There are a number of good beginner running plans available on the web and in sports magazines but very few are geared to suit the needs of the fat, overweight or severely unfit runner.
When I started out running, I was full of motivation, I’d been cycling for ages considered myself pretty fit, if a tad overweight at 18 ½ stone for 5’ 4” woman. I was eager to lick this running malarkey into shape and move from fat to fit.
I armed myself with the Runners World run/walk program, headed out to the river bank under cover of the extremely early morning gloom and started a 30 sec run which was to be followed by a 1 minute rest and then repeated. Over and over.
My lungs burned, my breath escaped me and I barely made it to the end of my first 30 second stint.
I repeated this about 3 times until I quit and wobbled home on a pair of thighs that felt as though they’d been brutally tenderised. My legs were shredded so badly that I couldn’t actually make it into work the next day. I lived in a 3rd floor flat and I just couldn’t support my weight to descend the stairs. I was trapped in my flat after running the sum total of 90 seconds, and this is on the foundation of 100 miles of cycling every week. I was flabbergasted.
The plan was supposed to get me up to 30 mins of continuous running within 8 weeks but I couldn’t even walk down an incline for a week after I started – I was stuck on week 1 for about 8 weeks.
The problem was pace. I tried to run before I could walk or at least run before I could jog at an exceedingly slow pace. My advice is to start slower than you think is possible and throw out the schedules until you’ve caught the habit.
Beginner Running Plan – Step 1
Plot a route – go out and walk it
I’m a gadget freak and often recommend the latest can’t live without gadgets but its all icing and absolutely not needed and is certainly no excuse for delaying the start of your program. If you want to know how far it is try the simple (and free) web app – mapmyrun.
Walk out a route that takes approx 60 mins, which will equate to about 5km, give or take.
Choose the prettiest, private yet safe route you can but make sure its close to home or work so you don’t add to your list of excuses.
Beginner Running Plan – Step 2
Go out the next day and walk it again but a bit faster
Beginner Running Plan – Step 3
Start to run when you feel up to it but immediately slow the pace until you think this is so slow I may as well just walk – but stick at it.
Go as far as you are comfortable and then walk – don’t stop. Continue and run slowly again when you are ready.
That’s it for steps – you’re a runner now. You just need to make this habitual and commit to doing this route at least 4 times a week.
I would recommend timing the route and recording it – not necessarily to encourage internal competition but it does make for a satisfying progress report when you’ve been at it a while.
I recommend that at the very beginning you do this phase alone, company will be useful when you’ve defined your own desire to keep running. At this stage you don’t need anyone else’s excuses to hold you back or encourage you off course. Within weeks you’ll be committed and loving it.
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