About a year ago, I started trying to run regularly. I’m kinda sorta trying to lose weight, though that’s just a nice-to-have; mostly I’m in it for the general health benefits, having noticed several mornings in a row that my resting heart rate was well over 100 bpm.
I was going to run my first race, a 5k, this Sunday, but a spur-of-the-moment trip to Cedar Point is going to be taking its place instead. Still, I’ve been in postmortem mode just thinking about this race, so here goes with the babbling.
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tipping point
I tried to do some regular exercise with Wii Fit and EA Sports Active, and while those workouts can be fun and intense — and, most importantly to me, measurable, the running-in-place aspect always felt a bit wonky.
(I suppose I could, on my non-running days, do upper body workouts with EA Sports Active, though we do have a real weight bench now for that sort of thing.)
What really got me doing this regularly was getting my first smartphone and a RunKeeper account — so I could go out running, have the phone’s GPS track me, and view my progress on the RunKeeper site.
I can track my elliptical training there too. I highly recommend RunKeeper.
RunKeeper can tell you your pace, speed, total distance, etc, at regular intervals if you want while you’re running. I tried that a couple times, listening to little progress reports every minute over earbuds. It was kind of cool, but ultimately, I think it’s more useful to just develop a feel for that sort of thing while running.
Which brings me to my next blurb.
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listening
When I started, a friend pointed me at this couch-to-5k training schedule. I appreciate the help, but in the end I sort of ignored it.
Learning how to make good decisions about how far I can push myself is just as important to me as actually making forward progress. It’s about listening to my body; knowing when to take a break from jogging and just walk a bit; being honest about when it’s really time to for the break to end.
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last place
Looking at last year’s race results, if I went to this race with my current best case, 10-11 minute mile, I’d most likely come in pretty close to last in my age & gender group.
Part of the point of doing this was that I don’t generally enter contests unless I think I can at least make runner up or honorable mention of some sort.
While I do lots of things just to do them, and babble about my progress here, I’m skittish about being overly vocal about it until I’m particularly good. (In my head, this here blog is in this weird space where I’m fooling myself it’s private but it’s actually public.)
I’m trying to get over that skittishness, and just enter more contests, not to see how I rate, but as more motivation to do good work.
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pacing
I still don’t have a great sense of pacing. If I run fast and take long breaks, it still feels faster than jogging slow with short breaks… but that’s totally not the case. I need to work on that.
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food
Nothing is more important, it seems, than eating properly before I go running. Pasta is good. Burgers are bad. I’m getting better about picking the right meals before I go.
Beverages, though, are a bit confusing. I’m trying to drink less soda pop, but I get the vague feeling the lack of sugar is hurting me both in terms of performance and the willpower necessary to push myself harder.
There are, of course, better ways to get sugar I suppose.
I ran track and cross country in high school. I was a long distance runner. Not a great one, but not bad, either. I *really* miss being in that kind of condition!
You really need to run close to every day. It’s OK to take a day off, maybe two, but more than that and you begin to lose what you’ve gained, and backsliding sucks.
When you first start running, you will be pathetic and it will feel like the worst punishment, and you won’t want to keep doing it. In school, I never ran in the offseason, and had to rebuild my condition from scratch in the spring. The worst was the first week. The workouts were light, yet the impact was harsh. The first day wouldn’t be so bad, the second day would be painful but manageable, but after Wednesday, I remember one year I had a hard time lifting my legs high enough to climb stairs, and actually had to pull myself up the stairs with the handrail in order to get to my English class. I couldn’t run that day, but was back at it on Friday. After that, I could withstand the workout and kept building speed and endurance quickly until I peaked, then from there it was a matter of maintaining and pushing my peak performance higher.
Diet is important. This really cannot be over-stated, but it’s not like we have a perfect understanding of what works best. Hydration while running is very important. Protein, fat, and carbs are all needed in your regular diet. Load up on carbohydrates the day before/day of the race, nothing but simple sugars and water immediately before, and be sure to eat some good protein *after* workouts to rebuild your muscles.
Some people are natural sprinters, some natural long distance. It depends on your genetics. You can do different types of workouts depending onw hat type of runner you are. If you do long distance (anything over 400-800m for your competition) a combination of LSD (long, slow, distance) for endurance and pyramids (running a succession of longer and longer short to mid distance runs, with rest between them, eg 400m, 800m, 1600m, 800m, 400m) at full speed is a good workout. You can also run hills. When I ran with the team, we’d do “step ups” where we’d run in single file at a normal pace, the last guy sprinting to the front, and you’d kindof “rest” while waiting to be the last person in the line for your sprint turn again.
Running with a partner or team is a great way to stay motivated, committed, and keep to a good pace. Running solo… I just don’t even know how to do it. It’s harder to push yourself without another runner to use as a point of reference.
And as far as competition goes, “winning” means something different for each person. Running is an individual sport. For some winning means coming in first. For others it means finishing at all. For everyone, it means running a better time than your last race. Don’t feel bad if you don’t place, or even if you don’t finish. You’re a winner relative to everyone else who isn’t even trying.
Wow, thanks for all the advice.
In middle school, I was a sprinter; even won a dash once. So I’m training up for long distance because it’s out of my comfort zone, and I’m happy (and surprised) with the results so far — I think I’m about a week or two away from being able to jog a 5k without walking breaks.
Right now I’m trying for 3 or 4 times a week; I figured you needed a day to let you muscles rest every time? It’s sorta tempting to alternate running and elliptical, but I haven’t actually tried that yet. I really like how I get a great cardio workout on the elliptical without feeling beat up afterwards.
Diet is probably going to be the hardest thing for me. Until a couple years ago, I never had to care what I ate, remained skinny, and didn’t care too much about doing active, physical things. I like cooking sometimes, but while I put a lot of effort into homemade things like the porcini cream sauce mentioned yesterday, these things probably aren’t that healthy. I’m a big fan of rich, calorie-laden butter and cream sauces. And I’m a big fan of McChicken sandwiches, McNuggets and Taco Bell’s gorditas, too. I even keep up with a fast food news blog.
I suppose, as part of this whole endeavor, I should also learn how to cook things that are tasty, but not made of solid fat so much.
I’d recommend running daily if you’re serious about it, but every other day is better than nothing. You don’t really need a whole day off to recover once you’re in condition. Maybe during the first week or two of training, while you work on getting your cardio fitness built up, but if you’re healthy and fit, running every day will be the best training. If you want to mix it up a bit and do some other form of exercise on your off days, that’s good too. Cycling, swimming, weights, or whatever.