- Good morning, motivators.
Just finished up
(object clicks)
15K.
Nice little Sunday run day fun day
with some new pals here on Vancouver Island.
Time just flies by when you're chatting away with somebody.
Right?
So let's say you're a beginner runner.
You're just getting into the sport.
You're reading a bunch of articles,
watching live videos,
maybe listening to some podcasts
about how to get into running,
and there are a lot of things that are being said
over and over and over about your shoes,
about your running technique,
about what pace you should be doing.
Most of them are right,
but there's a lot of things
that are just not being talked about whatsoever
that are really critical to understand
when you're getting into running for the first time
to make sure that you're progressing quickly,
that you're avoiding injury,
that you're not wasting your money.
So we're going to go through the seven things
that I think beginner runners
need to know that they aren't hearing about whatsoever.
So motivators, I remember when I first started running,
I went through all of the standard things
that everyone goes through with knee pain and back pain,
and having a hard time building up my endurance,
and going and getting shoes from the local run store,
and all of these things really made the learning curve
very steep.
It took me probably about two years before
I ended up feeling even somewhat comfortable as a runner,
but then, I ended up cluing into a lot of these things
that nobody's really talking about.
And within a matter of just a couple of weeks,
everything, all of a sudden felt a lot better.
So we're gonna go through the seven big things
that I've found over the course of the last 12 years
in endurance sports
that make a really big difference to running enjoyment,
injury prevention, getting your gear right.
All of these things that go into not hating running.
And you're going to be able to get into that mode
of enjoying running really quickly.
You don't have to take the two years that I took.
One of the first things that you're going to hear is that
you need to go get fitted for good shoes,
go into a running store
where they're going to measure your feet,
and see your gait,
and recommend a pair of really good running shoes for you.
I really agree with this.
Going from Kmart shoes
that are kind of trainers to actual proper running shoes
will make a really big difference
to your enjoyment of running.
But what they don't tell you is that quite often,
when you go into these running shoe stores,
they look at your gait and they will prescribe you
motion control shoes,
or stability shoes, or over pronating shoes.
And this really isn't what has been shown
to help beginner runners.
The studies show that you need to run
in your natural running gate,
not being limited by your shoes in any way, shape or form
until your lower leg strength is built up
to be able to accept different types of movement patterns.
You need to run in your normal movement pattern.
And the easiest way to do that
is with a moderate weight shoe of about seven to nine ounces
with a neutral running profile.
So do that, and you're gonna be less likely to get injured,
get those very big built, structured, recommended,
designed for you kind of shoes.
And you might actually be contributing to injury
and not actually working
within your body's normal biomechanics
that's might be why it feels different and kind of funny
to run at the start.
The next thing related to that feeling is pain.
A lot of people are going to say,
"Well, it's going to hurt at the start,
and you've just got to get through it."
You do just have to get through it.
I believe that it takes a good three months
to really build the feeling
of what your natural running stride is.
And in the meantime,
it's gonna hurt a fair bit
because you might be taking anywhere
between five and 15,000 steps
with (claps) three to seven times your body weight
going through your structure
and it's not used to that.
Things are going to hurt,
but you can reduce that amount of pain
by getting the right technique in your run.
And people aren't saying that the pain
could be caused by incorrect technique.
Very simply,
good running technique
is where you're landing under your center of mass.
You can find this spot just by bouncing up and down
on the front of your feet and then leaning forward.
Then as you start running,
trying to land in that same spot that you're landing on,
as you were just jumping up and down,
you're probably going to land more on your mid
or your forefoot,
I really don't care whether you land on your heel,
your toe or your midfoot or forefoot,
studies don't support that one is better than the other.
As a matter of fact,
when you're running at a slower pace
than about a six-minute mile,
it can be more efficient to land heel first,
but only if you're landing under your center of mass.
So you don't ever wanna land
with your foot out front of your body.
So getting that technique right
is gonna put a little bit of stress on your calf.
So you wanna do this bouncing technique,
bouncing on the balls of your feet,
Leaning forward a little bit from the ankles,
starting, running in very small increments,
do it for maybe three minutes
and then go back to your old technique,
then another three minutes,
then go back to your old technique
and gradually build your way up until it's normal for you,
and pain-free for you
to run landing under your center of mass.
The next thing they say,
and you'll hear this for me a lot,
is to get the intensity right.
And people say,
"Well, you gotta run in zone two,
and you don't wanna do too much of a zone three,
the moderate intensity,
and well, you gotta be careful
about how much high intensity you're doing."
I agree once you are a seasoned runner.
For most absolute beginner runners,
zones don't really matter.
You just need to learn how to run continuously.
So adding all this stress of,
"Are you running too hard,
or you're not running hard enough,"
to a total beginner runner,
I think is putting too much pressure on the situation.
Really,
all you need to do is go and learn how to run
with all of the right concepts and techniques,
and tools in place.
We can add in the proper training in all those zones.
And we will, and I talk a ton about zone two,
but when you're just starting out as a runner,
just go run.
Don't sweat it, run at whatever pace feels comfortable,
and any negative consequences of running too hard
or not hard enough are really gonna be minimal
because, at this point,
you're just learning how to run.
Very much related to that,
but a little bit of a quirk on it
is that nobody's ever telling you
that your body has forgot how to move fast.
When we're young in our teens,
it's (snaps) very easy for our body to move
really, really quickly
build up a lot of speed,
as we get older and we spend more time being sedentary,
exercising a little bit slower,
body loses a lot of that fast twitch kind of effort,
that ability to neuromuscularly fire really quickly.
And that's going to end up slowing down your running
because it's just not natural
for your body to turn over really well.
So I find that a lot of beginner runners
while they might be fit,
might go through months, if not years,
or their entire running career,
not having unlocked their actual running ability
because they never retaught their body
how to move quickly.
Myself, it was two years of me
really slogging through running,
thinking I was moving as fast as I could
until I went to a soccer field
and just started doing wind sprints few times a month.
Not really with any purpose, not realizing what I was doing,
but this was teaching my neuromuscular system
to fire really quickly.
And in just a few months,
I went from a 155 half-marathon athlete
to a 132 half-marathon athlete
with really just a few wind sprints
because it taught my body how to move quickly again.
So once you get to the point
where running is possible for you for a long duration,
go and do some wind sprints
like ten-second bursts,
they are very underrated.
Also gonna maybe make you want to puke.
Sorry.
The next thing that everyone is saying
is "Build up very gradually,
don't run on back-to-back days
because you don't wanna get injured."
Again, I agree,
but when you are a new runner,
and you're really getting into it
in a lot of cases, people are chomping at the bit.
And that day where they're not running,
they're like, "Okay, well, what am I doing?
What can I do?"
And then maybe wanna go out and run.
Instead, what you can do during those off days
that you're not running
to actually improve your return to running
is a little bit of strength training.
During those first two years that I was in running,
I got a lot of lower back pain
and a lot of side of the knee, IT band pain.
I started doing a little bit of strength training,
largely just focusing on the side stabilizer muscles,
the glutes, the glute need the side of the bum.
Everything that prevented me from wiggling,
from side to side,
and instantly all the back pain went away.
The IT band went away.
I got a little bit faster
because every foot strike wasn't leaking energy
out the side and creating all these little micro-movements
that were contributing to injury.
So definitely consider adding strength training
immediately when you start running
because it's gonna make you much more stable.
The second to last thing is a personal preference,
but when you get into running,
when you start reading about running,
everyone's gonna be talking about 400-meter repeats,
800-meter repeats, 1K repeats, 5Ks, 10K runs,
half marathons,
and everything gets very distance focused.
At the very outset of running,
I don't think that this is something
that you should be focusing on.
I don't think it's necessary to build
all of what you're doing around running a distance,
as opposed to just teaching your body
how to withstand the pounding for a duration of time.
So while you're learning how to run,
instead of saying, "Okay, I have to run this distance,"
which might be harder on some days than others,
depending on how you're feeling,
instead think of it in terms of
"All right, I'm gonna go out for say 30 minutes.
I'm gonna do a minute of running
and then two minutes of walking
and then a minute of running
and then two minutes of walking
over and over and over,
then structure it as a minute-and-a-half of running.
and then a minute-and-a-half of walking,
think of going instead of 30 minutes for 33 minutes.
I really like using duration
because it's less susceptible
to how you're feeling on the day,
what your route is,
if there's elevation, if there's wind, if there's heat,
we're really just teaching your body
to be able to withstand that pounding for a period of time.
And the distance just comes naturally.
But if you design all of your training at the outset
by distance,
I think it's going to just confuse
a little bit of the training.
And finally, the last thing is that very few people
tell you that it's gonna suck.
I'm gonna be honest,
running sucks at the outset;
going from a non-runner to a runner,
it's going to be painful.
Your feet are going to get blister.
Your nipples might chafe a little bit.
You might get low back pain.
You might get an injury.
You're gonna have to buy some gear,
and you might buy some gear that you don't end up using.
But it's all part of the process.
We've literally all gone through these things.
And on the other side is a great sport
that can enhance your life.
But if injuries start popping up,
this is a tell
that maybe you need to reduce your stress loads
or increase your strength training.
It's a very good barometer of how your overall health is.
And it's a lifelong sport that you can do with friends
and continue to chat while you're going through the run.
It's a fantastic way to stay in shape and stay balanced.
Hopefully, with these seven tips,
your learning curve is a little bit less.
You enjoy running a little bit quicker.
And if you want to dive into one of those training plans
for one of those races that I mentioned,
you can go to our at app.mymotive.com,
where all of the beginner training is included.
Can do a couch to 5k.
You can do a 10K,
half marathon,
a marathon trail runs.
You can do all your strength training.
It's all presented to you in the app.
All you have to do is put in how much you wanna train
and when your races are,
and it'll all be customized exactly for you.
So go to app.mymotive.com,
try it out for free for 14 days.
And if you like it,
stick around and knock off some endurance adventures
with some training plans.
Later, motivators.