So I can run for 30 minutes

Over the last month I've gradually increased my running so I can now do 30 minutes continuously and still feel OK when i finish, just like the 'beginners guides' say (bloody miracle frankly, thought it would take far longer than that!). I plan to do another couple of wks of 30 min runs to consolidate -- but what next? Should i just be going for increased time out running, or keep the same route but try for a quicker time? anything else i'd do well to be thinking about at this early stage?
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Comments

  • It depends on what you want to do. You can try for a quicker time or you can try and increase your distance. Personally I would go for the distance. You could think about entering a 10k and then working towards a half marathon but again it depends on where you want to go with this running malarky. As you get stronger you will probably increase your speed anyway.
  • nikkus - many congratulations on getting to 30 mins. It feels fab, doesn't it? It might be worth getting your mitts on Bob Glover's The Runners Handbook (Penguin) which has lots of advice on what to do once you're at the 30 mintue mark.
  • meerkat -- yes, it feels great.! thanks for the book recommends, will check it out.

    bobolink -- i don't really know where i want to go with it yet.. at the moment i'm mainly running first thing in the morning (6ish or so), so jst looking for things to keep my motivation up! maybe see if i can do a 10k in march...
  • 3TL3TL ✭✭✭
    well done. feel's great doesn't it?

    definately sign up for a 10K. once you finish your first race (no matter what time) I'm sure you'll become very addicted.

    It's a good goal to keep up the motivation=running.
  • E-pixie: oh yes, i know the no turning back thing well -- i took up rock climbing a couple of years ago and went through a similar process. am now a committed and regular climber, but the thrill of getting into something new again and achieving those first important goals has been just great. (also, i'm a rubbish climber but my running progress has been better than i'd hoped, at least so far.) :-) Good luck with the half.
  • The world is your oyster now!

    You can do lots of different types of run building on your basic 30mins, and the variety helps to keep the motivation going even if you don't want to commit to a race distance just yet.

    Try longer slow runs, building up your endurance. Try doing the middle 10 mins of your run at a faster pace. Try adding some hilly routes for a challenge. Try not to fall into the trap of always trying to "beat the clock" by running the same route faster each time, or you soon become a slave to your sports watch and all the fun goes out of it.

    Congratulations on your determination so far, and enjoy your running future.
  • Hey, well done Nikkus. Keep the progression simple. Try adding ten minutes to alternate runs for two or three weeks so that the build-up continues steadily.
    JJ
  • LynneW -- my route is quite hilly enough already! its a challenge to find flat bits... ;-)
    taking the various bits of advice above on board, i'm now thinking maybe a 10k in march. - not to train for it specifically, jst keep increasing my runs gradually then turning up on the day and seeing what happens. thanx all. ;-)
  • Sounds good to me - if your home territory is hilly and your chosen 10k is flat, you'll breeze around it.
  • Enter a 10K race and run for 30 minutes - just make sure you reach the finish within your alloted time.

    Good Luck!
  • Hi there, can someone advise me on my training, I'm trying to do an every other day training sessions, with curcuit trianing in there once a week. Will the curcuit training help.My first goal is to do well in the swansea 10k. I'm using other 10k events as long run training. Thanks
  • Hello there, any advice is good ive been running for about six months and am doing a 10K in july. Ive never thought about distances so i just run!! whats a good time for a 10K? i run for about an hour most runs and havnt a clue how far it is! i bought a pedometer with a built in radio but the distance or the radio doesnt work!! Which was helpfull, anyone got a pedometer which is good so i know before i buy another one?!
  • Dominic - do you drive? Could you drive your route and work out the distance that way? (That what i did this weekend - or at least my other half drove and I spent the journey saying 'really?! REALLY! THAT FAR!' - it was a mile more than i thought - and at the moment every mm counts.

    Other suggestions I've seen have been a map & a picece of string - which actually sounds more efficient than a noniworking pedomiter!

    Nikkus - congrats! It really does feel great.
  • i do, sounds obvious really! Thanx
  • If you're looking to work out distances, try this:

    http://www.cbell.info/maps/index.php?PHPSESSID=325be8e8b4d1170bfc531b24d5d90800

    This is ActiveRoutes - based on Google Maps - you plot your route and it tells you how far you've gone... Not checked it for accuracy though, and am only a begiiner, but it 'feels' about right.
  • Nikkus

    The 30 mins barrier broken - congrats.

    The reason it is seen as special, is that you should now have enough stamina to start working on speed, but only if you feel confident in doing so.
    If you want to push on with increasing distance, say up to the 1 hour mark, you wouldn't be wrong. Decisions decisions!

    Dominic - a good map (pathfinder type not a streetmap) and stiff string (or the edge of an envelope and pencil) is accurate enough for now.
  • Nikkus,

    I have done exactly the same as you, my 30 mins run was last tuesday. I am now doing a fast mile on saturday and long run on sunday with a minute stop afer 15mins same again and then keep on running until I hit my target distance which is 5.5 miles tomorrow. I done a fast mile today ( fast for me anyway 8 mins ) Every week I plan to add ).5 mile until I get up to 7.5miles I am also doing a couple of short fast runs of 3 miles during week. I bought a garmin 101 of amazon wonderful tool. I am training for 10k at end of March. Comments on my schedule would be appreciated. I am simply aiming for sub one hour for 10k should I be aiming lower.
  • Is an hour not a big jump from 30
  • I'm a beginner only doing 3 x 10 minutes, but I've digested tons of stuff from this site and books and most of them seem to say to go for an increase in stamina/distance rather than speed and that you shouldn't increase your mileage by more than 10% each week. so you'd go from 30 to 33 to 36 to 40 minutes until you are running as far as you want to.
  • not really a big jump, provided all your running is done at an easy pace, which of course it should be until you've got a lot of mileage in your legs and you can comfortably run for an hour several times a week.

    being silly and trying to run quickly before your bones and muscles and tendons adapt is what causes injury.

    if you feel whacked after 30 minutes, then slow down. if your breathing is ever laboured, rather than deep and rhythmic, then slow down. keep your speed in check and you can go from 30 minutes to an hour quite quickly.
  • in getting used to the hour runs , a wide selection of music loaded up in my mp3 thingy helps loads as halfway  i tend to want to slow down to a brisk waddle and go home.

    i kept a log on my mobile of my first runs and remember being thrilled at managing a whole 3minutes running non-stop without dying .it's worth all the effort and even a wee run is better than nowt.

  • Congratulations Nikkus!  You've done really well and you must be proud!

    I would echo what people have said about building up your distance (gradually, 10% per week as suggested above) rather than speed first - you'll save yourself a lot of time you might otherwise waste being injured.

    I spent quite a while just building up the mileage, exploring new routes etc .  It wasn't really until just before my first half mara earlier this year that I even bothered timing myself over set distances - just used to occasionally look up at church tower clocks etc if I happened to pass them.

    As you get more experienced and run more, you generally get faster anyway (up to a point).  I did a first 5K, 10K and half all this year, all without really focused training because it was just about running the distance and just joining in with the fun of a race!  The second 10K I did a few months later was faster, but didn't seem to feel much harder, because I'd done that much more running.

    Now I've done those first few races I feel more focused about training and working to improve the times.  The sense of achievement from reaching your goals makes you want to set yourself even more!

    Keep up the good work!

  • Ermm, may I just point out that Nickus posted years ago...

    Last question in this thread was back in Febuary.

    I think the folks asking questions may not be around right now...

  • Doh!  My brain's so addled by stress and need for distraction from work I hadn't noticed.

    What a fool is me!

  • not a fool at all lady p ,as i hadnt noticed either.

    incidentally ,i wonder how the folk preparing for first 10k  a couple of years ago got on and what they are doing now......mibby a huge training plan fora marathon.....image

  • Yes, it would be really interesting to find out how they're getting on!
  • LOL, happens all the time, and I've done it myself!  Maybe one of the folks will see this thread and pop up!
  • Doh !!!

    I hadn't noticed the dates of the posts either.

    I wanted to join in with the 'yay I've just done my first 30 minutes' euphoria myself. I know what I want to do - but I've not put any plans in place to do it yet.

    I want to run the Dublin marathon this time next year. I've always been fit and sporty in the past (even did the FLM in 2000 at the age of 30) - but had a heart attack a couple of years ago. My pipes were clean, a wall lining gave way in my Left Anterior Descending Artery and it therefore filled with gunk (technically speaking !!) - just one of those things.

    Now it's time to regain the fitness that I've always taken for granted - so today was the start of the long slow process of reclaiming my fitness and my sporting life again.

    So one more time........

    Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay !!!!!!!!!!!

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