Do all of your running at a comfortable pace in which you can talk with a running buddy. No huffing or puffing or gasping for air. No sore throats. No pain in your side. All of those symptoms are signs that you've exceeded the capability of your body to handle the stress from running.
Overview
This plan will help persons who want to run to progress from no running to running 30 minutes three times a week. There are four phases to this plan. Each phase has a measurable goal.- You will first walk but not run three times a week, making small increases in the time you spend each week, until you are walking for 20 minutes. You will be walking approximately a mile, but you are walking by time not distance. This will help your body adjust to the increased stress of walking without having a high risk of injury, since walking is much easier on your body than running. Take as many weeks for this phase as you need.
- Next, you will add small amounts of running a comfortable pace while continuing to walk the same amount of time that you did in the first phase. When you are finished with this phase, you will be running for 10 minutes and walking for 20 minutes. Some runners may want to split the walking into two parts and put all of their running as one block between the walking. Other runners may want to mix the walking and the running in small segments. For example, walking for a minute and then running for a few seconds. The length of the running is increased until it is equal to 10 minutes. The length of the walking is not changed. Take as many weeks for this phase as you need.
- Third, you will continue to add small amounts of running at a comfortable pace until you are running for 20 minutes. You are still walking for 20 minutes. Take as many weeks for this phase as you need.
- Finally you will slowly increase the amount of running at a comfortable pace and decrease the amount of walking until you are doing just running and are doing it for 30 minutes. You are welcome to include short walking breaks with your running if you would like. If you do take walking breaks, it is your choice whether or not you include the time spent walking as part of the 30 minutes. I take 30-second walking breaks every half-mile when I run. I enjoy the few seconds of walking, and I feel invigorated when I resume running. Most importantly, I have more energy for the final part of my run. Take as many weeks for this phase as you need.
It is important that you modify this plan to fit both your interests and the capabilities of your body. For example, you may decide to do more running and less walking. Or, you may decide to run/walk more than three times a week by adding additional days in which you run/walk about half the distance you do in the main three days of your training. These additional days could be days of cross training, such as light swimming or cycling.Remember that this plan is just a guide to help you manage your training. It is not something rigid that you must slavishly follow. As you modify this plan to be your plan, keep in mind the two rules of running that should govern all of us as we run: the 10% rule in which we make small increases in our distance or speed, and the heavy/light rule in which we follow days of heavier stress with days of lighter stress to give our bodies the 48 hours (or more) that it needs to recover from the days of heavier stress.
Fall-back Weeks
It is critical that you give your body sufficient rest after your heavy days such that your body can repair the damage to its cells and in so doing become stronger. In many cases, running and walking heavy/light will not give your body sufficient rest. It is thus advisable to include fall-back weeks in your schedule such that once a month or so you reduce your weekly time by 20 - 30%. At the end of each fall-back week, take one or two weeks to return to the time you were doing before the fall-back week. Then continue with your training.Deciding How Much Distance to Add
Some of you will be concerned that this plan doesn't tell you exactly how much to walk or run each day. Instead, the plan tells you to follow the 10% rule and the heavy/light rule and to make wise decisions about how much time to spend each day. For some of you, having this amount of freedom will be a new experience, and it may take you a few weeks to adjust to this freedom. Hang in there and do the best you can to slowly increase your distance while listening to your body, and you will soon get the hang of it. When you have reached your goal of 30 minutes of running you will be thrilled with your ability to manage yourself, not having to be told exactly what to do. After all, by listening to your body, you are listening to the greatest coach you will ever have. Remember, you don't have to run or walk for exactly the number of minutes given in the plan. On days that you feel fine, you may want to run more and walk less. On days that you are tired, you may want to walk more and run less. Listen to your body and react accordingly.Be a Runner not a Slave
Don't feel like you must follow this plan, or any plan, exactly as it is written. You are different from all other people on this planet. This plan should serve as a guide but not a blueprint. Modify this plan to be your plan -- your plan becomes your blueprint. Learn to listen to your body and to make decisions about your walking and running based on how your body feels.The page on Overtraining has a nice list of symptoms that indicate you are doing too much in your training and need to back off a bit.
Graduate to the Intermediate Plan
When you are able to run for 30 minutes (approximately three miles), and you feel comfortable with that distance, you are ready to graduate as a beginner and to begin training as an intermediate runner. Click here for the Intermediate plan. Congratulations!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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28 comments:
Thank you very much. Many years ago, I used to jog but I stopped after my children were born. Now, my 16 year old son wants to start jogging and I have agreed to jog with him. This information was just right to help both of us get started.
You're welcome, Deb. Thanks for visiting my site, and I hope you enjoy jogging with your son.
If you haven't already read it, read the essay by George Sheehan on jogging. Begin by reading my tribute to Dr. George Sheehan and then reading his essay. I think you and your son will enjoy it! See the link in the Archives in the right-side-bar.
My son (29)just ran his 1st 5K and I wanted to start training for myself to compete in a 5K. I want to go slowly on the training because my right knee has some issues. This plan looks like it might be the ticket for a less stressful training program. Thanks, MCS
Windancer, tell your son congratulations on running his first 5K!
This plan has two advantages that I think will help you: (1) you walk before you run, and that helps strengthen your body because walking is much less stressful on your body. (2) you, not me or some other person, determine when to increase your distance and how much to increase it.
Knee problems are common among runners, because each step of running puts an impact of 2-3 times your body weight on your body, and your knees receive most of that impact. Walk and walk and walk and don't do any running until you can walk with no soreness or pain in your knees. Then, after you start including some running in your program, if you experience soreness in your knees, go back to the point where you could walk/run without soreness and stay at that level for a while to help your body adjust, then add some running back in but add less than you did before such that you experience no soreness. By doing this, you are using soreness as a sign that you're doing too much and need to cut back on your running for a while. This approach means you'll take longer before you run your first 5K, but you'll run that race with no soreness. Running without pain is a great experience!
Go to my pictures of stretches and do the ones for your knees and your hips. Strong hip muscles are important to pain-free knees. Do the stretches before and after you run, but do them gently so you don't injure yourself while doing the stretches.
Allen, thank you so much for sharing your plan. I haven't been running since before a near-fatal auto accident in 1998. I remember watching the Indianapolis Mini Marathon from the couch when recovering and saying, "I'm going to run in that some day..." I'm ashamed that after 11 years, I cannot even run a mile! I am encouraged by your plan and your encouraging reminders that pain is not a normal part of running. I am actually excited to put on my running shoes and walk for 20 minutes tomorrow morning. Thank you, and God Bless.
Jenny,
Congratulations on going walking tomorrow! After you've walked for a few minutes to warm up, stop, take a couple of big breaths of the (hopefully) clean air. Then, look around at the houses, trees, birds, cars, or what ever is near by, and then fill your heart with gratitude that you're alive and that you have the freedom and time to be yourself. Be happy that you're Jenny. Then, continue your walking and enjoy your time outside.
Uncle, Your blog is Great Inspiration to me. I am 44 and started enjoying running for the last 3 years. I was running 5.3 KM in about 30 minutes for the last one month. Then suddenly I developed a small pain in my left leg hamstring. I stopped running for about a week to get rid of the pain, but the pain did not go. Then I restarted with a distance of 4 km in 30 min. The pain has reduced, but my doubt is when I stopped running, the pain did not vanish! What could be reason ? My serious worry is this. Will this hamstring pain will increase if I continue running? I have found that I cannot stand a week without running, because it has become part of my routine ! I found the mistake I was making, I was not doing proper stretching after my run. Now I have started stretching exersize. Please comment sir. Thanks in advance.
I'm glad that you've started stretching. I may take two or three weeks for the injury to heal. During that time, do some light walking if that is free of pain. Also, light cycling or light swimming. These cross training will help keep your aerobic capacity up without stressing your injury.
Going from 5.3 to 4 km did reduce the pain, and that is a good sign. Try it at 3 km and 2 km. If you can find a distance that doesn't bring on the pain, then after your two weeks for healing is finished, do the shorter pain-free distance. Follow the 10% rule in increasing your distance, and be sure you do heavy/light. See my page on "Coaching Running on the Internet" for comments about the 10% rule and heavy/light. Your probably was likely that you over did it; you likely went too far and/or too fast for your body condition. Pain isn't normal. It is one of the ways your body tells you it can't handle the stress you're giving it.
Thanks for the swift advice, Uncle. I will do as you said, though it is very difficult for me to reduce the distance to 3 km in 30 min.! (I feel bored doing at that speed). I am working on a ship and the running is on a treadmill, I forgot to mention the above point. I am doing weight training also on alternate days.(light days). I have no other body pain except this slight leg hamstring pain. I wanted to run my first 10 km marathon sometime in Sept/Oct. I have run a 10K when I was 25 yr old. Thanks a lot again. I will keep you posted when I am pain-free.
Thanks for pointing out that I didn't explain myself clearly. Keep approximately the same pace you've been using. This means that you'll reduce the time on the treadmill due to doing a shorter distance.
Rather than think about reducing your distance, think about reducing your time on the machine. When you ran 5K, you ran for xxx time. Then when you ran 4K, you ran for yyy time. My suggestion is to reduce the stress on your body by reducing the time on the machine. A good way to reduce time or distance is to cut values approximately in half.
The idea is to find a speed or time that you can do without pain, and then use the 10% (or less) rule and the heavy/light rule to increase, only making increases that don't bring the pain back. If you want to, you can also reduce your speed as you reduce your time, but the reduction in speed will likely not be a very big decrease. Just run at a comfortable speed, one in which you could carry on a conversation with a person on the next machine, and a speed in which you feel fine at the end and aren't huffing and puffing. This is called Long Slow Distance, and you can read my page on it.
Thanks for taking the pain to advise. I started running after I read Dr.Kenneth Cooper's book on AEROBICS. In about 6 months time in 2007 I was making 32 points easily. Then by end of 2009 I started looking forward to make more points in short time and came to the speed of 3.2 KM in < 16 min. For the last 3 months I was doing 3.2 Km in < 16 min PLUS I increased the total distance (including the above 3.2) to 6 km in about 35 min. This was going for sometime with some pain here and there on my both legs. I was huffing and puffing at the end of my run. As I increased my total running time, I cut short the stretching exersizes also. All these added to the present pain. Luckily I am ok with this pain to run! Today I did 3.5 km in 30 min. As you said, I will go back to a comfortable speed and will run about 3.5 km, and see what happens. The pain has reduced and I am happy about it. But when I start running, after about 10 min I am unable to contain myself at that speed. The urge to increase speed is tremendous. I do not know all the runners feel this way. I like it when I am tired at the end! I regret increasing the speed only the next day morning. That is the story! Thanks for reading this and your advise. I happen to come across your BLOG which is inspiring, a few days back. I read your COACHING section, Injury and the Symptoms of "over-training" etc. I do not have any proffessional trainer. I first got inspired by Dr.Cooper's book and the point system. I consider "running" as the ultimate aerobics exersize.
Dear Uncle Allen,
After going through your Training Sections, I understood the importance of Running injury free. Thanks again for your advice and the different training posts. I hope to run a marathon without any damage to my body in future. Best Regards.
Completing a marathon will be a great achievement for you; go for it! If you will do two things, you'll have a great marathon experience and likely won't have any injuries. First, work up to 45 miles(72 km) per week and run that distance for several months. Second, do at least two long runs of 20 miles (32 km) or greater before you do the marathon.
Your first goal is to train to complete the distance, but it takes more training to get used to the distance such that your body can handle the stress of that long distance. In the meantime you can enjoy 5K, 10K, and 15K distances.
Uncle, I have a doubt.When I am running at a comfortable speed I breath like this : Two steps - Inhale, Two steps : Exhale. When I increase pace, it becomes One - One. Is this correct? or How it should be? Please give some advice from your experience.
The purpose of breathing, of course, is to get oxygen, and your pattern of breathing shows that a faster speed puts more stress on your body, hence the need for more oxygen. Your pattern of breathing also shows why it is important to do Long Slow Distance (LSD) and not push for speed while your body is getting used to distance.
By increasing your distance every so often, you're increasing the stress on your body. By increasing your speed you're increasing the stress on your body. I think it is a good idea to not do both at the same time. Run at a comfortable pace as long as you're increasing your distance. Eventually, when you stop increasing distance and have allowed two or three weeks to get used to the distance, you can start to increase your speed. But, as I explain in my article on speed, only do speed work once or twice a week. Do LSD for the rest of your runs during the week.
My pattern of breathing is as follows. When I start out, I'm doing four steps breathing in and four steps breathing out. After a relatively short distance, I'm doing two steps each. I don't intentionally change from four steps to two steps; my body just changes automatically. If I go up a big hill I frequently change to a one step in and one step out for a few seconds to get more oxygen. I, however, have big lungs due to having been raised at 5500 feet elevation and to my genetics. Your pattern looks about right for you. Being on a ship, you're running at sea level, and that makes a big difference in the amount of oxygen you get per breath.
Some people ask about breathing through ones mouth or nose. Do what ever works for you such that you get the oxygen you need. I breath through my mouth.
Thanks for the advice. I have already changed my running pattern, now running at a comfortable speed where I can make conversation. The breathing now is comfortable three - in and two - out ( Mouth )and I really enjoyed running at this speed. As you have said, I will do LSD for my normal runs and do the speed ones once in a week. For the first time today ran 4 Miles in about 48 Min and at the end of the run it was wonderful. No huffing and puffing at all!
Ahhh... nothing like the sweet feeling of success...
When you do your speed workouts, only do speed for a couple of minutes and then slow down for a recovery for a couple of minutes. Then do another speed run.
I like to do Fartleks for speed workouts. They can be mixed in with a LSD run. For example, you run LSD for 5 or so minutes to warm up. Then you do a 30-45 second Fartlek followed by a couple of minutes of LSD for recovery. Then you do another Fartlek at a different speed. If faster, then do it for a shorter time. If slower, do it for a little longer time. Then do LSD for recovery. Do 4 or 5 of these and then finish your run with LSD.
Another speed run that minimizes stress is the Galloway Cadence drill. My speed page describes them. They only last for 30 seconds or so at a time before you do a recovery slow down.
Another thing that reduces stress of speed is to just slightly increase your LSD pace. Slightly means maybe 15 seconds per mile. It should still be LSD but just a slightly faster LSD. Again, do a normal LSD to warm up and cool down with the faster LSD in the middle.
Uncle, What drink I must take during my long runs? Is "Tang" ok for this? Does it provide the carbs suppliment? I read about "hitting the wall". I really look forward to this state !
Uncle,
During my long runs, I take "Tang" . Is this ok ? I read about 'hitting the wall'. I really look forward to this state !
Hi V Raju,
I'm not familiar with the ingredients of Tang, so I can't comment on it. Check the ingredient list to see what is in it. If tang has high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweetener, I would stay away from it. In fact I would probably stay away from Tang since it wasn't developed for runners. There are gels, sports drinks, sports beans that are developed to give runners extra energy.
I did my marathons before those things were developed, and I carried four bananas and ate one every hour. That plus drinking water.
Most gels have 100-150 calories, and that gives you an idea of how much energy you might get from them. How many calories does Tang have per 8 ounce cup?
What ever you decide to do, try it before your race to see how your body reacts to it.
I think, I will stay away from Tang for the time-being! Thanks.
Hello Uncle, I planning to run Half Marathon in another exacly 7 weeks. Last week end run was 13 miles. Then again after two days rest I ran 10 miles. One of my advised that now onwards, I need to run only 6 miles every week end long runs and I will be ok for the Half Marathon.. I agree with tapering down, is it have to be so early. I developed the weekly miles 16,18,25,28,31(Previous week). This week I ran only 14 miles so far.. I have tomorrow also. I have this left leg hamstring pain troubling be now and then.. I am not sure what to follow.....I was planning to taper only the last three weeks, till then run/maintain 30 weekly miles average.. What is your advise sir,
Best Regards,
V Raju
Marathoners typically take 3 weeks for a taper. Half marathoners typically take 2 weeks to taper. During the taper, you want to reduce your distance by 20-40%. We're all different, and the amount of taper depends on hour individual bodies.
My suggestion is to do your normal running until 2-3 weeks before the race and then taper. I'm not sure what your weekly schedule looks like. I like the strategy of having one long run per week (for you that would be 13 miles). One medium run per week (about 9-10 miles) And the remaining runs are rest runs of 5-6 miles.
Don't worry about speed. Just focus on the distance. Do all of your runs as LSD. After the race, increase your long run up to 15 miles, using the 10% rule, and try to maintain a long run of 13-15 miles each week throughout the year. Later on, after you feel very comfortable with your long and medium runs, you can do speed work once a week as part of, or in place of, your medium run. My page on speed discusses various ways of doing speed workouts, and I've ordered them from easiest to hardest.
Let us know how your training and the race go for you, so we can rejoice with you!
I am doing exactly what you have written regarding the runs, one Mid-week medium distance, and one week end long run, and in between 3/4 miles, so far.I got a little bit confused with my friend's suggestion. Now I am ok and made up my mind. After the Half Marathon also, I was thinking to continue the runs like this so that I will be ready for Full Marathon in due course. I am following a Marathon training schedule with a little bit of adjustments here and there. I am happy with the training.. Sometimes 'during' my long runs, I have no pain, but the this left leg pain starts afterwards. I have still not found a solution yet. I listen to my body, that is fine.. but how to stop running? Anyways, I know I have to find a solution for this myself.. Thank you for your advice. I have this feeling,, I will do Full Marathon within one year..
Concerning your pain in your left leg. Between now and your half marathon, you might want to omit the long run and run two medium runs, to give your leg some extra rest. You've moved up in distance quite a lot during the last two months, and your body may need some extra rest.
ok,I will do only two medium runs in a week and see how it helps.
Hey.. I am a mom of 4 and was wanting to get in better shape. I am 40 and just starting out. I tried the walking/running combination. I could only run a short distance b4 I was huffing and puffing. Is this normal? and will this improveover time? Should I just stick to walking for a few weeks?
Anon,
Assuming you don't have a serious physical problem, your huffing and puffing after a short run is normal, and it means you shouldn't do any running for a while. Since you posted your reply to my plan for beginners, my suggestion is to follow that plan. The first step is to walk at a comfortable pace until you're able to walk for half an hour. Stop walking before you reach the huffing and puffing point. A comfortable pace is one in which you could talk with a walking buddy, no huffing or puffing, and no pain in your side. Be sure and stretch before and after your walk. Walk slowly for the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes to warm up and cool down.
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