August 12, 2020 • 39 mins
Running - it's one of the simplest and most effective cardiovascular exercises there is. We were born run after all, but getting getting started is often the hardest part. Even if you are highly self-motivated, there are pitfalls to avoid when getting started that can also be applied to any new exercise program. Listen in and let Tom give you what you will need to get you up and running for the long haul.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted Running
one oh one how to start a running program. So
(00:22):
at the end of every podcast I give out numerous
ways to contact me with questions, and I am getting
an awful lot about running. No surprise, I talked about
it frequently. I have done numerous shows about it. My
first show with the best guest for this topic or
one of the best guests, Dr Daniel Lieberman from Harvard,
(00:45):
a big part of the book Born to Run. Actually,
his research titled Born to Run gave the title for
that book, supposedly. So yes, I have been a runner
for a very long time. I have coached thousands if
you count the books and the camps and the clients
over the many years and the charity I coached for
(01:07):
over ten years at least, so lots and lots of people.
I have some experience. I have raced and run all
over the world, from you know, five k's up to
ultra marathons. But I have to always point out that
when I was a kid, I could not run. I
knew I had potential, but as soon as I started
(01:30):
doing the sports and had coaches pushing me during you know,
the hell weeks for football and soccer. I I had
shin splints, I had ankle issues. I had pretty much
every issue you could have, and so I spent my
childhood on the bench with insane pain. So to think
(01:52):
that I do and have done the events that I
have and continue to do now, at fifty one, I
went out for a six mile run today. I love it. Now.
I know there are people who don't love it, and
I understand why we'll talk about that. But we were
truly born to run. And whenever I talk about running,
(02:13):
I say, you don't have to be a runner. But
the reasons you don't run, those musculo skeletal issues, the yeah,
I I can't run because I have a bad fill
in the blank, knees or knee hips, back, you know,
shin splints, plan or fasciitis, so many issues. My response is,
(02:39):
I don't care if you run or not, but we
need to fix those things. And so, when I was
a trainer, one of my simplest yet most effective ways
to figure out a client's imbalances was to take them
out for a run, for a short run, and then
we'd start to dial in what we needed to work on,
(03:00):
especially if they were runners. So this show is about
those of you out there, many of whom have reached
out to me after having listened to the podcast saying, yes,
I want to, but here's my issues right now, whether
it's weight or you know, uh, pain, jumping back in. Um.
(03:21):
So I'm kind of taking all of those and I
will answer them specifically, by the way, in a listener
mailbag question answer show as well. But there is so
much interest in it. I said, I just gotta, I
gotta do this show to get us started, to kick
it off, and just to simplify, so I am going
to break it down into ten points, ten tips, ten
(03:44):
things you gotta think about when you are starting a
running program, and everyone can do it. I know there's
so many of you out there listening who say Tom, yeah,
not me, and I have in all my years, and
so many people have yet to really find someone. Now,
(04:05):
some people have major issues, but the vast majority of
people who have the yeah butts can run when coached correctly,
when progressed correctly. And that's a great thing because we
were meant to move we were meant to move forward,
(04:28):
and I want you to have the freedom to be
able to enjoy the outdoors. Can also run inside if
you want, but to at least have the opportunity and
ability to enjoy the outdoors regardless of where you are
and go for a run. For me, it has been
(04:49):
life saving. It is one of my favorite things to
do for many reasons that I will talk about. All right,
quick break when we come back. Ten tips ways things
you gotta think about when you're first starting a running program.
We'll be right back. So whenever I do shows, I
(05:20):
like to kind of fill the studio with things that
are applicable to the show I'm doing. So in front
of me right now, I have two books. The first
one is the Complete Book of Running by Jim Fix
and actually my dad's copy. Jim Fix ran around where
(05:41):
I grew up, and so my dad would often run
with him, you know, different races and things like that,
running groups in the book. And this book is credited
as single handedly starting the jogging yogging it's a soft
jay uh craze. So that was one of the first
(06:02):
most popular. And then this one's hysterical actually because many
of us know that joke book about running. Comedians do
this joke all the time. So that what does it say,
put one ft in front of the other. Right, Well,
the book I'm holding in my hand right now is
by Dr Timothy Noakes, and let me skip to the back.
(06:23):
It is over nine hundred pages, The Lore of Running.
All right. So, yes, running is one of the simplest
and most natural forms of exercise, but because of many
different reasons, so many people can't do it. Think about that,
(06:44):
and that's what drives me crazy. When you do have
those doctors who tell people you can't run, you shouldn't run,
when I know that they can, and maybe we should
be looking at the reasons why they and because those
same reasons why you can't run. It doesn't end there.
(07:04):
If you have the knee issues, the back issues, the
shin issues, the weaknesses, that's going to translate into everything
in your life, not just running. And as you get older,
those issues will become more pronounced. So bulletproofing your body,
figuring out those issues, those imbalances, those weaknesses to do
(07:27):
what we were born to do, is a really good
thing in my opinion and experience. All right. Well, let
me also say, though I didn't come out of the
womb running As I said, I had those major issues
when I was a kid, and then I had to
slowly get into it after I got away from the sports.
So that was a huge thing. By the way, Uh,
(07:47):
just bad coaching. Now. A lot of it was they
didn't know what they were doing this as many years ago,
and so too much too soon, pushed us too hard,
and a couple of other issues as well, But it
wasn't into all. I started doing it on my own,
the marathons, the you know, just running and get it.
Got away from the team sports that I started figuring
out the issues. And then when I made this my
(08:09):
career and started studying, then I really figured it out.
So I get it. I remember when a five k
race used to scare the heck out of me, but
it was slow and it was progress over time, all right,
So let's get right into it. Number one, when it
comes to starting a running program, you literally cannot start
(08:33):
slowly enough. And that goes for three different things. That
goes for a frequency, the number of times you run
a week. That goes for your pace, how fast you run,
and that goes for distance. So one of the primary
reasons people have issues with running and have to stop
and that includes shin splints, too much, too soon, too much,
(08:56):
too soon. So a lot of the email mails and
direct messages I have received about running, I can tell
that either by reading between the lines or they say
specifically they're doing too much too soon. You have to
start slowly, especially if you're starting in your forties, your fifties,
your sixties, and you can start there. You can start there.
(09:20):
In my book that just came out, the Micro Workout Plan,
I have three different success stories, two of which they're
all people who started later in life, by the way,
or were you know, successful later in life with their sports.
But one male one female started running in their fifties
and went on and and they were not runners. They
(09:40):
were the opposite of runners. If you looked at them
when they started, or if you asked them, they would say,
I can't run. I'm not a runner. And both of
them went on to run numerous marathons. Do you have
to run a marathon? Absolutely not. But would I love
for you to be able to go out and run
three four miles whenever you feel like it, whenever you
need a it'll hit of seratonin, whenever you want to
(10:03):
get rid of some anxiety. Yeah, that's the goal, all right.
So you can't start slowly enough. So if you start
running once a week, and I'll give you many more
specifics as we go through these, that's great. You can't
start slowly enough. And if that's ten minutes at a time,
that's great. And if it's a fourteen minute mile, fifteen.
(10:28):
I don't care the pace. So it doesn't matter how
you know far you go. You gotta start slowly, doesn't
matter you know how many times a week. You don't
want to go too far. You don't want to go
every day by any stretch of the imagination. And I
couldn't care less how fast you go, nor should you.
All right, if you said, okay, but I want to plan,
(10:49):
give me more specifics. Three times a week maximum for
a beginner, and those are non consecutive days. So if
you said, okay, I want to run, I really want to,
you know, buckle down Monday Wednesday Friday or Monday Wednesday Saturday.
(11:09):
And that's the most I would start any client on
for the most part, who is a true beginner, And
we want to make sure we do avoid injury from
the get go. And let me say this, you're gonna
have issues but when you start slowly, those issues are
significantly less pronounced and you deal with them right away,
(11:31):
all right, So maximum three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday.
Give your body time to recover, all right. Number two,
and this is a tricky one. Get the right shoes
for you. Now, this could be a five hour podcast
just on shoes, and I will do many more on
(11:51):
shoes and have touched on it another podcast as well.
But there is a shoe for you based on your goals,
your weight, the way your foot rolls, does it pronate,
does it supernate, do you land on your fore ft,
on your midfoot, on your rear foot, and what feels good.
So the quick advice for the right shoe is, first
(12:15):
of all, find the most reputable shoe store in your
area and go in and have them look at your shoes.
Now if you're walking around or or you know what
you're using, if you are running a little bit, so
they can look at the wear pattern and what's working
for you, and you get a reputable runner, ideally working
(12:36):
in a running shoe store to pick out the right
shoes for you. It's not about price, and it's certainly
not about fashion. It's function over fashion. The perfect shoe
for you, unfortunately maybe the one you like the least
esthetically visually, but who cares. You don't want any pain
(12:57):
from running, any injuries, any issues. So find that reputable
store and once you find a shoe that works for you,
you stick with it. You stick with it, all right.
So duration, So I said, okay, you're gonna run three
times a week. So you go, okay, how far? And
(13:17):
there's two ways you can do this. There's two ways
you can do this. You can go by distance, or
you can go by time. Distance or time, and you
can mix that up as well. So back when I
was training and running with people as as a coach
and a trainer, oftentimes we would go by time. Now
(13:39):
it's up to the client, and it's it's also up
to me, because I'm not gonna let the client go
out and say we're gonna go for seven miles. But
the thing is when you go by time, that allows
you to go much slower. So in other words, if
I say we're gonna run three miles and the client
is running slowly, thirteen fourteen doesn't matter. Basically walking, And
we're gonna talk about that how you wore walk breaks in.
(14:01):
But much easier to go by time and not care
about the distance, because that distance, if you're going slowly,
it's gonna be a long time, is the point, right,
So I would prefer for some people, many people, to
go by time. It's just easier. You don't have to
worry about, you know, the speed you're going at. You're
(14:21):
just covering the time. And so for many clients, that
was a maximum of thirty minutes. And that may sound
ridiculously long too many of you, and it should, but
I'm gonna talk about throwing walk breaks in and that's
gonna make it make sense. Okay, So maximum of three
times two a week to start somewhere around thirty minutes.
(14:46):
And for those of you who are it's always tough
to give pacing and averages, but you know that's two
miles three miles, depending on the person the speed that
but I don't want you to care about that, okay.
So if you need a distance, I would say three miles.
If you hold me two to three miles to start,
(15:09):
that's it. I want you to start conservatively. You can't
start conservatively enough, all right, So I alluded to number
four already and that's the run walk plan all right.
This was popularized by a guy named Jeff Galloway, phenomenal.
It was an Olympian and he single handedly started this
(15:30):
craze running and walking. And I've interviewed him in the past,
I hope to do so again. Interviewed him years ago,
one of the nicest guys you'll ever talk to. And
some of you may have heard of the Galloway method,
and it's run walking you go. So, I know many
people go, well, I don't want to walk. And many
(15:50):
of the people I coached for half marathons full marathons
would say, Tom, I don't want to walk, and I'd say,
we're gonna discuss that. Now I get it. The whole
point is, oh, I ran a full marathon or a
half marathon. But over time you will go faster and
you will have less issues if you're throwing walk breaks.
(16:12):
And for the beginners, this is absolutely how you have
to start, because the vast majority of you, if you're
true beginners, you're not gonna be able to cover thirty minutes.
That's the whole point is you can't do it yet,
And the operative word is yet, So what do you do.
So when I used to start with the clients, we
would go out, we would run and basically I would
keep my eye on the client. Generally speaking, it was
(16:32):
often like thirty seconds forty five seconds a minute. We'd
run for about a minute, and then we would walk
for three or four or five minutes, and then we
would run for a minute, and then we would walk
for three, four five minutes. And that is how you're
going to do it. That is the incredibly powerful way
(16:54):
for you to start running is you don't come out
of the gate running the whole time. Now some of
you can, but I want you to start slowly, especially
if you're starting, you know at my age fifty fifty
one to be specific, but give yourself time. It's not
not cheating. You are getting the exercise in. And what
(17:18):
you're doing is you're building up that endurance, you're building
up that cardiovascular strength, You're giving your body time to recover.
And so it's interval training to a degree. But is
exactly how so many people will be successful. And in
my you know, many years of doing this, the amount
(17:39):
of success those two clients I talked about, it's exactly
what we did. And the the fifty year old runner
who couldn't run more than a minute when we started,
became a Boston Marathon qualifier. And he actually reminded me
because this book just came out and I've, you know,
put some stuff on social media about him when we
qualified for the Boston Marathon three forty something marathon PR time,
(18:03):
and he ran that time. We did the Boston Marathon
two thousand twelve when it was ninety degrees, so we
we ran walk the whole thing, and we had to
throw his goals out. But my point is he ran
another marathon a week later and set his PR is
his personal best, and he was not a runner. We ran, walked,
(18:25):
We did everything I'm talking about right now, and he
was the furthest thing from a runner when we started,
and his goal was not even to be necessarily a runner,
whose goal was to lose weight, to feel better, to
get off medications, and then getting ahead of myself. But
my point is, I know so many of you say
(18:46):
it's not me, Tom, and I'm telling you not just
for this show, but all of the topics I talked about, strength, training,
feeling better, improving yourself. Yes, it is quick break, final break.
We'll be right back so run, walk, and here's what
(19:14):
you do over time, and it's so fun to see
the progression. What happens is you're running Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
you're running for a minute, you're walking for let's say
three four and you do that for a week, two weeks,
three weeks. Then slowly what's gonna happen is you're gonna
run for ninety seconds and you're gonna walk for two
and a half minutes, and then you're gonna run for
(19:35):
two minutes and you're gonna walk for two minutes. So
over time, as you get stronger, and you can just
monitor this by your perceived exertion, you will increase the
running intervals and decrease the walk intervals until the time
comes when yes, you are running the entire thirty minutes.
(19:57):
And many of the fitness apps out there do just
this for you. These are these are what they're doing.
And I think I wrote my first run walk plan
myself again back in like the mid to late nineties,
and Jeff Galway again, he's the one. And I always
have to say when I talk about Jeff, a lot
of people get annoyed with him because they say, that's
(20:18):
not running, really let me say this all my iron
Man races, my fastest ones. My I want a very
small marathon many years ago, and I tell you that
because I ran walked up until mile. For me, it
was ten seconds every mile and I was in second place.
I found out very small marathon by the way, till
(20:41):
when a volunteer said, Tom, you're in second place in
the first place. Guy doesn't look good. So I stopped
run walking at that point and ran my fastest marathon ever,
and it was two weeks after an iron Man. Run
walking works not only if you're just building up, but
also if you want to go fast, because there's nothing
in the result that there's no asterisk next to your
(21:02):
time that says he walked some No, it's just your
finishing time. So if you do want to go faster,
and you're someone who is listening, who's maybe a more
experienced runner, and you have not experimented with run walking, um,
you should try it because you can go really fast.
If you're trying to win a marathon and it's not
a small marathon like the one you know I was doing,
(21:22):
that's different. If you're an elite athlete, they can't walk,
But even the sub elite level where you know, mine
was a two fifty four. That's a super fast. But
for me and my weight and goals, that was that
was good. That was good for me. So that was
with walking ten seconds every mile for miles. All right,
So it works, it works, and it's super easy to
(21:46):
progress yourself that way. Increase the running, decrease the walking
over time, all right. And then number five, I have
to put this in here. Just cover the distance or
the time. Have to say it one more time and
have its own point. That's all that matters. So in
other words, if you go out and one day you're
(22:08):
walking a little bit more than normal, we're running slower
than normal, it doesn't matter. Your goal is to either
cover the distance or the time. That's it. That's success.
Doesn't matter how many times you walk, It doesn't matter
how long you walk for, it doesn't matter your pace.
Success is that you went out and you got your
run in Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or if you're doing two
(22:31):
days a week Monday, Thursday. Okay. Number six, you have
to cross train and you should be excited for that recommendation.
Cross training we'll keep you healthy, we'll keep you excited
to run and that cross training can be so many
different things. And I often say that all runners, if
(22:55):
they run exclusively, will become try athletes at some point
in time. And that is to rehability an injury. In
other words, if you just run and you don't do
the several things I'm gonna say coming up, including cross train,
you will get injured and you will be forced to
run or swim or deep water swim or do all
the other things I will talk about. So do it
(23:17):
prehab versus rehab. Do it before it becomes an issue,
so you can run injury free. All right, So what
is cross training? It's complementary exercise. You know, you can bike,
that is one really great complementary form of exercise with running.
You can do yoga, you can swim, you can do pilates,
you can box, doesn't matter. It just needs to be
(23:40):
something different than running. Cardiovascular for the most part. But
you know, the yoga, the pilates phenomenal complementary cross training
forms of exercise. So if you're running Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday,
or Tuesday, because I'm gonna give you something to do
for number seven and then we'll put it all together,
(24:03):
all right, so cross train, and it doesn't have to
be an hour, doesn't have to be long. It could
be a half hour, can be twenty minutes, swimming for
twenty minutes, a twenty minute indoor cycling ride, cross train
using muscles in a different way, continuing to keep up
that cardiovascular endurance. And it will help your running. Yes,
(24:26):
it will in more ways than one. All right, Number seven, Yes,
you have to strength train. I can't tell you how
many times I've written an article or lectured on does
strength training improve running performance? Well, yes, in the primary
way it improved. By the way that reminds me. I
did do one lecture for the American Medical Athletic Association,
(24:48):
pretty much one of the only non doctors who used
to lecture. And to start that lecture, that was the
question I said, does strength training improve running performance? And
then my next slide it was a picture of a band,
and it was the band. Yes, I was gonna say,
and I think I said, thank you very much. That's
that's the that's the that's my lecture. But it does
(25:09):
it in the primary way for me is that it
keeps you injury free. Again, this is where it's so
often over you know, made too complex. And it also
improves running economy and all that stuff, so it improves
performance on a physiological level. But the most important way
strength training improves are running is it allows you to run,
(25:32):
because you become a great runner, and you improve your
running by running. I just did that show, and I
know some people like, really is that the take away? Yeah,
time in the saddle for biking, miles for running. The
more you run, the better runner you will become. The
body is a very smart machine. It adapts, it's it
(25:55):
becomes more efficient, stops wasting energy. And when you can
do your runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday with no issues because
your strength training on Tuesday and Saturday, maybe then you
have no issues. We're limited issues and when the issues happen,
they are much smaller and again you deal with them
(26:15):
right away. So let's stick with that Monday, Wednesday, Friday
framework for running, and then I want two to three
days a week strength training that can be twenty minutes
is generally the perfect amount of time to do a
running related strength workout. This is not bodybuilding, is not
(26:38):
going to the gym, even you can do them at home.
I did a show six exercises I used to bulletproof
my body. They're all body weight based. For the most part,
you're fixing those imbalances. You're strengthening those weak links. Squats
and lunges and step ups, things like that. That will
(26:59):
go so far. And that takes twenty minutes. You want
to do thirty at an extra you know, round in,
do a couple more core exercises. That's fine, but it
doesn't have to be hard at all and long at all.
It's just strengthening, okay, And you can combine. You can
(27:22):
go for a thirty minute run and then come home
and do your minutes of leg exercises, or you can
do your leg exercises and then go for the your
run walk. Okay, it's all gonna take less than an hour.
But it's fixing those imbalances and weaknesses and being consistent
that will go so far. So now we're we got
(27:43):
a week. So here's your week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You're
run walking thirty minutes or so. And I keep using
that thirty minutes. It can be ten, it can be
one mile. You know, it's tough to give those guidelines
when you're not working with the person no one, But
if you're run walking. You may walk five of those
(28:06):
thirty minutes, but what did I say, It's all about
covering the time for the distance doing both, that's all
that matters. And over time that five minutes of running
in twenty five minutes of walking, it starts to change.
It's one of my favorite things is to see that
person that I know is probably in their sixties running
(28:29):
for what I can tell is you know they haven't
been running very long, or that person that has a
decent amount of weight to lose out running because I
know how powerful that's going to be to help change
their body and their mind. I love that. So Monday Wednesday,
(28:49):
Friday run, Tuesday, Thursday strength train, Saturday cross train. You
say I don't want to do six days, and by
the way, seven day, seventh day, Sunday rest nothing, recover.
And if you say I only want four days, then
you can do your run and strength training on the
(29:10):
same day. So there's so many different ways to do
it based on your time and and how much, uh
how frequently you want to exercise. But if that's your
format four days, then Monday, Wednesday Friday are your runs.
Monday Wednesday you add in some strength training and then Saturday,
(29:30):
you can do that cross training day, and if you
want to cross training days, it can be Friday and
Saturday as well. So you're starting to see all the
different ways you can put together a plan. Number eight.
Number eight, it's great to have a goal race to
look forward to. And those two success stories I talked
(29:52):
about that are in my book. That was a huge
part of it for them. And they were not just
goal races. This is when it gets super powerful. They
were destinations. So we were going to travel. You know,
one of the greatest parts of my job over the
years is traveling with clients to do things like this.
(30:12):
So you can pick a destination, make it part of
a vacation and do an amazing five k, ten k
half marathon, whatever distance you're you're shooting for, in a
cool place, and then it becomes really powerful. You have
a date to train for, you get excited. It gives
your workouts that much more purpose and meaning. And help
(30:35):
me throw in the third because they did coach that
charity for so many years. If you then do it
for a charity, you almost can't fail. It's almost impossible
to fail to not stick with your plan, to not
end up doing it because now it's more than you.
Now it's you're doing something great for your body. You're
doing something great for somebody else and a great cause.
(30:58):
And then when you have that goal event to shoot for,
it all falls into place. So goal raise something to
think about. You don't have to and they say, I
just want to go do it, and that's fine. But
if you've always wanted to do a certain distance or
you've always wanted to go to a certain place, now
you can justify it in a really cool way. Pretty
(31:20):
much how I traveled the world when I was dating
my wife who is girlfriend at the time, but part
of my job, I need to go to New Zealand
to do this race. Been so fortunate. But that's a
great way for you to do it as well. Alright,
number nine, we're getting there. This is important. How to
put this one in here, Be really really wary of
unsolicited advice. You tell people that you're starting running for
(31:43):
the first time, You're gonna get everything from running is
so bad for your knees. Oh I tried and this happened.
You should wear these shoes. Oh, you should read this
book and follow this running coach and use this running style.
This is about you be very careful who you listen to,
whose advice you take. You know, I started number two
(32:04):
by talking about going to that running store getting the
right shoes. People gonna say, oh, you have to run
a niche that the best. Well, maybe your feet are
totally different. They most likely are, or you have to
run with this you know, different running style, and you
know you need to go barefoot running. It's you're gonna
get everything, So just be I would rather you just
(32:27):
follow your gut to a large degree, listen to your
own body. But you also obviously need some help along
the way. I will be one of them. But seek
out qualified professionals. Okay, listen to everyone you know and
say that's great, but it's about you, okay. And finally,
(32:49):
number ten, don't underestimate yourself. I've said it several times
during the show. I know there are many of you
out there who say I can't do it, Tom, And
that's when I wish I was still training clients. It
was one of my most satisfying things. That's why I
do my job, and to do it in person. I mean,
(33:10):
it's it's phenomenal to write books and do this show
and get you know, emails, and people saying, you know, Tom,
I just got one about the show. I read it
during a different podcasts. Person couldn't run two miles started
running hills after listening to one of my shows, and
suddenly they're they're running longer than they ever have before
and enjoying the heck out of it. That's that's why
I do this. So when you think you can't, I
(33:35):
need you to get rid of that thinking. I need
you to just start. I need you to start slowly
and again. If you are walking twenty eight of the
thirty minutes, that's fine. If you are starting at ten minutes,
(33:56):
that's fine too. You're doing more than you did yesterday day,
and you have to be open to what you can achieve.
And that's what I would say to the clients when
I worked with them. It's just you gotta trust me,
and my goal is to not hurt you, unlike other
people who pushed too hard too soon and want to
(34:19):
be that tough person, or or just do things that
aren't right for you. But an injured client isn't a
good client, is what I found over the years, and
oftentimes coaches will blame you when truthfully is their fault. Okay.
So my point is be open and and set your
goals high, and know that if you think you're not
(34:44):
a runner, you are. Everyone has the capability. It's just
a matter how far, how fast, how frequently, and what
you want to do. All right, let me give you
a few quick safety tips, especially at this time of
the pandemic and stuff more and more people out there.
Please don't run on the same side of the road
as the traffic. You need to go against traffic. You
(35:06):
need to have the ability to see cars, especially today.
And the other thing is I not only see people
running with traffic, but they're running with traffic with headphones on.
Just recipe for disaster. And if you are going to
run with music on, please don't use noise canceling headphones.
You need to be aware of your surroundings, whether it's
(35:28):
the traffic or the animals or the people. So be aware,
be in control, run against traffic, use the sidewalks whenever possible,
and be safe. Okay, and let me just finish up
with this. You know, one day I will write a
book about how exercise in general and running specifically did
(35:51):
everything for me, saved my life, and it's just so
powerful and I want you to have that ability I
I've been saying to go out and feel good about
yourself to control anxiety. It is the one of the
best antidepressants anti anxiety, boost your mood, boost your energy levels.
(36:16):
And you can do it anytime, anywhere, and other than
the cost of your sneakers. And you can run barefoot
if you're you know, on the beach places like that
soft grass. But it's relatively inexpensive. And yes, you can
do it for a really long time. My dad's in
(36:36):
his seventies, has been running, you know, since he was
in his twenties thirties. I think marathon still the whole
nine yards. Not a runner type body. And you know,
I had a woman many years ago New York City.
We ran her first race. She was in her eighties, eighties,
five k race run walk, loved it, loved it. The
(37:00):
look of satisfaction on her face at that finish line
was amazing. And she did it also for a cancer charity,
and she was a cancer survivor herself. You don't get
any more powerful than that. Okay, it's my moving meditation.
Such a great way to put it, you know, And
it's your time and you can run walk for the
(37:22):
rest of your life. As I said, I still do
it today my six mile run. What I do is
I run a mile, I walk until my heart rate
comes down to a certain you know, beats, and then
I run again. I will do a show on that.
I believe we're actually meant to run walk topic for
another day. But I don't want you to feel guilty
about the walking. I want you to enjoy it. It's
(37:43):
about you. Who cares? You know people. I don't want
people to see me walking, well, let them see you
out there. That's what matters. It's about you. It's your time,
and it's where I come up with ideas. It's where
I distress. And there will never be a run where
(38:04):
you don't feel better when you finished then you did
when you started. You can do it. Thank you for
listening a little passionate about running. I know. Uh. If
you have not yet subscribed to the show, why not?
Please do and please rate the show as well. Leave
comments if you can where you are listening. And again,
(38:27):
the show came out of so many people reaching out
to me about starting running and the issues they are
having while starting. So if you need to reach out,
please I love to hear from you. Tom h Fit
is Twitter and Instagram. Fitness Disrupted dot com is the website.
You can reach out to me through there as well,
and I have some old books if you're interested. The
marathon method still the plants hold true. It's for half
(38:50):
marathons and marathons, but a lot of running advice in there,
as well as workouts your triathlete. I have a twelve
week triathlete and then I have a sports nutrition book
called Swin Bike, Run Eat two. And then the newest
book with a lot of workouts and kind of philosophies
and stuff, is the micro Workout Plan. Lots for you
to choose from. But I want you to have your
(39:10):
best life. I want you to feel good and I
love if you listen and things change. I can't thank
you enough if you reach out and say, hey, I
actually listened to some of your advice and some good
things happen, and it will. I promise you. If you
take the advice and you give it time, and you
don't worry about what other people think, and you believe
(39:31):
in yourself, great things happen. I am Tom Holland this
is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself Fitness Disrupted is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(39:53):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted Running
one oh one how to start a running program. So
(00:22):
at the end of every podcast I give out numerous
ways to contact me with questions, and I am getting
an awful lot about running. No surprise, I talked about
it frequently. I have done numerous shows about it. My
first show with the best guest for this topic or
one of the best guests, Dr Daniel Lieberman from Harvard,
(00:45):
a big part of the book Born to Run. Actually,
his research titled Born to Run gave the title for
that book, supposedly. So yes, I have been a runner
for a very long time. I have coached thousands if
you count the books and the camps and the clients
over the many years and the charity I coached for
(01:07):
over ten years at least, so lots and lots of people.
I have some experience. I have raced and run all
over the world, from you know, five k's up to
ultra marathons. But I have to always point out that
when I was a kid, I could not run. I
knew I had potential, but as soon as I started
(01:30):
doing the sports and had coaches pushing me during you know,
the hell weeks for football and soccer. I I had
shin splints, I had ankle issues. I had pretty much
every issue you could have, and so I spent my
childhood on the bench with insane pain. So to think
(01:52):
that I do and have done the events that I
have and continue to do now, at fifty one, I
went out for a six mile run today. I love it. Now.
I know there are people who don't love it, and
I understand why we'll talk about that. But we were
truly born to run. And whenever I talk about running,
(02:13):
I say, you don't have to be a runner. But
the reasons you don't run, those musculo skeletal issues, the yeah,
I I can't run because I have a bad fill
in the blank, knees or knee hips, back, you know,
shin splints, plan or fasciitis, so many issues. My response is,
(02:39):
I don't care if you run or not, but we
need to fix those things. And so, when I was
a trainer, one of my simplest yet most effective ways
to figure out a client's imbalances was to take them
out for a run, for a short run, and then
we'd start to dial in what we needed to work on,
(03:00):
especially if they were runners. So this show is about
those of you out there, many of whom have reached
out to me after having listened to the podcast saying, yes,
I want to, but here's my issues right now, whether
it's weight or you know, uh, pain, jumping back in. Um.
(03:21):
So I'm kind of taking all of those and I
will answer them specifically, by the way, in a listener
mailbag question answer show as well. But there is so
much interest in it. I said, I just gotta, I
gotta do this show to get us started, to kick
it off, and just to simplify, so I am going
to break it down into ten points, ten tips, ten
(03:44):
things you gotta think about when you are starting a
running program, and everyone can do it. I know there's
so many of you out there listening who say Tom, yeah,
not me, and I have in all my years, and
so many people have yet to really find someone. Now,
(04:05):
some people have major issues, but the vast majority of
people who have the yeah butts can run when coached correctly,
when progressed correctly. And that's a great thing because we
were meant to move we were meant to move forward,
(04:28):
and I want you to have the freedom to be
able to enjoy the outdoors. Can also run inside if
you want, but to at least have the opportunity and
ability to enjoy the outdoors regardless of where you are
and go for a run. For me, it has been
(04:49):
life saving. It is one of my favorite things to
do for many reasons that I will talk about. All right,
quick break when we come back. Ten tips ways things
you gotta think about when you're first starting a running program.
We'll be right back. So whenever I do shows, I
(05:20):
like to kind of fill the studio with things that
are applicable to the show I'm doing. So in front
of me right now, I have two books. The first
one is the Complete Book of Running by Jim Fix
and actually my dad's copy. Jim Fix ran around where
(05:41):
I grew up, and so my dad would often run
with him, you know, different races and things like that,
running groups in the book. And this book is credited
as single handedly starting the jogging yogging it's a soft
jay uh craze. So that was one of the first
(06:02):
most popular. And then this one's hysterical actually because many
of us know that joke book about running. Comedians do
this joke all the time. So that what does it say,
put one ft in front of the other. Right, Well,
the book I'm holding in my hand right now is
by Dr Timothy Noakes, and let me skip to the back.
(06:23):
It is over nine hundred pages, The Lore of Running.
All right. So, yes, running is one of the simplest
and most natural forms of exercise, but because of many
different reasons, so many people can't do it. Think about that,
(06:44):
and that's what drives me crazy. When you do have
those doctors who tell people you can't run, you shouldn't run,
when I know that they can, and maybe we should
be looking at the reasons why they and because those
same reasons why you can't run. It doesn't end there.
(07:04):
If you have the knee issues, the back issues, the
shin issues, the weaknesses, that's going to translate into everything
in your life, not just running. And as you get older,
those issues will become more pronounced. So bulletproofing your body,
figuring out those issues, those imbalances, those weaknesses to do
(07:27):
what we were born to do, is a really good
thing in my opinion and experience. All right. Well, let
me also say, though I didn't come out of the
womb running As I said, I had those major issues
when I was a kid, and then I had to
slowly get into it after I got away from the sports.
So that was a huge thing. By the way, Uh,
(07:47):
just bad coaching. Now. A lot of it was they
didn't know what they were doing this as many years ago,
and so too much too soon, pushed us too hard,
and a couple of other issues as well, But it
wasn't into all. I started doing it on my own,
the marathons, the you know, just running and get it.
Got away from the team sports that I started figuring
out the issues. And then when I made this my
(08:09):
career and started studying, then I really figured it out.
So I get it. I remember when a five k
race used to scare the heck out of me, but
it was slow and it was progress over time, all right,
So let's get right into it. Number one, when it
comes to starting a running program, you literally cannot start
(08:33):
slowly enough. And that goes for three different things. That
goes for a frequency, the number of times you run
a week. That goes for your pace, how fast you run,
and that goes for distance. So one of the primary
reasons people have issues with running and have to stop
and that includes shin splints, too much, too soon, too much,
(08:56):
too soon. So a lot of the email mails and
direct messages I have received about running, I can tell
that either by reading between the lines or they say
specifically they're doing too much too soon. You have to
start slowly, especially if you're starting in your forties, your fifties,
your sixties, and you can start there. You can start there.
(09:20):
In my book that just came out, the Micro Workout Plan,
I have three different success stories, two of which they're
all people who started later in life, by the way,
or were you know, successful later in life with their sports.
But one male one female started running in their fifties
and went on and and they were not runners. They
(09:40):
were the opposite of runners. If you looked at them
when they started, or if you asked them, they would say,
I can't run. I'm not a runner. And both of
them went on to run numerous marathons. Do you have
to run a marathon? Absolutely not. But would I love
for you to be able to go out and run
three four miles whenever you feel like it, whenever you
need a it'll hit of seratonin, whenever you want to
(10:03):
get rid of some anxiety. Yeah, that's the goal, all right.
So you can't start slowly enough. So if you start
running once a week, and I'll give you many more
specifics as we go through these, that's great. You can't
start slowly enough. And if that's ten minutes at a time,
that's great. And if it's a fourteen minute mile, fifteen.
(10:28):
I don't care the pace. So it doesn't matter how
you know far you go. You gotta start slowly, doesn't
matter you know how many times a week. You don't
want to go too far. You don't want to go
every day by any stretch of the imagination. And I
couldn't care less how fast you go, nor should you.
All right, if you said, okay, but I want to plan,
(10:49):
give me more specifics. Three times a week maximum for
a beginner, and those are non consecutive days. So if
you said, okay, I want to run, I really want to,
you know, buckle down Monday Wednesday Friday or Monday Wednesday Saturday.
(11:09):
And that's the most I would start any client on
for the most part, who is a true beginner, And
we want to make sure we do avoid injury from
the get go. And let me say this, you're gonna
have issues but when you start slowly, those issues are
significantly less pronounced and you deal with them right away,
(11:31):
all right, So maximum three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday.
Give your body time to recover, all right. Number two,
and this is a tricky one. Get the right shoes
for you. Now, this could be a five hour podcast
just on shoes, and I will do many more on
(11:51):
shoes and have touched on it another podcast as well.
But there is a shoe for you based on your goals,
your weight, the way your foot rolls, does it pronate,
does it supernate, do you land on your fore ft,
on your midfoot, on your rear foot, and what feels good.
So the quick advice for the right shoe is, first
(12:15):
of all, find the most reputable shoe store in your
area and go in and have them look at your shoes.
Now if you're walking around or or you know what
you're using, if you are running a little bit, so
they can look at the wear pattern and what's working
for you, and you get a reputable runner, ideally working
(12:36):
in a running shoe store to pick out the right
shoes for you. It's not about price, and it's certainly
not about fashion. It's function over fashion. The perfect shoe
for you, unfortunately maybe the one you like the least
esthetically visually, but who cares. You don't want any pain
(12:57):
from running, any injuries, any issues. So find that reputable
store and once you find a shoe that works for you,
you stick with it. You stick with it, all right.
So duration, So I said, okay, you're gonna run three
times a week. So you go, okay, how far? And
(13:17):
there's two ways you can do this. There's two ways
you can do this. You can go by distance, or
you can go by time. Distance or time, and you
can mix that up as well. So back when I
was training and running with people as as a coach
and a trainer, oftentimes we would go by time. Now
(13:39):
it's up to the client, and it's it's also up
to me, because I'm not gonna let the client go
out and say we're gonna go for seven miles. But
the thing is when you go by time, that allows
you to go much slower. So in other words, if
I say we're gonna run three miles and the client
is running slowly, thirteen fourteen doesn't matter. Basically walking, And
we're gonna talk about that how you wore walk breaks in.
(14:01):
But much easier to go by time and not care
about the distance, because that distance, if you're going slowly,
it's gonna be a long time, is the point, right,
So I would prefer for some people, many people, to
go by time. It's just easier. You don't have to
worry about, you know, the speed you're going at. You're
(14:21):
just covering the time. And so for many clients, that
was a maximum of thirty minutes. And that may sound
ridiculously long too many of you, and it should, but
I'm gonna talk about throwing walk breaks in and that's
gonna make it make sense. Okay, So maximum of three
times two a week to start somewhere around thirty minutes.
(14:46):
And for those of you who are it's always tough
to give pacing and averages, but you know that's two
miles three miles, depending on the person the speed that
but I don't want you to care about that, okay.
So if you need a distance, I would say three miles.
If you hold me two to three miles to start,
(15:09):
that's it. I want you to start conservatively. You can't
start conservatively enough, all right, So I alluded to number
four already and that's the run walk plan all right.
This was popularized by a guy named Jeff Galloway, phenomenal.
It was an Olympian and he single handedly started this
(15:30):
craze running and walking. And I've interviewed him in the past,
I hope to do so again. Interviewed him years ago,
one of the nicest guys you'll ever talk to. And
some of you may have heard of the Galloway method,
and it's run walking you go. So, I know many
people go, well, I don't want to walk. And many
(15:50):
of the people I coached for half marathons full marathons
would say, Tom, I don't want to walk, and I'd say,
we're gonna discuss that. Now I get it. The whole
point is, oh, I ran a full marathon or a
half marathon. But over time you will go faster and
you will have less issues if you're throwing walk breaks.
(16:12):
And for the beginners, this is absolutely how you have
to start, because the vast majority of you, if you're
true beginners, you're not gonna be able to cover thirty minutes.
That's the whole point is you can't do it yet,
And the operative word is yet, So what do you do.
So when I used to start with the clients, we
would go out, we would run and basically I would
keep my eye on the client. Generally speaking, it was
(16:32):
often like thirty seconds forty five seconds a minute. We'd
run for about a minute, and then we would walk
for three or four or five minutes, and then we
would run for a minute, and then we would walk
for three, four five minutes. And that is how you're
going to do it. That is the incredibly powerful way
(16:54):
for you to start running is you don't come out
of the gate running the whole time. Now some of
you can, but I want you to start slowly, especially
if you're starting, you know at my age fifty fifty
one to be specific, but give yourself time. It's not
not cheating. You are getting the exercise in. And what
(17:18):
you're doing is you're building up that endurance, you're building
up that cardiovascular strength, You're giving your body time to recover.
And so it's interval training to a degree. But is
exactly how so many people will be successful. And in
my you know, many years of doing this, the amount
(17:39):
of success those two clients I talked about, it's exactly
what we did. And the the fifty year old runner
who couldn't run more than a minute when we started,
became a Boston Marathon qualifier. And he actually reminded me
because this book just came out and I've, you know,
put some stuff on social media about him when we
qualified for the Boston Marathon three forty something marathon PR time,
(18:03):
and he ran that time. We did the Boston Marathon
two thousand twelve when it was ninety degrees, so we
we ran walk the whole thing, and we had to
throw his goals out. But my point is he ran
another marathon a week later and set his PR is
his personal best, and he was not a runner. We ran, walked,
(18:25):
We did everything I'm talking about right now, and he
was the furthest thing from a runner when we started,
and his goal was not even to be necessarily a runner,
whose goal was to lose weight, to feel better, to
get off medications, and then getting ahead of myself. But
my point is, I know so many of you say
(18:46):
it's not me, Tom, and I'm telling you not just
for this show, but all of the topics I talked about, strength, training,
feeling better, improving yourself. Yes, it is quick break, final break.
We'll be right back so run, walk, and here's what
(19:14):
you do over time, and it's so fun to see
the progression. What happens is you're running Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
you're running for a minute, you're walking for let's say
three four and you do that for a week, two weeks,
three weeks. Then slowly what's gonna happen is you're gonna
run for ninety seconds and you're gonna walk for two
and a half minutes, and then you're gonna run for
(19:35):
two minutes and you're gonna walk for two minutes. So
over time, as you get stronger, and you can just
monitor this by your perceived exertion, you will increase the
running intervals and decrease the walk intervals until the time
comes when yes, you are running the entire thirty minutes.
(19:57):
And many of the fitness apps out there do just
this for you. These are these are what they're doing.
And I think I wrote my first run walk plan
myself again back in like the mid to late nineties,
and Jeff Galway again, he's the one. And I always
have to say when I talk about Jeff, a lot
of people get annoyed with him because they say, that's
(20:18):
not running, really let me say this all my iron
Man races, my fastest ones. My I want a very
small marathon many years ago, and I tell you that
because I ran walked up until mile. For me, it
was ten seconds every mile and I was in second place.
I found out very small marathon by the way, till
(20:41):
when a volunteer said, Tom, you're in second place in
the first place. Guy doesn't look good. So I stopped
run walking at that point and ran my fastest marathon ever,
and it was two weeks after an iron Man. Run
walking works not only if you're just building up, but
also if you want to go fast, because there's nothing
in the result that there's no asterisk next to your
(21:02):
time that says he walked some No, it's just your
finishing time. So if you do want to go faster,
and you're someone who is listening, who's maybe a more
experienced runner, and you have not experimented with run walking, um,
you should try it because you can go really fast.
If you're trying to win a marathon and it's not
a small marathon like the one you know I was doing,
(21:22):
that's different. If you're an elite athlete, they can't walk,
But even the sub elite level where you know, mine
was a two fifty four. That's a super fast. But
for me and my weight and goals, that was that
was good. That was good for me. So that was
with walking ten seconds every mile for miles. All right,
So it works, it works, and it's super easy to
(21:46):
progress yourself that way. Increase the running, decrease the walking
over time, all right. And then number five, I have
to put this in here. Just cover the distance or
the time. Have to say it one more time and
have its own point. That's all that matters. So in
other words, if you go out and one day you're
(22:08):
walking a little bit more than normal, we're running slower
than normal, it doesn't matter. Your goal is to either
cover the distance or the time. That's it. That's success.
Doesn't matter how many times you walk, It doesn't matter
how long you walk for, it doesn't matter your pace.
Success is that you went out and you got your
run in Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or if you're doing two
(22:31):
days a week Monday, Thursday. Okay. Number six, you have
to cross train and you should be excited for that recommendation.
Cross training we'll keep you healthy, we'll keep you excited
to run and that cross training can be so many
different things. And I often say that all runners, if
(22:55):
they run exclusively, will become try athletes at some point
in time. And that is to rehability an injury. In
other words, if you just run and you don't do
the several things I'm gonna say coming up, including cross train,
you will get injured and you will be forced to
run or swim or deep water swim or do all
the other things I will talk about. So do it
(23:17):
prehab versus rehab. Do it before it becomes an issue,
so you can run injury free. All right, So what
is cross training? It's complementary exercise. You know, you can bike,
that is one really great complementary form of exercise with running.
You can do yoga, you can swim, you can do pilates,
you can box, doesn't matter. It just needs to be
(23:40):
something different than running. Cardiovascular for the most part. But
you know, the yoga, the pilates phenomenal complementary cross training
forms of exercise. So if you're running Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday,
or Tuesday, because I'm gonna give you something to do
for number seven and then we'll put it all together,
(24:03):
all right, so cross train, and it doesn't have to
be an hour, doesn't have to be long. It could
be a half hour, can be twenty minutes, swimming for
twenty minutes, a twenty minute indoor cycling ride, cross train
using muscles in a different way, continuing to keep up
that cardiovascular endurance. And it will help your running. Yes,
(24:26):
it will in more ways than one. All right, Number seven, Yes,
you have to strength train. I can't tell you how
many times I've written an article or lectured on does
strength training improve running performance? Well, yes, in the primary
way it improved. By the way that reminds me. I
did do one lecture for the American Medical Athletic Association,
(24:48):
pretty much one of the only non doctors who used
to lecture. And to start that lecture, that was the
question I said, does strength training improve running performance? And
then my next slide it was a picture of a band,
and it was the band. Yes, I was gonna say,
and I think I said, thank you very much. That's
that's the that's the that's my lecture. But it does
(25:09):
it in the primary way for me is that it
keeps you injury free. Again, this is where it's so
often over you know, made too complex. And it also
improves running economy and all that stuff, so it improves
performance on a physiological level. But the most important way
strength training improves are running is it allows you to run,
(25:32):
because you become a great runner, and you improve your
running by running. I just did that show, and I
know some people like, really is that the take away? Yeah,
time in the saddle for biking, miles for running. The
more you run, the better runner you will become. The
body is a very smart machine. It adapts, it's it
(25:55):
becomes more efficient, stops wasting energy. And when you can
do your runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday with no issues because
your strength training on Tuesday and Saturday, maybe then you
have no issues. We're limited issues and when the issues happen,
they are much smaller and again you deal with them
(26:15):
right away. So let's stick with that Monday, Wednesday, Friday
framework for running, and then I want two to three
days a week strength training that can be twenty minutes
is generally the perfect amount of time to do a
running related strength workout. This is not bodybuilding, is not
(26:38):
going to the gym, even you can do them at home.
I did a show six exercises I used to bulletproof
my body. They're all body weight based. For the most part,
you're fixing those imbalances. You're strengthening those weak links. Squats
and lunges and step ups, things like that. That will
(26:59):
go so far. And that takes twenty minutes. You want
to do thirty at an extra you know, round in,
do a couple more core exercises. That's fine, but it
doesn't have to be hard at all and long at all.
It's just strengthening, okay, And you can combine. You can
(27:22):
go for a thirty minute run and then come home
and do your minutes of leg exercises, or you can
do your leg exercises and then go for the your
run walk. Okay, it's all gonna take less than an hour.
But it's fixing those imbalances and weaknesses and being consistent
that will go so far. So now we're we got
(27:43):
a week. So here's your week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You're
run walking thirty minutes or so. And I keep using
that thirty minutes. It can be ten, it can be
one mile. You know, it's tough to give those guidelines
when you're not working with the person no one, But
if you're run walking. You may walk five of those
(28:06):
thirty minutes, but what did I say, It's all about
covering the time for the distance doing both, that's all
that matters. And over time that five minutes of running
in twenty five minutes of walking, it starts to change.
It's one of my favorite things is to see that
person that I know is probably in their sixties running
(28:29):
for what I can tell is you know they haven't
been running very long, or that person that has a
decent amount of weight to lose out running because I
know how powerful that's going to be to help change
their body and their mind. I love that. So Monday Wednesday,
(28:49):
Friday run, Tuesday, Thursday strength train, Saturday cross train. You
say I don't want to do six days, and by
the way, seven day, seventh day, Sunday rest nothing, recover.
And if you say I only want four days, then
you can do your run and strength training on the
(29:10):
same day. So there's so many different ways to do
it based on your time and and how much, uh
how frequently you want to exercise. But if that's your
format four days, then Monday, Wednesday Friday are your runs.
Monday Wednesday you add in some strength training and then Saturday,
(29:30):
you can do that cross training day, and if you
want to cross training days, it can be Friday and
Saturday as well. So you're starting to see all the
different ways you can put together a plan. Number eight.
Number eight, it's great to have a goal race to
look forward to. And those two success stories I talked
(29:52):
about that are in my book. That was a huge
part of it for them. And they were not just
goal races. This is when it gets super powerful. They
were destinations. So we were going to travel. You know,
one of the greatest parts of my job over the
years is traveling with clients to do things like this.
(30:12):
So you can pick a destination, make it part of
a vacation and do an amazing five k, ten k
half marathon, whatever distance you're you're shooting for, in a
cool place, and then it becomes really powerful. You have
a date to train for, you get excited. It gives
your workouts that much more purpose and meaning. And help
(30:35):
me throw in the third because they did coach that
charity for so many years. If you then do it
for a charity, you almost can't fail. It's almost impossible
to fail to not stick with your plan, to not
end up doing it because now it's more than you.
Now it's you're doing something great for your body. You're
doing something great for somebody else and a great cause.
(30:58):
And then when you have that goal event to shoot for,
it all falls into place. So goal raise something to
think about. You don't have to and they say, I
just want to go do it, and that's fine. But
if you've always wanted to do a certain distance or
you've always wanted to go to a certain place, now
you can justify it in a really cool way. Pretty
(31:20):
much how I traveled the world when I was dating
my wife who is girlfriend at the time, but part
of my job, I need to go to New Zealand
to do this race. Been so fortunate. But that's a
great way for you to do it as well. Alright,
number nine, we're getting there. This is important. How to
put this one in here, Be really really wary of
unsolicited advice. You tell people that you're starting running for
(31:43):
the first time, You're gonna get everything from running is
so bad for your knees. Oh I tried and this happened.
You should wear these shoes. Oh, you should read this
book and follow this running coach and use this running style.
This is about you be very careful who you listen to,
whose advice you take. You know, I started number two
(32:04):
by talking about going to that running store getting the
right shoes. People gonna say, oh, you have to run
a niche that the best. Well, maybe your feet are
totally different. They most likely are, or you have to
run with this you know, different running style, and you
know you need to go barefoot running. It's you're gonna
get everything, So just be I would rather you just
(32:27):
follow your gut to a large degree, listen to your
own body. But you also obviously need some help along
the way. I will be one of them. But seek
out qualified professionals. Okay, listen to everyone you know and
say that's great, but it's about you, okay. And finally,
(32:49):
number ten, don't underestimate yourself. I've said it several times
during the show. I know there are many of you
out there who say I can't do it, Tom, And
that's when I wish I was still training clients. It
was one of my most satisfying things. That's why I
do my job, and to do it in person. I mean,
(33:10):
it's it's phenomenal to write books and do this show
and get you know, emails, and people saying, you know, Tom,
I just got one about the show. I read it
during a different podcasts. Person couldn't run two miles started
running hills after listening to one of my shows, and
suddenly they're they're running longer than they ever have before
and enjoying the heck out of it. That's that's why
I do this. So when you think you can't, I
(33:35):
need you to get rid of that thinking. I need
you to just start. I need you to start slowly
and again. If you are walking twenty eight of the
thirty minutes, that's fine. If you are starting at ten minutes,
(33:56):
that's fine too. You're doing more than you did yesterday day,
and you have to be open to what you can achieve.
And that's what I would say to the clients when
I worked with them. It's just you gotta trust me,
and my goal is to not hurt you, unlike other
people who pushed too hard too soon and want to
(34:19):
be that tough person, or or just do things that
aren't right for you. But an injured client isn't a
good client, is what I found over the years, and
oftentimes coaches will blame you when truthfully is their fault. Okay.
So my point is be open and and set your
goals high, and know that if you think you're not
(34:44):
a runner, you are. Everyone has the capability. It's just
a matter how far, how fast, how frequently, and what
you want to do. All right, let me give you
a few quick safety tips, especially at this time of
the pandemic and stuff more and more people out there.
Please don't run on the same side of the road
as the traffic. You need to go against traffic. You
(35:06):
need to have the ability to see cars, especially today.
And the other thing is I not only see people
running with traffic, but they're running with traffic with headphones on.
Just recipe for disaster. And if you are going to
run with music on, please don't use noise canceling headphones.
You need to be aware of your surroundings, whether it's
(35:28):
the traffic or the animals or the people. So be aware,
be in control, run against traffic, use the sidewalks whenever possible,
and be safe. Okay, and let me just finish up
with this. You know, one day I will write a
book about how exercise in general and running specifically did
(35:51):
everything for me, saved my life, and it's just so
powerful and I want you to have that ability I
I've been saying to go out and feel good about
yourself to control anxiety. It is the one of the
best antidepressants anti anxiety, boost your mood, boost your energy levels.
(36:16):
And you can do it anytime, anywhere, and other than
the cost of your sneakers. And you can run barefoot
if you're you know, on the beach places like that
soft grass. But it's relatively inexpensive. And yes, you can
do it for a really long time. My dad's in
(36:36):
his seventies, has been running, you know, since he was
in his twenties thirties. I think marathon still the whole
nine yards. Not a runner type body. And you know,
I had a woman many years ago New York City.
We ran her first race. She was in her eighties, eighties,
five k race run walk, loved it, loved it. The
(37:00):
look of satisfaction on her face at that finish line
was amazing. And she did it also for a cancer charity,
and she was a cancer survivor herself. You don't get
any more powerful than that. Okay, it's my moving meditation.
Such a great way to put it, you know, And
it's your time and you can run walk for the
(37:22):
rest of your life. As I said, I still do
it today my six mile run. What I do is
I run a mile, I walk until my heart rate
comes down to a certain you know, beats, and then
I run again. I will do a show on that.
I believe we're actually meant to run walk topic for
another day. But I don't want you to feel guilty
about the walking. I want you to enjoy it. It's
(37:43):
about you. Who cares? You know people. I don't want
people to see me walking, well, let them see you
out there. That's what matters. It's about you. It's your time,
and it's where I come up with ideas. It's where
I distress. And there will never be a run where
(38:04):
you don't feel better when you finished then you did
when you started. You can do it. Thank you for
listening a little passionate about running. I know. Uh. If
you have not yet subscribed to the show, why not?
Please do and please rate the show as well. Leave
comments if you can where you are listening. And again,
(38:27):
the show came out of so many people reaching out
to me about starting running and the issues they are
having while starting. So if you need to reach out,
please I love to hear from you. Tom h Fit
is Twitter and Instagram. Fitness Disrupted dot com is the website.
You can reach out to me through there as well,
and I have some old books if you're interested. The
marathon method still the plants hold true. It's for half
(38:50):
marathons and marathons, but a lot of running advice in there,
as well as workouts your triathlete. I have a twelve
week triathlete and then I have a sports nutrition book
called Swin Bike, Run Eat two. And then the newest
book with a lot of workouts and kind of philosophies
and stuff, is the micro Workout Plan. Lots for you
to choose from. But I want you to have your
(39:10):
best life. I want you to feel good and I
love if you listen and things change. I can't thank
you enough if you reach out and say, hey, I
actually listened to some of your advice and some good
things happen, and it will. I promise you. If you
take the advice and you give it time, and you
don't worry about what other people think, and you believe
(39:31):
in yourself, great things happen. I am Tom Holland this
is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself Fitness Disrupted is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(39:53):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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