Trying to see if anyone has a routine for someone totally new to running. I’m a big fan of “this week do this, build up to do this, etc…” I’m in my thirties and from a young age until I was about 20 I had severe asthma. I’ve never been good at running. Asthma doesn’t bother me anymore but I’m needing something to do while traveling for work. I work construction all across the state and come home on the weekends.
If anyone has some ideas that would be great. When I do stuff I tend to over do it then it then it’s hard to make myself go out again.
My biggest advice is to track your heart rate somehow. Even cheap, crappy smart-ish watches can do it. Many people come out of the gate way too fast. If you are out for a jog, and your heart rate is in the 180’s, you’ll probably feel like crap the next day. It can be good to have runs that push your limits occasionally, but most of the time, you want to keep your heart rate steady and lower than you’d think. Feel free to walk if you feel your heart rate is too high. From there, you can decide what your goals actually are. For example, if you want to run a marathon, you’ll obviously have different training needs than if you are looking to PR a mile.
Lastly, figure out how good your running form is. Everyone knows how to run, so no one ever puts much thought into their form. Every day, I see people running with really inefficient form that has to be hard on their joints. It’s tricky to adjust form, but certainly possible
I’ll look into finding some kind of a watch. The first and only smart watch I ever owned I forgot to take it off and melted the screen while welding. Decided they weren’t for me.
I’m pretty sure my form is bad. My walking form is bad. I fractured my leg right under my knee in a dirt bike crash. I thought I just sprained my knee so never thought anything of it. Took about a year for the pain to go away but I basically re-learned how to walk to compensate for the pain. So I tend to walk with a limp even though it doesn’t hurt anymore and I have people ask all the time why I’m limping. It’s something I have to think about all the time to try to walk normal. After a hike my wife is like “my calves are sore” and I’m always like “weird my thighs are sore right above my knees”
Can you recommend any guides or videos on a proper running form?
If you decide you do want a watch, my wife loves her Garmin. It comes with running training software/program for free which she used to train for a 10k and then a half marathon. She found not having to program for herself to be very valuable and motivating. It’s not one of the top tier ones but it does everything she needs.