Newbie question

Zoe said:

Hi all, I work out regularly - step aerobics, kick boxing, bike, weights but
I want to incorporate walking/running into my program.

Ever website I've been on give great advice for beginners. The problem is
they give advice as if I'm not doing other workouts.

Can anyone suggest a site that may help me incorporate running into my
program? Or does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance. I look forward to reading your posts.

Zoe

I doubt that you'll find a website that helps you incorporate running
into *your* specific program since there's a billion variants. However,
any one or all of your activities would work as cross-training days or
workouts for many beginners' programs, esp. those that only use 3 days
running / week. You need to keep track (a log) of your total volume
(time and intensity) and what your body can handle. Depending on many
things, you may want to consider periodization where one activity gets
emphasized more at some point in the year and others less, then rotate.

You may find that you're better aerobically conditioned than many
beginners and perhaps strength also, BUT the use of muscles / tendons /
ligaments for running are usually slower to adapt than the aerobic
system. So use some caution about doing too much too soon.

You might want to give some indication of your prior experience with
running (even if warmups for some of your other activities) or your
goals for running or total program. General fitness, aerobic
conditioning, short fun runs, competitive marathon, explore nature,
multi-day adventure races, triathlons, etc, ....?? Do your other
activities take 1 day each - or 6 days each? Is one of those activities
a main competitive goal or is running going to be your main goal? Or you
just like doing lots of fitness activities?

You might also look at a couple recent threads- Walking between running
(esp. Robert Grumbine's response)

A couple sites with adaptable information:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s1-51-55-0-6406,00.html
(replace "rest" days with cross-training)
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s1-51-55-0-637,00.html

I'm not necessarily recommending any of those pgms, just providing plans
that could provide enough non-running time for your other activities.

Or a simple way, since you mentioned walk / run, is to just go hiking.
Run the easy portions of trail, hike the steeper or more difficult sections.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Zoe don'tspam@don'tspam.com said:

Hi all, I work out regularly - step aerobics, kick boxing, bike, weights but
I want to incorporate walking/running into my program.

Ever website I've been on give great advice for beginners. The problem is
they give advice as if I'm not doing other workouts.

Can anyone suggest a site that may help me incorporate running into my
program? Or does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance. I look forward to reading your posts.

Do some easy running on days that you are not doing other aerobic exercise. Build
up the duration of your runs until they are an hour long or so.

Generally, people who cross train can maintain good general fitness with few
specific workouts, so it often makes sense for these people to do fewer,
longer sessions. For example, a triathlete doing 4 hours a week of running would
more likely do 3x80min (which leaves the other days "free" for cycling or
swimming) as opposed to 6x40 minutes.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

In article said:

Hi all, I work out regularly - step aerobics, kick boxing, bike, weights but
I want to incorporate walking/running into my program.

Ever website I've been on give great advice for beginners. The problem is
they give advice as if I'm not doing other workouts.

Can anyone suggest a site that may help me incorporate running into my
program? Or does anyone have any advice?

Having a base in other activities complicates the advice. Important
question is: Just what do you want from the walk/run? If you're
aiming to run a marathon, the advice is different than if you're
looking for a day of variety from your other activities.

Pay attention, regardless, to good running form. That doesn't
depend on your other activities.

Keep a log of your activities, all of them -- what you do and how
you feel. With multiple activities, you'll find that some go
better with each other than others, and for some you want to be
sure to do one the day before, rather than after, the other.
Likely you'll want to do your running after a day you're not doing
as much leg work.

Since you'll have good aerobic capacity from the other activities,
you have an extra challenge. We can normally count on beginners not
being able to outrun their muscles. As Dot mentioned, you still
will need to develop the muscles (and tendons, ligaments) as needed
specifically for running, and that's a matter of months (3-6 for
muscle/tendon, 6-12 for ligament/skeletal, though you'll probably
be ahead of those figures as you're not starting from dead zero).

--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

Thanks for your replies.

I didn't even think to look up cross training. Where's my head???

Thanks again!

"Zoe" <don'tspam@don'tspam.com> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi all, I work out regularly - step aerobics, kick boxing, bike, weights
but I want to incorporate walking/running into my program.

Ever website I've been on give great advice for beginners. The problem is
they give advice as if I'm not doing other workouts.

Can anyone suggest a site that may help me incorporate running into my
program? Or does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance. I look forward to reading your posts.

Zoe