Unexpected side-effects

Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭

So, what unexpected benefits or disadvantages have you experienced as a result of training or racing?

Of course we should avoid the obvious like an increase in 'aerobic capacity', or 'being able to run faster' and so on.

I'll start off with 'haemorrhoids'.

«1

Comments

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Unpredictable guts.
  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭

    More relaxed attitude to personal hygiene.

  • relaxed, I can take any old shite in work since I started to run but I used to be a bit stressed.

  • Being told I look ill/too thin....

  • SuperCazSuperCaz ✭✭✭

    I have to agree with Dave on that one... except that I'm single so don't get any image

    Also the ability to stay on my feet all day without getting overly tired.  Particularly handy when supporting at a marathon or other long event

  • +ve The most exciting bra I have bought for over six years.

    -ve Getting dragged into the dispute between my lunchtime jogging partner and her boyfriend, all in the same office, over whether she should be running or not due to her saying her hip and knees are killing her.

  • Nasty habit of snot rocketing even when not running (not realising I'm doing it until I've done it and people go ewwww)

    Loss of any social life

    Gained masses of self confidence

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    GAP thinking I'm "small".

    image

  • MuttleyMuttley ✭✭✭
    MikeFrog wrote (see)

    Marriage

    You didn't say if that counts as a positive or negative.

  • literatin wrote (see)

    More relaxed attitude to personal hygiene.

    I wasn't sure if this was a+ or - either!

  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭
    Mad4morris wrote (see)
    literatin wrote (see)

    More relaxed attitude to personal hygiene.

    I wasn't sure if this was a+ or - either!

    depends on whether you're me or someone else.

  • + More relaxed and self confident, thinner. I think the sex is better, as well as feeling better about my body I have better aerobic capacity and have a stronger core. Not sure if Dave TES was joking, but I reckon it's true...





    - Rotating aches and pains (feet/knees/hips) or more accurately how boring I have become on the topic and the fact that I can bore on for hours about the piriformis muscle and the ITB. Also all that sweat mixed with artificial fibres plays havoc with my skin.
  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭

    Okay, I've thought of a proper one: way better knowledge of the local area than I ever developed in the previous 10 years I lived here. Also seen lots of wildlife.

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭
    Buying jeans/trousers has become problematic.



    I am not shy about where I do a tinkle.
  • GertieGertie ✭✭✭

    thinking that an ironman was possible...

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Having to have 2 different sizes of clothes. I've just realised the jeans that fitted at Xmas are now far too big after 16 weeks of decent training.
  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    Literatin, I hadn't thought of that. But I do see the seasons change, and occasionally run into deer and wildlife I wouldn't normally. S'nice.

    Obviously I've lost weight, but I'm 6'2" and did have 34" waist, now a 31". I know this is obvious but that wasn't th intention when I started.



    And I can really bore people with talk of running.
  • I'm thicker and longer.
  • I got a university challenge question about plantar fascia right last week.
  • Younger people than me (can be 20 years younger) saying "I couldn't do that" when i talk about Marathons or how long/far I ran the day before image

  • Elli of the North wrote (see)

    Nasty habit of snot rocketing even when not running (not realising I'm doing it until I've done it and people go ewwww)

    Loss of any social life


    Elli, I suspect those two may be related image

    I have devloped an innate knowledge of my local area, so when asked where somewhere is I can normally respond with a "Oh yes, thats 5.4 miles away"

     

  • M..o.use wrote (see)
    Buying jeans/trousers has become problematic.

    I am not shy about where I do a tinkle.

    THIS...

    i cant find any jeans that fit me, (fashionable ones at least) i'd have to buy ugly ass tesco baggy jeans. I cant imagine what Chris Hoy has to go through,

  • Since I've started running I definately look younger.

    I've lost weight as well so I'm wearing 30 waist jeans.

    Other stuff as well, good skin, good sex, a lot more enthusiasm in life in general.

    Can't think of any negatives really?- sometimes long runs give me the farts but is that really a negative? It's at least amusing.

  • Abs. Actual abdominal muscles that you can see.

    And apart from being physically tired at various times throughout the training, more energy and enthusiasm to try new things, e.g. writing, which i've taken up again recently.

  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭
    Marc.S wrote (see)
    M..o.use wrote (see)
    Buying jeans/trousers has become problematic.

    I am not shy about where I do a tinkle.

    THIS...

    i cant find any jeans that fit me, (fashionable ones at least) i'd have to buy ugly ass tesco baggy jeans. I cant imagine what Chris Hoy has to go through,

    Me too, though I think my giant-sized quads are more from cycling than running. Once I was excited because I thought I'd managed to find a pair of skinny jeans in topshop that I could actually pull up over my legs. But then I realised they were two sizes too big and on the wrong hanger (looked like clown trousers). In the end I was able to find nice jeans that fitted in Uniqlo. Probably not that much use to you, though, as I'm a girl.

    Oh, or buy jeans a size too big and have the waist/arse taken in.

  • I noticed something that I am now conscious of, and I stop myself when it's happening. You get in a conversation and inevitably talk gets to running, but then you get the glazed eyes and static expressions that say " Oh no he's off again"

  • Not necessarily all unexpected - some perhaps even hoped for, but;

    +ve its helped me (on top of diet) to get down to my lowest weight since I was about 13/14, 20 years ago.

    +ve I can fit in waist 30 jeans (just - waist is fine but quads are tight, I used to have 36/38 waist this time last year).

    +ve My, um, you know, looks bigger when its happy. So to speak. Which is nice.

    +ve it's massively helped my ankylysing spondilitis, despite the added impact which is why they tell you to avoid too much running, I'm virtually painfree as long as I've been out 2 or 3 times a week. Basically any exercise is better than the no exercise I was doing before.

    +ve I can keep up with my little toddler, get down on the floor to play with him and get up as quickly as he does (usually!).

    +ve I don't care about being out in the rain at all now after running through sleet and some truly awful weather in Jan/Feb.

    +ve I have yet another thing I can pretend to be an expert about and show off/lecture people with. This is a -ve for everyone within earshot, but I enjoy myself.

    -ve I have a lot of quite unpleasant spare skin around my midriff. Which gives me a rather unfair muffin-top effect with my new 30 waist jeans. That's the price of all the sloth and the shite I ate and drank throughout the first 30 years of my life I suppose. Surgery could take care of it but that feels like cheating and I don't want to take unnecessary risks of major surgery and be unable to run for several weeks while it heals.

    -ve It took a lot of time out of my day to do the long runs before my half marathon. I enjoyed it for itself, but with work and needing to give my family time it did cut down my opportunities for other fun stuff. I can't imagine at this point having the time to do enough miles to properly train for a full marathon.

     

     

Sign In or Register to comment.