Or is it why didn't I listen?
As far as fitness and training is concerned, there seems very much to be a "boy" version and a "girl" version. Yes, sure I've followed lots of programs for getting myself ready for a marathon, half marathon, mountain marathon, Maclehose 100km, Green power 50km, etc. etc. I've done bootcamp, I've done the great and wonderful and very much to be recommended fitness program at IHP. But my history with interval training is patchy to say the least.
It's my own lazy fault really. Every time in a program where is said "interval training 5km" I'd go and do a light 5km run and not be fagged about running 100 or 200 or 400m sprints. I mean that's like really hard work. When I trained for my first marathon, during my MBA program, there was a group of guys training really hard to climb the Eiger. They'd do these tough hill interval trainings every week, and I'd be totally intimidated and resisted the one time they ever invited me to join them. One of my other classmates, a decathlete once mentioned in passing that I should swap at least one of my training runs for some interval training, but I thought that wasn't for me.
OK, put me down as a resistant know it all, or at least someone who's scared of the new and un-known. More recently, I was doing the IHP program - remember when I posted those graphs about how well and fast my fitness was improving? How week after week my heart rate went down doing the same interval training runs? At the time I was probably the slimmest I've been post children, and I foolishly put it down to the fact that I was doing at least 6 to 8 units of exercise a week, and training for a half marathon with lots of long slow runs. (I definitely wasn't eating any less). Then I went and got the hip bursitis and was injured for the longest time. Turns out I could have done a lot less, not have been injured and still have seen the same weight loss. But I didn't know / understand the science. Studies have been done with rats, and fat australian ladies, and Norwegians, and it does seem you can achieve more with less.
There are a lot of people on the net selling interval training and it's companion, HIRT - high intensity resistance training, which basically means using weights and using heavier ones than you are used to for less repetitions. The few I've been sniffing around have been Turbulence training (and their new fat loss 24/7), the Venus Index , Alwyn Cosgroves etc. I've read through their free stuff (warning use a little used email address to sign up because they sure know how to bug you with tons of emails), and it seems to make sense. I'm not sure it is necessary to fork out a lot of money for the programs if you know what you're doing and how to do it, personally I bought the fat loss 24/7 and think that the exercise program is pretty good as it lets you do everything at home with a selection of dumbbells (warning you'll need heavier ones than you're probably used to), a stability ball, a fitness bench and your own body weight. I'm not so sure about their eating program as it seems to rely quite a bit on stuff out of a jar or bottle and lots of protein, which if you're a vegetarian or even part time vegetarian like me, is pretty hard to do. I'm not into too much fag about planning things and weighing things and obsessing about meals and meal times.
One of my readers who is also a friend recently wrote to me and said, "Quick, desperate, I need to lose 5kg what should I do" and I pointed her to Dr. Fuhrmans' eat to live diet. (I'm better and preaching than practicing) and she wrote to me this morning saying she'd followed it to great success losing the 5kg she set out to lose. I'd say that's probably the most healthy way to lose a lot of weight quickly.
Ok, finally, I'm going to give you the interval training I've been doing the last 2 weeks - it's one from the Woman's runner's magazine and is excellent in my view. It's aim is to get you to run a faster 1/2 marathon, but it tick's the interval training box perfectly. I'm using the beginner's version, and believe me, after 30 minutes you can mop me off the floor, along with a whole pool of sweat. And I've lost 2kg....
To be able to do this workout, you need to be able to run at 10km per hour for at least 3 minutes. It increases by 30 seconds each workout. Recommended you don't do this more than 3 times a week with at least a day recovery between. There's 2 ways of doing it, using km/h or doing perceived effort, but the risk of perceived effort is that you think you're working harder than you really are and actually could push yourself more! If you can't run at 10km/h (or can run faster than 10km/h for longer than 3 minutes), I'd say just adjust each of the speeds up or down by 0.5km/h until it hits the button for you. You know you're doing the right thing if by the middle of the last set of 10km/h you feel like you may just die if you can't stop, but you keep going anyway.... and your heart rate is approaching or at its max. (Do go and see a doctor and all the rest if you're not reasonably healthy and fit before you do this, I don't want anyone literally dying on the treadmill).
Time (in minutes): (cumulative Speed:
minutes into run): (beginners)
4 0 7 km/h
3 4 8 km/h
2 7 9 km/h
1 9 10
1 10 9
2 11 8
2 13 9
2 15 10
1 17 9
3 18 8
2 21 9
3 * 23* 10*
1 26 9
3 27 8
30 0 (give me a drink!)
* The idea is that at this point you keep on increasing the amount of time you're going at 10km / hour by 30 seconds, so everything shifts down from that point. My personal aim is not a 1/2 marathon, but to eventually run for the MacRitchie 25, which means doing 5km in 25 minutes. So once my cumulative km hits 5km (I'm now running 33 minutes and doing 4.78km) I'm going to start increasing each component of the workout by 0.5km/h until I can get to 5km in 25 minutes.
This is the intermediate version - I'm not ready for it, but maybe some of you are!
Time (in minutes): (cumulative Speed:
minutes into run): (intermediate)
4 0 9 km/h
3 4 10 km/h
2 7 11 km/h
1** 9** 12**
2 10 11
3 12 10
4 15 9
3 19 10
2 22 11
2 ** 24** 12**
2 26 11
3 28 10
4 31 9
35 0
** You lucky intermediate people get to increase the duration of this section by a minute each time you do it!
And possibly the highlight of my son's time here so far - in which we try to rescue a drowning reticulated python, but unfortunately he/she was already dead....
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