Today, Chloe is going to share some information that might help make the beginning of your running journey smoother and more enjoyable.
There are realities to running that a lot of people are unaware of when they first start out. When I worked as a personal trainer, I noticed over time that when people bumped up against these realities, they would often be stopped in their tracks or get quickly demoralised, their expectations dashed. This applied to me too - when I started running as a teenager 18 years ago, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and suffered the consequences.Â
Understanding the nature of the activity you are doing is important psychologically because it means you know roughly how to make a successful start of it and any barriers that come up make sense, rather than crushing your confidence or motivation. If you can also avoid common pitfalls such as early injury, you have a better chance of getting some momentum going and ultimately creating a habit.Â
So here are some pieces of information that I wish I had known as a beginner, and that as both a personal trainer and psychologist I feel are beneficial in making your introduction to running as smooth as possible.Â
1) Running is hard. If you’ve come from another sport that involves running or regular cardiovascular exercise this may not apply to you, but if you haven’t then finding you can barely run for 2 minutes is not actually surprising. Running is one of the most intense forms of cardiovascular exercise simply because it is relatively whole-body and involves a lot of eccentric load (where your muscles have to lengthen under control to absorb impact). In fact, it’s estimated that you are absorbing roughly 4-5 times your bodyweight through each leg as you land, so your muscles are working hard (and you may be sore for the first couple of weeks of doing it for that reason - all normal).
I’m telling you this because if you do end up struggling to get to 2 minutes without understanding why, it can be pretty demoralising. Confidence comes from setting reasonable expectations and then meeting them, so knowing this in advance can help you to adjust your expectations according to where you are at. All you need to do is intersperse bouts of running with walking and slowly increase the length of the running intervals, and you’ll improve surprisingly quickly.
2) A lot of people also go out too fast on their first run, meaning they get puffed and uncomfortable really quickly. Slow down, to the point where it feels too easy at the start. Not only do you lower your injury risk this way but you will have a more enjoyable experience than if you go flat-out and feel like you’re dying. Creating enjoyable experiences is helpful if you want to make running a habit that you look forward to engaging in, and once you’ve established a good baseline then you’re in a better position to pursue more intense efforts.
3) Your fitness improves while you RECOVER, NOT during the run. During the run you’re stressing your cardiovascular system and breaking your muscles down, which provides the stimulus for adaptation and growth but only if you allow it to by resting. So don’t be tempted to jump into daily runs for weeks on end - it’s something you can work up to if you wish (and there are always those lucky few who dive right in and seem invincible to injury!), but it does put you at risk of injury in the beginner phase, not to mention you can end up overly fatigued and demotivated. This is particularly important for the perfectionists out there who want to do more and more very quickly - just remember that to get the best out of yourself physically you need to look after your foundations.Â
4) You will find with running that the way your body feels and performs will fluctuate from day to day, sometimes incomprehensibly. There are many, many factors that influence how our body feels and functions on a given day that are impossible to quantify and often go unnoticed. Sleep, nutrition, daily movement, stress, hormones, hydration, environment, cognitive load (i.e. how much you are having to think about), emotions, physical health, recovery status… these are just the first examples that came to me. And of course they can interact with each other, meaning we are fundamentally in a position of not knowing when it comes to exactly what’s going on with our bodies.
This is important if you are someone who is quick to criticise yourself and jump to negative conclusions if things don’t go to plan. In the short-term, the reality is that there are just things going on you aren’t aware of, it’s not that you’re suddenly doomed to stagnate or regress. Of course in the long-term if you find yourself plateauing or feeling consistently rubbish then there is something holding you back that requires more attention than you’re giving it. But in the short-term, the best thing to do is identify any obvious factors that might explain how you’re feeling, take any action you feel needs to be taken and then just move on.Â
Chloe
Psychology of Movement

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