Begin running regularly?

Question

i want to improve my cardiovascular endurance, i am 15 years old and i am a female. I get too tired too easily when i run and end up stopping so i want to be able to build up my endurance. i am thinking of going to my school gym after school 2 or 3 times a week. they have treadmills, eleptical trainers, rowing machines, bike and those weight machine things. I am not fat and i am quite small about 5 foot 1 (or a bit over). i was wondering how should i begin running. i am intersted in high intensity interval training but i heard that you have to be able to run 20-30 minuted straight to be able to start. can anyone reccommend what should i do there before i can start interval training or can i start interval training straight away? how lond should my workouts be? i am not totally unfit - i can run a bit just not for too long(i also want to become quite fast and to be able to recover quickly) Thank

you

Answer 1

hey

i think i may have a few tips for your problem....

what really helped me was running a little bit every day and building up. For instance maybe the first few days run 1/2 a mile. Then the next few days run a whole mile. Then maybe the next couple days run a mile and 1/2. You know what I'm saying. So over all,  challenge your self every couple days. And eventually you get better soon enough. Remember, Practice makes Perfect! Good luck and i hope it works!

Answer 2

I was also in the same exact boat as you 2 years ago when I first began running. I was 14 years old normal height/weight and could not run 3 miles straight without stopping multiple times. Currently I run everyday about 4-8 miles depending on my workout. For a beginning runner I recommend staying away from the treadmill and just get out there on the trails. Treadmills are awful for your knees. There are a few key things to building up to getting faster starting with shoes make sure you are wearing proper running shoes, any regular street shoes will do nothing to improve your running. You have the right idea with weight training but start off slow do not try to rush anything. Remember you must work your biceps and triceps as well as your core not just your legs.

High intensity running is not good to start off with. I would say for a typical workout run about 2-3 miles, then head to the track for some 150m accels (begin at a steady jog and build up to a fast sprint by the time you reach the finish) do about 4-6 of these, and lastly go to the gym and lift for as long as you need but don't exceed about 35 minutes when you first begin. When running 2-3 miles no longer seems challenging and 35 minutes in the gym is not enough to complete your reps increase miles/time. One more thing I found that joining xc/track helped me because of the competition with my peers. I'm now on varsity for all three seasons of running and trust me it wasn't easy, but the training was definitely worth it.

Answer 3

I would keep away from weights, you can get the same benefit by running up hills. Cardivascular improvement is really just your heart becoming more efficient at pumping blood around your body. You can do this by running, swimming and cycling. With any training, and at your age you need good running shoes and you should watch you iron levels as females involved in endurance events are prone to iron difficiency. I would get your iron checked now, especially your ferritian levels which should be above 20 but much better if it is above 30 and way above.

Training. Interval training is not the ideal and you need to build up your reserves as interval training pulls those reseves down. Intervals are ok for short term gain, but over a longer period high quality endurance is better

To start you need to build at least 5 days and eventually aim for 6 days. So train Mon-Thur & Sat. Easy day/ hard day routine. Easy days of 20 minutes or build up to that level/ hard days 30 minutes. Saturday could be 5 min run 10 min faster than normal then 5 min run. Easy days could finish with 3 or 4 100m sprints which will help your form & efficiency. Once you get up to a level where you can do this comfortably then move onto easy - 30min/hard - 45 min. Then you will be fit to start training properly with some speed endurance reps, timetrials or practise races. Run on soft surfaces, hills, trails etc.

Make it easy on yourself by running in a group

Good luck

Answer 4

Ok well first you are going to have to do more than 2 or 3 days a week of this stuff. You should be doing more like 5 a week if you really want to see results. Start of slow and work your way up. You will not get any better if you start off with high intensity and are able to only go a few minutes at a time. Try to make your workout last 30-45 mins. After you are done with your running try to do about 15-20 mins of weight traing to help build up some muscles. Also what I found was that joing the track or cross country team can really help you out alot. When I started cross country I was waaaaaay out of shape but by the time the season was over I wasn't that bad off fitness wise. Good luck!!