A good friend of mine named Katie sent me a message on Facebook. She wants to do the Portland to Coast relay next year which is a walking relay from Portland, Oregon to the Pacific Coast. I read the info page on the website and it says that you will end up doing two legs of 5 miles each, so a total walking distance of 10 miles. This would be my advice for anyone out there that is thinking about starting, but where starting out running isn't practical, or at least not purely running:
1. Consistency. Pick a few days out of the week that work best. If each day is the same as far as convenience and schedule goes then I would pick 3 days out of the 7 to just begin. You can work up to as many days as your body permits. I recommend just being very consistent in the days you choose, like forming a habit.
2. Start by walking. Pick an amount of time that's comfortable for you. You want it to be enjoyable. That's something that I'm learning right now. I have entered a lot of my own training plans to find I'm overtraining and working my body too hard. It becomes unenjoyable and many times ends in injury or illness. So pick an amount of time that's comfortable. A goal of 15 minutes of walking 3 days a week for the first couple weeks will be great to get started.
3. Increase gradually. As time allows you can increase the time spent walking, or the total mileage walked per week. The book I'm reading, Daniels' Running Formula, suggests sticking with a certain amount of time or mileage for 3 weeks before increasing. If you're feeling really good then Daniels recommends increasing in the following way: For every workout you're doing increase the total weekly mileage by that amount in miles. It didn't make sense to me when I first read it, but after reading it a few times I understood. Say your total weekly mileage is 3 miles. You walk a mile, 3 days/times a week. Now say you're doing 3 workouts per week. You would increase your total weekly mileage by 3 miles. So for the following 3 weeks you would want to total of, at most, 6 miles. If you're still doing 3 workouts a week then you're probably doing 2 miles each time. After 3 weeks, if you're feeling good and you want to increase, then you would do the same thing. You would again increase by 3 miles, 1 mile for every workout = 3 miles that you could add to your total weekly mileage, making your new total mileage goal 9 miles per week. Daniels suggests that you don't increase by more than 10 miles every 3 weeks. Now if it's too much, too soon, back off. Listen to your body.
4. There are definitely other factors that play a part. You want to be hydrating properly. I wrote a post about this a year ago and you can find it here.
I plan on doing another post in the near future on how to get started with running. For now, let me know how that goes and I promise to do more posts on the same subject.
1. Consistency. Pick a few days out of the week that work best. If each day is the same as far as convenience and schedule goes then I would pick 3 days out of the 7 to just begin. You can work up to as many days as your body permits. I recommend just being very consistent in the days you choose, like forming a habit.
2. Start by walking. Pick an amount of time that's comfortable for you. You want it to be enjoyable. That's something that I'm learning right now. I have entered a lot of my own training plans to find I'm overtraining and working my body too hard. It becomes unenjoyable and many times ends in injury or illness. So pick an amount of time that's comfortable. A goal of 15 minutes of walking 3 days a week for the first couple weeks will be great to get started.
3. Increase gradually. As time allows you can increase the time spent walking, or the total mileage walked per week. The book I'm reading, Daniels' Running Formula, suggests sticking with a certain amount of time or mileage for 3 weeks before increasing. If you're feeling really good then Daniels recommends increasing in the following way: For every workout you're doing increase the total weekly mileage by that amount in miles. It didn't make sense to me when I first read it, but after reading it a few times I understood. Say your total weekly mileage is 3 miles. You walk a mile, 3 days/times a week. Now say you're doing 3 workouts per week. You would increase your total weekly mileage by 3 miles. So for the following 3 weeks you would want to total of, at most, 6 miles. If you're still doing 3 workouts a week then you're probably doing 2 miles each time. After 3 weeks, if you're feeling good and you want to increase, then you would do the same thing. You would again increase by 3 miles, 1 mile for every workout = 3 miles that you could add to your total weekly mileage, making your new total mileage goal 9 miles per week. Daniels suggests that you don't increase by more than 10 miles every 3 weeks. Now if it's too much, too soon, back off. Listen to your body.
4. There are definitely other factors that play a part. You want to be hydrating properly. I wrote a post about this a year ago and you can find it here.
I plan on doing another post in the near future on how to get started with running. For now, let me know how that goes and I promise to do more posts on the same subject.
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