| Kerri
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Even though I've always been athletic, I've never liked running, but over the past year and a half since I've been SBing and exercising regularly I have developed a little running routine as my main source of cardio. I started out running a mile...then two...and I've increased my speed some. Right now my treadmill routine consists of a 5 minute warm-up walk, a two mile run (usually completed in 22-23 minutes), and then a walking cool-down to round out the 30 minute session. My main goal for this program is to achieve weightloss and fitness. I am at a point where I am ready to up the ante a little bit again. Should I be aiming to increase my speed or increase my distance? Obviously, if I increase my speed and continue the 30 minute time frame, I will increase my distance a bit. But would it be better to maintain my speed, and run for a longer period of time/longer distance? Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!
-Kerri |
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Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:19 pm |
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| maltby_gardner
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| I would say that, providing you're training in your target heart zone, it would be better to increase the time. |
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Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:11 pm |
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| A-Rod
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i'm in a training program right now and i'm finding that my speed increases as i focus on distance. at first, running farther is hard. the more i do it, the easier it gets and my pace improves. as you increase your distance your fitness improves and you'll be able to go faster, eventually.
i don't know if the same is true if you increase speed first. you might be able to run 2 miles faster, but that won't necessarily lead you to the endurance to run 3, 4, 5 ... miles. |
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Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:27 pm |
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| Kerri
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| OK...so far it looks like distance is the winner. Thanks maltby and A-Rod...I'll give it a go! |
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Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:00 pm |
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| PapaBanucci
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| Given what you said, I think I'd pick increasing distance. |
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:10 am |
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| Kerri
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Thanks Pappa!
-Kerri |
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:17 am |
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| tjm
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| not to throw a curveball, but try combining the 2. push the speed & you'll increase your lactic acid tolerance, which will in turn allow you to go farther. I do long runs on weekend days (12+miles) and 30 minute speed workouts in the week. I have yet to do a slower long run. |
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:47 pm |
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| Kerri
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Hmmmm...interesting, tjm. Thanks for the thought. I've always done a 30 minute workout. My original instinct was to just increase my speed, but continue running the full 30 minutes, so that I would have to go farther. I guess I'll just have to try some things and see what works. Thanks!
-Kerri |
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Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:58 pm |
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| Dolly411
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| i suggest increasing distance as well 8) |
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Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:21 pm |
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| PapaBanucci
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tjm wrote: not to throw a curveball, but try combining the 2. push the speed & you'll increase your lactic acid tolerance, which will in turn allow you to go farther. I do long runs on weekend days (12+miles) and 30 minute speed workouts in the week. I have yet to do a slower long run.
I have to differ... IMO, it appears she's not there yet. No reason to get fast just to run risk of injury or burn out now. Now it's more about habit and pattern and consistency and lack of injury and increased mileage so speed can be built upon a solid foundation later. |
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Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:16 pm |
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| Kerri
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Thanks again Pappa! After reading everyone's replies, I upped my distance a half mile for the past week, and I maintained my speed (I run most of the run at 5.3 mph and gradually increase to 6.0 near the end of the run). I was able to keep this up consistently at every workout. At what point, Pappa, do you think it would be appropriate to increase the speed? Thanks!
-Kerri |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:05 am |
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| alohanema
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Kerri wrote: I run most of the run at 5.3 mph and gradually increase to 6.0 near the end of the run
How can you measure the speed? :?: |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:13 pm |
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| Kerri
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Alohanema,
I run on a treadmill, so the computer on the treadmill tells me the speed I'm running at. When I do run outside, I have no idea what speed I am running!
If you really wanted to know, you could figure it out as long as you know the distance you are running. For example, let's say you go outside and run 1 mile in 10 minutes. If you were to keep that pace for an hour, you could run 6 miles in 1 hour...your speed being 6mph.
The "formula" would look like this:
60 divided by the number of minutes it took you to run one mile = your speed in mph
Even though I'm a teacher, I've always hated math...so if this forumla is flawed, I apologize!!!
-Kerri |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:17 pm |
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| toese
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| When I had a treadmill I would do both. There were days that I wanted to increase my distance and then there were days I aimed for speed. Most of the time I would go for distance and then at the last mile increase my speed sometimes sprinting at the last quarter mile!! |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:28 pm |
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