Well I wish I could remember some of the interesting things I was thinking about last night during my weekly appointment with SundayNightInsomnia, but since I can't, it's time to get back to the exercise plan!
Okay, here's what I want you to do. Ya gotta be honest. I'm going to do one plan for walkers (beginners) and another for those generally in shape who want to see if they might like running (beginners).
Walkers
Goal: walk hard for 30 minutes
How: get yourself a comfortable and supportive pair of shoes. Running or walking shoes will be fine. Make sure they are comfortable! And that's the only equipment you need.
Start off: to get started, you should do some stretches. If you really don't want to or know the stretches will put you off, just get started very slowly. Wait for your body to warm up.
When your body is nice and warmed up, start walking faster. I want you to walk hard. It should not hurt. There is a sometimes fine line between hard and hurt: get to know what that line is and stay on the hard side. Hard means you can think of little besides keeping going. Hard means you need to concentrate on your breath and regulate how quickly you're going so you don't run out of breath.
Hurt means your feet hurt, your side hurts, your joints hurt, you neck hurts. When that happens, slow down.
So here's what I want you to do: start slow, then walk hard. Walk hard until it really isn't fun anymore—all you're thinking about it wanting to stop. STOP. Even if you've gone three minutes. Stop going hard and slow down until you feel comfortable and want to start up hard again. If you don't want to start up hard again, that's fine.
Repeat, every day, and you'll find that gradually, you can go hard for longer.
Your goal is to walk hard for 30 minutes.
Runners
Basically, it's the same deal as walkers. You may experience that it feels really good to be running again. You'll immediately remember when you were a kid running around without a care in the world. A few minutes later, that feeling will be upended. You will feel like it's the worst thing in the world. Slow down a bit if this happens, but if you're just feeling that it's hard and it's not hurting, your first mini-goal is to try to keep running—however slow—for ten minutes. The reason you want to push through for ten minutes is because that's the hardest part of any run (until you get into the high single digits, at least). If you can run 10 minutes and 10 seconds, you'll end on a higher note than you would if you stop before then. But don't push it if you're hurting or if you're really unhappy, even if you've "just" been running for three minutes. As you will soon find out, there is no "just ran for x minutes/distance." ALL running is hard.
When running, it's harder to tell when I'm hurting and when it's hard. One litmus test: if a car suddenly came out of nowhere, do you have a burst of speed left to jump out of the way? If not, you're hurting. Another: a street crossing is up ahead; are you able to check for cars coming before you cross, or are you so focused on keeping going you can't? You're hurting.
A Word About Your Breath: Walkers, Runners, Everybody!
Again, I know nothing about nothing, but here are some tricks I employ to keep my breath in check (i.e., keep my heart rate in order and in the correct zone so I don't pass out):
· Keep your mouth closed—if you can't get enough breath with your mouth remaining closed, slow down (I do this for the first ten minutes; then on and off for the rest of my runs)
· Keep your mouth closed on the inhale, exhale through your mouth on the exhale (I use this method when running up hills, when I feel like I need more air, and during races)
· Sing a few bars of a song.
Well, that's enough for now. I'll keep checking back on your progress. Enjoy—if you don't, you'll stop.
Oh, and one more thing: there is a big difference between exercising because it feels good and exercising to lose weight. Exercising to lose weight isn't that fun. But once you lose the weight, you'll want to exercise because it feels real nice. Seriously. I love hiking when I'm in shape. Hiking is work when I'm trying to lose weight. I don’t think it's unusual, either.
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