Mark Vlahos
Contributor
There are about a million different strategies to running. I have looked and I found one I am happy with.
First a little background. I am now 45 years old and at 6 0 and 216 lbs. I need to work at loosing some fat, and gaining some muscle. When I was in High School I was rail thin and was on the Track and Cross Country teams, I enjoyed running, but suffered a few relatively minor but memorable injuries to my knees. With these memories of sore knee joints I wanted to start training with a plan, and not just go out and run til it hurt. Also, at 45 I need to worry about the old cardiac muscle more than I did at age 15.
My research lead me to the book The Beginning Runner's Handbook and the qualities of the program it espouses. The program is built around a nice gradual 13 week time frame that takes a reasonably healthy couch potato from their starting condition to being able to run in a 10K. I am not interested in competing so I dont really care about 10K races, I just want to be fit enough to run that distance without fear of injury. The program starts out very gradually and lays out general goals, but provides specific workouts for the entire course. The workouts are entirely based on time and not distance, so they are easier to fit into a busy schedule.
One of the main goals of the program is to prevent joint injury. It starts out with lots of walking and short bits of running, eventually adding more running time while decreasing the walking time. You will be doing a workout 3 days a week for the entire 13 week course. This program is gradual enough that your heart, other muscles, and joints can build up to the longer workouts slowly.
My problems in the past with trying to start a running regimen has always been that I have started too aggressively, the idea of no pain, no gain has not worked for me.
I am in week 7 right now, and can strongly recommend this program. They also have a 13 week walking program to take an unfit person to a position where they can start the jog walk program, as well as a 13 week program to get you running that 10K faster. Lets face it 3, 6, or 9 months is a pretty gradual process.
My only complaint about the workouts is the relatively complex timing needed to follow each different days workout. My final solution was to just record sound files that tell me when to run or when to walk and play them on my iPod. It is like a stopwatch in my ear. I like to relax when I run so I dont like constantly looking at my watch to follow an exact timetable, unfortunately these workouts do require some pretty specific clock watching, since these workouts are all built around how long you workout and not distance. My little sound files completely solved this problem and allow me to Zen out and just go.
Thank you SportMedBC,
Mark Vlahos
First a little background. I am now 45 years old and at 6 0 and 216 lbs. I need to work at loosing some fat, and gaining some muscle. When I was in High School I was rail thin and was on the Track and Cross Country teams, I enjoyed running, but suffered a few relatively minor but memorable injuries to my knees. With these memories of sore knee joints I wanted to start training with a plan, and not just go out and run til it hurt. Also, at 45 I need to worry about the old cardiac muscle more than I did at age 15.
My research lead me to the book The Beginning Runner's Handbook and the qualities of the program it espouses. The program is built around a nice gradual 13 week time frame that takes a reasonably healthy couch potato from their starting condition to being able to run in a 10K. I am not interested in competing so I dont really care about 10K races, I just want to be fit enough to run that distance without fear of injury. The program starts out very gradually and lays out general goals, but provides specific workouts for the entire course. The workouts are entirely based on time and not distance, so they are easier to fit into a busy schedule.
One of the main goals of the program is to prevent joint injury. It starts out with lots of walking and short bits of running, eventually adding more running time while decreasing the walking time. You will be doing a workout 3 days a week for the entire 13 week course. This program is gradual enough that your heart, other muscles, and joints can build up to the longer workouts slowly.
My problems in the past with trying to start a running regimen has always been that I have started too aggressively, the idea of no pain, no gain has not worked for me.
I am in week 7 right now, and can strongly recommend this program. They also have a 13 week walking program to take an unfit person to a position where they can start the jog walk program, as well as a 13 week program to get you running that 10K faster. Lets face it 3, 6, or 9 months is a pretty gradual process.
My only complaint about the workouts is the relatively complex timing needed to follow each different days workout. My final solution was to just record sound files that tell me when to run or when to walk and play them on my iPod. It is like a stopwatch in my ear. I like to relax when I run so I dont like constantly looking at my watch to follow an exact timetable, unfortunately these workouts do require some pretty specific clock watching, since these workouts are all built around how long you workout and not distance. My little sound files completely solved this problem and allow me to Zen out and just go.
Thank you SportMedBC,
Mark Vlahos
