The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Just for shits-n-giggles, I’ll be getting all my nutrients from “real” food tomorrow. Nothing packaged. Nothing processed. No protein supplements.

It took a little more prep time this evening thn usual but not bad. Usually get all my meals from “real” food, but I carry packaged snacks and use whey or casein to meet my protein goal.

 

Great/terrible way to start the day. 3 mile jog.

 

8:18 is a pretty good clip

 

Thanks man. Just trying to be a good all around athletic type.

 

I understand.
I’m going to try to get my bench up to 285 without compromising my 7 minute mile times.

 

What distances are you able to hold the 7 min mile?

 

Damn those foods look good. Nice prep man! Colors add a nice touch too, not that they aid in flavor, just presentation!

 

I’m going to be honest, I have not recently attempted to maintain that pace over 5k.

I probably could race 10k in the mid 7 range.

Are you a runner?

 

I am, but looking to start putting on some more muscle and have been doing less running and more lifting for the last 3 months and going to continue.

Right now I'm at about 7 min 10k and about 7:30 half marathon. I do the OCR races so need to have a balance of both speed/endurance and strength.

 

Thats right I remember now.

I used to be a serious endurance runner averaging between 30-40 miles per week.
I have not done much running since a major foot surgery in 2015.
I’m itching to get back to more cardio since I love it. Going to try and balance lifting and running.
I have hardware in my foot so I’m not sure what I’ll comfortably be able to get back to. I’m hoping it won’t hold me back at all.

 

Damn, that's a lot. My peak last year I think was 35 miles in a single week. Think I averaged around 25 last year.

I'm also trying to find that balance between lifting and running. Problem is I too love cardio, but I'm wanting to put on 15lbs from lifting. So I have to get used to just eating more calories which is hard for me. I lost close to 40lbs over the last two years from learning to love running, and getting a much better diet. Now I have to change my mindset again which is doable.

What shoes have you been wearing? I recently switched over to Brooks for road runs and they are much better than the New Balances I had been wearing for the 1000 miles last year. I went to a running shoe store for the first time and they watched me run and gave me probably 8 different shoe recommendations based on my gate and what they saw. Then I was able to try them each on and run in each pair before deciding.
Not sure exactly what the surgery on your foot was and you seem like a smart person so I'm sure you've looked into all the different options.

 

My biggest struggle with balancing my enjoyment of cardio and lifting is time.
I wish there was an extra 3-4 hours in each day to allow me to both get great at endurance sports and lifting and get an hour or two more for sleep for recovery lol.
Its just hard to balance it all and not be spending a cumulative of 3+ hours a day training.


My favorite shoe brands are Asics and Saucony.
For Asics I ran the Nimbus for my recovery/easy runs. The Kayano for my speed work.
Saucony I ran the Guides for my mid distance and long runs.
I had shoes down to a science. I alternated shoes and never ran a pair twice in 48 hours (the padding takes time to puff back up) and I tracked mileage on the shoes.

A pair of shoes reaches its life at 500 miles usually. I will always retire a long run shoe at 500 miles. I can make it a recovery shoe or general workout shoe but no more long runs.
Speed work and recovery shoes if they felt good I’d retire later. You can always get through a speed session or 5 miler with bad shoes.

I only had one pair of Brooks. They had 300something miles on them. On a mid-distance 13 mile run they started going bad at mile 4. I should have just quit. Most painful 24 hours recovering from that run.
I threw them away and never went back to Brooks. They are a major brand and I’m sure make awesome shoes but when I had shoes with low miles fail on me I got kinda bitter lol.

The Saucony Guides are heaven on my feet.

99% of the time I have no issues with my foot. Surgery was on my big toe.
Occationally I feel it after speed work. So far no issues on regular runs. But with the longer runs may need some custom orthotics.

 

What is your weekly workout routine?

 

Oh man I can't keep up with all this cardio. I'm losing gains just reading about cardio!!

 

Been trying a few things out lately. Right now I'm on one long run a week (10+ miles), 3 days a week I'm doing 2-5 mile interval runs and a shorter lift, 2 days long lift no cardio, 1 rest day for longer stretching/foam rolling/yoga.

 

What distance intervals?

 

Lately I've been doing time based intervals. On a 5 mile interval run I'll run:
5 minutes at a tempo pace, 6:30 min mile and recover for 4 minutes at an 8 minute pace
4 minutes in a slightly fast pace, recover for 3 minutes at an 8 minute pace
3 minutes at a 6 minute mile, recover 2 minutes at an 8 minute pace
2 minutes at a 6 minute mile, recover 1 minutes at an 8 minute pace
1 minute at a 6 minute mile, recover 2 minutes at an 8 minute pace
I'll finish it off with a few 30 second sprints

On the shorter runs I'll do more sprint work than tempo work