yadz

Thanks for the input, I'll try incorporating your suggestions, tomorrow I'll go for a run solo and have her join me in the cool-down period.

One of my flatmates told me that I inspired her to start running (blush!) and she is super jazzed about the whole thing. She's decided to come running with me almost every day. This is, of course, awesome. There is one teeny, tiny problem. She's brand spanking new at the physical activity thing. If I go my normal pace she can't keep up for more than a block and even at her own pace she can only run for maybe a quarter of a mile before having to walk. I'm not getting ANY workout by going with her, except maybe what I would get out of a brisk walk. I want to keep going with her to encourage and help her, but short of going out for 2 runs every day, one on my own and another shepherding her, I really don't know how we can both get a decent workout. And lets be honest, I'm not going for 2 runs every day. How can I help her level up her abilities, without leveling mine down?

Well, I did some googling and from what I can tell it's pretty normal for hands to shake for up to an hour after a strenuous workout. This is due to a combination of depleted blood sugar and the release of adrenaline. Almighty google has spoken, I'll be fine.

be careful with things like protein bars, often times they're little more than glorified candy bars, the only time I eat anything like that is when hiking where you want a really high calorie to size ratio for your backpack to keep you fueled all day. Also be careful of trail mix, it seems so innocuous (all natural, no added sugar, unprocessed, mother nature's ultimate treat!) but dried fruit is packed with sugar and the nuts and legumes have a very high calorie density (the name "trail mix" give you a hint as to what it's ideal for, hiking trails where you need energy that doesn't take up much space, just like protein bars). when you look at the nutritional information on the package it's usually about 200 calories for a quarter cup (and have you EVER just eaten a quarter of a cup?) As always, fruits and veggies are your best options. try baby carrots dipped in hummus, or celery sticks with almond butter. keep smuggling that cafeteria fruit as well, ignore the dirty stares you get as your hoodie pockets bulge in evidence of your fruity larceny, if you don't take it, it'll just go bad (cause honestly, how many people actually eat the fruit at the cafeteria?) Something to consider is hard boiled eggs. they can stay in your fridge for up to a week after boiling, and for infinity while raw and in shell. if you have a microwave in your room maybe consider sweet potatoes, they cook in about 3 minutes in the microwave and can break up the monotony of constantly eating raw things. and jerky, but be careful with that, some brands are loaded with sugar and sodium, read the labels and basically don't eat an entire bag of jack links in one sitting. hope I gave you some ideas!

Update: Since I started this thread, I've moved to a new city, a much more yuppy city (I was kinda living in the hood before). When I go out I don't get the level of harassment that I did in the hood, but I have gotten guys honking and yelling out of the windows of cars driving by. They don't slow down or anything though, so I guess they're just... yelling for the sheer joy of being a douche-nozzle? Just, spraying their douche-juice all over the street for anyone to hear. It's still annoying, but I feel much less threatened, which is good because pepper spray is illegal here (UK). In reading all the responses, it's pretty obvious that this isn't a person-to-person problem, this is a major societal epidemic. I guess what's really going to be required is a major overhaul of the mindset of this subculture of men, the douches.

you are kicking so much ass, you must have a special room in your house where you keep and display all the ass you kick.

no, that's not your heartrate, that's the pulse reader going wonky. it's actually pretty normal, I've finished a breakneck speed sprint on a treadmill, slowed to a walk, with lungs burning and heart exploding out of my chest I grabbed the pulse reader, and it put me at 75 or so. those things are notoriously inaccurate. if you're looking for a good pulse reader you should consider buying one of the wristwatch ones. personally, I don't get bogged down in details like heartrate anyway. Did you have to breathe heavier? Were you sweating? Was it hard? Did your muscles hurt afterwards? These are the markers of a good workout, agonizing over heart rates and the exact number of calories burned, ugh, don't go there. down that way lies madness.

kale chips, frozen banana slices, grapes, baby carrots. anything that you can munch on like a bag of chips. I'm eating a bowl of strawberries right now while aimlessly surfing the web!

the best for sprinting is going to be a high school or college outdoor track, one of the squishy, rubbery ones. helps cushion impact, but smooth so you don't trip over anything. Whenever I sprint train I do straight/curve intervals. I walk for a curve, then jog for a straightaway and the next curve, then sprint the hell out of the next straight, then walk again for a curve, repeat as necessary. I know some people that sprint every straight and walk every curve, that also works, or the really badass ones run the curves and sprint the straights, never walking. I always think that if you have enough gas to keep running after a sprint, however, you weren't really sprinting at full capacity. on a road run (if there's no track available) I'll do a similar interval with lamp posts or street corners. walk to one, jog to the next, sprint to the third, repeat. I NEVER recommend sprinting through dirt or open field. It's nice and cushions your footfalls to be sure, but the surface is uneven and bumpy and you never know when a branch is going to be lying right there to trip you up. Even just the loose layer of topsoil is easy to skid on at the speeds you're traveling at. It's a great way to fall flat on your face, or turn an ankle, or even break a bone.

This may sound awful but, as a female, your metabolism is gonna change with age. 19 sounds young for it to start slowing down, but that's around where mine did. Every woman is different and you may have just drawn the genetic short straw this time. If this is the case, don't panic, it DOES mean that you will have to work a little bit harder than everyone else, ad infinitum. You're going to have to wrap your head around a new version of active. I'm sorry if that's a depressing thought. I'm sure "you're just going to have to work even harder for the rest of your life" isn't what you were hoping to hear, and I might be wrong on that, I'm not a doctor, and I don't know you personally. It might be something completely different that can be fixed easily and everything will go back to the way it was. I don't know, but you need to at least consider the possibility that it's early onset metabolism slowdown.

I'm awful at patterning my runs. When I first started I FORCED myself to go every single day (sunday being my only rest day). I would alternate long, slow runs one day with short, fast runs the next, but in all honesty, when I was doing this I was in awful shape so it was mostly just walking anyway. Now that I've gotten good at running I don't have a schedule at all, I run when I want to run, which usually ends up being about 4 times a week give or take. It's a self-regulating system I've found, if I go too many days in a row without a run I start to feel like crap, I start CRAVING that run. If I go too hard, my muscles will force me to take a day off. It's the strength training that I have to force myself to do, and I'll be honest, I suck at that. I'm still trying to find a way to incorporate strength training into my life, I'll get back to you when I get it sorted though.

As of about 5 minutes ago I left the Obese category and entered into Overweight. I lost 63 pounds to get to this point. in about 30 more pounds I'll be in the Normal category, but lets not worry about that today. Lets just focus on the fact that I'm not obese anymore! I've been obese for 6 years, I have really close friends that have never known me as merely overweight. Woot!

I've gotten pretty good at running over the past few months, to the point that a problem has been able to manifest itself. See, in the past it's always been either my legs or my lungs that have forced me to stop, but now that I've been able to run faster and farther, my hands are becoming a problem. It starts with numbness in the fingertips, and then turns into full-blown tremor. Even after I stop running, my hands will continue to shake for hours afterwards. I have a mild natural tremor in my hands to begin with, so that might have something to do with it, but this is beyond anything normal I think, The severity of this shake is such that opening my door to come back inside, even flicking the lightswitch on or picking up my water bottle for a drink, these are monumental tasks that usually take a couple of tries (and dropping my keys twice, my water bottle three times or so). Thoughts? Advice? Experience?

Congrats! same thing happened to me when I went for a run today and my workout pants would NOT stay up. feels great doesn't it?

freaking awesome!

I started graduate school overseas in England (just got here a week and a half ago) I lost 60 pounds I can run 4 miles without stopping (though I do have to slow down when the road goes uphill) I can do actual pushups (though not many) I am honest-to-goodness proud of myself. Every single achievement on this list is something that I worked for months, and even years, without rest to accomplish. As I was running today, my first run on English soil, I was thinking about how me from 2 months ago wouldn't have been able to keep up for even a quarter of a mile. Whenever I meet a new person I feel confident in myself, and I know that they're not looking at me like "the fat American." All the sweat, all the frustration, every rejected pizza and cookie, I can't even tell you how worth it it is. I still want to lose about 40 pounds, but I'm not worried about it, I can take my time and enjoy the journey now.

crystal deoderant doesn't do a damn thing for me. I use dove prescription strength. It doesn't smell like much of anything but it comes in this soft-powdery form that pretty much never dries out.

I opened it here and in the women's specific training section, but if it's listed twice here then no, I didn't do that. taking it as a compliment encourages them, smiling, even accidental eye contact just makes them think you're interested. I'm scared to flip them off or do anything openly hostile, you never know if they'll react violently

This is mostly a women's problem, but I'd be interested in hearing a male perspective as well. Every single time I go for a run I get creepers harassing me. Usually it's just horn-honking or the mostly just irritating "hey baby!" yelled from a passing car. Every now and then they get creative. things I've had to deal with: -"Hey baby, I've just got to eat that pu$$y!" -"Damn girl, are you married?" -"Let me see that a$$!" -"Work that thang!" -"yo, why don't you get in the car and let me give you a ride?" -"you looking for a man?" -"you looking for a good time?" and probably the worst was this guy that didn't say anything, just pulled up alongside and coasted, following me in his car for about a block, staring at me. things I've done/said in response (when they don't go away with ignoring and pretending I can't hear them over my headphones): -"yeah, I'm married" -"yeah, my husband's about a block behind but he should catch up any minute now" -"ich spreche keinen anglais" - " لا أتكلم الإنجليزية " - < I can't hear you> ... in sign language - "sorry, I'm busy" what do you do about it?

Every single time I go for a run I get creepers harassing me. Usually it's just horn-honking or the mostly just irritating "hey baby!" yelled from a passing car. Every now and then they get creative. things I've had to deal with: -"Hey baby, I've just got to eat that pu$$y!" -"Damn girl, are you married?" -"Let me see that a$$!" -"Work that thang!" -"yo, why don't you get in the car and let me give you a ride?" -"you looking for a man?" -"you looking for a good time?" and probably the worst was this guy that didn't say anything, just pulled up alongside and coasted, following me in his car for about a block, staring at me. things I've done/said in response (when they don't go away with ignoring and pretending I can't hear them over my headphones): -"yeah, I'm married" -"yeah, my husband's about a block behind but he should catch up any minute now" -"ich spreche keinen anglais" - " لا أتكلم الإنجليزية " - < I can't hear you> ... in sign language - "sorry, I'm busy" what do you do about it?

ugh, PT tests are the WORST. good job passing yours

ah, gotta love the "these jeans are too BIG!" moment. Nothing quite like it, but in my humble opinion, you should buy the new size even if you're planning on dropping more anyway (maybe not the super-expensive ones, but a cheap old navy pair would work), the reason being, progress is easier to see in well-fitting pants, you'll notice it more when you look in the mirror, you'll feel better and sexier, and you'll probably get complimented on it more if you're not still wearing oversized clothes that hide your progress, which in turn will give you even more motivation. Treat yourself with every milestone! buy something that makes you feel sexy every day you put it on.

Wow, I just did 45 seconds and I thought THAT was good, 3:30 is pretty BAMF, abs of steel.

"Zombies, Run!" It's so much fun, it basically turns every run into a video game. Even when running on the treadmill (snore) it keeps you engaged and entertained.

This is a long one, if you don't feel like reading a bunch of background details just skip to the last paragraph. I got sick. REAL sick. The kind of sick where your lungs feel like they're filled with a gas-station slurpie and you only sleep 3 hours a night because your lungs keep filling up with fluid and if you don't wake up to cough you'll drown in your own mucus, that kind of sick. the kind where every joint feels like it's been stripped of all it's cartilage, and your muscles feel like they've been injected with wood glue. I made serious efforts at staying in shape for the first week of this vile plague, but exercise became impossible as I got out of breath simply walking to my car and my coughing fits were so severe that they actually caused me to vomit a few times. cooking food became impossible as well, standing up for longer than 3 minutes at a time made my vision go tunneled and my head swim. microwavable noodles and delivery crap became my options. This lasted for 6 WEEKS before I finally recovered (thanks to some serious medications). In the course of those six weeks I completely lost my ability to run (which I was getting pretty good at before the pestilence) and in return I gained 25 pounds. This may sound like a lot of complaining and excuses, it sort of is, and it sort of isn't. See, I could have ordered egg drop soup every night instead of orange chicken, that's on me. and I could have seen a doctor much sooner instead of losing a month and a half, that's also on me. But I WAS sick, and it was legit. So where is the Woot? I'm not sick anymore, and I'm back in the game baby. I'm cooking healthy meals again, and I'm back to exercising 5 times a week now. The Woot is that when I got better, I got back on the horse. I didn't "forget" about my goals, I didn't let my full loss of momentum lead to an inability to get moving again, and I'm NOT letting the 25 pound weight gain get the better of me psychologically. No excuses, no delays. I'm back baby.