Forums >Running 101>Doing other Stuff yet Back to Running
I've had my ups and downs in life like anyone else and have kept stopping and starting running again. Recently I've been starting running again and am trying to do it on my own because I ride my bicycle everywhere and its hard to always get to where others are running especially with all the other exercising and bicycling I do. I want to run but I end up doing a slow jog or a mix of walking and running. I guess that's fine to start. If I had the motivation of other people doing it with me I bet I could do better. I am often sore from my job at Brookside Gardens which involves a lot of heavy lifting and me riding my bicycle everywhere including to buy groceries. What I've been doing to try to change is go for a walk or jog first thing in the morning right after drinking water, checking my heart rate, weight, and sleep and logging it on this website. I also have been walking after meals. I track exercise duration of all kinds as one and the same because I tried and its just too tedious to map everywhere I bike and track when I'm lifting things or walking briskly around brookside gardens. I also do a lot of volunteer gardening. Most of my running experience went without recording anything anyway. Even recording general exercise can be a little tedious and difficult to make accurate with forgetting to start the watch and turn it off though I am trying to do it. I live a very frugal lifestyle and could not hire a coach or fancy watches. I am running for my personal fitness right now. I am trying to read Daniels book about making running plans though that is a work in progress. My log is open to the public though I've only stated recording this week though there was a previous time when I was a member of the Striders when I lived elsewhere and had to record on this website. Any suggestions are appreciated.
SMART Approach
You are on the right track. There is no rush.....keep doing what you are doing. Mixing in walking with running is perfectly fine and over time you walk less and run more and longer. Get into the habit.....be gradual with your progress and let your body get adjusted to the extra pounding.Once you can run multiple days per week without needing to walk and are feeling more fit......then you can start implementing some principles from Daniels book. For now, just move and run and get fit. Logging your runs is great and makes you accountable. Maybe find a 5K race in the Fall to have a goal to shoot for. You can do this. Just make the commitment. Good luck.
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
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Thank you. I have taken your words to heart.
Trails
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with walking. I walk my 50ks and am training for a 50 milers. Yolana Holder did the 3100 mile Sri Chimnoy last year and completed it..3100 miles of walking in 52 days. If walking works for you do that.
Yes I agree, walking is important too. Also I'd like to that what you wrote is very inspiring, I went right for a walk after I read this.
Things that you do in daily life do count as exercise. As a case in point, a friend (let's call him Mr Hyper), age about 60, used to bore people by claiming that, while he never exercised, he had perfect health. Perfect weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, everything. He never used his office, he was always walking somewhere. So one day, I persuaded him to put a pedometer in his pocket. In one day, midnight to midnight, he walked over 28,000 steps.
I explained that all that walking counted as exercise, it amounted to about 14 miles, which was about 100 miles per week. I compared it to the amount of training that ultramarathoners do. He thought for a bit, then asked if that would explain why he and his son ran the guide into the ground when they last went elk hunting.
After that, he stopped claiming he never exercised. But he put a pedometer app on his cell phone, and started boring people by bragging about how many steps he had done so far that day.
BTW, an ultramarathoner once claimed that he had found the perfect job. He worked for a lawn care company, and volunteered to be the person to use the walk behind lawnmower. He got paid to exercise all day.
Good for you! Walking is something you can do everyday. The various speed works (intervals, fartleks, etc) can all be adapted to a walking routine and so can long distances. You can do hill work, you can do a run/walk, you can even build towards continuous running if that's your goal. Just get out there no matter how you do it.