Learn to Run

A little while back, someone commented asking if I could give some tips on how to START running, and while I fully admit to being no expert, I do know what's worked for ME. While all the LENGTHY babble below might not work for everyone - everyone's motivated by different things - this is what worked and STILL works for me... a former couch potato who HATED gym class, never participated in a SINGLE team sport ever (unless forced), and thought exercise was WORSE punishment than death. A former couch potato who's now going to run her first half marathon at 12 weeks pregnant!!!

First, the boring mental stuff. Then, actual details on running. Your choice to read what's relevant to you. Or not read at all if you could care less re running:-)

Weight Loss
If you wanna run to lose weight, it'll work - running really REALLY works - but only if you're prepared to put the effort in, and up the ante once in awhile. Meaning, when I started running 10 years ago, my primary goal was to lose 30lbs, and while it took NINE LONG MONTHS to get that weight off, it didn't just fall off from running.

Mentally prepare yourself that this is GOING to be a long haul, and you're GOING to have to put some effort in, and then MORE effort, and maybe even MORE effort. For me, personally, I had to go from walking, to walk-running, to running more often, and finally to running more often AND eating better. Or I had to accept that with each plateau, if that's all the work I was willing to put in, that was ALL the weight I was going to lose - no more.

Goals
I don't know how YOUR brain works, but for me, goals are everything. When I have a goal, I hit it, and while I might waiver in the middle cuz it's freaking HARD work, and it HURTS, and there's all this DOUBT if you really CAN do it or even WANT to do it, in the end, I almost ALWAYS hit my goals - cuz I can't stand admitting that I was too lazy and quit. So if you're starting running JUST to lose weight, it's a nice goal, and it MIGHT work, but I don't think it's enough to get a LOT of weight off, or to KEEP the weight off.

For me, part of "upping the ante" above was signing up for my first 10km race. I wasn't in it for the "race", I was in it because I knew that if I signed up for something, put MONEY down on it, and was going to have my name and time in the NEWSPAPER, there was no way in hell I was going to suck. I might suck in that I was slower than I wanted to be, but I wasn't going to suck by quitting, or suck by having one of the worst times of 50,000 runners. It also distracted me from how slow the weight came off sometimes, because suddenly, my focus was on running 10km WITHOUT stopping - weight loss was an extra bonus.

Running is 90% Mental
While I don't believe everybody is meant to run, I do believe almost anybody CAN run. You might run fast, you might run slow, you might be a long-distance runner, you might be a sprinter - but no matter what, all of it is about the mental capacity to FIGHT your body. Physical strength will come, even if you had NONE. Because as I said above, I'd never exercised a day in my life except when FORCED to, and I had THIRTY POUNDS to lose - there wasn't a muscle in my body that even knew I knew how to use it.

So when I did start using them, it HURT. It hurt a LOT. It hurt DURING my runs, it hurt AFTER my runs, and it hurt even DAYS later when climbing/decending stairs or standing up from a chair! It hurt! And even now, as someone who can run 18km straight without stopping, sometimes my knees hurt, my stomach cramps, I get a headache, I can't breathe, I feel like I'm gonna crap myself - it really can all just plain SUCK. But I swear it all passes - REALLY.

Sometimes it passes in seconds, sometimes it passes in minutes, but it ALWAYS passes if you fight through it. And then, when you HAVE fought through it, you feel like the toughest bitch EVER, because you TOUGHED it out, you PUSHED through it, and you BEAT it. You just have to be prepared that while there's a LOT of good in running, and a lot of HIGHS in running, there's also a LOT of pain. And not pain like REAL pain, pain like being UNCOMFORTABLE, pain like feeling EXHAUSTED, pain like worrying you might crap your pants while you run. It's all just the games your body's GONNA play with you, and it's about how PREPPED you are to kick your body's ass.

Make It Fun
Yea, this sounds obvious, but I don't mean it like laugh and enjoy the power you have over your body (although that doesn't hurt), I mean it like you should go out and buy yourself a fun running shirt, or some funky cheap sunglasses, or something that makes you feel GOOD about how you look. Even if you can't afford to be all decked out with the fancy water-packs and LuLuLemon pants/shirts, get SOMETHING for yourself so you feel GOOD while running. You'll be more motivated to go, and more comfortable risking being SEEN if you feel like you look cute or funky. If you put on your dumpiest sweatpants and your college tee with holes in it, and you run into a co-worker, are you going to feel proud they saw you running? You SHOULD, but you probably won't. You'll probably be embarrassed and never want to go out again.

Shoes
This is the one place you SHOULD splurge. If you have crap shoes, running will be REAL pain - not just discomfort, but ACTUAL PAIN. You'll get shin splints, you'll roll over on your ankles, your feet will hurt, and worse. BUY PROPER RUNNERS. And buy them from a proper runner/exercise/sports store - not from a regular run of the mill shoe store. Do some research and find yourself a place like New Balance where the staff actually KNOW their stuff, where they'll look at the WIDTH as well as length of your feet, where they'll look at HOW you run to see if you need more ankle support or more padding, and where they actually know what KIND of runners will work for YOUR style of running best. While they won't be cheap, they will last, and thus, so will your running. With my regular running (3x/week, 6-10km per run) I go through 1 pair of shoes a year, which cost me around $150. And yea, I'm sure that sounds high, but ONCE a year I spend $150 for something that makes me feel GOOD about myself, for something I can do WHENEVER I want (ie. no limitation of gym hours)... so for me, it's worth every penny to be comfortable while I do it.

Other Toys and Gear
I won't go into this much because you REALLY don't have to buy more than shoes and one funky/fun thing for yourself. BUT... if you've got the money and you're interested, I have a long list of things I've bought myself over the years that I now can't run without. I should note however, than I ran the first 5 years JUST FINE without 90% of those things, and still LOVED running. I've just become more particular with age and experience.

Music
Lots of runners like to run in silence; they like to have time to think and clear their head. I, on the other hand, clear my head while screaming lyrics to Lady Gaga while running my ass off. For me, music is a life-saver when running. Part of it is that it's fun to listen to total CRAP you'd never listen to otherwise (ie. your regular listening choices will probably NOT work for running - their beats suck, so face it now and get over your snootyness), part of it is that it's fun to have music to keep you company, but mostly, it's fun to have something that MOTIVATES you. Meaning when you're running up that tiny little hill that feels like Mount Everest and you just don't think you can go even a SINGLE STEP FURTHER, switching over to Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" or Kevin Rudolph's "Let it Rock" or even "Eye of the Tiger" - it works. They're what Nike calls your "Power Song" - they kick your ass and give you that extra push when you're dying and don't think you have it in you to do even ONE MORE STEP. Suddenly, you might find yourself running an extra 15 minutes you hadn't planned on, cuz you've hit a new high.

Actual Running Tips for Newbies
For me there's a whole lotta stuff that combines for the ACTUAL act of running...

• Pre-hydrating is optional. Up until I got knocked up, I barely EVER picked up a bottle of water before my runs - I hated water, water hated me, it was all just very unpleasant. But I could still run anyway, as long as I drank a LOT of water THROUGHOUT my runs. Now though, I find that if I haven't drank enough water throughout the day, NO amount of water can save me DURING my run, and thus my run is a LOT harder. So if you're finding your runs tough, try drinking more water throughout the day - not immediately before you go, or you'll have too much bouncing around in your belly on your run, but just throughout the day, a few hours before.
• Eat a power bar (my favorite right now are Vector Bars) or something else with a good amount of protein about an HOUR before you run. If you don't have something healthy for your body to work off of, your run will most likely be a LOT harder than it needs to be. You MIGHT still do just fine, but you might not. I've ALWAYS needed something about an hour before - it seems to be just enough time for it to work its way into my system, but not so much time that its trying to "leave the building" during my run.
• Schedule running into your life - REALLY. If you don't make a plan that you will run Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays (or whatever days you choose), you probably WON'T run Tuesdays, Thursdays, OR Sundays. For me, I can't stay at work past 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I don't make plans with friends until after 7:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and only Sunday afternoons and evenings are OPEN to plans cuz mornings are my run time. The rest of the week is a free-for-all so I still very much feel like I have a life, but if I don't have it booked into my calendar, life will ALWAYS sound more appealing, no matter HOW much I enjoy running. So for me, I've made it a REGULAR part of my life, that other stuff has to work around.
• Run often, which to me is a minimum of 3x a week. I think to get to a point where you will actually start to ENJOY running, you need to go at least 3x a week, because if you don't, you'll never reach the highs running can give you. You'll never build enough muscle for it to become EASIER. You'll never beat up your cardio enough to teach it how to DEAL with your running. You'll never remember the GOOD runs, because there won't be enough of them. If you're running 3x a week though, you'll start getting that runner's high WHILE you run, you'll start getting that runner's high AFTER your runs (even after the shitty ones), you'll start feeling so proud that you were really HAULING ASS that last run!
• Plan your route and run AWAY from home. For me, running at a track is equivalent to putting a fork through my eye - ain't gonna happen. That track is BORING, that track is REPETITIVE, and that track is very VERY easy to quit and just get back in my car and go home. So I run the streets, seawall, bridges, whatever, but the KEY is that I plan my routes. Regardless if I'm doing a 5km or an 18km run, I plan my route to run AWAY from home. I plan so my halfway point (ie. 2.5km or 9km) is halfway around a circle that runs away from my house, and then back. I do this for a couple reasons. First, see the above note about the track and how easy it is to quit and go home - if you're CLOSE to home, it's EASIER to quit - don't make it EASY to quit. Second, if you've just run 2.5km from home in the pissing rain cuz you're super tough runner-girl now, would you rather WALK home the other 2.5km in the rain and get freezing cold because you've cooled down, or would you rather keep running to stay warm plus get it overwith faster? For me, it's ALWAYS the latter. Particularly on my long runs now. Running 9km home is pretty fast, WALKING 9km home is horribly DULL and LONG, so the motivation to KEEP running is there.
• Run-walk at first. Unless your body can just do it, you should start off with a run-walk method. So if for example you were going to run 3x this week, in session 1 you'd run 34 minutes - you'd warm up with 5 minutes of walking, you'd then run 2 and walk 1 (repeating this 8x), then you'd cool down with another 5 minutes of walking. It SOUNDS easy but you might be surprised, so this is a really safe way to not start off too fast, and not risk injury. In session 2 (same week), you'd run 28 minutes - warm up with 5 minutes of walking, run only 1 minute and walk 2 minutes this time (repeat 6x), then cool down with 5 minutes walking again. In session 3 (final run for week 1), you'd run for 31 minutes - 5 minutes walking to warm up, run 1 minute and walk 2 minutes (repeat 7x), and cool down with 5 minutes walking. If you're interested, I can send you the whole program I used but this is a sample of HOW to start.
• Be safe. Always take a cell phone or at least some ID and a credit card or cash. Yea, you have to tough it out a LOT during running, and yea you feel AWESOME for having done it, but some days, you're just not meant to run, or you have bad luck and get hurt. Carry SOMETHING with you to get you home in a cab or bus, or via a quick call to the husband.