Beginner Running Info

Part of any successful beginner running plan is goal setting.  This actually isn’t going to be as involved, complicated or overwhelming as it sounds.  There are some pretty good detailed schedules and programs available on the net, some of them even on the sponsored links on this site.  But in my experience, some of them are too detailed and complicated for a beginner running plan - at least at first.

Again, like I said in Step 1, starting off slow is the key to a successful beginner running program.  If you haven’t exercised in a long time but dream of finishing the Boston Marathon someday, make your first goal small and achievable:  tell yourself you’re going to walk around the block, or to the closest stop sign in your neighborhood, once.  The next time make it twice.  The time after that, three times.  When you’ve done it five times, tell yourself the next goal is to run it once, and then gradually work your way up until you can run the whole distance.  When that happens, go longer!  These are the kinds of good, short, realistic beginner running plans that don’t feel too complicated and won’t overwhelm you.

Next, set a big goal.  The obvious one is to run a 5k (which is actually 3.1 miles).  Do a Google search for “track club” or “running club” events in your area.  In my home state, there’s a statewide track club with a website showing every 5k (and longer) race taking place every weekend.  If you’re just starting your beginner running plan, do some investigating on a 5k race that’s a few months away in your community (I did my first 5k about 4 months after my very first run), circle it on your calendar and make it a date.  You’ll be surprised at how the date looming on the horizon will add to your motivation.  I’ll talk more in my next post about some tips I picked up for that all-important first 5k.  You’ll be there before you know it.

Now that we’ve been through the very basics of what you need, I’ll go through some of the more advanced running equipment that you might want to consider.  First, let me say that any beginner running program should probably include a minimum of equipment.  As a beginner, running doesn’t require all kinds of fancy equipment - as I said in Step 5, start off with nothing more than a good pair of shoes and comfortable clothes.  There’s one main reason I say this - remember the story I told you about in Step 1, a friend of mine who decided he’d get into running went out and bought all kinds of expensive equipment, and then when it turned out to be harder than he thought, he got discouraged - and seeing all of his expensive, dusty, unused equipment didn’t help his morale any.  So, as I’ve said before, at the start of any beginner running program it’s important to take it slow, and buying equipment is no exception.

BUT:  there are some higher-end, optional running accessories that I’ve found to be useful.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll find them useful, too; the advice you’ll get from different runners is as individualized as the individuals giving out the advice.  But these are some things I’ve found helpful.

Portable Music Players - there are tons of these to choose from, and you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune on one.  What kind you buy and use should really depend on how confident you feel about your ability to load them with music.  The days of portable cassette and CD players are (almost) over, and everything’s digital now, meaning you take music on a computer and load it onto a small portable player that digitally stores it with no moving parts.  

The most famous of these is the Apple iPod - this product has become so popular that the term “iPod” has almost become a generic term for any digital music player.  The iPod comes in several different versions, ranging from $79 to over $200, depending on whether it has a color display and how many songs it can hold in its memory.  There are other brands, too - Microsoft has a product called Zune, and another popular brand is made by Creative.  But there are too many choices to list here, and way too many other sources of advice on this subject elsewhere on the internet.

The obvious advantage of using a music player is that the music tends to keep your mind off the fact that you’re exercising, and faster-paced music will, kind of amazingly, tend to keep you moving faster without even knowing it.  Other people I know (but not me) even listen to audio books and podcasts (kind of like talk shows for your iPod) while they run.

Heart Rate Monitors - these do just what the name implies, and monitor your heart rate.  They work by wearing a strap around your chest that senses how fast your heart is beating; the signal is then sent to a receiver (usually a wristwatch) that tells you how many beats per minute your heart is going.  Almost all of these will tell you what your “ideal” heart rate is during running (based on a few factors including age, sex and weight), and will beep to tell you if you’re not going fast enough or if you’re going too fast.  The most recognizable name brand is Polar (a lot of treadmills and other inside exercise equipment even have the Polar logo on them and have a receiver built in for the wireless signal), but others are made by Nike and a few other brands.  They’re also a pretty good tool for monitoring your progress.

The Nike+ iPod Kit - I talked about this in Step 3.  It’s probably my most often-used accessory.  You can read more about it on www.nikeplus.com.

GPS Watches - Made by brands like Garmin and others, this is a watch that has a built in Global Positioning System.  By receiving signals from satellites in outer space, these units know exactly where you are on the face of the Earth at all times, and use this information to keep track of how far you’ve gone, how high any hills were that you climbed, and how long it took you to do it.  Another very good, but fairly expensive (around $200) training tool, and another good one for monitoring your progress.  Most can also upload information on your runs to a home computer to keep track of your runs.

Bear in mind that you don’t want to be overly technical in your running.  If you bought every piece of equipment I’ve described above, you’d probably spend between $500 and $750, and you’d have a strap around your chest and something on both wrists.  I’d suggest prioritizing them from what intrigues you the most to what intrigues you the least, and use them as reward points - when you’ve been running for 3 months, buy the first item on your list; when you complete your first 5k, buy toy #2, and so on.  Pretty soon you’ll hardly be able to call your schedule a beginner running program.

To do an effective beginner running plan, you’ve got to have the right equipment.  When I started as a beginner, running equipment really confused and overwhelmed me.  I eventually figured out that it’s kind of like buying a car - there are things that you have to have (like an engine and transmission), and then there are things that you’d like to have (like leather seats and a navigation system).  I’ll try to help separate some of those things out for you, and help you make decisions about both types of equipment.

First, the obvious:  you need shoes.  A good, comfortable pair of shoes (surprise, surprise) makes all the difference.  And the first piece of advice I have is that the more money you spend won’t necessarily make them more comfortable or supportive.  In fact, I guess I’m lucky in that my feet aren’t picky, and I’ve always been able to get by with buying relatively inexpensive ($75 - $100) running shoes from chain stores like Foot Locker and Dick’s.  (Right now I’m on my second pair of Nike + shoes that I paid around $90 for.)  And that’s where I’d start - with a relatively inexpensive pair of shoes that feels comfortable.

Now don’t get me wrong - there are plenty of my diehard running friends, people who aren’t beginner running any more, who swear by only buying higher-end shoes from boutique stores that specialize in running shoes and cater to runners.  They typically sing the praises of these places by saying that it’s worth the price difference because the salespeople are knowledgeable and will take care to “fit” you with the right shoe.  And while I know all that’s true, my point is that my $90 Nikes from a chain store are supportive and comfortable, and I don’t have any aches or pains.  So my advice is:  start with a relatively inexpensive pair of shoes that are comfortable and supportive.  If you just can’t find a pair that’s comfortable and supportive, then spend some extra money in a boutique store, where the sales staff will be knowledgeable enough to diagnose what kind of support you’re lacking, and steer you to a particular shoe that will have what you need.

Second, you need socks and enough clothes to keep you out of jail, depending on whether you’re male or female.  When it comes to socks and t-shirts in particular, there is a very important running expression to remember:  ”cotton kills.”  I learned this the hard way - when I first started my beginner running program, I bought a bunch of cheap 100% cotton ankle socks, t-shirts and shorts to run in.  What I wound up with was  red, irritated and sore feet and (at the risk of Too Much Information) nipples.  100% cotton is really comfortable in regular clothing, but if you rub it constantly against your skin for 30 minutes, you’re going to get chafing.  So for socks, look for those that aren’t 100% cotton - they’ll usually be some kind of lycra/polyester blend, or some other kind of synthetic fabric.  And for shirts, guys (like me) have the option of going shirtless, weather permitting, but if weather (or your gym) doesn’t permit this option, look for Under Armor type t-shirts (although the name brand can be expensive, and I recommend buying non-name-brand shirts from Target or Wal-Mart) that aren’t 100% cotton.  For girls, this may not be as big of an issue, so long as you’re wearing a sports bra.  Shorts, in my case at least, are a little more forgiving - I run in cotton shorts probably about half the time, but like my synthetic ones a lot, too.

One other point about steering clear of 100% cotton clothes in a beginner running program - if you’re like me, you’re going to sweat . . . a lot.  100% cotton shirts and shorts get wet, heavy and slightly disgusting if you sweat a lot.  Synthetic fabric clothes are mainly designed to wick moisture away from your body and keep you drier while you exercise.

So - in my experience, at least - I think the best basic equipment is a good, comfortable pair of shoes, some synthetic socks and some comfortable shorts and t-shirts.  In my next post we’ll talk about optional equipment - goodies like music players and other gadgets.

Ok, I’ll admit that I was late to the game on this one, and I don’t want you to be, too.  When I started my beginner running program, I never stretched - I just got out and walked and ran.  Then inevitably all of my running friends reacted in horror when I told them I didn’t do any kind of stretching exercises before running, so I knew that all of them couldn’t be wrong.  So I asked around and did my homework and came up with a very simple and brief stretching routine.

Now there’s one big thing to understand about stretching:  the first time I did a proper stretching routine as part of my beginner running program, I thought that I’d be able to tell a huge difference in my run - that I’d be running a few inches off the ground, effortlessly, and in my fastest time ever.  But that’s not what stretching is about; stretching is about getting your legs ready to run, mainly to minimize the risks of injury.  Stretching isn’t necessarily going to make you feel any better during your run, or make it feel any easier - but hopefully it will help prevent you from getting hurt.

There are two main stretches that I always do, before and after every run (and, yes, it’s just as important to stretch after your run as it is before).  For the first one, while standing up, bend your right leg at the knee and bring it up behind you as high as you can (like you’re trying to press your Achilles heel against your right butt cheek) and hold your right ankle in your right hand.  When you do this, you’ll feel a burning/stretching feeling in your right leg, right above the knee.  Do this until you feel a good burn/stretch (I do it for about 10 or 15 seconds).  Then do the exact same thing with your left leg.

Second, stand straight up.  Keeping your legs straight, and without bending at the knees, bend over and try to touch your toes with your fingertips (you may not be able to do it, but bend as far as you can).  As you do this, you’ll feel a burning/stretching feeling in the backs of your legs, behind your knees.  Do this until you have a good stretching/burning feeling, about 10 or 15 seconds.

Now these are just the basics, and I what I consider to be the minimum two stretches that should be a part of every beginner running program.  But there’s probably no such thing as stretching too much, so feel free to experiment - check out other resources on the web, talk to friends of yours who run, ask a doctor . . . or do all of the above!

This is yet another very important component for any beginner running plan.  Let me explain.

I’ll talk in a later post about technical equipment and gadgets, which ones I’ve found helpful and which ones I didn’t.  And even though I’m about to give an example that involves one of my favorite running “toys,” I’m really just trying to explain an underlying principle that’s helpful in a beginner running program.

If you read my earlier post about how I got started, you’ll remember that I said I found myself in a sporting goods store one day buying a new pair of Nike + running shoes and a Nike + kit for my iPod when I was taking my baby steps in my beginner running program (and, no, this is not an ad for Nike, Apple or anybody else - I tolerate the Google ads on my site because most of them link to some pretty good information, but I’m not in advertising bed with anybody).  I’d been using an iPod during cardio as long as I’d been doing exercise in any form, and I’d heard of the Nike + kit and was curious about it, so I wound up buying it and using it when I started my beginner running plan.

Let me give a quick and dirty explanation of what the Nike + kit does just so this will make sense.  You slip a Nike + sensor under the heel of your shoe, and this sensor wirelessly sends a signal to a receiver that’s plugged in to your iPod Nano.  As you run/walk, your iPod stores the information, and tells you things like how far you went, how many calories you burned, how long you ran/walked and - most importantly for this example - what your average time per mile was.  Every time you sync your iPod to your computer, the information is uploaded to a special Nike web site, which you can visit whenever you want to review information about all your past workouts.

Well, to make a long story short (although it’s too late for that), I quickly found myself getting more and more obsessed with my runs.  If my average time per mile was 10 minutes in my last run, then I wanted it to be less than 10 minutes next time.  I went to the Nike web site every day and looked at all my previous runs, taking a lot of pride in the fact that I was going farther and farther and faster and faster, with an average time in the mile that kept getting better and better.  I would no more run without my iPod and Nike + sensor than I would run without shoes.  I wanted every run to be recorded and documented so that I could see how I did.

About 3 months later I was at my internist’s office for my annual checkup.  He complimented me on losing weight and asked me how I was doing it because, he said, he always wants to know if there’s any advice he can pass along to other patients.  I told him that I’d been dieting for a while, but that I’d taken up running fairly recently, and I started describing my Nike + toy and how it had me a little bit obsessed.

He nodded his head and then told me something that I’d never heard before:  ”Monitoring something will almost always improve its performance.”  Even though I didn’t know it at the time, just by keeping up with my running time, it was making me want to go faster and get better.

Now I am not saying that anyone should run out and spend probably $250 on a pair of Nike + shoes, a Nike + kit and an iPod just to keep up with how they’re doing.  By far a cheaper and just as effective method of monitoring your performance would be to buy a $5 watch and keep up with how long it takes you to walk/run the same course.  But the key is to pick something - anything - as a measuring stick of your progress.  When I first started running, my average time per mile was fifteen minutes; now it’s around half that.  When my mother in law first started walking/running the course we picked out, it took her 35 minutes to finish it; now it’s closer to 25.

So once you’ve started off slowly in your beginner running program and gotten your bearings, start charting your progress.  You’ll be amazed at how competitive you can be with yourself.

Step 2 in a beginner running plan is to build your distance gradually.  A lot of other beginner running plans are very defined and systematic - do X number of miles in week one, Y number of miles in week two, etc.  From my experience (and talking to other, more experienced runners when I was a beginner running), they tend to push you a little bit more than you might be ready for.  To me, nobody knows better than you what your body is comfortable with and capable of doing, and that always needs to be your guide.  

My barber, who’s been a runner for almost 20 years (and a good source of advice when I was looking for beginner running info) gave me a good piece of advice a long time ago.  One day I was telling him about my newest toy, a heart rate monitor (I’m going to talk about equipment in a later post), and as we talked I thought he’d congratulate me for getting into my running program so much that I was trying to take it to a more scientific level.  But instead he told me something very simple but significant:  he said, “All that stuff’s fine, but there is such a thing as getting overly technical.  The most important thing you can do is listen to your body.”  

And now, a year later, and no longer technically doing a beginner running program, I now know exactly what he’s driving at:  your body will tell you what it’s capable of doing, sometimes in subtle ways (sore legs) and sometimes loudly and clearly (pushing yourself to exhaustion).  What’s worked for me isn’t printing out a schedule that someone else has written and sticking to it come heck or high water:  what worked for me was slowly but surely building up the length I could go, by listening to what my body had to say.

Let me use my mother in law as an example again - it took her about 3 weeks to work up to walking 2 miles at a pretty good pace.  She came back and asked me, “Now that I know I can walk it, how do I start running it?”  To answer her question, I told her what I did when I was starting my beginner running plan:  I started off on my usual course, walking it at a pretty good pace.  Once I felt like my legs were good and warmed up, and I was ready to give running a try (probably about 5 minutes into my routine), I started jogging very slowly.  On my first run, I was only able to keep up the faster pace for around 2 or 3 minutes (although it felt like an eternity at the time).  When I felt like I couldn’t keep up the pace any longer, I did what my barber would tell me to do later - I listened to my body and slowed back down to a walk.  When I felt like I’d cooled back down and was up running a little more, I did.  And so for a long time my running resembled the directions on a shampoo bottle - wash, rinse, repeat.  I would walk, then run, and repeat. 

And with every outing I tried to add a little more length to my running.  Notice I didn’t necessarily say I was able to add some running distance every time, but the important thing was that I tried.  Some days were, obviously, better than others.  But by sticking with it, I was always gradually adding running time and building stamina.

There’s a great running-related saying that anyone starting a beginner running plan needs to keep in mind:  ”The race goes not to the swift, but to the steady.”  And that’s nowhere more true than in a beginner running plan - don’t worry about going from 0 to 60 overnight.  Start slowly, then gradually try to do more and more.  Your body will tell you what it’s ready, willing and able to do.

Although I might wind up using this expression too often, I really do believe this is the most important part of a good beginner running program.  So I’ll say it again:  start S  L  O  W.

There are a couple of very good reasons why this is important.  First, if you haven’t been active before, you need to be careful about trying to go from couch potato to Ironman overnight.  In fact, I’ll add the same disclaimer that many other sites and health clubs do, which is it’s a good idea to consult a doctor before starting any exercise program.  The fact is, you’re probably not in as good of shape as you think, and running is going to expose that (by showing you how out of breath you can be and how sore your legs can feel).  And last but not least, ALWAYS be careful about doing too much too quickly; not too long after I’d started running 5ks, I casually mentioned to a running friend of mine that I was considering signing up for a 10k; he immediately asked me if I’d ever run that far before, and when I said no he told me to think twice about it.  Doubling the length of your run overnight can lead to injuries to knees and joints that aren’t ready for it yet - it’s always a better idea to slowly work up to longer distances so that your body has a chance to gradually get ready for it.

But probably the biggest reason why starting slow is important in a beginner running program is:  you’re less likely to get discouraged. In the time since I started typing this sentence I can think of 3 people who are just like I used to be - overweight and out of shape - who have asked me how I got into running and whose heads immediately filled with images of themselves being a marathoner overnight, which got them very excited, at least temporarily, about the idea of running (and NO, my mother in law is not one of the 3 people), only to wind up disappointed and discouraged about being a “hopeless” beginner running person.

Let me give you a specific example.  One of the three people is an acquaintance of mine, and sometime in the spring we ran into each other, and he was nice enough to complement me on my weight loss, and when he asked me how I did it I told him it was a combination of diet and my new favorite activity, running.  A few days later he emailed me and began asking all kinds of questions about a beginner running program.  He told me he’d decided to start doing it himself and he was obviously excited about it.  But I could tell by talking to him that he was trying to bite off more than he could chew - he said he’d like to come out and run a 5k with me sometime to see what it’s like; I politely told him that I didn’t start doing 5ks overnight, and that he needed to start off a little slower, but I could tell he was dismissing my advice.  About a month ago I ran into his wife and she told me what I’d feared:  he went out and spent almost $400 on running shoes, an iPod, t-shirts, shorts, etc., went out and told her he was “just going to run one mile,” and came home 30 minutes later red-faced, panting and discouraged.  He put up all his shiny new equipment and hasn’t tried it again.

So start your beginner running program SLOW.  Knowing that my mother in law hadn’t been active or exercising for a long time, I told her that, just like you have to crawl before you can walk, you have to walk before you can run.  I went to her house, and we got in her car and mapped out a course through her neighborhood that was a quarter mile long, beginning and ending at her driveway.  I told her to go out and just walk it at first:  get a feel for it, experience how it makes her legs feel, and how fast she can go without getting out of breath.  She called me after her first walk and said, “It was so easy!”  She was excited about it, encouraged that she’d gotten out and done something good for herself, and was ready to tackle something bigger.  So I told her to do a half mile the next time, by doing the course twice, and when she did it had the same result - she was so happy that she’d DOUBLED her length, and was very proud of the progress she was making in her beginner running program.  She was the exact opposite of my friend with $400 worth of now-dusty running equipment:  she went into it with realistic expectations and a patient mindset, and came out feeling encouraged and excited.

So start SLOW with any beginner running program.  If you’ve never run before, then walk.  And if you haven’t walked for exercise before, start with a short distance - no matter how short it is.  I’ll say it again:  ”the longest journey begins with a single step.”  And that first single step in any beginner running program should be a slow one that shows you that you’re capable of doing it and leaves you excited and encouraged about doing more.

My inspiration for this site was a conversation I had with my mother in law.  I knew that she’d been talking about starting an exercise program, and one day at work I got an e-mail from her out of the blue.  It simply asked, “How did you start running?”

She went on to admit to me that she’d first asked a co-worker of hers who’s run in a few marathons, but she said it did no good; her marathon friend talked in jargon and technical terms about training modules.  Frustrated, she decided to ask the only other runner she knew - me - the simple question:  ”How do you start running?”

As soon as I read her email I immediately sympathized with her.  When I was a beginner, running seemed overwhelming, and I had no idea which friends/websites/articles to believe.  Finding beginner running info was harder than I thought, and so I did the only think I knew to do - I just started running.  To heck with advice and articles and training programs, I just laced up my shoes and took off.  It wasn’t pretty, to be sure - but it was the all-important first, single step in my beginner running journey.  This beginner running info site is designed for people like me (and now my mother in law) who want to start a running program, but don’t know what the “basics” are about how to do it.  You’re not going to find jargon or specific training schedules here (although some of the ad links do eventually take you to some pretty good ones I’ll admit) - this site is just about giving you the big picture of how to start a beginner running program.  So let’s get started.

It was almost exactly a year ago now that my beginner running story began.

Over the last three years I’d managed to lose some weight, but had mainly done it through diet.  I’d toyed with several different cardio workouts - the elliptical machine, circuit training, racquetball . . . but eventually I could never stick with any of them and would lose interest.

Then, one day at work a co-worker of mine asked me if I’d ever considered running.  Without skipping a beat I said, “No way.  I hate running.  I don’t like running inside on a treadmill, I don’t like running outside on a track, I haven’t run since football practice in high school and I’ll never run again.”

The following Saturday - two days later - I found myself inside a sporting goods store, lingering over the selection of running shoes, thinking about the pros of running that my co-worker had talked about - the way running is relatively low-impact, the way it can be done inside or outside, day or night, no matter the time of year or weather.  As I looked at the running shoes I saw a display for the Nike + kit, intriguing to a beginner running person like myself.  I bought a pair of Nike + shoes, drove to the gym and hopped on a treadmill for my first try at running in (to date myself) over a decade.

As a beginner running for the first time in so long, it was a mix of emotions and feelings.  I realized how out of shape I was, how weak I felt, how sore and rubbery my legs were, how often I had to slow down and walk for a little while and - most importantly - how slow I was.  But five minutes after my first run, I felt an incredible rush:  I was proud of the fact that I’d gotten off of the couch and done some honest to goodness exercise for the first time in a long time.

I was hooked, and suddenly wanted to find out as much about being a beginner as I possibly could:  as a beginner running, how fast should I be going?  How far should I be going?  How do I get better?  How do I set goals (when I don’t even know what a realistic goal is)?  Like most people, I turned to the internet for sites about beginner running, but found way too much stuff that was out of my league, or was too technical, or - even worse - that was contradicted by the next website I went to.  Talking to friends wasn’t much better:  one runner whose advice I trusted would often tell me something different from another runner whose advice I equally trusted who told me the opposite, or at least something different.

Over the past year I’ve luckily been able to sort a lot of that conflicting advice out, and now can offer . . . hopefully . . . the best combination of advice, which consists of 1) what I’ve learned from dedicated runners, 2) what I’ve learned from the internet and 3) what I’ve learned from my own experience as a beginner, running now pretty well on my own through trial and error.

This website will hopefully help all you beginners running out there by giving you links, practical advice and encouragement so that you won’t feel so overwhelmed, like I did when I was a beginner running.  It’ll eventually take you through setting goals, figuring out where you are and where you want to go, telling you about stretches to do and equipment to buy, and get you on the road to your first 5k that you can brag to your friends about.

Good luck and stay tuned!

Welcome to Beginner Running Info - the web’s best resource for information and encouragement for anyone thinking about getting off the couch and getting into shape!  This site is being designed to help newcomers to the running world find out how to take - literally - their very first steps.

There’s an old proverb that says, “The longest journey begins with a single step.”  That’s true, not only of a beginner running program, but building a website as well!  Please pardon our progress while we’re still under construction.  We hope to have everything online soon that you need to know so you can start your own beginner running schedule.  We’re trying to add content on a daily basis, so check back often.