I have nothing interesting to report, running-wise; 3 miles yesterday, 5 today, 3 tommorrow. The fun will be on Friday when I do my first long run of my new plan. I'll be running 1 mile, walking 1 minute and I'm really curious to see how my time is.
It seems to me that new runners try to do way to much running in the beginning-either too many miles, or running too fast. I was guilty of this when I started; I thought I should be running every day, and increasing my mileage every day in order to become a better runner. When I finally talked to an experienced runner and told him my plan his reply was "If your goal is to injure yourself, you're right on track".
I've come to the conclusion that we think this way because this is how we train for other sports. When I was a teenager, my sport of choice was horse shows. I rode every day, rain or shine, hours at a time constantly trying to improve my skills. It's the same for lots of other sports-you want to be good at basketball? Then you spend hours on the court practicing shots. Golf, baseball, tennis-all the same. Hours of practice equal better performance. Running is different. I now know that running damages the body. It's those rest days that allow the body to repair itself and be ready for the next run. When I finally learned that lesson, my ability to run really started to improve.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good post explaining the importance of not doing too much, too soon, which in my opinion is the #1 problem for beginners! I've been running since 1999, although I now run every day, I still incorporate short, easy recovery runs between harder efforts, and every fourth week is a Recovery Week.
Post a Comment