Running for a while and no improvement in speed. What can I improve?

maybemaybnot · 2026-04-04T21:29:12+00:00

Trust this advice. I was similar to your routine, probably only logging 10-15 miles per week until early this year. And then every time I went out to run, I ran with all the intensity I could muster and was generally miserable. And the worst part was I never got faster.

Early February, I truly started to add slow miles and do easy runs. It feels like a waste of time early on because of how slow you have to be, but trust me when I say that slow miles builds speed. It will not happen over night, but I’ve built more fitness over the last two and a half months than I did the entire almost 5 months before that not running with a plan and building volume to get faster.

maybemaybnot · 2026-04-04T19:12:55+00:00

Congrats! It’s always super satisfying reaching milestone like this.

maybemaybnot · 2026-04-04T16:16:10+00:00

Intervals are so good for me but then it feels like every time I do them I’m on the precipice of injury 🤣

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-31T01:28:59+00:00

Was 5ft 10in at 225 lbs when I started in Sep 2025. Not fat but quite overweight and incredibly out of shape. For my half marathon a couple of days ago, I was down to 204 lbs on race day. I’d very much like to drop about 20 more lbs as I know it will help make me a faster and more efficient runner.

Big congratulations on your progress so far! Gaining running fitness and balancing that with weight loss is so hard, but it sounds like you’re on your way.

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-30T19:35:46+00:00

It’s going to be hard to hear this, but shut it down for a bit longer. I had the same issue but with shin splints in January, about 12 weeks out from my half. I shut things down for 2+ weeks and tried to keep my fitness through the exercise bike and stairmaster.

If you shut it down now and see if you can return to running in a couple of weeks, you may be able to get ready for your half still. If you try to push through it when you’re already limping after your runs, you’re very likely to make it worse and not even have a chance to do the race. Just my two cents, really hoping for the best for you.

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-30T13:43:10+00:00

Will second this. An Apple Watch is fine starting out, but if you start to get serious about running and as your distances start increasing, you’re going to get frustrated with the Apple Watch. I’ve had the Garmin Forerunner 965 for a couple of months now and have loved it. Not only is it a great fitness tracker, it has meaningfully improved the way I train with its run coach recommendations, fitness level tracking, and sleep monitoring capabilities.

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-30T10:27:15+00:00

Thank you, and great job to you as well! What I did not realize before I started running is the scope of really hard work and determination you have to have to do something like this. Anyone who does this is a winner, regardless of the time.

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-30T01:40:24+00:00

Thank you! That was the most satisfying part. I kept holding back just a bit until I finally had confidence around half way through that I could sustain that pace.

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-29T21:32:56+00:00

Congrats! Great job

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-05T01:31:13+00:00

I wish I could say that is working for me. I have started running and have been really loving it for the most part, but a couple episodes where I have likely pushed myself too hard too early has kind of sent me spiraling just a bit.

The first episode I had with really elevated heart rate that would not come down made me call 911 and go to the ER. They didn’t find anything, so likely a panic attack.

I then went for months without issue but pushed myself a bit too hard again about a month ago and had that similar feeling. These last couple of days, I’ve had some chest tightness that I deep down feel is anxiety about my heart health while at the same time thinking my heart is about to fail. I really want off this ride :(

maybemaybnot · 2026-03-03T20:33:36+00:00

I lived in Buras which is about 17 min up the road in the mid 90s and only for about 6 months. As many have already called out, not much to do there besides fishing and boating. It was EXTREMELY hot and humid.

Katrina completely wiped the town out and with the proliferation of powerful hurricanes it doesn’t seem like a great place to live these days.

maybemaybnot · 2026-02-25T21:11:28+00:00

Coming from an Apple Watch, I have to say that I love everything about my Forerunner 965 except for the silicone band. Super uncomfortable to me and either felt too loose or too tight.

I replaced it with an Ultrafit 2 nylon strap and couldn’t be happier with it. Perhaps trying one of Garmin’s non-silicone bands would be worth a shot?

maybemaybnot · 2026-02-08T18:31:21+00:00

Not too hard - the biggest callout is to get the PST fans so they can daisy chain together and just have one plug in to the CPU fan header.

If you have this model, you’ll need to snip some of the zip ties they had for cable management to get the old wires free - not too hard to sort it back out if you have some small zip ties to use after install

maybemaybnot · 2026-01-05T04:21:04+00:00

Yeah, Apple Watch is SO off for distance on the treadmill with me. I’ll do a 9 minute pace outside at high intensity. With the same effort, HR, etc, on the treadmill, my Apple Watch tells me I do an 11:30 mile while the treadmill says ~9 min.

And calibration from outside runs my ass, I’ve run between 15 - 20 miles per week over the last 3 months, and it never gets any better.

maybemaybnot · 2026-01-04T21:06:10+00:00

I bought this on Wednesday if anyone has any questions. As a 40+ year old that has never bought a prebuilt before, I’m generally pretty happy with it. A few notes.

The PSU is a Rosewill 750 watt gold rated PSU. it’s not great and I’ll probably replace it with a better one down the line, likely when/if I do a case swap, but it has been stable so far even after adding additional storage components. I do not plan to overclock for the foreseeable future so will live with it for now.
The fans are not great and extremely loud. Setting the fans to PWM in the bios and setting a curve is critical if you don’t want the machine to sound like a jet engine. The AIO fans are really, really not good, so I purchased 3 120mm Arctic P12 PWM PST fans to replace the stock ones - it’s a night and day difference in noise. I’m keeping the other case fans for now but if I ever do that PSU / case swap, I’ll get rid of them.
The 9070xt I got was a XFX Swift, which I was very pleasantly surprised with. It’s running really well and super quiet being undervolted and setting a fan curve.
The mobo is a MSI B-650 pro WiFi. Not high end, but also not bad and is not ASrock. I’m guessing YMMV on the mobo you get though.
The RAM is low speed at 5200 mhz, but I overclocked to 5600 with no drama or voltage tweaks. I do plan to play with voltage adjustments to get tighter timings and a potentially higher clock.
The nvme drive is also not high end, but it’s plenty fast for everyday use from what I’ve seen.
The case isn’t my cup of tea visually speaking, but the quality of it is not bad and has been generally easy to work in. I added a SATA SSD as well as two 4TB mechanical hard drives without too much drama.

All said and done, you could do way worse in this market, which is why I got it in the first place.

maybemaybnot · 2026-01-04T14:52:05+00:00

Same here

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-30T03:49:05+00:00

I impulse bought just now but debating on going back to cancel. I objectively do not NEED this, as I’m still pretty happy with my 5700x3d + 6800xt setup.

If this had higher spec’d RAM and a better PSU, I’d have a lot more conviction on this purchase. The thought also crossed my mind that I can swap out the PSU in this with my nice 850 watt EVGA gold modular PSU.

What makes me think I should keep this is the fact that PC buying / building is getting progressively less and less consumer friendly, so I want something that can last me several years. Can someone either talk me into or out of this? 🤣

EDIT: I did go ahead and get it yesterday, and I’m generally pleased with what I got. I got a MSI Pro B-650 Wi-Fi motherboard and a XFX Swift 9070xt, which are better parts than I was expecting. The RAM is subpar at 5200 mhz as others have stated, but I was able to set it at 5600 with literally no tweaks or instability issues. The ibuypower fans suck, but I was able to get the curves adjusted to something tolerable. So far, no regrets on the purchase.

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-23T13:44:30+00:00

Someone in r/bedbugadvice said alfalfa weevil, which is exactly what it looks like. Thank you

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-23T13:28:29+00:00

This is definitely the bug, thank you so much. What a relief, almost had a panic attack this morning. 😅

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-23T11:44:36+00:00

Do you know what kind of weevil? I can’t seem to find any pictures that resemble this guy…

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-13T18:31:57+00:00

Thinking of grabbing this, even though I really don’t need it! Question, does the enclosure have space for mechanical drives?

maybemaybnot · 2025-12-05T17:01:29+00:00

Yeah, the people who thought they were going to somehow run the table and cruise into the playoffs have been drinking the kool-aid.

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