I did couch to 5k for the first time in my first year of university, 13 years ago. I’d say I’ve been ‘a runner’ for about the last ten years? I’ve had times where I’ve gotten out of the habit, or I’ve been doing other things (after training for a half then getting covid two weeks before it… I didn’t want to look at my running shoes again) so I’ve used the same programme as a way to get back into the habit again. Now here I am, ran five times last week, still incredibly slowly, but I’m enjoying it! And that’s what matters.
4 mile run done this morning, 16secs faster than the other morning (but it was hotter then)! Enjoyed reading this post and so true re not losing weight by just exercising! I started running in my late 30's and managed 4 marathons, the last one half marathon I did in my 50's. Now try to regularly run 3 times a week but my knees won't do distance anymore. I find it it is a great head space time and allows me to let my mind wander.
Sub 30 minutes is actually pretty fast! The average 5K time for women is something like 36 minutes. Yes, there are plenty of people who are a lot faster... but of course there are far, far more who don't run at all.
36 minutes feels like a doable goal. The mental belief that something is achievable is such a motivating factor. I did manage something close to that this morning. Not hitting the addictive factor yet though.
Did Couch to 5K in 2019. Ran until I got covid in March 2020. Long covid for the rest of that year and could hardly walk. Now too much knee pain. Possibly too old for this shit at 61. Glad it worked for you, though. Swimming is my goto.
This is giving me food for thought and consider trying running again! I personally got into it when I went to the gym and could better gage my confortable pace using a machine, but I don’t want to go back and don’t have time for that added commute.
My current mental block is that it isn’t just 30 minutes, it’s a 20-30 minute run plus cooldown plus shower time. Finding that continuous hour in a day where I am available and have energy, on a consistent basis, is eluding me at the moment 😞
Yes, it's true that it's not always as simple as 30 minutes and done — I often have self-indulgently long showers at very obscure times of day after festering in my running clothes for longer than is acceptable!
I started Cto5k (AGAIN) a couple of months ago in between strength training days. It felt like a near death experience and I cried in the car park outside the gym. 22 runs later and I’m doing 6 minute intervals and feel like Xena warrior princess. I’m 51 and have never stuck with any exercise and now I take creatine and track my macros and its aces.
That's amazing! And sticking at it after car park meltdown is true warrior princess stuff. I've just started on the creatine too, too early to see if it's having any impact but hoping to be shredded AF soon.
I'm not a runner, but I hike, kayak, bikepack and enjoy endurance cycling. You *can* burn more calories that way and lose some weight, but you still have to focus on food-as-fuel for training (especially cycling or hiking climbs.) The norm of only feeling sane when you've done something intensive in the last day or two applies here too.
Perhaps the biggest challenge with maintaining food-as-fuel is when you're on cycle tours. I have ridden with people who see long-distance cycling as an excuse to EAT wherever they arrive each day, which is fine when you're cycling six hours per day (that's around 7,500-15,000kJ so you can chomp on anything), but not fine when you're down to four hours per week and still eating like a herd of Clydesdales chanced on an overturned cake-van.
For cycling 'getting faster' depends on what you mean. If you want a ride of 1-3 hours to get faster then you have to learn to spend more and more time riding in the 'uncomfortable' zone. This gets your heart and muscles more and more efficient until your lungs become the main limitation.
Then you have to work on the 'nearly puke' zone, which helps your lungs get better too.
Then you run out of more long-distance flat speed to add, and you can work on hill speed too.
I agree that you're not too busy to do something three or four times per week UNLESS something's regularly messing with your sleep. Interrupted sleep means that even if you have the time, your body can't really handle the effort anyway. But if you can get your sleep sorted then you can get the exercises sorted too.
As for wiping your own bum at 92 I can't say yea or nay on that, but the oldest cyclist I know rode 1200km around the Australian outback at the age of 79. She's 84 now and still hikes up hills. She's tough enough that if she wanted her bum wiped but had a sore shoulder, she could *make* someone do it, so there's always that.
Wow, love the sound of all this adventuring. There was an interesting experiment by Dr Giles Yeo on cycling and weight, he cycled the length of the UK in 14 days and didn't lose a single pound, it's an interesting read: https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/exercise-weight-loss
So true about the sleep. I'm quite fortunate that I've always been a good sleeper (my mum always talks about how I slept and ate amazingly well as a baby... I haven't changed!) but when I've had periods of bad sleep (entirely due to babies) it's definitely been impossible to be anything but sloth-like.
Oh, that's fascinating, Isabel! Thank you for the link.
My experience is much like Dr Yeo's. On multi-day, well-supported tours, your weight stabilises quickly. His numbers of around 12,500kJ per day for an 80kg male sound about right. But I have also done a 1,200km ride through the Australian Outback where there's no cafe or pub to be found -- you carry what you eat, and the fat just melts off.
But I think Dr Yeo could also have been a bit more meticulous on his data. Here's why.
When you eat carbs some of the calories become available inside around ten minutes and that will get you up hills if you're tired (bananas are a good example.) But some (the low-GI stuff like porridge or museli) are slow-release and become available over about 60-90 minutes. This is why stops every 30km are about right for cyclists -- at 20kph for casual endurance riders, that's a stop every 1.5 hours on a six-hour riding day.
But that's all in the blood-stream. Any carbs you eat before bed get stored in muscle instead, and when they store that way, 1g of carb needs 3g of water to store it. If you're carb-loading into the evenings, a 80kg male could easily add 1-2kg of carb-water mass (around 15% less for women of comparable mass because it's muscle related.)
When you burn that energy on the final day, if you don't replace it, you'll end up whizzing like a horse, and can easily lose 1-2kg on the scales. But that might be the day *after* you've finished the event. Or, if you have some big meal to celebrate at the end, it could be days later, after your diet gets back to normal.
Plus, you can also easily lose 1kg of body-mass to dehydration.
So depending on conditions a 2-3kg variation in an 80kg rider's weight is quite feasible over multiple riding days. So two data-points alone don't really tell you much. You really need to track trending before, during and after the event, and if you're interested in fat-loss then some waistline measurements help too.
I did couch to 5k for the first time in my first year of university, 13 years ago. I’d say I’ve been ‘a runner’ for about the last ten years? I’ve had times where I’ve gotten out of the habit, or I’ve been doing other things (after training for a half then getting covid two weeks before it… I didn’t want to look at my running shoes again) so I’ve used the same programme as a way to get back into the habit again. Now here I am, ran five times last week, still incredibly slowly, but I’m enjoying it! And that’s what matters.
4 mile run done this morning, 16secs faster than the other morning (but it was hotter then)! Enjoyed reading this post and so true re not losing weight by just exercising! I started running in my late 30's and managed 4 marathons, the last one half marathon I did in my 50's. Now try to regularly run 3 times a week but my knees won't do distance anymore. I find it it is a great head space time and allows me to let my mind wander.
Sounds like you're doing brilliantly! Yes, running is essential head space and, crucially, non-scrolling time for me too.
Thanks, Isabel. Lots of good tips here to get me back out there. In my head I’ve had the belief (because where else would a belief be - stupidly
phrased!) that 5km has to be sub 30mins. The fact that you don’t always hit this is movingly motivating. Thank you. I love your posts. ❤️
Sub 30 minutes is actually pretty fast! The average 5K time for women is something like 36 minutes. Yes, there are plenty of people who are a lot faster... but of course there are far, far more who don't run at all.
36 minutes feels like a doable goal. The mental belief that something is achievable is such a motivating factor. I did manage something close to that this morning. Not hitting the addictive factor yet though.
Did Couch to 5K in 2019. Ran until I got covid in March 2020. Long covid for the rest of that year and could hardly walk. Now too much knee pain. Possibly too old for this shit at 61. Glad it worked for you, though. Swimming is my goto.
Great to find your goto and swimming is MUCH more pleasant than running at this time of year!
This is giving me food for thought and consider trying running again! I personally got into it when I went to the gym and could better gage my confortable pace using a machine, but I don’t want to go back and don’t have time for that added commute.
My current mental block is that it isn’t just 30 minutes, it’s a 20-30 minute run plus cooldown plus shower time. Finding that continuous hour in a day where I am available and have energy, on a consistent basis, is eluding me at the moment 😞
Yes, it's true that it's not always as simple as 30 minutes and done — I often have self-indulgently long showers at very obscure times of day after festering in my running clothes for longer than is acceptable!
Working mostly from home helps too! Much more acceptable to sit down at a desk with wet hair when it’s in your own home than when it’s in an office.
“Keep it up Fattie” is the name of your Substack? I love it!
Haha thank you, I had to find a way to reclaim those words!
Oh to be able to blame my smoking hot lover 😂
All in good time…
I started Cto5k (AGAIN) a couple of months ago in between strength training days. It felt like a near death experience and I cried in the car park outside the gym. 22 runs later and I’m doing 6 minute intervals and feel like Xena warrior princess. I’m 51 and have never stuck with any exercise and now I take creatine and track my macros and its aces.
That's amazing! And sticking at it after car park meltdown is true warrior princess stuff. I've just started on the creatine too, too early to see if it's having any impact but hoping to be shredded AF soon.
Cheering us both on!
I enjoyed your article, Isabel.
I'm not a runner, but I hike, kayak, bikepack and enjoy endurance cycling. You *can* burn more calories that way and lose some weight, but you still have to focus on food-as-fuel for training (especially cycling or hiking climbs.) The norm of only feeling sane when you've done something intensive in the last day or two applies here too.
Perhaps the biggest challenge with maintaining food-as-fuel is when you're on cycle tours. I have ridden with people who see long-distance cycling as an excuse to EAT wherever they arrive each day, which is fine when you're cycling six hours per day (that's around 7,500-15,000kJ so you can chomp on anything), but not fine when you're down to four hours per week and still eating like a herd of Clydesdales chanced on an overturned cake-van.
For cycling 'getting faster' depends on what you mean. If you want a ride of 1-3 hours to get faster then you have to learn to spend more and more time riding in the 'uncomfortable' zone. This gets your heart and muscles more and more efficient until your lungs become the main limitation.
Then you have to work on the 'nearly puke' zone, which helps your lungs get better too.
Then you run out of more long-distance flat speed to add, and you can work on hill speed too.
I agree that you're not too busy to do something three or four times per week UNLESS something's regularly messing with your sleep. Interrupted sleep means that even if you have the time, your body can't really handle the effort anyway. But if you can get your sleep sorted then you can get the exercises sorted too.
As for wiping your own bum at 92 I can't say yea or nay on that, but the oldest cyclist I know rode 1200km around the Australian outback at the age of 79. She's 84 now and still hikes up hills. She's tough enough that if she wanted her bum wiped but had a sore shoulder, she could *make* someone do it, so there's always that.
Wow, love the sound of all this adventuring. There was an interesting experiment by Dr Giles Yeo on cycling and weight, he cycled the length of the UK in 14 days and didn't lose a single pound, it's an interesting read: https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/exercise-weight-loss
So true about the sleep. I'm quite fortunate that I've always been a good sleeper (my mum always talks about how I slept and ate amazingly well as a baby... I haven't changed!) but when I've had periods of bad sleep (entirely due to babies) it's definitely been impossible to be anything but sloth-like.
Oh, that's fascinating, Isabel! Thank you for the link.
My experience is much like Dr Yeo's. On multi-day, well-supported tours, your weight stabilises quickly. His numbers of around 12,500kJ per day for an 80kg male sound about right. But I have also done a 1,200km ride through the Australian Outback where there's no cafe or pub to be found -- you carry what you eat, and the fat just melts off.
But I think Dr Yeo could also have been a bit more meticulous on his data. Here's why.
When you eat carbs some of the calories become available inside around ten minutes and that will get you up hills if you're tired (bananas are a good example.) But some (the low-GI stuff like porridge or museli) are slow-release and become available over about 60-90 minutes. This is why stops every 30km are about right for cyclists -- at 20kph for casual endurance riders, that's a stop every 1.5 hours on a six-hour riding day.
But that's all in the blood-stream. Any carbs you eat before bed get stored in muscle instead, and when they store that way, 1g of carb needs 3g of water to store it. If you're carb-loading into the evenings, a 80kg male could easily add 1-2kg of carb-water mass (around 15% less for women of comparable mass because it's muscle related.)
When you burn that energy on the final day, if you don't replace it, you'll end up whizzing like a horse, and can easily lose 1-2kg on the scales. But that might be the day *after* you've finished the event. Or, if you have some big meal to celebrate at the end, it could be days later, after your diet gets back to normal.
Plus, you can also easily lose 1kg of body-mass to dehydration.
So depending on conditions a 2-3kg variation in an 80kg rider's weight is quite feasible over multiple riding days. So two data-points alone don't really tell you much. You really need to track trending before, during and after the event, and if you're interested in fat-loss then some waistline measurements help too.