Running a 5K when you can't

That T Woman wrote:

"Keith Hobman" wrote in message
...

In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:


"Dally" wrote in message
...

One of my goals for 2004 is to run a 5K. I just discovered there's a
race going past my house and into my park next Saturday. I'm trying

to

figure out if I should enter it.

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to bring

down

my heart rate) is 2 miles. I go about 5k once a week (for the past 6
weeks or so) where I run/walk and finish in about 45 minutes. I

haven't

run outside with hills and ice and snow in many months: all my running
has been on a treadmill lately. I'm 39 and am too fat and have lousy
endurance for someone who wants to be a runner.

So, should I enter this race when
a.) I'm not trained for it yet,
b.) I came down with a cold yesterday and I'm not sure I'll be 100% in
six more days
c.) I'm scheduled to work so I'd have to reschedule the client and
d.) I'm scared to run outside with hills and 20 degree weather and
whatever unknown elements that adds.

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I hadn't
actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal. Should I push it or

wait?

(Cross-posted to the ASD and MFW.)

Dally


Asking the weightlifters about running seems about like asking your
dentist about your vagina. Asking in one of the running groups
would make too much sense?

And there are a lot of dentist with vaginas, they don't specialize in them
just like the weightlifting group is not focused on running.

Well, you've got a point, but I don't hang out in the running community,
and figured their advice wouldn't be as specific to my situation as one
where you also know things like I'm a weight-lifter, I've just lost 60
pounds, I'm not a newbie exerciser.

I don't hang out in the dog-owning community, either. So when I had a
dog question (about running with my dog, as it turned out) I ask my
dog-owning friends in my fitness groups. When it got cross-posted by
someone to a dog-owning group I got all sorts of flames for being such a
horrible pet owner. My question wasn't "how do I give my dog the best
overall experience", it was "how do I get my dog to stop sniffing and
pooping and run instead of slowing me down". Do you see how the focus
is different?

Dally

David Cohen wrote:

"Wayne S. Hill" wrote
Dally wrote:

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I
hadn't actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal.
Should I push it or wait?

I would not contemplate running outside right now in MA
with my asthma.

Premedicate, wear a balaclava over your mouth, and carry
your albuterol MDI.

Albuterol never did anything for me. I don't know why. Perhaps
because my pulmonary function is so strong? One doctor tried to
tell me how to use it after I told her that it didn't help me.
I gave her the "you're a moron" ironic look when she did that,
but it didn't sink in.

Wuss. The other log-lifting plaid-skirt-wearing manly men
are laughing at you!

They don't run either. Well, except with cabers, perhaps. And
what do you know, anyway, Mr. Las Vegas?

--
-Wayne

In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:

"Keith Hobman" wrote in message
...
In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:

"Dally" wrote in message
...
One of my goals for 2004 is to run a 5K. I just discovered there's a
race going past my house and into my park next Saturday. I'm trying
to
figure out if I should enter it.

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to bring
down
my heart rate) is 2 miles. I go about 5k once a week (for the past 6
weeks or so) where I run/walk and finish in about 45 minutes. I
haven't
run outside with hills and ice and snow in many months: all my running
has been on a treadmill lately. I'm 39 and am too fat and have lousy
endurance for someone who wants to be a runner.

So, should I enter this race when
a.) I'm not trained for it yet,
b.) I came down with a cold yesterday and I'm not sure I'll be 100% in
six more days
c.) I'm scheduled to work so I'd have to reschedule the client and
d.) I'm scared to run outside with hills and 20 degree weather and
whatever unknown elements that adds.

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I hadn't
actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal. Should I push it or
wait?

(Cross-posted to the ASD and MFW.)

Dally


Asking the weightlifters about running seems about like asking your
dentist
about your vagina. Asking in one of the running groups would make too
much
sense?


misc. -- we talk about everything, but guns seems to be a big one.

fitness -- well, duh, running. Fitness. i sense a connection.

weights -- every once in a while we talk about this too.

--
Keith Hobman


And there are a lot of dentist with vaginas, they don't specialize in them
just like the weightlifting group is not focused on running.

But they probably have an opinion on sex.

--
Keith Hobman

--- email address above is a non-monitored spam sink.

"Lee Michaels" wrote in
news:U2dRb.155979$xy6.747402@attbi_s02:

"Wayne S. Hill" wrote

They don't run either. Well, except with cabers, perhaps. And
what do you know, anyway, Mr. Las Vegas?

Hey there Wayne, we have been getting all kinds of reports on the news that
it is actually C-O-L-D in your neck of the woods!! Is this true or is it a
vicious rumor?


It's a vicious rumor. When my water bottle freezes before I'm done with
warmups, we'll call it cold.

Hugh



--
Help! My myofibrillar material is disorganized!

In Ignoramus18248 wrote:
Dally, what you are describing is an ambitious human being, but an
extremely badly undertrained, out of shape cardiovascularly person.

Ig, you're being silly. She can run 2 miles. A 5K is what, 3.1 miles?
It's not like she's going to try a marathon.


Do not attempt any sort of race and do not push yourself beyond mild
discomfort.

You don't think she'll know when the discomfort is too much?

To correct this problem, you need to simply run many times, there is
no quick fix for you being out of shape.

I think she knows that. She's *been* running.

When you run, if you feel
serious discomfort, stop running and walk.

And she can do that during the race if she needs to.


Getting into shape will likely improve your health as well.

I think she knows that.


misc.fitness.weights analogy: Think of it as unsupported overhead
lifts (or whatever they are called, lifting a barbell overhead with no
rack or spotter). Would you advice a undertrained novice to perform
them in their basement alone at maximum possible weight?

How is that even comparable? If you're running and you start feeling
like it's too much for you, you can just slow down. It's more like
failing with a rack. It's not a big deal.

Long term running also requires injury prevention, and running pn
patches of snow and ice is no t helpful for that.

As long as she knows how to fall and makes sure she lands on her fat ass,
she should be fine.

i

In article , Dally wrote:
Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
In article , Dally
wrote:

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to bring
down my heart rate) is 2 miles.

I'm curious about this. Are you saying that you have to stop because
you feel you're about to die, or you have to stop to bring down your
heart rate ? If so, how high does your heart rate get before you
"need" to bring it down ?

I'm curious about this as well, as it's a new limiting factor for me.
This never happened back when I was a teen-ager!

But what happens is I start wanting to slow down really really badly
because I feel like my heart is going to burst or something - as if
I'm on the final sprint and giving it all I've got, but I'm not, I'm
just running along at 5.3 mph and my wind is good and my legs feel
fine. I take a heart rate and I'm in the 180-190 range. (In the
old days my legs would feel wooden or I'd get a stitch in my side as
limiting factors, not crappy fast heart.) So I walk until I get my
heart rate under 160 and attempt to keep it under 170 because I
start to feel crappy as it approaches 180. I'm working hard but not
killing myself when I'm in the 160-170 range. I'd say that's a 16-
17 on the Borg scale for me. Highest I ever measured it at was 195.
As I wasn't dead at the time I suspect my max heart rate is around
200. My favorite pace is around 5.3 mph, about an 11:30 mile which
is running slowly for me with my stumpy legs. But it spikes my
heart rate too fast - I can only go about a mile at this pace. I
can keep my heart rate from soaring if I jog at around 4.6 mph, but
that's an awkward gait for me - not as much fun - and I still only
make about two miles before I need to walk. For my training I
alternate between doing days where I run 5K with as many walks as I
need, and days when I jog as far as I can without walking, and days
when I do some other cardio like a 20 minute HIIT session or Tae Bo
or rollerblading. I've only got two or three cardio days a week and
I wasn't feeling pressure to get the 5K down yet. I also run a mile
to warm-up for weight-lifting three times a week, but those aren't
timed and I start out walking and then stop after half a mile to do
some stretching. Oh, yeah, and all my running days I start out by
jogging 1/2 a mile and then stretching first before I do my timed
miles. It's ****ant training, but I figured I had time. I'm still
working on getting my weight down (down 6 pounds in three weeks, and
60 pounds since I started paying attention 18 months ago.) I'm also
busy working on weight-lifting goals like getting my squat low (
doing more stretching) squatting heavy (I'm lifting about 2/3 of my
body weight) and other life-style goals like getting my kids moving.
The running thing is more of a long term goal and a way to fix my
lousy endurance/spiking heart rate. I'm still undecided about this.
I like the idea of just having it be my 5K training run for the week,
just do it outdoors around more people for a change. I'd really
like to see where a measured 5K is that goes through the park by my
house, too, so maybe it'd be worth it just to go WALK the track if I
find it's more of a run than I can handle. OTOH, I don't like the
idea of slipping on ice or showing my fat ass in public in spandex
or having such an awful experience that I'm put off from trying it
again when I'm more ready. Dally

(Keith Hobman) wrote in
:

In article , Hugh Beyer
wrote:

"Lee Michaels" wrote in
news:U2dRb.155979$xy6.747402@attbi_s02:

"Wayne S. Hill" wrote

They don't run either. Well, except with cabers, perhaps. And
what do you know, anyway, Mr. Las Vegas?

Hey there Wayne, we have been getting all kinds of reports on the
news that it is actually C-O-L-D in your neck of the woods!! Is this
true or is it a vicious rumor?


It's a vicious rumor. When my water bottle freezes before I'm done with
warmups, we'll call it cold.

Wind chill is -51 degree. And supposed to get colder. But the actual
temperature is only -32. Of course, the forecast is that it will get
cold tonight.

Do we call it cold?


Wind chill is for wussies.

Hugh

--
Help! My myofibrillar material is disorganized!

"Dally" wrote in message
...
One of my goals for 2004 is to run a 5K. I just discovered there's a
race going past my house and into my park next Saturday. I'm trying to
figure out if I should enter it.

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to bring down
my heart rate) is 2 miles. I go about 5k once a week (for the past 6
weeks or so) where I run/walk and finish in about 45 minutes. I haven't
run outside with hills and ice and snow in many months: all my running
has been on a treadmill lately. I'm 39 and am too fat and have lousy
endurance for someone who wants to be a runner.

So, should I enter this race when
a.) I'm not trained for it yet,
b.) I came down with a cold yesterday and I'm not sure I'll be 100% in
six more days
c.) I'm scheduled to work so I'd have to reschedule the client and
d.) I'm scared to run outside with hills and 20 degree weather and
whatever unknown elements that adds.

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I hadn't
actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal. Should I push it or wait?



ill-prepared, shmill-prepared - go for it. (Hint: go out at a full sprint
for the first quarter mile, then grab your side wincingly and explain to the
passing runners that you let yourself get dehydrated around the 200 yard
mark)

Ignoramus18248 wrote:

Dally, what you are describing is an ambitious human being, but an
extremely badly undertrained, out of shape cardiovascularly person.

LOL, well aren't you just a ray of sunshine. You *did* get the part
where I routinely run 8 miles a week, right? Yes, it's undertrained for
a 5K, I know that. (Check out subject line.) But I hardly think I'm in
danger of keeling over from unexpected exertion.

Do not attempt any sort of race and do not push yourself beyond mild
discomfort.

One of my problems (and I'm being serious here for a moment) is that my
high school coach taught us, "a little bit of pain never hurt anyone".
I really don't pay any attention to mild discomfort and am sometimes
more macho then the situation warrants. So I find myself wondering if
I'm being too macho and this is ridiculous (as you say) or if I'm being
too wimpy and should just get my flabby ass out there (as David says).

Getting into shape will likely improve your health as well.

Wow, really?

misc.fitness.weights analogy: Think of it as unsupported overhead
lifts (or whatever they are called, lifting a barbell overhead with no
rack or spotter). Would you advice a undertrained novice to perform
them in their basement alone at maximum possible weight?

I'd tell them to use dumbbells at a weight they could handle with good
form. What's your point?

Long term running also requires injury prevention, and running pn
patches of snow and ice is not helpful for that.

It's the Winter Carnival Run. It tends to happen in winter. But I get
your point and that is one of my concerns. I wish I knew how they groom
the trails (if they do at all.)

So I just called and asked. Turns out it is 4 miles, not 3.15, and it's
entirely on road, and they are going to plow and sand for our Tuesday
night blizzard, then sweep just before the race. Don't worry, if
there's still ice on the road I'll be able to figure it out from all the
bloody heaps of people who fell before I got there.

Or, as Sarah-Jane so sweetly points out, I can just fall on my
amply-padded fat ass and get back up again.

Dally

"Keith Hobman" wrote in message
...
In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:

"Keith Hobman" wrote in message
...
In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:

"Dally" wrote in message
...
One of my goals for 2004 is to run a 5K. I just discovered
there's a
race going past my house and into my park next Saturday. I'm
trying
to
figure out if I should enter it.

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to
bring
down
my heart rate) is 2 miles. I go about 5k once a week (for the
past 6
weeks or so) where I run/walk and finish in about 45 minutes. I
haven't
run outside with hills and ice and snow in many months: all my
running
has been on a treadmill lately. I'm 39 and am too fat and have
lousy
endurance for someone who wants to be a runner.

So, should I enter this race when
a.) I'm not trained for it yet,
b.) I came down with a cold yesterday and I'm not sure I'll be
100% in
six more days
c.) I'm scheduled to work so I'd have to reschedule the client and
d.) I'm scared to run outside with hills and 20 degree weather and
whatever unknown elements that adds.

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I hadn't
actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal. Should I push it or
wait?

(Cross-posted to the ASD and MFW.)

Dally


Asking the weightlifters about running seems about like asking your
dentist
about your vagina. Asking in one of the running groups would make
too
much
sense?


misc. -- we talk about everything, but guns seems to be a big one.

fitness -- well, duh, running. Fitness. i sense a connection.

weights -- every once in a while we talk about this too.

--
Keith Hobman


And there are a lot of dentist with vaginas, they don't specialize in
them
just like the weightlifting group is not focused on running.

But they probably have an opinion on sex.

--
Keith Hobman

--- email address above is a non-monitored spam sink.

And so does every woman. But it's just an opinion and some are backed up
with more experience than others. From what I've seen of mfw some of the
weight lifters are downright opposed to running. I'd have asked in a
running group that was used to giving new runners advice, but Dally has a
point that folks in both asd and mfw know her and can advise her based on
what they know about her.

Tonia

"Dally" wrote in message
...
That T Woman wrote:

"Keith Hobman" wrote in message
...

In article , "That T Woman"
wrote:


"Dally" wrote in message
...

One of my goals for 2004 is to run a 5K. I just discovered there's a
race going past my house and into my park next Saturday. I'm trying

to

figure out if I should enter it.

Right now the farthest I can jog without stopping to walk (to bring

down

my heart rate) is 2 miles. I go about 5k once a week (for the past 6
weeks or so) where I run/walk and finish in about 45 minutes. I

haven't

run outside with hills and ice and snow in many months: all my running
has been on a treadmill lately. I'm 39 and am too fat and have lousy
endurance for someone who wants to be a runner.

So, should I enter this race when
a.) I'm not trained for it yet,
b.) I came down with a cold yesterday and I'm not sure I'll be 100% in
six more days
c.) I'm scheduled to work so I'd have to reschedule the client and
d.) I'm scared to run outside with hills and 20 degree weather and
whatever unknown elements that adds.

What do you think? I intend to run a 5K this year, but I hadn't
actually meant JANUARY when I made that goal. Should I push it or

wait?

(Cross-posted to the ASD and MFW.)

Dally


Asking the weightlifters about running seems about like asking your
dentist about your vagina. Asking in one of the running groups
would make too much sense?

And there are a lot of dentist with vaginas, they don't specialize in
them
just like the weightlifting group is not focused on running.

Well, you've got a point, but I don't hang out in the running community,
and figured their advice wouldn't be as specific to my situation as one
where you also know things like I'm a weight-lifter, I've just lost 60
pounds, I'm not a newbie exerciser.

I don't hang out in the dog-owning community, either. So when I had a
dog question (about running with my dog, as it turned out) I ask my
dog-owning friends in my fitness groups. When it got cross-posted by
someone to a dog-owning group I got all sorts of flames for being such a
horrible pet owner. My question wasn't "how do I give my dog the best
overall experience", it was "how do I get my dog to stop sniffing and
pooping and run instead of slowing me down". Do you see how the focus
is different?

Dally

I see how the focus is different but then a new focus on an issue is
sometimes a good thing. A lot of people want to encourage you to do it
because they are rooting for you in general. I think that DRS made some
excellent points. There will be other races and I think that if you run
your first 5K sick in the ice and snow when you've never made a 5K run that
you'll spoil the racing experience for yourself. If you do it when you're
well, the weather's nice and you've trained so that you know you can perform
up to your (and nobody else's) standards, then it will probably be an
experience that you'll love. JMHO.

Tonia