Fitness Milestones & Plans to share

A stomach bug or something derailed keto, so I'm back at it here in a few days.

Approaching 50, "burning the candle at both ends" so-to-speak in this case kind of wrecks a person.

There's sooooo much literature that supports how our bodies slow down, testosterone drops, and stress hormones go up in our 40s. Rest and nutrition are so important. So is recovery.
 
There's sooooo much literature that supports how our bodies slow down, testosterone drops, and stress hormones go up in our 40s. Rest and nutrition are so important. So is recovery.

Yeah, my recovery time from when I was younger is noticeable. "No shit, Sherlock." To put it another way, 48 hours after the fact I felt better at 27 having my gall bladder removed than I did at 49 with a simple stomach bug.

Anyway, the point here isn't two old guys complaining and comparing notes or me whining, but you young(er) folks need to know that aging isn't any bullshit. The Pat McNamara's of the world aren't exactly the norm...

Back to positivity and shit.
 
Yeah, my recovery time from when I was younger is noticeable. "No shit, Sherlock." To put it another way, 48 hours after the fact I felt better at 27 having my gall bladder removed than I did at 49 with a simple stomach bug.

Also...Hangovers really do hurt more than they used to.
 
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Check out sonic endurance.com if you guys want online zone run coaching. I used them prior to going to my selection, and workouts were only delivered after analyzing results from your current days runs. He programmed for me knowing i wanted to do two ruck runs a week, and he was able to program running and deliver results around my gym/rucks/everything so long as provided the feedback, and I never felt overtrained.

They set up a trainingpeaks account for you to use, and give pretty detailed descriptions one you upload information. They'll tell the purpose of your workouts, why you're running in that zone, how your RPE should feel, what your effort level should be.

I've been trying to get ahold of my old running coach there to train me, but to this day, I do atleast one 45 minute Z2 run a week.
End goal is strength and weight loss. I’ve been doing my Pelaton 30-45 minutes 4-5 days a week and strength training 3-4 times per week.

Came here to ask this. As of now I work 6 evenings a week, go to school for 4 hours two days a week and have a 6 hour clinical one day a week. When I am through with nursing school I want to go back into the NG or Air guard if I can. Right now I'm looking at SERE or TACP, of course, if they'll let me back in etc. I'll have to squeeze runs and weights/calesthenics in the same workout.

I've always been able to do 80+ s/u and p/u in 2 mins, 12+ pull ups etc so I'm not worried about strength or endurance. At 5'8" around 180 I want to spend the next year in school working on a faster run. I came here to see if anyone had any experience with running coaches or training programs that emphasize slow running 75% of the time. To me it seems bananas. I tried in the past to do 9:30/mi. for about 4 miles but couldn't stick with it and later ended up running slower APFT.

A couple programs I looked at suggested slow runs of 10:20-11:30 min/mi a couple times a week??? Has anybody had any experience with these long term? That plus a single interval day plus tempo day at 8:44 for 3 mi. Intervals are 12x400m at 7:18. The intervals would be the only "challenging" run other than boredom, I'm afraid it won't lead to serious speed increases.

Also for those that know HR, I usually run hard about 180 bpm., around 3 mi. and some HS track workouts with my son 3-4 200m, 5-6 40yd. etc. I tried a slow 9:10 3 miler and HR was still ~170.

Most recent: 3 mi 24:50 was moderate to hard for me, 5.3 sec 40yd dash, 12.5? sec 100m. All done on a track. Last year doing contracting I ran a 10:10 1.5 mi.

My goal is a 9:30 1.5mi, around a 21:00 3 mi, without killing myself.
 
Came here to ask this. As of now I work 6 evenings a week, go to school for 4 hours two days a week and have a 6 hour clinical one day a week. When I am through with nursing school I want to go back into the NG or Air guard if I can. Right now I'm looking at SERE or TACP, of course, if they'll let me back in etc. I'll have to squeeze runs and weights/calesthenics in the same workout.

I've always been able to do 80+ s/u and p/u in 2 mins, 12+ pull ups etc so I'm not worried about strength or endurance. At 5'8" around 180 I want to spend the next year in school working on a faster run. I came here to see if anyone had any experience with running coaches or training programs that emphasize slow running 75% of the time. To me it seems bananas. I tried in the past to do 9:30/mi. for about 4 miles but couldn't stick with it and later ended up running slower APFT.

A couple programs I looked at suggested slow runs of 10:20-11:30 min/mi a couple times a week??? Has anybody had any experience with these long term? That plus a single interval day plus tempo day at 8:44 for 3 mi. Intervals are 12x400m at 7:18. The intervals would be the only "challenging" run other than boredom, I'm afraid it won't lead to serious speed increases.

Also for those that know HR, I usually run hard about 180 bpm., around 3 mi. and some HS track workouts with my son 3-4 200m, 5-6 40yd. etc. I tried a slow 9:10 3 miler and HR was still ~170.

Most recent: 3 mi 24:50 was moderate to hard for me, 5.3 sec 40yd dash, 12.5? sec 100m. All done on a track. Last year doing contracting I ran a 10:10 1.5 mi.

My goal is a 9:30 1.5mi, around a 21:00 3 mi, without killing myself.

I don't run like I used to, mainly because I hate it also because I'm old. That said, a wise coach told me "If you want to run fast, you have to run slow." 80% of my runs were at the 11:30ish pace for miles, which did increase my speed because my endurance was so much better. About 10% of my runs were actually full-on speed runs.

Check out Taylor Starch YouTube videos on @amlove21 OR podcasts.
 
I'm a dumbass that could never run fast. A 14:00 2mi. was my best time, and I always wanted to be able to do a sub 40 min/5mi. With a running buddy willing to do two or three 5-7 milers a week I can, but not too many of those around. And then too I just went moderate to hard every run. By myself I was never able.
 
I will second what @Devildoc mentioned with Taylor Starch. Running slow really does add a HUGE aerobic base for you to build off of. I ran an interval workout once every 2-3 weeks (if even that) for about 8 months with most of my runs being 10 min pace or slower with elevation. Took my AF PT test and ran a 9:25 mile and a half. Not smoking fast or record breaking, but I never once trained for the PT test specifically, just ran a steady pace for long distances. Give it a shot for a couple months and see the benefits.
 
Came here to ask this. As of now I work 6 evenings a week, go to school for 4 hours two days a week and have a 6 hour clinical one day a week. When I am through with nursing school I want to go back into the NG or Air guard if I can. Right now I'm looking at SERE or TACP, of course, if they'll let me back in etc. I'll have to squeeze runs and weights/calesthenics in the same workout.

I've always been able to do 80+ s/u and p/u in 2 mins, 12+ pull ups etc so I'm not worried about strength or endurance. At 5'8" around 180 I want to spend the next year in school working on a faster run. I came here to see if anyone had any experience with running coaches or training programs that emphasize slow running 75% of the time. To me it seems bananas. I tried in the past to do 9:30/mi. for about 4 miles but couldn't stick with it and later ended up running slower APFT.

A couple programs I looked at suggested slow runs of 10:20-11:30 min/mi a couple times a week??? Has anybody had any experience with these long term? That plus a single interval day plus tempo day at 8:44 for 3 mi. Intervals are 12x400m at 7:18. The intervals would be the only "challenging" run other than boredom, I'm afraid it won't lead to serious speed increases.

Also for those that know HR, I usually run hard about 180 bpm., around 3 mi. and some HS track workouts with my son 3-4 200m, 5-6 40yd. etc. I tried a slow 9:10 3 miler and HR was still ~170.

Most recent: 3 mi 24:50 was moderate to hard for me, 5.3 sec 40yd dash, 12.5? sec 100m. All done on a track. Last year doing contracting I ran a 10:10 1.5 mi.

My goal is a 9:30 1.5mi, around a 21:00 3 mi, without killing myself.
I'd suggest Sonic endurance coaching then.

They help you find your actual HR zones: max, ZR, Z1-5. And force you to run in the HR zone.

You may have to barely walk to stay at ZR for 45 minutes, but maybe at the end of it you're doing a light jog for ZR @45 minutes. Or you may do a Z2 run for 55 minutes and only cover 2.1 miles. But at the end of the training you're able to do Z2 at 55 minutes, and you cover 3.5 miles. Its so detailed, I actually could see the results. My heart was using the same effort for similar runs, but putting out more volume by the end.

These are all arbitrary numbers, but you get the point. I think 3 months of training under my coach, and I went from a 20:30 3 mile, to a 17:55. And I was a thicc boi(215lbs at the time)
 
Did a 9 week 80/20 running program. Was sitting around 24:13/ 3mi. last summer, and now slightly faster 24:28/ 5k. With school and work in the way I stretched the 9 weeks into ~11 from missing workouts and rescheduling them for when i had time.

Before i go into another 80/20, im starting a free McMillan 10k program that comes with having a Garmin. Main difference is faster slow jogs at 9-10min/mi., which is going to give me a lot of Z3 time I think.

I'll report back in a few months.
 
10k on my own today. Used the free McMillan plan from Garmin connect.

Aiming for sub 50 min 10k which is 8:03/mi. Did 52:18, about 8:25/mi. I know this sounds like a cliché, but I was running into 19 mph wind in the last half. Slowed down from ~8 to 9-9:30.

HR was at 175+ for the last half...

I will re-do the run in a few weeks when I have time.
 
Working the Peloton, walking, and occasional weights into the game. Wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 pretty much exclusively unless I’m going ‘out’ and throw on the Marathon.

Reviewing the tracking numbers over the past year or so, I am shocked at how much a few beers and a cigar affect my HR, sleep and overall numbers. On the flip side, I am equally surprised at how quickly my resting HR plummets and my sleep improves after a few days of cardio and no beer or cigars; definitely has affected how often (and how much) I do have when I choose to partake in a cigar and bourbon.
 
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