The Barnya Half-Marathon Challenge (on again)
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The challenge: turning a worthless, inert pile of blubbery shit into a sleek long distance runner capable of matching Dunedin's best over 21km.<br />
<br />
The event takes place on September 12, two months from today.<br />
<br />
Many of you will no doubt think it an impossible task to pull off, but I have been a long distance runner in the past and I know what it takes to get back in the groove.<br />
<br />
6 x 10km runs per week at 8am<br />
90mins a week speed bursts on the treadmill<br />
90mins a week on the cross trainer<br />
90mins a week leg weights<br />
<br />
Limit binging to one night per week<br />
Healthy diet, three meals a day with no snacking except fruit and muesli bars<br />
In bed by midnight every night and up at 8 for a run.<br />
<br />
I'd like to hear from marathon and long distance runners other ways to turn it around in time for the big run. I have money and honour riding on this one and I want to make it happen.<br />
<br />
Any advice at all would be much appreciated.<br />
<br />
Cheers<br />
Barnya -
up by 8am, Barn? Fark...go easy mate! Don't want to overdo it. <br />
<br />
Seems like you biting off a little more than you can chew, but all I'll add is that perhaps don't start off with such a heavy workload, or you'll be fucked by the time the event comes around. Build up slowly is the take-home message. -
You may have been a long distance runner in the past, but you would be risking overtraining going from nothing to that workload.<br />
<br />
Your body needs time to recover from exercise as well, so you need more than one day off. Start with smaller distances and alternate with the weights/cross trainer stuff then build up the distance. -
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
Limit binging to one night per week<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
<br />
OR no binging? :nta Two months without alcohol would help a heap Barn. I'd go with two rest days per week for the first three weeks and then drop one. -
[quote]In bed by midnight every night and up at 8 for a run.[/quote]<br />
<br />
Oh to be a student again. :happy:<br />
<br />
Ease into it, as any injuries with that short a lead in time and it'll be all over. -
if you train like that, I'llput money on you not making the HM, let alone finsihng it me old china.
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Hmmmm, these are all good responses and have been taken on board. Bear in mind that I am still young and hence don't break down every time I crack a sprint
but obviously there needs to be a some building up.<br />
<br />
There was a time when I was running every day for about six months and never had a niggle, granted I was pretty fit at the time but I have been pretty lucky with injuries.<br />
<br />
Nick I will consider the no-binging thing but it may not be realistic, sometimes you get offers that are just too good to refuse.<br />
<br />
I will take two days off but with the time frame I have to work with, I'm going to have to work damn hard to be ready. I'm under no illusions about how I'll fare on the day...my aim is merely to finish the damn thing, not to win it
<br />
<br />
I should've mentioned in my original post that the goal is two-fold...I've got a massive workload this semester culminating in handing in my thesis so I thought pushing myself physically would improve my overall well-being and discipline, also my ex-girlfriend is coming to town in the new year and I can't let her see what a fat lazy bastard I've become. -
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
Nick I will consider the no-binging thing but it may not be realistic, sometimes you get offers that are just too good to refuse.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
At your age Barn, the only offer too good to refuse is pussy. Plenty of time for drinking when you're old and married - plenty of reason too :whistle: -
You start off with six 10km runs, you will be in bits by the end of the week. Worse, you can cop and injury and that's you proper farked.<br />
<br />
I completed the New York marathon last November and yet six months later I couldn't run three miles without almost passing out. Your body loses fitness at an alarming rate and legs lose tone and strength just as quick.<br />
<br />
However, training for a half marathon can be completed in the timescale if you are diligent.<br />
<br />
Best thing to do is walk the course beforehand and find out where the hills are and other features. For some reason, it makes a helluva lot of difference knowing what's round the nexdt bend and where you are going. -
[quote]I completed the New York marathon last November and yet six months later I couldn't run three miles without almost passing out. Your body loses fitness at an alarming rate and legs lose tone and strength just as quick.[/quote]<br />
<br />
Thats quite an accomplishment.. I would like to do a marathon one day.. but I know I never will. I get to bored doing exercise, unless its involved in a sport. -
Don't listen to them Barnya. Going hammer is what fatbusters was built on. Go full tit from the beginiing old chap; it worked for me. Fatbusting is about fighting fat, and we do not fight fat by "building up slowly". We fight fat by putting our bodies through such pain that the fat no longer wants to live there :happy: <br />
<br />
We are waging a war, and wars are not fought every second Tuesday afternoon.<br />
<br />
MvJ admires your spunk. <br />
<br />
MvJ also wishes he had put that last sentence better. -
Barnya has a history of setting himself some high risk task, asking for advice, not listening to it and failing miserably (cooking duck anyone?).<br />
<br />
I hope this isn't to be a repeat. <br />
<br />
Bring us triumph Barnya, not disaster. <br />
<br />
Oh and pictures too. But leave the spunk out of it. -
i agree with kirwan, 6 * 10 km runs is far too much starting from naught<br />
<br />
my thoughts:<br />
<br />
more rests - if theres one thing every book i have read on long distance running training has stated, its that enthusiatic runners always underestimate how essential rest is. skipping it is a big no no. having said that, i also dont follow their advice and tend to rest only one day a week but i dont feel guilty if i take 2 days off in a given week.<br />
<br />
dont limit urself to 3 meals - do the whole eating all day routine. lots of complex carbs obviously, but i think u will need to up your intake if you want make it through the 8 weeks.<br />
<br />
do one longish run each week that gets longer each week but tapers the weekend before the big race. use these to experiment with food, digestion, hydration etc. take a rest the next day. i dont think running 10km 48 times is going to make you as competitive as you can be on a 21km course.<br />
perhaps do something like<br />
<br />
7-4-6-r-5-10-r <br />
5-8-5-r-6-12-r<br />
6-9-6-r-5-14-r<br />
8-6-9-r-6-16-r<br />
7-5-10-r-7-18-r<br />
9-7-11-r-6-20-r<br />
8-6-9-r-5-16-r<br />
<br />
r = rest , distance in km... <br />
<br />
so the big run is on a saturday, rest on sunday, the days with the smaller runs double as your weights/speedburst/cross trainger days.<br />
total distance increases gradually over the 8 weeks and tapers towards the end<br />
bear in mind, the longer the training runs get, the higher the likelihood of getting injured. -
oh, and good luck Barn, supporting you all the way, but still not betting on you, not with that programme :happy:
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Thanks Bart, my friends just laughed at me so it's nice to have some support and I look forward to proving you wrong.Â
<br />
<br />
[quote name='Luigi']<br />
Barnya has a history of setting himself some high risk task, asking for advice, not listening to it and failing miserably (cooking duck anyone?). [/quote]<br />
<br />
Well at least you didn't mention the gnocchi.<br />
<br />
I've copied all that down phonetia, good work chief.<br />
<br />
MvJ, thanks for your stirring words of encouragement. When I stopped running in 2003 I quickly put on 10kg then have been stuck there ever since, so there's no reason why I can't get rid of those 10kg in swift order once I get back into it.<br />
<br />
I did 8km this morning, it took an hour but I ran at a steady pace and didn't stop once. The hardest part is definitely getting out of bed and the first kilometre or so, but once I got into my rhythm I felt like I could run all day, the only thing stopping me was the searing burning pain in my lower legs and feet. That fucking hurt.<br />
<br />
I do love running though, I feel like a man on a mission and no one can stop me. Fit birds smile and say hello as they pass you, instead of palming off your drunken attempts to get in their pants on a Saturday night. <br />
<br />
Therefore I have to ask myself, why the hell did I wait until yesterday to start again?!?! -
I laughed out loud at MvJ's adivce to it, brilliant, and yeah, just go for it, as hard as you can for as long as you can.... :happy:Â That's the Fatbuster way!!
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[quote name='Barnya']<br />
6 x 10km runs per week at 8am<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
Hi Barnya. I'm 'training' for a half marathon at the moment (Taupo next month), but I'm CERTAINLY no expert. However, I don't think 6 x 10km is sustainable, and I think you'll regret trying. I just don't think there is enough rest period inbetween - and 10km is quite a bit.<br />
<br />
I looked into training schedules a little bit (wish I'd followed them), and most maintain you should gradually up your distance. So once or twice a week go for a longer run (12km or something), and up it each week, so by the final week you are close to the 21km. Oh, and another thing, don't do a lot of running in the last 1 or 2 weeks apparently as you should be resting your legs.<br />
<br />
I see you are trying to have a few 'smaller' runs a week - which is probably a good idea. However, in my opinion 10km is too much to do 6 times a week. Good luck! -
Oh yeah, and I went for my longest run so far (13km) on Saturday, and pulled a muscle - stopping me from running all this week. So the best advice I can definitely give is do a warm up and [i]thorough[/i] stretch before and after.
-
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
The challenge: turning a worthless, inert pile of blubbery shit into a sleek long distance runner capable of matching Dunedin's best over 21km.<br />
<br />
The event takes place on September 12, two months from today.<br />
<br />
Many of you will no doubt think it an impossible task to pull off, but I have been a long distance runner in the past and I know what it takes to get back in the groove.<br />
<br />
6 x 10km runs per week at 8am<br />
90mins a week speed bursts on the treadmill<br />
90mins a week on the cross trainer<br />
90mins a week leg weights<br />
<br />
Limit binging to one night per week<br />
Healthy diet, three meals a day with no snacking except fruit and muesli bars<br />
In bed by midnight every night and up at 8 for a run.<br />
<br />
I'd like to hear from marathon and long distance runners other ways to turn it around in time for the big run. I have money and honour riding on this one and I want to make it happen.<br />
<br />
Any advice at all would be much appreciated.<br />
<br />
Cheers<br />
Barnya<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
errmm are you trying to win the damn thing?!<br />
<br />
are you going to do 90min speedwork on the treadmill as well as the 6 x 10k's?<br />
<br />
sweet baby jesus i'd love to see that..<br />
<br />
one thing i reckon you should do early on in your training in go for a long run.. around 20 k's.. no need to run the whole way, you can walk bits of it etc, and take it super easy -Â it'll only be like 2 1/2 hours and shouldn't be too hard on the body.<br />
<br />
big fan of getting the base miles in early so your legs get used to the distance etc, then start on the speed work.<br />
<br />
also - after doing a longer harder run try out an ice bath.. fark i couldn't beleive the difference they made to the speed of the muscle recovery. -
[quote name='WillieTheWaiter']<br />
also - after doing a longer harder run try out an ice bath.. fark i couldn't beleive the difference they made to the speed of the muscle recovery.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
It also aids in the "testicles in your midsection" recovery <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> -
If you're going to run 6 times a week I'd advise against running on cement or tarmac. I doubt your joints would take the abuse.
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14/7/06: Postgrad lunch, had 3 beers and 11 slices of pizza. As punishment I am banning the consumption of all fast food indefinitely. No pizza, burgers, KFC, pies etc until the race is over, by which time I will hopefully be over that shit for good.<br />
<br />
Ran 8km in 57mins on the nose...the wheels are in motion, slowly, but surely, in motion. I used to run 8km in 40mins and the knowledge that I've been there before is good motivation to keep improving.<br />
<br />
No complaints at all today apart from the shit washing about in my stomach. Only problem I'm having is seeing the goddamn ground a metre in front of me. I can't run with my glasses on but I can't wear contacts either...anyone ever tried running with goggles or with straps to keep your glasses on your face? I tripped on a root this arvo and rolled my ankle, ran it off but it'll hurt in the morning I'm sure.<br />
<br />
[quote name='ParcDesPrinces']<br />
If you're going to run 6 times a week I'd advise against running on cement or tarmac. [/quote]<br />
<br />
Yeah I run on a track about 90% of the way. I've never had trouble with knees but my ankles have been a pain in the arse at times. -
Stop sticking your feet up your bum then <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /><br />
<br />
Gotta piss that pizza gear right off Barn - will dehydrate you sure as, and when you're resting fluid is very important. -
[quote name='Baron Silas Greenback']<br />
[quote]I completed the New York marathon last November and yet six months later I couldn't run three miles without almost passing out. Your body loses fitness at an alarming rate and legs lose tone and strength just as quick.[/quote]<br />
<br />
Thats quite an accomplishment.. I would like to do a marathon one day.. but I know I never will. I get to bored doing exercise, unless its involved in a sport.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
I swore I would never do one but Mrs Luigi wanted to do one for her birthday and as we were both going to New York - I foolishly agreed to give it a go too. I wouldn't do another and strangely don't have any deep, personal feelings of satisfaction at having done the first. The run itself, with the crowds cheering and the bands playing all round NYC is fun in it's own way, but all the training beforehand is a slog and boring as hell. -
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
I can't run with my glasses on but I can't wear contacts either...anyone ever tried running with goggles or with straps to keep your glasses on your face? I tripped on a root this arvo and rolled my ankle, ran it off but it'll hurt in the morning I'm sure.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
If it makes you feel any better my ribs hurt like hell. This was a direct result of reading the above. Running in goggles :2funny: -
[quote name='Miller V Jackson']<br />
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
I can't run with my glasses on but I can't wear contacts either...anyone ever tried running with goggles or with straps to keep your glasses on your face? I tripped on a root this arvo and rolled my ankle, ran it off but it'll hurt in the morning I'm sure.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
If it makes you feel any better my ribs hurt like hell. This was a direct result of reading the above. Running in goggles :2funny:<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
Good enough for Horace Grant, good enough for me :happy: -
I'm with Milly on this one. <br />
<br />
You're essentialy running this thing to impress a chick, wearing goggles might offset your overwhelming coolness Barn. -
My otherwise disciplined weekend was ruined by peer pressure :tickedoff:<br />
<br />
Friday night went bowling (does that count as exercise? Not when you bowl a 54 and a 95 I guess).<br />
<br />
Saturday got up early and played a game of social poofball for my mate's team, went to work, came home and had a nice healthy dinner then parked up on the couch about to start a quiet night of movie watching when my mate texts me:<br />
<br />
"Oi poofter where you at? Let's get on it"<br />
"Nah, just gonna have a quiet one tonight eh"<br />
"Don't be a fucking homo, get down here now or we're drinking your beers"<br />
<br />
What could I do? When your drinking buddies call, you gotta accept the charges.<br />
<br />
So six hours later I was stumbling drunkenly home down George St lamenting at what a complete waste of time, money and brain cells alcohol is, and how I couldn't kick the habit for all the money in the world.<br />
<br />
Went for a 6km run today as punishment but felt like shit Called my father and told him about the half-marathon plans and felt even worse. When he eventually stopped laughing he said he was so certain I'd never get in shape in time that he'd give me $10 for every pound I lost.<br />
<br />
I want $200 by Christmas. -
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
My otherwise disciplined weekend was ruined by peer pressure :tickedoff:<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
Softcock. -
Monday 17-7...just ran 16km. It took the worst two hours of my life. I am frozen solid and seriously knackered.<br />
<br />
Pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body pain is weakness leaving the body -
Pain is just pain entering the body
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At least now I know I can do it.
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Keep it up Barnya; remember- no pain, no gain. Or should that be no pain, no loss? Oh well, you know what your mad uncle Miller means.Â
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Thanks Auntie Em, when I'm in Sydney this summer I'll be sure to buy you a Carlton Low Joule beer.
-
With apologies to Blackadder, not while I've still got my strength you won't :happy: <br />
<br />
A bottle of the house red will do nicely. That will be followed by a fried chicken burger and a hug, provided Aunty Em can still get her arms around you. On current form I don't like your chances of running away :happy: -
Get a room you two.
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I don't know how long I can go on eating rabbit food.<br />
<br />
[quote name='Miller V Jackson']<br />
a fried chicken burger <br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
A Big Bondi with fries is sounding [i]so fucking good[/i] right now. With a pide from Darling Kebab House. And a kebab. And a lamb Madras. And a Hawaiian BK Chicken. And a chili dog. And a double bacon guacamole cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. And a 6-pack of Coopers Vintage.<br />
<br />
Oh god.<br />
<br />
shoots self -
[quote name='Barnya']<br />
I don't know how long I can go on eating rabbit food.<br />
<br />
[quote name='Miller V Jackson']<br />
a fried chicken burger <br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
A Big Bondi with fries is sounding [i]so fucking good[/i] right now. With a pide from Darling Kebab House. And a kebab. And a lamb Madras. And a Hawaiian BK Chicken. And a chili dog. And a double bacon guacamole cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. And a 6-pack of Coopers Vintage.<br />
<br />
Oh god.<br />
<br />
shoots self<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
When did Carls Jnr come to New Zealand? I have yet to see one. They rock -
Not yet Hooroo but I've had it a couple of times in Singapore. Their smallest burger is about the size of a whopper.<br />
<br />
The day Krispy Kreme comes to New Zealand we are really fucked. -
Bah. Krispy Kreme is totally overrated I reckon.
