Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Start Running, Week 1

If you are new to running, I would like to welcome you and say that I'm glad you are making the commitment to get in better shape, improve your health, and dedicate yourself to a hobby that is motivating and positive for you and those around you.  Many people have also made the same commitment and it has changed their lives.  Some run for fun, others have goals of completing half or full marathons and possibly qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  It is important to keep your goal in mind every time you run.  Running doesn't have to be a chore, it should be something positive that you are doing for yourself.

The first few weeks of running are hard, and may cause you to rethink your commitment.  I'll give you some tips on how to get started, remain positive, and prevent getting burnt, out or even worse injured.  I'll also provide a basic plan to follow.  Plans are great to keep you focused and structured, and keep you from doing too little or too much and burning out and quitting.

Week 1 Plan
Every running plan should incorporate two basic things: running and resting.  As you become a better runner, more details will become incorporated such as cross training, speed-work, and long runs, but at the beginning it's these basic things.

For week one, I want you to pick three days to workout and you will have 4 days of rest. 
Each workout day will consist of walking and running intervals.  This will boost your cardiovascular system and begin to build muscle.  A warm up and cool down should begin and end your workout, this is typically just a couple minutes of slow walking.  Your run pace should be comfortable, not fast.  I repeat, not fast.  This is not a race, so don't treat it like one. A pace of 9:30 to 12:00 minutes per mile is normal for a beginner depending on age, fitness level, and gender.  You need to have discipline in your training, and follow the rule of gradual progress.  Gradual progress means that you can't immediately become great, you need to improve a little bit at a time as you train, get more fit, and gain more experience.  So here's the plan:

Day 1: Half mile intervals of walk/run/walk/run.  3 miles total
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Half mile intervals of walk/run/walk/run.  3 miles total
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Half mile intervals of walk/run/walk/run.  3 miles total
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest, get ready for Week 2

Don't worry about it if you need to move the days around, just try your best to get in 3 days of working out and 4 good days of rest.  Those rest days are when your muscles are rebuilding, they are very important.

If you are running outside and don't have distance markers, I recommend trying out MapMyRun.com.  There you can plot out an outdoor course in your neighborhood or local park.   Once you create a few courses you can use them over and over again, and change them up by running different routes each day.

If the weather doesn't cooperate, it pays off to join a gym to have access to a treadmill.  I always recommend running on a treadmill at 1% incline to better represent outdoor running.

You can run in the morning before work or school, or at night after work or school, or whenever your schedule allows.  I have noticed that I typically have less energy at the end of the day making the workout more challenging, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

You may be wondering what equipment you need to get started. Luckily running doesn't require much. As you run more you will begin to form preferences for your apparel and gear as time goes on.  I will also talk about some of the items that have worked well for me personally.
  • Athletic shoes, preferably good flexible soled running shoes. We'll talk more about that later, but for now anything with a nice flexible sole will work to get you started.
  • Athletic socks.
  • Athletic shorts or pants.
  • A towel, it's nice to wipe sweat from your face.
  • A water bottle, hydration is very important!  I have found that bicycle style water bottles are great for running, they are easy to use while running and won't spill all over you. 
  • A plain t-shirt will work, but shirts with breathable fabric will be more comfortable and chafe less.
  • A sport watch.  Just a basic sport stop watch with a lap memory will help you track your mile paces as you run.  I recommend the Timex Ironman series.  They make watches for men and women.


Now is also a good time to start a workout tracking sheet.  Keep track of the distances or times that you run each day.  This data will turn into valuable information as you begin to improve.  You will begin to see gradual improvement as your training progresses both from the data and your physique.  Seeing that is great motivation.

Have fun.  See the Week 2 post for next weeks tips.