Wow! Gotta love this fantastic programme :)

[vengadriver]

It has been a year now since I embarked on my running journey with this programme.I can't believe I am now a runner at 42yrs for the first time in my life.I never thought I would get this far and enjoy it so much.I can now run 10km in 1hr 5 mins and today thanks to 2 rounds of the Speed Podcast I ran my fastest ever 5km in 31mins 30 secs which is 2 minutes less than my last attempt a few weeks ago.

I really need to lose some weight especially from my waist,stomach and midriff so I am going to take some of your wonderful advice and do some regular interval training to see if this helps.I enjoy my 10k runs to my own playlist and the 700 calories burnt but I find interval training a real challenge.I plan to alternate the speed,stamina and pyramid training podcasts to see if this helps me.However I can only manage 5km of this training and only burn 380 calories

[Oldgirl Graduate]

Wow thats wonderful times for both distances, well done. I like HIIT its challenging but you feel so darn good at the end and you don't have to spend much time for it to pay off with good results. It will build stamina and strength, help reduce your times even further. I also found last summer when I really focused on HIIT I lost the last 7lbs which had been slow to move up until then. I used the same principles when swimming, which I did 2 or 3 times a week. I mixed up my running and did something different each time I went out, i.e. (1) forest tracks with hill work, (2) HIIT no longer than 15 minutes with warm up and cool down runs and walk, (3) steady run anything from 5K - 10K. It was much more fun than just doing 5K runs and every Parkrun I did I got a new PB so it worked well for me. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[vengadriver Graduate]

Thanks Oldgirl you have given me a wealth of good advice on here.I hope it works for me too as I need to lose some weight/inches before my summer hols lol! I will keep you posted.I must admit I don't do hills-I do the same route in the local park which has a few slight inclines but I avoid anything that resembles a hill!

[swanscot Graduate]

Good to see you posting again, Vengadriver. You're achieving great times for both your 5 km and 10 km. I understand about enjoying 10 km runs to your own playlist, but finding intervals training a challenge. I struggled to complete the Speed podcast when I started with it, then after completing it went on to double it like you. Then when I started the Audiofuel pyramid intervals podcast I couldn't complete that. But that's ok as it gave me something to work towards. I eventually managed to run all the intervals.

Re the calories burnt, vigorous exercise (such as HIIT) is especially effective at burning calories not only during the activity itself but also long after. Your body burns calories when it is recovering and a hard and fast session will require more recovery than a softer, less intense workout. I don't know the figures for how many calories burnt and for how long, but I bet some others on here may know.