Getting started

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

After gaining an obnoxious amount of weight over the past few years (15-20% of body weight) I really need to figure out how to get back to “me.” Dieting isn’t working - if anything it is making things worse because I am starving all the time and just can’t handle it. So I want to at least pretend that exercising will help by signing up for a half marathon that I don’t have time to train for. I could walk the full thing right now without even thinking about it but any running at all, even at a slow pace, for longer than a few minutes is challenging.

I have used Equinox (gym)’s excellent precision run program in the past. It uses run/walk intervals but progressively makes sets harder (increasing speed, incline, or both). One of the concepts is built around something called a “PR” which is based on a repeatable 1 minute pace on zero incline at the end of a workout. I have found that 90% of the workout is “too easy” but if I move my PR any higher the whole thing falls apart.

My PR is currently set to 7.2, but realistically 7.5 might be more accurate if the rest of the workout weren’t so hard. That translates into somewhere between an 8 and an 820 mile. The starting pace for most Precision Run workouts is 2 min below PR, or 5.2 on the treadmill.

How would I use that information to set my run walk run times? I will do pretty much all of my training on a treadmill so intervals are annoying. (Precision Run at the gym will handle the changes automatically). What’s the best way to start down this crazy journey? I hired a trainer at the gym but it hasn’t helped at all.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I have no experience with your tread/gym system and their metric for measuring things, so everything I'm saying you can take with a grain of salt.

Training for a HM needs a HM training plan, not a pre-programmed workout on a treadmill. Especially if you're new to distance running. In distance running, there's something called the 80/20 "rule" where 80% of your minutes (or miles) should be at an "easy" pace and UP TO 20% of your minutes (or miles) should be "workout" pace. HM training plans are usually +/- somewhere around 16 weeks long, and start short and build up. Following the 80/20 guideline helps you keep from over-training and decreases your chances of getting injured. "Easy" pace is something that gets debated a lot, and we tend to use things like HR zones, phrases like "conversational pace" (where you can talk in full sentences, not have to stop your sentence to take big breaths, etc), or "a pace that you could maintain for hours. This pace is likely slower than you think it "should be."

Many of us follow Jeff Galloway principles for our training, some using his paid training plans, and others borrow from a few different training philosophies and Galloway-style intervals are one of those things. Galloway uses a "Magic Mile" to help determine what your training paces should be, and that could be a good starting place for you. (All of that can be found on his website.) You don't have to use run/walk intervals if you don't want to, but the MM will give you a baseline to work from for pacing. (Galloway also has suggested intervals, but I do NOT use them on a treadmill because I'd be changing the speed every 30sec that who wants to push buttons that many times? I figured out speeds that work for me for 4:30/0:30 instead for my treadmill days.)

Looking back on my own beginnings (a HM was my first real race!) I *could* run a mile in around 9min, but my training paces ended up being more like 13:30-14:00 for easy runs, and 11:30 for workout runs because a mile and a HM are not the same thing. Be warned that it may be slightly addicting and many/most of us got started with "I'm only going to do 1 of these"