Katawa Shoujo Forums

Hello all,

New to KS forums and thought here would be a good place for a first post.

I run competitively for my school, and if you're hurting, sometimes the best thing to do is cross-train (do other sports)!

Training for running, especially from what I've seen of the emi schedule, might build up just the running muscles, but torture ones like the rotator cuff, hip, etc.

It's also good for a change of pace--running can get boring sometimes. I play tennis a fair deal, and that's pretty good for dealing with hurt shins and calves. I find squash to to be the best running cross-train sport, because it works the entire body aerobically, emphasizes non-lateral muscles not used in running, and is easy to pick up; but if you're not living in the northeast you'd be hard pressed to find a squash court.

W5D1 done, actually even more than that (6 minute jog, 2 minute walk, 6 minute jog, 2 minute walk, 10 minute jog).
The energy is sort of there as long as I stay slow, but the lower back aches like hell.
I fear this Friday, though.

Was a bit busy the past few days and didn't really get to do any morning runs, but I did do a good bit of walking, which is nice I plan on starting again tomorrow morning though.

As for Ingress, I figured out how to play lol, and I have another phone that I can tether to for data while I use my tablet (the phone itself sadly doesn't work too well with Ingress...), so I can do some exploration as well.

Man, that push-up challenge is killing me. Much harder to do for 10 minutes in the comfort of my house than to go running for 30 minutes in the cold outside.
I have no chest muscles.

Reksho wrote:Man, that push-up challenge is killing me. Much harder to do for 10 minutes in the comfort of my house than to go running for 30 minutes in the cold outside.
I have no chest muscles.

If you have strong wrists you can try diamond pushups to build your pectorals. Connects your forefingers and thumbs into a "diamond," then get into the ground and try to touch your nose into the diamond. These are difficult, and require tricep muscles, but are a super-efficient way to build without weights.

If you have access to any sort of gym at all, doing fly presses will help you build perfect inner pectoral muscles.

Finally, "knee" or, less politely, "girl" pushups are a good way to warm yourself up and build until you can do a full pushup. They are surprisingly effective.

dunkelfalke wrote:W5D1 done, actually even more than that (6 minute jog, 2 minute walk, 6 minute jog, 2 minute walk, 10 minute jog).
The energy is sort of there as long as I stay slow, but the lower back aches like hell.
I fear this Friday, though.

I just came back from W4D2 (seems like I'm a week behind you). I managed to run the whole forest track without a break yesterday for the first time (because 5min runs). *yay*
[edit: I just looked it up, the track is 800m long, so if I can keep my pace, that would be 6*800m = 4.8k in 30min. nice! Or are those miles in the 5k schedule?]

However, yesterday and today went far worse than before. I got stitches and my chest hurt. I think it's the longer running without breaks, so W5D3 will probably be hard for me as well.

SemisoftCheese wrote:I find squash to to be the best running cross-train sport, because it works the entire body aerobically, emphasizes non-lateral muscles not used in running, and is easy to pick up; but if you're not living in the northeast you'd be hard pressed to find a squash court.

I might try to find a squash beginners' course or something after the winter holidays, thank you for the advice :)

Reksho wrote:Man, that push-up challenge is killing me. Much harder to do for 10 minutes in the comfort of my house than to go running for 30 minutes in the cold outside.
I have no chest muscles.

I feel with you - I suck at bench press (can lift 50 kilos maybe three times in a row). Won't even try pushups.

nginx wrote:However, yesterday and today went far worse than before. I got stitches and my chest hurt. I think it's the longer running without breaks, so W5D3 will probably be hard for me as well.

dude, are you running every day? you shouldn't, recovery time is important!

dunkelfalke wrote:

nginx wrote:However, yesterday and today went far worse than before. I got stitches and my chest hurt. I think it's the longer running without breaks, so W5D3 will probably be hard for me as well.

dude, are you running every day? you shouldn't, recovery time is important!

I started with Mon-Wed-Fri, but since last week I'm also running on tuesday to get four days a week. But maybe you're right, I'll drop tuesday next week - three consecutive days are too much, I guess. Last week I had no problems however, so I tried it again today.

Any advice for getting up for runs in the AM? I'm not a morning person but schedule changes have forced that to be the only time I have to possibly run, and for the whole month of November I've failed to get any more runs in. I know the simple answer is just to get up! But if anyone has anything that helps them out specifically I would love to know. Thanks!

jmeks23 wrote:Any advice for getting up for runs in the AM? I'm not a morning person but schedule changes have forced that to be the only time I have to possibly run, and for the whole month of November I've failed to get any more runs in. I know the simple answer is just to get up! But if anyone has anything that helps them out specifically I would love to know. Thanks!

Coconut water. Drink it when you wake up. Slay dinosaurs and dragons.

I know your problem--I train in the mornings but I'm definetely not a morning person. My advice is to 1) get a good night's sleep and 2) get a music-based alarm clock. Playing pump-up tunes in the morning is a good way to bounce yourself out of bed, especially if you're not a morning person.

On a final note, what I said about coconut water is of relevance--how you eat and drink in the few hours before sleep directly affects how you feel how when you wake up. If you can't stop yourself from having greasy or heavy food, a drink like coconut water is an excellent replenisher--it delivers a light mix of calories, sugar, and electrolytes to fuel yourself for a run. Drinking one as soon as you wake up can get you going pretty fast.

A more cost-effective option is cytomax, or simply some electrolyte water you can pick up at stop&shop. Avoid starting your day with sugar heavy sports drinks like gatorade, lucozade, etc. These are meant for the middle of a long run, not to get you going.

Well, for the summer, I used to cycle to work, that would be 25 km, somewhat over an hour. Had to do it on an empty stomach because I take thyroid hormone pills. The first few minutes were difficult but as soon as I was warm enough it was absolutely fine. Eating late in the evening surely helps. A cold shower helps even more, but it is not fun at all.

Dudes, I just said "bugger it" and skipped W5D2, going straight for D3. I still cannot believe it, I just ran for 20 bloody minutes!

jmeks23 wrote:Any advice for getting up for runs in the AM? I'm not a morning person but schedule changes have forced that to be the only time I have to possibly run, and for the whole month of November I've failed to get any more runs in. I know the simple answer is just to get up! But if anyone has anything that helps them out specifically I would love to know. Thanks!

Just kick yourself out of bed.

Getting up early in the morning will always, always be a pain in the ass. There is no way to do it comfortably without strict discipline. The moment you learn to accept this, you'll notice that you will think up of ways to get around that draining feeling in the morning. Things like thinking about the awesome feeling you'll get by accomplishing your workout goal. Or the rush of blood flowing through you kicking up your energy levels to sky high levels. Or generally feeling like a million dollars throughout the day when you've completed that run in the morning, proving your worth.

There are no physical supplements to boost your motivation to get out of bed. Most of it is mental. Believe in the benefits it has.

jmeks23 wrote:Any advice for getting up for runs in the AM? I'm not a morning person but schedule changes have forced that to be the only time I have to possibly run, and for the whole month of November I've failed to get any more runs in. I know the simple answer is just to get up! But if anyone has anything that helps them out specifically I would love to know. Thanks!

I have a coffee maker in the same room I sleep in, and just have it set to go off about 10 minutes before I wake up. I also have an alarm set to go off on my tablet (nearby) after the coffee is done, and a louder, beeping alarm to go off in the next room a few minutes after the tablet alarm. I find that alarm pretty annoying so my main motivation for getting out of bed is to get up before that beeping alarm goes off :p Seems to work nicely.

I also tried doing some pushups on Monday. From reading, it seems there's a recommended guide for doing so somewhere on this thread, but I went with this guide. Started Phase 1 on Monday, and I'm still somewhat sore today. My original plan was to just do the 3 days one after another, and recover on the rest of the days, but I don't think that'll go too well. Might try Phase 1 again tomorrow or Friday.

Hurt my ankle (ligament injury) a while back so my workout's totally fallen apart while it heals. It's only a little sore now so I should be in proper condition in another day or so. I'll need to start slow to retrain the muscles since they've been out of commission from the injury but it should all work out fine.

dunkelfalke wrote:Dudes, I just said "bugger it" and skipped W5D2, going straight for D3. I still cannot believe it, I just ran for 20 bloody minutes!

Woah, nice!

I did a 2-day break because of the problems I had on tuesday and just finished W4D3, but still don't see me running a full 20 mins. Had some stitches again, but it went far better than tuesday.

It snowed yesterday, and the forest floor is rock hard today from the cold temperature - fortunately there's a good snow layer to cushion my steps.