With less fat on your body, you will feel better running, and can run faster. It is possible to burn fat while training for a Half-Marathon, but you need to ensure you’re recovering fast enough. The concepts in this chapter can help you add to the fat burning while you train for your goal. But you should back off on these if you’re not recovering.
Fat burning priorities
| (1) |
Top priority workouts—be sure to do these each week. |
| (2) |
Second priority workouts—it would be very beneficial to do these each week |
| (3) |
Do these if you have time—they will help, just have a lower priority. |
Days of the week are listed only as a suggestion. Feel free to adjust to your schedule. If you cannot do the total length of the session, do whatever you can—even 10 minutes is better than nothing. Walking is a great way to burn extra calories on a running or a non-running day. Using a step counter will allow you to break up the walking into an all day series of step segments. See the section below on 10,000 steps a day.
| Run the distance scheduled for a long run. If you walk more and go slowly enough, you could increase a quarter to a half-mile more on each long one, than is on the schedule. Don’t be afraid to put more walking in the beginning. The mission here is to keep going while feeling good. You should finish each long one knowing that you could have run farther. |
| Do one or more alternative exercise(s) that raises body temperature, while allowing you to continue for 60+ minutes. Even on time-crunched days, try to shoot for 45 minutes. Even if you can only squeeze in 15 minutes, the extra calories burned will help in total fat burning for the week. Stair machine work is not recommended. If you have to break up these exercises into 5-15 min segments—do it. |
| A moderate run of 45-60 minutes. These shorter runs allow you to maintain the fat-burning adaptations gained in the longer one on the weekend. These could be done at whatever pace you wish, but when in doubt, go slower—and go longer. |
| Alternative exercise, same as Monday: 60 minutes |
| Same as Tuesday: 45-60 minutes |
| Alternative exercise, same as Monday: 60 minutes |
| You can have this day off if you wish. Because it is the day before your long one, it’s best to take it very easy. If you do any exercise, a short and gentle walk would be fine, but you need fresh muscles for the long one. |
How much walking and how much running?
Follow the guidelines in the Galloway Run-Walk Method chapter. In the beginning, you may be running a few seconds and walking for 1-2 minutes. Very gradually you will increase the amount of running. Don’t push too quickly. It would be better to choose a ratio that seems too easy for you.
10,000 more steps a day on non-running days/6000 on running days
A pedometer, or step counter, can change you into a constant fat-burner. This device gives you an incentive and reinforcement for adding extra steps to your day. It also gives you a sense of control over your actual calorie burn off. Once you get into the practice of taking more than 10,000 steps a day in your everyday activities, you find yourself getting out of your chair more often, parking farther away from the supermarket, walking around the kid’s playground, practice field, etc.
These devices are usually about one inch square, and clip onto your belt, pocket or waistband. The inexpensive models just count steps and this is all you need. Other models compute miles and calories. I recommend getting one from a quality manufacturer. When tested, some of the really inexpensive ones registered 3-4 times as many steps as the quality products did—walking exactly the same course.
Your goal is to accumulate 10,000 steps at home, at work, going shopping, waiting for kids, etc. on your non-running days, and 6000 on your running days. This is very doable. You will find many pockets of time during the day when you are just sitting or standing. When you use these to add steps to your day, you burn fat and feel better. You become a very active person.
About dinnertime you should do a “step check”. If you haven’t acquired your 10,000 (or 6000), walk around the block a few extra times after dinner. You don’t have to stop with these figures. As you get into it, you’ll find many more opportunities to walk...and burn.
15-30 pounds of fat...gone
Depending upon how many times you do the following each week, you have many opportunities each day to burn a little here, and a little there. These are easy movements that don’t produce tiredness, aches or pains, but at the end of the year—it really adds up:
| 1-2 pounds |
— |
taking the stairs instead of the elevator |
| 10-30 pounds |
— |
getting out of your chair at work to walk down the hall |
| 5-10 pounds |
— |
getting off the couch to move around the
house (but not to get potato chips) |
| 1-2 pounds |
— |
parking farther away from the supermarket,
mall, etc |
| 1-3 pounds |
— |
parking farther away from your work |
| 2-4 pounds |
— |
walking around the kids’ playground,
practice field (chasing the kids) |
| 2-4 pounds |
— |
walking up and down the concourse as you
wait for your next flight |
| 3-9 pounds |
— |
walking the dog each day |
| 2-4 pounds |
— |
walking a couple of times around the block
after supper |
| 2-4 pounds |
— |
walking a couple of times around the block
during lunch hour at work |
| 2-4 pounds |
— |
walking an extra loop around the mall,
supermarket, etc. to look for bargains (this
last one could be expensive when at the
mall) |
| Total: 31-76 pounds a year |
15 more pounds burned each year from adding a few extra miles a day
By wisely using those small pockets of time that exist in every day, you can add to your fat-burning without feeling extra fatigue:
• |
Slow down and go one more mile on each run. |
• |
Walk a mile at lunchtime. |
• |
Jog a mile before dinner, or afterward. |