Did you start Couch to 5K during lockdown? Did you fall in love with running? Or do you need motivating? Here are our top tips as runners.
Walk – You heard us. Walk to warm up, loosen your muscles, and prime your joints for the activity of running. If you walk the first five to 10 minutes of your workout, especially if it’s early in the morning, or you’ve been sitting at a desk for hours, it’s easier on your body and you’ll find your rhythm more quickly.
Go slower – Not walking this time. We mean find your sustainable pace. This is the pace you can run at easily and most of your runs should be at this level of effort. Once or twice a week you can do the speedwork and tempo runs, which train your body to get faster. Running this way reduces your risk of injury and burnout. The sustainable pace should be slow enough to maintain a conversation without huffing and puffing, but not so slow you can sing your favourite song!
Find your time of day – We all have a natural body clock. Try running at different times until you find the perfect workout hour for you.
Eat wholesome carbs beforehand – The meal you eat before your run should be the most carb rich one of the day (think fruit, veg and wholegrains rather than chocolate cake!), so your body has plenty of ready-to-burn fuel. Obviously don’t eat JUST before you run…but you knew that, right?
Make it recreational – Choose a great playlist, or your favourite audio book or podcast. Or run with a friend to catch up on all the gossip or put the world to rights. This is your time, and it should be enjoyable, so you’ll look forward to it and want to keep doing it.
~ Izzy Holden and Susan Brown