Can anyone spec me a running regime?

Barks

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Barks

Soldato
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20 Jul 2008
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Joined the gym this morning. I used to be extremely fit before uni, plenty of sport at school and 3-4 mile runs at least twice a week during the holidays.

... and then came university. Smoking, drinking every other day. I've decided after a year that enough is enough. The fags are ditched and the alcohol is being kept to a minimum after I realised some weeks I'd get through over 100 units which is terrifying. Hopefully the liver of a 20 year old bloke won't be too trashed after that.

So anyway, got myself on the treadmill. Managed to run 25 minutes on 15mph (or would that have been 15km/h!!??) with a few 30 second bursts of 20mph. Afterwards I then did 5 minutes at 5mph on a 15 incline as apparently it's great for fat burning.
I'd just like to know what the best regime for me is to get back in shape. I'm already slim but have put on a belly so I'm aiming to shed this :D

I figured I should do a 45 min run every other day, weights in between this with Sunday and saturday off? I'm just not sure how my current fitness compares to other people and should I be taking it easier or working myself harder. I would say that is my absolute limit as was knackered after those 25 minutes.

I'd really appreciate any advice,

Cheers
 
Another question. I'll be hitting the gym 8.30am most weekdays. Is it best to get up early and have breakfast, or get out of bed at say 8.00am and complete my workout before breakfast?

Cheers
 
If you are fat burning then the most important thing is your heart rate.

You should find out what your max heart rate is; there are a number of ways you can calculate it, but I'd guess yours will be around 195-200.

If you run at about 70-80% f max HR then you should be in the aerobic zone which is your highest fat burning stage. Higher then this and you move into anaerobic and start burning glycogen instead.

Consequently a genetle jog over a long time is much better then a sprint.

Running up his is also supposed to burn up to 10% more calories, as is running in the cold.

If I run in the morning it is generally before breackfast, but I do have some fruite juice before I go out.

Wish I could knock the fags on the head :(
 
scott212 said:
Another question. I'll be hitting the gym 8.30am most weekdays. Is it best to get up early and have breakfast, or get out of bed at say 8.00am and complete my workout before breakfast?

Cheers
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Theres an argument for both. A lot you read though will say go without breakfast. Although when I did that I 'felt' like I was burning loads of energy, i'm not so sure.

I do HIIT now, cant stand cardio for more than half an hour, and I feel so much better for it because it really, really tires me and has me gasping for breath, and since I started it 'seems' more effective. Lost body fat faster but that could be due to other reasons also.
 
if you are generally slim but have a belly, just cut the beer right down and do your exercise.
personally i would say eat breakfast about 60-90 mins before you exercise, so you have some energy.
 
Cheers for the advice guys.

Have had a 5 8.30 am starts since the original post. I haven't been eating breakfast till after my workout but I've only been doing 30 minutes of 15 (mph or km/h not sure what it is!) followed by walking on an incline for 5 minutes followed finally by 5 minute walk. I usually feel like **** afterwards but fine after starting the walk home.

Alcohol is something I'm looking to cut down on, but I'm a student and Friday nights are always going to involve the lash. I'm hoping to cut what I drink down though. Usually about 25 units throughout the night but aiming to try and enjoy myself on 15.

Kappa said:
Theres an argument for both. A lot you read though will say go without breakfast. Although when I did that I 'felt' like I was burning loads of energy, i'm not so sure.

I do HIIT now, cant stand cardio for more than half an hour, and I feel so much better for it because it really, really tires me and has me gasping for breath, and since I started it 'seems' more effective. Lost body fat faster but that could be due to other reasons also.
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I did interval training last year but there's no way I'm fit enough to be doing that yet!
 
If it's possible I'd slow down and run for longer.

The running machine will be in kph, but you will get more long term health benefit from running 45 minutes at 10kph than 15kph for 30 monutes. Proper endurance is the base for any running and is how you improve your cardio performance, and burn fat. As I mentioned before, sprinting will put you in an anaerobic zone, not an aerobic zone.

You can build speed later.
 
trust me - you're doing 15kph.. if you were doing mph you would be doing 4min miles which would be quite some feat! 15kph is a good rate to be going at for 30mins imo, but i'm not very fit!
 
It must be km/h then, thinking about it if I were running 15mph then after 30 minutes I'd have run 7.5 miles lol.

Asprilla, I'll set my target running time to 45 minutes and adjust the speed until I can do it without problems. I'll try 10kph as you suggested.

Cheers
 
Think about it, the person that won the half marathon I ran in yesterday finished in 1hr 10 minutes. If you were running 15mph you'd have done it in under an hour!
 
Yep you're right.

Well just got back from the gym.
45 Minutes, Average 12.5KM/h and ran just over 9KM (before 5 minute warmdown)

Very pleased with myself although I was absolutely dead afterwards and all I've had to eat today is a bowl of soup and a glass of innocent smoothie.

Is that any good or is there room for improvement?

Cheers
 
yes your diet needs improving lol, i know your trying to cut down but get some food into you, even if its a bowl of porridge. and 1 glass of smoothie all day?? you really need to drink more.
 
It's good, but there is always room for improvement, depending upon what your goals are. I run 10km in under 45 minutes, but I've got no interest in specifically improving that because I want to run half marathon events (though that might change as I'm thinking about doing a triathlon later in the year).

Figure out what you want to do first.
 
rotters said:
yes your diet needs improving lol, i know your trying to cut down but get some food into you, even if its a bowl of porridge. and 1 glass of smoothie all day?? you really need to drink more.
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I usually have a great diet mate it's just today I slept in (no lectures or anything) and didn't get out of bed until 1pm.

Usually my diet is something like this:

8.30am
Bowl of 4 Withabix
Glass of Innocent Smoothie/OJ

10.30am
Brazil Nuts/Olives/Avocado and Tomatoes

1pm
Soup/Sandwich

4pm
Apple/Nuts

7pm
Easy to cook student meals so:
Chicken and Pasta/Spag Bol/Chili Con Carne/Curry etc etc
Always include plenty of veg in whatever meal I'm cooking.

I would have thought that diet was fine tbh.
 
indeed, thats a really nice diet, and yes i might have jumped to conclusions, your post did seem a little light though for 4pm?
 
rotters said:
indeed, thats a really nice diet, and yes i might have jumped to conclusions, your post did seem a little light though for 4pm?
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Ha yeah I can imagine, funny lifestyle being a student though. Some days you have to be up at 7.30am, others I can lie in till 1pm. I try to be up early most days though, you only live once ;)
 
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