The Ultimate Guide to Kickstart Your Running Journey

*A client of mine and I at the finish line of the Toronto Half-Marathon in 2024

As much as I like lifting heavy things, running (or some form of cardio) is an important way of balancing out your health and fitness. I always say if you have strength training, mobility work, and cardio as part of your weekly routine, you'll optimize your health.

But often people are afraid to hurt themselves running, or have the common misconception that running isn't good for you or right for people past a certain age.

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Clearing up myths about running

If I eat a banana, it's considered a good, healthy choice. If I eat 40 bananas every day, I'm probably going to become diabetic. Should I label bananas as unhealthy because of this?

Running gets a bad rep in a similar way. People often do too much too fast, hurt themselves, and blame running itself. (Meanwhile, it's entirely their fault.)

There is nothing inherently dangerous about running. It's a fantastic method of building cardiovascular ability as well as lower body strength and resilience. It's not bad for your knees, your hips, or your ankles.

Runners have some of the strongest hearts and lungs. They also have increased bone density as an adaptation to the impact stress of running.

Age also isn't as big a factor as people think. I distinctly remember running with a 72-year-old client of mine (who had been running seriously since age 55), and he absolutely smoked me in a half marathon by over 30 minutes. It's more about how you keep up your training and treat your body well.

Incorporate running properly, and you can reap the benefits too. But how do you avoid hurting yourself in the process?

How to Get Started with Running

Your best bet is to be overly conservative in your first bout of running, especially if you've never done it before. If you do get hurt, it's more than likely a training error and a failure to manage your overall training load.

I tell my clients to go for 3-5 minutes at a slow, tolerable pace, regardless of how far they end up running. From there, you evaluate how your body feels and make small improvements and jumps in your distance week to week.

A big mistake people make at this stage is increasing their training load too aggressively. I've seen time and time again someone go for an easy 1km run, feel great and then do a 2km run a day later and feel beat up.

In reality, you doubled your training load without fully recovering. Again, especially if running is new to you, give your body a chance to adapt and recover.

Staying patient and being overly conservative in the first few weeks is the way to go. Before you know it, you'll be able to add kilometres easily week over week.

Don't stress about going fast

Doing too much too fast (literally) is a recipe for pain and injury. In the beginning, I wouldn't even worry about your pace. Just focus on hitting distance targets at whatever pace you feel is tolerable. As long as you continue to accumulate kilometres, your pace will get better.

Too often, people increase both their training distance as well as pace, which is the equivalent of taking a strength exercise like a squat and increasing both load and repetitions week after week. Unfortunately, the body doesn't adapt this quickly. Stay patient.

As you get into running more, you can incorporate both "long runs" and "short runs". Traditionally, long runs are for a greater distance but a slower pace, while short runs are predictably shorter but at a faster pace. The former is meant to help you get your reps in while getting you used to longer distances, while the latter helps build your overall pace.

Running shoes and accessories

There is no perfect shoe that works for every runner. It's more important to find one that feels comfortable and fits your feet well. You're best off going to a running specialty store and having someone fit you for shoes based on your gait and where you place weight in your feet.

Side note, you rarely need corrective work when it comes to your feet. Having flat feet does not mean you'll be more prone to injury than with any other foot configuration. Everyone is built differently; some with higher foot arches or flatter feet than others. The human body does a pretty good job of adapting to where we're strong.

You may have heard that barefoot running or training with bare feet improves your injury risk. However, again, it gives you no greater benefit other than having your feet adapt to running barefoot. The body is often smarter than we are.

I like running shoes with a wide toe box (because my foot is wide), and a small amount of cushion. I know others who like a tighter fit and a ton of cushion, so it feels like they're running on clouds. Everyone is different.

Other than shoes, it's nice to have some sort of distance and pace tracker to keep a record of your progress and keep your training stress in check. You don't need a fancy running watch, and there are plenty of free apps that track this for you. I used "Map My Run" before I got my running watch.

As your distances increase over time, you'll need to consider carrying hydration with you, whether it's water or electrolytes. You don't need to stress too much about this in the beginning, but it's important to stay hydrated during longer runs or when the weather is hot. A good rule of thumb is, if your lips are dry, you're already dehydrated.

Sample Running Program

Individual needs and experience would vary, but here's an example of how I would progress a beginner in 4 weeks.

Week 1:

Monday - 3-5 minute test run

Thursday - 1km run

Week 2:

Monday - 2km run

Thursday - 2km run

Week 3:

Monday - 2km run

Thursday - 3km run

Week 4:

Monday - 2.5km run

Thursday - 4km run

Here we have a gradual increase in distance (without worrying about pace) while giving at least 72 hours of rest between runs. This would change based on how a person is tolerating each run, but progressions and regressions would follow based on this information.

If you're already doing some form of strength training, then you're ahead of the game. Contrary to popular belief that strength training makes you slower or interferes with running, they actually complement each other well.

Strength training helps build the muscles and joints necessary for running, which helps prevent injury. Running challenges your cardiovascular system in ways that lifting weights doesn't. I've noticed anecdotally that since I've incorporated running, I don't need to rest as long between lifting sets.

Ultimately, running is a safe and easy way to work on your resilience. I highly recommend you giving it a chance. Honestly, nobody likes running in the beginning, but those who stick with it never want to stop, and there's something to that.

To your good health,

Coach Stephen

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