Treadmill - walk or run, C25K?

cazbit

Morning all,

I am starting my treadmill tonight and am looking for opinions on what to tackle my first week. I have four stone to lose and really want to do this properly so am wondering what i should start with this week. Should I do...

Walking
Walking on a gradient
Treadmill pro programmed run
Start couch25k?

Any opinions or advice would be appreciated. What worked for you. I'm really looking to start something that I am going to keep up.

Thanks
C x

firef1y72

When I first started I could barely walk for 5 mins at 3.5km/hr so the first thing I did was slowly increase this (by adding a couple minutes a session) until I could manage 30 mins. Obviously if you can walk faster/longer then you may not need this step but I have a joint condition that was made worse by my weight.

Step 2 was to increase my speed and I used the C25K to do that, instead of running intervals I had intervals at 4km/hr. Once I could do the whole "running" segment at 4km/hr I upped speeds so the "walking" intervals were at 4km/hr and "running" at 4.5km/hr and rinsed and repeated until eventually my walking speed was 5km/hr.

At this point I actually starting adding very slow running in the running intervals, I'm talking about 6.5km/hr (I'm only short and that's the speed where I naturally start to change from walking to running. Again once I'd completed the programme I increased the running speed.

18 months from where I started I've just started a half marathon running programme that has me starting back at intervals of 1min run/2min walk and am managing to run at 10km/hr. I'm also run/walking 5k once a week and did a 10k a couple of weeks ago.

TavistockToad

what is your current fitness level? if you can currently walk for 30-60 minutes fairly comfortably, then i would say C25K. if not, start with walking 10 minutes and build up slowly.

girlinahat

^^^

both are great answers. Get to the point where you can walk comfortably for 30 minutes, and then start c25k. Don’t worry about what speed you should be doing the ‘run’ intervals or what anyone else has done, we are all different. The slower the better for the run intervals – it is better to be able to run the intervals and get to the end of the time, than do have to stop because you are out of breath. The coolrunnings original site for c25k has a treadmill version based on continued time, and many treadmills let you set intervals.

I started running with c25k on a treadmill. When I got to the run twenty minutes bit I had to keep repeating it. Don’t worry about repeating weeks, but firstly try slowing down to try and get to the end of the 20 minutes in a running gait. You’ll feel such a feeling of accomplishment when you do it. I gave up on the treadmill when the sun came out, now I’d rather run in the dark and rain than on a treadmill.

Losing weight won’t come from exercise though – for that you need to keep an eye on your calories, but don’t forget to eat back SOME of your exercise calories to help with all that treadmill work!!!

coreyreichle

cazbit wrote: »

Morning all,

I am starting my treadmill tonight and am looking for opinions on what to tackle my first week. I have four stone to lose and really want to do this properly so am wondering what i should start with this week. Should I do...

Walking
Walking on a gradient
Treadmill pro programmed run
Start couch25k?

Any opinions or advice would be appreciated. What worked for you. I'm really looking to start something that I am going to keep up.

Thanks
C x

While I understand the Couch 2 5K is "advertised" as going from couch potato to running a 5K, I always advise people to get themselves to the point where they can walk, uninterrupted, for 30 minutes, first.

Now, with that being said. Running/Walking isn't for weight loss. It's for fitness. Yes, you get a little added to your deficit, but it's really not that much as you burn ~100 cals/mile doing either. 30 minutes of running is ~3 miles or so. 30 minutes of walking is ~2 miles or so. So, 200-300 cals burned. Just don't eat that bag of chips, and you'll be in the same place. See where I'm going here.

JeromeBarry1

Using a treadmill is an exercise in boredom. If it's not challenging, it's boring. If you find it boring, raise the speed or the incline or change the program or do something more challenging.

BrianSharpe

TavistockToad wrote: »

what is your current fitness level? if you can currently walk for 30-60 minutes fairly comfortably, then i would say C25K. if not, start with walking 10 minutes and build up slowly.

^^ Nailed it.

It also depends on your goals. When I started running about a decade ago I would never have guessed that I'd be running half marathons, Olympic distance duathlons etc Do what you enjoy and see where it leads!