I'm a 34 year old male and I'm 5ft 10 and currently weigh about 237 lbs which is about 17 stone or just a tad under it. So I'm currently about 5-6 stone overweight.
I've been running on and off for about a year and a half and I've struggled a bit with my diet and while my running has improved a bit when I keep at it, my pace hasn't massively improved which is perhaps unsurprising considered I didn't lose much weight.
I was out running yesterday and my pace is awful, somewhere between the 14 min/mile and 16 min/mile pace. Snails can pass me out.
A runner friend of mine who would be at the complete other end of the fitness scale (his 10k PB is either 30 or 31 mins) keeps saying to me to forget the speed, just focus on doing the miles and the speed will come eventually.
I realise I'm not likely to get much faster unless I lose weight, but I seem to be so far off what I'd consider average speed of 8 min/mile or 10 min/mile that it seems impossible.
How likely is it that if my weight comes down and I keep running that my speed will get faster and duck under lets say 10 min/mile pace?
I guess it would be good to hear from those who might have lost similar amounts of weight, but all opinions would be welcome too.
Thanks!
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You will run faster if you lose some weight - imagine running with a ruc sac and then taking it off, that's the image I use to try and help me lose the last stone and a half.
I lost a load of weight, about 4 stone a couple of years ago and it made at least 4 mins per mile difference.
I think you need to break it down into smaller goals. Your ultimate goals of losing several stone and 6 mins per mile may be off putting whereas if you aim to run one of your miles a bit faster each week and set mini weight loss targets it might be more motivating.
Good luck
Just to agree with what the others have said. Ive lost around a stone over the last year and my comfortable running pace in training has reduced by around a minute a mile........now to try and translate that into a few PBs this year............
Who is Peter Maher?
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