(electronic humming and buzzing)
- Are you new to running or consider yourself
somewhat of a beginner?
Well, before you lace your shoes up,
I have 11 tips to help get you running.
(country music)
Step one, just start running and have fun.
It's a fantastic sport, but make sure you start short.
It's very easy to get excited at the start,
but you do not need to be covering three,
four, or five kilometers right away.
Instead, break it down, keep it short,
and build that fitness gradually.
Tip two, similarly, you want to keep your running
to a nice, easy pace when you're starting out.
So your body needs time to get used
to these new stresses and strains of running.
Far too many people start running far too hard
and then they pay the price for this mistake,
the obvious being that you just crumble mid-run,
but also you could run the risk of getting injured.
So to avoid this altogether, just try
and keep those runs to a nice, easy,
and conversational pace.
Tip three now, well, the beauty of running
is its simplicity.
You can just head out of your door and run,
but there's one thing that can totally
transform your running, and that is your running shoe.
Having learned the hard way myself,
I would honestly recommend investing
in a good pair of running shoes.
Now if you are new to running,
actually that's just heading on down
to your local running store
and getting some expert advice
as to which shoes you should get for your current gait.
So that's basically the way in which your foot lands
and rolls through during the running action.
It can make a huge difference to your running
and hopefully making running
far more enjoyable in the long run.
Okay, now time for tip four, and by now
you've likely ignored my advice
and probably head out for your first run,
and now you're dying to get out for your next one,
hence watching this video,
which is obviously absolutely brilliant,
but before you do that, I'd really recommend
that you actually try and take a day off
between each of your runs, because as I mentioned already,
your body is trying to get used to these new stresses
and strains of running.
And so by following this a day on, day off method
can really help to avoid those overuse injuries.
Tip five, to maintain some consistency
with your running, I really advise
you mix up the surface that you're running on.
The pavement or sidewalk is great for fast running,
but actually it's quite a hard surface,
so that's a lot of impact
to be going through the joints from run after run,
whereas the off-road can help with this.
Obviously it's a much more forgiving surface,
but with that there is the increased risk
of maybe rolling an ankle or whatnot.
Then we have the treadmill.
Now that's great for all year round running
despite what the weather or conditions are outside,
although it can feel quite different to running outside.
So, those are just three examples
of different surfaces that you can run on,
all of their pros and cons.
My advice would be to just try and mix it up
for variety if nothing else.
(upbeat music)
Tip six, go for distance and not time.
It can be far too easy to fall into the trip
of fixing on the speed that's high,
the pace of each of your runs.
Instead though, we just want to keep those runs
nice and easy as I've already advised.
Forget about that pace and just focus
on the distance that you're covering.
Maybe you have a route quite close to you
that you know the rough distance of.
If so, forget about your watch.
Leave it at home.
Or maybe even just don't check that pace.
It can be amazing how much more enjoyable
those runs can be, which brings me on to tip seven.
Walking is not a fay.
Particularly so if you are just starting out
with your running.
See I've raced at a fairly high level
and I'll still occasionally walk during some of my runs.
Sometimes your body just needs,
and actually this moment of walking
allows you to compose and collect yourself
and can mean that you actually end up
running further after that.
However, for some people out there,
I understand it can be hard
just getting that continuous running in,
so why not break it down into some jog-walks,
maybe something like three minutes of jogging
followed by two minutes of walking,
and then with time you can start increasing
the amount of jogging, reducing the amount of walking.
Now for tip eight.
See, I hate to break it to you,
but you are going to eight from time to time.
As you are adapting to this running,
the new stresses and strains, you're going to feel fatigued,
you're going to be sore, and you're going to get tight.
But it's really important that you stay
on top of this and give your body some regular TLC.
This means stretching lightly after each of your runs,
particularly around the calfs, the quads,
and even the hips, because they can be
very often forgotten about, but very important indeed.
(upbeat music)
Okay, tip nine now is something
I wish I'd done far far sooner,
and that was joining my local running club.
Whilst running on your own is great
and I advise you to keep doing that,
the benefit of running with others can be huge.
Sometimes it can just be really hard
getting yourself out of the door
and getting yourself running, but by having that pressure
of joining some other people for a run
can really help with that.
Also, by its very nature having a friendly group of runners,
they can really help and support you
as you progress as a runner.
But now on to tip 10, and with that in mind,
it's really important that you build your running up
very gradually.
Adding too much distance too soon
could lead to burnout or even injury,
so I normally suggest following the 10% rule.
So by that I mean never adding more than 10%
to your weekly runs or your weekly volume.
And that brings us on to my final tip, 11,
and that is to keep a track or log
of this distance or volume with your training.
It doesn't need to be anything fancy or online.
It can actually just be the old school way,
just a bit of pen and paper.
But with that, try and write out a rough plan
in advance, keeping to that 10% rule
that I've just mentioned, and maybe setting
some small, achievable goals along the way.
Well, I hope those tips have been of use to you
and helped you out, and of course welcome
to the world of running.
I really do hope you enjoy it.
If you'd like to ask any more questions,
if you've got any more that you'd like to find out about,
drop them in the comments section below
and I'll do my best to answer them for you.
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If you'd like to see a how to start running
and an eight-week program to your first 5K,
you can see that by clicking just down here.
If you'd like to see how to choose a running shoe,
you can see that by clicking just down here.