Tips for a better run?

In an effort to be healthier and possibly prepare for a stint in the military, I've started running again.

Last week I went to a specialized running store here in Columbus and got a REALLY comfortable pair of running shoes. I've been hydrating like crazy for the past week or so, trying to make it a daily habit to drink around 100oz of water, even when I don't run. I warm up, do stretches that I learned in ROTC, do my run, then cool down and stretch again. The couple of times I've gone I've just been running for 20 mintues trying to maintain a pace and seeing how far I can go.

However, I've run in to a problem trying to regulate my breathing and maintain a good pace, so far my mile time is about 10:00, and I'd like to get that down to at least an 8:00 if not better. Not only that, but I'd like to be able to maintain that pace for 3+ miles. Are there any GRM runners who can give me some tips or practical advice that can help me acheive my goals?

Thanks!

Practice breathing with your diaphragm, and not your chest.

Learn to breathe in thru your nose, and out thru your mouth.

Also, run intervals. I've long forgotten my cross-country training, but we had an excellent coach. We rarely ran the same things on consecutive days.

OK, you don't want to hear this but here goes.

1st - You are running to fast. If you cannot regulate your breathing, its becuase you are asking too much of your body. No college age kid wants to hear that a 10 minute mile is too fast, but it is right now. Relax, speed will come. Now the first 1/4 mile or so, your body is going to adjust, so your breathing will be off, but after that it should settle to a happy pace. one breath every three steps or so. A treadmill is a great place to find and force a good steady pace and build muscle memory for that pace when you are on track/trail.

2nd, given the issues with your starting, you need to get the distance first. Get a pace that doesn't land you out of breath in a mile and push that until you get to three miles. Then start the speed work (intervals, sprints, etc). But right now, speed work is going to expose you to injury and either physically or mentally put you off running. You need to start getting distance in order to get your body used to dealing with lactic acid, which is the by product of exertion.

3rd - Cardio work is like any other kind of exercise. You need to exercise the body, but also give it time to rest. So you should only be running 5 days a week. Take one day off mid week and another day off on the weekend.

4th - I am betting you are not eating enough. I say this becuase most peaple when they begin a fitness regime for health or weigh, immiediattely cut calories. This puts your body in starvation mode and cuases it to conserve enegery, and maintian fat stores. Eat 6 - 8 times a day. Find out what you Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is for your hieght, size, and age, and ad to that for an active lifestyle.

For example, I am 38, 6ft and wiegh 190(ish) pounds. At my body fat vs. muscle percentage, to simply exist, my body burns 1945 calories a day. To maintian my body's level of muscle and energy, I need 3384 calories a day, and you can add onto that if you are trying to build muscle

5th - which segues into my next piont. Hit the wieghts. Light weight, high reps. Not to build mass, but to build muscle that will help you run.

I have found an excellent resource here; http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

Good luck to you.

I'm not a runner, but I've spent a fair bit of time backpacking. Here's my $.02 - Let your breathing set your pace, not the other way around. For me, on normal terrain it would be 1 breath every 4 steps +/-. On really rough stuff it would be inhale on one leg, exhale on the other. Regardless of the actual rhythm - having a rhythm helped me. Also - in through nose out through mouth.

As others have said, start slow and increase your rate and distance gradually. I started my current "series" back in January at ten miles per week, and have been increasing it about 10% every week... now I'm at about 30 miles per week. I have found that worrying about weekly and monthly goals is a lot better than focusing on daily goals. I have a calendar where I document the length of every run, but I honestly couldn't tell you if a run on a given day was good or bad. Don't worry about it.

I would also suggest finding the situation where you run the easiest. I run pretty late at night, between 10 pm and 2 am usually, because the ambient temperature is best and my mind can be at ease with the greatly reduced traffic. Honestly the only thing I don't think about while running is running.

Salanis wrote: Practice breathing with your diaphragm, and not your chest.

Just don't choke on it. it makes for an embarassing ER visit.

To "enhance" what mental said, since I would say the same thing....

I, too, just recently started running, but had read some training articles, specifically about using heart rate to govern your work outs. Basically, for a long excercise, like +40min, you want to maintain a peak heart rate of roughly 80% of max- that's your body's aerobic max- above that, and it's not able to metabolize the air your breathe in. For me, that's about 140 bpm.

Now, I've been working out for years, taking aerobics classes, so I'm not in bad shape. But when I started running, I was at about 13 min miles. A month later, I'm very pleased to be at 12 min miles. Yea, I'd love to be able to do 8 min miles, but I can go for 80 min at that rate, and finish a 10k without too much strain. Slowly but surely, I'm speeding up, as expected.

So, in addition to what Mental suggests, invest in a heart rate monitor. I've got a simple Polar P4 I found on flea-bay, and they have a "larger" mens style that works just fine. It will show you your current rate, give max, and estimate caloric burn. It's a great tool to have when starting out.

You can spend more, and get a bunch of good features. But one thing to think about- I've been using a monitor for my aerobics classes for 3 years now- probably gone through 6 or more pairs of shoes with the one monitor- so it's cost will even out over the life of the monitor. Very, very, very worth every penny.

Since I do aerobics, I only run about 4-6 miles per session- normally only twice a week. Sometimes I get more, sometimes less, but I'll be able to run my first 5k race this weekend, and a 10k at the end of May.

Good luck!!

Eric

Here is something I reciently learned reguarding running. I have about 14 years in the Army, split between active and reserve.

In the last few years I have gotten a desk job and it has started to catch up with me. One of my friends got a book on running and the way it said to start was to run for a preset amount of time and then walk for another preset amount for 10 iterations.

I started running for 2 minutes and then walking for 1 minute. Going this route you get to run for a long period of time but you don't feel like total crap at the end. The idea is to slowly increase the run time and decrease the walk time.

Give it a try, at first I thought it was dumb, the Army was is to run until you puke and then run some more, but it really works and you will progress quickly.

The main porblem I have is that I don't like to run. I hate to think of how many miles I have run but I still don't like it with one exception. I do like running in formation and calling cadence.

Anyway, good luck.

For a regular work out run you should be about able to carry on a conversation, if not you're going too fast. Speed will come in time.

wherethefmi wrote: For a regular work out run you should be about able to carry on a conversation, if not you're going too fast. Speed will come in time.

when I ran in college, we would practice running a certain pace (usually 6:00 miles) while.... rapping.... if you can get to the part where you don't know any more words in rappers delight, you are doing okay... the next week, if you were doing well, it would be 5:50 Miles....

...looking back on that it sounds retarded but it did work....

and a tip I have (at those speeds) is to run, and never stop running, even if you slow WAYY down, you can still run (or jog) instead of walking... keep your heart rate up and you will get fast much much sooner than if you run a mile then stop, run a mile then stop...

I've never really run before just for exercise or "fun" but my wife and I recently start the C25k program and like it.

http://www.c25k.com/

Although I recently hurt my left foot, time to invest in a good pair of running shoes instead of my 2+ year old gymies.

Salanis wrote: Practice breathing with your diaphragm, and not your chest.

I bet Leslie and EastC.MoJo would disagree.

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice guys. I knew there had to be some good runners around here. I do try to manage my breathing (smell the flowers, blow out the candles is how I learned it), so I guess I am running a little too fast.

Mental - Really good stuff, but I should be running ONLY 5 days a week? I'm lucky if my schedule allows me to run 3 or 4, currently I'm able to get in a good run twice a week, but I'm trying to work around that.

My RMR appears to be around 1700-1800 calories (first I put in my actual weight, then my ideal weight for my height - 5'9" - to give me that range). I'm kinda wondering about that 6-8 meals a day thing. I usually give myself a good 3 squares a day that comes in around 2000 calories, if it's less I can certainly push that up

With the effort to be healthy, I'm also trying to diversify my diet by eating more fruits and vegetables, I already eat enough meat and carbs and dairy so I'm trying to swing things the other way. From what I undertand, pasta and certain kinds of beans (black, pinto, lentils) are a good way of getting plenty of low-fat calories.

I have a weight-training work out lined up, I will probably start that sometime in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn't mind staying at my current weight or dropping just a few pounds, so long as I get the muscle to make up for the fat I lose.

Thanks again guys!

If you want more in depth stuff the May issue of Runners World (on the shelves now) is all about beginner runners.

On a sad note I think I managed to injure my IT band again today so I may be stationary for a few weeks. I am going to go have my stride analyzed and get professionally fitted for shoes, this is just unacceptable, I get so much more than just exercise out of running. I don't get it I had this last summer when I started running, learned some stretches to help it and had no issues for a long time until now all of the sudden.

SupraWes wrote: I am going to go have my stride analyzed and get professionally fitted for shoes, this is just unacceptable,

Where can you get this done?

The Physical Therapist office did this after I had a car accident. It turns out waddles like a drunken penguin is a medical term..

fastEddie wrote:

SupraWes wrote: I am going to go have my stride analyzed and get professionally fitted for shoes, this is just unacceptable,

Where can you get this done?

Call around to some local non chain athletic stores and ask if they do gait analysis.

My knee is already feeling better today so maybe I lucked out and can get back in the game next week some time :-)

What mental said

...and also, something that really helped me to build distance and speed - get a heart rate monitor and wear it. Use it to keep your heart in a particular zone... so one day do 120-130 bpm for an hour, the next do 130-140... vary it up. Never set a pace - train your heart to perform well at different rates and the pace will come. The monitor will come with a little manual about zone fitness and I gotta say - it works. I'm doing my 1st 1/2 marathon this weekend but have easily run that distance many times just from that type of training.