Welcome to the TEAM Elwood running series! This is designed for people who have never run before, or have had a history of running but haven't strapped on the boots for a long period of time.
Objectives week 1:
Stay pain free.
It's easy to go too hard too early when starting a running habit, particularly if you're remembering what you've done in the past. If you've not run for a loooong time, introducing just 1 or 2 runs a week is certainly enough conditioning on your body to make improvements. Too much overload with an unfamiliar movement can lead to knee pain, shin splints and other niggling injuries that have the potential to impact running journey. "You're better off being undercooked than overcooked". You can always put toast back in the toaster, but you can't unburn it!
Don't focus on having to run for X minutes or X km's.
Running isn't about having to run consistently for 30 minutes or for 5 kms. Run/walk should be a key feature of any beginner run program, following something called PRE - Perceived rating of exertion.
For example - you're setting out on a 20 minute run. if you're perceiving your intensity is an 8 out of 10 or more, its probably time to walk for a bit, until your heart rate drops and the burning sensation in your legs drops off. For some, it might mean running 20 steps then walking 20 steps for 20 minutes; for others it may be a short 30 second walk halfway through - but guaranteed it will be different for every beginner runner.
The aim is to gradually increase the amount of running steps each week.
Benchmark session
If you have a body composition goal, taking data like girth measurements or body weight will give you baseline data to measure your progress against. If your goal is pushups, you see how many you can do initially and improve on that number.
The Benchmark session is the running equivalent. On this running program, week 1 involves a benchmark of 6 x 500 m efforts. Again, this doesn't mean you have to run the whole way! its simply how quickly you can get from point A to point B, and for some, that may include some walking.
E.g. If you go out way too hard, you might hit the wall at 100m and have to walk the next 400. That will be a slower interval than if you drop the pace slightly, run for 200m, walk 15 seconds, then run again. But use your PRE as above to see what the quickest way is to get from point A to B.
Stay tuned for more running tops over the coming days!
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