Getting Back into Running

[MC Bodge]

I was a keen, reasonable runner in the past (comfortable running on the hills and moors, 1hr 30 half marathon, 40 minute 10Ks etc., ), but have suffered various 'niggles' that have prevented me from doing it for a few years.

This year I have made an effort to get back into running and fitness has been helped by beginning work somewhere that allows for a good, 30-mile 'round trip cycle commute which has helped build some aerobic fitness.

After an initially too enthusiastic start to 'fore-foot running', a few false starts, injuries, visits to the physio, lots of stretching, rolling and wearing thinner, flatter footwear I have now developed a reasonably good(I think) 'mid-foot' running style.

I recently started increasing the mileage a little again and (touch wood) my legs are fine. My calves appear to be finally getting used to it. I'm now comfortable with running 3.5 miles on the pavements or trails and really enjoying it.

I've been wearing my heart-rate monitor and running at a steady, comfortable pace which equates to around 150bpm and 8.5 minute miles -which I'm quite pleased with at this point.

I'm keen to improve my fitness and, eventually, take part in some races, but I would like to go about it the right way, rather than over-doing it.

I'm unsure as to what the best approach would be:

1) Just continuing the steady runs at 150bpm (or less?), increasing the distance, and hopefully the pace, for a few months and avoiding sprints in order to condition my legs before upping the intensity and entering races in the Spring.

2) Mixing it up from now on, with hills, sprints, fartlek etc. and entering a couple of local 5K Park Runs to get some 'race' experience.


ps. I'm 36. Resting HR is currently in the high 40s. Max is probably low 190s (not tried a full uphill running efforts recently)

Edited by MC Bodge on Wednesday 18th September 22:02

[MC Bodge]

Anybody?

[ewenm]

Join your local athletics club. You will have access to qualified coaches, other people to run with and club races.

Your progression will all depend on how frequently you train. I reckon a minimum for improvement is 3 days a week - one long slow run, one steady paced run and one "session". The session is the hard workout, so a tempo run or hill reps or mile/km reps for example. The rule of thumb is to avoid increasing your total weekly mileage by more than 10% per week.

I find improvements are very much non-linear - I'll train hard for weeks with no apparent progression, then suddenly I'll be going faster. I've just made one of those transitions - 4-6 weeks ago I could barely break 3:15 for a km, on Tuesday night I managed a set of km reps all in about 3 mins. I suspect I'll sit at this level for another couple of months. You need to keep working at it and trust the step changes will come.

Lots of more info in The Running Thread and you can find free "beginner" training programs on www.runnersworld.co.uk written by respected coaches.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Well, I'm old, fat, knackered and unfit now but from the age of around 25 to 37 I started using running to lose wieght, then as a fitness tool for motorbike racing - but after a while and getting to a decent level of fitness, I realised I loved running for running's sake, and so started to get quite serious about it.

Now I cannot run any more, due to having two operations on the same knee, and being told by the consultant after the second op (at 37) that I had so little articular cartilage left on the distal femur, that if I didn't stop running then I would be back for a full knee replacement before I was 45. So I went into a massive sulk / strop, stopped exercising and put on a million stones in weight...


Aaanyway, back to the thread. I reckon I was about the same ability as you - I developed a lovely 'up on my toes' style that prevented a lot of the shock going up through my joints, gave me fabulously strong and springy calves, never got any niggles, tightness or injuries (apart from the one above from crashing bloody race bikes) and meant that I could run either a decent pace on short runs, or have good endurance for long runs.

My PB's were 42 minute 10k's and 4 hour marathons.


You're doing everything right so far in my opinion - and using an HRM is essential too, to help measure gains and training rates. At my mid 30's age wise, I would train on long runs at between 140 and 150, recovery runs at 120 or below, and fartlek peaking up to around 175. Even at my fittest, a burst until I was knackered enough to feel sick never got my HR up to 190 - maybe 180 tops...but we're all different.

My resting pulse rate was also high 40's to early 50's, and occasionally I would wear my monitor to bed set to record the lowest rate - which sometimes dropped to around 30

One thing I did suffer with, which no-one ever tells you, is that due to the low resting HR and lack of body fat, I was freezing cold all the time - even in summer, lol! When I woke up in the mornings, jesus - I had to put on about a million layers to get out of bed!



Anyway, having had to often rest from bike injuries, and then pick up my fitness again down the line, I have also had to work hard to get back to a decent level, like you are.

My tips:

Don't rush it, however frustrating it might feel sometimes. You will have good days and bad days. And it is better to have more rest days than not. Even though you think you will benefit from doing say 3 days training on the trot mentally, physically you will not run well on day 3. I have done some of my best times / distances on a run after not training for 5 or 6 days. Over-training just makes you feel tired and below par, your body feels unco-operative, you will then mentally feel and struggle with every single mile and the session will be wasted. On the other hand, a run after lots of rest usually results in getting into that beautiful 'zone' once you've warmed up and your aerobic system kicks in - where it all suddenly feels effortless, your lungs and CV system sings, your legs feel all springy and tight, and it feels like you could run forever. (This is a feeling that not many people experience unless they get REALLY fit - but it is beautiful, and I miss it lots).

ALWAYS stretch after every session. Yeah, boring and all that, especially after a long one. But the benefits outweigh the inconvenience, and you will benefit from the increased range of movement every time next time you run. It also helps to prevent cramps from lactic build-up. Amazingly I still used to see even seasoned runners doing very little stretching after an event - and / or with poor form.
Learn how to stretch properly (if you don't already) and practice good form when doing so - in the same way that you might practice good form when doing weights. It's pointless going into a stretch for only a second or two like some people. You need to get into the stretch, hold it, feel the resistance ebb away slowly, push it a little more, and carry on until the limb will not go any further. Then hold for at least 30 seconds - and then RELEASE SLOWLY! A decent stretching routine on the legs and hips should take a good 10 or 15 minutes.

Fartlek and intervals / hills, and mixing it all up. SO important. Anyone can get good at 'going for a run.' If all you do is go for the same run for the same distance at the same pace, then all you will get good at doing is going for the same run for the same distance at the same pace!
Our bodies are incredibly adaptable, and react quite quickly to a regular demand placed upon it.
Hence, our bodies will get to a certain level of fitness doing this regular thing, and the gains drop off. You need to continually surprise your body, both aerobically and anaerobically. Some of my best gains have been made by never doing the same thing twice in a week. So mix it up - even within the same training session.
Yes, if you are training for a marathon for instance, of course you need to run a few long 'uns maybe once or twice a week. But on other sessions, do slow runs, quick runs, some on the road, some cross-country, some fartlek, and use the local terrain to your advantage. For example, near me I have some short but steep hills, some blocks of steps leading down to a subway, roads, grass, gravel, and boggy bridleways. Sometimes I would do fartlek by sprinting up the steps and jogging gently back down. It all helps to surprise and condition your body.
One of the best little bits I used to run on which really helped, was a long grassy bank alongside a road. The bank is at maybe a 35 degree angle, so I would run along it first one way then the other. It meant that my ankles had to rotate to this angle with every footfall, and it really helped to build up the muscles supporting and stabilising my ankles, knees and hips. And because it was difficult to balance, it helped my core muscles too. Of course, you do need to be a bit careful to 'feel' each footfall and not fold / rotate your ankle under you and cause injury!

Do some stuff to make your runs more enjoyable / tolerable, for those times when you might not feel like it. By this I mean, take an ipod with some mental tunes which get you in the mood...get in the car and drive to a spot that is different from your local routes or in a nice place like a park or national trust forest...role-play something silly for fun, like pretending that you're a famous runner off the telly or that you're in Ancient Rome and you're running back from a battlefield with some vital news about the battle - and the whole of civilisation is counting on you to deliver the message! It all helps, the sillier the better - I even used to do something like pull out my favourite pair of running shorts, and put some decent fake tan on my legs, so that once I was running and the muscles had all warmed up, I could occasionally look down at my tanned legs working well and looking good - just for a mental boost! Sounds crazy but often works if you're not feeling up for it...

Hydration. An oft over-discussed topic. There are no massively right or wrong answers to it, as we are all different. However, I could not go for a run of any distance without fluids. It may be that on short local runs, I probably didn't need it - but the power of placebo being able to have a swift drink to refresh my mouth probably worked wonders. On long runs, it is vital. You lose a lot of fluids, and you don't have to lose much to become de-hydrated and your performance and recovery times WILL be affected. As a rough guide, if you do start to feel a little thirsty or get a dry mouth, you are already WAY past the line of hydration and you won't get your levels back to a proper state anytime soon. So - better to hydrate well beforehand, during and after training, and reap the benefits.

Longer / more intensive runs will also require some simple energy too, especially if you have low bodyfat. Basically, your body uses stored monosaccharide glucose for energy (called glycogen) first, which is stored in muscle tissue and your liver. Most people have up to an hour's worth, depending upon the activity. Once this is used, your body will break down fatty adipose tissue, and failing that will convert some muscle proteins into glucose (which you don't want).
So you want a simple carbohydrate source that is easily delivered, absorbed and respired by your body's cells. Also, especially on a long run on a hot day with you sweating lots, you should think about replacing some salts.
This can all be in your drink. Expensive sports drinks have all this, but are a bit of a rip-off. I (and from what I have read, many athletes) used to take out a litre bottle that was 2/3rds water, one third fresh orange juice, with half a teaspoon of salt. Tastes good, goes down lovely, stops you hitting the wall and buggering up a decent training session.

Blimey - I've just realised how long this post is! So better shut up, before I go onto a load of other things like clothing, the right trainers, and all kinds of random stuff!

I'll finish up with - don't train blindly and without purpose. Set a goal, draw up a loose schedule, set some targets along the way to measure your progress, and stick to / adapt it as you go. One last thing that I was taught when I was marathon training, which is a little miserable but really worked for me - to prevent muscle soreness, especially after a long / heavy one, is to plunge into a cold bath after stretching

Hope this monstrous essay helps!

[eric twinge]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Well, I'm old, fat, knackered and unfit now but from the age of around 25 to 37 I started using running to lose wieght, then as a fitness tool for motorbike racing - but after a while and getting to a decent level of fitness, I realised I loved running for running's sake, and so started to get quite serious about it.

Now I cannot run any more, due to having two operations on the same knee, and being told by the consultant after the second op (at 37) that I had so little articular cartilage left on the distal femur, that if I didn't stop running then I would be back for a full knee replacement before I was 45. So I went into a massive sulk / strop, stopped exercising and put on a million stones in weight...


Aaanyway, back to the thread. I reckon I was about the same ability as you - I developed a lovely 'up on my toes' style that prevented a lot of the shock going up through my joints, gave me fabulously strong and springy calves, never got any niggles, tightness or injuries (apart from the one above from crashing bloody race bikes) and meant that I could run either a decent pace on short runs, or have good endurance for long runs.

My PB's were 42 minute 10k's and 4 hour marathons.


You're doing everything right so far in my opinion - and using an HRM is essential too, to help measure gains and training rates. At my mid 30's age wise, I would train on long runs at between 140 and 150, recovery runs at 120 or below, and fartlek peaking up to around 175. Even at my fittest, a burst until I was knackered enough to feel sick never got my HR up to 190 - maybe 180 tops...but we're all different.

My resting pulse rate was also high 40's to early 50's, and occasionally I would wear my monitor to bed set to record the lowest rate - which sometimes dropped to around 30

One thing I did suffer with, which no-one ever tells you, is that due to the low resting HR and lack of body fat, I was freezing cold all the time - even in summer, lol! When I woke up in the mornings, jesus - I had to put on about a million layers to get out of bed!



Anyway, having had to often rest from bike injuries, and then pick up my fitness again down the line, I have also had to work hard to get back to a decent level, like you are.

My tips:

Don't rush it, however frustrating it might feel sometimes. You will have good days and bad days. And it is better to have more rest days than not. Even though you think you will benefit from doing say 3 days training on the trot mentally, physically you will not run well on day 3. I have done some of my best times / distances on a run after not training for 5 or 6 days. Over-training just makes you feel tired and below par, your body feels unco-operative, you will then mentally feel and struggle with every single mile and the session will be wasted. On the other hand, a run after lots of rest usually results in getting into that beautiful 'zone' once you've warmed up and your aerobic system kicks in - where it all suddenly feels effortless, your lungs and CV system sings, your legs feel all springy and tight, and it feels like you could run forever. (This is a feeling that not many people experience unless they get REALLY fit - but it is beautiful, and I miss it lots).

ALWAYS stretch after every session. Yeah, boring and all that, especially after a long one. But the benefits outweigh the inconvenience, and you will benefit from the increased range of movement every time next time you run. It also helps to prevent cramps from lactic build-up. Amazingly I still used to see even seasoned runners doing very little stretching after an event - and / or with poor form.
Learn how to stretch properly (if you don't already) and practice good form when doing so - in the same way that you might practice good form when doing weights. It's pointless going into a stretch for only a second or two like some people. You need to get into the stretch, hold it, feel the resistance ebb away slowly, push it a little more, and carry on until the limb will not go any further. Then hold for at least 30 seconds - and then RELEASE SLOWLY! A decent stretching routine on the legs and hips should take a good 10 or 15 minutes.

Fartlek and intervals / hills, and mixing it all up. SO important. Anyone can get good at 'going for a run.' If all you do is go for the same run for the same distance at the same pace, then all you will get good at doing is going for the same run for the same distance at the same pace!
Our bodies are incredibly adaptable, and react quite quickly to a regular demand placed upon it.
Hence, our bodies will get to a certain level of fitness doing this regular thing, and the gains drop off. You need to continually surprise your body, both aerobically and anaerobically. Some of my best gains have been made by never doing the same thing twice in a week. So mix it up - even within the same training session.
Yes, if you are training for a marathon for instance, of course you need to run a few long 'uns maybe once or twice a week. But on other sessions, do slow runs, quick runs, some on the road, some cross-country, some fartlek, and use the local terrain to your advantage. For example, near me I have some short but steep hills, some blocks of steps leading down to a subway, roads, grass, gravel, and boggy bridleways. Sometimes I would do fartlek by sprinting up the steps and jogging gently back down. It all helps to surprise and condition your body.
One of the best little bits I used to run on which really helped, was a long grassy bank alongside a road. The bank is at maybe a 35 degree angle, so I would run along it first one way then the other. It meant that my ankles had to rotate to this angle with every footfall, and it really helped to build up the muscles supporting and stabilising my ankles, knees and hips. And because it was difficult to balance, it helped my core muscles too. Of course, you do need to be a bit careful to 'feel' each footfall and not fold / rotate your ankle under you and cause injury!

Do some stuff to make your runs more enjoyable / tolerable, for those times when you might not feel like it. By this I mean, take an ipod with some mental tunes which get you in the mood...get in the car and drive to a spot that is different from your local routes or in a nice place like a park or national trust forest...role-play something silly for fun, like pretending that you're a famous runner off the telly or that you're in Ancient Rome and you're running back from a battlefield with some vital news about the battle - and the whole of civilisation is counting on you to deliver the message! It all helps, the sillier the better - I even used to do something like pull out my favourite pair of running shorts, and put some decent fake tan on my legs, so that once I was running and the muscles had all warmed up, I could occasionally look down at my tanned legs working well and looking good - just for a mental boost! Sounds crazy but often works if you're not feeling up for it...

Hydration. An oft over-discussed topic. There are no massively right or wrong answers to it, as we are all different. However, I could not go for a run of any distance without fluids. It may be that on short local runs, I probably didn't need it - but the power of placebo being able to have a swift drink to refresh my mouth probably worked wonders. On long runs, it is vital. You lose a lot of fluids, and you don't have to lose much to become de-hydrated and your performance and recovery times WILL be affected. As a rough guide, if you do start to feel a little thirsty or get a dry mouth, you are already WAY past the line of hydration and you won't get your levels back to a proper state anytime soon. So - better to hydrate well beforehand, during and after training, and reap the benefits.

Longer / more intensive runs will also require some simple energy too, especially if you have low bodyfat. Basically, your body uses stored monosaccharide glucose for energy (called glycogen) first, which is stored in muscle tissue and your liver. Most people have up to an hour's worth, depending upon the activity. Once this is used, your body will break down fatty adipose tissue, and failing that will convert some muscle proteins into glucose (which you don't want).
So you want a simple carbohydrate source that is easily delivered, absorbed and respired by your body's cells. Also, especially on a long run on a hot day with you sweating lots, you should think about replacing some salts.
This can all be in your drink. Expensive sports drinks have all this, but are a bit of a rip-off. I (and from what I have read, many athletes) used to take out a litre bottle that was 2/3rds water, one third fresh orange juice, with half a teaspoon of salt. Tastes good, goes down lovely, stops you hitting the wall and buggering up a decent training session.

Blimey - I've just realised how long this post is! So better shut up, before I go onto a load of other things like clothing, the right trainers, and all kinds of random stuff!

I'll finish up with - don't train blindly and without purpose. Set a goal, draw up a loose schedule, set some targets along the way to measure your progress, and stick to / adapt it as you go. One last thing that I was taught when I was marathon training, which is a little miserable but really worked for me - to prevent muscle soreness, especially after a long / heavy one, is to plunge into a cold bath after stretching

Hope this monstrous essay helps!

Great post Ray, I'm going to copy this to a word doc and print it out and carry around to give me a bit of a 'push out of the door' when I don't feel like a run!

[MC Bodge]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Lots of stuff

Thanks for that!

Running has been something I've tried to get back into on numerous occasions over the past decade or so, but have always quickly ended up with one injury or another.

This time I've been going about it more steadily, but I'm a bit wary about stepping up the intensity/distance too much. I'd like to get back to the sort of pace I could manage in the past, although I realise that my flat-out sprinting ability will never be what it was when I was 18.

This year I have improved my cycling fitness to somewhere near where I was a few years ago, mainly by mid-length riding at a mostly steady pace (with some sprint/hill effort sessions) on the road, commuting and outside of work, and more intense & variable mountain biking.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to do similar with my running and I'll be back to running for a couple of hours over the moors and edges. Fingers crossed.