How to start running

As I told you before, today I ran a short 5,5km, to start working out again. The first work out should be easy, to prevent all possible injuries and to tell your body in a gentle manner that it’s time to wake up!

But start running again, if you have done it before, is maybe just a “psychologic challenge”. What do you have to consider if you have never ran before?

Why?

Before starting, answer this question. If your answer has nothing to do with “running” itself, avoid to start. Let me explain: if you want to run to loose weight or to get fitter, there are better (and safer) way to reach your goals. So keep in mind that running is a painful path that will give you satisfaction only if you like running. And with “painful” I mean that you will be exposed to injuries also for the littlest mistake, you will be bored with long workouts (that will burn less fat than you imagine) and you will hit the hard wall of frustration during fast workouts.

If you think that you are the right one to go through this… You are welcome!

How?

Well, running should be a natural activity. BUT!

There are many evidences around that running technique can be learned naturally by using your bare feet. The problem is that you have to reproduce the same also with shoes! I’will write a more specific article on this: for now, the most important thing is NOT to hit the road with your heel. So, starting from the ground: choose shoes that allows you to “naturally” run by landing on your forefoot.

Going on, you have to wear something comfortable. If you are considering buying technical running clothing it’s ok – just start with something cheap. Depending on the weather and the temperature, you have to wear the right thing. To prevent rashes on your skin, is better to wear tight shirts. Here’s what I use in winter:

When?

Ok, the best time to train is the one that will fit your daily habits/obligations without impacting them (too much). So, you will find a lot of theories around. Better to train in the morning, better to train in the evening, better right after work… But you have to consider only 2 things!

1. How can I best organize myself to run (pre-workout)?
2. How can I best organize myself to handle post-workout?

For example: if you are planning to run right after work, you should consider how will you change your clothes, where will you put your office clothes, notebooks and other things (car?), how will you handle the sweat after the workout (where is the shower? Do you have to drive to reach it? Proably you will need something to cover your car seats…).

I decided to do trainings early in the morning. This way I’m done with all (pre and post workout things) before breakfast and I can just start the day.

Do I need to eat before?

This is also a personal thing. I’ll consider energy issues in another article, so for the moment keep in mind only that:

1. If you eat something before running, you have to know your digestion time (that depends on the type of food also) in order to start with empty stomach.
2. If you eat in the morning or long after having some meal, don’t worry. The glycogen stored in muscles can be used only to provide energy to the muscle in which is stored, so you will not waste the energies assumed in the morning with your breakfast if you run before your lunch. And the energy stored after dinner will not be used by your legs during sleep.

I hope that you have enough information now. So organize yourself. And start!

Check also how to do your First Workout.