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yo congrats on the many life changes! the improvement in job condition is not to be underrated, having a job you hate just sucks the life out of you. watched my dad go through that last year, then come out of it this year with a new gig that he really likes. night and day.

fwiw, one thing i like about running is how not time-consuming it is. there's no commute to the gym and only rarely to the track, no real warm-up unless i'm doing speed work (and those workouts are shorter, so it's a wash time-wise). just tie shoes, put on sunscreen and mask, and head out the door. obviously, my runs are longer now than they used to be, but you can gain a lot of fitness with like 4.5-5 hours per week. even now my total running time per week is only 5.5 hours, plus a cumulative hour or so for stretching.

i'm not particularly talented at distance running, either: my history was the same as yours (a casual season of xc in high school during which i ran close to 20 mins). but i'm pretty sure i'll be able to run 18:xx this year, if i stay healthy. that's not very fast, but it's good enough to be top-10 and usually top-3 or 5 in basically any local 5k, which is fun.

that said, i've lost 10 pounds, my strength is basically where it was when i first started lifting weights 11 years ago, and i'm certainly not as explosive as i was in 2016. running is obviously not a great recipe for improving vert, strength, or muscle.

it is fun as hell, though.

yo congrats on the many life changes! the improvement in job condition is not to be underrated, having a job you hate just sucks the life out of you. watched my dad go through that last year, then come out of it this year with a new gig that he really likes. night and day.

fwiw, one thing i like about running is how not time-consuming it is. there's no commute to the gym and only rarely to the track, no real warm-up unless i'm doing speed work (and those workouts are shorter, so it's a wash time-wise). just tie shoes, put on sunscreen and mask, and head out the door. obviously, my runs are longer now than they used to be, but you can gain a lot of fitness with like 4.5-5 hours per week. even now my total running time per week is only 5.5 hours, plus a cumulative hour or so for stretching.

that said, i've lost 10 pounds, my strength is basically where it was when i first started lifting weights 11 years ago, and i'm certainly not as explosive as i was in 2016. running is obviously not a great recipe for improving vert, strength, or muscle.

it is fun as hell, though.

OK, my new training ground is a 1km track around the soccer pitches at Uni. It has a big digital tower clock as well. There's outdoor fitness equipment too, which is great, but it's all locked up at the moment. Think I will try and get 2-3 runs in a week and stick to mainly shorter stuff to start. Today I ran:

1km - 4:45 (RPE 8 ), 5mins rest, 4:22 (RPE 9), ~30 pushups, 30 leg raises and 3x3/leg SL squats.

That is obviously pretty slow haha...but I think with more training I could quickly get back to where I was last year running the Masters athletics (~2:45 800m a couple of time, probably about a 3:30min km). Then maybe build towards maintaining speed for longer distances. Some short-term goals might be:

400m - 65sec
1km - <4min
2km - <10min

(Long-term 5km <22min)

And maybe 50 pushups, 50 leg raises, 10 SL squats/leg, and some hamstring stuff too I guess. Training would probably doing tempo 1kms around the track (building up to 3-4 @~4min pace), and ~50m tempo sprints on the soccer pitch. Just lots of running with good form. My right foot always lands slightly externally rotated and that has definitely made my R calf get tight quickly compared to L.

The other part of my plan is that there are a few boxes on the outdoor fitness part that would be fun to jump around on. Just for fun, I want to see how high my SVJ can go with just short sprints and SL squats, in lieu of any serious gym work. I don't think it'll get very high, but will be interesting to track. I would still love to be pursuing vertical jump, but I feel that I can pick that up again in a couple of years when gyms and bball courts might be safe again.

Ordered some new Nike Zoom Rival Waffle racers too for some forced motivation. They really are brilliant shoes and they're always <100AUD for some reason. (Thanks for putting me onto those @adarq! Do you still use them?)

my calves are always super tight for a couple of days after i ramp up running volume. static stretching a few times throughout the day (just one leg at a time on a step) seems to help a lot.

Quote from: LBSS on July 27, 2020, 12:22:28 pm

my calves are always super tight for a couple of days after i ramp up running volume. static stretching a few times throughout the day (just one leg at a time on a step) seems to help a lot.

Yeah I've been doing that a lot. Also adarq's soleus couch stretch (lean your knee into the couch and hang out).

1kms today:

4m06s (RPE 9) - local 
~5mins rest
4m10s (RPE 9)
~5mins rest
500m jog, R calf dead again so not forcing anything.

10/leg SL sqs, 20/leg SLDLs, KOT calf raises, 3x7 box jumps approx 24''

Got my new Zoom Rival Waffles and they are great. Not sure if it was the new shoe speed boost effect or I'm finally getting a bit fitter, but ran good times today. Need to focus on this troublesome right calf. Nothing to gain at this point so taking it easy. Next time I might try and get in more volume at lower intensity given I "PRd" today.