Running

I have set out to teach you everything I know from running high school cross country, well not everything. I run for the two time Class “S” State Championship team from Thomaston, CT.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, please consult your doctor before begining any training regimin outlined below. I am not resposible for any injury caused by the information below.

Shoes

First there is your shoes, I would highly recomend a specialty shoe or running store. The employees at these stores are specially trained in fitting shoes and can recomend the best shoe and fit for you. If you live in Connecticut I would recomend Road and Track in New Milford, Woodbridge Running Company in Woodbridge (New Haven), and Sportsmans in Litchfield.

Clothes

You may not even think that the clothes that you wear matter, but trust me you will feel the diffence between running in heavy jeans or some heavy cargo shorts. I would recomend to you a pair of light shorts such as running shorts (short, shorts) or even a pair of basketball shorts if you’re not into the whole extremely short shorts thing. Next is your shirt, I would recomend a light tee shirt or if you really want you could pick up a running shirt. All these things you can find at your local Wal-Mart, Bob’s, or even a specialty running store.

Goals

The most important thing for your running is to set a goal for yourself, whether it’s simply just to finish a 5k or anything else of the sort. Just keep that goal in your mind or write it down and put it somewhere where you’ll see it and remember it. A goal will keep you motivated and will hopefully keep you from quitting, I know a goal always keeps me going strong.

Stretching

Streching is one of the most important things that you can do before you go out for a run, I would recomend doing a warm up first which could be anywhere from a walk down the street and back to a run around a couple of blocks and back. Then stretch, some stretches you can do are in the links section at the bottom of the page.

Going for Runs

The most important part of running, actuall training runs, these are moderatley paced runs that is at a challenging pace but not a very hard pace. If you’re just starting out I would try just to start with around 10 minutes and move up to as much as 30-60 minutes if you’re training for a 5k, you can exceed this but I wouldn’t necessarily recomend it. As a beginer I would stay down around the 30 minute mark. Some more workouts if you’re not quite ready to do a full fledged run can be found in the links section below.

Workouts

I would not go straight from not running to doing a hard workout such as the ones outlined below due the posibility of injury, put of hard workouts and races until you think you adapt to the strain of running. Probably everyones’ favorite pastime of running, workouts. These workouts can vary in intensity and are by no means easy, one example is track “quarters” which are 100 meters in length and are run at an almost all out pace but slow enough that you can complete the workout. You need hills in your workout, you can consider running up and down a hill at a fast pace in order to gain strength and power for hills. If you live in an area without hills you could consider running on a treadmill with and incline or running up and down stadium stairs.

Recovery from Workout

You are sure to be sore from a workout. Although the benefits are worth it. You will need at least one or two days of recovery from a run, this doesn’t mean not running at all. First after you finish your run have some Gatorade or Powerade within 30 minutes of finishing the workout to help replenish your energy and help you not be as sore the next day. The next day you will want to go for a light run, light meaning a pace that you can feel like you could run all day at that pace, do this for anywhere from a ten minute run to a 30 minute run.

Races

There are many types of races 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, triathalon, etc. You will want to pick the right one for you, and if you are just starting you will most likely want to do a 5k race. Everyone has their own style of running, my personal favorite is to start slow and pass people because it’s a great feeling to pass people. Before your race you want to warm up thouroghly enough wearing pants or a jacket even if it is summer or at least something more than just what you’re going to run in. You want to stretch at least once very thoroughly and for a good amount of time. You’ll notice that some people running the race are wearing specials shoes, in a road race these are called flats, they’re a much lighter shoe than a trainer although they are not meant to be run in for a very long period of time such as training, these shoes are not essential to a race as a beginer.

Recovery from Races

I find recovery from races very important, after a race you shoud warm down which is a slow jog for at least 15 minutes if you can, also do not sit down imediatley after a race, you will cramp up and regert sitting down. Also again within the 30 minute window I mentioned before I drink Endurox R4 which is a recovery drink that is like gatorade but it helps you recover faster and better, this is not entirely nescesarry. Some Gatorade is good enough. Then the next day you would have a recovery day like the one mentioned before after the workout.

Links

Cool Running’s Training Schedules & Workouts for beginer – advanced runners

Cool Running’s New Runners Section

Some Stretches for runners, once again from coolrunning.com

If there is anything you feel is missing please make a comment about it and I will address it.

Thank you for reading my post