<p>The only thing enjoyable about the Schwinn Airdyne is staggering away from the thing when it’s finally over. :)</p>
<p>These two guys strike the classic post-Airdyne pose, after a tag-team relay ride:</p>
<p>[Staggering</a> off the Airdyne](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>idad - ROFLMAO! Even after running a marathon I did not feel that way… 
Airdyne - reminds me of the old joke about hitting your finger with a hammer and then experiencing joy when you miss :)</p>
<p>Thanks all - this is great support! I think the biggest hurdle was mental as I finally had to convince myself that I could be a runner. Ok, a trotter. But still. Damn the gym classes of my youth! Seriously, they killed any interest in physical activity for someone not naturally inclined this way.</p>
ok…I am really back. 
I need the daily accountability to check in here before I really slide back to old bad habits. Have to get a new battery for my HRM and hit the gym. I seem to push myself harder in the gym than being outside. Knee is doing ok and back is good some days and not some days.
idad…how did the move go? Are you finding good places for your new hikes?
MOWC… D2 was out for an early morning run this weekend at our cabin and ran in to a bear! :eek: She detoured and made it home in record time!
BB…You always motivate me!
<p>Ok all you runners - let me know if this makes sense to you.
I did Couch to 5K, as I mentioned - you start out alternating walking and running and then the program gradually lengthens the running and eliminates the walking til you get up to the 30 minutes of straight running. </p>
<p>With the 5K I just did, I was doing the treadmill at a 13 min mile (4.5 mph) but wound up running the actual 5K at a 12 min mile (5 mph), mostly due to adrenaline Yes, I know I’m slow!</p>
<p>I really like the program and the accountability. I was thinking of re-starting the program and doing the running at a 10 min mile (6 mph) - which I think is doable since I’ll just be doing short burst of that speed and then gradually building it up. If I could get up to the full time, then I could run a 5K in a little over 30 minutes, which I think is a reasonable next goal. For perspective, I’m 47, in excellent health, and a little solid over the years, but not overweight / obese. MOWC has seen my pix so she can attest :-)</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>My experience is that injuries increase exponentially with speed and
distance. Going from twelve minute miles to ten minute miles takes a
considerable effort and I’d suggest building up speed/distance over
time. You could do the interval thing - basically speed up and do six
MPH for some period of time and then drop back to your regular pace.</p>
<p>I frequently do one to three minutes at a much faster pace in my
runs but not too much to risk injury.</p>
<p>BTW, looking over my running log, it took me about 1.25 years to get
from 12 minute miles to 10 minute miles. I was carrying a lot of
weight through that period of time (it sounds like you don’t have that
problem) and there were many life events that knocked me off regular
running but it was overall a slow and steady improvement. Someone that
is more dedicated and with the time available can probably see a huge
improvement in time in a much shorter timeframe.</p>
That’s helpful perspective that it took you that long to go from 12 to 10 minutes. Maybe I should go with re-doing the program at a 11 min mph (roughly 5.5 mph -I tend to think “treadmill speed” versus “minutes per mile”) and see how I do … and then once I’m successful going through the program at that level, then go to the 10 min / 6.0 mph. Does that seem smarter? I need lots of small successes, if that makes sense, which is why I like Couch to 5K.
<p>I train at a 10:00 pace and on a treadmill that feels faster. I CAN run faster, and I do race faster, but that’s even a faster pace than my training should be. I would recommend shooting for 11 or so, with maybe some bursts down to 10. Don’t push ahead too fast. BCE is right about injuries. You want to stay at a comfortable pace. You will improve your race times as you build up your base and get more experience. Glad you enjoyed the program!</p>
<p>pizzagirl:</p>
<p>If you just want to mix it up with various combinations of fast/slow or run/walk, you might want to check out iPod nazi’s Treadmill Trainer series. These are running workouts for the iPod, where he guides you through the workout, telling you when to go fast, when to go slow, etc. They are ideal for treadmills, but can also be used outdoors:</p>
<p>[iPod</a> Treadmill Running Workouts | Interval Training Workouts | Treadmill Trainer](<a href=“http://www.mytreadmilltrainer.com/treadmill-trainer.html]iPod”>http://www.mytreadmilltrainer.com/treadmill-trainer.html)</p>
<hr>
<p>As an overall concept, I think it’s important to sit down with yourself and decide what your goals are. Specially, whether your goals are overall fitness/conditioning or fitness/conditioning for endurance running. The two are not the same and, in some ways, they may be mutually exclusive – or at least the way you would go about your training may be mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>As I understand it, to really become well conditioned for distance running, you have to train at an “aerobic” pace, i.e. slow enough that you can maintain that pace “indefinitely”. For sports conditioning (general fitness), this is the last thing you want to do. Instead, you want to train in short bursts (up to maybe 4 minutes tops) at a rate that crosses the “anaerobic” threshold – going hard enough that your body can’t get enough oxygen to sustain that pace. This is what, for example, the leading edge soccer trainers are doing.</p>
<p>Doing 5K distances (either running or walk/running) could be tailored for either goal, but you would probably approach it somewhat differently. For the general athletic fitness goal (and also for fat loss/cardiac health), you would want the intervals to be fast enough to really peg your heart rate up near max. This means that the intervals will also be short. By definition, this means training at a pace that you simply cannot sustain for more than a minute or two. I’m guessing that to really lower your 5K times, you probably don’t want to push your heart rates up this high, but want to focus on doing longer and longer intervals while keeping your heart rate lower.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ah ha! So from a running perspective, I’m running way, way too fast on my running intervals. My jog intervals on Friday ranged from 5.9 to 7.0 mph (10.2 to 8.6 min/mile), some uphill, some downhill. I wasn’t consciously trying to push the pace at all.</p>
<p>The philosophies are so starkly different. Coach Boyle doesn’t want his athletes (Red Sox players, hockey players, NFL players) to ever jog slowly on a walk/jog. He wants it to either be hard sprinting or slow recovery.</p>
If you want to run 5Ks, I think that starting around 5 MPH (12 minute miles) is the way to go. I would be surprised if you couldn’t run at least a mile at that speed and work up to three miles in two months.
When I was in my 20s, I couldn’t run more than about 2/3rds of a mile on my own. That’s because my approach was to run about as fast as I could - I was in fantastic tennis shape but that’s far different from running shape. The only time I ran at a normal jogging pace was if I was running with someone else which wasn’t very often because I would have rather been playing tennis, table tennis, squash or racquetball. Weights and running were things that I did when I wasn’t doing the other things.
Week 5 workout 3, check. 20 minutes straight jogging. Yay! I was jogging s l o w as molasses; however, I did pass a few walkers so it is humanly possible to go slower than I was going.
Foreboding sighting: there was a stroller out (why so early?). Had a teeny doggie in the back pouch. Kind of cute actually. I’m hoping it’s not a trend though, 'cause when they straddle the path three across that leaves limited options.
Way to go, Deborah! I knew you could do it. Slow is fine.
When I was fast (i.e. younger) I trained at about an 8 minute pace (even the 20 milers) and raced from 6:30- 7:30 pace. Now I have really slowed down. On flat courses I’m a little faster in training (at same heart rate) and if I cut my mileage back I could train faster. There are just a lot of things to consider. What I am doing right now is not ideal training and not what I would tell someone younger to do. I am doing too much slogging along, but mentally and physically, that’s what works for me right now.
<p>I have a very good friend who is a veteran marathon runner (Chicago, Boston, NYC, PR of 6:43/mile in the marathon).
Here was his advice to me as I was training for this 5K, knowing that I was a beginner:</p>
<p>" Curiously, the best answer to your two questions - longer at slower or shorter at faster - is to meld the two in your training. They do different things for you, both of which are valuable. Running longer time at slower pace, obviously, builds aerobic endurance, which is like a base or bedrock for your body to draw on. Running shorter distance at a more intense pace (i.e., faster than your intended race pace) builds your body’s anaerobic capacity - your ability to process oxygen and get it where it needs to go in your body. That kind of training improves your form - which makes everything you do more efficient - and it makes running at race pace feel much easier. Also, varying your training does two other good things: it stresses your body a little differently, in different places, which reduces the chance of some part saying - enough already (i.e., injury), and mentally the variety is refreshing and makes it a little more fun. Finally, it’s important to do hard day/easy day, for both the above reasons.</p>
<p>A broad look might be something like:
Day 1: 40 minutes at easy pace
Day 2: 25 minutes at easy pace (recovery day)
Day 3: 30 minutes. 3 min. easy warm up, 4 X [3 minutes running fast (whatever pace that is), 3 minutes easy - total of 24 minutes], 3 minute easy cool down.
Day 4: 25 minutes at easy pace (recovery day)"</p>
<p>Does this make sense? He’s good enough of a runner that I think it probably does, but it’s a slightly different approach from re-doing Couch to 5K, which is in essence walking/running and lengthening the running to get to whatever time frame.</p>
<p>I vary my runs but it’s more of a function of how much time I have available on a given day along with how I feel. If I just have time for a mile or two, then I might run very fast. If I have a lot of time available, then I will run a longer distance at a slower pace. If I have a lot of time and I’m feeling great (usually after a weekend where I get a lot of sleep), then I may run a long distance at a fast pace.</p>
<p>My top speed is about 9.5 MPH so I can vary it up to there from about 6.5 MPH and I do vary it from time to time but the vast majority of my running is between 6.5 - 6.9 MPH. I think that it’s good to vary the distance, pace and type of running for training.</p>
When my friend was giving me advice, I tried to run at a 6:43 pace on the treadmill just to get a sense for how fast he was going - and through a marathon, no less. It was like Lucy and the caramels on the assembly line - it was all I could do not to fall off - I couldn’t maintain that pace for one minute, much less for 26 miles!
<p>That you could run that pace at all implies that you can do 10 minute miles; eventually. The thing about running very fast for a short period of time is that your damage is fairly limited. Running long distances at faster than usual speeds means that any small amount of damage from running is multiplied many times over. If you damage something while running fast, you know it in fairly short order.</p>
<p>I’m not worried about damage; I’m just worried about breathing When I go up to the 10 minute pace, my heart rate starts to get too fast - above 170 or so. Speaking of which, what IS the heart rate I should be aiming for / not to exceed? I get such contradictory info. I’m 47, as I mentioned before.</p>
<p>Edit: When I said I tried to run at the 6:43 pace to mimic my friend, I meant at a speed that is somewhere around 9.0 mph. I’m going back and forth between minutes per mile and mph, sorry.</p>
Transitioning to new workout schedule + multiple airport runs + visitors with baby = no workout over the weekend
I also fell off the low carb bandwagon over the weekend, when pressed for time/harried/didn’t want to deal it, I ended up eating the bagels and banana cake I had for the guests. Now the house is stocked with Copper River salmon, flank steak, ribs, filet mignon plus lots of greens, so no excuses.
Quick cardio dance class this morning, Wed. Crossfit starts.
I am hoping to get my 5K running buddy remotivated. I don’t really get the resistance since the initial workouts are so short and easy, but lately it has always been something preventing them, so they lost an entire week of training. As hard as it is to motivate oneself, it is even more difficult to motivate reluctant others. More work trying to get them to do it, than to actually do the workout!
<p>Well, that’s where my heart-rate is when I try to run that fast too. My max is somewhere around 170. Yours may be around there or a little higher because you’re five years younger than I am. The usual max is something like 195 - age * something. When I was in my 30s, I would routinely get up to 200 when doing cardio.</p>