As I have said since I joined here that at the end of July I was gonna start walking/jogging/running because the kids will be back in school. I am excited to get it started. But I have a few questions.

1.) what should I drink after a walk/jog? Just bring water to drink during and after or should I also buy some small Gatorades to drink one afterwards?

2.)I will be walking/jogging on a old high school track. My goal to start with is walk a lap and jog a lap. Does that sound good? I plan to start working at getting an hour a day like this. Which probably in the beginning will be 2 miles (8laps) an hour. Does that sound about right for a beginning goal.

I still do not know if I will be doing this in the early morning (as soon as kids leave for school) or mid morning. I won't know this until the 23rd when we have open house. Thats when I find out if the youngest will be in early morning classes or late morning classes. So the time I am still playing by ear. Oh and I plan to go 4 days a week and the 5th day will be with a tape at home.

As far as what you should drink I'm not really sure. Personally I just have water because I don't like Gatorade or other sports drinks, but I'm not sure, scientifically, which is better.

As far as your plan I think starting out by jogging a lap and walking a lap is good. I also do jog/walk intervals and I'm gradually trying to increase the time of my jogs and decrease the time of my walks until I'm only jogging. I think you could likely get more than 2 miles in an hour. When I first started exercising I could walk a mile in 15-18 minutes at a brisk pace without any jogging. But I also have a relatively physically demanding job so when I did start exercising it wasn't like I was starting straight from the couch, you may have to start a little slower depending on your current level of fitness.

A lot of new runners have had success with the "couch to 5k program" at coolrunning.com http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml. I took it up last fall myself and have been amazed that I too can run.

I used a podcast downloaded from Robert Ullrey's running blog to guide my workouts, a lot easier than keeping an eye on a watch for me. http://web.mac.com/robert_ullrey/iWe...ng%20Blog.html

The workouts are structured to be shorter than 1 hr (up to 40 min total by the end), but you can always add more walking or some other form of cardio if you have a 1 hr goal.

Hope this helps. Happy running!

I too agree with the walk a lap, jog a lap plan. That's what i do. I try to walk/jog for 40 minutes on Thursdays. I get a little over 2 miles in that way...and that's with a warm up walk and a cool down lap.

I would just drink water. Gatorade is probably more useful to athletes. I wouldn't want to take away from my food intake for the day just to add in a bottle of gatorade.

Just make sure you drink enough while your working out and wear good shoes.

Sounds great! Good for you taking up running! And definitely look into the Couch-5k program; it's been helpful to many people.

I want to echo everyone else's comments about the Gatorade: you just don't need it and it is basically empty calories. There's no point in negating the calories burned through exercise by drinking them in the form of sugar Just stick to water--it's all you need.

I looked at the couch -5k thing. I don't really like all the structure.

I was just reading an article after posting this question. It said an hour or less of running water is fine. On longer runs something along the lines of gatorade is better. Here is the article:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/...4814-0,00.html

I'm just getting back into running again after a year of not running at all. I'm not using the couch to 5k but am doing run/walk intervals. I have a watch that beeps the intervals for me (so I don't have to look at it) and will just keep upping the running section as I get better. You could do the same with the track - start off 1 lap running, 1 lap walking - then add extra running laps with time. Similar effect.

Most beginning run/walk programs are 20 mins (plus warmup and cool down) or 30 mins, so an hour will be plenty. Don't feel you need to use the whole hour if you get tired - or just walk from that point. Don't forget to stretch afterwards - the Runner's World site has stretches I think too. 4 days a week will be fine too - your body needs time to adjust to the exercise.

I just drink water. I think people only use energy drinks (or gels etc) for long runs where they get too fatigued without extra fuel. Since you're only planning on an hour, the water will be plenty.

Have fun!
Jax

I would avoid the gatorade for now. It can be useful when you build up to longer distances, but when you're just starting you should be OK with water.

Good luck!