How to get ready to run by building fitness through walking.
The old adage that says it’s best not to ‘run before you can walk’ is quite true. If you do very little exercise at all, apart from walking round the shops or going up and down stairs, then you will be asking a lot of your body if you suddenly step out of the door and expect it to cope with running. The stress on your heart and lungs as well as your muscles, skeleton, tendons and ligaments will be enormous. Your body simply won’t know what has hit it! It will take the most determined person to carry on despite the tiredness and body aches. What is more, the likelihood of injury is high. Learning to run will feel uncomfortable and very hard work. All credit to those people who manage to keep running through the pain and complete a 5km run. How many others are there that fall by the wayside because the journey is much too hard?
The good news is there is no need for running to be hard and with a little preparation before you start you will be much more likely to succeed. So, take six weeks before you plan to start a running programme and get walking. This will give you a sound base on which to start running.
The Chatty Paced Walking Plan
This plan will get you used to walking and build your fitness if you really have been stuck on the couch for a while. It’s very simple and like all Chatty Sparkly training plans starts with a little and builds gradually.
If you find that even a short walk makes you breathy, and this may be the case if you are very unfit or recovering from illness, then start with just ten minutes walking three times a week. Listen to your body and take note of how the walk makes you feel. If you are ‘breathy’ and the walk makes you tired, don’t increase the duration of your walks the following week. Wait until ten minutes becomes easy, then increase it by 5 minutes a week. If you are tired drop the time back.
When you can walk for 30 minutes easily talking comfortably in full sentences, chatting away to yourself or singing your favourite songs, you are ready to start the plan.
So here is Week 1:
Walk 1 10 minutes easy, 10 minutes brisk, 10 minutes easy.
Walk 2 10 minutes, 10 minutes brisk, 10 minutes easy.
Walk 3 40 minutes easy
The walks can can be done on any day of the week but in order to let your body recover it is best to have at least one day’s rest in between walks. Walk 3 will become your weekly longer walk so you may want to save this one for the weekend.
What if brisk walking makes me breathy?
All walks should be at Chatty pace so you may find that at first brisk walking makes you breathy. If this is the case then spend the ten minute brisk walking slot listening to your body. As soon as you become breathy slow down and recover at easy pace. Then speed up once more until your body tells you to slow down again. Continue in this way until the ten minutes is up and you return to easy pace for the rest of the walk. Listening to what your body is telling you is all good preparation for when you eventually start running.
What if I find ten minutes brisk walking easy?
If this is the case then you can reduce the cool down time and or warm up time adding more minutes to the brisk walking section. Keep at least five minutes easy walking to warm up and cool down though as it will be a good habit to get into for when you start the running programme. If you still find it easy then you are probably fitter than you thought. How fast can you walk without running? Give it a try.
Listen to your body before, during and after your walk.
You will become an expert feeling based runner if you practice this approach when you are walking. If you are feeling tired before or during a walk then take things easy. If you feel tired afterwards, allow your body to recover before you walk again. If you find the week’s walking leaves you fatigued then it may be that it was too much for you. Reduce how much you do the next week and build gradually.
If you finish a walk feeling like you could go out and do it again then you have got it just right!
Find out about the adaptions your body makes to get you fitter, whether you walk or run, here.
Let us know how you get on by contacting us via Facebook or by commenting below. Questions are great too. We would love to hear from you.