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Beginners

Start by Walking.
Everyone needs to feel comfortable and successful right from the start. Begin by walking for 30 minutes. Keep doing this until it feels easy.

Walk Briskly.
When normal walking becomes easy, walk briskly for 30 minutes and monitor your heart rate every 5-8 minutes. If it seems below the target zone, pick up the pace. Many people will never want or need to go beyond a brisk walk, provided they can maintain their target pulse rate.

Insert a Few "Jogs."
When you are comfortable walking briskly and want to step up the pace, simply insert 3-4 "jogs" of 100 yards or so (about the length of one football field or a city block) into your 30-minute walk. Warm up by walking slowly, build into a brisk walk and then do the short jogs when you feel ready.

Increase the Running as Desired.
Increase the running segments as you feel stronger, always avoiding discomfort. You may eventually fill in the 30 minutes with slow running - or you may keep your walking breaks. You're using the running to push the heart rate above the threshold and the walking to keep from getting uncomfortable.

Step It Up.
Increase the time to 40 minutes three times a week. Work up to 60 minutes for one of these weekly sessions, which will increase the cardiovascular as well as mental benefits. Don't underestimate the effect of rewards. Small regular rewards for specific accomplishments will often spark interest when motivation is down. Promise yourself something - a dinner out, a new pair of shoes, a good book - for finishing each of the five steps above, for when you finally put in your first hour-long session, etc. If you feel "down," find yourself a positive experience or see someone who will bring you up. Look for something good in every run. When you're in shape, you begin to think differently about yourself and your life. It's always hard to shake off the sedentary lifestyle, and the adjustment period - once you do - is difficult. But if you make it through this period, an addiction often occurs which makes the activity self-sustaining. So have faith! Better times are coming. Be patient and enjoy yourself.

The Five Stages of a Runner

The Beginner: Stage One: Making the Break
Every beginning is precarious. There you are, perched on the edge of starting something entirely new, yet there are distractions, even criticisms, that cause detours and dead ends. You want to be more healthy and fit, but you may not realize how secure you've become in an inactive world. Each time you go out for a run you encounter a new side of yourself - one that must somehow be integrated into your daily life.

There is usually a struggle within and without. The old lifestyle is there and offers security. When the energy of "beginning" wears off, it's harder to motivate yourself to go out for that daily run. You'll face a lot of obstacles at first. It's all too easy to stop when the weather turns cold, when it rains or snows, or when you feel the aches and pains of starting. You haven't had to deal with these things before and the temptation to quit is strong.

Your running may also be threatening to your less active friends. Eventually you - the beginner - and your non-running friends work it out. The transition period, however, can be unstable and uncomfortable for both. If you falter, the old world - comfortable in many ways - is waiting for you to slip back in. If you're lucky enough to make new friends who share similar fitness goals, you'll probably find refuge in the "fit" world while you gain your "running security."

Social reinforcement makes it easier to establish the fitness habit. One good approach is to find a group that meets regularly. Or you can make a pact with a friend who drags you out on bad days and vice versa. Races and fun runs are great opportunities to meet people.

At times you may not progress as fast as you expected. We Americans are traditionally hyperactive and impatient. When we plant a seed, we not only want it to grow, we want it to become a tree by next week. We want results. When you start, you want to see physical and psychological benefits. But if you push too hard, you can tire yourself out and end up quitting in frustration.

The seed of exercise - if you don't crush it - will survive periods of moisture and drought. Just when it seems to be drying up, it will spring to life, rejuvenated, and propel you further down the road. Don't be discouraged, even if you've stopped. Tomorrow's another day. Many beginners stop and start again 10 or 15 times before they get the habit established. Beginners who don't put pressure on themselves seem to have an easier time staying with it. If you simply walk/jog 30-40 minutes every other day, you'll find yourself gently swept along in a pattern of relaxation and good feeling. Your workout starts to become a special time for you. As you make progress you find within yourself the strength and security to keep going. At first you're "just visiting" that special world when you go out for a run. But gradually you begin to change. You get used to the positive relaxed feeling. Your body starts cleaning itself up, establishing muscle tone, circulating blood and oxygen more vigorously. One day you find you're addicted, and the beginner becomes a jogger.

The Jogger: Stage Two - Entering the New World
The jogger feels secure with running. It may be hard to start each day's run but, unlike the beginner, you can identify with those who are addicted. You may be intimidated by the "high achievers" - competitors and marathoners - but you have begun to understand the benefits of fitness and made a significant break with the old, non-fit world. The jogger's runs are satisfying in themselves. There is almost always a "glow" at the end of the run, a reward for the effort. If you miss a run you may feel guilty - a rare experience for the beginner. Beginners oftencomplain that they're bored while running, but joggers find this problem decreases and then disappears as their distances increase.

Rarely does a jogger have a plan or goal. Most run as a healthy diversion and don't feel the need to get anything more out of it. They just get out there when they can and do what they can. Those who do feel they need a plan often think they don't know enough to prepare one. They may pick up a few tips from a more experienced running friend or ideas from a running magazine. Unfortunately this often ends in frustration or injury because such plans are not based upon the jogger's own individual abilities and goals, but upon someone else's.

At first you probably needed a group or at least another person for motivation and direction. As a jogger you are a bit more independent. You'll prefer company to running alone, but you'll pick and choose your group with care. Most beginners seek anonymity within a group while joggers often enjoy identification with a group.

As a beginner you may have attended a few fun runs or an occational race. Joggers, however, mark the local 10ks on their calendars. These are motivational stepping stones to keep the daily runs on track. There will often be one major race in the joggers' schedule, like the Bay to Breakers, Peachtree Road Race or the Corporate Challenge. Although you're not running competitively or for time improvement, a sense of competition may begin to develop. By piecing together a growing series ofsuccessful and non-threatening running experiences, you begin the transition into a more fit lifestyle.

There are always conditions - injury, a long stretch of bad weather, a partner dropping out - that may stop your running and force you to start over again as a beginner. When the year's big race is over, you may lose the motivation to keep going. A jogger will sometimes give up running completely, but usually will start again after an extended layoff.

For the next three stages (The Competitor, The Athlete and The Runner), please see pages 26-31 in Galloway's Book on Running by Jeff Galloway (Shelter Publications, 1984).

The Top Five Reasons Why You Need Shoe Advice

1. Even the better running companies are using gimmicks in their designs: Some of the gimmicks work and some don't.
2. There's always a reason why the catalog offers a dramatic discount on a given shoe.
3. The same shoe may be made in different factories - making each significantly different in the way it fits and in the many subtle ways it works when you run.
4. Only people who are really into running shoes can keep up with the gossip on running shoes - due to constant feedback they receive from hundreds of customers each week who really use the shoes for exercise.
5. Only experienced running staff people can look at you running in a shoe and tell whether it really fits - and works with your foot in the right way.

Reprinted with permission from Return of the Tribes to Peachtree Street by Jeff Galloway (Phidippides Publication, 1995), p. 14

Fitness Mistakes (for a new runner) - which cause burnout:

1. tried to run continuously for more than a half mile (should have run 1-2 minutes and walked 2 minutes 2. Started out each run too hard - for him/her (should have started by shuffling slowly - with walks) 3. Told himself before each run that he was going to feel bad (should have forecast a fun, easy run) 4. Tried to exercise when blood sugar and motivation was low (should have eaten something first)

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