During my high school years I was an avid runner. I played on both the school’s soccer team and a soccer team organized in the community. I ran for the school’s track and field team and I did it in my spare time to keep fit as well. It’s pretty safe to say that running was a huge part of my life up until I turned 18. That was when I realized that soccer wasn’t going to get me paid and I had better start focusing on academic studies. As a result, my schooling took over basically my entire life and I almost completely stopped running. After school was finished and I entered the working world, and running became even more difficult still. I considered my career and work ethic to be much more important than my health and I completely fell off the running wagon.
Just in the last couple years, I have begun running nearly everyday, most of the time for more than an hour. After my annual visit to the doctor for my physical, I realized just how out of shape I had become. I started running much more often but still something didn’t feel right. Every time I would come home after a run, I would look at my watch and think that 45 minutes was a good amount of time to exercise. I didn’t realize until much later but running for distance, instead of time, seems to make all the difference in the world.
On my next day out, I jogged as far as I could and then each day after that I made sure that I jogged a little but further. This conditions your body to grow as a runner much like weightlifting conditions a bodybuilders body. Anyways, it wasn’t only that thought that got me back running, but a number of different things that will definitely work for you as well.
First of all I had to make the decision that I want to start running again. This was easier said than done but it is the essential first step to becoming a runner. I knew that my body didn’t feel the same as it used to, and I wanted to regain that feeling. I set personal goals to get my cholesterol and my blood pressure levels down and also just to feel better. I also made sure that I would stay on task by creating running schedules where I knew I would have free time and actually stuck to it.
At the annual checkup that I talked about, I asked my doctor what he thought about getting back into running. He said that I would have nothing to worry about and thought it was a great idea, being a runner himself. I found that a lot of the actual exercise is just getting yourself out the door. Once you have 1 foot in front of the other, your already 80% of the way through your workout and it’s all downhill from there. While not literally but still… I also started very slowly because I knew that my body wasn’t used to the running so I gave it time to adjust.
You should also make sure that you stretch before and after your exercise. A good 10 to 15 minutes after and maybe five or 10 before will prevent any pulled muscles and make sure that they are ready to collect all this oxygen you’re going to be feeding them. Make sure you stretch your calves, hamstrings, quads, hips, and even parts of your upper body just to make sure that you don’t hurt anything.
Make sure that you get ample rest as well. You must take at least one day off each week to let your body recover from the exercise. A healthy diet is also very important so that your body can get the nutrients it needs to make itself healthier and make sure that all this exercise is not in vain. I also find that running with a friend is great motivation. For those days when it is pouring outside and you feel awful because of it, go down to your gym and run on the treadmill for a while and I guarantee you it will make you feel better. If you really get into running, maybe you should consider purchasing a treadmill for the basement as further incentive to keep up your good habits.
No matter what, if you work hard, you will succeed at making yourself more fit through running. You have to keep telling yourself you can do it and notice that you get better at it every day. Keep thinking how much better off you are because of it and try to notice just how much healthier you feel. Remember that your body does in fact get stronger and healthier with each step you take. Best of luck.
