****Official 2013 Weight Loss Challenge****

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by kcmaxwell

I'm in. About 200, will check for sure tomorrow. Haven't ran in about a month or so... Would like to get down around 170 and have a goal of a half marathon by the end of the year. Don't know how realistic that is, my longest distance so far is 5 miles.

Run six miles. If you can run six, you have a half marathon in you. A lot of people can never get to six. That seems to be the magic number.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Run six miles. If you can run six, you have a half marathon in you. A lot of people can never get to six. That seems to be the magic number.

That makes me feel good. I got up to 8 before I decided to **** it off. I almost insulted myself there. The first step to becoming a better person is forgiving past mistakes and growing from them. Today, I exercise. Tomorrow, I exercise more. Soon enough, I will be running 8 miles again. Slowly, but I will run them all and not walk one step. Then, I will complete a half marathon. I will try to do it before the end of the year. In the process, I will need to lose 150-200lbs. If you've never been here, God bless you. You just can't understand it. The body's desire to wear food instead of process it...

[cookster50]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

That makes me feel good. I got up to 8 before I decided to **** it off. I almost insulted myself there. The first step to becoming a better person is forgiving past mistakes and growing from them. Today, I exercise. Tomorrow, I exercise more. Soon enough, I will be running 8 miles again. Slowly, but I will run them all and not walk one step. Then, I will complete a half marathon. I will try to do it before the end of the year. In the process, I will need to lose 150-200lbs. If you've never been here, God bless you. You just can't understand it. The body's desire to wear food instead of process it...

And just think, once you reach your goal, you can change your name to Mr. Hardnuts!

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by cookster50

And just think, once you reach your goal, you can change your name to Mr. Hardnuts!

That's what Clay used to call me when I did it the first time. Rep.

[cookster50]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

That's what Clay used to call me when I did it the first time. Rep.

Crap, that means in some things, Clay and I have a similar thought process. I should just kill myself now.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by cookster50

Crap, that means in some things, Clay and I have a similar thought process. I should just kill myself now.

Guaranteed you're not the first to say this...

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Run six miles. If you can run six, you have a half marathon in you. A lot of people can never get to six. That seems to be the magic number.

how many minutes per mile should I average with 6 miles? Is 10 good?

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by Capt Tasty Cheeks

how many minutes per mile should I average with 6 miles? Is 10 good?

Who cares? You can always build speed. Personally, I focused on the endurance first. Now, I'm much, much heavier than you, and was also at the time. I weighed 270 when I was running 8 miles. My first 5k I ran a 12:30 minute mile. By the time I was running 8 miles I cut it down to about 11 minutes. And that was at 270. Focus on the endurance, and challenge the **** out of yourself and the speed will come.

I don't normally advocate taking fitness advice from a 400lbs man, but I have some experience in this.

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

Who cares? You can always build speed. Personally, I focused on the endurance first. Now, I'm much, much heavier than you, and was also at the time. I weighed 270 when I was running 8 miles. My first 5k I ran a 12:30 minute mile. By the time I was running 8 miles I cut it down to about 11 minutes. And that was at 270. Focus on the endurance, and challenge the **** out of yourself and the speed will come.

I don't normally advocate taking fitness advice from a 400lbs man, but I have some experience in this.

right now I am doing intervals and I do a little less than 10 minutes per mile for 3 miles. At this point my routine is getting a little bit easy. I'm thinking of either increasing speed and sticking with 30 minutes of cardio or maybe adding 2-4 more intervals into my routine.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by Capt Tasty Cheeks

right now I am doing intervals and I do a little less than 10 minutes per mile for 3 miles. At this point my routine is getting a little bit easy. I'm thinking of either increasing speed and sticking with 30 minutes of cardio or maybe adding 2-4 more intervals into my routine.

Never let it get easy. That's the best advice anyone can give you when it comes to running, or really fitness of any kind. Constantly feel like death warmed over when you're done, and you will continue to improve at satisfactory rates.

[Ceej]

Down two pounds since original weigh in.

I intend on weighing myself once a week.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Capt Tasty Cheeks

right now I am doing intervals and I do a little less than 10 minutes per mile for 3 miles. At this point my routine is getting a little bit easy. I'm thinking of either increasing speed and sticking with 30 minutes of cardio or maybe adding 2-4 more intervals into my routine.

Go walk 3 miles with a 30 lb kettlebell in each hand.

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by Capt Tasty Cheeks

how many minutes per mile should I average with 6 miles? Is 10 good?

I'm far from an expert, but I can tell you what works for me.

When I run, I set a pace in my mind that I know I can keep. I don't try to run my absolute fastest, at least not very often. For me, trying to get my best time is like maxing out on the bench press. There is a place for it, but not every time.

I don't concern myself with my average time. I want to set myself on cruise control so that every mile is run at the same speed. (If I'm running six miles, my fastest and slowest WILL BE within fifteen seconds of each other.) If that means my fastest time for six miles averages ten minutes per mile, I may run at a 10:15 pace just to make sure that my last mile is the same speed as my first mile.

While I can't say what a good pace is for anyone else, I can pass along something that happened to me when I started running (just last spring). I was running with another beginner, and I am a better athlete than my running partner, so I had to adjust my pace a bit so I didn't get way ahead. After a while, I started having knee problems. This kept up until I ran with an experienced runner who watched me run for a few miles and then said "keep up" before taking off. I had to damned near sprint for about a half mile to keep up, but my knee pain went away.

Afterwards, he told me that I had been running too slow (about a 10:15 pace iirc), and that I was essentially running with the gas and brakes on at the same time. Running with a slower partner had caused me to slow myself down every step and was exerting pressure on my knees. Speeding up to a 9:00 pace was much easier on my body and wasn't much harder for my lungs.

My advice would be to find a pace that works for you and let yourself naturally get faster. If you run six miles at a ten minute pace and feel like you have energy left at the end, try 9:45. Just make sure that you know your marks ahead of time. By that, I mean that you should be at 2:26 after a quarter mile, 4:52 after a half mile, 39:00 after 4 miles, etc. Make a game of it.

I like to run outside, and I know every inch of the path I run most often. I know the fence post I need to hit at 2:30 if I want to run a pace of 8:45. I know the scratch in the pavement at 27:30. I always thought I was weird that way, but I've talked to several runners who are the exact same way.

In the end, it's really about what keeps you going. From a results standpoint the distance matters WAY more than the speed.