How to start running when you’re really out of shape
In the beginning of the pandemic a whole lot of us started doing all sorts of insane things in order to spend our sudden abundance of free time productively. Some started baking their own bread, others knitting their own sweaters, there were also those who’d do both and even more. I started working out.
After my previous post you already know that I used to hate exercising and despised running in particular. I actually tried running once before. A few years ago I wanted to incorporate some healthy habits, so I decided to give it a try. I put on some comfy clothes, shoes, left my house and ran. A few very brief minutes later I was completely out of breath (and motivation) to continue, so I just quit for next 7 years.
Starting again in the pandemic, I decided to approach it in a smarter way. I found an app that would work as sort of a timer. It would tell me when to run and when to walk. Apparently, if we are out of shape, we’re not supposed to just… run! We’re supposed to start with a warm-up, a brief fast-paced walk and only then start running. Not for too long either, and then switch back and forth with walking. That was better, but I would get a flank pain very quickly and I became quite discouraged after a month or so.
Last year I signed up for a DHL run (5km) and started actually training for it. Surprisingly for me, I finished it in 33 minutes. It felt like an amazing achievement, after which I stopped running again, because it was still really really hard.
Here I am now, running 4–5 times per week, being able to run nonstop for ~20 minutes (probably longer but I haven’t tried yet), coming to you with all the lessons I have learned and hoping that they would help you. I realise that my “out of shape” might be very different from your “out of shape”. Most of you have probably (unlike me) taken PE classes when you were kids. Some of you (again, unlike me) might have done some other sports when you were younger. And most of you probably didn’t have a double lung transplant. So if my advice is “too basic” for you, feel free to adjust it to your situation.
So here are some tips I would give my younger self, when I started running for the first time.
1. Start very slowly
We keep seeing in movies how people just “go for a morning run”. They put on their shoes, leave their homes and just start running. This is not how the real world works and this is definitely not how you should start your adventure with running.
If you’re not training for any event but just want to have a healthy habit, start with getting used to just walking. Let’s say you wanna run before school or work in the morning. Find a time slot and stick to it. Go out for walks at the same time and just enjoy yourself being outside. Grab a cup of coffee with you, create a positive association. After some time, you actually might start craving those walks and miss them if you can’t make them. That’s the perfect time to start turning them into runs.
Don’t just suddenly convert into running. I recommend you get some sort of a running app — my favourite one is called “Start running”. It works both on IOS and Android and its core features are free to use. Start with the easiest plan. You will begin with a walking warm up, then run for one minute and then get back to walking for one minute. You will keep switching between both for the next 18-ish minutes and it will still feel hard.
2. Be kind to yourself
Sometimes you might need a longer warm up than the app (or any other training program) suggests. When I was switching from the morning walks to the morning runs, I would first walk for over 10 minutes, only then I would feel like i’m warmed up enough and have this energy bubbling in me, wanting to do more. Once you’re finally done with warming, don’t start sprinting at your highest possible speed. You will burn out immediately, get discouraged and probably start feeling the flank pain, which is no fun to have when there are still 18 minutes more to go. Start running so slowly, that you’ll feel like it’s barely any faster than walking.
Don’t let your brain judge you for how slow you are. The most important part is that you’re running. By the end of the run you can try and speed up, to see how fast you can go without burning out, but in the beginning focus on conserving energy. If you’re supposed to run but you’re feeling way too tired, try to slow down as much as you can without yet walking, and just keep it going until it’s your time to walk. If you can’t do even that, then walk. Don’t stop and remember, that you already are succeeding! You got outside, you’re doing it, you are a runner now! Isn’t that amazing?
3. Have a distraction
Some studies (and sorry but I can’t the authors somehow, this was in the book called “The comfort crisis” though so look it up?) suggest that people, who are able to sort of disconnect their mind from their bodies while exercising, perform better than the ones who are constantly thinking about what they’re currently doing. It makes sense for those exercises where you don’t have to keep track of things, manage the correct posture to avoid an injury, and for the exercises that take a bit longer than e.g. a set of weight-lifting.
What I’m trying to say is that if you just run and keep thinking about how you’re running and how your feet are currently hitting the ground, how your ankles feel uncomfortable and how you’re so out of breath right now — it’s gonna require a lot of mental effort not to stop. So try not only to have some music in your earphones, but mix it up a bit. You can listen to a podcast, and if it’s not dynamic enough, have a playlist, but play it in a random order or find some existing playlist (e.g. on Spotify) that you’ve never listened to before. This way your brain will be entertained enough to not overly focus on how it actually does not want to continue running.
4. Don’t forget about the energy
Obviously don’t go for a run directly after a meal because your full belly will start hurting faster than you can remove “Despacito” from that new, unknown playlist you’ll be listening to. If you want to run in the morning, consider not having anything to eat, especially for your first few runs. Once you’re able to run longer, you might need more energy — although not everyone does. I started having a banana-protein smoothie with cocoa powder and some coffee half an hour before I run. Half an hour meaning, I am DONE drinking it at least half an hour before. For me it’s the perfect time, because my body manages to digest some of what I drank and caffeine starts kicking in. For you, the perfect time might be different so try to experiment.
5.Set realistic goals
Don’t plan to run a marathon straight away. First aim for improving how long you can run. Progress from 1 minute to 2 etc. At some point something in your body will “catch up” and suddenly you will have a super quick progress. After that, try improving speed — run more kms within the same timespan.
It’s helpful to have some event, which you can sign up and train for, but don’t focus on it too much either, because once the event is over, you will lose the motivation to continue. The book “Atomic habits” suggests, that in order to make the new habits stick better, we should make them a part of our new identity so now, whenever I think of myself running, I’m not framing it as “training” in my mind, but rather like the thing that I do. I think that now I’m also “that crazy health freak”, who starts their day with a run. Some people recommend to start calling yourself an athlete (in your mind, not while talking to others).
6. Celebrate your victories and have fun with it
Were you able to run 5 minutes today, instead of 4? Feel proud about it. Tell it to your parents, friends, your partner. Don’t feel bad that it’s “only” 5 minutes. You improved and that’s all that matters. You are a runner now. Try to find more positive aspects of running — how you have time to be by yourself, how you can get outside, see some nature, how you have more time to listen to your favourite music/podcast. Enjoy the process, because it’s the process you will be interacting with the most of the time — not the final goal.
I hope you found something helpful within this post. I wish you all good luck and happy running!
