Beginning Running

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she was asking me how she should increase her 30 minute run to 1 hour. I started to tell her that increasing it by approximately 5 minutes each week should do the job. At this point I hadn't really asked her why she had set her goal for an hour?

She then said that she really wanted to tone up, and felt that running was the way forward. Knowing this I then told her not to increase the distance of her run anymore, and just to up the intensity instead, by adding some interval sprints to the run.

The benefits you gain from exercise are not dependent on the time it takes for you to workout, more the intensity level you work at in the time given. So a high intensity session of say just 15 minutes, will have more impact than a long run at a steady state for 1 hour. Not convinced...try this workout:

On any CV equipment of your choice or outdoors:

Warm up for 5 minutes
Go hard for 20 seconds, and recover for 40 seconds x 15
Cool down for 5 minutes.

If you do this properly, you'll want to crawl home! You will also get the added benefit of increasing your distance without much effort, should you still wish to do so.