When I used to think of running, I harkened back to the shallow, vacant faces of runners that I saw along the road. They all looked like they had escaped from some lonely concentration camp, starved and malnourished. Their faces spoke of enduring pain and a life devoid of the pleasures of life. Oh, if only someone would stop and give that poor sole a sandwich! I saw nothing of pleasure in their countenance, and it pained me to see these poor, sad people, as the plodded along for no reason. This impression of running, along with my own personal agonies with the sport, colored my perception of running, and led to a complete aversion to ever trying to travel under my own power for a distance longer than needed to get from wherever I was to a waiting car. Why on earth would anyone take up such a life draining pursuit?

Run with a purpose

I think that the majority of those sad people that I observed running the roads lacked something very important. Their runs lacked purpose. While there seems to be a clutch of people who run for no other reason than because they can, that wasn’t a compelling reason for me to run. Until I gained a purpose to get off my rear end, there was no desire to run. But what do you do to gain purpose?

The very best way to gain purpose is to register for a race. Let me take a minute for the laughter to subside… Seriously – a goal will give you a purpose in a hurry, and a goal with a date gives you a deadline. It also helps that some of your hard earned cash is on the line. Once you register for a race, you are committed! Just pick a race that is about 6 months out. That will give you the time to start running, and then to implement your plan to successfully complete that race. Believe me, there is great enjoyment in crossing that finish line!

Run with a plan

Now that you have a race picked out, it’s time to take the training plan that you selected, and plug it into your calendar. Plans all have the goal (either a half or full marathon race) and a set number of weeks to reach that goal. Go to your calendar, find the race date, and start counting backwards, filling in the miles that you need to run as you go. Don’t let those big numbers intimidate you! As you work your way back, the numbers start getting smaller and smaller, until they don’t seem like such a huge deal. Did you run out of plan before you got to today’s date? Excellent! Just pick the runs for the first week of the plan and keep repeating them until you fill it out to where you are right now.

Remember those big numbers that seem impossible to run? They are impossible – right now. It may seem hard to believe, but as you train, those numbers will begin to feel easier and easier. You can feel a great sense of accomplishment and joy as you tick off those runs that you thought were impossible when you first started!

Run with common sense

If you get up off the couch and think that in a few weeks you will be running an Olympic level marathon, then you are completely and utterly insane! You have one goal, and one goal only – to finish! You aren’t going to be fast. People are going to pass you. You aren’t going to set any records. None of that should even cross your mind! If you start thinking about how slow you are, or how many people are ahead of you, you will diminish your accomplishments, and will miss out on the joy of doing something great for yourself. Remember that to finish places you squarely in the hallways of the elite in our society. You will be doing something that over 99% of the population will never do! There is great joy in that fact alone.

Is there joy in running? I look at running as simply the vehicle that transports me to joy, and that takes all the pressure off of trying to make the act of running joyful, in and of itself. But as I related in my Thanksgiving video, over on YouTube, there is great joy and happiness in your heart when you are thankful that you can run. My studio is a couple of doors away from a shop that makes prosthetic limbs. Almost every day, I see people missing one or both legs who have come to be fitted for artificial replacements, and it reminds me to be thankful that I have legs that allow me to run.

Yes, you can really enjoy running!

Next time, we’ll talk about an often misunderstood facet of the training plan – recovery.

With running, as in life, without a plan you have no direction. You set yourself up for failure, and you are at risk of serious bodily injury. All of that can be avoided with a training plan. Not just any training plan will do, either. It has to be a plan that provides the opportunity for you to progress at a rate that will gently push you, but not too hard. Too hard and you’ll be tempted to quit.

So what would I suggest? After looking at, and rejecting every other training plan that I could find, I settled on the Jeff Galloway Run-Walk-Run Training Program. Why? Because it works for everyone from a person who can’t run 100 feet, to a 2:28 marathon runner! Now that’s what I call versatile! The thing that first caught my attention was the word “walk”, something that seems strange for a marathon training program. But there is a method to the madness.

For me, endurance running seemed like an almost impossible task. I can run, and run fast! Back in the day, I could beat just about anyone – but only for 100 meters. Past that, forget about it! I really don’t have a natural abundance of slow twitch muscle fibers that are the hallmark of distance runners. I have tried to run long distances, and hated it. I have been force marched, dragged, and prodded through long distances, and been made sick and miserable in the process. So what makes the Run-Walk-Run program different? It’s the added component of walking. Walking to run? That sounds crazy, but it works!

How far can you run? I’m not talking about how far you dream of running. I mean how far can you run without tiring yourself out to the point that you have to quit? Is it 10 feet? 10 blocks? 10 miles? Everybody has a number. Even the elite Kenyan runners can’t go on forever! At some point, fatigue sets in, your body runs out of gas, and you are just done! But let’s say that you only needed to run a fraction of your maximum distance. Does that sound like a better idea? Stopping before your muscles are fatigued is what the Run-Walk-Run training program is all about.

Let’s say that you take stock of your current physical condition, and you know that you can run at an easy jog for 10 seconds. Does that sound possible? Now let’s quit thinking about miles, and instead, we will focus on a single minute. Just 60 seconds. Take a nice, easy jog for 10 seconds, and for the remainder of that single minute, you walk. Not a fast walk, but a nice stroll to let your muscles relax and recover. Just 10 seconds of slow running and 50 seconds of walking. Does that sound like it is possible? When that minute is over, all you have to do is repeat the process. Guess what? You are running! I told you that you could do it!

This is the basis of Run-Walk-Run. Before your muscles reach the point of fatigue, you take a walk break to allow time for them to recover, and then you start running again. This exchange of stress and recovery has been the hallmark of interval training for many years, but putting it into practice for endurance running is simply brilliant! Staying below the threshold of fatigue allows you to run longer, go farther, and steer clear of over use injuries. But if you walk, then you’re not running, right? Who says? You might hear that comment from some bigoted, know-it-all, crack pot, wannabe Kenyan, but the truth is that there is no rule book for running that says that you can’t walk – even during a race! The “dirty little secret” of endurance running is that, at some point in a race, almost everybody walks! It may be only for a few seconds at a water stop, or it may be late in the race (when it doesn’t help you very much), but walk they most certainly do! The difference is only a matter of degree. Walk a little, or walk a lot. They still walked! Once that inflated ego trip is out of the way, you are free to get off your cookie enriched butt, and get out there and run – and that’s what really matters.

Are you always going to walk more seconds that you actually run? Maybe. Maybe not. According to Jeff Galloway, the fastest recorded runner that used the Run-Walk-Run method, finished the marathon in 2 hours and 28 minutes! Are you ever going to be that fast? Probably not, and it doesn’t matter. You can use the program as a tool to get you to the finish line and enjoy the entire journey, or you can use it as a training tool to become as fast as your body and genetics will allow you to run. The choice is yours. Either way, do it for you. You can find Run-Walk-Run training plans in many of Jeff Galloway’s books, or you can find them for free at his web site – www.jeffgalloway.com.

Next up, we’ll take a look at what you need to put that plan into action and start running.

Once you wrap your head around the need to get off your rear end and actually do some sort of physical exercise, why should you choose to run? After all, isn’t running really bad for you?

I have experienced a few knee and back injuries in my life, and every injury ended with the same suggestion – “Don’t run! It’s bad for you.”. Who would question such advice? After all, it was given by sage scholars of the medical profession, who had nothing but the best intentions for their patient, right? Well, not really… While a doctor is supposed to have their patient’s health always in the forefront of their mind, the advice that they give is often skewed for the quick fix, and is not necessary completely correct.

Patient: “Doc, it hurts when I do this!” Doc: “Then quit doing that!”

It’s an old joke, but it has application to running. It turns out that there is a huge body of medical evidence that clearly states that running is actually a great form of exercise, is good for the joints and heart, and can reverse some of the damage caused by old age. Yet, for all of the evidence to running’s positive attributes, many physicians are either ignorant of the published research, or just take the safe road by telling their patients to “Quit doing that!”. With this in mind, should you stay away from the doctor? Hardly! Instead, seek out a doctor who understands running, or even better, find a doctor who runs! Whatever you do, make sure that you get a medical checkup before you begin any exercise program. There are conditions that can cause you serious problems, or even death, if left undetected. No person illustrates this fact more clearly than Jim Fixx, the man who is credited by many with starting the modern running craze. He wrote the book on running for improved health, yet died of a heart attack on a routine jog. You never know, so it’s best to get the advice of a trained medical professional. You are probably over due for your annual check-up anyway.

Once you are cleared to exercise, you need to find a training plan that fits both your long term goals, and your current level of fitness. Let’s start by talking about goals. Pick a goal that is realistic. It is too easy to shoot for something that you can’t do, and then say, “See, I told you that I couldn’t do it!”, in order to justify your current condition. Set that straw man aside, and let’s look at what you can do. You can run a half marathon. You can run a marathon. To be completely honest, you can’t do either one today, but you have the ability to train for, and successfully finish a race of 13.1 or 26.2 miles. You won’t set any world records, but you can finish, and do so in a condition that leaves you feeling happy about the entire experience. I will even make it easy for you by setting your goal for you. Your goal is to train for, enter, and finish a half marathon. That’s it! Just finish! No pressure to be first. No killer speed work to set a world record. Just finish!

Just finish? Isn’t that a loser’s attitude? Not at all! If you don’t believe me, here’s how you can prove it to yourself. Ask everyone that you know, including friends, co-workers, and family members, if any of them has ever completed a half or full marathon. You probably already know the answer, but go ahead and start asking anyway. The very act of asking the question will begin to cement the possibility of it really happening deep into your mind, and will serve to place your friends on notice that you are actually thinking about running. So, did you find anyone who has ever been a successful marathon finisher? Probably not! You see, only about 1/10 of 1% of the population will actually do what you are fully capable of doing, even though almost all of them, just like you, are able to do it. If you train for, and finish a half or full marathon, you will be an elite athlete! You will be one of the 0.1%, no matter how fast or slowly you run the race. “Just” finishing will separate you from the 99.9% in ways that you can only imagine right now! “Just” finishing will change your life!

Are you ready? Next up, we’ll dive into what to look for in a training plan. One that will work for you, to get you to your goal without pain or injury, and while still maintaining a “real” life, outside of running.

Every run begins with that first step, and this site is just that – a first step. While the concept came easily, the execution is another matter. I have much to say, so please be patient as I find ways to put my experiences into words, and format this all into a page of information that I wish had been available when I began.

Notice that I didn’t say that it all begins with your first step. You have to decide to take that step. Decide to make a change. Decide to do something positive for yourself. Decide that you will commit to a training schedule. Yes, running starts as a mental exercise, but the mental component doesn’t end there. Running a long distance can by done by just about anyone. You just have to want to do it. The only question that remains to be answered is – How bad do you want it?