I’ve always liked this photo – an unedited raw picture of me running at the tender age of 40, wrinkly skin and all. I was in excellent shape, but I can just imagine how this could be edited to make me look perfect – but not real!
Anyway, two sentences in and I’m already off topic – today I’m talking running as I am participating in the Twilight 10km run on Saturday. Today, thanks to Emma encouraging me to get up before the sun, we managed to clock up nearly an hour of pounding the pavement (well, plodding, in my case) and I must say that I felt good for making the effort. It was misty and for awhile there, we couldn’t see the end of the road.
We had fun guessing where our turn around point was….
“I’m sure it’s there!”
“No, it’s around the corner!”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure I’m sure!” (giggle giggle)
I’m pretty lucky that I’m fairly fit from all the cycling I do and the odd treadmill run, but I’m still amused to say that I have prepped for this race with only two training runs. I may regret this during the run, of course – but for now, at least, I am smiling.
Seriously though, I have many clients that want to learn how to run and the best path to running (and most training) is the concept of injury free progression. Thus, I’m sharing three tips with you that help me in my training as well as my clients.
1) More isn’t better, particularly when you’re just starting out. Do too much running too soon and you’ll end up with sore knees, ankles, shins and a bruised ego. Be happy to take walking breaks in between running efforts – and don’t train every day – three days a week is perfect.
2) Wear the right shoes. Even though barefoot running is all the rage these days and those Vibrams are great at doubling for your Halloween Ninja Turtle outfit, some feet – particularly the untrained ones – can’t cope with them. This can leave you injured and feeling doubtful about whether running is really for you (it’s for everyone).
3) Rather than build distance by 10% each week, focus on increasing running effort time instead. For most of us, it’s difficult to measure distance (unless you’ve got a swanky GPS and need to know) and much easier to measure time. For example, if your total running effort time in your first week of training is 30 minutes total, then you should aim for 33 minutes of total running effort time in your next week. In this scenario, it’s doable for most to add a minute of running time if you’re running three days a week to get your 10% increase.
Are you a runner? Have any other tips to share?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
When I first started running, I went for 30 minute walk/runs. I would walk for about 3-4 minutes, and then run for 2, and repeat as many times as I could in 30 minutes. Then I just gradually increased the time I spent running, and soon there was no walking involved at all
Perfect strategy I think!
Excellent advice Liz. My approach this time (#628) was to run for 5 minutes and walk for 5 as I had a reasonable fitness base and knew this was manageable – especially with my Cliff Young Shuffle style of running. I did this 4 x in the first week (weight loss being my goal) and then every week I increased my running time by 5 mins for each interval and left walking @ 5 mins. Each session was 40 minutes and now I walk for 5 and run for 40. Easy, peasy LOL. IMO running rocks if you want/need to lose weight.
M
That’s exactly the approach I take – a bit at a time
Though I have to say that my performance took me by surprise!
You definitely need a very strong butt!!! Otherwise you are going to run into all sorts of problems. Butt activation exercises are also essential.
Yep, glutes are important for everything!
Thanks for the tips – good to know that I was going about it the right way !!!
I also consider myself to be a plodder but I get there in the end which is all that matters to me anyway !! (Well not really – I would love to be super fast but have accepted that I am never going to be that no matter how much I train or what I do – and that is OK !!!)
I have the Runkeeper app on my phone and use that for intervals – starting out with about 40 mins a day three days a week. Slowly I will cut down the amount of walking and increase the amount of plodding – so if I do the same route, I land up doing it quicker – once I have got that route down to a plod the whole way, I increase my route each week by about 1-2km.
Have the best weekend and good luck for your Twilight run – now I am sorry I didn’t enter because it was on my list of runs to enter until I got all sooki and didn’t enter any !!!!
Can’t wait to see how it goes.
Me
Hi Me, I can’t believe some of those super fast runners – they make it look easy (and it’s not!)
My tip would be to find a running partner, preferably around the same pace. It makes the runs so much easier and fun if you have someone to make the k’s go quicker.
Hi Char, that really helped me today
Hello, this is great advice. I had NEVER run untl I tried the C25K and really found that good, I used a treadmill. This is what started me thinking that it’s Ok to sweat… and now I always sweat when I exercise. I laid off for a bit and then foolishly jogged non-stop for about 4km and hurt my knees. So I need to be slow and steady when I jog after a layoff. BUT finally the point, I jogged down at manly this week, 5km slo and steady… and it was FINE. Amazing. And a swim in a sea pool afterwards. Then a coffee. Honestly, my life was complete. Good luck with your 10km, sounds a long way to me but you’ll enjoy it, I bet.
That sounds like heaven to me – especially the swim afterwards.
I am NOT a runner. As you know I also tried the C25k program a couple of times but fail sometime after week 2 (3 or 4, cannot recall).
Not sure if that will ever change. I didn’t really enjoy running when I was slim and fit and healthy.
Deb
Nope, not everyone enjoys running. It’s not my “thing” but I do like to challenge myself from time to time.
Love your pic Liz!
My tip to add would be to view running as a lifestyle thing! When starting out or returning from a layoff, one can see improvements quite quickly. But over time, getting new PB’s etc becomes harder. There will be peaks, times of high motivation and extra training such as when training for an event. There will be times where there are other priorities but I think the key is to keep to a certain standard such as running 3 times a week for at least 30 mins. Then when the next event comes up we want to participate in, – we can ramp training up somewhat but from an already good set training base!
Thanks Pip – I think the good training base held me in good stead yesterday!