Whats next?? (Read 971 times)

Welcome to running, Meg.  Here's a similar thread from another new runner, which might be worth reading.  Slow steady progress is a common theme.

http://www.runningahead.com/forums/post/07d265d706194ad782edce1e9465e48f

Good luck with your training.  You sure have a great attitude - that alone will take you far.

MTA: Fixed link.

 OK, Nobby415----Thank you for welcoming me to running! I am excited, but if I am being honest..I am completely overwhelmed...who knew there was SO much to learn...It's a whole other world. I am intimidated. I don't have any intentions of running a race (at this point in my life) so I guess I just want to run safely and continue to lose weight and get healthier. But I really do feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment with distance and time for that matter. There were parts of your message that weren't very clear to me. (sorry, newbie here!)

So you are suggesting 4x a week right? at minimum?

Wow, I guess your right. "I've run 3 miles..."

Then you are suggesting bump my 3 up to 4 and then take a day off? Or run 1 mile the next day?? Damn I am lost. I can't believe how much there is to learn here....

So short easy runs will help me to recover as well as make me stronger..? I will do a short or long one this morning...hmmmm?

 

Thanks for taking the time with me.

Augh!!!  I had just written a really good stuff here but it's got sucked into the cyber black hole!!  Hate when that happens...  At any rate, no worries about my being unclear; I'm known for that!! ;o)  Okay, so here's the thing...

When I say 4 times a week is minimum, it's sort of rebeling against today's popular notion of 3 times max type of thinking.  That's total BS!  Some people seem to think, or would like to think and promote, that, if you run more than 3 times a week or more than 30 miles a week, the rist of getting injured would double and triple.  BS!!  Nonesense.  The chance of getting injured goes up if you don't listen to your body and just follow a schedule blindly or run unnaturally or not give your body a chance to get stronger (like limiting the frequency of workouts to 3 intead of 5 or 6 or 7).  I personally prefer constructing training program basedon time, not mileage; I said 3 miles simply because you refered your running as "3 miles" etc...  I would suggest a training plan of somehing in the effect of:

Sunday:  the longest run of the week of 40~60 minutes (that would be about 3~4 miles???) at easy pace

Monday:  easy 15 minutesfor recovery

Tuesday:  20 minutes jog

Wednesday:  medium longish run of 30~40 minutes over undulating course if you have a choice

Thursday:  rest or cross training if you want

Friday:  easy 10 minutes as warm-up; then do some strides (explained later)

Saturday:  easy 20 minutes

You always want to fractuate the duration/effort to hard/easy pattern--of, if necessary, hard/easy/easy...  Basically, you want a workout to develop followed by however many easy days to recovery before you engage yourself with another workout (we call it "point workout").  If you're running 3 to 4 times a week, up to 3 miles at, say, about 12~14-minute pace, 20 minutes should feel relatively easy; 30 normal and 40 a bit testing???  If this is the case, basically, throwing 20-minutes here and there, you should feel refreshed and eager to go on those long run days.  Running over a hilly area would strengthen your legs and teaches you more economical form.  Don't push the pace to go up fast.  Keep your back straight, look up and push, push, push...  You don't want to think about just merely bringing your foot up and forward.  This tends to "crush" your hip and can't generate power from your torso-hips-back leg all in one straight line to push off.  Don't even worry about "pumping your arms" to help going up.  If anything, just lower your arms and relax so as to teach your legs to do all the work and push, push, push...

Strides should be done like this: make sure you take VERY EASY jogging as a warm-up, just to loosen up.  Then go to a flat area, slightly downhill if it's not completely flat.  Don't be afraid to do this on pavement.  If anything, when your legs, particularly around your ankles and shins, are not quite strong enough, if you do this over grassy uneven area, you may possibly twist your ankles around too much.  Pavement is smoother; if you have an access to local school track, that would be best.  Count "one" every time your right foot (or left if you prefer!) hits the ground; so with a count of "one", you're taking 2 steps.  Usually that would be about 2.5~3m so 20 counts would be about 50~60m.  So run fast, only slightly faster than your usual run pace at first, over this; don't stop abruptly, just stop running fast and naturally let it decelerate; go around and jog back to the start.  Don't rush it.  You should take at least 2 to 3 minutes for recovery.  If you're using a school track, run fast over 100m straight (a bit longer...) and jog around the rest of the track (300m).  Or if you're just running fast over 50m, do 50m (half the straight) and go around all around the first bend (150m) and do the next 50m straight fast.  The point is; recover well.  You may not think you're running fast; but THINK FAST.  You can't do it that way if you're thinking about yourself as a jogger.  Think of yourself as being Usain Bolt.  Look up, run tall.  Get your back straight and push off the ground strongly; bring your knees up high...  Swing your arms straight front and back...  If you check Usain Bolt running on YouTube or something, watch him run from the side.  There's none of those slouching shoulders or looking down on the ground.  No side sway of the arms or clintching the fists.  Get the image of him moving his legs in a circular movement instead of swinging your legs front and back like a pendulum.  If you do that, you tend to land hard on your heel (like Jerad on that cute Subway commercial with 3 Kenyans talking--THAT is a typical BAD image of running form).  Get up high; run tall....  Do this 3 times; take a bit longer greak and repeat 3 times more.  So total of 6 times but it's easier psychologically to break it down in 2 sets of 3.  You may want to start with 2 sets of 2 and see how your legs feel.  You'll be banging your legs quite hard doing it this way so you may want to be more conservative at first.

it is amazing how much there are to learn about running.  I just got an e-mail this morning from a director of MDRA (Minnesota Distance Running Assocciation) about next spring's Beginning Women's Running Class.  I've been involved with this program in the past 6 years.  It's a 8-week program, each class is 2 hours, with the first hour talking and the second hour actually running (not the entire hour!).  We try to bring in a different speaker to cover different topic such as "simple physiology", "nutrition", "form", "equipment", "motivation and inspiration"...  It is amazing that we actually run out of time!!  That's 8-hours of spending one hour on each topic and we just don't enough time to cover everything!!  But at the same time, don't be overwhelmed.  The main thing is; try to learn to listen to  your body.  Running itself is supposed to hone your ability to do so.  So don't listen to any of those so-called "internet experts".  I may tell you to run everyday but if you felt that's too much, don't.  But don't do so just because you read it somewhere ("no more than 3 times a week...") or you think so in your head.  Listen to what your body's telling you.  If it's screaming "Enough!!", take it easy.  But if you felt surge of energy, continue!!  If some shoe expert at a local store tells you that you should have the thickest and bulkiest and most expensive shoes because "you're running all wrong", don't listen to them but talk to your feet and see how they feel about shoes.  They may have the best features in the world but the shoe itself may not even fit your feet!!  And most importantly, HAVE FUN!!  If running is no longer fun, don't do it.  Life is too short--it's not worth it.  Good luck!!

PS: HappyFeet did a good job (and shorter).  Thanks!!

PS: HappyFeet did a good job (and shorter).  Thanks!!

Wait, frank posted in this thread??

 

Wait, frank posted in this thread??

Hey, I'm just trying to be nice to this beautiful young lady and wrote extra long post.  Don't mess with me!! ;o)

heh, flatuate

Welcome to running Meg!