Starting a running journey can be ridiculously intimidating. It might be something you haven’t done in years or it might be something that you’ve never ever done. It might be that you feel so unfit that you’re not going to be able to manage it and you may well just spend a whole stack of time talking yourself into and out of it as a possibility.
Let’s start with the fact that the majority of people CAN run. You don’t need to look a certain way, you don’t need to be a certain shape, you don’t need to go a certain speed.
You START where you are. I know in the past I had talked myself out of running until I’ll lost some weight (it never happened) or until I had more time (you make time, time doesn’t make itself) or until some certain event (perhaps the stars aligning or the planets all being visible in the night sky) occurred. It’s so easy to get stuck inside your head and to make up all sorts of stories about why you shouldn’t get started now. Starting exactly where you are is perfect.
Yeah, you might not be able to run to the end of the road initially and that’s totally. Accept that. You don’t need to run a prescribed distance in a certain time! You can go at your pace and do progress from them. The thing with running is that if you show up for it you can make progress very very quickly. I was talking to a friend who had just started running this week and said to her “each run gets a little bit easier.”
Being outdoors in any way is great for both your physical and mental health so that’s a fabulous bonus too.
You can start your running journey by Jeffing. This is walking and running in timed sections. Couch to 5k is based on these principles and might just be a fab place to start but if that even feels a bit too intimidating you can create your own and run for just 10 secs to start with and then walk for a little while. Always start with a walking warm up and then add your little 10 sec runs in every 1-3 minutes (or whatever works for you) to get you going.
Pick a reasonably flat route at the beginning.
You can go alone or you can get some accountability by buddying up with someone who either wants to start running too or someone who already runs. People who already run ARE NOT judging you, you ARE NOT going too slow – they will only say yes to running with you if they want to and they won’t mind at all. Often having an experienced runner with you can be more beneficial from a mindset perspective as they don’t have the possibility of talking you out of it and stopping
You only need to set aside 15 – 30 minutes of time. I often talk about the power of the 15 minutes. 15 minutes per day is 91 hours per year and if you walked at 3 miles per hour you’d cover 273 miles per year.
The biggest trick to starting is to make the decision to start and to see that commitment through.
What do you need to get started?
A decent pair of trainers & a sports bra (if your a gal!). That’s it!
Ok so that’s the normal bits done but let’s get down to some of the other bits that might just be bothering you;
I’m going to look like a red/purple sweaty mess – ok, so initially you might be a little on the hot mess kinda side (but obviously in a good way) and once you’ve finished you’re going to feel really accomplished.
People are going to stare/laugh – most people are too wrapped up in themselves to worry about what you’re doing. The majority of people don’t care what you’re up to. If you’re super conscious then pick safe but less populated routes. You may get the occasional knob head but I suppose that’s true about everything else in life too. You’ll get better at running, they won’t stop being a knob head.
I don’t have the energy – I always say that exercise is a giver and not a thief. It will provide you with a boat load more energy than it will take from you.
Everything will wobble – a good sports bra will see you right in the breasticles department. I pinky swear it’s not as uncomfortable as you think.
It doesn’t matter how far you go or how fast you are you’ve started and you can progress from there.
It might be that you wanna work towards running a Parkrun and you’ll find a video on that over on the homepage 🙌🏼
I’d love you to shout up if you have any question or things you’d like me to cover – pop in a little comment or hit the contact form.
Coming up, how to keep running..
