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Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions. 

One of the hardest things for a runner to learn is patience.

After all, we’re an unusual breed anyway. The idea that we’d relish in the discomfort that comes from a good hard run, that we’ll willingly get up before dawn on a weekend to get in a long run or that our ultimate goal is often to run a distance that most people would only drive in a car, should say something about our temperament. As runners, we need to develop patience if we are going to enjoy and be successful at this obsession.

Too Much – Beginning runners often lace up their shoes for the first time and head out the door with grandiose ideas of running 5K or five miles or even more. But usually while they are still in sight of their home, they will realize that running might just be harder than they first realized. Beginning runners need to take it slow and easy. Try walking a mile before you try running it. In fact, you should probably work up to just being able to walk for 20 minutes three or four times a week for a month or so before you even try your first jog.

Too Soon – Other common mistakes runners make is is increasing their mileage too soon as well as getting back to running too quickly after an injury or illness. The rule of thumb is you shouldn’t increase your weekly mileage by more than about 10% per week. So if you run two miles five days a week for a total of 10 miles. You should only increase your mileage to about 11 miles the next week.

It’s also important to give your body adequate time to recover after injury, illness or a hard workout. If you don’t, you risk being out even longer. When I am nursing an injury I am usually climbing the walls till I can get back out there running. But I have learned the hard way that getting back to running too soon after an injury can prolong the injury. Rest is just as important for you as exercise in getting stronger.

Too Fast – Many beginning runners head out without any idea what an appropriate training pace is. They think that have to crack a four minute mile and end up miserable with their lungs bursting and their legs screaming. Then they wonder what people see in running. You should be able to carry on a conversation while running at a regular training pace. There are times for a faster pace such as speed work or interval training but most of your mileage should be at a conversational pace.

One of the things that comes with experience as a runner is patience. If you work hard to develop it, your running will improve and it will definitely be more enjoyable.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions.

There are two areas in this discussion of Safety that I want to cover, one of them is especially relevant here in Texas and that is heat safety. The other equally important one is physical safety.

During warmer months runners of all experience levels need to be careful to avoid heat related illnesses. Warm weather places significant additional stress on the body during physical exertion that can rapidly lead to potentially life threatening illness. It is important that runners pay attention to this.

First, exertion during warm temperatures can easily lead to dehydration. If you are going to be active, you need to drink plenty of fluids. The easiest way to determine your level of hydration is to pay attention to the color of your urine when you void. If you are properly hydrated, your urine will be clear to slightly yellow. If it’s dark yellow, you probably need to take on fluids. However, you can’t wait till you begin to exercise before you start taking on fluids. It is important to drink throughout the day. It will take some time before the fluids you drink to be absorbed by your body.

Also, if the heat is too extreme, you may need to cut back on your mileage until cooler months. Personally, I get more miles in during the fall, winter and spring than I do during the summer. I also try and get out for my runs early in the morning, before it starts getting too hot. Here in Texas I usually take a water bottle with me on nearly every run.

The next area I want to discuss is physical safety. It’s extremely important that you pay attention to your surroundings. I get most of my running miles out on the road and not on the track or trails. Because I am sharing the roads with cars, this adds a significant element of danger. If you are going to be running on roads, I strongly suggest you do not run with your iPod or other music player. It’s all too easy to miss hearing an oncoming car or other hazard when you have headphones stuck in your ears.

I was once on a run on some country roads when I heard the sounds of footsteps, actually they were hoofbeats and lots of them. I stopped just in time to have a herd of white tailed deer fly across the road just a few feet in front of me. Apparently they got spooked in a farmer’s field and decided to hoof it to safer environs. Had I not heard them because I was listening to music and stopped I would likely have been trampled by several of these panicked critters.

Speaking of critters, I have probably had more run ins with dangerous dogs, than with dangerous humans. Dogs territorial by nature. You as a runner are perceived as an interloper even if you are just running on the street in front of their home. If a dog is aggressive, the best advice is to slow to a walk, keep your eye on the dog and shout at it, all the while making slow progress away from the dog. If you must, scan the surrounding ground for a stick, a stone or other object you can use should the dog attack. In most instances, since a human is larger than a dog, if you walk slowly away, the dog will hesitate attacking. However, if you run, you will set off the dog’s chase instinct and you are probably going to get bit. I have also found that a squirt in the face from your water bottle will often times discourage an aggressive dog without actually hurting the dog.

It is also important that you pay attention to your surroundings so you don’t become a victim of a crime. Running alone at night in a sketchy area of town is just not a good idea, especially for women but also for men. If you are going to run in remote areas like trails, it’s much safer if you run with a buddy. Also, do you take your cell phone with you? How about some form of ID or an emergency contact number? Does someone know where you are running and when you’ll likely return?

In all likelihood, a healthy lifestyle that includes running will add years to your life and certainly more enjoyment if you do it safely.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions.

Probably the one area that most beginning runners, and even experienced runners struggle with, is motivation. There are times that pulling yourself out of bed early in the morning to go running is hard. The lure of that nice warm bed and just a few more minutes of sleep is often too much to overcome. Even though I love running, there are times that I fight the motivation monster myself. However, in nearly twenty years of running, I’ve found a few tricks that will help you to get motivated to get out there and run.

One powerful motivator can be goal setting. There are a number of goals that you can use. It can be to work up to running a certain distance within a certain time, it can be running a race or losing a certain amount of weight. The idea is to set a definite, concrete goal. For many runners, it may be to run a specific race such as a marathon. If you are reasonably healthy, you can probably work up to running a marathon in a year or so. For instance you might pick a marathon about one year out and start training towards meeting that goal. Mark that race on your calendar and put periodic reminders on your calendar about how many days left till the race. The pressure of a deadline can be a great motivator. We’ll cover marathons and racing more in depth in another chapter.

Another one may be to meet a certain weight goal, for instance you might want to drop 10 pounds. For many beginning runners, just working up to being able to run a certain distance like two or three miles non-stop can be a great goal. It may be helpful to set smaller, mini-goals at first such as running a mile non-stop before working towards a larger goal such as a marathon.

Another powerful motivator is to get a running buddy. This will be someone who you will regularly run with. It’s a whole lot harder to skip your next run if that also means standing up your buddy. Some folks are wired to be social and running with a buddy or a running club makes the miles a lot less daunting than running alone.

I have found that one of my most powerful motivators is my running log. I regularly record the date, time and distances of my runs. When you look back at the end of the week, month or year and see all that you have accomplished, it helps to reinforce why you are out there pounding the pavement. I also record what shoes I was wearing so I can track the mileage on my shoes, and some notes about the run such as how I felt, if anything usual happened, etc. Some people use on-line running logs that post to their Facebook profile or other social media. It can be positive reinforcement to get feedback from your friends on your running progress.

Here are a few other tricks to help you stay motivated: Set your running clothes out the night before. This accomplishes two purposes. One, you don’t have to bump around your room in the dark if you are going to head out for an early morning run. (Your spouse will also thank you for that one.) Two, it’s harder to ignore that pile of running clothes at the end of the bed.

Schedule your runs on a calendar and ensure that you note your rest days. It’s easier to get up early to run one morning if you know that you don’t have to get up the next morning.

Treat yourself to something if you make a certain goal. For example, if you make every scheduled run for a month, you’ll treat yourself to a nice meal at your favorite restaurant. Speaking of that, as you improve as a runner and starting building up to a respectable mileage, you can occasionally indulge yourself with a decadent desert without risking your waistline. It’s nice knowing that I can get away with it occasionally because I run.

I have found that the hardest part of a run is the first mile or so. Focus on the feeling of accomplishment that comes at the end of a run rather than how hard it feels to get moving and into the groove of your run.

Another trick can be to subscribe to a running or fitness magazine such as Runner’s World. There is a lot of great information contained in the pages of a Runner’s World magazine and often just reading about running can be enough to make you want to get out there.

In short, there are quite a number of things you can do to help with motivation. The most important one though is to make up your mind to do it, no excuses, no waffling, just get out there and run.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions. 

There are quite a number of gadgets that can help you reach your goals when running. One of the first and most basic is to get a good sports watch with a stopwatch feature. A cheap digital watch will usually suffice. The main requirements are that it is water resistant, light and easy to read and operate. As you get serious about your running and start keeping a log of your training, keeping track of your training times can be a good gauge of your fitness and a great motivator. Timex makes a number in their Ironman series that fit the bill. You can pick one up for under $30 at your local discount store.

Another and one of my favorites is a GPS unit designed for running. They usually strap on your wrist and not only keep track of the time of your run, but accurate distances as well. I use a Garmin Forerunner on my runs. It tracks time, distance, pace, calories, etc. I’m obsessive about keeping training logs, something that we’ll cover in another chapter. Tracking your distance can help you with determining your level of fitness or training for a specific event such as a marathon. In addition to the dedicated GPS devices, there are also apps for your smartphone that can accomplish the same thing. I have the RunKeeper Pro app on my iPhone and it can do many of the things my Forerunner does and also will upload my training data to the RunKeeper website.

The last type of device we’ll look at are heart rate monitors or HRM’s. These devices measure your heart rate and can help you with specific training or weight loss goals. I’ve had several over the years and when I was using them, I felt that they took my training to another level. Exercise experts have a number of recommendations about using your heart rate to determine the levels of intensity of your training depending on what your goals are. For instance, someone who is wanting to lose weight would try to keep the intensity of their workout within a certain range where someone wanting to get faster would need to keep their heart rate in a different zone.

Training with an HRM is not something that I’m going to cover here. However, if you are an experienced runner and are wanting to take your training to the next level, an HRM might help you. As an aside, one thing that I found using an HRM was how much just a small increase in air temperature affected my body. When the temperature would go up, my heart rate would go up even though I was running at the same pace. We’ll cover the effect heat has on you in more detail when we get to the chapter on safety.

One gadget that runners use that I have mixed feelings about are iPods, radios or music playing devices. While these devices can be great while running on a track or a treadmill, they can be downright dangerous when running on the roads or trails. As an example, a few months ago, an 18 year old honor student from New Mexico was struck a killed by a train while she was running along the railroad tracks. She could not hear the oncoming train over her music player, wandered into the path of the train and was struck and killed.

Headphones reduce the awareness of your surroundings. In fact I have had more than a few close calls with disaster that was only averted because I could hear trouble coming. It’s funny but once I was once nearly run down by a herd of white tail deer while running in the country. I was running along a country road that was lined by tree thickets and brush. As I approached a low spot where the deer like to cross I could hear their hooves as they approached. As I stopped I suddenly had deer flying over the fences so close I could have grabbed one. Had I not heard their approach I would likely have collided with these critters who were running at full bore.

The best advice I can give you is don’t wear headphones if you are running on or along roads.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions. 

Running is a very minimalist sport. You don’t have to buy a lot of equipment to become a runner. But, one of the most important pieces of gear you’ll buy as a runner are your shoes. Your shoes have a profound impact on a runner’s biomechanics. The wrong shoe will not only be uncomfortable, but may also increase your chance of injury.

First and foremost, you should only run in shoes designed for running. Shoes designed for different sports are usually designed for different types of motion. For example, a basketball shoe is designed for side to side motion and jumping. A running shoe is designed for forward motion. When you are 5 years old you can get away with running in clunky basketball shoes. As an adult you are asking for trouble if you do.

Not only do you need shoes designed for running, you need running shoes designed for your foot biomechanics. Most runners have a foot type that can be classified into three different foot types, an overpronator, an underpronator and neutral pronation. This refers to the shape of the arch of your foot. Pronation refers to the movement your foot makes as it strikes the ground and the arch of your foot absorbs the impact.

The arch of your foot is designed to absorb the shock of your footfalls. A person who underpronates or has high arches does not have the natural cushioning that the other foot types have. Their arch does not move much or underpronates and does not absorb the forces of impact as their foot strikes the ground. An overpronator or flat footed has a foot that moves too much during the impact cycle. Both of these types of feet need a shoe that helps to keep this motion appropriate to help them avoid injuries.

If you have neutral pronation you can consider yourself lucky. However, even a neutral pronator should wear shoes appropriate to this foot type to avoid injury.

The best way to get the proper shoe for your foot type is to visit a specialty running store. The staff there are trained to determine foot types and match your foot type to the best shoe for you given your foot type, weight, running experience, weekly mileage, etc. You may pay a little bit more for your shoes there, but you’ll get a better shoe for you than you would a the local super-discount store. If you really have to be cost conscious you can buy your first pair at a specialty running store and then buy subsequent pairs of the same make and model from a discount store. You may need to buy a pair at the specialty store every now and again as often times things change either in your running or the shoe model that mean you might need to re-up that expert advice you get from the specialty store just to make sure you are wearing the right shoe.

Another thing to know about running shoes is that you should only use your running shoes for running. You don’t wear them to mow the yard, you don’t wear them to go shopping, you only wear them for running. This will help the shoes to last longer and will keep them in better shape to do what they are designed to do, protect your feet. You should also track your mileage and buy a new pair when you get close to 500 miles in them. The reason for this is the midsole, the part of the shoe that cushions the impact, starts to lose it’s resiliency as the shoe ages. As this goes, the ability to absorb impact lessens and more of that impact is then transmitted to your body increasing your chances of injury.

An added benefit from wearing your shoes only to run and changing them at 500 miles is you can then use the retired shoes for mowing the yard or shopping. Over the years I’ve collected quite a few pairs of shoes that are still serviceable for knocking around in but have too many running miles on them and were retired. The cost of paying extra for a good pair is evened out by getting this double use from them.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions.

When people start running, they often don’t give much thought to the clothes they will wear. They’ll pull on a t-shirt, shorts and socks they have in a drawer and head out. Yet, there is clothing a lot more suitable for running that will make you much more comfortable on your run.

One of the bigger problems with most people’s choice of exercise apparel is the material it is made from. If you have ever worn a cotton t-shirt and gotten it wet you know how sodden and heavy it gets. Wet t-shirts are also abrasive and will chafe the wearer. It’s not that uncommon to see marathon runners who choose to wear a t-shirt with blood streaks down the front from their bleeding nipples.

This is because t-shirts are made from cotton. Cotton’s absorbency is the reason that it’s the most common material for bath towels. However, absorbing and holding moisture is not what we want in exercise apparel. Ideally, we want the moisture (sweat) produced when we exercise to be wicked away from our bodies and to evaporate as quickly as possible.

Instead of cotton, a better choice is what is often called “technical apparel” in running circles. These are clothes that are fashioned from high tech fibers that will wick the moisture away from the skin to the surface of the material where it will evaporate, but won’t absorb and hold the moisture. A shirt made from these high tech fabrics will cost a bit more than a t-shirt but if cared for will also outlast a t-shirt. I have shirts and singlets made of this material that are 10 to 15 years old and are still serviceable.

In addition to technical fabrics for shirts and shorts, you should also think about getting socks and underwear made of the same materials. You will be much more comfortable if you do. There are some parts of a runner’s body that you don’t want chafed!

On the opposite end of the temperature spectrum is cold weather running apparel. Similar benefits are obtained by buying cold weather tops, wind pants and head gear made from high tech fabrics. You’ll stay much warmer and more comfortable in them than you would wearing and old cotton sweatshirt and sweatpants.

While we are talking about cold weather, a good rule of thumb for runners is to dress like it’s 20 degrees warmer than the actual air temperature outside. In other words, if it’s 50F outside, dress in what you might be comfortable for 70F weather if you weren’t running. When running, your body will generate lots of heat. You will be more comfortable if you are slightly cool at the beginning of the run than if you overdress and create a furnace inside your clothing. For me, I am very comfortable running in just shorts, a shirt, a top and a hat even when it’s in the upper 30′s F out. In fact, I’ve been know to wear just shorts on my lower body when it’s down to the mid 20′s F.

Technical apparel doesn’t have to be expensive. If you don’t buy the big name brands you can save or if you catch the big name brands on sale the cost is quite competitive.

You’ll be a much more likely to stick with something if you’re comfortable. So ditch the t-shirt and baggy shorts and get some real running clothes. It will improve your running experience tremendously.