DFW running club mark 3!! ALL ARE WELCOME!!

RichOneday_2

bj-sailaway wrote: »

Oh no! Not sure if this info is pleasing or depressing! I don't want my weight to go up!!! Yes, I want running to shift the last stone, but I also love the 'outdoorsyness' of it, and need to improve my aerobic health, I've worked really hard on the strength. But eek - I tend to avoid carbs like they're the devil - hence achieving a 6 1/2 stone weight loss.

Cripes - this is all going to take far more turning around than I thought! I was hoping a bit of weight would fall off and make the running easier! Darn fool am I then eh!

But, I ran the whole 3.8 miles last night - hooray hooray - very slow though! 11.4 pace average my garmin said.

Putting weight on wont make running harder - quite the opposite. Weight isnt bad, fat is!

As you put weight on you are icreasing lean muscle mass and reducing fat. The key stat, which you cant measure really but it is still going on, is the power/weight ratio.

While the weight is initially increasing the power/weight ratio will be improving so its nothing to be concerned about.

Well done on last night's run.:D

becky_rtw

Wow I enjoyed this

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/11/03/marathon/

How Oprah ruined the marathon in the US!!!

beer_tins

bj-sailaway wrote: »

Oh no! Not sure if this info is pleasing or depressing! I don't want my weight to go up!!! Yes, I want running to shift the last stone, but I also love the 'outdoorsyness' of it, and need to improve my aerobic health, I've worked really hard on the strength. But eek - I tend to avoid carbs like they're the devil - hence achieving a 6 1/2 stone weight loss.

Cripes - this is all going to take far more turning around than I thought! I was hoping a bit of weight would fall off and make the running easier! Darn fool am I then eh!

But, I ran the whole 3.8 miles last night - hooray hooray - very slow though! 11.4 pace average my garmin said.

bj, don't worry too much. The reason you put on weight initially is because you will increase your lean muscle mass. You won't put on fat! Once you start running further you will need carbs. That doesn't mean you have to gorge on them, but if you know your run the next day is going to use 500 calories, you will need to consume an appropriate amount of carbs, as this is your body's main source of ready energy. Carbs are stored as glucose and then converted to glycogen. This will in turn be converted back to glucose by your liver as you run. Once you run out of glycogen your body goes into ketosis, a kind of state of "starvation" where the liver fuels the body from fat alone. This may sound like a good thing for weight loss, but for runners it is terrible. Some unfortunate runners know the state of ketosis better as "hitting the wall". The problem with it is that the liver is much slower to convert energy from fat cells, so running becomes a hard and painful experience at this point!

You also need some protein to help your muscles strengthen themselves and to really benefit from the training.

As far as weight loss (can we call it "fat loss"?!) is concerned, as long as you burn more calories in a day than you use you WILL lose fat. It doesn't matter how or when you consume or burn the calories because the body will balance it's energy stores and if it is short on energy, stored fat is broken down.

The theory of running slowly as this burns a higher proportion of fat while you run is true, but it misses the point. If you run fast and burn lot of energy from glycogen in the morning, your body will simply burn more fat during the rest of the day, because that is what it has left!

Sorry for rambling on. I just wanted to hammer home the point that while carbs are probably best avoided by those with sedentary lifestyles*, you need them if you exercise a lot. As long as you don't have all these carbs on top of what you are already eating, there is no problem.

* simply because they are energy intensive.

becky_rtw

Thanks BT - nice lesson in why VLCDs dont work for runners who want to get faster!

Carbs really are your friends whatever atkins et al say

RichOneday_2

becky_rtw wrote: »

Wow I enjoyed this

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/11/03/marathon/

How Oprah ruined the marathon in the US!!!

Great article!!

It is interesting how Ryan Hall is the fastest US marathon runner and yet cant make the US Top250 list - this was a coutry that used to produce Olympic champions and mirrors exactly what has happened in the UK.

The other telling point is this:
The guru of these new runners was an ex-music professor named John Bingham, who writes a Runner's World column under the handle "the Penguin." At age 43, Bingham took the admirable step of throwing away his cigarettes and signing up for a race. Unlike Bill Rodgers, he was not headed for athletic glory. He finished dead last. Bingham did not respond by training harder. Instead, he embraced his God-given lack of talent -- and urged readers to do the same. Absolving runners of the pressure to actually run was a brilliant feel-good message. Thanks to his book, "No Need for Speed," Bingham became the most celebrated marathoner in America. (If you don't believe me, go to the marathon starting chute and ask the runners if they've ever heard of Ryan Hall. Then ask about the Penguin.)

This is just as sad as the fact that everybody seems to know that Jordan ran the London Marathon but ask the same people about Andi Jones and they wont have a clue.:rolleyes:


And just love this quote:

This was a middle-aged woman hauling her flab around the District of Columbia. If Oprah could run a marathon, shame on anyone who couldn't.
When Oprah expanded the sport, she also lowered the bar for excellence. For the previous generation of marathoners, the goal had been qualifying for Boston. Now, it was beating Oprah.

becky_rtw

RichOneday wrote: »

And just love this quote:

This was a middle-aged woman hauling her flab around the District of Columbia. If Oprah could run a marathon, shame on anyone who couldn't.
When Oprah expanded the sport, she also lowered the bar for excellence. For the previous generation of marathoners, the goal had been qualifying for Boston. Now, it was beating Oprah.

That was the bit that got me as well! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Love the picture of her being hugged as well - so fitting for that paragraph!

RichOneday_2

Also note the point about 'qualifying for Boston'.

It used to be a right you earned to get into the best marathons - now it seems everyone thinks they have the 'right' as long as they are prepared to hound their friends/families for a few quid. What that has to do with running I will never understand.:rolleyes:

becky_rtw

Oh by the way - whats going on at Leeds parkrun on Saturday - why is it suddenly a full on track and field event?? Weird...

Can we do Heaton park please

parkrun leeds gold
(Part of London 2012 Open Weekend)

The University of Leeds invite you to a unique morning of sport and family activity to celebrate London 2012 Open Weekend - and the three-year countdown to the start of the London Olympics.

Activities get underway at 9am with the 5km parkrun around Woodhouse Moor, Hyde Park which is free and open to all.

The parkrun will be followed by a 1.5km relay race for under 16’s and a 1.5km wheelchair race. There will also be the opportunity to try out events such as 60m sprint, standing long jump, foam javelins, mini-hurdles and a Speed, Agility and Quickness circuit. There will be a range of prizes available for the best performances in each event and for the overall best performer in different age group categories.

Coaches from Leeds City Athletics club, Leeds Metropolitan University & the University of Leeds will be on hand to instruct and oversee.

Participants can also benefit from free pre and post event massage from University of Leeds Sports Massage team and everyone is invited to bring picnics and brunch.

beer_tins

For me, this bit is very concise and relevant "the marathon became a gateway into the sport". Once it was something you build to. Nowadays you get runners training only for one race, it's not part of an individual runner's progression, it is a one stop shop. Do it once, tick it off and never again.

beer_tins

becky_rtw wrote: »

Thanks BT - nice lesson in why VLCDs dont work for runners who want to get faster!

Carbs really are your friends whatever atkins et al say

Carbs are decried as poison by the weight loss industry for obvious reasons. They are high in energy. If you cut out carbs you can have the same volume of food and consume less energy. This makes sense. As long as you don't need the ready energy e.g. for mid-high intensity exercise. Sadly the Low carb diet industry refuse to acknowledge this, but then they have a vested interest. They will tell you it is possible to run a marathon on an Atkins diet. While this may be possible, it would be the equivalent of hitting the wall at the start line i.e it would be 26.2 miles of very slow and painful running.

Basically if you want to lose weight by doing a lot of exercise, low carb diets are not compatible. You need to simply consume less energy than you burn, while giving your body the ready fuel and protein it needs.

If you chose to sit on your backside all day, every day, carbs are not your friend. But nor is fat or salt.