Hello everyone,

been running for the last couple of years now, I'm 31yr old male, got down from 17.5 stones to now 14st. I still smoke around 10 a day (I know, I'm trying everything to quit it's cutting down slowly!). I am running around a 48min 10k, and I am currently trying to bring my mile time down. I'm aiming to get it to 6minutes initially, and I am doing interval work, so 2mins at 10mph then 1min rest, then 2min effort, 1min rest finally 2 min finish. This is killing me. My max HR is around 186ish. My heart seems fairly happy at this beat, doesn't feel like it's going to explode. My breathing is heavy and I can't get enough air in to push on.

Any ideas? I know the obvious one is to kill the smoking, but I'm doing that as fast as I can. I'm wondering if there is a limit to performance based on my weight? Which is obviously still 14stones or so.

My other issue is distance. My legs really go rock hard on the front calf muscle and the lower quad muscle (near the knee at the front?) just wondering if there is anything I can do. I'd like my long runs to be 6-10 miles, but like last night, I went out aiming for 7/8 and I had to stop every 1.5miles or so and massage out the front calf muscle because it was locked solid.

Thanks for reading! WIll use the search button now, and get to know the forum

Hi Luthor,

Being an ex smoker I can definately say that the breathing is most definately caused by the smoking, I could not believe the difference once I gave up. (much easier to say than do like you say)

As for tight calf's, are you streching out for long enough before going for a run and how often do you run at the moment, wonder if it could be 'burnout !!'

I do about 1.5miles slow warmup (7mph/145bpm it's slightly downhill from my house) then I do a good-old stretch at that point. I have a 1.5mile lap marked out which goes flat-uphill-downhill-flat. I've noticed I can't do more than 1 lap at a time now without stopping after each lap for stretching.

I guess in answer to your question, I don't know if I do enough stretching, but will certainly increase it. I try and avoid more than 3mins because I tend to cool down too much.

I'm doing interval 3 times a week and steady longer runs 3 times a week with Saturday rest. Total mileage last week was 32. Interval days are 2 x 1.5miles warmup (7mph) with rest and stretching, then my 1mile at 10mph with 2 x 1 mins rest in there, and 1.5miles slow jog cooldown. Steady runs tends to be 6 miles at around 6.5 - 8mph fartlek with stretch/massage rests regularly.

Symptoms of 'burnout' are what I'm getting? Is it basically that my heart has 'got fit' quicker than my legs? It seems my heart is now pumping so much slower for the same MPH than before...

Blimey, that's way more than I do, I'm certainly no expert on how training should be conducted correctly but I run twice a week and sometimes 3 times but any more than that and I suffer from sore shins, calf's (in fact - you name it, it hurts)

generally stretch for 20ish minutes before going and the runs tend to be either 3-4 or 5-6 miles.

Try cutting down for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference.

I did try cutting down and to a degree it helped, but I found that my heart started getting 'lazy'. At 8mph I'm sitting on 165-170bpm, if I rest for more than 4 days that'll creep up to 175/180. I'm really trying to get my legs fit to keep up with the heart... 20mins stretching eh I'll give it a try and report back!! Cheers

Awesome progress, Luthor, losing 3.5 stone is far from easy!

I find I get calf trouble if I do too much training; 32 mpw is a lot of running. Maybe you could try doing your long run after a rest day or two and see if your legs feel easier?

Hi Luthor, welcome to the forum and best of luck with your training sounds like you are well on the way

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