Tips

Spring is in the air! This morning I heard the birds chirping at 5 am. As much as I wanted to throw one of my running shoes at them, I just got up and started my day. Anyways I’m getting off task… Spring is near which means a lot are people are starting to think about getting more active and lose a few of those winter pounds. A about a week or so ago I got a tweet from one of my followers interested in starting running this is what the tweet said.

I gave her some tips right off back but I decide to write this post to give tips I wish somebody would have gave me when I started running.

First: Don’t be nervous! Take that nervous energy and turn it into excitement as you embark on a new journey. Congratulations for trying something new!

Shoes: Get the best shoes that you can afford the first time around. If you are serious about running this the most important piece of equipment that you will have, I suggest going to the local running store and have them measure your feet and analyze your gait (the way you walk). I know when I got my first pair of running shoes; I tried on at least 4-5 pairs of shoes and ran on the treadmill with each of them on. It’s an experience I suggest everyone go through at least once, It’s a great learning experience plus I’ve found that the smaller running store have better customer service than the big box shoe stores.

Start off slow: Once you have new running shoes you might be eager to hit the ground running (Yes, pun intended). Take it easy grasshopper especially if this is your first time getting active in a while. Sometimes ours mind (I know mine did) play tricks on us to think we still got it from our athletic days when we were younger. I don’t know how to break this to you, but you don’t have it anymore. If you have a smart phone I suggest an app called Couch to 5K or C25k there are different renditions of it but the free one should suffice. I’m telling you that from experience because I bought about five different ones and they are pretty much the same.

Keep the chafe at bay:  I put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in this journey. Chafing is where most of my tears came from. If you have thick thighs and jelly rolls like myself chafing becomes a common problem you may have with your new active life. I suggest that you pick up some Body Glide or some other anti-chafe, trust me it will save you some tears.

Stay hydrated: One of the ways that you can tell that someone is a running, is to look in their kitchen cabinet and count how many water bottles they have. If they have more than 6, that person is more to be likely a runner. The normal convention is to drink 8 glasses of water a day. I feel like that convention goes out of the window when running or being more active. A good way to decide how much water to have is to take your weight, 300 lbs  turn that number into ounces, 300 oz and drink half of that in water, 150 oz  Another piece of advice is to have a water bottle on you at all times, fill it up, and drink up.Set a timer if you have to.  If you have a problem with remembering drinking water, follow the #watercheck hashtag on twitter. When you see #watercheck in your twitter stream, drink up.

Don’t forget to stretch: One of the things I did not do a lot of was stretching and I paid for it with very very very tight muscles. Don’t follow my lead on this please stretch. The convention is to do dynamic stretching before you run and static stretching after you run.

There you have it folks a few tips for all you aspiring runners. Now it’s your turn to weigh in… What advice would you give a new runner? What advice do you wish you had before started running? If you are thinking about starting running soon what advice from today’s post do you think is the most beneficial for you?