[Aleik]

Hi guys,

I'm a university student who took up running 3 months ago as cross-training for football and badminton; I'm quite surprised I've kept it up this long (especially through Christmas) because I'd usually quit a couple of weeks after the moment of "resolution". It's happened that way in the past.

Anyway, even though I'm in no way feeling stale from it I worry that I may do in the future (with the advent of graduation, job, moving house, end of sports seasons etc), and I'd like to prevent this under the guidance of others, because the strides I've made so far have been well worth it and I don't want it all to amount to nothing.

I can't bring much knowledge to the forum, but hopefully a bit of friendliness!

 

[Steady Edwina]

Important thing is not to try and do too much too soon otherwise you can easily get discouraged. Are there any races you would like to aim for - they are great for motivation as is joining a local running club.

I took up running a year ago to enter a 5k - I honestly didn't think I would love it this much and today I completed my first 10 mile race.

 

[twinkle toes]

Hi

Welcome to the forum, like Steady definitely set some race targets, you won't regret it, also although I am not part of one running clubs will also be a great help and Steve will be able to advise you on that better than me, Steve is the one at the top of the posters board!!!

 

[Steve]

Hi

Welcome to the forum, like Steady definitely set some race targets, you won't regret it, also although I am not part of one running clubs will also be a great help and Steve will be able to advise you on that better than me, Steve is the one at the top of the posters board!!!

Advertising my services for free...that's what I like!!:d

Welcome Aleik,

The main advice at this stage is to suggest you look around your local area and find a running club to join, rather than an athletic club.( Unless you want to do track work that is).
Most running clubs are full of friendly like minded people and will happily arrange for you to run with someone to allow you to get to know club routes and introduce you to runners that are of a similar speed to you.

If you haven't already get a proper pair of running shoes fitted after a gait analysis. There's nothing worse than getting foot and leg problems because of ill fitting shoes.

As advised already don't do too much too soon...take it easy and gradually build up the weekly mileage by increasing no more than 10% more each week.

Once you are confident find a race to enter. 10K is probably best. Most 5ks are entered by quicker club runners ( unless it is a mass 5k event ) so can be off putting as a first event.

Most of all enjoy your runs and don't get worried too much if you have a bad session...we all do!

Best of luck!

 

[Aleik]

Thanks guys.

To be honest running is going better than ever right now, but you have good points. Perhaps to change routes every so often wouldn't hurt, but I'm not in the least bit bored of the same old route for the past 3 months, I don't know why! Maybe I love the feeling of completing it faster week by week, it seems to fly past every time now.

Should I be building up distances or cutting down times? I don't know how much I'd benefit from longer distances; after all the reason for doing it is for other sport right now, and it should have some relevance. 5-a-side football matches last 30-40 minutes taking 8 minutes on the bench on average, and a single game of badminton might last 20-25 minutes. For overall endurance it might be good, but even then I'm not doing enough sprints and short distance running to accommodate the speed area of the sport...perhaps increasing the distance from 4 miles would exacerbate this problem (I put a post in the training forum about this)? Also I don't know if I'd enjoy longer distances as much either, I quite like this middle distance lark. All I do know is that I must love it for some reason because of how long I've kept up with the same thing (relatively long - I've never usually gone beyond 2 months how lazy!).

I've been thinking about joining a running club for a few weeks now and it certainly seems like a good idea. I did consider that it's another commitment and I'd be devoting even more time to exercise and less to recovery, but I suppose you can just do it when you please. Not sure if I'd like to have a structure imposed on me yet so I'm still mulling it over, I like the freedom of how I do things right now.

I do like the idea of running hilly terrains as well as kind of interval stuff; would be even more fun with other people at a club.

Cheers for the welcome guys,