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Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice?
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I'm 6'5" and ~240 lbs; not doing any serious exercise and haven't for the past couple years. Like the title says, I just registered for a 14 mile trail run on Sep. 8th.

Advice? Training plans? I figure I'll just run 10 minutes a day for a couple weeks, and increase by two minutes a week until I'm at 30 minutes a day, stay there for two weeks and add in a medium run, long run, and hill repeats, with that same 30 minutes in between each 'hard' day. Run 6 days a week. That'll give me 3 months of long&medium runs plus hill repeats. Is this ambitious? conservative? Sensible?

The plan is also to do yoga daily and a kettlebell routine every other day. No gym access; I live in the woods an hour away from civilization. I do have pool access in summer.

The goal is to become fit and lose weight again. I realize weight is almost entirely a diet issue, but exercise certainly isn't going to hurt.

I will for sure be doing an ITB (P)Rehab routine since that's been an issue in the past. Probably some achilles stuff too? Achilles Tendinitis was my only injury in high school cross country. I've also had overuse injuries&tendinitis in my hands/wrists.

I will also for sure be seeing a doctor to look me over, but I'm not anticipating anything there to slow me down.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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A lot of people here rate the BarryP approach. It's worth a read -> BarryP

My worry with your initial plan is that after a sensible, gradual build it sounds like you are adding 3 tougher runs in the same week. That's quite a change. I have a history of starting running, getting confident and getting injured when I think I've cracked it. So I'm pretty conservative with these things. I'm sure the above link will give you some ideas but it just seems to me you might want to keep to the gradual progression while at the same time not worrying about an easy week or a 'same as the last week' once in a while. Good luck with it.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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JSully wrote:
I'm 6'5" and ~240 lbs; not doing any serious exercise and haven't for the past couple years. Like the title says, I just registered for a 14 mile trail run on Sep. 8th.

Advice? Training plans? I figure I'll just run 10 minutes a day for a couple weeks, and increase by two minutes a week until I'm at 30 minutes a day, stay there for two weeks and add in a medium run, long run, and hill repeats, with that same 30 minutes in between each 'hard' day. Run 6 days a week. That'll give me 3 months of long&medium runs plus hill repeats. Is this ambitious? conservative? Sensible?

The plan is also to do yoga daily and a kettlebell routine every other day. No gym access; I live in the woods an hour away from civilization. I do have pool access in summer.

The goal is to become fit and lose weight again. I realize weight is almost entirely a diet issue, but exercise certainly isn't going to hurt.

I will for sure be doing an ITB (P)Rehab routine since that's been an issue in the past. Probably some achilles stuff too? Achilles Tendinitis was my only injury in high school cross country. I've also had overuse injuries&tendinitis in my hands/wrists.

I will also for sure be seeing a doctor to look me over, but I'm not anticipating anything there to slow me down.


BarryP Run Plan
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...h_string=runtraining

Basically, 6 runs a week: 3 Short, 2 Medium, 1 Long. All easy running - relaxed (may not feel relaxed as you start out since you say you’re out of shape). Short runs are just that—short. Start with 5 minutes. That may feel stupid and unbelievably short, but start small. Medium runs are twice as long as short: 10 minutes. Long runs are three times as long as short: 15 minutes. If you can do this for a few weeks, bump it to 6 minutes. Then 8 minutes. Etc.

If running 6 times a week is too much, do 4 to start until you can move up. Just remember—EASY running. It will feel stupid probably, but your easy pace will drop.

I’ve gone slowly from 20 min short run to 35 min short run over 4 months. I’ve gained a lot of fitness from keeping my running easy but consistent. You get better at things you do a lot. My easy pace (using HR as a gauge) went from 8:35/mi to 7:25/mi with virtually no specific speed/tempo/VO2 max running—just easy jogging 6 days a week.
Last edited by: TriowaCPA: Apr 5, 18 2:30
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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I'd suggest you do some, if not most of those runs off road if that's an option, being that's in the woods. From a strength and general fitness point of view, I think running on soft and/or uneven surfaces and varying terrain is more beneficial than pavement or track. You'll get at least as much exercise, you've less likelihood of repetitive use injuries and you'll probably end up with better form and balance and it's more interesting/engaging IMO.
Of course there's also an increased risk of spraining an ankle or the like, but I'd take that risk if it were me.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [TriowaCPA] [ In reply to ]
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TriowaCPA wrote:
JSully wrote:
I'm 6'5" and ~240 lbs; not doing any serious exercise and haven't for the past couple years. Like the title says, I just registered for a 14 mile trail run on Sep. 8th.

Advice? Training plans? I figure I'll just run 10 minutes a day for a couple weeks, and increase by two minutes a week until I'm at 30 minutes a day, stay there for two weeks and add in a medium run, long run, and hill repeats, with that same 30 minutes in between each 'hard' day. Run 6 days a week. That'll give me 3 months of long&medium runs plus hill repeats. Is this ambitious? conservative? Sensible?

The plan is also to do yoga daily and a kettlebell routine every other day. No gym access; I live in the woods an hour away from civilization. I do have pool access in summer.

The goal is to become fit and lose weight again. I realize weight is almost entirely a diet issue, but exercise certainly isn't going to hurt.

I will for sure be doing an ITB (P)Rehab routine since that's been an issue in the past. Probably some achilles stuff too? Achilles Tendinitis was my only injury in high school cross country. I've also had overuse injuries&tendinitis in my hands/wrists.

I will also for sure be seeing a doctor to look me over, but I'm not anticipating anything there to slow me down.


BarryP Run Plan
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...h_string=runtraining

Basically, 6 runs a week: 3 Short, 2 Medium, 1 Long. All easy running - relaxed (may not feel relaxed as you start out since you say you’re out of shape). Short runs are just that—short. Start with 5 minutes. That may feel stupid and unbelievably short, but start small. Medium runs are twice as long as short: 10 minutes. Long runs are three times as long as short: 15 minutes. If you can do this for a few weeks, bump it to 6 minutes. Then 8 minutes. Etc.

If running 6 times a week is too much, do 4 to start until you can move up. Just remember—EASY running. It will feel stupid probably, but your easy pace will drop.

I’ve gone slowly from 20 min short run to 35 min short run over 4 months. I’ve gained a lot of fitness from keeping my running easy but consistent. You get better at things you do a lot. My easy pace (using HR as a gauge) went from 8:35/mi to 7:25/mi with virtually no specific speed/tempo/VO2 max running—just easy jogging 6 days a week.
This is good advice^^^

I was starting with okay fitness from cycling but was not in great run shape last October and gave the BarryP approach a go, or at least something very similar.
I went with distance but time may be a better approach.
I started at 3km for the short runs but only did 3 runs the first week (2 short, 1 medium), then 4, and 5 before getting to 6 a week and including the 2 medium and 1 long run. I increased my range about 7-10% per week until I was doing about 55km per week. (i.e. 5.5km short runs, 11km medium runs and 16.5km long runs). I stuck with that and was making good progress until I went on a trip at Christmas and got out of the habit! I intended to resume in January but have drifted back to more bike focused training - no triathlons on the horizon to keep me thinking about my running! Time to get back at it.

So while you might start with smaller volumes, I think this sort of approach works very well. Get to 5 or 6 runs a week with most, if not all of that, being easy pace. Keep your volume increases to 10% or less as a rule of thumb, although it you start with very, very low volume you might be okay rising a bit faster for the first couple of weeks.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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As others have said, the BarryP plan is great advice, you're pretty much there already with running 6 days/week and planning a long, medium and hill run. The most likely pitfall will be increasing distance and/or intensity too quickly.

In terms of intensity my view would be that you don't really need to do any work above your long/easy run pace. You're going to get plenty of speed gains just from running regularly again and losing weight, particularly for a relatively long race distance. The hill work is sensible if the race includes hills. When you start introducing the hill runs, keep the weekly distance the same or even drop it a bit while you see how your body responds to the extra work.

For distance just be very cautious in how you ramp up and listen to your body. You've not got ambitious time goals, the aim is to get fit and the best way to do that is through consistency. Much better to err on the side of caution and stay healthy and be able to run 6 days/week than to push it too quickly and injure yourself. Nothing wrong with keeping the volume the same for a few weeks, or dialling it back a bit while you consolidate gains.

Everybody is different, personally I'm quite injury prone in running and have had multiple occasions where the BarryP plan has worked great for 3-6 months or so, then I get over-excited and add in a bit too much distance/intensity too quickly and the wheels have come off. I've found that for me a little bit of intensity really does go a long way (particularly if I'm getting intensity from cycling and/or swimming as well), and that I need to be extremely careful once my weekly volume gets to around the 35-40 mile range.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [TriowaCPA] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
My easy pace (using HR as a gauge) went from 8:35/mi to 7:25/mi

OP realize that your pace may or may not vary GREATLY from the above numbers when talking about an easy pace. I'm in some of the best shape of my life endurance wise training for my first IM over the last 6 months and training for halves before that. However I'm just not fast. I have a coach who has me do some VO2 max tests (basically a 5k time trial). Based on those VO2 max estimates, my easy pace is like 10:30/mile. I can't run 7:25 as a race pace. And I'm typically MOP in a race. So dont assume 8:30 is easy, or even 9:30. You may be 10+ per mile. It's actually hard not to run faster. An hour long easy run can be mind numbing if you dont keep your brain occupied. But its necessary and has worked. My mileage has grown without injury and I've PRd in a half marathon when it wasn't even my focus.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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Hey John -- I saw your FB post this morning. Ambitious! Go for it!

This is a trail run, so I'd echo the above sentiment to do as much of your training off-road as you can. Long hike/runs that you can start right away. Long being a relative term that can grow as your condition improves. Make sure to include some hills in there. The GOAT half course doesn't appear to have huge climbs, but does look like it has plenty of undulations that'll break up rhythm often. Give yourself time to recover as well, but "recover" can be active. While I'm not all that familiar with the BarryP plan, loads of people have had great success with it.

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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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JSully wrote:
The goal is to become fit and lose weight again. I realize weight is almost entirely a diet issue, but exercise certainly isn't going to hurt.

I will for sure be doing an ITB (P)Rehab routine since that's been an issue in the past.

For running follow the BarryP approach, keep it easy & you'll make good progress.

The most likely thing to de-rail you is an injury, so keep on top of issues with foam-rolling/stretching (I follow each run/bike with a small routine & throw in some extra when there's a niggle)

If you'd like to drop weight a little quicker to help with the running I'd suggest throwing in some biking/swimming (instead of ramping run volume/pace)

Good luck
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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I would do only easy runs the whole time leading up to the race. At least 4 times a week. No hard runs.

Inevitably you will end up putting in some hard efforts anyway, but just trying to run fairly easy until September will give you great fitness and hopefully mitigate the chance for injury. You start doing fast/hard training after being unfit and you are just asking for a hurt knee or tendinitis by race time.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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My personal opinion, based on my own experience, is that 6 runs per week, no matter how short or how easy they are, is too many runs if you're starting from sedentary, are overweight, and/or have any sort of history of running injuries. It may seem fine for a while, but that sort of frequecy of running is a major risk for overuse injury IMO. Better to run 3-4x/wk at first and mix in walks, weights, yoga, cycling, hiking, whatever else you enjoy doing. Once you have a solid base of several months, you can start adding in additional frequency. Just my $0.02.
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Re: Fat and untrained. 14 mile trail run on September 8th. Gimme a training plan and advice? [JSully] [ In reply to ]
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Like others have said, gradually increase your mileage and how often you run. The other suggestion I have for you is to do a run/walk, also commonly referred to as the Galloway method. Basically, you do set intervals of running and walking, such as run 1 minute, walk 1 minute (just an example - you’ll have to modify the intervals for your own ability). It’s a legitimate technique and is much easier on your body because you’re including recovery periods (the walk), and you’ll find it’s much easier to cover the distance. Most running watches have this run/walk feature built in even.

You can totally do this.
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