Unfit and 41 years old, just starting this week.

[Sladonians]

Hi All,

Just downloaded the APP and have to say that it looks pretty good. Let me tell you my story.

I am a 41 year old male weighing in at around 100kg, at 5ft 11inches tall thats not a good weight to be I know. I have 5 children and want to be able to enjoy plaing with them and stuff. Also sadly lost my father aged 69 last year to cancer which has given me a real kick to get fit and look after myself.

Issues: About 11 years ago I was in a serious road accident when I was in a car that got crashed into by a 40 tonne articulated lorry. I was flown by air ambulance to hospital where I was worried I would never walk again due to severe pain in my back and other problems. I did make an almost full recovery but it left me seriously unfit and over weight, coupled with giving up smoking around the same time which also piled on the pounds. Lethargy and a busy working life has meant that I have slowly become less and less physically active until now!!

Before all this I used to be very fit. I would work out 3-4 times a week, had attained black belt Kung Fu, used to cycle in a local time trial team, and played 5 aside football.

Last year I suffered a slipped disc in my lower back which halted any serious return to exercise until recently as I have been working on my core muscles to strengthen my back.

I have been going to the Gym regularly again for the last 5-6 weeks about 3 times a week, gentle stuff like walking at 5-6kph for about 20 minutes with 15 minutes each on an exercise bike and cross trainer. I can feel my general fitness returning but am now ready to move it to the next level, so here we are.

I have agreed with my 17 year old daughter that we will run the 2013 London Marathon together to raise funds for Cancer Research and Macmillan Nurses in memory of my father. So there is the goal, 26.2 miles in 2 years time.

I will be posting weekly with my progress and general diary type notes on how I am getting on with it but am really looking forward to the time when I can run for 30 minutes uninterrupted and not collapse at the end.

Other things I am now venturing into to help my overall fitness / balance / coordination are Geocaching, Slacklining and have just bought myself a Giant Terrago mountain bike which I want to be fit enough to ride off road in the summer.

Any thoughts or tips or advice would be gratefully and appreciatively received and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all and making some new friends (albeit virtual ones) here.

Thanks

Andy

[tl302]

Good luck with the running Andy. It does get easier as you progress through the weeks. I just turned 42 and realized I needed to make a change in my life. Not just for me but my kids as well. My kids and I enjoy goecaching as well.

Good luck.

Tim

[benjohn]

I've been thinking that geocaching looks fun too I'm interested to know how active it is? I understand that you get out and walk about of course, but do people also do a time based cache: kind of like orienteering?

Thanks!

[Sladonians]

It can be as active or passive as you want it to be to be honest.

Time based cache? Not that I know of but what an excellent idea.

If you look at the difficulty and terrain indicator on each cache then that gives you an idea of what sort of track you face to find it. If I'm feeling lazy I can do a quickie or alternatively I plan a long mornings walk around a route taking in 3-4 difficult ones. Some can be almost like climbing to get to.

Great fun to do especially if you use an iPhone or blackberry as you dont need tocarry paper or a separate gps.

Andy

[benjohn]

Thanks Sladonians, I'll have to give it a try some time. Hitting Google will pull out some good sites for finding caches, I guess? Any particular tips for getting started?

Cheers,
B

[tl302]

Try www.geocaching.com

[benjohn]

Thanks – found that one! Apparently there are a pile of caches in the park where I run, so I'll have to go and find them (or go with my Son, think he'd love that).

Happy running!

[Sladonians]

Hi all,

I just want to give you all an update.

I started the program in January having done nothing for years as you can see above. I followed the program religiously throughout and carried on training. Really caught the running bug.

On Monday this week, 5 months after staring my first run, I completed the Bupa London 10,000 10k run without walking at all. Only stopped once for a toilet break.

I got round in 1hour 21 minutes and am confident having paced myself that I can crack the 1 hour in July at the next one.

I have sponsor pledges of £500+ as a result.

Thanks to Get Running, you have changed my life.

Andy

[samantha]

Hi Andy,

Now that is one inspirational post!!! I'm on week 4 and love reading people's stories about life after this app. I too aspire to run a marathon, and what you achieved already is fantastic?! Are you biking as well?! May as well get a triathlon in there as well chap!!!

Samantha x

[benjohn]

Hi Andy,

Matt's going to write a proper post about this pretty soon, but here's a quick one… We're going to start collecting photos from people's running successes (Get Running users doing their first 5k, mostly) so that we can show them on the front page and hopefully inspire future users. If you've got a photo from the 5k finish line, or just a photo of you after any other run or something, we'd be very happy to put it up. Perhaps Matt could find a space for your story too (?), which definitely is inspiring as Samantha says!

If you'd like to send in a photo and story, you can send it to: i-got-running@getrunningapp.com


Well done, thank you for sharing, and happy running!
Benjohn