Running

Neo#

Ive just started running now for about the last month. I run 3 times a week. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. I run for about 20 minutes. Im just wondering if this will make a difference. Should I run for a lot longer or more days to make a real impact. Im doing it to lose weight and to improve my general fitness. I was really unfit before. I am starting to run a bit faster recently.

p.pete

It'll definitely make a difference. For weight loss you'll want to balance your diet as well as getting excercise in.
Is there any reason why you run 3 days in a row? Might be better for you if you ran every 2nd day ie. Monday, Wednesday and Friday then keep the weekend clear.

Bam Bam

you'll also want to increase the duration of your running over time, because eventually the same amount of running will do less and less for you.

Stark

Definitely better for you to space out your runs over the week.

30 mins, 3 times a week is considered optimal effort/benefit tradeoff. But don't start increasing your distances until you're well used to running. In the excitement and endorphin rush of being new to running, you might not notice lots of tiny little injuries as your muscles strengthen and re-balance.

Neo#

I made a mistake there. Its monday wednesday and friday i go running. Thats what I meant to say. Yeah I think I will have to run a bit further. Its not hurting like it did at the start.

joc_06

whatever you do if you want to play a sport dont run non stop for more than a mile or so. It destroys all your fast twitch muscle.
look into tempo runs or fartlek. basically interval runs @ 80%.
much much better than the other soul destroying tripe...

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Transform

With your stated goal of weight loss then focus on good clean foods and yes increase the duration of the runs while NOT increasing your speed. Monday and friday can be your longer runs of 30-40mins and wednesday can be a slightly faster run for just 20-25mins.

copacetic

joc_06 wrote:

whatever you do if you want to play a sport dont run non stop for more than a mile or so. It destroys all your fast twitch muscle.
look into tempo runs or fartlek. basically interval runs @ 80%.
much much better than the other soul destroying tripe...

thats not true, all professional footballers typically run 5 miles as part of training 3/4 days a week. They also use other training to help their fast twitch muscles, but running doesn't 'destroy' anything...

Stark

Interval training (alternating casual speed with fast speed) will help develop distance and sprinting ability.

poobum

daveym wrote:

thats not true, all professional footballers typically run 5 miles as part of training 3/4 days a week. They also use other training to help their fast twitch muscles, but running doesn't 'destroy' anything...

depends on the sport you play! but if all you done was mid level running you would lose alot of fast twitch fibers! so your sprinting would suffer!

Transform

Your sprinting would suffer and interval training!!!!!!!!!!

Get off your soap box with this drivel! Most people looking at this site and the original post stated that fitness and weight loss is number one goal so LONG SLOW DISTANCE (LSD) type training is best for this, especailly for a beginner. I have had lots of clients who i have trained using various methods over the years and all of those coming from a interval based background e.g. soccer, spinning queens etc all were over trained and flushed full of lactic acid and were NEVER loosing weight or increasing fitness.

Full VO2 max fitness test sorted all out and as i knew it showed all were training at too high of a heart rate (higher the HR the lower the amount of fat burned and the more carbs used as fuel - exact opposite of what you want if weight loss is your goal).

I totally agree with interval training for the advanced trainee and those with at least a 3-6 month aerobic base i.e. doing steady runs/cycle/swim at a low intensity that allow them to chat to someone but not to sing (stupid analogy but it works).

So NEO keep up the running, take it really easy, do weights and most of all have ONE day where you can muck up your diet a little.

joc_06

daveym wrote:

all professional footballers typically run 5 miles as part of training 3/4 days a week.

Ha Ha Ha.


Funniest post so far on fitness

copacetic

joc_06 wrote:

Ha Ha Ha.


Funniest post so far on fitness

really? I always thought every post you make about never running more than a few yards as it will ruin your 'speed' are the funniest.

I know a few footballers and also a few coaches so know from their clubs at least that what I posted above it correct, can you elaborate as to how that makes it 'funny'? The average footballer runs 7 miles in a game so they need the endurance to do this comfotably on top of the speed for the stop start nature of the game. I'm guessing even you wouldn't suggest they build this endurance with weight training or speedwork?

copacetic

poobum wrote:

depends on the sport you play! but if all you done was mid level running you would lose alot of fast twitch fibers! so your sprinting would suffer!

they don't 'just' do mid level running, as I said in my post, but it is part of their training and doesn't 'ruin' any fast twitch fibers...

joc_06

running 5 miles 4x a week continuously doesnt ruin your fast twitch muscles?
Hmmm. Well i'll let you figure that one out. That is just a ridiculuous statement.

And where did i ever say

never run... more than a few yards as it will ruin your 'speed'

Read a bit about tempo running and you'll see what im talking about.

If you know footballers that do your training schedule they are either
a - crap and slow but good at the 10,000m
b - good but could be vastly batter if they trained correctly
c - retired @ 26 from overtraining.

Probably a good mix of a and c with very little of b

copacetic

joc_06 wrote:

running 5 miles 4x a week continuously doesnt ruin your fast twitch muscles?
Hmmm. Well i'll let you figure that one out. That is just a ridiculuous statement.

And where did i ever say Read a bit about tempo running and you'll see what im talking about.

If you know footballers that do your training schedule they are either
a - crap and slow but good at the 10,000m
b - good but could be vastly batter if they trained correctly
c - retired @ 26 from overtraining.

Probably a good mix of a and c with very little of b

rubbish, they do easy 40 mins runs most days before training, the only days they don't do them is the day before a game, they even do it the day after the game as recovery runs.

I know plenty about tempo running, they don't tend to do much of it. Mostly plyometrics and weights, along with the skills and endurance work

when you are that fit a 5 mile run in 40 mins doesn't affect you at all, just keeps the endurance ticking over.

It's interesting you should mention 10k running as the V02 max of the average 10k elite runner is in a similar range to that of a professional footballer.

Pretty clear you don't have a clue what you are talking about in relation to general fitness for sport..


it's

joc_06

daveym wrote:

rubbish, they do easy 40 mins runs most days before training, the only days they don't do them is the day before a game, they even do it the day after the game as recovery runs.

I know plenty about tempo running, they don't tend to do much of it. Mostly plyometrics and weights, along with the skills and endurance work

when you are that fit a 5 mile run in 40 mins doesn't affect you at all, just keeps the endurance ticking over.

It's interesting you should mention 10k running as the V02 max of the average 10k elite runner is in a similar range to that of a professional footballer.

Pretty clear you don't have a clue what you are talking about in relation to general fitness for sport..

I hate this "i know more than you stuff".
No one knows everything but you are obviously a very expierenced coach and have prepared lots of top class athletes including yourself.
Any chance you do consultations?
You should call your company "Culling the herd"


I just read your post on the other thread and all i've to say is: please dont be spreading myths, inaccuracies and hearsay.
It also helps to actually think and research about the subject you are posting on.
Dont be misleading people

copacetic

joc_06 wrote:

I hate this "i know more than you stuff".
No one knows everything but you are obviously a very expierenced coach and have prepared lots of top class athletes including yourself.
Any chance you do consultations?
You should call your company "Culling the herd"


I just read your post on the other thread and all i've to say is: please dont be spreading myths, inaccuracies and hearsay.
It also helps to actually think and research about the subject you are posting on.
Dont be misleading people

look as far as I can tell you know about weights and not about running, I gave good info above and backed it up with how I know it. If you disagree let us all know why...

I never claimed to be a coach, these are all just my opinions but I developed them by talking with lots of coaches and athlethes, I don't pretend to be an expert on everything but I know a reasonable amount about most endurance and field sports...

dermCu

Neo,

Looks like people have gone way off topic here.

One option:
If it was me I would try to introduce another day into your your schedule.
When you get can handle 4 days no probs then you should start to make one run in the week longer than the others. Very slowly, the rule of thumb is not to increase total time/milage by more than ~10% in one week. so your first longer run could be 23 mins. build up slowly, as Transform said this LSD (long slow distance) is a great way to lose weight.
As you begin to feel fitter you can start to increase the 20 min base runs.
Every 3-4 weeks have a week that has no increase.

Stark was spot on, little injuries can creep up on you if you over do it.