Jogging easy once you get out

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 12

Jogging easy once you get out

RUNNERS’ DIARY

By.

John Drew

A reasonable guess puts the number of casual joggers and serious road runners in Christchurch at more than 10,000. Many others have vague ideas about joining in: only a gentle nudge is needed. A modest programme of training would prepare most people for the “Christchurch Star” City-to-Surf run on March 18 The other big fun run, “The Press” Park-to-Park on May 7, is the perfect goal for someone who must build up fitness gently from scratch. Today’s column looks at how to beat the problems of inertia, mental and physical. It is not for the thousands who are already on the road, except to pass on to hesitant friends or family members. The season is perfect for starting a running programme: the very hot weather Of summer is passing, the deterrent cold of winter is still distant, and the cooler weather will not matter when you are fit enough to keep on the move.

In due course a pair of good road shoes will be essential to prevent lameness from road shock. But to start, a comfortable pair of cushion-soled shoes will do. The heel should be raised to near street-shoe level. The rest of your gear should be easy fitting. Put on an old pullover if you are going out in a cool breeze.

If you can, find some companions. Company can turn out to be a great stimulus to progress without being competitive. The example of others’ improved fitness will help to sustain your own programme when you feel lazy. Even experienced runners help one another by running in groups. For the utterly unfit, training will last only a few minutes at first. Try lamp-post training. Walk to the nearest post and reach the next post at a gentle run, just brisker

than a quick walking pace. Keep walking and running alternately between posts.

You will soon be covering much ground in a short time if you maintain and extend this training daily for a week or two. It will not do much to benefit ydur heart or lungs: the intermittent effort will not stretch their resources. But your feet will get used to the idea: leg joints and muscles will condition themselves to the unaccustomed bustle and they will be ready for the more testing and beneficial work to follow.

Soon you will be extending your gentle run to the distance between two or three lamp-posts and walking one space. Do not worry about time at this stage.

After turning for home at what you judge to be your comfortable limit, your run home will almost always seem the easier half of the journey. You have warmed up and your breathing and body movements will have adjusted themselves to a new rhythm. Occasionally you will feel that you have lost form. On some days the effort will seem greater than you expected merely to match your earlier performances. But you have not lost fitness. Take it easy and maintain the programmme that you have set yourself. Your legs and lungs have not given out. They are just demanding a little extra recovery time and the chances are that the next day they will work better than ever. Even the fittest athletes have off days. Your lamp-post training will not last long. Soon

you will be calculating your running and walking stages by your watch: two minutes of running, one minute of walking. Later on, the walking stages will be spread even further apart until, to what will no longer be your surprise, improved fitness will allow you to run without rests.

When you begin training do not jog so that you feel compelled to stop for sheer lack of breath. A bus-catching pace is enough at the beginning. Estimate your fitness so that you keep on the move and take in a few restory lungfuls of air in the walking stages. You will not have an energy crisis as long as you get oxygen into the lungs and bloodstream at this level of training. A buscuit and a sweetened drink taken within a quarter of an hour of your setting off may help your performance. Some planning for the timing of your run is essential. A written record of your progress may seem a little pretentious but ignore any reservations about noting down performances. The record will soon impress and encourage you when your review your achievement. Give yourself 10 minutes and you will be able to produce a dozen plausible reasons for not improving your fitness and for not making an effort to secure good health. In complete your first trainthe same time you could ing.