Easing back into things

[1averagejoe]

Once again, how do you eat and drink before running? This plays a big role in how you will do.

Also if you don't have a heart rate monitor, try keeping yourself at a pace where you're just starting to breathe harder and sweat and still able to talk if you had to. This is roughly where your target heart range is. If it's hard to talk...you're pushing too hard.

Try doing a mile for a week, the following week try adding a mile or half if you can't do that. Continue to do that, also keep in mind try to take recovery days if you felt you really pushed yourself one day. You don't want to over train, it will really screw you over. What will happen is you'll just start going downhill if you do. Things will get harder and harder and you'll end up plateauing, getting bored, and stop running. That's kind of what happened to me in high school my senior year.

[anachronistic]

It's a common misconception for beginners that if I push myself to the point where I feel like I'm going to throw up I'll get faster.

I haven't been running *that* hard, but once I finish I am out of breath. I stretch and then walk for a little while before I start jogging. Yesterday when I ran, it was all about keeping pace. I had to stop though because my feet really started hurting from absorbing too much shock from running. This morning I'll try something a little differently. Trial and error. I am trying to run while it is still dark out because I would be embarrassed if someone saw me

Once again, how do you eat and drink before running? This plays a big role in how you will do.

Also if you don't have a heart rate monitor, try keeping yourself at a pace where you're just starting to breathe harder and sweat and still able to talk if you had to. This is roughly where your target heart range is. If it's hard to talk...you're pushing too hard.

Try doing a mile for a week, the following week try adding a mile or half if you can't do that. Continue to do that, also keep in mind try to take recovery days if you felt you really pushed yourself one day. You don't want to over train, it will really screw you over. What will happen is you'll just start going downhill if you do. Things will get harder and harder and you'll end up plateauing, getting bored, and stop running. That's kind of what happened to me in high school my senior year.

I don't eat anything before I run. I drink a little bit of water. I hate getting stomach cramps when I run, so I don't eat anything. Plus I am getting up at like 5 in the morning to go running. Any earlier is just too early... for now anyway. When the sun starts rising around 9 am, I will have more time to eat beforehand. After I ran yesterday, I had breakfast, which was half of a chopped up cucumber, an ounce of carrots, and two ears of corn. Then I didn't eat anything from then until the afternoon.

I don't have a heart pace monitor, but I am trying to keep an estimated pace. Sometimes I do some sprinting though, to get warmed up.

[1averagejoe]

For stretching, do a light warmup routine first, just to get your legs warm and start sweating. Once you start sweating then stretch.

Like I said if you can't talk...you're over your target heart range. You'll burn more fat in your target heart range than you will above it. It may feel like you're not doing enough, but sure enough you'll be losing fat just as fast if not faster than if you were pushing yourself. Plus you'll build endurance quicker and won't burn out and plateau. Take it a little easier, keep a steady pace where you can still talk but your breathing has become a little harder.

You should at least be hydrating properly before any workout. Even for 30 minutes of running you'll notice the difference. I like to eat a bagel with a little bit of cream cheese and drink at 16ounces (one bottle) of water an hour before working out. Hydrating before is very important, not so much eating unless you're doing long runs/rides where you'll end up hitting a wall from being malnourished, happened to me two weeks ago on my bike. I felt like I was going to pass out, throw up, and could hardly pedal even on flat ground. When I got home I hit the bed and fell asleep for about 4 hours, this was in the middle of the day. But hydrate yourself before running. You'll notice the difference.

And seriously now, you got to be kidding me when you say you're embarrassed of someone seeing you. It's better than people thinking you're a fatass that doesn't work out.