Monday, November 2, 2009

Running 2

So by now, you have been walking at least 7-10 times for an hour as a good pace. 5-6km per hour is great progress.

Running or jogging is a different ball game compared to walking. Walking is essentially a non-impact activity that requires little (other then great shoes) equipment or preparation. However, I would recommend that one progresses to jogging/running as the benefits outweigh the cons.

If you're the type who's only going to get one thing out of this, get this: The golden rule here is to go as slow as possible when starting out and then slowly increasing the speed or the distance by 10% a time.

Before you run, always, always warm up. And after you run always, always cool down. Doing this, by itself will reduce the aches and injuries that you will experience drastically.

Pre jog session
Eat something two hours before your jog and drink two glasses of water one hour before. This will give you the energy and ensure that you're properly hydrated.


Warming up and cooling down
My method is to walk briskly for 5 minutes. Then doing the stretches as shown on the coolrunning.com website. It's called Stay Loose click here. There's even a printer friendly version available. An example would be as follows:


Wall Pushup2. Wall Pushup #2
From the previous position, bend forward to lower your body to waist height. Bring one foot forward with your knee slightly bent. Lift the toes of the front foot to stretch the muscle under the calf. Stretch both legs.



Do the same for the cool down as well, but instead of a 5 minutes walk I do a 2 minute one.
Never stretch your muscles cold, they will spasm or worst, pull.

Couch to 5k program
There's a famous and successfull program that was introduced by Josh Clark. It's a nine week program that is designed to take you from the couch (or bed!) to be able to run 5km or for 30 minutes. 

It takes up only 30 minutes a day, three days a week. You can find the Couch to 5k program here.
An example of a week goal is as follows:

Week
Workout 1
Workout 2
Workout 3
1
Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Two things to remember

1, Jog as slowly as possible. In fact for the first few session, your jogging speed should be just a little faster then your walking speed. And 2, don't go faster then the program even though you feel that you can. And feel free to repeat each week as often as you must, before you move on to the next one.

The next running series will focus on aches and pains and how to remedy and avoid them.

Running (1)

I've been asked by my friends about my running and how to get started. So I will start a series of post that are simple, to the point and terse. Most of what you see here is an amalgram of experiences, theory, anecdotes as well as rudimentary physiology that I picked up from various sources. When in doubt, DOUBT!

Getting started.
Get great shoes
This is the best thing you can do for yourself. And it takes no sweating! Don't skimp and spend at least RM250-RM300 for a good pair of running shoes.

Which brand?
ASICS or New Balance as these are enthusiast shoes that cost a lot for the technology gone in to rather then advertising.

Which type?
Basically, there's three types of foot.

Neutral, flat foot and high arch. as shown in the images below. This is an imprint that you can see when your feet are wet and you step on to a dry surface. To learn more click here.
Wet TestWet TestWet Test
Why should you care? Because different feet require different shoes. And choosing the wrong shoe for your feet is the primary reason why pain and injury occurs.

My simple rule of thumb is, if you're flatfooted and heavy or female, get motion control shoes (just tell the nice shoe lady, she'll understand). If you are flatfooted and not-so-heavy get stability shoes. If you're none of the above get cushioning shoes.

Recommendations:
Flatfooted:
ASICS Gel Foundation 8 - RM275
ASICS Gel Evolution 5 - RM420?
ASICS Kayano 15 - RM470.
New Balance 768 - RM 250.
New Balance 1225 - RM 340

Start by walking
Walk for a week or two. Everyday if possible, at the minimum 3-4 times a week. Try to walk at a pace where talking becomes difficult but not impossible. You should be breathing very audibly as well. You should be able to slowly increase the speed and distance to cover 5-6km in one hour. Once you can do this comfortably, then you're on to the next stage.

I'll continue the next stage on a later post.

So after the accident ..

So after all that, it took me a whole month before I could do semi normal things, like take a shower, sit up and take a walk. I would get breathless easily after some exertion and moving excessively would cause pain. It took effort to be awake for more then 5 hours at a time. After two whole months from the date of the accident (July for anyone who is counting) I regained most of my physical abilities as before the accident.

I'm not sure, if it's being immobile for so long, or a sudden realization or consciousness that spurred me to start swimming once again. I had learnt it from my brother in 2004 but for some reason quit it when I started working full time after graduating from university.

Anyway, I resolved to start swimming again, so I went to buy swimming trunks, which was another barrier as I felt a little shy trying out for swimming trunks being as overweight as I am. To cut a long story short, I got the trunks and my old goggles and prepared my bag for my swimming debut. I choose a Saturday morning, betting my hunches that Malaysians will be Malaysians and that mornings are best left for sleeping. So here I am, all charged up and ready to go, with my bag and stuff all ready, and as I step out of the house, there was no car. Face with the giving-up-before-starting syndrome that seems to always affect me, I choose the unthinkable alternative.

I choose to walk to the swimming pool. OK granted it is not that far away, approximately 2.25km away. But put it in the context of an overweight, unfit, someone-who-abhors any and all type of physical exertion, it was a miracle that I somehow made it. But something even more miraclous happened. I actually enjoyed it and continued with it for about 2 months.

By this time, I wanted some mid week activity that I could do. I didn't want to swim, because it would always be full and there's nothing worse then breaking your stride by bumping into someone else.

So on the spur of the moment, I decided to go walking. And thence began another journey of mine.