Wednesday 8 February 2012

Basic fitness session/week 1

Hey, to start this off we need to get some basic fitness going! When I train with my friends in my group this generally starts at the beginning of winter with long runs and minute interval training! However we are generally still fit from the previous year so I am going to post a session that should last around half an hour and will help you build a base to start on where you can progress over the coming weeks! I have been doing this session with a few of the girls I live with out here and they have all come on very well, we timed a loop of a track near us that is around 5km long and each person has managed to improve their best time considerably in just a few weeks!

You may like to plan a route of around the same distance, that you can remember and use as a platform to measure improvement! This is helpful because you can see your progression and improvement which pushes you to continue working hard as you can see your results on the clock!

The session starts with a 5 minute easy jog to warm up, with some basic stretches if desired! If its cold, take care to ensure you feel loose and warmed up even if it means jogging more or combining the jogging with movements such as push ups or what ever you feel you need!

If the following seems too easy for your current fitness level then step up the intervals but keep the rest period the same!

For their first few sessions I got the girls to run the intervals at around 60-70% of their maximum effort and to stride walk the rests!

The session goes as follows:

Warm up, as above
6x30seconds with 30 recovery
6x60seconds with 60 recovery
6x30seconds with 15 recovery
3x30seconds with 30 recovery
5 minutes jog to cool off
Basic stretching

Run     Recover  (seconds)
30         30
30         30
30         30
30         30
30         30
30         30
60         60
60         60
60         60
60         60
60         60
60         60
30         15
30         15
30         15
30         15
30         15
30         15
60         60
60         60
60         60
30         30
30         30
30         30

This may not seem a lot of work on paper as the total time it should take to complete will be around 30 minutes! Ensure that you work hard but not too hard that you don't complete the session. However if you are really struggling take note of where you get to in the session and aim to beat it next time out!
Take note of your heart rate at the end before your cool down, a good range for this session to show your working at the right kind of level would be around 150-170BPM. An easy way to calculate this if you don't have a monitor is to count your heart beats in your neck with your fore finger and middle finger for 15 seconds, them multiply by 4 and you have your BPM!

Remember this should be fun, it may hurt a little but most of that will be in your head! Although if you feel injured in anyway do not attempt to run on and complete the session, you have to read the signs your body gives you so you don't get hurt!

I suggest doing this session 2 days over the next week, on 2 other days I suggest a 30 minute jog, swim or row on a rowing machine, just to ease into training! Also if you fancy doing the times 5km loop, feel free on one of the other days! So just 4 days fairly light training this week!

I will be posting a stretching routine with a video, a few basic core routines and some basic circuits over the following weeks! I will then incorporate weights and some more intense training for those who feel ready to take on the challenge!

Have fun and please comment if this has helped!

Rich.
    

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