establishing fitness goals--???

Hi There, I am a year and 4 months out. I'm pretty much finished losing weight and am happy where I am: 5'7" 143ish. I have built up my fitness routine. I am now working out 4-5 days a week. My routine consists of doing 30 minutes on the eliptical machine--at first I was doing no resistance and no program...now I'm doing both--at the "random" setting. I follow this with either 15 minutes on the bike (again at random with varying levels of resistance) or with circuit training. I have been occasionally working in running. Last week I ran 1.5 miles without stopping. My goal is to be able to "really" go on a good bike ride. I also would *love* to be able to really run...like 3+ miles. I would like to establish some realistic and good fitness goals, including and/or extending these novice sorts of goals....any ideas??? Thanks! Kim

Kim, Have you tried any studio cycling classes?  They're a blast and you can put the resistance as hard or light as you need according to the workout you want and what you're able to do.  They vary sprints and hill climbs both sitting and standing.  Most of them are 45-60 minutes and you can really get some good cardio exercise.  If you've seen them and are intimidated, don't be.  Everyone starts out working at their own pace.  You'll just want to have some good bike shorts. The thing about running is that it really doesn't take long to work up the distance.  As long as you are doing intense cardio coss training (such as the bike) as well as running, it doesn't take very long to pick up the distance because you're improving your cardiovascular system even on the days you don't run.  I'm not a big fan of the elliptical as a cross trainer, but if you like it, go for it!  Any intense exercise is good exercise. Honestly, there are lots of free training programs online for running 5k's and the like, and it shouldn't take more than 3 months to be able to accomplish that.  If you could even add one more minute to your runs each week, you'll be surprised how much more you can do and sooner than what you might expect.  I went from never running before to being able to run a half marathon in about 6 months. I don't do much strength training.  Once maybe twice a week I'll do some upper body, but I never do legs because all the cardio I do involves the legs.  Just make sure you have the right shoes for your foot type and a great sports bra! Linn

Hi Kim, One of the things that you should to do is find 5k in March or April and plan to join it.  You can also find a slew of 35k-50k bike rides starting in March (still cold) but getting much better in April.   Set up a goal and work toward it. Rob

Rob said exactly what I would say.  Find a local 5K and sign up immediately.  This will give you a goal and something to train for.   You can look on coolrunning.com or perhaps a local newspaper has a sports calander.  Good luck