Running - How to Start Today: Execise & Fitness Guide, Run For Health!

At first glance, you might think that running is an easy feat. But as you start running, you’ll realize that you’re already panting after a few steps.

If you’re a beginner, learning how to run should come in different steps. It is a process. If you tend to shock your body, there is a higher possibility of resulting in injury. It can also give you a negative experience that might lead you not to try running again.

Running – How to Start Today

Running guides like this one; and other health & fitness guides here on Local NYC, can help you stay mentally and physically fit in times like this!

How to start running? Here’s a plan.

Get Motivated

The key step to running is consistency. In order to be consistent, you have to be motivated to put on those running shoes and do your daily exercise.

As a beginner, it would be best to make running a habit. A habit includes cues like time, place, music, and other people; reward like a chocolate bar, massage or smoothie, and routine, which refers to the workout. Identify these aspects and place it somewhere; you can see it.

In order for your body to get used to your routine, it would be good for your cues to be consistent. For instance, you can work on the same exercise music and exercise in the same place. You treat walking/running as an important appointment.

Next, reward yourself. This can help your brain associate your exercise with the reward. You can have chocolate(and we don’t mean a whole bar). This reward will make you look forward to finishing your routine.

Lastly, you can build a good support system. You can go running with your friends, or you can track your performance to see your progress.

Get Moving

If you are a beginner, it is advised that you start walking first. It should be brisk walking and not a window-shopping type of walk. Walking will give your bones, muscles, and tendons the fitness base you need to start running without injury.

In a seven-week program, you can divide your walking time for the whole week so you can achieve the total time goal. Per week, you have to gradually increase the total time until you reach 165 to 185 on week 7.

You can also use a stationary bike or an elliptical trainer, but walking is still the most recommended.

Start Running

Now, you’re ready to run, but you have to do it gradually. Your goal workout will be a one-hour run/walk with a ratio of 2:1.

In another seven-week plan, you spend the first two weeks of 30-minutes exercise for five days per week.

In the third week, you can start running. You can do a run/walk ratio of 4:2 minutes and gradually advance to the ratio of 6:3 minutes.

Run Non-Stop

At this stage, the goal is to build your endurance and eliminating the walk breaks. Your goal workout for this stage is to run approximately 5 kilometres continuously.

The run must be done at a conversational pace. If you’re already gasping for air, try to slow down.

Run Longer

Now that you’ve run 5 kilometre, you can now try to run longer. This stage will help you build endurance for a 10 kilometre run, and it will include some hills and loosely structured speed work to achieve that.

Check your progress. If you think you are up for a greater challenge, you can skip ahead. But it is important not to rush it because there will be risks of injuries if you push too hard.

This stage is ideally completed in 14 weeks.

Get Faster

You can now run 5 to six miles or 10,000 kilometres. At this stage, you’d want to boost your speed. This can further develop your endurance, improve your speed work, boost your leg and lung power, and develop your pace awareness so you can avoid going too fast.

At this stage, you are already called an “advanced beginner” as you can already run 18 miles per week with a file-mile long run.