As per the title, my father in law, following retirement, and to help combat depression, has decided to take up running again. Which i am realy pleased for him for.
He used to run alot when he was ALOT younger, so for this assume he’s starting from scratch.
He is 65yrs old, somewhat overweight, and has not exercised in any real form for many years…
Can anyone point me in the direction of a simple training plan for beginners tailored to older folk.
As a target he is hoping to run the 10k at the Gold Coast marathon in July this year.
I don’t really have a plan for your Dad, but I would strongly advise he start short and slow, very slow and build distance slowly before working on speed. Run/walk would be a good start.
Have a look at the GC marathon website, they may have a training plan there.
Maybe get your Dad to join a local running club or group, the social side will help with motivation and mood.
Agree - start slowly, as if a total beginner. It will be interesting to see what plans are offered-up by ST’ers with regard to older folks/beginners. Perhaps shorter 5k distance should be goal.
jeff galloway book i think has program for 10k as well as longer distance. if your father passes physical, then get heart rate monitor, core work and strength work is necessary especially for older folks. join gym and going mid morning he should have some same age partners. inch by inch it’s a cinch. diet is very important too. reduce carbs, go something like paleo or if more adventurous the bulletproof executive plan. ben greenfield has some interesting info. get him a ipad or something to listen to podcasts for all kinds of info on training, diets, life…
I am not a coach, but six years ago I was a 51YO with no endurance training background and about 25 lbs. overweight. Decided I wanted to do tris for some reason. So, I’ll offer up some of what I found out in my initial training.
He has set a goal to run the 10K in July. Excellent. Check that off. I have a tough time getting motivated to train unless I can think about some event or other goal while I am working out.
Make sure his diet is not out of control. At 65, it will be difficult to burn many calories until he gets some muscle mass. Keep in mind, you will need to be reasonable about diet restrictions with guys his age. They are supposed to be enjoying life and you can’t always expect guys in our age group to give up everything. Just make sure he cuts out the stupid foods and leans towards ‘good’ foods. I found potatos and pasta were my biggest weight gainers. Other than that, just eat sensibly and enjoy dessert once a week or so.
I wouldn’t worry about a training plan for a while. At the beginning, I would suggest he do what someone else already mentioned and start with a run/walk program 4-5 times a week. Make sure he is always thinking about the next workout while he is doing the current workout. He will want to be fully recovered for each workout. Keep the intensity level low while working the weight down to minimize joint stresses or the possibility of injuries. This way, he will be able to exercise for a longer time period and burn more calories than if he did a more intense work out. Shoot for an hour or so at first pushing it out to 1 1/2 hours later. Throw in jogging intervals when he feels like it. I stuck with this approach for my first 4-6 weeks and I lost about 8-10 lbs. After that, I was slowly jogging most of my route except for the worst hills. Progressed from there.
Find a way to make the exercise time enjoyable. Tell him to go someplace with nice scenery like a park or something or a destination like a coffee shop. Get an MP3 player to listen to something to provide a distraction. Maybe you could join him on his workout occasionally or he could get some friends/neighbors to get on a walk/run schedule with him.
A guy named John “The Penguin” Bingham has written a few books over the years on beginning running and the trials and tribulations pertaining thereto. Of course, if your dad’s a speed demon, he probably wouldn’t be interested. As a 61-year-old geezerette BOP type person, however, I found them pretty entertaining.
As I have said on other threads(but it is worth repeating,IMO)is he should start by learning to SWAGGER! In other words start with a SLOW walk,head up high,back straight,long stride,SWING your hips and arms and SWAGGER! All of your weight is on your hips and thighs. THAT is the way we should walk! It is far less stress then the way most people walk(bent over,short steps etc.). Walking the swagger way will not only dramatically change your physical condition but your mental condition as well! Even though it feels slower it is actually faster. Practice the swagger walk till you get comfortable with it(not long)then it can be adapted to running and swimming! I still have not figured out how to adapt it to cycling,any ideas?
Guys, thank you all for taking the time to reply so constructively.
I really appreciate it.
I am going to;
Suggest the medical.
Get him a heart rate monitor.
Take him to a local running specialist store for some correct fitting shoes.
Provide him with a plan sticking to a very slow ramp up to 10k
Including plenty of walking / running mix and low impact cross training.
He has access to a great gym and pool facilities, so fingers crossed he finds the passion of the sport.
Thanks again all.
This whole episode has given me even more reasons to love our sport.
It’s saved 3 lives of people close to me… Cannot explain how much it means to me…
get a stress test and cleared by a Dr. if he has been that inactive. OK… start waking…walk longer…add short runs in the walks.and keep building up.Stay off concrete. As a 71 year old runner/ tri guy .get the cushest pair of shoes and add more if have to. I also use torlo thick socks. I use a light weight shoe around 9 oz with added cushing and torlo socks.My shoe is the soucony kinvara. Now for you young guys this what you can look forward to. After running you are going to hurt,.matter of fact my leggs ache all the time that is part of the price. I don’t dare take more than 1 day off between runs things go backward real fast. I still do bricks but they are getting shorter now… I do legg exstensons with weights to protect my knees. Stay off the advil has much as possible. Of course running in warm weather is easier than cold, more so when you age…AND GET A HOT TUB! I use a hot after every workout and at least 3 times a day. Other than that go for it, let those other old people sit around with their thumbs up there butts and why they are falling apart
Guys, thank you all for taking the time to reply so constructively.
I really appreciate it.
I am going to;
Suggest the medical.
Get him a heart rate monitor.
Take him to a local running specialist store for some correct fitting shoes.
Provide him with a plan sticking to a very slow ramp up to 10k
Including plenty of walking / running mix and low impact cross training.
He has access to a great gym and pool facilities, so fingers crossed he finds the passion of the sport.
Thanks again all.
This whole episode has given me even more reasons to love our sport.
It’s saved 3 lives of people close to me… Cannot explain how much it means to me…
Guys, thank you all for taking the time to reply so constructively.
I really appreciate it.
I am going to;
Suggest the medical.
Get him a heart rate monitor.
Take him to a local running specialist store for some correct fitting shoes.
Provide him with a plan sticking to a very slow ramp up to 10k
Including plenty of walking / running mix and low impact cross training.
He has access to a great gym and pool facilities, so fingers crossed he finds the passion of the sport.
Thanks again all.
This whole episode has given me even more reasons to love our sport.
It’s saved 3 lives of people close to me… Cannot explain how much it means to me…
Well, I restarted exercising at age 60 (or was it 59?). When younger, I didn’t do a lot or exercising but have ridden bikes a fair amount. I was amazed at how shitty I was. Truly disappointing. I could not run for more than about a minute. But I had set my goal to do a Sprint Tri IF I could learn to swim. My running program started as “slow jog for 1 minute”, “walk for 2 minutes”. Then I managed to get to “jog for 1 minute”, “walk for 1 minute”. That progressed to “jog for 1.5 minutes”, “walk for 1 minute”. Distances started at about 2Km and slowly increased. Then by the time I was able to go for 5Km it was “jog for 1km”, “walk for 1 to 2 minutes” and finally “Jog for 5Km”. I wear an HRM and watch my HR and pace to not go beyond my max and am on Beta Blockers which helps to keep max HR low. It must have taken a good 6 months to get to being able to go a full 5Km without walk breaks. Longest run to date is 10 Km on a treadmill. Need to increase mileage for the 1/2 Tri I’m doing this summer. Oh and I did learn to swim, at least well enough to hopefully finish the 1/2 before the cutoff.
good to hear; i should have added glucosime/chontroitin is supplement; also take map (aminos). it will take some time but foam rolling will help the muscles. muscle imbalances easy to occur i think with older age (tendancy to ride more than run and quads get dominant). disagree with one responder who said to get cushy shoes. losing the feel of ground not good imho; also chi running may help. midfoot strike for many better than the old way of heel striking but not totally conclusive. good mechanics are essential. some youtubes by chris johnson, a pt in ny are great at getting running core back in shape. biking is dangersous when traffic added so make sure he has good bike skills before going in traffic.
have you heard of C25K? I’d have him do this. It is a scheduled progression of run/walk and have him just walk for 30-40 minutes on the days off. IIRC, C25K only runs 3-4 days/week. Good luck!
The biggest keys are going to be patience and consistency.
As an example, I’m getting to old and beat up to run and am trying the barefoot approach (I’ll let you all know how it goes). I’ve watched my coroworker go about it the wrong way (run hard, get hurt, run hard, get hurt). I literally started with 1 minute a day. I’m currently up to 5 minutes a day after 5 weeks. In a few months, provided all goes well, I’ll be running 15 - 20 miles a week.
They key is to be extremely consistent and conservative and look at long term goals. 10-20 minutes of walking with just 1 -2 minutes of running at first, every single day, will be a great start.
Maximal, fatigue-endpoint treadmill stress ECG test. Not all docs give a Max test. Go to a clinic that does them, because he will want to know if his heart can safely go to the limit of his legs and lungs. It will also provide a safe training heart rate zone if there might be any questions.
Guys, thank you all for taking the time to reply so constructively.
I really appreciate it.
I am going to;
Suggest the medical.
Get him a heart rate monitor.
Take him to a local running specialist store for some correct fitting shoes.
Provide him with a plan sticking to a very slow ramp up to 10k
Including plenty of walking / running mix and low impact cross training.
He has access to a great gym and pool facilities, so fingers crossed he finds the passion of the sport.
Thanks again all.
This whole episode has given me even more reasons to love our sport.
It’s saved 3 lives of people close to me… Cannot explain how much it means to me…
Cos i haven’t time to pm thank each of you in turn , please accept this as a HUGE thanks to everyone who took the time to feedback…
I sent a structured and summarised content of all the points made in a logical sequence to my Father in law…
We’re working through it now.
He has arranged a medical, explaining his intent.
I have orderd him his first HRM… (funny explaining all this to him… you forget how involved we have manged to mae sport these days until you have to explain it from scratch)…
We are heading down to our local specialst run shop to sort some runners and shorts… (i said he can use t- shirts until he starts the continuous running phase… it’ll be winter here soon…)
And have created a plan referring the structure and advice provided by you guys and the links provided and my own experiance of structured training over the years…
It looked way to easy, so i think its probably about right…
Also given him links to a number of motivational web sites so he can imerse himself in it…
yes, couch 2 5k is great. it helped me get started at 52. after 9 weeks, ran my first 5k, 6 weeks later took 2nd in ag. next race won masters.
then worked up to 10k, did a half marathon exactly a year after i started running.