Emi inspired running/workout

[Weird Badger]

Wow an entire topic of 100 pages with useful running schedule.
I used to run some years ago then i became a lazy hermit and I stopped, 10 days ago i started to run again (best decision ever). I'm really out of shape but i am full of energy, if my legs could talk they would say "finally, we were waiting for you".
Plus my father died at 40 for an unexpected heart problem and you never know what to expect from hereditary problems (you can imagine how much KS personally touched me).

Yesterday i thought "ehi i only need a running partner" but it looks like i have a lot of running partners here. Don't give up guys, i wish i could run with all of you.

[KyKy]

@Pseudogenesis

For the more upper body focusing exercises there are a few that I am doing. If you like to experiment with push-ups, you can try these types. Close-grip, having your hand in right below you together in a sort of diamond shape. Wide-grip having your hands farther out past your shoulders. Fingertip you already know, but if you want more of a challenge you can use only 2 fingers on each hand. Incline which is putting your hands higher up than your lower body, making it much easier. Decline which is putting your legs/lower body higher than your hand, making it much harder. Clap push-ups, doing 1 clap when you go up. Behind the back clap, doing a quick clap behind the back when you go up. Jump push-ups, pushing yourself off the ground and just landing back down, just like a clap push-up without the clap. And if you are feeling really strong, you can try the one arm push-up. You can also do dips to help work your upper body a bit. And the consistent pull-ups and chin-ups.

Hope this information helps you. (:

[Pseudogenesis]

@Pseudogenesis

For the more upper body focusing exercises there are a few that I am doing. If you like to experiment with push-ups, you can try these types. Close-grip, having your hand in right below you together in a sort of diamond shape. Wide-grip having your hands farther out past your shoulders. Fingertip you already know, but if you want more of a challenge you can use only 2 fingers on each hand. Incline which is putting your hands higher up than your lower body, making it much easier. Decline which is putting your legs/lower body higher than your hand, making it much harder. Clap push-ups, doing 1 clap when you go up. Behind the back clap, doing a quick clap behind the back when you go up. Jump push-ups, pushing yourself off the ground and just landing back down, just like a clap push-up without the clap. And if you are feeling really strong, you can try the one arm push-up. You can also do dips to help work your upper body a bit. And the consistent pull-ups and chin-ups.

Hope this information helps you. (:

Thanks! I'd forgotten all the types of push ups. Shame I don't have anywhere to do pull-ups though.

[Althamus]

I'd suggest the 100PU exercise because it'll take less energy to complete.

o.0 In what universe? Maybe it's because I'm a scrawny little bastard, but the 100 PU challenge is far beyond my capacity. On the other hand, I could've done the 5k before I even started exercising. (Albeit slowly)

Your arm muscles are smaller than your leg muscles, and I would guess that doing pushups uses less muscles over the entire body than running does.
In addition, doing 100 pushups takes far, far less time than running for half an hour does.

I'd imagine it'll probably make your body ache as much, and be just as hard for you to complete, but I don't think pushups will use up as much sugar or food to do as running does. I've never heard of anyone suggesting people do pushups to lose weight for example

Also, re: lactic acid, what're you aiming for with running. Lactic acid means that you're pushing your boundaries of stamina, and if you keep pushing yourself until you're aching, I would've thought that it would've improved your stamina faster.
ofc, if you aren't going for stamina improvement, then lactic acid isn't needed.

[Pseudogenesis]

I'd suggest the 100PU exercise because it'll take less energy to complete.

o.0 In what universe? Maybe it's because I'm a scrawny little bastard, but the 100 PU challenge is far beyond my capacity. On the other hand, I could've done the 5k before I even started exercising. (Albeit slowly)

Also, re: lactic acid, what're you aiming for with running. Lactic acid means that you're pushing your boundaries of stamina, and if you keep pushing yourself until you're aching, I would've thought that it would've improved your stamina faster.
ofc, if you aren't going for stamina improvement, then lactic acid isn't needed.

Like I said, I'm running more and longer than I ever have before, and I do try to push myself. However, I don't flat out run to make myself choke and wheeze, pushing past what I'd call my "level of comfort" just to prove something, or get a better time. I just run. I try to push slightly past the threshold at which I begin to breathe heavily, but that's the extent of my self-imposed torture. Stamina improvement would be great, and I do try to push myself harder the easier this becomes, but I never wake up the next morning thinking "Oh man, I'm gonna be sore all day." Flexing my legs right now, I don't feel any kind of pain. I do feel like I could run longer every time I stop, though.

[andros414]

re: andros:
1) It depends. If you're overweight or a bit older or have knee problems then running on concrete is bad as you'll be very likely to give yourself worse knee problems. If you're young and relatively healthy and thin than running on concrete is probably fine. Leastways, I've never had a problem with it. If you run and thud onto the ground, as opposed to running on the balls of your feet, it'll be harder on your joints.

2) Depends on how adventurous you are. There's absolutely nothign wrong whatsoever with alternating like that.

3) Define vital. If you're on the perfect diet, the challenges will be far, far easier than on a terrible diet, but it's possible on bad diets.
If you're on a low-food diet though, it'll impact on your energy levels and may mean that after your run you'll feel exhausted for a while. If you have to choose between the two, I'd suggest the 100PU exercise because it'll take less energy to complete.
Also, you may want to do just one exercise at once if you're on a low-energy diet, since draining your energy 6 days a week could be tiring. Depends on yourself and how you get on I guess, if you do both and feel fine more power you

@andros:
Running on concrete isn't dangerous as long as you focus on having good form. Running lightly rather than "pounding the pavement" as they say.
Since you were 300 lbs you should especially be extra careful about that. But it should be fine, I was over 300 when I started this too, and ran on concrete, and never got hurt. You'll be losing weight before you know it, good luck.
Diet is always vital for being healthy (which I'm guessing is why you're starting exercise), but don't worry too much about it right now. As you get going and start forming healthy habits, you'll just naturally start to get interested in having a good diet (at least I did).

Thanks for the comments.

Althamus, I'm not too old, only 25, so I don't believe age is going to be a problem. Since I'm wanting to do this "right," when I run, I'll be trying to focus more on where I place my feet. I apparently walk on my heels, as I've been told I'm a "stomper" and "heavy walker." Hopefully by running, I'll train myself to walk differently and therefore avoid injuries. My "low-food diet" is more of a habit stemming from lack of appetite than any real diet. My mind tells me it's wrong to eat the way I do (only 1 definitive meal in the evening, with snacking the rest of the day), but not having much of an appetite makes it a bit difficult to force myself to eat. That's another hope for starting the running and pushups: getting a regular, decent appetite.


ook, right now, I think I'm a bit over 300 lbs. I can't say for sure as there are no scales in the house, but while I don't feel larger than before, sometimes I believe I look bigger than I did last year. Losing weight is a rather large part of undertaking this, but just wanting to get away from the computer is, as well.


I did say "I wanted to do this right," so I'm going to work on keeping a journal for each day's exercise. Doing so will be habit I hope to form together with the exercises, I don't want to skip out on anything unless something actually forces me to (inclement weather for running, or an injury for either exercise). Link is in my sig.

[Akros]

I did say "I wanted to do this right," so I'm going to work on keeping a journal for each day's exercise. Doing so will be habit I hope to form together with the exercises, I don't want to skip out on anything unless something actually forces me to (inclement weather for running, or an injury for either exercise). Link is in my sig.

why don't you try fitocracy.com ? It's been mentioned previously on this thread and lots of us like Althamus, Walrusfella, gravija, ZXRN, Gandara or myself use it

[ZXRN]

@Pseudogenesis: It's a good thing I said "I think" to give out that "not really sure" aura. wahaha

@Kyky and andros414: Just wanted to welcome you guys. And you shouldn't worry abt it too much, you'll get used to running soon enough. (though cement kinda leaves some..pain in my foot so ya might wanna get some comfty running shoes if yer gonna go there.) I don't have comfty running shoes, so sucks for me. So, I hope ya keep at it and I'm glad you started running wahaha. (I had the same feeling after I finished Emi's route."Am I really gonna go through this?" Turns out it feels good.

@ook and Gravija: Welcome back doods. Haven't heard from ya in a while. I thought you guys were gone for good wahaha.
(btw ook, beating yer 5k record by 4 min. is a nice achievement. What was the overall time? Just for reference. (or to challenge myself...)

[ZXRN]

@WeirdBadger

Wow an entire topic of 100 pages with useful running schedule.
I used to run some years ago then i became a lazy hermit and I stopped, 10 days ago i started to run again (best decision ever). I'm really out of shape but i am full of energy, if my legs could talk they would say "finally, we were waiting for you".
Plus my father died at 40 for an unexpected heart problem and you never know what to expect from hereditary problems (you can imagine how much KS personally touched me).

Yesterday i thought "ehi i only need a running partner" but it looks like i have a lot of running partners here. Don't give up guys, i wish i could run with all of you.

Good idea on starting to run again dood. I certainly hope ya keep at it. The more of us here, the merrier. (kinda gay, but I'm happy abt it anyway.)

update: So I had the guts to finally start W4D1 on the Rin's push-up guide and as expected...the last set sucked. But I still feel kinda good coz set1-3 was pretty big for me and i endured it w/o stopping so im happy with that. Repeating it tomorrow!

(sorry for the double post. I couldn't delete the other one so I just edited this) Anyone know how?

[gRaViJa]

@ZXRN: my inner emi was getting angry at me, i'm now getting ready for my first run in 2,5 weeks!

[andros414]

why don't you try fitocracy.com ? It's been mentioned previously on this thread and lots of us like Althamus, Walrusfella, gravija, ZXRN, Gandara or myself use it

Thanks. Just signed up and logged my first attempt at doing Day 1 of the c5k run. One of the phones I carry allows me to type notes (the other has a stopwatch), so I can keep track of things as I think about it during my runs. If my use of the phrase "first attempt at doing Day 1" didn't give a hint as to how things went this morning, the rest is in my journal.

[KyKy]

I have yet to make my account on this but oh well. Just a quick update.

It seems that when I was doing my exhaustion test for squats, I might have torn muscles in both of my upper legs. Just little tears, but I've been in pain from just walking on them since last night. Hopefully it will not hinder my plans starting next Sunday. I might have to make a few adjustments to compensate. Other than that, I'll come back to give advice on exercising and injuries best I can, seemingly because I am VERY injury prone. Twisted ankles, pulled hammies, and shin splints allll the time. Well good luck to everyone running currently, and about to run. I'll be joining you all next week, hopefully.

Make Emi, and more importantly, YOURSELF Proud. (:

[Akros]

Ok, so W9D1 and just two more days to go
felt kind of tired at the start, but I just stopped thinking and everything went back to normal xD
Football and push-ups ( I hope so) tomorrow, I'm kind of behind schedule with these ones

@Gravija : welcome back "emibro" . Did you have a nice time out there? Hope so
anyway how's everthing going? was it you the one that had to decide to either continue with his studies or start working?

[ook]

@kyky: yeah squats are brutal, I did some squats last week and was feeling them in my quads for like 3-4 days.


@akros: Almost there dude congrats on sticking with it


@Andros, while I'm glad your first attempt didn't discourage you from trying again (that's the spirit ), something's wrong if you're collapsing during your run.
It could be because of not eating enough. Try eating a light meal (like 200-300 calories or so) an hour or two before the run.
You say you drink a lot of water, so it's probably not dehydration. But I've heard that if your pee is very light yellow/almost clear, it means you're well-hydrated. So pay attention to that too.
Other than that, maybe you're just running too hard. If you can't do 1 minute of (slow) jogging yet, I'd try adding on a week or two of just walking, to get your body used to it. My "running" after doing C25k is still not much more than exaggerated fast-walking.
Good luck, and I totally know what you mean about being secretive about your running. Only reason anyone in my family found out is because a friend-of-a-friend of my brother's saw me one day about halfway through the chart. So you're not alone in that regard. :p keep it up


Speaking of slow running...

(btw ook, beating yer 5k record by 4 min. is a nice achievement. What was the overall time? Just for reference. (or to challenge myself...)

47 minutes (I don't have the body of a runner... yet)

The race pictures are up, here's a couple of me:



The "runner's high"

[Pyramid Head]

@kyky: yeah squats are brutal, I did some squats last week and was feeling them in my quads for like 3-4 days.


@akros: Almost there dude congrats on sticking with it


@Andros, while I'm glad your first attempt didn't discourage you from trying again (that's the spirit ), something's wrong if you're collapsing during your run.
It could be because of not eating enough. Try eating a light meal (like 200-300 calories or so) an hour or two before the run.
You say you drink a lot of water, so it's probably not dehydration. But I've heard that if your pee is very light yellow/almost clear, it means you're well-hydrated. So pay attention to that too.
Other than that, maybe you're just running too hard. If you can't do 1 minute of (slow) jogging yet, I'd try adding on a week or two of just walking, to get your body used to it. My "running" after doing C25k is still not much more than exaggerated fast-walking.
Good luck, and I totally know what you mean about being secretive about your running. Only reason anyone in my family found out is because a friend-of-a-friend of my brother's saw me one day about halfway through the chart. So you're not alone in that regard. :p keep it up


Speaking of slow running...

(btw ook, beating yer 5k record by 4 min. is a nice achievement. What was the overall time? Just for reference. (or to challenge myself...)

47 minutes (I don't have the body of a runner... yet)

The race pictures are up, here's a couple of me:
*There was a pic here, it's gone now*

The "runner's high"

Okay i've got to say, you've got some balls for running in broad daylight. I've had to take all my walks and jogs early in the morning to avoid the heat.