We are made to run, to put one foot in front of the other and just go! Yet many of us have a hard time starting. It’s so simple, so fundamental, yet often so challenging emotionally, mentally, or physically.
Here are some simple thoughts to help you out the door and on your way to a lifetime of joy on the run! These posts are an outgrowth of Batesville’s annual Women Run Arkansas running clinics. They have been updated through my Rundamentals coaching days and now are offered as the underpinnings of the “Plus” part of OK Timing Plus.
After coaching the 2011 WRA clinic, I helped several ladies who had established a lifetime habit. As we went along, I wrote this series with advice for beginners, strategies for improving and notes on injury prevention. My wife, Suzy, also wrote a number of running posts in her blog from the new runner’s perspective.
Each post stands alone, but if you read them in order, they’ll take you through the journey from “couch” to “can’t get enough”:
- First steps: Let’s begin.
- Best foot forward: Choosing shoes.
- On balance: Getting it together.
- Efficiency in a nutshell: Keep it simple.
- Making honey: It’s easy if you do it naturally.
- Against a sea of troubles: Handling or avoiding injuries.
- A turn to tables: Safe mileage increase and hydration charts.
- Hurry up and wait: Patience! This takes time.
- Fast talk: How to improve.
- The more the merrier: Get yourself a posse.
- A bit of a stretch: Guiding principles and key areas to work on
- Getting up to speed: 8-week mile speed training schedule
- We need more speed: What do all those numbers mean? How does that training schedule work?