Fitness Goals Support Group

This community is dedicated to group support around achieving fitness goals, whatever they may be, through personal training, athletic activites, or other strenuous activity. Whether you are trying to get fit to treat a health problem, boost your mood, relieve stress, or tone your body, this group is a great place to meet other like-minded people who have similar goals.

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Distance or time?

Zayannee
Zayannee
Hello! my sister and I have started every morning for the past five weeks with a jog. Were trying to lose 20 lbs.

Is in better to say we are going to run 2 miles or we are going to run for 20 min, better to track distance or time?

Any other tips for getting into running? We want to be albe to say we are "runners" :)
deleted_user
deleted_user
Actually for losing weight, interval training is usually the best. For instance, you sprint for 30 seconds, jog for 1 minute. Then do that for 10 or 15 minutes.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Since you are just starting out, I would go with what is most comfortable for the two of you! If you run 2 miles and bring your time down to where you don't feel like you are working out as much, then you could try adding more time, distance and/or intervals. I also enjoy signing up for a race in the future...that keeps me going on my routine :)
Zayannee
Zayannee
Thanks! Whats most difficult right now is we are at different fitness levels. I have worked at a gym and for the past two yrs and she has had babies so its a little harder for her ( no pun intended Id love to be a mom). its just hard when I want to keep going and she is tired b/c it motivates me to have the workout buddy.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Would your sister mind if you continued the workout a bit beyond hers? If you find some great loops, she could stop, while you do another lap?? Just an idea...
deleted_user
deleted_user
If you want to be known as "runners", then go for distance. Runners go completely apeshit over marathons, half-marathons, and supermarathons.

Really, either time or distance will get you to where you want to go, fitness-wise, but runners seem to respect distance more than time...after all, it's easier to run 26.2 miles in six hours than it is to run in 4 hours! So, in that respect, go for MORE distance over LESS time!

Make sure you have good running shoes!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I started running around April in training for the a half-marathon. I never considered how long it would take to run the event, just that I finished. Since I ran the 1/2 on October 7th, I am now training for the next one on November 18th in Philly. Again, my goal is to finish, but it is to improve my time over the past 1/2 marathon.

Since I have figured that I will probably not train for a marathon the distance of 13.1 miles is enough so now my goal is to improve time.

As you will see your goals/objectives may change but I would start with distance. Pretty soon they will equal each other and you will judge yourself on both.

Good luck with the 5K and there is no doubt you can do it. My training involved running 3x per during the week and then one long run on the weekend.