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Looking at entering that next fun run and don’t know what pace you need to set to achieve a set time over the course.

Well we now have a great timetable you can print off that will give you an idea of your running pace for a 10km run from 40 minutes to 1.10 or for the 5km pace from 18.50 to 32.58.

A great way to build up the foundation for strength and speed is interval training whereby you perform short bursts of high intensity training.

If you live in Melbourne, we have listed all the current fun runs.

We have had numerous requests from our Fitmates regarding a take home DIY (do it yourself) Boot Camp program.

You can use water bottles to mark the exercise stations or bananas if you have a fruit shop handy:))

Just remember when undertaking any form of rigorous exercise to get medical clearance first, high blood pressure, age, cholesterol levels and other key indicators must be taken into consideration.

This program is designed around the principles of interval training whereby you undertake high intensity cardiovascular based exercise for short periods of time followed by a resistance based exercise.

This keeps the heart elevated for short periods of time which really challenges the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

While I was filming our latest hard core urban boot camp workout, Michael Klim and four others literally ran behind the camera to another location along the beach to continue their interval based sprint work training.

Without paying much attention, I noticed a small group doing maximal sprint efforts to the end of the pier and back while we kept re shooting our L sit iron beam chin ups.

For those not familiar with Michael, he is a multi Olympic and World Championship Gold medal winner and world 100 meters freestyle and butterfly record holder.

It’s awesome to see Michael embracing the interval based training technique of high intensity cardio based 100 – 150m sprint efforts followed by a dumbbell shoulder work and dips.

Great for keeping the heart elevated at the upper levels for short periods of time with a short burst of resistance training from in.

Unfortunately Michael was sprinting back to the starting point of the workout, an awesome very down to earth guy who still graciously managed a quick chat during this extreme work out session

While riding I met Ben who has continued his weight training regime and maintains the muscle mass while cycling 300km per week.

What it interesting is that there is a belief that high levels of cardiovascular fitness training can work against a person wishing to maintain the hard work performed by weight training.

Well Ben is testament that after a long period of weight training, in Bens case 20 years, the muscles develop a memory meaning that after a long period of resistance training, the muscles will not contract or turn to fat. With regualr training the muscles become stronger and more efficient at processing contractions. Your brain creates these neurological pathways, similar to my field of wheat example whereby if you keep walking down the same pathway, these become deep well highlighted tracks that are easy to follow.

Think about a person who has been jogging through out their life and they take a break for 6 months, when they resume jogging the time to regain there formal fitness levels are shorter to someone who runs infrequently over a similar period.

The main thing is to maintain regular weight training and manage the energy intake of carbohydrates, protein and fats.

If the equation is skewed to greater energy expenditure than intake, you body will use the energy stores of glycogen, fats and then breaking down muscle for energy, not a good thing. This process is called catabolism where by the body utilises other form of glucose in the body for energy production and starts to break down muscle tissue in the absence carbohydrate.

Our Fitmate had a high calorie burn at Bootcamp this morning. After 60 minutes of high intensity exercise, he managed to burn 800 calories. An awesome effort after allowing for the warm up and cool down/stretching components.

Thanks to his heart rate monitor, it gave a fair indication of the total energy burnt during the Bootcamp taking into account his age, weight, height and maximum heart rate.

If you’re looking at a way to measure your fitness, try the beep test.

The last time one of our Fitmates burnt 800 calories, they wanted to know if it was ok to eat 3 Mars Bars as they contained the equivalent amount of calories (energy).

The main thing for achieving weight loss is balancing energy intake verses energy expenditure. Once you have it skewed more towards the energy that you burn, you are well on your way to achieving your weight loss goals