful of curly fries-745 cals

Dinner: Honey baked ham, 2 dinner rolls-403 cals

Snacks: Reese's snack mix, Dunkin donuts Boston cream pie-590 cals

Totals: 2477 cals, 108g protein

Day 125

Another rest day from running. Spent time with the kids in the morning but had to work an afternoon shift.

Breakfast: Biscuits & gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs-937 cals

Lunch: Pizza slice at work-276 cals

Dinner: Turkey, cornbread dressing, roll-893 cals

Snacks: Oreo thins, popcorn-422 cals

Totals: 2527 cals, 162g protein

Day 126

Lots of food and lots of rain...gonna be a common theme for the week it looks like. Miserable weather for Christmas time.

Breakfast: Usual-561 cals

Lunch: BK Bacon double, med onion rings-800 cals

Dinner: Pizza Hut, 2 slices medium sausage, breadstick, cookie-1055 cals

Snacks: Skinny cow, granola bar, Oreo thins-450 cals

Totals: 2866 cals, 104g protein

I had never heard of skinny cow as I normally avoid the snack aisle, but I got some in the pantry now thanks to this thread. Almost got some of their ice cream bars too but our freezer is too full right now so I passed on those. Thankfully I am in maintenance mode now so I can afford to eat some snacks now while learning how to maintain, instead of lose, weight.

I eat the ice cream sandwiches which are pretty freakin good and decent size for only 150 cals.

Monday morning weigh in

234.6

Week 1 -5.4 lbs
Week 2 -1.0 lbs
Week 3 -3.4 lbs
Week 4 -1.6 lbs
Month 1 -11.4 lbs
Week 5 -.4 lbs
Week 6 -1.8 lbs
Week 7 -3.2 lbs
Week 8 -2.2 lbs
Month 2 -7.6 lbs
Week 9 -2.0 lbs
Week 10 +1.4 lbs
Week 11 -4.0 lbs
Week 12 -1.0 lbs
Month 3 -5.4 lbs
Week 13 -1.6 lbs
Week 14 -.6 lbs
Week 15 +4.2 lbs
Week 16 -3.6 lbs
Month 4 -1.6 lbs
Week 17 -2.4 lbs
Week 18 +2.4 lbs

Total -26.2 lbs

Total mileage:
Week 1 17.2
Week 2 20.1
Week 3 22.2
Week 4 25.3
Week 5 16.1
Week 6 21.1
Week 7 25.0
Week 8 23.2
Week 9 30.5
Week 10 13.0
Week 11 31.0
Week 12 27.1
Week 13 19.0
Week 14 22.0
Week 15 8.0
Week 16 26.1
Week 17 30.5
Week 18 16.0

Gonna have lots of catching up to do after the holidays...

Day 127

Lots of crap...for the first time since I started this thread I didn't track my calories. I'm guessing close to 4K...pop tarts, sausage egg & cheese sandwich at work, hot dogs, chips & smores at a Christmas block party, boiled peanuts, coke icee. Guess I needed a break from the grind.

doesn't look good so far...

Day 128-133

Lots and lots of food...plenty of cookies, brownies, candy, fudge, etc. Ran exactly 0.0 miles. Back at it on Monday, ready to roll again!!

Monday morning weigh in

240.0

Week 1 -5.4 lbs
Week 2 -1.0 lbs
Week 3 -3.4 lbs
Week 4 -1.6 lbs
Month 1 -11.4 lbs
Week 5 -.4 lbs
Week 6 -1.8 lbs
Week 7 -3.2 lbs
Week 8 -2.2 lbs
Month 2 -7.6 lbs
Week 9 -2.0 lbs
Week 10 +1.4 lbs
Week 11 -4.0 lbs
Week 12 -1.0 lbs
Month 3 -5.4 lbs
Week 13 -1.6 lbs
Week 14 -.6 lbs
Week 15 +4.2 lbs
Week 16 -3.6 lbs
Month 4 -1.6 lbs
Week 17 -2.4 lbs
Week 18 +2.4 lbs
Week 19 +5.4 lbs

Total -20.6 lbs

Total mileage:
Week 1 17.2
Week 2 20.1
Week 3 22.2
Week 4 25.3
Week 5 16.1
Week 6 21.1
Week 7 25.0
Week 8 23.2
Week 9 30.5
Week 10 13.0
Week 11 31.0
Week 12 27.1
Week 13 19.0
Week 14 22.0
Week 15 8.0
Week 16 26.1
Week 17 30.5
Week 18 16.0
Week 19 0.0

good to see you back here! sad (but not surprised) to see 0 miles. take it easy on the first run. even "only" a 10 day break is probably enough to guarantee some DOMS when you start again.

but to look at it positively: your hormons (leptin & co) are definitely back in level and you'll be able to loose weight again like on day 1 (including lots of water weight).