Diary from the Ijsselmeer

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skunkrider

New member
Hello everyone,

I'm Björn, mother tongue is German, I'm 27 and 'emigrated' to the Netherlands, for work reasons.

I'm 1.81m (~6ft) and currently weigh about 118kg (18st 8.1lb, or 260 pounds).


I work in an office and therefore need to exercice in my free time.

Most of the people in my small company are participating in a 10km-run in April in our town, and right after I was hired they asked if I'd join.
I was rather tipsy at the time, and agreed to participate.

Well, that might sound crazy, but it's a good motivation to drop pounds nonetheless.

Back in 2007, I already dropped 32kg from 128kg to 96kg in 4 months purely by working out (cardio) six times per week for 30-60mins, eating normally and drinking tons of water. Depressions got most of that back up over the years.

Also, back then I was too afraid to permanently injure my knees through jogging/running, so I only ever used the treadmill for walking.


Now that's about to change. I am still using the treadmill, but I'm mixing long periods of walking (5-10% inclination) with short bursts of jogging, trying to run as smoothly as possible to not go to hard on my joints.

I am drinking a 1,5L-bottle of water per day, but still eating chokotoff when I go to bed and read a book :coolgleamA:

My experience is that I can lose 3-4kg per week by walking - now I'm interested to see what my body can do running :)

All this is for my personal wellbeing, a hoped for renaissance of my sexlife, and for my longterm goal to start with some mixed martial arts training.. or at least start with kickboxing/jiu jitsu.

I have never really felt fit in my life, even when I was 16/17 and playing football in a club...


I'm hoping for your emotional and educated support, everyone,
and of course I wouldn't mind getting to know like-minded people from BeNeLux. :sifone:

if you want to know something, just ask, maybe I forgot something important :)

Björn

/edit I'll be uploading body pictures soon. Keep a paperbag ready though :D
 
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hey good luck!!

i think you can find some good websites online that show you how to prepare for running etc!
 
alright, no one asked for it, but I feel obliged to put these pics online..





after all, these pictures are the reason why I am working out, and why I am registered here..
 
Having before pictures has been hugely helpful for me. Hopefully it'll motivate you too.

Have you heard of the Couch to 5k program? For someone who isn't currently a runner it's a great program to get you running a 5k. I did that program when I first got into running and I can't say enough good things about it.
 
bluebuckeye said:
Having before pictures has been hugely helpful for me. Hopefully it'll motivate you too.

Have you heard of the Couch to 5k program? For someone who isn't currently a runner it's a great program to get you running a 5k. I did that program when I first got into running and I can't say enough good things about it.
Click to expand...

thank you very much, I've looked up the couch-to-5km-websites right away, and it is exactly what I need in terms of organisation and structure.

:hurray:

I guess I'll start with that tonight.

It speaks of two months until I can properly run 5km. That would leave a narrow margin or make it impossible to run 10km in April.. do I cancel the run and go my own tempo? Do I add some extra cardio workout in the gym on every other day to increase my fitness level and fatburn?

Ah well, time will tell :eek:
 
I just finished the first exercise of the C25K-plan.

Very nice.. even though I 'only' worked out for around 30 minutes, it felt much more effective. I had no problems with running until the very end, and that weren't problems, but simply a bit of exhaustion, which is a good sign I guess :)

thank you, bluebuckeye :sifone:
 
I'm so glad to help! While it's possible to go from a non-runner to a 10k runner in two months, it's fast and I don't want you to get hurt. (I stress this because I feel like I am hurt ALL THE TIME and I've gone super slow in my running.) If you find the C25k program too easy, maybe try skipping some of the training days and going into the harder ones. So instead of doing the days in order, maybe try days 1,3,5,7, 9 etc? Or possibly doing 4 runs a week instead of the 3 it calls for.

There is also a Couch to 10k program that's 13 weeks, not quite in time for your 10k but close.

Worst case scenario is you'll have to walk part of the 10k. If you've done the 5k training you can pretty confidently say that you'll run at least half of the 10k. Even though that isn't awesome, it's still far better than where you started. :)
 
@ bluebuckeye

ah well, that's alright, I decided not to prioritize the run, but to put focus on me finally managing my personal breakthrough this year.

I'm just really happy and very grateful to you for nudging me in the right direction.

workout-wise, I had my second session yesterday. Saturday will be my third, and Tuesday after the next, and I'll also step on a balance then for the first time since I started working out.

btw. people.... almost weeeeekend :biggrinjester:
 
Hello - I was going to mention the couch to 5k as well. I found that it gives me the 'push' I need.

Good luck with your training for the 10k...I'm aiming for a 5k in March..but I've not committed.

Jen
 
Jennifer72 said:
Hello - I was going to mention the couch to 5k as well. I found that it gives me the 'push' I need.

Good luck with your training for the 10k...I'm aiming for a 5k in March..but I've not committed.

Jen
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thanks Jen :coolgleamA: ..the c25k is definitely something I'll pass on like a religious Jedi.. :sifone:

Saturday was my last session of the first week's programm. I hope my body won't strike back with a vengeance, but I'm planning to have a session every other day, and not three times per week.

Hopefully that's not too much for my joints, but I feel that I can indeed get to the 5k by the end of March.

As my (enthusiastically running) boss told me: 'once you can do the 5k, the 10k is only a question of will.'

So I'll be in the gym tonight, and resting tomorrow, and I'll go check my weight for the first time in a week. I don't expect much, but I want to know where I'm at :lurk5:
 
Alright,
just came from the gym.

Did the first session of week 2 of the c25k-workout, which basically means:

90secs running, 60secs walking, 90secs running, etc. ..

you can find the detailed roadmap here:

After about 3/4 of the way, I started to get stitches. I simply prolonged the walking periods a bit to compensate. I hope that'll go better on Thursday :)

anyway, as you can see in my ticker, about 2kg are gone already. Nothing essential, but it's a start.

Every kg counts :biggrinjester:
 
Hey. Nice job on starting to run. I suppose id like to do it too but i get out of breath so quickly it puts me off. Im on the crosstrainer mostly. So im also living in NL although i am english, been here two years. Do you speak dutch then?
Every kg counts for sure :) just keep it going, you're making progress.
 
becky90 said:
Hey. Nice job on starting to run. I suppose id like to do it too but i get out of breath so quickly it puts me off. Im on the crosstrainer mostly. So im also living in NL although i am english, been here two years. Do you speak dutch then?
Every kg counts for sure :) just keep it going, you're making progress.
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hey becky,

that's exactly been my problem so far. either I was out of breath too fast, or my knees/joints would hurt after a while. that's why I'm so endlessly grateful for having been reccommended the c25k-program.

it gives my motivation the structure to pull through.

so far :D

I do speak reasonable Dutch, never had a course tho, just learned by listening and trying.. obviously that's way easer for a German than for a Brit :)

Three years ago, I also did the crosstrainer a lot, and lost 32kg in 3 months.. but I was still almost unable to run for long..

so this time I'm getting my hopes reaaaally up..
 
Hey there,

Thanks for posting in my diary and welcome to the forum!

I'm checking out that couch to 5k thing now too, I've jogged before but not in a big way - it'd be nice to have something to aim for.

How's today been for you?
 
Holly88 said:
Hey there,

Thanks for posting in my diary and welcome to the forum!

I'm checking out that couch to 5k thing now too, I've jogged before but not in a big way - it'd be nice to have something to aim for.

How's today been for you?
Click to expand...


Hey Holly,

I haven't been running yesterday - yesterday was lazy-day :)

Today though right after coming home I'll grab my sports-bag and do the 2nd session of the 2nd week of the programm... I hope I won't suffer from those stitches that badly..

but I've been reccommended techniques to beat them anyway :lurk5:

I am trying not to completely exaggerate my food/snacks consumption, but I'm also not at all switching to water-only and no candy..

I have trouble enough keeping up motivation for something for a long time without completely abandonning soul-healing candy etc..

Once I'm able to run 10-15 mins in one go, I still might do that change, and substitute such bad food for proteine shakes in order to build muscles.

Muscles to beat my mantitties and make my arms look like they used to when I was about 16 and regularly pushing weights.. :doh:

thanks for your support :drool5:
 
alright, training last night went very well.

no more stitches at all.


instead, while doing the 5mins warm-up walk, I took a mis-step, tried to catch myself from falling, and in the process felt some tearing pain in my left calf and my right quadriceps. :banghead:

But, instead of taking the 'safe route' and stopping on the spot, I started my run anyway... and know what? After 15mins the feeling disappeared completely.

Ate a whole pack of chips afterwards though, but like I said.. it's not about losing weight in record time right now, but learning (to love) to run..

:flame:
 
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Well done for carrying on even though your leg hurt--Take it easy though, don't want to injure yourself so you can't learn to (love) to run ;) Wish I liked running! Good luck and keep up the good work!
 
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