New "race runner" - where to start?

Hi all,

 

I intend to start running seriously but I don't know where to start. I'm by no means ready for anything like a 5k race but all the plans I have found online seem to be based around people who have never been active before. 

 

I've played football for 12 years before taking a year off. So although I'm not race ready, I'm not totally out of shape.

 

My question is really where to begin. Should I go out tomorrow and run for as long as I can and record the distance? Should I set a distance and see the time it takes to cover it? Should I set a time and see the distance I cover?

 

Is it best to choose a distance, say 1.5miles, and attempt to improve times before extending the distance to 5k, then 10k, half marathon etc etc. 

 

I intend to commit 6 days a week to training.

 

Any help would be great. I have also trawled through a few apps on the appstore, just wondered what equipment you guys use to store your phones/ipods when running, an armband of some kind? 

 

Ta, 

IE

 

Comments

  • Hi Iain & welcome.

    Although your football will have built some fitness, a year is quite a long time off, and running continuously is quite different, so I would be careful not to try to do too much too soon.

    I'd suggest looking on a map for a route of a couple of miles, setting off steady and seeing how you go. If you can run the whole thing, great, go a bit further next time, if you can't then do a run/walk strategy (eg run a few mins, walk a min) til the finish.

    I would say to work up to being able to run 3 miles or so comfortably before you try to improve speed.

    You will probably see dramatic improvements quickly which will gradually plateau out a bit. However, your cv system will almost certainly improve faster than your legs, and this is a major cause of injury to many new runners as they feel they can run further and mor eoften than their legs can take them. I would view 6 times a week as a more long term goal, and start out with 3 days a week and make sure you always have a day off to recover in between each session to start with.

    Once you are running regularly, a few months down the line, a pretty standard plan would consist of 3 key sessions a week - one long SLOW run, one tempo run (pretty fast, not too long) and one interval session (shorter fast bursts with a rest between). All other runs should be pretty steady.

  • First advice would be to look under the training tab above as there is lots of information on this site about how to get started and how to build towards your first 5k race. Most of the advice you'll get off the forum will be on there, although of course use the forum for anything you can't find in there (they can never be fully comprehensive).

     

    (This isn't a flippant comment, it's perfectly understandable if you haven't looked there to suspect a site for runners won't tell you how to start, just as I doubt Cycling World has a section on how to ride a bike.)

     

    The easiest way to build distance is to learn you need to walk/run before you can run. Don't just see how far you can run in one go as it will tire your legs (and, potentially, leave you disspirited). Instead, try to do 1.5 miles but walking for 1 minute in every 3. Take it slowly and make sure you can finish feeling like you could do further.

     

    From that start, you can do 1 minute in every 4, 1 in 6 and eventually go all the way. Similarly, you can increase the mileage whilst still walking 1 minute in every 3. Try not to make the increases too daunting, feel in control of the increases.

     

    When you're preparing for a marathon, with a couple of half marathons behind you, it's perfectly acceptable on your first 18 mile training run to plan to stop for a rest/walk to conserve your legs. So a run/walk strategy early on isn't a sign you're not a runner yet, it's good preparation for a training tactic you might well use again a few years down the line.

  • Find your local parkrun: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ . Free, weekly time 5k runs: a great way to gauge improvements.

  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭

    Find a few routes around you of varying distances, and keep the runs varied so that you don't get bored.

    If you're looking to extend your runs, one suggestion would be to do two of these runs back-to-back to start with, so that after the first loop you're back near your start point. This gives you the option of pulling out and going home if you need to, or carrying on and doing the second loop if you're feeling up to it. It also has the benefit that your second loop probably wouldn't take you too far away from your start.

    The point of this is that if you set out to run 8 miles, say, and you run from home to somewhere 4 miles away, then if you have any problems after 4 miles, you still have potentially a long way to run to get home. By combining 2 short runs, it gives you options.

    Of course, the opposite is also true - if you want to really push the miles up, then one way to force yoursel is to run out-and-back, then there's no short-cuts available and the only way to get home is to complete the full run.

    This might seem obvious, but it's helped me. It's also a good idea if the weather is looking iffy, as a "bail-out" option can be handy!

    Oh, and for music while you run, the ipod nano is a great piece of kit - tiny and superlight with built-in belt clip, tucks into your waistband and you could forget it's there. It also has Nike+, so you can use it as a pedometer to track your runs (distance, time, etc.) - not as accurate as a GPS, but not bad.

  • I would just go for a run and see how it goes. Provided you have no health issues it will be ok. Unless you try you won't know where your current abilty or fitness is. Just don't burst yourself on your first go.

    As above best to do a small loop near your house to start with and do laps of it, so that when you do tire you are still reasonably close to home.

  • Loads of good advice. I will just say though that although walk-run works for many it doesn't work for all. My wife treid several different approaches to running before finding the one which worked for her.

    Walk-run didn't work for her at all, whereas just gradually building up the distance was the one that did the trick.

  • One thing to think about is the type of running you want to do and why you want to do it. I love really long slow trail runs. Other people want to sprint or do middle distance events. You might want to run 5k or train for a marathon. Until you know what kind of distance you want to race you wont know what distance to train for.

  • Thanks everyone for the response, all your information is great and I really appreciate it. 

    From everyones comments in quite obvious that I just need to get out there and see what suits me. I have pin pointed 3 routes to take on first, a short one based on the comments about the benefits of laps, and two longer ones (not too long though image)

    I'll just go out and try them, see what I can do and go from there.

    Thanks for the comments guys!

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