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5.5 mph
Hi,
I started running a couple of years ago, stopped last summer and started again a week ago. I run 4 days a week for 30 mins at 5.5mph. I am a normal weight 38 yr old (sounds old when I write it) and I've just read that anything below 6mph the individual may as well walk fast. I'm not the fastest runner in the world clearly but that seems harsh!
Should I really be upping it? I feel great afterwards but i dont really want to just maintain, I want to trim the waistline...Surely 4 days a week for several weeks at my pace would do it??
Thanks for any advice.
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Absolutely not too slow to run!! Thats almost 10 minute miles. Lots of people here run 11 and even 12m inute miles. If you are only started back a week , i think it is more than reasonable to assume that unless you push yourself too far or fast too quickly , and risk injury ;that you will even speed up a bit more.
Running works out at about 100 calories per mile so at an extra 1200 per week burned off , you will definitley shed a few pounds unless you eat more. Fat burning is more efficient running SLOWLY than speedier paces , so stick with what you are doing.
You are faster than me *G*
I read that article a while back I think, and can't help wondering if it was a case of the reporter not really understanding what the person was saying... Anyway... If your aim is to conserve energy over a long distance (eg if you are running a marathon), you might be better with a run/walk strategy (since slow running, I think, uses more energy bouncing up and down for each amount of ground covered). If your aim is simply to run, get fitter, and maybe even burn calories, then keeping running, however slow, is fine.
Well Neil, you at at my current level-I too restarted recently. Lie Rowan suggests it depends on your aims. When I started plodding way back, it was very sloww and peppered with the odd stop and walk. Did get to 7 1/2 mm at my so called peak.
enjoy your plods and take your time. You could do speed work of sorts after a few months I guess ut distance is priority.
enjoy and plod on.
Hi there, dont push yourself to hard, I am an overweight 33 year old, who was runningn about 15miles a week, doing 10min miles, i decided last sat to push myself hard,
the good news, i ran 9.30 miles
the bad news, i now have shin splints so will have to ease right back and do less miles.
i would suggest following your plan nice and slowly
we live and learn eh Jason?
it taes time and caution for us big uns when starting. I gotten big again-so very slowly does it.
hope your gentle return is successful.
Neil, it gets better..... the lower your heart rate when you train the better you become at burning fat (as opposed to the glycogen stored in your muscles).... so running at a more conservative pace will help keep you trim, get you fit and better about yourself WITHOUT the high risk of injury and exhaustion that faster running carries. You carry on doing what you are doing and ignore everyone else. Any real runner will not be critical of you running along at 10mph. Lets face it, you might be on a redcovery run, you might be warming down after a set of high speed intervals, you might be heading off to run 30 miles nobody knows so don't you care what anyone else thinks.
If you want to up the pace, then fine, just run faster, but I get the impression you are happy doing your thing. Stick with it.. If you do up the pace, do so gradually btw.
6 miles an hour is just over the hour for a 10K, most people would be pretty proud of that, anyway I always thought 4 miles/hour was considered walking pace.
I'm 5foot tall slightly overweight and try as I might can't seem to get any quicker, in fact I've just started to slightly and can really feel it in my knees and hips, so going to go a bit slower again!
, but rather that than out for weeks.
I think you may have read this article (or similar)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4286146.stm
I would be interested to find out what the chi and pose runners make of Mike Antoniades's 'unique methodology'.....
anyway have a look at Mike and see if you think he can run that fast?
Thats the one!
Here's the quote...
Mike's definition of jogging is simple: If you are "moving" slower than 6 miles per hour you are jogging, and quite frankly you would be better off walking!
So Mike thinks we should all walk below 6mph? From this discussion he is talking nonsens and I'm glad.
Thanks for all the positive feedback (I didnt expect anything else). What I will do from next week is run 3 mins at 5.5 then 1 min at 6. I will repeat this until the end of my 30 min run. Each week I will decrease the 5.5 by 30 secs and add 30 secs to to the 6. I should be running 6mph for 30 mins in no time
Then I'll go up to 6.5 and so on...
PS - who actually runs on the balls of their feet NEVER allowing the heel to touch the ground?
I think you'd look a bit of a t*t if you ran like that
*sends Neil off to look at POSE*
> "So Mike thinks we should all walk below 6mph? From this discussion he is talking nonsens and I'm glad."
Actually, no, to be fair to him, that's *not* what he said - he says that walking below 6mph is far more beneficial to you than jogging below 6mph, and I'd have to agree with him on that.
I needed a heart test a while ago (temporary arrhythmia from touching an electric fence :-( ) that required me exercise to the point where I reached my MHR, and the medic put me on a treadmill and told me to walk - Of course, I protested and said that I'm perfectly capable of running, thanks, but they insisted on me walking. After 5 minutes, I found out why - walking at a fast pace of 5-6mph is *absolutely* knackering, and when the speed was raised to 6.5mph, and I was allowed to run, it was SO much easier and my heart rate dropped.
So, what Mike says is correct, inasmuch as the workout you receive walking below 6mph is much tougher than jogging.