Running during the semester - can't I just eat less?!
Question: I'm a first-year in college
Last semester I managed to go to classes, study, and somehow go for a run every day. Although I had no spare time, it worked out all right. The new semester starts on monday and I am a little worried...
Classes are getting harder and I'm going to have to spend much more time studying each afternoon/evening/night. Going for a good run and then showering eats up about 2 hours of the day, so it seems like I'm going to have to cut this out of my schedule. If I don't run, then I'm obviously going to have to eat less... I'm just afraid of slowing down my metabolism, etc. But here's how I'm trying to rationalize it for myself: most college students don't get to work out every day, so I should be fine if I really control my eating.
As far as being thin, it's easier for me to stay thinner when I'm eating less as opposed to when I'm running a lot; I'm just scared of possible future effects on my metabolism
I guess I don't really have a question, just looking fo
Answers: I'm a first-year in college
Last semester I managed to go to classes, study, and somehow go for a run every day. Although I had no spare time, it worked out all right. The new semester starts on monday and I am a little worried...
Classes are getting harder and I'm going to have to spend much more time studying each afternoon/evening/night. Going for a good run and then showering eats up about 2 hours of the day, so it seems like I'm going to have to cut this out of my schedule. If I don't run, then I'm obviously going to have to eat less... I'm just afraid of slowing down my metabolism, etc. But here's how I'm trying to rationalize it for myself: most college students don't get to work out every day, so I should be fine if I really control my eating.
As far as being thin, it's easier for me to stay thinner when I'm eating less as opposed to when I'm running a lot; I'm just scared of possible future effects on my metabolism
I guess I don't really have a question, just looking fo
The human brain needs glucose to operate. If you starve yourself, you will rob your brain of glucose and you'll find your grades suffering because it doesn't have what it needs. You will gain weight, because you will start to lose the lean muscle that you developed when you were running and your body will replace that lean muscle with fat.
Basically, to stay in shape, you don't need to run every day. To maintain your muscle tone and metabolism, you should be able to do well on running just 3 days a week. On the in-between days, just doing 1 mile will work out the lactic acid out of your muscles and help you prevent injury if you feel you need to do it. How far are you running? You really don't need to do more than 3 - 4 miles to maintain your muscle tone. More than 45 minutes or so 3 times a week isn't really needed that much to maintain your figure and will keep you looking - and thinking - good. That should easily keep you down to under an hour.
I used to be married to one of the top marathon runners and duathletes in the country. What he did was turn to bicycling as a cross training technique and he bicycled to and from the college every day and during lunch times, keeping his legs spinning at around 75 or more rotations per minute. He also used it as an alternative when recovering from racing injuries. So an alternative for you might be to get a good road bike and learn how to burn those calories on that.
Can you commute to school by bike or walking to help get some exercise? Or possibly add a PE type class for extra credit to get some kind of workout?
how about running in the morning before you go to college? it will wake you up ready for the day...