Hi,
So I've never done much running outside of school and class times. I've come back from 5 years of being physically inactive. I can't spar strong for very long at all. I have 3 belts before black and I know I'll need better fitness by then. So, running. My boss/instructor wants me to do 10 minute miles before black belt. I've never run a 10 min mile. Well, I won a national fitness badge once, in 2nd grade 20+ years ago, I think that was around a 10 min mile.
My feeling towards running have not been positive, but it needs to be done now so I plan to make it as pleasant as I can and maintain a positive attitude. One thing that helped me get used to the idea of doing this, was that if I had to run to defend myself or get help for something else, I would want to be prepared... My original plan for starting off was 4 weeks long and I was going to run 3x/week:
week 1: run 1 min, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 2: run 2 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 3: run 3 min, walk 2 min, repeat 4 times
week 4: run 4 min, walk 1 min, repeat 4 times
However my first session made me rethink this. My pace was slow so I could maintain it. Very slow. I finished and feel positive about my effort - and it's important I stay that way. It takes 4 weeks to build a habit, right? So they need to be pleasant and push for more, slowly, for a while after that. I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to increase aim for 4x/week. The walk breaks shouldn't shorten so fast yet, so 3 minute walking breaks. Those can be shortened later. So far I have this:
week 1: run 1 min, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 2: run 1 min faster, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 3: run 2 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 4: run 3 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 5: run 4 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 6: run 5 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 7: run 6 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 8: run 7 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times (total 28 min running)
Is it better to stay at the run times for 2 weeks before increasing, doing the second week faster like I have down for the first 2 weeks? Or sufficient to increase time each week like I put after week 2 and work on speed later? I want to start this slow and easy, but I also don't want it to seem like I'm taking forever.
Surely by week 8 my total running distance is greater than a mile. When I was younger my slowest run/walk that I actually tried at all in the running was about 15 minutes. I don't know if that means anything now.
Ideas where to go from here? What's good after week 8? Stay at running 7 minutes at a time and shorten the walks? Don't even try to plan, just reevaluate in several weeks?
The training purpose for me is being able to be able to spar better, and keep up with classes. If I ever have money to continue horseback riding, the cardio will also help me. I know the horse is doing most of the physical work, but it's still limiting to have low stamina.
I know people can run faster than 10 min/mile, although even that sounds pretty fast to me right now!
So I've never done much running outside of school and class times. I've come back from 5 years of being physically inactive. I can't spar strong for very long at all. I have 3 belts before black and I know I'll need better fitness by then. So, running. My boss/instructor wants me to do 10 minute miles before black belt. I've never run a 10 min mile. Well, I won a national fitness badge once, in 2nd grade 20+ years ago, I think that was around a 10 min mile.
My feeling towards running have not been positive, but it needs to be done now so I plan to make it as pleasant as I can and maintain a positive attitude. One thing that helped me get used to the idea of doing this, was that if I had to run to defend myself or get help for something else, I would want to be prepared... My original plan for starting off was 4 weeks long and I was going to run 3x/week:
week 1: run 1 min, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 2: run 2 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 3: run 3 min, walk 2 min, repeat 4 times
week 4: run 4 min, walk 1 min, repeat 4 times
However my first session made me rethink this. My pace was slow so I could maintain it. Very slow. I finished and feel positive about my effort - and it's important I stay that way. It takes 4 weeks to build a habit, right? So they need to be pleasant and push for more, slowly, for a while after that. I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to increase aim for 4x/week. The walk breaks shouldn't shorten so fast yet, so 3 minute walking breaks. Those can be shortened later. So far I have this:
week 1: run 1 min, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 2: run 1 min faster, walk 4 min, repeat 4 times
week 3: run 2 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 4: run 3 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 5: run 4 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 6: run 5 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 7: run 6 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times
week 8: run 7 min, walk 3 min, repeat 4 times (total 28 min running)
Is it better to stay at the run times for 2 weeks before increasing, doing the second week faster like I have down for the first 2 weeks? Or sufficient to increase time each week like I put after week 2 and work on speed later? I want to start this slow and easy, but I also don't want it to seem like I'm taking forever.
Surely by week 8 my total running distance is greater than a mile. When I was younger my slowest run/walk that I actually tried at all in the running was about 15 minutes. I don't know if that means anything now.
Ideas where to go from here? What's good after week 8? Stay at running 7 minutes at a time and shorten the walks? Don't even try to plan, just reevaluate in several weeks?
The training purpose for me is being able to be able to spar better, and keep up with classes. If I ever have money to continue horseback riding, the cardio will also help me. I know the horse is doing most of the physical work, but it's still limiting to have low stamina.
I know people can run faster than 10 min/mile, although even that sounds pretty fast to me right now!