I’ve recently decided that since it is fun to run, and I end up walking quite a few places (from building to building at work, up to the childminders and back, to the shops etc.), that I am going to use running shoes as my default shoes and run everywhere, with the exception of places where I have to arrive looking unruffled and smart or whatever (and long journeys which are obviously bike things).

So I guess in a week I’m doing probably 10-15 very short runs, 10 minutes or so on average, between 0.5 – 3km in length. Some of them up and down jolly steep hills (we live in a steepish valley in Derbyshire – it’s between 10 and 20% incline up the hill to the childminders). So far it doesn’t seem to be killing me, or making me ache.

I wonder if this will do anything to my running fitness or general fitness, I know people are always going on about how you should do at least 30 minutes of exercise in a session to really get your heart going – but I can’t really see how a quick 10 minutes up a big hill isn’t going to help somehow.

Obviously I’m still doing the normal exercise – biking, swimming in rivers, tri club pool sessions, hockey, so I guess I have the 30 minute+ exercise sessions covered, I just wonder if all these short runs will do anything different for my fitness?

Joe

yep, I reckon you’ll notice improvements doing that. One of the best things to do is keep moving regularly throughout the day. It’ll also be a great way to break into longer distance running if you ever wanted to.

depends how fit you are at the moment. Can’t hurt, but I doubt it’ll be significant.

I just ran and ran and ran….. 🙂

Sniffs pits.

I used to walk briskly to work (30 mins) in my Nike Pegasus, which had an appreciable slope from heel to toe and used to ‘throw’ you forward.

I ended up being dramatically faster round a tennis court, so it did something good to my calves I think.

Maybe the MBT type shoes do the same thing.

Depends what you mean by fitness…

A few years back a did a masters dissertation on the relative benefits of doing 3x10mins bouts of running compared to 1x30min.
As I remember from the evidence (my study and others) – you get the same benefits regarding various hormones including insulin and grelin, on reduction on blood pressure and heart rate, speed of fat absorption (after a meal) and you burn the same calories.
So basically, you get the same ‘health’ benefits on cardio vascular disease, weight etc which is important for public health evidence / messages.

Whether you’ll get fit enough to go out for a all day ride is a different matter, probably not but it won’t do any harm.

It’ll help if you do them as fast as you can I reckon. But that’ll put you knackered when you get to where you are going!

But that’ll put you knackered when you get to where you are going!

Not a massive problem really – it isn’t like I need to hurry anywhere once I’ve got there after all.

Hmm. Waiting for an SDK to download estimated time 45 minutes, off for a quick lunchtime swim it is then!

Knackered meaning all sweaty and disheveled 🙂

Knackered meaning all sweaty and disheveled

From 10 minutes exercise? Nothing that a 2 minute sit down won’t fix. As long as I remember to shower daily (which I kind of do), I don’t see that being a massive problem.

Bearing in mind that work uniform = shorts and a t-shirt – I don’t exactly have to be immaculate anyway.

I always do short bursts throughout the day, be it walking fast, quick jog here and there plus 4x8min (2mile) bike rides. might break into a little sweat if it’s hot but soon cool off after a couple of minutes. You will actually get used to doing it too, so even if you break into a little sweat for the first few weeks it’ll wear off before long as your recovery speeds up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

I reckon you could be on to ‘Paleo Exercise’.